Effects of six antipsychotic drug treatment regimens on short-term heart rate variability in patients with schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE: Many antipsychotic drugs have cardiac side effects due to their pharmacological actions. Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis can be used as a potential indicator of cardiotoxicity in cases where a decrease in HRV occurs after the administration of antipsychotics such as clozapine. The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of 6 antipsychotic drug regimens on short-term HRV in patients with schizophrenia. METHODS: Data from 164 patients with schizophrenia between January 2018 and June 2023 were retrospectively analysed. Based on the drug used for treatment, the patients were categorised into clozapine combination (clozapine combined with aripiprazole, risperidone or ziprasidone), clozapine alone, olanzapine, aripiprazole, ziprasidone or risperidone groups. Heart rate variability indices were calculated using time domain analysis, including the standard deviation of the RR intervals (SDNN), the root mean square of successive RR interval differences (RMSSD) and the percentage of successive RR intervals over 50 ms (PNN50). RESULTS: Compared with the pretreatment period, the SDNN, RMSSD and PNN50 were significantly lower in the clozapine combination, clozapine, olanzapine and aripiprazole groups at the end of weeks 2 and 4 of treatment (P < 0.05). However, these indicators in ziprasidone and risperidone groups did not show this significant decrease (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: The effects of clozapine combination and clozapine on HRV were greater than for olanzapine, aripiprazole, ziprasidone or risperidone. Attention should be paid to controlling the dosage of clozapine combination and clozapine and monitoring the patient's electrocardiogram during administration.

Spectral integrated neural networks (SINNs) for solving forward and inverse dynamic problems.

This study introduces an innovative neural network framework named spectral integrated neural networks (SINNs) to address both forward and inverse dynamic problems in three-dimensional space. In the SINNs, the spectral integration technique is utilized for temporal discretization, followed by the application of a fully connected neural network to solve the resulting partial differential equations in the spatial domain. Furthermore, the polynomial basis functions are employed to expand the unknown function, with the goal of improving the performance of SINNs in tackling inverse problems. The performance of the developed framework is evaluated through several dynamic benchmark examples encompassing linear and nonlinear heat conduction problems, linear and nonlinear wave propagation problems, inverse problem of heat conduction, and long-time heat conduction problem. The numerical results demonstrate that the SINNs can effectively and accurately solve forward and inverse problems involving heat conduction and wave propagation. Additionally, the SINNs provide precise and stable solutions for dynamic problems with extended time durations. Compared to commonly used physics-informed neural networks, the SINNs exhibit superior performance with enhanced convergence speed, computational accuracy, and efficiency.

Self-Scrolling of a Graphyne Ribbon Near a CNT in Multiphysical Environments.

Graphyne nanoscrolls (GNSs) have attracted significant research interest because of their wide-ranging applications. However, the production of GNSs via a self-scrolling approach is environment dependent. Here, molecular dynamics simulations are conducted to evaluate the self-scrolling behavior of an α-graphyne (α-GY) ribbon on a carbon nanotube (CNT) within various multiphysical environments, accounting for the interactions among temperature, electric field, and argon gas. The results demonstrate that the fabrication of an α-GNS lies in the interplay of van der Waals (vdW) forces among the components in a vacuum. Notably, the α-GY ribbon is easier to scroll onto a thicker CNT. The electric field attenuates the vdW interaction, necessitating thicker CNTs for successful self-scrolling under a stronger electric field. In argon, both the vdW interaction and nanoscale pore contribute to the overlap formation. At 300 K, increasing argon density prolongs the time required for α-GNS formation, with self-scrolling failing beyond a critical gas density threshold. Moreover, the self-scrolling becomes easier at higher temperatures. In multiphysical environments, the interplay between the electric field and the gas density dictates the self-scrolling at low temperatures. Finally, reasonable suggestions are given for successful self-scrolling. The conclusions offer valuable insights for the practical fabrication of α-GNS.

Growth of infants delivered by mothers with HIV in Guangxi, China: An 18-month longitudinal follow-up study, 2015-2021.

