bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Association between Anemia and Risk of Parkinson Disease
Authors: Wang Yao-Chin , Huang Abel Po-Hao , Yuan Sheng-Po , Huang Chu-Ya , Wu Chieh-Chen , Poly Tahmina Nasrin , Atique Suleman , Kung Woon-Man
Published: July 2021

Background and Objective. People with anemia have higher rates of developing Parkinson disease (PD) than the general population. Previous epidemiological studies have invested the risk of PD in patients with anemia. However, the findings are still inconclusive. Therefore, we did a systematic review with meta-analysis to clarify the association between anemia and risk of PD. Methods. We systematically searched articles on electronic databases such as PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Google Scholar between January 1, 2000 and July 30, 2020. Articles were independently evaluated by two authors. We included observational studies (case-control and cohort) and calculated the risk ratios (RRs) for associated with anemia and PD. Heterogeneity among the studies was assessed using the

Q

and

I

2

statistic. We utilized the random-effect model to calculate the overall RR with 95% CI. Results. A total of 342 articles were identified in the initial searches, and 7 full-text articles were evaluated for eligibility. Three articles were further excluded for prespecified reasons including insufficient data and duplications, and 4 articles were included in our systematic review and meta-analysis. A random effect model meta-analysis of all 4 studies showed no increased risk of PD in patients with anemia (

N
=
4

,

R

R

adjusted

=
1.17

(95% CI: 0.94-1.45,

p
=
0.15

). However, heterogeneity among the studies was significant (

I

2

=
92.60

,

p
=
<
0.0001

). The pooled relative risk of PD in female patients with anemia was higher (

N
=
3

,

R

R

adjusted

=
1.14

(95% CI: 0.83-1.57,

p
=
0.40

) as compared to male patients with anemia (

N
=
3

,

R

R

adjusted

=
1.09

(95% CI: 0.83-1.42,

p
=
0.51

). Conclusion. This is the first meta-analysis that shows that anemia is associated with higher risk of PD when compared with patients without anemia. However, more studies are warranted to evaluate the risk of PD among patients with anemia.
[Retracted] miR‐451 on Myocardial Ischemia‐Reperfusion in Rats by Regulating AMPK Signaling Pathway
Authors: Guo Yulin , Gao Jie , Liu Yan , Zhang Xitao , An Xiangguang , Zhou Jian , Su Pixiong
Published: July 2021

Myocardial infarction is the main cause of death in patients with coronary heart disease. At present, the main method to treat cardiovascular disease is perfusion therapy. Myocardial ischemia‐reperfusion will inevitably lead to reperfusion injury, which is also a major problem in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. It has been reported that mir‐451 in microRNA family participates in the protection of myocardial ischemia‐reperfusion by regulating AMPK. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of mir‐451 on myocardial ischemia‐reperfusion in rats by regulating AMPK signaling pathway. Sixty adult male rats were selected to establish myocardial ischemia‐reperfusion animal model by ligating and loosening coronary artery. The expression level of mir‐451 was regulated by injection of mir‐451 virus vector and antibody, and the effect of increased or decreased mir‐451 expression level on the activity of AMPK signaling pathway was detected. The myocardial infarct area and apoptosis rate of myocardial tissue were detected after 75 min ischemia‐reperfusion. The results showed that when the expression level of mir‐451 decreased by 15.7%, the activity index of AMPK signaling pathway was increased by 18.3%, the infarct area was reduced by 22.4%, and the apoptosis rate of myocardial cells was decreased by 25.2%. At the same time, the pathological structure of myocardial tissue was improved. Therefore, mir‐451 is an inhibitor gene of AMPK signaling pathway. Reducing the expression of mir‐451 can enhance the activity of AMPK signal pathway, and the increase of AMPK signal pathway activity is beneficial to reduce myocardial ischemia‐reperfusion injury.
Health-Related Quality of Life and Its Influencing Factors in Patients with Hepatitis B: A Cross-Sectional Assessment in Southeastern China
Authors: Chen Ping , Zhang Fen , Shen Yiqun , Cai Yubo , Jin Chaolei , Li Yan , Tu Mingmin , Zhang Weizhen , Wang Yu , Zhang Shi-Feng , Wang Jiangyun , Li Lanjuan
Published: July 2021

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is an important aspect in the management of patients with hepatitis B (HB), which remains a serious health problem in China. There have been relatively few HRQoL studies involving Chinese patients with HB. The aim of this study was to analyze HRQoL in patients diagnosed with HB living in Zhejiang Province, China. A cross-sectional sample of 98 patients with chronic HB (CHB), 56 patients with advanced HB that have developed cirrhosis, and 48 healthy controls (HCs), all from Zhejiang Province, was used in this study. HRQoL was assessed using Short-Form 36 (SF-36) version 2, European quality of life questionnaire-5 dimensions (EQ-5D), and chronic liver disease questionnaire (CLDQ). Intergroup score differences were detected with U tests. Factors with a significant effect on HRQoL were identified with Spearman correlational analyses. Patients with HB (both groups) had lower SF-36 scores than HCs (

p
<
0.01

), with the exception of general health subscores. Patients with HB cirrhosis had the lowest scores in the EQ-5D visual analog scale (VAS) component. Furthermore, patients with HB cirrhosis had lower (

