Association between socioeconomic and motherhood characteristics with receiving community-based treatment services among justice-involved young female drug users: a retrospective cohort study in Taiwan.

BACKGROUND: Drug-involved individuals who contact treatment services in Taiwan are mostly driven by criminal justice systems either as an alternative or adjunct to criminal sanctions for a drug offence. With a focus on justice-involved young female drug users, the present study examines the extent to which socioeconomic and motherhood characteristics are associated with receiving deferred prosecution, a scheme diverting drug offenders to community-based addiction treatment. METHODS: We identified a cohort of 5869 women under the age of 30 arrested for using Schedule II drugs (primarily amphetamine-like stimulants) from the 2011-2017 National Police Criminal Records in Taiwan. Information concerning socioeconomic characteristics, pregnancy and live birth history, and deferred prosecution was obtained through linkage with the 2006-2019 National Health Insurance, birth registration, and deferred prosecution datasets. Multinomial logistic regression was used to evaluate the association with stratification by recidivism status. RESULTS: Within six months of arrest, 21% of first-time offenders (n = 2645) received deferred prosecution and 23% received correction-based rehabilitation; the corresponding estimates for recidivists (n = 3224) were 6% and 15%, respectively. Among first-time offenders, low/unstable income was associated with lower odds of deferred prosecution (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 0.71; 95% CI: 0.58, 0.88). For recidivists, those with low/unstable income (aOR = 1.58) or unemployment (aOR = 1.58) had higher odds of correction-based rehabilitation; being pregnant at arrest was linked with reduced odds of deferred prosecution (aOR = 0.31, 95% CI: 0.13, 0.71) and correction-based rehabilitation (aOR = 0.50, 95% CI: 0.32, 0.77). CONCLUSIONS: For the young women arrested for drug offences, disadvantaged socioeconomic conditions were generally unfavored by the diversion to treatment in the community. Childbearing upon arrest may lower not only the odds of receiving medical treatment but also correctional intervention. The criminal prosecution policy and process should be informed by female drug offenders' need for treatment and recovery.

Allochthonous Trichoderma Isolates Boost Atractylodes lancea Herb Quality at the Cost of Rhizome Growth.

Atractylodes lancea is a perennial herb whose rhizome (AR) is a valuable traditional Chinese medicine with immense market demand. The cultivation of Atractylodes lancea faces outbreaks of root rot and deterioration in herb quality due to complex causes. Here, we investigated the effects of Trichoderma spp., well-known biocontrol agents and plant-growth-promoters, on ARs. We isolated Trichoderma strains from healthy ARs collected in different habitats and selected three T. harzianum strains (Th2, Th3 and Th4) with the strongest antagonizing effects on root rot pathogens (Fusarium spp.). We inoculated geo-authentic A. lancea plantlets with Th2, Th3 and Th4 and measured the biomass and quality of 70-day-old ARs. Th2 and Th3 promoted root rot resistance of A. lancea. Th2, Th3 and Th4 all boosted AR quality: the concentration of the four major medicinal compounds in ARs (atractylon, atractylodin, hinesol and ß-eudesmol) each increased 1.6- to 18.2-fold. Meanwhile, however, the yield of ARs decreased by 0.58- to 0.27-fold. Overall, Th3 dramatically increased the quality of ARs at a relatively low cost, namely lower yield, showing great potential for practical application. Our results showed selectivity between A. lancea and allochthonous Trichoderma isolates, indicating the importance of selecting specific microbial patches for herb cultivation.

[Spatial-temporal Distribution and Source Analysis of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in the Sediments of Poyang Lake].