OBJECTIVES: The prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV has been a global success. But little is known about the growth parameters of infants delivered by mothers with HIV or the drug resistance of infants with HIV in China. The study aimed to assess growth parameters and drug resistance in Chinese infants exposed to HIV. METHODS: We conducted an 18-month longitudinal follow-up study of 3283 infants (3222 without HIV; 61 with HIV) born to mothers with HIV in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region between January 2015 and December 2021. The weight and length of all participants was recorded. In addition, genetic subtypes and drug resistance analysis were performed for infants with HIV. RESULTS: Compared with infants without HIV, those with HIV had significantly lower weight/length Z-scores, except at 18 months of age. The length/age Z-scores of infants with HIV was significantly reduced, except at 1 month of age. The weight/age Z-scores of infants with HIV were significantly lower at all follow-up time points. The weight/length Z-scores of male infants without HIV were significantly lower than for female infants without HIV at all follow-up time points. Male infants without HIV had lower length/age and weight/age Z-scores than female infants at the remaining follow-up points, except at 1 month of age. Of a total of 61 infants with HIV, subtype and drug-resistance data were obtained from 37 (60.66%) samples. Infants with HIV were dominated by the CRF01_AE genotype and showed a diversity of mutation sites dominated by non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor resistance. CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrates the growth of infants exposed to HIV in southwest China and provides detailed information on subtype distribution and drug resistance of those with HIV. Nutritional support and drug-resistance surveillance for infants exposed to HIV need to be strengthened.

Band gap of shear horizontal waves for one-dimensional phononic crystals with chiral materials.

Extensive applications of chiral lattice structures in the field of acoustic wave manipulation and vibration modulation show the effectiveness of chirality route to the design of phononic crystals. However, how and to what extent the material chirality affects the band gap properties of phononic crystals remains unclear. In this study, one-dimensional phononic crystals made of chiral materials is proposed, and a theoretical model of shear horizontal (SH) wave propagation in the chiral phononic crystals is developed based on the noncentrosymmetric micropolar elasticity theory. Through the transfer matrix method, the dispersion relationship of SH wave propagation is obtained and the effects of material chirality on the band-gap properties are investigated. Our work demonstrates that the change of material chirality can significantly affect the dispersion relationship of phononic crystals, leading to the wide band gap and low frequency. In a unit cell, when the chiral coefficients of the two parts have opposite signs but the same magnitude and the chiral directions are consistent with the vibrational direction, it is the most favorable for the phononic crystals to achieve the lowest frequency and widest band gap. This study suggests that the material chirality can be harnessed to effectively tune the band-gap properties of phononic crystals. The present study provides insight for the chirality route to the design of phononic crystals.

From VIB- to VB-Group Transition Metal Disulfides: Structure Engineering Modulation for Superior Electromagnetic Wave Absorption.

The laminated transition metal disulfides (TMDs), which are well known as typical two-dimensional (2D) semiconductive materials, possess a unique layered structure, leading to their wide-spread applications in various fields, such as catalysis, energy storage, sensing, etc. In recent years, a lot of research work on TMDs based functional materials in the fields of electromagnetic wave absorption (EMA) has been carried out. Therefore, it is of great significance to elaborate the influence of TMDs on EMA in time to speed up the application. In this review, recent advances in the development of electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorbers based on TMDs, ranging from the VIB group to the VB group are summarized. Their compositions, microstructures, electronic properties, and synthesis methods are presented in detail. Particularly, the modulation of structure engineering from the aspects of heterostructures, defects, morphologies and phases are systematically summarized, focusing on optimizing impedance matching and increasing dielectric and magnetic losses in the EMA materials with tunable EMW absorption performance. Milestones as well as the challenges are also identified to guide the design of new TMDs based dielectric EMA materials with high performance.

A Novel Approach of Customized Pelvic Implant Design Based on Symmetrical Analysis and 3D Printing.

