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CsPbIxBry-based all-inorganic perovskite materials are a potential candidate for stable semitransparent and tandem structured photovoltaic devices. However, poor film (morphological and crystalline...

In this paper, we study the algebraic degree evaluation of NFSR-based cryptosystems. The degree evaluation method based on the numeric mapping proposed by Liu at CRYPTO 2017 is very fast and could be applied to a cube of any size. The numeric degree of $$f_1(\varvec{x},\varvec{v})\times f_2(\varvec{x},\varvec{v})$$ is estimated as $$D_1+D_2$$ , where $$D_1$$ and $$D_2$$ are the numeric degrees of $$f_1$$ and $$f_2$$ respectively and the algebraic degree of a function is no more than its numeric degree. It can be observed that some variables may be counted twice in $$D_1+D_2$$ and the precise of the numerical mapping heavily depends on how many variables are counted redundantly. When applied to an iterative cryptosystem, such redundances will accumulate during iteratively computing numeric degrees. This is an important factor accounting for the difference between the numeric degree and the algebraic degree of a cryptosystem. To reduce this difference, a new framework on the degree evaluation algorithm based on the numeric mapping is proposed. The main idea is to identify variables which are repeatedly counted in the numeric mapping and eliminate the redundant degrees on these variables. As illustrations, a concrete algorithm on Trivium-like ciphers is given which is shown to be useful in correlation cube attacks and the zero-sum distinguisher search. For correlation cube attacks on 835-round Trivium, we find some more useful cubes so that we could recover about 1.5 more bits at a cost of $$2^{40.7}$$ . Furthermore, we find several cubes leading to zero-sum distinguishers for Kreyvium variants with from 875 to 880 initialization rounds.

OBJECTIVES To analyze the clinical features and otologic manifestations of first branchial cleft anomalies (FBCAs) and the disparity between Work's classification, and to explore the relationships between postoperative facial paralysis and features of FBCAs. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective clinical study. METHODS A retrospective analysis of 109 patients with FBCAs was conducted, including clinical characteristics and otologic features. Pearson chi-square tests and Fisher's exact tests were used to compare disparity between Work's classification, and the impact factors of postoperative facial paralysis among 86 patients who were explored in follow-up. RESULTS Patients with FBCAs presented with otologic symptoms, including cysts or fistula in the external auditory canal (EAC) and periauricular (43.2%), microtia (3.7%), EAC web (1.8%), otitis media (1.8%), and otorrhea (4.6%). Eighty-five cases (78.0%) were type I FBCAs and 24 (22.0%) were type II. Compared to type I FBCAs, type II (58.3%) was more likely to be located deep to the facial nerve (FN) and to have superficial parotidectomy on them (79.2%). This difference was statistically significant (P

Coal mine safety supervision is essential in the production of coal. In the current “national monitoring, local supervision, enterprise responsibility” model of coal mine safety supervision, the th...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a destructive neurodegenerative disease that currently has no effective treatment option available. Ginkgolide B (GB) is a terpene lactone derivative of Ginkgo biloba that possesses neuroprotective effects in various diseases. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether GB protects against cognitive impairment in AD by mitigating oxidative stress, inflammation and ferroptosis using senescence-accelerated P8 (SAMP8) mice. The results showed that GB improved the cognitive dysfunction of SAMP8 mice in the Morris water maze and novel object recognition test, which was associated with the attenuation of oxidative stress, inflammation and nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2/glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) pathway-mediated ferroptosis. Furthermore, Ras-selective lethal small molecule 3, a GPX4 inhibitor and ferroptosis inducer, compromised GB-induced cognitive performance in SAMP8 mice. These findings suggested that GB alleviated AD-induced cognitive defects by mitigating oxidative stress, neuroinflammation and ferroptosis, and that the inhibition of ferroptosis is required for GB to have beneficial effects in AD.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide and despite improved treatment strategies, it persists as the second leading cause of death of women globally. Overall prognosis drops drastically once the cancer has metastasized, which is also associated with resistance to therapy. The evolution from a localized breast cancer to metastatic disease is complex and multifactorial. Metabolic reprogramming is a pre-requisite for this transition. In this graphical review, we provide an overview of altered metabolic pathways observed in metastatic breast cancer (mBC) and detail how metabolite biomarkers could serve as a novel class of precision medicine tools to improve the diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of mBC.

The aim of this meta-analysis was to compare health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of Osteoarthritis (OA) patients and controls. A systematic literature search was performed on PubMed, Web of Science and EMBASE from database inception to 7 January 2020. Random effect model was performed to summarize the scores of each domain and the forest plot was used to compare the scores of OA patients with healthy controls. Subgroup analyses were conducted to explore the source of heterogeneity. Statistical analyses were executed using Review Manager (version 5.1). In total, six studies were included in this study, including 7094 patients with OA and 12 100 healthy controls, which were all reliable to summarize the scores of the Medical Outcomes Study 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36). Meta-analyses found that pooled mean HRQoL score for the SF-36 each domain (physical function, physical role function, body pain, general health, vitality, social function, emotional role function, mental health) was lower in patients with OA than in healthy controls, especially the score in the dimension of physical role function. OA have a substantial impact HRQoL. HRQoL is a significant component of measuring overall health, which contributes to formulate successful self-disease management plan, patient-centered care, and develop effective interventions target confidence.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have shown chondroprotective effects in clinical models of osteoarthritis (OA). However, effects of MSC‐derived exosomes on OA remain unclear. The study aimed to investigate the therapeutic potential of exosomes from human bone marrow MSCs (BM‐MSCs) in alleviating OA. The anterior cruciate ligament transection (ACLT) and destabilization of the medial meniscus (DMM) surgery were performed on the knee joints of a rat OA model, followed by intra‐articular injection of BM‐MSCs or their exosomes. In addition, BM‐MSC‐derived exosomes were administrated to primary human chondrocytes to observe the functional and molecular alterations. Both of BM‐MSCs and BM‐MSC‐derived exosomes alleviated cartilage destruction and subchondral bone remodelling in OA rat model. Administration of BM‐MSCs and exosomes could reduce joint damage and restore the trabecular bone volume fraction, trabecular number and connectivity density of OA rats. In addition, in vitro assays showed that BM‐MSCs‐exosomes could maintain the chondrocyte phenotype by increasing collagen type II synthesis and inhibiting IL‐1β–induced senescence and apoptosis. Furthermore, exosomal lncRNA MEG‐3 also reduced the senescence and apoptosis of chondrocytes induced by IL‐1β, indicating that lncRNA MEG‐3 might partially account the anti‐OA effects of BM‐MSC exosomes. The exosomes from BM‐MSCs exerted beneficial therapeutic effects on OA by reducing the senescence and apoptosis of chondrocytes, suggesting that MSC‐derived exosomes might provide a candidate therapy for OA treatment.

