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Abstract Underground grouting is a concealed project, and it is difficult to test the strength of grouting stones in engineering practice. Aiming at the problems of high confined water pressure and strong water-richness of the roadway floor, a pressure filtration test device was developed, and a PFC2D uniaxial compression model was established to study the variation law of stone strength and crack evolution mechanism of grouting materials under different grouting pressures. The results show that with the increase of pressure filtration value, the amount of slurry dehydration increases, the pore water pressure dissipates, the pores between particles are tightly compressed, the contact force between particle skeletons increases, and the strength of stone body increases. Under the condition of the same cement powder ratio (mass ratio of cement to stone powder) or stone powder particle size, the strength of stone body of stone powder-cement grouting material increases with the increase of pressure filtration value. The stress-strain curves of the stone body with different pressure filtration values all experienced three stages: continuous elasticity, fracture expansion and strength failure. Before the peak, the number of cracks increases slowly; after reaching the peak, the micro-cracks extend rapidly and the number increases rapidly, resulting in the final tensile failure of the specimen. This study can provide a basis for the selection of grouting engineering material ratio and grouting pressure parameters.

Abstract It is a time-consuming and costly process to develop affordable and high-performance organic photovoltaic materials. Computational methods are essential for accelerating the material discovery process by predicting power conversion efficiencies (PCE). In this study, we propose a deep learning-based framework (DeepAcceptor) to design and discover highly efficient small molecule acceptor materials. Specifically, an experimental dataset is constructed by collecting acceptor data from publications. Then, a deep learning-based model is customized to predict PCEs by applying graph representation learning to Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT), with the atom, bond, and connection information in acceptor molecular structures as the input (abcBERT). The computational dataset derived from density functional theory (DFT) calculations and the experimental dataset from literature are used to pre-train and fine-tune the model, respectively. The abcBERT model outperforms other state-of-the-art models for the PCE prediction with MAE = 1.78 and R 2 = 0.67 on the test set. A molecular generation and screening process is built to find new high-performance acceptors for PM6. Three discovered candidates are further validated by experiment, and the best PCE reaches 14.61%. The released user-friendly interface of DeepAcceptor greatly boosts the accessibility and efficiency of designing and discovering high-performance acceptors. Altogether, the DeepAcceptor framework with abcBERT is promising to predict the PCE and accelerate the discovery of high-performance acceptor materials.