p
<
0.01

) CLDQ scores than patients with CHB. In our HB patient cohort, disease stage and income level were the factors most associated with HRQoL variables; age, education level, and marital status were, each, also significantly associated with some HRQoL variables in patients with HB in our study (

p
<
0.05

or

p
<
0.01

). HRQoL is diminished in patients with HB in southeastern China. Disease stage and income emerged as key determinants of HRQoL scores. Augmenting social and medical supports for patients with HB, especially those with a socioeconomic status and an advanced disease stage, may help to enhance HRQoL.
Formulation and Development of an Experimental Polishing Paste with Antimicrobial Activity Based on Coturnix coturnix (Codorniz) Eggshell
Authors: Mayta-Tovalino Frank , Fernández-Giusti Alicia , Del Pino Joyce , Alvitez-Temoche Daniel , Mendoza Roman , Temoche Abigail , Munive-Degregori Arnaldo
Published: July 2021

Aim. To formulate and develop a new experimental polishing paste based on Coturnix coturnix eggshell and to evaluate its abrasive, remineralizing, and antibacterial activities. Materials and Methods. The research was experimental, longitudinal, comparative, and prospective. To measure the antibacterial efficacy, analysis units consisted of wells were made. The microorganisms S. aureus, E. coli, E. faecalis, C. albicans, and S. mutans were inoculated with experimental paste (Coturnix coturnix quail eggshell base) and control paste (Universal Polishing and Diamond Excel) consisting of n = 12 for each group. Results. It was found that, among the strains inoculated, the quail paste presented with the highest antimicrobial effectiveness to C. albicans and S. mutans with an average of 8.70 ± 0.14 and 11.65 ± 0.15 mm, respectively. On the other hand, the Universal Polishing paste only had an average of 7.00 ± 0.11 and 8.71 ± 0.11 mm for C. albicans and S. mutans, respectively. Significant differences were observed only in these two strains

p
<
0.001

. Conclusions. The quail paste demonstrated antimicrobial efficacy against C. albicans and S. mutans compared to control paste, Diamond Excel, and Universal Polishing according to the time and type of microorganism.
Differences in Acute Ischemic Stroke Management and Prognosis between Multiple Large-Vessel Occlusion and Single Large-Vessel Occlusion: Subanalysis of the RESCUE-Japan Registry 2
Authors: Tatebayashi Kotaro , Uchida Kazutaka , Kageyama Hiroto , Imamura Hirotoshi , Ohara Nobuyuki , Sakai Nobuyuki , Tanaka Kanta , Yamagami Hiroshi , Matsumoto Yasushi , Takeuchi Masataka , Morimoto Takeshi , Yoshimura Shinichi ,   RESCUE-Japan Registry 2 Investigators
Published: July 2021

Introduction: The management and prognosis of acute ischemic stroke due to multiple large-vessel occlusion (LVO) (MLVO) are not well scrutinized. We therefore aimed to elucidate the differences in patient characteristics and prognosis of MLVO and single LVO (SLVO). Methods: The Recovery by Endovascular Salvage for Cerebral Ultra-Acute Embolism Japan Registry 2 (RESCUE-Japan Registry 2) enrolled 2,420 consecutive patients with acute LVO who were admitted within 24 h of onset. We compared patient prognosis between MLVO and SLVO in the favorable outcome, defined as a modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score ≤2, and in mortality at 90 days by adjusting for confounders. Additionally, we stratified MLVO patients into tandem occlusion and different territories, according to the occlusion site information and also examined their characteristics. Results: Among the 2,399 patients registered, 124 (5.2%) had MLVO. Although there was no difference between the 2 groups in terms of hypertension as a risk factor, the mean arterial pressure on admission was significantly higher in MLVO (115 vs. 107 mm Hg, p = 0.004). MLVO in different territories was more likely to be cardioembolic (42.1 vs. 10.4%, p = 0.0002), while MLVO in tandem occlusion was more likely to be atherothrombotic (39.5 vs. 81.3%, p < 0.0001). Among MLVO, tandem occlusion had a significantly longer onset-to-door time than different territories (200 vs. 95 min, p = 0.02); accordingly, the tissue plasminogen activator administration was significantly less in tandem occlusion (22.4 vs. 47.9%, p = 0.003). However, interestingly, the endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) was performed significantly more in tandem occlusion (63.2 vs. 41.7%; adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 2.3; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.1–5.0). The type of MLVO was the only and significant factor associated with EVT performance in multivariate analysis. The favorable outcomes were obtained less in MLVO than in SLVO (28.2 vs. 37.1%; aOR, 0.48; 95% CI, 0.30–0.76). The mortality rate was not significantly different between MLVO and SLVO (8.9 vs. 11.1%, p = 0.42). Discussion/Conclusion: The prognosis of MLVO was significantly worse than that of SLVO. In different territories, we might be able to consider more aggressive EVT interventions.
Safety and Effectiveness of Recombinant Human Growth Hormone in Children with Turner Syndrome: Data from the PATRO Children Study
Authors: Backeljauw Philippe , Kanumakala Shankar , Loche Sandro , Schwab Karl Otfried , Pfäffle Roland Werner , Höybye Charlotte , Lundberg Elena , Battelino Tadej , Kriström Berit , Giemza Tomasz , Zouater Hichem
Published: July 2021

