[Reference values of skeletal muscle mass for children in Nanjing area]

Objective: To establish the reference values and growth curves of skeletal muscle mass among children in the Nanjing area. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with children who underwent physical examination at the Department of Child Health Care, Children's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from 2020 January to 2022 September. Their height, weight, body fat mass and skeletal muscle mass were measured. Body mass index, percentage of body fat mass, percentage of skeletal muscle mass, relative skeletal muscle mass index and the ratio of skeletal muscle to body fat were calculated. The associations between skeletal muscle mass indices and physical measurements index were analyzed through the Spearman correlation test. The Mann-Kendall test was used to assess the trend for skeletal muscle mass. Generalized additive models for location, scale and shape were used to construct percentile reference values and growth curves of male and female skeletal muscle mass indices at different ages. Results: A total of 32 690 children aged 4-14 years were enrolled in this study, including 19 912 boys (60.91%). Skeletal muscle mass, percentage of skeletal muscle mass, relative skeletal muscle mass index and the ratio of skeletal muscle to body fat of boys and girls was 11.10 (8.40, 14.90) and 10.30 (7.90, 13.20) kg, 40.36% (37.01%, 43.13%) and 39.38% (36.43%, 41.88%), 6.70 (6.07, 7.52) and 6.33 (5.79, 7.00), 2.39 (1.46, 3.47) and 2.14 (1.45, 3.00) kg/m2, respectively. Skeletal muscle mass of both boys and girls was all positively associated with weight (r=0.97, 0.96), body mass index (r=0.68, 0.63) and percentage of body fat mass (r=0.40, 0.43) (all P<0.01). The reference values and growth curves showed that the percentage of skeletal muscle mass P50 ranged from 37.75%-44.61% in boys and from 36.22%-40.55% in girls. The relative skeletal muscle mass index P50 ranged from 5.80-9.68 kg/m2 in boys and from 5.57-7.98 kg/m2 in girls. The ratio of skeletal muscle to body fat P50 ranged from 1.86-2.67 in boys and from 1.29-2.41 in girls. There was an increasing trend with age for both boys and girls in the growth of skeletal muscle mass (Z=4.20, 3.75, both Ptrend<0.01), and increased slightly before 9 years of age and then increased rapidly until 14 years of age in both boys and girls. Conclusions: The skeletal muscle mass indices change with age and gender during childhood. Percentile reference values for pediatric skeletal muscle mass indices can be used to evaluate the muscular growth and development in children in the Nanjing area.

Determinants of depressive symptoms at individual, school and province levels: a national survey of 398,520 Chinese children and adolescents

OBJECTIVES

The aims of this study were to describe the national distribution of depressive symptoms in Chinese children and adolescents, to examine the determinants of depressive symptoms at individual, school and province levels and to assess the gender and age differences in the effect of school factors on depressive symptoms.

STUDY DESIGN

This was a national cross-sectional study.

METHODS

A school-based online survey was conducted in mainland China from between December 1, 2021, and January 1, 2022. A total of 398,520 eligible participants were included in the analysis. School-level data were drawn from students, headteachers and Baidu Maps, and province-level data were obtained from the national human development report. The Patient Health Questionnaire-2 was used to measure depressive symptoms.

RESULTS

Areas with the highest mean scores for depressive symptoms were in the northeastern, inner central and southwestern regions of China. At the individual level, younger age, male sex, being an only child, Han ethnicity, lower body mass index, more days of exercise, less drinking and smoking behaviours, higher subjective family socio-economic status (SES) and popularity in school were related to fewer depressive symptoms; however, objective family SES and maternal education were not related to fewer depressive symptoms. The school-level variables of public status, psychological activities and psychological courses and province-level variable of higher Human Development Index were associated with fewer depressive symptoms. The effect of psychological courses and activities on depressive symptoms was greater in females.

CONCLUSIONS

The results showed multilevel factors related to depressive symptoms and emphasised the importance of implementing school-based psychological activities to ameliorate depressive symptoms in Chinese children and adolescents across age and gender.

Causal effects of diabetic retinopathy on depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder in the European population: a Mendelian randomization study

PURPOSE

To verify the causal effects of diabetic retinopathy (DR) on depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder (BD).

METHODS

Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was performed to identify the causal relationships between DR and depression or anxiety or BD via using DR-related GWAS data (14,584 cases and 176,010 controls), depression-related GWAS data (59,851 cases and 113,154 controls), anxiety-related GWAS data (7016 cases and 14,745 controls) and BD-related GWAS data (41,917 cases and 371,549 controls). The inverse-variance weighted (IVW) model was adopted to estimate the causal relationship. The outcome was expressed as odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI).

RESULTS

The MR analysis results presented that DR was causally associated with a significantly increased risk of BD in the European population (IVW, OR = 1.06, 95%CI [1.03, 1.08], P = 2.44 × 10-6), while DR was unable to causally influence the risk of depression (IVW, OR = 1.01, 95%CI [0.99, 1.04], P = 0.32) and anxiety (IVW, OR = 0.97, 95%CI [0.89, 1.06], P = 0.48) in the European population. Subgroup analysis based on BD identified DR causally increased the risk of bipolar I disorder (BD I) but not bipolar II disorder (BD II). Sensitivity analysis results did not show any pleiotropy and heterogeneity in both groups of analyses, indicating that the results were stable and reliable.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of the current MR analysis indicated a causal relationship between DR and BD in the European population, while there was no causal connection between DR and depression or anxiety. However, further research is needed to confirm these conclusions.

Anchor-Sharing and Clusterwise Contrastive Network for Multiview Representation Learning

Multiview clustering (MVC) has gained significant attention as it enables the partitioning of samples into their respective categories through unsupervised learning. However, there are a few issues as follows: 1) many existing deep clustering methods use the same latent features to achieve the conflict objectives, namely, reconstruction and view consistency. The reconstruction objective aims to preserve view-specific features for each individual view, while the view-consistency objective strives to obtain common features across all views; 2) some deep embedded clustering (DEC) approaches adopt view-wise fusion to obtain consensus feature representation. However, these approaches overlook the correlation between samples, making it challenging to derive discriminative consensus representations; and 3) many methods use contrastive learning (CL) to align the view's representations; however, they do not take into account cluster information during the construction of sample pairs, which can lead to the presence of false negative pairs. To address these issues, we propose a novel multiview representation learning network, called anchor-sharing and clusterwise CL (CwCL) network for multiview representation learning. Specifically, we separate view-specific learning and view-common learning into different network branches, which addresses the conflict between reconstruction and consistency. Second, we design an anchor-sharing feature aggregation (ASFA) module, which learns the sharing anchors from different batch data samples, establishes the bipartite relationship between anchors and samples, and further leverages it to improve the samples' representations. This module enhances the discriminative power of the common representation from different samples. Third, we design CwCL module, which incorporates the learned transition probability into CL, allowing us to focus on minimizing the similarity between representations from negative pairs with a low transition probability. It alleviates the conflict in previous sample-level contrastive alignment. Experimental results demonstrate that our method outperforms the state-of-the-art performance.

Boundary uncertainty aware network for automated polyp segmentation

Recently, leveraging deep neural networks for automated colorectal polyp segmentation has emerged as a hot topic due to the favored advantages in evading the limitations of visual inspection, e.g., overwork and subjectivity. However, most existing methods do not pay enough attention to the uncertain areas of colonoscopy images and often provide unsatisfactory segmentation performance. In this paper, we propose a novel boundary uncertainty aware network (BUNet) for precise and robust colorectal polyp segmentation. Specifically, considering that polyps vary greatly in size and shape, we first adopt a pyramid vision transformer encoder to learn multi-scale feature representations. Then, a simple yet effective boundary exploration module (BEM) is proposed to explore boundary cues from the low-level features. To make the network focus on the ambiguous area where the prediction score is biased to neither the foreground nor the background, we further introduce a boundary uncertainty aware module (BUM) that explores error-prone regions from the high-level features with the assistance of boundary cues provided by the BEM. Through the top-down hybrid deep supervision, our BUNet implements coarse-to-fine polyp segmentation and finally localizes polyp regions precisely. Extensive experiments on five public datasets show that BUNet is superior to thirteen competing methods in terms of both effectiveness and generalization ability.

