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Lymph Node Metastasis (LNM) has become one of the most important prognostic factors regarding long-term survival in gastric cancer. As it is difficult for doctors to integrate multiple factors for a comprehensive analysis, Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) is used to help the analysis. In this paper, a new Cooperative Belief Rule Based (CBRB) prototype CDSS is proposed. CBRB consists of two independent Belief Rule Base (BRB) systems and the final output is combined by the Evidential Reasoning (ER) approach. A corresponding new Cooperative CoEvolutionary Algorithm (CCEA) is proposed to train the proposed CBRB model that is nonlinear. A case study demonstrates that the proposed CDSS prototype can obtain the better performance than other CDSS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Ultrasound can be used for the diagnosis of elbow injuries in infants and toddlers. However, ultrasound is highly operator-dependent and accurate ultrasound examinations require a complete understanding of the complex anatomy of the elbow joint. Purpose: To report the normal ultrasound anatomy of the elbow, particularly of the humeroulnar joint, in infants and toddlers. Material and Method: Thirty subjects aged <3 years with no history of elbow injuries underwent ultrasound examinations of the elbow joint from six directions: (i) lateral to the humeroradial joint; (ii) anterior to the humeroradial joint; (iii) posterior to the humeroradial joint; (iv) medial to the humeroulnar joint; (v) anterior to the humeroulnar joint; and (vi) posterior to the humeroulnar joint. Results: The appearance of the humeroradial joint observed from three directions was similar and resembled a pair of double fists ("double-breast sign"). The appearance of the humeroulnar joint observed from three directions was different, which is related to the irregular morphology of the medial sides of the humerus and ulna. Anteroposteriorly, the coronoid and olecranon epiphyses and coronoid fossa appear anteriorly and the olecranon and trochlear epiphyses and olecranon fossa appear posteriorly, resembling a "check-mark sign". The medial epicondyle, cubital tunnel and distal humerus appear together ("double-hump sign"). The "anterior hump" is the medial epicondyle and is always higher than the "posterior hump", which is the bony protrusion on the articular surface of the distal humerus. The ultrasound signal of cortical bone in the metaphysis of the distal humerus is continuous with that of the epiphysis of the medial epicondyle. Conclusion: Ultrasound is useful for the diagnosis of elbow injuries in infants and toddlers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] A bi-level belief rule based model is proposed for diagnosing gastric cancer. [•] A clonal selection algorithm based method is proposed for optimizing the model. [•] A case study demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method. [•] Comparative studies show the better performance of the proposed method. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The objective of this investigation was to study effects of nitrogen on drought resistance in terms of changes in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) root dry matter accumulation, N concentration, antioxidant enzyme activities and root vigor during short-duration water stress (withholding water for 8 days and then permitting to 10 days recover by re-watering). Cotton plants were grown in pots with three N levels (0, 240, and 480kgNha−1). Soil-relative water content decreased with increasing N supply during the soil water stress period, while leaf area, dry matter production and N accumulation were enhanced. The root/shoot ratio and root-N/shoot-N ratio increased with water stress, and were smallest at 240kgNha−1. Application of N increased the activities of peroxidase (POD) and catalase (CAT) of cotton root, but decreased superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity during water stress as well as during recovery. Malondialdehyde (MDA) content was significantly (p <0.05) increased, and was lowest in the 240kgNha−1 N treatment during water stress. At the 10th day after soil re-watering, MDA content of 240kgNha−1 was similar to that of 480kgNha−1, but less than that of 0kgNha−1. The root vigor, which was debased by water stress, was the highest at 240kgNha−1. After soil re-watering, N application promoted root vigor. The trends of net photosynthetic rate were the same as that of root vigor during water stress. These results suggest that appropriate N supply (240kgNha−1 in this investigation) may contribute to drought resistance of cotton plants by adjusting the antioxidant enzyme activities of root, debasing lipid peroxidation and boosting root vigor during short-duration water stress (withholding water for 8 days in this investigation), however, excessive N supply (480kgNha−1) had a deleterious effect on plant drought resistance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Anthraquinone derivatives with different substituents 1–3 were synthesized by introducing the urea group. Their cations'' binding properties were investigated by UV–vis absorption spectroscopy. Compared with 1 and 2, 3 with electron-withdrawing group (–NO2) showed a remarkable absorption change for Hg2+ over the other metal ions. The anthraquinone moiety and the N–H fragment of the urea moiety played key roles in sensing Hg2+. The different acidity of N–H fragments of the urea moiety, caused by electron push–pull properties of the substituents on the phenyl para position, is the main reason for recognition. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study aimed to explore the effectiveness and safety of azvudine, nirmatrelvir/ritonavir, and molnupiravir in adult patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19. This retrospective cohort study included patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 (asymptomatic, mild, and common types) at the First Hospital of Changsha (Hunan Province, China) between March and November 2022. Eligible patients were classified into the azvudine, nirmatrelvir/ritonavir, or molnupiravir groups according to the antiviral agents they received. The outcomes were the times to nucleic acid negative conversion (NANC). This study included 157 patients treated with azvudine (n = 66), molnupiravir (n = 66), or nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (n = 25). There were no statistically significant differences in the time from diagnosis to NANC among the azvudine, molnupiravir, and nirmatrelvir/ritonavir groups [median, 9 (95% CI 9–11) vs. 11 (95% CI 10–12) vs. 9 (95% CI 8–12) days, P = 0.15], time from administration to NANC [median, 9 (95% CI 8–10) vs. 10 (95% CI 9.48–11) vs. 8.708 (95% CI 7.51–11) days, P = 0.50], or hospital stay [median, 11 (95% CI 11–13) vs. 13 (95% CI 12–14) vs. 12 (95% CI 10–14) days, P = 0.14], even after adjustment for sex, age, COVID-19 type, comorbidities, Ct level, time from diagnosis to antiviral treatment, and number of symptoms. The cumulative NANC rates in the azvudine, molnupiravir, and nirmatrelvir/ritonavir groups were 15.2%/12.3%/16.0% at day 5 (P = 0.858), 34.8%/21.5%/32.0% at day 7 (P = 0.226), 66.7%/52.3%/60.0% at 10 days (P = 0.246), and 86.4%/86.2%/80.0% at day 14 (P = 0.721). No serious adverse events were reported. Azvudine may be comparable to nirmatrelvir/ritonavir and molnupiravir in adult patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 regarding time to NANC, hospital stay, and AEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Lymph node metastasis (LNM) in gastric cancer is a very important prognostic factor affecting long-term survival. Currently, several common imaging techniques are used to evaluate the lymph node status. However, they are incapable of achieving both high sensitivity and specificity simultaneously. In order to deal with this complex issue, a new evidential reasoning (ER) based model is proposed to support diagnosis of LNM in gastric cancer.Methods: There are 175 consecutive patients who went through multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) consecutively before the surgery. Eight indicators, which are serosal invasion, tumor classification, tumor enhancement pattern, tumor thickness, number of lymph nodes, maximum lymph node size, lymph node station and lymph node enhancement are utilized to evaluate the tumor and lymph node through CT images. All of the above indicators reflect the biological behavior of gastric cancer. An ER based model is constructed by taking the above indicators as input index. The output index determines whether LNM occurs for the patients, which is decided by the surgery and histopathology. A technique called k-fold cross-validation is used for training and testing the new model. The diagnostic capability of LNM is evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. A Radiologist classifies LNM by adopting lymph node size for comparison.Results: 134 out of 175 cases are cases of LNM, and the remains are not. Eight indicators have statistically significant difference between the positive and negative groups. The sensitivity, specificity and AUC of the ER based model are 88.41%, 77.57% and 0.813, respectively. However, for the radiologist evaluating LNM by maximum lymph node size, the corresponding values are only 63.4%, 75.6% and 0.757. Therefore, the proposed model can obtain better performance than the radiologist. Besides, the proposed model also outperforms other machine learning methods.Conclusions: According to the biological behavior information of gastric cancer, the ER based model can diagnose LNM effectively and preoperatively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To compare and analyze the effect of different clinical target volumes (CTVs) on survival rate after postoperative radiotherapy (RT) for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Methods and Materials: We studied 102 patients who underwent postoperative RT after radical resection for esophageal SCC (T3/4 or N1). The radiation dose was ≥50 Gy. In the extensive portal group (E group, 43 patients), the CTV encompassed the bilateral supraclavicular region, all mediastinal lymph nodes, the anastomosis site, and the left gastric and pericardial lymphatic. In the regional portal group (R group, 59 patients), the CTV was confined to tumor bed and the lymph nodes in the immediate region of the primary lesion. The 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival rates were compared between the groups, and multivariate/univariate analysis for factors predicting survival was studied. Results: For the entire group, the 1-, 3- and 5-year survival rates were 76.3%, 50.5%, and 42.9%, respectively (median survival, 30 months). The 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival rates were 76.5%, 52.1%, and 41.3%, respectively, in the E group and 76.2%, 49.2%, and 44.6%, respectively, in the R group (not significant). According to the multivariate analysis, N stage, number of lymph nodes with metastatic disease, and tumor length were the independent prognostic factors for survival. Conclusions: Using a regional portal in postoperative RT for esophageal SCC is not associated with compromised survival compared with extensive portal RT and therefore should be considered. N stage, number of affected lymph nodes, and tumor length predict poor survival. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A new Naphthalene derivative with two urea groups, 1,8-bis[N-(o-methoxyphenyl)ureido]naphthalene ( BMPUN ), was synthesized for detecting Cu(II) ratiometrically. Complexation between urea groups of BMPUN and Cu(II) with high selectivity gives rise to a great red-shift from 380 to 440nm in the emission spectra. The introduction of electron donating groups is helpful to increase the electron density of the nitrogen atom of urea groups and then enhance the ability of complexation for Cu(II). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Introduction: Lateral humeral condyle fracture is one of the most common fractures in children. However, the prediction of the stability of the fracture with a cutoff displacement of 2 mm remains controversial. The aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability of the routine cutoff displacement of 2 mm in predicting the stability of paediatric lateral humeral condyle fractures.Methods: A cohort of 79 children with imaging results for lateral humeral condyle fractures from 2013 to 2019 was evaluated. The displacement on the radiographs was measured by three surgeons at different levels, and ultrasound images were obtained by two senior surgeons. The interobserver and intraobserver reliability was assessed by the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). A binary logistic regression model and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to evaluate the association between the measurement and the integrity of cartilage hinges.Results: The ICC for the interobserver reliability was 0.85, and the intraobserver reliability was 0.93. For each additional millimetre of displacement, the odds of cartilage hinge disruption increased by 70%. The ROC curve determined that the Youden index was only 0.07 (sensitivity, 97.8%; specificity, 8.8%) with a cutoff displacement of 2 mm.Conclusions: The routine cutoff displacement of 2 mm may not reliably reflect the stability of paediatric lateral humeral condyle fractures. The cutoff value is sensitive but not specific for predicting whether the cartilage hinge is intact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is important to predict the hidden behavior of a complex system. In the existing models for predicting the hidden behavior, the hidden belief rule base (HBRB) is an effective model which can use qualitative knowledge and quantitative data. However, the frame of discernment (FoD) of HBRB which is composed of some states or propositions and the universal set including all states or propositions is not complete. The global ignorance and local ignorance cannot be considered at the same time, which may lead to the inaccurate forecasting results. To solve the problems, a new HBRB model named as PHBRB in which the hidden behavior is described on the FoD of the power set is proposed in this correspondence paper. Furthermore, by using the evidential reasoning rule as the inference tool of PHBRB, a new projection covariance matrix adaption evolution strategy is developed to optimize the parameters of PHBRB so that more accurate prediction results can be obtained. A case study of network security situation prediction is conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the newly proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tuberculosis (TB) is the most common opportunistic infection in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and is one of the primary causes of death from AIDS. The increased accessibility to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has significantly improved the clinical outcome of patients with HIV infection. However, following ART, rapid restoration of the immune system leads to immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS). Oxidative stress and innate immunity play a role in TB-associated IRIS (TB-IRIS). The present study investigated the changes that occur in oxidative stress markers and T helper (Th)17/regulatory T (Treg) cell balance and their significance in IRIS patients with HIV-associated pulmonary TB. A total of 316 patients with HIV-associated pulmonary TB were treated with HAART and followed up regularly for 12 weeks. Those who developed IRIS were included in the IRIS group (n=60), while the remaining patients were included in the non-IRIS group (n=256). The changes in plasma oxidative stress markers superoxide dismutase (SOD) and malondialdehyde (MDA) were detected with the ELISA, and the ratio of Th17 to Treg cells in whole blood were analyzed before and after treatment through the flow cytometric assay. Following treatment, MDA and Th17 cells levels were significantly increased while SOD and Treg cells levels were decreased in the IRIS group (P<0.05) compared with before treatment. In the non-IRIS group, a non-significant decrease was observed in SOD levels (P>0.05), while the MDA