Indirect influence in social networks as an induced percolation phenomenon

Significance Increasing empirical evidence in diverse social and ecological systems has shown that indirect interactions play a pivotal role in shaping systems’ dynamical behavior. Our empirical study on collaboration networks of scientists further reveals that an indirect effect can dominate over direct influence in behavioral spreading. However, almost all models in existence focus on direct interactions, and the general impact of indirect interactions has not been studied. We propose a new percolation process, termed induced percolation, to characterize indirect interactions and find that indirect interactions raise a plethora of new phenomena, including the wide range of possible phase transitions. Such an indirect mechanism leads to very different spreading outcomes from that of direct influences

FishIR : Identifying Pufferfish Individual based on Deep Learning and Face Recognition

Peer reviewe

Predictors of permanent pacemaker implantation in aortic valve diseases after TAVI with vitaFlow liberty system

IntroductionPermanent pacemaker implantation (PPI) is a known complication in patients with aortic stenosis following transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). However, there is limited research on TAVI for pure aortic regurgitation (PAR), and more investigation is needed to determine the occurrence of postoperative cardiac conduction block and the need for PPI in this population. Therefore, this retrospective analysis aimed to evaluate the incidence of cardiac conduction block and the necessity of PPI after TAVI in patients with different types of aortic valve disease, including pure aortic stenosis (PAS), aortic stenosis with regurgitation (ASR), and PAR.MethodsClinical data of 100 patients who TAVI were analyzed retrospectively. The incidence of conduction block was assessed, and clinical factors were examined to predict the necessity of PPI.ResultsCardiac conduction block was found to be a common complication following TAVI, particularly in patients with PAR. PAR was identified as an independent risk factor for requiring PPI. Additionally, first-degree atrioventricular block emerged as a sensitive predictor for PPI in patients with PAR.DiscussionThese findings provide valuable insights into the safety and effectiveness of TAVI, which can help enhance patient management and reduce complications

The distribution of heterophilic antigens and their relationship with autoimmune diseases

IntroductionMicrobial infections are associated with the occurrence of autoimmune diseases, but the mechanisms of microbial infection inducing autoimmune diseases are not fully understood. The existence of heterophilic antigens between microorganisms and human tissues may explain part of the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases. Here, we investigate the distribution of heterophilic antigens and its relationship with autoimmune diseases.MethodsMonoclonal antibodies against a variety of microorganisms were prepared. The titer, subclass and reactivity of antibodies with microorganisms were identified, and heterophilic antibodies that cross-reacted with human tissues were screened by human tissue microarray. The reactivity of these heterophilic antibodies with different individuals and different species was further examined by immunohistochemistry.ResultsIn this study, 21 strains of heterophilic antibodies were screened. The results showed that these heterophilic antibodies were produced due to the existence of heterophilic antigens between microorganism and human body and the distribution of heterophilic antigens had individual, tissue and species differences.ConclusionOur study showed that heterophilic antigens exist widely between microorganisms and human body, and the heterophilic antigens carried by microorganisms may break the immune tolerance of the body through carrier effect and initiate immune response, which may be one of the important mechanisms of infection inducing autoimmune diseases

Baichuan 2: Open Large-scale Language Models

Large language models (LLMs) have demonstrated remarkable performance on a variety of natural language tasks based on just a few examples of natural language instructions, reducing the need for extensive feature engineering. However, most powerful LLMs are closed-source or limited in their capability for languages other than English. In this technical report, we present Baichuan 2, a series of large-scale multilingual language models containing 7 billion and 13 billion parameters, trained from scratch, on 2.6 trillion tokens. Baichuan 2 matches or outperforms other open-source models of similar size on public benchmarks like MMLU, CMMLU, GSM8K, and HumanEval. Furthermore, Baichuan 2 excels in vertical domains such as medicine and law. We will release all pre-training model checkpoints to benefit the research community in better understanding the training dynamics of Baichuan 2.Comment: Baichuan 2 technical report. Github: https://github.com/baichuan-inc/Baichuan

Ensuring water resource security in China; the need for advances in evidence based policy to support sustainable management.