Tests of Light-Lepton Universality in Angular Asymmetries of B^{0}→D^{*-}ℓν Decays

We present the first comprehensive tests of the universality of the light leptons in the angular distributions of semileptonic B^{0}-meson decays to charged spin-1 charmed mesons. We measure five angular-asymmetry observables as functions of the decay recoil that are sensitive to lepton-universality-violating contributions. We use events where one neutral B is fully reconstructed in ϒ(4S)→BB[over ¯] decays in data corresponding to 189  fb^{-1} integrated luminosity from electron-positron collisions collected with the Belle II detector. We find no significant deviation from the standard model expectations.

Precise Measurement of the D_{s}^{+} Lifetime at Belle II

We measure the lifetime of the D_{s}^{+} meson using a data sample of 207  fb^{-1} collected by the Belle II experiment running at the SuperKEKB asymmetric-energy e^{+}e^{-} collider. The lifetime is determined by fitting the decay-time distribution of a sample of 116×10^{3} D_{s}^{+}→ϕπ^{+} decays. Our result is τ_{D_{s}^{+}}=(499.5±1.7±0.9)  fs, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. This result is significantly more precise than previous measurements.

Spatial Proteome Analysis Identifies Lymphocyte CD44 as a Biomarker Associated with SBRT Resistance in Early-Stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE(S)

To discover and validate spatially-resolved protein markers associated with resistance to SBRT in early-stage NSCLC patients.

MATERIALS/METHODS

We initially evaluated a discovery cohort of 44 early-stage NSCLC patients treated with SBRT as first-line treatment at the Shandong cancer hospital. Using the GeoMx DSP system, 71 proteins were measured in five molecular compartments (tumor, leukocyte, lymphocyte, macrophage, and stroma) on pre-treatment samples. Candidate biomarkers were orthogonally validated with the Gem AQUA method of quantitative immunofluorescence (QIF). For internal independent cohort validation, we assessed pre-treatment samples derived from 150 NSCLC patients who receive radiotherapy. We further analyzed 100 radiotherapy untreated patients with operable NSCLC to address prognostic significance.

RESULTS

Using continuous log-scaled data, we identified CD44 expression in the lymphocyte compartment (CD3+) as a novel predictor of poor progression-free survival (PFS) (multivariate HR = 7.323, p = 0.0079) and overall survival (OS) (multivariate HR = 8.65, p = 0.028) in the discovery set. High CD44 expression in the tumor compartment (pan-cytokeratin, CK+) predicted significantly shorter OS (multivariate HR = 2.208, p = 0.0212), with no significant difference in PFS. We validated by QIF that lymphocyte CD44 levels were associated with resistance to SBRT therapy and prognostic for poor outcomes. Using QIF in an independent radiotherapy treated cohort, we validated that CD44 levels in the lymphocyte compartment were associated with poor PFS and OS. High lymphocyte cell CD44 was not prognostic in non-radiotherapy-treated cohort. Using DSP data, intratumoral regions with elevated lymphocyte cell CD44 expression showed prominent upregulation of CD127, ARG1 and VISTA in the discovery Cohort.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, we identified and validated lymphocyte cell CD44 as a biomarker indicative of resistance to SBRT or radiotherapy in patients with NSCLC. Further evaluation is warranted to address the predictive value of lymphocyte cell CD44 in multi-institutional studies and clinical trials.

HPK1 Inhibition Enhancing HFRT Anti-Tumor Immune Response

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE(S)

Radiation therapy, as one of the canonical treatments for classic tumors, results in impressive clinical responses. Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) has been increasingly used as one main therapy in early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). SBRT affords good local tumor control, however, recurrence and metastasis are still the main causes of treatment failure. With the continuous deepening of the relationship between radiotherapy (RT) and immunity, reversing RT induced immunosuppression is considered to be a promising strategy to improve radiotherapy efficacy. Hematopoietic progenitor kinase 1 (HPK1) is mainly expressed in immune cells while rarely expressed in tumor cells. It has been proven to play a negative regulatory role in T cell receptor (TCR) signal. Therefore, we hypothesized that the combination of HPK1 inhibitor with SBRT would boost local and systemic anti-tumor immune responses by potentiating the anti-tumor effects of SBRT.

MATERIALS/METHODS

Using Digital Spatial Profiler (DSP), we analyzed HPK1 expression in the tumor specimens of 39 NSCLC patients treated with SBRT. By establishing mice subcutaneous tumor models, we assessed the combination of a HPK1 inhibitor and local hyper-fractionated radiotherapy (HFRT) on local and systemic tumor control and mouse survival. Using Single-cell RNA sequencing, Flow cytometry and pharmacological treatment, we analyzed and verified Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), and excavated the specific mechanism of the HPK1 inhibitor enhancing HFRT -induced anti -tumor immune response.

RESULTS

In the tumor specimens of NSCLC patients treated with SBRT, we found that high expression HPK1 in TILs predicted poor progression-free survival (PFS). Among the C57BL/6 mice model, HFRT combined with a HPK1 inhibitor promoted local response, and improved the survival rate of mice, showing better anti-tumor curative effects. We further showed that HFRT promoted CD8+ T cell cytotoxic activity, and also aggravated CD8+ T cell exhaustion. After the intervention of HPK1 small molecular inhibitors, the proportion of exhaustion CD8+T cells was significantly reduced, while CD8+T cell cytotoxic activity was further enhanced in the later period. Single-cell RNA sequencing and pharmacological inhibition of HPK1 revealed that HPK1 mediated the exhaustion of CD8+T cells by regulating RGS16. In abscopal effects preclinical models, BGB-15025 induced obvious abscopal effect.

CONCLUSION

Thus, we demonstrate that HPK1 mediates HFRT-induced CD8+T cell exhaustion by regulating RGS16, and HPK1 is an attractive drug target for enhancing local and systemic radiotherapy.

The Safety and Efficacy of SCART for Bulky Metastatic or Recurrent Cancer, a Phase I Study

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE(S)

We are proposing a new treatment methodology, (called Stereotactic Centralized Ablative Radiation Therapy, (SCART), for bulky or metastatic tumors, which is based on the principles of SFRT, by using SBRT methods to deliver an ablative radiation dose to the central portion of the target while keeping the dose to surrounding normal tissue to a relatively low level. We performed a prospective dose escalation study of SCART for bulky metastatic or recurrent cancer. The purpose of the study was to determine dose-limiting toxicities (DLTs) and the Maximum Tolerated Dose (MTD) of SCART.

MATERIALS/METHODS

This study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0488198, and approved at Foshan Chancheng Hospital. Patients with unresectable solid "bulky" nonhematological malignancies with limited treatment options were enrolled and received SCART with a prescription to the central spot in the tumor with a peripheral dose to the tumor edge at around 20% isodose line of the prescription dose. Five dose levels were proposed. The primary endpoint was the maximum tolerated dose (MTD), defined as the highest dose where zero of three or one of six patients experienced grade 3 dose-limiting toxicity (DLT), scored according to the Common Toxicity Criteria for Adverse Events v. 4.03, up to 6 months after SCART.

