Combining GLP-1 receptor agonists and SGLT-2 inhibitors for cardiovascular disease prevention in type 2 diabetes:A systematic review with multiple network meta-regressions

BACKGROUND Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists(GLP-1RA)and sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 inhibitors(SGLT-2I)are associated with significant cardiovascular benefit in type 2 diabetes(T2D).However,GLP-1RA or SGLT-2I alone may not improve some cardiovascular outcomes in patients with prior cardiovascular co-morbidities.AIM To explore whether combining GLP-1RA and SGLT-2I can achieve additional benefit in preventing cardiovascular diseases in T2D.METHODS The systematic review was conducted according to PRISMA recommendations.The protocol was registered on PROSPERO(ID:42022385007).A total of 107049 participants from eligible cardiovascular outcomes trials of GLP-1RA and SGLT-2I were included in network meta-regressions to estimate cardiovascular benefit of the combination treatment.Effect modification of prior myocardial infarction(MI)and heart failure(HF)was also explored to provide clinical insight as to when the INTRODUCTION The macro-and micro-vascular benefits of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists(GLP-1RA)and sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 inhibitors(SGLT-2I)are independent of their glucose-lowering effects[1].In patients with type 2 diabetes(T2D),the major cardiovascular outcome trials(CVOT)showed that dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors(DPP-4I)did not improve cardiovascular outcomes[2],whereas cardiovascular benefit of GLP-1RA or SGLT-2I was significant[3,4].Further subgroup analyses indicated that the background cardiovascular risk should be considered when examining the cardiovascular outcomes of these newer glucose-lowering medications.For instance,prevention of major adverse cardiovascular events(MACE)was only seen in those patients with baseline atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease[3,4].Moreover,a series of CVOT conducted in patients with heart failure(HF)have demonstrated that(compared with placebo)SGLT-2I significantly reduced risk of hospitalization for HF or cardiovascular death,irrespective of their history of T2D[5-8].However,similar cardiovascular benefits were not observed in those with myocardial infarction(MI)[9,10].Cardiovascular co-morbidities are not only approximately twice as common but are also associated with dispropor-tionately worse cardiovascular outcomes in patients with T2D,compared to the general population[11].Therefore,it is of clinical importance to investigate whether the combination treatment of GLP-1RA and SGLT-2I could achieve greater cardiovascular benefit,particularly when considering patients with cardiovascular co-morbidities who may not gain sufficient cardiovascular protection from the monotherapies.This systematic review with multiple network meta-regressions was mainly aimed to explore whether combining GLP-1RA and SGLT-2I can provide additional cardiovascular benefit in T2D.Cardiovascular outcomes of these newer antidiabetic medications were also estimated under effect modification of prior cardiovascular diseases.This was to provide clinical insight as to when the combination treatment might be prioritized.

Exploring the relationship between Hashimoto's thyroiditis and male fertility:A meta-analytic and meta-regression perspective on hormonal and seminal factors

Objective:To explore the relationship between Hashimoto's autoimmune hypothyroidism(HT)and male fertility,focusing on hormonal and seminal factors.Methods:A systematic literature search was conducted across databases such as PubMed,Web of Science,EMBASE,Scopus,Cochrane,and Google Scholar,covering studies published from January 2000 to March 2024.Studies investigating the impact of HT on semen quality parameters and reproductive hormones were included.Pooled effect estimates were calculated using standard mean difference(SMD)and 95%confidence intervals(CI).Results:A total of 8 studies with 8965 participants were included.HT significantly affected semen quality and reproductive hormone levels.Specifically,there was a notable decrease in progressive morphology(SMD=-0.78;95%CI:-1.40 to-0.17;P=0.01)and sperm motility(SMD=-1.151;95%CI:-1.876 to-0.425;P=0.002).In addition,there were no significant changes in reproductive hormones,although there were elevated levels of luteinizing hormone(SMD=0.437;95%CI:0.000 to 0.874;P=0.050)and follicle-stimulating hormone(SMD=0.293;95%CI:-0.171 to 0.758;P=0.216),with a slight impact on testosterone levels(SMD=-1.143;95%CI:-2.487 to 0.200;P=0.095).Conclusions:This systematic review and meta-analysis provides robust evidence of the detrimental effects of HT on semen quality and reproductive hormones,underscoring the necessity for thorough evaluation and management of thyroid function in male infertility assessments.