In pelvic trauma patients, the mismatch of complex geometries between the pelvis and fixation implant is a fundamental cause of unstable and displaced pelvic ring disruption, in which secondary intervention is strongly considered. The geometrical matching in the current customized implant design and clinical practice is through the nonfractured hemi-pelvis for the fractured pelvis. This design philosophy overlooks the anatomical difference between the hemipelves, and further, the geometrical asymmetry at local area still remains unknown. This study analyzed the anatomical asymmetry of a patient's 3D pelvic models from 13 patients. The hemipelves of each patient were registered by using an iterative closet algorithm to an optimum position with minimum deviations. The high deviation regions were summarized between the hemipelves in each case, and a color map was drawn on a hemipelvis model that identified the areas that had a high possibility to be symmetrically different. A severe pelvic trauma case was used to comprehend the approach by designing a 3D printed implant. Each fracture was then registered to the mirrored uninjured hemipelvis by using the same algorithm, and customized fixation implants were designed with reference to the fractured model. The customized fixation plates showed that the implants had lower geometrical deviation when attached onto the re-stitched fracture side than onto the mirrored nonfractured bone. These results indicate that the symmetrical analysis of bone anatomy and the deviation color map can assist with implant selection and customized implant design given the geometrical difference between symmetrical bones. The novel approach provides a scientific reference that improves the accuracy and overall standard of 3D printed implants.

Finite Element Analysis and Computational Fluid Dynamics Verification of Molten Pool Characteristics During Selective Laser Melting of Ti-6Al-4V Plates.

The finite element (FE) method is used to characterize the thermal gradient, solidification rate, and molten pool sizes of Ti-6Al-4V plates in the process of selective laser melting (SLM). The results are verified by using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. The proposed FE model contains a series of toolpath information that is directly converted from a G-code file, including hatch spacing, laser power, layer thickness, dwell time, and scanning speed generated by using Slic3r software from a CAD file. A proposed multi-layer, multi-track FE model is used to investigate the influence of the laser power, scanning speed, and scanning path on the microstructure in the Ti-6Al-4V plate built via SLM. The processing window is also determined based on the proposed FE model. The FE results indicate that, with a decrease in the laser power and an increase in the scanning speed, the morphology of the crystal grains, showing fully columnar crystals, gradually deviates from the fully equiaxed region. The formed grains are dependent on the laser power, scanning speed, and deposition position, but they are not sensitive to the scanning path, and with the deposition from the bottom layer to the top layer, the size of the formed grains is gradually increasing, which shows a good agreement with the experimental results.

TIPE1 promotes liver regeneration by enhancing ROS-FoxO1 axis mediated autophagy.

The strong regenerative ability of the liver safeguards the crucial hepatic functions. The balance between hepatocyte proliferation and death is critical for restoring liver size and physiology. Tumour necrosis factor (TNF) alpha-induced protein 8-like 1 (TIPE1) is highly expressed in liver and has been identified as a candidate regulator for cell proliferation and death, being involved in a variety of biological processes and diseases. However, the role of TIPE1 in liver regeneration remains unexplored. In the present study, we found that TIPE1 expression was elevated in the regenerating liver induced by either partial hepatectomy or 10% carbon tetrachloride administration. Mice with hepatocyte conditional Tipe1 knockout presented significantly impaired liver regeneration. Mechanistically, hepatic Tipe1 deficiency decreased the level of reactive oxygen species in hepatocytes, which in turn led to the inhibition of Forkhead box O1 acetylation and microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 I to microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 II conversion, and the accumulation of sequestosome 1. By contrast, forced expression of TIPE1 in hepatocyte significantly promoted liver regeneration following 70% partial hepatectomy and enhanced hepatocyte reactive oxygen species/acetylated-Forkhead box O1 level and autophagy. These findings indicate that TIPE1 plays a crucial role in liver regeneration by finely regulating the oxidative stress and autophagy and is a potential target for medical intervention of liver regeneration.

The characterization of bovine compact bone fatigue damage using terahertz spectroscopy.

