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Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a complex autoimmune disorder. In patients with childhood SLE (cSLE), the onset of the disease occurs before 18 years of age and accounts for a high proportion of childhood autoimmune diseases. Adult SLE and cSLE differ in terms of clinical manifestations, gene expression profiles, and treatment. Because current diagnostic methods do not meet clinical requirements, researchers currently use transcriptome analysis to investigate the characteristics of the cSLE genome. In the present study, we used bioinformatics methods to genotype cSLE and identify potential therapeutic targets.The transcriptomes of 952 patients with cSLE and 94 normal controls were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus using unsupervised class learning to determine the genotypes in the microarray dataset, and the clinical characteristics, differentially expressed genes, and biological characteristics of the subtypes were analyzed.Patients with cSLE were accordingly classified into three subgroups. Subgroup I was associated with lupus nephritis, female patients, and a high SLE disease activity index, and the disease in this subgroup was more severe than that in other subgroups. The SLE disease activity index in subgroup II was low; this subgroup may be related to lupus vasculitis. Subgroup III mostly included male patients and was associated with neuropsychiatric manifestations of lupus.We divided patients with cSLE into three subgroups with different characteristics based on transcriptome data. Our findings provide molecular evidence for future diagnosis and individualized treatment of cSLE.

Background It remains no clear conclusion about which is better between robot-assisted thoracic surgery (RATS) and video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) for the treatment of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Therefore, this meta-analysis aimed to compare the short-term and long-term efficacy between RATS and VATS for NSCLC. Methods Pubmed, Cochrane Library, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Medline, and Web of Science databases were comprehensively searched for studies published before December 2020. The quality of the articles was evaluated using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) and the data analyzed using the Review Manager 5.3 software. Fixed or random effect models were applied according to heterogeneity. Subgroup analysis and sensitivity analysis were conducted. Results A total of 18 studies including 11,247 patients were included in the meta-analyses, of which 5114 patients were in the RATS group and 6133 in the VATS group. Compared with VATS, RATS was associated with less blood loss (WMD = − 50.40, 95% CI -90.32 ~ − 10.48, P = 0.010), lower conversion rate (OR = 0.50, 95% CI 0.43 ~ 0.60, P P = 0.002) and stations (WMD = 0.51, 95% CI 0.15 ~ 0.86, P = 0.005), shorter duration of postoperative chest tube drainage (WMD = − 0.61, 95% CI -0.78 ~ − 0.44, P P P = 0.020), lower recurrence rate (OR = 0.51, 95% CI 0.36 ~ 0.72, P P < 0.001). There was no significant difference between RATS and VATS in operative time, mortality, overall survival (OS), and disease-free survival (DFS). Sensitivity analysis showed that no significant differences were found between the two techniques in conversion rate, number of harvested lymph nodes and stations, and overall complication. Conclusions The results revealed that RATS is a feasible and safe technique compared with VATS in terms of short-term and long-term outcomes. Moreover, more randomized controlled trials comparing the two techniques with rigorous study designs are still essential to evaluate the value of robotic surgery for NSCLC.

Additional file 2: Figure S2. Sensitivity analysis result of length of hospital stay.

Additional file 6: Figure S6. Subgroup analysis result of operation time. Figure S7. Subgroup analysis result of conversion. Figure S8. Subgroup analysis result of dissected lymph node stations. Figure S9. Subgroup analysis result of dissected lymph nodes. Figure S10. Subgroup analysis result of time of chest tube drainage. Figure S11. Subgroup analysis result of length of hospital stay. Figure S12. Subgroup analysis result of overall complications. Figure S13. Subgroup analysis result of recurrence rate.

Additional file 5: Figure S5. Sensitivity analysis result of postoperative duration of drainage.

Additional file 4: Figure S4. Sensitivity analysis result of operative time.

Additional file 3: Figure S3. Sensitivity analysis result of mortality.

Additional file 1: Figure S1. Sensitivity analysis result of estimated blood loss.

Background To date, robotic surgery has been widely used worldwide. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate short-term and long-term outcomes of robotic gastrectomy (RG) in gastric cancer patients to determine whether RG can replace laparoscopic gastrectomy (LG). Methods The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement was applied to perform the study. Pubmed, Cochrane Library, WanFang, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and VIP databases were comprehensively searched for studies published before May 2020 that compared RG with LG. Next, two independent reviewers conducted literature screening and data extraction. The quality of the literature was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS), and the data analyzed using the Review Manager 5.3 software. Random effects or fixed effects models were applied according to heterogeneity. Results A total of 19 studies including 7275 patients were included in the meta-analyses, of which 4598 patients were in the LG group and 2677 in the RG group. Compared with LG, RG was associated with longer operative time (WMD = −32.96, 95% CI −42.08 ~ −23.84, P < 0.001), less blood loss (WMD = 28.66, 95% CI 18.59 ~ 38.73, P < 0.001), and shorter time to first flatus (WMD = 0.16 95% CI 0.06 ~ 0.27, P = 0.003). There was no significant difference between RG and LG in terms of the hospital stay (WMD = 0.23, 95% CI −0.53 ~ 0.98, P = 0.560), overall postoperative complication (OR = 1.07, 95% CI 0.91 ~ 1.25, P = 0.430), mortality (OR = 0.67, 95% CI 0.24 ~ 1.90, P = 0.450), the number of harvested lymph nodes (WMD = −0.96, 95% CI −2.12 ~ 0.20, P = 0.100), proximal resection margin (WMD = −0.10, 95% CI −0.29 ~ 0.09, P = 0.300), and distal resection margin (WMD = 0.15, 95% CI −0.21 ~ 0.52, P = 0.410). No significant differences were found between the two treatments in overall survival (OS) (HR = 0.95, 95% CI 0.76 ~ 1.18, P = 0.640), recurrence-free survival (RFS) (HR = 0.91, 95% CI 0.69 ~ 1.21, P = 0.530), and recurrence rate (OR = 0.90, 95% CI 0.67 ~ 1.21, P = 0.500). Conclusions The results of this study suggested that RG is as acceptable as LG in terms of short-term and long-term outcomes. RG can be performed as effectively and safely as LG. Moreover, more randomized controlled trials comparing the two techniques with rigorous study designs are still essential to evaluate the value of the robotic surgery for gastric cancer.