RESULTS

A total of 21 patients received SCART and have eligible data for study follow-up. The dose was escalated for two patients to 24 GyX3. No grade 3 toxicity was observed in any of the enrolled patients. The median SCART dose was 18 Gy (range: 15 - 24). Six out of the 18 patients with data for overall survival (OS) died, and the median time to death was 16.29 months (range: 0.99 - 25.58). Three patients out of the 15 patients with available data for local recurrence (LR) were found to have an LR and the median time to LR was 16.01 months (range: 0.99 - 25.58). There appears to be a trend of tumors decreasing from the patient's first visit date, or pre-SCART, to their final volume post-SCART. The mean percent change for tumor shrinkage between first visit volumes and post-SCART volumes was 49.49% (SD: 40.89, p-value:0.009). Of 15 patients with available data for progression free survival, 9 had a local recurrence or were deceased. Estimated median survival (i.e., when survival is 50%) was equal to16.80 months (95% CI = 13.90, NA). The survival rate at 12 months and 24 months were72.22% and 24.07%, respectively. Of 15 patients with available data for time to local recurrence, 3 people had a local recurrence. The percent of patients that were free from local recurrence at one and two years after the beginning of SCART treatment was 85.56% for both.

CONCLUSION

Despite the high dose delivered and the excellent local control achieved; the incidence of Any toxicity was unexpectedly low. Multiple courses of SCART are possible. The optimal dose, volume and timing of SCART still need more study.

Search for a τ^{+}τ^{-} Resonance in e^{+}e^{-}→μ^{+}μ^{-}τ^{+}τ^{-} Events with the Belle II Experiment

We report the first search for a nonstandard-model resonance decaying into τ pairs in e^{+}e^{-}→μ^{+}μ^{-}τ^{+}τ^{-} events in the 3.6-10  GeV/c^{2} mass range. We use a 62.8  fb^{-1} sample of e^{+}e^{-} collisions collected at a center-of-mass energy of 10.58 GeV by the Belle II experiment at the SuperKEKB collider. The analysis probes three different models predicting a spin-1 particle coupling only to the heavier lepton families, a Higgs-like spin-0 particle that couples preferentially to charged leptons (leptophilic scalar), and an axionlike particle, respectively. We observe no evidence for a signal and set exclusion limits at 90% confidence level on the product of cross section and branching fraction into τ pairs, ranging from 0.7 to 24 fb, and on the couplings of these processes. We obtain world-leading constraints on the couplings for the leptophilic scalar model for masses above 6.5  GeV/c^{2} and for the axionlike particle model over the entire mass range.

Measurement of CP Violation in B^{0}→K_{S}^{0}π^{0} Decays at Belle II

We report a measurement of the CP-violating parameters C and S in B^{0}→K_{S}^{0}π^{0} decays at Belle II using a sample of 387×10^{6}  BB[over ¯] events recorded in e^{+}e^{-} collisions at a center-of-mass energy corresponding to the ϒ(4S) resonance. These parameters are determined by fitting the proper decay-time distribution of a sample of 415 signal events. We obtain C=-0.04_{-0.15}^{+0.14}±0.05 and S=0.75_{-0.23}^{+0.20}±0.04, where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second are systematic.

Effect of Thermal Shock on Properties of a Strongly Amorphous AlCrTiZrMo High-Entropy Alloy Film

AlCrTiZrMo high-entropy alloy (HEA) films with strong amorphization were obtained by co-filter cathode vacuum arc deposition, and the effect of thermal shock on the films was investigated in order to explore the protection mechanism of HEA films against mechanical components in extreme service environments. The results show that after annealing at 800 °C for 1 h, the formation of a dense ZrTiO4 composite oxide layer on the surface actively prevents the oxidation from continuing, so that the AlCrTiZrMo HEA film exhibits excellent oxidation resistance at 800 °C in air. In the friction-corrosion coupling environment, the AlCrTiZrMo HEA film annealed at 800 °C for 1 h shows the best tribocorrosion resistance due to the stable dense microstructure and excellent mechanical properties, and its ΔOCP, COF and wear rate possess the smallest values of 0.055, 0.04 and 1.34 × 10-6 mm-3·N-1·m-1.

Test of Light-Lepton Universality in the Rates of Inclusive Semileptonic B-Meson Decays at Belle II

We present the first measurement of the ratio of branching fractions of inclusive semileptonic B-meson decays, R(X_{e/μ})=B(B→Xeν)/B(B→Xμν), a precision test of electron-muon universality, using data corresponding to 189  fb^{-1} from electron-positron collisions collected with the Belle II detector. In events where the partner B meson is fully reconstructed, we use fits to the lepton momentum spectra above 1.3  GeV/c to obtain R(X_{e/μ})=1.007±0.009(stat)±0.019(syst), which is the most precise lepton-universality test of its kind and agrees with the standard-model expectation.

First Measurement of the Michel Parameter ξ^{'} in the τ^{-}→μ^{-}ν[over ¯]_{μ}ν_{τ} Decay at Belle

We report the first measurement of the Michel parameter ξ^{'} in the τ^{-}→μ^{-}ν[over ¯]_{μ}ν_{τ} decay with a new method proposed just recently. The measurement is based on the reconstruction of the τ^{-}→μ^{-}ν[over ¯]_{μ}ν_{τ} events with subsequent muon decay in flight in the Belle central drift chamber. The analyzed data sample of 988  fb^{-1} collected by the Belle detector corresponds to approximately 912×10^{6} τ^{+}τ^{-} pairs. We measure ξ^{'}=0.22±0.94(stat)±0.42(syst), which is in agreement with the standard model prediction of ξ^{'}=1. Statistical uncertainty dominates in this study, being a limiting factor, while systematic uncertainty is well under control. Our analysis proved the practicability of this promising method and its prospects for further precise measurement in future experiments.

Search for the Lepton Flavor Violating Decays B^{+}→K^{+}τ^{±}ℓ^{∓} (ℓ=e, μ) at Belle

We present a search for the lepton flavor violating decays B^{+}→K^{+}τ^{±}ℓ^{∓}, with ℓ=(e,μ), using the full data sample of 772×10^{6}  BB[over ¯] pairs recorded by the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e^{+}e^{-} collider. We use events in which one B meson is fully reconstructed in a hadronic decay mode. We find no evidence for B^{±}→K^{±}τℓ decays and set upper limits on their branching fractions at the 90% confidence level in the (1-3)×10^{-5} range. The obtained limits are the world's best results.

Search for an Invisible Z^{'} in a Final State with Two Muons and Missing Energy at Belle II

The L_{μ}-L_{τ} extension of the standard model predicts the existence of a lepton-flavor-universality-violating Z^{'} boson that couples only to the heavier lepton families. We search for such a Z^{'} through its invisible decay in the process e^{+}e^{-}→μ^{+}μ^{-}Z^{'}. We use a sample of electron-positron collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 10.58 GeV collected by the Belle II experiment in 2019-2020, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 79.7  fb^{-1}. We find no excess over the expected standard-model background. We set 90%-confidence-level upper limits on the cross section for this process as well as on the coupling of the model, which ranges from 3×10^{-3} at low Z^{'} masses to 1 at Z^{'} masses of 8  GeV/c^{2}.

First Measurement of the B^{+}→π^{+}π^{0}π^{0} Branching Fraction and CP Asymmetry

We study B^{+}→π^{+}π^{0}π^{0} using 711  fb^{-1} of data collected at the ϒ(4S) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e^{+}e^{-} collider. We measure an inclusive branching fraction of (19.0±1.5±1.4)×10^{-6} and an inclusive CP asymmetry of (9.2±6.8±0.7)%, where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second are systematic, and a B^{+}→ρ(770)^{+}π^{0} branching fraction of (11.2±1.1±0.9_{-1.6}^{+0.8})×10^{-6}, where the third uncertainty is due to possible interference with B^{+}→ρ(1450)^{+}π^{0}. We present the first observation of a structure around 1  GeV/c^{2} in the π^{0}π^{0} mass spectrum, with a significance of 6.4σ, and measure a branching fraction to be (6.9±0.9±0.6)×10^{-6}. We also report a measurement of local CP asymmetry in this structure.

