Information dissemination evolution under group feedback.

In this paper, based on the feedback mechanism from the perspective of network groups, the evolutionary characteristics and laws of group networks under information dissemination are studied. First, the network is divided into groups of different sizes, and each group is given a dynamically changing group activity and a positive degree of response to different categories of information. Second, a feedback-based model of information dissemination in group networks is developed, which takes into account the differences between same-group and cross-group dissemination of information. Next, the model is applied to a scale-free network and a small-world network for simulation experiments. The experimental results show that, under the feedback mechanism, the main factor affecting the final evolutionary results of each group size in the small-world network is group positivity, which has little relationship with the initial size; similarly, the main factor affecting the average degree of each group in the scale-free network is also group positivity, which has nothing to do with the initial average degree. Finally, the method is applied to a real network to verify the rationality and effectiveness of the proposed model.

[Burned-out testicular germ cell tumors: a clinicopathological analysis of three cases].

Objective: To investigate the clinicopathological features and possible mechanisms of burned-out testicular germ cell tumors. Methods: The clinical and imaging data, histology and immunophenotypic characteristics of three cases of burned-out testicular germ cell tumors diagnosed at the Ruijin Hospital, Medical College of the Shanghai Jiaotong University, from 2016 to 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. The relevant literature was reviewed. Results: The mean age of the three patients was 32 years. Case 1 had an elevated preoperative alpha-fetoprotein level (810.18 µg/L) and underwent "radical pancreaticoduodenectomy and retroperitoneal lesion resection" for a retroperitoneal mass. Postoperative pathology showed embryonal carcinoma, which needed to exclude gonadal metastasis. Color Doppler ultrasound showed a solid mass of the right testis, with hypoechoic lesion and scattered calcification in some areas. Case 2 was a "right supraclavicular lymph node biopsy specimen." Chest X-ray showed multiple metastases in both lungs. The biopsy showed metastatic embryonic carcinoma and bilateral testicular color Doppler ultrasound revealed abnormal calcifications in the right testicle. Case 3 showed a cystic mass of the right testis with calcification and solid areas. All 3 patients underwent radical right orchiectomy. Grossly, borders of the testicular scar areas were well defined. Cross sectioning of the tumors showed a gray-brown cut surface and single focus or multiple foci of the tumor. The tumor maximum diameter was 0.6-1.5 cm. Microscopically, lymphocytes, plasma cells infiltration, tubular hyalinization, clustered vascular hyperplasia and hemosiderin laden macrophages were found in the scar. Atrophic and sclerotic seminiferous tubules, proliferation of clustered Leydig cells and small or coarse granular calcifications in seminiferous tubules were present around the scar. Seminoma and germ cell neoplasia in situ were seen in case 1, germ cell neoplasia in situ was seen in case 2 and germ cells with atypical hyperplasia were seen in case 3. Immunohistochemistry showed that embryonic carcinoma expressed SALL4, CKpan(AE1/AE3) and CD30, seminoma and germ cell tumor in situ expressed OCT3/4, SALL4 and CD117, and spermatogenic cells with atypical hyperplasia expressed CD99 and SALL4. The Ki-67 positive index was about 20%, while OCT3/4 and CD117 were both negative. Conclusions: Burned-out testicular germ cell tumors are rare. The possibility of gonad testicular metastasis should be considered first for extragonadal germ cell tumor. If fibrous scar is found in testis, it must be determined whether it is a burned-out testicular germ cell tumor. The burned-out mechanisms may be related to the microenvironment of tumor immune-mediated and local ischemic injury.

Spontaneous Ferromagnetism Induced Topological Transition in EuB_{6}.

The interplay between various symmetries and electronic bands topology is one of the core issues for topological quantum materials. Spontaneous magnetism, which leads to the breaking of time-reversal symmetry, has been proven to be a powerful approach to trigger various exotic topological phases. In this Letter, utilizing the combination of angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, magneto-optical Kerr effect microscopy, and first-principles calculations, we present the direct evidence on the realization of the long-sought spontaneous ferromagnetism induced topological transition in soft ferromagnetic EuB_{6}. Explicitly, we reveal the topological transition is from Z_{2}=1 topological insulator in paramagnetic state to χ=1 magnetic topological semimetal in low temperature ferromagnetic state. Our results demonstrate that the simple band structure near the Fermi level and rich topological phases make EuB_{6} an ideal platform to study the topological phase physics.

Structural and functional comparisons of the environmental microbiota of pond and tank environments at different locations for the commercial aquaculture of American shad.

