129 Shenzhen residents’ hair samples were collected and the metal/metalloid concentrations of Hg, As, Pb, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Zn, Fe and Ni were detected. Meanwhile, the relationships between ...metal/metalloid contents in human hair and gender, age, seafood diet habit, smoking habit, as well as the housing type (dwelling environment) were analyzed. Results showed that the average content of Hg, As, Pb, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Zn, Fe and Ni in human hair of Shenzhen residents was 0.76 ± 0.96, 0.10 ± 0.04, 5.25 ± 4.88, 0.25 ± 0.33, 0.60 ± 0.31, 13.84 ± 3.67, 2.82 ± 2.01, 196.90 ± 145.01, 12.20 ± 5.10 and 0.34 ± 0.32 μg/g, respectively. Compared with other regions at home and abroad, most metal/metalloids in Shenzhen residents were at a moderate level, and the highly toxic elements (i.e. Pb, Cd, As and Hg) didn’t exceed the upper limit of normal values in China. Statistical analysis showed that the young male people contained significantly higher (p < 0.05) level of Pb (in age group of 20–30 years old) and Fe (in age group of 20–40 years old) in hair than the female people. Smokers had significantly (p < 0.05) higher level of Cd (0.35 μg/g) but lower level of Zn (101.24 µg/g) than non-smokers (Cd: 0.17 μg/g; Zn: 252.63 µg/g). Hg and Pb contents in hair of Shenzhen people were positively related with the frequencies of seafood consumption and the age, respectively. Moreover, residents lived in private buildings (well decorated house) accumulated significantly higher (p < 0.05) levels of Pb, Cr, Fe and Ni as compared with those lived in public rental house and village house (no decoration or simple decoration), suggesting that decoration material was also an important way for human exposure to heavy metals.
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•Most heavy metals in hair of Shenzhen residents were at a moderate level.•Hair Pb, Cd, As and Hg in this study didn’t exceed up limit of normal value in China.•Hair Hg, Cd and Pb were respectively related to seafood diet, smoking habit and age.•In young group, the male had higher level of Pb and Fe in hair than the female.•Residents from well decorated house had higher Pb, Cr, Fe and Ni levels in hair.
To assess volumetric changes of selected organs at risk (OAR) during intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) for oropharyngeal carcinoma.
Twenty-six consecutive patients that were treated with ...definitive IMRT ± chemotherapy between November 2007 and November 2008 were selected for the present study. As part of an internal quality assurances program, a repeat kilovolt (KV) computed tomography was planned weekly during the 7-week treatment course. On each available scan, a single observer contoured the parotid submandibular, and thyroid glands (PG/SMG/TG), larynx (L), and constrictor, masticatory, and sternocleidomastoid muscles (CM/MM/SCM) as appropriate. The volume at each scan was compared with the one at planning CT in a pair-wise fashion. p values <0.05 after correction for multiple testing were considered significant.
A total of 159 scans was obtained during treatment for a total of 185 scans, including the baseline imaging. All OARs showed statistically significant changes over baseline by week 5. At week 7, the PG showed the largest absolute change with an average reduction of ∼10 mL followed by both the SCM and MM (∼-5 mL). The largest (∼-30%) relative change was observed for the salivary glands. L and CM showed a ∼15% increase in volume during treatment.
All selected OAR undergo significant volumetric changes during a course of IMRT for oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma.
In this study, the problem of estimating multiple frequency‐hopping (FH) signal parameters in situations in which random observations are missing is addressed. A uniform linear array (ULA) is ...utilized to receive FH signals, and the missing observations are considered to be equivalent to randomly missing elements in the space‐time matrix obtained from the ULA. Bayesian compressed sensing (BCS) estimates the hopping time of received FH signals by the spatial information from the space‐time matrix and restores the missing observations. The estimated hopping time is implemented as the boundary to divide the signals such that each segment contains a superposition of time‐invariant multiple components. Then, the instantaneous frequency (IF) of multiple components can be estimated precisely by atomic norm soft thresholding (AST) within each segment. After estimating the hopping time and IF, the direction of arrival (DOA) of multiple signals is directly calculated using these two parameters. The simulation results show that the proposed method is superior to existing approaches. Provided that sufficient array elements are available, multi‐FH signal parameters can be estimated with satisfactory accuracy even when a large portion of observations is missing.