Search for Lepton-Flavor-Violating τ Decays to a Lepton and an Invisible Boson at Belle II

We search for lepton-flavor-violating τ^{-}→e^{-}α and τ^{-}→μ^{-}α decays, where α is an invisible spin-0 boson. The search uses electron-positron collisions at 10.58 GeV center-of-mass energy with an integrated luminosity of 62.8  fb^{-1}, produced by the SuperKEKB collider and collected with the Belle II detector. We search for an excess in the lepton-energy spectrum of the known τ^{-}→e^{-}ν[over ¯]_{e}ν_{τ} and τ^{-}→μ^{-}ν[over ¯]_{μ}ν_{τ} decays. We report 95% confidence-level upper limits on the branching-fraction ratio B(τ^{-}→e^{-}α)/B(τ^{-}→e^{-}ν[over ¯]_{e}ν_{τ}) in the range (1.1-9.7)×10^{-3} and on B(τ^{-}→μ^{-}α)/B(τ^{-}→μ^{-}ν[over ¯]_{μ}ν_{τ}) in the range (0.7-12.2)×10^{-3} for α masses between 0 and 1.6  GeV/c^{2}. These results provide the most stringent bounds on invisible boson production from τ decays.

Benchmarking Polyp Segmentation Methods in Narrow-Band Imaging Colonoscopy Images

In recent years, there has been significant progress in polyp segmentation in white-light imaging (WLI) colonoscopy images, particularly with methods based on deep learning (DL). However, little attention has been paid to the reliability of these methods in narrow-band imaging (NBI) data. NBI improves visibility of blood vessels and helps physicians observe complex polyps more easily than WLI, but NBI images often include polyps with small/flat appearances, background interference, and camouflage properties, making polyp segmentation a challenging task. This paper proposes a new polyp segmentation dataset (PS-NBI2K) consisting of 2,000 NBI colonoscopy images with pixel-wise annotations, and presents benchmarking results and analyses for 24 recently reported DL-based polyp segmentation methods on PS-NBI2K. The results show that existing methods struggle to locate polyps with smaller sizes and stronger interference, and that extracting both local and global features improves performance. There is also a trade-off between effectiveness and efficiency, and most methods cannot achieve the best results in both areas simultaneously. This work highlights potential directions for designing DL-based polyp segmentation methods in NBI colonoscopy images, and the release of PS-NBI2K aims to drive further development in this field.

First Observation of Λπ^{+} and Λπ^{-} Signals near the K[over ¯]N(I=1) Mass Threshold in Λ_{c}^{+}→Λπ^{+}π^{+}π^{-} Decay

Using the data sample of 980  fb^{-1} collected with the Belle detector operating at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e^{+}e^{-} collider, we present the results of an investigation of the Λπ^{+} and Λπ^{-} invariant mass distributions looking for substructure in the decay Λ_{c}^{+}→Λπ^{+}π^{+}π^{-}. We find a significant signal in each mass distribution. When interpreted as resonances, we find for the Λπ^{+} (Λπ^{-}) combination a mass of 1434.3±0.6(stat)±0.9(syst)  MeV/c^{2} [1438.5±0.9(stat)±2.5(syst)  MeV/c^{2}], an intrinsic width of 11.5±2.8(stat)±5.3(syst)  MeV/c^{2} [33.0±7.5(stat)±23.6(syst)  MeV/c^{2}] with a significance of 7.5σ (6.2σ). As these two signals are very close to the K[over ¯]N threshold, we also investigate the possibility of a K[over ¯]N cusp, and find that we cannot discriminate between these two interpretations due to the limited size of the data sample.

Observation of e^{+}e^{-}→ωχ_{bJ}(1P) and Search for X_{b}→ωϒ(1S) at sqrt[s] near 10.75 GeV

We study the processes e^{+}e^{-}→ωχ_{bJ}(1P) (J=0, 1, or 2) using samples at center-of-mass energies sqrt[s]=10.701, 10.745, and 10.805 GeV, corresponding to 1.6, 9.8, and 4.7  fb^{-1} of integrated luminosity, respectively. These data were collected with the Belle II detector during special operations of the SuperKEKB collider above the ϒ(4S) resonance. We report the first observation of ωχ_{bJ}(1P) signals at sqrt[s]=10.745  GeV. By combining Belle II data with Belle results at sqrt[s]=10.867  GeV, we find energy dependencies of the Born cross sections for e^{+}e^{-}→ωχ_{b1,b2}(1P) to be consistent with the shape of the ϒ(10753) state. These data indicate that the internal structures of the ϒ(10753) and ϒ(10860) states may differ. Including data at sqrt[s]=10.653  GeV, we also search for the bottomonium equivalent of the X(3872) state decaying into ωϒ(1S). No significant signal is observed for masses between 10.45 and 10.65  GeV/c^{2}.

A Study of Al2O3/MgO Composite Films Deposited by FCVA for Thin-Film Encapsulation

Al₂O₃ and MgO composite (Al₂O₃/MgO) films were rapidly deposited at low temperatures using filtered cathode vacuum arc (FCVA) technology, aiming to achieve good barrier properties for flexible organic light emitting diodes (OLED) thin-film encapsulation (TFE). As the thickness of the MgO layer decreases, the degree of crystallinity decreases gradually. The 3:2 Al₂O₃:MgO layer alternation type has the best water vapor shielding performance, and the water vapor transmittance (WVTR) is 3.26 × 10^-4 g·m^-2·day^-1 at 85 °C and 85% R.H, which is about 1/3 of that of a single layer of Al₂O₃ film. Under the action of ion deposition, too many layers will cause internal defects in the film, resulting in decreased shielding ability. The surface roughness of the composite film is very low, which is about 0.3-0.5 nm depending on its structure. In addition, the visible light transmittance of the composite film is lower than that of a single film and increases with the increase in the number of layers.

Search for a Dark Photon and an Invisible Dark Higgs Boson in μ^{+}μ^{-} and Missing Energy Final States with the Belle II Experiment

The dark photon A^{'} and the dark Higgs boson h^{'} are hypothetical particles predicted in many dark sector models. We search for the simultaneous production of A^{'} and h^{'} in the dark Higgsstrahlung process e^{+}e^{-}→A^{'}h^{'} with A^{'}→μ^{+}μ^{-} and h^{'} invisible in electron-positron collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 10.58 GeV in data collected by the Belle II experiment in 2019. With an integrated luminosity of 8.34  fb^{-1}, we observe no evidence for signal. We obtain exclusion limits at 90% Bayesian credibility in the range of 1.7-5.0 fb on the cross section and in the range of 1.7×10^{-8}-200×10^{-8} on the effective coupling ϵ^{2}×α_{D} for the A^{'} mass in the range of 4.0  GeV/c^{2}<M_{A^{'}}<9.7  GeV/c^{2} and for the h^{'} mass M_{h^{'}}<M_{A^{'}}, where ϵ is the mixing strength between the standard model and the dark photon and α_{D} is the coupling of the dark photon to the dark Higgs boson. Our limits are the first in this mass range.