Abstract Background Early-life cardiovascular risk factors (CVRFs) are known to be associated with target organ damage during adolescence and premature cardiovascular morbidity and mortality during adulthood. However, contemporary data describing whether the prevalence of CVRFs and treatment and control rates have changed are limited. This study aimed to examine the temporal trends in the prevalence, treatment, and control of CVRFs among US adolescents over the past 2 decades. Methods This is a serial cross-sectional study using data from nine National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey cycles (January 2001—March 2020). US adolescents (aged 12 to 19 years) with information regarding CVRFs (including hypertension, elevated blood pressure [BP], diabetes, prediabetes, hyperlipidemia, obesity, overweight, cigarette use, inactive physical activity, and poor diet quality) were included. Age-adjusted trends in CVRF prevalence, treatment, and control were examined. Joinpoint regression analysis was performed to estimate changes in the prevalence, treatment, and control over time. The variation by sociodemographic characteristics were also described. Results A total of 15,155 US adolescents aged 12 to 19 years (representing ≈ 32.4 million people) were included. From 2001 to March 2020, there was an increase in the prevalence of prediabetes (from 12.5% [95% confidence interval (CI), 10.2%-14.9%] to 37.6% [95% CI, 29.1%-46.2%]) and overweight/obesity (from 21.1% [95% CI, 19.3%-22.8%] to 24.8% [95% CI, 21.4%-28.2%]; from 16.0% [95% CI, 14.1%-17.9%] to 20.3% [95% CI, 17.9%-22.7%]; respectively), no improvement in the prevalence of elevated BP (from 10.4% [95% CI, 8.9%-11.8%] to 11.0% [95% CI, 8.7%-13.4%]), diabetes (from 0.7% [95% CI, 0.2%-1.2%] to 1.2% [95% CI, 0.3%-2.2%]), and poor diet quality (from 76.1% [95% CI, 74.0%-78.2%] to 71.7% [95% CI, 68.5%-74.9%]), and a decrease in the prevalence of hypertension (from 8.1% [95% CI, 6.9%-9.4%] to 5.5% [95% CI, 3.7%-7.3%]), hyperlipidemia (from 34.2% [95% CI, 30.9%-37.5%] to 22.8% [95% CI, 18.7%-26.8%]), cigarette use (from 18.0% [95% CI, 15.7%-20.3%] to 3.5% [95% CI, 2.0%-5.0%]), and inactive physical activity (from 83.0% [95% CI, 80.7%-85.3%] to 9.5% [95% CI, 4.2%-14.8%]). Sex and race/ethnicity affected the evolution of CVRF prevalence differently. Whilst treatment rates for hypertension and diabetes did not improve significantly (from 9.6% [95% CI, 3.5%-15.8%] to 6.0% [95% CI, 1.4%-10.6%]; from 51.0% [95% CI, 23.3%-78.7%] to 26.5% [95% CI, 0.0%-54.7%]; respectively), BP control was relatively stable (from 75.7% [95% CI, 56.8%-94.7%] to 73.5% [95% CI, 40.3%-100.0%]), while glycemic control improved to a certain extent, although it remained suboptimal (from 11.8% [95% CI, 0.0%-31.5%] to 62.7% [95% CI, 62.7%-62.7%]). Conclusions From 2001 to March 2020, although prediabetes and overweight/obesity increased, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, cigarette use, and inactive physical activity decreased among US adolescents aged 12 to 19 years, whereas elevated BP, diabetes, and poor diet quality remained unchanged. There were disparities in CVRF prevalence and trends across sociodemographic subpopulations. While treatment and control rates for hypertension and diabetes plateaued, BP control were stable, and improved glycemic control was observed.

Many studies have reported the toxic effects of microplastics (MPs) on organisms, especially on how conventional plastics affect organisms after short-term exposure. The effects of biodegradable plastics on organisms are, however, largely unexplored, especially concerning their impact after long-term exposure. We perform a series of experiments to examine the effects of conventional (polyethylene (PE)) and biodegradable (polylactic acid (PLA)) microplastics on earthworms at three concentrations (0.5 %, 2 %, and 5 % (w/w)) and particle sizes (149, 28, and 13 μm) over short- (14 d) and long-term (28 d) periods of exposure. Negative effects on earthworms are more pronounced following exposure to PE than PLA, particularly over the shorter term. After longer-term exposure, earthworms may adapt to PE and PLA environments. A close relationship exists between the effects of MPs on earthworms and activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase, and malondialdehyde enzymes, which we use to evaluate the degree of antioxidant damage. We report both PE and PLA to negatively affect earthworms, but for the effects of PLA to be less severe after longer-term exposure. Further investigation is required to more fully assess the potential negative effects of PLA use on soil organisms in agriculture.

Abstract Effective therapeutic targets and early diagnosis are major challenges in the treatment of gastrointestinal tract (GIT) cancers. SALL4 is a well-known transcription factor that is involved in organogenesis during embryonic development. Previous studies have revealed that SALL4 regulates cell proliferation, survival, and migration and maintains stem cell function in mature cells. Additionally, SALL4 overexpression is associated with tumorigenesis. Despite its characterization as a biomarker in various cancers, the role of SALL4 in GIT cancers and the underlying mechanisms are unclear. We describe the functions of SALL4 in GIT cancers and discuss its upstream/downstream genes and pathways associated with each cancer. We also consider the possibility of targeting these genes or pathways as potential therapeutic options for GIT cancers.