Introduction: PATRO Children is an international, observational, postmarketing surveillance study for a biosimilar recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH; somatropin, Omnitrope®; Sandoz), approved by the European Medicines Agency in 2006. We report safety and effectiveness data for patients with Turner syndrome (TS). Methods: The study population included infants, children, and adolescents with TS who received Omnitrope® treatment according to standard clinical practice. Adverse events (AEs) were monitored for safety evaluation, and height velocity (HV), height standard deviation score (HSDS), and HVSDS were calculated to evaluate treatment effectiveness. Results: As of August 2019, 348 TS patients were enrolled from 130 centers. At baseline, 314 patients (90.2%) were prepubertal and 284 patients (81.6%) were rhGH treatment naïve. The mean (range) age at baseline was 9.0 (0.7–18.5) years, and mean (SD) treatment duration in the study was 38.5 (26.8) months. Overall, 170 patients (48.9%) reported AEs, which were considered treatment related in 25 patients (7.2%). One treatment-related serious AE was reported (intracranial hypertension). Mean ΔHSDS after 3 years of therapy was +1.17 in treatment-naïve prepubertal patients and +0.1 in pretreated prepubertal patients. In total, 51 patients (31.1%) reached adult height (AH), 35 of whom were rhGH treatment naïve; in these patients, mean (SD) HSDS was −2.97 (1.03) at the start of Omnitrope® treatment, and they achieved a mean (SD) AHSDS of −2.02 (0.9). Conclusion: These data suggest that biosimilar rhGH is well tolerated and effective in TS patients managed in real-life clinical practice. Optimization of rhGH dose may contribute to a higher AH.
ACCEPT®: A Complementary Anthroposophical Program for the Palliative Treatment of Lung Cancer – Rationale and a Randomized Feasibility Study
Authors: Schibel Silke , Steinert Marie , Matthes Harald , Grah Christian
Published: July 2021

Background: Lung cancer is the oncological disease with the highest mortality worldwide. Health-related quality of life is severely compromised in the majority of patients. While the efficacy of early palliative psychosocial therapy has been demonstrated in several recent studies, appropriate therapy modules could so far not be integrated into daily practice of care. Therefore, an additive multimodal treatment concept for oncological centers was drafted: the Additive anthroposophic integrative medicine Cancer Concept of Early supportive or Palliative lung cancer Treatment (ACCEPT®). Patients and Methods: The first module consisted of a 3-month health education program, the second module was a concept of psychosocial interventions, and the third module was a supervised home training program. Between 2017 and 2018, 20 lung cancer patients (UICC IIIB/IV) were included and randomly assigned to treatment (n = 10) or a waiting control group (n = 10). The treatment group started ACCEPT® for 3 months immediately after diagnosis and received also standard oncological care (SOC) while the waiting control group received SOC only for 3 months, followed by ACCEPT® after this period. Health-related quality of life, disease management, disease-specific symptoms, and feasibility of the ACCEPT® were monitored at 4 time points. Results: 7 out of 10 patients in the treatment group (3 dropped out) and 6 out of 10 in the waiting control group (4 died during the intervention) completed treatment. Discussion/Conclusion: Lung cancer patients with high symptom load may benefit from ACCEPT®. The feasibility of this adjunctive therapy was demonstrated. The combination of SOC and ACCEPT® is feasible and applicable to a heterogeneous patient group and should be further evaluated with respect to efficacy and dosing.
Interferon Gamma Secretion of Adaptive and Innate Immune Cells as a Parameter to Describe Leukaemia-Derived Dendritic-Cell-Mediated Immune Responses in Acute Myeloid Leukaemia in vitro
Authors: Klauer Lara Kristina , Schutti Olga , Ugur Selda , Doraneh-Gard Fatemeh , Amberger Daniel Christoph , Rogers Nicole , Krämer Doris , Rank Andreas , Schmid Christoph , Eiz-Vesper Britta , Schmetzer Helga Maria
Published: July 2021

Introduction: Myeloid leukaemic blasts can be converted into leukaemia-derived dendritic cells (DCleu), characterised by the simultaneous expression of dendritic- and leukaemia-associated antigens, which have the competence to prime and enhance (leukaemia-specific) immune responses with the whole leukaemic antigen repertoire. To display and further specify dendritic cell (DC)- and DCleu-mediated immune responses, we analysed the interferon gamma (IFNy) secretion of innate and adaptive immune cells. Methods: DC/DCleu were generated from leukaemic whole blood (WB) with (blast)modulatory Kit-I (granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor [GM-CSF] + Picibanil [OK-432]) and Kit-M (GM-CSF + prostaglandin E1) and were used to stimulate T cell-enriched immunoreactive cells. Initiated anti-leukaemic cytotoxicity was investigated with a cytotoxicity fluorolysis assay. Initiated IFNy secretion of T, NK, CIK, and iNKT cells was investigated with a cytokine secretion assay (CSA). IFNy positivity was additionally evaluated with an intracellular cytokine assay (ICA). Recent activation of leukaemia-specific cells was verified through addition of leukaemia-associated antigens (LAA; WT-1 and Prame) Results: We found Kit-I and Kit-M competent to generate mature DC and DCleu from leukaemic WB without induction of blast proliferation. Stimulation of immunoreactive cells with DC/DCleu regularly resulted in an increased anti-leukaemic cytotoxicity and increased IFNy secretion of T, NK, and CIK cells, pointing to the significant role of DC/DCleu in leukaemia-specific alongside anti-leukaemic reactions. Interestingly, an addition of LAA did not further increase IFNy secretion, suggesting an efficient activation of leukaemia-specific cells. Here, both the CSA and ICA yielded comparable frequencies of IFNy-positive cells. Remarkably, the anti-leukaemic cytotoxicity positively correlated with the IFNy secretion in TCD3+, TCD4+, TCD8+, and NKCD56+ cells. Conclusion: Ultimately, the IFNy secretion of innate and adaptive immune cells appeared to be a suitable parameter to assess and monitor the efficacy of in vitro and potentially in vivo acute myeloid leukaemia immunotherapy. The CSA in this regard proved to be a convenient and reproducible technique to detect and phenotypically characterise IFNy-secreting cells. In respect to our studies on DC-based immunomodulation, we were able to display the potential of DC/DCleu to induce or improve leukaemia-specific and anti-leukaemic activity.
First-Line Efficacy of Anti-HER2 Treatments in Previously Treated HER2-Positive Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients: A Retrospective Observational Study Investigating the Efficacy of Re-Exposure to Anti-HER2 Therapy for HER2-Positive Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients in Comparison with Naïve Patients
Authors: Waissengrin Barliz , Levin Roni , Wolf Ido , Shachar Eliya , Sonnenblick Amir
Published: July 2021