The concentrations, spatial-temporal distribution, and influencing factors of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the sediments of Poyang Lake were studied, and a quantitative source analysis of PAHs in different areas of the lake was conducted. PAHs were widespread within the sediments. The concentrations of ∑16PAHs in the surface sediments of all sites ranged from 203 to 2 318 µg·kg-1. The concentrations of PAHs in the surface sediments of the lake body were higher than those in the surface sediments of the inlet rivers. The ratio of PAHs in Poyang Lake was 4 rings > 5 rings > 6 rings > 3 rings > 2 rings; the composition of 4-ring PAHs was dominant, and its content accounted for 86.11% of ∑16PAHs. The 2- and 3-ring and some 4-ring PAHs, including Flua and Pyr, were more susceptible to SOM, and the 4 through 6-ring PAHs were more susceptible to ORP and heavy metals and other environmental factors. Spatially, the higher concentration of ∑16PAHs occurred in the area of the lake adjacent to Duchang County and Poyang County, where the terrain was relatively closed, and the water exchange with the surrounding area was less than that in other sections, which was not conducive to the migration, transformation, and degradation of pollutants. In the temporal distribution, the changes in PAHs concentration level and the development of GDP in Jiangxi Province showed high consistency, and the influence of economic development and human activities might have been the main reason for the increasing PAHs concentration level. The main sources of PAHs in surface sediments of Poyang Lake included petroleum pollution and oil and coal and biomass combustion sources, and there were some spatial differences in PAHs sources in different regions. This study can provide a reference for PAHs pollution in surface sediments of Poyang Lake, which is important for the ecological environmental protection and management of Poyang Lake.

Integrating socio-economic vulnerability factors improves neighborhood-scale wastewater-based epidemiology for public health applications.

Wastewater Based Epidemiology (WBE) of COVID-19 is a low-cost, non-invasive, and inclusive early warning tool for disease spread. Previously studied WBE focused on sampling at wastewater treatment plant scale, limiting the level at which demographic and geographic variations in disease dynamics can be incorporated into the analysis of certain neighborhoods. This study demonstrates the integration of demographic mapping to improve the WBE of COVID-19 and associated post-COVID disease prediction (here kidney disease) at the neighborhood level using machine learning. WBE was conducted at six neighborhoods in Seattle during October 2020 - February 2022. Wastewater processing and RT-qPCR were performed to obtain SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentration. Census data, clinical data of COVID-19, as well as patient data of acute kidney injury (AKI) cases reported during the study period were collected and the distribution across the city was studied using Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping. Further, we analyzed the data set to better understand socioeconomic impacts on disease prevalence of COVID-19 and AKI per neighborhood. The heterogeneity of eleven demographic factors (such as education and age among others) was observed within neighborhoods across the city of Seattle. Dynamics of COVID-19 clinical cases and wastewater SARS-CoV-2 varied across neighborhood with different levels of demographics. Machine learning models trained with data from the earlier stages of the pandemic were able to predict both COVID-19 and AKI incidence in the later stages of the pandemic (Spearman correlation coefficient of 0·546 - 0·904), with the most predictive model trained on the combination of wastewater data and demographics. The integration of demographics strengthened machine learning models' capabilities to predict prevalence of COVID-19, and of AKI as a marker for post-COVID sequelae. Demographic-based WBE presents an effective tool to monitor and manage public health beyond COVID-19 at the neighborhood level.

Atom-ProteinQA: Atom-level protein model quality assessment through fine-grained joint learning.

MOTIVATION: Protein model quality assessment (ProteinQA) is a fundamental task that is essential for biologically relevant applications, i.e., protein structure refinement, protein design, etc. Previous works aimed to conduct ProteinQA only on the global structure or per-residue level, ignoring potentially usable and precise cues from a fine-grained per-atom perspective. In this study, we propose an atom-level ProteinQA model, named Atom-ProteinQA, in which two innovative modules are designed to extract geometric and topological atom-level relationships respectively. Specifically, on the one hand, a geometric perception module exploits 3D sparse convolution to capture the geometric features of the input protein, generating fine-grained atom-level predictions. On the other hand, natural chemical bonds are utilized to construct an atom-level graph, then message passing from a topological perception module is applied to output residue-level predictions in parallel. Eventually, through a cross-model aggregation module, features from different modules mutually interact, enhancing performance on both the atom and residue levels. RESULTS: Extensive experiments show that our proposed Atom-ProteinQA outperforms previous methods by a large margin, regardless of residue-level or atom-level assessment. Concretely, we achieved state-of-the-art performance on CATH-2084, Decoy-8000, public benchmarks CASP13 & CASP14, and the CAMEO. AVAILABILITY: The repository of this project is released on: https://github.com/luyfcandy/Atom_ProteinQA.

