bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Trends in alcohol‐related liver disease mortality in Australia: An age–period–cohort perspective
Authors: Livingston Michael , Room Robin , Chikritzhs Tanya , Taylor Nicholas , Yuen Wing See , Dietze Paul
Published: June 2023

Background and Aims

There have been few systematic attempts to examine how alcohol‐related mortality has changed in Australia, and no studies that have explored cohort effects in alcohol‐related mortality. This study uses more than 50 years of data to measure age, period and cohort trends in alcohol‐related liver disease (ALD) mortality.

Design, Setting and Cases

This was a retrospective age–period–cohort analysis of total Australian ALD mortality data from 1968 to 2020 in Australia. There was a total of 35 822 deaths—27 208 men (76%) and 8614 women (24%).

Measurements

Deaths from ALD were grouped into 5‐year age groups and periods (e.g. deaths for 20–24‐year‐olds between 1968 and 1972 were combined).

Findings

ALD mortality peaked in the late 1970s and early 1980s for both men and women. In age–period–cohort models, mortality was highest for cohorts born 1915–30. For example, men born between 1923 and 1927 had a relative risk of 1.58 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.52, 1.64] compared with men born between 1948 and 1952. For women, there was an increase in risk for cohorts born in the 1960s [e.g. the 1963–67 cohort had a relative risk (RR) of 1.16 (95% CI = 1.07, 1.25) compared with women born in 1948–52]. For men, there was a broad decline in mortality over time [e.g. in 2020, the RR was 0.87 (95% CI = 0.82, 0.92) compared with the reference year of 2000]. For women, mortality declined until 2000 and has been stable since.

Conclusions

Alcohol‐related liver disease mortality has declined across the Australian population since the 1970s and 1980s partly due to cohort‐specific shifts as the highest‐risk birth cohorts age. For women, this decline had stalled by the year 2000, and cohorts of women born during the 1960s were at higher risk than earlier cohorts, suggesting the need for thoughtful interventions as this population enters its highest‐risk years for ALD mortality.
The long‐run effects of the imperial bureaucracy: Two tales along the Great Wall of Ming China
Authors: Gao Ming , Gu Qiankun , He Shijun , Kong Dongmin
Published: June 2023

This article examines the long‐term effects of the administrative system using the Great Wall as a geographical discontinuity. Using town‐level nighttime light luminosity per capita as a measure of economic development, we find that today, luminosity per capita is significantly and robustly higher in towns south of the Great Wall than in those north of it. The holding of resource allocation authority by the administrative hierarchy and the uniform enforcement of justice by hierarchy officials were advantageous for city building and judicial cross‐territory enforceability on the south side of the great wall, which had a long‐term impact on the imperial bureaucracy.
Social vulnerability predictors of drug poisoning mortality: A machine learning analysis in the United States
Authors: Tatar Moosa , Faraji Mohammad R. , Keyes Katherine , Wilson Fernando A. , Jalali Mohammad S.
Published: June 2023

Background and Objectives

Drug poisoning is a leading cause of unintentional deaths in the United States. Despite the growing literature, there are a few recent analyses of a wide range of community‐level social vulnerability features contributing to drug poisoning mortality. Current studies on this topic face three limitations: often studying a limited subset of vulnerability features, focusing on small sample sizes, or solely including local data. To address this gap, we conducted a national‐level analysis to study the impacts of several social vulnerability features in predicting drug mortality rates in the United States.

Methods

We used machine learning to investigate the role of 16 social vulnerability features in predicting drug mortality rates for US counties in 2014, 2016, and 2018—the most recent available data. We estimated each vulnerability feature's gain relative contribution in predicting drug poisoning mortality.

Results

Among all social vulnerability features, the percentage of noninstitutionalized persons with a disability is the most influential predictor, with a gain relative contribution of 18.6%, followed by population density and the percentage of minority residents (13.3% and 13%, respectively). Percentages of households with no available vehicles, mobile homes, and persons without a high school diploma are the following features with gain relative contributions of 6.3%, 5.8%, and 5.1%, respectively.

Conclusion and Scientific Significance

We identified social vulnerability features that are most predictive of drug poisoning mortality. Public health interventions and policies targeting vulnerable communities may increase the resilience of these communities and mitigate the overdose death and drug misuse crisis.
Ecological networks as planning tools for African fragmented landscapes: Overcoming weaknesses for an effective connectivity conservation
Authors: Battisti Corrado
Published: June 2023