Screening biomarkers for spinal cord injury using weighted gene co-expression network analysis and machine learning

Immune changes and inflammatory responses have been identified as central events in the pathological process of spinal co rd injury.They can greatly affect nerve regeneration and functional recovery.However,there is still limited understanding of the peripheral immune inflammato ry response in spinal cord inju ry.In this study.we obtained microRNA expression profiles from the peripheral blood of patients with spinal co rd injury using high-throughput sequencing.We also obtained the mRNA expression profile of spinal cord injury patients from the Gene Expression Omnibus(GEO)database(GSE151371).We identified 54 differentially expressed microRNAs and 1656 diffe rentially expressed genes using bioinformatics approaches.Functional enrichment analysis revealed that various common immune and inflammation-related signaling pathways,such as neutrophil extracellular trap formation pathway,T cell receptor signaling pathway,and nuclear factor-κB signal pathway,we re abnormally activated or inhibited in spinal cord inju ry patient samples.We applied an integrated strategy that combines weighted gene co-expression network analysis,LASSO logistic regression,and SVM-RFE algorithm and identified three biomarke rs associated with spinal cord injury:ANO10,BST1,and ZFP36L2.We verified the expression levels and diagnostic perfo rmance of these three genes in the original training dataset and clinical samples through the receiver operating characteristic curve.Quantitative polymerase chain reaction results showed that ANO20 and BST1 mRNA levels were increased and ZFP36L2 mRNA was decreased in the peripheral blood of spinal cord injury patients.We also constructed a small RNA-mRNA interaction network using Cytoscape.Additionally,we evaluated the proportion of 22 types of immune cells in the peripheral blood of spinal co rd injury patients using the CIBERSORT tool.The proportions of naive B cells,plasma cells,monocytes,and neutrophils were increased while the proportions of memory B cells,CD8^(+)T cells,resting natural killer cells,resting dendritic cells,and eosinophils were markedly decreased in spinal cord injury patients increased compared with healthy subjects,and ANO10,BST1 and ZFP26L2we re closely related to the proportion of certain immune cell types.The findings from this study provide new directions for the development of treatment strategies related to immune inflammation in spinal co rd inju ry and suggest that ANO10,BST2,and ZFP36L2 are potential biomarkers for spinal cord injury.The study was registe red in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry(registration No.ChiCTR2200066985,December 12,2022).

Pluggable multitask diffractive neural networks based on cascaded metasurfaces

Optical neural networks have significant advantages in terms of power consumption,parallelism,and high computing speed,which has intrigued extensive attention in both academic and engineering communities.It has been considered as one of the powerful tools in promoting the fields of imaging processing and object recognition.However,the existing optical system architecture cannot be reconstructed to the realization of multi-functional artificial intelligence systems simultaneously.To push the development of this issue,we propose the pluggable diffractive neural networks(P-DNN),a general paradigm resorting to the cascaded metasurfaces,which can be applied to recognize various tasks by switching internal plug-ins.As the proof-of-principle,the recognition functions of six types of handwritten digits and six types of fashions are numerical simulated and experimental demonstrated at near-infrared regimes.Encouragingly,the proposed paradigm not only improves the flexibility of the optical neural networks but paves the new route for achieving high-speed,low-power and versatile artificial intelligence systems.

