bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Perils of ingesting harmful prey by advanced snakes
Authors: Kornilev Yurii V. , Natchev Nikolay D. , Lillywhite Harvey B.
Published: October 2022

The advanced snakes (Alethinophidia) include the extant snakes with a highly evolved head morphology providing increased gape and jaw flexibility. Along with other physiological and morphological adaptations, this allows them to immobilize, ingest, and transport prey that may be disproportionately large or presents danger to the predator from bites, teeth, horns, or spines. Reported incidents of snakes failing to consume prey and being injured or killed during feeding mostly reflect information in the form of natural‐history notes. Here we provide the first extensive review of such incidents, including 101 publications describing at least 143 cases of mortality (including six of ‘multiple individuals’) caused by ingestion or attempted consumption of injurious prey. We also report on 15 previously unpublished injurious feeding incidents from the USA, Austria, and Bulgaria, including mortality of five juvenile piscivorous dice snakes (Natrix tessellata) from a single location. Occurrences are spread across taxa, with mortality documented for at least 73 species from eight families and 45 genera. Incidents were generally well represented within each of three major categories: oversized prey (40.6%), potentially harmful prey (40.6%), and predator's behavioural/mechanical errors (18.9%). Reptile (33%) and fish (26%) prey caused disproportionately high mortality compared to mammals (16%). Feeding can be dangerous throughout a snake's life, with the later stages of feeding likely being more perilous. The number of reports has increased over time, and the data seem biased towards localities with a higher number of field‐working herpetologists. We propose a standardized framework, comprising a set of basic information that should ideally be collected and published, and which could be useful as a template for future data collection, reporting, and analyses. We conclude that incidents of mortality during feeding are likely to be more common than previously assumed, and this hypothesis has implications for the ecology of persistence where populations are impacted by changing trophic environments.
Preexisting psychological illness and its association with mortality in lung cancer patients with access to support resources
Authors: Wright Allison E. , Sheehan Elyce , Qeadan Fares , Stalter Lily , Saeed Ali Imran
Published: October 2022

Introduction

Diagnosis of lung cancer often results in tremendous stress for most patients, especially in patients with underlying psychological illness. Psychosocial support (consultation with psychologist, psychotherapist, or social worker) referral is considered standard for quality cancer care; however, which patients utilize these resources and how these resources affect patient outcomes remain unclear.

Objectives

We aimed to identify which newly diagnosed lung cancer patients accessed available psychosocial resources and assessed how utilization of these resources correlated with treatment and survival outcomes.

Methods

Data were collected from National Cancer Institute‐designated cancer center at the University of New Mexico. We analyzed lung cancer registry and mortality data at the cancer center and bronchoscopy suite data to retrospectively identify patients diagnosed with lung cancer between 2012 and 2017. We used a logistic regression model to compare psychological support utilization at the cancer center between patients with and without history of psychiatric illness. We used a Cox proportional hazards model to identify individual risk factors for mortality.

Results

Patients with a previous psychological diagnosis were 2.4 times more likely (odds ratio = 2.443; confidence interval [CI], 1.130–5.284) to utilize psychological resources than patients without a pre‐cancer psychological diagnosis. Patients who received psychosocial intervention had a 120.4% higher hazard of dying than those who did not (hazard ratio = 2.204; 95% CI, 1.240–3.917). One‐year survival probability among those who did not utilize resources was 62.65% (95% CI, 55.24%–71.06%) and 43.0% (95% CI, 31.61%–58.50%) among those who did. Patients with a previous psychiatric diagnosis were more likely to utilize psychosocial resources within 1 year of lung cancer diagnosis.

Conclusions

Patients with previous psychiatric illness are more likely to utilize psychosocial resources at the cancer center after a new diagnosis of lung cancer. Patients who utilize psychosocial interventions have higher 1‐year mortality than those who do not.
Canagliflozin reduces proteinuria by targeting hyperinsulinaemia in diabetes patients with heart failure: A post hoc analysis of the CANDLE trial
Authors: Yamaguchi Satoshi , Shimabukuro Michio , Tanaka Atsushi , Imai Takumi , Hiramitsu Shinya , Takahashi Naohiko , Kadokami Toshiaki , Ajioka Masayoshi , Suzuki Makoto , Node Koichi ,   the CANDLE Trial Investigators
Published: October 2022

Aim

To investigate factors associated with proteinuria regression in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) treated with canagliflozin.

Materials and Methods

This study was a post hoc analysis of the CANDLE trial (UMIN000017669), which compared the effect of 24 weeks of treatment with canagliflozin or glimepiride for changes in N‐terminal pro‐brain natriuretic peptide in patients with T2DM and chronic heart failure (CHF). Factors associated with regression of proteinuria at 24 weeks were evaluated with multivariate logistic models.

Results

The rate of regression of proteinuria was higher (28/102, 27.5% vs. 12/112, 10.7%), and that of progression was lower (9/102, 8.8% vs. 26/112, 23.2%), in the canagliflozin versus the glimepiride group (P = .0001). There were no differences in the change in the estimated glomerular filtration rate category between groups. Insulin level, homeostatic model assessment of β‐cell function, homeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance and estimated plasma volume were decreased at 24 weeks in the regression subclass but not in the progression subclass, suggesting that regression of proteinuria is associated with the declines in these values in the canagliflozin group. Higher insulin level at baseline was solely associated with proteinuria regression in the multivariate logistic regression model (baseline insulin, as per a 1‐mlU/L increase, odds ratio 1.24 [1.05‐1.47], P = .011).

Conclusions

In patients with T2DM and CHF, regression of proteinuria with canagliflozin treatment was associated with the pretreatment insulin level. These results may provide clinicians with novel mechanistic insights into the beneficial effects of canagliflozin on renal outcomes and may warrant discussion for selecting preferred patient profiles, including pretreatment insulin levels.
Substantive representation of women, informal quotas and appointed upper house parliaments: The case of the Omani State Council
Authors: Al‐Lawati Nawra
Published: October 2022

This paper examines the impact of informal quotas on the substantive representation of women in appointed upper parliaments using the Omani State Council as a case study. Although no formal gender quota has been institutionalized in Oman, it is presumed that the Sultan will assign 17% of the seats to women, effectively an informal quota. Through semi‐structured interviews with female MPs appointed to the State Council, I examine the relationship between informal gender quotas and the substantive representation of women. The findings reveal that the majority of appointed female MPs under informal quota acted for women's interests inside and outside the parliament. Within the parliament, they reviewed legislation with consideration to women's interests and proposed studies or drafted laws on women's issues. Outside the parliament, they acted for women's interests by tapping into their social and political capital, which is presumably acquired through their appointment to the State Council.
Diaspore traits specialized to animal adhesion and sea current dispersal are positively associated with the naturalization of European plants across the world
Authors: Moyano Jaime , Essl Franz , Heleno Ruben , Vargas Pablo , Nuñez Martin A. , Rodriguez‐Cabal Mariano A.
Published: October 2022

Understanding what drives non‐native species naturalization (the establishment of a self‐sustainable population outside its native range) is a central question in invasion science. Plant capacity for long‐distance dispersal (LDD) is likely to influence the spread and naturalization of non‐native species differently according to their introduction pathways. These pathways include intentional introductions (for economic use, e.g. for agriculture), unintentional introductions (e.g. seed contaminants), plant dispersal via human infrastructures (e.g. roads) and plant spread from an adjacent region where the species was previously introduced. We tested the relationship between sets of LDD traits (syndromes) of 10 308 European plant species and their global naturalization incidence (i.e. whether a species has become naturalized or not) and extent (i.e. the number of regions where a species has become naturalized) using the most comprehensive database of naturalized plants worldwide (GloNAF). Diaspore traits allowed the identification of four traditional LDD syndromes, namely those with specializations for dispersal by: wind (anemochorous), animal ingestion (endozoochorous), attached to animals (epizoochorous) and sea currents (thalassochorous). These evolutionary specializations have been historically interpreted by biologists even though actual dispersal is not always related to diaspore syndromes. We found that while epizoochorous and thalassochorous traits are positively associated with global plant naturalization incidence, anemochorous and endozoochorous traits show a negative relationship. Species' residence time outside their native range, their economic use and presence of epizoochorous traits (such as hooks, hairs and adhesive substances) are positively associated with global naturalization extent. Furthermore, we found that plant economic use reduces the influence of LDD syndromes on the naturalization incidence of intentionally introduced plants. While the success of non‐native plants is influenced by a broad array of species‐ and context‐specific factors, LDD syndromes play an important role in this context depending on the economic use of plants.
Somatic mutations during rapid clonal domestication of Populus alba var. pyramidalis
Authors: Zheng Zeyu , Hu Hongyin , Lei Weixiao , Zhang Jin , Zhu Mingjia , Li Ying , Zhang Xu , Ma Jianchao , Wan Dongshi , Ma Tao , Ren Guangpeng , Ru Dafu
Published: October 2022

For many clonally propagated species, the accumulation of somatic mutations is the principal driver of declines in yield and quality. However, somatic mutations may also promote genetic diversification. Thus, elucidating somatic mutation rates and patterns is important to understand the genetic basis undergirding the emergence of commercially valuable traits and developmental processes. In this study, we studied the effect of short‐time clonal domestication of Populus alba var. pyramidalis, a species that has been propagated by cutting for the last 67 years. We found that: (1) the somatic mutation rate for P. alba var. pyramidalis is 9.24 × 10−9, which is higher than rates observed in related species; (2) there were more mutations near heterozygous regions, and a larger proportion of CpG and CHG sites were associated with somatic mutations, which may be related to the blocking of DNA repair by methylation; and (3) deleterious mutations were not shared by multiple individuals, and all occurred in heterozygous states, demonstrating the strong selective pressures that act against deleterious mutations. Taken together, the results of our study provide a global view of somatic mutation that will aid efforts to understand the genetic basis of commercially valuable traits and to improve clonally breeding species.
Effect of laser‐scan strategy on microstructure and fatigue properties of 316L additively manufactured stainless steel
Authors: Roirand Hugo , Hor Anis , Malard Benoit , Saintier Nicolas
Published: October 2022

The particular roles of grain morphology and defects, controlled using laser‐scan strategies, on the mechanical properties and the fatigue behavior of 316L stainless steel are investigated. Microstructural characterization and X‐ray tomography analysis was performed to understand the genesis of polycrystalline microstructure and defects. Tensile and fatigue tests were performed to analyze the effect of defect population and microstructural properties on plasticity and damage mechanisms during monotonic and cyclic loading. The effect of the grain‐size and shape and type of defect was carefully investigated to evaluate the mechanisms driving the mechanical behavior under quasi‐static and fatigue loading. It is shown that the laser‐scan strategy determines the anisotropy in the plane perpendicular to the building direction. Moreover, contrary to the existing literature, for 316L obtained by AM, the grain size and shape does not affect the mechanical properties, and LoF defects drive the fatigue life, independent of the defect/grain size ratio.
Investigation of cytokine polymorphisms on viral infections after renal transplantation exhibit association between IFN‐γ +874 A > T and CMV manifestations
Authors: de Almeida Stéphanie Gomes Santos , Knakcfuss Fabiana Batalha , Assis Lívia Maria , de Sousa Regina Celia Gonçalves , Matuck Tereza Azevedo , de Carvalho Deise de Boni Monteiro , Machado Ricardo Luiz Dantas , Guimarães Maria Angelica Arpon Marandino , Varella Rafael Brandão
Published: October 2022

We investigated the effects of TNF‐α, IFN‐γ, IL‐10 polymorphisms on viral infections (CMV, BKPyV, HHV‐6, EBV) after renal transplantation. IFN‐γ+874 A > T (lower IFN production) was associated with CMV disease (p = .039) in patients under mycophenolate‐based therapy and graft failure (p = .025). This study underscores the role of IFN‐γ+874 SNP in CMV infection.
A breach in the social contract: Limited participation and limited evidence in COVID‐19 responses
Authors: Rangel Jamie Cristian , Crath Rory D. , Renade Sudit
Published: October 2022

Medically trained health professionals have been central to the development of policy responses to the coronavirus 2019 (COVID‐19) crisis. In their multiple roles—as clinicians, public health leaders, members of scientific advisory boards, and also as media pundits and health professionals—they have helped shape discourses of science‐based policy options during the first 2 years of the pandemic. In particular, health professionals as a collective voice insisted on the necessity of society‐wide measures of social control to curb the morbidity and mortality of the virus. These measures, in turn, informed the political and moral imagination of the political class, the media and the larger public. Yet, as emerging evidence suggests, measures of social control posed a serious and long‐term risk for health equity. In this discussion piece on the first 2 years of COVID‐related public health directives, we interrogate the tensions that advocating for extensive and protracted measures of social control can pose to the social contract between medicine and society, health equity and democracy. To illustrate these tensions, we discuss the public fallout between vocal members of the OSAT, an ad hoc biomedical‐led organization, and the Government of Ontario in light of the disagreement on the scope of ‘stay home’ orders to manage the third wave of the pandemic in the Spring of 2021 and, more recently, the mass protest against mass‐scale public health measures in Ottawa, Canada. We argue that while decision making under emergency conditions is a difficult task, the legitimacy of the social contract between medicine and society depends on medical experts’ judicious exercise of public health ethics principles. We offer a set of recommendations for building a more collaborative response to future health crises.
A data‐driven approach to neuropsychological features in isolated REM behaviour disorder: A latent class analysis
Authors: Mombelli Samantha , Leitner Caterina , D'Este Giada , Sforza Marco , Marelli Sara , Castelnuovo Alessandra , Zucconi Marco , Casoni Francesca , Fantini Maria Livia , Novellino Fabiana , Salsone Maria , Ferini‐Strambi Luigi , Galbiati Andrea
Published: October 2022

Recent evidence demonstrated that neuropsychological assessment may be considered a valid marker of neurodegeneration in idiopathic REM sleep behaviour disorder (iRBD). However, little is known about the possible neuropsychological heterogeneity within the iRBD population. This retrospective study aimed to identify and describe different neuropsychological phenotypes in iRBD patients by means of a data‐driven approach using latent class analysis. A total of 289 iRBD patients underwent a neuropsychological assessment evaluating cognitive domains: global cognition, language, short‐ and long‐term memory, executive functions and visuospatial abilities. The presence of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) was also assessed. Latent class analysis was carried out to identify iRBD subtypes according to neuropsychological scores. The most parsimonious model identified three latent classes. Groups were labelled as follows: Class 2 “severely impaired” (n = 83/289): mean pathological scores in different tests, a high percentage of MCI multiple‐domain and impairment in all neuropsychological domains. Class 1 “moderately impaired” (n = 44/289): mean neuropsychological score within the normal value, a high percentage of MCI (high risk to phenoconversion) and great impairment in the visuospatial domain. Class 3 “slightly impaired” (n = 162/289): no deficit worthy of attention except for short‐ and long‐term memory. Our results suggest three different clinical phenotypes within the iRBD population. These findings may be relevant in the future for predicting the clinical trajectories of phenoconversion in iRBD.
Interesting phenomena during threshold testing of conduction system pacing: What is the mechanism?
Authors: Shen Jiabo , Jiang Longfu , Wu Hao , Pan Lifang
Published: October 2022

Background

Although the interest in conduction system pacing is increasing, the data on longitudinal dissociation in the literature is still limited.

