Comparative Study on the Origin and Characteristics of Chinese (Manas) and Russian (East Sayan) Green Nephrites

Green nephrites are widely pursued for their mild texture and vivid color. In recent years, many Russian green nephrites appeared in China (the world’s largest nephrite market) and competed with the Chinese Manas green nephrites, which are traditionally highly valued. In this study, we compared the appearance, mineralogy and geochemical features (with EPMA and LA-ICP-MS) of Chinese (Manas) and Russian (East Sayan) green nephrites to objectively characterize and distinguish between these two nephrites. Chinese (Manas) and Russian (East Sayan) green nephrites are mined from serpentinized ultramafic units in the northern Tian Shan and East Sayan orogen, respectively. In terms of appearance, the Manas green nephrites are slightly bluish or grayish, whilst their East Sayan counterparts are brighter (duck-egg cyan). The Manas nephrites commonly have a caramel color, crumple structure, characteristic white globules and sinuous veins, green stains and yellow–green veins, together with a local fibrous structure. The East Sayan green nephrites are more transparent, with a gentler fine texture, uniform color, many black spots and a few green spots. Some green nephrites from the Arahushun mine of East Sayan have an ice-like appearance. Microscopic petrography and EPMA analysis indicate that both the Manas and East Sayan green nephrites comprise mainly tremolite with minor actinolite. Minor minerals in the Manas samples include chromite, chlorite-group minerals, and uvarovite; whilst those in the East Sayan samples include actinolite, chromite, chlorite-group minerals, and bornite. Bornite is not found in any other sources of green nephrite, and thus is characteristic of Russian (East Sayan) green nephrites. LA-ICP-MS trace element data in their amphiboles and Single-Factor Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) results suggest that the differences in Cr, Zn, Y, Ba, and Sr contents and values of δEu, Eu/Sm, (La/Yb)N, (La/Sm)N, (Gd/Yb)N, ∑HREE, ∑LREE/∑HREE between the two nephrites are present, and can be used as their origin trace.

Strategic Priorities, Management Competencies, and Performance of the Divisions of Schools in Negros Island, Philippines

Good governance is a requisite in achieving quality education and lifelong learning. This combined descriptive, comparative, and correlative study looked into the strategic priorities, management competencies, and performance of the 16 divisions of schools in the Department of Education in Negros Island, Philippines. The statistical tools used were percentage and mean to determine their strategic priorities, management competencies, and performance based on the study's indicators; single-factor analysis of variance to find out any significant difference in their strategic priorities and management competencies; and Spearman rho to examine the coefficient of correlation between their strategic priorities and management competencies, their strategic priorities and performance, and their management competencies and performance. The study found no significant difference between the divisions of schools’ strategic priorities and management competencies, and no significant relationship between these variables and between these variables and their performance.

Modelling the Impact of Chess Game on Students’ Sports Accomplishment

Tibetan chess, a traditional Chinese ethnic sport, is a treasure of Tibetan culture. It takes various forms, adopts different playing methods, and involves a simple suite of equipment to interest people and impart wisdom. In order to study the positive impact that Tibetan chess exerts on students’ sports accomplishment, cognition, interest, intelligence, inheritance, and changes in their awareness of the protection of traditional sports in western Tibetan areas, this study uses correlation and single factor analysis to compare relevant indicators and dimensions. At the same time, it constructs regression models and path models for teaching experiments, investigations, and analyses. Research shows that the learning of Tibetan chess has obvious and significant influence on promoting students’ sports accomplishment in western Tibetan areas. Further research finds that the traditional sports of ethnic minorities, combined with the development of Tibetan chess and students’ sports accomplishment, establish the cognition of traditional sports culture, cultivate lifelong sports awareness, and allow students to enjoy the physical and mental education brought by ethnic cultures.

