bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Landscape homogenization correlates with decreasing butterfly diversity
Authors: Habel Jan Christian , Schmitt Thomas , Ulrich Werner , Gros Patrick , Salcher Bernhard , Teucher Mike
Published: October 2022

Agricultural intensification leads to a strong homogenization of landscapes. Plots have become larger, boundaries of fields straight, and land plots have been cultivated more intensively. Field copses, ruderal areas and hedgerows were removed. As a result, most of these small-scale habitats located at the edges of fields have disappeared. Thus, many potential habitats of plant and animal species have been destroyed, and the permeability of the landscape decreased during the past decades. Landscape homogenization consequently impacts biodiversity and reduces species richness and abundance of many taxa. In this study, we surveyed changes of land cover and landscape configuration on a field-by-field basis, based on historical (1953) and recent (2018) aerial and satellite images. We further compiled data of butterfly diversity for the same time periods and region. Our data show significant decrease of field copses over the past decades. The landscape structure changed towards rather homogenous fields with straight boundaries among single land plots. The expected number of species per sample unit of an assumed species decreased significantly. Particularly butterflies relying on oligotrophic and xerothermic grasslands decreased, as well as sedentary specialist species. In contrast, the proportion of ubiquitous and mobile generalist species increased. This underlines the general trend of faunal homogenization and the loss of specialized and sedentary species, in the wake of landscape homogenization.
Conditional Hitting Time and Mean Residual life in Semi-Markov Models
Authors: Khorshidian K , Fathizadeh M
Published: October 2022

The mean residual life (MRL) in the repairable systems will have been introduced and a formula for its calculating presented based on the conditional distribution of the excess life for semi-Markov processes (SMPs). Moreover, the first hitting time to some specified state given the past history of the SMP has been presented besides calculating its expected value. By the best of our knowledge, it seems that there does not exist any specific research related to the issue of the MRL function in the area of repairable systems with semi-Markov structure. Nevertheless, there are a large amount of studies related to the various aspects of reliability systems, where almost all of them employ the MRL function and emphasis on the significant importance and applications of it. So, these studies and applications motivated us to examine the MRL function for repairable systems. As an application, a two unit cold standby system with a repairman has been considered as a semi-Markov model and the associated MRL has been studied in details.
Duodenal microbiota and weight-loss following sleeve gastrectomy and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass – a pilot study
Authors: Stefura Tomasz , Rusinek Jakub , Zając Maciej , Zapała Barbara , Gosiewski Tomasz , Sroka-Oleks Agnieszka , Salamon Dominika , Pędziwiatr Michał , Major Piotr
Published: October 2022

Background
Bariatric surgery is the most effective method of morbid obesity treatment. Microbiota has many functions in human body and many of them are still unknown. The aim of this study was to establish if the composition of duodenal microbiota influence success rate of bariatric surgery.
Methods
It was a prospective cohort study. The data concerning demographics and comorbidities was collected perioperatively. The duodenal biopsies were collected prior to surgery with the gastroscope. Then DNA analysis was conducted. The data connected to the operation outcomes was gathered after 6 and 12 months after surgery.
Results
The group of 32 patients was included. Two groups (successful – group 1 and unsuccessful – group 0) based on percentage excess weight loss after 6 months were created. The Total Actual Abundance was higher in group 0. In group 0 there was a significantly higher amount of Roseburia and Arthrobacter (p = 0.024, p = 0.027, respectively). Genus LDA effect size analysis showed Prevotella, Megasphaera and Pseudorhodobacter in group 1 to be significant. Whereas Roseburia and Arthrobacter were significant in group 0.
Conclusions
Duodenal microbiota composition may be a prognostic factor for the success of the bariatric surgery but further research on the larger group is needed.
Tsunami genesis of strike-slip earthquakes revealed in the 2018 Indonesian Palu event
Authors: Song Y. Tony , Chen Kejie , Prasetya Gegar
Published: October 2022

The devastating tsunami after the 2018 Indonesian Sulawesi-Palu strike-slip earthquake was a surprise because strike-slip faulting is a known phenomenon of primarily lateral movement of land, while tsunamis are believed to be caused by vertical movement of seafloor. Here we show that the horizontal displacement of seafloor slopes, instead of the vertical movement or land-sliding, was the primary cause of the tsunami. We reconstructed the earthquake from seismographs and satellite data, and used the earthquake-induced momentum to replicate the tsunami. We found that the strike-slip faulting could generate multiple tsunami sources by pushing waters laterally. Sources from the deeper slopes caused the deadly long-wave tsunami hit the Palu city, while sources outside the Palu bay resulted in the “early arrival” tsunami at Mamuju, explained observations that could not be reconciled previously. Our findings suggest a new approach of using lateral movement of faulting to detect tsunamis for early warning.
Dynamic analysis of the rotor system with elastic ring squeeze film damper considering oil film temperature
Authors: Luo Zhong , Sun Kai , Ge Xiangdong , Zhou Guangze , Cui Zewen
Published: October 2022

Elastic ring squeeze film damper (ERSFD) is widely used for vibration and noise control of industrial rotating machinery. However, the oil film temperature has an impact on the ERSFD rotor system under large unbalanced force and speed, which is not considered in the existing ERSFD rotor system research. In this paper, by coupling energy equation with Reynolds equation and viscosity-temperature equation, an ERSFD model considering oil film temperature is established to investigate the oil film force and temperature distribution. Based on this model, an ERSFD combined support rotor considering oil film temperature is modeled by coupling the dynamic equations of the combined support rotor with the ERSFD reaction force. Then, the influence of oil film temperature on the amplitude frequency response curve and the sudden unbalance response curve of the ERSFD rotor is analyzed. The results reveal that lower temperature decreases the vibration amplitude and shortens the transient process. Finally, the established model and some simulation results are validated by the ERSFD rotor test platform.
An Empirical Study of Pre-trained Language Models in Simple Knowledge Graph Question Answering
Authors: Hu Nan , Wu Yike , Qi Guilin , Min Dehai , Chen Jiaoyan , Pan Jeff Z. , Ali Zafar
Published: October 2022

Large-scale pre-trained language models (PLMs) such as BERT have recently achieved great success and become a milestone in natural language processing (NLP). It is now the consensus of the NLP community to adopt PLMs as the backbone for downstream tasks. In recent works on knowledge graph question answering (KGQA), BERT or its variants have become necessary in their KGQA models.However, there is still a lack of comprehensive research and comparison of the performance of different PLMs in KGQA. To this end, we summarize two basic KGQA frameworks based on PLMs without additional neural network modules to compare the performance of nine PLMs in terms of accuracy and efficiency. In addition, we present three benchmarks for larger-scale KGs based on the popular SimpleQuestions benchmark to investigate the scalability of PLMs. We carefully analyze the results of all PLMs-based KGQA basic frameworks on these benchmarks and find that knowledge distillation techniques and knowledge enhancement methods in PLMs are promising for KGQA. We have released the code and benchmarks to promote the use of PLMs on KGQA.
A generalized GPR application potential zonation in the karst catchment of SW China
Authors: Gao Qiangshan , Hussain Yawar , Cao Le , Cheng Dandan
Published: October 2022

The epikarst together with its soil stocks (subcutaneous structure), resulted from the dissolution and weathering of soft rocks, are crucial to the fact that they may contribute to the canopy growth and can significantly influence the ecological restoration and organic carbon sequestration. For the delineation of these ecological significant karst features, ground penetrating radar (GPR) seemed to be a promising technique because of its noninvasive, cost-prohibited and lesser labor-intensive operations. However, the landscape heterogeneity, connection between surface morphology and underground environments and high vegetative endemism making karst as a complicated environment for any geophysical application. Same is the case with the GPR applicability in SW Chinese catchment as it is affected by numerous features such as epikarst slope, peak-cluster depression, tree trunks and roots, precipitation and moisture contents as well as proximity to high voltage power lines. Considering these factors, the present study analyzes the GPR data acquired at the sites representing each of these aforementioned features. The analysis includes calculation of GPR attributes as average energy, coherence and total energy together with the forward calculations wherever required. Tilt signals from surrounding hills mix with the tilt signals from subsurface inclined interfaces in a GPR image. The information of soil-rock distribution above epikarst in the slope is difficult to obtain completely for GPR. The interpretation of epikarst bottom boundary faces two possibilities considering the affects of moisture. The affects of tree trunks and roots and strong electromagnetic fields of high voltages lines make the GPR data interpretation about subsurface soil-rock structure high difficult. The soil moisture greater than ~ 30% makes GPR inapplicability. These site-specific findings are used for the generalized GPR application potential zonation in the typical SW Chinese catchment (the central Guizhou plateau). The findings of the present study may prove as a reconnaissance and an application paradigm for the future GPR utilities in complex karst characterization especially, in SW China as well as the areas having similar karstic conditions.
Highly sensitive RI sensor based on a D-shaped modulated single-mode-graded-index multimode-single- mode fiber structure
Authors: XIANG ZIHANG , RUI ZEJU , ZENG FEI , WANG SHENGJIA , LU CHUPENG , WANG YIFEI , SUN CUITING , JIN XIREN , LI SONG , GENG TAO
Published: October 2022

A novel refractive-index (RI) sensor based on a D-shaped modulated single-mode-graded-index multimode-single-mode fiber (DM-SGIMS) structure is presented and investigated in detail. A CO2 laser was used to process the SGIMS structure, which produced a strong evanescent field. The structural parameters were determined via simulations, and the experimental results were consistent with those of the theoretical analysis. The transmission spectra and RI sensitivity of the fabricated sensors with different lengths were compared via experiments, the results of which indicated that the maximum RI sensitivity was 811.00 nm/RIU in the range 1.333–1.419. Therefore, the proposed DM-SGIMS structure can provide high-precision measurement capabilities and can be applied in the field of biochemistry.
An origami 3D patterned cellulose-based scaffold for bioengineering cardiovascular applications
Authors: Rodriguez Gabriela Melo , Trueb Donata , Köser Joachim , Schoelkopf Joachim , Gullo Maurizio
Published: October 2022

