Local Electrical Stress-Induced Doping and Formation of 2D Monolayer Graphene P-N Junction

We demonstrated doping in 2D monolayer graphene via local electrical stressing. The doping, confirmed by the resistance-voltage transfer characteristics of the graphene system, is observed to continuously tunable from N-type to P-type as the electrical stressing level (voltage) increases. Two major physical mechanisms are proposed to interpret the observed phenomena: modifications of surface chemistry for N-type doping (at low-level stressing) and thermally-activated charge transfer from graphene to SiO2 substrate for P-type doping (at high-level stressing). The formation of P-N junction on 2D graphene monolayer is demonstrated with complementary doping based on locally applied electrical stressing.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Distributionally Robust Graph-based Recommendation System

With the capacity to capture high-order collaborative signals, Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) have emerged as powerful methods in Recommender Systems (RS). However, their efficacy often hinges on the assumption that training and testing data share the same distribution (a.k.a. IID assumption), and exhibits significant declines under distribution shifts. Distribution shifts commonly arises in RS, often attributed to the dynamic nature of user preferences or ubiquitous biases during data collection in RS. Despite its significance, researches on GNN-based recommendation against distribution shift are still sparse. To bridge this gap, we propose Distributionally Robust GNN (DR-GNN) that incorporates Distributional Robust Optimization (DRO) into the GNN-based recommendation. DR-GNN addresses two core challenges: 1) To enable DRO to cater to graph data intertwined with GNN, we reinterpret GNN as a graph smoothing regularizer, thereby facilitating the nuanced application of DRO; 2) Given the typically sparse nature of recommendation data, which might impede robust optimization, we introduce slight perturbations in the training distribution to expand its support. Notably, while DR-GNN involves complex optimization, it can be implemented easily and efficiently. Our extensive experiments validate the effectiveness of DR-GNN against three typical distribution shifts. The code is available at https://github.com/WANGBohaO-jpg/DR-GNN.Comment: Accepted by WWW202

Reproducibility of quantitative flow ratio: An inter-core laboratory variability study

Background: Quantitative flow ratio (QFR) is a novel approach to derive fractional flow reserve (FFR) from coronary angiography. This study sought to evaluate the reproducibility of QFR when analyzed in independent core laboratories. Methods: All interrogated vessels in the FAVOR II China Study were separately analyzed using the AngioPlus system (Pulse medical imaging technology, Shanghai) by two independent core laboratories, following the same standard operation procedures. The analysts were blinded to the FFR values and online QFR values. For each interrogated vessel, two identical angiographic image runs were used by two core laboratories for QFR computation. In both core laboratories QFR was successfully obtained in 330 of 332 vessels, in which FFR was available in 328 vessels. Thus, 328 vessels ended in the present statistical analysis. Results: The mean difference in contrast-flow QFR between the two core laboratories was 0.004 ± 0.03 (p = 0.040), which was slightly smaller than that between the online analysis and the two core laboratories (0.01 ± 0.05, p < 0.001 and 0.01 ± 0.05, p = 0.038). The mean difference of QFR with re­spect to FFR were comparable between the two core laboratories (0.002 ± 0.06, p = 0.609, and 0.002 ± 0.06, p = 0.531). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that diagnostic accuracies of QFR analyzed by the two core laboratories were both excellent (area under the curve: 0.970 vs. 0.963, p = 0.142), when using FFR as the reference standard. Conclusions: The present study showed good inter-core laboratory reproducibility of QFR in assessing functionally-significant stenosis. It suggests that QFR analyses can be carried out in different core labo­ratories if, and only if, highly standardized conditions are maintained

Factors influencing early recurrence of atrial fibrillation among elderly patients following radiofrequency catheter ablation and the impact of different antiarrhythmic regimens