Abstract Background Hypertension, sleep disorders, and depression represent notable public health issues, and their interconnected nature has long been acknowledged. The objective of this study is to ...explore the interplay between sleep disorders and depression in the context of hypertension. Methods This cross-sectional study involved 42,143 participants aged 18 and above from the NHANES database across seven survey cycles between 2005 and 2018. After excluding those with missing data on depression, sleep disorders, and hypertension, as well as incomplete main variables, 33,383 participants remained. We used weighted logistic regression to examine the relationship between sleep disorders, depression, and hypertension. Additionally, we assessed the interaction between sleep disorders and depression on hypertension using both multiplicative and additive approaches to quantify their combined effect. Results Compared to individuals without sleep disorders, those with sleep disorders have an increased risk of hypertension (OR = 1.51, 95% CI: 1.37–1.67). Furthermore, individuals with depression experience a significantly higher risk of hypertension compared to those with sleep disorders alone (OR = 2.34, 95% CI: 1.95–2.80). Our study reveals a positive interaction between sleep disorders and depression in relation to hypertension risk (OR = 1.07, 95% CI: 1.02–1.13). In addition, we observed the quantitative additive interaction indicators (RERI = 0.73, 95% CI: 0.56 ~ 0.92; API = 0.31, 95% CI: 0.11 ~ 0.46; SI = 2.19, 95% CI: 1.08–3.46) influencing hypertension risk. Furthermore, our research also identified that individuals with less than 7 h of sleep, a sleep latency period between 5 and 30 min, or a latency period exceeding 30 min experience a significantly increased risk of hypertension. Conclusions Our research uncovered separate links between sleep disorders, depression, and hypertension prevalence. Moreover, we identified an interaction between depression and sleep disorders in hypertension prevalence. Enhancing mental well-being and tackling sleep disorders could help prevent and manage hypertension. Yet, more investigation is required to establish causation and clarify mechanisms.
Sexually dimorphic phenotypes are a universal phenomenon in animals. In the model animal fruit fly Drosophila, males and females exhibit long- and short-sleep phenotypes, respectively. However, the ...mechanism is still a mystery. In this study, we showed that juvenile hormone (JH) is involved in regulation of sexually dimorphic sleep in Drosophila, in which gain of JH function enlarges differences of the dimorphic sleep phenotype with higher sleep in males and lower sleep in females, while loss of JH function blurs these differences and results in feminization of male sleep and masculinization of female sleep. Further studies indicate that germ cell-expressed (GCE), one of the JH receptors, mediates the response in the JH pathway because the sexually dimorphic sleep phenotypes cannot be rescued by JH hormone in a gce deletion mutant. The JH-GCE regulated sleep dimorphism is generated through the sex differentiation-related genes -fruitless (fru) and doublesex (dsx) in males and sex-lethal (sxl), transformer (tra) and doublesex (dsx) in females. These are the "switch" genes that separately control the sleep pattern in males and females. Moreover, analysis of sleep deprivation and circadian behaviors showed that the sexually dimorphic sleep induced by JH signals is a change of sleep drive and independent of the circadian clock. Furthermore, we found that JH seems to also play an unanticipated role in antagonism of an aging-induced sleep decrease in male flies. Taken together, these results indicate that the JH signal pathway is critical for maintenance of sexually dimorphic sleep by regulating sex-relevant genes.
This paper studies unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) enabled industrial Internet of Things while a UAV dispatched to collect data of low‐power ground sensor nodes (SNs) in multi‐obstacle environment. ...The authors aim to minimize the completion time while satisfying the communication link constraints of each SN and obstacle avoidance, data collection requirements etc. To this end, the authors first formulate the completion time minimization problem by jointly optimizing the UAV trajectory and collection sequence of SNs. The problem is difficult to be optimally solved, as it is non‐convex. To tackle this problem, the authors first transform the original problem to a Traveling Salesman Problem‐like (TSP‐like) problem based on a hover point that can naturally satisfy the communication link constraints of data collection. The dynamic programming (DP) algorithm to figure out the order in which the UAV collects each SN, which gives the initial path of the UAV traversing each SN from the beginning point to the end point. Next, the authors consider the general scenarios of data collection tasks where the UAV also communicates while flying. The authors construct an equivalent problem with integer variable constraints for the original problem with indicative function constraints. The authors rewrite the non‐convex constraints of the equal problem by introducing slack variables and leveraging the SCA, and add the discrete region threat constraints for the traditional path discretization method. Finally, the simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm under different parameter configurations.
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•Four homologous luminogens with AIE characteristics through acceptor substitution engineering were developed.•The four photosensitizers showed excellent ROS generation capacities and ...different organelle targeting abilities.•TBVP targeting cellular membrane exhibited the strongest antitumor PDT efficiency.
