What laws do the universe naturally operate according to?What should be the logical foundation of the human real world?This is a foundational and fundamental issue that humans have always wanted to clarify.From Thales...What laws do the universe naturally operate according to?What should be the logical foundation of the human real world?This is a foundational and fundamental issue that humans have always wanted to clarify.From Thales to philosophers such as Socrates,Plato,and Aristotle,ancient Greece achieved the origin and development of philosophy;Later,Descartes,Hume,Kant,Hegel,Nietzsche,and others explored new fields and concepts;Philosophers such as Husserl,Sartre,Russell,Wittgenstein,and Derrida left a profound mark in the 20th century.The emergence of a worldview emerged in the ancient Indian Vedas,and later in the religious and philosophical work The Upanishads,there was a discourse on the entities of"Brahma"and"I",which gave rise to the idea of"Advaita"in later generations.The Book of Changes was born in ancient China,along with major academic schools such as Taoism,Confucianism,Legalism,and Mohism.Later,Buddhist thought was integrated;With the Eastern ideas of yin and yang,the Doctrine of the Mean,harmony,and the ultimate goodness,I have integrated Eastern and Western historical philosophies,modern physics,and classical logic theories in my thinking on the principle of cosmic paradox,proposing a new perspective of understanding the essence of the universe and its natural logical relationship structure using the principle of paradox as the law of cosmic operation.The theoretical exploration and discussion of the dual nature relationship of"non-contradiction"and"contradiction"in the"first contradiction"relationship of things in the universe,that is,the identity of the universe is a self-contradictory overall transformation process;Attempting to reveal the paradoxical relationship of the universe from a new perspective in modern science,philosophy,and logic,striving to have a beneficial impact on the exploration and practical application of sustainable human survival and development models in the future.展开更多
There exists a notion that there is an obesity paradox in the prognosis of community-acquired pneumonia.In other words,obese individuals with communityacquired pneumonia have a better prognosis.The study by Wang et al...There exists a notion that there is an obesity paradox in the prognosis of community-acquired pneumonia.In other words,obese individuals with communityacquired pneumonia have a better prognosis.The study by Wang et al supports this claim,but we believe that the obesity paradox should not be proposed hastily as it is influenced by numerous subjective and objective confounding factors.展开更多
Friendship paradox states that individuals are likely to have fewer friends than their friends do,on average.Despite of its wide existence and appealing applications in real social networks,the mathematical understand...Friendship paradox states that individuals are likely to have fewer friends than their friends do,on average.Despite of its wide existence and appealing applications in real social networks,the mathematical understanding of friendship paradox is very limited.Only few works provide theoretical evidence of single-step and multi-step friendship paradoxes,given that the neighbors of interest are onehop and multi-hop away from the target node.However,they consider non-evolving networks,as opposed to the topology of real social networks that are constantly growing over time.We are thus motivated to present a first look into friendship paradox in evolving networks,where newly added nodes preferentially attach themselves to those with higher degrees.Our analytical verification of both single-step and multistep friendship paradoxes in evolving networks,along with comparison to the non-evolving counterparts,discloses that“friendship paradox is even more paradoxical in evolving networks”,primarily from three aspects:1)we demonstrate a strengthened effect of single-step friendship paradox in evolving networks,with a larger probability(more than 0.8)of a random node’s neighbors having higher average degree than the random node itself;2)we unravel higher effectiveness of multi-step friendship paradox in seeking for influential nodes in evolving networks,as the rate of reaching the max degree node can be improved by a factor of at least Θ(t^(2/3))with t being the network size;3)we empirically verify our findings through both synthetic and real datasets,which suggest high agreements of results and consolidate the reasonability of evolving model for real social networks.展开更多
The“obesity paradox”in hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)suggests patients with obesity may experience better treatment outcomes compared to patients without obesity.Wang et al highlighted this paradox in HCC immunothera...The“obesity paradox”in hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)suggests patients with obesity may experience better treatment outcomes compared to patients without obesity.Wang et al highlighted this paradox in HCC immunotherapy,demonstrating superior progression-free survival and overall survival in patients with overweight and obesity treated with lenvatinib and camrelizumab,focusing on hepatitis B virus-related HCC.Mechanisms such as better nutritional reserves,leptin-mediated immune modulation,and reduced protein breakdown may explain these outcomes.Obesity’s role in anti-programmed cell death protein-1 therapy appears could have a benefit,while its effects on other treatments,such as anti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapy,may reduce efficacy.Further research is needed to explore how obesity influences the effectiveness of other most common immunotherapies like nivolumab,pembrolizumab,and bevacizumab,and whether weight loss as well as weight-loss related sarcopenia impacts these benefits.展开更多