This paper proposes a solution based on the particle swarm optimization algorithm to address the issue of Proportional Integral Derivative parameter selection in the motion control of a two-wheel differential car. The mathematical motion model is established based on the driving principle of a two-wheel differential car. The transfer function of the DC motor is derived in detail, based on Kirchhoff’s law and the Laplace transform. The pose renewal equation and error renewal equation of the car are based on the mathematical motion model. Finally, a numerical simulation and experimental analysis were conducted using MATLAB R2022a, Simulink 9.1 (part of R2018a), VOFA 1.3.10 software, an STM32 microcontroller, an L298N driver chip, and other hardware components. The results indicate that the particle swarm optimization algorithm enables the rapid acquisition of optimal Proportional Integral Derivative parameters. The optimized parameter of the motor speed convergence time is set to 10 ms, with an overshoot of 1 r/min and an enhanced anti-interference ability. The optimized parameters effectively regulate the car’s motion, ensuring a maximum error control of approximately 0.003 m.

With a spurt of progress in deep learning techniques, convolutional neural network-based and transformer-based methods have yielded impressive performance on the hyperspectral image (HSI) classification tasks. However, pixel-level manual annotation is time-consuming and laborious, and the small amount of labeled HSI data brings challenges to deep learning methods. Existing methods use carefully designed network architectures combined with self-supervised or semi-supervised learning to deal with the lack of training samples. Those methods were designed for specific datasets and often needed to tune hyperparameters on new datasets carefully. To tackle this problem, a unified HSI masked autoencoder framework was proposed for HSI classification. Different from existing works, the hyperspectral image masked autoencoder (HSIMAE) framework was pretrained on a large-scale unlabeled HSI dataset, named HSIHybrid, which contained a large amount of HSI data acquired by different sensors. First, to handle the different spectral ranges of HSIs, a group-wise PCA was applied to extract features of HSI spectra and transform them into fixed-length vectors. Then, a modified masked autoencoder was proposed for large-scale pretraining. It utilized separate spatial–spectral encoders followed by fusion blocks to learn spatial correlation and spectral correlation of HSI data. Finally, to leverage the unlabeled data of the target dataset, a dual-branch finetuning framework that used an extra unlabeled branch for mask modeling learning was introduced. Extensive experiments were conducted on four HSI datasets from different hyperspectral sensors. The results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed HSIMAE framework over the state-of-the-art methods, even with very few training samples.

This study aims to assess and analyze the urban food resilience of the Zhengzhou metropolitan area, proposing innovative assessment frameworks and methodologies. Utilizing a dual-level analysis approach that combines long-term planning impact analysis (2000–2020) with short-term resilience assessment (2018–2022), the study integrates public government data and Geographic Information System (GIS) data, employing spatial analysis, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation techniques. Findings from 2000 to 2020 indicate that urban planning within the metropolitan area has significantly impacted the food system. Urbanization has led to reduced agricultural land, but improvements in infrastructure have enhanced the efficiency of the food supply chain. Woodland and grassland areas have remained relatively stable, providing an ecological buffer for the food system. Building on this, the short-term assessment from 2018 to 2022 reveals significant dynamic changes and a continuous improvement trend in food resilience, though there is still room for enhancement. Food supply chain management and emergency preparedness and management contributed the most to overall resilience. Notably, extreme events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the “7.20 Flood Disaster” prompted the adoption of innovative measures to enhance food resilience. The study develops a multidimensional theoretical framework and assessment system for urban food resilience, offering new perspectives and methods for understanding and enhancing urban food resilience. The results highlight the critical role of urban planning in enhancing food resilience, recommending the integration of the food system into comprehensive urban planning, strengthening regional collaboration, and enhancing public engagement. These findings provide an important basis for policymaking and practice aimed at improving the long-term adaptability and short-term recovery capabilities of urban food systems.