Evidence of a New Excited Charmed Baryon Decaying to Σ_{c}(2455)^{0,++}π^{±}

We present the study of B[over ¯]^{0}→Σ_{c}(2455)^{0,++}π^{±}p[over ¯] decays based on 772×10^{6}  BB[over ¯] events collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e^{+}e^{-} collider. The Σ_{c}(2455)^{0,++} candidates are reconstructed via their decay to Λ_{c}^{+}π^{∓} and Λ_{c}^{+} decays to pK^{-}π^{+}, pK_{S}^{0}, and Λπ^{+} final states. The corresponding branching fractions are measured to be B(B[over ¯]^{0}→Σ_{c}(2455)^{0}π^{+}p[over ¯])=(1.09±0.06±0.07)×10^{-4} and B(B[over ¯]^{0}→Σ_{c}(2455)^{++}π^{-}p[over ¯])=(1.84±0.11±0.12)×10^{-4}, which are consistent with the world average values with improved precision. A new structure is found in the M_{Σ_{c}(2455)^{0,++}π^{±}} spectrum with a significance of 4.2σ including systematic uncertainty. The structure is possibly an excited Λ_{c}^{+} and is tentatively named Λ_{c}(2910)^{+}. Its mass and width are measured to be (2913.8±5.6±3.8)  MeV/c^{2} and (51.8±20.0±18.8)  MeV, respectively. The products of branching fractions for the Λ_{c}(2910)^{+} are measured to be B(B[over ¯]^{0}→Λ_{c}(2910)^{+}p[over ¯])×B(Λ_{c}(2910)^{+}→Σ_{c}(2455)^{0}π^{+})=(9.5±3.6±1.6)×10^{-6} and B(B[over ¯]^{0}→Λ_{c}(2910)^{+}p[over ¯])×B(Λ_{c}(2910)^{+}→Σ_{c}(2455)^{++}π^{-})=(1.24±0.35±0.10)×10^{-5}. Here, the first and second uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively.

Toward Multicenter Skin Lesion Classification Using Deep Neural Network With Adaptively Weighted Balance Loss

Recently, deep neural network-based methods have shown promising advantages in accurately recognizing skin lesions from dermoscopic images. However, most existing works focus more on improving the network framework for better feature representation but ignore the data imbalance issue, limiting their flexibility and accuracy across multiple scenarios in multi-center clinics. Generally, different clinical centers have different data distributions, which presents challenging requirements for the network's flexibility and accuracy. In this paper, we divert the attention from framework improvement to the data imbalance issue and propose a new solution for multi-center skin lesion classification by introducing a novel adaptively weighted balance (AWB) loss to the conventional classification network. Benefiting from AWB, the proposed solution has the following advantages: 1) it is easy to satisfy different practical requirements by only changing the backbone; 2) it is user-friendly with no tuning on hyperparameters; and 3) it adaptively enables small intraclass compactness and pays more attention to the minority class. Extensive experiments demonstrate that, compared with solutions equipped with state-of-the-art loss functions, the proposed solution is more flexible and more competent for tackling the multi-center imbalanced skin lesion classification task with considerable performance on two benchmark datasets. In addition, the proposed solution is proved to be effective in handling the imbalanced gastrointestinal disease classification task and the imbalanced DR grading task. Code is available at https://github.com/Weipeishan2021.

[Analysis of risk factors for readmission of pneumoconiosis patients in Hunan]

Objective: To explore the risk factors of pneumoconiosis patients' re-admission to provide a scientific basis for improving the treatment effect of pneumoconiosis, reducing the rate of re-admission, and reducing the burden of disease. Methods: In June 2020, The clinical data of 470 patients with pneumoconiosis who had hospitalization records from February 8, 2014, to February 8, 2020, in the Hunan Provincial Occupational Disease Prevention and Treatment Institute were retrospectively analyzed. The patients' general data and emotional state at the first admission were collected through questionnaires and telephone follow-ups. The entire group of patients completed at least one follow-up, with readmission as the end event. First, the Kaplan-Meier method was used for univariate analysis. The multivariate COX regression model analysis was performed on meaningful variables to explore the risk factors that affect the patient's re-admission. Results: A total of 470 patients with pneumoconiosis were included in this study, with an average age of 55.88 years (34-81 years old) and all the participants were male. During the first admission, the number of participants diagnosed as stage III pneumoconiosis, with complications of COPD, fatty liver, or severe pulmonary diffusion dysfunction was 215 (45.74%) , 179 (38.09%) , 51 (10.85%) , and 44 (9.36%) , respectively. Six patients (1.28%) have had suicidal tendencies almost every day since they became ill. A total of 345 patients (73.40%) were re-admitted to the hospital. Multivariate Cox regression model analysis showed that compared with the suspected pneumoconiosis group, patients in the first, second, and third-stage pneumoconiosis groups had an increased risk of readmission (OR=2.43, 2.96, 2.35, P=0.000) . Compared with the age of 30-50 years old, 50-70 years old and ≥70 years old have an increased risk of readmission (OR=1.28, 2.32, P<0.05) . Patients with tricuspid regurgitation (OR=1.33, P<0.05) and elevated triglyceride level (>2.26 mmol/L) (OR=1.40, P<0.05) have increased risks of readmission. Compared with the normal group, patients with severe pulmonary diffusion dysfunction in pneumoconiosis have an increased risk of readmission (OR=1.96, P<0.05) . Compared with the normal group, pneumoconiosis patients in the suicidal group had an increased risk of re-admission to the hospital almost every day (OR=2.92, P<0.05) . Conclusion Age of onset, stage of pneumoconiosis, tricuspid regurgitation, high triglycerides, severe diffuse pulmonary dysfunction, and suicidal tendency are independent risk factors that affect the readmission of patients with pneumoconiosis. The management of chronic diseases and mental health of patients with pneumoconiosis should be strengthened to reduce the risk of readmission. Conclusion: Age of onset, stage of pneumoconiosis, tricuspid regurgitation, high triglycerides, severe diffuse pulmonary dysfunction, and suicidal tendency are independent risk factors that affect the readmission of patients with pneumoconiosis. The management of chronic diseases and the mental health of patients with pneumoconiosis should be strengthened to reduce the risk of readmission.

[Study on the consistency of IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 of peripheral whole blood and venous serum in children]

This study aimed to explore the consistency of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) by detecting peripheral whole blood and venous serum among children. As a cross-sectional study, children who were aged 0-14 as well as received physical examinations in the Child Healthcare Department of the Children's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University during January 2022 to April 2022 were enrolled in this study. Meanwhile, both of peripheral whole blood and venous serum samples were collected, and the levels of IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 were assayed individually via chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA). Additionally, linear regression equation was used to analyze the correlation of results between two categories of samples, while Inter-class Correlation Coefficient (ICC) was used to evaluate the consistency of test results among two types of samples. The change trends of IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 with age were analyzed at the same time. A total of 203 valid matched samples were collected, including 117 boys and 86 girls. Peripheral whole blood was well correlated with serum IGF-1 (r=0.986, P<0.001) and IGFBP-3 (r=0.974, P<0.001), and the linear regression equation is shown as follows: (IGF-1) _{venous serum} =1.047×(IGF-1) _{peripheral whole blood}-6.840; (IGFBP-3) _{venous serum}=0.924×(IGFBP-3) _{peripheral whole blood}+0.396. The correlation and consistency were still persisted after being stratified by sex and age. ICC of IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 were 0.983 and 0.967, respectively which provided an excellent strength of agreement. The levels of IGF-1 or IGFBP-3 in boys' and girls' peripheral whole blood and serum showed significant statistical differences among various age groups (all P<0.001), and also increased significantly with age (all P _trend<0.001). In conclusion, the results of IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 in peripheral whole blood and venous serum had positive comparability that could be mutually recognized. The detection of IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 in peripheral whole blood had great potential for young age children by providing guidance for nutritional intervention, growth and development assessment.