levels significantly decreased compared with before treatment (P<0.05) and the Th17 and Treg cells levels were both significantly increased (P<0.05). After treatment, compared with the non-IRIS group, the IRIS group showed a significant increase in MDA and Th17 cells and decrease in SOD and Treg cells levels (P<0.05). In addition, Th17 cells levels were positively correlated with MDA but negatively correlated with SOD levels. Treg levels were negatively correlated with MDA and positively correlated with SOD levels (P<0.05). The area under the curve values of serum MDA and SOD, Th17 and Treg levels predicting the occurrence of IRIS were 0.738, 0.883, 0.722 and 0.719, respectively (P<0.05). These results indicated that the above parameters have certain diagnostic value for the occurrence of IRIS. The occurrence of IRIS in patients with HIV-associated pulmonary TB may be associated with oxidative stress and Th17/Treg cell imbalance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is vital to online assess the safety of a complex dynamic system by taking into account the current state, degradation trend, and historical records together. This paper proposes a new safety assessment model with an online algorithm based on the evidential reasoning (ER) approach. It does not only take into account the relative importance of each safety indicator, but also consider the reliability of each indicator. To obtain the integrated safety level, multiple safety indicators are fused at first and the “history,” “current,” and “future” safety states are then integrated. First, a forecasting model based on the third-order Volterra filter is proposed to predict the safety indicators’ information online. Second, an adaptive weighting model is developed to automatically adjust to various conditions and track the characteristics of the dynamic system, and the reliability of each indicator is considered to diminish the influence of inherent disturbance and/or noise. Finally, a safety assessment aggregation scheme based on the ER approach is presented to fuse the history, current, and future safety indicators to obtain the corresponding safety state, and the safety states are then fused synthetically to obtain a comprehensive safety assessment result of the complex dynamic system. A numerical study is examined to demonstrate the implementation and effectiveness. Moreover, a practical example of the inertial navigation system is studied to show the potential applications of the proposed ER-based safety assessment method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing area of transgenic Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cotton is being planted in saline-alkaline soil in China. The Bt protein level in transgenic cotton plants and its control efficiency can be affected by abiotic stress, including high temperature, water deficiency and other factors. However, how soil salinity affects the expression of Bt protein, thus influencing the control efficiency of Bt cotton against the cotton bollworm (CBW) Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) in the field, is poorly understood. Our objective in the present study was to investigate the effects of soil salinity on the expression of Bt toxin (Cry1Ac) and the control efficiency of Helicoverpa armigera in field-grown transgenic Bt cotton using three natural saline levels (1.15 dS m-1 [low soil-salinity], 6.00 dS m-1 [medium soil-salinity] and 11.46 dS m-1 [high soil-salinity]). We found that the Bt protein content in the transgenic Bt cotton leaves and the insecticidal activity of Bt cotton against CBW decreased with the increasing soil salinity in laboratory experiments during the growing season. The Bt protein content of Bt cotton leaves in the laboratory were negatively correlated with the salinity level. The CBW populations were highest on the Bt cotton grown in medium-salinity soil instead of the high-salinity soil in field conditions. A possible mechanism may be that the relatively high-salinity soil changed the plant nutritional quality or other plant defensive traits. The results from this study may help to identify more appropriate practices to control CBW in Bt cotton fields with different soil salinity levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is vital to assess the lives of newly developed products by using failure data from various testing environments. In the current methods, two steps are generally included. The first step is transforming the failure data under one testing environment into the actual working environment, and the second step is integrating all failure data under the actual working environment into a unified result. However, most available methods cannot use information that includes part failure data and part expert knowledge simultaneously. To resolve the above issue, based on the belief rule base (BRB) and the evidential reasoning (ER) approach, a new BRB-ER-based model is proposed, where the BRB is used to transform the failure data from one testing environment into the actual working environment. The ER approach, which is adopted to aggregate the failure data from different testing environments, is used to assess the life of a product. To conclude, the BRB-ER-based model is applied to represent and integrate asynchronous multisource information. In the proposed model, the initial BRB system is constructed based on experts’ knowledge, which results in uncertainty because of