bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Crystal Structure and Biophysical Analysis of Furfural-Detoxifying Aldehyde Reductase from Clostridium beijerinckii
Authors: Scott Alan F. , Cresser-Brown Joel , Williams Thomas L. , Rizkallah Pierre J. , Jin Yi , Luk Louis Y.-P. , Allemann Rudolf K.
Published: May 2019

Here we report the crystal structure and biophysical properties of an aldehyde reductase that can detoxify furfural, a common inhibitor of biofuel fermentation found in lignocellulose lysates. The data contained here will serve as a guide for protein engineers to develop improved enzyme variants that would impart furfural resistance to the microorganisms used in biofuel production and thus lead to enhanced biofuel yields from this sustainable resource.
Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae
Authors: Russo Thomas A. , Marr Candace M.
Published: May 2019

Hypervirulent
K. pneumoniae
(hvKp) is an evolving pathotype that is more virulent than classical
K. pneumoniae
(cKp). hvKp usually infects individuals from the community, who are often healthy.
Vaccination against
Clostridium difficile
by Use of an Attenuated
Salmonella enterica
Serovar Typhimurium Vector (YS1646) Protects Mice from Lethal Challenge
Authors: Winter Kaitlin , Xing Li , Kassardjian Audrey , Ward Brian J.
Published: May 2019

Clostridium difficile
disease is mediated primarily by toxins A and B (TcdA and TcdB, respectively). The receptor binding domains (RBD) of TcdA and TcdB are immunogenic, and anti-RBD antibodies are protective. Since these toxins act locally, an optimal
C. difficile
vaccine would generate both systemic and mucosal responses. We have repurposed an attenuated
Salmonella enterica
serovar Typhimurium strain (YS1646) to produce such a vaccine. Plasmid-based candidates expressing either the TcdA or TcdB RBD were screened.
A Nonstructural Protein Responsible for Viral Spread of a Novel Insect Reovirus Provides a Safe Channel for Biparental Virus Transmission to Progeny
Authors: Chen Qian , Godfrey Kris , Liu Jiejie , Mao Qianzhuo , Kuo Yen-Wen , Falk Bryce W.
Published: May 2019

The Asian citrus psyllid,
Diaphorina citri
Kuwayama, is an important pest in the worldwide citrus industry. It is the vector of “
Candidatus
Liberibacter asiaticus,” the bacterial pathogen of Huanglongbing, which is currently considered the most destructive disease of citrus worldwide. DcRV was previously identified based on metagenomics surveys for virus discovery. Here, we found that this novel and persistent insect reovirus took advantage of a virus-encoded nonstructural protein, P10, for efficient vertical transmission from parents to progeny. P10 assembled into a virion-packaging tubular structure and was associated with oocytes of female
D. citri
and sperm of males. Consistent with this, knockdown of P10 for either male or female
D. citri
insects inhibited DcRV transmission to offspring. This tubular strategy for viral spread and biparental transmission might serve as a target for controlling viral vertical transmission and population expansion.
Complete Genomic Sequence of an Australian Sindbis Virus Isolated 44 Years Ago Reveals Unique Indels in the E2 and nsP3 Proteins
Authors: Pickering Paul , Aaskov John G. , Liu Wenjun
Published: May 2019

The complete genome sequence of a Sindbis virus (SINV) strain (SINV_AUS_1975_18953) isolated in Australia in 1975 from
Culex annulirostris
mosquitoes revealed unique deletions in amino acid positions 182 to 184 and 201 to 228 of the E2 envelope protein and multiple indels in the nonstructural protein 3 (nsP3).
First Draft Genome Sequence of a Pearl Millet Blast Pathogen, Magnaporthe grisea Strain PMg_Dl, Obtained Using PacBio Single-Molecule Real-Time and Illumina NextSeq 500 Sequencing
Authors: Prakash Ganesan , Kumar Aundy , Sheoran Neelam , Aggarwal Rashmi , Satyavathi Chellapilla Tara , Chikara Surendra K. , Ghosh Arpita , Jain Rakesh Kumar
Published: May 2019

The first draft genome sequence of the pearl millet blast pathogen
Magnaporthe grisea
PMg_Dl from India is presented. The genome information of
M. grisea
will be useful to understand the
Magnaporthe
speciation, genetic diversity, environmental adaptation, and pathogenic and host range determinants.
U-Pb ages of detrital zircons in lower Permian sandstone and siltstone of the Permian Basin, west Texas, USA: Evidence of dominant Gondwanan and peri-Gondwanan sediment input to Laurentia
Authors: Liu Li , Stockli Daniel F.
Published: May 2019

