Search

Background In order to test the predictive effect of the XGBoost model in the machine learning algorithm for early lung cancer diagnosis and the importance of amino acid and carnitine indicators in affecting the occurrence of lung cancer, this study used data from 848 patients with lung cancer and benign lung nodules. Results The study selected 49 serum amino acid and carnitine indexes, as well as age and gender demographic indexes of subjects from a hospital in Dalian City, Liaoning Province. After screening with stepwise regression algorithm, 16 indicators were included.Draw the ROC curve of 5 models, comparing the accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 score of the lung cancer prediction model with the nomogram and the machine learning algorithm, the optimal model (XGBoost) was obtained, and the feature importance ranking was obtained using the XGBoost model.In the method of screening indicators, the index modeling accuracy after screening using the stepwise regression algorithm was the highest, which was 75.29%, and the AUC value was 0.81. In the model performance comparison, the accuracy of the nomogram is 68.24%, and the AUC value is 0.74. Among the machine learning models, the XGBoost algorithm has the best performance, with an accuracy rate of 75.29% and an ROC value of 0.81. In the model feature importance score results, the top three important features were ornithine, valine and palmitoylcarnitine. Conclusions The combined use of nomogram and machine learning model(XGBoost) not only improves the accuracy of the lung cancer prediction model, but also makes the understanding of the results more intuitive and convenient for doctors and patients.

The switch from using only trivalent oral polio vaccine (tOPV) to sequential schedules combining inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) and bivalent oral polio vaccine (bOPV) for polio vaccination will cause changes to mucosal immunity against polio in infants, which plays an important role in preventing the poliovirus spread. Here, we analyzed mucosal immunity against poliovirus in the intestine during different sequential vaccination schedules. We conducted clinical trials in Guangxi Province, China on 1,200 2-month-old infants who were randomly assigned to one of three vaccination schedule groups: IPV-bOPV-bOPV, IPV-IPV-tOPV, and IPV-IPV-bOPV, with vaccine doses administered at 8, 12, and 16 weeks of age. Stool samples were collected from 10% of participants in each group before administration of the second vaccine doses and at 1, 2, and 4 weeks after the administrations of the second and third vaccine doses. Immunoglobulin A (IgA) in the stool samples was measured to analyze the mucosal immune response in the intestine. Because of the absence of poliovirus type 2 in bOPV, the vaccination schedule of IPV-IPV-bOPV did not sufficiently raise intestinal mucosal immunity against poliovirus type 2, although some cross-immunity was seen. The level of intestinal mucosal immunity was related to shedding status; shedders could produce intestinal mucosa IgA more quickly. The intestinal mucosal immunity level was not related to serum neutralizing antibody level. In the combined sequential vaccination schedule of IPV and bOPV, the risk of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) may be increased owing to insufficient intestinal mucosal immunity against poliovirus type 2.

Intuitionistic fuzzy number (IFN) is an effective tool for dealing with the uncertain information, and it has been applied to various fields. According to IFNs, the intuitionistic fuzzy calculus has been developed, which can effectively integrate the continuous uncertain information. Series in intuitionistic fuzzy environment is a part of the intuitionistic fuzzy calculus theory, of which core idea is limit. However, the order used in the existing limit theory is not the one used in intuitionistic fuzzy calculus, causing the separation of the limit theory and intuitionistic fuzzy calculus. Thus, series in intuitionistic fuzzy environment is not closely related to the intuitionistic fuzzy calculus. In order to solve the above problem, we construct the related theories. There are mainly the following three aspects: (1) the limit theory including the sequence limit and the function limit is studied based on the new order. (2) we re-examine the numerical series according to the new tool of researching IFNs: the basis and the coordinates. (3) we discuss the function series and put forward the uniform convergence in intuitionistic fuzzy environment.