Landscape‐based Ecological Networks (EN) have been considered a conservation tool developed to contrast habitat fragmentation (HF) as an anthropogenic process. This approach, based on the “core‐buffer‐corridors” model, has been largely applied in the Northern world to plan human‐dominated landscapes. However, an application of this process to the African continent should be carried out with criticism. When adopting the EN approach as a connectivity conservation tool, planners must remember that (i) it is important to be aware that “core–buffer–corridors” designs are species‐specific, (ii) the identification of connective areas can be biased due to a “framing effect”, (iii) planners and managers focus too much on areas of conservation concern and less on human‐transformed sites where anthropogenic threats arise, (iv) ecological and social processes are dynamic and that it is necessary to apply a flexible approach, (v) ecologists only partially know the HF problem; therefore, they will have to involve experts from other disciplines, (vi) spatial patterns of HF may be determined by multiple threats, often historically overlapping, (viii) no planning solution can be exclusively top–down (i.e., only through governmental Agencies) and that, especially in areas of rapid urban expansion and demographic growth, local populations must be involved because they can make a difference in achieving conservation successes.
Does Tax‐Favored Policy Improve the Profitability of Environmental Protection Firms? An Empirical Study from the Implicit Tax Perspective
Authors: Cao Jifeng , Cui Yiwen
Published: June 2023

An implicit tax is a reduction in the pretax rate of return driven by tax preferences. With increasingly stringent requirements of sustainable development, Chinese government actively promotes environmental protection with the direct corporate income tax rate preferences, which provide a unique opportunity to examine whether implicit taxes remain a significant tax cost in the environmental protection industry. This paper finds the existence of implicit taxes in environmental protection firms and the market structure impedes the realization of implicit taxes. The market power and market concentration reduce the negative effect of tax preferences on the firm's pretax rate of return. The environmental protection firms with lower competition bear lower implicit taxes. These findings are important to evaluate the effectiveness of the tax incentives on environmental protection firms and other tax‐favored industries.
Role of the HLA‐G regulatory region polymorphisms in idiopathic recurrent spontaneous abortions (RSA)
Authors: Marik Binata , Nomani Khusru , Agarwal Nutan , Dadhwal Vatsla , Sharma Arundhati
Published: June 2023

Problem

HLA‐G polymorphisms have a functional impact on its expression and may cause a breakdown of maternal tolerance towards the semi‐allogenic fetus, resulting in recurrent spontaneous abortions (RSA). This study reports on the association of HLA‐G regulatory region polymorphisms with idiopathic RSA.

Methods

Seventy‐five couples with ≥2 spontaneous abortions were recruited in comparison to 75 healthy couples who had normal pregnancies. About 5 mL of blood samples were collected from all the participants, and DNA was extracted. Screening of HLA‐G 5′‐upstream regulatory region (5′‐URR) was done by direct sequencing in 50 each of RSA and healthy couples, respectively. The 14 bp deletion/insertion polymorphism in the 3′‐untranslated region (3′‐UTR) was genotyped in 75 each of RSA and healthy couples, respectively, by PCR amplification of HLA‐G exon 8. MedCalc, GraphPad Prism, Haploview, PLINK, and multifactor dimensionality reduction were used to analyze the data.

Results

HLA‐G screening revealed the presence of −762C/T, −725C/G, −716T/G, −689A/G, −486C/A, and −477C/G single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the 5′‐URR. At positions −762 and −477, the frequency of CC homozygotes was significantly higher in controls compared to the patients. The 14 bp deletion/insertion polymorphism in the 3′‐UTR showed an association with RSA with the heterozygous genotype being significantly higher in RSA compared to controls.

Conclusions

The study indicates a protective role of the CC genotypes of the two HLA‐G 5’‐URR polymorphisms, −762C/T and −477C/G, against RSA. It also suggests that women with the 14 bp deletion/insertion genotype have a significantly higher risk of RSA.
Changes in practice and management of placenta accreta spectrum disorder: A 20‐year retrospective cohort study
Authors: Holmes Victoria J. , Skinner Sasha , Silagy Michael , Rolnik Daniel L. , Mol Ben W. , Kroushev Annie
Published: June 2023

Background

Placenta accreta spectrum disorder is an increasingly prevalent cause of maternal morbidity in developed countries.

Aims

This study aimed to review the management and outcomes of cases of placenta accreta spectrum, and compare blood loss and blood transfusion rates, over time after an institutional change in planned primary surgeon from gynaecological oncologists to experienced obstetricians.

Methods

This retrospective cohort study included all cases of suspected or confirmed placenta accreta spectrum disorder (PASD) between 1999 and 2021 at Monash Health. Data were collected by reviewing medical records to obtain baseline characteristics, details of surgical planning and management and major maternal morbidity outcomes over a 20‐year period. The primary surgical lead was recorded as either gynaecological oncologist or experienced obstetricians. The primary outcomes were estimated maternal blood loss and number of units of blood transfused.

Results

A total of 88 patients were identified: 43 between 1999 and 2015 where gynaecological oncologists were the primary surgeon in 79% of cases and 45 between 2016 and 2021 where experienced obstetricians were the primary surgeon in 73.3% of cases. There was no statistically significant difference in the estimated blood loss between the two time periods (median: 2000 vs 2500 mL, P = 0.669). Hysterectomy rates were significantly reduced in the second time period, from 100 to 73.3%, P < 0.001.