Fatigue can cause cracks to propagate from the micro- to the macroscale, which results in a decrease of Young's modulus of the bone. Non-destructive measurements of bone fatigue damage are of great importance for bone quality assessment and fracture prevention. Unfortunately, there is still a lack of effective nondestructive methods sensitive to the initial deterioration during damage accumulation, particularly in the field of orthopedics and biomechanics. In this study, terahertz spectroscopy was adopted to evaluate microscale bone damage. Specifically, the refractive index and Young's modulus of bone samples subjected to different degrees of fatigue damage were tested at a fixed area. Both parameters are found to decrease in two stages under cycled fatigue loading, which is attributed to the initial onset and subsequent development of microdamage during fatigue loading. The change in refractive index reflects the accumulation of fatigue damage as well as the decrease in Young's modulus.

Self-assembly for preparing nanotubes from monolayer graphyne ribbons on a carbon nanotube.

Graphyne nanotube (GNT), as a promising one-dimensional carbon material, attracts extensive attention in recent years. However, the synthesis of GNT is still challenging even in the laboratory. This study reveals the feasibility of fabricating a GNT by self-assembling a monolayer graphyne (GY) ribbon on a carbon nanotube (CNT) via theoretical and numerical analysis. Triggered by the van der Waals force from the CNT, a GY ribbon near the tube first winds upon the tube and then conditionally self-assembles to form a GNT. The self-assembly process and result are heavily influenced by the ambient temperature, which indicates the thermal vibration of the nanosystem. Molecular dynamic simulation results address the temperature range conducive to successful self-assembly. Different types of GNTs, e.g.α-,ß-, andγ-GNTs with specified chirality (armchair, zigzag, and chiral), length, and radius, can be obtained via self-assembly by controlling the geometry of the GY ribbons and temperature. The present theoretical understanding is helpful for fabricating GNTs with predefined morphology.

Quantitative Characterization of the Anisotropy of the Stress-Optical Properties of Polyethylene Terephthalate Films Based on the Photoelastic Method.

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is one of the most commonly used substrate materials in the field of flexible electronics, and its stress-induced birefringence often has a detrimental effect on the optical properties of the device. Therefore, a deep and systematic understanding of the stress-optical properties of PET films is crucial for device design and manufacture. The photoelastic method is a direct optical measurement technique based on the stress-induced birefringence effect of materials, which has the advantages of being nondestructive and noncontact. In this work, the photoelastic method was used to quantitatively characterize the anisotropy of the stress-optical properties of PET films under the uniaxial stress state. First, a self-built reflection-transmission coaxial bidirectional photoelasticity measurement system was developed by means of a combination of transmission and reflection photoelasticity. Then, the stress-optical coefficients and isoclinic angles of PET films with different stretching angles were measured. Finally, the linear combinations of the photoelastic tensor components and refractive-index-related parameters were determined by fitting the analytical relationship between the stress-optical coefficients and isoclinic angles.

Optimized XGBoost Model with Small Dataset for Predicting Relative Density of Ti-6Al-4V Parts Manufactured by Selective Laser Melting.

Determining the quality of Ti-6Al-4V parts fabricated by selective laser melting (SLM) remains a challenge due to the high cost of SLM and the need for expertise in processes and materials. In order to understand the correspondence of the relative density of SLMed Ti-6Al-4V parts with process parameters, an optimized extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) decision tree model was developed in the present paper using hyperparameter optimization with the GridsearchCV method. In particular, the effect of the size of the dataset for model training and testing on model prediction accuracy was examined. The results show that with the reduction in dataset size, the prediction accuracy of the proposed model decreases, but the overall accuracy can be maintained within a relatively high accuracy range, showing good agreement with the experimental results. Based on a small dataset, the prediction accuracy of the optimized XGBoost model was also compared with that of artificial neural network (ANN) and support vector regression (SVR) models, and it was found that the optimized XGBoost model has better evaluation indicators such as mean absolute error, root mean square error, and the coefficient of determination. In addition, the optimized XGBoost model can be easily extended to the prediction of mechanical properties of more metal materials manufactured by SLM processes.