Abstract Background The influence of sarcopenic obesity (SO) on overall survival in older adults with hypertension has not been addressed. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and mortality predictive value of various body composition phenotypes, focusing mainly on SO, in older adults with hypertension. Methods We included 1105 hypertensive patients aged ≥ 60 years from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999–2004. Sarcopenia was broadly defined based on low lean mass (LLM; as measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry), and was defined using appendicular lean mass (ALM) divided by height squared (ALM/height2), weight (ALM/weight), and body mass index (BMI; ALM/BMI), respectively. Obesity was defined as BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2, body fat percentage ≥ 30/42%, or waist circumference ≥ 102/88 cm. The prevalence of LLM with obesity was estimated according to each ALM index (ALMI). Multivariable Cox regression analysis and sensitivity analysis were used to examine the association between various body composition phenotypes and all-cause mortality. Results In older adults with hypertension, the prevalence of LLM with obesity by the ALM/height2 index (9.8%) was lower relative to the ALM/weight (11.7%) and ALM/BMI indexes (19.6%). After a median follow-up of 15.4 years, 642 deaths occurred. In the fully adjusted models, LLM with obesity was significantly associated with a higher risk of all-cause mortality (hazard ratio [HR] 1.69, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.14–2.49, P = 0.008; HR 1.48, 95% CI 1.04–2.10, P = 0.028; HR 1.30, 95% CI 1.02–1.66, P = 0.037; respectively) compared with the normal body phenotype, with no statistical differences found in individuals with LLM or obesity alone. Sensitivity analysis confirmed the robustness of the results. Conclusions The prevalence of LLM with obesity markedly differed in older adults with hypertension according to the 3 different ALMIs, varying from 9.8%, 11.7%, to 19.6%. Patients with both LLM and obesity had a higher risk of all-cause mortality. Further large, prospective, cohort studies are warranted to validate these findings and uncover underlying mechanisms.

Abstract Aims The early identification and appropriate management may provide clinically meaningful and substained benefits in patients with acute heart failure (AHF). This study aimed to develop an integrative nomogram with myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) for predicting the risk of all‐cause mortality in AHF patients. Methods and results Prospective study of 147 patients with AHF who received gated MPI (59.0 [47.5, 68.0] years; 78.2% males) were enrolled and followed for the primary endpoint of all‐cause mortality. We analysed the demographic information, laboratory tests, electrocardiogram, and transthoracic echocardiogram by the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression for selection of key features. A multivariate stepwise Cox analysis was performed to identify independent risk factors and construct a nomogram. The predictive values of the constructed model were compared by Kaplan–Meier curve, area under the curves (AUCs), calibration plots, continuous net reclassification improvement, integrated discrimination improvement, and decision curve analysis. The 1, 3, and 5 year cumulative rates of death were 10%, 22%, and 29%, respectively. Diastolic blood pressure [hazard ratio (HR) 0.96, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.93–0.99; P = 0.017], valvular heart disease (HR 3.05, 95% CI 1.36–6.83; P = 0.007), cardiac resynchronization therapy (HR 0.37, 95% CI 0.17–0.82; P = 0.014), N‐terminal pro‐B‐type natriuretic peptide (per 100 pg/mL; HR 1.02, 95% CI 1.01–1.03; P

