Southeast University

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of tadalafil monotherapy for lower urinary tract symptoms secondary to benign prostatic hyperplasia (LUTS/BPH). METHODS: A comprehensive search was done to identify randomized controlled trials comparing the efficacy and safety of tadalafil for LUTS/BPH with placebos. Meta-analytical techniques were applied to evaluate the differences in the study results. RESULTS: Eight studies were identified and analyzed. Compared with placebo, tadalafil was associated with significant improvements in the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) (mean difference = -2.19, p < 0.00001) and the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) score (mean difference = +4.66, p < 0.00001), despite the concomitant presence of erectile dysfunction. Significant differences were also observed in the IPSS irritative and obstructive subscores, IPSS quality of life index and BPH impact index. After pooling four doses (2.5, 5, 10 and 20 mg), tadalafil failed to produce a significant outcome in maximal urinary flow rate (Qmax) (mean difference = +0.26 ml/s, p = 0.14), but 5 mg of tadalafil significantly improved Qmax (mean difference = +0.63 ml/s, p = 0.04). No significant difference was detected in the incidence of serious adverse events (risk ratio = 1.00, p = 1.00) after tadalafil treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Tadalafil showed good efficacy and safety for improving LUTS and erectile dysfunction in men with BPH, and 5 mg of tadalafil significantly improved Qmax.

Abstract The fifth generation (5G) wireless communication networks are being deployed worldwide from 2020 and more capabilities are in the process of being standardized, such as mass connectivity, ultra-reliability, and guaranteed low latency. However, 5G will not meet all requirements of the future in 2030 and beyond, and sixth generation (6G) wireless communication networks are expected to provide global coverage, enhanced spectral/energy/cost efficiency, better intelligence level and security, etc. To meet these requirements, 6G networks will rely on new enabling technologies, i.e., air interface and transmission technologies and novel network architecture, such as waveform design, multiple access, channel coding schemes, multi-antenna technologies, network slicing, cell-free architecture, and cloud/fog/edge computing. Our vision on 6G is that it will have four new paradigm shifts. First, to satisfy the requirement of global coverage, 6G will not be limited to terrestrial communication networks, which will need to be complemented with non-terrestrial networks such as satellite and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communication networks, thus achieving a space-air-ground-sea integrated communication network. Second, all spectra will be fully explored to further increase data rates and connection density, including the sub-6 GHz, millimeter wave (mmWave), terahertz (THz), and optical frequency bands. Third, facing the big datasets generated by the use of extremely heterogeneous networks, diverse communication scenarios, large numbers of antennas, wide bandwidths, and new service requirements, 6G networks will enable a new range of smart applications with the aid of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data technologies. Fourth, network security will have to be strengthened when developing 6G networks. This article provides a comprehensive survey of recent advances and future trends in these four aspects. Clearly, 6G with additional technical requirements beyond those of 5G will enable faster and further communications to the extent that the boundary between physical and cyber worlds disappears.

Abstract As we enter the new millennium and face the entrance of another generation of workers into the changing world of work, managers are encouraged to deal with the generational differences that appear to exist among workers. This paper revisits the issue of generational differences and the causes of those differences. Data were obtained from more than 350 individuals across the country who responded to a request to complete a survey. Current generational differences in worker values are analysed and the results are compared to a similar study conducted in 1974. Results suggest that generational work values do differ. To a lesser degree, the results suggest that work values also change as workers grow older. Finally, the results indicate an increasing desire among American workers to balance work and personal goals. This change in attitude was reflected even within the same cohort group. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) comprised of tunable unit cells have recently drawn significant attention due to their superior capability in manipulating electromagnetic waves. In particular, RIS-assisted wireless communications have the great potential to achieve significant performance improvement and coverage enhancement in a cost-effective and energy-efficient manner, by properly programming the reflection coefficients of the unit cells of RISs. In this article, free-space path loss models for RIS-assisted wireless communications are developed for different scenarios by studying the physics and electromagnetic nature of RISs. The proposed models, which are first validated through extensive simulation results, reveal the relationships between the free-space path loss of RIS-assisted wireless communications and the distances from the transmitter/receiver to the RIS, the size of the RIS, the near-field/far-field effects of the RIS, and the radiation patterns of antennas and unit cells. In addition, three fabricated RISs (metasurfaces) are utilized to further corroborate the theoretical findings through experimental measurements conducted in a microwave anechoic chamber. The measurement results match well with the modeling results, thus validating the proposed free-space path loss models for RISs, which may pave the way for further theoretical studies and practical applications in this field.