Background: Most patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer (MBC) receive first-line treatment with anti-HER2 agents and have already received anti-HER2 therapy as adjuvant or neoadjuvant therapy in the local setting of their disease presentation. Despite that, they constitute only a minority among clinical trials, and their response to reintroduction to anti-HER2 treatments is inconclusive based upon conflicting studies. We aimed to examine if previous exposure influences the clinical outcome of patients treated with anti-HER2 treatments compared to patients who were naïve to anti-HER2 agents. Methods: We conducted a retrospective observational study of HER2-positive MBC patients who were treated with trastuzumab and pertuzumab from 2014 to 2018. We collected and analyzed data including patients’ demographic characteristic as well as extracted data of previous treatment regimens and the efficiency of the anti-HER2 therapy measured by response rate (RR), time to tumor progression (TTP), and overall survival (OS). Results: Eighty patients met the inclusion criteria, 26 (32.5%) of them were previously exposed to anti-HER2 treatments and 54 (67.5%) were not previously exposed to anti-HER2 therapy. No significant differences were detected in RR after 3 months of treatment (p = 0.684). TTP was significantly better among patients with no previous exposure in comparison with patients with previous exposure to anti-HER2 therapy (21 vs. 14 months, p = 0.044) and we noted a trend in better OS (p = 0.056). Conclusion: Our analysis suggests that previous exposure to anti-HER2 agents might influence the clinical outcome of first-line treatment in metastatic HER2 patients. These findings justify further exploration of the benefit of reintroduction of anti-HER2 treatment enabling the optimal treatment for patients with previous anti-HER2 therapy exposure.
Alternative Diagnostic Models of the Psychotic Disorders: Evidence-Based Choices
Authors: Cohen Bruce M. , Öngür Dost , Babb Suzann M.
Published: July 2021

Standard diagnostic systems, the predominantly categorical DSM-5 and ICD-11, have limitations in validity, utility, and predictive and descriptive power. For psychotic disorders, these issues were partly addressed in current versions, but additional modifications are thought to be needed. Changes should be evidence based. We reviewed categorical, modified-categorical, and continuum-based models versus factor-based models of psychosis. Factors are clusters of symptoms or single prominent aspects of illness. Consistent evidence from studies of the genetics, pathobiology, and clinical presentation of psychotic disorders all support an underlying structure of factors, not categories, as best characterizing psychoses. Factors are not only the best fit but also comprehensive, as they can encompass any key feature of illness, including symptoms and course, as well as determinants of risk or response. Factors are inherently dimensional, even multidimensional, as are the psychoses themselves, and they provide the detail needed for either grouping or distinguishing patients for treatment decisions. The tools for making factor-based diagnoses are available, reliable, and concordant with actual practices used for clinical assessments. If needed, factors can be employed to create categories similar to those in current use. In addition, they can be used to define unique groupings of patients relevant to specific treatments or studies of the psychoses. Lastly, factor-based classifications are concordant with other comprehensive approaches to psychiatric nosology, including personalized (precision treatment) models and hierarchical models, both of which are currently being explored. Factors might be considered as the right primary structural choice for future versions of standard diagnostic systems, both DSM and ICD.
Formative Evaluation of the Families SHARE Disease Risk Tool among Low-Income African Americans
Authors: de la Haye Kayla , Whitted Calandra , Koehly Laura M.
Published: July 2021

