Cataract is the leading cause of visual impairment globally.The scarcity and uneven distribution of ophthalmologists seriously hinder early visual impairment grading for cataract patients in the clin-ic.In this study,...Cataract is the leading cause of visual impairment globally.The scarcity and uneven distribution of ophthalmologists seriously hinder early visual impairment grading for cataract patients in the clin-ic.In this study,a deep learning-based automated grading system of visual impairment in cataract patients is proposed using a multi-scale efficient channel attention convolutional neural network(MECA_CNN).First,the efficient channel attention mechanism is applied in the MECA_CNN to extract multi-scale features of fundus images,which can effectively focus on lesion-related regions.Then,the asymmetric convolutional modules are embedded in the residual unit to reduce the infor-mation loss of fine-grained features in fundus images.In addition,the asymmetric loss function is applied to address the problem of a higher false-negative rate and weak generalization ability caused by the imbalanced dataset.A total of 7299 fundus images derived from two clinical centers are em-ployed to develop and evaluate the MECA_CNN for identifying mild visual impairment caused by cataract(MVICC),moderate to severe visual impairment caused by cataract(MSVICC),and nor-mal sample.The experimental results demonstrate that the MECA_CNN provides clinically meaning-ful performance for visual impairment grading in the internal test dataset:MVICC(accuracy,sensi-tivity,and specificity;91.3%,89.9%,and 92%),MSVICC(93.2%,78.5%,and 96.7%),and normal sample(98.1%,98.0%,and 98.1%).The comparable performance in the external test dataset is achieved,further verifying the effectiveness and generalizability of the MECA_CNN model.This study provides a deep learning-based practical system for the automated grading of visu-al impairment in cataract patients,facilitating the formulation of treatment strategies in a timely man-ner and improving patients’vision prognosis.展开更多
We are writing in response to the paper published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology by Zhou et al.The authors identified higher serum immunoglobulin(Ig)G4 levels and age over 55 years as independent risk factor...We are writing in response to the paper published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology by Zhou et al.The authors identified higher serum immunoglobulin(Ig)G4 levels and age over 55 years as independent risk factors for disease relapse.Despite notable strengths,it is crucial to address potential biases.Firstly,the cohort study included 189 patients with autoimmune pancreatitis(AIP)type 1(with higher IgG4 seropositivity and higher relapse)and 24 with type 2(with lower IgG4 seropositivity and lower relapse).Consequently,most,if not all,AIP type 2 patients were assigned to the normal group,possibly inflating the association of higher serum IgG4 levels with relapse and potentially exaggerating the association of older age with relapse.Secondly,the authors did not provide sufficient details regarding AIP diagnosis,such as the ratio of definitive vs probable cases and the proportion of biopsies.In cases where histological evidence is unavailable or indeterminate,AIP type 2 may be misdiagnosed as definitive type 1,and type 1 may also be misdiagnosed as probable type 2,particularly in cases with normal or mildly elevated serum IgG4 levels.Lastly,in this retrospective study,approximately one-third of the consecutive patients initially collected were excluded for various reasons.Accordingly,the impact of nonrandom exclusion on relapse outcomes should be carefully considered.In conclusion,the paper by Zhou et al offers plausible,though not entirely compelling,evidence suggesting a predictive role of elevated serum IgG4 levels and advanced age in AIP relapse.The foundation for future investigations lies in ensuring a reliable diagnosis and accurate disease subtyping,heavily dependent on obtaining histological specimens.In this regard,endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle biopsy emerges as a pivotal component of the diagnostic process,contributing to mitigating biases in future explorations of the disease.展开更多
Land use change affects the balance of organic carbon(C)reserves and the global C cycle.Microbial residues are essential constituents of stable soil organic C(SOC).However,it remains unclear how microbial residue chan...Land use change affects the balance of organic carbon(C)reserves and the global C cycle.Microbial residues are essential constituents of stable soil organic C(SOC).However,it remains unclear how microbial residue changes over time following afforestation.In this study,16-,23-,52-,and 62-year-old Mongolian pine stands and 16-year-old cropland were studied in the Horqin Sandy Land,China.We analyzed changes in SOC,amino sugar content,and microbial parameters to assess how microbial communities influence soil C transformation and preservation.The results showed that SOC storage increased with stand age in the early stage of afforestation but remained unchanged at about 1.27-1.29 kg/m2 after 52 a.Moreover,there were consistent increases in amino sugars and microbial residues with increasing stand age.As stand age increased from 16 to 62 a,soil pH decreased from 6.84 to 5.71,and the concentration of total amino sugars increased from 178.53 to 509.99 mg/kg.A significant negative correlation between soil pH and the concentration of specific and total amino sugars was observed,indicating that the effects of soil acidification promote amino sugar stabilization during afforestation.In contrast to the Mongolian pine plantation of the same age,the cropland accumulated more SOC and microbial residues because of fertilizer application.Across Mongolian pine plantation with different ages,there was no significant change in calculated contribution of bacterial or fungal residues to SOC,suggesting that fungi were consistently the dominant contributors to SOC with increasing time.Our results indicate that afforestation in the Horqin Sandy Land promotes efficient microbial growth and residue accumulation in SOC stocks and has a consistent positive impact on SOC persistence.展开更多
In this paper,the covert age of information(CAoI),which characterizes the timeliness and covertness performance of communication,is first investigated in the short-packet covert communication with time modulated retro...In this paper,the covert age of information(CAoI),which characterizes the timeliness and covertness performance of communication,is first investigated in the short-packet covert communication with time modulated retrodirective array(TMRDA).Specifically,the TMRDA is designed to maximize the antenna gain in the target direction while the side lobe is sufficiently suppressed.On this basis,the covertness constraint and CAoI are derived in closed form.To facilitate the covert transmission design,the transmit power and block-length are jointly optimized to minimize the CAoI,which demonstrates the trade-off between covertness and timelessness.Our results illustrate that there exists an optimal block-length that yields the minimum CAoI,and the presented optimization results can achieve enhanced performance compared with the fixed block-length case.Additionally,we observe that smaller beam pointing error at Bob leads to improvements in CAoI.展开更多
BACKGROUND Cardiovascular disease(CVD)is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide,the global burden of which is rising.It is still unclear the extent to which prediabetes contributes to the risk of CVD in ...BACKGROUND Cardiovascular disease(CVD)is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide,the global burden of which is rising.It is still unclear the extent to which prediabetes contributes to the risk of CVD in various age brackets among adults.To develop a focused screening plan and treatment for Chinese adults with prediabetes,it is crucial to identify variations in the connection between prediabetes and the risk of CVD based on age.AIM To examine the clinical features of prediabetes and identify risk factors for CVD in different age groups in China.METHODS The cross-sectional study involved a total of 46239 participants from June 2007 through May 2008.A thorough evaluation was conducted.Individuals with prediabetes were categorized into two groups based on age.Chinese atherosclerotic CVD risk prediction model was employed to evaluate the risk of developing CVD over 10 years.Random forest was established in both age groups.SHapley Additive exPlanation method prioritized the importance of features from the perspective of assessment contribution.RESULTS In total,6948 people were diagnosed with prediabetes in this study.In prediabetes,prevalences of CVD were 5(0.29%)in the younger group and 148(2.85%)in the older group.Overall,11.11%of the younger group and 29.59% of the older group were intermediate/high-risk of CVD for prediabetes without CVD based on the Prediction for ASCVD Risk in China equation in ten years.In the younger age group,the 10-year risk of CVD was found to be more closely linked to family history of CVD rather than lifestyle,whereas in the older age group,resident status was more closely linked.CONCLUSION The susceptibility to CVD is age-specific in newly diagnosed prediabetes.It is necessary to develop targeted approaches for the prevention and management of CVD in adults across various age brackets.展开更多
