bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Basal Gp78-dependent mitophagy promotes mitochondrial health and limits mitochondrial ROS
Authors: Nabi Ivan Robert , Alan Parsa , Vandevoorde Kurt R. , Joshi Bharat , Cardoen Ben , Gao Guang , Mohammadzadeh Yahya , Hamarneh Ghassan
Published: April 2022

Mitochondria are major sources of cytotoxic reactive oxygen species (ROS), such as superoxide and hydrogen peroxide, that when uncontrolled contribute to cancer progression. Maintaining a finely tuned, healthy mitochondrial population is essential for cellular homeostasis and survival. Mitophagy, the selective elimination of mitochondria by autophagy, monitors and maintains mitochondrial health and integrity, eliminating damaged ROS-producing mitochondria. However, mechanisms underlying mitophagic control of mitochondrial homeostasis under basal conditions remain poorly understood. E3 ubiquitin ligase Gp78 is an endoplasmic reticulum membrane protein that induces mitochondrial fission and mitophagy of depolarized mitochondria. Here, we report that CRISPR/Cas9 knockout of Gp78 in HT-1080 fibrosarcoma cells increased mitochondrial volume, elevated ROS production and rendered cells resistant to carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenyl hydrazone (CCCP)-induced mitophagy. These effects were phenocopied by knockdown of the essential autophagy protein ATG5 in wild-type HT-1080 cells. Use of the mito-Keima mitophagy probe confirmed that Gp78 promoted both basal and damage-induced mitophagy. Application of a spot detection algorithm (SPECHT) to GFP-mRFP tandem fluorescent-tagged LC3 (tfLC3)-positive autophagosomes reported elevated autophagosomal maturation in wild-type HT-1080 cells relative to Gp78 knockout cells, predominantly in proximity to mitochondria. Mitophagy inhibition by either Gp78 knockout or ATG5 knockdown reduced mitochondrial potential and increased mitochondrial ROS. Live cell analysis of tfLC3 in HT-1080 cells showed the preferential association of autophagosomes with mitochondria of reduced potential. Basal Gp78-dependent mitophagic flux is therefore selectively associated with reduced potential mitochondria promoting maintenance of a healthy mitochondrial population and limiting ROS production.
In-memory sparse matrix multiplication with a low-power self-rectifying memristor array
Authors: Li Jiangcong , Ren Shengguang , Li Yi , Yang Ling , Yu Yingjie , Ni Run , Zhou Houji , Bao Han , He Yuhui , Chen Jia , Jia Han , Miao Xiang Shui
Published: April 2022

Memristor-enabled in-memory computing provides an unconventional computing paradigm to surpass the energy efficiency of von Neumann computers. However, owing to the physical limitation of the crossbar structure, although the memristor array is desirable for dense computation, it suffers from significant performance degradation in both energy and area efficiency when processing sparse linear algebra operations. In this work, we report a highly efficient in-memory sparse computing system based on the self-rectifying memristor, which originates from the joint effort of devices and algorithms and is used to solve computational modelling problems. This system is expected to have 74.9 – 19.6 TOPS / W energy efficiency for 2-bit to 8-bit sparse computation in computational modelling tasks. Compared to the previous in-memory computing hardware, our system provides over one order of magnitude improvement in energy efficiency with more than two orders of magnitude reduction in hardware overhead. This work could pave the road towards a highly efficient, unconventional computing solution for high-performance computing.
Peritumoral brain edema in relation to tumor size is a variable that influences the risk of recurrence in intracranial meningiomas
Authors: Frati Alessandro , Armocida Daniele , Arcidiacono Umberto A , Pesce Alessandro , D'Andrea Giancarlo , Cofano Fabio , Garbossa Diego , Santoro Antonio
Published: April 2022

Background
Peritumoral brain edema (PBE) is common in intracranial meningiomas (IM) and can increase its morbidity. It is not uncommon for a neurosurgeon to face the diagnosis of a meningioma with a large proportion of PBE irrespective of the site and size of the contrast-enhancing lesion without any clinical and biological cause.
Methods
We performed a retrospective review of 216 surgically-treated patients with IM. We recorded clinical, biological, and radiological data. Based on the rate of tumor and edema volume, we divided the patients into a group with high-ratio Edema/Tumor and a group with a low ratio. We investigated how the ratio of edema/lesion may affect the outcome.
Results
Multivariate analysis was performed for the two groups. Smokers were more frequently associated with the high-rate group. The edema/tumor ratio does not influence surgical radicality, however, independently of the biological subtype, WHO grading, and EOR, a higher frequency of recurrence is shown in patients with a high edema/tumor ratio (70.5% versus 8.4%. p < 0.01).
Conclusions
The relationship between tumor and edema volume is respected in our series, but it does not explain why there are so many cases in which the ratio is so high. It seems that the blood-brain barrier (BBB) damage from smoke could have a role in an increased volume of PBE.
Point matching based on affine invariant centroid tree for synthetic aperture radar image
Authors: Yan Xingwei , Wang Wei , Shi Jianhua , Liu Jin
Published: April 2022