Introduction: Family Health Histories (FHH) have been endorsed by the surgeon general as a powerful yet underutilized tool for identifying individuals at risk for complex chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. FHH tools provide a mechanism for increasing communication about disease history and motivating behavior change to reduce disease risk. A critical gap in translation efforts includes a lack of research that adapts and evaluates tools for low-income, minority populations who experience disparities in chronic disease. Methods: This study is a formative mixed-methods evaluation of an evidence-based FHH intervention called “Families SHARE” among African Americans residing in low-income neighborhoods. Participants (N = 51) completed assessments before and 6 weeks after receiving the intervention, including surveys and focus groups. We evaluated (a) their use, understanding, and perceived value of the tool; (b) if the intervention led to increased intentions to adopt disease risk-reducing behaviors among those with heightened disease risk, given their FHH; and (c) acceptability of and recommendations for the tool. Results: The quantitative and qualitative data indicated that this population valued and used the tool, and it prompted communication about FHH with family, friends, and others. Receipt of the intervention resulted in mixed accuracy of their perceived disease risk, and it did not shift intentions to change health behaviors. Qualitative data provide insights for future iterations of the Families SHARE tool. Conclusion: Families SHARE is an engaging FHH tool that can be further tailored to optimize its value and benefits for low-income African Americans.
Comparison of Associations between One-Carbon Metabolism, Lipid Metabolism, and Fatty Liver Markers in Normal-Weight and Overweight People Aged 20–40 Years
Authors: Młodzik-Czyżewska Monika A. , Szwengiel Artur , Malinowska Anna M. , Chmurzynska Agata
Published: July 2021

The aim of the present study was to compare biomarkers of one-carbon metabolism (OCM), lipid metabolism, and fatty liver in people with normal and increased body weight. The study was performed on 421 participants, aged 20–40 years, enrolled in Poznan, Poland, in 2016–2018. Choline and betaine intakes were assessed. DNA samples were genotyped for polymorphisms of phosphatidylethanolamine N-methyltransferase (PEMT; rs7946 and rs12325817), methylene tetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR; rs180113), methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase (MTHFD1; rs2236225), and dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR; rs70991108). To assess the associations between blood metabolites (choline, betaine, folate, L-carnitine, o-acetyl-L-carnitine, and trimethylamine N-oxide]), circulating lipids, and fatty liver indices, multiple logistic regression analyses were performed. Overweight/obese participants had 5.8% higher choline (p < 0.05) and 10% higher L-carnitine (p < 0.001) levels than normal-weight subjects. Serum folate and betaine levels were associated with lower total cholesterol (p < 0.001 and p < 0.05), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (p < 0.001 and p < 0.05, respectively), triacylglycerols (p < 0.01 and p < 0.001), and triglyceride glucose index (p < 0.001 and p < 0.01, respectively), though only in overweight/obese people. The PEMT rs12325817 CC genotype was associated with higher levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (p < 0.01) in overweight/obese people. The associations between OCM markers, fatty liver indices, and blood lipids differ in subjects with normal and excessive body weight.
New Parameter of the Second Half of the P-Wave, P-Wave Duration, and Atrial Conduction Times Predict Atrial Fibrillation during Electrophysiological Studies
Authors: Carmona Puerta Raimundo , Lorenzo Martínez Elizabeth , Rabassa López-Calleja Magda Alina , Padrón Peña Gustavo , Castro Torres Yaniel , Cruz Elizundia Juan Miguel , Rodríguez González Fernando , García Vázquez Luis Ángel , Chávez González Elibet
Published: July 2021

Objective: Several P-wave parameters reflect atrial conduction characteristics and have been used to predict atrial fibrillation (AF). The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between maximum P-wave duration (PMax) and new P-wave parameters, with atrial conduction times (CT), and to assess their predictive value of AF during electrophysiological studies (AF-EPS). Subjects and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study in 153 randomly selected patients aged 18–70 years, undergoing EPS. The patients were divided into 2 groups designated as no AF-EPS and AF-EPS, depending on whether AF occurred during EPS or not. Different P-wave parameters and atrial CT were compared for both study groups. Subsequently, the predictive value of the P-wave parameters and the atrial CT for AF-EPS was evaluated. Results: The values of CT, PMax, and maximum Ppeak-Pend interval (Pp-eMax) were significantly higher in patients with AF-EPS. Almost all P-wave parameters were correlated with the left CT. PMax, Pp-eMax, and CT were univariate and multivariate predictors of AF-EPS. The largest ROC area was presented by interatrial CT (0.852; p < 0.001; cutoff value: ≥82.5 ms; sensitivity: 91.1%; specificity: 81.1%). Pp-eMax showed greater sensitivity (79.5%) to discriminate AF-EPS than PMax (72.7%), but the latter had better specificity (60.4% vs. 41.5%). Conclusions: Left atrial CT were directly and significantly correlated with PMax and almost all the parameters of the second half of the P-wave. CT, PMax, and Pp-eMax (new parameter) were good predictors of AF-EPS, although CT did more robustly.
Cytogenetic and Fluorescence in situ Hybridization Profile of Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in a University Hospital in South India
Authors: Magatha Latha Sneha , Scott Julius Xavier , Subramaniam Gayathri , Chandrasekaran Thirugnanasambandan , Paul Solomon Franklin Durairaj , Koshy Teena
Published: July 2021

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the cytogenetic and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) profile in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), referred to a university hospital in a 5-year 6-month period. Subjects and Methods: Cytogenetic analysis of the bone marrow aspirate specimens of 91 patients was performed by standard Giemsa (G)-banding and interphase FISH (iFISH). Results: The frequency of chromosomal abnormalities detected by G-banding was 29.5%, and the frequency of nonrandom abnormalities with independent prognostic significance identified by iFISH was 46.4%. The abnormality with the highest frequency was gain of RUNX1 (n = 18, 21.4%), followed by ETV6/RUNX1 fusion (n = 7, 8.3%), and gain of KMT2A (n = 6, 7.1%). Additionally, rarely reported gains of ETV6, PBX1, and ABL1 were observed at a frequency of 6% (n = 5), and the deletion of ETV6 and TCF3 was seen at a frequency of 3.6% (n = 3) and 2.3% (n = 2), respectively. A 10-year old with intrachromosomal amplification of chromosome 21 was also observed. Conclusions: This study strengthens and widens the current knowledge of the cytogenetic landscape of pediatric ALL.
Comparative studies of multiscale edge detection using different edge detectors for MRI thigh
Authors: Meng Belinda Chong Chiew , Damit Dayang Suhaida Awang , Damanhuri Nor Salwa
Published: July 2021