For the first time in human history,hundreds of millions of people all over the world have been subjected to compulsory vaccination with a new type of nucleic acid based vaccines in order to keep their jobs or be able...For the first time in human history,hundreds of millions of people all over the world have been subjected to compulsory vaccination with a new type of nucleic acid based vaccines in order to keep their jobs or be able to travel due to some notorious coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)mandates.The vast majority of African countries were either initially deprived of these vaccines,or later,a majority of the population was too skeptical to receive them and preferred a safe early treatment pharmacological approach.Yet,Africa had the lowest COVID-19 mortality rate compared to those countries that adopted mass vaccination.This letter to the editor adds African insights that should be helpful in future pandemics to save millions of precious lives.展开更多
Generosity:An Enhancement revolving around Thassadit Amzwar and the happiness gene in her body, concentrates on its appearance,research, publicity and exploiting of her happiness gene. It proposes the ethical conundru...Generosity:An Enhancement revolving around Thassadit Amzwar and the happiness gene in her body, concentrates on its appearance,research, publicity and exploiting of her happiness gene. It proposes the ethical conundrums: Are negative emotions like depression and anxiety no longer needed? Can a genetic marker dispose us toward happiness? Happiness should not be left to contingency and genes.Once materialized into a physical object which can be bought and sold like a commodity,the fundamental laws of ethics will collapse.展开更多
In The Portrait of a Lady, Isabel Archer values her liberty higher than a sense of security that might be guaranteed by possessing great fortune. But there are some paradoxes in Isabel Archer's view of freedom, wh...In The Portrait of a Lady, Isabel Archer values her liberty higher than a sense of security that might be guaranteed by possessing great fortune. But there are some paradoxes in Isabel Archer's view of freedom, which have caused her failure in the fulfillment of her view of freedom.展开更多
The rapid development of new-generation information technology,such as the internet,big data,and artificial intelligence,has shifted the focus of theoretical and commercial attention on whether information technology ...The rapid development of new-generation information technology,such as the internet,big data,and artificial intelligence,has shifted the focus of theoretical and commercial attention on whether information technology can increase productivity growth.This paper systematically combs the evolution trend of the productivity paradox of information technology from the macro and micro levels.The findings revealed that there are still no unified conclusions at the macro-level,but it is generally believed that there is no productivity paradox at the micro level.There are some differences between developed and non-developed countries as well as across different industries.Based on the complementary mechanism theory,it is found that information technology forms a complementary effect with human capital,technological innovation,organizational change,and management practice,which can provide ideas for solving the productivity paradox of information technology.Finally,the future research direction for the productivity paradox of information technology is determined from the macro and micro levels.展开更多
Is He Living,or Is He Dead is a splendid sample of Twain' s bitter satire.By focusing on textual analysis of the story,this thesis is trying to illustrate "surviving by dying",such a paradox of life impl...Is He Living,or Is He Dead is a splendid sample of Twain' s bitter satire.By focusing on textual analysis of the story,this thesis is trying to illustrate "surviving by dying",such a paradox of life implied by Mark Twain,and to reveal the tragic nature masked by the humorous satire in the story.展开更多
This study was performed to assess serum testosterone alterations induced by paradoxical sleep deprivation （PSD） and to verify their attenuation during sleep recovery （SR） based on different durations and ages. Wi...This study was performed to assess serum testosterone alterations induced by paradoxical sleep deprivation （PSD） and to verify their attenuation during sleep recovery （SR） based on different durations and ages. Wistar male rats aged 12 weeks for the younger group and 20 weeks for the elder group were randomly distributed into one of the following groups： a control group （cage and platform）, 3-day SD, 5-day SD, 7-day SD, 1-day SR, 3-day SR and 5-day SR groups. For PSD, the modified multiple platform method was used to specifically limit rapid eye movement （REM） sleep. Differences in the testosterone and luteinizing hormone levels between the younger group and the elder group according to duration of PSD and SR recovery were analysed. Testosterone continued to fall during the sleep deprivation period in a time-dependent manner in both the younger （P=-0.001, correlation coefficient r=-0.651） and elder groups （P=0.001, correlation coefficient r=-0.840）. The elder group showed a significantly lower level of testosterone compared with the younger group after PSD. Upon SR after 3 days of PSD, the testosterone level continued to rise for 5 days after sleep recovery in the younger group （P=0.013）, whereas testosterone concentrations failed to recover until day 5 in the elder group. PSD caused a more detrimental effect on serum testosterone in the elder group compared to the younger group with respect to decreases in luteinizing hormone （LH） levels. The replenishment of serum testosterone level was prohibited in the elder group suggesting that the effects of SD/SR may be age-dependent. The mechanism by which SD affects serum testosterone and how age may modify the process are still unclear.展开更多
BACKGROUND： Complex learning tasks result in a greater number of paradoxical sleep phases, which can improve memory. The effect of paradoxical sleep deprivation, induced by ＂flower pot＂ technique, on spatial refere...BACKGROUND： Complex learning tasks result in a greater number of paradoxical sleep phases, which can improve memory. The effect of paradoxical sleep deprivation, induced by ＂flower pot＂ technique, on spatial reference memory and working memory require further research. OBJECTIVE： To observe the effect of progressive paradoxical sleep deprivation in rats, subsequent to learning, on memory using the Morris Water Maze. DESIGN, TIME AND SETTING： Controlled observation experiment. The experiment was performed at the Laboratory of Neurobiology, Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Lanzhou University from December 2006 to October 2007. MATERIALS： Twenty-eight, male, Wistar rats, 3-4 months old, were provided by the Experimental Animal Center of Lanzhou University. The Morris Water Maze and behavioral analyses system was purchased from Genheart Company, Beijing, China. METHODS： All animals, according to a random digits table, were randomly divided into paradoxical sleep deprivation, tank control, and home cage control groups. Paradoxical sleep deprivation was induced by the ＂flower pot＂ technique for 72 hours, housing the rats on small platforms over water. Rats in the ＂tank control＂ and ＂home cage control＂ groups were housed either in a tank with large platforms over the water or in normal cages without paradoxical sleep deprivation. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES： Morris Water Maze was employed for task learning and spatial memory testing. Rats in all groups were placed at six random starting points each day for four consecutive days. Each placement was repeated for two trials; the first trial represented reference memory and the second working memory. Rats in the first trial were allowed to locate the submerged platform within 120 seconds. Data, including swimming distance, escape latency, swimming velocity, percentage of time in correct quarter, and memory scores were recorded and analyzed automatically by behavioral analyses systems for Morris Water Maze. RESULTS： Twenty-eight rats were included in the final analysis, without any loss. In the first trial, between day 2 and 4, escape latency and swimming distance increased significantly in the paradoxical sleep deprivation group compared to the home cage control and tank control groups （P 〈 0.01）; percentage of time in correct quarter and memory scores, however, decreased in the paradoxical sleep deprivation group compared to the home cage control and tank control groups （P 〈 0.01）. The escape latency, swimming distance, percentage of time in correct quarter, and memory scores in the second trial was not significantly different among the three groups （P 〉 0.05）. CONCLUSION： Paradoxical sleep deprivation inhibits spatial reference memory, but not working memory.展开更多
文摘What laws do the universe naturally operate according to?What should be the logical foundation of the human real world?This is a foundational and fundamental issue that humans have always wanted to clarify.From Thales to philosophers such as Socrates,Plato,and Aristotle,ancient Greece achieved the origin and development of philosophy;Later,Descartes,Hume,Kant,Hegel,Nietzsche,and others explored new fields and concepts;Philosophers such as Husserl,Sartre,Russell,Wittgenstein,and Derrida left a profound mark in the 20th century.The emergence of a worldview emerged in the ancient Indian Vedas,and later in the religious and philosophical work The Upanishads,there was a discourse on the entities of"Brahma"and"I",which gave rise to the idea of"Advaita"in later generations.The Book of Changes was born in ancient China,along with major academic schools such as Taoism,Confucianism,Legalism,and Mohism.Later,Buddhist thought was integrated;With the Eastern ideas of yin and yang,the Doctrine of the Mean,harmony,and the ultimate goodness,I have integrated Eastern and Western historical philosophies,modern physics,and classical logic theories in my thinking on the principle of cosmic paradox,proposing a new perspective of understanding the essence of the universe and its natural logical relationship structure using the principle of paradox as the law of cosmic operation.The theoretical exploration and discussion of the dual nature relationship of"non-contradiction"and"contradiction"in the"first contradiction"relationship of things in the universe,that is,the identity of the universe is a self-contradictory overall transformation process;Attempting to reveal the paradoxical relationship of the universe from a new perspective in modern science,philosophy,and logic,striving to have a beneficial impact on the exploration and practical application of sustainable human survival and development models in the future.
文摘There exists a notion that there is an obesity paradox in the prognosis of community-acquired pneumonia.In other words,obese individuals with communityacquired pneumonia have a better prognosis.The study by Wang et al supports this claim,but we believe that the obesity paradox should not be proposed hastily as it is influenced by numerous subjective and objective confounding factors.