Conclusion

Management of cases of PASDs has improved over time with changes in antenatal diagnosis and perioperative management, and management by experienced obstetricians has similar maternal outcomes compared to those whose management includes the presence of gynaecological oncologists.
The curvilinear relationship between corporate social responsibility and competitive advantage: Empirical evidence from China
Authors: Wu Dingyu , Li Xiaolin
Published: June 2023

The positive or negative impacts corporate social responsibility (CSR) may have on business performance have drawn research interest. In recent years, the focus of research has shifted toward the link between CSR and corporate competitive advantage. Corporate competitive advantage is a multifaceted and holistic concept that captures more than just corporate financial performance. Building on the resource‐based view (RBV), corporate competitive advantage construct theory, and CSR behavior theory, we explore how a firm's CSR engagement shapes its corporate competitive advantage. Our analysis of a panel dataset of 64 companies with a top‐100 CSR development index in China and 704 firm‐year observations over the sample period from 2009 to 2019 reveals an inverse U‐shaped relationship between CSR and corporate competitive advantage. This signifies that corporate competitive advantage first increases with CSR engagement but declines as it reaches a threshold level where CSR activities are beyond the affordability of the firm. We also examine how behaviors at various CSR engagement levels influence different dimensions of corporate competitive advantage. These results support a curvilinear relationship, explaining why many CSR strategies have been ineffective in the past. The findings may help guide corporate decisions and government policymaking on CSR.
Hierarchical Nuclear Norm Penalization for Multi-View Data Integration
Authors: Yi Sangyoon , Wong Raymond Ka Wai , Gaynanova Irina
Published: June 2023

The prevalence of data collected on the same set of samples from multiple sources (i.e., multi-view data) has prompted significant development of data integration methods based on low-rank matrix factorizations. These methods decompose signal matrices from each view into the sum of shared and individual structures, which are further used for dimension reduction, exploratory analyses, and quantifying associations across views. However, existing methods have limitations in modeling partially-shared structures due to either too restrictive models, or restrictive identifiability conditions. To address these challenges, we propose a new formulation for signal structures that include partially-shared signals based on grouping the views into so-called hierarchical levels with identifiable guarantees under suitable conditions. The proposed hierarchy leads us to introduce a new penalty, hierarchical nuclear norm (HNN), for signal estimation. In contrast to existing methods, HNN penalization avoids scores and loadings factorization of the signals and leads to a convex optimization problem, which we solve using a dual forward–backward algorithm. We propose a simple refitting procedure to adjust the penalization bias and develop an adapted version of bi-cross-validation for selecting tuning parameters. Extensive simulation studies and analysis of the genotype-tissue expression data demonstrate the advantages of our method over existing alternatives.
The Psychological Impact of Sending Children Away to Boarding Schools in Britain: Is there Cause for Concern?
Authors: James Gregory
Published: June 2023

This paper aims to consolidate existing literature on the psychological impact of sending children away to boarding schools in Britain. A scarcity of literature pertaining specifically to independent boarding schools leads the author to examine child developmental theory, peer victimization in the British Army, trauma within captivity and adaptive behaviours. In conclusion, it is clear from this research that more time and effort is needed to understand the psychological impact of sending children away from home to be schooled, socialized and parented institutionally. In particular, the ethos and traditions associated with British and colonial schools, and the way in which these things are preserved warrants further study as it appears to be a significant source of the attitude toward children in boarding schools. The psychoanalytic community may be best placed to understand, and make understood, the positive or negative impact on children attending boarding schools in Britain.
‘Lots of Black people are on meds because they're seen as aggressive’: STOMP, COVID‐19 and anti‐racism in community learning disability services
Authors: Holmes Ryan , Kearney Lucy , Gopal Sheetal , Daddi Inderpal
Published: June 2023

Background

The STOMP agenda (Stopping Over‐Medication of People with learning disabilities, autism, or both) drew focus to individuals with a diagnosis of a learning disability being prescribed psychotropic medication to manage ‘behaviours that challenge’. The following study is an audit of two community learning disability services in the London boroughs of Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea for compliance with national guidance on the use of medication in this population, the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic, and equality, diversity and anti‐racism.

Method

Routinely collected data were audited relating to clients identified in each service, totalling 54 participants. Data were audited against five standards: minimum effective dose, medication reviews, alternative multidisciplinary input, the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic and equality, diversity and anti–racism. Comparisons were made to the overall caseload (N = 365) where appropriate.

Results

Evidence demonstrated a greater risk of receiving psychotropic medication to manage behaviours that challenge for service users from racialised backgrounds, further evidencing institutional and/or individualised racism within practice for this population. Prescriptions also increased in dosage during the COVID‐19 pandemic exacerbated by insufficient provision of alternative input and regular multi‐disciplinary review as required by national guidance.