Edge detection plays an important role in computer vision to extract object boundary. Multiscale edge detection method provides a variety of image features by different resolution at multiscale of edges. The method extracts coarse and fine structure edges simultaneously in an image. Due to this, the multiscale method enables more reliable edges are detected. Most of the multiscale methods are not translation invariant due to the decimated process. They mostly depend on the corresponding transform coefficients. These methods need more computation and a larger storage space. This study proposes a multiscale method that uses an average filter to smooth image at three different scales. Three different classical edge detectors namely Prewitt, Sobel and Laplacian were used to extract the edges from the smooth images. The edges extracted from the different scales of smooth images were then combined to form the multiscale edge detection. The performances of the multiscale images extracted from the three classical edge detectors were then compared and discussed.
Data mining applied about polygamy using sentiment analysis on Twitters in Indonesian perception
Authors: Hertina Hertina , Nurwahid Muhammad , Haswir Haswir , Sayuti Hendri , Darwis Amri , Rahman Miftahur , Yendra Rado , Hamzah Muhammad Luthfi
Published: July 2021

Polygamy remains one of the interesting key topics in various society, especially Indonesia. Polygamy is the act of marrying multiple spouses that means having more one wife at the same time, is common case in worldwide. In this problem, the most of Muslim in Indonesia adopt Islamic law that let men to do the polygamy with certain requirements. In worldwide communities, this has been a prominent feature and has become the subject of numerous books, heated debates, journal articles, discussion papers, and so on. Furthermore, in Indonesia the polygamous marriage has recently become a heated topic. Despite controversy, Indonesia’s law, of recent, allows people for doing polygamy in certain conditions. Because the polygamy is often debated, this study focuses on assessment of Indonesian’s perceptions through sentiment analysis and would determine people’s perception about polygamy issue from 500 tweets on Twitter. To conclude, it elucidates that the polygamy in Indonesia is a normal thing and few assume the case is as negative thing.
eHMCOKE: an enhanced overlapping clustering algorithm for data analysis
Authors: Danganan Alvincent E. , De Los Reyes Edjie Malonzo
Published: July 2021

Improved multi-cluster overlapping k-means extension (IMCOKE) uses median absolute deviation (MAD) in detecting outliers in datasets makes the algorithm more effective with regards to overlapping clustering. Nevertheless, analysis of the applied MAD positioning was not considered. In this paper, the incorporation of MAD used to detect outliers in the datasets was analyzed to determine the appropriate position in identifying the outlier before applying it in the clustering application. And the assumption of the study was the size of the cluster and cluster that are close to each other can led to a higher runtime performance in terms of overlapping clusters. Therefore, additional parameters such as radius of clusters and distance between clusters are added measurements in the algorithm procedures. Evaluation was done through experimentations using synthetic and real datasets. The performance of the eHMCOKE was evaluated via F1-measure criterion, speed and percentage of improvement. Evaluation results revealed that the eHMCOKE takes less time to discover overlap clusters with an improvement rate of 22% and achieved the best performance of 91.5% accuracy rate via F1-measure in identifying overlapping clusters over the IMCOKE algorithm. These results proved that the eHMCOKE significantly outruns the IMCOKE algorithm on mosts of the test conducted.
Optimal setting of DOC relay in distribution system in presence of D-FACTS
Authors: Bougouff Lazhar , Chaghi Abdelaziz
Published: July 2021

The process of selecting optimal settings for directional over-current relays (DOC relays) is a selection of time dial setting (TDS) and IP (backup current), So that changes in the system of electrical power distribution. In this work, a breeder genetic algorithm (BGA) has been applied to optimal settings of DOC relays with multisystem D-FACTS devices. The simulation consists of two network operation scenarios, scenario without D-FACTS which consisting of coordination of DOC relays against three phase faults, and the second scenarios with multi TCSC. In general, had been verified on optimal settings of relays that the impacts of TCSC insertion in 33-bus distribution system on DOC relays.
Expecting confirmed and death cases of covid-19 in Iraq by utilizing backpropagation neural network
Authors: Al-Ridha Moatasem Yaseen , Anaz Ammar Sameer , Al-Nima Raid Rafi Omar
Published: July 2021

The world is currently facing a strong epidemic and pandemic of coronavirus. This motivates establishing our paper, where this virus pushes researchers to study, investigate, observe, analyse and try solving its related issues. In this work, an artificial neural network (ANN) model of backpropagation neural network (BNN) with two hidden layers is proposed for expecting confirmed cases and death cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19). As a field of study, Iraq country has been considered in this paper. Covid-19 dataset from our world in data (OWID) is used here. Promising result is achieved where a very small error value of 0.0035 is reported in overall the evaluations. This paper may implicate establishing further researches that consider other parameters and other countries over the world. It is worth mentioning that the suggested ANN model may help decision maker people in taking quarantine movements against the strong epidemic and pandemic of covid-19.
Execution of a smart street lighting system for energy saving enhancement
Authors: Satam Ihab Abdulrahman , N. Shahab Suhail , Kamel Haider Abdulameer , Al-Hamadani Mokhaled N. A
Published: July 2021