Methods and Results

We performed left bundle branch (LBB) pacing on a patient with sick sinus syndrome and atrioventricular block. The transition of QRS morphology can be observed during the threshold testing. The main findings were different left ventricular activation times when selective LBB capture was performed at different outputs. Conclusions: This phenomenon may be due to the anatomical basis of longitudinal dissociation of the His–Purkinje system, which allows pacing stimulation at different thresholds to excite different portions of the conduction system.
Beyond ethnocentric perspectives in Spanish schools: Rethinking inclusion, the curriculum, and subjectivity
Authors: Lozano‐Mulet Paula , de Riba Silvia , Estalayo‐Bielsa Paula , Riera‐Retamero Marina
Published: October 2022

In this paper, we examine how schools in Catalonia (Spain) are responding to the needs of migrant students by challenging the limitations of the curriculum. The paper presents some of the findings of an ongoing project titled Migrant Children and Communities in a Transforming Europe (MiCREATE). It is based on 31 semi‐structured interviews and 6 focus groups conducted with 78 participants (teachers, school representatives, and community members such as child psychologists, social workers, and other collaborators) from six state primary and secondary schools in Catalonia (Spain). Analysis of the interviews showed that Spain still has a monolithic conception of the curriculum, with Eurocentrism and ethnocentrism at its core. Nonetheless, school staff are producing pedagogical practices that challenge this position in order to respond to the needs of migrant students. We argue that it is necessary to consider other frames of reference such as critical interculturality, decolonial perspectives, and critical cosmopolitanisms in order to create collective and multiple experiences of belonging that go beyond the dominant cultural identity.
Construing and constructing the South China Sea beyond state‐led environmentalism: Vernacularizing geographical, geopolitical and sociotechnical imaginaries of territory
Authors: Roszko Edyta
Published: October 2022

During the 2010s, the South China Sea (SCS) became a geopolitical flashpoint over the sovereignty of the Paracels and Spratlys. China envisioned its transformation of coral reefs into military bases and island cities as an SCS ‘green construction’ project. This article analyses how the SCS is discursively construed and practically constructed as maritime national territory, by mobilizing fishing legacies and extending state limits through ‘state‐led environmentalism’ rhetoric. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in China, I show that state‐led environmentalism is a hierarchical process that intermittently co‐opts and excludes local populations to advance the state's territorial ambitions, which are anchored in geographical, geopolitical and socio‐technical imaginaries of ‘maritime civilization’. Yet, I also show that in this process, the SCS emerges as spaces of vernacularized political claims. Thus, I argue that territory is not only a political technology of control but also vernacular practice through which universalizing discourses— whether on the Exclusive Economic Zone regime, sovereignty or nature—are adapted and modified.
Identification of the novel HLA‐DPB1 allele, HLA‐DPB1*1326:01, in an Italian bone marrow donor
Authors: Biagini Chiara , Fornaciari Silvia , Lamanna Roberta , De Gregorio Veronica , Curcio Michele
Published: October 2022

The novel HLA class II allele HLA‐DPB1*1326:01 is described.
Cuidar personas con dolor y falla cardíaca, desde la teoría Adaptación a Condiciones Crónicas de Salud
Authors: Gómez Tovar Luz Omaira , Henao Castaño Ángela María , Salazar Herrán Rosa Liseth
Published: October 2022

Introducción:cerca de85% de los pacientes con falla cardiaca reportan dolor, esto genera preocupación teniendo en cuenta que según tipología del dolor, esta experiencia puede afectar la calidad de vida de los pacientes y sus cuidadores.
Objetivo: desarrollar una estrategia de cuidados de enfermería basada en la teoría Adaptación a condiciones crónicas de la salud de Callista Roy, para reducir la experiencia de dolor en personas con falla cardíaca.
Metodología: se desarrolló la estructura conceptual teórico empírica de la teoría de mediano rango Adaptación a las condiciones crónicas de la salud de Callista Roy, a partir de la cual se sustentó conceptual y teóricamente la estrategia. Posteriormente, para especificar las intervenciones del plan de cuidados y en coherencia con los planteamientos teóricos, se realizóuna revisión sistemática de la literatura, con búsquedaen las bases de datos: Sciencedirect, Scopus y Medline, con los términos “pain”, “heart failure” y “nursing interventions”.
Resultados:se diseñó una estrategia con intervenciones que abordan los dominios: fisiológico, con valoración del síntoma, ejercicio, control de peso y sitios dolorosos; autoconcepto y rol con reducción de ansiedad, estrés, depresión, entrenamiento en cambio de pensamientos, actitudes y comportamientos; y de interdependencia, con compartir experiencias de autocuidado, apoyo espiritual y diarios de salud, entre otros.
Conclusión: la evidencia y el conocimiento teórico de enfermería aportan múltiples intervenciones quepueden aplicarse en los pacientes con falla cardíaca para reducir la experiencia dedolor, principalmente a través de cuidados enfocados en confort, estimulación cognitiva y apoyo familiar, social y espiritual.
Palabras clave: Dolor; Insuficiencia cardíaca; Atención de enfermería; Teoría de enfermería.
First record of Tenuipalpus panici De Leon (Acari: Tenuipalpidae) in South America, with new morphological data and a discussion on the ontogeny of setae
Authors: Nascimento Renata S. , Castro Elizeu B. , Tassi Aline D. , Ochoa Ronald , Oliveira Anibal R.
Published: October 2022

