Relationship between socioeconomic status and hypertension incidence among adults in southwest China: a population-based cohort study.

PURPOSE: To investigate the correlation between socioeconomic status (SES) and the incidence of hypertension among adults aged 18 or above in southwest China. METHODS: A multistage proportional stratified cluster sampling method was employed to recruited 9280 adult residents from 12 counties in southwest China, with all participants in the cohort tracked from 2016 to 2020. The questionnaire survey gathered information on demographics, lifestyle habits, and household income. The physical exam recorded height, weight, and blood pressure. Biochemical tests measured cholesterol levels. The chi-square test was employed to assess the statistical differences among categorical variables, while the Cox proportional hazards regression model was applied to evaluate the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and the incidence of hypertension. RESULTS: The finally effective sample size for the cohort study was 3546 participants, after excluding 5734 people who met the exclusion criteria. Adults in the highest household income group had a significantly lower risk of hypertension compared to those in the lowest income group (HR = 0.636, 95% CI: 0.478-0.845). Besides, when compared to individuals in the illiterate population, the risk of hypertension among adults with elementary school, junior high school, senior high school and associate degree educational level decreased respectively by 34.4% (HR = 0.656, 95%CI: 0.533-0.807), 44.9% (HR = 0.551, 95%CI: 0.436-0.697), 44.9% (HR = 0.551, 95%CI: 0.405-0.750), 46.1% (HR = 0.539, 95%CI: 0. 340-0.854). After conducting a thorough analysis of socioeconomic status, compared with individuals with a score of 6 or less, the risk of hypertension in participants with scores of 8, 10, 11, 12, and greater than 12 decreased respectively by 23.9% (HR = 0.761, 95%CI: 0.598-0.969), 29.7% (HR = 0.703, 95%CI: 0.538-0.919), 34.0% (HR = 0.660, 95%CI: 0.492-0.885), 34.3% (HR = 0.657, 95%CI: 0.447-0.967), 43.9% (HR = 0.561, 95%CI: 0.409-0.769). CONCLUSION: The findings indicate a negative correlation between socioeconomic status and hypertension incidence among adults in southwest China, suggesting that individuals with higher socioeconomic status are less likely to develop hypertension.

Theoretical approaches in the development of interventions to promote breastfeeding: A scoping review.

PROBLEM AND BACKGROUND: There is a low world rate of exclusive breastfeeding and a short duration of breastfeeding. More studies have constructed interventions to improve breastfeeding behavior, but the actual effect is not significant. AIM: The purpose of this review is identifying the ways that various theories have an influence on theory-based breastfeeding intervention studies. METHODS: A scoping review using Arksey and O'Malley's framework explored breastfeeding promotion practices. PubMed, The Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Embase, and CINAHL databases were searched from database creation to March 9, 2024. Building on previous research, key terms were used to search the literature. Data analysis involved descriptive and interpretive summaries of theories used and the proposed interventions. FINDINGS: An online search yielded 906 articles, with 28 meeting the inclusion criteria for the scoping review, including 5 reviews and 23 articles. Reviews demonstrated that interventions based on theories were more effective. Articles promoting breastfeeding used theories of self-efficacy (n = 9), theory of planned behavior (n = 8), social cognitive theory (n = 5) and individual and family self-management theory (n = 1). These theories were used in developing specific content of the intervention program (n = 20, 86.9%), constructing the framework of the program (n = 10, 43.5%), and evaluating outcomes (n = 19, 82.6%). Most interventions focused on education, professional support, and/or peer support for breastfeeding. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION: Theory can guide decisions and play a role in selecting a methodology or lens. Researchers should make deliberate choices in the use of a theory that relates to aspects of breastfeeding behavior. Future interventions based on theories should be more varied and effective and need to consider families' and social factors.

Error Compensation Method for Pedestrian Navigation System Based on Low-Cost Inertial Sensor Array.

In the pedestrian navigation system, researchers have reduced measurement errors and improved system navigation performance by fusing measurements from multiple low-cost inertial measurement unit (IMU) arrays. Unfortunately, the current data fusion methods for inertial sensor arrays ignore the system error compensation of individual IMUs and the correction of position information in the zero-velocity interval. Therefore, these methods cannot effectively reduce errors and improve accuracy. An error compensation method for pedestrian navigation systems based on a low-cost array of IMUs is proposed in this paper. The calibration method for multiple location-free IMUs is improved by using a sliding variance detector to segment the angular velocity magnitude into stationary and motion intervals, and each IMU is calibrated independently. Compensation is then applied to the velocity residuals in the zero-velocity interval after zero-velocity update (ZUPT). The experimental results show a significant improvement in the average noise performance of the calibrated IMU array, with a 3.01-fold increase in static noise performance. In the closed-loop walking experiment, the average horizontal position error of a single calibrated IMU is reduced by 27.52% compared to the uncalibrated IMU, while the calibrated IMU array shows a 2.98-fold reduction in average horizontal position error compared to a single calibrated IMU. After compensating for residual velocity, the average horizontal position error of a single IMU is reduced by 0.73 m, while that of the IMU array is reduced by 64.52%.

Multifunctional bimetallic MOF with oxygen vacancy synthesized by microplasma for rapid total antioxidant capacity assessment in agricultural products.

The assessment of total antioxidant capacity (TAC) is crucial for evaluating overall antioxidant potential, predicting the risk of chronic diseases, guiding dietary and nutritional interventions, and studying the effectiveness of antioxidants. However, achieving rapid TAC assessment with high sensitivity and stability remains a challenge. In this study, Ce/Fe-MOF with abundant oxygen vacancies was synthesized using microplasma for TAC determination. The microplasma synthesis method was rapid (30 min) and cost-effective. The presence of oxygen vacancies and the collaboration between iron and cerium in Ce/Fe-MOF not only enhanced the catalyst's efficiency but also conferred multiple enzyme-like properties: peroxidase-like, oxidase-like, and superoxide dismutase mimetic activities. Consequently, a simple colorimetric assay was established for TAC determination in vegetables and fruits, featuring a short analysis time of 15 min, a good linear range of 5-60 µM, a low detection limit of 1.3 µM and a good recovery of 91 %-107 %. This method holds promise for rapid TAC assessment in agricultural products.

Amendment of straw with decomposing inoculants benefits the ecosystem carbon budget and carbon footprint in a subtropical wheat cropping field.

The incorporation of straw with decomposing inoculants into soils has been widely recommended to sustain agricultural productivity. However, comprehensive analyses assessing the effects of straw combined with decomposing inoculants on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, net primary production (NPP), the net ecosystem carbon budget (NECB), and the carbon footprint (CF) in farmland ecosystems are scant. Here, we carried out a 2-year field study in a wheat cropping system with six treatments: rice straw (S), a straw-decomposing Bacillus subtilis inoculant (K), a straw-decomposing Aspergillus oryzae inoculant (Q), a combination of straw and Bacillus subtilis inoculant (SK), a combination of straw and Aspergillus oryzae inoculant (SQ), and a control with no rice straw or decomposing inoculant (Control). We found that all the treatments resulted in a positive NECB ranging between 838 and 5065 kg C ha-1. Relative to the Control, the S treatment increased CO2 emissions by 16%, while considerably enhancing the NECB by 349%. This difference might be attributed to the straw C input and an increase in plant productivity (NPP, 30%). More importantly, in comparison to that in S, the NECB in SK and SQ significantly increased by 27-35% due to the positive response of NPP to the decomposing inoculants. Although the combination of straw and decomposing inoculants yielded a 3% increase in indirect GHG emissions, it also exhibited the lowest CF (0.18 kg CO2-eq kg-1 of grain). This result was attributed to the synergistic effects of straw and decomposing inoculants, which reduced direct N2O emissions and increased wheat productivity. Overall, the findings of the present study suggested that the combined amendment of straw and decomposing inoculants is an environmentally sustainable management practice in wheat cropping systems that can generate win-win scenarios through improvements in soil C stock, crop productivity, and GHG mitigation.