Social-ecological perspective on the suicidal behaviour factors of early adolescents in China:a network analysis

Background In early adolescence,youth are highly prone to suicidal behaviours.Identifying modifiable risk factors during this critical phase is a priority to inform effective suicide prevention strategies.Aims To explore the risk and protective factors of suicidal behaviours(ie,suicidal ideation,plans and attempts)in early adolescence in China using a social-ecological perspective.Methods Using data from the cross-sectional project‘Healthy and Risky Behaviours Among Middle School Students in Anhui Province,China',stratified random cluster sampling was used to select 5724 middle school students who had completed self-report questionnaires in November 2020.Network analysis was employed to examine the correlates of suicidal ideation,plans and attempts at four levels,namely individual(sex,academic performance,serious physical llness/disability,history of self-harm,depression,impulsivity,sleep problems,resilience),family(family economic status,relationship with mother,relationship with father,family violence,childhood abuse,parental mental illness),school(relationship with teachers,relationship with classmates,school-bullying victimisation and perpetration)and social(social support,satisfaction with society).Results In total,37.9%,19.0%and 5.5%of the students reported suicidal ideation,plans and attempts in the past 6 months,respectively.The estimated network revealed that suicidal ideation,plans and attempts were collectively associated with a history of self-harm,sleep problems,childhood abuse,school bullying and victimisation.Centrality analysis indicated that the most influential nodes in the network were history of self-harm and childhood abuse.Notably,the network also showed unique correlates of suicidal ideation(sex,weight=0.60;impulsivity,weight=0.24;family violence,weight=0.17;relationship with teachers,weight=-0.03;school-bullying perpetration,weight=0.22),suicidal plans(social support,weight=-0.15)and suicidal attempts(relationship with mother,weight=-0.10;parental mental llness,weight=0.61).Conclusions This study identified the correlates of suicidal ideation,plans and attempts,and provided practical implications for suicide prevention for young adolescents in China.Firstly,this study highlighted the importance of joint interventions across multiple departments.Secondly,the common risk factors of suicidal ideation,plans and attempts were elucidated.Thirdly,this study proposed target interventions to address the unique influencing factors of suicidal ideation,plans and attempts.

Image super‐resolution via dynamic network

Convolutional neural networks depend on deep network architectures to extract accurate information for image super‐resolution.However,obtained information of these con-volutional neural networks cannot completely express predicted high‐quality images for complex scenes.A dynamic network for image super‐resolution(DSRNet)is presented,which contains a residual enhancement block,wide enhancement block,feature refine-ment block and construction block.The residual enhancement block is composed of a residual enhanced architecture to facilitate hierarchical features for image super‐resolution.To enhance robustness of obtained super‐resolution model for complex scenes,a wide enhancement block achieves a dynamic architecture to learn more robust information to enhance applicability of an obtained super‐resolution model for varying scenes.To prevent interference of components in a wide enhancement block,a refine-ment block utilises a stacked architecture to accurately learn obtained features.Also,a residual learning operation is embedded in the refinement block to prevent long‐term dependency problem.Finally,a construction block is responsible for reconstructing high‐quality images.Designed heterogeneous architecture can not only facilitate richer structural information,but also be lightweight,which is suitable for mobile digital devices.Experimental results show that our method is more competitive in terms of performance,recovering time of image super‐resolution and complexity.The code of DSRNet can be obtained at https://github.com/hellloxiaotian/DSRNet.

Mapping Network-Coordinated Stacked Gated Recurrent Units for Turbulence Prediction

Accurately predicting fluid forces acting on the sur-face of a structure is crucial in engineering design.However,this task becomes particularly challenging in turbulent flow,due to the complex and irregular changes in the flow field.In this study,we propose a novel deep learning method,named mapping net-work-coordinated stacked gated recurrent units(MSU),for pre-dicting pressure on a circular cylinder from velocity data.Specifi-cally,our coordinated learning strategy is designed to extract the most critical velocity point for prediction,a process that has not been explored before.In our experiments,MSU extracts one point from a velocity field containing 121 points and utilizes this point to accurately predict 100 pressure points on the cylinder.This method significantly reduces the workload of data measure-ment in practical engineering applications.Our experimental results demonstrate that MSU predictions are highly similar to the real turbulent data in both spatio-temporal and individual aspects.Furthermore,the comparison results show that MSU predicts more precise results,even outperforming models that use all velocity field points.Compared with state-of-the-art methods,MSU has an average improvement of more than 45%in various indicators such as root mean square error(RMSE).Through comprehensive and authoritative physical verification,we estab-lished that MSU’s prediction results closely align with pressure field data obtained in real turbulence fields.This confirmation underscores the considerable potential of MSU for practical applications in real engineering scenarios.The code is available at https://github.com/zhangzm0128/MSU.

