Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly being applied to a wide range of fields, including medicine, and has been considered as an approach that may augment or substitute human professionals in ...primary healthcare. However, AI also raises several challenges and ethical concerns. In this article, the author investigates and discusses three aspects of AI in medicine and healthcare: the application and promises of AI, special ethical concerns pertaining to AI in some frontier fields, and suggestive ethical governance systems. Despite great potentials of frontier AI research and development in the field of medical care, the ethical challenges induced by its applications has put forward new requirements for governance. To ensure "trustworthy" AI applications in healthcare and medicine, the creation of an ethical global governance framework and system as well as special guidelines for frontier AI applications in medicine are suggested. The most important aspects include the roles of governments in ethical auditing and the responsibilities of stakeholders in the ethical governance system.
Behcet's syndrome (BS) is a complex, heterogeneous disorder. However, classification of its subgroups is still debated. The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical features and ...aggregation of patients with BS in China, based on manifestations and organ involvements.
This was a cross-sectional study of BS patients in Huadong Hospital of Fudan University between September 2012 and January 2020. We calculated relative risks (RRs) of clinical variables according to sex. Moreover, we conducted a hierarchical cluster analysis applied according to eighteen variables to determine subgroups of patients.
A total of 860 BS patients were included. Male sex was associated with ocular involvement (RR 2.32, 95% CI 1.67, 3.22, P < 0.0001), vascular involvement (RR 2.00, 95% CI 1.23, 3.23, P = 0.004), cardiac lesion (RR 5.46, 95% CI 2.33, 12.77, P < 0.0001), and central nervous system involvement (RR 2.95, 95% CI 1.07, 6.78, P = 0.007) and was negatively associated with genital ulcers (RR 0.84, 95% CI 0.79, 0.91, P < 0.0001). Five clusters (C1-C5) were observed. C1 (n = 307) showed the skin and mucosa type. In C2 (n = 124), all had articular involvement, barely having major organ involvement except for 18 cases with intestinal lesions. In C3 (n = 156), the gastrointestinal type, 144 patients presented with intestinal involvement, and 36 patients with esophageal ulcers. In C4 (n = 142), all subjects presented with uveitis. C5 (n = 131) consisted of 44 patients with cardiac lesions, 58 with vascular involvement, and 26 cases having central nervous system involvement.
Our analysis confirmed sex differences in phenotypes of BS. Cluster analysis identified gastrointestinal, uveitis, and cardiovascular involvement cluster separately in different subsets, which represents the most commonly involved organs. Further research is required to replicate and clarify the patterns of phenotype in BS.
•Density and viscosity of Athabasca bitumen and its diluted mixtures with n-tetradecane.•Temperatures varying from ambient temperature up to 343K and at pressures up to 10MPa.•Pseudo-binary mixtures ...with 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5 weight fractions of n-tetradecane.•Density data are well predicted with an equation that assumes no volume change upon mixing occurs.•Power law and Lederer’s models represent mixture viscosity better than Arrhenius’, Cragoe’s, and Shu’s models.
The viscosity of bitumen is extremely high at ambient temperature and in order to produce and transport the bitumen, it is necessary to reduce its viscosity. One of the methods to reduce the bitumen viscosity is the dilution with liquid solvent. In this manuscript, the density and viscosity of bitumen, tetradecane, and their mixtures at different weight fractions have accurately been measured. The measurements were taken under conditions applicable for both in situ recovery methods and pipeline transportation of heavy oil. The experiments were conducted using Athabasca bitumen and tetradecane at temperatures varying from ambient up to 343K and at pressures up to 10MPa on mixtures with 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5 weight fractions of solvent. The generated experimental data for raw bitumen and tetradecane were correlated with the existing correlation models in the literature. The data for the mixtures were also evaluated with predictive schemes as well as with correlation models representing certain mixing rules proposed in the literature. The influence of pressure, temperature, and solvent weight fraction on the density and viscosity of mixtures was considered in the models and evaluated from the experimental results. The density data are reasonably predicted using an equation without adjustable parameter in which it is assumed that no volume change occurs. The viscosity data for the mixtures are well correlated with Lederer’s and power law models.
Long-time coherent integration technique is one of the most important methods for the improvement of radar detection ability of a weak maneuvering target, whereas the integration performance may be ...greatly influenced by the across range unit (ARU) and Doppler frequency migration (DFM) effects. In this paper, a novel representation known as Radon-fractional Fourier transform (RFRFT) is proposed and investigated to solve the above problems simultaneously. It can not only eliminate the effect of DFM by selecting a proper rotation angle but also achieve long-time coherent integration without ARU effect. The RFRFT can be regarded as a special Doppler filter bank composed of filters with different rotation angles, which indicates a generalization of the traditional moving target detection (MTD) and FRFT methods. Some useful properties and the likelihood ratio test detector of RFRFT are derived for maneuvering target detection. Finally, numerical experiments of aerial target and marine target detection are carried out using simulated and real radar datasets. The results demonstrate that for integration gain and detection ability, the proposed method is superior to MTD, FRFT, and Radon-Fourier transform under low signal-to-clutter/noise ratio (SCR/SNR) environments. Moreover, the trajectory of target can be easily obtained via RFRFT as well.