The environmental microbiota plays a significant role in the growth and development of aquatic life. In recent years, American shad has become an important economic aquaculture species in China. However, information on the correlation between the growth of American shad and the aquaculture environment is limited. Through 16S rDNA-based sequencing, the microbiota communities in ponds at different locations (Jiangyin and Yancheng in Jiangsu, China) were investigated. The results showed that the richness and diversity of the microbiota in the pond were greater than those in the tank at the same location. At the phylum level, Proteobacteria and Firmicutes were more abundant in the samples from Jiangyin than in those from Yancheng. In addition, the ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes was larger in the JYT samples than in the YCT samples, which implied that the American shad cultured in the Jiangyin environment tended to be fatter than those cultured in Yancheng. The body weight data also confirmed this finding. Moreover, the proportions of functional annotations in the samples from the Jiangyin and Yancheng environments were similar, but there were differences between the overall levels. Our results highlighted the correlations between the environmental microbiome and the growth tendency of American shad.

Near-GeV Electron Beams at a Few Per-Mille Level from a Laser Wakefield Accelerator via Density-Tailored Plasma.

A simple, efficient scheme was developed to obtain near-gigaelectronvolt electron beams with energy spreads of few per-mille level in a single-stage laser wakefield accelerator. Longitudinal plasma density was tailored to control relativistic laser-beam evolution, resulting in injection, dechirping, and a quasi-phase-stable acceleration. With this scheme, electron beams with peak energies of 780-840 MeV, rms energy spreads of 2.4‰-4.1‰, charges of 8.5-23.6 pC, and rms divergences of 0.1-0.4 mrad were experimentally obtained. Quasi-three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations agreed well with the experimental results. The dechirping strength was estimated to reach up to 11 TeV/mm/m, which is higher than previously obtained results. Such high-quality electron beams will boost the development of compact intense coherent radiation sources and x-ray free-electron lasers.

Gamma-Ray Observation of the Cygnus Region in the 100-TeV Energy Region.

We report observations of gamma-ray emissions with energies in the 100-TeV energy region from the Cygnus region in our Galaxy. Two sources are significantly detected in the directions of the Cygnus OB1 and OB2 associations. Based on their positional coincidences, we associate one with a pulsar PSR J2032+4127 and the other mainly with a pulsar wind nebula PWN G75.2+0.1, with the pulsar moving away from its original birthplace situated around the centroid of the observed gamma-ray emission. This work would stimulate further studies of particle acceleration mechanisms at these gamma-ray sources.

First Detection of sub-PeV Diffuse Gamma Rays from the Galactic Disk: Evidence for Ubiquitous Galactic Cosmic Rays beyond PeV Energies.

We report, for the first time, the long-awaited detection of diffuse gamma rays with energies between 100 TeV and 1 PeV in the Galactic disk. Particularly, all gamma rays above 398 TeV are observed apart from known TeV gamma-ray sources and compatible with expectations from the hadronic emission scenario in which gamma rays originate from the decay of π^{0}'s produced through the interaction of protons with the interstellar medium in the Galaxy. This is strong evidence that cosmic rays are accelerated beyond PeV energies in our Galaxy and spread over the Galactic disk.

First Detection of Photons with Energy beyond 100 TeV from an Astrophysical Source.

We report on the highest energy photons from the Crab Nebula observed by the Tibet air shower array with the underground water-Cherenkov-type muon detector array. Based on the criterion of a muon number measured in an air shower, we successfully suppress 99.92% of the cosmic-ray background events with energies E>100 TeV. As a result, we observed 24 photonlike events with E>100 TeV against 5.5 background events, which corresponds to a 5.6σ statistical significance. This is the first detection of photons with E>100 TeV from an astrophysical source.

Expression of vitamin D receptor in renal tissue of lupus nephritis and its association with renal injury activity.

OBJECTIVE: Vitamin D receptor (VDR) has potent anti-inflammatory activities. VDR gene polymorphism has been linked with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). However, its expression in the kidney has not been evaluated. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between VDR expression and renal pathology as well as clinical manifestations in lupus nephritis (LN). METHODS: A total of 20 renal biopsy specimens from 35 patients with LN were classified according to the International Society of Nephrology/Renal Pathology Society 2003 LN-type standards pathological type, and the activity index and chronicity index were determined. Five normal renal tissue samples were obtained from surrounding areas distal to nephronophthisis or renal tumors (>2 cm). The expression of VDR was assessed by immunohistochemistry. The relationships between VDR expression and histological injury index, proteinuria and Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics (SLICC) renal activity scores were analyzed. RESULTS: As compared to the control group, the expression of VDR in the LN group was lower ( p < 0.001) and negatively correlated with activity index (r = -0.548, p = 0.012) but not with chronicity index (r = -0.277, p = 0.236). The expression of VDR in renal tissue was also associated with SLICC renal activity scores (r = -0.470, p = 0.037). CONCLUSION: The down-regulation of VDR expression in renal tissues of LN patients was negatively correlated with renal activity and injury severity.

Evaluation of the Interplanetary Magnetic Field Strength Using the Cosmic-Ray Shadow of the Sun.

We analyze the Sun's shadow observed with the Tibet-III air shower array and find that the shadow's center deviates northward (southward) from the optical solar disk center in the "away" ("toward") interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) sector. By comparing with numerical simulations based on the solar magnetic field model, we find that the average IMF strength in the away (toward) sector is 1.54±0.21_{stat}±0.20_{syst} (1.62±0.15_{stat}±0.22_{syst}) times larger than the model prediction. These demonstrate that the observed Sun's shadow is a useful tool for the quantitative evaluation of the average solar magnetic field.

[Initial study of transthoracic echocardiography guided three-dimensional printing on the application of assessment of structural heart disease].

Objective: To investigate the feasibility and diagnostic value of preoperative transthoracic echocardiography guided three dimensional printing model (TTE Guided 3DPM) on the assessment of structural heart disease (SHD). Methods: From February 2016 to October 2016, 44 patients underwent cardiac surgery in Tianjin Chest Hospital, forty-four patients were assessed preoperatively using TTE Guided 3DPM, including 25 males and 19 females, aged 3-75 years, with an average of (44±22) years. compared to conventional three dimensional transthoracic echocardiography (3D-TTE), and took direct intraoperative findings as "Golden Standard" simultaneously. There are twelve patients with SHD, including four cases with mitral prolapse, two cases with partial endocardial cushion defect, two cases with secondary atrial septal defect, two cases with rheumatic mitral stenosis, one case with tetralogy of Fallot, one case with ventricular septal defect (VSD), thirty-two patients without SHD were designed as negative control. Results: The sensitivity and specificity of TTE Guided 3DPM were greater than or equal to 3D-TTE, P value of McNemar test of 3D-TTE was greater than 0.05, the difference was not statistically significant, kappa=0.745, P<0.01, indicated that the results of 3DTTE and the gold standard were generally consistent.P value of McNemar test of TTE Guided 3DPM was greater than 0.05, the difference was not statistically significant, kappa=0.955, P<0.01, indicated that the results of TTE Guided 3DPM and gold standards were consistent. Compared with 3D-TTE and TTE Guided 3DPM, P value was greater than 0.05, the difference was not statistically significant, kappa=0.879, P<0.01, indicated that the results of 3D-TTE and TTE Guided 3DPM were consistent. TTE Guided 3DPM displayed the three-dimensional structure of SHD cardiac lesions clearly, which were consistent with intraoperative findings. Conclusion: TTE Guided 3DPM provides essential information for the preoperative evaluation and decision of SHD.

High-Brightness High-Energy Electron Beams from a Laser Wakefield Accelerator via Energy Chirp Control.

By designing a structured gas density profile between the dual-stage gas jets to manipulate electron seeding and energy chirp reversal for compressing the energy spread, we have experimentally produced high-brightness high-energy electron beams from a cascaded laser wakefield accelerator with peak energies in the range of 200-600 MeV, 0.4%-1.2% rms energy spread, 10-80 pC charge, and ∼0.2 mrad rms divergence. The maximum six-dimensional brightness B_{6D,n} is estimated as ∼6.5×10^{15} A/m^{2}/0.1%, which is very close to the typical brightness of e beams from state-of-the-art linac drivers. These high-brightness high-energy e beams may lead to the realization of compact monoenergetic gamma-ray and intense coherent x-ray radiation sources.

Role of XRCC1 gene polymorphisms in non-small cell lung cancer cisplatin-based chemotherapy, and their effect on clinical and pathological characteristics.

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common cancer globally. The XRCC1 protein interacts with ligase and poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase to repair cisplatin-induced DNA damage. The authors of previous studies have reported XRCC1 Arg399Gln, Arg280His, and Arg194Trp polymorphisms and advanced NSCLC prognosis, but the results are inconclusive. We investigated the association between clinical outcome and XRCC1 Arg399Gln, Arg280His, and Arg194Trp polymorphisms in advanced NSCLC patients treated with cisplatin. We recruited 252 patients with advanced NSCLC (TNM stages: IIIB and IV) and used polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) to genotype the polymorphisms. Patients with the TT genotype of XRCC1 Arg194Trp showed a significantly better response to chemotherapy than those with the CC genotype. The GA+AA genotype of Arg194Trp was correlated with better response to chemotherapy than the wild-type form. The TT genotype of Arg194Trp was associated with longer survival time than the CC genotype. The TT genotype of Arg194Trp was correlated with lower risk of death from all causes than the CC genotype. The Arg194Trp polymorphisms interacted with squamous cell carcinoma and affected overall survival of advanced NSCLC. However, there was no association between Arg399Gln and Arg280His polymorphisms and response to cisplatin-based chemotherapy and overall survival in advanced NSCLC. The results suggest that the TT genotype of Arg194Trp is significantly associated with better response to chemotherapy and longer overall survival of advanced NSCLC patients than the wild-type form. Our investigation offers insight into the influence of XRCC1 gene polymorphisms on the treatment outcome of advanced NSCLC.

[The multicenter study on the registration and follow-up of low anticoagulation therapy for the heart valve operation in China].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the optimal anticoagulation methods and monitoring strategy for Chinese patients undergoing heart valve replacement, which is potentially quite different from western populations. METHODS: In this multicenter prospective cohort study, the anticoagulation and monitoring strategy data was acquired from 25 773 in-hospital patients in 35 medical centers and 20 519 patients in outpatient clinic in 11 medical centers from January 1st, 2011 to December 31th, 2015. RESULTS: As for in-hospital patients, mean age of study population was (48.6±11.2) years old; main etiology of valve pathology was rheumatic (87.5%) origin among study cohort; 94.8% of study population received mechanical valve implantation; international normalized ratio (INR) monitoring (in all the study centers) and low-intensity anticoagulation strategy (31 hospitals chose target INR range of 1.5-2.5, and actual values of INR among 89.2% of 100 069 in-hospital monitoring samples were 1.5-2.5), with mean actual INR values of 1.84±0.53, and warfarin dosage of (2.82±0.93) mg/d were widely adopted among the study centers; strategies of in-hospital warfarin administration were similar in all the study centers; complication rates of low-intensity anticoagulation strategy were low in severe hemorrhage (0.02%), thrombosis (0.05%), and thromboembolism (0.05%) events, without anticoagulation-related death.As for 18 974 outpatient clinic patients, the follow-up rate was 92.47%, with a total of 30 012 patient-years (Pty). Anticoagulation-related morbidity and mortality rates were 0.67% and 0.15% Pty; major hemorrhage morbidity and mortality rates were 0.25% and 0.13% Pty; thromboembolism morbidity and mortality rates were 0.45% and 0.03% Pty.The mean dosage of warfarin daily dosage was (2.85±1.23) mg/d and INR value was 1.82±0.57.No significant regional difference in the intensity of anticoagulation therapy was noted during the study. CONCLUSIONS: INR can be used as a normalized indicator for intensity of anticoagulation therapy in China.The optimal anticoagulation intensity with INR range from 1.5 to 2.5 is safe and effective for Chinese patients with heart valve replacement, and there is no significant regional difference in the intensity of anticoagulation therapy.

Genetic Polymorphisms of 21 STR Loci in Hunan Province-based Han Population.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the genetic polymorphisms of 21 short tandem repeat （STR） loci （D3S1358, D13S317, D7S820, D16S539, Penta E, D2S441, TPOX, TH01, D2S1338, CSF1PO, Penta D, D10S1248, D19S433, vWA, D21S11, D18S51, D6S1043, D8S1179, D5S818, D12S391 and FGA）. METHODS: A total of 560 blood samples were collected from unrelated healthy individuals of Han population in Hunan Province. Chelex-100 extraction method was applied to the extraction of genomic DNA, and an AGCU EX22 Kit and 9700 STR amplification was used in amplification reactions. The products were separated and analyzed on 310 Genetic Analyzer. RESULTS: A total of 248 alleles were observed, the allelic frequencies ranging from 0.001 to 0.518. Observation of genotype distributions for each locus showed no deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium except Penta E （P=0.023）. The combined power of discrimination, combined power of exclusion, and combined matching probability of the 21 STR loci were approximately 0.999 999 999 999 999 999 999 999 8, 0.999 999 998, and 1.36×10⁻²5, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The 21 STR loci show high polymorphisms in the Han population, which can provide valuable data and a theoretical basis for forensic individual identification and paternity testing.

p-type doping of MgZnO films and their applications in optoelectronic devices.

