We present a measurement of angular observables and a test of lepton flavor universality in the B→K^{*}ℓ^{+}ℓ^{-} decay, where ℓ is either e or μ. The analysis is performed on a data sample ...corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 711 fb^{-1} containing 772×10^{6} BBover ¯ pairs, collected at the ϒ(4S) resonance with the Belle detector at the asymmetric-energy e^{+}e^{-} collider KEKB. The result is consistent with standard model (SM) expectations, where the largest discrepancy from a SM prediction is observed in the muon modes with a local significance of 2.6σ.
We study the possibility to observe sterile neutrinos with masses in the range 5 GeV<mN<20 GeV at the LHC, using the exclusive semileptonic modes involving pions, namely W→ℓN→nπℓℓ (n=1,2,3). The ...two pion and three pion modes require extrapolations of form factors to large time-like q2, which we do using vector dominance models as well as light front holographic QCD, with remarkable agreement. This mass region is difficult to explore with inclusive ℓℓjj modes or trilepton modes and impossible to explore in rare meson decays. While particle identification is a real challenge in these modes, vertex displacement due to the long living neutrino in the above mass range can greatly help reduce backgrounds. Assuming a sample of 109 W bosons at the end of the LHC Run 2, these modes could discover a sterile neutrino in the above mass range or improve the current bounds on the heavy-to-light lepton mixings by an order of magnitude, |UℓN|2∼2×10−6. Moreover, by studying the equal sign and opposite sign dileptons, the Majorana or Dirac character of the sterile neutrino may be revealed.
This study aimed to examine the global burden, risk factors, and trends of esophageal cancer based on age, sex, and histological subtype. The data were retrieved from cancer registries database from ...48 countries in the period 1980-2017. Temporal patterns of incidence and mortality were evaluated by average annual percent change (AAPC) using joinpoint regression. Associations with risk factors were examined by linear regression. The highest incidence of esophageal cancer was observed in Eastern Asia. The highest incidence of adenocarcinoma (AC) was found in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. A higher AC/squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) incidence ratio was associated with a higher prevalence of obesity and elevated cholesterol. We observed an incidence increase (including AC and SCC) in some countries, with the Czech Republic (female: AAPC 4.66), Spain (female: 3.41), Norway (male: 3.10), Japan (female: 2.18), Thailand (male: 2.17), the Netherlands (male: 2.11; female: 1.88), and Canada (male: 1.51) showing the most significant increase. Countries with increasing mortality included Thailand (male: 5.24), Austria (female: 3.67), Latvia (male: 2.33), and Portugal (male: 1.12). Although the incidence of esophageal cancer showed an overall decreasing trend, an increasing trend was observed in some countries with high AC/SCC incidence ratios. More preventive measures are needed for these countries.
To develop a deep neural network able to differentiate glaucoma from non-glaucoma visual fields based on visual filed (VF) test results, we collected VF tests from 3 different ophthalmic centers in ...mainland China.
Visual fields obtained by both Humphrey 30-2 and 24-2 tests were collected. Reliability criteria were established as fixation losses less than 2/13, false positive and false negative rates of less than 15%.
We split a total of 4012 PD images from 1352 patients into two sets, 3712 for training and another 300 for validation. There is no significant difference between left to right ratio (P = 0.6211), while age (P = 0.0022), VFI (P = 0.0001), MD (P = 0.0039) and PSD (P = 0.0001) exhibited obvious statistical differences. On the validation set of 300 VFs, CNN achieves the accuracy of 0.876, while the specificity and sensitivity are 0.826 and 0.932, respectively. For ophthalmologists, the average accuracies are 0.607, 0.585 and 0.626 for resident ophthalmologists, attending ophthalmologists and glaucoma experts, respectively. AGIS and GSS2 achieved accuracy of 0.459 and 0.523 respectively. Three traditional machine learning algorithms, namely support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), and k-nearest neighbor (k-NN) were also implemented and evaluated in the experiments, which achieved accuracy of 0.670, 0.644, and 0.591 respectively.
Our algorithm based on CNN has achieved higher accuracy compared to human ophthalmologists and traditional rules (AGIS and GSS2) in differentiation of glaucoma and non-glaucoma VFs.