Additional file 1.

A 5G mobile network has evolved from a cell centric radio access network to a user centric one. A user-centric no-cell (UCNC) framework has been proposed, which enables physical layer coordination over a large number of transmission and reception points for each mobile user to always experience cell-center-like communications. This paper presents some key technologies in the UCNC framework. The focus is on proof of concept of UL grant-free transmissions in the UCNC architecture. Massive connectivity supporting a huge number of devices is one of the three important scenarios in 5G networks. The challenges to support massive connectivity lie in the cost of signaling overhead and transmission latency. An uplink grant-free transmission based on sparse code multiple access (SCMA) design is proposed. The proposed scheme can provide different levels of overloading to efficiently meet the massive connectivity requirements. Grant-free transmission conducted in RRC connected state can reduce signaling overhead, while in energy conserved operation (ECO) state, it can significantly reduce the user plane transmission latency. Extensive laboratory testing has been conducted in a collaborative project of Huawei and Telefonica to verify the performance matrices. Taking LTE as a baseline for comparison purposes, it is shown that the signaling overhead by using uplink grant-free transmission can be reduced by around 80% and the user plane transmission latency in ECO state can be reduced by around 93%. Moreover, massive connectivity is efficiently supported with the SCMA scheme that yields around 230% gain over OFDMA in terms of supported active users. pub

In this chapter, the grant-free multiple access scheme is introduced for a transmission without dynamic scheduling. A few key technical components have been addressed, including the grant-free resource configuration, user equipment activity identification with contention transmission, HARQ procedure and soft-combining, contention resolutions. Numerical and simulation evaluation results have also been provided to demonstrate the performance of the grant-free scheme operating with OFDMA and NOMA. The grant-free multiple access scheme is able to achieve transmission latency and control signaling reduction, and the device energy saving; thus, it provides a promising solution to small data transmissions, massive connectivity, and low-latency applications such as mMTC and URLLC services.

On the basis of our previous work, the eigenvalues of the characteristic equations corresponding to higher-order modes are solved and the mode characteristic in circular groove guide is investigated.

A user-centric no-cell (UCNC) framework has been proposed which enables different level coordination over a large number of TRPs. This paper presents some key technologies in UCNC framework with the focus on PoC of UL grant- free transmissions in UCNC architecture. Massive connectivity support is one of the three important scenarios in 5G networks. The challenges to support massive connectivity lie in the cost of signaling overhead and transmission latency. An uplink grant- free transmission based on SCMA (sparse code multiple access) design is proposed. The proposed scheme can provide different levels of overloading to efficiently meet the massive connectiv- ity requirements. Extensive lab tests have been conducted to verify the performance matrices. Taken LTE as a baseline for comparison purpose, it is shown that the signaling overhead by using uplink grant-free transmission can be reduced by around 80% and the user plane transmission latency in ECO state can be reduced by around 93%. Moreover, massive connectivity is efficiently supported with SCMA scheme that yields around 230% gain over OFDMA in terms of supported active users.

The articles in this special section focus on 5G mobile communication. With initial commercialization expected in 2020, fifth generation (5G) mobile communications is gathering increased interest and momentum around the world. Following discussions on the 5G vision and key requirements such as high data rate, low latency, and massive connectivity, various candidate technologies have been proposed and investigated. These new technologies include massive antenna technologies to provide beamforming gain and support increased capacity, new waveforms to flexibly accommodate various services and applications with different requirements, and new multiple access schemes to support massive connections. From a spectrum point of view, there is also increased interest in the use of spectrum above 6 GHz for 5G mobile communications.

Sparse code multiple access (SCMA) is a code domain non-orthogonal multiple-access technique introduced for future 5G wireless networks. This paper describes the basic ideas of SCMA, the SCMA codebook design, the encoder and decoder, as well as the SCMA enabled transmission schemes for different application scenarios, including uplink grant-free contention-based transmission, downlink multi-user superposition, and downlink open-loop CoMP for ultra-dense networks even with moving users. We shall show from design principles and application examples that SCMA can resolve some major issues of current wireless systems and establish itself as a strong candidate for 5G networks.

Sparse code multiple access (SCMA) is a codebook- based non-orthogonal multiplexing technique. In SCMA, the procedure of bit to QAM symbol mapping and spreading of CDMA are combined together and incoming bits are directly mapped to multi-dimensional codewords of SCMA codebook sets. Due to the sparse nature of codewords, SCMA enjoys the low complexity reception, taking advantage of a near optimal message passing algorithm (MPA). This makes SCMA a candidate for supporting massive connectivity in future 5G networks, where the number of users can potentially be higher than the codeword length (spreading factor). To this end, more efficient reception techniques are needed on top of what MPA delivers. In this paper, some complexity reduction techniques are presented to further reduce the SCMA decoding complexity. These techniques are considered from two perspectives: i) transmitter-side technique, by designing SCMA codebooks with a specific structure providing low complexity of detections, and ii) low complexity decoding techniques taking advantage of the SCMA codebook structure. The proposed techniques are evaluated in terms of both complexity and performance. It is shown that significant amount of complexity reduction is possible using the proposed techniques with negligible performance penalty, which paves the way of supporting various applications in future 5G systems using SCMA.