Bone age assessment(BAA)helps doctors determine how a child’s bones grow and develop in clinical medicine.Traditional BAA methods rely on clinician expertise,leading to time-consuming predictions and inaccurate resul...Bone age assessment(BAA)helps doctors determine how a child’s bones grow and develop in clinical medicine.Traditional BAA methods rely on clinician expertise,leading to time-consuming predictions and inaccurate results.Most deep learning-based BAA methods feed the extracted critical points of images into the network by providing additional annotations.This operation is costly and subjective.To address these problems,we propose a multi-scale attentional densely connected network(MSADCN)in this paper.MSADCN constructs a multi-scale dense connectivity mechanism,which can avoid overfitting,obtain the local features effectively and prevent gradient vanishing even in limited training data.First,MSADCN designs multi-scale structures in the densely connected network to extract fine-grained features at different scales.Then,coordinate attention is embedded to focus on critical features and automatically locate the regions of interest(ROI)without additional annotation.In addition,to improve the model’s generalization,transfer learning is applied to train the proposed MSADCN on the public dataset IMDB-WIKI,and the obtained pre-trained weights are loaded onto the Radiological Society of North America(RSNA)dataset.Finally,label distribution learning(LDL)and expectation regression techniques are introduced into our model to exploit the correlation between hand bone images of different ages,which can obtain stable age estimates.Extensive experiments confirm that our model can converge more efficiently and obtain a mean absolute error(MAE)of 4.64 months,outperforming some state-of-the-art BAA methods.展开更多
Identification and anatomy of oceanic arcs within ancient orogenic belt are significant for better understanding the tectonic framework and closure process of paleo-ocean basin.This article summarizes the geological,g...Identification and anatomy of oceanic arcs within ancient orogenic belt are significant for better understanding the tectonic framework and closure process of paleo-ocean basin.This article summarizes the geological,geochemical,and geochronological characteristics of upper crust of Proto-Tethyan Lajishan intra-oceanic arc and provides new data to constrain the subduction evolution of the South Qilian Ocean.The intra-oceanic arc volcanic rocks,including intermediate-mafic lava,breccia,tuff,and minor felsic rocks,are distributed along southern part of the Lajishan ophiolite belt.Geochemical and isotopic compositions indicate that the intermediate-mafic lava were originated from depleted mantle contaminated by sediment melts or hydrous fluids,whereas the felsic rocks were likely generated by partial melting of juvenile mafic crust in intra-oceanic arc setting.Zircons from felsic rocks yield consistent and concordant ages ranging from 506 to 523 Ma,suggesting these volcanic rocks represent the relicts of upper crust of the Cambrian intra-oceanic arc.Combined with the Cambrian forearc ophiolite and accretionary complex,we suggest that the Cambrian intra-oceanic arc in the Lajishan ophiolite belt is belonging to the intra-oceanic arc system which was generated by south-directed subduction in the South Qilian Ocean at a relatively short interval between approximately 530 and 480 Ma.展开更多
BACKGROUND The importance of age on the development of ocular conditions has been reported by numerous studies.Diabetes may have different associations with different stages of ocular conditions,and the duration of di...BACKGROUND The importance of age on the development of ocular conditions has been reported by numerous studies.Diabetes may have different associations with different stages of ocular conditions,and the duration of diabetes may affect the development of diabetic eye disease.While there is a dose-response relationship between the age at diagnosis of diabetes and the risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality,whether the age at diagnosis of diabetes is associated with incident ocular conditions remains to be explored.It is unclear which types of diabetes are more predictive of ocular conditions.AIM To examine associations between the age of diabetes diagnosis and the incidence of cataract,glaucoma,age-related macular degeneration(AMD),and vision acuity.METHODS Our analysis was using the UK Biobank.The cohort included 8709 diabetic participants and 17418 controls for ocular condition analysis,and 6689 diabetic participants and 13378 controls for vision analysis.Ocular diseases were identified using inpatient records until January 2021.Vision acuity was assessed using a chart.RESULTS During a median follow-up of 11.0 years,3874,665,and 616 new cases of cataract,glaucoma,and AMD,respectively,were identified.A stronger association between diabetes and incident ocular conditions was observed where diabetes was diagnosed at a younger age.Individuals with type 2 diabetes(T2D)diagnosed at<45 years[HR(95%CI):2.71(1.49-4.93)],45-49 years[2.57(1.17-5.65)],50-54 years[1.85(1.13-3.04)],or 50-59 years of age[1.53(1.00-2.34)]had a higher risk of AMD independent of glycated haemoglobin.T2D diagnosed<45 years[HR(95%CI):2.18(1.71-2.79)],45-49 years[1.54(1.19-2.01)],50-54 years[1.60(1.31-1.96)],or 55-59 years of age[1.21(1.02-1.43)]was associated with an increased cataract risk.T2D diagnosed<45 years of age only was associated with an increased risk of glaucoma[HR(95%CI):1.76(1.00-3.12)].HRs(95%CIs)for AMD,cataract,and glaucoma associated with type 1 diabetes(T1D)were 4.12(1.99-8.53),2.95(2.17-4.02),and 2.40(1.09-5.31),respectively.In multivariable-adjusted analysis,individuals with T2D diagnosed<45 years of age[β95%CI:0.025(0.009,0.040)]had a larger increase in LogMAR.Theβ(95%CI)for LogMAR associated with T1D was 0.044(0.014,0.073).CONCLUSION The younger age at the diagnosis of diabetes is associated with a larger relative risk of incident ocular diseases and greater vision loss.展开更多
Introduction and Objectives: Soil-Transmitted-Helminthiasis (STH) is a public health problem in Cameroon. The control strategies currently in place, particularly chemoprevention, has shortcomings linked to the target ...Introduction and Objectives: Soil-Transmitted-Helminthiasis (STH) is a public health problem in Cameroon. The control strategies currently in place, particularly chemoprevention, has shortcomings linked to the target population, which are school-age children. The objective was to determine the prevalence and the risk factors associated with geo-helminthiasis in children aged 0 to 3 years in a rural health district. Method: From December 2020 to May 2021, a descriptive and analytical cross-sectional study of 376 children between 6 and 36 months was carried out in the Akonolinga health district. This was a cluster sampling in 4 health areas. Stool samples were collected and analysed using the mini-FLOTAC method. The results expressed as the number of eggs per gram of stool. A questionnaire on socio-demographic and lifestyle data was administered to the parents. The Chi-squared test was used to measure the association between geo-helminth infection and the data collected. A multivariate analysis using logistic regression was performed (p 0.05). Results: The prevalence of STH was 19.4% (Ascaris lumbricoides: 16% and Trichuris trichiura: 8%). Risk factors were: consumption of contaminated water (AOR = 1.93 [1.03 - 3.6];p = 0.040), early contact of the child with the ground (before age of 4 months) (AOR = 4.9 [2.1 - 11.37];p .001), habit of walking barefoot (AOR = 2.91 [1.1 - 7.97];p = 0.038), and living in a habitat with unpaved ground (AOR = 7.4 [1.55 - 35.7];p = 0.012). Conclusion: The prevalence of STHs in infants was high. Preventive chemotherapy should be extended to this age-group, and other measures intensified.展开更多
