Association Between Use of WATCHMAN Device and 1-Year Mortality Using High-Dimensional Propensity Scores to Reduce Confounding.

Background: Previous observational studies showed left atrial appendage occlusions with the WATCHMAN device reduced 1-year mortality, which conflicted with evidence generated from randomized controlled trials. We proposed to use the high-dimensional propensity score (hdPS) to assist in nonactive comparator selection (prevalent user of medication) and compared 1-year mortality between patients with atrial fibrillation who received the WATCHMAN device (percutaneous left atrial appendage occlusion device [pLAAO]) and direct oral anticoagulants in 2 matched cohorts based on (1) traditional propensity score (PS) and (2) integrating traditional PS with information learned from hdPS.

Methods: Patients entered the cohort once diagnosed with atrial fibrillation in the 15% of Medicare fee-for-service claims database from 2011 to 2018.

Predictive role of gait parameters and MRI markers in assessing cognitive decline in CSVD patients.

Background: Cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) is a major contributor to cognitive decline and gait abnormalities in the elderly population. Understanding the relationship between these impairments can aid in early detection and intervention. This study investigated the association between gait performance and cognitive decline in patients with CSVD, focusing on specific gait parameters as potential clinical markers of cognitive impairment.

Analysis and comparison of the trends in burden of low back pain in China and worldwide from 1990 to 2021.

Background: Low back pain (LBP) substantially affects quality of life and functional capacity, ranking as a major global cause of disability. While the global burden of LBP has been extensively studied, China's unique demographic, socioeconomic, and healthcare contexts warrant focused attention. As the world's most populous nation undergoing rapid urbanization and aging, China presents a distinct landscape for LBP epidemiology.

Electrochromic thin films of tungsten oxide with high-exposure (002) crystal faces doped and modulated with cerium acetate.

The electrochromic layer is the key part of the electrochromic device, and it is usually necessary to introduce nanomaterials or other functional materials to improve the response speed and stability. In this paper, a cerium acetate-doped tungsten oxide film (WO-CA) prepared by a hydrothermal and annealing method is presented and compared with a pure tungsten oxide film (WO) and an acetate-doped tungsten oxide film (WO-HAC) in terms of electrochromic performance. The electrochemical analysis results show that the Li diffusion rate of the WO-CA film is 37.

Sorbitol induces flavonoid accumulation as a secondary signal via the nanoencapsulated SPc/lncRNA809-MmNAC17 module against Alternaria alternata in Malus micromalus.

Sorbitol is an important primary metabolite that serves as both a carbon source and signal to pathogens. The leaf diseases caused by Alternata alternata are particularly serious in crabapple (Malus micromalus). Here, we found that sorbitol can enhance the resistance of crabapple to A.

Structure of the Se Isomers─An Ab Initio Study.

This study investigates the equilibrium geometries of four different Se isomers using the coupled cluster single and double perturbative (CCSD(T)) method, extrapolating to the complete basis sets. The ground-state geometry of the Se isomer with the C structure (2.8715 Å, 2.

Osteogenesis promotion on MC3T3 by micro-area potential difference (MAPD) on titanium alloy.

The ability of osseointegration of implants is an important factor in ensuring the long-term stability of bone implants in their recipient sites. In this paper, Ti-M titanium alloys with different surface micro-area potential difference (MAPD) were prepared and the adhesion, proliferation, spreading, and differentiation behavior of osteoblasts (MC3T3) on the surface of Ti-M alloy were investigated in detail to reveal the effect of MAPD on cell compatibility and osteogenic differentiation. The results showed that the alloy with high MAPD facilitated bone differentiation, demonstrating that MAPD significantly enhanced the alkaline phosphatase activity and mineralization ability of osteoblasts, and upregulated the expression of osteogenic differentiation-related factors.

Edaravone Dexborneol protects against blood-brain barrier disruption following cerebral ischemia/reperfusion by upregulating pericyte coverage via vitronectin-integrin and PDGFB/PDGFR-β signaling.

Background: Recent advancements in brain cytoprotection therapies following cerebral ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury have become an emerging interest. Pericytes were vulnerable during the early stages of ischemia. This study aims to explore the protective effects of Edaravone dexborneol (Eda.

Federated Multiple Imputation for Variables that Are Missing Not At Random in Distributed Electronic Health Records.