In this study, ozone catalysts (hydrogenation-modified red mud, HM-RM) successfully prepared by hydrogenation-modification of industrial hazardous solid waste red mud (RM) as a raw material in accordance with the viewpoint of treating waste with waste and using waste. Meanwhile, as for the common phenomenon of membrane fouling, uneven distribution of multiphase solid catalysts and ozone in liquids, the addition of ultrasound can not only disperse materials, but also play a role in online cleaning of ceramic membranes and catalysts. The optimum treatment conditions for Rhodamine B (RhB) solution with volume of 2 L and concentration of 40 mg/L were catalyst concentration of 0.4 mg/L, reaction temperature of 45 °C, ultrasonic time of 1 h, ultrasonic intensity of 600 W, removal rate of RhB was up to 90 %. In addition, the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation method was used to investigate the fluid flow between the two gas-liquid phases and the effect of the negative pressure of the membrane pump on the fluid by the analysis of flow, pressure and ozone flux of the ceramic membrane(CM) reaction apparatus. The CFD simulation results showed that at the inlet gas-liquid flow rate of 3 m/s and the negative pressure of 20,000 Pa, the maximum flow rates of CM-1 were 3 m/s, 0.752 m/s for CM-2, and 0.228 m/s for CM-3, respectively. Vortices, which are beneficial to solid-liquid mixing and gas-liquid mass transfer, formed between the suction port CM-1 of CM-1 and the inlets of CM-2 and CM-3. This discovery is consistent with relevant experimental research results. Significantly higher concentrations of both •OH and dissolved ozone were observed in the US/HM-RM/O3 system compared to other systems, indicating the significant improvement in ozone utilization rate through the application of ultrasound. The superiority of the US/HM-RM/O3 device was demonstrated. The real dye effluent was tested under optimum operating conditions and the results showed that COD and TOC were reduced by 81.34 % and 60.23 % respectively after 180 min of treatment. The above research can provide technical support for the treatment of dye wastewater using Ultrasound-enhanced ozone oxidation ceramic membranes.

Abstract It is a great challenge to discover novel chemical reactions suitable for biological analysis in a living system. The development of novel protein thiol blocking agents is a crucial need for exploring protein thiol functions in protein refolding, signal transduction, and redox regulation. We are always keen on seeking novel chemical reactions applied to endogenous biological macromolecules or protein thiol sensing, blocking, and labeling. In the present work, we have successfully developed a novel agent to block protein thiol by enhanced electron‐withdrawing inductive effects. This sensing and blocking process was detailedly monitored by UV‐vis, fluorescent spectra, and SDS‐Page gel separation. The spectral studies demonstrated that the agent could react ultrafastly with thiol within seconds at μM level. Furthermore, fluorescent imaging in cells and in vivo was further used for the validation of its ability to sensing and blocking thiol, providing evidence of downregulated protein thiols in Parkinson's disease. The enhanced electron‐withdrawing inductive effect strategy in this work may provide a general guideline for designing protein thiol agent.

Abstract Spectrum matching is the most common method for compound identification in mass spectrometry (MS). However, some challenges limit its efficiency, including the coverage of spectral libraries, the accuracy, and the speed of matching. In this study, a million-scale in-silico EI-MS library is established. Furthermore, an ultra-fast and accurate spectrum matching (FastEI) method is proposed to substantially improve accuracy using Word2vec spectral embedding and boost the speed using the hierarchical navigable small-world graph (HNSW). It achieves 80.4% recall@10 accuracy (88.3% with 5 Da mass filter) with a speedup of two orders of magnitude compared with the weighted cosine similarity method (WCS). When FastEI is applied to identify the molecules beyond NIST 2017 library, it achieves 50% recall@1 accuracy. FastEI is packaged as a standalone and user-friendly software for common users with limited computational backgrounds. Overall, FastEI combined with a million-scale in-silico library facilitates compound identification as an accurate and ultra-fast tool.