基金supported by NSF China(No.61960206002,62020106005,42050105,62061146002)Shanghai Pilot Program for Basic Research–Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
文摘Friendship paradox states that individuals are likely to have fewer friends than their friends do,on average.Despite of its wide existence and appealing applications in real social networks,the mathematical understanding of friendship paradox is very limited.Only few works provide theoretical evidence of single-step and multi-step friendship paradoxes,given that the neighbors of interest are onehop and multi-hop away from the target node.However,they consider non-evolving networks,as opposed to the topology of real social networks that are constantly growing over time.We are thus motivated to present a first look into friendship paradox in evolving networks,where newly added nodes preferentially attach themselves to those with higher degrees.Our analytical verification of both single-step and multistep friendship paradoxes in evolving networks,along with comparison to the non-evolving counterparts,discloses that“friendship paradox is even more paradoxical in evolving networks”,primarily from three aspects:1)we demonstrate a strengthened effect of single-step friendship paradox in evolving networks,with a larger probability(more than 0.8)of a random node’s neighbors having higher average degree than the random node itself;2)we unravel higher effectiveness of multi-step friendship paradox in seeking for influential nodes in evolving networks,as the rate of reaching the max degree node can be improved by a factor of at least Θ(t^(2/3))with t being the network size;3)we empirically verify our findings through both synthetic and real datasets,which suggest high agreements of results and consolidate the reasonability of evolving model for real social networks.
文摘The“obesity paradox”in hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)suggests patients with obesity may experience better treatment outcomes compared to patients without obesity.Wang et al highlighted this paradox in HCC immunotherapy,demonstrating superior progression-free survival and overall survival in patients with overweight and obesity treated with lenvatinib and camrelizumab,focusing on hepatitis B virus-related HCC.Mechanisms such as better nutritional reserves,leptin-mediated immune modulation,and reduced protein breakdown may explain these outcomes.Obesity’s role in anti-programmed cell death protein-1 therapy appears could have a benefit,while its effects on other treatments,such as anti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapy,may reduce efficacy.Further research is needed to explore how obesity influences the effectiveness of other most common immunotherapies like nivolumab,pembrolizumab,and bevacizumab,and whether weight loss as well as weight-loss related sarcopenia impacts these benefits.
文摘For the first time in human history,hundreds of millions of people all over the world have been subjected to compulsory vaccination with a new type of nucleic acid based vaccines in order to keep their jobs or be able to travel due to some notorious coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)mandates.The vast majority of African countries were either initially deprived of these vaccines,or later,a majority of the population was too skeptical to receive them and preferred a safe early treatment pharmacological approach.Yet,Africa had the lowest COVID-19 mortality rate compared to those countries that adopted mass vaccination.This letter to the editor adds African insights that should be helpful in future pandemics to save millions of precious lives.
文摘Generosity:An Enhancement revolving around Thassadit Amzwar and the happiness gene in her body, concentrates on its appearance,research, publicity and exploiting of her happiness gene. It proposes the ethical conundrums: Are negative emotions like depression and anxiety no longer needed? Can a genetic marker dispose us toward happiness? Happiness should not be left to contingency and genes.Once materialized into a physical object which can be bought and sold like a commodity,the fundamental laws of ethics will collapse.
文摘In The Portrait of a Lady, Isabel Archer values her liberty higher than a sense of security that might be guaranteed by possessing great fortune. But there are some paradoxes in Isabel Archer's view of freedom, which have caused her failure in the fulfillment of her view of freedom.
基金The National Natural Science Foundation of China“Micro Mechanism of Heterogeneous Policy Tools Affecting High-quality Innovation of Resource-Based Enterprises-From the Perspective of Knowledge Base”(Project Number:No.72164030)The National Natural Science Foundation of China“Mechanism and Path of Open Innovation Driving the Upgrading of Western Resource-based Industries-From the Perspective of Global Value Chains”(Project Number:71563033)+1 种基金The Innovation Team of the Education Ministry of China“Resource-Based Industry and Sustainable Economic Development in Resource Abundant Areas”(Project Number:No.IRT_16R41)The Inner Mongolia Philosophy and Social Science Plan Project in 2019“Case Study on New Business Model of Traditional Resource-Based Enterprises in Inner Mongolia”(Project Number:2019ZJD006).