Electrochemical water softening technology: From fundamental research to practical application.

In recent decades, the environmentally benign electrochemical softening process has been gaining widespread interest as an emerging alternative for water softening. But, in spite of decades of research, the fundamental advances in laboratory involving electrolytic cell design and treatment system development have not led to urgently needed improvements in industrially practicable electrochemical softening technique. In this review, we firstly provide the critical insights into the mechanism of the currently widely used cathode precipitation process and its inherent limitations, which seriously impede its wide implementation in industry. To relieve the above limitations, some cutting-edge electrochemically homogeneous crystallization systems have been developed, the effectiveness of which are also comprehensively summarized. In addition, the pros and cons between cathode precipitation and electrochemically homogeneous crystallization systems are systematically outlined in terms of performance and economic evaluation, potential application area, and electrolytic cell and system complexity. Finally, we discourse upon practical challenges impeding the industrial-scale deployment of electrochemical water softening technique and highlight the integration of strong engineering sense with fundamental research to realize industry-scale deployment. This review will inspire the researchers and engineers to break the bottlenecks in electrochemical water softening technology and harness this technology with the broadened industrial application area.

Engineering Scheffersomyces segobiensis for palmitoleic acid-rich lipid production.

Palmitoleic acid (POA; C16:1) is an essential high-value ω-7-conjugated fatty acid with beneficial bioactivities and potential applications in the nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industries. Previously, the oleaginous yeast Scheffersomyces segobiensis DSM27193 has been identified as a promising production host as an alternative for POA extraction from plant or animal sources. Here, the POA-producing capacity of this host was further expanded by optimizing the fermentation process and molecular strain engineering. Specifically, a dual fermentation strategy (O-S dynamic regulation strategy) focused on the substrate and dissolved oxygen concentration was designed to eliminate ethanol and pyruvate accumulation during fermentation. Key genes influencing POA production, such as jen, dgat, ole were identified on the transcriptional level and were subsequently over-expressed. Furthermore, the phosphoketolase (Xpk)/phosphotransacetylase (Pta) pathway was introduced to improve the yield of the precursor acetyl-CoA from glucose. The resulting cell factory SS-12 produced 7.3 g/L of POA, corresponding to an 11-fold increase compared to the wild type, presenting the highest POA titre reported using oleaginous yeast to date. An economic evaluation based on the raw materials, utilities and facility-dependent costs showed that microbial POA production using S. segobiensis can supersede the current extraction method from plant oil and marine fish. This study reports the construction of a promising cell factory and an effective microbial fermentation strategy for commercial POA production.

Effectiveness of a breastfeeding promotion intervention model based on Society ecosystems Theory for maternal women: a study protocol of randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Breastfeeding is recognized internationally as the most scientific and effective way to feed infants and young children. According to the World Health Organization in 2022, the exclusive breastfeeding rate within 6 months is 34.1% in China, which is still far from the goal of "more than 60% exclusive breastfeeding rate of infants within 6 months" by 2030 required by China's State Council. It is necessary to promote breastfeeding and provide maternal breastfeeding guidance to increase exclusive breastfeeding. Factors influencing breastfeeding can be explained by the society ecosystems theory, distributed in macro, mezzo and micro systems. The interventions focused on breastfeeding promotion are mainly carried out in the health systems and services, home and family environment, community environment, work environment, policy environment or a combination of these facilities. But there is sparse research on integrating resources in the macro, mezzo and micro systems of maternal breastfeeding processes to promote breastfeeding behavior. A randomized controlled trial will test the effect of a breastfeeding promotion intervention model based on the society ecosystems theory versus usual prenatal and postnatal care on maternal and infant health and the exclusive breastfeeding rate at 6 months. METHODS/DESIGN: The study is a single-blind, parallel design, randomized controlled trial with an intervention group (n = 109) and a control group (n = 109) that compares the effect of a breastfeeding promotion intervention model based on the society ecosystems theory with usual prenatal and postnatal care. The intervention covers macro- (policy, culture), mezzo- (family-hospital-community) and micro- (biological, psychological and social) systems of the maternal breastfeeding process. Infant feeding patterns, neonatal morbidity and physical and mental health of antenatal and postpartum women will be collected at baseline (28 to 35 weeks of gestation), 1-, 4-, and 6-month postpartum. DISCUSSION: This is a multifaceted, multifactorial, and multi-environmental breastfeeding promotion strategy to help mothers and their families learn breastfeeding knowledge and skills. The study provides a new modality for adding breastfeeding interventions to prenatal and postnatal care for healthcare providers in the hospital and the community. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry at www.chictr.org.cn , ChiCTR2300075795.