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a promising noninvasive treatment for cancer. Researchers have focused on improving the therapeutic effects of PDT in recent years. Subcellular organelles are the building blocks of cells, and their destruction can lead to cell dysfunction or even death. Photosensitizers (PSs) with precise organelle targeting capacity can not only kill cancer cells effectively but also help reduce PS dose, minimize side effects, and avoid drug resistance. Herein, four homologous luminogens with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics through acceptor substitution engineering are designed and synthesized to specifically anchor to mitochondria, cell membrane and lysosome through slight structural tweaks, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) are efficiently produced under light irradiation, which significantly enhance the therapy efficacy of PDT. Notably, biological studies have shown that membrane-targeted PS, TBVP exhibits more powerful therapeutic effects than other three PSs (TBPy, TBPy-Bu and TBPy-TA) at the same concentration. The highly effective anti-tumor activity of TBVP was evaluated successfully in vitro and in vivo. In addition, TBVP can promote cell autophagy to induce cell death. We thus believe the anchoring organelles approach described here represents an attractive therapeutic approach in photodynamic therapy.
The importance of accurate prediction of power load variations for ensuring the reliability and rationality of power supply cannot be overstated. The GCES-adRNNe (Grey Relational Analysis ...Contextually Enhanced ES-adRNNe) is proposed as a load forecasting model that incorporates context augmentation on similar load days. Firstly, the selection of similar load days as representative sequences using the comprehensive grey correlation analysis method is enforced. Furthermore, context information is extracted from the representative sequences, and the individual sequences are dynamically adjusted to accommodate the main track prediction using XGBoost. Moreover, a stacked recurrent neural network (RNN) architecture with multiple layers is used. It incorporates attention-enhanced gated recurrent units (GRU) to capture various dependencies in the time series, such as short-term, long-term, and seasonal dependencies. The GRU also dynamically weight input information. Finally, the prediction results are post-processed. Experimental results indicate that the proposed model yields improvements in terms of RMSE, MAPE, StdPE, and other aspects compared to other load forecasting models. It is indicated that the model, when considering similar load days, is capable of capturing the trends and characteristics of electricity load changes more accurately, thereby providing strong support for ensuring the reliability and rationality of power supply.
Redundant complexities and inadequate representation of spatiotemporal features are included in the electricity price data. To address complex data redundancy and inadequate representation of ...spatiotemporal features, a gated channel mechanism (GCM) combined with a high-order pooling feature enhanced convolutional LSTM network (GCHCon-LSTM) electricity price prediction model is proposed. On the standardized processed electricity price dataset, the data vertical correlation information is expanded using gated dual convolutional neural network (GDCNN) integrated adjustment features. Redundant features are filtered using GCM. Temporal and spatial features are extracted by LSTM and ASPConv. Key information on spatial features is extracted using higher-order pooling. Combined with temporal features, the spatiotemporal feature representation is enhanced in a time-dominant and spatial manner. The prediction result is obtained by error correction. On the ERCOT Houston area electricity price dataset, compared to LSTM, CNN-LSTM, GHTnet and ILRCN, the experimental results showed that MAE, MSE and RMSE are reduced by the highest 21.50%, 29.56% and 40.18%, respectively, and the lowest 7.95%, 6.39% and 13.60%.
To investigate the roles of volumetric modulated arc therapy with SmartArc (VMAT-S), intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), and helical tomotherapy (HT) for oropharyngeal cancer using a ...simultaneous integrated boost (SIB) approach.
Eight patients treated with IMRT were selected at random. Plans were computed for both IMRT and VMAT-S (using Pinnacle TPS for an Elekta Infinity linac) along with HT. A three-dose level prescription was used to deliver 70 Gy, 63 Gy, and 58.1 Gy to regions of macroscopic, microscopic high-risk, and microscopic low-risk disease, respectively. All doses were given in 35 fractions. Comparisons were performed on dose-volume histogram data, monitor units per fraction (MU/fx), and delivery time.
VMAT-S target coverage was close to that achieved by IMRT, but inferior to HT. The conformity and homogeneity within the PTV were improved for HT over all strategies. Sparing of the organs at risk (OAR) was achieved with all modalities. VMAT-S (along with HT) shortened delivery time (mean, -38%) and reduced MU/fx (mean, -28%) compared with IMRT.
VMAT-S represents an attractive solution because of the shorter delivery time and the lower number of MU/fx compared with IMRT. However, in this complex clinical setting, current VMAT-S does not appear to provide any distinct advantage compared with helical tomotherapy.
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