the ambiguous nature of human judgment and calls for training the parameters in the BRB-ER-based model. Therefore, an optimal algorithm that employs the differential evolutionary algorithm is proposed. The proposed model and the optimal algorithm operate in an integrated manner to improve the assessment precision by using both failure data and expert knowledge effectively. A case study in three scenarios and use of the conventional approach is examined to demonstrate the capability and potential applications of the new BRB-ER-based model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aphis gossypii Glover (Hemiptera: Aphididae) is a serious pest of cotton in northern China. A microsatellite analysis was used to characterize the genetic structure of A. gossypii populations from different geographic, host plant, and seasonal populations in 2014. Among 906 individuals, 507 multilocus genotypes were identified, with genotypic richness values of 0.07–1.00 for the populations. We observed moderate levels of genetic differentiation among geographic populations (FST = 0.103; 95% confidence interval: 0.065–0.145) and host plant populations (FST = 0.237; 95% confidence interval: 0.187–0.296). A Mantel test of isolation by distance revealed no significant correlations between Slatkin’s linearized FST and the natural logarithm of geographic distance. A Bayesian analysis of population genetic structures identified three clusters. An analysis of molecular variance revealed significant differences among the three clusters (F = 0.26596, P < 0.0001), among seasons (F = 0.04244, P = 0.00381), and among host populations (F = 0.12975, P = 0.0029). Thus, the A. gossypii populations in northern China exhibit considerable genotypic diversity. Additionally, our findings indicated that the 31 analyzed populations could be classified as one of three host biotypes (i.e., cotton, cucumber, and pomegranate biotypes). There were also clear seasonal effects on population genetic structure diversity among aphids collected from Anyang. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hidden belief rule base model (HBRB) which can utilize both hybrid expert's experience and experimental data has become a useful method for hidden behavior forecasting of complex system in many applications. But the traditional HBRB model is one-step forecasting model, which means that it can only utilize the limited information in very short time instant. In fact, one-step forecasting method is incomplete because the future behavior of a complex system is generated through multiple historical stats in different time instant. Therefore, a time-delay hidden BRB forecasting model (THBRB) is designed, where the input with multiple time instant of the HBRB model is considered, and the corresponding reasoning process is also designed. Further, an optimization method based on projection covariance matrix adaption evolution strategy (P-CMA-ES) algorithm is used to train the initial THBRB model. A case study is established to prove the advantage of the proposed method, and the experiment results show that the proposed THBRB model can predict the future hidden behavior of complex system effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biochar amendments can modify fertilizer nitrogen (N) availability in soil and crop N uptake. However, how biochar addition affects crop N uptake and fertilizer N recovery under various N levels is not yet well understood. To address this question, we conducted a two-season [cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.)-barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) rotation] pot experiment that included four N fertilizer rates (0, 75, 150, and 300 kg N ha−1, supplied as urea-15N) combined with two straw-biochar rates (0 and 15 t ha−1). Soil properties, plant root morphology, N uptake, and biomass yield were studied. Biochar addition decreased soil inorganic N content but increased urea-N retention at cotton harvest, leading to 32% of the applied urea-N accumulating in soil compared with 27% without biochar, averaged across fertilizer N rates. Use of 15N fertilizer showed that biochar increased plant uptake of indigenous soil N, not fertilizer N. An obvious decrease in urea-15N recovery induced by biochar was observed at 75 kg N ha−1, but not at 150 or 300 kg N ha−1. The efficiency of urea-15N recovery by plants (15NRE, 34–45%), measured using the tracer method, was much lower than that measured using the traditional non-isotope method (NRE, 67–96%). At barley harvest, 2–5% of the urea-N, applied in the first season, was taken up by plants, and 12–19% remained in soils receiving biochar. We concluded that straw-biochar addition increased soil 15N fertilizer retention and plant N uptake of indigenous soil N, not fertilizer N, and the increased indigenous soil N uptake persisted into the second cropping season. Unlabelled Image • Biochar increased soil 15N fertilizer retention, root morphology, plant N uptake, and biomass yield. • Biochar decreased urea-15N recovery with 75 kg N ha−1, but not with 150 or 300 kg N ha−1. • N recovery efficiency was much higher by non-isotopic method (67–96%) than by the isotopic method (34–45%). • Biochar increased plant uptake of indigenous soil N but not fertilizer N. • Biochar promoted the increased uptake of indigenous soil N by plants in the second season after application to soil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]