BACKGROUND The incidence and mortality rate of colorectal cancer progressively increase with age and become particularly prominent after the age of 50 years.Therefore,the population that is≥50 years in age requires l...BACKGROUND The incidence and mortality rate of colorectal cancer progressively increase with age and become particularly prominent after the age of 50 years.Therefore,the population that is≥50 years in age requires long-term and regular colonoscopies.Uncomfortable bowel preparation is the main reason preventing patients from undergoing regular colonoscopies.The standard bowel preparation regimen of 4-L polyethylene glycol(PEG)is effective but poorly tolerated.AIM To investigate an effective and comfortable bowel preparation regimen for hospitalized patients≥50 years in age.METHODS Patients were randomly assigned to group 1(2-L PEG+30-mL lactulose+a lowresidue diet)or group 2(4-L PEG).Adequate bowel preparation was defined as a Boston bowel preparation scale(BBPS)score of≥6,with a score of≥2 for each segment.Non-inferiority was prespecified with a margin of 10%.Additionally,the degree of comfort was assessed based on the comfort questionnaire.RESULTS The proportion of patients with a BBPS score of≥6 in group 1 was not significantly different from that in group 2,as demonstrated by intention-to-treat(91.2%vs 91.0%,P=0.953)and per-protocol(91.8%vs 91.0%,P=0.802)analyses.Furthermore,in patients≥75 years in age,the proportion of BBPS scores of≥6 in group 1 was not significantly different from that in group 2(90.9%vs 97.0%,P=0.716).Group 1 had higher comfort scores(8.85±1.162 vs 7.59±1.735,P<0.001),longer sleep duration(6.86±1.204 h vs 5.80±1.730 h,P<0.001),and fewer awakenings(1.42±1.183 vs 2.04±1.835,P=0.026)than group 2.CONCLUSION For hospitalized patients≥50 years in age,the bowel preparation regimen comprising 2-L PEG+30-mL lactulose+a low-residue diet produced a cleanse that was as effective as the 4-L PEG regimen and even provided better comfort.展开更多
The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant disruptions in the field of education worldwide,including in the United Arab Emirates.Teachers and students had to adapt to remote learning and virtual classrooms,leading to va...The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant disruptions in the field of education worldwide,including in the United Arab Emirates.Teachers and students had to adapt to remote learning and virtual classrooms,leading to various challenges in maintaining educational standards.The sudden transition to remote teaching could have a negative impact on students’reading abilities,especially in the Arabic language.To gain insight into the unique challenges encountered by Arabic language teachers in the UAE,a survey was conducted to explore their assessment of teaching quality,student-teacher interaction,and learning outcomes amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.The results of the survey revealed a significant decline of student reading abilities and identified several major issues in online Arabic language teaching.These issues included limited interaction between students and teachers,challenges in monitoring students’class participation and performance,and challenges in effectively assessing students’reading skills.The results also demonstrated some other challenges faced by Arabic language teachers,including a lack of preparedness,a lack of subscription to relevant platforms,and a lack of resources for online learning.Several solutions to these challenges are proposed,including reevaluating the balance between depth and breadth in the curriculum,integrating language skills into the curriculum more effectively,providing more comprehensive teacher professional development,implementing student grouping strategies,utilizing retired and expert teachers in specific content areas,allocating time for interventions,and improving support from both teachers and parents to ensure the quality of online learning.展开更多
Potato is one of the most important vegetable crops, which contributes more than half of the total vegetable production in Bangladesh. Four field experiments were conducted in two different locations in Bangladesh to ...Potato is one of the most important vegetable crops, which contributes more than half of the total vegetable production in Bangladesh. Four field experiments were conducted in two different locations in Bangladesh to develop integrated nutrient management practices to produce quality potato seed in industrial processing varieties Asterix and Courage. For the inorganic trial, Factorial Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) including 2 potato varieties, 5 treatments with 4 replications, and in the organic fertilizer trial, Factorial RCBD including 2 potato varieties, 6 treatments with 4 replications were used. In the inorganic fertilizer trail, the highest yield was obtained in the variety Asterix due to Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, and Sulfur (NPKS) plus Magnesium treated plot in Domar BADC farm and due to NPKS plus Boron, Zinc, and Magnesium treated plots in Kashimpur Farm. In the case of variety Courage, the highest yield was found in the treatment of NPKS plus Zinc in Domar BADC farm while in Kashimpur farm, NPKS plus Mg treated plots had the highest yield of potato variety-Courage. In the organic fertilizer trail, the highest tuber yield per hill was obtained by applying the government-approved commercial brand Northern organic fertilizer in variety Asterix and by organic fertilizer brand Chook Chook in variety Courage. Parameters such as days to tuber initiation, number of stems per hill, plant height, and number of tubers per hill were found statistically different among the treatments and between the two varieties. Treatments namely Northern organic fertilizer and Cowdung combined with mustard oil cake performed better considering standard grade tuber yield (grade A and B) compared to other treatments. Hence, the combination of NPKS MgZn and either Northern organic or Chook Chook or Cowdung plus mustard oil cake could be used to grow the varieties Asterix and Courage.展开更多
In this paper,a model of a large-scale optimal power flow(OPF)under voltage grading and network partition and its algorithm is presented.Based on the principles of open loop operations,the node injecting current metho...In this paper,a model of a large-scale optimal power flow(OPF)under voltage grading and network partition and its algorithm is presented.Based on the principles of open loop operations,the node injecting current method is used to divide the large-scale power grid into voltage grading and district dividing structures.The power network is further divided into a high-voltage main network and several subnets according to voltage levels of 220 kV.The subnets are connected by means of boundary nodes,and the partition model is solved using the improved approximate Newton direction method,which achieves complete dynamic decoupling simply by exchanging boundary variables between the main network and the subnets.A largescale power grid thus is decomposed into many subnets,making the solution of the problem simpler and faster while helping to protect the information of individual subnets.The system is tested for correctness and effectiveness of the proposed model,and the results obtained are matched in real-time.Finally,the algorithm is seen to have good convergence while improving calculation speed.展开更多
AIM: To determine the correlation between the hepatic venous pressure gradient and the endoscopic grade of esophageal varices.METHODS: From September 2009 to March 2013, a total of 176 measurements of hepatic venous p...AIM: To determine the correlation between the hepatic venous pressure gradient and the endoscopic grade of esophageal varices.METHODS: From September 2009 to March 2013, a total of 176 measurements of hepatic venous pressure gradient(HVPG) were done in 146 patients. Each transjugular HVPG was measured twice, first using an end whole catheter(EH-HVPG), and then using a balloon catheter(B-HVPG). The HVPG was compared with the endoscopic grade of esophageal varices(according to the general rules for recording endoscopic findings of esophagogastric varices), which was recorded within a month of the measurement of HVPG.RESULTS: The study included 110 men and 36 women, with a mean age of 56.1 years(range, 43-76 years). The technical success rate of the pressure measurements was 100% and there were no complication related to the procedures. Mean HVPG was 15.3 mm Hg as measured using the end hole catheter method and 16.5 mm Hg as measured using the balloon catheter method. Mean HVPG(both EHHVPG and B-HVPG) was not significantly different among patients with different characteristics, including sex and comorbid factors, except for cases with hepatocellular carcinoma(B-HVPG, P = 0.01; EH-HVPG, P = 0.02). Portal hypertension(> 12 mm Hg HVPG) occurred in 66% of patients according to EH-HVPG and 83% of patients according to B-HVGP, and significantly correlated with Child's status(B-HVPG, P < 0.000; EHHVGP, P < 0.000) and esophageal varies observed upon endoscopy(EH-HVGP, P = 0.003; B-HVGP, P = 0.006). One hundred and thirty-five endoscopies were performed, of which 15 showed normal findings, 27 showed grade 1 endoscopic esophageal varices, 49 showed grade 2 varices, and 44 showed grade 3 varices. When comparing endoscopic esophageal variceal grades and HVPG using univariate analysis, the P value was 0.004 for EH-HVPG and 0.002 for B-HVPG. CONCLUSION: Both EH-HVPG and B-HVPG showed a positive correlation with the endoscopic grade of esophageal varices, with B-HVPG showing a stronger correlation than EH-HVPG.展开更多