Maternal education and support during breastfeeding can increase maternal breastfeeding self-efficacy, promote breastfeeding behaviors, and improve maternal and infant health outcomes. The interventions focused on breastfeeding promotion are mainly carried out in the health systems and services, home and family environment, community environment, work environment, policy environment or a combination of any of these facilities. But there is sparse research on integrating in multifaceted, multifactorial, and multi-environmental resources of maternal breastfeeding processes to help pregnant women and their families learn breastfeeding knowledge and skills. The current study optimizes the existing breastfeeding promotion intervention program and construct a breastfeeding promotion intervention program to correct the public's perception of breastfeeding, increase breastfeeding self-efficacy and improve breastfeeding behavior, thus increasing the breastfeeding duration and improving maternal and infant outcomes. The program includes presenting breastfeeding-related policies and support facilities; prenatal educational sessions combined with theories and skills on breastfeeding, development of lactation, infants feeding and cares for maternal families; postnatal hands-on instruction and WeChat group peer support from hospital; home visits, group counseling and experience sharing from community and one-on-one personalized counseling throughout the intervention. The present study will be conducted to evaluate the effect of breastfeeding promotion intervention including prenatal and postnatal care on the breastfeeding duration, breastfeeding attitudes, knowledge, and self-efficacy, maternal and infant health.

Review and Assessment of Fatigue Delamination Damage of Laminated Composite Structures.

Fatigue delamination damage is one of the most important fatigue failure modes for laminated composite structures. However, there are still many challenging problems in the development of the theoretical framework, mathematical/physical models, and numerical simulation of fatigue delamination. What is more, it is essential to establish a systematic classification of these methods and models. This article reviews the experimental phenomena of delamination onset and propagation under fatigue loading. The authors reviewed the commonly used phenomenological models for laminated composite structures. The research methods, general modeling formulas, and development prospects of phenomenological models were presented in detail. Based on the analysis of finite element models (FEMs) for laminated composite structures, several simulation methods for fatigue delamination damage models (FDDMs) were carefully classified. Then, the whole procedure, range of applications, capability assessment, and advantages and limitations of the models, which were based on four types of theoretical frameworks, were also discussed in detail. The theoretical frameworks include the strength theory model (SM), fracture mechanics model (FM), damage mechanics model (DM), and hybrid model (HM). To the best of the authors' knowledge, the FDDM based on the modified Paris law within the framework of hybrid fracture and damage mechanics is the most effective method so far. However, it is difficult for the traditional FDDM to solve the problem of the spatial delamination of complex structures. In addition, the balance between the cost of acquiring the model and the computational efficiency of the model is also critical. Therefore, several potential research directions, such as the extended finite element method (XFEM), isogeometric analysis (IGA), phase-field model (PFM), artificial intelligence algorithm, and higher-order deformation theory (HODT), have been presented in the conclusions. Through validation by investigators, these research directions have the ability to overcome the challenging technical issues in the fatigue delamination prediction of laminated composite structures.

CropQuant-Air: an AI-powered system to enable phenotypic analysis of yield- and performance-related traits using wheat canopy imagery collected by low-cost drones.

