Why Do Consumers Review Doctors Online? Topic Modeling Analysis of Positive and Negative Reviews on an Online Health Community in China

Consumers often learn from others through a social learning process (e.g. electronic word of mouth) before making decisions. From the e-business perspective, online reviews have changed how people select products and services, and no doubt it is the same in the e-health sector. In this study, we examine online reviews of patients and health consumers for their doctors in an online health consultation platform in China. We combine machine learning and qualitative techniques to derive the themes of online reviews and the factors leading to positive and negative reviews. Our analysis demonstrates that service levels of hospitals, doctors’ communication skills and their professional skills influence the sentiment of reviews. Our findings offer important insights into theories and practice for studying online reviews in the healthcare context

Simplified Neutrosophic Sets Based on Interval Dependent Degree for Multi-Criteria Group Decision-Making Problems

In this paper, a new approach and framework based on the interval dependent degree for multi-criteria group decision-making (MCGDM) problems with simplified neutrosophic sets (SNSs) is proposed. Firstly, the simplified dependent function and distribution function are defined. Then, they are integrated into the interval dependent function which contains interval computing and distribution information of the intervals

Transforming growth factor β-activated kinase 1 transcriptionally suppresses hepatitis B virus replication

Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) replication in hepatocytes is restricted by the host innate immune system and related intracellular signaling pathways. Transforming growth factor β-activated kinase 1 (TAK1) is a key mediator of toll-like receptors and pro-inflammatory cytokine signaling pathways. Here, we report that silencing or inhibition of endogenous TAK1 in hepatoma cell lines leads to an upregulation of HBV replication, transcription, and antigen expression. In contrast, overexpression of TAK1 significantly suppresses HBV replication, while an enzymatically inactive form of TAK1 exerts no effect. By screening TAK1-associated signaling pathways with inhibitors and siRNAs, we found that the MAPK-JNK pathway was involved in TAK1-mediated HBV suppression. Moreover, TAK1 knockdown or JNK pathway inhibition induced the expression of farnesoid X receptor α, a transcription factor that upregulates HBV transcription. Finally, ectopic expression of TAK1 in a HBV hydrodynamic injection mouse model resulted in lower levels of HBV DNA and antigens in both liver and serum. In conclusion, our data suggest that TAK1 inhibits HBV primarily at viral transcription level through activation of MAPK-JNK pathway, thus TAK1 represents an intrinsic host restriction factor for HBV replication in hepatocytes

Observations on the Hipparion Red Clays of the Loess Plateau

We discuss the history of exploration of Red Clay vertebrate fossils of the Loess Plateau, and record observations on “Hipparion Red Clay” localities of Shanxi and Gansu provinces. Red clay is widespread across the Loess Plateau, but misleading as a descriptive term because many deposits are neither red nor dominated by clay-size sediment. Many red clay sequences contain paleosols, but also water-laid deposits. Our survey includes well-known localities of Yushe Basin, Renjiagou and Leijiahe near Lingtai, and sites of Qingyang and Qin’an. We discuss fossils found at Renjiagou, a new discovery of micromammals (Pliopentalagus) from Yucun, and Pliocene burrows observed at Hu Jia Cun, both latter localities northeast of Lingtai. Observations are consistent with a high rate of supply of clay sized particles, likely air-fall origin, throughout the Loess Plateau during the late Miocene. In some areas where fluvial or lake processes dominate, red clay particles are replaced in part or completely by water-laid coarse-grained deposits. We saw no evidence for a dry Late Miocene-Early Pliocene, but rather hypothesize well-watered habitat of high productivity. Locally diverse vertebrate fossils attest to high terrestrial biomass for Hipparion faunas.Human Evolutionary Biolog

Single “Swiss-roll” microelectrode elucidates the critical role of iron substitution in conversion-type oxides