[Health Risk Assessment and Priority Control Factors Analysis of Heavy Metals in Agricultural Soils Based on Source-oriented].

To analyze the source apportionment and health risk of heavy metals in agricultural soils of major producing areas of agricultural products in Chongqing, a positive matrix factorization (PMF) model and health risk assessment (HRA) model based on Monte Carlo simulation were used. Meanwhile, both the PMF and HRA model were combined to explore health risks of heavy metals in agricultural soils by different pollution sources in order to determine the priority control factors. The results showed that the average values of Cd concentration were higher than its corresponding background value; the average values of Cr concentration were lower than its corresponding background value; and the average values of As, Pb, Cu, Ni, and Zn concentration were basically consistent with their corresponding background values. Using PMF model analysis, natural sources, industrial sources, and agricultural sources were identified as the determinants for the accumulation of heavy metals in agricultural soils, with the contribution rates of 35%, 24%, and 41%, respectively. Using the HRA model based on Monte Carlo simulation analysis, carcinogenic risks of adult and children were tolerable (1.00E-6 < TCR ≤ 1.00E-4), whereas non-carcinogenic risks were acceptable (HI ≤ 1). Oral ingestion was the main exposure pathway. The analysis results of the relationship among heavy metals, pollution sources, and health risks showed that industrial pollution and As were identified as priority control factors, and agricultural pollution and Cd were identified as secondary control factors. Our findings provide scientific support for decision makers to control soil pollution and reduce the management costs of soil pollution.

Glycemic Control, Weight Management, Cardiovascular Safety, and Cost-Effectiveness of Semaglutide for Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Rapid Review and Meta-analysis of Real-World Studies.

INTRODUCTION: Semaglutide is a high-profile glucose-lowering drug that medical decision-makers have acknowledged in recent years. This rapid review aims to provide evidence-based clinical recommendations for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) with semaglutide. METHODS: We conducted a rapid review of randomized controlled trial (RCT)-based meta-analyses (MAs) and systematic reviews (SRs) of cost-effectiveness analyses (CEAs) compared to other glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) or placebo in patients with T2DM. Prospective cohort real-world studies (RWS) were also retrieved and subjected to MA. Four databases, including PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Embase, and ISPOR, were searched from inception to 5 March 2023. The outcomes of interest were hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), body weight, major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), and economic outcomes such as quality-adjusted life-years and total cost. RESULTS: We identified 33 publications: 22 RCT-based MAs, 1 SR of CEAs, and 10 RWS. Evidence showed that semaglutide at usual doses was associated with superior reductions in HbA1c and weight compared to most GLP-1 RAs in patients with T2DM who were drug naive, receiving basal insulin, or using oral hypoglycemic agents, and it was also associated with a lower number of MACE and was more cost-effective. Further, once-weekly semaglutide resulted in a significant reduction in HbA1c levels (-1.1%) and body weight (-4.88 kg) in routine clinical practice. CONCLUSIONS: This review consolidates the positive current evidence base for prescribing semaglutide to patients with T2DM, but further rigorous studies are still urgently required to develop practice guidelines as innovative drugs become commercially available.

Global burden of hip fracture: The Global Burden of Disease Study.

This study is the first to measure global burden of hip fracture in patients aged 55 years and older across 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2019. Our study further proved that the global burden of hip fracture is still large. Hip fractures among males are perhaps underestimated, and older adults should be given more attention. PURPOSE: Hip fracture is a tremendous universal public health challenge, but no updated comprehensive and comparable assessment of hip fracture incidence and burden exists for most of the world in older adults. METHODS: Using data from the Global Burden of Diseases (GBD) 2019, we estimated the number and rates of the incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability (YLD) of hip fracture across 204 countries and territories in patients aged 55 years and older from 1990 to 2019. RESULTS: In 2019, the incidence, prevalence, and YLDs rates of hip fracture in patients aged 55 years and older were 681.35 (95% UI 508.36-892.27) per 100000 population, 1191.39 (95% UI 1083.80-1301.52) per 100000 population, and 130.78 (95% UI 92.26-175.30) per 100000 population. During the three decades, the incidence among people aged below 60 years showed a downward trend, whereas it showed a rapid upward trend among older adults. All the numbers and rates of hip fractures among females were higher than those among males and increased with age, with the highest number and rate in the highest age group. Notably, the male to female ratio of the incidence for people aged over 55 years increased from 0.577 in 1990 to 0.612 in 2019. Falls were the leading cause among both sexes and in all age groups. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence and the number of hip fractures among patients aged 55 years and older increased over the past three decades, indicating that the global burden of hip fracture is still large. Hip fractures among males are perhaps underestimated, and older adults should be given more attention.