Carbapenems, as the "last line of defense" against Gram-negative bacteria, are increasingly being challenged by drug-resistant bacteria, especially Enterobacteriaceae. In this study, a carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacterium, named AH001, was isolated from hospital sewage, and a modified Hodge test confirmed that this bacterium can produce carbapenemase. Further analysis revealed that this bacterium exhibits multidrug resistance against an additional seven antibiotics. Whole-genome sequencing and analysis showed that AH001 could not be classified by existing MLST, and its serotype could not be distinguished among O9, O89 or O168 according to O antigen prediction. More attention should be given to the role of environmental sources of Escherichia coli in the development and transfer of drug resistance in the hospital environment.

The development of abandoned coal mine gas has multiple advantages in terms of safety, economy, environment, and society. Due to previous excavations, the gas distribution is heterogeneous, thereby hindering well location optimization. In this study, considering the Shenbei abandoned coal mine as an example, the authors developed a workflow for well location optimization through simulation. The workflow includes: (1) the setup of an initial reservoir simulation model with the preliminary well location designed by experience; (2) the optimization of the well location based on the flowline distribution, and it is preferred that the well connect a large number of flowlines; (3) the simulation based on the optimized well location, and (4) repetition of the steps until the optimized well locations are determined. Moreover, the role of fracturing is also examined through simulation scenarios. The simulation results show that the locations of the two originally designed wells (1# and 4#) should be optimized due to the relatively low gas production without fracturing. The two wells are optimized according to the flow streamlines, demonstrating performance improvement. Moreover, the simulation results also show that there is no need to optimize the well 4# location if the fracturing technology is applied. An additional well is suggested based on the flow streamline analysis and gas production performance simulation. The main conclusions drawn from this study are as follows. (1) Five optimized well locations are determined for the Shenbei abandoned coal mine, and they should be located within the “O” ring, a high permeability region nearby the previous excavation zone; (2) Fracturing is an effective method for stimulating gas production; however, the extent of fracturing varies from well to well; (3) The workflow applied in this study is effective for the well location optimization in abandoned coal mines.

This work addresses the effective jamming style of projectile-carried communication for frequency hopping radio with different modulation by applying simulation verification via OPNET platform to construct the projectile-carried communication jamming system model. A general projectile-carried communication jamming style based on the signal combination of sweep saw-tooth wave and noise frequency modulation is proposed and analyzed. The network model of projectile-carried communication jamming system is constructed, and then the model building process of frequency hopping radio from the two aspects of transmitter model and receiver model is deeply elaborated. We demonstrate that the general projectile-carried communication jamming style has good jamming effect on the frequency hopping radio receivers with five modulation modes of 2FSK, 2PSK, 2DPSK, MSK and GMSK by comparing the simulation results, including receiving throughput, end-to-end delay, time delay of wireless channel access, delivery rate of synchronized header message, signal-to-noise ratio, bit error rate, packet loss rate, remaining power of jammer. Among them, the bit error rate of radio receiver with five modulation modes is more than 20%.

Object detection is widely used in object tracking; anchor-free object tracking provides an end-to-end single-object-tracking approach. In this study, we propose a new anchor-free network, the Siamese center-prediction network (SiamCPN). Given the presence of referenced object features in the initial frame, we directly predict the center point and size of the object in subsequent frames in a Siamese-structure network without the need for perframe post-processing operations. Unlike other anchor-free tracking approaches that are based on semantic segmentation and achieve anchor-free tracking by pixel-level prediction, SiamCPN directly obtains all information required for tracking, greatly simplifying the model. A center-prediction sub-network is applied to multiple stages of the backbone to adaptively learn from the experience of different branches of the Siamese net. The model can accurately predict object location, implement appropriate corrections, and regress the size of the target bounding box. Compared to other leading Siamese networks, SiamCPN is simpler, faster, and more efficient as it uses fewer hyperparameters. Experiments demonstrate that our method outperforms other leading Siamese networks on GOT-10K and UAV123 benchmarks, and is comparable to other excellent trackers on LaSOT, VOT2016, and OTB-100 while improving inference speed 1.5 to 2 times.

Defect passivation management of perovskite films is of great importance in improving the performance of perovskite solar cells. Various in situ or post-passivation strategies were adopted to modify the optoelectric properties of perovskite films. However, these modifications increased the fabrication complexity and cost of the devices. Here, we developed a facile self-passivation strategy to effectively decrease charge trap states and suppress the non-radiative recombination loss in perovskite films. By simply aging the precursor solution, we found that the fabricated perovskite films possess residual PbI2 phase that could decrease trap density, enhance the radiative recombination intensity, and facilitate charge transfer and collection. Therefore, the solar cells with this self-passivated perovskite film generated an increased efficiency of 21.1% compared to that of 19.9% for the control devices from fresh precursor solution.

Lead-free metal halide perovskites have attracted extensive attention as promising optoelectronic semiconductors with environmental friendliness. Cs2SnI6, a double perovskite with both a good phase and composition stability, is an appealing candidate for potential application in optoelectronic devices. To date, few reports have focused on the facile fabrication of dense and uniform Cs2SnI6 films that are key components for optoelectronic devices. Herein, a simple and low-cost solution method is reported to prepare densely packed Cs2SnI6 thin films. It was found that strategic precursor-compensation treatment (PCT) of the as-prepared spin-coated Cs2SnI6 thin films compensates the evaporation loss of volatile SnI4 and thus allows for pinhole-free and pure-phase double perovskite. The modified n-type Cs2SnI6 double perovskite shows enhanced conductivity and mobility with decreased charge recombination loss. As a result, the applied photodetectors show an enhanced photocurrent gain of 151 compared to that of 88 for the control sample. The responsivity (control 0.0059 mA W−1 to target 1.07 mA W−1) and detectivity (control 2.94 × 1010 Jones to target 6.03 × 1010 Jones) of the device were significantly improved in the self-powered mode. In addition, the PCT-Cs2SnI6 photodetectors show excellent long-time stability with 98% initial detectivity retained after storing in ambient environment for 28 days. This study paves the way for the preparation of high-quality Cs2SnI6 films for application in efficient optoelectronic devices.