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) can lead to myocardial injury, and long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) has been found to play an important regulatory role in the process of myocardial injury. However, the role and potential mechanisms of lncRNA testis-specific transcript Y-linked 15 (TTTY15) in AMI-induced myocardial injury has not been fully elucidated. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)-induced AMI cell model was built and AMI mice model were constructed. Relative expression levels of TTTY15, miR-98-5p and C-reactive protein (CRP) were determined by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Cell counting kit 8 (CCK8) assay, flow cytometry and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were employed to assess cell viability, apoptosis, inflammatory response and oxidative stress. Western blot (WB) analysis was used to assess the protein expression levels. The mechanism of TTTY15 was confirmed by dual-luciferase reporter assay and RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) assay. Our results revealed that TTTY15 was upregulated and miR-98-5p was downregulated in AMI patients and H2O2-stimulated myocardial cells. Knockdown of TTTY15 could alleviate H2O2-stimulated myocardial cell injury in vitro and AMI progression in vivo. Bioinformatics analysis and the rescue experiments confirmed that TTTY15 positively regulated H2O2-induced myocardial cell injury via regulating CRP by sponging miR-98-5p. Our research proposed that lncRNA TTTY15 promoted myocardial cell injury by regulating the miR-98-5p/CRP axis, suggesting that TTTY15 might be a potential target for alleviating AMI-caused myocardial cell injury.

The public sector requires job crafting from employees so that they can better cope with overdemanding jobs due to layer upon layer of public management reforms. Simultaneously, however, red tape and austerity constrain job autonomy. This study therefore tests how job crafting can be fostered in public organizations by studying social resources at work and, specifically, empowering leadership and social support. Multilevel analyses based on survey data from 1,059 nurses in 67 public elderly care organizations in Flanders, Belgium, show that empowering leadership and social support contribute to job crafting and, simultaneously, strengthen each other’s contribution. Additional analyses showed that empowering leadership, social support, as well as their interaction have differential relations vis-à-vis the different dimensions of job crafting. The implications for public management are discussed.

Economic policy uncertainty (EPU) has important implications for crude oil market. To explore the implications, this paper investigates the impact of EPU on the crude oil return volatility and which EPU index has the most forecasting power in crude oil market. To this end, we employ the GARCH-MIDAS model which can incorporate lower frequency EPU index variable with higher frequency crude oil return variable effectively. We find that EPU has a positive and significant impact on the crude oil return volatility, but the effect is short-lived and the decay period is about one year. Particularly, our results show that the US EPU index has the best forecasting power for crude oil return volatility over the long-term, whereas China EPU index has the best forecasting performance in the past one year. Our findings have important implications on risk management for investors in crude oil market. JEL classification: C32, C58, E32, Q41, Q47, Keywords: Economic policy uncertainty, EPU index, Crude-oil return volatility, GARCH-MIDAS

Background: Curcumin, as a lipid-lowering drug, has been reported to be effective in the treatment of breast cancer. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms have not been completely investigated. Methods: MTT assay was used to determine the effect of curcumin on survival rate of MCF-7 cells. The effects of curcumin on tumor growth were observed in animal models of breast cancer. The positive reactions of Caspase-1, IL-1β and IL-18 were detected by immunohistochemistry. LC3, p62, CTSB, ASC, Pro-Caspase-1, GSDMD, NLRP3, Caspase-1, GSDMD-N, IL-1β and IL-18 were determined by Western blot in vitro and vivo. The release of extracellular IL-1β and IL-18 was determined by ELISA. LDH release was measured. The expression level of CTSB in cytoplasm were determined by immunofluorescence assay. Cell proliferation, cell migration and tube formation assays were used to determine the abilities of cells. In this study, NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitor MCC950, cathepsin B inhibitor CA-074 ME and autophagy inhibitor 3-MA were used to act on cells to investigate the role of NLRP3 inflammasome, cathepsin B and autophagy in curcumin-induced pyroptosis of MCF-7 breast cancer cells.Results: In mouse model of breast cancer, we observed that curcumin treatment significantly induced cell autophagy and pyroptosis. In human breast cancer MCF-7 cells, we found that curcumin induced pyroptotic cell death was dependent on the activation of NLRP3/Caspase-1/GSDMD signaling pathway, which was CTSB-dependent. In addition, curcumin-induced cell autophagy caused lysosomal rupture and CTSB release. Furthermore, NLRP3 inhibitor (MCC950) significantly suppressed curcumin-induced pyroptosis, as well as CTSB inhibitor (CA074 Me) and autophagy inhibitor (3-MA). Besides, we also found that curcumin suppressed cell proliferation, cell migration and tube formation, which could be reversed by inhibitors. Conclusions: In summary, our results demonstrated that curcumin induced MCF-7 cell pyroptosis by the activation of autophagy/CTSB/NLRP3/Caspase-1/GSDMD signaling pathway. These findings offer novel insights into the potential molecular mechanisms of curcumin in treatment of breast cancer.