Activation Redistribution Based Hybrid Asymmetric Quantization Method of Neural Networks

The demand for adopting neural networks in resource-constrained embedded devices is continuously increasing.Quantization is one of the most promising solutions to reduce computational cost and memory storage on embedded devices.In order to reduce the complexity and overhead of deploying neural networks on Integeronly hardware,most current quantization methods use a symmetric quantization mapping strategy to quantize a floating-point neural network into an integer network.However,although symmetric quantization has the advantage of easier implementation,it is sub-optimal for cases where the range could be skewed and not symmetric.This often comes at the cost of lower accuracy.This paper proposed an activation redistribution-based hybrid asymmetric quantizationmethod for neural networks.The proposedmethod takes data distribution into consideration and can resolve the contradiction between the quantization accuracy and the ease of implementation,balance the trade-off between clipping range and quantization resolution,and thus improve the accuracy of the quantized neural network.The experimental results indicate that the accuracy of the proposed method is 2.02%and 5.52%higher than the traditional symmetric quantization method for classification and detection tasks,respectively.The proposed method paves the way for computationally intensive neural network models to be deployed on devices with limited computing resources.Codes will be available on https://github.com/ycjcy/Hybrid-Asymmetric-Quantization.

The optimal atropine concentration for myopia control in Chinese children: a systematic review and network Metaanalysis

AIM:To figure out whether various atropine dosages may slow the progression of myopia in Chinese kids and teenagers and to determine the optimal atropine concentration for effectively slowing the progression of myopia.METHODS:A systematic search was conducted across the Cochrane Library,PubMed,Web of Science,EMBASE,CNKI,CBM,VIP,and Wanfang database,encompassing literature on slowing progression of myopia with varying atropine concentrations from database inception to January 17,2024.Data extraction and quality assessment were performed,and a network Meta-analysis was executed using Stata version 14.0 Software.Results were visually represented through graphs.RESULTS:Fourteen papers comprising 2475 cases were included;five different concentrations of atropine solution were used.The network Meta-analysis,along with the surface under the cumulative ranking curve(SUCRA),showed that 1%atropine(100%)>0.05%atropine(74.9%)>0.025%atropine(51.6%)>0.02%atropine(47.9%)>0.01%atropine(25.6%)>control in refraction change and 1%atropine(98.7%)>0.05%atropine(70.4%)>0.02%atropine(61.4%)>0.025%atropine(42%)>0.01%atropine(27.4%)>control in axial length(AL)change.CONCLUSION:In Chinese children and teenagers,the five various concentrations of atropine can reduce the progression of myopia.Although the network Meta-analysis showed that 1%atropine is the best one for controlling refraction and AL change,there is a high incidence of adverse effects with the use of 1%atropine.Therefore,we suggest that 0.05%atropine is optimal for Chinese children to slow myopia progression.

Rao Algorithms-Based Structure Optimization for Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks

The structural optimization of wireless sensor networks is a critical issue because it impacts energy consumption and hence the network’s lifetime.Many studies have been conducted for homogeneous networks,but few have been performed for heterogeneouswireless sensor networks.This paper utilizes Rao algorithms to optimize the structure of heterogeneous wireless sensor networks according to node locations and their initial energies.The proposed algorithms lack algorithm-specific parameters and metaphorical connotations.The proposed algorithms examine the search space based on the relations of the population with the best,worst,and randomly assigned solutions.The proposed algorithms can be evaluated using any routing protocol,however,we have chosen the well-known routing protocols in the literature:Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy(LEACH),Power-Efficient Gathering in Sensor Information Systems(PEAGSIS),Partitioned-based Energy-efficient LEACH(PE-LEACH),and the Power-Efficient Gathering in Sensor Information Systems Neural Network(PEAGSIS-NN)recent routing protocol.We compare our optimized method with the Jaya,the Particle Swarm Optimization-based Energy Efficient Clustering(PSO-EEC)protocol,and the hybrid Harmony Search Algorithm and PSO(HSA-PSO)algorithms.The efficiencies of our proposed algorithms are evaluated by conducting experiments in terms of the network lifetime(first dead node,half dead nodes,and last dead node),energy consumption,packets to cluster head,and packets to the base station.The experimental results were compared with those obtained using the Jaya optimization algorithm.The proposed algorithms exhibited the best performance.The proposed approach successfully prolongs the network lifetime by 71% for the PEAGSIS protocol,51% for the LEACH protocol,10% for the PE-LEACH protocol,and 73% for the PEGSIS-NN protocol;Moreover,it enhances other criteria such as energy conservation,fitness convergence,packets to cluster head,and packets to the base station.

Biodiversity metrics on ecological networks: Demonstrated with animal gastrointestinal microbiomes

Biodiversity has become a terminology familiar to virtually every citizen in modern societies.It is said that ecology studies the economy of nature,and economy studies the ecology of humans;then measuring biodiversity should be similar with measuring national wealth.Indeed,there have been many parallels between ecology and economics,actually beyond analogies.For example,arguably the second most widely used biodiversity metric,Simpson(1949)’s diversity index,is a function of familiar Gini-index in economics.One of the biggest challenges has been the high“diversity”of diversity indexes due to their excessive“speciation”-there are so many indexes,similar to each country’s sovereign currency-leaving confused diversity practitioners in dilemma.In 1973,Hill introduced the concept of“numbers equivalent”,which is based on Renyi entropy and originated in economics,but possibly due to his abstruse interpretation of the concept,his message was not widely received by ecologists until nearly four decades later.What Hill suggested was similar to link the US dollar to gold at the rate of$35 per ounce under the Bretton Woods system.The Hill numbers now are considered most appropriate biodiversity metrics system,unifying Shannon,Simpson and other diversity indexes.Here,we approach to another paradigmatic shift-measuring biodiversity on ecological networks-demonstrated with animal gastrointestinal microbiomes representing four major invertebrate classes and all six vertebrate classes.The network diversity can reveal the diversity of species interactions,which is a necessary step for understanding the spatial and temporal structures and dynamics of biodiversity across environmental gradients.

Multi-Scale-Matching neural networks for thin plate bending problem

Physics-informed neural networks are a useful machine learning method for solving differential equations,but encounter challenges in effectively learning thin boundary layers within singular perturbation problems.To resolve this issue,multi-scale-matching neural networks are proposed to solve the singular perturbation problems.Inspired by matched asymptotic expansions,the solution is decomposed into inner solutions for small scales and outer solutions for large scales,corresponding to boundary layers and outer regions,respectively.Moreover,to conform neural networks,we introduce exponential stretched variables in the boundary layers to avoid semiinfinite region problems.Numerical results for the thin plate problem validate the proposed method.

Correcting Climate Model Sea Surface Temperature Simulations with Generative Adversarial Networks:Climatology,Interannual Variability,and Extremes

Climate models are vital for understanding and projecting global climate change and its associated impacts.However,these models suffer from biases that limit their accuracy in historical simulations and the trustworthiness of future projections.Addressing these challenges requires addressing internal variability,hindering the direct alignment between model simulations and observations,and thwarting conventional supervised learning methods.Here,we employ an unsupervised Cycle-consistent Generative Adversarial Network(CycleGAN),to correct daily Sea Surface Temperature(SST)simulations from the Community Earth System Model 2(CESM2).Our results reveal that the CycleGAN not only corrects climatological biases but also improves the simulation of major dynamic modes including the El Niño-Southern Oscillation(ENSO)and the Indian Ocean Dipole mode,as well as SST extremes.Notably,it substantially corrects climatological SST biases,decreasing the globally averaged Root-Mean-Square Error(RMSE)by 58%.Intriguingly,the CycleGAN effectively addresses the well-known excessive westward bias in ENSO SST anomalies,a common issue in climate models that traditional methods,like quantile mapping,struggle to rectify.Additionally,it substantially improves the simulation of SST extremes,raising the pattern correlation coefficient(PCC)from 0.56 to 0.88 and lowering the RMSE from 0.5 to 0.32.This enhancement is attributed to better representations of interannual,intraseasonal,and synoptic scales variabilities.Our study offers a novel approach to correct global SST simulations and underscores its effectiveness across different time scales and primary dynamical modes.

Unraveling the Fundamental Mechanism of Interface Conductive Network Influence on the Fast‑Charging Performance of SiO‑Based Anode for Lithium‑Ion Batteries

Progress in the fast charging of high-capacity silicon monoxide(SiO)-based anode is currently hindered by insufficient conductivity and notable volume expansion.The construction of an interface conductive network effectively addresses the aforementioned problems;however,the impact of its quality on lithium-ion transfer and structure durability is yet to be explored.Herein,the influence of an interface conductive network on ionic transport and mechanical stability under fast charging is explored for the first time.2D modeling simulation and Cryo-transmission electron microscopy precisely reveal the mitigation of interface polarization owing to a higher fraction of conductive inorganic species formation in bilayer solid electrolyte interphase is mainly responsible for a linear decrease in ionic diffusion energy barrier.Furthermore,atomic force microscopy and Raman shift exhibit substantial stress dissipation generated by a complete conductive network,which is critical to the linear reduction of electrode residual stress.This study provides insights into the rational design of optimized interface SiO-based anodes with reinforced fast-charging performance.

Multi-scale physics-informed neural networks for solving high Reynolds number boundary layer flows based on matched asymptotic expansions

Multi-scale system remains a classical scientific problem in fluid dynamics,biology,etc.In the present study,a scheme of multi-scale Physics-informed neural networks is proposed to solve the boundary layer flow at high Reynolds numbers without any data.The flow is divided into several regions with different scales based on Prandtl's boundary theory.Different regions are solved with governing equations in different scales.The method of matched asymptotic expansions is used to make the flow field continuously.A flow on a semi infinite flat plate at a high Reynolds number is considered a multi-scale problem because the boundary layer scale is much smaller than the outer flow scale.The results are compared with the reference numerical solutions,which show that the msPINNs can solve the multi-scale problem of the boundary layer in high Reynolds number flows.This scheme can be developed for more multi-scale problems in the future.

Insights into microbiota community dynamics and flavor development mechanism during golden pomfret(Trachinotus ovatus)fermentation based on single-molecule real-time sequencing and molecular networking analysis

Popular fermented golden pomfret(Trachinotus ovatus)is prepared via spontaneous fermentation;however,the mechanisms underlying the regulation of its flavor development remain unclear.This study shows the roles of the complex microbiota and the dynamic changes in microbial community and flavor compounds during fish fermentation.Single-molecule real-time sequencing and molecular networking analysis revealed the correlations among different microbial genera and the relationships between microbial taxa and volatile compounds.Mechanisms underlying flavor development were also elucidated via KEGG based functional annotations.Clostridium,Shewanella,and Staphylococcus were the dominant microbial genera.Forty-nine volatile compounds were detected in the fermented fish samples,with thirteen identified as characteristic volatile compounds(ROAV>1).Volatile profiles resulted from the interactions among the microorganisms and derived enzymes,with the main metabolic pathways being amino acid biosynthesis/metabolism,carbon metabolism,and glycolysis/gluconeogenesis.This study demonstrated the approaches for distinguishing key microbiota associated with volatile compounds and monitoring the industrial production of high-quality fermented fish products.

A data-driven model of drop size prediction based on artificial neural networks using small-scale data sets

An artificial neural network(ANN)method is introduced to predict drop size in two kinds of pulsed columns with small-scale data sets.After training,the deviation between calculate and experimental results are 3.8%and 9.3%,respectively.Through ANN model,the influence of interfacial tension and pulsation intensity on the droplet diameter has been developed.Droplet size gradually increases with the increase of interfacial tension,and decreases with the increase of pulse intensity.It can be seen that the accuracy of ANN model in predicting droplet size outside the training set range is reach the same level as the accuracy of correlation obtained based on experiments within this range.For two kinds of columns,the drop size prediction deviations of ANN model are 9.6%and 18.5%and the deviations in correlations are 11%and 15%.