Background:Prenatal evaluation of fetal lung maturity(FLM)is a challenge,and an effective non-invasive method for prenatal assessment of FLM is needed.The study aimed to establish a normal fetal lung gestational age(G...Background:Prenatal evaluation of fetal lung maturity(FLM)is a challenge,and an effective non-invasive method for prenatal assessment of FLM is needed.The study aimed to establish a normal fetal lung gestational age(GA)grading model based on deep learning(DL)algorithms,validate the effectiveness of the model,and explore the potential value of DL algorithms in assessing FLM.Methods:A total of 7013 ultrasound images obtained from 1023 normal pregnancies between 20 and 41+6 weeks were analyzed in this study.There were no pregnancy-related complications that affected fetal lung development,and all infants were born without neonatal respiratory diseases.The images were divided into three classes based on the gestational week:class I:20 to 29+6 weeks,class II:30 to 36+6 weeks,and class III:37 to 41+6 weeks.There were 3323,2142,and 1548 images in each class,respectively.First,we performed a pre-processing algorithm to remove irrelevant information from each image.Then,a convolutional neural network was designed to identify different categories of fetal lung ultrasound images.Finally,we used ten-fold cross-validation to validate the performance of our model.This new machine learning algorithm automatically extracted and classified lung ultrasound image information related to GA.This was used to establish a grading model.The performance of the grading model was assessed using accuracy,sensitivity,specificity,and receiver operating characteristic curves.Results:A normal fetal lung GA grading model was established and validated.The sensitivity of each class in the independent test set was 91.7%,69.8%,and 86.4%,respectively.The specificity of each class in the independent test set was 76.8%,90.0%,and 83.1%,respectively.The total accuracy was 83.8%.The area under the curve(AUC)of each class was 0.982,0.907,and 0.960,respectively.The micro-average AUC was 0.957,and the macro-average AUC was 0.949.Conclusions:The normal fetal lung GA grading model could accurately identify ultrasound images of the fetal lung at different GAs,which can be used to identify cases of abnormal lung development due to gestational diseases and evaluate lung maturity after antenatal corticosteroid therapy.The results indicate that DL algorithms can be used as a non-invasive method to predict FLM.展开更多
BACKGROUND Extramedullary multiple myeloma(MM)(EMM)is a rare and aggressive subentity of MM that can be present at diagnosis or develop anytime during the disease course.There is a paucity of data on the clinical char...BACKGROUND Extramedullary multiple myeloma(MM)(EMM)is a rare and aggressive subentity of MM that can be present at diagnosis or develop anytime during the disease course.There is a paucity of data on the clinical characteristics and overall epidemiology of EMM.Furthermore,there is a scarcity of data on how the interaction of age and gender influences the survival of EMM.AIM To evaluate the clinical characteristics of patients with EMM over the past 2 decades and to identify epidemiologic characteristics that may impact overall prognosis.METHODS A total of 858 patients diagnosed with EMM,between 2000 and 2017,were ultimately enrolled in our study by retrieving the Surveillance,Epidemiology,and End Results database.We analyzed demographics,clinical characteristics,and overall mortality(OM)as well as cancer-specific mortality(CSM)of EMM.Variables with a P value<0.1 in the univariate Cox regression were incorporated into the multivariate Cox model to determine the independent prognostic factors,with a hazard ratio(HR)of greater than 1 representing adverse prognostic factors.RESULTS From a sample of 858 EMM,the male gender(63.25%),age range 60-79 years(51.05%),and non-Hispanic whites(66.78%)were the most represented.Central Nervous System and the vertebral column was the most affected site(33.10%).Crude analysis revealed higher OM in the age group 80+[HR=6.951,95%confidence interval(95%CI):3.299-14.647,P=0],Non-Hispanic Black population(HR=1.339,95%CI:1.02-1.759,P=0.036),Bones not otherwise specified(NOS)(HR=1.74,95%CI:1.043-2.902,P=0.034),and widowed individuals(HR=2.107,95%CI:1.511-2.938,P=0).Skin involvement(HR=0.241,95%CI:0.06-0.974,P=0.046)and a yearly income of$75000+(HR=0.259,95%CI:0.125-0.538,P=0)had the lowest OM in the crude analysis.Crude analysis revealed higher CSM in the age group 80+,Non-Hispanic Black,Bones NOS,and widowed.Multivariate cox proportional hazard regression analyses only revealed higher OM in the age group 80+(HR=9.792,95%CI:4.403-21.774,P=0)and widowed individuals(HR=1.609,95%CI:1.101-2.35,P=0.014).Multivariate cox proportional hazard regression analyses of CSM also revealed higher mortality of the same groups.Eyes,mouth,and ENT involvement had the lowest CSM in the multivariate analysis.There was no interaction between age and gender in the adjusted analysis for OM and CSM.CONCLUSION EMM is a rare entity.To our knowledge,there is a scarcity of data on the clinical characteristics and prognosis factors of patients with extramedullary multiple myeloma.In this retrospective cohort,using a United States-based population,we found that age,marital status,and tumor site were independent prognostic factors.Furthermore,we found that age and gender did not interact to influence the mortality of patients with EMM.展开更多
Response criteria remain controversial in therapeutic evaluation for locally advanced esophageal carcinoma treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy.We aimed to identify the predictive value of tumor regression grading(TR...Response criteria remain controversial in therapeutic evaluation for locally advanced esophageal carcinoma treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy.We aimed to identify the predictive value of tumor regression grading(TRG) in tumor response and prognosis.Fifty-two patients who underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by esophagectomy and radical 2-field lymphadenectomy between June 2007 and June 2011 were included in this study.All tissue specimens were reassessed according to the TRG scale.Potential prognostic factors,including clinicopathologic factors,were evaluated.Survival curves were generated by using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared with the log-rank test.Prognostic factors were determined with multivariate analysis by using the Cox regression model.Our results showed that of 52 cases,43(83%) were squamous cell carcinoma and 9(17%) were adenocarcinoma.TRG was correlated with pathologic T(P = 0.006) and N(P < 0.001) categories.Median overall survival for the entire cohort was 33 months.The 1-and 2-year overall survival rates were 71% and 44%,respectively.Univariate survival analysis results showed that favorable prognostic factors were histological subtype(P = 0.003),pathologic T category(P = 0.026),pathologic N category(P < 0.001),and TRG G0(P = 0.041).Multivariate analyses identified pathologic N category(P < 0.001) as a significant independent prognostic parameter.Our results indicate that histomorphologic TRG can be considered as an alternative option to predict the therapeutic efficacy and prognostic factor for patients with locally advanced esophageal carcinoma treated by neoadjuvant chemotherapy.展开更多
研究锌离子络合法快速分离纯化荞麦壳黄酮工艺,并评价纯化组分对晚期糖基化终末产物(AGEs)生成的抑制活性。根据络合转化率和络合强度,将荞麦壳黄酮提取物(BHF)经过二次锌离子络合,分别获得荞麦壳黄酮中间提取物(IBHF)和荞麦壳高黄酮组...研究锌离子络合法快速分离纯化荞麦壳黄酮工艺,并评价纯化组分对晚期糖基化终末产物(AGEs)生成的抑制活性。根据络合转化率和络合强度,将荞麦壳黄酮提取物(BHF)经过二次锌离子络合,分别获得荞麦壳黄酮中间提取物(IBHF)和荞麦壳高黄酮组分(HBHF)。采用Box-Behnken响应曲面分析法优化获得IBHF组分的最佳工艺参数:乙酸锌与样品质量比2∶1,乙醇体积分数30%,氨水体积分数0.05%,室温反应10 min。在该条件下络合转化率为97.44%。IBHF组分经过二次锌离子络合,分离获得HBHF组分,其总黄酮含量为57.08 g RE/100 g(三氯化铝-乙酸盐比色法),其纯度比分离纯化前提高了6.64倍。高效液相色谱分析(HPLC)表明,HBHF组分含有异荭草素、牡荆素、异牡荆素、芦丁、山奈酚-3-O芸香糖苷5种主要黄酮,其中芦丁占比62.34%。HBHF组分表现出良好的抗AGEs活性,在质量浓度为200μg/mL时,Glu-BSA体系的中的AGEs抑制率为63.16%,MGO-BSA体系中的AGEs抑制率为42.98%,抑制率均显著优于阳性对照氨基胍。展开更多
