Asymmetric effects of crude oil prices and USD exchange rate on precious metals returns：Evidence from pre and during COVID-19 outbreak.

Trading in commodities such as precious metals and crude oil is vital to the economy. Frequent exchange rate fluctuations have led to constant changes in commodity prices since 2000. Using quantile regression, this paper examines the impact of oil prices and the US dollar exchange rate on gold, silver, platinum, and palladium from January 1, 2013 to 5 May 2023. Oil prices positively affect precious metals returns, and positive and negative oil price shocks are asymmetric. Exchange rate movements negatively affect precious metal returns. In addition, gaps in the existing literature are filled by analyzing the effects of oil prices and the exchange rate on precious metals before and during COVID-19. This paper provides substantial evidence for revising the impact of the crisis.

Annual Direct Cost and Cost-Drivers of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: A Multi-Center Cross-Sectional Study from CSTAR Registry.

BACKGROUND: To estimate the annual direct costs and cost-drivers associated with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients in China. METHODS: A multi-center, cross-sectional study was conducted based on the CSTAR registry. The information on demography and expenditures for outpatient and inpatient visits due to SLE were collected using online questionnaires. These patients' medical records were from the database of the Chinese Rheumatology Information System (CRIS). The average direct costs and 95% confidence interval were estimated using the bootstrap method with 1000 bootstrap samples by resampling with replacement. The cost-drivers were identified using multivariate regression models. RESULTS: A total of 1778 SLE patients from 101 hospitals participated in our study, with 92.58% as females, a mean age of 33.8 years old, a median duration of SLE of 4.9 years, 63.8% in an active disease state, 77.3% with two organs or more damaged, and 8.3% using biologics as treatment. The average annual direct cost per patient was estimated at CNY 29,727, which approximates to 86% for direct medical costs. For moderate to severe disease activities, the use of biologics, hospitalization, treatment of moderate or high dose glucocorticoids, and peripheral vascular, cardiovascular, and/or renal system involvements were found to substantially increase the direct costs, while health insurance slightly decreased the direct costs of SLE. CONCLUSIONS: This study provided reliable insight into financial pressures on individual SLE patients in China. The efforts focusing on preventing flare occurrences and limiting disease progression were recommended to further reduce the direct cost of SLE.

Mixed Mulberry Fruit and Mulberry Leaf Fermented Alcoholic Beverages: Assessment of Chemical Composition, Antioxidant Capacity In Vitro and Sensory Evaluation.

The fruit and leaves of mulberry (Morus alba L.) contain a variety of health-beneficial components. At present, although both alcoholic and non-alcoholic mulberry beverages are commercially available, studies on fermented alcoholic beverages mixed with both mulberry fruit and mulberry leaf are rare. In this study, different amounts (1, 2 and 3%, g/mL dry weight) of mulberry leaves were added during the alcoholic fermentation of mulberry juice. After 9 days of fermentation, the 1-deoxynojirimycin (DNJ) content increased from 61.12 ± 3.10 to 153.39 ± 3.98 µg/mL, and the quercetin content increased from 0.45 ± 0.01 to 20.14 ± 0.08 mg/L in the mulberry alcoholic beverages with the addition of mulberry leaves at 2%. Moreover, the ABTS+ scavenging capacity at the end of fermentation for the same sample was enhanced by 40.9%. In addition, the total sugar, total phenols, total anthocyanins, and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) contents of the fermented samples all decreased significantly at the end of fermentation. A total of 33 volatile compounds and 17 free amino acids were detected in the fermented alcoholic beverages with mulberry leaves added. The total free amino acid content increased with the increase in mulberry leaf addition. Principal component analysis showed that the addition of mulberry leaves during fermentation increased the contents of GABA, DNJ, total flavonols and protocatechuic acid in mulberry alcoholic beverages. All these studies revealed the dynamic changes in functional components in the alcoholic fermentation of mulberry juices with the addition of mulberry leaves. Overall, the addition of mulberry leaf powder at 2% was selected as the appropriate addition for producing mulberry alcoholic beverages with enhanced nutritional value.

Development of highly stable color indicator films based on κ-carrageenan, silver nanoparticle and red grape skin anthocyanin for marine fish freshness assessment.

