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AbstractThis article seeks to address China's entrenched censorship regime in the constitutionalist dimension of international law. First, the article probes into China's censorship regime and the way it is linked to the country's foreign policies. Second, the article explores the tension between China's national censorship regime and international law. Such tension is rendered sharper than ever in the context of fragmented international law, as exemplified by two UPRs of China and two WTO rulings. Finally, the article advances a constitutionalist premise that eventually China's self-motivated step into the fragmented domain of international law could boomerang against China's censorship regime. As the international standards of freedom of expression are evolving into a fundamental right with constitutional status, the functional interrelatedness between different subsystems of international law gives rise to the accountability of state actors, which in turn compels them to comply with universal rules.

Infrared imaging plays remarkable roles in various fields including military, biomedicine, aerospace, and artificial intelligence. However, traditional infrared imaging systems have plenty of disadvantages such as large volume, high cost, and complex fabrication process. Emerging infrared upconversion imaging devices can directly convert low-energy infrared photons into high-energy visible light photons, thus they are promising to accomplish pixel-less high-resolution infrared imaging at low cost. In this paper, recent advances and progress of infrared-to-visible upconversion devices are summarized. We further offer the main limitations of upconversion technology and the challenges that need to be addressed for the future development of infrared upconverters.

The key to obtaining a mechanistic and reliable understanding of complex public opinion formation processes is to identify the main mechanism governing interpersonal influence. Researchers have long been exploring simple yet predictive mathematical models of opinion dynamics. Although most models are based on the assumption that individuals update their opinions by averaging others' opinions, researchers might need to rethink this universally adopted micro-foundation. The deceivingly simple weighted-averaging mechanism features a non-negligible unrealistic implication, which brings unnecessary difficulties in seeking a proper balance between model complexity and predictive power. In this paper, we fundamentally resolve this problem by proposing the weighted-median mechanism as a new micro-foundation of opinion dynamics. Such an inconspicuous change from averaging to median leads to rich consequences. The weighted-median mechanism, derived from the cognitive dissonance theory in psychology, is well supported by online experiment data. It also broadens the applicability of opinion dynamics models to multiple-choice issues with ordered discrete options, e.g., political elections. Moreover, comparative studies show that the weighted-median mechanism predicts various real-world patterns of opinion evolution while some widely studied averaging-based models fail to, including how group structure affects the likelihood of reaching consensus and how extreme opinions are located in social networks. ; ISSN:2643-1564

Zhihong Wang,1,* Peng Tang,2,* Surong Hua,1 Junyi Gao,1 Bin Zhang,3 Hua Wan,4 Qixi Wu,4 Jiaxin Zhang,5 Ge Chen1 1Department of General Surgery, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China; 2Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University (Army Medical University), Chongqing, People's Republic of China; 3Department of General Surgery, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, People's Republic of China; 4Research and Development Department, Beijing USCI Medical Laboratory, Beijing, People's Republic of China; 5Department of Thyroid and Breast Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, People's Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Ge ChenDepartment of General Surgery, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, No. 1 Shuai Fu Yuan Hu Tong, Beijing, 100730, People's Republic of China, Tel +86 156 1123 3738, Fax +86 156 69152600, Email chenge@pumch.cn; Jiaxin ZhangDepartment of Thyroid and Breast Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, No. 99, Huaihai West Road, Xuzhou, 221004, People's Republic of China, Tel +86 180 5226 8693, Fax +86 180 85802306, Email zhangjiaxin1969@163.comPurpose: To describe the genetic landscape and clinical characteristics of Chinese patients diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) and to determine which high-risk genetic characteristics suggest a likelihood of lymph node metastasis (LNM) and lateral lymph node metastasis (LLNM).Patients and Methods: Data from previously untreated patients with PTC collected between May 2018 and December 2020 from 14 hospitals in China were analyzed retrospectively. High-risk pathologic characteristics were defined as T3/T4, N(+), and N1b(+) stages. All patients were tested for 57 genes by second-generation sequencing. The t-test, chi-square test, and Fisher's exact test were performed for statistical analysis.Results: Overall, 395 patients were enrolled in this study. The prevalence of BRAF mutation was 78.53%. BRAF mutant allele frequency (MAF) > 16.93% was associated with a significantly higher risk of LNM, LLNM, and T3 + T4 stage compared with a low-risk group, defined by a MAF < 2.54% (odd ratios [ORs] for each risk=3.38, 3.46, and 8.54, respectively), and an intermediate-risk group, defined by a MAF of 2.54% to 16.93% (ORs=2.04, 2.07, and 4.07, respectively). The population with RET fusion had higher T, N, and N1b stages (ORs for each stage=10.40, 7.60, and 8.77, respectively) compared with a RET-negative population. Similar conclusions about T, N, and N1b stages were observed in relation to multiple driver gene mutations (ORs for each stage=7.48, 2.80, and 7.04, respectively) compared with population without multiple driver mutations. These genetic characteristics may be suggestive of high clinical risk. However, regardless of genetic profiles, patients younger than age 45 years had greater rates of LNM and LLNM.Conclusion: The main driver gene in this study, BRAF, differs significantly between the United States (79% vs 51%) and other countries. The Chinese population in this study that experienced more aggressive tumor biology had a BRAF MAF greater than 16.93%, exhibited RET fusion events, and had multiple driver gene mutations; thus, these traits may be considered high-risk genetic characteristics in PTC that could warrant aggressive treatment in such population.Keywords: papillary thyroid cancer, lymph node metastasis, high risk clinicopathological characteristics, genotypes