Sports training is the most important function of university sports stadiums in China, especially the physical fitness of university students is closely related to sports training. In this regard, reasonable data mining technology and further analysis of related information technology can play a positive role in helping the university sports stadium maximize the training effectiveness. This paper uses the ID3 algorithm (ID3A) in the big data decision tree (DT), and the core idea is to use information gain to test each feature attribute in the data set at all levels. The experiment uses a data collection method to investigate a total of 200 students from a local university. The data obtained from the survey is merged and cleaned in a unified structure to form the data set required for analysis. Taking the attribute of the number of students’ participation as an example, its information gain value is 0.234 and the information gain rate is 0.632. This research is a useful attempt to apply DT data mining technology and VR technology in the field of university sports stadium utilization.

Objective. The present study selected PC12 cells to construct a neuronal injury model induced by glucocorticoids (GC) in vitro, aiming to explore whether the endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) PKR-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase (PERK)-activating transcription factor 4 (ATF4)-C/EBP-homologous protein (CHOP) and inositol requirement 1 (IRE1)-apoptosis signal regulating kinase 1 (ASK1)-C-Jun amino-terminal kinase (JNK) signaling pathways are associated with the neuronal injury process induced by GC and provide morphological evidence. Methods. Cell models with different doses and different durations of GC exposure were established. The viability of PC12 cells was detected by the CCK-8 assay, and the apoptosis rate of PC12 cells was detected by the flow cytometry assay. The expression of microtubule-associated protein 2 (Map2); glucocorticoids receptor (GR); cellular oncogene fos (C-fos); and ERS-related proteins, glucose-regulated protein 78 (GRP78), p-PERK, p-IRE1, ATF4, ASK1, JNK, and CHOP, was observed by immunofluorescence staining. Results. The results of immunofluorescence staining showed that PC12 cells abundantly expressed Map2 and GR. The CCK-8 assay revealed that high-concentration GC exposure significantly inhibited the cell viability of PC12 cells. The flow cytometry assay indicated that high-concentration GC exposure significantly increased the apoptosis rate of PC12 cells. Immunofluorescence staining showed that GC exposure significantly increased the expression of C-fos, GRP78, p-PERK, p-IRE1, ATF4, ASK1, JNK, and CHOP. Treatment with ERS inhibitor 4-phenylbutyric acid (4-PBA) and GR inhibitor RU38486 attenuated related damage and downregulated the expression of the abovementioned proteins. Conclusion. High-concentration GC exposure can significantly inhibit the viability of PC12 cells and induce apoptosis. PERK-ATF4-CHOP and IRE1-ASK1-JNK pathways are involved in the above damage process.