Conclusions

Community learning disability teams require dedicated, co‐produced STOMP pathways to review those at risk of over‐medication. Additional research is required to explore individual and systemic factors contributing to ethnic disparities in medication prescription for behaviours that challenge among people with learning disabilities. Further recommendations are considered around developing data collection, service user involvement, and future directions.
Cannabinoid CB2 receptor orthologues; in vitro function and perspectives for preclinical to clinical translation
Authors: Carruthers Emma R. , Grimsey Natasha L.
Published: June 2023

Cannabinoid CB2 receptor agonists are in development as therapeutic agents, including for immune modulation and pain relief. Despite promising results in rodent preclinical studies, efficacy in human clinical trials has been marginal to date. Fundamental differences in ligand engagement and signalling responses between the human CB2 receptor and preclinical model species orthologues may contribute to mismatches in functional outcomes. This is a tangible possibility for the CB2 receptor in that there is a relatively large degree of primary amino acid sequence divergence between human and rodent. Here, we summarise CB2 receptor gene and protein structure, assess comparative molecular pharmacology between CB2 receptor orthologues, and review the current status of preclinical to clinical translation for drugs targeted at the CB2 receptor, focusing on comparisons between human, mouse and rat receptors. We hope that raising wider awareness of, and proposing strategies to address, this additional challenge in drug development will assist in ongoing efforts toward successful therapeutic translation of drugs targeted at the CB2 receptor.

LINKED ARTICLES

This article is part of a themed issue Therapeutic Targeting of G Protein‐Coupled Receptors: hot topics from the Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists 2021 Virtual Annual Scientific Meeting. To view the other articles in this section visit http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bph.v181.14/issuetoc
SerpinB1 is required for Rev‐erbα‐mediated protection against acute lung injury induced by lipopolysaccharide‐in mice
Authors: Xiao Xue , Chen Sufang , Huang Ziyan , Han Xue , Dou Chaoxun , Kang Jiayi , Wang Tienan , Xie Hanbin , Zhang Linan , Hei Ziqing , Li Haobo , Yao Weifeng
Published: June 2023

Background and Purpose

Acute lung injury (ALI) is a serious, life‐threatening inflammation of the lungs that still lacks effective treatment. We previously showed that serine protease inhibitor B1 (SerpinB1) protects against ALI induced by orthotopic autologous liver transplantation. However, the role of SerpinB1 in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)‐induced ALI and its regulatory mechanisms are not known.

Experimental Approach

Wild‐type (WT) and SerpinB1 knockout (KO) mice were treated with intratracheal LPS stimulation to induce ALI. Some of the WT and KO mice were injected i.p. with melatonin, a rhythm‐related protein Rev‐erbα agonist. The circadian rhythm in WT mice was disrupted by exposing mice to 24 h of continuous dark or light conditions after intratracheal LPS. Neutrophils were isolated from alveolar lavage fluid of WT and KO mice, and from human peripheral blood. Neutrophils were treated with LPS and melatonin.

Key Results

Disruption of circadian rhythm by either 24‐h dark or light conditions exacerbated LPS‐induced ALI and decreased expression of Rev‐erbα and SerpinB1 protein in lung, whereas melatonin treatment increased SerpinB1 expression and attenuated LPS‐induced ALI in WT mice, but not in KO mice. In isolated neutrophils, Rev‐erbα was co‐localized with SerpinB1 and bound to its promoter to trigger SerpinB1 transcription. Furthermore, LPS stimulation increased formation of neutrophil extracellular traps, which was reversed by melatonin treatment in neutrophils from WT mice, but not from KO mice.

Conclusion and Implications

In mice, SerpinB1 is rhythmically regulated by Rev‐erbα, and its down‐regulation exacerbates LPS‐induced ALI by inducing formation of neutrophil extracellular traps.
Using YouTube vlogs to study women's experiences of participating in #MeToo
Authors: Cook Nancy , O'Halloran Olivia
Published: June 2023

In our effort to study women's experiences of participating in the #MeToo social movement and the effects it has had on their lives, we employed YouTube vlogs posted under that hashtag, instead of interviews, as our source of experiential data. Few scholars have engaged in detailed reflections on vlogs as a source of qualitative data. Even fewer evaluate vlogs in relation to studying sexual violence, particularly women's experiences of participating in #MeToo. In this paper we contribute to these methodological discussions by reflecting on our use of vlogs in such a study, appraising the productive potentials and concerns related to qualitative vlog data. They afforded us several methodological benefits, but also entailed ethical and analytical challenges.
Using a deep learning neural network for the identification of malignant cells in effusion cytology material
Authors: Sanyal Parikshit , Dey Pranab
Published: June 2023

Aim

To evaluate the application of an artificial neural network in the detection of malignant cells in effusion samples.

Materials and Methods

In this retrospective study, we selected 90 cases of effusion cytology samples over 2 years. There were 52 cases of metastatic adenocarcinoma and 38 benign effusion samples. In each case, an average of five microphotographs from the representative areas were taken at 40× magnification from Papanicolaou‐stained samples. A total of 492 images were obtained from these 90 cases. We applied a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) model to identify malignant cells in the cytology images of effusion cytology smears. The training was performed for 15 epochs. The model consisted of 783 layers with 188 convolution‐max pool layers in between.

Results

In the test set, the DCNN model correctly identified 54 of 56 images of benign samples and 49 out of 56 images of malignant samples. It showed 88% sensitivity, 96% specificity and 96% positive predictive value in the screening of malignant cases in effusion. The area under the receiver operating curve was 0.92.