In this work we describe the manufacturing of cellulosic, cell compatible scaffolds with an inherent 3D origami crease pattern for applications in cardiac tissue engineering. Different cellulosic materials were studied, among them cotton linters, fibers obtained from eucalyptus, pine, spruce and lyocell. Formed sheets made of cotton linters were chosen for further study due to the highest biocompatibility and mechanical properties best suited for cardiomyocytes in wet and dry conditions: E - modulus of 0.8 GPa, tensile strength of 4.7 MPa and tensile strength in wet environment of 2.28 MPa. Cell alignment is desired to achieve directional contraction of the cardiac tissue, and several options were investigated to achieve fiber alignment, e.g. a dynamic sheet former and Rapid Köthen sheet former. Although the orientation was minimal, cells cultured on the cellulose fibers grew and aligned along the fibers. Origami inspired crease patterns were applied to the cellulose scaffolds in order to introduce directional flexibility beneficial for cardiac contraction. The transfer of a Miura crease pattern was successfully applied in two ways: folding of the dried sheet between PET foils pre-formed in a 3D printed mold, and in situ wet fiber molding on a 3D-patterned mesh mounted in the sheet former’s sieve section. The latter approach enables upscaling for potential mass production.
Incidence and risk factors for early hypoglycemia in very preterm infants: the Hyporisk study
Authors: Koolen Margreet R. , Kempen Anne A M W , Maaskant Jolanda M. , Reiss Irwin , Vermeulen Marijn J.
Published: October 2022

Purpose: To determine incidence, timing and potential risk factors associated with hypoglycemia in the first day of life in very premature infants.
Methods: Retrospective cohort study including all infants born before 32 weeks of gestation between 1 July 2017 and 31 December 2020 in the Erasmus MC Sophia Children’s Hospital (Rotterdam, the Netherlands). Excluded were those who died within 24 hours after birth or with no glucose data available. We collected maternal and neonatal characteristics from patient files, as well as all routine glucose values for the first 24 hours. Hypoglycemia was defined as blood glucose value below 2.6 mmol/L. Risk factors were selected using univariable and multivariable logistic regression with stepwise backward elimination. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was performed to examine time-to-event after birth.
Results: Of 714 infants included (median gestational age 29.3 weeks, mean weight 1200 grams), 137 (19%) had at least one episode of hypoglycemia, with a median time-to-event of 126 minutes [95%-CI 105-216]. Relevant independent risk factors for hypoglycemia included two maternal (insulin-dependent diabetes [OR 2.8; 95%-CI 1.3-6.1]; antenatal steroid administration [OR 1.7, 95%-CI 1.1 - 2.7]), and four neonatal factors (no IV-access in delivery room [OR 6.1, 95% CI-3.2-11.7], gestational age in weeks [OR 1.3, 95% CI-1.2-1.5], small-for-gestational-age [OR 2.6, 95%-CI 1.4-4.8], and no respiratory support (versus non-invasive support) [OR 2.3, 95%-CI 1.0-5.3]).
Conclusion: Six risk factors were identified for hypoglycemia in the first 24 hours of life in very preterm infants, that can be used for development of prediction models, risk-based screening and updating guidelines.
The role of stereotactic neurosurgery as a symptomatic treatment for autism spectrum disorders: a systematic review
Authors: Wu Yang , Shi Yi-feng , Li Jia-ming , Gao Yuan , Xu Yang-yang , Tian Rui , He Jiao-jiang , Li Deng-hui , Deng Hao , Xiao Ling-long , Xiong Bo-tao , Zhang Wei , Wang Meng-qi , Wang Wei
Published: October 2022

Although stereotactic neurosurgery has been applied in autism spectrum disorders (ASD), its safety and efficacy remain elusive due to the limited sample size. We aimed to investigate the safety and efficacy of stereotactic neurosurgery for ASD by systematically reviewing the literature through the PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane databases. A total of 11 studies with 36 patients were included. 16 patients (44.44%) received deep brain stimulation (DBS), 10 patients (27.78%) underwent radiofrequency ablation (RA), and 10 patients (27.78%) underwent gamma knife radiosurgery and RA. The therapeutic targets of 11 patients (42.31%) were the amygdala, and the surgical indication of 10 patients was aggression; the ventral anterior limb of the internal capsule or medial forebrain bundle was regarded as the target for 6 patients (23.08%), and the surgical indication was OCD. The mean Yale-Brown-Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) score of 19 patients was 31.37 at baseline. After a median follow-up time of 48 months, the mean Y-BOCS score decreased to 18.32, and the mean improvement rate was 42.74%. After a median follow-up duration of 48 months (range: 2-120), the mean Overt Aggression Scale score of 15 patients was reduced from 11.20 to 4.40, and the mean improvement rate was 59.59%. There were a total of 8 patients whose cardinal symptoms benefited from the surgery. Seven patients (19.44%) suffered adverse events after stereotactic neurosurgery. Stereotactic neurosurgery is an effective and safe therapy to alleviate the symptoms of aggressive behaviors and OCD in ASD patients. DBS has the potential to improve the social contact difficulty and communication disorders of ASD.
Metabolic stress constrains fermentative production of L-cysteine in Escherichia coli by accelerating transposition through mobile genetic elements in synthetic plasmid constructs
Authors: Heieck Kevin , Arnold Nathanael David , Brück Thomas Bartholomäus
Published: October 2022