End-to-End Network for Pedestrian Detection, Tracking and Re-Identification in Real-Time Surveillance System

Surveillance video has been widely used in business, security, search, and other fields. Identifying and locating specific pedestrians in surveillance video has an important application value in criminal investigation, search and rescue, etc. However, the requirements for real-time capturing and accuracy are high for these applications. It is essential to build a complete and smooth system to combine pedestrian detection, tracking and re-identification to achieve the goal of maximizing efficiency by balancing real-time capture and accuracy. This paper combined the detector and Re-ID models into a single end-to-end network by introducing a new track branch to YOLOv5 architecture for tracking. For pedestrian detection, we employed the weighted bi-directional feature pyramid network (BiFPN) to enhance the network structure based on the YOLOv5-Lite, which is able to further improve the ability of feature extraction. For tracking, based on Deepsort, this paper enhanced the tracker, which uses the Noise Scale Adaptive (NSA) Kalman filter to track, and adds adaptive noise to strengthen the anti-interference of the tracking model. In addition, the matching strategy is further updated. For pedestrian re-identification, the network structure of Fastreid was modified, which can increase the feature extraction speed of the improved algorithm by leaps and bounds. Using the proposed unified network, the parameters of the entire model can be trained in an end-to-end method with the multi-loss function, which has been demonstrated to be quite valuable in some other recent works. Experimental results demonstrate that pedestrians detection can obtain a 97% mean Average Precision (mAP) and that it can track the pedestrians well with a 98.3% MOTA and a 99.8% MOTP on the MOT16 dataset; furthermore, high pedestrian re-identification performance can be achieved on the VERI-Wild dataset with a 77.3% mAP. The overall framework proposed in this paper has remarkable performance in terms of the precise localization and real-time detection of specific pedestrians across time, regions, and cameras.

Real-Time and Efficient Multi-Scale Traffic Sign Detection Method for Driverless Cars

Traffic signs detection and recognition is an essential and challenging task for driverless cars. However, the detection of traffic signs in most scenarios belongs to small target detection, and most existing object detection methods show poor performance in these cases, which increases the difficulty of detection. To further improve the accuracy of small object detection for traffic signs, this paper proposed an optimization strategy based on the YOLOv4 network. Firstly, an improved triplet attention mechanism was added to the backbone network. It was combined with optimized weights to make the network focus more on the acquisition of channel and spatial features. Secondly, a bidirectional feature pyramid network (BiFPN) was used in the neck network to enhance feature fusion, which can effectively improve the feature perception field of small objects. The improved model and some state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods were compared on the joint dataset TT100K-COCO. Experimental results show that the enhanced network can achieve 60.4% mAP(Mean Average Precision), surpassing the YOLOv4 by 8% with the same input size. With a larger input size, it can achieve a best performance capability of 66.4% mAP. This work provides a reference for research on obtaining higher accuracy for traffic sign detection in autonomous driving.

Study on the application of the Internet + nursing service in family rehabilitation of common bone and joint diseases in the elderly

OBJECTIVE

To explore the feasibility of the Internet + nursing service mode in family rehabilitation of elderly patients with osteoarthritic diseases.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

The control group (n=50) received routine rehabilitation treatment procedures and discharge guidance. For the observation group (n=50), extended nursing rehabilitation service was conducted through the Internet + nursing service platform based on the routine treatment in the control group.

RESULTS

(1) The compliance with follow-up of the patients in the observation group was significantly higher than that in the control group; (2) The total satisfaction of patients in the observation group was significantly higher than that in the control group; (3) The VAS (1 month: 4.36±1.15 vs. 5.86±1.61, p<0.05; 3 months 4.36±1.15 vs. 5.86±1.61, p<0.05), SAS (1 month: 37.21±14.16 vs. 49.31±13.45, p<0.05; 3 months 26.73±8.25 vs. 40.33±9.50, p<0.05), SDS (1 month: 32.36±10.15 vs. 46.32±12.61, p<0.05; 3 months 27.11±8.08 vs. 40.62±11.40, p<0.05) and PSQI (1 month: 13.64 ± 1.13 vs. 16.31 ± 3.45, p<0.05; 3 months 11.54 ± 1.87 vs. 15.74 ± 1.36, p<0.05) scores in the observational group were significantly lower than that in control group at one month and three months after discharge. The ADL (1 month: 86.86 ± 4.13 vs. 74.33 ± 3.44, p<0.05; 3 months 90.34 ± 7.87 vs. 78.52 ± 6.36, p<0.05) scores in the observational group were significantly higher than that in control group at one month and three months after discharge.

CONCLUSIONS

The extended rehabilitation nursing management for family rehabilitation of elderly patients with osteoarthritic diseases through the Internet + nursing service is a family rehabilitation model suitable for elderly patients with osteoarthritic diseases in China and has positive significance in developing a diversified medical nursing model.

[Impact of endoscopic endonasal approach on quality of life in patients with anterior skull base intra-extracranial extension meningioma]

Objective: To summarize the experience of endoscopic endonasal approach in the treatment of anterior skull base with intra-extracranial extension meningioma, and to analyze the perioperative quality of life of patients, and to discuss the safety and efficacy of the treatment. Methods: A total of 83 cases of anterior skull base with intra-extracranial extension meningioma admitted to Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University from October 2007 to October 2019, who underwent endoscopic endonasal approach tumor resection, were retrospectively analyzed. The quality of life of the patients were evaluated by Anterior Skull Base Questionnaire (ASBQ) before and after surgery. The surgical techniques, extent of tumor resection, postoperative complications and the changes of patients' quality of life were summarized and analyzed. SPSS 23.0 software was used for statistical analysis. Results: A total of 57 anterior skull base with intra-extracranial extension meningioma patients were enrolled according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, including 23 males and 34 females, aging (48.6±16.6) years. Fifty cases (87.7%) reached or exceeded Simpson gradeⅠ resection, and 7 cases underwent subtotal resection. Symptoms relief was as follows: headache relief in 45/50 (90%), vision improvement in 18/19 (94.7%), olfaction improvement in 6/45 (13.3%), mental symptoms improvement in 3/9 (33.3%), and seizure relief in 5/7 (71.4%). Postoperative complication included mental symptoms in 5 cases, cerebrospinal fluid leakage in 2 cases, epilepsy in 2 cases, frontal lobe hemorrhage in 1 case, and intracranial infection in 1 case. The follow-up period was 38 to 144 months. There were two cases recurring and no death. ASBQ assessment showed significant improvement in general condition, physical function, role function, mood disorder, pain, vision impairment, and sleep disturbance at 1 month postoperatively, with continued improvement thereafter, and reached stable at 6 months postoperatively. Conclusion: Endoscopic endonasal approach surgery is able to achieve safe and effective tumor resection for anterior skull base intra-extracranial extension meningioma, and the quality of life of patients can be improved steadily.

[The correlations of abdominal adipose tissue with anthropometric and metabolic parameters in obese children by magnetic resonance imaging]