Conclusion

DCNN is a unique technology that can detect malignant cells from cytological images. The model works rapidly and there is no bias in cell selection or feature extraction. The present DCNN model is promising and can have a significant impact on the diagnosis of malignancy in cytology.
Meta‐analysis on preventive and therapeutic effects of probiotic supplementation in infant atopic dermatitis
Authors: Husein‐ElAhmed Husein , Steinhoff Martin
Published: June 2023

Despite a large body of research, the effect of probiotic administration on the incidence and severity of atopic dermatitis (AD) shows conflicting results. We aimed to investigate whether probiotic supplementation reduces the incidence and severity of AD. Three databases were systematically searched. A 22% lower incidence of AD was found in the probiotic group. The reduction in incidence was 49% when probiotics were given to pregnant and lactating mothers, and 27% when they were given to pregnant mothers and infants. A 39% reduction of AD incidence was achieved when administered to pregnant‐breastfeeding mothers and infants. Significant differences in SCORAD (SCORing Atopic Dermatitis) favoring probiotics were observed, but the IDLQI remained unchanged. Lactobacillus (L.) rhamnosus was the most documented strain, but it turned out to be ineffective in reducing SCORAD. Conversely, L. paracasei and L. sakei showed a significant decrease in SCORAD. Probiotics are effective in the prevention of AD, but the effect is less conclusive for the treatment of AD, especially in infants <1 year. The intake of probiotics by breastfeeding mothers is an important measure and may become a novel preventive strategy. The preventive effect of probiotics against AD is not associated with family background or AD risk. L. paracasei and L. sakei show the greatest reduction in SCORAD.
Effects of climate change on the distribution of plant species and plant functional strategies on the Canary Islands
Authors: Hanz Dagmar M. , Cutts Vanessa , Barajas‐Barbosa Martha Paola , Algar Adam , Beierkuhnlein Carl , Collart Flavien , Fernández‐Palacios José María , Field Richard , Karger Dirk N. , Kienle David R. , Kreft Holger , Patiño Jairo , Schrodt Franziska , Steinbauer Manuel J. , Weigelt Patrick , Irl Severin D. H.
Published: June 2023

Aim

Oceanic islands possess unique floras with high proportions of endemic species. Island floras are expected to be severely affected by changing climatic conditions as species on islands have limited distribution ranges and small population sizes and face the constraints of insularity to track their climatic niches. We aimed to assess how ongoing climate change affects the range sizes of oceanic island plants, identifying species of particular conservation concern.

Location

Canary Islands, Spain.

Methods

We combined species occurrence data from single‐island endemic, archipelago endemic and nonendemic native plant species of the Canary Islands with data on current and future climatic conditions. Bayesian Additive Regression Trees were used to assess the effect of climate change on species distributions; 71% (n = 502 species) of the native Canary Island species had models deemed good enough. To further assess how climate change affects plant functional strategies, we collected data on woodiness and succulence.

Results

Single‐island endemic species were projected to lose a greater proportion of their climatically suitable area (x ̃ = −0.36) than archipelago endemics (x ̃ = −0.28) or nonendemic native species (x ̃ = −0.26), especially on Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, which are expected to experience less annual precipitation in the future. Moreover, herbaceous single‐island endemics were projected to gain less and lose more climatically suitable area than insular woody single‐island endemics. By contrast, we found that succulent single‐island endemics and nonendemic natives gain more and lose less climatically suitable area.

Main Conclusions

While all native species are of conservation importance, we emphasise single‐island endemic species not characterised by functional strategies associated with water use efficiency. Our results are particularly critical for other oceanic island floras that are not constituted by such a vast diversity of insular woody species as the Canary Islands.
Participatory local governance in rural Nepal: The primacy of informality
Authors: Bhusal Thaneshwar
Published: June 2023

Motivation

Nepal adopted a federal constitution in 2015 that created autonomous local governments across the country. A prime aim was to encourage ordinary people's participation in local decision‐making processes.

Purpose

To what extent do local governments in rural Nepal adopt informal approaches—approaches that reflect local social needs and desires—to participation in decision‐making?

Methods and approach

As part of interpretive case studies, the author gathered qualitative evidence as a participant observer of local government in five rural municipalities in Rasuwa District, a remote area on the northern border.

A framework was created to capture the concepts of participatory governance and sociology to guide data collection and analysis.

Findings

In the five municipalities studied, decisions were successively made in forums at village, ward and municipal levels. In the village, participation was considerable: all persons, all voices could be heard. But as proposals were aggregated upwards to ward and municipal levels, citizens participated less, being replaced by elected representatives and civil servants.

Nepal has showcased successful participatory processes by incorporating diverse local groups in a range of policy areas such as community forests, or in the operation of public services such as water or schools. The present research acknowledges their success in widening and deepening citizen participation; it also brings new knowledge to bear on deeply rooted culturally accepted informal participatory methods in rural local governments.