Background
L-cysteine is an essential chemical building block in the pharmaceutical-, cosmetic-, food and agricultural sector. Conventionally, L-cysteine production relies on the conversion of keratinous biomass mediated by hydrochloric acid. Today, fermentative production based on recombinant E. coli, where L-cysteine production is streamlined and facilitated by synthetic plasmid constructs, is an alternative process at industrial scale. However, space-time yields and process stability are still to be optimised for improved economic viability. We simulate an industrial fermentation process with Escherichia coli harbouring various L-cysteine production plasmid constructs.
Results
In a comparative experimental design, theE. coli K12 production strain W3110 and the reduced genome strain MDS42, almost free of insertion sequences, were used as hosts. Data indcates that W3110 populations acquire growth fitness at the expense of L-cysteine productivity within 60 generations, while production in MDS42 populations remains stable. For the first time, the negative impact of predominantly insertion sequence family 3 and 5 transposases on L-cysteine production is reported, by combining differential transcriptome analysis with NGS based deep plasmid sequencing. Furthermore, metabolic clustering of differentially expressed genes supports the hypothesis, that metabolic stress induces rapid propagation of plasmid rearrangements, leading to reduced L-cysteine yields in evolving populations over industrial fermentation time scales.
Conclusion
The results of this study implicate how selective deletion of insertion sequence families could be a new route for improving industrial L-cysteine or even general amino acid production using recombinant E. coli hosts. Instead of using minimal genome strains, a selective deletion of certain IS families could offer the benefits of adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) while maintaining enhanced L-cysteine production stability.
Identification and Interpretation of Gait Analysis Features and Foot Condition by Explainable AI
Authors: Özates Mustafa Erkam , Yaman Alper , Salami Firooz , Campos Sarah , Wolf Sebastian I. , Schneider Urs
Published: October 2022

Background
Clinical gait analysis is a crucial step for identifying foot disorders and surgery planning. However, a large amount of gait data makes this assessment difficult and time-consuming. There are separate efforts to reduce its complexity by manually or automatically finding features (e.g. minimum of a joint angle in a specific axis), identifying the foot condition by Machine Learning (ML), and interpreting the outcome by explainable artificial intelligence (xAI).
Methods
In this article, we explore the potential of state-of-the-art ML algorithms to automate all these steps for a set of 6 foot conditions. New features are created manually and then recursive feature elimination is employed based on Support Vector Machines (SVM) and Random Forest (RF) to eliminate the features with low variance. SVM, RF, K-nearest Neighbor (KNN), Logistic Regression (LREGR), and Majority Voting (MV) algorithms are compared for classification and Local Interpretable Model-agnostic Explanation (LIME) is used for the interpretation of the outcome of the ML models. 40 features are eliminated and 334 features are given to the classifier models as inputs.
Results
The foot conditions are classified with a maximum average accuracy of 0.86 by KNN and MV, maximum average recall of 0.97 by KNN, and max average F1 score of 0.86 by KNN and MV.
Conclusions
High success scores indicate that the relation between the selected features and foot conditions should be strong and meaningful, potentially indicating clinical relevance. All models are interpreted for each foot condition for random 20 patients and the most contributing features are graphically demonstrated. The proposed ML pipeline can be easily extended for other foot conditions and retrained as new data arrives. It can help experts and physicians in the identification of foot conditions and the planning of potential surgeries.
Severe malaria in Gabon: epidemiological, clinical and laboratory features in Amissa Bongo Hospital of Franceville.
Authors: IMBOUMY-LIMOUKOU Roméo Karl , LENDONGO-WOMBO Judicael Boris , NGUIMBYANGUE-APANGOME Andhra Fecilia , BITEGHE-BI-ESSONE Jean Claude , MOUNIOKO Franck , OYEGUE-LIBAGUI Lydie Sandrine , NGOUNGOU Brice Edgar , LEKANA-DOUKI Jean-Bernard
Published: October 2022

Background
Malaria is the most deadly parasitic disease and continues to claim more than a half million of deaths across the world each year, mainly those of under-fives children in sub-Saharan Africa. The aim of this study was to determine the epidemiological, clinical and laboratory features of patients with severe malaria at the Centre Hospitalier Régional Amissa Bongo (CHRAB), a referral hospital in Franceville.
Method
It was an observational descriptive study conducted at CHRAB over ten months. All admitted patients at the emergency ward of all ages presenting with positive test to falciparum malaria diagnose by microscopy and rapid test with clinical signs of severe illness describe by World Health Organization were enrolled.
Results
During this study, 1065 patients were tested positive for malaria, of them 220 had severe malaria. Three quarters (75.0%) were younger than 5 years. The mean time to consultation was 3.5 ± 1 days. The most frequent signs of severity on admission were dominated by neurological disorders 92.27% in particular prostration 58.6% and convulsion 24.1%, followed by severe anemia 72.7% hyperlactatemia, 54.6%, jaundice 25% and respiratory distress 21.82%. The other forms such as hypoglycemia, haemoglobinuria, renal failure were found in low proportions <10%. Twenty-one patients died, coma (aOR = 15.54, CI = 5.43-44.41, p<0.01), hypoglycemia (aOR = 15.37, CI = 0.96-0.99, p<0.01), respiratory distress (aOR = 3.85, CI = 1.53-9.73, p=0.004) and abnormal bleeding (aOR = 16.42, CI = 3.57-104.73, p=0.003) were identified as independent predictors of a fatal outcome. Anemia was associated with decreased mortality.
Conclusion
Severe malaria remains a public health problem affecting mostly children under five years. Classification of malaria helps identify the most severely ill patients and aids early and appropriate management of the severe malaria cases.
Impact of acute cholecystitis comorbidity on prognosis after surgery for gallbladder cancer: a propensity score analysis
Authors: Kihara Yasuhiro , Yokomizo Hiroshi , Murotani Kenta
Published: October 2022