基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.62276210,82201148,61775180)the Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi Province(No.2022JM-380)+3 种基金the Shaanxi Province College Students'Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program(No.S202311664128X)the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province(No.LQ22H120002)the Medical Health Science and Technology Project of Zhejiang Province(No.2022RC069,2023KY1140)the Natural Science Foundation of Ningbo(No.2023J390)。
文摘Cataract is the leading cause of visual impairment globally.The scarcity and uneven distribution of ophthalmologists seriously hinder early visual impairment grading for cataract patients in the clin-ic.In this study,a deep learning-based automated grading system of visual impairment in cataract patients is proposed using a multi-scale efficient channel attention convolutional neural network(MECA_CNN).First,the efficient channel attention mechanism is applied in the MECA_CNN to extract multi-scale features of fundus images,which can effectively focus on lesion-related regions.Then,the asymmetric convolutional modules are embedded in the residual unit to reduce the infor-mation loss of fine-grained features in fundus images.In addition,the asymmetric loss function is applied to address the problem of a higher false-negative rate and weak generalization ability caused by the imbalanced dataset.A total of 7299 fundus images derived from two clinical centers are em-ployed to develop and evaluate the MECA_CNN for identifying mild visual impairment caused by cataract(MVICC),moderate to severe visual impairment caused by cataract(MSVICC),and nor-mal sample.The experimental results demonstrate that the MECA_CNN provides clinically meaning-ful performance for visual impairment grading in the internal test dataset:MVICC(accuracy,sensi-tivity,and specificity;91.3%,89.9%,and 92%),MSVICC(93.2%,78.5%,and 96.7%),and normal sample(98.1%,98.0%,and 98.1%).The comparable performance in the external test dataset is achieved,further verifying the effectiveness and generalizability of the MECA_CNN model.This study provides a deep learning-based practical system for the automated grading of visu-al impairment in cataract patients,facilitating the formulation of treatment strategies in a timely man-ner and improving patients’vision prognosis.
文摘We are writing in response to the paper published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology by Zhou et al.The authors identified higher serum immunoglobulin(Ig)G4 levels and age over 55 years as independent risk factors for disease relapse.Despite notable strengths,it is crucial to address potential biases.Firstly,the cohort study included 189 patients with autoimmune pancreatitis(AIP)type 1(with higher IgG4 seropositivity and higher relapse)and 24 with type 2(with lower IgG4 seropositivity and lower relapse).Consequently,most,if not all,AIP type 2 patients were assigned to the normal group,possibly inflating the association of higher serum IgG4 levels with relapse and potentially exaggerating the association of older age with relapse.Secondly,the authors did not provide sufficient details regarding AIP diagnosis,such as the ratio of definitive vs probable cases and the proportion of biopsies.In cases where histological evidence is unavailable or indeterminate,AIP type 2 may be misdiagnosed as definitive type 1,and type 1 may also be misdiagnosed as probable type 2,particularly in cases with normal or mildly elevated serum IgG4 levels.Lastly,in this retrospective study,approximately one-third of the consecutive patients initially collected were excluded for various reasons.Accordingly,the impact of nonrandom exclusion on relapse outcomes should be carefully considered.In conclusion,the paper by Zhou et al offers plausible,though not entirely compelling,evidence suggesting a predictive role of elevated serum IgG4 levels and advanced age in AIP relapse.The foundation for future investigations lies in ensuring a reliable diagnosis and accurate disease subtyping,heavily dependent on obtaining histological specimens.In this regard,endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle biopsy emerges as a pivotal component of the diagnostic process,contributing to mitigating biases in future explorations of the disease.
基金funded by the Fundamental Research Funds of Chinese Academy of Forestry(CAF)(CAFYBB2020QD002-2).
文摘Land use change affects the balance of organic carbon(C)reserves and the global C cycle.Microbial residues are essential constituents of stable soil organic C(SOC).However,it remains unclear how microbial residue changes over time following afforestation.In this study,16-,23-,52-,and 62-year-old Mongolian pine stands and 16-year-old cropland were studied in the Horqin Sandy Land,China.We analyzed changes in SOC,amino sugar content,and microbial parameters to assess how microbial communities influence soil C transformation and preservation.The results showed that SOC storage increased with stand age in the early stage of afforestation but remained unchanged at about 1.27-1.29 kg/m2 after 52 a.Moreover,there were consistent increases in amino sugars and microbial residues with increasing stand age.As stand age increased from 16 to 62 a,soil pH decreased from 6.84 to 5.71,and the concentration of total amino sugars increased from 178.53 to 509.99 mg/kg.A significant negative correlation between soil pH and the concentration of specific and total amino sugars was observed,indicating that the effects of soil acidification promote amino sugar stabilization during afforestation.In contrast to the Mongolian pine plantation of the same age,the cropland accumulated more SOC and microbial residues because of fertilizer application.Across Mongolian pine plantation with different ages,there was no significant change in calculated contribution of bacterial or fungal residues to SOC,suggesting that fungi were consistently the dominant contributors to SOC with increasing time.Our results indicate that afforestation in the Horqin Sandy Land promotes efficient microbial growth and residue accumulation in SOC stocks and has a consistent positive impact on SOC persistence.
文摘In this paper,the covert age of information(CAoI),which characterizes the timeliness and covertness performance of communication,is first investigated in the short-packet covert communication with time modulated retrodirective array(TMRDA).Specifically,the TMRDA is designed to maximize the antenna gain in the target direction while the side lobe is sufficiently suppressed.On this basis,the covertness constraint and CAoI are derived in closed form.To facilitate the covert transmission design,the transmit power and block-length are jointly optimized to minimize the CAoI,which demonstrates the trade-off between covertness and timelessness.Our results illustrate that there exists an optimal block-length that yields the minimum CAoI,and the presented optimization results can achieve enhanced performance compared with the fixed block-length case.Additionally,we observe that smaller beam pointing error at Bob leads to improvements in CAoI.
文摘BACKGROUND Cardiovascular disease(CVD)is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide,the global burden of which is rising.It is still unclear the extent to which prediabetes contributes to the risk of CVD in various age brackets among adults.To develop a focused screening plan and treatment for Chinese adults with prediabetes,it is crucial to identify variations in the connection between prediabetes and the risk of CVD based on age.AIM To examine the clinical features of prediabetes and identify risk factors for CVD in different age groups in China.METHODS The cross-sectional study involved a total of 46239 participants from June 2007 through May 2008.A thorough evaluation was conducted.Individuals with prediabetes were categorized into two groups based on age.Chinese atherosclerotic CVD risk prediction model was employed to evaluate the risk of developing CVD over 10 years.Random forest was established in both age groups.SHapley Additive exPlanation method prioritized the importance of features from the perspective of assessment contribution.RESULTS In total,6948 people were diagnosed with prediabetes in this study.In prediabetes,prevalences of CVD were 5(0.29%)in the younger group and 148(2.85%)in the older group.Overall,11.11%of the younger group and 29.59% of the older group were intermediate/high-risk of CVD for prediabetes without CVD based on the Prediction for ASCVD Risk in China equation in ten years.In the younger age group,the 10-year risk of CVD was found to be more closely linked to family history of CVD rather than lifestyle,whereas in the older age group,resident status was more closely linked.CONCLUSION The susceptibility to CVD is age-specific in newly diagnosed prediabetes.It is necessary to develop targeted approaches for the prevention and management of CVD in adults across various age brackets.