In many countries, particularly, third world countries. The common issue is saving energy. That`s why smart systems considered now primary for life requirements. This work aims to solve the energy saving problem. We prepared a street model that contains several lampposts on both sides of the street; we placed three IR sensors between the lampposts alongside the street. The IR sensors are connected to the controller (in this work we used Arduino UNO). The controller takes the signal from the IR sensor, and then it sends the command to the lamppost to turn on or off. Depending on the number of cars passed, (we took a sample of a number of cars that passed on an actual street) and through formulas we calculated the power consumed by the lampposts in two cases, the first case is when the lights is always on. The second case is when the smart system applied. We also applied fuzzy logic to the system to take the intensity of the ambient light (the sun light) under consideration. The results showed that the proposed smart lighting system is efficient and reliable in saving energy. The energy saved for both (smart and fuzzy) systems was enormous.
Convolutional neural networks framework for human hand gesture recognition
Authors: Mahmoud Aseel Ghazi , Hasan Ahmed Mudheher , Hassan Nadia Moqbel
Published: July 2021

Recently, the recognition of human hand gestures is becoming a valuable technology for various applications like sign language recognition, virtual games and robotics control, video surveillance, and home automation. Owing to the recent development of deep learning and its excellent performance, deep learning-based hand gesture recognition systems can provide promising results. However, accurate recognition of hand gestures remains a substantial challenge that faces most of the recently existing recognition systems. In this paper, convolutional neural networks (CNN) framework with multiple layers for accurate, effective, and less complex human hand gesture recognition has been proposed. Since the images of the infrared hand gestures can provide accurate gesture information through the low illumination environment, the proposed system is tested and evaluated on a database of hand-based near-infrared which including ten gesture poses. Extensive experiments prove that the proposed system provides excellent results of accuracy, precision, sensitivity (recall), and F1-score. Furthermore, a comparison with recently existing systems is reported.
Design compact microstrap patch antenna with T-shaped 5G application
Authors: Abdulbari Ali Abdulateef , Jawad Mustafa Mohammed , Hanoosh H. O. , Saare Murtaja Ali , Lashari Saima Anwar , Sari Sari Ali , Ahmad Sarosh , Khalill Yaser , Hussain Yaqdhan Mahmood
Published: July 2021

This paper is presents a microstrap patch with a T-shaped rectangular antenna workings; the T-shaped patch operating at 3.6 GHz resonating frequency range for 5G application (from 2.9 to 4.4 GHz) repectively. The overall size of the proposed antenna is 22×24×0.25 mm3; the feeding technique using a 50 Ω feed line to the antenna. The proposed antenna is printed on compact Rogers RT 588 lz substrate having permittivity (ɛr) 2.00, loss tangent (tan δ) 0.0021, with thikness 0.2 mm. The proposed antenna introducesmany advantages like small size, low profile, and simpler structure. The characteristics such as radiation pattern, reflection coefficient, gain, current distribution, and radiation efficiency are respectively presented and discussed, using CST microwave study in simulating and analysing. Introducing a slot with a rectangular T-shaped patch antenna achieved lower frequency with 98.474% radiation efficiency and peak gain of the proposed antenna at 2.52 dB. The fractional bandwidth is 42.81% (2.90 GHz to 4.48 GHz) with a resonant frequency of 3.6 GHz and return loss at 28.76 dB. This frequency band attributessuited 5 G mobile application.
Digital centralized water meter using 433 MHz LoRa
Authors: Hudiono Hudiono , Taufik Mochammad , Yoga Perdana Ridho Hendra , Rakhmania Amalia Eka
Published: July 2021

The local water supply corporation in Indonesia only uses analog water meter so that the monitoring of water usage information was conducted by officers manually. Officers must physically monitor the value in the customer's water meter that can lead to unreliable reading and ineffectiveness of process. Smart meter is one of the smart city metrics which could overcome this problem. This research uses the flow sensor to design and incorporate automated water meters. The measured value is then passed via the 433 MHz LoRa, a low-power wide-area network protocol, to the local hub, then forwarded to the server via the internet based cellular network. Results show that our proposed system's accuracy hit 97.31% at an ideal distance of 200 meters from customer to the local hub. The customer's water usage could be tracked in real time with our proposed system. Furthermore, the original water meter need not to be replaced which may minimize capital costs for this system.
Hoax analyzer for Indonesian news using RNNs with fasttext and glove embeddings
Authors: Adipradana Ryan , Nayoga Bagas Pradipabista , Suryadi Ryan , Suhartono Derwin
Published: July 2021