Background: Cholecystitis can represent a comorbidity during gallbladder cancer surgery; nonetheless, the prognostic impact of acute cholecystitis comorbidity remains unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of acute cholecystitis comorbidity on prognosis after gallbladder cancer surgery, with adjustment for background factors using propensity score analysis.
Methods: A total of 218 patients who underwent gallbladder cancer surgery at our institute between 1986 and 2022 were retrospectively included in the analysis. Patients were divided into two groups according to the presence or absence of acute cholecystitis at the time of surgery. Background factors were adjusted by including intraoperative bile leakage as a covariate in propensity score calculation. Overall survival and recurrence-free survival were compared between the two groups using one-to-one propensity score matching and inverse probability weighting.
Results: Of the 218 patients, 37 had coexisting acute cholecystitis. In one-to-one propensity score matching, the overall survival time in the acute cholecystitis group tended to be shorter than that in the non-acute cholecystitis group, although not significantly (hazard ratio, 2.41; 95% confidence interval, 0.96–6.06). Other analyses using inverse probability weighting showed significantly poor overall survival in the acute cholecystitis group. Regarding recurrence-free survivalin propensity score matching, the acute cholecystitis group showed a significantly shorter duration than the non-acute cholecystitis group (hazard ratio, 6.69; 95% confidence interval, 1.46–30.6). The inverse probability weighting-adjusted analysis also indicated a significantly higher risk of recurrence in the acute cholecystitis group.
Conclusions: Acute cholecystitis comorbidity at the time of gallbladder cancer surgery may have a negative impact on gallbladder cancer prognosis.
A mechanistic model of the neural entropy increase elicited by psychedelic drugs
Authors: Herzog Rubén , Mediano Pedro A.M , Rosas Fernando E. , Lodder Paul , Carhart-Harris Robin , Sanz-Perl Yonatan , Tagliazucchi Enzo , Cofré Rodrigo
Published: October 2022

Psychedelic drugs, including lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and other agonists of the serotonin 2A receptor (5HT2A-R), induce drastic changes in subjective experience, and provide a unique opportunity to study the neurobiological basis of consciousness. One of the most notable neurophysiological signatures of psychedelics, increased entropy in spontaneous neural activity, is thought to be of relevance to the psychedelic experience, mediating both acute alterations in consciousness and long-term effects. However, no clear mechanistic explanation for this entropy increase has been put forward so far. We sought to do this here by building upon a recent whole-brain model of serotonergic neuromodulation, to study the entropic effects of 5HT2A-R activation. Our results reproduce the overall entropy increase observed in previous experiments in vivo, providing the first model-based explanation for this phenomenon. We also found that entropy changes were not uniform across the brain: entropy increased in all regions, but the larger effect were localised in visuo-occipital regions. Interestingly, at the whole-brain level, this reconfiguration was not well explained by 5HT2A-R density, but related closely to the topological properties of the brain’s anatomical connectivity. These results help us understand the mechanisms underlying the psychedelic state and, more generally, the pharmacological modulation of whole-brain activity.
Trophic ecology of Octopus vulgaris paralarvae along the Iberian Canary current eastern boundary upwelling system
Authors: Roura Álvaro , Doyle Stephen R. , Castro-Bugallo Alexandra , Gonzalez Ángel F. , Strugnell Jan M.
Published: October 2022

Our knowledge of the diet of wild Octopus vulgaris is restricted to the first two weeks of its planktonic phase when they are selective hunters found in the coastal area. These small paralarvae, bearing only three suckers per arm, are transported by oceanic currents from the coast towards offshore waters where they complete the planktonic phase in two months. Herein, we have investigated the trophic ecology of O. vulgaris paralarvae as they drift from the coast into the ocean of the Iberian Canary Current (ICC) eastern boundary upwelling system, to evaluate if their specialist trophic behaviour is held throughout the planktonic phase. Paralarvae (n = 100) were collected in Northwest Spain (n = 5, three suckers per arm), across the Northwest Iberian Peninsula (n = 60, three to five suckers per arm) and off the west coast of Morocco (n = 35, three to 15 suckers per arm). Using high-throughput amplicon sequencing up to 90 different prey was identified in 95 paralarvae. Diet varied along the ICC, with the most discriminant groups being crab larvae and siphonophores in the northern part of the ICC and crab larvae and cnidarians in the south. Ontogenetic changes in the diet were detected between coastal and oceanic communities, evidenced by the decreasing contribution of coastal meroplankton and an increase in holoplankton, including siphonophores, pteropods and krill. Averaged trophic niche breadth values ranged from 0.16 to 0.31, thus suggesting that O. vulgaris paralarvae are specialist predators throughout their planktonic phase, a finding that has important implications for the aquaculture of this species.
Mental Health of Medical Students Deteriorated During Pandemic Years From COVID-19. A Multicenter Study by Questionnaire.
Authors: Alves Rodrigo , Aguilar-da-Silva Rinaldo , Vane Luiz , Vieira Joaquim , Vane Matheus , Will Emilio , Timaco Vinicius , Fossa Rodolffo
Published: October 2022