ComplexQA: a deep graph learning approach for protein complex structure assessment.

MOTIVATION: In recent years, the end-to-end deep learning method for single-chain protein structure prediction has achieved high accuracy. For example, the state-of-the-art method AlphaFold, developed by Google, has largely increased the accuracy of protein structure predictions to near experimental accuracy in some of the cases. At the same time, there are few methods that can evaluate the quality of protein complexes at the residue level. In particular, evaluating the quality of residues at the interface of protein complexes can lead to a wide range of applications, such as protein function analysis and drug design. In this paper, we introduce a new deep graph neural network-based method ComplexQA, to evaluate the local quality of interfaces for protein complexes by utilizing the residue-level structural information in 3D space and the sequence-level constraints. RESULTS: We benchmark our method to other state-of-the-art quality assessment approaches on the HAF2 and DBM55-AF2 datasets (high-quality structural models predicted by AlphaFold-Multimer), and the BM5 docking dataset. The experimental results show that our proposed method achieves better or similar performance compared with other state-of-the-art methods, especially on difficult targets which only contain a few acceptable models. Our method is able to suggest a score for each interfac e residue, which demonstrates a powerful assessment tool for the ever-increasing number of protein complexes. AVAILABILITY: https://github.com/Cao-Labs/ComplexQA.git. Contact: caora@plu.edu.

Preconception exposure to environmental antibiotics among childbearing couples in Anhui and health risk assessment: A multicenter population-based representative study.

Only few studies have assessed the health effects due to preconception exposure to antibiotics among childbearing couples. This study investigated the status of preconception exposure to antibiotics among childbearing couples in Anhui, associated with health risks, and influencing factors. Overall, 1500 childbearing couples were randomly selected from the Reproductive Health of Childbearing Couples - Anhui Cohort (RHCC-AC). The urinary levels of 40 antibiotics and 2 metabolites were determined, and specific gravity (SG) adjusted concentrations of antibiotics were measured to assess health risks. Generalized linear models were used to assess the associations of urinary SG-adjusted concentration of antibiotics with demographic parameters and diet frequency. The total detection rates of all antibiotics were 98.9 % and 99.3 % in wives and husbands, respectively. The detection rates of veterinary antibiotics (VAs) and preferred as VAs (PVAs) were above 90 %. Among eight antibiotics, sulfonamides (95.1 %) and fluoroquinolones (87.6 %) had the highest detection rates in couples. Approximately four-fifths of couples were simultaneously exposed to at least three different antibiotics, and more than half of them were exposed to low concentrations of antibiotics. 8.9 % and 9.2 % of wives and husbands had hazard index value of antibiotics exposure greater than 1. Antibiotic concentrations were associated with residence, sampling season, and diet frequency. In Anhui, nearly 98 % of childbearing couples have environmental exposure to antibiotics, and VAs and PVAs are the primary antibiotics. More than 8 % of couples had health risks due to antibiotic exposure. Several potential determinants of urinary antibiotics deserve more attention in future research.

[Health Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals in Agricultural Soils Around the Gangue Heap of Coal Mine Based on Monte Carlo Simulation].