Tenuipalpus panici De Leon was originally described from female specimens collected on Panicum maximum Jacq. (Poaceae) from South of Baranquetas, Puerto Rico. In this paper, we redescribe the female of T. panici based on the holotype and on specimens newly collected in Brazil. It is the first record of the species in South America. Females, nymphs and larvae were collected on Paspalum notatum Flüggé (Poaceae); males were absent. New morphological data for both females and immatures (e.g., dorsal and ventral ornamentation, gnathosomal, idiosomal, leg chaetotaxy, and measurements) and a discussion on the patterns of ontogenetic setal additions for all the immature stages are provided. Tenuipalpus panici is the only species of the genus known with two setae appearing on femur IV in the protonymph and successive stages.
New Bryobiinae (Acari: Trombidiformes: Tetranychidae) from Kea Island, Greece
Authors: Stathakis Theodoros I. , Vrettos Dimitrios P. , Panou Eleni N.
Published: October 2022

This study reports the presence of six species of the subfamily Bryobiinae (Acari: Tetranychidae) collected from natural habitats of Kea Island, Greece. Bryobia (Lyobia) aetnensis Vacante, Bryobia (Lyobia) cooremani Eyndhoven & Vacante, Bryobia (Allobia) nikitensis Livshits & Mitrofanov and Bryobia (Bryobia) macrotibialis Mathys are new records for Greek fauna, while Mezranobia variata sp. nov. and Aplonobia carthaeae sp. nov. are described and illustrated as a new species. Additionally, thanks to the newly collected material and a taxonomical historical review, a new diagnosis of the genus Mezranobia Athias-Henriot, 1961 is provided.
Genome Sequence of
Halomonas
sp. Strain MS1, a Metallophore-Producing, Algal Growth-Promoting Marine Bacterium Isolated from the Green Seaweed Ulva mutabilis (Chlorophyta)
Authors: Morales-Reyes Cristina F. , Ghaderiardakani Fatemeh , Wichard Thomas
Published: October 2022

We report the draft genome sequence of the marine gammaproteobacterium
Halomonas
sp. strain MS1, isolated from the green seaweed
Ulva mutabilis
(Chlorophyta), which releases metallophores fostering macroalga-bacterium interactions. The 4.6-Mbp sequence, which was obtained using PacBio technology, harbors 4,166 predicted coding sequences, including gene clusters for siderophore production.
Role of Supports in Ni Nanoparticles Ti-Promoted Composite Catalysts for the Total Hydrogenation of Benzene
Authors: Mohammadian Z. , Parsafard N. , Peyrovi M. H.
Published: October 2022

Removal of aromatic compounds from fuels due to the strict regulations as well as carcinogenic and detrimental effects on the humans and the environment is one of the main steps in the petrochemical industry. Competitive hydrogenation of benzene in aromatic mixtures not only achieves this goal, but also prevents the significant reduction in the octane number by producing cyclohexane in the fuels. For this purpose, a series of nickel catalysts supported on the Ti-promoted mesoporous-carbon composites have been prepared by the wet impregnation method. Textural and physicochemical properties of catalysts were characterized using FT-IR, N2 adsorption-desorption, XRD, SEM, and EDAX. The activity of the powders was evaluated in the temperature range of 150–210°C. The results confirm that the Ni/Ti-SBA-15 catalyst shows the acceptable selectivity in the test temperature range and the highest activity at 190°C.
A tail-specific protease is required for Legionella pneumophila intracellular multiplication
Authors: Saoud Joseph , Mani Thangadurai , Rohrbach Petra , Faucher Sébastien P.
Published: October 2022

Legionella pneumophila is a Gram-negative bacterium found in natural and man-made water systems where it replicates within amoebas and ciliates. In humans, once inside the lungs, L. pneumophila replicates in alveolar macrophages and causes Legionnaires’ disease, a severe pneumonia. The Icm/Dot type IVb secretion system is a major virulence factor required for intracellular multiplication. The Icm/Dot system allows the secretion of effectors into the cytoplasm of the host cell. These effectors modify host cell vesicular trafficking and prevent maturation of the phagosome. The innate immune response is crucial in restricting L. pneumophila proliferation. TNF-α is one of the major cytokines involved in this process as it renders macrophages more resistant to L. pneumophila infection and induces apoptosis of L. pneumophila-infected macrophages. Tail-specific proteases (Tsp) are involved in tolerating thermal stress and in virulence. We have previously characterized the Tsp encoded by L. pneumophila, showing that it is important for surviving thermal stress and for infection of amoeba when a temperature change occurs during infection. Here, we demonstrated that Tsp is required for intracellular multiplication in macrophages. Absence of tsp is associated with higher production of TNF-α by macrophages in response to L. pneumophila infection. This effect is independent of the Icm/Dot secretion system.
Molecular Recognition and Quantification of MLH1, MSH2, MSH6, PMS2, and KRAS in Biological Samples
Authors: Stefan-van Staden Raluca-Ioana , Ilie-Mihai Ruxandra-Maria , Coros Maria , Pruneanu Stela
Published: October 2022

Two stochastic sensors based on modification of nitrogen and boron dopped exfoliated graphene with a complex of protoporphyrin and cobalt, were used for molecular recognition and quantification of MLH1, MSH2, MSH6, PMS2 and KRAS biomarkers in biological samples (whole blood, urine, saliva, tumoral tissue). Limits of determination of fg ml−1 magnitude order and broad linear concentration ranges favorized their determination from very low to higher concentrations in biological samples. The student t-test showed that there is no significant difference between the results obtained by utilizing the two microsensors for screening tests, at 99% confidence level, the results obtained being lowr than the tabulated value.
Research on the Strength Prediction Model of Softened Mudstone Based on Triaxial Compressive Test of Rock
Authors: Yun Kai , Zhu Yongquan , Wang Renyuan , Fang Zhichun
Published: October 2022

Mudstone is highly sensitive to water. When it comes into contact with water, the softening phenomena such as the decrease of strength and the increase of deformation are prominent. It is of great significance to clarify its related mechanical properties. For the tertiary mudstone, a triaxial compression test and a Brazilian splitting test are carried out under the conditions of four kinds of water content (0, 10.1%, 12.5%, and 14.1%) and four kinds of confining pressures (0 MPa, 2 MPa, 5 Mpa, and 10 MPa). The test results show that (1) with the increase of confining pressure and water content, the mudstone changes from brittle failure to ductile failure. The higher the confining pressure, the greater the strength and elastic modulus. The higher the water content, the significantly lower the strength and elastic modulus, and the higher the strain. (2) With the increase of water content, the influence of confining pressure on strength is more prominent. High confining pressure can effectively inhibit the trend of strength attenuation. (3) When the water content is low (0–10.1%), the strength of the mudstone is mainly related to its own water content. When the water content increases to 10.1%–14.1%, both the confining pressure and the water content are important factors affecting the strength of the mudstone. Then, the applicability of five commonly used strength criteria to the strength prediction of softened mudstone is compared and analyzed. The results show that the Rocker strength criterion can more accurately and conveniently predict the strength of mudstone under different water content. Finally, based on this strength criterion, a nonlinear strength prediction model of softened mudstone considering water content and confining pressure effect is proposed and its good applicability is verified.
Computer Teaching System Based on Internet of Things and Machine Learning
Authors: Chen Lei , Zhang Li
Published: October 2022

In order to solve the problem that the traditional computer-aided teaching system is affected by communication technology, which leads to the inability to interact between teachers and students, the author proposes a research on a computer teaching system based on the Internet of Things and machine learning. The hardware structure is designed according to the functions of each module of the system, in which the student learning module is composed of a teaching coordination agent and a number of other agents, responsible for the presentation of specific teaching materials, problem solving, knowledge sharing through a collaborative mechanism, and providing personalized teaching basis for the system. The teacher’s teaching module mainly provides students with corresponding teaching strategies according to the learning requirements and uses its own reasoning mechanism to provide intelligent guidance to the problems encountered in the teaching process; the assessment module uses assessment rules to analyze student responses, comprehensive assessment of students’ learning behaviors, attitudes, effects, and abilities. The software function is designed with SQL Server 2000 as the database server, in the case of determining the data attributes, the data online evaluation is carried out, and the distance teaching is completed by combining the network technology. The experimental results show that when the time is 20s, the teaching efficiency of the traditional system is 61%, and the teaching efficiency of the artificial intelligence system is 91%. As a result, the teaching efficiency of the system based on the Internet of Things and machine learning is high, and it can provide equipment support for students’ learning.
The Sale and Use of Used Clothing by Using IoT to Improve the Quality of Ready-Made Clothing in the Apparel Industry
Authors: Xu Tianyu , Jin Zhuo
Published: October 2022