Purpose: To assess prevalence and risk factors for stress, depression and anxiety (SDA) in medical students during quarantine by COVID-19.
Methods: A cross-sectional observational study of medical students using the DASS-21 questionnaire. Risk factors for SDA were assessed based on epidemiologic questions related to COVID-19. Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) curves were calculated for each predictor, as well as sensitivity and specificity.
Results: 1008 responses were received, with a 77.5% prevalence of any SDA disorder, 63% being severe. Prior diagnosis of psychiatric disorder was the factor with higher OR (OR 2.78 CI95% 1.44 - 14.25, p=0.044) for anxiety, as well as for depression (OR 3.37 CI95% 1.98 - 6.02, p<0.001). Prior psychiatric illness (OR 3.70 CI95% 2.21 - 6.44, p= 0.001), having a chronic illness (OR 2.09, CI95% 1.19 - 3.83, p=0.013) and male gender (OR 0.56 CI95% 0.37 - 0.86, p=0.009) were independently associated with the outcome for stress.
Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic had effects on the mental health of medical students, with previous psychiatric disorder and the presence of chronic illness being the main risk factors.
Distribution of parasitic chytrids of glacier algae in Alaska; Cryoconite holes as a hotspot of chytrid infection
Authors: Kobayashi Kino , Takeuchi Nozomu , Kagami Maiko
Published: October 2022

Glacier algae, which are photosynthetic microbes growing on ice, considerably reduce the surface albedo of glaciers and accelerate their melting rate. The growth of glacier algae can be suppressed by parasitic chytrids, yet their impacts on algal population are still largely unknown. In this study, we described the morphology of chytrid infecting glacier alga, Ancylonema nordenskioldii, and quantified their prevalence of infection in different habitats on a mountain glacier in Alaska. Microscopic observation revealed three different morphological types of chytrids with distinct rhizoid shapes. The size of the sporangia varied probably because of the different stages of their growth, indicating that they actively propagated on the glacier. The prevalence of infection did not vary among sites with different elevations but was significantly higher in cryoconite holes (20 %) than on ice surface (4%) at all sites. This indicates that cryoconite holes are hot spots for chytrid infection of glacier algae, and the dynamics of cryoconite holes might affect the host–parasite interactions between chytrids and glacier algae, which may in turn alter surface albedo and ice melting.
The Effect of Brimonidine Tartrate 0.2% on Visual Quality after Phaco and Extended Depth of Focus Intraocular Lens Implantation
Authors: LI Yansong , LIU Zhen , ZHOU Weiwei , ZHU Yan , ZHU Yuguang
Published: October 2022

Objective
To investigate the effect of brimonidine tartrate 0.2% ophthalmic solution on visual quality after phaco and EDOF IOLs implantation.
Methods
The prospective non-randomized study comprised 21 eyes of 21 age-related cataract patients who underwent phacoemulsification and EDOF IOLs implantation in the eye center of the Affiliated Hospital of Weifang Medical University from July 2020 to November 2021. The pseudophakic eye was administered topically with bromonidine tartrate 0.2% at 1 month follow up after EDOF IOL implantation. Before and 2 hours,4 hours after brimonidine tartrate drops was administered topically.Under mesopic conditions,OPD-ScanⅢ was used to measure the objective visual quality such as Strehl Ratio (SR),higher order aberrations (HOA),spherical aberration (SA),Coma and Trefoil. The pupil size and palpebral fissure height were evaluated under mesopic conditions. Uncorrected distance visual acuity (UDVA) and the best corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA) were measured using a high-contrast projected logMAR chart. The Visual Functioning-14 (VF-14) scale was used to assess visual functioning and vision-related functional impairment.
Results
After brimonidine tartrate 0.2% was administered topically,compared to baseline,there were significant differences in ocular HOA,SA and Trefoil, as well as in optical quality parameters (P < 0.05). The visual quality improved and reached its optimum value 2 h after brimonidine tartrate 0.2% administration, which could last more than 4h after administration.There was no significant difference in ocular Coma after administration (P > 0.05).There were significant differences in the mesopic pupil size evaluated after 2 hours and 4 hours brimonidine administration compared to baseline (P < 0.05).The mesopic pupil size reached its minimum value 2 h after brimonidine administration. There was no significant difference in UDVA, CDVA and palpebral fissure height after brimonidine administration (P > 0.05). The VF-14 demonstrated that symptoms of glare or halos can be eliminated after brimonidine administration in 67% in pseudophakic eyes, be alleviated in 24% in pseudophakic eyes and not improved in 9% in pseudophakic eyes.
Conclusion
Brimonidine tartrate 0.2% ophthalmic solution had an antimydriatic effect under mesopic conditions in the patients with EDOF IOLs implantation. Brimonidine tartrate 0.2% may be used to improve night visual quality in pseudophakic eyes through reducing ocular HOA, SA and Trefoil,increasing SR,and alleviating symptoms of glare or halos in pseudophakic eyes.
Climate drivers and temporal variation of Ixode ovatus abundance on a giant panda living in the wild
Authors: Fan Xueyang , Ma Rui , Yue Changjuan , Liu Jiabin , Yue Bisong , Yang Zhisong , Yang Wanjing , Li Yunli , Gu Jiang , Yan Xia , Qi Dunwu , Su Xiaoyan , Li Lin , Zhang Dongsheng , Zhang Hongwen , Bunker Daniel E. , Hou Rong , Liu Songrui
Published: October 2022

