Evolutionary dynamics of any multiplayer game on regular graphs.

Multiplayer games on graphs are at the heart of theoretical descriptions of key evolutionary processes that govern vital social and natural systems. However, a comprehensive theoretical framework for solving multiplayer games with an arbitrary number of strategies on graphs is still missing. Here, we solve this by drawing an analogy with the Balls-and-Boxes problem, based on which we show that the local configuration of multiplayer games on graphs is equivalent to distributing k identical co-players among n distinct strategies. We use this to derive the replicator equation for any n-strategy multiplayer game under weak selection, which can be solved in polynomial time. As an example, we revisit the second-order free-riding problem, where costly punishment cannot truly resolve social dilemmas in a well-mixed population. Yet, in structured populations, we derive an accurate threshold for the punishment strength, beyond which punishment can either lead to the extinction of defection or transform the system into a rock-paper-scissors-like cycle. The analytical solution also qualitatively agrees with the phase diagrams that were previously obtained for non-marginal selection strengths. Our framework thus allows an exploration of any multi-strategy multiplayer game on regular graphs.

Comparing efficacy and factors of postoperative bleeding in endoscopic mucosal resection vs coagulation for intestinal polyps.

This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of Endoscopic Mucosal Resection (EMR) and Argon Plasma Coagulation (APC) as therapeutic approaches for intestinal polyps in patients, and to examine the factors associated with postoperative bleeding. This study included 132 patients diagnosed with colorectal polyps (188 polyps) who underwent endoscopic surgery at our hospital between January 2022 and December 2022. Based on the surgical method employed, the patients were divided into 2 groups: EMR (68 cases, 97 polyps) and APC (64 cases, 91 polyps). Comparative analyses were conducted to assess the clinical efficacy, surgery-related indicators, and quality of life the 2 groups. Furthermore, an investigation was carried out to identify the factors associated with postoperative bleeding. The analysis revealed no statistically significant difference in the cure rate of flat and superficial raised polyps between the EMR group and the APC (P > .05). However, it was found that the EMR group exhibited a significantly higher cure rate for subpedunculated and raised-pedunculated polyps compared to the APC group (P < .05). The results of logistics analysis showed that patients with hypertension (OR = 2.876, 95% CI: 1.119-7.393), patients with diabetes (OR = 5.278, 95% CI: 1.388-20.064), patients with hyperlipidemia (OR = 2.594, 95% CI: 1.054-6.380), the polyps of right hemicolon (OR = 2.743, 95% CI: 1.003-7.504), rectal polyps (OR = 5.143, 95% CI: 1.728-7.504), pedunculated polyps (OR = 4.758, 95% CI: 1.322-17.129), adenomatous polyps (OR = 3.152, 95% CI: 1.018-9.757) were independent risk factors for postoperative bleeding in patients with colorectal polyps (P < .05). The findings suggest that for subpedunculated and pedunculated-raised polyps, EMR can be a suitable treatment approach. On the other hand, flat and superficial-raised polyps can be effectively managed with either EMR or APC. The presence of hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, polyps of the right hemicolon, rectal polyps, pedunculated polyps, and adenomatous polyps has been established as independent risk factors for postoperative bleeding in patients with colorectal polyps.

Zealous cooperation does not always promote cooperation in public goods games.

There is a conventional belief that prosocial behaviors cannot arise through selfish human nature, because defection always exploits cooperation to achieve a higher payoff at an individual level. Unyieldingly, some people hope to move society to cooperation through their zealous cooperation, regardless of payoffs. From the perspective of spatial evolutionary games, however, such zealous behavior is unnecessary because cooperation can emerge from selfish human nature by aggregating in evolution. Yet, to what extent can zealous cooperation induce others to cooperate? We assume a fraction of zealous agents in spatial public goods games who always cooperate. The results show that a moderate proportion of these zealous cooperators can diminish the cooperation level in the system, and cooperation is only promoted when zealots are many. Regarding spatial behaviors, the areas of zealous cooperation in a medium density can prevent evolutionary cooperation from passing through and aggregating. The phenomenon of zealous cooperation impeding cooperation becomes more pronounced when agents become less random and more selfish. This is because dotted zealous cooperation provides significant payoffs to neighboring defection, making them more solid in fitness. In this way, we also find that when zealous cooperators have low productivity, the neighbors receive fewer benefits by exploitation, thus allowing cooperation to spread. We also study replicator dynamics in unstructured populations where zealous cooperation always promotes cooperation, agreeing that zealous cooperation hindering cooperation is a spatial effect.