基金This research is partially supported by grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.72071019)grant from the Natural Science Foundation of Chongqing(No.cstc2021jcyj-msxmX0185)grant from the Chongqing Graduate Education and Teaching Reform Research Project(No.yjg193096).
文摘Bone age assessment(BAA)helps doctors determine how a child’s bones grow and develop in clinical medicine.Traditional BAA methods rely on clinician expertise,leading to time-consuming predictions and inaccurate results.Most deep learning-based BAA methods feed the extracted critical points of images into the network by providing additional annotations.This operation is costly and subjective.To address these problems,we propose a multi-scale attentional densely connected network(MSADCN)in this paper.MSADCN constructs a multi-scale dense connectivity mechanism,which can avoid overfitting,obtain the local features effectively and prevent gradient vanishing even in limited training data.First,MSADCN designs multi-scale structures in the densely connected network to extract fine-grained features at different scales.Then,coordinate attention is embedded to focus on critical features and automatically locate the regions of interest(ROI)without additional annotation.In addition,to improve the model’s generalization,transfer learning is applied to train the proposed MSADCN on the public dataset IMDB-WIKI,and the obtained pre-trained weights are loaded onto the Radiological Society of North America(RSNA)dataset.Finally,label distribution learning(LDL)and expectation regression techniques are introduced into our model to exploit the correlation between hand bone images of different ages,which can obtain stable age estimates.Extensive experiments confirm that our model can converge more efficiently and obtain a mean absolute error(MAE)of 4.64 months,outperforming some state-of-the-art BAA methods.
基金supported by the China Geological Survey(Grant No.DD20221649)National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.42230308,42072266)+3 种基金Bureau of Geological Exploration and Development of Qinghai Province(Grant No.[2022]32)the Xingdian Scholar Fund of Yunnan Province(Grant No.C6213001155)China Postdoctoral Science Foundation(Grant No.2021M691702)High-level Talents Project of Qinghai Province.
文摘Identification and anatomy of oceanic arcs within ancient orogenic belt are significant for better understanding the tectonic framework and closure process of paleo-ocean basin.This article summarizes the geological,geochemical,and geochronological characteristics of upper crust of Proto-Tethyan Lajishan intra-oceanic arc and provides new data to constrain the subduction evolution of the South Qilian Ocean.The intra-oceanic arc volcanic rocks,including intermediate-mafic lava,breccia,tuff,and minor felsic rocks,are distributed along southern part of the Lajishan ophiolite belt.Geochemical and isotopic compositions indicate that the intermediate-mafic lava were originated from depleted mantle contaminated by sediment melts or hydrous fluids,whereas the felsic rocks were likely generated by partial melting of juvenile mafic crust in intra-oceanic arc setting.Zircons from felsic rocks yield consistent and concordant ages ranging from 506 to 523 Ma,suggesting these volcanic rocks represent the relicts of upper crust of the Cambrian intra-oceanic arc.Combined with the Cambrian forearc ophiolite and accretionary complex,we suggest that the Cambrian intra-oceanic arc in the Lajishan ophiolite belt is belonging to the intra-oceanic arc system which was generated by south-directed subduction in the South Qilian Ocean at a relatively short interval between approximately 530 and 480 Ma.
基金Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China,No.32200545The GDPH Supporting Fund for Talent Program,No.KJ012020633 and KJ012019530Science and Technology Research Project of Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine,No.YN2022GK04。
文摘BACKGROUND The importance of age on the development of ocular conditions has been reported by numerous studies.Diabetes may have different associations with different stages of ocular conditions,and the duration of diabetes may affect the development of diabetic eye disease.While there is a dose-response relationship between the age at diagnosis of diabetes and the risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality,whether the age at diagnosis of diabetes is associated with incident ocular conditions remains to be explored.It is unclear which types of diabetes are more predictive of ocular conditions.AIM To examine associations between the age of diabetes diagnosis and the incidence of cataract,glaucoma,age-related macular degeneration(AMD),and vision acuity.METHODS Our analysis was using the UK Biobank.The cohort included 8709 diabetic participants and 17418 controls for ocular condition analysis,and 6689 diabetic participants and 13378 controls for vision analysis.Ocular diseases were identified using inpatient records until January 2021.Vision acuity was assessed using a chart.RESULTS During a median follow-up of 11.0 years,3874,665,and 616 new cases of cataract,glaucoma,and AMD,respectively,were identified.A stronger association between diabetes and incident ocular conditions was observed where diabetes was diagnosed at a younger age.Individuals with type 2 diabetes(T2D)diagnosed at<45 years[HR(95%CI):2.71(1.49-4.93)],45-49 years[2.57(1.17-5.65)],50-54 years[1.85(1.13-3.04)],or 50-59 years of age[1.53(1.00-2.34)]had a higher risk of AMD independent of glycated haemoglobin.T2D diagnosed<45 years[HR(95%CI):2.18(1.71-2.79)],45-49 years[1.54(1.19-2.01)],50-54 years[1.60(1.31-1.96)],or 55-59 years of age[1.21(1.02-1.43)]was associated with an increased cataract risk.T2D diagnosed<45 years of age only was associated with an increased risk of glaucoma[HR(95%CI):1.76(1.00-3.12)].HRs(95%CIs)for AMD,cataract,and glaucoma associated with type 1 diabetes(T1D)were 4.12(1.99-8.53),2.95(2.17-4.02),and 2.40(1.09-5.31),respectively.In multivariable-adjusted analysis,individuals with T2D diagnosed<45 years of age[β95%CI:0.025(0.009,0.040)]had a larger increase in LogMAR.Theβ(95%CI)for LogMAR associated with T1D was 0.044(0.014,0.073).CONCLUSION The younger age at the diagnosis of diabetes is associated with a larger relative risk of incident ocular diseases and greater vision loss.
文摘Introduction and Objectives: Soil-Transmitted-Helminthiasis (STH) is a public health problem in Cameroon. The control strategies currently in place, particularly chemoprevention, has shortcomings linked to the target population, which are school-age children. The objective was to determine the prevalence and the risk factors associated with geo-helminthiasis in children aged 0 to 3 years in a rural health district. Method: From December 2020 to May 2021, a descriptive and analytical cross-sectional study of 376 children between 6 and 36 months was carried out in the Akonolinga health district. This was a cluster sampling in 4 health areas. Stool samples were collected and analysed using the mini-FLOTAC method. The results expressed as the number of eggs per gram of stool. A questionnaire on socio-demographic and lifestyle data was administered to the parents. The Chi-squared test was used to measure the association between geo-helminth infection and the data collected. A multivariate analysis using logistic regression was performed (p 0.05). Results: The prevalence of STH was 19.4% (Ascaris lumbricoides: 16% and Trichuris trichiura: 8%). Risk factors were: consumption of contaminated water (AOR = 1.93 [1.03 - 3.6];p = 0.040), early contact of the child with the ground (before age of 4 months) (AOR = 4.9 [2.1 - 11.37];p .001), habit of walking barefoot (AOR = 2.91 [1.1 - 7.97];p = 0.038), and living in a habitat with unpaved ground (AOR = 7.4 [1.55 - 35.7];p = 0.012). Conclusion: The prevalence of STHs in infants was high. Preventive chemotherapy should be extended to this age-group, and other measures intensified.