This study examined the prevalence of major depressive disorder (MDD), and the correlations and co-morbid conditions associated with MDD, in the adult Taiwanese population, which a previous estimate ...in the 1980s had found to be at the lower end of the spectrum worldwide. Possible explanations for the reported low prevalence of MDD were evaluated.
As part of a survey of common psychiatric disorders in a nationally representative sample of individuals aged ≥ 18 years who were non-institutionalized civilians in Taiwan, a face-to-face interview using the paper version of the World Mental Health Survey of the World Health Organization (WHO) Composite International Diagnostic Interview (WMH-CIDI) was conducted between 2003 and 2005. Functional impairment and help-seeking behaviors were compared between Taiwanese subjects with MDD and their counterparts in the USA.
Among the 10 135 respondents, the lifetime prevalence of MDD was 1.20% standard error (S.E.)=0.2%. Individuals who were divorced or widowed, aged ≤ 40 years, and female were at increased risk, whereas rural residents were at lower risk for MDD. The proportion of MDD cases co-morbid with other psychiatric disorders in this study was much lower than in the US study. Only one-third of Taiwanese individuals with MDD sought help despite having twice the number of lost workdays compared with the US sample.
Despite the low prevalence of MDD in Taiwanese adults, the pattern of low help-seeking behavior and profound functional impairment indicates much room for improvement in the early detection of and intervention in major depression in this population.
Plasma treatment is frequently used to clean and modify the surface of materials, including polymers and graphite. However, very limited information has been reported concerning the modification of a ...matrix, such as a screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE) which is consisted of a mixture of graphite and pasting binder, using plasma. In this study, the surface characteristics and electrochemical properties of the plasma-treated SPCEs were investigated. The plasma-treated SPCEs performed a good electrochemical response (enhanced about 80-fold compared with those untreated electrode) and exhibited good reproducibility (CV of 4.8%). The response of plasma-treated electrodes was comparable with the electrodes modified with noble metal and superior to those electrode modified with carbon nanotube (CNT) (ca. 20-fold). SEM imaging revealed that an effective decomposition or removal of impurities and pasting binder on the surface of SPCEs during oxygen plasma treatment. The plasma treatment increases the step-like defects on the surfaces of graphite particles resulting in the generation of numerous edge planes. The phenomena could be responsible for the improvement of the electrochemical properties of SPCEs. The results also suggest that the plasma treatment condition is important. Over-erosion on the SPCE surface by high powered plasma may lead to the poor reproducibility of the SPCEs.
BACKGROUND: Selenium is an essential trace element with antioxidant property. Decreased serum selenium concentration with aging had been found in previous report. In this study, we aim to investigate ...the association between serum selenium and the inflammatory cytokine interleukin-6 in the elderly living in long-term care facilities in Taiwan. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 336 subjects aged 65 years and older (range of age: 65–101 years) were recruited from eight long-term care facilities in 2002–2003. Baseline characteristics, anthropometric indices, and biochemical data were obtained. Selenium deficiency was defined as serum selenium concentration < 80 μg/L. Multiple logistic and linear regression analyses were used to examine the relationships between selenium deficiency and interleukin-6 (divided into quartiles). RESULTS: The prevalence of selenium deficiency was 35.6% in men and 43.2% in women, respectively. After adjusting for potential confounders using multiple logistic regression analysis, interleukin-6 quartiles were significantly associated with selenium deficiency. Compared to the interleukin-6 quartile I, the adjusted odds ratios of having selenium deficiency for interleukin-6 quartile II, III, IV were 1.00(0.50∼2.01), 1.24 (0.62∼2.50), and 2.35(1.15‖4.83), respectively. The increasing odds ratios for selenium deficiency in higher interleukin-6 quartiles revealed dose-response effects (p < 0.05). Moreover, multiple linear regression analysis showed that serum selenium was significantly inversely associated with interleukin-6 after adjusting for potential confounders. CONCLUSIONS: Serum selenium was inversely associated with inflammatory cytokine interleukin-6 among elderly living in long-term care facilities in Taiwan. Monitoring serum selenium should be considered in these institutionalized elderly.
Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a leading cause of vision loss in adults. Currently, the standard imaging technique to monitor and prognosticate DR and diabetic maculopathy is dye-based angiography. ...With the introduction of optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA), it may serve as a potential rapid, non-invasive imaging modality as an adjunct.
Recent studies on the role of OCTA in DR include the use of vascular parameters e.g., vessel density, intercapillary spacing, vessel diameter index, length of vessels based on skeletonised OCTA, the total length of vessels, vascular architecture and area of the foveal avascular zone. These quantitative measures may be able to detect changes with the severity and progress of DR for clinical research. OCTA may also serve as a non-invasive imaging method to detect diabetic macula ischemia, which may help predict visual prognosis. However, there are many limitations of OCTA in DR, such as difficulty in segmentation between superficial and deep capillary plexus; and its use in diabetic macula edema where the presence of cystic spaces may affect image results. Future applications of OCTA in the anterior segment include detection of anterior segment ischemia and iris neovascularisation associated with proliferative DR and risk of neovascular glaucoma.
OCTA may potentially serve as a useful non-invasive imaging tool in the diagnosis and monitoring of diabetic retinopathy and maculopathy in the future. Future studies may demonstrate how quantitative OCTA measures may have a role in detecting early retinal changes in patients with diabetes.
Background
This study aimed to evaluate the updated burden and temporal trends of cancer incidence and mortality in Asian countries.
Methodology
The data used in this study were retrieved from the ...Global Cancer Observatory, Cancer Incidence in Five Continents volumes I-XI, and the World Health Organization mortality database. These data were used to calculate the Average Annual Percentage Change (AAPC), with a 95% confidence interval (CI) by joinpoint regression analysis to determine the epidemiological trend in the past decade.
Results
In 2020, the cancer incidence in Asia was 169.1 per 1 00 000, accounting for 49.3% of the global cancer incidence. The most common cancers included lung (13.8%), breast (10.8%) and colorectal (10.6%) cancers. Its mortality was 101.6 per 1 00 000 (58.3% of the global cancer death) with lung (19.2%), liver (10.5%) and stomach (9.9%) cancers being the most common causes of cancer death. The cancer incidence had been increasing in female population, with Korea (AAPC = 5.73, 95% CI 5.30, 6.17, P < .001), Japan (AAPC = 2.67, 95% CI 2.12, 3.23, P < .001) and Kuwait (AAPC = 2.08, 95% CI .49, 3.69, P = .016) showing the most significant increases in the past decade. The incidence increase was also observed among population aged <40 years old, with Korea (female AAPC = 8.42, 95% CI 7.40, 9.45, P < .001; male AAPC = 5.28, 95% CI 4.23, 6.33, P <.001), China (female AAPC = 2.94, 95% CI 2.07, 3.81, P < .001; male AAPC = 1.37, 95% CI .57, 2.18, P = .004) and Japan (female AAPC = 2.88, 95% CI 1.88, 3.88, P = .016; male AAPC = 1.59, 95% CI .40, 2.78, P = .015) showing the most significant increases. However, there was an overall decreasing trend of cancer mortality.
Conclusions
There was a substantial burden of cancer incidence and mortality in Asia. Although there was a decreasing trend in cancer mortality, its incidence had been increasing especially among female and younger populations. Future studies could be done to further investigate the potential reasons for these epidemiologic trends.
Layer-by-layer-stacked chemical vapour deposition (CVD) graphene films find applications as transparent and conductive electrodes in solar cells, organic light-emitting diodes and touch panels. ...Common to lamellar-type systems with anisotropic electron delocalization, the plane-to-plane (vertical) conductivity in such systems is several orders lower than its in-plane conductivity. The poor electronic coupling between the planes is due to the presence of transfer process organic residues and trapped air pocket in wrinkles. Here we show the plane-to-plane tunnelling conductivity of stacked CVD graphene layers can be improved significantly by inserting 1-pyrenebutyric acid N-hydroxysuccinimide ester between the graphene layers. The six orders of magnitude increase in plane-to-plane conductivity is due to hole doping, orbital hybridization, planarization and the exclusion of polymer residues. Our results highlight the importance of interfacial modification for enhancing the performance of LBL-stacked CVD graphene films, which should be applicable to other types of stacked two-dimensional films.
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