Background Circadian rhythm disorder caused by lack of sleep, day-night reversal, or staying up late, can cause irreparable damage to the body, a significant increase in both the systolic and diastolic blood pressure of women in this age bracket. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of circadian disruption on body composition and insulin resistance in women aged 31-40 years. Methods Thirty female with circadian rhythm disorder and employed of the Foot Bath Club in Qufu city were selected as the research subjects, and a body composition analyzer was used to test the subjects' body composition using bioelectrical impedance analysis. Serum melatonin (MT) levels were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and blood glucose and insulin levels were detected by glucose oxidase and chemiluminescence assays, respectively. Results The results showed that circadian rhythm disorder caused a rise in blood pressure, whereas body water, especially lower limb water and intra- and extracellular fluid, decreased significantly. Circadian disruption also resulted in decreased muscle mass, protein quality, and melatonin production, but increased visceral fat levels and insulin resistance. Conclusions This study has demonstrated that circadian rhythm disorders are responsible for changes in body composition, melatonin levels, and insulin resistance in women aged 31-40 years and may be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Background Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) plays a major role in blood pressure regulation and cardiovascular homeostasis. The wide distribution and multifunctional properties of ACE suggest it’s involvement in various pathophysiological conditions. Results In this study, a novel visual detection method for ACE I/D polymorphisms was designed by integrating direct PCR without the need for DNA extraction using gold magnetic nanoparticles (GMNPs)-based lateral flow assay (LFA) biosensor. The entire detection procedure could enable the genotyping of clinical samples in about 80 min. The detection limit was 0.75 ng and results could be obtained in 5 min using the LFA device. Three hundred peripheral blood samples were analyzed using the direct PCR-LFA system and then verified by sequencing to determine accuracy and repeatability. A clinical preliminary study was then performed to analyze a total of 633 clinical samples. Conclusions After grouping based on age, we found a significant difference between the genotypes and the age of patients in the CHD group. The introduction of this method into clinical practice may be helpful for the diagnosis of diseases caused by large fragment gene insertions/deletions.

Objectives A rapid 0 h/1 h algorithm using high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) for rule-out and rule-in of non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) is recommended by the European Society of Cardiology. We aim to prospectively evaluate the diagnostic performance of the algorithm in Chinese Han patients with suspected NSTEMI. Methods In this prospective diagnostic cohort study, 577 patients presenting to the emergency department with suspected NSTEMI and recent ( Results Among 577 enrolled patients, NSTEMI was the final diagnosis for 106 (18.4%) patients. Based on the hs-cTnT 0 h/1 h algorithm, 148 patients (25.6%) were classified as rule-out, 278 patients (48.2%) as rule-in and 151 patients (26.2%) were assigned to the observe group. The rule-out approach resulted in a sensitivity of 100% and negative predictive value of 100%. The rule-in approach resulted in a specificity of 62.9% [95% CI (58.5–67.2%)] and positive predictive value of 37.1% [95%CI (31.3–42.8%)]. No MACE was observed in the rule-out group within 30-day follow-up. Conclusions The hs-cTnT 0 h/1 h algorithm is a safe tool for early rule-out of NSTEMI, while probably not an effective strategy for accurate rule-in of NSTEMI in Chinese Han population.

The Gout Impact Scale (GIS) is a disease-specific health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) measurement for patients with gout. This study aimed to investigate the quality of life in Chinese patients with gout and potential risk factors for poorer HR-QoL by GIS.Adults with gout from February 2017 to February 2019 were invited to complete a questionnaire containing the GIS, social demographic characteristics, clinical information and gout-specific questions. Pearson/Spearman correlation and linear regression were used to analyze the data.A total of 413 patients were included in the analysis (mean age, 51.85 years; 96.4% male). The mean (SD) score of GIS total was 56.79 ± 15.45. Worse gout-specific HR-QoL was associated with anxiety (Gout-specific HR-QoL is impaired by social demographic and clinical characteristics, highlighting the importance of psychological factors (fatigue and depression) and patient-reported outcomes (patients' satisfaction and confidence in gout treatment). These findings suggest that more studies should focus on disease-specific HR-QoL.

Tissue expansion can be used to overcome challenges due to tissue deficiency in plastic and reconstructive surgery; however, the long expansion process is often accompanied by numerous complications. This meta-analysis aimed to determine whether endoscopy-assisted expander placement could decrease complications and shorten treatment time. This study followed the principles of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) and was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42021226116). A literature search was performed in eight databases from their inception dates up to 25 August 2021, to identify clinical studies on endoscopy-assisted and/or open tissue expander placement in plastic and reconstructive surgery. Seven studies met the inclusion criteria. In seven studies, 194 underwent endoscopy-assisted expander placement, and 565 underwent open expander placement. The overall complication rate in the endoscopy-assisted group was significantly lower than that in the open group (risk difference (RD) −0.28, 95% confidence interval (CI), −0.38, −0.18, p < .001). Subgroup analysis showed significantly lower incidence rates of hematoma, infection and dehiscence in the endoscopy-assisted group. The complication rate in the head/neck was lower with low heterogeneity (RD, −0.18; 95% CI, −0.26 to −0.09, p < .001; I2 = 0%). The endoscopy-assisted group had shorter surgery time, hospital stay and time to full expansion (weighted mean difference (WMD), −13.97 min, −16.88 h, −27.54 days; 95% CI, −15.85, −12.08 min, −24.36, −9.40 h, −38.85, −16.24 days; both p < .001, respectively). Endoscopy-assisted expander placement may help lower the risk of complications, especially in the head/neck, and reduce surgery time, hospital stay, and time to full expansion. Abbreviations: CI: confidence interval; CNKI: China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database; CSTJ, China Science and Technology Journal Database; NOS: the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale; PRISMA: preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses; RCT: randomized controlled trial; RoB: the cochrane risk-of-bias; RD: risk difference; WMD: weighted mean difference; SE: standard error; SND: standard normal deviate

Aims Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common comorbidities in Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients The objective of this study was to evaluate the influences of diabetes mellitus on the severity and fatality of SARS-CoV-2 infection Materials and Methods Medical records of 66 hospitalized COVID-19 patients were collected and classified into non-severe (mild/moderate cases) and severe (severe/critical cases) groups, respectively Logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the risk of severe COVID-19 (severe/critical infection) In addition, a meta-analysis including published studies reported the impacts of diabetes mellitus on severity and fatality of COVID-19, and our current study was conducted using fixed-effects models Results There were 22 diabetic and 44 non-diabetic cases among the 66 hospitalized COVID-19 patients As the results shown, seven cases (31 82%) were diagnosed as severe COVID-19 in diabetic patients, which was significantly higher than that in non-diabetic group (4/44, 9 09%, P = 0 033) After adjustment for age and gender, the results showed that diabetes mellitus was significantly associated with COVID-19 severity (OR: 5 29, 95% CI: 1 07?26 02) A meta-analysis further confirmed the positive association between diabetes mellitus and COVID-19 severity (pooled OR = 2 58, 95% CI: 1 93?3 45) Moreover, the diabetic patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 showed to have 2 95-fold higher risk of fatality compared to those patients without diabetes mellitus (95% CI: 1 93?4 53) Conclusions Our findings provide new evidences that diabetes mellitus is associated with a higher risk of severity and fatality of COVID-19 Therefore, intensive monitoring and antidiabetic therapy should be considered in diabetic patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection This article is protected by copyright All rights reserved