The Permian Basin of west Texas, one of the most economically significant hydrocarbon basins in the United States, formed along the southwest margin of Laurentia in the foreland of the Ouachita-Marathon orogen during the late Paleozoic. While its stratigraphic record temporally coincides with syn- and post-orogenic Ouachita-Marathon sedimentation, sediment provenance, sediment routing and dispersal, and paleo-drainage evolution have remained controversial. This study presents more than 2000 new detrital zircon U-Pb ages from 16 samples across the Permian Basin to elucidate early Permian sediment provenance and basin-fill evolution. The data show that Wolfcampian sandstones are dominated by 950–1070 Ma and 500–700 Ma detrital zircon U-Pb ages, whereas Leonardian sandstones and siltstones are dominated by 500–700 Ma and 280–480 Ma detrital zircon U-Pb ages. Most of these age clusters are not typical Laurentian basement ages, but rather indicative of a southern Gondwanan and peri-Gondwanan sources of Mexico and Central America. This interpretation is corroborated by zircons with peri-Gondwanan and Gondwanan rim-core relationships, as well as major age components of euhedral zircons, matching Maya block basement ages. Regional comparison of these new detrital zircon results with published data from Carboniferous and Permian sedimentary rocks in various terranes of Mexico and Central America, Appalachian foreland basins, Ouachita orogenic belt, midcontinent of United States, and Fort Worth Basin (Texas), indicates that most sediment influx to the Permian Basin during the early Permian (Wolfcampian and Leonardian) was derived from basement or recycled upper Paleozoic strata associated with Gondwanan and peri-Gondwanan terranes in modern Mexico and Central America. North American basements such as the Appalachian Grenville (950–1300 Ma), Granite-Rhyolite (1300–1500 Ma), and Yavapai-Mazatzal (1600–1800 Ma) provinces, appear to have provided only minor amounts of sediment. In light of depositional age constraints, the timing of Marathon-Ouachita collision, and careful detrital zircon U-Pb age spectra comparison, the sediment provenance shift from Wolfcampian to Leonardian points to a diachronous, oblique continent-continent collision between Gondwana/peri-Gondwanan terranes and Laurentia.
Asynchronous ventilation at 120 compared with 90 or 100 compressions per minute improves haemodynamic recovery in asphyxiated newborn piglets
Authors: Patel Sparsh , Cheung Po-Yin , Lee Tze-Fun , Pasquin Matteo P , Lu Min , O’Reilly Megan , Schmölzer Georg M
Published: May 2019

Objective

To determine whether different chest compression (CC) rates during continuous CC with asynchronous ventilations (CCaV) reduce time to return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) and improved haemodynamic recovery in piglets aged 24–72 hours with asphyxia-induced asystole.

Methods

Thirty piglets (aged 24–72 hours) were anaesthetised, intubated, instrumented and exposed to 30 min normocapnic hypoxia followed by asphyxia. Piglets were randomised into four groups: CCaV with CC rate of 90 (CCaV+90, n=8), 100 (CCaV+100, n=8) or 120 compressions per minute (CCaV+120, n=8), and a sham-operated group (n=6). Cardiac function, carotid blood flow, cerebral and renal oxygenation and respiratory parameters were continuously recorded. Cerebral cortical tissue was harvested and assayed for inflammatory and injury markers.

Results

All three intervention groups had a similar number of piglets achieving ROSC (6/8, 5/8 and 5/8 for CCaV+120, CCaV+100 and CCaV+90, respectively) and mean ROSC time (120, 90 and 90 s for CCaV+120, CCaV+100 and CCaV+90, respectively). The haemodynamic recovery (indicated by carotid flow, cerebral and renal perfusion) was similar between CCaV+120 and sham by the end of experiment. In comparison, CCaV+90 and CCaV+100 had significantly reduced haemodynamic recovery compared with sham operated (p≤0.05). Inflammatory (interleukin [IL]-6 and IL-1β) and injury markers (lactate) were significantly higher in the frontoparietal cortex of CCaV+90 and CCaV+100 compared with sham, whereas brain injury markers were similar between CCaV+120 and sham.

Conclusions

Although there was no difference between the groups in achieving ROSC, the haemodynamic recovery of CCaV+120 was significantly improved compared with CCaV+90 and CCaV+100, which were also associated with higher cerebral inflammatory and brain injury markers.
Physiological effects of high-flow nasal cannula therapy in preterm infants
Authors: Liew Zheyi , Fenton Alan C , Harigopal Sundeep , Gopalakaje Saikiran , Brodlie Malcolm , O’Brien Christopher J
Published: May 2019

Objective

High-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) therapy is increasingly used in preterm infants despite a paucity of physiological studies. We aimed to investigate the effects of HFNC on respiratory physiology.

Study design

A prospective randomised crossover study was performed enrolling clinically stable preterm infants receiving either HFNC or nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP). Infants in three current weight groups were studied: <1000 g, 1000–1500 g and >1500 g. Infants were randomised to either first receive HFNC flows 8–2 L/min and then nCPAP 6 cm H2O or nCPAP first and then HFNC flows 8–2 L/min. Nasopharyngeal end-expiratory airway pressure (pEEP), tidal volume, dead space washout by nasopharyngeal end-expiratory CO2 (pEECO2), oxygen saturation and vital signs were measured.

Results

A total of 44 preterm infants, birth weights 500–1900 g, were studied. Increasing flows from 2 to 8 L/min significantly increased pEEP (mean 2.3–6.1 cm H2O) and reduced pEECO2 (mean 2.3%–0.9%). Tidal volume and transcutaneous CO2 were unchanged. Significant differences were seen between pEEP generated in open and closed mouth states across all HFNC flows (difference 0.6–2.3 cm H2O). Infants weighing <1000 g received higher pEEP at the same HFNC flow than infants weighing >1000 g. Variability of pEEP generated at HFNC flows of 6–8 L/min was greater than nCPAP (2.4–13.5 vs 3.5–9.9 cm H2O).

Conclusions

HFNC therapy produces clinically significant pEEP with large variability at higher flow rates. Highest pressures were observed in infants weighing <1000 g. Flow, weight and mouth position are all important determinants of pressures generated. Reductions in pEECO2 support HFNC’s role in dead space washout.
Infected aneurysm after returning from Southeast Asia: thinkBurkholderia pseudomallei!
Authors: Auvens Clément , Neuwirth Catherine , Piroth Lionel , Blot Mathieu
Published: May 2019

Melioidosis is a protean disease which is endemic to Southeast Asia and northern Australia. Here, we report a case of infected aortic aneurysm due toBurkholderia pseudomalleiin an immunocompetent man 6 months after a trip to northern Malaysia. This patient initially received inappropriate surgical and antibiotic treatment, leading to a peri-prosthetic aortic infection with lumbar spondylitis and contiguous psoas muscle abscess. This case highlights the difficulty of diagnosing melioidosis given its diverse clinical manifestations and the limits of routine microbiological methods to identifyB. pseudomallei. Melioidosis should be considered a possible diagnosis in individuals with unexplained fever subsequent to travel in an endemic area.
False-positive troponin I elevation in a newborn with neonatal encephalopathy
Authors: Caredda Elisabetta , Rosso Roberto , Capristo Carlo , Montaldo Paolo
Published: May 2019

Serum biomarkers of myocardial damage are commonly used in babies after perinatal asphyxia. We present a case report of a persistently troponin I elevation without evidence of clinical or instrumental signs of myocardial ischaemia in a baby with perinatal asphyxia. When the blood was mixed with polyethylene glycol we found that the troponin I levels were falsely elevated due to interfering antibodies. This case shows that analytical errors may still occur despite modern immunoassay systems and underlines the need for further investigations to identify false-positive values in case of disagreement between clinical conditions and laboratory values.
Understanding the consequences of education inequality on cardiovascular disease: mendelian randomisation study
Authors: Carter Alice R , Gill Dipender , Davies Neil M , Taylor Amy E , Tillmann Taavi , Vaucher Julien , Wootton Robyn E , Munafò Marcus R , Hemani Gibran , Malik Rainer , Seshadri Sudha , Woo Daniel , Burgess Stephen , Davey Smith George , Holmes Michael V , Tzoulaki Ioanna , Howe Laura D , Dehghan Abbas
Published: May 2019

Objectives

To investigate the role of body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure, and smoking behaviour in explaining the effect of education on the risk of cardiovascular disease outcomes.

Design

Mendelian randomisation study.

Setting

UK Biobank and international genome-wide association study data.

Participants

Predominantly participants of European ancestry.

Exposure

Educational attainment, BMI, systolic blood pressure, and smoking behaviour in observational analysis, and randomly allocated genetic variants to instrument these traits in mendelian randomisation.

Main outcomes measure

The risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, myocardial infarction, and cardiovascular disease (all subtypes; all measured in odds ratio), and the degree to which this is mediated through BMI, systolic blood pressure, and smoking behaviour respectively.

Results

Each additional standard deviation of education (3.6 years) was associated with a 13% lower risk of coronary heart disease (odds ratio 0.86, 95% confidence interval 0.84 to 0.89) in observational analysis and a 37% lower risk (0.63, 0.60 to 0.67) in mendelian randomisation analysis. As a proportion of the total risk reduction, BMI was estimated to mediate 15% (95% confidence interval 13% to 17%) and 18% (14% to 23%) in the observational and mendelian randomisation estimates, respectively. Corresponding estimates were 11% (9% to 13%) and 21% (15% to 27%) for systolic blood pressure and 19% (15% to 22%) and 34% (17% to 50%) for smoking behaviour. All three risk factors combined were estimated to mediate 42% (36% to 48%) and 36% (5% to 68%) of the effect of education on coronary heart disease in observational and mendelian randomisation analyses, respectively. Similar results were obtained when investigating the risk of stroke, myocardial infarction, and cardiovascular disease.

Conclusions

BMI, systolic blood pressure, and smoking behaviour mediate a substantial proportion of the protective effect of education on the risk of cardiovascular outcomes and intervening on these would lead to reductions in cases of cardiovascular disease attributable to lower levels of education. However, more than half of the protective effect of education remains unexplained and requires further investigation.
Antifungal (oral and vaginal) therapy for recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis: a systematic review protocol
Authors: Lírio Juliana , Giraldo Paulo Cesar , Amaral Rose Luce , Sarmento Ayane Cristine Alves , Costa Ana Paula Ferreira , Gonçalves Ana Katherine
Published: May 2019

Introduction

Vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) is frequent in women worldwide and usually responds rapidly to topical or oral antifungal therapy. However, some women develop recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC), which is arbitrarily defined as four or more episodes every year. RVVC is a debilitating, long-term condition that can severely affect the quality of life of women. Most VVC is diagnosed and treated empirically and women frequently self-treat with over-the-counter medications that could contribute to an increase in the antifungal resistance. The effective treatment of RVVC has been a challenge in daily clinical practice. This review aims to assess the efficacy of antifungal agents administered orally or intravaginally for the treatment of RVVC, in order to define clinical practices that will impact on the reduction of the morbidity and antifungal resistance.

Methods and analysis

A comprehensive search of the following databases will be carried out: PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde (Virtual Health Library)/Biblioteca Regional de Medicina (Regional Library of Medicine) (BVS/BIREME), Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) and in the clinical trials databases (www.trialscentral.org;www.controlled-trials.com;www.clinicaltrials.gov). The risk of bias will be assessed according to the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. We will perform data synthesis using the Review Manager (RevMan) software V.5.2.3. To assess heterogeneity, we will compute the I2 statistic.

Ethics and dissemination

This study will be a review of published data and it is not necessary to obtain ethical approval. Findings of this systematic review will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Trial registration number

CRD42018093817
Effects of brain training on brain blood flow (The Cognition and Flow Study—CogFlowS): protocol for a feasibility randomised controlled trial of cognitive training in dementia
Authors: Beishon Lucy , Evley Rachel , Panerai Ronney B , Subramaniam Hari , Mukaetova-Ladinska Elizabeta , Robinson Thompson , Haunton Victoria
Published: May 2019

Introduction

Cognitive training is an emerging non-pharmacological treatment to improve cognitive and physical function in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Abnormal brain blood flow is a key process in the development of cognitive decline. However, no studies have explored the effects of cognitive training on brain blood flow in dementia. The primary aim of this study is to assess the feasibility for a large-scale, randomised controlled trial of cognitive training in healthy older adults (HC), MCI and early AD.

Methods and analysis

This study will recruit 60 participants, in three subgroups of 20 (MCI, HC, AD), from primary, secondary and community services. Participants will be randomised to a 12-week computerised cognitive training programme (five × 30 min sessions per week), or waiting-list control. Participants will undergo baseline and follow-up assessments of: mood, cognition, quality of life and activities of daily living. Cerebral blood flow will be measured at rest and during task activation (pretraining and post-training) by bilateral transcranial Doppler ultrasonography, alongside heart rate (3-lead ECG), end-tidal CO2(capnography) and beat-to-beat blood pressure (Finometer). Participants will be offered to join a focus group or semistructured interview to explore barriers and facilitators to cognitive training in patients with dementia. Qualitative data will be analysed using framework analysis, and data will be integrated using mixed methods matrices.

Ethics and dissemination

Bradford Leeds Research Ethics committee awarded a favourable opinion (18/YH/0396). Results of the study will be published in peer-reviewed journals, and presented at national and international conferences on ageing and dementia.

Trials registration number

NCT03656107; Pre-results.
Intravascular NK/T-cell lymphoma: clinicopathological and integrated molecular analysis of two cases provides a clue to disease pathogenesis
Authors: Fujikura Kohei , Yamashita Daisuke , Sakamoto Ryo , Ishikawa Takayuki , Chuang Shih-Sung , Itoh Tomoo , Imai Yukihiro
Published: May 2019

Aims

To elucidate the clinicopathological and molecular features of intravascular NK/T-cell lymphoma (IVNKTCL).

Methods

Two cases of IVNKTCL were retrieved from a single-centre cohort composed of 25 intravascular lymphomas. Whole-exome and RNA sequencing and immunohistochemistry were performed.

Results

We identified somatic mutations in the following epigenetic regulators: four histone genes (HIST1H2AN,HIST1H2BE,HIST1H2BNandH3F3A),histone deacetylase (HDAC5), two helicases (WRNandDDX3X), two methylation-related enzymes (TET2andDNMT1) and the SNI/SWF pathway (ARID1A). Copy number analysis identified driver gene alterations comprising the loss ofARID1B,HACE1andSMAD4, and the gain ofSOX2and histone clusters. RNA sequencing analysis did not indicate the presence of any fusion gene. Both cases were positive for Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and showed strong expression of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1).

Conclusions

This study raises the possibility that, at least for some patients, IVNKTCL may be considered an epigenetic disease with EBV infection-associated aetiopathogenesis.
Clinical and cost-effectiveness of the Ross procedure versus conventional aortic valve replacement in young adults
Authors: Thom Howard , Visan Alexandru Ciprian , Keeney Edna , Dorobantu Dan Mihai , Fudulu Daniel , T A Sharabiani Mansour , Round Jeff , Stoica Serban Constantin
Published: May 2019

Objectives

In young and middle-aged adults, there are three current options for aortic valve replacement (AVR), namely mechanical AVR (mechAVR), tissue AVR (biological AVR) and the Ross operation, with no clear guidance on the best option. We aim to compare the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the Ross procedure with conventional AVR in young and middle-aged adults.

Methods

This is a systematic literature review and meta-analysis of AVR options. Markov multistate model was adopted to compare cost-effectiveness. Lifetime costs, quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), net monetary benefit (NMB), population expected value of perfect information (EVPI) and expected value of partial perfect information were estimated.

Results

We identified 48 cohorts with a total number of 12 975 patients (mean age 44.5 years, mean follow-up 7.1 years). Mortality, bleeding and thromboembolic events over the follow-up period were lowest after the Ross operation, compared with mechAVR and biological AVR (p<0.001). Aortic reoperation rates were lower after Ross compared with biological AVR, but slightly higher when compared with mechAVR (p<0.001). At a willingness-to-pay threshold of £20effective. At a willingness-to-pay threshold of £20, 000 per QALY000 per QALY, the Ross procedure is more cost-effective compared the Ross procedure is more cost-effective compared withwith conventional AVR, with a lifetime incremental NMB of £60 conventional AVR, with a lifetime incremental NMB of £60 952 (952 (££3030 236236 to to ££7979 464). Incremental costs were £12464). Incremental costs were £12 323 (323 (££61086108 to to ££1515 972) and incremental QALYs 3.66 (1.81972) and incremental QALYs 3.66 (1.81 to to 4.76). The population EVPI indicates that a trial costing up to £2.03 million could be cost 4.76). The population EVPI indicates that a trial costing up to £2.03 million could be cost--effective.

At a willingness-to-pay threshold of £20 000 per QALY, the Ross procedure is more cost-effective compared with conventional AVR, with a lifetime incremental NMB of £60 952 (£30 236 to £79 464). Incremental costs were £12 323 (£6108 to £15 972) and incremental QALYs 3.66 (1.81 to 4.76). The population EVPI indicates that a trial costing up to £2.03 million could be cost-effective.

Conclusions

In young and middle-aged adults with aortic valve disease, the Ross procedure may confer greater quality of life and be more cost-effective than conventional AVR. A high-quality randomised trial could be warranted and cost-effective.
NT-proBNP and postoperative heart failure in surgery for aortic stenosis
Authors: Jiang Huiqi , Vánky Farkas , Hultkvist Henrik , Holm Jonas , Yang Yanqi , Svedjeholm Rolf
Published: May 2019

Objective

Postoperative heart failure (PHF) after aortic valve replacement (AVR) for aortic stenosis (AS) may initially appear mild and transient but has serious long-term consequences. Methods to assess PHF are not well documented. We studied the association between N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and PHF after AVR for AS.

Methods

This is a prospective, observational, longitudinal study of 203 patients undergoing elective first-time AVR for AS. Plasma NT-proBNP was assessed at preoperative evaluation, the day before surgery, and the first (POD1) and third postoperative morning. A clinical endpoints committee, blinded to NT-proBNP results, used prespecified haemodynamic criteria to diagnose PHF. The mean follow-up was 8.6±1.1 years.

Results

No patient with PHF (n=18) died within 30 days after surgery, but PHF was associated with poor long-term survival (HR 3.01, 95% CI 1.45 to 6.21, p=0.003). NT-proBNP was significantly higher in patients with PHF only on POD1 (6415 (3145–11 220) vs 2445 (1540–3855) ng/L, p<0.0001). NT-proBNP POD1 provided good discrimination of PHF (area under the curve=0.82, 95% CI 0.72 to 0.91, p<0.0001; best cut-off 5290 ng/L: sensitivity 63%, specificity 85%). NT-proBNP POD1 ≥5290 ng/L identified which patients with PHF carried a risk of poor long-term survival, and PHF with NT-proBNP POD1 ≥ 5290 ng/L emerged as a risk factor for long-term mortality in the multivariable Cox regression (HR 6.20, 95% CI 2.72 to 14.1, p<0.0001).

Conclusions

The serious long-term consequences associated with PHF after AVR for AS were confirmed. NT-proBNP level on POD1 aids in the assessment of PHF and identifies patients at particular risk of poor long-term survival.
TIMI risk score for secondary prevention of recurrent cardiovascular events in a real-world cohort of post-non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction patients
Authors: Huang Duo , Cheng Yang Yang , Wong Yiu Tung , Yung See Yue , Chan Ki Wan , Lam Cheung Chi , Hai JoJo , Lau Chu Pak , Wong Ka Lam , Feng Ying Qing , Tan Ning , Chen Ji Yan , Wu Ming Xiang , Su Xi , Yan Hua , Song Dan , Tse Hung Fat , Chan Pak Hei , Siu Chung Wah , Tam Chor Cheung
Published: May 2019

Background

Patients who survive non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) are at heightened risk of recurrent cardiovascular events. Data on long-term secondary atherothrombotic risk stratification are limited.

Objectives

To stratify post-NSTEMI patients for risk of recurrent cardiovascular events to maximise benefit from aggressive secondary prevention strategies using the TIMI Risk Score for Secondary Prevention (TRS 2°P) score in a real-world cohort of NSTEMI patients.

Methods and results

This was a single-centre observational study of 891 post-NSTEMI patients (73.7 ± 12.7 years; male: 54.2%). The TRS 2°P is a nine-point risk stratification tool to predict cardiovascular events in patients with established cardiovascular disease. The primary outcome was a composite endpoint of cardiovascular death, non-fatal MI and non-fatal ischaemic stroke. After a median follow-up of 31 months (IQR: 11.4 – 60.2), 281 patients (31.5%) had developed a primary outcome (13.3%/year) including 196 cardiovascular deaths, 94 non-fatal MIs and 22 non-fatal strokes. The TRS 2°P score was strongly associated with the primary outcome. The annual incidence of primary composite endpoint for patients with TRS 2°P score =0 was 1.6%, and increased progressively to 47.4% for those with a TRS 2°P score ≥6 (HR: 20.18, 95% CI: 4.85 to 84.05, p<0.001). Similar associations were also observed between the TRS 2°P score and cardiovascular death and MI (fatal and non-fatal), but not non-fatal ischaemic stroke.

Conclusion

The TRS 2°P score stratified post-NSTEMI patients for risk of future cardiovascular events and potentially help guide the selection of more aggressive secondary prevention therapy.
Health claims made in vape shops: an observational study and content analysis
Authors: Wagoner Kimberly G , Berman Micah , Rose Shyanika W , Song Eunyoung , Cornacchione Ross Jennifer , Klein Elizabeth G , Kelley Dannielle E , King Jessica L , Wolfson Mark , Sutfin Erin L
Published: May 2019

Background

Prior to the final deeming rule, federal law in the USA prohibited electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) from being marketed as smoking cessation products; for other therapeutic purposes and in ways that conveyed Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval/endorsement. After August 2016, additional federal prohibitions were added including false/misleading and unauthorised modified risk tobacco product (MRTP) claims. No systematic investigation of e-cigarette health claims has been conducted in the retail environment. We sought to document and characterise claims made in vape shops.

Methods

Between November 2015 and February 2016, before final deeming rule implementation, two trained data collectors conducted unannounced observational assessments of 46 vape shops in North Carolina. Data collectors used wearable imaging technology to document health claims about e-cigarettes. Photos were coded for five claim types: (1) cessation device; (2) drug effect/device; (3) FDA-approved/endorsed; (4) false/misleading and (5) MRTP. Photos were double coded; differences between coders were adjudicated and reviewed by an expert panel.

Results

At least one health claim was displayed in 41.3% (n=19) of retailers, ranging from 0 to 27 claims per retailer. All claim types were found. Cessation device claims were the most prevalent (62.2%, n=84), followed by MRTP (27.4%, n=37), drug effect/device (8.1%, n=11), false/misleading (1.5%, n=2), and FDA approved/endorsed (0.7%, n=1). Retail chains made the majority of claims compared with independent shops (88.9% vs 11.1%).

Conclusions

Many vape shops displayed e-cigarette health claims, which are all now FDA prohibited. These claims could mislead consumers and influence behaviour. Findings highlight the need for retailer education, continued surveillance, enforcement specific to advertising and research on consumer perceptions of claims.
Interindividual variability and individual responses to exercise training in adolescents with obesity
Authors: Walsh Jeremy J. , Bonafiglia Jacob T. , Goldfield Gary S. , Sigal Ronald J. , Kenny Glen P. , Doucette Steve , Hadjiyannakis Stasia , Alberga Angela S. , Prud’homme Denis , Gurd Brendon J.
Published: May 2019

This study investigated the impact of exercise training on interindividual variability and response rates in body composition and cardiometabolic outcomes in adolescents with obesity. Postpubertal males and females (n = 143) were randomly assigned to 6 months of a diet-only control or aerobic, resistance, or combined exercise training. Body composition indices were percentages of body fat mass and lean body mass and waist circumference. Biomarkers of cardiometabolic health were systolic blood pressure and plasma fasting glucose, triglycerides, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Interindividual variability was examined by comparing the standard deviation of individual responses (SDIR) to a smallest robust change (SRC). The typical error of measurement was used to classify responses. SDIR exceeded the SRC for percent body fat mass in all exercise groups (SRC = 1.04%; aerobic SDIR = 1.50%; resistance SDIR = 1.22%; combined SDIR = 2.29%), percent lean body mass (SRC = 1.38%; SDIR = 3.2%,), systolic blood pressure (SRC = 2.06 mm Hg; SDIR = 4.92 mm Hg) in the resistance group, and waist circumference (SRC = 2.33 cm; SDIR = 4.09 cm), and fasting glucose (SRC = 0.08 mmol/L; SDIR = 0.28 mmol/L) in the combined group. However, half of the reported variables (11/21) did not have a positive SDIR. Importantly, adverse response rates were significantly lower in all 3 exercise groups compared with control for body composition. Although exercise had a small influence on interindividual variability for indices of body composition, the rate of adverse responses did not increase for any outcome.

Novelty Interindividual variability and individual responses to exercise training have not been investigated in adolescents with obesity. Six months of exercise training does not increase interindividual variability in adolescents with obesity. Exercise created a positive, uniform shift in responses.
Pyrogenic and neuroinflammatory properties of zymosan and its potential as an alternative to live yeast in antipyretic drug testing
Authors: Dangarembizi Rachael , Rummel Christoph D. , Roth Joachim , Erlwanger Kennedy H. , Madziva Michael T. , Harden Lois M.
Published: May 2019

Zymosan, an immunogenic cell wall extract of Saccharomyces cerevisiae has potential for use as an experimental pyrogen. However, the short-lived sickness responses noted with intraperitoneal and intra-articular administration of zymosan limits investigations on the long-term effectiveness of antipyretic drugs. Thus, there remains a need to establish an alternative route of zymosan administration that could induce long-lived fevers and inflammation. We injected male Sprague Dawley rats (250–300 g) subcutaneously with zymosan (30 or 300 mg/kg) or saline; n = 7–8. We measured core body temperature, cage activity, food intake and body mass for 24 h after injection. Blood and brain samples were collected at 2, 8, and 18 h after injection. Zymosan (300 mg/kg) induced fever, lethargy, and anorexia, which lasted for 24 h. Zymosan-induced sickness responses were accompanied by increased blood plasma levels of interleukin (IL)-6 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α; activation of inflammatory transcription factors (nuclear factor (NF) for IL-6, signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT)-3, and NF-κB) in the hypothalamus and circumventricular organs; and increased hypothalamic mRNA expression of TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 and rate-limiting enzymes for prostaglandin synthesis. Our results confirm the suitability of subcutaneous administration of zymosan for screening antipyretic and anti-inflammatory drugs in rats.
A Communication Model Framework for Electric Transmission Line Monitoring Using Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm
Authors: Jeyanthi C. , Sait H. Habeebullah , Chandrasekaran K. , Columbus C. Christopher
Published: May 2019

The natural calamity and physical malfunction in the overhead transmission line cause bad impact on the networks such as mechanical failures, power losses, reduction of line capacity, and voltage drop. These adverse impacts can be reduced by implementing proper monitoring systems. Wireless sensor network is an apt mechanism to monitor the overhead transmission network because of its physical configuration. This paper portrays the communication between wireless sensor networks and central data processing station. Cellular communication can directly transmit information through an assisted cellular module (CM) based on the probability of cellular coverage. In this paper, one of the modern optimization techniques, i.e., artificial bee colony algorithm, is used to study the problem of CM placement of cellular communication. By using this algorithm, the optimal number and location of the CMs for a test system varied from 10 to 100 are determined. A novel optimal link path scheme is proposed to check the condition of the required quality of services of both cellular/ZigBee users. The attained results show that the methodology is best suited to acquire low cost solution for the cellular module placement problem.
Investigations of the Hydraulic Characteristics of Stilling Basin with Baffle-Blocks Using an Integrated SPH Method
Authors: Ma X. J. , Yan Y. L. , Li G. Y. , Geni M. , Wang M.
Published: May 2019

The stilling basin has been one of the most powerful hydraulic structures for the dissipation of the flow energy. Meshfree and particle methods have special advantages in modeling incompressible flows with free surfaces. In this paper, an integrated smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method is developed to model energy dissipation process of stilling basins. The integrated SPH includes the kernel gradient correction (KGC) technique, the dynamic solid boundary treatment, [Formula: see text]-SPH model and density reinitialization. We first conducted the simulations of dam-breaking and hydraulic jump to validate the accuracy of the present method. The present simulation results agree well with the experimental observations and numerical results from other sources. Then the discharge process of stilling basin with baffle-blocks is simulated with the integrated SPH. It is demonstrated that the detailed discharge process can be well captured by this method. The energy dissipation effect of stilling basin could be significantly improved by the baffle-blocks. The structure and position of the baffle-block directly affect the energy dissipation effect, while the height of the baffle-block has big influence on the drainage capacity.
China’s Whole-of-Region Diplomacy in the Middle East: Opportunities and Challenges
Authors: Sun Degang
Published: May 2019

To safeguard its economic and security interests, China has adopted a whole-of-region diplomacy in the Middle East since the end of the Cold war. Through a multitude of regional and international organizations, China has been able to maintain constructive interactions with Middle Eastern countries while deepening its ties with other major powers like the United States, the European Union, Russia, Japan and India. China’s diplomatic efforts have paid off in the Middle East and increased the influence of developing countries as a whole in international politics. Meanwhile, China’s whole-of-region diplomacy is faced with a number of challenges given the complexity of ethnic, religious and security landscapes in the Middle East. China needs more holistic and well-coordinated ways of whole-of-region diplomacy to seek closer relationships with Middle Eastern countries. To this end, it is important for China to consolidate its network of strategic partnerships on the basis of bilateral collaboration and multilateral cooperation, further strengthen its discourse power and agenda-setting capacity, and consider adopting a common but differentiated strategy toward regional countries according to their different national conditions, political systems and paths of socioeconomic development.
Multi-Channel Embedding Convolutional Neural Network Model for Arabic Sentiment Classification
Authors: Dahou Abdelghani , Xiong Shengwu , Zhou Junwei , Elaziz Mohamed Abd
Published: May 2019

With the advent of social network services, Arabs’ opinions on the web have attracted many researchers in recent years toward detecting and classifying sentiments in Arabic tweets and reviews. However, the impact of word embeddings vectors (WEVs) initialization and dataset balance on Arabic sentiment classification using deep learning has not been thoroughly studied. In this article, a multi-channel embedding convolutional neural network (MCE-CNN) is proposed to improve Arabic sentiment classification by learning sentiment features from different text domains, word, and character n-grams levels. MCE-CNN encodes a combination of different pre-trained word embeddings into the embedding block at each embedding channel and trains these channels in parallel. Besides, a separate feature extraction module implemented in a CNN block is used to extract more relevant sentiment features. These channels and blocks help to start training on high-quality WEVs and fine-tuning them. The performance of MCE-CNN is evaluated on several standard balanced and imbalanced datasets to reflect real-world use cases. Experimental results show that MCE-CNN provides a high classification accuracy and benefits from the second embedding channel on both standard Arabic and dialectal Arabic text, which outperforms state-of-the-art methods.
Toward an Effective Igbo Part-of-Speech Tagger
Authors: Onyenwe Ikechukwu E. , Hepple Mark , Chinedu Uchechukwu , Ezeani Ignatius
Published: May 2019

Part-of-speech (POS) tagging is a well-established technology for most Western European languages and a few other world languages, but it has not been evaluated on Igbo, an agglutinative African language. This article presents POS tagging experiments conducted using an Igbo corpus as a test bed for identifying the POS taggers and the Machine Learning (ML) methods that can achieve a good performance with the small dataset available for the language. Experiments have been conducted using different well-known POS taggers developed for English or European languages, and different training data styles and sizes. Igbo has a number of language-specific characteristics that present a challenge for effective POS tagging. One interesting case is the wide use of verbs (and nominalizations thereof) that have an
inherent noun complement
, which form “linked pairs” in the POS tagging scheme, but which may appear discontinuously. Another issue is Igbo’s highly productive agglutinative morphology, which can produce many variant word forms from a given root. This productivity is a key cause of the out-of-vocabulary (OOV) words observed during Igbo tagging. We report results of experiments on a promising direction for improving tagging performance on such morphologically-inflected OOV words.
Experience-based Causality Learning for Intelligent Agents
Authors: Liu Yang , Wang Shaonan , Zhang Jiajun , Zong Chengqing
Published: May 2019