Color indicator films for fish freshness were fabricated by incorporating κ-carrageenan (CAR) polymer with red grape skin extract (GSE) as a pH-sensing agent and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) as an antimicrobial agent. Anthocyanins in GSE exhibited distinguished pH responsive color changes. GSE and AgNPs were well compatible with CAR with intramolecular interactions, approved by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). GSE-containing films displayed distinguished color changes in response to pH variations and volatile ammonia. Enhanced UV blocking ability and strong antioxidant activity were revealed for GSE included films without sacrificing the physico-chemical properties of the CAR film. Films containing AgNPs showed improved mechanical strength and strong antimicrobial ability against both Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. The CAR/AgNPs/GSE film displayed a distinctive color change corresponding to changes in the total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N) of fish during storage. In addition, the CAR/AgNPs/GSE film showed excellent color stability to consecutive UV exposure and its storage time at 25 °C is expected to be at least 240 days, which indicates that it has high potential as an intelligent food freshness indicator film.

Image Quality Assessment Using Contrastive Learning.

We consider the problem of obtaining image quality representations in a self-supervised manner. We use prediction of distortion type and degree as an auxiliary task to learn features from an unlabeled image dataset containing a mixture of synthetic and realistic distortions. We then train a deep Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) using a contrastive pairwise objective to solve the auxiliary problem. We refer to the proposed training framework and resulting deep IQA model as the CONTRastive Image QUality Evaluator (CONTRIQUE). During evaluation, the CNN weights are frozen and a linear regressor maps the learned representations to quality scores in a No-Reference (NR) setting. We show through extensive experiments that CONTRIQUE achieves competitive performance when compared to state-of-the-art NR image quality models, even without any additional fine-tuning of the CNN backbone. The learned representations are highly robust and generalize well across images afflicted by either synthetic or authentic distortions. Our results suggest that powerful quality representations with perceptual relevance can be obtained without requiring large labeled subjective image quality datasets. The implementations used in this paper are available at https://github.com/pavancm/CONTRIQUE.

Effects of Healthcare Policies and Reforms at the Primary Level in China: From the Evidence of Shenzhen Primary Care Reforms from 2018 to 2019.

Countries worldwide are making efforts to achieve health equity. China focuses on the implementation of the policy goal of "improving the primary level" to eliminate the health equity gap. The main purpose of this study is to examine the effects of the healthcare reforms at the primary level in China and to analyze the key factors that can help to improve their effectiveness. From the perspectives of the policy attention mechanism and public policy analysis, this study will explore primary care reforms from policy formulation to policy implementation on the basis of grounded theory and empirical research on primary care reforms in Shenzhen, China, that was conducted from 2018 to 2019. The present study found that the government pays close attention to the medical level and service level of primary care services at the policy formulation phase but less attention to talent level and information sharing. At the same time, this study combined with empirical data from primary care centers in Shenzhen for the period covering 2018 to 2019 evaluates policy implementation and its effect. Multiple regression analysis revealed that the medical level, talent level, service level, and information sharing helped to develop primary care services and improved health equity. Nevertheless, this study reflects a deviation between policy formulation and policy implementation for the development of primary care policies. Empirical experience shows that the development of talent level and information sharing can significantly promote primary care services and health management. Therefore, this study implies that in the process of promoting the health equity at the primary level, more attention should be paid to the consistency between policy formulation and policy implementation. Additionally, the policy promotion and influence mechanism can be improved, particularly in terms of talent development and information sharing, in order to effectively promote the development of health equity at the primary level.

The assessment of spirituality between cancer and chronic inpatients: a cross-sectional study.

PURPOSE: Spiritual well-being had a protective effect on quality of life in cancer, due to the cultural, regional, and custom differences; it was rarely been discussed between cancer and chronic diseases in Chongqing, China. We aimed at comparing the level of spirituality in two groups and discussing its factors of subjects with cancer at county regions. METHODS: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was distributed to 630 inpatients who received treatment between January and December 2020 in Chongqing University Three Gorges Hospital. In addition to basic demographic data, spirituality was measured using the Chinese version of Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being (FACIT-Sp-12). The mean, standard deviation, independent t-tests, ANOVA, and multiple regression were used for statistical description and analysis. RESULTS: Significant differences were found between cancer and chronic diseases in total scores of FACIT-Sp-12 and each domain (P < 0.05). The meaning, peace, faith, and total scores in cancer were 11.21 ± 3.38, 10.66 ± 4.46, 11.43 ± 3.54, and 33.3 ± 10.35, respectively, which were lower than chronic diseases (13.00 ± 3.21, 12.95 ± 4.76, 12.66 ± 3.64, 38.61 ± 10.88, respectively). The spiritual well-being had significant differences in gender, character, and emotional with spouse for cancer (P < 0.05). The male and extravert character were significantly associated with a greater spiritual well-being. CONCLUSION: The study shows a medium level of spiritual well-being in cancer, which stands the population with lower economic and education in county regions. It suggests that under the current nursing mode, we should provide specifically spiritual care to the female, introvert, and those with poor relationship with spouses and create a harmonious doctor-patient environment to improve the spiritual well-being.