Policy implications

Because each local government has its own circumstances in which to operationalize participatory governance, reforms should recognize the prevalence of informalities in rural municipalities and the dominance of formalities in urban municipalities.
A role for ultra‐high resolution three‐dimensional printed human heart models
Authors: Arango Susana , Gorbaty Benjamin , Brigham John , Iaizzo Paul A. , Perry Tjörvi E.
Published: June 2023

Introduction

Echocardiography is essential for diagnosing and assessing the severity of perioperative structural and functional heart disease. Yet, educational opportunities to better understand echocardiography‐based cardiac anatomy remain limited by the two‐dimensional display, lack of anatomic details, variability of heart models, and costs and global access of training.

Methods

We performed micro computed tomography of human heart specimens not suitable for orthotopic transplantation. We created high‐resolution computational 3D models of different human hearts, sliced them in the different recommended American Society of Echocardiography views, and 3D printed them using different materials.

Results

We scanned, 3D modeled, and 3D printed a variety of human hearts both healthy and diseased. We have made the models available in the cardiac operating rooms and routinely use them for teaching anesthesia residents and cardiothoracic anesthesia fellows about basic and advanced echocardiographic views, cardiopulmonary bypass cannulation strategies, and valvular pathology and planned interventions.

Conclusion

We have generated a library of 3D printed hearts to display the recommended echocardiographic views as a unique educational tool designed to safely accelerate the understanding of absolute and relative human cardiac anatomy and pathology, especially related to gaining advanced appreciation of clinically employed perioperative echocardiography.
A simple artificial diet for feeding and sequestration assays for the milkweed bugsOncopeltus fasciatusandSpilostethus saxatilis
Authors: Espinosa del Alba Laura , Petschenka Georg
Published: June 2023

Insect artificial diets are not only an important tool for mass rearing, nutritional research, and maintaining laboratory colonies but also for studying insect‐plant interactions. For herbivorous insects able to sequester plant toxins, feeding and sequestration assays based on artificial diet allow for the investigation of physiological, ecological, and evolutionary questions which may be difficult to study using real plants representing complex chemical environments. We developed a simple artificial diet, consisting of sunflower meal pressed into pills, for the milkweed bugsOncopeltus fasciatus(Dallas) andSpilostethus saxatilis(Scopoli) (Heteroptera: Lygaeidae), which are capable of sequestering cardenolides and colchicum alkaloids, respectively. We assessed insect performance, suitability of the diet for sequestration assays, and its shelf life. Compared to sunflower seeds which are widely used as a laboratory maintenance diet for milkweed bugs, no differences were found in terms of weight development, presence of deformities, speed of development, or mortality. Importantly, after feedingO. fasciatusandS. saxatilissunflower pills enriched with crystalline ouabain (cardenolide) or colchicine (colchicum alkaloid), respectively, sequestration was observed in both species. Moreover, as a prerequisite to test ecological hypotheses, our method allows for adequate concentration control and homogenous distribution of toxins across the diet. Under relatively warm conditions (27 °C and 60% r.h.), the new diet was stable for up to 10 days when used for feeding assays with adult bugs. Therefore, studies focusing on the role of plant toxins in predator–prey interactions and plant defense, but also insecticide research could benefit from using this approach.
Changes in pollinators' flower visits and activities potentially drive a diurnal turnover of plant‐pollinator interactions
Authors: Nagano Yuta
Published: June 2023

Plant‐pollinator interactions are essential to sustaining biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in terrestrial ecosystems and are variable on several spatiotemporal scales. On a fine temporal scale, the responses of pollinators to temperature and floral resource dynamics are likely to be related to the temporal turnover of plant‐pollinator interactions. However, the temporal dynamics of plant‐pollinator interactions on a fine scale are largely unknown.

The present study aims to reveal the temporal turnover of plant‐pollinator interactions over a single day and investigates these interactions in semi‐natural grasslands in a Japanese agricultural landscape from the early morning to the evening. The interaction turnover was evaluated as temporal β‐diversity and divided into two components: interaction rewiring and species turnover.

Insect species richness and the number of interactions showed hump‐shaped responses to the time of the day, and these responses differed for the different insect groups. Furthermore, the peak time of insect visitation frequency differed among 11 plant species. Interaction turnover (total β‐diversity) in the same day was higher than that in different days. Although interaction rewiring in different days was higher than that in the same day, species turnover had an opposite pattern.

Over a single day, the relative importance of interaction rewiring was higher in the morning, while species turnover was higher in the evening. Around noon, interaction rewiring and species turnover were equally important.

Therefore, the daily rhythm of pollinator activities and changes in the main floral resources drive the temporal turnover of plant‐pollinator interactions over a single day.
Progressive conus medullaris lesions are suggestive of intravascular large B‐cell lymphoma
Authors: Kitahara Sho , Kanazawa Masato , Natsumeda Manabu , Sato Aki , Ishikawa Masanori , Hara Kenju , Tabe Hiroyuki , Makino Kunihiko , Okamoto Kouichirou , Fujita Nobuya , Kakita Akiyoshi , Fuji Yukihiko , Onodera Osamu
Published: June 2023

Background and purpose

Spinal cord lesions are observed in 40% of all central nervous system lesions in intravascular large B‐cell lymphoma (IVLBCL). However, because IVLBCL is a very rare disease, its clinical features are not well defined, which may delay appropriate diagnosis and treatment, whilst the acute to subacute course of brain lesions in patients with IVLBCL is well established. Therefore, this study aimed to clarify the clinical features of spinal cord lesions in patients with IVLBCL.

