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In this letter, we propose an end-to-end multi-modal based convolutional self-attention network to perform power control in non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) networks. We formulate an energy efficiency (EE) maximization problem, and we design an iterative solution to handle this optimization problem. This solution can provide an offline benchmark but might not be suitable for online power control, therefore, we employ our proposed deep learning model. The proposed deep learning model consists of two main pipelines, one for the deep feature mapping where we stack our self-attention block on top of a ResNet to extract high quality features, and focus on specific regions in the data to extract the patterns of the influential factors (interference, quality of service (QoS), and the corresponding power allocation). The second pipeline is to extract the shallow modality features. Those features are combined and passed to a dense layer to perform the final power prediction. The proposed deep learning framework achieves near optimal performance, and outperforms traditional solutions and other strong deep learning models such as PowerNet and the conventional convolutional neural network (CNN). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Life-and-death education is intimately related to palliative-and-hospice care. It should be implemented among groups of all ages, especially for the elderly. This study aims to establish expert consensus on a set of scientific and systematic life-and-death education contents for the elderly and provide reference for the practice on the elderly.Methods: This study designed three rounds of expert consultation by using a Delphi method. A panel of 22 experts from the fields of palliative-and-hospice care, life-and-death education, geriatric nursing, humanities and ethics, and geriatric psychology participated in the study.Results: This study finally reached expert consensus on the contents of life-and-death education for the elderly, containing 4 first-level items, Life-and-death literacy promotion in the elderly; Life-and-death concept establishment of the elderly; Life-and-death planning of the elderly; Life-and-death thoughts of the elderly with affiliated 9 second-level items, and corresponding 23 detailed third-level items.Conclusions: The life-and-death education contents for the elderly offer a basis for publicity for health professionals, promote dialogues on death, preparation, and planning for death and dying. The life-and-death education contents system was clear in coherence containing definite and comprehensive contents, which enriched life-and-death education resources globally. The results could assist in the planning of palliative-and-hospice care services to improve quality of death of the elderly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A highly efficient MOF adsorbent for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). • Micro-/mesoporous MOF-74(Ni) was prepared by a facile condensation reflux approach. • MOF-74(Ni) morphology, crystal size, and isosteric heat for CO 2 adsorption can be easily tuned. • Appreciable CO 2 removal and decent selectivity of MOF-74(Ni)-24-140 due to its abundantly exposed metal sites, conducive isosteric heat, and micropore channels. Though the highest CO 2 capture capacity belongs to liquid amine-solutions, solid matters capable of CO 2 capture are also highly sought, providing that, they offer at least analogous CO 2 adsorption capacity and CO 2 /N 2 selectivity. Herein, a surprisingly high-performance Ni-based metal–organic framework for CO 2 adsorption, namely MOF-74(Ni), was synthesized by a facile condensation reflux approach. It was found that the structure and CO 2 adsorption isosteric heat of MOF-74(Ni) could tune upon varying the synthesis duration under various temperatures. The optimized MOF-74(Ni)-24-140 (synthesized at 140 °C for 24 h) displays outstanding CO 2 adsorption capacity of 8.29/6.61 mmol/g at 273/298 K under normal pressure of 1.0 bar, several times higher than previously reported MOF-74-Ni (2.0/2.1 times), UTSA-16 (1.5/1.6 times), and DA-CMP-1 (3.6/4.9 times) under similar conditions. The excellent CO 2 capture capacity is associated to the abundant adsorption sites (mainly arising from the cationic Ni2+ ions) and narrow micropore channels (mainly arising from the cage structure of Ni2+ ions coordinated with organic linkers). Offering a high CO 2 selectivity (CO 2 /N 2 = 49) and a well-tuned isosteric heat of CO 2 adsorption (27–52 kJ/mol) besides its decent CO 2 capture capacity, MOF-74(Ni) strongly stands out as an efficient and strong CO 2 capturing material with industrial scale applicability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • CoMoO@Co composite catalyst was successfully grown on graphite felt. • Metallic Co nanosheets drive amorphous to crystalline conversion in Co-Mo oxides. • The fabricated catalyst acts as a robust bifunctional electrocatalyst for the oxidation of water and urea. • The nanoflowers structure provides abundant and largely accessible catalytic active sites. • The coupling interface formed between metallic Co and Co-Mo oxides facilitates electron transfer in catalytic reaction. Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and urea oxidation reaction (UOR) play important roles in the field of hydrogen energy preparation and pollution treatment. In this work, by merging bimetallic Co-Mo oxides with metallic Co on the graphite felt (GF), we effectively manufacture a 3D bifunctional and highly efficient electrocatalyst (CoMoO@Co/GF) with multi-site functionality for the simultaneous reduction of water and the oxidation of urea in an alkaline medium. The presence of metallic Co causes Co-Mo oxides to evolve from amorphous to crystalline structures. The coupling interface produced between metallic Co and Co-Mo oxides is proven to facilitate electron transport in addition to extensively accessible and highly electroactive Co-Mo oxide nanoflower architecture. The experimental results reveal that the overpotentials for OER and UOR in the CoMoO@Co/GF electrode require only 269 and 115 mV to obtain a current density of 10 mA cm−2, respectively. Furthermore, with the aid of urea, the overpotential for HER at the current density of 10 mA cm−2 is lowered to 155 mV. Most notably, the constructed CoMoO@Co/GF-based electrolytic cell only requires a 1.5 V dry battery to achieve effective H 2 evolution and noteworthy stability, outperforming the commercial catalyst-based device and many previous results. The combination of experiments and theoretical calculations further clarifies the active sites in the catalyst. What's more, the pathway of electron transfer in the catalytic process is defined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies found linguistic positivity bias in academic writing, that is, researchers tend to present their works with more positive words than negative ones. The present study aims to examine the issue from a diachronic perspective, and it is probably the first one that employed a mixed method of both a small lexicon analysis and sentiment analysis in this line of research. Specifically, a series of experiments were performed based on a corpus of 775,460 abstracts published between 1969 and 2019 in 123 scientific journals covering 12 research disciplines in life sciences. The results demonstrated a linguistic positivity bias in academic writing. More importantly, a significant upward trend of linguistic positivity bias was observed over the past 5 decades. Major communicative functions of positive and negative sentences are also analysed. Reasons for this linguistic positivity bias are explored from the perspectives of publication pressure/bias, employment of linguistic devices to promote research, and language use for political correctness purposes. Lastly, implications for authors and learners of academic writing and for researchers of sentiment analysis are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we develop a new method based on copulas to model correlated inputs in discrete-event stochastic systems. We first define a type of correlated stochastic process, called Copula Correlated Processes (CCPs), which we then use to model correlated inputs for discrete-event stochastic systems. In general, it is very difficult to analyze discrete-event stochastic systems with correlated inputs. However, we show that discrete-event stochastic systems with CCPs can be discretized and approximated by discrete-event stochastic systems with discrete copula correlated processes, which are equivalent to discrete-event stochastic systems driven by Markov-modulated processes and are much easier to analyze. An illustrative queueing example is provided to demonstrate how our method works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Text Classification (TC) is the process of assigning several different categories to a set of texts. This study aims to evaluate the state of the arts of TC studies. Firstly, TC-related publications indexed in Web of Science were selected as data. In total, 3,121 TC-related publications were published in 760 journals between 2000 and 2020. Then, the bibliographic information was mined to identify the publication trends, important contributors, publication venues, and involved disciplines. Besides, a thematic analysis was performed to extract topics with increasing/decreasing popularity. The findings showed that TC has become a fast-growing interdisciplinary area, and that emerging research powers such as China are playing increasingly important roles in TC research. Moreover, the thematic analysis showed increased interest in topics concerning advanced classification algorithms, performance evaluation methods, and the practical applications of TC. This study will help researchers recognize the recent trends in the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the accuracy of multi-instrument recognition, based on the basic principles and structure of CNN, a multipitch instrument recognition method based on the convolutional neural network (CNN) is proposed. First of all, the pitch feature detection technology and constant Q transform (CQT) are adopted to extract the signal characteristics of multiple instruments, which are used as the input of the CNN network. Moreover, in order to improve the accuracy of multi-instrument signal recognition, the benchmark recognition model and two-level recognition model are constructed. Finally, the above models are verified by experiments. The results show that the two-level classification model established in this article can accurately identify and classify various musical instruments, and the recognition accuracy is improved most obviously in xylophone. Compared with the benchmark model, the constructed two-level recognition has the highest accuracy and precision, which shows that this model has superior performance and can improve the accuracy of multi-instrument recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TDP-43 (also known as TARDBP) is a nuclear splicing factor functioning in pre-mRNA processing. Its C-terminal 35-kDa fragment (TDP-35) forms inclusions or aggregates in cytoplasm, and sequesters full-length TDP-43 into the inclusions through binding with RNA. We extended the research to investigate whether TDP-35 inclusions sequester other RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) and how RNA-binding specificity has a role in this sequestration process. We have characterized T-cell restricted intracellular antigen-1 (TIA1) and other RBPs that can be sequestered into the TDP-35 inclusions through specific RNA binding, and found that this sequestration leads to the dysfunction of TIA1 in maturation of target pre-mRNA. Moreover, we directly visualized the dynamic sequestration of TDP- 43 by the cytoplasmic TDP-35 inclusions by live-cell imaging. Our results demonstrate that TDP-35 sequesters some specific RBPs and this sequestration is assisted by binding with RNA in a sequence-specific manner. This study provides further evidence in supporting the hijacking hypothesis for RNA-assisted sequestration and will be beneficial to further understanding of the TDP-43 proteinopathies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploiting efficient catalysts is of interest for solar-driven water splitting. Herein, a novel NiWO 4 /CdS nanosheets-on-nanorods direct Z-Scheme heterostructure was developed by using a facile in-situ approach. The optimized NiWO 4 /CdS heterostructure shows a H 2 evolution rate of 26.43 mmol g−1 h−1 exceeding that of bare CdS by more than 75 folds. Systematic investigations reveal the nanostructures with numerous active sites, intimate contact interface, and enhanced charge separation rate synergistically account for the outstanding performance of the NiWO 4 /CdS. Moreover, the band structures were detailedly analyzed and the tentative photocatalytic mechanism was proposed, which could contribute to deeply understanding the catalytic process and guide the synthesis of the efficient heterostructure. These findings and strategies may have great significance in promoting the development of highly efficient and low-cost photocatalysts. [Display omitted] • A novel NiWO 4 /CdS Z-scheme heterostructure was first constructed by using a facile approach. • The NiWO 4 /CdS exhibits a H 2 evolution rate of 26.43 mmol g−1 h−1 far acceding that of CdS. • The good performance was attributed to the formation of the well-defined heterostructure. • The band energy level and photocatalytic mechanism were detailedly investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bidens pilosa is a weed species that invades crop areas in tropical and subtropical regions. To date, only two potyviruses have been reported to infect B. pilosa. Here, we report the complete genome sequence of a tomato zonate spot tospovirus (TZSV) isolate from Bidens named TZSV-Bidens. The tripartite RNA of the TZSV-Bidens genome contains L, M, and S segments that are 8912, 4724, and 2997 nt in length, respectively. The genome contains five open reading frames (ORFs), with 92.23–95.01% amino acid sequence identity to the TZSV-YN isolate. Phylogenetic analysis based on amino acid sequences of members of the family Tospoviridae showed that TZSV-Bidens was grouped into a well-supported Eurasian cluster. The intergenic regions (IGRs) of the M and S RNAs are among the most variable regions and are far shorter than those of the TZSV-YN reference genome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes the synthesis design method of the dual-band differential phase shifters with independent filtering passbands and predetermined phase shifts. The filtering unit of the proposed phase shifter adopts a simple branch-line structure, which possesses its characteristics of controllable dual-band frequency ratios and bandwidths. Meanwhile, the Schiffman phase alignment element holds the capability of achieving different predetermined phase shifts in dual band. In our design, dual-mode resonator and dual-mode J-inverter models for the filtering units are equivalently established, and the amplitude and phase closed-form formulas for the proposed dual-band phase shifter are further numerically obtained for the first time. This proposed work features new synthesis method, integrated higher order filtering response with two independently prescribed bandwidths, and concurrent predetermined dual-band phase shifts. Design procedures are provided in detail for a quick design. Finally, two dual-band phase shifters with different frequency ratios and phase shifts are designed and demonstrated. The experimental and measured results match well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immunochromatography testing strips (ICTs) promise to become the point-of-care test format for early diagnosis due to their convenience, low cost, and simplification. However, the insufficient signal intensity and limited sensitivity of this format hamper their application. Herein, we overcame these limitations by integrating rod-like ferric oxyhydroxide (β-FeOOH) nanoparticles with ICTs. By varying the concentration of PEI, a one-pot, mild-temperature hydrolysis method was adapted for the synthesis and morphology regulation of β-FeOOH nanorod. Due to the excellent enzyme-like catalytic activity toward peroxidase substrates (TMB) in the presence of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), the β-FeOOH nanorod in ICTs served as a signal generator and the nanozyme for signal amplification. The proof-of-concept work was performed for the detection of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). A two fold improvement of detection sensitivity was achieved compared to the sensitivity of conventional Au NPs-based ICTs. These results show that β-FeOOH-based ICT has a potential application in POCT detection in clinical diagnostics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Text length is a major concern in the measurement of lexical richness, and how lexical richness is affected by text length still remains open. The present study aims to explore the relation between text length and lexical richness from an entropy-based perspective. Results show a non-linear growth pattern of lexical richness by increasing text length. To be specific, lexical richness increases rapidly with shorter texts. It soon reaches a boundary point from which it stabilizes despite the continuous expansion of text length. The boundary point of the lexical richness by the Shannon estimation is around 1000 tokens and that by the Zhang estimation is lower and more varied, including 500, 800, and 1000 tokens. Such stability may be explained by the stabilization of word probability in the text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate ocean environment perception is crucial for weather and climate prediction. Environmental limitations and deployment costs constrain satellite and buoy real-time observation, leading to sparse data availability. This paper proposes a novel approach, multimodal fusion-based spatiotemporal incremental learning, enhancing the ocean environment perception under sparse observations. This method uses sparse real-time observations to comprehend, reconstruct, and predict the full environment. First, spatiotemporal disentanglement decouples intrinsic features by integrating physical principles and data learning. Subsequently, incremental extension captures the dynamic environment through stable representation updating and dynamic behavior learning. Then, multimodal information fusion synergizes multisource intrinsic features, enabling the full perception of the ocean environment. Finally, the methodology is supported by convergence analysis and error boundary evaluation. Validation with global sea surface temperature and western Pacific Ocean high-dimensional temperature datasets demonstrates its potential for advancing ocean research and applications using sparse real-time observation. • Spatiotemporal disentanglement extracts stable and dynamic features. • Incremental extension strategy prompts model evolution. • Multimodal information fusion enables the full environment perception. • Cost-effective solution for accurate ocean environment perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A decomposed convolutional neural network model was established based on rs-fMRI connectivity. • The model paired with the Dos_160 atlas can be effectively applied to the diagnosis of tinnitus. • This study pinpointed key brain regions for subjective tinnitus using a data-driven approach. Many studies have investigated aberrant functional connectivity (FC) using resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) in subjective tinnitus patients. However, no studies have verified the efficacy of resting-state FC as a diagnostic imaging marker. We established a convolutional neural network (CNN) model based on rs-fMRI FC to distinguish tinnitus patients from healthy controls, providing guidance and fast diagnostic tools for the clinical diagnosis of subjective tinnitus. A CNN architecture was trained on rs-fMRI data from 100 tinnitus patients and 100 healthy controls using an asymmetric convolutional layer. Additionally, a traditional machine learning model and a transfer learning model were included for comparison with the CNN, and each of the three models was tested on three different brain atlases. Of the three models, the CNN model outperformed the other two models with the highest area under the curve, especially on the Dos_160 atlas (AUC = 0.944). Meanwhile, the model with the best classification performance highlights the crucial role of the default mode network, salience network, and sensorimotor network in distinguishing between normal controls and patients with subjective tinnitus. Our CNN model could appropriately tackle the diagnosis of tinnitus patients using rs-fMRI and confirmed the diagnostic value of FC as measured by rs-fMRI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A new europium metal-organic framework is synthesized and fully characterized. • The MOF has good chemical stability, water stability and high thermal stability. • The MOF is a smart luminescent sensor for NB detection. • The MOF can effectively catalyze CO 2 and epoxides into cyclic carbonates. The employment of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as fluorescence sensors for the detection of environmental pollutants and/or heterogeneous catalysts for CO 2 conversion is of great importance for protecting human health. For this purpose, we synthesized a new Eu-MOF [Eu 2 (btpdc) 2 ·(HCOO) 2 ] n (1) (H 2 btpdc = benzo[ b ]thiophene-2,5-dicarboxylic acid) with its three-dimensional structure characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) results indicate that 1 has high chemical durability, good water stability and high thermal stability. Fluorescence sensing investigations demonstrate that 1 is a smart chemical sensor towards nitrobenzene (NB) detection with high sensitivity, high selectivity and good regeneration performance. A high quenching constant (K sv = 2.33 × 105 M−1) and a low detection limit (LOD = 0.038 μM) are obtained. Combined with experiments and density functional theory calculations, the mechanisms of fluorescence quenching of 1 by NB were also revealed. Furthermore, 1 can serve as a smart catalyst for the cycloaddition reaction of CO 2 with epoxides to synthesize cyclic carbonates, displaying high activity, high selectivity, and good generality. A new three-dimensional Eu-MOF [Eu 2 (btpdc) 2 ·(HCOO) 2 ] n (H 2 btpdc = benzo[b]thiophene-2,5-dicarboxylic acid) was synthesized and structurally characterized. Function explorations demonstrate that the MOF is a smart chemical sensor towards nitrobenzene (NB) detection and also a highly active catalyst for the cycloaddition reaction of CO 2 with epoxides to synthesize cyclic carbonates. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Foam metal improves mechanical properties of clinched joints. • Foam metal reduces micromotion wear and delays fatigue failure. • Dynamic properties provide ideas for life prediction. • Describing progressive failure laws using inherent frequency. In this study, 5182 aluminium alloy clinched joints and hybrid clinched joints containing Cu foam were prepared. The effect of the copper-foam sandwich on the static strength of aluminium alloy clinched joints was analysed through a static tensile-shear test. Modal analysis was conducted using the finite element simulation software, and the variation in the inherent frequency of the two joints under fatigue service was investigated through alternating fatigue-dynamic response tests. The law of asymptotic failure under fatigue service and the effect of a copper-foam sandwich on the fatigue performance of clinched joints were explored. It was concluded from the analysis that the tensile-shear strength of the clinched joints was increased by 9.14% due to the addition of the copper-foam sandwich. With fatigue accumulation in the joints, the inherent frequency curves were observed to gradually shift to the left. The tendency of inherent frequency reduction was mitigated by the copper-foam sandwich, and the ratio of inherent frequency decline was reduced. Furthermore, micromotion wear between the upper and lower sheets was effectively isolated by the copper-foam sandwich, abrasive debris between the sheets was reduced, and the process of microcrack formation and expansion was inhibited, resulting in an improved fatigue performance of the clinched joints. The variation law of inherent frequency with fatigue accumulation, as analysed