As one of the most consumed stable foods around the world, wheat plays a crucial role in ensuring global food security. The ability to quantify key yield components under complex field conditions can help breeders and researchers assess wheat's yield performance effectively. Nevertheless, it is still challenging to conduct large-scale phenotyping to analyse canopy-level wheat spikes and relevant performance traits, in the field and in an automated manner. Here, we present CropQuant-Air, an AI-powered software system that combines state-of-the-art deep learning (DL) models and image processing algorithms to enable the detection of wheat spikes and phenotypic analysis using wheat canopy images acquired by low-cost drones. The system includes the YOLACT-Plot model for plot segmentation, an optimised YOLOv7 model for quantifying the spike number per m2 (SNpM2) trait, and performance-related trait analysis using spectral and texture features at the canopy level. Besides using our labelled dataset for model training, we also employed the Global Wheat Head Detection dataset to incorporate varietal features into the DL models, facilitating us to perform reliable yield-based analysis from hundreds of varieties selected from main wheat production regions in China. Finally, we employed the SNpM2 and performance traits to develop a yield classification model using the Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) ensemble and obtained significant positive correlations between the computational analysis results and manual scoring, indicating the reliability of CropQuant-Air. To ensure that our work could reach wider researchers, we created a graphical user interface for CropQuant-Air, so that non-expert users could readily use our work. We believe that our work represents valuable advances in yield-based field phenotyping and phenotypic analysis, providing useful and reliable toolkits to enable breeders, researchers, growers, and farmers to assess crop-yield performance in a cost-effective approach.

LabGym: Quantification of user-defined animal behaviors using learning-based holistic assessment.

Quantifying animal behavior is important for biological research. Identifying behaviors is the prerequisite of quantifying them. Current computational tools for behavioral quantification typically use high-level properties such as body poses to identify the behaviors, which constrains the information available for a holistic assessment. Here we report LabGym, an open-source computational tool for quantifying animal behaviors without this constraint. In LabGym, we introduce "pattern image" to represent the animal's motion pattern, in addition to "animation" that shows all spatiotemporal details of a behavior. These two pieces of information are assessed holistically by customizable deep neural networks for accurate behavior identifications. The quantitative measurements of each behavior are then calculated. LabGym is applicable for experiments involving multiple animals, requires little programming knowledge to use, and provides visualizations of behavioral datasets. We demonstrate its efficacy in capturing subtle behavioral changes in diverse animal species.

Cardiac MRI-Based Assessment of Myocardial Injury in Asymptomatic People Living With Human Immunodeficiency Virus: Correlation With nadir CD4 Count.

BACKGROUND: There are known cardiac manifestations of HIV, but the findings in asymptomatic subjects are still not fully explored. PURPOSE: To evaluate for the presence of subclinical myocardial injury in asymptomatic people living with human immunodeficiency virus (PLWH) by cardiac MRI and to explore the possible association between subclinical myocardial injury and HIV-related clinical characteristics. STUDY TYPE: Cross-sectional. POPULATION: A total of 80 asymptomatic PLWH (age: 53 years [47-56 years]; 90% male) and 50 age- and sex-matched healthy participants. FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE: A 3-T, cine sequence, T1, T2, and T2* mapping. ASSESSMENT: Function analysis was derived from short axis, two-, three-, and four-chamber cine images by feature tracking. Regions of interest were manually selected in the midventricular septum T1, T2, and T2* mapping sequences. PLWH were evaluated for T1 increment (△T1 mapping = native T1 - cutoff values) and HIV-related clinical characteristics, particularly the nadir CD4 count. And PLWH were stratified into two groups according to the cutoff value of native T1: elevated native T1 and normal. STATISTICAL TESTS: T test, Wilcoxon rank-sum test, Chi-square test, Spearman rank correlation, and logistic regression. P <0.05 indicated statistical significance. RESULTS: Asymptomatic PLWH revealed significantly higher native myocardial T1 values (1241 ± 29 msec vs. 1189 ± 21 msec), T2 values (40.7 ± 1.5 msec vs. 37.9 ± 1.4 msec), and lower LVGRS (30.2% ± 6.2% vs. 35.8% ± 6.4%), LVGCS (-18.0% ± 2.5% vs. -19.5% ± 2.0%), and LVGLS (-16.0% ± 3.8% vs. -17.9% ± 2.6%) but showed no difference in T2* values (17.3 msec [16.3-19.1 msec] vs. 18.3 msec [16.5-19.3 msec], P = 0.201). A negative correlation between the native T1 increment in PLWH with subclinical myocardial injury and the nadir CD4 count (u = -0.316). Nadir CD4 count <500 cells/mm3 was associated with higher odds of elevated native T1 myocardial values (odds ratio, 6.12 [95% CI, 1.07-34.91]) in PLWH. DATA CONCLUSION: Subclinical myocardial inflammation and dysfunction were present in asymptomatic PLWH, and a lower nadir CD4 count may be a risk factor for subclinical myocardial injury. EVIDENCE LEVEL: 1. TECHNICAL EFFICACY: Stage 2.