Consumers, manufacturers, and retailers all over the world are becoming more conscious of the importance of high-quality products at low prices. However, many garments go to waste, raising the cost of production. As assets are exhausting, item costs are rising. To ensure profitability, effective apparel waste management is required. Lessening such waste can be a productive choice for the two makers and purchasers. Considering this, a task is being embraced in the instant piece of clothing fabricating industry to further develop item quality using a traffic signal system. To lessen creation imperfection rates, a sale and use of used dress system was executed. As per the review, the typical deformity pace of a line for day-to-day eight-hour creation was diminished from 4.13 to 1.25 pieces. Executing this system diminishes imperfection rates while expanding month-to-month creation. It obviously shows that the month-to-month limit prior to carrying out the sale and use system was comparable, yet the inadequate creation was higher, though after execution, the damaged creation was immaterial.
U-DAVIS-Deep Learning Based Arm Venous Image Segmentation Technique for Venipuncture
Authors: Kuthiala Avik , Tuli Naman , Singh Harpreet , Boyraz Omer F. , Jindal Neeru , Mavuduru Ravimohan , Pattanaik Smita , Rana Prashant Singh
Published: October 2022

Arm Venous Segmentation plays a crucial role in smart venipuncture. The difficulties faced in locating veins for intravenous procedures can be diminished using computer vision for vein imaging. To facilitate this, a high-resolution dataset consisting of arm images was curated and has been presented in this study. Leveraging the ability of Near Infrared Imaging to easily detect veins, ambient lighting conditions were created inside a small enclosure to capture the images. The acquired images were annotated to create the corresponding masks for the dataset. To extend the scope and assert the usability of the dataset, the images, and corresponding masks were used to train an image segmentation model. In addition to using basic preprocessing and image augmentation based techniques, a U-Net based algorithmic architecture has been used to facilitate the task of segmentation. Subsequently, the results of performing image segmentation after applying the preprocessing methods have been compared using various evaluation metrics and have been visualised in the study. Furthermore, the possible applications of the presented dataset have been investigated in the study.
The Important Function and Training of Sensitive Quality in Basketball Method Research
Authors: Song Peng , Wu Xu , Lian Xiao Gang , Jia Yi
Published: October 2022

Basketball is a skill-oriented group sport, which has been popularized and developed in China. However, the research on physical fitness training of basketball in China mostly focused on strength quality and speed quality, and less research was done on sensitive quality. Based on this, this paper aims to explore the important role of agility in basketball and put forward reasonable and scientific training suggestions in order to enrich the content of basketball training, complete the training system and to improve the level of basketball players as a whole.
A New Feature Analysis Approach to Selecting Channels of EEG for Fatigue Driving
Authors: Liao Yiqi , Shangguan Pengpeng , Peng Yiran , Qiu Taorong
Published: October 2022

Fatigued driving is a significant contributor to traffic accidents. There are some issues with common EEG data of 32 channels, 64 channels, and 128 channels, such as difficult acquisition, high data redundancy, and difficult practical application. A new channel selection method called ReliefF_SFS is proposed to address the problem of how to reduce the number of channels while maintaining classification accuracy. It combines the ReliefF algorithm and the sequential forward selection (SFS) algorithm. When only T6, O1, Oz, T4, P3, and FC3 are used, the classification accuracy under Theta_Std+FE combined with ReliefF_SFS achieves 99.45%. The strategy suggested in this paper not only ensures the recognition accuracy but also reduces the number of channels when compared to other models based on the same data set.
Design and Discussion on Information Management and Control System of Agricultural Machinery and Equipment
Authors: Ma Ling
Published: October 2022

In order to solve the problem of low development efficiency of agricultural mechanization information network system, a design and discussion method of agricultural machinery equipment information management and control system is proposed. This paper introduces the technologies required to realize the agricultural machinery operation management control system: Android development technology required to develop mobile phone positioning software, Internet map API for displaying location data, and construction of agricultural machinery resource allocation model for the realization of the scheduling module. Different objective functions are set, and the model results in different situations are obtained through experimental data. The experimental data are in the case of schedulable agricultural machinery, if the target is short-distance short-distance operation, it can save time by 0.16 h, and the existing M1 model is in Changying. Village work, the work end time is about 2.5 hours; M4 and M2 models work in the Xuzhuang Village, and the work end time is about 0.5 h; M3 model works in the Jiangtang Village, and the calculation results for different goals are as follows: M1 model first dispatches short-distance operations; the M3 type is dispatched first for short-distance operations; the M4 type operating in Xuzhuang Village is given priority to dispatch short-distance and short-distance operations. According to the analysis of system requirements, each submodule of the system is designed, including the function description and realization method of the module. The history track query module, mobile phone positioning module, and agricultural machinery scheduling module are introduced in detail. Using the Android development technology required by mobile phone positioning software, the information management of user interface, server system, and database is realized, which provides conditions for the collection of agricultural machinery and equipment information and the generation of information management control.
Prediction of Protein-Protein Interaction Sites by Multifeature Fusion and RF with mRMR and IFS
Authors: Zhang JunYan , Lyu Yinghua , Ma Zhiqiang
Published: October 2022

