Substantial Gain Research Articles

Body composition impacts outcome of bronchoscopic lung volume reduction in patients with severe emphysema: a fully automated CT-based analysis

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is characterized by progressive and irreversible airflow limitation, with individual body composition influencing disease severity. Severe emphysema worsens symptoms through hyperinflation, which can be relieved by bronchoscopic lung volume reduction (BLVR). To investigate how body composition, assessed through CT scans, impacts outcomes in emphysema patients undergoing BLVR. Fully automated CT-based body composition analysis (BCA) was performed in patients with end-stage emphysema receiving BLVR with valves. Post-interventional muscle and adipose tissues were quantified, body size-adjusted, and compared to baseline parameters. Between January 2015 and December 2022, 300 patients with severe emphysema underwent endobronchial valve treatment. Significant improvements were seen in outcome parameters, which were defined as changes in pulmonary function, physical performance, and quality of life (QoL) post-treatment. Muscle volume remained stable (1.632 vs. 1.635 for muscle bone adjusted ratio (BAR) at baseline and after 6 months respectively), while bone adjusted adipose tissue volumes, especially total and pericardial adipose tissue, showed significant increase (2.86 vs. 3.00 and 0.16 vs. 0.17, respectively). Moderate to strong correlations between bone adjusted muscle volume and weaker correlations between adipose tissue volumes and outcome parameters (pulmonary function, QoL and physical performance) were observed. Particularly after 6-month, bone adjusted muscle volume changes positively corresponded to improved outcomes (ΔForced expiratory volume in 1 s [FEV1], r = 0.440; ΔInspiratory vital capacity [IVC], r = 0.397; Δ6Minute walking distance [6MWD], r = 0.509 and ΔCOPD assessment test [CAT], r = −0.324; all p < 0.001). Group stratification by bone adjusted muscle volume changes revealed that groups with substantial muscle gain experienced a greater clinical benefit in pulmonary function improvements, QoL and physical performance (ΔFEV1%, 5.5 vs. 39.5; ΔIVC%, 4.3 vs. 28.4; Δ6MWDm, 14 vs. 110; ΔCATpts, −2 vs. −3.5 for groups with ΔMuscle, BAR% < –10 vs. > 10, respectively). BCA results among patients divided by the minimal clinically important difference for forced expiratory volume of the first second (FEV1) showed significant differences in bone-adjusted muscle and intramuscular adipose tissue (IMAT) volumes and their respective changes after 6 months (ΔMuscle, BAR% −5 vs. 3.4 and ΔIMAT, BAR% −0.62 vs. 0.60 for groups with ΔFEV1 ≤ 100 mL vs > 100 mL). Altered body composition, especially increased muscle volume, is associated with functional improvements in BLVR-treated patients.

Predicting weight gain in patients with cystic fibrosis on triple combination modulator.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is caused by CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene mutations producing dysfunctional CFTR proteins leading to progressive clinical disease. Elexacaftor-tezacaftor-ivacaftor (ETI) remarkably improves lung disease but is associated with substantial weight gain. We performed a single-center longitudinal study predicting 6-month weight gain after ETI initiation. We used linear mixed effects modeling (LME) to determine association of ETI treatment with changing body mass index (BMI). Using linear regression, we examined BMI prediction models with distinct combinations of main effects to identify a model useful for patient counseling. We used up to eight commonly observed clinical characteristics as input variables (age, sex, percent predicted FEV1 [FEV1%], F508del homozygous state, pancreatic sufficiency, HgbA1c, prior modulator use and prior year number of pulmonary exacerbations). We evaluated 154 patients (19-73 years old, 54% female, FEV1% = 19-121, 0-6 prior year pulmonary exacerbations). LME demonstrated an association between ETI use and weight increases. Exhaustive testing suggested a parsimonious linear regression model well-fitted to data that is potentially useful for counseling. The two variable model shows that on average, BMI decreases by 0.045 (95% Confidence Interval [CI] = -0.069 to -0.021, p < 0.001) for every year of age and increases by 0.322 (CI = 0.142 to 0.502, p = 0.001) for each additional prior year exacerbation at the time of ETI initiation. Young patients with many prior year pulmonary exacerbations likely have the largest 6 month weight gain after starting ETI.