Cube attacks are an important type of key recovery attacks against nonlinear feedback shift register (NFSR)-based cryptosystems. The key step in cube attacks closely related to key recovery is recovering superpolies. However, in the previous cube attacks including original, division property based and correlation cube attacks, the algebraic normal form of superpolies could hardly be shown to be exact due to an unavoidable failure probability or a requirement of large time complexity. In this study, the authors propose an algebraic method aiming at recovering the exact algebraic normal forms of superpolies practically. The proposed method is developed based on the degree of evaluation method proposed by Liu in Crypto 2017. As an illustration, the authors apply the proposed method to Trivium. As a result, they recover the algebraic normal forms of some superpolies for the 818-, 835-, 837- and 838-round Trivium. Based on these superpolies, the authors could mount key-recovery attacks on 818-, 835-, 837- and 838-round Trivium with the worst complexity slightly lower than a brute-force attack. Besides, for the cube proposed by Liu in Crypto 2017 as a zero-sum distinguisher for the 838-round Trivium, it is proved that its superpoly is not zero-constant. Hopefully, the proposed method would provide some new insights on cube attacks against NFSR-based ciphers.

Objective rheumatism refers to a large group of diseases with different etiology, mainly characterized by autoimmune disorder. Intestinal flora combines with the digestive organs of the human body to synthesize and secrete the key substances of growth. Several studies have reported abnormal intestinal flora in rheumatic diseases. The purposes of this research were to review the primary studies and figure out the relationship between intestinal flora and rheumatic disease activity. The article search was based on the database of PubMed (MEDLINE), EMBASE, Cochrane to collect English language studies that were published from 1985 to 2019. The articles concerning the intestinal flora and disease activities of rheumatic diseases were classified by disease types, and the relationship between disease activities and intestinal flora was summarized. Eight rheumatic diseases were included in the study. It was found that the changes of intestinal flora were significantly correlated with the activities of rheumatic diseases. There were significant differences in the classification of disease activity and the composition of intestinal flora. Interfering with the composition of intestinal flora can apparently modulate the development of disease. But how to apply such findings is rarely reported. The study finds out that intestinal flora disorder is linked to the activity of rheumatic diseases. But which specific gut flora is connected to the disease activity needs further researches. More discussion is needed on how to apply the results to clinical treatment.

The intelligent simulation of Sports can match the actual game and is of great significance to the development of Sports. Sports is a system in which multiple agents work together. Compared with a single agent, the learning space of multiple agents increases sharply as the number of agents increases, so the learning difficulty increases. Therefore, based on machine learning technology, this study combines with the actual situation to build a Sports simulation system. Moreover, after establishing a more reasonable team defensive formation and strategy, the overall movement of the agent is optimized, and the corresponding structural model has been established in combination with various actions. In addition, this study designs a controlled trial to analyze the performance of the model. The research shows that the proposed method has certain effects and can provide theoretical reference for subsequent related research.

We evaluated the effects of glucocorticoids on bone mineral density (BMD), and prevalence of osteoporosis and fracture in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) by meta-analysis. Until June 26, 2019, we conducted a systematic literature search in EMBASE, Web of science, PubMed, and Cochrane Library to obtain BMD and the prevalence of osteoporosis and fracture in glucocorticoid-treated subjects with RA. The BMD of the treatment and control groups were analyzed by meta-analysis (Stata. version 15), and the 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated. We identified 15 observational studies, including 46,711 RA subjects and 857 healthy controls. The BMD of the lumbar spine (− 0.038 g/cm2; CI, − 0.052, − 0.024) and femoral neck (− 0.017 g/cm2; − 0.030, − 0.003) in RA treated with glucocorticoids were significantly lower than those in RA controls. Compared with healthy control group, the BMD of the lumbar spine (− 0.094 g/cm2; − 0.126, − 0.061) and femoral neck (− 0.097 g/cm2, − 0.109, − 0.085) of RA treated with glucocorticoids decreased more significantly. The prevalence of osteoporosis in whole body, spine, and femur was 38.6% (0.305, 0.466), 32.9% (0.277, 0.381), and 21.7% (0.106, 0.328), respectively. And the prevalence of vertebral fracture was 13.0% (0.058, 0.203). Glucocorticoids may lead to a decline in skeletal health in subjects with RA, especially in vertebral and femoral BMD, compared with normal people or RA without glucocorticoid therapy. Meanwhile, osteoporosis and fractures were also common. Therapeutic measures should be targeted at individuals, which needs further study. Through meta-analysis, we found that glucocorticoids have some negative effects on the bone health of subjects with rheumatoid arthritis. Therefore, when using glucocorticoids to treat rheumatoid arthritis, we should take strategic measures to prevent the decline of bone quality.

Multimedia data, ranging from text, audio, video to animation, undergoes intellectual property protection or has high sensitivity. To deal with privacy leakage during multimedia sharing and dissemination, it is crucial to trace the origin and transformation history of multimedia data, which is called multimedia provenance. In this paper, we construct a multimedia access control system with secure provenance in fog-cloud computing networks, which is designed based on attribute based encryption (ABE) and zero of knowledge technologies. The proposed scheme realizes confidentiality of multimedia big data that is outsourced to the cloud, anonymity of data provider, fine-grained access control of encrypted data, irrefutable of the provenance data, and traceability of data provider. We utilize the fog server to reduce user’s decryption burden and transfer partial decryption tasks. The suggested system is formally proved indistinguishable against chosen plaintext attack (IND-CPA). The simulation and experimental results indicate that our system has low communication overhead and low computation cost.

Background: Cancer cells have altered metabolism, which contributes to their ability to proliferate, survive in unusual microenvironments, and invade other tissues. Measuring the complete set of metabolites in an individual (i.e. the metabolome) provides a functional readout for cellular pathways. Further, changes in the metabolome can be correlated with disease status, prognosis and progression. Using a metabolomics platform and machine learning algorithms, biomarker signatures can be identified to predict response to therapy. Metabolite analysis of pretreatment plasma has shown promise for predicting response in a small retrospective study of the CDK 4/6 inhibitors palbociclib and ribociclib in hormone receptor-positive metastatic breast cancer (Zhang B et al, ASCO 2019 Abstr 3043). HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer patients have significant heterogeneity in response and progression-free survival (PFS) to HER2-targeted therapy. Here we retrospectively evaluated the pretreatment serum metabolome for association with PFS in a cohort of trastuzumab-treated metastatic breast cancer patients from a single institution. Methods: Pretreatment serum from 26 HER2-positive trastuzumab-naive metastatic breast cancer patients who were treated with first-line trastuzumab and chemotherapy were included in this exploratory analysis. Metabolites were extracted from previously frozen serum (1 mL) using ice-cold methanol and chloroform. The resulting metabolites were isolated and quantified using an unbiased, non-destructive, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based profiling platform (Olaris, Inc., Cambridge, MA). The serum was analyzed via 1D 1H NMR and 2D 13C-1H heteronuclear single quantum coherence spectroscopy (HSQC) using customized non-uniform sampling (NUS) techniques and processed with proprietary Olaris software. Supervised and unsupervised machine learning algorithms were used to identify patients with shorter and longer PFS to trastuzumab-based therapy. Results: The median PFS for this cohort was 301 days. Patients were subdivided into early progressors (PFS < 301 days) and late progressors (PFS ≥ 301 days). 23 metabolite resonance levels were statistically different between the two groups (KW test p Citation Format: Elizabeth O'Day, Kim Leitzel, Suhail M Ali, Bo Zhang, Chen Dong, Haiwei Gu, Xiajian Shi, Joseph J Drabick, Leah Cream, Monali Vasekar, Hyma V Polimera, Vinod Nagabhairu, Prashanth Moku, Ashok Maddukuri, Harry Menon, Neha Pancholy, Walter P Carney, Wolfgang Koestler, Allan Lipton. Pretreatment serum metabolome predicts PFS in first-line trastuzumab-treated metastatic breast cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2019 Dec 10-14; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P4-10-25.

Background Chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS) is identified as a urinary andrological diseases that afflict men due to various discomforts. It is urgent and meaningful to develop the novel and effective treatments as a result of the unclear etiology and dismal therapeutic effect of CP/CPPS. Lycopene exerts a crucial role in numerous chronic inflammatory diseases owing to its potent antioxidant capacity. Objective This study aimed to observe the effect of lycopene on CP/CPPS and to explore the underlying mechanisms. Materials and Methods A CP/CPPS model with complete Freund's adjuvant was established in this study. Afterward, intragastric lycopene or corn oil was administered daily for 4 consecutive weeks. Finally, the cardiac blood and prostate tissue samples were collected from rats to carry out related evaluation and testing. Results It was found in this study that lycopene alleviated changes in prostate histopathology compared with those in the complete Freund's adjuvant‐induced CP/CPPS model rats without lycopene treatment. Furthermore, lycopene was suggested to reduce the levels of chemokines MCP1 and MIP‐1α, down‐regulate the expression levels of cytokines (such as TNFα, IL‐1β, IL‐2, and IL‐6), and up‐regulate those of CAT, GSH‐PX, and T‐SOD, decrease that of malondialdehyde. Moreover, it also inhibited the phosphorylation of MAPKs, NF‐κB, and enhanced phosphorylation of the Nrf2 in the CP/CPPS rat model. Discussion and Conclusions The findings in this study suggest that lycopene exerts potent anti‐ CP/CPPS Seffects through alleviating inflammatory response and oxidative stress, which is probably attributed to the interaction of NF‐κB, MAPKs, and Nrf2 signaling pathways in rats. As a natural antioxidant, lycopene may serve as a promising pharmaceutical preparation for treating CP/CPPS.

Face recognition is an active research subject of biometrics due to its significant research and application prospects. The performance of face recognition can be affected by a series of uncontrollable factors, such as illumination, expression, posture and occlusion, which restricts its real-world applications. Therefore, improving the robustness of face recognition to environmental changes became an urgent problem. In this paper, a simplified deep convolutional neural network structure having high robustness under unlimited conditions is designed for face recognition. This structure can improve training speed and face recognition accuracy, and be suitable for small-scale data sets. Inception Module Incorporated Siamese Convolutional Neural Networks (IMISCNN) is developed based on effective reduction of external interference and better features extraction by adopting the Siamese network structure. A cyclical learning rate strategy is also introduced in IMISCNN for better model convergence. Compared to classical face recognition algorithms, such as PCA, PCA and SVM, CNN, PCANet, and the original SNN et al. The accuracy of IMISCNN in CASIA-webface and Extended Yale B standard face database is 99.36% and 99.21%, respectively. Its feasibility and effectiveness have been verified in our experiments.

Background: Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) is a promising marker for the diagnosis of diabetic kidney disease (DKD), but its utility is currently debated. This meta-analysis aims to evaluate the diagnostic value of NGAL for DKD. Method: MEDLINE, Embase, ­Cochrane Library, CNKI, and CBM databases were searched up to April 13, 2019. In bivariate random-effect models, the diagnostic performance of NGAL for DKD was assessed using pooled estimates of sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratio, diagnostic odds ratio, and hierarchical summary receiver-operating characteristic analysis. Results: Nineteen studies were eligible for the meta-analysis. Serum NGAL had a pooled sensitivity and specificity of 0.79 (95% confidence intervals [CI] 0.60–0.91) and 0.87 (0.75–0.93) (7 studies, 1,238 patients). The pooled positive likelihood ratio (LR+) and negative likelihood ratio (LR–) were 5.97 (3.03–11.76) and 0.24 (0.11–0.51). For urine NGAL, the pooled sensitivity, specificity, LR+, and LR– were 0.85 (0.74–0.91), 0.74 (0.57–0.86), 3.26 (1.87–5.67), and 0.21 (0.12–0.35), respectively (10 studies, 1,369 patients). The pooled sensitivity and specificity for kidney disease in normoalbuminuric patients with diabetes was 0.90 (0.82–0.95) and 0.97 (0.90–0.99) for both serum NGAL and 0.94 (0.87–0.98) and 0.90 (0.81–0.96) for urine NGAL (4 studies, 221 patients). NGAL appeared to perform similarly in subgroup analysis. Conclusion: The meta-analysis has shown that NGAL may be useful for DKD classification and also has a potential diagnostic value for normoalbuminuric kidney disease. Large-scale prospective studies are required to clarify its role in the diagnosis and risk stratification of patients with DKD.