China currently faces a water resource sustainability problem which is likely to worsen into the future. The Chinese government is attempting to address this problem through legislative action, but faces severe challenges in delivering its high ambitions. The key challenges revolve around the need to balance water availability with the need to feed a growing population under a changing climate and its ambitions for increased economic development. This is further complicated by the complex and multi-layered government departments, often with overlapping jurisdictions, which are not always aligned in their policy implementation and delivery mechanisms. There remain opportunities for China to make further progress and this paper reports on the outcomes of a science-to-policy roundtable meeting involving scientists and policy-makers in China. It identifies, in an holistic manner, new opportunities for additional considerations for policy implementation, continued and new research requirements to ensure evidence-based policies are designed and implemented and identifies the needs and opportunities to effectively monitor their effectiveness. Other countries around the world can benefit from assessing this case study in China

Characteristics of Mesoscale Convective Systems over China and Its Vicinity Using Geostationary Satellite FY2

This study investigates mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) over China and its vicinity during the boreal warm season (May-August) from 2005 to 2012 based on data fromthe geostationary satellite Fengyun 2 (FY2) series. The authors classified and analyzed the quasi-circular and elongated MCSs on both large and small scales, including mesoscale convective complexes (MCCs), persistent elongated convective systems (PECSs), meso-ß circular convective systems (MßCCSs), meso-ß elongated convective system (MßECSs), and two additional types named small meso-ß circular convective systems (SMßCCSs) and small meso-ß elongated convective systems (SMßECSs). Results show that nearly 80% of the 8696 MCSs identified in this study fall into the elongated categories. Overall, MCSs occur mainly at three zonal bands with average latitudes around 208, 308, and 508N. The frequency of MCSs occurrences is maximized at the zonal band around 208N and decreases with increase in latitude. During the eight warm seasons, the period of peak systems occurrences is in July, followed decreasingly by June, August, and May. Mean while, fromMay to August three kinds of monthly variations are observed, which are clear northward migration, rapid increase, and persistent high frequency of MCS occurrences. Compared to MCSs in the United States, the four types of MCSs (MCCs, PECSs, MßCCSs, and MßECSs) are relatively smaller both in size and eccentricity but exhibit nearly equal life spans. Moreover, MCSs in both countries share similar positive correlations between their duration and maximum extent. Additionally, the diurnal cycles of MCSs in both countries are similar (local time) regarding the three stages of initiation, maturation, and termination

Self-healing of type B acute aortic dissection after aortic valve replacement: a case report

Abstract Background As a life-threatening and serious condition, aortic dissection (AD) is divided into type A and B according to its association with the ascending or descending aorta. Type A AD is often accompanied by aortic regurgitation, while type B dissections are rarely accompanied by severe aortic regurgitation. Case presentation We present a 71 year-old Chinese man with a rare case of type B AD with severe aortic insufficiency, who self-healed after 1 year of an aortic valve replacement. He complained of chest tightness and abdominal pain. Due to poor cardiac function, he underwent aortic valve replacement before intervening on the dissection. The operation was successful, and the dissection was treated conservatively. During the 1-year follow-up, his chest tightness improved, and the type B dissection was healed. His general condition is considerably improved. Conclusions In type B AD combined with severe aortic insufficiency, aortic valve replacement should be prioritized. This is potentially explained by the aortic root activity and pulse pressure difference

Temperature effect on spin relaxation in organic semiconductors

Spin relaxation due to energy level fluctuation in organic semiconductors is investigated by solving the Schrodinger equation of a two-level system with diagonal Hamiltonian elements being described by stochastic processes. When the polaron pair situates on one molecule, or an exciton, no spin relaxation is possible. In the opposite case when the coupled polaron pair distributes in two neighbor molecules, the relaxation occurs between spin singlet and one of the spin triplet states but not between spin triplet states. Based on our results we discuss the temperature effect in the exciton and bipolaron mechanisms proposed for organic magnetoresistance. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved