Recent publications
Determining the number of factors in high-dimensional factor modeling is essential but challenging, especially when the data are heavy-tailed. In this paper, we introduce a new estimator based on the spectral properties of Spearman sample correlation matrix under the high-dimensional setting, where both dimension and sample size tend to infinity proportionally. Our estimator is robust against heavy tails in either the common factors or idiosyncratic errors. The consistency of our estimator is established under mild conditions. Numerical experiments demonstrate the superiority of our estimator compared to existing methods.
Objective
To summarize the characteristics, estimate the efficacy of multicomponent structured exercise (MSE) intervention on older adults’ depression, and investigate its potential moderators.
Methods
MEDLINE, PubMed, PsycINFO, SPORTDiscus, Web of Science and Embase databases were searched from January 1, 2000 to June 1, 2024. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that included MSE intervention with aerobic, resistance and balance components targeting older adults, and reported depression as an outcome were selected. Random-effects meta-analyses were used to calculate effect sizes from the standardized mean difference (SMD) and 95 % confidence intervals (CIs). Meta-regression was conducted to identify the potential moderators.
Results
Data were extracted from 19 studies (22 comparisons) with 1763 older adults. MSE showed a significant intervention effect on buffering older adults' depression (SMD, −0.49; 95 % CI, −0.84 to −0.14) but with considerable heterogeneity (I² = 92 %) and low certainty of evidence. In subgroup analyses, MSE with unhealthy status participants, intervention duration of 12–24 weeks, over 2 times/week intervention frequency, equipment used and ≥ 80 % retention rate showed significant effects on improvement of older adults’ depression. Intervention frequency (β, −0.83; 95 % CI, −1.50 to −0.16) and retention rate (β, 0.80; 95 % CI, 0.05 to 1.56) were identified as moderators.
Conclusion
MSE significantly improved older adults’ depression. The findings highlighted the importance of intervention frequency and retention rate in enhancing MSE effectiveness. More high quality RCTs are required to explore and optimize the intervention strategies and dosages of MSE to extend the application in the prevention and treatment of geriatric depression.
In motion planning with partial observability, addressing uncertainty is crucial for preventing collisions and congestion, especially in the vicinity of constrained narrow areas connecting wider spaces, called hallways. In this work, we propose a cooperative motion planning algorithm that leverages congestion-aware deep reinforcement learning to alleviate collisions and congestion caused by uncertainty. Specifically, a relation analyzer is employed to build relational embeddings as agent representations, which are then fed into a subsequent motion generation network, enhancing the interpretation of the movements of other local agents. Additionally, a hallway map is constructed by merging the temporal arrival intents of neighboring agents, which is then used by a congestion-aware scheme to inform distributed motion planning. Simulations indicate that our algorithm outperforms the state-of-the-art in divided environments, producing better planning results and achieving higher success rates in various scenarios. In summary, we present an adaptive and non-myopic distributed motion planning method in constrained scenarios and illustrate its performance in divided environments with various hallways.
Background
Dysbiosis of the gut microbiota has been demonstrated in neurodevelopmental disorders but the underlying mechanisms that may explain these associations are poorly understood. Gut secretory immunoglobulin A (SIgA) binds pathogenic microbes, preventing mucosal penetration. Gut microbes also influence SIgA production and its binding characteristics through short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) metabolites, allowing them to regulate the immune response. Serum IgA deficiency has been noted in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In this study, we aimed to determine whether SIgA level in infancy is associated with gut microbiota taxonomy and metabolites, and neurodevelopmental outcomes in preschool children.
Methods
For a subsample of 178 children from the Canadian CHILD Cohort Study, gut microbiota of fecal samples collected at 3–4 months and 12 months was profiled using 16S rRNA sequencing. Gut bacterial metabolites levels and SIgA level were measured by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) based metabolomics and SIgA enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay at 3–4 months, respectively. Bayley-III Scale of Infant Development was assessed at 12 and 24 months. We evaluated direct relationships in multiple linear regression models and putative causal relationships in statistical mediation models.
Results
Propionate and butyrate levels at 3–4 months were associated with decreased Bayley cognitive score at 24 months (p-values: 0.01 and 0.02, respectively) in adjusted multiple linear regression models, but when we investigated an indirect relationship mediated by decreased SIgA level at 3–4 months, it did not reach statistical significance (p-values: 0.18 and 0.20, respectively). Lactate level at 3–4 months was associated with increased Bayley cognitive score at 24 months in adjusted multiple linear regression models (p-value: 0.01), but the statistical model mediated by increased SIgA level at 3–4 months did not reach statistical significance neither (p-value: 0.20).
Conclusions
Our study contributes to growing evidence that neurodevelopment is influenced by the infant gut microbiota and that it might involve SIgA level, but larger studies are required.
The development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) raises some important ethical and social issues of public concern, including (1) whether and in what sense AI can be regarded as person; and (2) how human person may live in a technological society controlled through or by AI. This study attempts to address some of these questions by exploring the Christian understanding of person, the Confucian understanding of human person, and the recent multi-disciplinary studies of human person. It aims at articulating a multi-dimensional understanding of human person and to explore its implications for the understanding of human predicament in technological society and the prospect of humanity.
Background
Globally, pancreatic cancer poses a significant concern for public health.
Aims
The objective of this study was to assess the burden of pancreatic cancer on varying income levels.
Methods and Results
Data from the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) 2021 and Gross Domestic Product Per Capita data were utilised in this study. All countries were categorised into four groups based on their income levels. Age‐standardised incidence, mortality and disability‐adjusted life years (DALYs) rates were the primary parameters to analyse the burden of pancreatic cancer. The associations between pancreatic cancer burden and countries' economic levels were analysed with linear regression models. High‐income‐level countries generally had a higher burden compared to other income levels in 2021. Greenland had the highest rate of age‐standardised DALYs at 374.93 per 100 000, followed by Uruguay (297.06) and Monaco (290.87). A higher gross domestic product (GDP) per capita was linked to a higher age‐standardised incidence (β = 0.77, 95% CI = 0.63, 0.90, p < 0.001), mortality (β = 0.72, 95% CI = 0.59, 0.86, p < 0.001) and DALYs (β = 14.59, 95% CI = 11.38, 17.80, p < 0.001). From 1990 to 2021, the pancreatic cancer burden increased across all income levels, with the most pronounced rise seen in lower‐middle‐income countries. Smoking‐related age‐standardised DALYs have decreased since 1990. However, there was a notable increase in males in upper‐middle‐income countries during the same period.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the pancreatic cancer burden has been increasing globally. The burden of pancreatic cancer varies significantly among countries with different income levels. Effective preventions are needed to control the burden of pancreatic cancer.
Background
The combined effects of some modifiable lifestyle factors on incident inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are uncertain.
Aims
To evaluate the combined association between healthy lifestyle behaviours and IBD incidence.
Methods
This population‐based prospective cohort study used data from the UK Biobank. We included 105,715 participants aged 40–70 who had no IBD diagnosis at baseline in the analyses. The five healthy lifestyle behaviours that we studied were never smoking, optimal sleep, high level of vigorous physical activity, high dietary quality, and moderate alcohol intake. The outcome was the overall incidence of IBD and individual incidences of Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). We derived hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for associations.
Results
The multivariable adjusted HRs (95% CI) associated with having 1, 2 and 3–5 healthy lifestyle behaviours for IBD incidence compared with those with none of these behaviours were 0.75 (0.59–0.97), 0.72 (0.56–0.92), and 0.50 (0.37–0.68), respectively (p for trend < 0.001). We observed similar findings for CD and UC. Only never smoking exhibited significant independent inverse associations with the overall incidence of IBD (HR 0.70, 95% CI 0.58–0.83, p < 0.001) and the incidence of UC (HR 0.58, 95% CI 0.48–0.72, p < 0.001).
Conclusions
Healthy lifestyle behaviours are significantly associated with lower IBD incidence in middle‐aged and elderly individuals, suggesting the potential of lifestyle modifications as a primary prevention strategy for IBD.
We conjecture that a greater opportunity for audit partners to share personal industry knowledge with each other within audit offices is associated with higher audit quality. Using Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) Form AP data, we analyze each partner’s client portfolio and construct sharing measures. First, we find extant measures of an audit office’s industry market share, industry portfolio share, and industry diversity are quite noisy in inferring our sharing measures. Next, we perform multivariate analyses and find negative associations between the opportunity to share industry knowledge and both restatements and absolute abnormal accruals. Further, we find this association varies cross-sectionally with other important auditor and client characteristics. Taken together, our evidence is consistent with a positive association between the opportunity for partners to share their industry knowledge with each other and audit quality.
China’s land development is commonly viewed as a state-led model, yet this paper seeks to deepen this understanding by examining it as a strategic discursive–material nexus, encompassing both material processes of land development and discursive processes of justification that reflect the diverse ways in which land can be utilized. To this end, two arguments are developed involving a cross-fertilization of the economic sociology of land and the cultural political economy. Firstly, the state strategically adjusts local land use and regimes to satisfy the changing geopolitical and political-economic imperative, and secondly, owing to the multiple affordances of land, various competing imaginations for, and interests in, land have emerged that potentially impede land (regime) change. Hence, the state strategically selects how it represents land from the variety of epistemological claims on it to justify institutional transformations and (re)development. We substantiate these arguments through analyzing a transit-oriented development-themed land development scheme in Shenzhen, and a big data economy-themed land reassignment in Guiyang.