Corporate Environmental Protection Behavior and Sustainable Development: The Moderating Role of Green Investors and Green Executive Cognition.

Faced with serious environmental problems, companies have become important participants in environmental protection efforts. By assuming environmental responsibilities and pursuing environmental protection, enterprises can create a good image, gain public and government support, and expand their influence. Simultaneously, green executive cognition and green investors play important roles in enterprises and the market economy. This study examines whether the environmental protection behavior of enterprises has a positive impact on their sustainable development, and how green investors and green executive cognition affect the relationship between environmental protection and sustainable development. This study adopts a fixed effects regression method to research Chinese A-share listed companies in 2011-2020. The results show that enterprises' performance regarding environmental responsibilities or investment promotes sustainable development. The higher the participation of green investors or the higher the awareness of green executives, the more the environmental responsibility performance and environmental investment promote enterprises' sustainable development. This study enriches the literature on the environmental protection behavior of enterprises and the sustainable development of enterprises as well as provides a theoretical foundation for related research. Moreover, the role of green investors and green executive cognition in promoting environmental protection and the sustainable development of enterprises will inspire investors and executives.

Assessment of subclinical left ventricular systolic dysfunction in patients with type 2 diabetes: Relationship with HbA1c and microvascular complications.

BACKGROUND: We aimed to examine the association between glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), microvascular complications, and subclinical left ventricular (LV) systolic dysfunction, and to determine the strength of the correlation in asymptomatic patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). METHODS: Global longitudinal strain (GLS) was employed to assess the subclinical LV function of 152 enrolled T2DM patients with preserved LV ejection fraction, with the cutoff for subclinical LV systolic dysfunction predefined as GLS < 18%. RESULTS: According to univariate analysis, the reduced GLS exhibited association with the clinical features including HbA1c, triglyceride, systolic blood pressure, fasting glucose, heart rate, diabetic retinopathy, and urinary albumin creatinine ratio (UACR) (all p < .05). After the factors of gender, age, and related clinical covariables adjusted, multiple logistic regression analysis revealed the HbA1c (odds ratio [OR] 1.66; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.30-2.13; p < .001), UACR (OR 2.48; 95% CI 1.12-5.47; p = .025) and triglyceride (OR 1.84; 95% CI 1.12-3.03; p = .017) as the independent risk factors for the reduced GLS. Receiver operating characteristic curve showed a predictive value of the HbA1c for the subclinical LV systolic dysfunction (area under curve: 0.74; p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: In asymptomatic T2DM patients, subclinical LV systolic dysfunction was associated with HbA1c, diabetic complications, and triglyceride. More prominently, HbA1c may exert a prognostic significance for the progression of myocardial damage.

Modeling Costs and Life-Years Gained by Population-Wide Next-Generation Sequencing or Single-Gene Testing in Nonsquamous Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer in the United States.