in this study, provides a valuable reference for the prediction of fatigue life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In abdominal wall defect repair, surgical site infection (SSI) remains the primary cause of failure, while complications like visceral adhesions present significant challenges following patch implantation. We designed a Janus multifunctional hydrogel patch (JMP) with antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and anti-adhesive properties. The patch comprises two distinct layers: a pro-healing layer and an anti-adhesion layer. The pro-healing layer was created by a simple mixture of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), quaternized chitosan (QCS), and gallic acid (GA), crosslinked to form PVA/QCS/GA (PQG) hydrogels through GA's self-assembly effect and hydrogen bonding. Additionally, the PVA anti-adhesive layer was constructed using a drying-assisted salting method, providing a smooth and dense physical barrier to prevent visceral adhesion while offering essential mechanical support to the abdominal wall. The hydrogel patch demonstrates widely adjustable mechanical properties, exceptional biocompatibility, and potent antimicrobial properties, along with a sustained and stable release of antioxidants. In rat models of skin and abdominal wall defects, the JMP effectively promoted tissue healing by controlling infection, inhibiting inflammation, stimulating neovascularization, and successfully preventing the formation of visceral adhesions. These compelling results highlight the JMP's potential to improve the success rate of abdominal wall defect repair and reduce surgical complications. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Rutile Ti 0.95 Nb 0.95 O 4 /C composites were successfully prepared. • Ti 0.95 Nb 0.95 O 4 /C composites show superior performance as anode materials for LIBs. • Pseudocapacitance make a significant contribution to the total capacity. In this work, Ti 0.95 Nb 0.95 O 4 /C composites were developed through solvothermal method combined with subsequent calcination, and used as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries. Ti 0.95 Nb 0.95 O 4 /C composites from calcination at 900 ℃ deliver high reversible capacity of 585 mAh·g−1 at 0.1 A·g−1, superior rate capabilities of 263 and 232 mAh·g−1 at 3 and 4 A·g−1, respectively, and excellent cycling capability of 536 mAh·g−1 at 1.0 A·g−1 after 500 cycles. Furthermore, the results of cyclic voltammetry reveal that the pseudocapacitance makes a significant contribution to the total capacity. These results indicate Ti 0.95 Nb 0.95 O 4 /C composites are one of the most promising anode materials for lithium-ion batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The copula dependence structure underlying the correlated shear strength parameters of soils can significantly affect the results of slope reliability analysis and risk assessment of slope failure. Currently, how do copula dependence structures affect the failure modes of slopes in spatially variable soils still remains an open question. This study systematically investigates the effect of copula dependence structures on the failure modes of a cohesive-frictional slope in spatially variable soils via an adapted random finite difference method (RFDM) that incorporates the copula-based random fields. The proposed RFDM proceeds with the simulation of cross-correlated random fields considering the copula dependence between the shear strength parameters of the slope. The strength reduction analyses are then performed within the framework of Monte Carlo simulation to obtain the stability analysis results, including the critical slip surface (CSS) and associated factor of safety (FS) and sliding volume. Finally, various statistical analyses on the number and distribution of CSS, FS and sliding volume as well as the failure modes versus different statistics of soil properties are analyzed considering different dependence structures. The results show that the overall distribution range of CSS obtained by the commonly used Gaussian copula is more concentrated, whereas the result by the No. 16 copula is the widest. The differences in the overall distribution range of CSS among different copulas decrease with the increase of the scale of fluctuation, coefficient of variation, and cross-correlation coefficient of the strength parameters. The proportions of different failure modes are comparable for the Gaussian, Plackett and Fran copulas, whereas the No.16 copula has the smallest proportion for the shallow failure and largest proportions for the deep and multi-slip failures. The influence of copula dependence structure on the slope failure mode is more significant than the statistical parameters of soil properties. The results provide useful references for copula selection when the underlying dependence structure is difficult to be determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate prediction of building energy consumption is crucial to the rational scheme of building energy. Combining the entropy-weighted K-means (EWKM) with the random forest (RF) method, a feature selection (EWKM-RF) method is proposed in this paper. Based on the proposed EWKM-RF method, the classification and feature selection of the energy consumption influencing factors can be achieved exclusively. Meanwhile, based on the EWKM-RF method and the bi-directional long-short-term memory neural network (BiLSTM) optimized by the sparrow search algorithm (SSA), an RF-SSA-BiLSTM prediction model for building energy consumption is established in this paper. As the weight, learning rate, and hidden layer node parameters of the BiLSTM neural network are optimized with the SSA, the constraints for manually adjusting parameters are avoided in the proposed prediction model. To examine the accuracy of the proposed model, energy consumption data of a civil public building in Dalian city are collected and tested. Results show the prediction error of RF-SSA-BiLSTM after feature selection is reduced by 24.55 % in high and low energy consumption months. Compared with RF-BiLSTM, RF-PSO-BiLSTM, and RF-CNN-BiLSTM, the RF-SSA-BiLSTM has strong robustness. The average MAE, RMSE and MAPE values of energy consumption prediction in the four seasons are 1.30, 1.63 and 0.02. [Display omitted] • A new prediction method is developed for building energy consumption. • The integration of SSA and BiLSTM neural network is analyzed. • Combinations of EWKM with RF algorithm to reduce influencing factors. • Deep learning is used to extract features of building energy consumption data. • Comparison of the proposed prediction models with different optimization models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To conquer the drawback of charge recombination that significantly impedes the application of photocatalytic H 2 generation from water. In this manuscript, the strategies of morphology, band gap, and active site engineering were adopted to develop a novel 2D MoS 2 /CdS nanoheterostructure at room temperature. SEM and TEM characterizations reveal the intimate contact interface formation between MoS 2 and CdS. Besides, various techniques indicate the efficient charge separation owing to the well-defined heterostructure construction. As a result, the MoS 2 /CdS exhibits high performance with an optimized H 2 evolution rate of 28.2 mmol g−1 h−1 which far exceeds that of pristine CdS by more than 9 folds. The demonstrated strategy of this paper has a promising to inspire the construction of good quality heterostructure catalysts and even high performance, low-cost, and energy-effective catalysts may be obtained. [Display omitted] • The MoS 2 /CdS nanosheet-on-nanoflower heterostructure was first synthesized. • The active sites well correspond to the sites of charge generation. • Good quality interface and band alignment contribute to the good performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quality of Service (QoS) directly reflects the degree to which services offered by providers satisfy the non-functional requirements of users. QoS information is not usually available as a priori to providers when recommending services to user queries, this creates uncertainty in offering right services