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This article discusses the development of a nickel-catalyzed hydroalkynylation reaction of 1,3-dienes with simple alkynes. The researchers used a Xantphos ligand to achieve regioselective hydroalkynylation, producing a variety of allylic alkyne products. They optimized the reaction conditions by adding water, which increased the yield of the desired product. The method demonstrated excellent functional-group tolerance and a wide substrate scope for alkynes. The researchers also proposed a mechanism for the reaction based on previous studies. Further research will focus on asymmetric variants, expanding the reaction scope, and exploring synthetic applications. [Extracted from the article]

Production deviance is 1 of 5 dimensions of counterproductive work behaviors (CWB). Based on data collected from 362 employees of Chinese enterprises, I examined the predictive effect of Confucian values on production deviance and the mediating effect of job satisfaction on the relationship between Confucian values and production deviance using structural equation modeling. I analyzed 3 factors of production deviance: work sabotage, slackness, and withdrawal. Confucian values were found to have a significant negative impact on these factors. Furthermore, job satisfaction was found to partially mediate the relationship between Confucian values slackness and withdrawal, but not work sabotage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a significant detection task, underwater explosion events have piqued the interest of geophysicists. On September 26, 2022, two underwater explosions occurred in the Baltic Sea region involving the Nord Stream pipeline. Subsequent reports from the media and the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre deduced that one event was detected at 17:03:49 GMT, exhibiting a magnitude of 3.1 on the Richter scale, whereas the second event lacked comprehensive information. To meticulously investigate the details of the two Nord Stream incidents, we employed 14 proximate stations for subsequent analysis. Using a linear inversion technique, we determined that the two events occurred at 00:03:30 and 17:03:49, with corresponding coordinates of 54.87°N, 15.52°E and 55.59°N, 15.80°E, respectively, and Richter magnitudes of 2.3 and 3.1, respectively. Spectral analysis corroborates that both events were underwater explosions, and the presence of anomalous signals within the frequency domain may provide valuable insights into source parameters and characteristics, particularly for the first event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seismic trace editing is a tedious process in data preprocessing that can incur high time costs, especially when handling large 3D datasets. In addition, existing methods to edit seismic traces may miss vital information when killing noisy traces simply. Thus, in this paper, we propose an automated method to edit seismic traces based on machine learning. The proposed method combines the Hough transform technique and a convolutional neural network (CNN) to improve the feasibility of the scheme. The Hough transform is a feature extraction technique that helps identify anomaly lines in images, and we employ it in the proposed method to ascertain the prospective positions of noisy and bad traces. We then implement a bandpass filter and the trained CNN model to identify the precise noisy traces in the target region indicated by the Hough transform process. Upon identification, automated processing is applied to determine whether the processed traces can be useful or should be discarded. This comprehensive framework includes four main steps, i.e., data preprocessing, Hough transform detection, network training, and network prediction. Experiments conducted on real-world data yielded 98% accuracy, which indicates the potential efficacy of the proposed automated trace editing method in practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To estimate the mortality and describe the causes of death in a large multicenter cohort of hospitalized patients with SLE in China. This was a retrospective study of a nationwide SLE cohort (10 centers, 29,510 hospitalized patients) from 2005 to 2014 in China. Standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) were calculated for all death and were stratified by sex and age. Chi-square test was used to determine whether the major causes of death vary in age, sex, duration of SLE, disease activity, or medications. Comparison between dead patients and survival controls was used to identify the risk factors for mortality. Logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the risk factors for mortality. A total of 360 patients died during the study period, accounting for 1.22%. The overall SMR was 2.13 (95% CI 1.96, 2.30), with a particularly high SMR seen in subgroups characterized by younger age. Infection (65.8%) was the most common cause of death, followed by lupus nephritis (48.6%), hematological abnormality (18.1%), neuropsychiatric lupus/NPSLE (15.8%), and interstitial pneumonia (13.1%). Cardiovascular disease and malignancy contributed little to the causes of death. Infection, in particular severe pulmonary infection, emerged as the foremost risk factor for mortality, followed by lupus encephalopathy. However, lupus nephritis and hematological abnormalities occurred more frequently in survival patients. SLE patients at a younger age of diagnosis have a poorer prognosis. Infection dominated the causes of death in recent China. Ethnicity and medications might account for the differences in causes of death compared with western populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is aimed at comparing the efficacy and safety of loxoprofen sodium hydrogel patch (LX-P) with loxoprofen sodium tablet (LX-T) in patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA). One hundred sixty-nine patients were enrolled in a randomized, controlled, double-blind, double-dummy, multicenter, non-inferiority trial of LX-P. Patients were randomly assigned to either LX-P or LX-T groups for a 4-week treatment. The primary efficacy endpoint was the proportion of patients with an overall improvement of ≥50 %, and the secondary efficacy endpoint was the proportion of patients with an improvement of ≥25 % from baseline in each of the seven main symptoms. The non-inferiority trial was based on a power of 80 % and significance level of 2.5 % with a non-inferiority margin of −10 %. In both intention-to-treat (ITT) and per-protocol (PP) analyses, LX-P was as effective as LX-T in regard to the primary endpoint. In the ITT analysis, the difference between the two groups was 12.6 % [95 % confidence interval, −1.7 to 26.9 %]. No significant differences were found between the two groups in any of the secondary efficacy outcomes. A lower incidence of adverse events was observed in LX-P group; however, the difference was not statistically significant. No serious adverse events were reported in the LX-P group, whereas one case was reported in LX-T group. Based on the present study, topical loxoprofen patch was non-inferior to oral loxoprofen in patients with knee osteoarthritis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to investigate the serum levels and clinical significance of nerve grow factor (NGF) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in Sjogren's syndrome (SS) with interstitial lung disease (ILD). Fifty two untreated patients with SS were enrolled in the study. Of them, 25 patients only displayed salivary glands damage and/or lacrimal gland injury (simple SS group). The other 27 patients were lacrimal and/or salivary gland involvement as well as being concomitant only with intestinal lung disease (ILD group). Twenty-five serum samples from healthy volunteers were examined as controls. We measure serum NGF and BDNF levels by ELISA and correlate them with clinical data. Serum NGF levels were significantly higher in ILD patients (372 ± 129 pg/ml) and simple SS patients (293 ± 72 pg/ml) when compared with healthy controls (187 ± 47 pg/ml) (both p < 0.01). Significant difference were also found between the two patient groups ( p < 0.01). In contrast, BDNF were significantly decreased in ILD patients (1,005 ± 143 pg/ml) when compared with either simple SS patients (1,204 ± 176 pg/ml, p < 0.01) or healthy controls (1,217 ± 155 pg/ml, p < 0.01). Correlation analysis showed NGF levels in ILD patient were positively correlated with serum levels of C-reactive protein and IgG (both p < 0.05). The abnormal NGF and BDNF in sera may be a potential character of ILD secondary to pSS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]