Misinformation has become an innocuous yet potentially harmful problem ever since the development of internet. Numbers of efforts are done to prevent the consumption of misinformation, including the use of artificial intelligence (AI), mainly natural language processing (NLP). Unfortunately, most of natural language processing use English as its linguistic approach since English is a high resource language. On the contrary, Indonesia language is considered a low resource language thus the amount of effort to diminish consumption of misinformation is low compared to English-based natural language processing. This experiment is intended to compare fastText and GloVe embeddings for four deep neural networks (DNN) models: long short-term memory (LSTM), bidirectional long short-term memory (BI-LSTM), gated recurrent unit (GRU) and bidirectional gated recurrent unit (BI-GRU) in terms of metrics score when classifying news between three classes: fake, valid, and satire. The latter results show that fastText embedding is better than GloVe embedding in supervised text classification, along with BI-GRU + fastText yielding the best result.
Navigation and motion control techniques for surface unmanned vehicle and autonomous ground vehicle: a review
Authors: Shamsuddin Putri Nur Farhanah Mohd , Ramli Roshahliza M. , Arifpin Mansor Muhamad
Published: July 2021

An excellent navigation, guidance, and control (NGC) system had a high impact on trajectory tracking and the following scenarios. Both scenarios will include the heading, tangent, and velocity parameters in the computation. However, the control system design problem is not a new issue in the unmanned surface vehicle (USV) and autonomous ground vehivle (AGV) due to this constraint faced by many researchers since early these autonomy developments. Hence, this paper listed and emphasizing the techniques, including techniques implementation, strength, and the algorithm's constraints, a fusion of several techniques implemented for vehicle's stability, a turning ahead, and heading estimation. This paper concerns the similar algorithm used in the USV and AGV. Most of the selected techniques are basic algorithms and have been frequently implemented to control both vehicles' systems. Previous research shows pure pursuit guidance is the most popular technique in AGV to control the degree-of-freedom (DOF) velocity and the dynamic rate (sway, surge, and yaw). Simultaneously, the line of sight (LOS) controller is very compatible with controlling the movement of the USV. In conclusion, the technique's simulation test needs further research that will expose in the actual situation.
An evolutionary approach to comparative analysis of detecting Bangla abusive text
Authors: Islam Tanvirul , Ahmed Nadim , Latif Subhenur
Published: July 2021

The use of Bangla abusive texts has been accelerated with the progressive use of social media. Through this platform, one can spread the hatred or negativity in a viral form. Plenty of research has been done on detecting abusive text in the English language. Bangla abusive text detection has not been done to a great extent. In this experimental study, we have applied three distinct approaches to a comprehensive dataset to obtain a better outcome. In the first study, a large dataset collected from Facebook and YouTube has been utilized to detect abusive texts. After extensive pre-processing and feature extraction, a set of consciously selected supervised machine learning classifiers i.e. multinomial Naïve Bayes (MNB), multi layer perceptron (MLP), support vector machine (SVM), decision tree, random forrest, stochastic gradient descent (SGD), ridge, perceptron and k-nearest neighbors (k-NN) has been applied to determine the best result. The second experiment is conducted by constructing a balanced dataset by random under sampling the majority class and finally, a Bengali stemmer is employed on the dataset and then the final experiment is conducted. In all three experiments, SVM with the full dataset obtained the highest accuracy of 88%.
Diagnosis and Management of Myocarditis in Children
Authors: Law Yuk M. , Lal Ashwin K. , Chen Sharon , Čiháková Daniela , Cooper Leslie T. , Deshpande Shriprasad , Godown Justin , Grosse-Wortmann Lars , Robinson Joshua D. , Towbin Jeffrey A. ,   on behalf of the American Heart Association Pediatric Heart Failure and Transplantation Committee of the Council on Lifelong Congenital Heart Disease and Heart Health in the Young and Stroke Council
Published: July 2021

Myocarditis remains a clinical challenge in pediatrics. Originally, it was recognized at autopsy before the application of endomyocardial biopsy, which led to a histopathology-based diagnosis such as in the Dallas criteria. Given the invasive and low-sensitivity nature of endomyocardial biopsy, its diagnostic focus shifted to a reliance on clinical suspicion. With the advances of cardiac magnetic resonance, an examination of the whole heart in vivo has gained acceptance in the pursuit of a diagnosis of myocarditis. The presentation may vary from minimal symptoms to heart failure, life-threatening arrhythmias, or cardiogenic shock. Outcomes span full resolution to chronic heart failure and the need for heart transplantation with inadequate clues to predict the disease trajectory. The American Heart Association commissioned this writing group to explore the current knowledge and management within the field of pediatric myocarditis. This statement highlights advances in our understanding of the immunopathogenesis, new and shifting dominant pathogeneses, modern laboratory testing, and use of mechanical circulatory support, with a special emphasis on innovations in cardiac magnetic resonance imaging. Despite these strides forward, we struggle without a universally accepted definition of myocarditis, which impedes progress in disease-targeted therapy.
Value Judgments at the Heart of Green Transformation: The Leverage of Pension Fund Investors
Authors: Berg Monika
Published: July 2021

As the urgency for green transformation grows, the question of whether finance capital can be harnessed to promote green transformation has been raised. Public pension funds are of particular interest since they are publicly governed, have long-term interest, and are growing in proportion to the global investment capital. However, transformative change demands a reprioritization of fundamental values in terms of trade-offs among economic, environmental, and social ends. This article identifies shifts in value judgments in public pension fund investments and particularly focuses on the institutional constraints by which value (re)priorities are resisted by investigating Swedish public pension funds. While there are signs of environmental embedding of the economy, I also note neutralization of the role and investment strategies of the funds, which has a stabilizing rather than a transformative function. The neutralization constrains deep green transformation, which demands politicization of the role of institutional investors.