Trends in the psychosocial and mental health of HIV-positive women in China from 2015 to 2020: Results from two cross-sectional surveys.

BACKGROUND: The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) continues to be one of the major public health challenges in the world. Despite the advancement in medication and changes in views towards HIV in Chinese society, little is known about the changes in the psychosocial and mental health of HIV-positive women in recent years. OBJECTIVES: The present study examined the change in depression, anxiety, stigma, relationship with the child, intimacy with a partner, and social support from family, friends, and health professionals, for HIV-positive women in China from 2015 to 2020. METHODS: Two cross-sectional surveys were conducted in 2015 and 2020, and 429 and 382 HIV-positive women were recruited from the Women's Health Department in Yunnan and Guangxi, China between November 2015 to May 2016, and November 2019 to January 2020, respectively. RESULTS: After controlling for significant sociodemographic variables, participants recruited in 2019-2020 had significantly lower levels of depression and anxiety and higher scores on emotional and tangible support from friends. On the other hand, they had lower scores in intimacy with partners and emotional and tangible support from family. No significant changes were found in stigma, relationship with the child, and support from health professionals. CONCLUSION: Results provide important information on the changes in psychosocial and mental health, which offer insights into the design of interventions to promote psychosocial and mental health among HIV-positive women in China. PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: HIV-positive women contributed to the data of this study. Health care professionals were involved in the discussion of the methods and results.

A method for designing tunable chiral mechanical carbon networks for energy storage.

A method is proposed for designing tunable chiral nano-networks using partly hydrogenated graphene ribbons and carbon nanotubes (CNTs). In the network, the hydrogenated graphene ribbons (HGRs) act as basic components, which connect each other via CNT joints. Each component contains two HGR segments and an internal graphene joint (G-J2) or CNT joint (CNT-J2). Since the two HGR segments are hydrogenated at opposite surfaces, they may wind in chiral about the internal joint to form a scroll (G-J2-scroll or CNT-J2-scroll) or about the two end joints to form CNT-J4-scrolls. In general, a G-J2-scroll is formed more easily than both a CNT-J4-scroll and a CNT-J2-scroll. Because of scrolling, the surface energy is reduced. This reduction is converted to and stored as deformation potential energy. By means of molecular-dynamics simulations, we studied the final configurations of two types of networks from the same components, the maximum shrinkage, and their capacity of energy storage for potential application of energy storage or as large-deformable components in a nano-device. The results indicate that the network reaches a stable state when the shrinkage reaches 70% of the two in-plane dimensions.

Dynamic Behavior of Rotation Transmission Nano-System in Helium Environment: A Molecular Dynamics Study.

The molecular dynamics (MD) method is used to investigate the influence of the shielding gas on the dynamic behavior of the heterogeneous rotation transmission nano-system (RTS) built on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and boron nitride nanotube (BNNT) in a helium environment. In the heterogeneous RTS, the inner CNT acts as a rotor, the middle BNNT serves as a motor, and the outer CNT functions as a stator. The rotor will be actuated to rotate by the motor due to the interlayer van der Waals effects and the end effects. The MD simulation results show that, when the gas density is lower than a critical range, a stable signal of the rotor will arise on the output and the rotation transmission ratio (RRT) of RTS can reach 1.0, but as the gas density is higher than the critical range, the output signal of the rotor cannot be stable due to the sharp drop of the RRT caused by the large friction between helium and the RTS. The greater the motor input signal of RTS, the lower the critical working helium density range. The results also show that the system temperature and gas density are the two main factors affecting the RTS transmission behavior regardless of the size of the simulation box. Our MD results clearly indicate that in the working temperature range of the RTS from 100 K to 600 K, the higher the temperature and the lower the motor input rotation frequency, the higher the critical working helium density range allows.

Formation of chiral morphologies of biological materials induced by chirality.