to right queries. Recent researches in service recommendation and management mainly address the issues of sparse data prediction and user personalized recommendation. Recommendation systems require smart strategies of recommending and managing services in accordance with the user queries. Predicting the QoS requirements of user queries before recommending the services can potentially aid in offering the most suitable services to users. This paper proposes a hybrid mobile service recommendation and management model based on semantic recommendation along with location-based quality preference analysis for emerging 5G mobile networks. The proposed model can effectively predict the QoS by exploiting previously invoked services to identify the best matching mobile services based on the similarity between users and services. Performance evaluation based on a published web services dataset demonstrates an enhanced prediction accuracy with an effective reduction in time overheads when compared to other related methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The postoperative survival effect of the number of examined lymph nodes on patients of R0-resected esophageal squamous cell carcinoma with pathological stage T1-3N0M0 is still unclear.Methods: Patients diagnosed with pathological stage T1-3N0M0 esophageal squamous cell carcinoma from two cancer databases-our cancer center (N = 707), and Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (N = 151). The primary clinical endpoint was overall survival. The X-tile software was used to determine the optimal cutoff value of the number of examined lymph nodes, and propensity score matching was conducted to reduce selection bias according to the results of X-tile software. The cohort of 151 patients from another database was used for validation.Results: X-tile software provided an optimal cutoff value of 15 examined lymph nodes based on 707 patients, and 231 pairs of matched patients were included. In the unmatched cohort, Cox proportional hazard regression analysis revealed better overall survival in patients with more than 15 examined lymph nodes (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.566, 95% confidence interval, 0.445-0.720; p < 0.001) compared with patients with 15 or fewer examined lymph nodes. In the validation cohort, patients with more than 15 examined lymph nodes also had better overall survival (adjusted hazard ratio 0.665, p = 0.047).Conclusions: The number of examined lymph nodes is a significant prognostic factor in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients with pathological stage T1-3N0M0, and more than 15 examined lymph nodes are associated with better overall survival. Although the difference is not significant, the survival curve of patients with examined lymph nodes > 30 is better than those with examined lymph nodes 15-30. We believe that the number of examined lymph nodes can provide prognostic guidance for those patients, and the more examined lymph nodes cause lesser occult lymph nodes metastasis and lead to a better prognosis. Therefore, surgeons and pathologists should try to examine as many lymph nodes as possible to evaluate the pathological stage precisely. However, we need more validation from other studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Bisphenol A (BPA) and its substitutes bisphenol S (BPS) and bisphenol F (BPF) are endocrine-disrupting chemicals widely used in consumer products, which have been proposed to induce various human diseases. In western countries, one of the most common liver diseases is non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, studies on the associations of the three bisphenols with NAFLD in human beings are scarce. Methods: We included 960 participants aged ≥ 20 years from the NHANES 2013–16 who had available data on levels of urinary BPA, BPS and BPF. The hepatic steatosis index (HSI) > 36 was used to predict NAFLD. Logistic regression analysis and mediation effect analysis were used to evaluate the associations among bisphenols, glycolipid-related markers and NAFLD. Results: A total of 540 individuals (56.3%) were diagnosed with NAFLD, who had higher concentrations of BPA and BPS but not BPF than those without NAFLD. An increasing trend in NAFLD risks and HSI levels was observed among BPA and BPS tertiles (p for trend < 0.05). After adjustment for confounders, elevated levels of BPA or BPS but not BPF were significantly associated with NAFLD. The odds ratio for NAFLD was 1.581 (95% confidence intervals [CI]: 1.1–2.274, p = 0.013) comparing the highest with the lowest tertile of BPA and 1.799 (95%CI: 1.2462.597, p = 0.002) for BPS. Mediation effect analysis indicated that serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and glucose had a mediating effect on the relationships between bisphenols and NAFLD. Conclusions: The present study showed that high exposure levels of BPA and BPS increased NAFLD incidence, which might be mediated through regulating glycolipids metabolism. Further studies on the role of bisphenols in NAFLD are warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lanthanide‐doped up‐conversion (UC) materials with color tunable property show promising application in many fields, such as biological imaging, optical multiplexing, and information security. Although great efforts have been devoted to regulate UC emission color via modifying chemical composition, crystal structure, or external stimuli condition, it is remain a daunting challenge to develop a general strategy that probably suitable for various lanthanide‐doped nano‐systems. Herein, we verify the cross‐relaxation possibility between sensitizer Yb3+ and activator Er3+ as well as Er3+‐ Er3+ pairs can be well modified by engineering the crystal lattice distortion of matrix, leading to the evident UC emission color variations. Specifically, with incorporating Al3+ or Ca2+ ions into the Yb/Er co‐doped BaF2 nanocrystals (NCs) contained glass ceramics (GCs), the contraction of the crystal lattice lead to the change of UC emission color from green to red. On the contrary, the high laser excitation power results in the lattice expansion of the Al3+‐doped BaF2:Yb/Er GCs at different Yb3+ concentration as well as Al3+ doped CaF2 GCs, which leads to the greatly increased green‐to‐red ratio. These multi‐color UC GCs show potential application in anti‐counterfeiting filed. Our results open up a general avenue for the control of UC emission color via engineering crystal lattice distortion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recommendation systems are gaining popularity with the proliferation of the Internet of People (IoP). The popularity and use of online social networks facilitate integrating these social relationships with recommender systems under a single framework of IoP. This article proposes a new approach for item recommendation based on the diffusion method that combines user relationships in social networks with user–item relationships derived from the IoP. Especially, a resource redistribution process is explored in the user–object network that gives mass diffusion a higher recommendation accuracy and heat conduct a greater diversity by considering the social degree of users whilst calculating the user degree in the network. A tuning parameter is introduced to adjust the weight of resources that the objects finally receives from users based on their social relationships. Finally, extensive experiments conducted on the real-world datasets which contain friendship relationships, demonstrate the efficiencies of our proposed method in achieving notable performance improvements in terms of the recommendation accuracy, service diversity, and practical dependability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many developing countries have experienced increasing spatial inequality, but little is known about the effect of community disadvantages on educational attainment in these societies. Using data from the China Family Panel Studies (2010–2016), I examine the effect of community socioeconomic status (SES) on the transition into high school in urban and rural China, and I explore several mechanisms explaining the community effects. I adopt the generalized propensity score