基金The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Beijing Tongren Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University(Approval No.TRECKY2021-227).
文摘BACKGROUND The incidence and mortality rate of colorectal cancer progressively increase with age and become particularly prominent after the age of 50 years.Therefore,the population that is≥50 years in age requires long-term and regular colonoscopies.Uncomfortable bowel preparation is the main reason preventing patients from undergoing regular colonoscopies.The standard bowel preparation regimen of 4-L polyethylene glycol(PEG)is effective but poorly tolerated.AIM To investigate an effective and comfortable bowel preparation regimen for hospitalized patients≥50 years in age.METHODS Patients were randomly assigned to group 1(2-L PEG+30-mL lactulose+a lowresidue diet)or group 2(4-L PEG).Adequate bowel preparation was defined as a Boston bowel preparation scale(BBPS)score of≥6,with a score of≥2 for each segment.Non-inferiority was prespecified with a margin of 10%.Additionally,the degree of comfort was assessed based on the comfort questionnaire.RESULTS The proportion of patients with a BBPS score of≥6 in group 1 was not significantly different from that in group 2,as demonstrated by intention-to-treat(91.2%vs 91.0%,P=0.953)and per-protocol(91.8%vs 91.0%,P=0.802)analyses.Furthermore,in patients≥75 years in age,the proportion of BBPS scores of≥6 in group 1 was not significantly different from that in group 2(90.9%vs 97.0%,P=0.716).Group 1 had higher comfort scores(8.85±1.162 vs 7.59±1.735,P<0.001),longer sleep duration(6.86±1.204 h vs 5.80±1.730 h,P<0.001),and fewer awakenings(1.42±1.183 vs 2.04±1.835,P=0.026)than group 2.CONCLUSION For hospitalized patients≥50 years in age,the bowel preparation regimen comprising 2-L PEG+30-mL lactulose+a low-residue diet produced a cleanse that was as effective as the 4-L PEG regimen and even provided better comfort.
文摘The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant disruptions in the field of education worldwide,including in the United Arab Emirates.Teachers and students had to adapt to remote learning and virtual classrooms,leading to various challenges in maintaining educational standards.The sudden transition to remote teaching could have a negative impact on students’reading abilities,especially in the Arabic language.To gain insight into the unique challenges encountered by Arabic language teachers in the UAE,a survey was conducted to explore their assessment of teaching quality,student-teacher interaction,and learning outcomes amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.The results of the survey revealed a significant decline of student reading abilities and identified several major issues in online Arabic language teaching.These issues included limited interaction between students and teachers,challenges in monitoring students’class participation and performance,and challenges in effectively assessing students’reading skills.The results also demonstrated some other challenges faced by Arabic language teachers,including a lack of preparedness,a lack of subscription to relevant platforms,and a lack of resources for online learning.Several solutions to these challenges are proposed,including reevaluating the balance between depth and breadth in the curriculum,integrating language skills into the curriculum more effectively,providing more comprehensive teacher professional development,implementing student grouping strategies,utilizing retired and expert teachers in specific content areas,allocating time for interventions,and improving support from both teachers and parents to ensure the quality of online learning.
文摘Potato is one of the most important vegetable crops, which contributes more than half of the total vegetable production in Bangladesh. Four field experiments were conducted in two different locations in Bangladesh to develop integrated nutrient management practices to produce quality potato seed in industrial processing varieties Asterix and Courage. For the inorganic trial, Factorial Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) including 2 potato varieties, 5 treatments with 4 replications, and in the organic fertilizer trial, Factorial RCBD including 2 potato varieties, 6 treatments with 4 replications were used. In the inorganic fertilizer trail, the highest yield was obtained in the variety Asterix due to Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, and Sulfur (NPKS) plus Magnesium treated plot in Domar BADC farm and due to NPKS plus Boron, Zinc, and Magnesium treated plots in Kashimpur Farm. In the case of variety Courage, the highest yield was found in the treatment of NPKS plus Zinc in Domar BADC farm while in Kashimpur farm, NPKS plus Mg treated plots had the highest yield of potato variety-Courage. In the organic fertilizer trail, the highest tuber yield per hill was obtained by applying the government-approved commercial brand Northern organic fertilizer in variety Asterix and by organic fertilizer brand Chook Chook in variety Courage. Parameters such as days to tuber initiation, number of stems per hill, plant height, and number of tubers per hill were found statistically different among the treatments and between the two varieties. Treatments namely Northern organic fertilizer and Cowdung combined with mustard oil cake performed better considering standard grade tuber yield (grade A and B) compared to other treatments. Hence, the combination of NPKS MgZn and either Northern organic or Chook Chook or Cowdung plus mustard oil cake could be used to grow the varieties Asterix and Courage.
基金supported by National Basic Research Program of China(973 Program)under Grant 2013CB228205National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 51541707.
文摘In this paper,a model of a large-scale optimal power flow(OPF)under voltage grading and network partition and its algorithm is presented.Based on the principles of open loop operations,the node injecting current method is used to divide the large-scale power grid into voltage grading and district dividing structures.The power network is further divided into a high-voltage main network and several subnets according to voltage levels of 220 kV.The subnets are connected by means of boundary nodes,and the partition model is solved using the improved approximate Newton direction method,which achieves complete dynamic decoupling simply by exchanging boundary variables between the main network and the subnets.A largescale power grid thus is decomposed into many subnets,making the solution of the problem simpler and faster while helping to protect the information of individual subnets.The system is tested for correctness and effectiveness of the proposed model,and the results obtained are matched in real-time.Finally,the algorithm is seen to have good convergence while improving calculation speed.
基金Supported by the Research Program of the National Research Foundation of Koreafunded by the Ministry of Education and Science and Technology No.2010-0011678and the Soonchunhyang University Research Fund
文摘AIM: To determine the correlation between the hepatic venous pressure gradient and the endoscopic grade of esophageal varices.METHODS: From September 2009 to March 2013, a total of 176 measurements of hepatic venous pressure gradient(HVPG) were done in 146 patients. Each transjugular HVPG was measured twice, first using an end whole catheter(EH-HVPG), and then using a balloon catheter(B-HVPG). The HVPG was compared with the endoscopic grade of esophageal varices(according to the general rules for recording endoscopic findings of esophagogastric varices), which was recorded within a month of the measurement of HVPG.RESULTS: The study included 110 men and 36 women, with a mean age of 56.1 years(range, 43-76 years). The technical success rate of the pressure measurements was 100% and there were no complication related to the procedures. Mean HVPG was 15.3 mm Hg as measured using the end hole catheter method and 16.5 mm Hg as measured using the balloon catheter method. Mean HVPG(both EHHVPG and B-HVPG) was not significantly different among patients with different characteristics, including sex and comorbid factors, except for cases with hepatocellular carcinoma(B-HVPG, P = 0.01; EH-HVPG, P = 0.02). Portal hypertension(> 12 mm Hg HVPG) occurred in 66% of patients according to EH-HVPG and 83% of patients according to B-HVGP, and significantly correlated with Child's status(B-HVPG, P < 0.000; EHHVGP, P < 0.000) and esophageal varies observed upon endoscopy(EH-HVGP, P = 0.003; B-HVGP, P = 0.006). One hundred and thirty-five endoscopies were performed, of which 15 showed normal findings, 27 showed grade 1 endoscopic esophageal varices, 49 showed grade 2 varices, and 44 showed grade 3 varices. When comparing endoscopic esophageal variceal grades and HVPG using univariate analysis, the P value was 0.004 for EH-HVPG and 0.002 for B-HVPG. CONCLUSION: Both EH-HVPG and B-HVPG showed a positive correlation with the endoscopic grade of esophageal varices, with B-HVPG showing a stronger correlation than EH-HVPG.