WORKPLACE VIOLENCE IN HEALTH CARE：A CONTINUOUS GLOBAL PROBLEM AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS IN CHINA
Workplace violence is a persistent problem in health care worldwide. The victims are usually nurses and ...workers in the emergency department. The academic debate, as it develops overtime, would allow us to gain an integral insight about this problem. The author searched the related research and debate articles in English in PubMed （www.pubmed.conl） dated from 1990 to 2016 Figure 1 . In total, 1899 items with the keywords of＂workplace violence,＂ 600 items with ＂workplace violence healthcare,＂ 786 items with ＂＇workplace violence nursing,＂ and 279 items with ＂workplace violence emergency＂ （there is some overlap between these four groups） have been published.
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•Clearance routes of nanoparticles in the lung are presented.•Factors influencing nanoparticle transaction are discussed.•Physicochemical properties of the nanoparticles could ...influence their fate in the lung.
The inhaled delivery of nanomedicines has attracted much attention in the treatment of lung diseases or systemic diseases. However, there is a lack of understanding about their fate upon lung delivery. Thus, the objective of this review is to summarize physicochemical properties affecting the fate of nanoparticles after deposition in the lung. First, physiological structure and characteristics of the lung are described. Thereafter, physicochemical properties that could influence the clearance and translocation of nanoparticles in the lung are discussed, including particle size, surface charge and surface hydrophilicity. It is believed that, with a better understanding of the fate of nanoparticles in the lung, it will broaden their application in inhalation for a better therapeutic effect in the future.
Twin-field (TF) quantum key distribution (QKD) promises high key rates over long distances to beat the rate-distance limit. Here, applying the sending-or-not-sending TF QKD protocol, we ...experimentally demonstrate a secure key distribution that breaks the absolute key-rate limit of repeaterless QKD over a 509-km-long ultralow loss optical fiber. Two independent lasers are used as sources with remote-frequency-locking technique over the 500-km fiber distance. Practical optical fibers are used as the optical path with appropriate noise filtering; and finite-key effects are considered in the key-rate analysis. The secure key rate obtained at 509 km is more than seven times higher than the relative bound of repeaterless QKD for the same detection loss. The achieved secure key rate is also higher than that of a traditional QKD protocol running with a perfect repeaterless QKD device, even for an infinite number of sent pulses. Our result shows that the protocol and technologies applied in this experiment enable TF QKD to achieve a high secure key rate over a long distribution distance, and is therefore practically useful for field implementation of intercity QKD.
T lymphocytes are the major components of adaptive immunity in Behçet's syndrome (BS) pathology. However, the precise mechanism of T‐cell‐induced inflammatory condition remains to be determined. We ...applied bulk sequencing of the T‐cell receptor (TCR) β chain in peripheral blood samples from 45 patients with BS and 10 healthy donors as controls. TCR repertoires in BS patients displayed more clonality and less diversity than in healthy donors. Male patients exhibited lower diversity metrics of TCR and had a larger proportion in the top 10 clones than females (p = 0.016). There were no TCR clonality differences in other clinical features, such as age, disease duration, organ involvement, disease severity, and activity. By “Grouping of Lymphocyte Interactions by Paratope Hotspots” (GLIPH2) for antigen prediction, we found distinct 2477 clusters of TCR‐β sequences that potentially recognize similar antigens shared between BS patients. We observed clonal T‐cell expansion in BS patients. Sexual differences in TCR clonal expansion and public TCR groups deserve further study to reveal the underline T‐cell‐mediated immunity in BS.
Bulk sequencing of the TCR repertoires in BS patients displayed more clonality and less diversity than in healthy donors. Male patients exhibited lower diversity metrics of TCR than females. GLIPH2 predicted distinct clusters of TCR‐β sequences in BS patients.
Channel loss seems to be the most severe limitation on the practical application of long distance quantum key distribution. The idea of twin-field quantum key distribution can improve the key rate ...from the linear scale of channel loss in the traditional decoy-state method to the square root scale of the channel transmittance. However, the technical demands are rather tough because they require single photon level interference of two remote independent lasers. Here, we adopt the technology developed in the frequency and time transfer to lock two independent laser wavelengths and utilize additional phase reference light to estimate and compensate the fiber fluctuation. Further, with a single photon detector with a high detection rate, we demonstrate twin field quantum key distribution through the sending-or-not-sending protocol with a realistic phase drift over 300 km optical fiber spools. We calculate the secure key rates with the finite size effect. The secure key rate at 300 km (1.96×10−6) is higher than that of the repeaterless secret key capacity (8.64×10−7).
Metal‐free elemental photocatalysts for hydrogen (H2) evolution are more advantageous than the traditional metal‐based inorganic photocatalysts since the nonmetal elements are generally cheaper, more ...earth‐abundant, and environmentally friendly. Black phosphorus (BP) has been attracting increasing attention in recent years based on its anisotropic 2D layered structure with tunable bandgap in the range of 0.3–2.0 eV; however, the application of BP for photocatalytic H2 evolution has been scarcely reported experimentally although being theoretically predicted. Herein, for the first time, the visible light photocatalytic H2 evolution of BP nanosheets prepared via a facile solid‐state mechanochemical method by ball‐milling bulk BP is reported. Without using any noble metal cocatalyst, the visible light photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rate of BP nanosheets reaches 512 µmol h−1 g−1, which is ≈18 times higher than that of the bulk BP, and is comparable or even higher than that of graphitic carbon nitrides (g‐C3N4).
Black phosphorus (BP) is discovered as the missing metal‐free elemental photocatalyst. Few‐layer BP nanosheets are prepared via a facile solid‐state mechanochemical method, exhibiting a visible light H2 evolution rate of 512 µmol h−1 g−1 without using any noble metal cocatalyst, which is increased by ≈18 times relative to that of bulk BP. Thus the missing photocatalytic property of BP is discovered.
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