Background: This study explores the relationship between waist circumference and morbidity of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and all-cause mortality in metabolically healthy individuals. Methods: A cohort of 5775 metabolically healthy participants from the 2001–2014 US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and National Death Index database was tracked over a median period of 81 months. These participants were divided into quartiles (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4) based on increasing waist circumference. To compensate for missing covariates, multivariate multiple imputation methods were used. Adjusted logistic regression models were employed to examine the correlation between waist circumference and cardiovascular disease prevalence. Furthermore, Kaplan-Meier curves and multivariable Cox regression analysis were utilized to evaluate the association between waist circumference and all-cause mortality, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Results: The adjusted logistic regression model indicated that a 10 cm increase in waist circumference was associated with a 1.45 times higher prevalence of CVD. As a categorical variable, there was a significant upward trend in CVD incidence across quartiles of waist circumference. The adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) were 2.41 (1.13–5.53) for Q2, 2.65 (1.18–6.39) for Q3, and 2.53 (0.9–7.44) for Q4, compared to Q1. Notably, individuals with high waist circumference showed significantly poorer survival compared to those with low waist circumference (p = 0.008). The Cox regression analysis revealed that each 10 cm increase in waist circumference contributed to an ~8% increase in all-cause mortality. Conclusions: This study underscores a positive correlation between waist circumference and both CVD morbidity and all-cause mortality in metabolically healthy individuals. The findings highlight the significance of routinely monitoring waist circumference for effective CVD risk management, regardless of metabolic health status.

Abstract. Objective:. This study aimed to examine the associations of waist circumference with hypertension and cardiometabolic dysregulation among normal-weight adults. Methods:. This cross-sectional study included 8795 normal-weight participants aged 20 to 79 years from the 2009–2018 US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The demographic characteristics and cardiometabolic risk factors across waist circumference quartiles were summarized. We used adjusted multivariate logistic regression models, subgroup analysis, and restricted cubic spline to analyze the association between waist circumference and the prevalence of hypertension. Thereafter, we used the random forest supervised machine learning method, together with least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression, to select hypertension-related features and created a predictive model based on regression analysis to identify hypertension in normal-weight individuals. Results:. Waist circumference was positively correlated with hypertension in the non-adjusted, minimally adjusted, and fully adjusted models, with odds ratios (95% confidence interval) of 2.28 (2.14–2.44), 1.27 (1.12–1.44), and 1.27 (1.12–1.44), respectively. In the fully adjusted model, participants in the highest waist circumference quartile had a higher risk of hypertension relative to those in the lowest quartile, with an odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of 3.87 (1.59–10.34). Sensitivity analysis demonstrated the robustness of the association. In the testing set, the predictive model exhibited good performance, with an area under the curve of 0.803, sensitivity of 0.72, specificity of 0.76, and negative predictive value of 0.84. Conclusions:. Measuring waist circumference may improve the evaluation of the risk of hypertension and help to manage cardiometabolic risk in normal-weight individuals.

Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) is a chronic liver disease that is strongly related to insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome, and it has become the most common liver disorder in developed countries. NAFLD embraces the full pathological process of three conditions: steatosis, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, and finally, cirrhosis. As NAFLD progresses, symptoms will become increasingly severe as fibrosis develops. Therefore, evaluating the fibrosis stage is crucial for patients with NAFLD. A liver biopsy is currently considered the gold standard for staging fibrosis. However, due to the limitations of liver biopsy, non-invasive alternatives were extensively studied and validated in patients with NAFLD. The advantages of non-invasive methods include their high safety and convenience compared with other invasive approaches. This review introduces the non-invasive methods, summarizes their benefits and limitations, and assesses their diagnostic performance for NAFLD-induced fibrosis.