PURPOSE: Many patients with actionable driver oncogenes (ADOs) are never identified and thus never receive targeted treatment. This study evaluated the economic impact and the potential life-years gained (LYG) that can be attributed to the extent of next-generation sequencing (NGS) testing in the United States compared with single-gene testing (SGT) in patients with metastatic nonsquamous non-small-cell lung cancer in the United States. METHODS: A model was developed to evaluate incremental rates of SGT or NSG testing on the basis of LYG and cost per LYG. ADOs included for NGS included EGFR, ALK, ROS1, BRAF, RET, MET, and NTRK. SGT included EGFR and ALK. Assumptions were made for expected incidence of ADOs. Survival distributions were fit to published trial averages of median and 5-year overall survival. Treatment costs were estimated from drug cost averages. Reimbursement costs were based on data from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. RESULTS: Each incremental 10% increase in NGS testing produces an average of 2,627.4 additional LYG, with an average cost savings per LYG of $75 US dollars (USD). Replacing SGT at the current rate of 80% with NGS testing would result in an average additional 21,09.6 LYG and reduce cost per LYG by an average of $599 USD. If 100% of eligible patients were tested with NGS and each identified patient had matched treatment, the total average cost per LYG would be $16,641.57 USD. CONCLUSION: On the basis of current evidence, population-level simulations demonstrate that clinically relevant gains in survival with non-negligible reduction in costs are obtainable from widespread adoption of NGS testing and appropriate treatment matching for patients with advanced nonsquamous non-small-cell lung cancer.

Quantifying interconnectedness and centrality ranking among financial institutions with TVP-VAR framework.

Financial risk is spread and amplified through the interconnectedness among financial institutions. We apply a time-varying parameter vector autoregression model to analyze the dynamic spillover effects in the Chinese financial system. We find that the 2017 house price control policies have significantly increased the risk of China's financial system. Before 2017, with the prosperity of the real estate market, the interconnectedness of the Chinese financial system continued to decline, while after 2017, with the slowdown of house price growth and the downturn of the real estate market, the interconnectedness turned to increase. For different sectors, the trends and the magnitudes of the spillover effects are diverse, and any sector can contribute to systemic risk in a dynamic way. Finally, we rank 20 systemically important financial institutions according to two centrality measures. The stable institution ranking provides less noisy information for regulators to formulate a policy and intervene in the market effectively.

Does the digital economy promote "innovation and entrepreneurship" in rural tourism in China?

This paper focuses on the impact of the "Digital Economy" on rural entrepreneurship. Unlike previous literature, the perspective of this paper focuses on a specific industry-tourism-and identifies a new mediating mechanism by which the "Digital Economy" affects rural tourism entrepreneurship-the promotion of innovation. The paper further clarifies the fact that the "Rural Digital Economy Index," which is a dimension of the Digital Economy Indicator System, is the key to the mechanism of action. Theoretically, first, through a literature review, this paper provides a rationale for the "Digital Economy" to promote innovation behavior by reducing the cost of innovation. Second, using a product matching model, this paper argues that a rural tourism market characterized by innovation can stimulate more entrepreneurship. Empirically, using a sample of 150 counties in the Yangtze River Delta region of China, this paper argues that the higher the digitalization index of a county's rural economy, the more national model villages and towns this county has (all of which include product innovation in the selection criteria) and more tourism entrepreneurial activities. Econometric methods such as endogeneity, spatial econometric regression, and sensitivity analysis proved the findings robust. Our recommendation is that the Chinese government could focus on improving the innovation environment for rural residents in the future, so that entrepreneurial activities will be spontaneously stimulated by market mechanisms.

Improved Registration Algorithm Based on Double Threshold Feature Extraction and Distance Disparity Matrix.