文摘The rapid development of new-generation information technology,such as the internet,big data,and artificial intelligence,has shifted the focus of theoretical and commercial attention on whether information technology can increase productivity growth.This paper systematically combs the evolution trend of the productivity paradox of information technology from the macro and micro levels.The findings revealed that there are still no unified conclusions at the macro-level,but it is generally believed that there is no productivity paradox at the micro level.There are some differences between developed and non-developed countries as well as across different industries.Based on the complementary mechanism theory,it is found that information technology forms a complementary effect with human capital,technological innovation,organizational change,and management practice,which can provide ideas for solving the productivity paradox of information technology.Finally,the future research direction for the productivity paradox of information technology is determined from the macro and micro levels.
文摘Is He Living,or Is He Dead is a splendid sample of Twain' s bitter satire.By focusing on textual analysis of the story,this thesis is trying to illustrate "surviving by dying",such a paradox of life implied by Mark Twain,and to reveal the tragic nature masked by the humorous satire in the story.
文摘This study was performed to assess serum testosterone alterations induced by paradoxical sleep deprivation （PSD） and to verify their attenuation during sleep recovery （SR） based on different durations and ages. Wistar male rats aged 12 weeks for the younger group and 20 weeks for the elder group were randomly distributed into one of the following groups： a control group （cage and platform）, 3-day SD, 5-day SD, 7-day SD, 1-day SR, 3-day SR and 5-day SR groups. For PSD, the modified multiple platform method was used to specifically limit rapid eye movement （REM） sleep. Differences in the testosterone and luteinizing hormone levels between the younger group and the elder group according to duration of PSD and SR recovery were analysed. Testosterone continued to fall during the sleep deprivation period in a time-dependent manner in both the younger （P=-0.001, correlation coefficient r=-0.651） and elder groups （P=0.001, correlation coefficient r=-0.840）. The elder group showed a significantly lower level of testosterone compared with the younger group after PSD. Upon SR after 3 days of PSD, the testosterone level continued to rise for 5 days after sleep recovery in the younger group （P=0.013）, whereas testosterone concentrations failed to recover until day 5 in the elder group. PSD caused a more detrimental effect on serum testosterone in the elder group compared to the younger group with respect to decreases in luteinizing hormone （LH） levels. The replenishment of serum testosterone level was prohibited in the elder group suggesting that the effects of SD/SR may be age-dependent. The mechanism by which SD affects serum testosterone and how age may modify the process are still unclear.
基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.30670677
文摘BACKGROUND： Complex learning tasks result in a greater number of paradoxical sleep phases, which can improve memory. The effect of paradoxical sleep deprivation, induced by ＂flower pot＂ technique, on spatial reference memory and working memory require further research. OBJECTIVE： To observe the effect of progressive paradoxical sleep deprivation in rats, subsequent to learning, on memory using the Morris Water Maze. DESIGN, TIME AND SETTING： Controlled observation experiment. The experiment was performed at the Laboratory of Neurobiology, Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Lanzhou University from December 2006 to October 2007. MATERIALS： Twenty-eight, male, Wistar rats, 3-4 months old, were provided by the Experimental Animal Center of Lanzhou University. The Morris Water Maze and behavioral analyses system was purchased from Genheart Company, Beijing, China. METHODS： All animals, according to a random digits table, were randomly divided into paradoxical sleep deprivation, tank control, and home cage control groups. Paradoxical sleep deprivation was induced by the ＂flower pot＂ technique for 72 hours, housing the rats on small platforms over water. Rats in the ＂tank control＂ and ＂home cage control＂ groups were housed either in a tank with large platforms over the water or in normal cages without paradoxical sleep deprivation. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES： Morris Water Maze was employed for task learning and spatial memory testing. Rats in all groups were placed at six random starting points each day for four consecutive days. Each placement was repeated for two trials; the first trial represented reference memory and the second working memory. Rats in the first trial were allowed to locate the submerged platform within 120 seconds. Data, including swimming distance, escape latency, swimming velocity, percentage of time in correct quarter, and memory scores were recorded and analyzed automatically by behavioral analyses systems for Morris Water Maze. RESULTS： Twenty-eight rats were included in the final analysis, without any loss. In the first trial, between day 2 and 4, escape latency and swimming distance increased significantly in the paradoxical sleep deprivation group compared to the home cage control and tank control groups （P 〈 0.01）; percentage of time in correct quarter and memory scores, however, decreased in the paradoxical sleep deprivation group compared to the home cage control and tank control groups （P 〈 0.01）. The escape latency, swimming distance, percentage of time in correct quarter, and memory scores in the second trial was not significantly different among the three groups （P 〉 0.05）. CONCLUSION： Paradoxical sleep deprivation inhibits spatial reference memory, but not working memory.