基金a grant from the National Key Research and Development Program of China(No.2016YFC1000104).
文摘Background:Prenatal evaluation of fetal lung maturity(FLM)is a challenge,and an effective non-invasive method for prenatal assessment of FLM is needed.The study aimed to establish a normal fetal lung gestational age(GA)grading model based on deep learning(DL)algorithms,validate the effectiveness of the model,and explore the potential value of DL algorithms in assessing FLM.Methods:A total of 7013 ultrasound images obtained from 1023 normal pregnancies between 20 and 41+6 weeks were analyzed in this study.There were no pregnancy-related complications that affected fetal lung development,and all infants were born without neonatal respiratory diseases.The images were divided into three classes based on the gestational week:class I:20 to 29+6 weeks,class II:30 to 36+6 weeks,and class III:37 to 41+6 weeks.There were 3323,2142,and 1548 images in each class,respectively.First,we performed a pre-processing algorithm to remove irrelevant information from each image.Then,a convolutional neural network was designed to identify different categories of fetal lung ultrasound images.Finally,we used ten-fold cross-validation to validate the performance of our model.This new machine learning algorithm automatically extracted and classified lung ultrasound image information related to GA.This was used to establish a grading model.The performance of the grading model was assessed using accuracy,sensitivity,specificity,and receiver operating characteristic curves.Results:A normal fetal lung GA grading model was established and validated.The sensitivity of each class in the independent test set was 91.7%,69.8%,and 86.4%,respectively.The specificity of each class in the independent test set was 76.8%,90.0%,and 83.1%,respectively.The total accuracy was 83.8%.The area under the curve(AUC)of each class was 0.982,0.907,and 0.960,respectively.The micro-average AUC was 0.957,and the macro-average AUC was 0.949.Conclusions:The normal fetal lung GA grading model could accurately identify ultrasound images of the fetal lung at different GAs,which can be used to identify cases of abnormal lung development due to gestational diseases and evaluate lung maturity after antenatal corticosteroid therapy.The results indicate that DL algorithms can be used as a non-invasive method to predict FLM.
文摘BACKGROUND Extramedullary multiple myeloma(MM)(EMM)is a rare and aggressive subentity of MM that can be present at diagnosis or develop anytime during the disease course.There is a paucity of data on the clinical characteristics and overall epidemiology of EMM.Furthermore,there is a scarcity of data on how the interaction of age and gender influences the survival of EMM.AIM To evaluate the clinical characteristics of patients with EMM over the past 2 decades and to identify epidemiologic characteristics that may impact overall prognosis.METHODS A total of 858 patients diagnosed with EMM,between 2000 and 2017,were ultimately enrolled in our study by retrieving the Surveillance,Epidemiology,and End Results database.We analyzed demographics,clinical characteristics,and overall mortality(OM)as well as cancer-specific mortality(CSM)of EMM.Variables with a P value<0.1 in the univariate Cox regression were incorporated into the multivariate Cox model to determine the independent prognostic factors,with a hazard ratio(HR)of greater than 1 representing adverse prognostic factors.RESULTS From a sample of 858 EMM,the male gender(63.25%),age range 60-79 years(51.05%),and non-Hispanic whites(66.78%)were the most represented.Central Nervous System and the vertebral column was the most affected site(33.10%).Crude analysis revealed higher OM in the age group 80+[HR=6.951,95%confidence interval(95%CI):3.299-14.647,P=0],Non-Hispanic Black population(HR=1.339,95%CI:1.02-1.759,P=0.036),Bones not otherwise specified(NOS)(HR=1.74,95%CI:1.043-2.902,P=0.034),and widowed individuals(HR=2.107,95%CI:1.511-2.938,P=0).Skin involvement(HR=0.241,95%CI:0.06-0.974,P=0.046)and a yearly income of$75000+(HR=0.259,95%CI:0.125-0.538,P=0)had the lowest OM in the crude analysis.Crude analysis revealed higher CSM in the age group 80+,Non-Hispanic Black,Bones NOS,and widowed.Multivariate cox proportional hazard regression analyses only revealed higher OM in the age group 80+(HR=9.792,95%CI:4.403-21.774,P=0)and widowed individuals(HR=1.609,95%CI:1.101-2.35,P=0.014).Multivariate cox proportional hazard regression analyses of CSM also revealed higher mortality of the same groups.Eyes,mouth,and ENT involvement had the lowest CSM in the multivariate analysis.There was no interaction between age and gender in the adjusted analysis for OM and CSM.CONCLUSION EMM is a rare entity.To our knowledge,there is a scarcity of data on the clinical characteristics and prognosis factors of patients with extramedullary multiple myeloma.In this retrospective cohort,using a United States-based population,we found that age,marital status,and tumor site were independent prognostic factors.Furthermore,we found that age and gender did not interact to influence the mortality of patients with EMM.
基金supported by a grant from the National Key Technology Research and Development Program of China (No.2006AA02A403)
文摘Response criteria remain controversial in therapeutic evaluation for locally advanced esophageal carcinoma treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy.We aimed to identify the predictive value of tumor regression grading(TRG) in tumor response and prognosis.Fifty-two patients who underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by esophagectomy and radical 2-field lymphadenectomy between June 2007 and June 2011 were included in this study.All tissue specimens were reassessed according to the TRG scale.Potential prognostic factors,including clinicopathologic factors,were evaluated.Survival curves were generated by using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared with the log-rank test.Prognostic factors were determined with multivariate analysis by using the Cox regression model.Our results showed that of 52 cases,43(83%) were squamous cell carcinoma and 9(17%) were adenocarcinoma.TRG was correlated with pathologic T(P = 0.006) and N(P < 0.001) categories.Median overall survival for the entire cohort was 33 months.The 1-and 2-year overall survival rates were 71% and 44%,respectively.Univariate survival analysis results showed that favorable prognostic factors were histological subtype(P = 0.003),pathologic T category(P = 0.026),pathologic N category(P < 0.001),and TRG G0(P = 0.041).Multivariate analyses identified pathologic N category(P < 0.001) as a significant independent prognostic parameter.Our results indicate that histomorphologic TRG can be considered as an alternative option to predict the therapeutic efficacy and prognostic factor for patients with locally advanced esophageal carcinoma treated by neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
文摘研究锌离子络合法快速分离纯化荞麦壳黄酮工艺,并评价纯化组分对晚期糖基化终末产物(AGEs)生成的抑制活性。根据络合转化率和络合强度,将荞麦壳黄酮提取物(BHF)经过二次锌离子络合,分别获得荞麦壳黄酮中间提取物(IBHF)和荞麦壳高黄酮组分(HBHF)。采用Box-Behnken响应曲面分析法优化获得IBHF组分的最佳工艺参数:乙酸锌与样品质量比2∶1,乙醇体积分数30%,氨水体积分数0.05%,室温反应10 min。在该条件下络合转化率为97.44%。IBHF组分经过二次锌离子络合,分离获得HBHF组分,其总黄酮含量为57.08 g RE/100 g(三氯化铝-乙酸盐比色法),其纯度比分离纯化前提高了6.64倍。高效液相色谱分析(HPLC)表明,HBHF组分含有异荭草素、牡荆素、异牡荆素、芦丁、山奈酚-3-O芸香糖苷5种主要黄酮,其中芦丁占比62.34%。HBHF组分表现出良好的抗AGEs活性,在质量浓度为200μg/mL时,Glu-BSA体系的中的AGEs抑制率为63.16%,MGO-BSA体系中的AGEs抑制率为42.98%,抑制率均显著优于阳性对照氨基胍。