Genomic analysis of inbreeding and coancestry in Nordic Jersey and Holstein dairy cattle populations

In recent years, Genomic Selection (GS) has accelerated genetic gain in dairy cattle breeds worldwide. Despite the evident genetic progress, several dairy populations have also encountered challenges such as heightened inbreeding rates and reduced effective population sizes. The challenge has been to find a balance between achieving substantial genetic gain while managing genetic diversity within the population, thereby mitigating the negative effects of inbreeding depression. This study aims to elucidate the impact of GS on pedigree and genomic rates of inbreeding (ΔF) and coancestry (ΔC) in Nordic Jersey (NJ) and Holstein (NH) cattle populations. Furthermore, key genetic metrics including the generation interval (L), effective population size (Ne), and future effective population size (FNe) were assessed between 2 time periods, before and after GS, and across distinct animal cohorts in both breeds: females, bulls, and approved semen-producing bulls (AI-sires). Analysis of ΔF and ΔC revealed distinct trends across the studied periods and animal groups. Notably, there was a consistent increase in yearly ΔF for most animal groups in both breeds. An exception was observed in NH AI-sires, which demonstrated a slight decrease in yearly ΔF. Moreover, NJ displayed minimal changes in yearly ΔC between the periods, whereas NH exhibited elevated ΔC values across all animal groups. Particularly striking was the substantial increase in yearly ΔC within the NH female population, surging from 0.02% to 0.39% between the periods. Implementation of GS resulted in a reduction of the generation interval across all animal cohorts in both NJ and NH breeds. However, the extent of reduction was more pronounced in males compared with females. This reduction in generation interval influenced generational changes in ΔF and ΔC. Bulls and AI-sires of both breeds exhibited reduced generational ΔF between periods, in contrast to females that demonstrated an opposing pattern. Between the periods, NJ maintained a relatively stable Ne, 29.4 before and 30.3 after GS, while NH experienced a notable decline from 54.3 to 42.8. Female groups in both breeds displayed a negative Ne trend, while males demonstrated either neutral or positive Ne developments. Regarding FNe, NJ exhibited positive FNe development with an increase from 40.7 to 57.2. The opposite was observed in NH, where FNe decreased from 198.8 to 42.7. In summary, it was evident that the genomic methods could detect differences between the populations and changes in ΔF and ΔC more efficiently than pedigree methods. GS implementation yielded positive outcomes within the NJ population regarding the rate of coancestry but the opposite was observed with NH. Moreover, analysis of ΔC data hints at the potential to decrease future ΔF through informed mating strategies. Conversely, NH faces more pressing concerns, even though ΔF remains comparatively modest in contrast to what has been observed in other Holstein populations. These findings underscore the necessity of genomic control of inbreeding and coancestry with strategic changes in the Nordic breeding schemes for dairy to ensure long-term sustainability in the forthcoming years.

Remote air traffic control towers: An application in Portugal

Purpose: Remote control towers are the latest evolution in air traffic control at the airport level. These towers replace traditional air traffic control towers, moving the airport's air traffic controllers to a remote location called a remote control center. This concept was introduced with the main aim of combating the shortage of air traffic controllers, as well as making it possible to provide several airports with control that, until then, they did not have or were at risk of losing, because of the costs associated with this service. This makes it important to study this solution in Portugal, as there are many airdromes where having runway control may not be economically viable. The study will focus on a project by NAV Portugal, which is about to implement this solution on some islands in the Azores archipelago.Design/methodology/approach: Having identified the number of movements per month at a few chosen airports, the operational viability was studied according to the number of movements per hour to ensure that several restrictions were met.Findings: Even including the region's main airport, from the point of view of analyzing the number of movements, the installation of a remote control tower is feasible. There is also a substantial economic gain from this new solution, both in terms of implementation and operations.Originality/value: Remote control towers are a new air traffic control solution, making it possible to extend this service to countless airdromes that may be in the process of losing this service for economic reasons, or no longer are controlled by an air traffic controller.

Discrete Morse Sandwich: Fast Computation of Persistence Diagrams for Scalar Data - An Algorithm and A Benchmark.

This paper introduces an efficient algorithm for persistence diagram computation, given an input piecewise linear scalar field f defined on a d-dimensional simplicial complex K, with d ≤ 3. Our work revisits the seminal algorithm "PairSimplices" [31], [103] with discrete Morse theory (DMT) [34], [80], which greatly reduces the number of input simplices to consider. Further, we also extend to DMT and accelerate the stratification strategy described in "PairSimplices" [31], [103] for the fast computation of the 0th and (d-1)th diagrams, noted D0(f) and Dd-1(f). Minima-saddle persistence pairs ( D0(f)) and saddle-maximum persistence pairs ( Dd-1(f)) are efficiently computed by processing , with a Union-Find , the unstable sets of 1-saddles and the stable sets of (d-1)-saddles. We provide a detailed description of the (optional) handling of the boundary component of K when processing (d-1)-saddles. This fast pre-computation for the dimensions 0 and (d-1) enables an aggressive specialization of [4] to the 3D case, which results in a drastic reduction of the number of input simplices for the computation of D1(f), the intermediate layer of the sandwich. Finally, we document several performance improvements via shared-memory parallelism. We provide an open-source implementation of our algorithm for reproducibility purposes. We also contribute a reproducible benchmark package, which exploits three-dimensional data from a public repository and compares our algorithm to a variety of publicly available implementations. Extensive experiments indicate that our algorithm improves by two orders of magnitude the time performance of the seminal "PairSimplices" algorithm it extends. Moreover, it also improves memory footprint and time performance over a selection of 14 competing approaches, with a substantial gain over the fastest available approaches, while producing a strictly identical output. We illustrate the utility of our contributions with an application to the fast and robust extraction of persistent 1-dimensional generators on surfaces, volume data and high-dimensional point clouds.

LEAN MANUFACTURING IMPLEMENTATION THROUGH DMAIC APPROACH: A CASE STUDY IN THE GLASS TRANSFORMATION COMPANY

Manufacturing companies are constantly driven to minimize costs, maximize efficiency, and enhance production quality, as these factors are pivotal for maintaining a competitive edge in the market. Lean manufacturing is a pivotal strategy that plays a crucial role in assisting companies for achieving significant continuous improvement in performance through the elimination of all wastes of resources and time in the total business process.The main objective of this paper is to validate the results of implementing Lean manufacturing through the DMAIC concept. This study focuses on a case study conducted in a glass transformation company that aims to improve the flow within the production workshop by implementing pull systems and minimizing waste.To achieve this objective, a comprehensive literature review was conducted to examine different frameworks for applying the Lean method.The implementation of DMAIC has provided a better structure for the entire project, enabling the selection of appropriate improvement solutions and the use of the right Lean tools. This approach offers several advantages that are not present in other frameworks. The results of this implementation have shown a significant improvement in production planning, flow efficiency, and a substantial financial gain for the company.

The Bidirectional Relationship between Weight Gain and Cognitive Function in First-Episode Schizophrenia: A Longitudinal Study in China.

Patients with schizophrenia often encounter notable weight gain during their illness, heightening the risk of metabolic diseases. While previous studies have noted a correlation between obesity and cognitive impairment in schizophrenia, many were cross-sectional, posing challenges in establishing a causal relationship between weight gain and cognitive function. The aim of this longitudinal study is to examine the relationship between weight gain and cognitive function in patients with first-episode schizophrenia (FES) during the initial 6-month antipsychotic treatments. Employing linear and logistic regression analyses, the study involved 337 participants. Significantly, baseline scores in processing speed (OR = 0.834, p = 0.007), working memory and attention (OR = 0.889, p = 0.043), and executive function (OR = 0.862, p = 0.006) were associated with clinically relevant weight gain (CRW, defined as an increase in body weight > 7%) at the 6-month endpoint. On the other hand, CRW correlated with improvements in the Brief Visuospatial Memory Test (p = 0.037). These findings suggest that patients with lower baseline cognitive performance undergo more substantial weight gain. Conversely, weight gain was correlated with cognitive improvements, particularly in the domain of visual learning and memory. This suggested a potential bidirectional relationship between weight gain and cognitive function in first-episode schizophrenia patients.

Turning Waste into Wealth: Leveraging Low-Quality Samples for Enhancing Continuous Conditional Generative Adversarial Networks

Continuous Conditional Generative Adversarial Networks (CcGANs) enable generative modeling conditional on continuous scalar variables (termed regression labels). However, they can produce subpar fake images due to limited training data. Although Negative Data Augmentation (NDA) effectively enhances unconditional and class-conditional GANs by introducing anomalies into real training images, guiding the GANs away from low-quality outputs, its impact on CcGANs is limited, as it fails to replicate negative samples that may occur during the CcGAN sampling. We present a novel NDA approach called Dual-NDA specifically tailored for CcGANs to address this problem. Dual-NDA employs two types of negative samples: visually unrealistic images generated from a pre-trained CcGAN and label-inconsistent images created by manipulating real images' labels. Leveraging these negative samples, we introduce a novel discriminator objective alongside a modified CcGAN training algorithm. Empirical analysis on UTKFace and Steering Angle reveals that Dual-NDA consistently enhances the visual fidelity and label consistency of fake images generated by CcGANs, exhibiting a substantial performance gain over the vanilla NDA. Moreover, by applying Dual-NDA, CcGANs demonstrate a remarkable advancement beyond the capabilities of state-of-the-art conditional GANs and diffusion models, establishing a new pinnacle of performance. Our codes can be found at https://github.com/UBCDingXin/Dual-NDA.

Abstract 2295: Circulating T cell receptor repertoire analysis improves cancer early detection

Abstract Background: Cancer screening by liquid biopsy promises to detect cancer early when it can be cured. However, current liquid biopsy approaches based on circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) detect only a minority of early-stage cancers, because these tumors shed little ctDNA and plasma sample volume is limited. For liquid biopsy to realize its potential for the early detection of cancer, sensitivity for the earliest stage disease must be improved. Methods: We set out to improve sensitivity of liquid biopsy for cancer early detection by exploiting tumor recognition by T cells through sequencing of the circulating T cell receptor repertoire. Using gDNA extracted from blood buffy coats, we studied a cohort of 451 lung cancer patients (86% with stage I disease) and 525 subjects without cancer, enriched for older individuals with a history of smoking. We performed genomic DNA TCR beta chain sequencing to yield a median of 81,088 TCR clonotypes in cancer patients and 112,588 clonotypes in non-cancer controls. We built a TCR sequence similarity nearest neighbor graph to cluster &amp;gt;68M distinct TCR clonotypes into TCR repertoire functional units (RFUs). The TCR frequencies of RFUs were tested for association with cancer status and significantly associated RFUs were combined using a support vector machine model into a TCR RFU cancer score. This model was evaluated by 10-fold cross-validation (CV) and compared to a ctDNA panel of 237 mutation hotspots in 154 lung cancer driver genes (IDT™) and to a panel of 17 lung cancer related protein biomarkers (Olink®) in 87 subjects. Results: We identified 177 cancer-associated TCR RFUs at FDR≤0.10, including 83 RFUs that were enriched in cancer samples with a TCR count log2-fold change between 0.05 and 1.31, and 94 that were enriched in controls with a log2-fold change between 0.07 and 0.40. We observed 56 of the 83 cancer-enriched RFUs had decreasing TCR counts with increasing age across the cohort, coupled with higher counts in cancer patients relative to age-matched controls. The TCR RFU cancer score achieved a cross-validated ROC AUC of 0.69 for cancer status prediction, with the AUC for stage I cancers similar to that of stage II-IV (0.69 vs. 0.70). 44% of stage I cancers (test samples of each CV fold) were detected by the TCR model at a specificity of 80%. We saw a substantial gain in sensitivity for stage I cancer when TCR RFUs were added to ctDNA and proteins, with a ~15-20%-point increase seen at the 90% target specificity level typical for cancer screening tests. Likewise, sensitivity increased at the 99% specificity level used in multi-cancer early detection, with 35% of stage I lung cancers detected, which could not be achieved by any analyte alone. Conclusion: We demonstrate detection of a significant fraction of early lung cancer cases from blood by analyzing the circulating TCR repertoire and show that this signal is complementary to established analytes such as proteins and ctDNA. Citation Format: Yilong Li, Michelle Nahas, Dennis Stephens, Kate Froburg, Emma Hintz, Devin Champagne, Amaneet Lochab, Markus Brown, Jesse Abhyankar, Jasper Braun, Michelle Dinh, María Antonia Fortuño, María-del-Mar Ocon, Andrea Pasquier, Inés María Luque, Christopher W. Seder, Jeffrey A. Borgia, Luis Miguel Seijo, Luis M. Montuenga, Roman Yelensky. Circulating T cell receptor repertoire analysis improves cancer early detection [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 2295.