AimsTo date, the prognostic effects of permanent pacemaker implantation (PPI) after transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) remain controversial. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to investigate the mid- (1 year) to long-term (> 1 year) clinical and echocardiographic effects of post-procedural PPI in patients after TAVR.MethodsPubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases were systematically searched from the establishment of databases up to 1 December 2021. Studies comparing clinical and echocardiographic outcomes between patients with and without post-TAVR PPI of ≥ 1-year follow-up were collected for further meta-analysis.ResultsA total of 39 studies comprising of 83,082 patients were included in this meta-analysis. At mid-term follow-up (1 year), the pooled results demonstrated a higher risk of all-cause mortality in patients with post-procedural PPI than those without following TAVR (relative risk (RR), 1.17; 95% CI, 1.10–1.24; P < 0.00001). No significant differences were observed in cardiovascular mortality (RR, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.71–1.03; P = 0.10) or heart failure rehospitalization (RR, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.58–1.44; P = 0.69) at 1-year follow-up. At long-term follow-up (> 1 year), post-TAVR PPI had negative effects on all-cause mortality (RR, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.09–1.28; P < 0.0001) and heart failure rehospitalization (RR, 1.42; 95% CI, 1.18–1.71; P = 0.0002). There was no difference in long-term cardiovascular mortality between the two groups (RR, 1.15; 95% CI, 0.97–1.36; P = 0.11). Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was not significantly different at baseline (mean difference, 1.40; 95% CI, –0.13–2.93; P = 0.07), but was significantly lower in the PPI group at 1-year follow-up (mean difference, –3.57; 95% CI, –4.88 to –2.26; P < 0.00001).ConclusionOur meta-analysis provides evidence that post-TAVR PPI has negative clinical and echocardiographic effects on patients at mid- to long-term follow-up. Further studies are urgently needed to explore the cause of these complications and optimize the treatment and management of patients requiring permanent pacing after TAVR.Systematic Review Registration[https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42021289935], identifier [CRD42021289935].

BackgroundNeutrophil counts to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio (NHR), a composite marker of inflammation and lipid metabolism, has been considered as a predictor of clinical outcomes in patients with acute ischemic stroke and acute myocardial infarction. However, the predictive value of NHR for all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in the general population remains unclear.MethodsOur study population comprised 34,335 adults in the United States obtained from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) (1999–2014) and were grouped in accordance with tertiles of NHR. Kaplan–Meier curves and log-rank test were used to investigate the differences of survival among groups. Multivariate Cox regression, restricted cubic spline analysis, and subgroup analysis were applied to explore the relationship of NHR with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality.ResultsThe mean age of the study cohort was 49.6 ± 18.2 years and 48.4% were men. During a median follow-up of 82 months, 4,310 (12.6%) all-cause deaths and 754 (2.2%) cardiovascular deaths occurred. In a fully-adjusted Cox regression model, participants in the highest tertile had 29% higher hazard of all-cause mortality than those in the lowest tertile [hazard ratio (HR) = 1.29, 95% CI: 1.19–1.41]. For cardiovascular mortality, the continuously increased HR with 95% CIs among participants in the middle and highest tertile were 1.30 (1.06–1.59) and 1.44 (1.17–1.78), respectively. The restricted cubic spline curve indicated that NHR had a non-linear association with all-cause mortality (p for non-linearity < 0.001) and a linear association with cardiovascular mortality (p for non-linearity = 0.553).ConclusionIncreased NHR was a strong and independent predictor of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in the general population.

Background: Early identification of individuals at a high risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is crucial. This study aimed to construct a nomogram for CVD risk prediction in the general population. Methods: This retrospective study analyzed the data between January 2012 and September 2020 at the Physical Examination Center of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University (randomized 7:3 to the training and validation cohorts). The outcome was the occurrence of CVD events, which were defined as sudden cardiac death or any death related to myocardial infarction, acute exacerbation of heart failure, or stroke. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) method and multivariate logistic regression were applied to screen the significant variables related to CVD. Results: Among the 537 patients, 54 had CVD (10.1%). The median cardiac myosin-binding protein-C (cMyBP-C) level in the CVD group was higher than in the no-CVD group (42.25 pg/mL VS 25.00 pg/mL, p = 0.001). After LASSO selection and multivariable analysis, cMyBP-C (Odds ratio [OR] = 1.004, 95% CI [CI, confidence interval]: 1.000–1.008, p = 0.035), age (OR = 1.023, 95% CI: 0.999–1.048, p = 0.062), diastolic blood pressure (OR = 1.025, 95% CI: 0.995–1.058, p = 0.103), cigarettes per day (OR = 1.066, 95% CI: 1.021–1.113, p = 0.003), and family history of CVD (OR = 2.219, 95% CI: 1.003–4.893, p = 0.047) were associated with future CVD events (p < 0.200). The model, including cMyBP-C, age, diastolic blood pressure, cigarettes per day, and family history of CVD, displayed a high predictive ability with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.816 (95% CI: 0.714–0.918) in the training cohort (specificity and negative predictive value of 0.92 and 0.96) and 0.774 (95% CI: 0.703–0.845) in the validation cohort. Conclusions: A nomogram based on cMyBP-C, age, diastolic blood pressure, cigarettes per day, and family history of CVD was constructed. The model displayed a high predictive ability.