Plastic and low-cost axial zero thermal expansion alloy by a natural dual-phase composite.

Zero thermal expansion (ZTE) alloys possess unique dimensional stability, high thermal and electrical conductivities. Their practical application under heat and stress is however limited by their inherent brittleness because ZTE and plasticity are generally exclusive in a single-phase material. Besides, the performance of ZTE alloys is highly sensitive to change of compositions, so conventional synthesis methods such as alloying or the design of multiphase to improve its thermal and mechanical properties are usually inapplicable. In this study, by adopting a one-step eutectic reaction method, we overcome this challenge. A natural dual-phase composite with ZTE and plasticity was synthesized by melting 4 atom% holmium with pure iron. The dual-phase alloy shows moderate plasticity and strength, axial zero thermal expansion, and stable thermal cycling performance as well as low cost. By using synchrotron X-ray diffraction, in-situ neutron diffraction and microscopy, the critical mechanism of dual-phase synergy on both thermal expansion regulation and mechanical property enhancement is revealed. These results demonstrate that eutectic reaction is likely to be a universal and effective method for the design of high-performance intermetallic-compound-based ZTE alloys.

UGC-VQA: Benchmarking Blind Video Quality Assessment for User Generated Content.

Recent years have witnessed an explosion of user-generated content (UGC) videos shared and streamed over the Internet, thanks to the evolution of affordable and reliable consumer capture devices, and the tremendous popularity of social media platforms. Accordingly, there is a great need for accurate video quality assessment (VQA) models for UGC/consumer videos to monitor, control, and optimize this vast content. Blind quality prediction of in-the-wild videos is quite challenging, since the quality degradations of UGC videos are unpredictable, complicated, and often commingled. Here we contribute to advancing the UGC-VQA problem by conducting a comprehensive evaluation of leading no-reference/blind VQA (BVQA) features and models on a fixed evaluation architecture, yielding new empirical insights on both subjective video quality studies and objective VQA model design. By employing a feature selection strategy on top of efficient BVQA models, we are able to extract 60 out of 763 statistical features used in existing methods to create a new fusion-based model, which we dub the VIDeo quality EVALuator (VIDEVAL), that effectively balances the trade-off between VQA performance and efficiency. Our experimental results show that VIDEVAL achieves state-of-the-art performance at considerably lower computational cost than other leading models. Our study protocol also defines a reliable benchmark for the UGC-VQA problem, which we believe will facilitate further research on deep learning-based VQA modeling, as well as perceptually-optimized efficient UGC video processing, transcoding, and streaming. To promote reproducible research and public evaluation, an implementation of VIDEVAL has been made available online: https://github.com/vztu/VIDEVAL.

Subjective Well-Being of Chinese Sina Weibo Users in Residential Lockdown During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Machine Learning Analysis.

BACKGROUND: During the COVID-19 pandemic, residential lockdowns were implemented in numerous cities in China to contain the rapid spread of the disease. Although these stringent regulations effectively slowed the spread of COVID-19, they may have posed challenges to the well-being of residents. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to explore the effects of residential lockdown on the subjective well-being (SWB) of individuals in China during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: The sample consisted of 1790 Sina Weibo users who were residents of cities that imposed residential lockdowns, of which 1310 users (73.18%) were female, and 3580 users who were residents of cities that were not locked down (gender-matched with the 1790 lockdown residents). In both the lockdown and nonlockdown groups, we calculated SWB indicators during the 2 weeks before and after the enforcement date of the residential lockdown using individuals' original posts on Sina Weibo. SWB was calculated via online ecological recognition, which is based on established machine learning predictive models. RESULTS: The interactions of time (before the residential lockdown or after the residential lockdown) × area (lockdown or nonlockdown) in the integral analysis (N=5370) showed that after the residential lockdown, compared with the nonlockdown group, the lockdown group scored lower in some negative SWB indicators, including somatization (F1,5368=13.593, P<.001) and paranoid ideation (F1,5368=14.333, P<.001). The interactions of time (before the residential lockdown or after the residential lockdown) × area (developed or underdeveloped) in the comparison of residential lockdown areas with different levels of economic development (N=1790) indicated that the SWB of residents in underdeveloped areas showed no significant change after the residential lockdown (P>.05), while that of residents in developed areas changed. CONCLUSIONS: These findings increase our understanding of the psychological impact and cost of residential lockdown during an epidemic. The more negative changes in the SWB of residents in developed areas imply a greater need for psychological intervention under residential lockdown in such areas.