Chiral growth exists prevalently in natural materials. The mechanism underlying the formation of chiral morphologies in biological and man-made materials has been an important issue of both theoretical and technological interest. In this paper, an elastic rod model taking into account chiral microstructures is developed to investigate the formation of chiral morphologies of biological materials. The curvature and twist of chiral shapes are investigated with this model using the variational method of energy. The result shows the misfit of chirality of two-layer structured biological materials may induce various chiral morphologies, such as helices and twisting belts. Furthermore, it was found that cooperative or competitive interactions between anisotropic elasticity and chirality can also lead to the formation of chiral morphologies, and the fibre orientation angles and chiral parameters are the determining factors to the shape, size and handedness of chiral morphologies. This work is expected to shed new light on the physical mechanisms of the formation of various chiral morphologies in the biological world and provide useful guidance for the design of deformation driving and shape control of soft robots and machines.

Tensile and compressive strain evolutions of bovine compact bone under four-point bending fatigue loading.

Bones are biological composite materials with multiscale structures. Bone fatigue damage is commonly characterized by an increase in strain that is accompanied by microdamage at different scales. This study investigated the damage evolutions of bone specimens under four-point bending fatigue loading using neutral axis migration. Tensile and compressive strains during the fatigue process were simultaneously measured using a digital image correlation technique. The compressive strain of the bone specimen increased rapidly at first and then proceeded slowly while the tensile strain decreased during fatigue loading. Consequently, the neutral axis shifted downward as the damage accumulated. A positive correlation exists between the downward offset of the neutral axis and the number of cycles. The variation in compressive strain is larger than that in tensile strain in this situation.

Bonding few-layered graphene via collision with high-speed fullerenes.

Graphene, as a typical two-dimensional material, is popular in the design of nanodevices. The interlayer relative sliding of graphene sheets can significantly affect the effective bending stiffness of the few-layered graphene. For restricting the relative sliding, we adopted the atomic shot peening method to bond the graphene sheets together by ballistic C60 fullerenes from its two surfaces. Collision effects are evaluated via molecular dynamics simulations. Results obtained indicate that the fullerenes' incident velocity has an interval, in which the graphene sheet can be bonded after collision while no atoms on the fullerenes escaping from the graphene ribbon after collision. The limits of the interval increase with the layer number. Within a few picoseconds of collision, a stable carbon network is produced at an impacted area. The graphene sheets are bonded via the network and cannot slide relatively anymore. Conclusions are drawn to show the way of potential applications of the method in manufacturing a new graphene-based two-dimensional material that has a high out-of-plane bending stiffness.

Impact of the weekday of the first intensity-modulated radiotherapy treatment on the survival outcomes of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma: A multicenter cohort study.

BACKGROUND: This study's purpose was to assess whether the weekday on which intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) is initiated influences survival outcomes in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 1440 patients with NPC who received IMRT were enrolled in this study between January 2010 and June 2016. The patients were divided into five groups according to the weekday of their first radiotherapy treatment. Group 1 (n = 322), Group 2 (n = 322), Group 3 (n = 286), Group 4 (n = 292) and Group 5 (n = 218) received first radiotherapy on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday respectively. Differences in the rates of overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), loco-regional relapse-free survival (LRRFS) and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) were compared among the five groups using the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression models. RESULTS: No significant differences were found in OS, DFS, LRRFS or DMFS among the five groups. The Cox regression analysis showed that the weekday on which the radiotherapy was initiated was not an independent predictor of OS (Hazard Ratio [HR], 1.056; 95%CI: 0.959-1.164, P = 0.268), DFS (HR, 1.067; 95% CI: 0.980-1.161, P = 0.137), LRRFS (HR, 1.069; 95% CI: 0.914-1.249, P = 0.404) and DMFS (HR, 1.027; 95% CI: 0.929-1.134, P = 0.607). The subgroup analysis showed no significant differences among the five groups. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that the day of the week that patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma begin radiotherapy has no effect on their survival outcomes.