Addressing the Orbital Debris Threat Directionality for Enhanced Protection of Low-Earth-Orbit Robotic Spacecraft

This study conducts a detailed investigation into addressing the directionality of micrometeoroid and orbital debris (MMOD) threats, emphasizing the strategic placement of protective resources on a spacecraft. The research considers the conversion of the structural sandwich panel and the multilayer thermal blanket into multifunctional elements that provide MMOD protection without causing substantial weight gain or affecting operational parameters. The effectiveness of the reconfigured components, such as the foam core sandwich panel and multilayer insulation blanket toughened by Nextel fabrics, is evaluated using developed and validated numerical models and experimental methods. Their performance is demonstrated by meeting the protection needs of the Canadian robotic Radarsat Constellation Mission spacecraft.

E-Cigarettes, Smoking Cessation, and Weight Change: Retrospective Secondary Analysis of the Evaluating the Efficacy of e-Cigarette Use for Smoking Cessation Trial.

While smoking cessation has been linked to substantial weight gain, the potential influence of e-cigarettes on weight changes among individuals who use these devices to quit smoking is not fully understood. This study aims to reanalyze data from the Evaluating the Efficacy of e-Cigarette Use for Smoking Cessation (E3) trial to assess the causal effects of e-cigarette use on change in body weight. This is a secondary analysis of the E3 trial in which participants were randomized into 3 groups: nicotine e-cigarettes plus counseling, nonnicotine e-cigarettes plus counseling, and counseling alone. With adjustment for baseline variables and the follow-up smoking abstinence status, weight changes were compared between the groups from baseline to 12 weeks' follow-up. Intention-to-treat and as-treated analyses were conducted using doubly robust estimation. Further causal analysis used 2 different propensity scoring methods to estimate causal regression curves for 4 smoking-related continuous variables. We evaluated 5 different subsets of data for each method. Selection bias was addressed, and missing data were imputed by the machine learning method extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost). A total of 257 individuals with measured weight at week 12 (mean age: 52, SD 12 y; women: n=122, 47.5%) were included. Across the 3 treatment groups, of the 257 participants, 204 (79.4%) who continued to smoke had, on average, largely unchanged weight at 12 weeks, with comparable mean weight gain ranging from -0.24 kg to 0.33 kg, while 53 (20.6%) smoking-abstinent participants gained weight, with a mean weight gain ranging from 2.05 kg to 2.70 kg. After adjustment, our analyses showed that the 2 e-cigarette arms exhibited a mean gain of 0.56 kg versus the counseling alone arm. The causal regression curves analysis also showed no strong evidence supporting a causal relationship between weight gain and the 3 e-cigarette-related variables. e-Cigarettes have small and variable causal effects on weight gain associated with smoking cessation. In the E3 trial, e-cigarettes seemed to have minimal effects on mitigating the weight gain observed in individuals who smoke and subsequently quit at 3 months. However, given the modest sample size and the potential underuse of e-cigarettes among those randomized to the e-cigarette treatment arms, these results need to be replicated in large, adequately powered trials. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02417467; https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT02417467.