Longitudinal assessment of the CXCL10 blood and urine concentration in kidney transplant recipients with BK polyomavirus replication-a retrospective study.

In kidney transplant recipients (KTRs), BK polyomavirus (BKPyV) replication may progress to polyomavirus-associated nephropathy (PVAN). In this retrospective study, we assessed the chemokine CXCL10 in urine and blood samples consecutively acquired from 85 KTRs who displayed different stages of BKPyV replication and eventually developed PVAN. In parallel to progression toward PVAN, CXCL10 gradually increased in blood and urine, from baseline (prior to virus replication) to BKPyV DNAuria (median increase in blood: 42.15 pg/ml, P = 0.0156), from mere DNAuria to low- and high-level BKPyV DNAemia (median increase: 52.60 and 87.26 pg/ml, P = 0.0010 and P = 0.0002, respectively) and peaked with histologically confirmed PVAN (median increase: 145.00 pg/ml, P < 0.0001). CXCL10 blood and urine levels significantly differed among KTRs with respect to simultaneous presence of human cytomegalovirus (P < 0.001) as well as in relation to the clinical severity of respective BKPyV DNAemia episodes (P = 0.0195). CXCL-10 concentrations were particularly lower in KTRs in whom BKPyV DNAemia remained without clinical evidence for PVAN, as compared to individuals who displayed high decoy cell levels, decreased renal function and/or biopsy-proven PVAN (median blood concentration: 266.97 vs. 426.42 pg/ml, P = 0.0282). In conclusion, in KTRs CXCL10 rises in parallel to BKPyV replication and correlates with the gradual development of PVAN.

Hospitalisation cost analysis on hip fracture in China: a multicentre study among 73 tertiary hospitals.

OBJECTIVE: To describe and analyse the hospitalisation cost of patients with hip fracture under the influence of various factors and to provide references for Chinese national medical insurance policy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All data were collected from the Chinese National Medical Data Centre database, which contained the hospitalisation data of 73 tertiary hospitals from 24 provinces. The included patients were first hospitalised with the main diagnosis of femoral neck or intertrochanteric fracture, and were discharged between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2015. Secondary hospitalisation, multiple trauma or pathologic fracture (except for osteoporotic fracture) patients or patients with missing data were excluded. The impact of various factors on the cost was investigated using analysis of variance and multivariable linear regression analysis. The Gross Domestic Product per capita and average annual disposable income were obtained from the website of the National Bureau of Statistics. RESULTS: 27 205 cases were included in the study. The mean cost of all patients was ¥53 440. 60-69 years age group had a significantly higher cost compared with 80 years and above age group. The mean cost of femoral neck fractures was lower than that of the patients with intertrochanteric fractures; the mean cost of hip replacement was higher than that of internal fixation, which showed a strong effect of the surgical approach to the cost. Patients in low-income provinces spent less than those in high-income provinces, while the gap between high-income and middle-income provinces were relatively small. CONCLUSION: The hospitalisation cost of hip fracture has become a great burden to the patients' families. The Chinese medical insurance policy may need further consideration of the demographic and economic factors.

Aptamer-based colorimetric biosensing of abrin using catalytic gold nanoparticles.