Methods

The medical records of patients with IVLBCL admitted to our hospital between 2010 and 2020 were searched. The inclusion criteria were preceding neurological symptoms without non‐neurological symptoms and pathologically confirmed IVLBCL in various organs. Clinical features of spinal cord involvement in patients with IVLBCL were assessed and distinguished from those of brain involvement.

Results

Sixteen consecutive patients with IVLBCL were divided into two groups: six patients with spinal involvement (spinal cord type) and 10 patients with brain involvement (brain type). In the spinal cord type, four patients had chronic progression and two had subacute progression. Acute progression (0% vs. 80.0%) and sudden onset (0% vs. 50.0%) occurred significantly less frequently in the spinal cord than in the brain. All spinal cord lesions involved the conus medullaris.

Conclusions

Spinal cord involvement in IVLBCL has a predominantly chronic progressive course that is exclusive to brain involvement. Conus medullaris lesions are suggestive of IVLBCL and are useful for early and accurate diagnosis and treatment.
Prediction of long‐term unprovoked seizures after status epilepticus
Authors: Rodrigo‐Gisbert Marc , Gómez‐Dabó Laura , Quintana Manuel , Campos‐Fernández Daniel , Lallana Sofía , Fonseca Elena , Abraira Laura , Toledo Manuel , Santamarina Estevo
Published: June 2023

Objective

Possible long‐term consequences of status epilepticus (SE) include cognitive and behavioral impairment and the development of chronic epilepsy. However, these aspects have not been systematically studied in clinical practice. We aimed to evaluate long‐term seizure recurrence after SE and the potential risk factors for their development.

Methods

Data were obtained from a prospective registry of all SE episodes occurring in adult patients who attended our center from February 2011 to April 2022. Clinical data, electroencephalographic findings, treatment, and long‐term data were prospectively recorded. We performed a cross‐sectional study of consecutive SE patients without previous epilepsy diagnosis, and analyzed the development of unprovoked remote seizures.

Results

A total of 849 patients were registered in the database. After excluding in‐hospital mortality (198/849, 23.3%) and patients with prior epilepsy history (291/849, 44.7%), 360 patients (42.4%) with a first SE episode were included. The median age was 68 years (interquartile range [IQR] = 56–79), and 176 patients (48.9%) were women. The median time to first‐line treatment initiation was 2 h (IQR = .7–7.4), and it was correlated with SE duration (R = .375, p < .001). One hundred nine patients (30.3%) presented unprovoked seizures during a median follow‐up of 1.8 years (IQR = .5–4.3). After adjusting for identifiable confounders in a multivariable Cox regression analysis, progressive symptomatic etiology (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.97, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.17–3.33, p = .011), time to first‐line treatment initiation > 1.5 h (HR = 1.89, 95% CI = 1.25–2.87, p = .003), and superrefractory SE (HR = 2.34, 95% CI = 1.26–4.33, p = .007) were independently associated with a greater risk of unprovoked seizure recurrence. In contrast, older patients (HR = .99, 95% CI = .97–.99, p = .021) and an acute symptomatic etiology (HR = .44, 95% CI .28–.68, p < .001) were at lower risk of unprovoked seizure recurrence.

Significance

The etiology of SE, the delay in initiating SE treatment, and the presence of superrefractoriness have been identified as potentials factors associated with unprovoked remote seizures following a new onset SE. Therefore, prompt and appropriate management should be applied to avoid seizure recurrence.
Focal to bilateral tonic–clonic seizures predict pharmacoresistance in focal cortical dysplasia–related epilepsy
Authors: Chang Phat , Xie Hua , Illapani Venkata Sita Priyanka , You Xiaozhen , Anwar Tayyba , Pasupuleti Archana , Vu Thuy‐Anh , Vezina L. Gilbert , Gholipour Taha , Oluigbo Chima O. , Zhang Anqing , Gaillard William Davis , Cohen Nathan T.
Published: June 2023

Objective

Focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) is the most common etiology of surgically‐remediable epilepsy in children. Eighty‐seven percent of patients with FCD develop epilepsy (75% is pharmacoresistant epilepsy [PRE]). Focal to bilateral tonic–clonic (FTBTC) seizures are associated with worse surgical outcomes. We hypothesized that children with FCD‐related epilepsy with FTBTC seizures are more likely to develop PRE due to lesion interaction with restricted cortical neural networks.

Methods

Patients were selected retrospectively from radiology and surgical databases from Children's National Hospital. Inclusion criteria: 3T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)–confirmed FCD from January 2011 to January 2020; ages 0 days to 22 years at MRI; and 18 months of documented follow‐up. FCD dominant network (Yeo 7‐network parcellation) was determined. Association of FTBTC seizures with epilepsy severity, surgical outcome, and dominant network was tested. Binomial regression was used to evaluate predictors (FTBTC seizures, age at seizure onset, pathology, hemisphere, lobe) of pharmacoresistance and Engel outcome. Regression was used to evaluate predictors (age at seizure onset, pathology, lobe, percentage default mode network [DMN] overlap) of FTBTC seizures.