Understanding causality in text is crucial for intelligent agents. In this article, inspired by human causality learning, we propose an experience-based causality learning framework. Comparing to traditional approaches, which attempt to handle the causality problem relying on textual clues and linguistic resources, we are the first to use experience information for causality learning. Specifically, we first construct various scenarios for intelligent agents, thus, the agents can gain experience from interaction in these scenarios. Then, human participants build a number of training instances for agents of causality learning based on these scenarios. Each instance contains two sentences and a label. Each sentence describes an event that an agent experienced in a scenario, and the label indicates whether the sentence (event) pair has a causal relation. Accordingly, we propose a model that can infer the causality in text using experience by accessing the corresponding event information based on the input sentence pair. Experiment results show that our method can achieve impressive performance on the grounded causality corpus and significantly outperform the conventional approaches. Our work suggests that experience is very important for intelligent agents to understand causality.
Multi-task Stack Propagation for Neural Quality Estimation
Authors: Kim Hyun , Lee Jong-Hyeok , Na Seung-Hoon
Published: May 2019

Quality estimation is an important task in machine translation that has attracted increased interest in recent years. A key problem in translation-quality estimation is the lack of a sufficient amount of the quality annotated training data. To address this shortcoming, the
Predictor-Estimator
was proposed recently by introducing “word prediction” as an additional pre-subtask that predicts a current target word with consideration of surrounding source and target contexts, resulting in a two-stage neural model composed of a
predictor
and an
estimator
. However, the original Predictor-Estimator is not trained on a continuous stacking model but instead in a cascaded manner that separately trains the predictor from the estimator. In addition, the Predictor-Estimator is trained based on single-task learning only, which uses target-specific quality-estimation data without using other training data that are available from other-level quality-estimation tasks. In this article, we thus propose a
multi-task stack propagation
, which extensively applies
stack propagation
to fully train the Predictor-Estimator on a continuous stacking architecture and
multi-task learning
to enhance the training data from related other-level quality-estimation tasks. Experimental results on WMT17 quality-estimation datasets show that the Predictor-Estimator trained with multi-task stack propagation provides statistically significant improvements over the baseline models. In particular, under an ensemble setting, the proposed multi-task stack propagation leads to state-of-the-art performance at all the sentence/word/phrase levels for WMT17 quality estimation tasks.
Precise Detection of Content Reuse in the Web
Authors: Ardi Calvin , Heidemann John
Published: May 2019

With vast amount of content online, it is not surprising that unscrupulous entities "borrow" from the web to provide content for advertisements, link farms, and spam. Our insight is that cryptographic hashing and fingerprinting can efficiently identify content reuse for web-size corpora. We develop two related algorithms, one to automatically *discover* previously unknown duplicate content in the web, and the second to *precisely detect* copies of discovered or manually identified content. We show that *bad neighborhoods*, clusters of pages where copied content is frequent, help identify copying in the web. We verify our algorithm and its choices with controlled experiments over three web datasets: Common Crawl (2009/10), GeoCities (1990s–2000s), and a phishing corpus (2014). We show that our use of cryptographic hashing is much more precise than alternatives such as locality-sensitive hashing, avoiding the thousands of false-positives that would otherwise occur. We apply our approach in three systems: discovering and detecting duplicated content in the web, searching explicitly for copies of Wikipedia in the web, and detecting phishing sites in a web browser. We show that general copying in the web is often benign (for example, templates), but 6–11% are commercial or possibly commercial. Most copies of Wikipedia (86%) are commercialized (link farming or advertisements). For phishing, we focus on PayPal, detecting 59% of PayPal-phish even without taking on intentional cloaking.
Regional airflow obstruction after bronchoconstriction and subsequent bronchodilation in subjects without pulmonary disease
Authors: Geier E. T. , Theilmann R. J. , Prisk G. K. , Sá R. C.
Published: May 2019

Some subjects with asthma have ventilation defects that are resistant to bronchodilator therapy, and it is thought that these resistant defects may be due to ongoing inflammation or chronic airway remodeling. However, it is unclear whether regional obstruction due to bronchospasm alone persists after bronchodilator therapy. To investigate this, six young, healthy subjects, in whom inflammation and remodeling were assumed to be absent, were bronchoconstricted with a PC20 [the concentration of methacholine that elicits a 20% drop in forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1)] dose of methacholine and subsequently bronchodilated with a standard dose of albuterol on three separate occasions. Specific ventilation imaging, a proton MRI technique, was used to spatially map specific ventilation across 80% of each subject’s right lung in each condition. The ratio between regional specific ventilation at baseline and after intervention was used to classify areas that had constricted. After albuterol rescue from methacholine bronchoconstriction, 12% (SD 9) of the lung was classified as constricted. Of the 12% of lung units that were classified as constricted after albuterol, approximately half [7% (SD 7)] had constricted after methacholine and failed to recover, whereas half [6% (SD 4)] had remained open after methacholine but became constricted after albuterol. The incomplete regional recovery was not reflected in the subjects’ FEV1 measurements, which did not decrease from baseline ( P = 0.97), nor was it detectable as an increase in specific ventilation heterogeneity ( P = 0.78).

NEW & NOTEWORTHY In normal subjects bronchoconstricted with methacholine and subsequently treated with albuterol, not all regions of the healthy lung returned to their prebronchoconstricted specific ventilation after albuterol, despite full recovery of integrative lung indexes (forced expiratory volume in 1 s and specific ventilation heterogeneity). The regions that remained bronchoconstricted following albuterol were those with the highest specific ventilation at baseline, which suggests that they may have received the highest methacholine dose.