Electronic excited state in molecular aggregate or exciton states continue to attract great attention due to the increasing demands for applications of molecular optoelectronics and sensing technology. The working principle behind the application is closely related to the excited state structure and dynamic processes in molecular aggregate. In our previous review article (Aggregate 2021; 2: e91), we focused more on the molecular mechanism for aggregation‐induced emission process. Here, we are going to summarize our recent progress on theoretical investigations on the effects of excitonic coupling (J) and the intermolecular charge transfer (CT) on the excited state structure and dynamic processes. These are in general missing for molecular quantum chemistry studies. We will first present a novel definition of exciton coherence length which can present a bijective relation with the radiative decay rate and obviously we have clarified the confusion appeared in literature. Then, we will look at the CT effect for aggregate starting from a simple three‐state model coupled with quantum chemical calculation for molecular dimer and we focus on the intensity borrowing, which can turn H‐aggregate into emissive when the electron transfer and hole transfer integrals possessing the same sign and being large enough. We are able to propose a molecular descriptor to design molecular materials possibly possessing both high photoluminescence quantum yield and carrier mobility. Finally, we introduce our work on the modified energy gap law for non‐radiative decay rate in aggregates. We found there exist optimal J to minimize the non‐radiative decay loss.
Background
Collateral circulation provides compensatory flow to ischemic brain regions in acute large vessel occlusion (LVO), which had been associated with better outcomes after endovascular treatment (EVT).
Aims
We aimed to reveal the pre-EVT collateral status and its associations with outcomes after EVT, in patients with acute LVO with different etiologies.
Methods
Based on a prospective, multicenter registry, we analyzed patients with acute, intracranial anterior-circulation LVO due to large artery atherosclerosis (LAA) and cardioembolism (CE), who underwent EVT within 24 hours. Pre-EVT leptomeningeal collateral status was classified on digital subtraction angiography by ASITN/SIR grading system. Outcomes included good 3-month functional outcome (modified Rankin Scale [mRS] 0-2), 3-month mRS distribution, successful recanalization, early neurological deterioration, symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (sICH), and 3-month mortality.
Results
Among 805 patients (median age 66 years), 450 and 355 respectively had LVO due to LAA and CE, of whom 57.8% and 56.6% (p=0.742) had good pre-EVT collaterals. In LAA patients, good collaterals were associated with lower risk of sICH (adjusted odds ratio [OR]=0.40; 95% CI 0.17-0.94; p=0.036) but not functional outcomes. In CE patients, good collaterals were associated with a higher chance of good functional outcome (adjusted OR=1.55; 95% CI 0.96-2.51; p=0.072) and lower mRS at 3 months (adjusted common OR=0.64; 95% CI 0.43-0.94; p=0.021). However, there was no significant CE/LAA and collateral status interaction on any outcome.
Conclusions
The study revealed comparable pre-EVT collateral status in patients with LVO due to LAA versus CE who received EVT within 24 hours, but the pre-EVT collaterals may have different protective effects for post-EVT outcomes in these two groups of patients.
Background: In cardiovascular pathology, both direct bilirubin (DBIL) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLC) have been associated with adverse clinical outcomes. However, the prognostic significance of these biomarkers in the context of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) remains unclear. To address this gap, this study conducted a retrospective analysis to evaluate the prognostic value of the DBIL/HDLC ratio in patients diagnosed with DCM.
Methods and Results: A total of 986 consecutive DCM patients were retrospectively enrolled from January 2010 to December 2019 and divided into two groups based on the DBIL/HDLC ratio cut-off value: ≤ 4.45 (n=483) and > 4.45 (n=503). Patients with lower DBIL/HDLC (≤ 4.45) experienced lower in-hospital mortality, long-term mortality, and major adverse clinical events (MACEs) (0.8%, 32.9%, and 12.2%, respectively) compared to those with higher DBIL/HDLC (> 4.45) (6.4%, 59.1%, and 16.7%, respectively). Multivariate analysis identified DBIL/HDLC as an independent risk factor for long-term mortality (odds ratio: 1.026; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.005–1.048; p=0.016) and all-cause mortality over a median follow-up of 67±1.8 months (hazard ratio: 1.011; 95% CI: 1.005–1.018; p<0.001). The receiver operating characteristic curve showed good discrimination for long-term mortality (area under the curve (AUC): 0.675; 95% CI: 0.692–0.708; p<0.001). The Kaplan–Meier survival analysis demonstrated a better prognosis for patients with DBIL/HDLC ≤ 4.45 (log-rank χ2=40.356, p<0.001). Furthermore, the impact of additional variables on the results was investigated by a subgroup analysis.
Conclusion: The DBIL/HDLC ratio could serve as a simple and cost-effective tool for evaluating prognosis in DCM.
In this manuscript, we comment on the article by Zhou et al , who assessed the efficacy of hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (HAIC) and its combination strategies for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) using network meta-analysis methodology. We focus specifically on the potential advantages and role of HAIC in the treatment algorithm for advanced HCC. However, there remains numerous knowledge gaps before the role of HAIC can be established. There is significant heterogeneity of HAIC regimes with difficult interpretation of the clinical outcomes. Additionally, there is a lack of direct comparative data between HAIC, systemic chemotherapy, novel immunotherapies and targeted therapies. The underlying biochemical mechanisms that might explain the efficacy of HAIC and its effect on the HCC microenvironment requires further research. In the developing era of nanotechnology and targeted drug delivery systems, there is potential for integration of HAIC with novel technologies to effectively treat advanced HCC whilst minimising systemic complications.
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