Results

One hundred seventeen patients had a median age at seizure onset of 3.00 years (interquartile range [IQR] .42–5.59 years). Eighty‐three patients had PRE (71%); 34 had pharmacosensitive epilepsy (PSE) (29%). Twenty patients (17%) had FTBTC seizures. Seventy‐three patients underwent epilepsy surgery. Multivariate regression showed that FTBTC seizures are associated with an increased risk of PRE (odds ratio [OR] 6.41, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.21–33.98,p = .02). FCD hemisphere/lobe was not associated with PRE. Percentage DMN overlap predicts FTBTC seizures. Seventy‐two percent (n = 52) overall and 53% (n = 9) of patients with FTBTC seizures achieved Engel class I outcome.

Significance

In a heterogeneous population of surgical and non‐operated patients with FCD‐related epilepsy, the presence of FTBTC seizures is associated with a tremendous risk of PRE. This finding is a recognizable marker to help neurologists identify those children with FCD‐related epilepsy at high risk of PRE and can flag patients for earlier consideration of potentially curative surgery. The FCD‐dominant network also contributes to FTBTC seizure clinical expression.
Skin microbiome attributes associate with biophysical skin ageing
Authors: Zhou Wei , Fleming Elizabeth , Legendre Guylaine , Roux Lauriane , Latreille Julie , Gendronneau Gaëlle , Forestier Sandra , Oh Julia
Published: June 2023

Two major arms of skin ageing are changes in the skin's biophysical conditions and alterations in the skin microbiome. This work partitioned both arms to study their interaction in detail. Leveraging the resolution provided by shotgun metagenomics, we explored how skin microbial species, strains and gene content interact with the biophysical traits of the skin during ageing. With a dataset well‐controlled for confounding factors, we found that skin biophysical traits, especially the collagen diffusion coefficient, are associated with the composition and the functional potential of the skin microbiome, including the abundance of bacterial strains found in nosocomial infections and the abundance of antibiotic resistance genes. Our findings reveal important associations between skin biophysical features and ageing‐related changes in the skin microbiome and generate testable hypotheses for the mechanisms of such associations.
Comparison study of unsupervised paraphrase detection: Deep learning—The key for semantic similarity detection
Authors: Vrbanec Tedo , Meštrović Ana
Published: June 2023

Automatic detection of concealed plagiarism in the form of paraphrases is a difficult task, and finding a successful unsupervised approach for paraphrase detection is necessary as a precondition to change that. This comparative study identified the most efficient methods for unsupervised paraphrased document detection using similarity measures alone or combined with Deep Learning (DL) models. It proved the hypothesis that some DL models are more successful than the best statistically‐based methods in that task. Many experiments were carried out, and their results were compared. The text similarities between documents are obtained from 60 different methods using five paraphrase corpora, including the new one made by authors, as an important original contribution. Some DL models achieved significantly better results than those obtained by the best statistical methods, especially pre‐trained transformer‐based language models with average values of Accuracy and F1 of 85.8% and 88.3%, respectively, with top values of 99.9% and 98.4% for Accuracy and F1 on some corpora. These results are even better than those of supervised and combined approaches. Therefore, here presented results prove that detecting concealed plagiarism becomes an attainable goal. This study highlighted those language models with the best overall results for paraphrase detection as best suited for further research. The study also discussed the choice of similarity/distance measure paired with embeddings produced by DL models and some advantages of using cosine similarity as the fastest measure. For 60 different methods, complexity has been defined in O notation. Times needed for their implementation have also been presented. The article's results and conclusions are a firm base for future semantic similarity, paraphrasing, and plagiarism detection studies, clearly marking state‐of‐the‐art tools and methods.
Intergenerational solidarity with digital communication and psychological well‐being among older parents during the COVID‐19 pandemic
Authors: Hwang Woosang , Fu Xiaoyu , Brown Maria T. , Silverstein Merril
Published: June 2023

We aimed to identify intergenerational solidarity (emotional closeness, in‐person contact, phone contact, geographic proximity, consensus, and conflict) with digital communication (texting, video call, and social media interaction) with adult children among older parents during the COVID‐19 pandemic. In addition, we aimed to investigate whether intergenerational solidarity with digital communication latent classes were associated with older parents' psychological well‐being. We used the 2022 survey of the Longitudinal Study of Generations (LSOG). The sample consisted of 519 older parents who reported about 1245 adult children. Two‐level latent class analysis identified six classes at the child level (Level 1: distant but digitally connected, tight‐knit and digitally connected, tight‐knit traditional, detached, intimate but distant, and sociable). In addition, the analysis identified three classes at the parent level (Level 2: digitally connected, mixed, and intimate but distant). Results of multivariate regression showed that older parents in the digitally connected latent class had better psychological well‐being than those in the mixed latent class. Consequently, our finding indicates that digital solidarity with adult children can be beneficial for older parents' psychological well‐being during the COVID‐19 pandemic.