BackgroundPatients with atrial fibrillation (AF) who undergo radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA) necessitate the administration of antiarrhythmic drugs to prevent early recurrence. The clinical outcomes among these patients may be influenced by varying antiarrhythmic regimens.ObjectivesTo identify the risk factors associated with early recurrence and compare the clinical outcomes among different antiarrhythmic regimens in elderly patients with AF following radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA) during a 3-month period.MethodsA retrospective observational study encompassed 420 elderly patients with AF following RFCA. Baseline data were collected during the initial postoperative visit and clinical outcomes were carefully monitored over a 3-month follow-up period. Logistic regression and Cox-proportional hazard regression analyses were performed to investigate the relationship between various antiarrhythmic regimens and the clinical outcomes.ResultsMultivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that age (p = 0.001), left atrial diameter (p < 0.001), left ventricular diameter (p = 0.015), reactive hyperemia index (RHI) (p < 0.001), antiarrhythmic drug (p < 0.001) and hs-cTnI (p = 0.017) were independent risk factors of early recurrence. Furthermore, in cox survival regression analysis model, survival rate of early recurrence in the amiodarone group was higher than in the propafenone group (HR 2.30, 95%CI 1.17–4.53, p = 0.016) and in the sotalol group (HR 3.60, 95%CI 2.17–5.95, p < 0.001). Compared to the amiodarone group, the incidence of liver dysfunction was lower in the dronedarone group (p = 0.046) and the propafenone group (p = 0.021). The incidence of bradyarrhythmia (p = 0.003), QT interval prolongation (p = 0.035) and atrioventricular transmission block (p = 0.021) were higher in the sotalol group than in the amiodarone group.ConclusionRHI was identified as an independent risk factor for early recurrence among elderly AF patients after RFCA. Compared to amiodarone, propafenone and sotalol exhibited an elevated risk of early recurrence. Although there was no significant difference in early recurrence between amiodarone and dronedarone, dronedarone emerged as the preferred option due to its lower frequency of adverse drug reactions than amiodarone

An Analysis of Residents’ Social Profiles Influencing Their Participation in Community Micro-Regeneration Projects in China: A Case Study of Yongtai Community, Guangzhou

Urban regeneration has become one of the most effective ways to develop urban areas that have declined. Compared with other types of urban regeneration, community micro-regeneration is characterised by scattered stakeholders. Existing studies on public participation in community micro-regeneration mainly focus on revealing the interaction between different stakeholders with less attention to the main users’ social profiles in their participation process. This paper explores residents’ social profiles influencing their participation in community micro-regeneration projects in China. An evaluation framework for residents’ participation in community micro-regeneration projects is designed through literature research, the Delphi technique, and an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) based on the case study of Yongtai community, Guangzhou. Relative residents’ social profiles with the data from the questionnaire and literature research are further verified by stepwise linear regression. The results show that residents’ participation is still in the stage of tokenism with high-level passive information receipt but low-level enthusiasm for interactive activities. The older (i.e., 65-years of age and above) and middle-income groups (i.e., between 3000 and 14,999 CNY/Month) are positively associated with their participation in the Yongtai community micro-regeneration project. These findings can provide references for managers to distribute social resources

Structural insights into the Cdt1-mediated MCM2–7 chromatin loading

Initiation of DNA replication in eukaryotes is exquisitely regulated to ensure that DNA replication occurs exactly once in each cell division. A conserved and essential step for the initiation of eukaryotic DNA replication is the loading of the mini-chromosome maintenance 2–7 (MCM2–7) helicase onto chromatin at replication origins by Cdt1. To elucidate the molecular mechanism of this event, we determined the structure of the human Cdt1-Mcm6 binding domains, the Cdt1(410–440)/MCM6(708–821) complex by NMR. Our structural and site-directed mutagenesis studies showed that charge complementarity is a key determinant for the specific interaction between Cdt1 and Mcm2–7. When this interaction was interrupted by alanine substitutions of the conserved interacting residues, the corresponding yeast Cdt1 and Mcm6 mutants were defective in DNA replication and the chromatin loading of Mcm2, resulting in cell death. Having shown that Cdt1 and Mcm6 interact through their C-termini, and knowing that Cdt1 is tethered to Orc6 during the loading of MCM2–7, our results suggest that the MCM2–7 hexamer is loaded with its C terminal end facing the ORC complex. These results provide a structural basis for the Cdt1-mediated MCM2–7 chromatin loading