The thermal characteristics of the positive leader discharges occurring under the different electrode terminals in a 1 m rod-plate air gap were studied quantitatively using Mach−Zehnder interferometry and a high-speed video camera. When disturbed by the discharge channel, the interference fringes are distorted because of the change in the refractive index of air, which is related to the gas density. Therefore, the gas temperature and gas density distribution in the leader channel can be retrieved from the offset of the interference fringes. Based on these results, the thermal characteristics of the leader channel were studied under different electrode terminals with a radius of curvature of 2.5 mm and 5 mm for cone electrodes and a diameter of 40 mm for a spherical electrode. The results show that the gas temperature in the leader channel increased while the gas density decreased as the radius of curvature of the electrode terminal decreased. Additionally, a smaller radius of curvature leads to a larger thermal diameter, but the difference in the thermal diameter is not obvious; for the terminals used in this paper, the difference is within 2 mm.

Given the central importance of protected area systems in local, regional and global conservation strategies, it is vital that there is a good understanding of their effectiveness in maintaining ecological functioning. Here, we provide, to our knowledge, the first such global analysis, focusing on plant production, a "supporting" ecosystem function necessary for multiple other ecosystem services. We use data on the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) as a measure of variation in plant production in the core, boundary and surroundings of more than 1000 large protected areas over a 25 year period. Forested protected areas were higher (or similar), and those non-forested were lower (or similar), in NDVI than their surrounding areas, and these differences have been sustained. The differences from surrounding areas have increased for evergreen broadleaf forests and barren grounds, decreased for grasslands, and remained similar for deciduous forests, woodlands, and shrublands, reflecting different pressures on those surroundings. These results are consistent with protected areas being effective both in the representation and maintenance of plant production. However, widespread overall increases in NDVI during the study period suggest that plant production within the core of non-forested protected areas has become higher than it was in the surroundings of those areas in 1982, highlighting that whilst the distinctiveness of protected areas from their surroundings has persisted the nature of that difference has changed.

The book Just Hierarchies: Why Social Hierarchies Matter in China and the Rest of the World by Daniel A. Bell and Pei Wang aims to answer the following question: 'Should morally justifiable social hierarchies structure our social lives on an everyday basis, including our relations with loved ones?' Bell and Wang respond positively. In this article, I mainly focus on the relations between intimates, examining the arguments from the perspective of social egalitarianism and feminism. Bell and Wang argue that hierarchies involving shifting roles are justified, but I shall argue that the defence of hierarchy in intimate relations is not completely convincing. First, the authors mistake hierarchical societies for hierarchical organisations. I will explain why this conflation is detrimental to the defence of hierarchies. Second, the authors neglect to mention some of the significant moral wrongs perpetuated by hierarchical systems. A hierarchy such as a caste system not only fixes inferior and superior positions but also conveys demeaning messages to those who are lower in rank. In addition, we also need to consider the macro-background of specific interpersonal hierarchies to be able to make sense of the wrongs of intimate hierarchies. Third, the practical implications of the defence of intimate hierarchies are ambiguous. I argue that, ultimately, the authors are not able to defend what they set out to defend at the very beginning of the book. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]