Background: Light-flavor liquor, with ethyl acetate as the main aroma component, is regarded as one of the four basic types in china. The traditional solid-state fermentation has a long period and a complicated process, but the content of esters and acids in liquid fermentation is not as good as that in solid-state fermentation. In this study, according to the methods of solid fermentation and liquid fermentation, the semi-solid fermentation of light-flavor liquor was simulated with optimized fermentation conditions, using corn and sorghum as brewing materials (corn: sorghum=7: 3). Furthermore, the bacterial and fungal community were investigated by high-throughput sequencing. Results: The physical and chemical results showed that the content of reducing sugar, alcohol and ethyl acetate first increased and then decreased, while the contents of reducing sugar, alcohol and ethyl acetate reached the peak at 1 d, 11 d and 20 d, respectively. The Illumina MiSeq Sequencing results showed that Lactobacillaceae and Leuconostocaceae were the dominant bacteria on the family level. Moreover, Pediococcus and Weissella were the main bacteria on the genera level. Meanwhile, 4 fungal phyla were identified with Ascomycota (83.6-99.99%) as the dominant phyla. There were 5 species of fungi with the relative abundance over 1.00%, with Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomycopsis fibuligera were the main species. From the 3rd day, the relative abundance of Saccharomycopsis fibuligera decreased rapidly to 2.4%, while Saccharomyces cerevisiae (up to 99.2%) became the absolute dominant fungus species. The results of Redundancy analysis (RDA) showed that starch and reducing sugar had a significant influence on Pediococcus. Saccharomycopsis fibuligera was most affected by starch. In addition, Saccharomyces cerevisiae was most affected by alcohol. Conclusions: Saccharomycopsis fibuligera and Pediococcus were positively correlated to starch and reducing sugar, highlighting their important roles in the starch saccharification. Saccharomyces cerevisiae contributed to the glycolysis and esterification，because they were positively correlated to alcohol and total acid. Nevertheless, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, as the dominant fungus, had maintained a high abundance during the whole fermentation. This study could provide new insights to design new processes for semi-solid fermentation and improve the quality and controllability of liquor production.

An outbreak of COVID-19 has spread worldwide, and it is urgent to evaluate risk factors associated with severe cases. We aimed to identify risk factors for severe patients with COVID-19. A total of 52 patients with COVID-19 admitted to Henan Provincial People’s Hospital were enrolled in this study, and patients’ information was extracted from electronic medical records. The severity of symptoms of COVID-19 was divided into “mild” and “severe.” Univariate analysis was used to select potential risk factors. A risk model was constructed using multivariable logistic regression analysis. Advanced age (OR = 1.098, 95% CI = 1.020-1.183) and number of comorbidities (OR = 6.067, 95% CI = 1.078-34.143) were significant risk factors for severe patients with COVID-19. The comorbidities included hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, and past surgical history. A risk score was developed based on this model, and the developed risk prediction model had good discriminative power and was well-calibrated. This study indicates that advanced age and comorbidities are risk factors for severe patients with COVID-19. More attention should be paid to high-risk patients during hospitalization.

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) can lead to myocardial injury, and long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) has been found to play an important regulatory role in the process of myocardial injury. However, the role and potential mechanisms of lncRNA testis-specific transcript Y-linked 15 (TTTY15) in AMI-induced myocardial injury has not been fully elucidated. Hydrogen peroxide (H

In 1983, Atanassov extended the fuzzy set and originally introduced the concept of intuitionistic fuzzy set (IFS). The basic elements in every IFS are called intuitionistic fuzzy numbers, each of which consists of a membership degree, a non-membership degree and a hesitancy degree. Compared with the traditional fuzzy set, the IFS is more flexible and practical to deal with the ambiguity and uncertainty. In this paper, we first try to define the basis in intuitionistic fuzzy environment and then study some of its relevant properties. After that, we propose the coordinates based on the basis and present some theorems of the coordinates. Finally, we show how to find the smallest basis of any region.

This paper explores the impacts of stock market volatility on stock-bond and stock-gold correlations and compares the effectiveness of bonds with gold hedging the stock market risk. We propose an extensive DCC-MIDAS model, which takes the changes in stock market volatility as exogenously predetermined and accounts for its asymmetric impacts. The results show strong evidence that stock market volatility significantly and asymmetrically affects stock-bond and stock-gold correlations in different ways. Moreover, we prove that government bonds are more effective than gold in hedging stock return volatility, especially in the period of stock market turbulence. Our results suggest that government bonds are overall a better hedge for stock investors.