Evaluation of Deep Learning Clinical Target Volumes Auto-Contouring for Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Guided Online Adaptive Treatment of Rectal Cancer

IntroductionSegmentation of clinical target volumes (CTV) on medical images can be time-consuming and is prone to inter-observer variation (IOV). This is a problem for online adaptive radiotherapy, where CTV segmentation must be performed every treatment fraction, leading to longer treatment times and logistic challenges. Deep learning (DL)-based auto-contouring has the potential to speed up CTV contouring. But its current clinical use is limited. One reason for this is that it can be time-consuming to verify the accuracy of CTV contours produced using auto-contouring, and there is a risk of bias being introduced. To be accepted by clinicians, auto-contouring must be trustworthy. Therefore, there is a need for a comprehensive commissioning framework when introducing DL-based auto-contouring in clinical practice. We present such a framework and apply it to an in-house developed DL model for auto-contouring of the CTV in rectal cancer patients treated with MR-guided online adaptive radiotherapy. Material and methodsThe proposed framework for evaluating DL-based auto-contouring consists of three steps: 1. Quantitative evaluation of the model's performance and comparison with IOV2. Expert observations and corrections3. Evaluation of the impact on expected volumetric target coverage.These steps are performed on independent datasets. The framework is applied to an in-house trained nnU-Net model, using the data of 44 rectal cancer patients treated at our institution. ResultsThe framework established that the model's performance after expert corrections was comparable to IOV, and while the model introduced a bias, this had no relevant impact on clinical practice. Additionally, we found a substantial time gain without reducing quality as determined by volumetric target coverage. DiscussionOur framework provides a comprehensive evaluation of the performance and clinical usability of target auto-contouring models. Based on the results, we conclude that the model is eligible for clinical use.

Compact MIMO UWB antenna integration with Ku band for advanced wireless communication applications

This paper introduces a compact Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) Ultrawideband (UWB) antenna seamlessly integrated with the Ku band, tailored for wireless communication applications. The MIMO antenna employs octagonal radiators, crafted from a tapered microstrip line-fed rectangular patch, etched on an economically efficient FR4 substrate measuring 40 × 23 mm2. The octagonal configuration is achieved by introducing a rectangular patch to the central radiator, while parasitic stubs are strategically employed to mitigate coupling among MIMO elements. The antenna demonstrates an extensive operational bandwidth spanning 3.28–17.8 GHz, covering UWB, extended UWB, and Ku-band spectrums globally allocated for heterogeneous applications. With a peak gain of 4.93 dBi and an efficiency of 95.34%, the proposed MIMO antenna showcases superior performance. Key performance parameters, including a low envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) of 0.003 and a substantial diversity gain (DG) of 9.997 dB, are thoroughly analyzed. Comparative assessments against recent works validate the novelty and potential of the proposed antenna for integration into compact wireless systems. This study underscores the success of the antenna design in achieving a harmonious balance of compactness, wide operational bandwidth, and high performance, positioning it as a promising candidate for diverse wireless communication applications.

A Computational Characterization of CH4@C60

The recently synthetically prepared endohedral CH4@C60 was characterized here using calculations—namely its structure, energetics, thermodynamics, and vibrational spectrum. The calculations were carried out with DFT (density-functional theory) methods, namely by the DFT M06-2X functional and MP2, as well as B2PLYPD advanced correlated, treatments with the standard 6-31++G** and 6-311++G** basis sets, corrected for the basis set superposition error evaluated using the approximative Boys–Bernardi counterpoise method. The symmetry of the endohedral obtained in the geometry optimizations was tetrahedral T. The energetics of CH4 encapsulation into C60 was attractive (i.e., with a negative encapsulation-energy term), producing a substantial energy gain of −13.94 kcal/mol at the most advanced computational level, B2PLYPD/6-311++G**. The encapsulation equilibrium constants for CH4@C60 were somewhat higher than previously found with the CO@C60 system. For example at 500 K, the encapsulation equilibrium constant for CH4@C60 had a value one order of magnitude larger than for CO@C60. The encapsulation thermodynamic characteristics suggest that high-pressure and high-temperature synthesis could in principle also be possible for CH4@C60.