With the booming development of the cyber-physical system, human society is much more dependent on information technology. Unfortunately, like software, hardware is not trusted at all, due to so many third parties involved in the separated integrated circuit's (IC) design and manufacturing stages for the high profit. The malicious circuits (named Hardware Trojans) can be implanted during any stage of the ICs' design and manufacturing process. However, the existing pre-silicon approaches based on machine learning theory have good performance, they all belong to supervised learning methods, which have a key prerequisite that is numerous already known information. Meanwhile, hardware Trojans are even more unimaginable because today's ICs are becoming more complicated. The known information is even harder to gain. Furthermore, the training process for supervised learning methods tends to be time-consuming and generally requires a huge amount of balanced training data. Therefore, this paper proposes an unsupervised hardware Trojans detection approach by combined the principal component analysis (PCA) and local outlier factor (LOF) algorithm, called PL-HTD. We firstly visualize the distribution features of normal nets and Trojan nets, and then reveal the differences between the two types of nets to reduce the dimension of the feature set. According to the outliers of each net, the abnormal nets are selected and verified by professionals later to confirm whether it is a true Trojan relative to the host circuit to realize the detection. The experiments show that the proposed method can detect hardware Trojans effectively and reduce the cost of manual secondary detection. For the Trust-HUB benchmarks, the PL-HTD achieves up to 73.08% TPR and 97.52% average TNR, moreover, it achieves average 96.00% accuracy, which shows the feasibility and efficiency of hardware Trojans detecting by employing a method without the guidance of class label information.

薄膜晶体管液晶显示器（TFT-LCD）扭曲向列型（TN）液晶曲面显示器搭配宽视角偏光片暗态时会发生色不均现象，推测色不均现象的发生机理为：曲面状态时，玻璃基板受应力发生形变，面板中应力不均，加之液晶双折射，暗态时上视角观察显示屏上下两侧边缘发蓝。本文模拟了不同改善措施对色不均现象的影响，同时对有改善的模拟结果进行了实验测试。测试结果表明，可以通过两种方式改善色不均现象：第一种是增加暗态亮度，掩盖暗态时色不均现象，如调整电路、偏光片吸收轴角度等。实验结果表明调整电路使显示器暗态亮度从0.18 cd/m2提升至0.25 cd/m2，色不均面积由显示器面积的30%减小至10%，吸收轴角度从135°调整至134.5°，色不均面积减小至10%，但电路调整使显示器响应时间增加2.5倍，吸收轴角度调整0.5°会使对比度下降20%，对产品性能均有不利影响；第二种是改善曲面状态下显示屏内部应力均一性，如增加液晶盒盒厚、高温老化、降低显示器玻璃基板厚度等。实验结果表明：降低玻璃厚度至0.2 mm以及高温60℃老化72 h均能使色不均现象消失，且对产品性能无不利影响。

To determine the prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) in people with gout, and investigate the relationship between gout and the occurrence of DM. Systematic review and meta-analysis of epidemiological studies. Data sources: MEDLINE, Web of Science, EMBASE and CINAHL databases, hand-searched reference lists, citation history and contact with authors. Eligibility criteria: cohort, case-control or cross-sectional studies which examined the occurrence of DM amongst adults with gout (with or without gout group) in primary care or general population samples. Prevalence and risk estimate meta-analyses were performed using a random-effects model. A total of 23 identified studies matched the inclusion criteria, reporting on a total of 575 284 gout patients. Meta-analyses revealed that the prevalence of DM in gout patients was 16% (95% CI, 14-18%, I2 = 99.8%) according to clinical interviews. In the subgroup analysis, the prevalence of DM was higher in the female population (18%, 95%CI 2.7-33.3%) than the male population (12.6%, 95%CI 8.2-17.1%). As age increased, the incidence of diabetes in gout population increased. DM is commonly found among patients with gout. Patients with gout should be actively screened for DM and its consequences.

We conducted a cross-sectional study with 350 gout patients to investigate serum urate acid (sUA) goal attainment (sUA < 360 μmol/L) and associated factors in Chinese gout patients in the Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University from August 2015 to September 2017. Descriptive statistics, health assessment questionnaire, global visual analog scale for general health and Gout Knowledge Questionnaire were calculated comparing patients at sUA goal or not at sUA goal. Univariate analysis and logistic regression models were applied to analyze data. The proportion of urate-lowering therapy (ULT) use was 61.2% (211/350). The mean ± standard deviation sUA of the participants was 475.07 ± 121.53 μmol/L. Only 17.4% of gout patients attain the serum urate goal, which also means 289(82.6%) patients cannot keep their sUA below the target of 360 μmol/L. The factors associated with sUA goal attainment including age, education level and ULT use. Among these, age, waist hip ratio, ULT, family history of cardiovascular disease was the predictor of sUA goal attainment. In conclusion, more than 80% of gout patients did not achieve sUA goal. Younger and fatter patients were more difficult to control the serum urate level.

Modern water-saving irrigation technology has expanded the scale of agricultural oases in arid and semi-arid regions of China. In this study, we used Landsat MSS and Landsat TM/ETM remote sensing data to assess changes in oasis scale and water availability with reference to differing water management practices in the Manas River Basin of north-western China from 1975 to 2015. We used the water-heat balance index H0 to determine oasis stability over time and constructed a suitable-scale calculation model for arid and semi-arid regions to assess the suitable development scale and cultivated land area in the study area. The implementation of water-saving technology in 2000 effectively improved the utilization efficiency of water resources and accelerated the formation of artificial oases; these expanded by 3873.3 km2 while natural oasis area was reduced by 3485.0 km2. The oasis stability index H0 was less than the critical stability index of 0.5 throughout the study period, implying that these areas were in a metastable state and unsuitable for further development. Therefore, in order to improve oasis stability, both scale and agricultural area should be further controlled. At present, actual oasis scale exceeds appropriate scale by 1.1 times and agricultural area exceeds suitable area by 2.5 times. To ensure the stability of the oasis, its area should be maintained at 3942.28–4481.06 km2 and the cultivated land should be maintained at 1576.91–1792.42 km2.