This paper examines whether and how ownership structure affects the trade credit policies in small- and medium-sized firms (SMEs) using a sample obtained from a survey of Chinese enterprises. Specifically, we examine how ownership concentration affects SMEs’ use of trade credit through influencing the availability of bank credit. We also examine whether the ownership of the ultimate controller influences the effect of ownership structure on trade credit. The results show that there is a significant negative relation between bank credit and trade credit when most of the firms’ shares are controlled by a dominant shareholder, indicating that concentrated ownership may lower firms’ ability to access bank credit, and SMEs use trade credit as a substitute for unavailable bank credit. The results also show that the effect of ownership concentration on the aforementioned relation is significant in private and state-controlled SMEs but not in foreign-controlled SMEs. Overall, our results suggest that ownership structure plays an important role in determining SMEs’ trade credit policies.

Chinese Baijiu is principally produced through a spontaneous fermentation process, which involves complex microorganism communities. Among them, yeasts and lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are important communities. The study examined the isolated strains from fermented grains of Baijiu regarding their activity of &alpha, amylase and glucoamylase, ethanol tolerance, glucose utilization, as well as metabolite production in the process of laboratory-scale sorghum-based fermentation. Selected strains (Saccharomycopsis fibuligera 12, Saccharomyces cerevisiae 3, and Pediococcus acidilactici 4) were blended in different combinations. The influence of selected strains on the metabolic variation in different semi-solid fermentations was investigated by gas chromatography&ndash, mass spectrometry (GC&ndash, MS) accompanied by multivariate statistical analysis. According to the principal component analysis (PCA), the metabolites produced varied in different mixtures of pure cultures. S. fibuligera produced various enzymes, particularly &alpha, amylase and glucoamylase, and exhibited a better performance compared with other species regarding the ability to convert starch to soluble sugars and positively affect the production process of volatile compounds. S. cerevisiae had a high fermentation capacity, thereby contributing to substrates utilization. Lactic acid bacteria had a good ability to produce lactic acid. This study attaches importance to the special functions of S. fibuligera, S. cerevisiae, and P. acidilactici in Chinese Baijiu making, and investigates their metabolic characteristics in the process of lab-scale semi-solid fermentation.

Several studies already explored associations between Fc gamma receptor (FCGR) polymorphisms and immune thrombocytopenia (ITP), but the results of these studies were not consistent. Consequently, we conducted a meta-analysis of relevant studies to better analyse the effects of FCGR polymorphisms on individual susceptibility to ITP. PubMed, Web of Science, Embase and CNKI were searched for eligible studies. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. Totally 17 studies were eligible for analyses (1200 cases and 1723 controls). Significant associations with ITP were observed for FCGR3A F158V polymorphism in dominant (P

Feed-in tariff (FIT) is a broadly used policy instrument around the world, in which the payment level is always designed to decline gradually in order to track and encourage technological improvement in renewable energy. However, the potential adverse effects of tariff degression on renewable energy research and development (R&D) investment have not been sufficiently addressed. In this paper, we explore the impact of FIT payment degression on renewable energy R&D investment and analyze the efficient FIT payment structure for R&D investment. We form a modeling framework that captures the dynamics of FIT payment levels and the inventor's strategic reactions to tariff changes. In this framework, we model the inventor's optimal R&D investment decisions based on the canonical real option approach and simulate the impact of FIT payment degression on R&D investment and the efficient FIT payment structure under different R&D characteristics using the case of the solar photovoltaic (PV) industry. Our results emphasize the adverse effect of tariff degression on the commercial value of new renewable technology and hence the inventor's incentive in R&D investment, especially when facing more technical uncertainty and financial constraints. Our model could help policymakers to design an efficient FIT payment structure through which the cost of the FIT program is restricted to a minimum level but without influencing the inventor's R&D investment decisions.