Background
Ticks and tick-borne diseases have negative impacts on the health of wild animals including endangered and vulnerable species. The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), one of the iconic flagship species, is threatened by tick infestation as well. Ticks can not only cause anemia and immunosuppression, but also bacterial and viral disease of giant pandas. However, many previous studies about ticks on giant pandas were only limited in scope as case reports of ill or dead animals.
Methods
In this study, an investigation about ticks on a reintroduced giant panda at Daxiangling Reintroduction Base in Sichuan of China was conducted. Ticks were collected daily and identified from the ears of the giant panda from March to September in 2021. A linear model was used to test the correlation between daily tick abundance and climate factors.
Result
All ticks were identified as Ixodes ovatus. The daily average of tick population was 6.78 (95% CI: 6.17–7.39) including 1.79 daily males (95% CI: 1.61–1.98) and 4.99 for females (95% CI: 4.53–5.44). Tick abundance was significantly different among months. Tick abundance increased from March and reached the highest point in June and July, then it decreased until September. Results from linear model showed that the temperature positively correlated to tick abundance while air pressure had a negative correlation with tick abundance.
Conclusions
This study investigated tick species and abundance on a giant panda living in the natural environment for the first time, which provided important information for the conservation of giant pandas and other species sharing the same environment.
WITHDRAWN: External cavity quantum cascade laser based gas sensor for sulfur hexafluoride detection
Authors: Pan Xingyu , Zhang Yifan , Zeng Jiayu , He Tianbo , Li Jingsong
Published: October 2022

External cavity quantum cascade laser (ECQCL) is a ideal mid-infrared (MIR) spectral light source, which provides ultra wide wavelength tuning range for multiple trace gases sensing simultaneously. In this paper, a gas sensor system was developed by using a broadband tunable ECQCL and a direct absorption spectroscopy detection scheme with a short path absorption cell of 29.6 cm. For spectral signal detection, a cheap and miniaturized quartz crystal tuning fork (QCTF) based light detector was used for laser signal detection. The characteristics of the QCTF detector was theoretically simulated and experimentally observed. To demonstrate this sensing technique, sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) was selected as the analyte, which can be used as an effective indicator to identify fault types of gas insulated electrical equipments. Preliminary result indicated that a good agreement was obtained between experimentally observed data and reference spectra by according to NIST database and previous publication, and the gas sensor system shows a good linear response to SF6 gas concentration. Finally, Allan deviation analysis indicates that detection limits of 1.889 ppm for SF6 was obtained with a 1 s integration time, which can be further improved to ~ 0.384 ppm by averaging up to 131 s, respectively.
Explicit approximation of the invariant measure for SDDEs with the nonlinear diffusion term
Authors: Li Xiaoyue , Mao Xuerong , Song Guoting
Published: October 2022

To our knowledge, the existing measure approximation theory requires the diffusion term of the stochastic delay differential equations (SDDEs) to be globally Lipschitz continuous. Our work is to develop a new explicit numerical method for SDDEs with the nonlinear diffusion term and establish the measure approximation theory. Precisely, we construct a function-valued explicit truncated Euler-Maruyama segment process (TEMSP) and prove that it admits a unique ergodic numerical invariant measure. We also prove that the numerical invariant measure converges to the underlying one of SDDE in the Fortet-Mourier distance. Finally, we give an example and numerical simulations to support our theory.
The 100 most cited papers on thymoma: a bibliometric analysis
Authors: Liu Lei , Zhang Jiaqi , Wang Guige , Zhao Ke , Guo Chao , Huang Cheng , Li Shanqing , Chen Yeye
Published: October 2022

Objectives:This study aims to identify the 100 most cited research articles on thymoma.
Methods: The 100 most cited articles on thymoma were identified by searching the Web of Science database. The following important information of selected articles was extracted: author, journal, impact factor, type of article, year of publication, country, organization, and keyword.
Results: To our knowledge, this is the first bibliometric study on thymoma. The publication year of the top 100 most cited articles ranged from 1981 to 2018, and the number of citations ranged from 97 to 1182. Most of the included articles are original (75/100) and are mainly retrospective studies (52/75). The United States has the most published articles and citations, and the Annals of Thoracic Surgery is the most sourced journal (n=16). Through VOSviewer analysis, high-density keywords mainly come from thymic carcinoma/invasive thymoma management, immune-related diseases, and laboratory research.
Conclusions: Our study summarizes the top 100 most cited articles in the field of thymoma and conducts further analysis. The previous research in this field and possible future research directions are presented.
Automated Detection and Statistical Study of Solar Radio Spikes
Authors: Lv P. R. , Hou Y. C. , Feng S. W. , Du · Q.F. , Tan C. M.
Published: October 2022