Objective: To explore abdominal fat mass distribution and contents among obese children via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and analyze the correlations of abdominal adipose tissue with anthropometric and metabolic parameters. Methods: Cross-sectional study. There were 60 obese children admitted to the Children's Health Care Department and Endocrinology Department at Children's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from July 2016 to December 2018. Children's gender, age, height, weight, body composition, waist circumference and blood pressure were recorded. The levels of fasting blood glucose, lipids, insulin were measured, and liver ultrasound was performed, and the body mass index Z score (BMI-Z), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) were calculated. In addition, contents of subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT), visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and total abdominal adipose tissue (TAAT) were calculated according to feedback of abdominal MRI scan images. The associations between the contents of abdominal adipose tissue, physical examination status and metabolic disorders among obese children were analyzed through correlation analysis and regression analysis. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to compare the accuracy of fat mass in different parts of the abdomen in predicting their metabolic disorders. Results: A total of 60 children were enrolled in the study, included 44 boys and 16 girls, with age of (9.2±1.4) years. The contents of SAT, VAT and TAAT among the 60 children were positively associated with BMI-Z (r=0.60, 0.46, 0.59), body fat percentage (r=0.64, 0.67, 0.68) and waist-to-height ratio (r=0.60, 0.57, 0.61) (all P<0.01). Meanwhile, contents of SAT and TAAT were also positively correlated with systolic blood pressure (r=0.47, 0.49), triglyceride (r=0.33, 0.35) and HOMA-IR (r=0.33, 0.28)(all P<0.05). In order to adjust the confounding effects among various variables, regression analysis was applied and the result showed that the body fat percentage (β=0.59, 0.66, 0.65) and waist-to-height ratio (β=0.53, 0.63, 0.59) were most related to abdominal fat contents (all P<0.01), including SAT, VAT and TAAT among obese children. According to ROC, SAT had outstanding evaluation performances for the diagnosis of insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome, while VAT had excellent evaluation performances for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (area under curve=0.68, 0.69, 0.69, 95%CI 0.54-0.82, 0.55-0.84, 0.53-0.85, P=0.017, 0.014, 0.019). Conclusions: As one of the best indexes, body fat percentage and WHtR can be used to predict the contents of SAT, VAT and TAAT among obese children. With the increase of abdominal SAT or VAT, the risks for insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease would increase. Assessment of abdominal fat and metabolic risks in obese children should combine BMI-Z with waist circumference and body composition analysis.

[The relationship between homocysteine, coagulation dysfunction and breast cancer risk]

Objective: To investigate the correlation of homocysteine (HCY) and coagulation function index with the risk of breast cancer and its clinicopathological characteristics. Methods: The HCY, coagulation function test index, and clinicopathological information of female breast cancer patients (333 cases) treated in Tianjin Medical University Cancer Hospital from January 2018 to December 2018 were collected, and female patients with benign breast (225 cases) were selected during the same period for the control group. The t-test was used to compare measurement data with normal distribution, D-Dimer data were distributed discreetly and described by median, non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the two groups. The chi-square test was used to compare enumeration data, and the Logistic regression analysis was used for the risk analysis. Results: The levels of HCY, fibrinogen (Fbg), protein C (PC), and median D-Dimer (D-D) in peripheral blood of breast cancer patients group [(13.26±5.24) μmol/L, (2.61±0.83) g/L, (117.55±19.67)%, and 269.68 ng/ml, respectively] were higher than those in the control group [(11.58±0.69) μmol/L, (2.49±0.49) g/L, (113.42±19.82)% and 246.98 ng/ml, respectively, P<0.05]. The prothrombin time (PT), PT(INR), α2-antiplasmin (α2-AP) levels [(10.19±0.63) s, 0.91±0.07 and (110.64±13.93)%, respectively] were lower than those in the control group [(10.58±0.65) s, 0.93±0.01 and (123.81±14.77) %, P<0.05]. The serum levels of PC and median D-D in premenopausal breast cancer patients [(112.57±17.86)% and 242.01 ng/ml, respectively] were higher than those in the control group [(105.31±22.31)% and 214.75 ng/ml, respectively, P<0.05]. The levels of PT(INR), α2-AP [0.91±0.07 and (111.29±12.54)%, respectively] were lower than those of the control group[0.98±0.15 and (120.17±16.35)%, respectively, P<0.05]. The levels of HCY and median D-D in postmenopausal breast cancer patients [(14.25±5.76) μmol/L and 347.53 ng/ml, respectively] were higher than those in the control group [(11.67±2.38) μmol/L and 328.28 ng/ml, P<0.05]. The levels of PT, PT(INR), antithrombin Ⅲ (AT-Ⅲ), α2-AP levels [(10.18±0.66) s, 0.87±0.09, (97.30±12.84)% and (110.13±14.96)%] were lower than those in the control group [(10.38±0.61) s, 0.90±0.08, (102.89±9.12)%, and (127.05±12.38)%, respectively, P<0.05]. The levels of α2-AP and median D-D in T2-4 stage breast cancer patients [(111.69±14.41)% and 289.25 ng/ml, respectively] were higher than those in Tis-1 stage patients [(108.05±12.37)% and 253.49 ng/ml, respectively, P<0.05]. The levels of PT, PT (INR), Fbg, AT-Ⅲ, α2-AP, median D-D [(10.62±0.63) s, 0.95±0.06, (3.04±1.52) g/L, (103.21±9.45)%, (118.72±14.77)% and 331.33 ng/ml, respectively] in breast cancer patients with lymph node metastasis were higher than those of patients without lymph node metastasis [(10.42±0.58) s, 0.93±0.06, (2.52±0.54) g/L, (95.20±13.63)%, (106.91±13.13)% and 263.38 ng/ml, respectively, P<0.05]. In non-menopausal breast cancer patients, the level of HCY [(12.63±4.41) μmol/L] in patients with T2-4 stage was higher than that of patients with Tis-1 stage [(10.70±3.49) μmol/L, P=0.010], and the level of thrombin time [(19.35±0.90) s] of patients with T2-4 stage was lower than that of patients with Tis-1 stage [(19.79±1.23) s, P=0.015]. The levels of PT(INR), Fbg, AT-Ⅲ, α2-AP [0.97±0.56, (3.37±2.34) g/L, (102.38±8.77)% and (120.95±14.06)%] in patients with lymph node metastasis were higher than those of patients without lymph node metastasis [0.94±0.05, (2.36±0.48) g/L, (94.56±14.37)% and (109.51±11.46)%, respectively, P<0.05]. Among postmenopausal breast cancer patients, the levels of AT-Ⅲ and α2-AP in T2-4 stage patients [(98.48±11.80)% and (111.84±15.35)%, respectively] were higher than those in patients with the Tis-1 stage [(94.12±14.98)% and (105.49±12.89)%, respectively, P<0.05]. The levels of AT-Ⅲ and α2-AP in N1-3 stage patients [(103.74±9.94)% and (117.29±15.23)%] were higher than those in N0 stage patients [(95.75±13.01)% and (108.39±14.42)%, P<0.05]. Conclusions: HCY and abnormal coagulation function are related to the risk of breast cancer, T stage and lymph node metastasis in breast cancer patients.

Bone aluminum measured in miners exposed to McIntyre powder

A small pilot study was conducted to test whether the technique of in vivo neutron activation analysis could measure bone aluminum levels in 15 miners who had been exposed to McIntyre Powder over 40 years prior. All miners were over 60 years of age, had worked in mines that used McIntyre Powder, and were sufficiently healthy to travel from northern to southern Ontario for the measurements. Individual aluminum levels were found to be significantly greater than zero with 95% confidence (p < 0.05) in 7 out of the 15 miners. The inverse variance weighted mean of the 15 participants was 21.77 ± 2.27µgAl/gCa. This was significantly higher (p < 0.001) than in a group of 15 non-occupationally exposed subjects of a comparable age from Southern Ontario who had been measured in a previous study. The inverse variance weighted mean bone aluminum content in the non-occupationally exposed group was 3.51 ± 0.85µgAl/gCa. Since the use of McIntyre Powder ceased in 1979, these subjects had not been exposed for more than 40 years. Calculations of potential levels at the cessation of exposure in the 1970s, using a biological half-life of aluminum in bone of 10 to 20 years predicted levels of bone aluminum comparable with studies performed in dialysis patients in the 1970s and 1980s. This pilot study has shown that the neutron activation analysis technique can determine differences in bone aluminum between McIntyre Powder exposed and non-exposed populations even though 40 years have passed since exposure ceased. The technique has potential application as a biomarker of exposure in cross-sectional studies of the health consequences of exposure to McIntyre Powder.