The recently proposed digital coding metasurfaces make it possible to control electromagnetic (EM) waves in real time, and allow the implementation of many different functionalities in a programmable way. However, current configurations are only space-encoded, and do not exploit the temporal dimension. Here, we propose a general theory of space-time modulated digital coding metasurfaces to obtain simultaneous manipulations of EM waves in both space and frequency domains, i.e., to control the propagation direction and harmonic power distribution simultaneously. As proof-of-principle application examples, we consider harmonic beam steering, beam shaping, and scattering-signature control. For validation, we realize a prototype controlled by a field-programmable gate array, which implements the harmonic beam steering via an optimized space-time coding sequence. Numerical and experimental results, in good agreement, demonstrate good performance of the proposed approach, with potential applications to diverse fields such as wireless communications, cognitive radars, adaptive beamforming, holographic imaging.

Metasurfaces have enabled a plethora of emerging functions within an ultrathin dimension, paving way towards flat and highly integrated photonic devices. Despite the rapid progress in this area, simultaneous realization of reconfigurability, high efficiency, and full control over the phase and amplitude of scattered light is posing a great challenge. Here, we try to tackle this challenge by introducing the concept of a reprogrammable hologram based on 1-bit coding metasurfaces. The state of each unit cell of the coding metasurface can be switched between '1' and '0' by electrically controlling the loaded diodes. Our proof-of-concept experiments show that multiple desired holographic images can be realized in real time with only a single coding metasurface. The proposed reprogrammable hologram may be a key in enabling future intelligent devices with reconfigurable and programmable functionalities that may lead to advances in a variety of applications such as microscopy, display, security, data storage, and information processing.Realizing metasurfaces with reconfigurability, high efficiency, and control over phase and amplitude is a challenge. Here, Li et al. introduce a reprogrammable hologram based on a 1-bit coding metasurface, where the state of each unit cell of the coding metasurface can be switched electrically.

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) or intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRSs) are regarded as one of the most promising and revolutionizing techniques for enhancing the spectrum and/ or energy efficiency of wireless systems. These devices are capable of reconfiguring the wireless propagation environment by carefully tuning the phase shifts of a large number of low-cost passive reflecting elements. In this article, we aim to answer four fundmental questions: 1) Why do we need RISs? 2) What is an RIS? 3) What are RIS's applications? 4) What are the relevant challenges and future research directions? In response, eight promising research directions are pointed out.

Inflammation is a natural protective mechanism that occurs when the body's tissue homeostatic mechanisms are disrupted by biotic, physical, or chemical agents. The immune response generates pro-inflammatory mediators, but excessive output, such as chronic inflammation, contributes to many persistent diseases. Some phenolic compounds work in tandem with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to inhibit pro-inflammatory mediators' activity or gene expression, including cyclooxygenase (COX). Various phenolic compounds can also act on transcription factors, such as nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) or nuclear factor-erythroid factor 2-related factor 2 (Nrf-2), to up-or downregulate elements within the antioxidant response pathways. Phenolic compounds can inhibit enzymes associated with the development of human diseases and have been used to treat various common human ailments, including hypertension, metabolic problems, incendiary infections, and neurodegenerative diseases. The inhibition of the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) by phenolic compounds has been used to treat hypertension. The inhibition of carbohydrate hydrolyzing enzyme represents a type 2 diabetes mellitus therapy, and cholinesterase inhibition has been applied to treat Alzheimer's disease (AD). Phenolic compounds have also demonstrated anti-inflammatory properties to treat skin diseases, rheumatoid arthritis, and inflammatory bowel disease. Plant extracts and phenolic compounds exert protective effects against oxidative stress and inflammation caused by airborne particulate matter, in addition to a range of anti-inflammatory, anticancer, anti-aging, antibacterial, and antiviral activities. Dietary polyphenols have been used to prevent and treat allergy-related diseases. The chemical and biological contributions of phenolic compounds to cardiovascular disease have also been described. This review summarizes the recent progress delineating the multifunctional roles of phenolic compounds, including their anti-inflammatory properties and the molecular pathways through which they exert anti-inflammatory effects on metabolic disorders. This study also discusses current issues and potential prospects for the therapeutic application of phenolic compounds to various human diseases.

Mounting evidences indicate that circular RNAs (circRNAs) have a vital role in human diseases, especially cancers. More recently, circHIPK3, a particularly abundant circRNA, was proposed to be involved in tumorigenesis. However, its role in colorectal cancer (CRC) has not been explored. In this study, we found circHIPK3 was significantly upregulated in CRC tissues and cell lines, at least in part, due to c-Myb overexpression and positively correlated with metastasis and advanced clinical stage. Moreover, Cox multivariate survival analysis showed that high-level expression of circHIPK3 was an independent prognostic factor of poor overall survival (OS) in CRC (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.75, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.74-6.51, p = 0.009). Functionally, knockdown of circHIPK3 markedly inhibited CRC cells proliferation, migration, invasion, and induced apoptosis in vitro and suppressed CRC growth and metastasis in vivo. Mechanistically, by using biotinylated-circHIPK3 probe to perform RNA pull-down assay in CRC cells, we identified miR-7 was the only one microRNA that was abundantly pulled down by circHIPK3 in both HCT116 and HT29 cells and these interactions were also confirmed by biotinylated miR-7 pull-down and dual-luciferase reporter assays. Overexpression of miR-7 mimicked the effect of circHIPK3 knockdown on CRC cells proliferation, migration, invasion, and apoptosis. Furthermore, ectopic expression of circHIPK3 effectively reversed miR-7-induced attenuation of malignant phenotypes of CRC cells by increasing the expression levels of miR-7 targeting proto-oncogenes (FAK, IGF1R, EGFR, YY1). Remarkably, the combination of circHIPK3 silencing and miR-7 overexpression gave a better effect on tumor suppression both in vitro and in vivo than did circHIPK3 knockdown or miR-7 overexpression alone. Taken together, our data indicate that circHIPK3 may have considerable potential as a prognostic biomarker in CRC, and support the notion that therapeutic targeting of the c-Myb/circHIPK3/miR-7 axis may be a promising treatment approach for CRC patients.

Rapidly discovering functional materials remains an open challenge because the traditional trial-and-error methods are usually inefficient especially when thousands of candidates are treated. Here, we develop a target-driven method to predict undiscovered hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites (HOIPs) for photovoltaics. This strategy, combining machine learning techniques and density functional theory calculations, aims to quickly screen the HOIPs based on bandgap and solve the problems of toxicity and poor environmental stability in HOIPs. Successfully, six orthorhombic lead-free HOIPs with proper bandgap for solar cells and room temperature thermal stability are screened out from 5158 unexplored HOIPs and two of them stand out with direct bandgaps in the visible region and excellent environmental stability. Essentially, a close structure-property relationship mapping the HOIPs bandgap is established. Our method can achieve high accuracy in a flash and be applicable to a broad class of functional material design.

The conversion from spatial propagating waves to surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) has been well studied, and shown to be very efficient by using gradient-index metasurfaces. However, feeding energies into and extracting signals from functional plasmonic devices or circuits through transmission lines require the efficient conversion between SPPs and guided waves, which has not been reported, to the best of our knowledge. In this paper, a smooth bridge between the conventional coplanar waveguide (CPW) with 50 Ω impedance and plasmonic waveguide (e.g., an ultrathin corrugated metallic strip) has been proposed in the microwave frequency, which converts the guided waves to spoof SPPs with high efficiency in broadband. A matching transition has been proposed and designed, which is constructed by gradient corrugations and flaring ground, to match both the momentum and impedance of CPW and the plasmonic waveguide. Simulated and measured results on the transmission coefficients and near-filed distributions show excellent transmission efficiency from CPW to a plasmonic waveguide to CPW in a wide frequency band. The high-efficiency and broadband conversion between SPPs and guided waves opens up a new avenue for advanced conventional plasmonic integrated functional devices and circuits.

Abstract Lacking strategies to simultaneously address the intrinsic activity, site density, electrical transport, and stability problems of chalcogels is restricting their application in catalytic hydrogen production. Herein, we resolve these challenges concurrently through chemically activating the molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ) surface basal plane by doping with a low content of atomic palladium using a spontaneous interfacial redox technique. Palladium substitution occurs at the molybdenum site, simultaneously introducing sulfur vacancy and converting the 2H into the stabilized 1T structure. Theoretical calculations demonstrate the sulfur atoms next to the palladium sites exhibit low hydrogen adsorption energy at –0.02 eV. The final MoS 2 doped with only 1wt% of palladium demonstrates exchange current density of 805 μA cm −2 and 78 mV overpotential at 10 mA cm −2 , accompanied by a good stability. The combined advantages of our surface activating technique open the possibility of manipulating the catalytic performance of MoS 2 to rival platinum.

In this article, we present our vision of the application scenarios, performance metrics, and potential key technologies of 6G wireless communication networks. We then comprehensively survey 6G wireless channel measurements, characteristics, and models for all frequency bands and all scenarios, focusing on millimeter-wave (mm-wave), terahertz, and optical wireless communication channels under all spectra; satellite, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), maritime, and underwater acoustic communication channels under global coverage scenarios; and high-speed train (HST), vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), ultra-massive multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO), orbital angular momentum (OAM), and industry Internet of Things (IoT) communication channels under full application scenarios. We also provide future research challenges of 6G channel measurements, a general standard 6G channel model framework, and models for intelligent reflection surface (IRS)-based 6G technologies and artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled channel measurements and models.

Conventional microwave imagers usually require either time-consuming data acquisition, or complicated reconstruction algorithms for data post-processing, making them largely ineffective for complex in-situ sensing and monitoring. Here, we experimentally report a real-time digital-metasurface imager that can be trained in-situ to generate the radiation patterns required by machine-learning optimized measurement modes. This imager is electronically reprogrammed in real time to access the optimized solution for an entire data set, realizing storage and transfer of full-resolution raw data in dynamically varying scenes. High-accuracy image coding and recognition are demonstrated in situ for various image sets, including hand-written digits and through-wall body gestures, using a single physical hardware imager, reprogrammed in real time. Our electronically controlled metasurface imager opens new venues for intelligent surveillance, fast data acquisition and processing, imaging at various frequencies, and beyond.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of progressive dementia in the elderly. It is characterized by a progressive and irreversible loss of cognitive abilities and formation of senile plaques, composed mainly of amyloid β (Aβ), and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), composed of tau protein, in the hippocampus and cortex of afflicted humans. In brains of AD patients the metabolism of Aβ is dysregulated, which leads to the accumulation and aggregation of Aβ. Metabolism of Aβ and tau proteins is crucially influenced by autophagy. Autophagy is a lysosome-dependent, homeostatic process, in which organelles and proteins are degraded and recycled into energy. Thus, dysfunction of autophagy is suggested to lead to the accretion of noxious proteins in the AD brain. In the present review, we describe the process of autophagy and its importance in AD. Additionally, we discuss mechanisms and genes linking autophagy and AD, i.e., the mTOR pathway, neuroinflammation, endocannabinoid system, ATG7, BCL2, BECN1, CDK5, CLU, CTSD, FOXO1, GFAP, ITPR1, MAPT, PSEN1, SNCA, UBQLN1, and UCHL1. We also present pharmacological agents acting via modulation of autophagy that may show promise in AD therapy. This review updates our knowledge on autophagy mechanisms proposing novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of AD.

The present review discusses the application of virtual reality (VR) technology in clinical medicine, especially in surgical training, pain management and therapeutic treatment of mental illness. We introduce the common types of VR simulators and their operational principles in aforementioned fields. The clinical effects are also discussed. In almost every study that dealt with VR simulators, researchers have arrived at the same conclusion that both doctors and patients could benefit from this novel technology. Moreover, advantages and disadvantages of the utilization of VR technology in each field were discussed, and the future research directions were proposed.

Both exponential stability and periodic oscillatory solution of bidirectional associative memory (BAM) networks with axonal signal transmission delays are considered by constructing suitable Lyapunov functional and some analysis techniques. Some simple sufficient conditions are given ensuring the global exponential stability and the existence of periodic oscillatory solutions of BAM with delays. These conditions are presented in terms of system parameters and have important leading significance in the design and applications of globally exponentially stable and periodic oscillatory neural circuits for BAM with delays. In addition, two examples are given to illustrate the results.

This paper studies LEACH protocol, and puts forward energy-LEACH and multihop-LEACH protocols. Energy-LEACH protocol improves the choice method of the cluster head, makes some nodes which have more residual energy as cluster heads in next round. Multihop-LEACH protocol improves communication mode from single hop to multi-hop between cluster head and sink. Simulation results show that energy-LEACH and multihop-LEACH protocols have better performance than LEACH protocols.

Abstract In the modern age of nanotechnology, the discovery of graphene has opened up the way to study and develop of several novel 2D materials. The unique physical and chemical properties of 2D materials have enhanced their research, making them superior to the commercial bulk materials used in various applications. Efforts have been made in the current study to present an overview of the intrinsic properties of these materials. Furthermore, synthesis and applications are also reviewed and discussed. Finally, the future outlook of 2D materials is discussed to enhance the research and performance of these materials, which can result in broader applications benefitting the electrical and electronics industries and society. Intensive research into 2D materials is expected to lead to the discovery of new materials with enhanced properties that will benefit the industry and society at large.

This brief investigates globally exponential synchronization for linearly coupled neural networks (NNs) with time-varying delay and impulsive disturbances. Since the impulsive effects discussed in this brief are regarded as disturbances, the impulses should not happen too frequently. The concept of average impulsive interval is used to formalize this phenomenon. By referring to an impulsive delay differential inequality, we investigate the globally exponential synchronization of linearly coupled NNs with impulsive disturbances. The derived sufficient condition is closely related with the time delay, impulse strengths, average impulsive interval, and coupling structure of the systems. The obtained criterion is given in terms of an algebraic inequality which is easy to be verified, and hence our result is valid for large-scale systems. The results extend and improve upon earlier work. As a numerical example, a small-world network composing of impulsive coupled chaotic delayed NN nodes is given to illustrate our theoretical result.