Background A comparative analysis of the immunogenicity and safety of different poliovirus immunization schedules in Chinese infants is imperative to guide the administration of efficient strategies for the eradication of poliomyelitis. Methods A post hoc analysis was conducted with the data from two poliovirus vaccine clinical trials involving a combined total of 2,400 infants aged 60-90 days. Trivalent oral poliovirus vaccine (tOPV), bivalent oral poliovirus vaccine (bOPV), Sabin strain-based inactivated poliovirus vaccine (sIPV), and conventional inactivated poliovirus vaccine (cIPV) were used in different schedules, the immunogenicity and safety of which were compared 28 days after the last of three doses. Results In a per-protocol set analysis, the tOPV-tOPV-tOPV schedule induced seroconversion in 99.1%, 98.2%, and 96.0% of the inoculated infants for poliovirus type I, II, and III, respectively. The seroconversions for poliovirus types I and III were each almost 100% after immunization with the cIPV-bOPV-bOPV, sIPV-sIPV-bOPV, cIPV-cIPV-bOPV, sIPV-sIPV-tOPV, cIPV-cIPV-tOPV, or sIPV-bOPV-bOPV schedule. However, the schedules that used one IPV dose followed by two (poliovirus type I and III) bOPV doses failed to induce high-level immunity against type II poliovirus. IPV-related schedules were associated with a slightly higher incidence of adverse events (AEs). Conclusions If the capacity of IPV can be increased, two or more doses of IPV should be administered before vaccination with bOPV in a sequential schedule to improve immunity against type II poliovirus.

PurposeOne of the important characteristics of the hotel business is uncertainty of lodging demand, which can jeopardize hotel operation and ultimately even threaten a hotel’s survival during an economic recession. The purpose of this paper is to propose an approach to determine optimal hotel investment issues under uncertain lodging demand.Design/methodology/approachUncertainty of lodging demand is classified into two types: the impact of unexpected economic recession and the temporary imbalance between supply of hotel rooms and lodging demand. A jump-diffusion real option approach is proposed to analyze how these two types affect optimal investment timing and the potential value of new hotel projects. The case of hotel investment in Macao is used to illustrate the jump-diffusion real option approach.FindingsThe results of numerical analysis show that the uncertainty induced by temporary imbalance between supply of hotel rooms and lodging demand increases the threshold of investment and hotel value, while the uncertainty induced by unexpected economic recession has ambiguous effects on the value and optimal investment timing of new hotel projects.Practical implicationsThe jump-diffusion real option approach increases managerial flexibility for managers when making investment decisions on new hotel projects, allowing greater value to be generated than is possible with the conventional discounted cash flow method.Originality/valueThe approach separates the impact of unexpected economic recession on lodging demand from that of “normal” fluctuations in lodging demand, and it considers the impact of both types of uncertainty on hotel investment.

In this letter, we propose a link-addition strategy, called reduction structural hole (RSH), to enhance the network transport efficiency for scale-free networks. Instead of using global parameters of betweenness centrality and shortest path length that are commonly used in link-addition approaches, we turn to the theory of structural hole to design the new link-addition strategy. RSH applies the theory from social science to guide how to add links to the existing topology and uses network constraint index that requires only local information in link addition. Simulations under both the shortest path and efficient routing schemes verify the effectiveness of the proposed link-addition mechanism. We have found that RSH obtains increased traffic capacity compared with the existing improved efficiency (IE) link-addition strategy. In addition, the RSH strategy does not change the connectivity characteristic of the network.

By employing multivariate GARCH models to stock returns and AR-GARCH models with change points identified by ICSS algorithm to predicted dynamics conditional correlations, this paper seeks to analyze information shocks on daily return dynamics in three Chinese segmented stock markets, namely Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong, during the sample period 2014-2016. The paper finds the significant evidence of contagion in the time-varying correlation between Shanghai and Shenzhen stock market as well as the statistically and economically significant decrease in the correlation series of Shanghai-Hong Kong and Shenzhen and Hong Kong after the burst of the stock market bubble and the onset of Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect, respectively, which proves that the constant conditional correlation model, even following the heteroskedasticity-adjusted method of Forbes & Rigobon (2002), may fail to capture the time-varying feature, to reflect the reality of dynamic market conditions or to arrive at a correct conclusion on financial contagion in the stock markets.