The most typical observational features of solar radio spikes are their short duration and narrow bandwidth. For these characteristics, we have improved the YOLOv5s network model, by adding inclined bounding frames, and attention and feature fusion mechanism modules. The decimeter- and meterwavelength spikes observed by the Solar Broad-band Radio Spectrometer in Huairou and the spectrograph in the Chashan Solar Radio Observatory are used to carry out experiments, respectively. The results demonstrate that the AP value obtained by the improved network is 74%, which is almost 14% higher than the original network. The improved network detects 9709 (1379) decimeter- (meter-) wavelength spikes in two events with the durations, bandwidths, relative bandwidths, and frequency-drift rates. The spikes at decimeter and meter wavelengths are categorized again based on their frequency-drift rates, such as, positive, negative, and no measurable frequency-drift rates, respectively. We have carried out a statistical study on these categorized spikes. An interesting finding is that the distribution of relative bandwidths at decimeter wavelengths is changed after the classification. The distribution is asymmetric without the classification. However, after the classification the positive, negative, and no measurable frequency-drift spikes show a symmetrical distribution. These statistical results and findings provide constraints on the formation of solar radio spikes.
CORALIS, an R package for ncRNA-target enrichment analysis based on experimentally validated interactions
Authors: Valle-Millares Daniel , Briz Verónica , Fernández-Rodríguez Amanda
Published: October 2022

Non-coding RNAs are key regulatory molecules that govern a myriad of biological process by interacting and modulating the expression of their target protein-coding genes. The combination of RNA large-scale sequencing and computational analyses has revealed the existence of a vast diversity of RNA species with essential roles in biological functions. However, dealing with the huge network of interactions has become a challenge and the urgent need for new computational tools has arisen. We present CORALIS, an R package for the statistical analysis and visualization of experimentally validated interactions between non-coding RNAs and their target genes (ncRNA-mRNA). So far, CORALIS supports miRNA, lncRNA, snRNA and snoRNA target enrichment analysis for several species such as Homo sapiens, and other human-model species such as Rattus norvegicus, Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila melanogaster, among others. Statistical tests (hypergeometric distribution test) are performed to estimate enriched target genes for non-coding RNAs defined by the user, and visualization tools allows to easily analyze the results. In conclusion, CORALIS allows identifying enriched target genes given a list of non-coding RNAs. CORALIS is freely accessible at https://github.com/Daniel-VM/CORALIS.
Magnetocaloric Effect (MCE) of a Quantum pseudo-dot
Authors: Donfack B. , Nguepnang J. V. , Nguemassong S. C.N. , Temdie L. , Manfouo F. , Tchida V. D. , Magouwo L. D. , Kamdem E. F. , Kenfack C. S. , Fotue A . J.
Published: October 2022

We investigate the Magnetocaloric Effect (MCE) of a quantum pseudodt taking into account the effect of spin orbit interaction (SOI). The entropy change and internal energy change been derived using the Tsallis formalism. we observed that the SOI effect and external parameters strongly affect the entropy change and internal energy change of a quantum speudodot. Knowin the magneto caloric effect being strongly related to the magnetic dipol, the effect of external magnetic field and the SOI considerably affect the entropy change as welle analytically than numerically. Also, it is found that the magneto caloric effect is sensitive to the extensivity parameter q.
Crack growth in viscoelastic media with large strains: further results and validation of nonlinear theory for rubber
Authors: Schapery R. A.
Published: October 2022

This paper is a continuation of recent publications on crack growth in viscoelastic media. It provides further theoretical results that enable prediction of crack opening displacement for comparison with experimental data in the region of the singularity . Additionally, the analysis shows that local material rotation in the singularity, where strains are very large, has no significant effect on the predicted stresses and deformation in the singularity. This is true despite the theory’s frame- dependence.
Atmospheric turbulent effects on the propagation properties of a General Model vortex Higher-order cosh-Gaussian beam
Authors: Ebrahim Ahmed Abdulrab Ali , Swillam Mohamed A , Belafhal Abdelmajid
Published: October 2022

The propagation properties for a General Model vortex Higher-order cosh-Gaussian beam (GMvHchGB) propagating in a turbulent atmosphere studied in detail. Based on the Huygens-Fresnel diffraction principle, the analytical formula of the intensity evolution for the considered beam traveling in turbulent atmosphere is derived at various propagation distances. The derived equation provides a general convenient procedure to describe the propagation characteristics to some particular beams travelling through free space/atmospheric turbulence such as a fundamental Gaussian, Cosh-Gaussian, vortex Cosh-Gaussian and higher-order Cosh-Gaussian beams. The impact of the incident parameters as Gaussian waist, Cosh parameter, wavelength, hollowness and order of the beam are numerically verified. Our study proven that the beams maintain their intensity focused over long propagation distances. Therefore, they will be useful in long-distance free-space optical communication applications.
A non-Gaussian Regularization of Graviton: Antipodal Duality between the Higgs and 3-Gluons
Authors: Maalouf Hani W.
Published: October 2022

A renormalization for the Graviton, with regularizing factors, based on the Anti-podal Symmetry is
seen to provide the link between the Higgs and 3-gluons.
Physically, such resolves, their so far abstract connection, via the MHV vertices.
The resolution involved a small variation of the Lagrangian cosmological term constant, under a
scalable Gauss-Bonnet Gravity.