In this study we propose a simple and sensitive colorimetric aptasensor for the quantitative analysis of abrin by using catalytic AuNPs for the first time. AuNPs possess the peroxidase-like activity that can catalyse 3,3,5,5-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) in the presence of H2O2, leading to color change of the solution. It is interesting to find that the peroxidase-like activity of AuNPs can be improved by surface activation with a target-specific aptamer. However, with a target molecule, the aptamer is desorbed from the AuNPs surface, resulting in a decrease of the catalytic abilities of AuNPs. The color change of the solution is relevant to the target concentration, and this can be judged by the naked eye and monitored by using a UV-vis spectrometer. The linear range for the current analytical system was from 0.2 nM to 17.5 nM. The corresponding limit of detection (LOD) was 0.05 nM. Some other proteins such as thrombin (Th), glucose oxidase (GOx), and bovine serum albumin (BSA) all had a negligible effect on the determination of abrin. Furthermore, several practical samples spiked with abrin were analyzed using the proposed method with excellent recoveries. This aptamer-based colorimetric biosensor is superior to other conventional methods owing to its simplicity, low cost, and high sensitivity.

Assessment of BAK1 activity in different plant receptor-like kinase complexes by quantitative profiling of phosphorylation patterns.

Plant receptor-like kinases (RLKs) constitute a large family of receptors coordinating developmental programs with adaptation to environmental stresses including immune defenses. BRI1-ASSOCIATED KINASE 1 (BAK1), a member of the plant RLK family, forms receptor complexes with multiple RLK proteins including BRI1, FLS2, EFR and BIK1 to regulate responses to growth hormones or PAMPs. RLK activation and signal initiation involve protein complex formation and phosphorylation/dephosphorylation between BAK1 and its interacting partners. To gain new insight into how phosphorylation contributes to BAK1-mediated signaling specificity, we first mapped the phosphorylation patterns of BAK1 associated with different RLK partners (BRI1, FLS2, EFR and BIK1). Quantitative phospho-pattern profiling by label-free mass spectrometry revealed that differential phosphorylation patterns of RLK partners resulted from altered BAK1 phosphorylation status. More interestingly, the study of two BAK1 mutants (T450A and C408Y) both showing severe defect in immune defense yet normal growth phenotype suggested that varied phosphorylation patterns of RLK partners by BAK1 could be the molecular basis for selective regulation of multiple BAK1-dependent pathways. Taken together, this phospho-pattern profiling strategy allowed for explicit assessment of BAK1 kinase activity in different RLK complexes, which would facilitate elucidation of BAK1 diverse functions in plant development, defense, and adaptation. BIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE: BAK1 is a functionally important co-receptor known to interact with different receptor-like kinases (RLKs) to coordinate plant development and immune defenses. Our study first mapped the phosphorylation patterns of BAK1 associated with four RLK partners (BRI1, FLS2, EFR and BIK1), and further revealed that differential phosphorylation patterns of multiple RLK partners resulted from altered BAK1 phosphorylation status. More interestingly, the study of two BAK1 mutants suggested that varied phosphorylation patterns of RLK partners by BAK1 could be the basis for selective regulation of signaling pathways. Taken together, this phospho-pattern profiling strategy allowed for explicit assessment of BAK1 kinase activity in different RLK complexes, which would facilitate elucidation of BAK1 diverse functions in plant development, defense, and adaptation.

Assessment of dental age of children aged 3.5 to 16.9 years using Demirjian's method: a meta-analysis based on 26 studies.

BACKGROUND: A method for assessing dental maturity in different populations was first developed in 1973 by Demirjian and has been widely used and accepted since then. While the accuracy for evaluating dental age using Demirjian's method compared to children's chronological age has been extensively studied in recent years, the results currently available remain controversial and ambiguous. METHODS: A literature search of PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, CNKI and CBM databases was conducted to identify all eligible studies published before July 12th, 2013. Weighted mean difference (WMD) with corresponding 95% confidence interval (95% CI) was used to evaluate the applicability of Demirjian's method for estimating chronological age in children. RESULTS: A meta-analysis was conducted on 26 studies with a total of 11,499 children (5,301 boys and 6,198 girls) aged 3.5 to 16.9 years. Overall, we found that Demirjian's method overestimated dental age by 0.35 (4.2 months) and 0.39 (4.68 months) years in males and females, respectively. A subgroup analysis by age revealed that boys and girls between the ages of 5 to 14 were given a dental age estimate that was significantly more advanced than their chronological age. Differences between underestimated dental ages and actual chronological ages were lower for male and female 15- and 16-year-old subgroups, though a significant difference was found in the 16-year-old subgroup. CONCLUSIONS: Demirjian's method's overestimation of actual chronological tooth age reveals the need for population-specific standards to better estimate the rate of human dental maturation.