Entire surface point clouds in complex objects cannot be captured in a single direction by using noncontact measurement methods, such as machine vision; therefore, different direction point clouds should be obtained and registered. However, high efficiency and precision are crucial for registration methods when dealing with huge number of point clouds. To solve this problem, an improved registration algorithm based on double threshold feature extraction and distance disparity matrix (DDM) is proposed in this study. Firstly, feature points are extracted with double thresholds using normal vectors and curvature to reduce the number of points. Secondly, a fast point feature histogram is established to describe the feature points and obtain the initial corresponding point pairs. Thirdly, obviously wrong corresponding point pairs are eliminated as much as possible by analysing the Euclidean invariant features of rigid body transformation combined with the DDM algorithm. Finally, the sample consensus initial alignment and the iterative closest point algorithms are used to complete the registration. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can quickly process large data point clouds and achieve efficient and precise matching of target objects. It can be used to improve the efficiency and precision of registration in distributed or mobile 3D measurement systems.

Seasonal Change in Activity Rhythms and Time Budgets of Tibetan Macaques.

Activity rhythms and time budgets are important to understand behavioral variability and adaptation in primates because animals normally use a behavioral adjustment as a preferential choice in response to environmental changes. Therefore, we observed a group of un-provisioned Tibetan macaques (Macaca thibetana) in Tianhu Mountain County Nature Reserve, Mount Huangshan, Southern Anhui, China. We used the instantaneous scan sampling method to collect behavioral data on their activity rhythms and time budget. The results showed that Tibetan macaques have two foraging peaks (9:00-10:00 and 14:00-15:00) and a resting peak at 12:00-13:00. They spent 31.96% resting, 28.59% foraging, 26.96% moving, 6.90% grooming, and 5.59% other. The total time of foraging and moving per month significantly and positively correlated with fruits and buds and negatively correlated with leaves. Different sexes and age groups demonstrated different activity time budgets, with adult males, adult females, and young macaques spending most of their time resting, grooming, and playing, respectively. We elucidated the effects of different environmental conditions on Tibetan macaques and their behavioral adaptation strategies.

Burden of tuberculosis and its association with socio-economic development status in 204 countries and territories, 1990-2019.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) always runs in the forefront of the global burden when it comes to infectious diseases. Tuberculosis, which can lead to impairment of quality of life, financial hardship, discrimination, marginalization, and social barriers, is a major public health problem. The assessment of TB burden and trend can provide crucial information for policy decision and planning, and help countries in the world to achieve the goal of sustainable development of ending the epidemic of TB in 2030. Methods: All data are from the Global Burden of Disease 2019 (GBD 2019) database, which analyzed the burden trend of age-standardized incidence, DALYs, and deaths rate in TB and HIV/AIDS-infected TB over the past 30 years. Also, GBD 2019 not only analyzed the burden distribution of TB in 204 countries and main regions of the world but also analyzed the relationship between the burden of global TB and the socio-demographic Index (SDI). Results: The age-standardized incidence, age-standardized disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), and age-standardized deaths rate for HIV-negative TB were 10,671.45 (9,395.60-12,194.10), 59,042.45 (53,684.78-64,641.53), and 1,463.62 (1,339.24-1,602.71) (95% CI, per 100,000 person-years) in 2019, respectively. Age-standardized incidence, age-standardized DALYs, and age-standardized deaths rate of HIV/AIDS-XDR-TB (95% CI, per 1,000 person-years) were 2.10 (1.51-2.90), 64.23 (28.64-117.74), and 1.01 (0.42-1.86), respectively. We found that TB is inversely proportional to SDI, the age-standardized incidence, DALYs, and deaths rate low burden countries were in high SDI areas, while high burden countries were in low SDI areas. The global TB showed a slow decline trend, but the age-standardized incidence of HIV-positive TB was increasing, and mainly distributed in sub-Saharan Africa. Conclusion: Age-standardized incidence, age-standardized DALYs, and age-standardized deaths rate of TB is related to SDI, and the burden of low SDI countries is lighter than that of high SDI countries. Without effective measures, it will be difficult for countries around the world to achieve the goal of ending the TB epidemic by 2030. Effective control of the spread of TB requires concerted efforts from all countries in the world, especially in the countries with low SDI, which need to improve the diagnosis and preventive measures of TB and improve the control of HIV/AIDS-TB.