The 2011 Survey on Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy (HDP) in China:Prevalence, Risk Factors, Complications, Pregnancy and Perinatal Outcomes

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) are a group of medical complications in pregnancy and also a risk factor for severe pregnancy outcomes, but it lacks a large-scale epidemiological investigation in recent years. This survey represents a multicenter cross-sectional retrospective study to estimate the prevalence and analyze the risk factors for HDP among the pregnant women who had referred for delivery between January 1st 2011 and December 31st 2011 in China Mainland. A total of 112,386 pregnant women were investigated from 38 secondary and tertiary specialized or general hospitals randomly selected across the country, of which 5,869 had HDP, accounting for 5.22% of all pregnancies. There were significant differences in the prevalence of HDP between geographical regions, in which the North China showed the highest (7.44%) and Central China showed the lowest (1.23%). Of six subtypes of HDP, severe preeclampsia accounted for 39.96%, gestational hypertension for 31.40%, mild preeclampsia for 15.13%, chronic hypertension in pregnancy for 6.00%, preeclampsia superimposed on chronic hypertension for 3.68% and eclampsia for 0.89%. A number of risk factors for HDP were identified, including twin pregnancy, age of >35 years, overweight and obesity, primipara, history of hypertension as well as family history of hypertension and diabetes. The prevalence of pre-term birth, placental abruption and postpartum hemorrhage were significantly higher in women with HDP than those without HDP. The possible risk factors confirmed in this study may be useful for the development of early diagnosis and appropriate treatment of HDP

Joint analysis of three genome-wide association studies of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in Chinese populations

We conducted a joint (pooled) analysis of three genome-wide association studies (GWAS) 1-3 of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) in ethnic Chinese (5,337 ESCC cases and 5,787 controls) with 9,654 ESCC cases and 10,058 controls for follow-up. In a logistic regression model adjusted for age, sex, study, and two eigenvectors, two new loci achieved genome-wide significance, marked by rs7447927 at 5q31.2 (per-allele odds ratio (OR) = 0.85, 95% CI 0.82-0.88; P=7.72x10−20) and rs1642764 at 17p13.1 (per-allele OR= 0.88, 95% CI 0.85-0.91; P=3.10x10−13). rs7447927 is a synonymous single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in TMEM173 and rs1642764 is an intronic SNP in ATP1B2, near TP53. Furthermore, a locus in the HLA class II region at 6p21.32 (rs35597309) achieved genome-wide significance in the two populations at highest risk for ESSC (OR=1.33, 95% CI 1.22-1.46; P=1.99x10−10). Our joint analysis identified new ESCC susceptibility loci overall as well as a new locus unique to the ESCC high risk Taihang Mountain region

The Kamenev type interval oscillation criteria of mixed nonlinear impulsive differential equations under variable delay effects

Abstract In this paper, a class of mixed nonlinear impulsive differential equations is studied. When the delay σ(t) $\sigma(t)$ is variable, each given interval is divided into two parts on which the quotients of x(t−σ(t)) $x(t-\sigma(t))$ and x(t) $x(t)$ are estimated. Then, by introducing binary auxiliary functions and using the Riccati transformation, several Kamenev type interval oscillation criteria are established. The well-known results obtained by Liu and Xu (Appl. Math. Comput. 215:283–291, 2009) for σ(t)=0 $\sigma(t)=0$ and by Guo et al. (Abstr. Appl. Anal. 2012:351709, 2012) for σ(t)=σ0 $\sigma(t)=\sigma_{0}$ ( σ0≥0 $\sigma_{0}\geq0$) are developed. Moreover, an example illustrating the effectiveness and non-emptiness of our results is also given