Stand structure is more important for forest productivity stability than tree, understory plant and soil biota species diversity

IntroductionThe stability of forest productivity is an important management goal in order to sustain ecosystem services for an expanding human population and in the face of global climate change. Evidence from theoretical, observational, and experimental studies has demonstrated that higher biodiversity promotes stability of forest productivity. However, the majority of these studies have focused solely on tree diversity and have neglected the potentially important role of understory plant and soil biodiversity.MethodsIn this study, we explain the effect of tree, understory woody and herbaceous plant, and soil biota (fauna, fungi, and bacteria) species diversity on forest productivity and its stability over time (2000–2020) across an area of Northeast China covering 145 million hectares. We explore the eight stand structure variables for stability of forest productivity and the relationship between productivity stability and tree, understory plant, and soil biota species diversity.ResultsOur results show no significant, direct impact of understory plant, soil fungi, and bacteria species diversity on the stability of the forest ecosystem. Tree species diversity indirectly affects productivity stability by directly influencing stand structure, whereas soil fauna species diversity indirectly influences stability through its relationship with tree species diversity. Stand structure is more important than tree and soil fauna species diversity for forest productivity stability. Specifically, increasing crown height (CH) from its minimum to maximum value leads to a substantial gain of 20.394 in forest productivity stability. In contrast, raising tree species diversity (α-Tree) and soil fauna species diversity (α-Fauna) from their minimum to maximum values results in a modest reduction of only 0.399 and 0.231 in forest productivity stability, respectively.DiscussionTo increase the stability of forest productivity in response to climate change, we should adjust the stand structure more in the process of management rather than just considering biodiversity. Overall, this study highlights the ecological risks associated with large-scale biotic homogenization under future climate change and management practices.

Enhancement of Optical Gain in Colloidal CdSe/CdS/ZnS Quantum Dots through Nanosecond Optical Pumping.

Optical gain and lasing in colloidal nanocrystals are often hindered by sub-nanosecond rapid Auger non-radiative recombination, especially under continuous wave optical or electrical excitation. This study demonstrates amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) from CdSe/CdS/ZnS quantum dot (QD) solids through prolonged pulsed optical pumping over 10 ns. The incorporation of CdS and ZnS double shells on CdSe QDs effectively decelerates the Auger process in multiexcitonic states by extending the electron wave function and enhancing dielectric screening. Furthermore, we engineer smooth, densely packed QD solid films that efficiently guide the optical mode, achieving substantial net gain values under nanosecond pumping. The proposed approach helps observe ASE with gain thresholds of 0.84 and 1.5 mJ/cm2 under optical pumping pulse widths of 6 and 15 ns, respectively. This advancement can promote continuous pumping in colloidal QD gain systems, opening new avenues for optoelectronic applications.

Course and Outcome of Anorexia Nervosa in Adolescents from a Tertiary-level Mental Health Setting in India: A Retrospective Chart Review.

Anorexia nervosa is one of the least studied mental health conditions in the Indian setting. The objective of this study was to assess the course and outcome of anorexia nervosa in adolescents who had presented to a tertiary care child and adolescent psychiatry center over a period of 10 years. The present study is a retrospective chart review of adolescents (up to the age of 18 years) with a diagnosis of anorexia nervosa, coded as F50.0 or F50.1 according to ICD 10, from 1st April 2009 to 31st March 2019. Data were extracted from the case records using standardized abstraction forms and evaluated using descriptive and nonparametric statistics. The average age at presentation and the average age at onset were 14.1 years and 13.1 years, respectively. The male-to-female ratio of the sample who got admitted was 1:9. The average duration of hospital stay was about 30 days. The duration of in-patient care and weight gain were positively correlated, with severe to extremely ill adolescents improving even in less than one month of in-patient care. Seventy per cent of the admitted adolescents followed up. The functional outcome as measured by a 'return to school' improved in 57.1% of the sample. The present study highlights the collaborative multidisciplinary and individualized treatment approach employed for adolescents diagnosed with anorexia nervosa within an inpatient mental health facility in India. Adolescents who presented with more severe illness at the initial assessment, such as an early onset of symptoms and a low BMI, experienced substantial weight gain that exhibited a positive correlation with the length of their stay in the inpatient facility.