A lithium and nitrogen codoping method has been employed to prepare p-type MgZnO films, and p-MgZnO/i-ZnO/n-ZnO structured light-emitting devices (LEDs) and photodetectors have been fabricated. The LEDs can work continuously for about 97 h under the injection of a 20 mA continuous current, which is the best value ever reported for ZnO-based LEDs. The performance of the photodetectors degrades little after several running cycles. The above results reveal the applicability of the p-MgZnO films in optoelectronic devices.

Use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and risk of chronic kidney disease in people with Type 2 diabetes mellitus, a nationwide longitudinal cohort study.

AIMS: To investigate the temporal relationship between non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug use and the development of chronic kidney disease in people with Type 2 diabetes mellitus. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study and followed up a population with Type 2 diabetes who were chronic kidney disease-free (n = 48,715) using national health insurance claims data in Taiwan. Exposure status to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in 2007 was measured. A total of 6406 subjects with incident chronic kidney disease were identified from the period 2008 to 2011. Multivariable proportional hazards models were applied to determine the temporal relationship between non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug use and the development of chronic kidney disease. RESULTS: We observed a significant temporal relationship between non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug use and the development of chronic kidney disease in people with Type 2 diabetes. Compared with people not taking any non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug in 2007, those who were taking such drugs for at least 90 days in 2007 had a higher risk of chronic kidney disease development (adjusted hazard ratio 1.37, 95% CI 1.26-1.49). In subgroup analyses, those people (irrespective of age, sex, various comorbidities and use of anti-hypertensive drugs, aspirin or acetaminophen) who were taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for at least 90 days were more likely to develop chronic kidney disease than people who were not taking any non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that there is a positive temporal relationship between non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug use and increased risk of chronic kidney disease in people with Type 2 diabetes. The use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs should be based on clinical evaluations of benefits and risks, and should be prescribed with caution for people with Type 2 diabetes.

Serum levels of S-100ß correlate with the clinical status and severity of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy in neonates.

The clinical significance of serum S-100ß levels in neonates with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), as a reference index to assess HIE severity, was evaluated in this study. On the basis of our strict inclusion and exclusion criteria, relevant high-quality case-control studies reporting the association between HIE and S-100ß protein were selected from electronic database searches. The STATA version 12.0 software was used for the statistical analyses. The database search initially retrieved 93 studies (37 in English and 56 in Chinese), and following a multistep screening process, 13 high-quality studies were eventually included in our meta-analysis. The 13 case-control studies included a total of 646 HIE neonates and 381 healthy controls. The results of this meta-analysis revealed that serum S-100ß levels in mild, moderate, and severe HIE neonates were significantly higher than those in healthy controls, and the differences were statistically significant. Importantly, the serum S-100ß levels increased incrementally with HIE severity. Our results support the hypothesis that S-100ß is an important biological indicator of HIE and serum S-100ß levels can be used as a reference index to assess HIE severity.

Gene-expression data integration to squamous cell lung cancer subtypes reveals drug sensitivity.

BACKGROUND: Squamous cell lung cancer (SqCC) is the second most common type of lung cancer in the United States. Previous studies have used gene-expression data to classify SqCC samples into four subtypes, including the primitive, classical, secretory and basal subtypes. These subtypes have different survival outcomes, although it is unknown whether these molecular subtypes predict response to therapy. METHODS: Here, we analysed RNAseq data of 178 SqCC tumour samples and characterised the features of the different SqCC subtypes to define signature genes and pathway alterations specific to each subtype. Further, we compared the gene-expression features of each molecular subtype to specific time points in models of airway development. We also classified SqCC-derived cell lines and their reported therapeutic vulnerabilities. RESULTS: We found that the primitive subtype may come from a later stage of differentiation, whereas the basal subtype may be from an early time. Most SqCC cell lines responded to one of five anticancer drugs (Panobinostat, 17-AAG, Irinotecan, Topotecan and Paclitaxel), whereas the basal-type cell line EBC-1 was sensitive to three other drugs (PF2341066, AZD6244 and PD-0325901). CONCLUSION: Compared with the other three subtypes of cell lines, the secretory-type cell lines were significantly less sensitive to the five most effective drugs, possibly because of their low proliferation activity. We provide a bioinformatics framework to explore drug repurposing for cancer subtypes based on the available genomic profiles of tumour samples, normal cell types, cancer cell lines and data of drug sensitivity in cell lines.