To analyze the pollution characteristics of heavy metals in the soil of farmland surrounding the gangue heap of a coal mine in Chongqing, the Nemerow, Muller, and Hakanson indices were used. Meanwhile, to investigate the health risks of heavy metals in soil, a health risk assessment model was employed using Monte Carlo simulation. The results revealed that the average contents of Cd, Hg, As, Pb, Cr, Cu, Ni, and Zn were higher than their soil background values, and the Muller index (Igeo) from high to low was as follows:Cd>Hg>Cu>As>Ni>Zn>Cr>Pb. The Nemerow index (PN) demonstrated that the results of the assessment indicated mainly light pollution (1Cu>Ni>Cr>Zn>As>Pb>Hg. The Hakanson index (RI) demonstrated that the results of the assessment indicated mainly moderate ecological risk (150 ≤ RI<300). The single ecological risk index (Eri) from high to low was as follows:Cd>Hg>As>Cu>Ni>Pb>Cr>Zn. The health risk assessment of heavy metals revealed that the non-carcinogenic health risks of children and adults could be ignored, but carcinogenic health risks existed, with an average total carcinogenic risk index (TCR) of 1.04E-5 and 3.94E-6, respectively. The major carcinogenic factors were As and Cd. Sensitivity analysis of non-carcinogenic health risks revealed that the ingestion rate of soil (Ringest) was the most sensitive, followed by the contents of As. Meanwhile, sensitivity analysis of carcinogenic health risks indicated that the content of As was the most sensitive, followed by the ingestion rate of soil (Ringest). In general, the health risks of children, including non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks, were higher than those of adults.

[Health Risk Assessment and Environmental Benchmark of Cadmium in Farmland Soils around the Gangue Heap of Coal Mine, Chongqing].

To analyze the health risk assessment and environmental benchmark of cadmium in farmland soils surrounding the gangue heap of a coal mine in Chongqing, Hakanson, the ecological risk index and health risk assessment were used. Meanwhile, the soil environmental reference value of the regional cultivated land was inverted based on the species sensitive distribution model (SSD). The results showed that the dryland soil was polluted by Cd, with an over-standard rate of 55.8%, and the paddy field soil was polluted by Cd, with an over-standard rate of 31.6%. The corn was polluted by Cd, with an over-standard rate of 4.4%, and the rice was not polluted by Cd. The Hakanson ecological risk index showed that Cd was mainly characterized in soils by high ecological risk and considerable ecological risk. The health risk assessment indicated that Cd presented low non-carcinogenic risk by corn and rice; however, it showed acceptable carcinogenic risk by corn and unacceptable carcinogenic risk by rice in this study. The sensitivity analysis of health risks showed that the content of Cd was the most sensitive. The SSD inversion showed that the reference values for Cd in dryland soil of pH ≤ 5.5, 5.57.5 had HC5 values of 0.491, 0.382, 0.376, and 0.588 mg·kg-1, respectively, and that for Cd in paddy soil had an HC5 value of 0.807 mg·kg-1. The reverse analysis showed that the HC5 of Cd in dryland soil (pH ≤ 7.5) and paddy soil was relatively relaxed and was higher than the soil risk screening values, which showed that the current standard was relatively loose. However, the HC5 of Cd in dryland soil (pH>7.5) was lower than the soil risk screening values, which showed that the current standard was relatively strict. It is suggested that the current soil standard could be adjusted in this area.

RNA tertiary structure modeling with BRiQ potential in CASP15.

We describe the modeling method for RNA tertiary structures employed by team AIchemy_RNA2 in the 15th Critical Assessment of Structure Prediction (CASP15). The method consists of the following steps. Firstly, secondary structure information was derived from various manually-verified sources. With this information, the full length RNA was fragmented into structural modules. The structures of each module were predicted and then assembled into the full structure. To reduce the searching conformational space, an RNA structure was organized into an optimal base folding tree. And to further improve the sampling efficiency, the energy surface was smoothed at high temperatures during the Monte Carlo sampling to make it easier to move across the energy barrier. The statistical potential energy function BRiQ was employed during Monte Carlo energy optimization.