method to estimate the potential probability of high school entrance at different levels of community SES. Results show that community SES is positively associated with high school attendance in both urban and rural China, and the relationship is stronger in more disadvantaged communities in both contexts. In urban areas, the effect of community SES is partly attributable to collective socialization and children's academic performance. In rural areas, spatial accessibility to high schools and children's academic performance are the salient mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: With the global aging process intensified, the demand for end-of-life care has surged, especially in China. However, its development is restricted. Understanding the life and death attitude among the elderly and its formation process, and clarifying their needs, are so important to promote social popularization of end-of-life care. Methodology: This qualitative study included 20 elderly residents in Nan and Shuangbei Communities, Chongqing City, People's Republic of China. Data were collected through semistructured in-depth individual interviews and processed by thematic analysis method. Results: Three themes and eight subthemes were identified: Characteristics of formation process (passive thinking, closed and single), life-and-death attitude (cherish and enjoy life, quality of life priority, let death take its course) and expectations of end-of-life care (preferences, basic needs, good death). Discussion: Life-and-death attitude and end-of-life care expectations of the elderly support the development and delivery of end-of-life care. Furthermore, the individual-family-hospital linkage discussion channel needs to be further explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, studies on competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) networks have become prevalent, and circular RNAs (circRNAs) have crucial implications for the development and progression of carcinoma. However, studies relevant to metastatic prostate cancer (mPCa) are scant. This study aims to discover potential ceRNAs that may be related to the prognosis of mPCa. RNA-Seq data were obtained from the MiOncoCirc database and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). Differential expression patterns of RNAs were examined using R packages. Circular RNA Interactome, miRTarBase, miRDB and TargetScan were applied to predict the corresponding relation between circRNAs, miRNAs and mRNAs. The Gene Ontology (GO) annotations were performed to present related GO terms, and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) tools were applied for pathway annotations. Moreover, survival analysis was conducted for the hub genes. We found 820 circRNAs, 81 miRNAs and 179 mRNAs that were distinguishingly expressed between primary prostate cancer (PCa) and mPCa samples. A ceRNA network including 45 circRNAs, 24 miRNAs and 56 mRNAs was constructed. In addition, the protein–protein interaction (PPI) network was built, and 10 hub genes were selected by using the CytoHubba application. Among the 10 hub genes, survival analysis showed that ITGA1, LMOD1, MYH11, MYLK, SORBS1 and TGFBR3 were significantly connected with disease-free survival (DFS). The circRNA-mediated ceRNA network provides potential prognostic biomarkers for metastatic prostate cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on youth in disadvantaged neighborhoods suggests that community contexts can affect youth's beliefs about what it takes to get ahead. Nevertheless, a systematic analysis of such beliefs across a variety of communities remains rare. Using data from the China Family Panel Study from 2010 to 2014, we examine how individual characteristics, community socioeconomic status (SES), and their interplay are linked to young adolescents' views on the importance of meritocratic, structural, and fatalistic contributors to future success. Results show that being in school for more years, having better-educated parents, having a higher family income, and being in communities with elevated SES generally lead youth to place greater importance on meritocratic elements and less emphasis on structural and fatalistic elements. Parental education is more strongly associated with the dismissal of a fatalistic view about who gets ahead in higher-SES communities. Meanwhile, the positive influence of community SES on meritocratic beliefs is stronger for poorer youth. Finally, we find that meritocratic beliefs are conducive to greater future progress in verbal and math skills, suggesting that such beliefs have important consequences for youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the Lie symmetry method and taking the generalized time‐fractional Burgers equations involving the Riemann–Liouville derivative for example, we propose a new similarity transformation which converts the time‐fractional Burgers equation into a fractional ordinary differential equation without containing the Erdélyi–Kober fractional differential operator. Such type of reduced equations facilitates us to study the properties as well as construct analytical solutions. Consequently, we obtain an exact solution and a new power series solution of the time‐fractional Burgers equation via the reduced equation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The four-point Steiner distance is the minimum of the total geodesic distances within the metric space from four given points to a point. For Vicsek networks, we obtain the asymptotic formula of their mean Steiner distances using the method of finite pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Fermat point of a triangle is a point that the total distance from the three vertices of the triangle to the point is the minimum possible. Considering the Fermat problem within a network, we study the average Fermat distance of three random nodes on the Vicsek networks by using the method of finite pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integrated terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks in 5G and beyond 5G are envisioned to support dynamic, seamless, and differentiated services for emerging use cases with stringent requirements. Such service heterogeneity and rapid growth in network complexity pose difficulties in network management and resource orchestration. Network slicing paves the way for delivering highly customized services and enabling service-oriented resource allocation. In this context, artificial intelligence (AI) becomes a key enabler for network slicing management. However, AI-based approaches encounter critical challenges in adapting to dynamic and complex wireless environments. In this article, first, we aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of these challenges, open issues, and future research opportunities. Second, we highlight the investigations on dynamic-adaptive AI solutions for dealing with the effect of concept drift. Third, we identify typical dynamic scenarios in case studies and provide numerical results to illustrate the effectiveness of the discussed AI solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image target recognition method using multiple views and inner correlation analysis. Due to the azimuth sensitivity of SAR images, the inner correlation between multiview images participating in recognition is not stable enough. To this end, the proposed method first clusters multiview SAR images based on image correlation and nonlinear correlation information entropy (NCIE) in order to obtain multiple view sets with strong internal correlations. For each view set, the multitask sparse representation is used to reconstruct the SAR images in it to obtain high-precision reconstructions. Finally, the linear weighting method is used to fuse the reconstruction errors from different view sets and the target category is determined according to the fusion error. In the experiment, the tests are conducted based on the MSTAR dataset, and the results validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has rapidly spread across the whole world and brought strong psychological impact. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) in the general people of southwestern China and associated factors 1 month after the outbreak of the COVID-19. Methods: This study was started on 4–10 Feb 2020 based on online survey. The present work was carried out in the provinces of southeastern China, including Sichuan Province, Guizhou Province, Yunnan Province, and Chongqing City.1593 respondents aged 18 years and above administered to this study. Data on whether they have experienced confirmed or suspected COVID-19 of themselves/family members/acquaintances were also collected, and based on 'yes' answers, the number of affected individuals (via COVID-19) were categorized into four exposure levels i.e., non-affected, less, moderately, or significantly affected. The civilian version of the PTSD checklist and the self-reported information about COVID-19 were used. Results: The prevalence of PTSD was approximately 25.2%(n = 401/1593). The chances of developing PTSD were 6.053(OR = 6.053, 95% CI 1.394 to 26.280) or 3.673(OR = 3.673, 95% CI 1.738 to 7.765) times higher among respondents who had been significantly and moderately affected than those who had not been affected, accordingly. Male (OR = 1.484, 95% CI 1.147 to 1.920),younger age individuals (40 ~ 49 age group/<30 age group, OR = 0.395, 95% CI 0.258 to 0.606) and health care workers (OR = 1.788, 95% CI 1.155 to 2.277) were at higher risk of developing PTSD. Conclusion: Our findings highlight that a positive correlation between the pandemic and PTSD. It is urgent to establish a screening and prevention systems for the population who are significantly exposed to COVID-19,and provide different psychological intervention strategies for different groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we demonstrate that the strength of anion specificities of thermosensitive polymers is determined by the affinity of direct anion binding to the polymers. We have prepared a series of thermosensitive statistical copolymers with distinct thermoresponsive behaviors. The anions can specifically interact with the different types of thermosensitive polymers in very different strengths. A similar strength of specific anion effects on thermoresponsive behaviors can be observed at very different salt concentrations for the different types of thermosensitive polymers. A stronger anion binding to the thermosensitive polymers gives rise to a more obvious anion specificity and vice versa. The work presented here opens up opportunities for the application of ion binding affinity to modulate the strength of ion specificities of thermosensitive polymers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cardiac looping and trabeculation are key processes during cardiac chamber maturation. However, the underlying mechanisms remain incompletely understood. Here, we report the isolation, cloning and characterization of the proprotein convertase furina from the cardiovascular mutant loft in zebrafish. loft is an ethylnitrosoureainduced mutant and has evident defects in the cardiac outflow tract, heart looping and trabeculation, the craniofacial region and pharyngeal arch arteries. Positional cloning revealed that furina mRNA was barely detectable in loft mutants, and loft failed to complement the TALEN-induced furina mutant pku338, confirming that furina is responsible for the loft mutant phenotypes. Mechanistic studies demonstrated that Notch reporter Tg(tp1:mCherry) signals were largely eliminated in mutant hearts, and overexpression of the Notch intracellular domain partially rescued the mutant phenotypes, probably due to the lack of Furina-mediated cleavage processing of Notch1b proteins, the only Notch receptor expressed in the heart. Together, our data suggest a potential post-translational modification of Notch1b proteins via the proprotein convertase Furina in the heart, and unveil the function of the Furina-Notch1b axis in cardiac looping and trabeculation in zebrafish, and possibly in other organisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we provide a quantitative analysis of prose and verse in the classical Chinese novel, Dream of the Red Chamber (DRC), and discuss the implications for the disputed authorship of the novel. Firstly, we examine the amount of verse in across the chapters of DRC, and compare the style of the verse and prose portions of DRC. Secondly, a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of DRC is performed based on the prose portions of the novel. Lastly, we discuss the implications of our experimental results for authorship attribution as well as descriptive stylistic analysis of DRC. Our authorial analysis largely confirms the findings of some previous studies that the novel has two authors. Meanwhile, stylistic analyses of the prose portions of the novel yield new and interesting results, which demonstrates that stylometric tools can be used to facilitate descriptive studies of classical Chinese literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Withholding the malignant bone tumors disclosure from patients is common in China. The purpose of the study was to explore the perceptions of patients, families, doctors, and nurses regarding the disclosure of malignant bone tumors in China. Method: Semistructured interviews were conducted with 25 cases, consisting of 69 participants (14 patients, 25 family members, 17 doctors, and 13 nurses), and the transcripts were analysed using Colaizzi's (1978) descriptive phenomenological analysis process. Results: Five themes were identified: (1) doctors preferred to inform the family members first, (2) family members' decisions depended on different situations, (3) the patients agreed that disclosure should be different for each person/personally, (4) care from nurses reduced the overreaction of patients, and (5) key points improve the informing quality. Discussion: Family participatory cancer disclosure and multidisciplinary teams could improve the quality of cancer disclosure. Culturally congruent health care and culturally sensitive interventions in cancer disclosure are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Itaconate (ITA) research began as an industrial application as a precursor for polymer synthesis and has advanced significantly since the discovery of the Irg1 gene in 1995. A deep exploration of ITA as an immunomodulatory metabolite has provided a profound understanding of the functional significance and mechanistic basis of metabolic reprogramming in the context of inflammatory responses and cancer development. ITA rapidly accumulates to high levels in myeloid cells during both infectious and sterile inflammatory conditions. This metabolite acts as a signaling molecule to modulate immune response by binding, covalently and noncovalently, to multiple proteins and regulating the oxidative response, cell metabolism, epigenetic modification, and gene expression intrinsically, and activating G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) signaling via paracrine signaling. Genetic and preclinical studies in animal models support the therapeutic potential for treating a wide range of inflammatory diseases and cancer. Developing novel therapies based on ITA and targeting aconitate decarboxylase (ACOD1) holds exciting potential for treating many diseases that currently lack effective therapy. Immune cells undergo rapid and extensive metabolic changes during inflammation. In addition to contributing to energetic and biosynthetic demands, metabolites can also function as signaling molecules. Itaconate (ITA) rapidly accumulates to high levels in myeloid cells under infectious and sterile inflammatory conditions. This metabolite binds to and regulates the function of diverse proteins intracellularly to influence metabolism, oxidative response, epigenetic modification, and gene expression and to signal extracellularly through binding the G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR). Administration of ITA protects against inflammatory diseases and blockade of ITA production enhances antitumor immunity in preclinical models. In this article, we review ITA metabolism and its regulation, discuss its target proteins and mechanisms, and conjecture a rationale for developing ITA-based therapeutics to treat inflammatory diseases and cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To