Ligand-Induced In Situ Epitaxial Growth of PbI2 Nanosheets/MAPbI3 Heterojunction Realizes High-Performance HTM-Free Carbon-Based MAPbI3 Solar Cells.

Hole-transporting layer-free carbon-based perovskite solar cells (HTL-free C-PSCs) hold great promise for photovoltaic applications due to their low cost and outstanding stability. However, the low power conversion efficiency (PCE) of HTL-free C-PSCs mainly results from grain boundaries (GBs). Here, epitaxial growth is proposed to rationally design a hybrid nanostructure of PbI2 nanosheets/perovskite with the desired photovoltaic properties. A post-treatment technique using tri(2,2,2-trifluoromethyl) phosphate (TFEP) to induce in situ epitaxial growth of PbI2 nanosheets at the GBs of perovskite films realizes high-performance HTL-free C-PSCs. The structure model and high-resolution transmission electron microscope unravel the epitaxial growth mechanism. The epitaxial growth of oriented PbI2 nanosheets generates the PbI2 /perovskite heterojunction, which not only passivates defects but forms type-I band alignment, avoiding carrier loss. Additionally, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, 31 P NMR, and 1 H NMR spectra reveal the passivation effect and hydrogen bonding interaction between TFEP and perovskite. As a result, the VOC is remarkably boosted from 1.04 to 1.10V, leading to a substantial gain in PCE from 14.97% to 17.78%. In addition, the unencapsulated PSC maintains the initial PCE of 80.1% for 1440h under air ambient of 40% RH. The work offers a fresh perspective on the rational design of high-performance HTL-free C-PSCs.

Power requirements in hovering flight of mosquitoes

Mosquitoes exhibit distinctive flight characteristics, utilizing a combination of very small stroke amplitudes and high stroke frequencies. This study focuses on assessing the power requirements for hovering mosquitoes through numerical simulation of wing flow and aerodynamic power, coupled with analytical computation of wing inertial power. Our findings reveal that, despite the elevated stroke frequency, the primary contributor to power expenditure is the aerodynamic power, with wing inertial power being relatively negligible due to the diminutive wing mass. The specific power necessary for hovering is approximately 35 W/kg, comparable to the requirements of various other insects such as bees, flies, and moths (ranging from 20 to –60 W/kg). Moreover, the incorporation of a 100% elastic storage system yields only marginal power savings, approximately 3.5%. Consequently, while an elastic system proves somewhat beneficial, it is not indispensable for mosquito flight. Notably, altering stroke amplitude and frequency for hovering could potentially reduce power demands compared to real-case scenarios, suggesting that the conventional small stroke amplitude and high stroke frequency utilized in mosquito flight may not be the optimal choice in terms of power efficiency. The adoption of these flight characteristics in mosquitoes may be attributed to other factors, such as providing flexibility to increase amplitude in cases of substantial weight gain due to blood-feeding or conferring a selective advantage in acoustic communication through high stroke frequency.

Derived dynamic scheduling for belief propagation decoding of LDPC codes

AbstractAmong numerous dynamic scheduling strategies for low‐density parity‐check codes, many of them are of high complexity due to repetitive computation and ordering of belief residuals. To address these challenges, two novel approaches are proposed: the derived informed variable‐to‐check residual belief propagation and the derived variable‐node and variable‐to‐check‐edge residual belief propagation for low‐density parity‐check codes. Simulation results show that the derived dynamic scheduling exhibits a substantial gain of approximately 0.15 dB in signal‐to‐noise ratio over the non‐derived one with considerably lower decoding complexity when targeting a bit‐error rate of 10−4.