Evolution of cooperation under a generalized death-birth process.

According to the evolutionary death-birth protocol, a player is chosen randomly to die and neighbors compete for the available position proportional to their fitness. Hence, the status of the focal player is completely ignored and has no impact on the strategy update. In this paper, we revisit and generalize this rule by introducing a weight factor to compare the payoff values of the focal and invading neighbors. By means of evolutionary graph theory, we analyze the model on joint transitive graphs to explore the possible consequences of the presence of a weight factor. We find that focal weight always hinders cooperation under weak selection strength. Surprisingly, the results show a nontrivial tipping point of the weight factor where the threshold of cooperation success shifts from positive to negative infinity. Once focal weight exceeds this tipping point, cooperation becomes unreachable. Our theoretical predictions are confirmed by Monte Carlo simulations on a square lattice of different sizes. We also verify the robustness of the conclusions to arbitrary two-player prisoner's dilemmas, to dispersal graphs with arbitrary edge weights, and to interaction and dispersal graphs overlapping arbitrarily.

A simple epidemic model for semi-closed community reveals the hidden outbreak risk in nursing homes, prisons, and residential universities.

We develop a general SIS model to study the epidemic transmission in such semi-closed communities. The community population is divided into susceptible and infected in terms of the infection state, and concerning the physical structure of the crowd, they are classified into mobile and fixed individuals. The mobile individuals can be inside or outside the community, while the fixed individuals can be only inside the community. There are fixed infection sources outside the community, measuring the epidemic severity in society. We attribute the spreading to two reasons: (i) clustered infection among the community population and (ii) the epidemic in society spreading to the community population. We discuss the model in two cases. In the first case, the epidemic spreads in society, such that reasons (i) and (ii) work together. The results show that concerning fixed individuals (e.g. the elderly in nursing homes), a more closed community always promotes the infection. In the second case, there is no epidemic spreading in society, such that only reason (i) works. The results show that restricting all individuals to the community produces equivalent consequences as allowing them going outside the community. We should evenly distribute individuals inside and outside to form isolation. A counterexample is residential universities implementing closed management, where only students are restricted to campus. The model shows such management may lead to severe epidemics, and to prevent the epidemic outbreaks, students should have free access to being on or off campus.

Opinion Dynamics with Higher-Order Bounded Confidence.

The higher-order interactions in complex systems are gaining attention. Extending the classic bounded confidence model where an agent's opinion update is the average opinion of its peers, this paper proposes a higher-order version of the bounded confidence model. Each agent organizes a group opinion discussion among its peers. Then, the discussion's result influences all participants' opinions. Since an agent is also the peer of its peers, the agent actually participates in multiple group discussions. We assume the agent's opinion update is the average over multiple group discussions. The opinion dynamics rules can be arbitrary in each discussion. In this work, we experiment with two discussion rules: centralized and decentralized. We show that the centralized rule is equivalent to the classic bounded confidence model. The decentralized rule, however, can promote opinion consensus. In need of modeling specific real-life scenarios, the higher-order bounded confidence is more convenient to combine with other higher-order interactions, from the contagion process to evolutionary dynamics.

Immune Infiltration Associated MAN2B1 Is a Novel Prognostic Biomarker for Glioma.

Mannosidase Alpha Class 2B Member 1 (MAN2B1) gene encodes lysosomal alpha-d-mannosidase involved in the ordered degradation of N-linked glycoproteins. Alteration in MAN2B1 has been proved to be accountable for several diseases. However, the relationship between MAN2B1 and glioma malignancy remains unclear. In this study, RNA-seq data from The Cancer Genome Atlas and the Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas datasets were analyzed to explore the correlation between MAN2B1 and clinicopathological features, prognosis, and somatic mutations in gliomas. We found that MAN2B1 was elevated in glioma and was correlated with malignant clinical and molecular features. Upregulated expression of MAN2B1 is prognostic for poor outcomes in glioma patients. Different frequencies of somatic mutations were found in gliomas between high and low MAN2B1 expression. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction, western blot, and immunohistochemistry staining from glioma patient samples and cell lines were used to validate bioinformatic findings. Functional enrichment analysis showed that MAN2B1 was involved in immune and inflammation processes. Moreover, MAN2B1 expression was strongly correlated with M2 macrophages and weakly correlated with M1 macrophages. Further analysis confirmed that MAN2B1 was closely associated with the markers of M2 macrophages and tumor-associated macrophages. Taken together, MAN2B1 is a potential prognostic biomarker in glioma and associates with immune infiltration.

Injurious information propagation and its global stability considering activity and normalized recovering rate.

This paper establishes a compartment model describing the propagation of injurious information among a well-mixed population. We define the information's injuriousness as the people practicing the information being injured and leaving the system. Some informed people practice the information and are active, while others do not practice and are inactive. With the recovery resources fixed, the two groups of informed people's recovering rates are normalized considering the information features. The stability of the nonlinear system is thoroughly studied. Analyzing the reproduction number of the injurious information, we find that in general parameter space, when there are people in an informed compartment, it is not always necessary to consider their recovery resource allocation. Instead, only when their proportion reaches a critical point should it be allocated. Unless the people in an informed compartment form a certain proportion, we can take a laissez-faire attitude towards them. In a more realistic parameter space, once inactive informed people exist, they should be allocated recovery resources. On the one hand, when the recovering rate rises, the focus on both groups of informed people is necessary for more situations. On the other hand, when the rate of active informed people leaving the system rises, ignoring active informed people benefits removing the injurious information in more cases. The model provides qualitative ways in the scenarios of removing injurious information.

Association Between Selenium Intake with Chronic Constipation and Chronic Diarrhea in Adults: Findings from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

The effects of dietary selenium intake on specific bowel habits (i.e., constipation or diarrhea) in the general population are not well understood. This study aims to evaluate the associations of selenium intake with the risk of chronic constipation and chronic diarrhea in adults aged ≥ 20 years using data from the 2007-2008 and 2009-2010 continuous National Health and Nutritional Examination Surveys (NHANES) (N = 9585). Chronic constipation and chronic diarrhea were defined by Bristol Stool Form Scale (BSFS) types 1 and 2 and BSFS types 6 and 7 as the "usual or most common stool type," respectively, and frequent laxative users were also defined as having chronic constipation. Dietary selenium intake was obtained from 24-h dietary recall. Multivariable logistic regression models were performed controlling for confounding factors (dietary, lifestyle, psychological, and health conditions). No significant associations between selenium intake and chronic diarrhea were found. However, selenium intake was inversely associated with the risk of chronic constipation. Compared with quartile 1, the multivariate-adjusted ORs (95% CI) of chronic constipation across quartiles 2 to 4 of selenium intake were 0.81 (0.64-1.03), 0.74 (0.58-0.95), and 0.54 (0.33-0.89), respectively. This association was significant among men, but not significant among women in subgroup analyses. Generally, there was an inverse association between selenium intake and chronic constipation in adults that modified by sex.

Multimedia fate modeling of antibiotic sulfamethoxazole, lincomycin, and florfenicol in a seasonally ice-covered river receiving WWTP effluents.

As a result of the widespread use of antibiotics, a large amount of excretions from human and animals, containing antibiotic residues, is discharged into aquatic environments, leading to potential adverse effects on the ecosystems' health. These residues' impact on seasonally ice-covered rivers remains under investigated. To understand the environmental fate of antibiotics with high-detection frequencies and concentration levels, sulfamethoxazole, lincomycin, and florfenicol were used as models in the present study. A Level IV fugacity model was established and applied to a seasonally ice-covered river receiving municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents, the Songhua River in Northeast China. Model validation and sensitivity analysis suggested that the fugacity model could successfully simulate the monitoring concentration within an average difference of one logarithmic unit. The advection process played a major role in the transport and attenuation of the antibiotics in the ice-covered river receiving WWTP effluents. The scenario simulation indicated that increasing the targeted antibiotic concentrations in WWTP effluents to µg L-1 could keep the targeted antibiotic concentrations higher than 10 ng L-1 in the receiving river from the WWTP discharge source to 25 km downstream. This finding also demonstrates that the depth of water and ice, as well as flow velocity, play key roles in the fate of antibiotics in the ice-covered river receiving WWTP effluents. To our best knowledge, this is the first major study to combine experimental investigation with modeling to explore the environmental behaviors and fate of antibiotics in such a river.

Response of Freshwater Biofilms to Antibiotic Florfenicol and Ofloxacin Stress: Role of Extracellular Polymeric Substances.

Antibiotic residues have been detected in aquatic environments worldwide. Biofilms are one of the most successful life forms, and as a result are ubiquitous in natural waters. However, the response mechanism of freshwater biofilms to the stress of various antibiotic residues is still unclear. Here, the stress of veterinary antibiotic florfenicol (FF) and fluoroquinolone antibiotic ofloxacin (OFL) on freshwater biofilms were investigated by determining the changes in the key physicochemical and biological properties of the biofilms. The results showed that the chlorophyll a content in biofilms firstly decreased to 46⁻71% and then recovered to original content under the stress of FF and OFL with high, mid, and low concentrations. Meanwhile, the activities of antioxidant enzymes, including superoxide dismutase and catalase, increased between 1.3⁻6.7 times their initial values. FF was more toxic to the biofilms than OFL. The distribution coefficients of FF and OFL binding in extracellular polymeric substances (EPS)-free biofilms were 3.2 and 6.5 times higher than those in intact biofilms, respectively. It indicated that EPS could inhibit the FF and OFL accumulation in biofilm cells. The present study shows that the EPS matrix, as the house of freshwater biofilms, is the primary barrier that resists the stress from antibiotic residues.

Occurrence and ecological risk assessment of 22 emerging contaminants in the Jilin Songhua River (Northeast China).

Rivers may receive pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and environment estrogens, which are emerging concerns, from various sources. Understanding the fate of these emerging contaminants (ECs) from the sources to their receiving river is important for assessing their ecosystem risk. Here, the occurrence, seasonal variation, spatial distribution, and ecological risk of 22 ECs in water and sediments from the Jilin Songhua River, as well as in the effluents from the riverside Jilin wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) were investigated. Results indicated that estriol with the highest median concentration of 21.5 ng L-1 in the river water and with the highest median concentration of 481.5 ng g-1 in the sediments, and methylparaben with the highest concentration of 29.6 ± 2.9 ng L-1 in the WWTP effluents were the predominant contaminants. The total concentration of ECs in the river water in the dry season was about 1.5 times higher than that in the wet season. The concentrations of these ECs close to the contaminated tributary and the WWTP were relatively high. Risk assessment showed that the maximum risk quotient value of estrone was 1.07 in the river water and estriol was 2.10 in the effluents. In addition, erythromycin posed generally medium risk in the river water and WWTP effluents. It should be paid attention to the prior control of the three contaminants in the river region.

Sublethal dose of phoxim and Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus interact to elevate silkworm mortality.

BACKGROUND: Silkworm (Bombyx mori) is an economically important insect. It is relatively less resistant to certain chemicals and environment exposures such as pesticides and pathogens. After pesticide exposures, the silkworms are more susceptible to microbial infections. The mechanism underlying the susceptibility might be related to immune response and oxidative stress. RESULTS: A sublethal dose of phoxim combined with Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV) elevated the silkworm mortality at 96 h. We found a higher content of H2 O2 and increased levels of genes related to oxidative stress and immune response after treatment with a sublethal dose of phoxim for 24 h or 48 h. However, such response decreased with longer pesticide treatment. Mortality increased by 44% when B. mori was exposed to combined treatment with BmNPV and phoxim rather than BmNPV alone. The level of examined immune-related and oxidative-stress-related genes significantly decreased in the combined treatment group compared with the BmNPV group. Our results indicated that, with long-term exposure to pesticides such as OPs, even at sublethal dose, the oxidative stress response and immune responses in silkworm were inhibited, which may lead to further immune impairment and accumulation of oxidative stress, resulting in susceptibility to the virus and harm to the silkworm. CONCLUSION: Our study provided insights for understanding the susceptibility to pathogen after pesticide exposures, which may promote the development of better pesticide controls to avoid significant economic losses. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.