Analysis of Influencing Factors on Hospitalization Expenses of Patients with Breast Malignant Tumor Undergoing Surgery: Based on the Neural Network and Support Vector Machine

Objective. Analyze the influencing factors of hospitalization expenses of breast cancer patients in a tertiary hospital in Chengdu and provide a basis and suggestion for controlling the unreasonable increase of medical expenses. Methods. The first pages of all inpatient medical records of patients with breast malignant tumor from 2017 to 2020 were extracted, and the descriptive analysis, single-factor analysis, and multifactor analysis were conducted by using the statistical method and data mining method to explore the influencing factors of hospitalization expenses. Results. In 2017–2020, the average hospitalization cost and the average surgical treatment cost increased year by year, and the number of operations, actual hospitalization days, and CCI were the important influencing factors. Conclusion. It is suggested to strengthen the supervision of medical rationality and eliminate the waste of medical resources; and we should improve the efficiency of diagnosis and treatment services, so as to shorten the actual length of hospitalization; at the same time, the combination of DRG grouping and fine management can be used to control the hospitalization expenses.

Analysis of the Tumor Microenvironment By Quantitative Immunohistochemistry Reveals Novel Predictors in Classic Hodgkin Lymphoma Treated with Anti-PD1 Therapy

Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma (cHL) is characterized histologically by the presence of neoplastic Hodgkin and Reed-Sternberg cells surrounded by mixed immune cells. Anti-PD-1 therapy is the principal treatment option for relapsed or refractory cHL. To reveal biomarkers for predicting the cHL patients' responses to immunotherapy, pathological tissues of twenty patients with cHL who have been treated with anti-PD1 therapy were collected. Tumor immune microenvironment was investigated by immunostaining and quantitative measurement of CD68 (for macrophages), CD8 (for cytotoxic T-cells), FoxP3 (for Treg), PD-1, PD-L1 and PD-L2 expression levels. The in situ hybridization for Epstein-Barr virus (EBER-ISH) were also performed. The results showed that the main immune indicators of the tumor microenvironment we had tested were independent of the histological subtypes. Patients who were positive for EBER-ISH had higher mean density of PD-L1 than those were negative for EBER-ISH. Single-factor analysis revealed the high expression of PD-L1 and positive EBER-ISH were associated with significantly increased 2-year PFS in cHL treated with anti-PD1, while CD68, CD8, FoxP3, PD-1 and PD-L2 were not. Therefore, we propose that PD-L1 and EBER-ISH may serve as novel predictors for the treatment outcomes of cHL patients with anti-PD1 therapy. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Risk factors associated with postoperative complications after liver cancer resection surgery in western China

Objectives Postoperative complications increase the workload of nursing staff as well as the financial and mental distress suffered by patients. The objective of this study is to identify clinical factors associated with postoperative complications after liver cancer resection surgery. Methods Data from liver cancer resections occurring between January 1st, 2019 to December 31st, 2019 was collected from the Department of Liver Surgery in West China Hospital of Sichuan University. The Kruskal–Wallis test and logistic regression were used to perform single-factor analysis. Stepwise logistic regression was used for multivariate analysis. Models were established using R 4.0.2 software. Results Based on data collected from 593 cases, the single-factor analysis determined that there were statistically significant differences in BMI, incision type, incision length, duration, incision range, and bleeding between cases that experienced complications within 30 days after surgery and those did not. Stepwise logistic regression models based on Kruskal–Wallis test and single-factor logistic regression determined that BMI, incision length, and duration were the primary factors causing complications after liver resection. The adjust OR of overweight patients and patients with obesity (stage 1) compared to low weight patients were 0.12 (95% CI:0.02–0.72) with p = 0.043 and 0.18 (95% CI:0.03–1.00) with p = 0.04, respectively. An increase of 1 cm in incision length increased the relative risk by 13%, while an increase of 10 min in surgical duration increased the relative risk by 15%. Conclusions The risk of postoperative complications after liver resection can be significantly reduced by controlling factors such as bleeding, incision length, and duration of the surgery.