Prediction of protein-protein interaction (PPI) sites is one of the most perplexing problems in drug discovery and computational biology. Although significant progress has been made by combining different machine learning techniques with a variety of distinct characteristics, the problem still remains unresolved. In this study, a technique for PPI sites is presented using a random forest (RF) algorithm followed by the minimum redundancy maximal relevance (mRMR) approach, and the method of incremental feature selection (IFS). Physicochemical properties of proteins and the features of the residual disorder, sequence conservation, secondary structure, and solvent accessibility are incorporated. Five 3D structural characteristics are also used to predict PPI sites. Analysis of features shows that 3D structural features such as relative solvent-accessible surface area (RASA) and surface curvature (SC) help in the prediction of PPI sites. Results show that the performance of the proposed predictor is superior to several other state-of-the-art predictors, whose average prediction accuracy is 81.44%, sensitivity is 82.17%, and specificity is 80.71%, respectively. The proposed predictor is expected to become a helpful tool for finding PPI sites, and the feature analysis presented in this study will give useful insights into protein interaction mechanisms.
Metoprolol Mitigates Ischemic Heart Remodeling and Fibrosis by Increasing the Expression of AKAP5 in Ischemic Heart
Authors: Zhu Feng , Wang Qiushu , Wang Zhi , Zhang Xu , Zhang Benkai , Wang Hegui
Published: October 2022

The harm of heart failure mainly causes patients to develop dyspnea, fatigue, fluid retention, and other symptoms, which impair patients’ activity tolerance and lead to a dramatic decrease in patients’ quality of life. The purpose of this study was to verify whether metoprolol regulates AKAP5 expression and test the role of AKAP5 postinjury in mitigating cardiac infarction-associated tissue remodeling and fibrosis. Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats underwent coronary artery ligation (CAL), which was followed immediately with metoprolol daily. And western blot and coimmunoprecipitation experiments were performed to detect the expression of related proteins in the sham-operated group, model group, and drug-treated group. HW/BW ratio and cardiac expression of COL1 and COL3 were increased in rats following CAL compared with shams. Treatment with metoprolol postinjury was associated with a decrease in HW/BW ratio and COL1/COL3 expression compared to uncontrolled rats. CAL resulted in decreased cardiac AKAP5 expression compared to the control group, while metoprolol treatment restored levels compared to baseline shams. Cardiac expression levels of NFATc3/p-NFATc3 and GATA4 were modest at baseline and increased with injury, whereas metoprolol suppressed gene expression to below injury-associated changes. Immunoprecipitation indicated that AKAP5 could bind and regulate PP2B. In summary, we know that metoprolol alleviates ischemic cardiac remodeling and fibrosis, and the mechanism of alleviating remodeling may improve cardiac AKAP5 expression and AKAP5-PP2B interaction.
HGKM: An Efficient Hybrid Group Key Management for Unmanned Autonomous Vehicles MBN in Wireless Network Environment
Authors: Mahaveerakannan R. , Velmurugan S. , Vijaya Bhaskar Seelam Ch , Jothi Chitra R. , Kareem Z. H. , Sakthidasan Sankaran K. , Venkatesh Kanna T. , Chweya Ruth
Published: October 2022

Mobile ad hoc networks (MANET) have been seen as a related advancement to Group Key Management (GKM) applications. Remembering the true objective to guarantee amass applications and disallow uncertified clients from getting to the correspondence data that cannot be anchored by a remote MANET, including IP multicast, the singular gathered data content must remain encoded by a typical shared gathering key. Key administration is required to anchor the assurance of gathering the key and to safeguard those gathering data. GKM framework is associated with the remote system condition partners with three issues: execution, security, and system versatility. This article focuses on the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-mobile backbone node (MBN) remote system performance. The UAV-MBN Network condition is a military system that includes a proposal to group an important administrative structure. A half-and-half gathering key administration technique, which works on each target of UAV-MBN, is included in an arrangement to start two basic remote gathering key administration difficulties: (1) operational performance and (2) multiple-enrollment development. By working with minimal small-scale key administration, this strategy can diminish the execution cost associated with the key administration along with the increment operational execution of remote GKM. Scaled-down key organization is carried out in the context of these movement units. The key administration approach also restricted the operational procedure and decreased the operation’s cost in terms of key generation, figuring, and associated correspondence. Overall, the HGKM strategy that has been introduced enhances the operational process and functions effectively in reasonable remote areas.
Sampled Characteristic Modeling and Forgetting Gradient Learning Algorithm for Robot Servo Systems
Authors: Bi Hongbo , Chen Dong , Li Yanjuan , You Ting
Published: October 2022

Servo systems of robotic exhibit nonlinear coupling with multidimensional characteristics, which poses a challenge to existing modeling and identification techniques. According to a kind of robot servo system which runs repetitively operations over a prespecified finite time interval, a low-order sampling characteristic modeling method is derived in this work. Characteristic parameters are allowed to vary from both time axis and iteration one; the forgetting gradient learning algorithm is utilized to estimate characteristic parameters. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms is proved via theoretical analyses and numerical simulations.