The pathways from disadvantaged socioeconomic status in childhood to edentulism in mid-to-late adulthood over the life-course.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to examine the direct and indirect pathways from childhood socioeconomic status (SES) to the prevalence of edentulism in mid-to-late age Chinese individuals using structural equation modeling (SEM). METHODS: This study analyzed data from 17,032 mid- to-late age Chinese individuals in the 2014 and 2015 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). Childhood SES was determined based on the parents' education and occupation, financial situation of the family, primary residence, food availability, and medical convenience. Adulthood SES was established according to educational achievements of the individuals. Edentulism is defined as the loss of all natural teeth. SEM was used to examine the statistical significance of the association between childhood SES and edentulism, mediated by childhood health, adulthood SES, and adult health. RESULTS: Childhood SES had significant indirect (ß = -0.026, p < 0.01), and total (ß = -0.040, p < 0.01) effects on edentulism. It was determined that 65% of the total effect of childhood SES on edentulism was indirect, and mainly mediated by adult SES. Also, the goodness-of-fit indices of the best-fitting model were acceptable. CONCLUSION: This study revealed that childhood health, adult health and adult SES are mediators that explain the relationship between childhood SES and edentulism. The global attention to alleviate the inequality in edentulism should focus on exploring recommendations and intervention strategies from childhood to adulthood, by considering adult SES, childhood and adult health.

Incidence and cost of vertebral fracture in urban China: a 5-year population-based cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Osteoporotic vertebral fractures cause pain and disability, which result in a heavy socioeconomic burden. However, the incidence and cost of vertebral fractures in China are unknown. We aimed to assess the incidence and cost of clinically recognized vertebral fractures among people aged 50 years and older in China from 2013 to 2017. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This population-based cohort study was conducted by using Urban Employee Basic Medical Insurance (UEBMI) and Urban Resident Basic Medical Insurance (URBMI) data in China from 2013 to 2017, which covered more than 95% of the Chinese population in urban areas. Vertebral fractures were identified by the primary diagnosis (i.e. International Classification of Diseases code or text of diagnosis) in UEBMI and URBMI. The incidence and medical cost of these clinically recognized vertebral fractures in urban China were calculated. RESULTS: A total of 271 981 vertebral fractures (186 428, 68.5% females and 85 553, 31.5% males) were identified, with a mean age of 70.26 years. The incidence of vertebral fractures among patients aged 50 years and over in China increased ~1.79-fold during the 5 years, from 85.21 per 100 000 person-years in 2013 to 152.13 per 100 000 person-years in 2017. Medical costs for vertebral fractures increased from US$92.74 million in 2013 to US$505.3 million in 2017. Annual costs per vertebral fracture case increased from US$3.54 thousand in 2013 to US$5.35 thousand in 2017. CONCLUSION: The dramatic increase in the incidence and cost of clinically recognized vertebral fractures among patients aged 50 and over in urban China implies that more attention should be given to the management of osteoporosis to prevent osteoporotic fractures.

[Application of tissue culture technology of medicinal plants in sustainable development of Chinese medicinal resources].

Chinese medicinal resources are the cornerstone of the sustainable development of traditional Chinese medicine industry. However, due to the fecundity of species, over-exploitation, and limitations of artificial cultivation, some medicinal plants are depleted and even endangered. Tissue culture, a breakthrough technology in the breeding of traditional Chinese medicinal materials, is not limited by time and space, and can allow the production on an annual basis, which plays an important role in the protection of Chinese medicinal resources. The present study reviewed the applications of tissue culture of medicinal plants in the field of Chinese medicinal resources, including rapid propagation of medicinal plant seedlings, breeding of novel high-yield and high-quality cultivars, construction of a genetic transformation system, and production of secondary metabolites. Meanwhile, the current challenges and suggestions for the future development of this field were also proposed.

Assessment of Multiple Ecosystem Services and Ecological Security Pattern in Shanxi Province, China.