Relationship between peripapillary choroidal thickness and retinal nerve fiber layer in young people with myopia

Aim To study the characteristics and relationship between peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) and choroidal thickness in young people with myopia. Methods We retrospectively analyzed 92 cases (52 myopia, 40 emmetropia) regarding age, sex, refractive power, axial length (AL), and intraocular pressure. Peripapillary RNFL and choroidal thicknesses were measured by optical coherence tomography (OCT) in six sectors. Differences in thicknesses between the two groups were compared by single-factor analysis. Results RNFL was thickest in the inferotemporal sector (157.3 ± 19.66 µm) and thinnest in the nasal sector (58.78 ± 18.41 µm). Peripapillary choroid was thickest in the superonasal sector (176.37 ± 33.92 µm) and thinnest in the inferotemporal sector (131.79 ± 25.22 µm). The RNFL was thinner in the myopia group (99.04 ± 8.23 µm) vs the emmetropia group (103.25 ± 8.32 µm); significantly different in the superotemporal and inferonasal sectors. Peripapillary choroid thickness in the myopia group (148.65 ± 26.64 µm) was lower vs the emmetropia group (160.88 ± 29.06 µm); significantly different in the nasal, inferonasal, and inferotemporal sectors. RNFL thickness was negatively correlated with choroidal thickness in the nasal sector (r = −0.288). Conclusion Peripapillary RNFL and choroidal thicknesses showed regional distributions. RNFL was negatively correlated with PCT in the nasal sector, possibly related to eye axis growth and choroidal compensation.

Multifactor Variance Assessment for Determining the Number of Repeat Simulation Runs in Evacuation Modelling

Evacuation models commonly employ pseudorandom sampling from distributions to represent the variability of human behaviour in the evacuation process, otherwise referred to as ‘behavioural uncertainty’. This paper presents a method based on functional analysis and inferential statistics to study the convergence of probabilistic evacuation model results to inform deciding how many repeat simulation runs are required for a given scenario. Compared to existing approaches which typically focus on measuring variance in evacuation times, the proposed method utilises multifactor variance to assess the convergence of a range of different evacuation model outputs, referred to as factors. The factors include crowd density, flowrates, occupant locations, exit usage, and queuing times. These factors were selected as they represent a range of means to assess variance in evacuation dynamics between repeat simulation runs and can be found in most evacuation models. The application of the method (along with a tool developed for its implementation) is demonstrated through two case studies. The first case study consists of an analysis of convergence in evacuation simulation results for a building including 1855 occupants. The second case study is a simple verification test aimed at demonstrating the capabilities of the method. Results from the case studies suggest that multifactor variance assessment provides a more holistic assessment of the variance in evacuation dynamics and results provided by an evacuation model compared to existing methods which adopt single factor analysis. This provides increased confidence in determining an appropriate number of repeat simulation runs to ensure key evacuation dynamics and results which may be influenced by pseudorandom sampling are represented.

Investigation of Influence ofa New Twist Intensifier on the Properties of the Twisted Yarn

The article is devoted to the study of the properties of the yarn obtained by the methods of ring and rotor spinning, for twisted yarn, produced on a VTS-09 double twist machine made by Volkmann (Germany). Experiments were carried out on two typesof spinning yarns with yarn counts Ne 20/2 and 12/2 in the existing design (control) and the new design, flexible element with equal tension and twist intensifier and compared the effects of the resulting twisted yarn for quality parameters. Mathematical statistical methods (single-factor analysis of variance) were used to assess the quality of twisted yarn. Experiments have shown that the use of a new design nozzle reduces the vibration of the yarn, which leads to a uniform distribution of twists along the length of the twisted yarn, increases its tensile strength and improves the quality of the twisted yarn.

Association of administration of IFN-α with mortality among patients hospitalized with coronavirus disease 2019

Aim: Recent studies on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have not offered sufficient clinical evidence to support whether IFN-α can decrease the mortality of patients with COVID-19. Method: In this retrospective study, 103 of 1555 hospitalized COVID-19 patients were treated with IFN-α, and the others matched through propensity score matching. Cox regression model, logistics analysis and Kaplan–Meier statistics depicted the survival curve. Results & conclusion: Single factor analysis demonstrated that fewer deaths occurred in patients treated with IFN-α compared with patients treated without IFN-α (p = 0.000). Logistics analysis showed that patients treated with IFN-α had an all-cause mortality odds ratio = 0.01 (95% CI: 0.001–0.110; p = 0.000). The Cox regression model was utilized to determine an all-cause mortality with a hazard ratio of 0.102 (95% CI: 0.030–0.351; p = 0.000). IFN-α can alleviate disease severity and decrease all-cause mortality, especially in critical patients. IFN-α could effectively treat patients with COVID-19.