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the current situation of primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS) patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD) in China. The relationships between social demography, disease activity, psychological status, clinical variables, and ILD were analyzed. Besides that, the quality of life (QoL) in pSS with ILD was also analyzed.In the cross-sectional study, 101 pSS patients participated in this study. Under the guidance of the researchers, the European League Against Rheumatism Sjögren's Syndrome Disease Activity Index (ESSDAI), EULAR Sjögren's Syndrome Patient-Reported Index (ESSPRI), the Short-Form 36 health survey (SF-36), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI), Summated Xerostomia Inventory (SXI), and other related questionnaires were completed. Independent sample t tests, Mann-Whitney U test, chi-square test, and correlational analysis were used.The data showed that 28 (30.1%) pSS people with ILD. The occurrence and development of ILD were associated with disease duration, fatigue, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), neutrophils, albumin, and use of hormone. The survey also found that the QoL of pSS-ILD was significantly lower than non-ILD, especially the score in the dimension of role physical function.ILD was very common in pSS. ILD had a significant negative impact on the QoL of patients. Therefore, it is of great significance to strengthen the early intervention and drug treatment of pSS patients to prevent ILD and improve their QoL.Key Points• This cross-sectional study finds that the incidence of ILD in patients with pSS is 30.1%.• The occurrence and development of ILD is associated with disease duration, fatigue, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), neutrophils, albumin, and use of hormone.•The study also finds that the QoL of pSS-ILD is significantly lower than in patients with non-ILD, especially the score in the dimension of role physical function.

Background Serum lipid abnormalities are generally considered as a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). However, evidence for the effect of long-term serum lipid fluctuations on future T2DM probability remains limited. Methods A total of 4475 nondiabetic participants who underwent annual health examinations between 2010 and 2013 were followed for the subsequent 5-year risk of T2DM. The Cox proportional hazards model was performed to evaluate the associations of visit-to-visit variabilities and trajectories of triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c) with T2DM probability. Results During the five-year follow-up, 223 newly developed T2DM cases were identified. Compared with the “Low” TG trajectory, “Moderate” and “Moderate-High” TG trajectories were significantly associated with T2DM incidence, with adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) of 1.51 (1.12-2.03) and 2.55 (1.62-4.03), respectively. Additionally, participants in the third and fourth quartiles of TG/standard deviation (SD) were associated with increased T2DM probability when compared with those in the lowest quartile. After excluding individuals with prediabetes, participants with “Moderate-High” TG trajectory still had a 2.43-fold greater risk of T2DM compared with those with “Low” TG trajectory (95 % CI: 1.28-4.63). In addition, compared with participants in “Low” HDL-c trajectory, the future T2DM probability was significantly reduced in those with “Moderate” and “High” HDL-c trajectories, with HR (95 % CI) of 0.52 (0.37-0.72) and 0.38 (0.18-0.80), respectively. After excluding individuals with prediabetes, the “Moderate” HDL-c trajectory remained associated with decreased T2DM probability when compared with “Low” HDL-c trajectory (HR: 0.55, 95 % CI: 0.35-0.88). However, the incidence of T2DM was not associated with the long-term fluctuations of TC and LDL-c. Conclusions Long-term visit-to-visit variability of TG, and the change trajectories of TG and HDL-c were significantly associated with future T2DM probability. Moreover, these associations were not affected after excluding individuals with prediabetes.

Endothelial inflammation and vascular damage are essential risk factors contributing to hypertension. Suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS3) is involved in the regulation of multiple inflammatory pathways. A large number of studies have shown that the anti-inflammatory effect of SOCS3 in hypertension, obesity, and allergic reactions has brought more insights into the inhibition of inflammation. Therefore, we selected a tagSNP of SOCS3 (rs8064821) to investigate whether they are contributing to the risk of hypertension in the Chinese population. In total, 532 patients with hypertension and 569 healthy controls were enrolled for two central of China. SOCS3 rs8064821 C>A polymorphism was genotyped using TaqMan assay. SOCS3 rs8064821 CA genotype was associated with an increased risk of hypertension ( OR = 1.821 , 95 % CI = 1.276 -2.600, P = 0.001 ). Rs8064821 A allele was associated with higher SOCS3 mRNA level in PBMCs from healthy donors. SOCS3 rs8064821 C>A polymorphism may contribute to the risk of hypertension in the Chinese population by regulating the expression of SOCS3.

Background Although blood lead levels (BLLs) in children are gradually decreasing, low-concentration lead exposure can still exert adverse effects. We studied the factors that affect BLLs in children in Shenyang, China. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study by administering structured questionnaires on family demographics and food intake. The concentrations of lead in venous blood were determined by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. Results A total of 273 children aged 1–6 years were enrolled. The geometric mean (geometric standard deviation) of BLLs was 24.94 (12.70) μg/L in boys and 23.75 (11.34) μg/L in girls. The prevalence of BLLs of ≥35 μg/L was 22.7% and was mainly observed in children aged under 3 years. Often hand washing before meals was protective against BLLs ≥20 μg/L (adjusted OR: 0.427, 95%CI: 0.238–0.767, p = 0.004). Consumption of puffed grains and eggs had an adjusted OR (95%CI) for BLLs ≥20 μg/L of 1.714 (1.012–2.901) (p = 0.045) and 1.787 (1.000–3.192) (p = 0.050), respectively. Conclusions BLLs of children in Shenyang are still higher than in developed countries. Consumption of puffed grains and eggs is associated with higher BLLs. Often hand washing before meals may be protective against high BLLs.

Terahertz (THz) detecting technology has attracted many attentions. In this work, a novel THz detector based on a metal gratings/Si-based blocked-impurity-band (BIB) hybrid structure was designed and theoretically calculated. The highly integrated hybrid structure was found useful for modulating the response wavelength and improving the responsivity of Si-based BIB detector. The enhanced THz absorption of the hybrid device structure of metal gratings and Si-based BIB absorption layer was carefully investigated by finite difference time domain. The peak wavelength can be moved from 26.9 to 36.53 μm when metal gratings (period: 32 μm) were added on the Si-based BIB. The peak absorptivity of the hybrid detector was increased by 87.3 % with the metal gratings, compared with that of conventional Si-based BIB detector. Our results indicate that a highly integrated hybrid device structure can replace the divided band filters, and realize selective resonant enhanced absorption and tunable THz spectral response.

Background: This study determined the knowledge and attitudes regarding COVID-19 and assessed the acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine among the Chinese population. Methods: An online and offline cross-sectional study was conducted from 1 to 18 June 2021 among the Chinese population. Demographic characteristics, attitudes, knowledge, values, impact, and autonomy regarding the COVID-19 vaccine were collected using questionnaire. The variables in our study were analyzed by Mann-Whitney test and chi-square test. Results: A total of 93.8% participants were willing to be vaccinated, 2.7% refused, and 3.5% hesitated. In regards to knowledge about the COVID-19 vaccine, 94.3% citizens surveyed knew about the spread of droplets and 65% had knowledge about surfaces touched by an infected person. In addition, 93.8% of participants had knowledge of the common symptoms related to COVID-19, such as fever and cough (93.8%), shortness of breath/anorexia/fatigue/nausea/vomiting/diarrhea (80.2%), and panic and chest tightness (69.4%). Most participants had a strong self-prevention awareness, such as washing hands regularly (92.1%) and wearing a facemask (94.1%). Besides, over ninety percent of respondents would report exposure to SARS-CoV-2 (96.6%) and exposure to symptoms possibility related to COVID-19 (92.9%). If necessary, most respondents would agree to isolate at home (93.5%) or an isolation in hospital (96.3%). Knowledge of COVID-19, including transmission, symptoms, protective measures, and vaccines itself, is associated with vaccination attitude. Values, perceived impacts, knowledge, and autonomy, assessed by the scale of DrVac-COVID19S, have also been revealed as important determinants to vaccine acceptance. Conclusions: Almost 93% of Chinese people surveyed in this study showed a willing attitude toward COVID-19 vaccination. Based on the above results, government and social workers can take measures from these perspectives to improve the vaccination attitude, so as to increase vaccine immunization rates.