analyze the efficacy of high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) for adenomyosis and postoperative recurrence and its influencing factors. Methods: Clinical and follow-up data of 308 patients with adenomyosis who were treated with HIFU in Haifu Center, Affiliated Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine from September 2017 to January 2022 were retrospectively analyzed. The recurrence of adenomyosis and the efficacy of HIFU at 6 months after surgery were followed up. To explore factors influencing postoperative prognosis and recurrence, the following variables were analyzed: patients' age, course of disease, gravidity and parity, size of the uterus, duration of HIFU, duration of irradiation, treatment intensity, dysmenorrhea score, time of follow-up, combined treatment of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), western medicine adjuvant treatment, lesion location and type, and menorrhagia. Results: Among the 308 patients, 238 (77%) were followed up from 6 to 36 months, with an average follow-up time of 15.24 ± 9.97 months. The other 70 (23%) were lost to follow-up. At 6-month after surgery, efficacy rates of dysmenorrhea and menorrhagia management were 86.7% and 89.3%, respectively. Postoperative recurrence rates were 4.8% (1–12 months), 9.0% (12–24 months), and 17.0% (24–36 months) for dysmenorrhea; and 6.3% (1–12 months), 2.4% (12–24 months), and 12.2% (24–36 months) for menorrhagia. Multivariate logistic regression analyses showed that parity (P = 0.043, OR = 1.773, 95% CI 1.018–3.087), uterine size (P = 0.019, OR = 1.004, 95% CI 1.001–1.007), combined treatment of TCM (P = 0.047, OR = 1.846, 95% CI 1.008–3.381), diffuse lesion type (P = 0.013, OR = 0.464, 95% CI 0.254–0.848) and ablation rate (P = 0.015, OR = 0.481, 95%CI 0.267–0.868) were prognostic factors (P < 0.05). Age, course of disease, gravidity, duration of HIFU, duration of irradiation, treatment intensity, preoperative dysmenorrhea score, time of follow-up, western medicine adjuvant therapy, lesion location, and preoperative menstrual volume had no effect on prognosis (P > 0.05). Conclusion: HIFU can effectively relieve dysmenorrhea and reduce menstrual volume in patients with adenomyosis. Parity, uterine size, lesion type (diffuse), and ablation rate are risk factors for symptom recurrence after HIFU, while the combination of TCM therapy is a protective factor for relapse. We, therefore, recommend TCM in the adjuvant setting after HIFU according to patient condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Siraitia grosvenorii (LHG) is widely used as a medicinal and edible material around the world. The objective of this study was to develop an effective method for the authentication of the geographical origin of LHG in its main producing area Guangxi, China, which is identified as Chinese Protected Designation of Origin product, against other producing regions in China. The content of 14 elements (K, Na, Ca, P, Mg, Al, B, Ba, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Zn, and Sr) of 114 LHG samples was determined by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. Multivariate analysis was then performed to classify the geographical origin of LHG samples. The contents of multielement display an obvious trend of clustering according to the geographical origin of LHG samples based on radar plot and principal component analysis. Finally, three supervised statistical techniques, including linear discriminant analysis (LDA), k-nearest neighbours (k-NN), and support vector machine (SVM), were applied to develop classification models. Finally, 40 unknown LHG samples were used to evaluate the predictive ability of model and discrimination rate of 100%, 97.5% and 100% were obtained for LDA, k-NN, and SVM, respectively. This study indicated that it is feasible to attribute unknown LHG samples to its geographical origin based on its multielement content coupled with chemometric techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Error-Correcting Output Codes has become a well-known, established technique for multiclass classification due to its simplicity and efficiency. Each binary split contains different original classes. A noncompetent classifier emerges when it classifies an instance whose real class does not belong to the metasubclasses which is used to learn the classifier. How to reduce the error caused by the noncompetent classifiers under diversity big enough is urgent for ECOC classification. The weighted decoding strategy can be used to reduce the error caused by the noncompetence contradiction through relearning the weight coefficient matrix. To this end, a new weighted decoding strategy taking the classifier competence reliability into consideration is presented in this paper, which is suitable for any coding matrix. Support Vector Data Description is applied to compute the distance from an instance to the metasubclasses. The distance reflects the competence reliability and is fused as the weight in the base classifier combination. In so doing, the effect of the competent classifiers on classification is reinforced, while the bias induced by the noncompetent ones is decreased. Reflecting the competence reliability, the weights of classifiers for each instance change dynamically, which accords with the classification practice. The statistical simulations based on benchmark datasets indicate that our proposed algorithm outperforms other methods and provides new thought for solving the noncompetence problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immune checkpoint blockade therapy is revolutionizing the traditional treatment model of multiple tumor types, but remains ineffective for a large subset of patients. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been shown to induce cancer cell death and provoke an immune response, and may represent a potential strategy to synergize with immune checkpoint blockade therapy. However, the limited tissue penetration of exciting light for conventional PDT largely hinders its application in the clinic and its further combination with immunotherapy. Here, a serrated packing covalent organic framework (COF), COF-606, with excellent two-photon absorption (2PA) property and photostability, largely avoids aggregation-caused quenching, therefore offering high reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation efficiency; it is used as a 2PA photosensitizer for PDT in deep tumor tissue. COF-606 induced PDT is shown to be efficient in inducing immunogenic cell death, provoking an immune response and normalizing the immunosuppressive status for the first time. This makes it possible to combine 2PA induced PDT using COF with programmed cell death protein 1 immune checkpoint blockade therapy. Such combination leads to strong abscopal tumor-inhibiting efficiency and long-lasting immune memory effects, standing as a promising combinatorial therapeutic strategy for cancer treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past two decades, syntactic complexity measures (e.g. the length or number of words per clause/t-unit/sentences and number of clauses per t-unit/sentence, and types of clauses used) have been widely used to determine and benchmark language proficiency development in speaking and writing. (Norris and Ortega 2009 ; Lu 2011). However, the results of some recent studies (e.g. Lu 2011 ; Bulté and Housen 2014 ; Crossley and McNamara 2014) have raised questions about the earlier findings regarding the use of such complexity measures in assessing L2 writing. While a couple of plausible explanations have been proposed for the conflicting findings, they have failed to look at the syntactic measures themselves as likely sources causing the discrepancies in the research findings. In this forum piece, we would like to argue, with empirical evidence, that the conflicting research results might have resulted from issues with some of the existing measurements of clausal and phrasal sophistication, including inconsistency and lack of necessary fine-grained differentiation in the measurements of subordination sophistication and possible inappropriate use of high values of phrasal sophistication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]