Large electronic health records (EHR) have been widely implemented and are available for research activities. The magnitude of such databases often requires storage and computing infrastructure that are distributed at different sites. Restrictions on data-sharing due to privacy concerns have been another driving force behind the development of a large class of distributed and/or federated machine learning methods.

USP26 as a hepatitis B virus-induced deubiquitinase primes hepatocellular carcinogenesis by epigenetic remodeling.

Despite recent advances in systemic therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the prognosis of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-induced HCC patients remains poor. By screening a sgRNA library targeting human deubiquitinases, we find that ubiquitin-specific peptidase 26 (USP26) deficiency impairs HBV-positive HCC cell proliferation. Genetically engineered murine models with Usp26 knockout confirm that Usp26 drives HCC tumorigenesis.

Structured learning in time-dependent Cox models.

Cox models with time-dependent coefficients and covariates are widely used in survival analysis. In high-dimensional settings, sparse regularization techniques are employed for variable selection, but existing methods for time-dependent Cox models lack flexibility in enforcing specific sparsity patterns (ie, covariate structures). We propose a flexible framework for variable selection in time-dependent Cox models, accommodating complex selection rules.

Environmental and economic analysis of the transformation of paper mill sludge treatment technologies in China.

Paper mill sludge (PMS) is featured with a high content of cellulose and hemicellulose, and using its characteristics to make paperboard can achieve a high-value utilization of PMS, which has attracted growing interest. In this study, currently prevalent landfill, incineration technologies (generating heat and electricity by incineration), and three paperboard technologies (medium density fiberboard, pulp board, and corrugated paper) were evaluated and compared via life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) methods. LCA results show that the PMS-to-pulp board outperforms others with an energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER) value of - 2.

Dynamic asymmetric spillovers and connectedness between Chinese sectoral commodities and industry stock markets.

This study investigates the dynamic and asymmetric propagation of return spillovers between sectoral commodities and industry stock markets in China. Using a daily dataset from February 2007 to July 2022, we employ a time-varying vector autoregressive (TVP-VAR) model to examine the asymmetric return spillovers and dynamic connectedness across sectors. The results reveal significant time-varying spillovers among these sectors, with the industry stocks acting as the primary transmitter of information to the commodity market.

Electronic excited states of monobromosilylene molecules including the spin-orbit-coupling.

We employ the internally contracted multireference configuration interaction (icMRCI-F12) with Davidson corrections to explore the electronic states of monobromosilylene molecules (HSiBr). A total of 20 states with energy up to 8.7 eV and the corresponding 50 states after taking the spin-orbit coupling (SOC) effects into account are investigated.

Design and preparation of Ti-xFe antibacterial titanium alloys based on micro-area potential difference.

Fe was selected as an alloying element for the first time to prepare a new antibacterial titanium alloy based on micro-area potential difference (MAPD) antibacterial mechanism. The microstructure, the corrosion resistance, the mechanical properties, the antibacterial properties and the cell biocompatibility have been investigated in detail by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, electrochemical testing, mechanical property test, plate count method and cell toxicity measurement. It was demonstrated that heat treatment had a significant on the compressive mechanical properties and the antibacterial properties.

Efficient dynamic tunable metasurface based on GeSbTe in the near infrared band.

For effective wavefront management in the optical infrared range, dynamic all-dielectric metasurfaces, always based on phase transition materials, particularly (GST), can be used. In this paper, we propose a GST-based tunable metasurface by structuring the phase-change material GST. We confirm that the nanopillar we designed has high transmittance in the wavelength band around 1550 nm and can fully cover the 0∼2 phase.

Variable selection in high dimensions for discrete-outcome individualized treatment rules: Reducing severity of depression symptoms.

Despite growing interest in estimating individualized treatment rules, little attention has been given the binary outcome setting. Estimation is challenging with nonlinear link functions, especially when variable selection is needed. We use a new computational approach to solve a recently proposed doubly robust regularized estimating equation to accomplish this difficult task in a case study of depression treatment.

The impact of negative emotions and relationship quality on consumers' repurchase intention: An empirical study based on service recovery in China's online travel agencies.

Service failures of online travel agencies (OTAs) occur frequently, which makes the OTA business operation model face huge risks. However, the current academic circles still pay insufficient attention to OTA service recovery. This study obtained research data through scenario experiment method, and analyzed data through SPSS25.