Five commonly used traditional Chinese medicine formulas in the treatment of ulcerative colitis:A network meta-analysis

BACKGROUND Currently,traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)formulas are commonly being used as adjunctive therapy for ulcerative colitis in China.Network meta-analysis,a quantitative and comprehensive analytical method,can systematically compare the effects of different adjunctive treatment options for ulcerative colitis,providing scientific evidence for clinical decision-making.AIM To evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of commonly used TCM for the treatment of ulcerative colitis(UC)in clinical practice through a network metaanalysis.METHODS Clinical randomized controlled trials of these TCM formulas used for the adjuvant treatment of UC were searched from the establishment of the databases to July 1,2022.Studies that met the inclusion criteria were screened and evaluated for literature quality and risk of bias according to the Cochrane 5.1 standard.The methodological quality of the studies was assessed using ReviewManager(RevMan)5.4,and a funnel plot was constructed to test for publication bias.ADDIS 1.16 statistical software was used to perform statistical analysis of the treatment measures and derive the network relationship and ranking diagrams of the various intervention measures.RESULTS A total of 64 randomized controlled trials involving 5456 patients with UC were included in this study.The adjuvant treatment of UC using five TCM formulations was able to improve the clinical outcome of the patients.Adjuvant treatment with Baitouweng decoction(BTWT)showed a significant effect[mean difference=36.22,95%confidence interval(CI):7.63 to 65.76].For the reduction of tumor necrosis factor in patients with UC,adjunctive therapy with BTWT(mean difference=−9.55,95%CI:−17.89 to−1.41),Shenlingbaizhu powder[SLBZS;odds ratio(OR)=0.19,95%CI:0.08 to 0.39],and Shaoyao decoction(OR=−23.02,95%CI:−33.64 to−13.14)was effective.Shaoyao decoction was more effective than BTWT(OR=0.12,95%CI:0.03 to 0.39),SLBZS(OR=0.19,95%CI:0.08 to 0.39),and Xi Lei powder(OR=0.34,95%CI:0.13 to 0.81)in reducing tumor necrosis factor and the recurrence rate of UC.CONCLUSION TCM combined with mesalazine is more effective than mesalazine alone in the treatment of UC.

UAV-assisted data collection for wireless sensor networks with dynamic working modes

Wireless Sensor Network(WSN)is a cornerstone of Internet of Things(IoT)and has rich application scenarios.In this work,we consider a heterogeneous WSN whose sensor nodes have a diversity in their Residual Energy(RE).In this work,to protect the sensor nodes with low RE,we investigate dynamic working modes for sensor nodes which are determined by their RE and an introduced energy threshold.Besides,we employ an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV)to collect the stored data from the heterogeneous WSN.We aim to jointly optimize the cluster head selection,energy threshold and sensor nodes’working mode to minimize the weighted sum of energy con-sumption from the WSN and UAV,subject to the data collection rate constraint.To this end,we propose an efficient search method to search for an optimal energy threshold,and develop a penalty-based successive convex approximation algorithm to select the cluster heads.Then we present a low-complexity iterative approach to solve the joint optimization problem and discuss the implementation procedure.Numerical results justify that our proposed approach is able to reduce the energy consumption of the sensor nodes with low RE significantly and also saves energy for the whole WSN.

Synergetic optimization operation method for distribution network based on SOP and PV

The integration of distributed generation brings in new challenges for the operation of distribution networks,including out-of-limit voltage and power flow control.Soft open points(SOP)are new power electronic devices that can flexibly control active and reactive power flows.With the exception of active power output,photovoltaic(PV)devices can provide reactive power compensation through an inverter.Thus,a synergetic optimization operation method for SOP and PV in a distribution network is proposed.A synergetic optimization model was developed.The voltage deviation,network loss,and ratio of photovoltaic abandonment were selected as the objective functions.The PV model was improved by considering the three reactive power output modes of the PV inverter.Both the load fluctuation and loss of the SOP were considered.Three multi-objective optimization algorithms were used,and a compromise optimal solution was calculated.Case studies were conducted using an IEEE 33-node system.The simulation results indicated that the SOP and PVs complemented each other in terms of active power transmission and reactive power compensation.Synergetic optimization improves power control capability and flexibility,providing better power quality and PV consumption rate.