Advancing the lithium-ion battery technology requires the understanding of electrochemical processes in electrode materials with high resolution, accuracy, and sensitivity. However, most techniques today are limited by their inability to separate the complex signals from slurry-coated composite electrodes. Here, we use a three-dimensional “Swiss-roll” microtubular electrode that is incorporated into a micrometer-sized lithium battery. This on-chip platform combines various in situ characterization techniques and precisely probes the intrinsic electrochemical properties of each active material due to the removal of unnecessary binders and additives. As an example, it helps elucidate the critical role of Fe substitution in a conversion-type NiO electrode by monitoring the evolution of Fe2O3 and solid electrolyte interphase layer. The markedly enhanced electrode performances are therefore explained. Our approach exposes a hitherto unexplored route to tracking the phase, morphology, and electrochemical evolution of electrodes in real time, allowing us to reveal information that is not accessible with bulk-level characterization techniques

Uncertain Multiattribute Decision-Making Based on Interval Number with Extension-Dependent Degree and Regret Aversion

In view of the uncertainty multiattribute decision-making problem with attribute values and weights both being interval number, a new solution based on regret theory and extension-dependent degree is proposed. It can define pass value of each attribute, which means decision-maker’s acceptance for the scheme under the pass value will decline quickly. Then according to traditional regret theory, the method defines an extension-dependent function based on pass value which can improve the flexibility of the traditional utility function and the ability to describe the risk aversion actions from decision-makers. Then the extension-dependent function for interval number is built, and the perceived utility value of each scheme is obtained based on the interval’s optimal value. The method can also reflect the decision-maker’s reference to high or low evaluation score by setting attitude coefficients. At last, an example is presented to examine the feasibility, effectiveness, and stability of our method

Combinational Fusion and Global Attention of the Single-Shot Method for Synthetic Aperture Radar Ship Detection

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), an active remote sensing imaging radar technology, has certain surface penetration ability and can work all day and in all weather conditions. It is widely applied in ship detection to quickly collect ship information on the ocean surface from SAR images. However, the ship SAR images are often blurred, have large noise interference, and contain more small targets, which pose challenges to popular one-stage detectors, such as the single-shot multi-box detector (SSD). We designed a novel network structure, a combinational fusion SSD (CF-SSD), based on the framework of the original SSD, to solve these problems. It mainly includes three blocks, namely a combinational fusion (CF) block, a global attention module (GAM), and a mixed loss function block, to significantly improve the detection accuracy of SAR images and remote sensing images and maintain a fast inference speed. The CF block equips every feature map with the ability to detect objects of all sizes at different levels and forms a consistent and powerful detection structure to learn more useful information for SAR features. The GAM block produces attention weights and considers the channel attention information of various scale feature information or cross-layer maps so that it can obtain better feature representations from the global perspective. The mixed loss function block can better learn the positions of the truth anchor boxes by considering corner and center coordinates simultaneously. CF-SSD can effectively extract and fuse the features, avoid the loss of small or blurred object information, and precisely locate the object position from SAR images. We conducted experiments on the SAR ship dataset SSDD, and achieved a 90.3% mAP and fast inference speed close to that of the original SSD. We also tested our model on the remote sensing dataset NWPU VHR-10 and the common dataset VOC2007. The experimental results indicate that our proposed model simultaneously achieves excellent detection performance and high efficiency

Simplified Neutrosophic Sets Based on Interval Dependent Degree for Multi-Criteria Group Decision-Making Problems

In this paper, a new approach and framework based on the interval dependent degree for multi-criteria group decision-making (MCGDM) problems with simplified neutrosophic sets (SNSs) is proposed. Firstly, the simplified dependent function and distribution function are defined. Then, they are integrated into the interval dependent function which contains interval computing and distribution information of the intervals. Subsequently, the interval transformation operator is defined to convert simplified neutrosophic numbers (SNNs) into intervals, and then the interval dependent function for SNNs is deduced. Finally, an example is provided to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method, together with its comparative analysis. In addition, uncertainty analysis, which can reflect the dynamic change of the final result caused by changes in the decision makers’ preferences, is performed in different distribution function situations. That increases the reliability and accuracy of the result