The ecological security pattern construction could effectively regulate ecological processes and ensure ecological functions, then rationally allocate natural resources and green infrastructure, and, finally, realize ecological security. In view of serious soil erosion, accelerated land desertification, soil pollution and habitat degradation in Shanxi Province, the spatial distribution of six key ecosystem services, including water conservation (WC), soil conservation (SC), sand fixation (SF), carbon storage (CS), net primary productivity (NPP) and habitat quality (HQ), was analyzed by using multiple models. The comprehensive ability of multiple ecosystem services in different regions was quantified by calculating multiple ecosystem services landscape index (MESLI). Combined with ecosystem services hotspots, the ecological security pattern of Shanxi Province was constructed by using the minimum cumulative resistance model. The results showed that the spatial differences in ecosystem services in Shanxi Province were obvious, which was low in the seven major basins and Fen River valley, and high in the mountains (especially Taihang and Lvliang Mountains) for WC, SC, CS, NPP and HQ, while high SF was only distributed in the northern Shanxi. The MESLI showed that the ability to provide multiple ecosystem services simultaneously was low in Shanxi Province, with the medium and low grade MESLI regions accounting for 58.61%, and only 18.07% for the high grade MESLI regions. The important protected areas and ecological sources of the ecological security pattern were concentrated in the Lvliang and Taihang Mountains, which were consistent with the key areas of ecosystem services. The ecological corridors illustrated network distribution with ecological sources as the center, the low-, medium- and high-level buffers accounted for 26.34%, 17.03% and 16.35%, respectively. The results will provide important implications for economic transformation, high-quality development and ecological sustainable development in resource-based regions worldwide.

Knee Cartilage Defect Assessment by Graph Representation and Surface Convolution.

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common osteoarthritis and a leading cause of disability. Cartilage defects are regarded as major manifestations of knee OA, which are visible by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Thus early detection and assessment for knee cartilage defects are important for protecting patients from knee OA. In this way, many attempts have been made on knee cartilage defect assessment by applying convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to knee MRI. However, the physiologic characteristics of the cartilage may hinder such efforts: the cartilage is a thin curved layer, implying that only a small portion of voxels in knee MRI can contribute to the cartilage defect assessment; heterogeneous scanning protocols further challenge the feasibility of the CNNs in clinical practice; the CNN-based knee cartilage evaluation results lack interpretability. To address these challenges, we model the cartilages structure and appearance from knee MRI into a graph representation, which is capable of handling highly diverse clinical data. Then, guided by the cartilage graph representation, we design a non-Euclidean deep learning network with the self-attention mechanism, to extract cartilage features in the local and global, and to derive the final assessment with a visualized result. Our comprehensive experiments show that the proposed method yields superior performance in knee cartilage defect assessment, plus its convenient 3D visualization for interpretability.

Entropy-based financial asset pricing: Evidence from Pakistan.

Entropy is an alternative measure to calculate the risk, simplify the portfolios and equity risk premium. It has higher explanatory power than capital asset price model (CAPM) beta. The comparison of Entropy and CAPM beta provide in depth analysis about the explanatory power of the model that in turn help investor to make right investment decisions that minimizes risk. In this context, this study aims to compare Shannon and Rennyi Entropies with the CAPM beta for measuring the risk. Ordinary Least square approach has been utilized using a dataset of 67 enterprises registered in Pakistan Stock exchange. The comparative analysis of CAPM beta and entropy has been carried out with the R2 parameters. The result indicates that entropy has more explanatory power as compare to CAPM beta's explanatory power, and this turns out to be the best option to evaluate the risk performances. The result implies that an investor should make the best investment decision by choosing an enterprise that provide with good returns at minimum risk based on entropy technique.

Craniofacial Growth and Asymmetry in Newborns: A Longitudinal 3D Assessment.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the development of the craniofacial region in healthy infants and analyze the asymmetry pattern in the first year of life. METHODS: The participants were grouped by sex and age (1, 2, 4, 6, 9, and 12 months) to receive three-dimensional (3D) photographs. Stereoscopic craniofacial photos were captured and transformed into a series of craniofacial meshes in each group. The growth patterns of the anthropometric indices and the degree of craniofacial asymmetry were measured, and average craniofacial meshes and color-asymmetry maps with craniofacial asymmetry scores were calculated. RESULTS: A total of 373 photographs from 66 infants were obtained. In both genders, the highest and lowest growth rates for all anthropometric indices were noted between 1 and 2 months and between 9 and 12 months, respectively. Overall, male infants had higher anthropometric indices, head volume, and head circumference than female infants. The craniofacial asymmetry score was presented with a descending pattern from 1 to 12 months of age in both sex groups. Both sex groups showed decreased left-sided laterality in the temporal-parietal-occipital region between 1 and 4 months of age and increased right frontal-temporal prominence between 6 and 12 months of age. CONCLUSIONS: A longitudinal evaluation of the craniofacial growth of healthy infants during their first year of life was presented.