Mechanically Robust Irradiation, Atomic Oxygen, and Static-Durable CrOx/CuNi Coatings on Kapton Serving as Space Station Solar Cell Arrays

The polymers that served for solar cell arrays are constantly subject to various hazards, such as atomic oxygen (AO), ion irradiation, or electrostatic discharge (ESD) events. To address these issues, we fabricated and sifted CrO_0.16/CuNi-coated Kapton with a gradient structure with the goal of reaching an equilibrium between AO durability and resistance. The resulting material exhibits an impressively low E_y of 6.61 × 10^-26 cm³ atom^-1, 2.20% of which was detected as pristine Kapton. Self-evolution of the CrO_0.16 coating under 525.4 displacement per atom (dpa) Fe⁺ ion irradiation indicated that it can still maintain a good state of ultrafine nanocrystalline in addition to local amorphization. Its AO-based degradation and irradiation evolution are demonstrated by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. It is mechanically robust enough to endure the cyclic folding treatments attributed to its gradient structure fabrication. Moreover, the CrO_0.16/CuNi-coated Kapton exhibits alleviated electrostatic accumulation capability and sufficient conductivity. Our strategy has promising potential for creating surface protection on flexible polymers operating in the low Earth orbit (LEO).

Measurement of Two-Particle Correlations of Hadrons in e^{+}e^{-} Collisions at Belle

The measurement of two-particle angular correlation functions in high-multiplicity e^{+}e^{-} collisions at sqrt[s]=10.52  GeV is reported. In this study, the 89.5  fb^{-1} of hadronic e^{+}e^{-} annihilation data collected by the Belle detector at KEKB are used. Two-particle angular correlation functions are measured in the full relative azimuthal angle (Δϕ) and three units of pseudorapidity (Δη), defined by either the electron beam axis or the event-shape thrust axis, and are studied as a function of charged-particle multiplicity. The measurement in the thrust axis analysis, with mostly outgoing quark pairs determining the reference axis, is sensitive to the region of additional soft gluon emissions. No significant anisotropic collective behavior is observed with either coordinate analyses. Near-side jet correlations appear to be absent in the thrust axis analysis. The measurements are compared to predictions from various event generators and are expected to provide new constraints to the phenomenological models in the low-energy regime.

Search for a Light Higgs Boson in Single-Photon Decays of ϒ(1S) Using ϒ(2S)→π^{+}π^{-}ϒ(1S) Tagging Method

We search for a light Higgs boson (A^{0}) decaying into a τ^{+}τ^{-} or μ^{+}μ^{-} pair in the radiative decays of ϒ(1S). The production of ϒ(1S) mesons is tagged by ϒ(2S)→π^{+}π^{-}ϒ(1S) transitions, using 158×10^{6} ϒ(2S) events accumulated with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric energy electron-positron collider. No significant A^{0} signals in the mass range from the τ^{+}τ^{-} or μ^{+}μ^{-} threshold to 9.2  GeV/c^{2} are observed. We set the upper limits at 90% credibility level (C.L.) on the product branching fractions for ϒ(1S)→γA^{0} and A^{0}→τ^{+}τ^{-} varying from 3.8×10^{-6} to 1.5×10^{-4}. Our results represent an approximately twofold improvement on the current world best upper limits for the ϒ(1S)→γA^{0}(→τ^{+}τ^{-}) production. For A^{0}→μ^{+}μ^{-}, the upper limits on the product branching fractions for ϒ(1S)→γA^{0} and A^{0}→μ^{+}μ^{-} are at the same level as the world average limits, and vary from 3.1×10^{-7} to 1.6×10^{-5}. The upper limits at 90% credibility level on the Yukawa coupling f_{ϒ(1S)} and mixing angle sinθ_{A^{0}} are also given.

MicroRNA-214-3p Ameliorates LPS-Induced Cardiomyocyte Injury by Inhibiting Cathepsin B

Myocardial injury is a common complication of sepsis. MicroRNA (miRNA) miR-214-3p is protective against myocardial injury caused by sepsis, but its mechanism in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)- induced cardiomyocyte injury is still unclear. An AC16 cell injury model was induced by LPS treatment. Cell Counting Kit-8 and flow cytometry assay showed decreased cell viability and increased apoptosis in LPS-treated AC16 cells. The levels of caspase- 3, Bax, atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), myosin 6 (Myh6), myosin 7 (Myh7), reactive oxygen species (ROS), and malondialdehyde (MDA) were increased in LPS-treated AC16 cells, but the levels of Bcl-2 and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were decreased. MiR-214-3p was down-regulated and cathepsin B (CTSB) was upregulated in LPS-treated AC16 cells. At the same time, miR-214-3p could target CTSB and reduce its expression. We also found that a miR-214-3p mimic or CTSB silencing could significantly reduce LPSinduced apoptosis, decrease ROS, MDA, caspase-3, and Bax and increase SOD and Bcl-2. CTSB silencing could significantly reduce ANP, BNP, Myh6, and Myh7 in LPS-treated AC16 cells. The effects of CTSB silencing were reversed by a miR-214-3p inhibitor. In summary, miR-214-3p could inhibit LPSinduced myocardial injury by targeting CTSB, which provides a new idea for myocardial damage caused by sepsis.

Measurement of Differential Branching Fractions of Inclusive B→X_{u}ℓ^{+}ν_{ℓ} Decays

The first measurements of differential branching fractions of inclusive semileptonic B→X_{u}ℓ^{+}ν_{ℓ} decays are performed using the full Belle data set of 711  fb^{-1} of integrated luminosity at the ϒ(4S) resonance and for ℓ=e, μ. With the availability of these measurements, new avenues for future shape-function model-independent determinations of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element |V_{ub}| can be pursued to gain new insights in the existing tension with respect to exclusive determinations. The differential branching fractions are reported as a function of the lepton energy, the four-momentum-transfer squared, light-cone momenta, the hadronic mass, and the hadronic mass squared. They are obtained by subtracting the backgrounds from semileptonic B→X_{c}ℓ^{+}ν_{ℓ} decays and other processes, and corrected for resolution and acceptance effects.

Atomic-Oxygen-Durable and Antistatic α-AlxTiyO/γ-NiCr Coating on Kapton for Aerospace Applications

Polymers used for the exteriors of spacecraft are always exposed to risks such as atomic oxygen (AO) or electrostatic discharge (ESD) degradation. In this work, an Al_xTi_yO/NiCr coating with excellent mechanical stability, AO durability, and electrostatic dissipative properties was deposited via ion implantation (IIP), filter cathode vacuum arc (FCVA), and high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) on a flexible Kapton substrate. Scratch and cycle folding tests indicated good adhesion and toughness of the Al_xTi_yO/NiCr-coated Kapton, which were due to the gradient structure fabricated by the multitechnology combination. AO exposure tests demonstrated an extremely low erosion yield (E_y = 5.15 × 10^-26 cm³ atom^-1) of the Al_xTi_yO/NiCr-coated Kapton, only 1.72% of that observed for pristine Kapton. Moreover, Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) and Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) results showed that the Al_xTi_yO/NiCr-coated Kapton has elevated surface electrostatic dissipative properties and sufficient conductivity. The multitechnology combination offers great flexibility for customizing the gradient structure to realize a comprehensive performance improvement. In addition, such a coating has great prospects for aerospace applications.

Precise Measurement of the D^{0} and D^{+} Lifetimes at Belle II

We report a measurement of the D^{0} and D^{+} lifetimes using D^{0}→K^{-}π^{+} and D^{+}→K^{-}π^{+}π^{+} decays reconstructed in e^{+}e^{-}→cc[over ¯] data recorded by the Belle II experiment at the SuperKEKB asymmetric-energy e^{+}e^{-} collider. The data, collected at center-of-mass energies at or near the ϒ(4S) resonance, correspond to an integrated luminosity of 72  fb^{-1}. The results, τ(D^{0})=410.5±1.1(stat)±0.8(syst)  fs and τ(D^{+})=1030.4±4.7(stat)±3.1(syst)  fs, are the most precise to date and are consistent with previous determinations.