We have read with interest the paper by Abrahami et al on the risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) with long-term proton pump inhibitor (PPI) usage with a new user and active comparator design (PPI users n=1 293 749 and histamine-2 receptor antagonist (H2RA) users n=292 387, from 1 January 1990 to 30 April 2018 with 1-year follow-up).1 The authors found that overall use of PPI did not increase the risk of CRC (HR 1.02, 95% CI 0.92 to 1.14). However, the HR increased by 2–4 years (HR 1.45, 95% CI 1.28 to 1.60) and more than 4 years (HR 1.60, 95% CI 1.42 to 1.80) with cumulative duration of PPI usage. Similar patterns were …

Summary Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is multi-factorial chronic intestinal inflammation driven by pathogenic T cells, among which a large portion of patients are resistant to current anti-inflammatory regimes. The mechanisms underlying colitis pathogenicity and drug resistance are not fully understood. Here, we demonstrate that RORα is highly expressed in active UC patients, particularly in those non-responsive to anti-TNF treatment. Rorα deficiency in CD4+ T cells greatly reduced colitis development. Mechanistically, RORα regulated T cell infiltration in colon and inhibited T cell apoptosis. Meanwhile, genome-wide occupancy and transcriptome analysis revealed that RORα promoted mTORC1 activation. mTORC1 signaling, also hyperactivated in active UC patients, is necessary for T cell-mediated colitis. Our results thus demonstrate a crucial role of the RORα-mTORC1 axis in CD4+ T cells in promoting IBD, which may be targeted in human patients.

This article proposes a cryogenic readout integrated circuit (ROIC) for the blocked-impurity-band (BIB) Terahertz detector. The cryogenic ROIC is composed of a capacitance transimpedance amplifier (CTIA) input-stage circuit, a correlated double sampling (CDS) circuit and an output-stage circuit. The circuit design is based on a cryogenic MOSFET model obtained by optimizing some parameters of BSIM4 according to previous cryogenic test results. The ROIC and BIB detector are interconnected by wire bonding, and the output characteristics are measured at 6K. Our result shows that the circuit has realized the design function under cryogenic conditions.

Despite the strong correlation between elevated alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and hypertension, their bi-directional and temporal relationship are currently unclear. Our study aimed to explore the bi-directional and temporal association between elevated ALT (ALT40 U/L) and hypertension.Measurements of alanine aminotransferase and blood pressure were obtained twice from 2013 to 2017 in 3314 Chinese adults without cardiovascular disease at baseline. Bi-directional and cross-lagged panel analyses were performed to dissect the temporal relationship between elevated ALT and hypertension.Longitudinally, we found that baseline elevated ALT was strongly correlated with incident hypertension (odds ratios = 2.16,Our results provide evidence for the bi-directional association of elevated ALT and hypertension among Chinese adults, and elevated ALT probably antedates the development of hypertension.

Aiming at the problem that the output voltage of the photovoltaic (PV) array is much lower than the voltage required by the grid-connected inverter in the grid-connected power generation system, a new type of second order boost converter with high-gain and low switching tube voltage stress is proposed. The proposed topology is based on the basic Boost circuit, including three switching capacitors and a boost inductor to increase the boost ratio. At the same time, the converter clamps the switching tube to suppress the voltage spike and greatly reduce the voltage stress of the switching tube. The converter circuit topology is simple, which reduces the cost and volume of the converter. The working principle of the converter is analyzed, and the boosting effect of the converter is verified by corresponding simulation and experiments, which proves the correctness of the theoretical analysis.

Purpose Few studies have assessed fatigue of meningioma patients. The purpose of this study was to explore the prevalence, severity, and risk factors of multidimensional fatigue, as well as the impact on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in Chinese meningioma patients newly diagnosed. Methods This cross-sectional study included 120 Chinese meningioma patients recruited from Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University from January 2020 to February 2021. Data were collected before surgery, including demographic, clinical and psychological characteristics, as well as fatigue scores, based on completion of the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI-20). Spearman correlation and multiple linear regression were used to analyze the data. Results The results demonstrated that a high prevalence of severe fatigue for each dimension: general fatigue (33.3%), physical fatigue (27.5%), reduced activity (28.3%), reduced motivation (12.5%), mental fatigue (11.7%), and total fatigue (23.3%). Headache and anxiety were predictors of general fatigue. Depression was an independent predictor of physical fatigue. Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) score and depression independently predicted reduced activity. Depression and Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) score were risk factors predicting reduced motivation, while KPS score and anxiety predicted mental fatigue. Importantly, comorbidity, KPS score, headache, depression, sleep disturbances, and ESS score could predict total fatigue. Furthermore, MFI-20 scores in all dimensions were negatively correlated with Short Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36) scores in all dimensions. Conclusion Our findings indicate that meningioma patients newly diagnosed are frequently affected by fatigue, potentially contributing to impair HRQoL. For patients with risk factors of fatigue, targeted interventions are advised in order to decrease fatigue and improve HRQoL.

As the next generation of digital microfluidic biochips (DMFBs) platform, Micro-electrode-dot-array (MEDA) has sea-of-micro-electrodes that support fine-grained control of the droplet and constant real-time monitoring of droplet paths. As MEDA biochips are expected to be had a booming market in the near future, their security, especially the protection of intellectual property (IP), has become the focus of the academic community. In this paper, we first propose a logic encryption-based IP protection scheme for MEDA biochips, called MEDASec, which is without modifying the structure. Our scheme aims to hide the droplet mix-split operation in bioassay, making the IP akin to a black-box in the manufacturing process. Besides, increasing computing power has facilitated the threat of brute force attacks on the secret key. In response to the brute force attack, we propose security metrics for the first time, called RRA, to evaluate the ratio of reagents that result from biochemical reactions. Experimental results on multiple bioassays demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed logical encryption strategy against the brute force attack.