Point matching has attracted important attention in radar signal processing while the targets can be modeled by point sets to realize their recognition. Due to the different imaging parameters or viewpoints, the images captured by different synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors suffer from distortions. Since the distortions between images can be approximated by affine transformations, the key problem for point matching is to extract affine invariant descriptors. Moment, which has been widely used for point matching, limits to affine transformations as their support point set (SPS) can’t keep invariant. To address this problem, AICT is proposed as a rigorous affine invariant SPS. It is constructed by a recursive process: the point set is first divided by the vector from the certain point to the centroid of the point set, and the centroids of subsets are used to generate vectors which induce new partitioning. In addition, the centroids of the subsets are stored in order to form the AICT of the point. AICT, which represents the inherent structure of the point set, highly tolerant to noise and outliers due to the global nature of our partitioning process. More importantly, it is affine invariant owing to the affine invariance of centroids and relative position. Therefore, we can get a new rigorous affine invariant descriptor while moments are computed based on the points in AICT. The experimental results on synthesized and real data validate verify that our proposed algorithm outperforms the state-of-the-art point matching methods including SC, ICP, and TPS-RPM.
Detailing Cloud Property Feedbacks with a Regime-Based Decomposition
Authors: Zelinka Mark , Tan Ivy , Oreopoulos Lazaros , Tselioudis George
Published: April 2022

Diagnosing the root causes of cloud feedback in climate models and reasons for inter-model disagreement is a necessary first step in understanding their wide variation in climate sensitivities. Here we bring together two analysis techniques that illuminate complementary aspects of cloud feedback. The first quantifies feedbacks from changes in cloud amount, altitude, and optical depth, while the second separates feedbacks due to cloud property changes within specific cloud regimes from those due to regime occurrence frequency changes. We find that in the global mean, shortwave cloud feedback averaged across ten models comes solely from a positive within-regime cloud amount feedback countered slightly by a negative within-regime optical depth feedback. These within-regime feedbacks are highly uniform: In nearly all regimes, locations, and models, cloud amount decreases and cloud albedo increases with warming. In contrast, between-regime components vary widely across models but are very small on average. This component, however, is dominant in setting the geographic structure of the shortwave cloud feedback: Thicker, more extensive cloud types increase at the expense of thinner, less extensive cloud types in the extratropics, and vice versa at low latitudes. The prominent negative extratropical optical depth feedback has contributions from both within- and between-regime components, suggesting that thermodynamic processes affecting cloud properties as well as dynamical processes that favor thicker cloud regimes are important. The feedback breakdown presented herein may provide additional targets for observational constraints by isolating cloud property feedbacks within specific regimes without the obfuscating effects of changing dynamics that may differ across timescales.
An investigation of insulin resistance and cachexia in patients with metastatic upper GI malignancies
Authors: Farashi Ebrahim , Mahmoodpour Ahmad , Akbari Aliakbar Movassaghpour , Sanaat Zohreh , Sarbakhsh Parvin , Chavoshi Seyed Hadi , Valizadeh Parya , Ghaffary Saba
Published: April 2022

IntroductionInsulin resistance has been suggested as one of the known metabolic disorders during cachexia. This study hypothesized that cachexia in cancer patients might be due to insulin resistance as early as cachexia development. MethodThis study was performed on 46 patients with metastatic gastrointestinal cancer. Anthropometric characteristics and biochemical markers were assessed at baseline, second month, and third month. Insulin resistance was assessed using the HOMA IR method. SFQ-36 questions were used to assess the patients' quality of life at baseline, second and third months.ResultsPatients' anthropometric characteristic was significantly associated between pre-cachectic and non-pre-cachectic patients in the third month. Cholesterol (P-value: 0.93), albumin (P-value: 0.82), and serum creatinine (P-value: 0.88) in pre-cachectic patients decreased over three months. There was an increasing trend of insulin resistance between pre-cachectic and non-pre-cachectic patients in the third month. Cholesterol had an upward trend with a significant relation in cachectic patients [(P-value: 0.00), (P-value: 0.03), (P-value: 0.01)]. We detected a decreasing trend of insulin resistance between cachectic and non-cachectic patients from the second to the third month (Pvalue= 0.04). SFQ evaluation had no significant relation with cachectic status.ConclusionSignificant relation between anthropometric variables with pre-cachexia and cachectic conditions was concluded. Patients' outcome and its relation with insulin resistance (age of 30≤, and above 30≥) demonstrated a significant relation between the cachectic and non-cachectic patients in the third month. We also detected the increased serum cholesterol level in cachectic patients, moreover, higher cholesterol levels in expired cachectic patients than in the living.
Synthesis, Characterization, Dielectric and Magnetic Properties of Substituted Y-Type Hexaferrites
Authors: Batool Syeda Rabia , Aman Salma , Aftab Faryal , Waheed Muhammad Suleman , Malana Muhammad Aslam , Gouadria Soumaya , Ashiq Muhammad Naeem
Published: April 2022

A series Manganese and Gadolinium doped Zinc-Strontium hexaferrites, Sr2Zn2 − xMnxFe12− Sr2Zn2 − xMnxFe12−yGdyO22 (x = 0.0–1.0, y = 0.0-0.1), was fabricated by chemical co-precipitation route. XRD analysis confirmed the single magnetoplumbite phase formed in hexaferrites with average crystallite size in the range 27–38 nm. Surface morphology and size distribution was also explored using Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The dielectric parameters i.e. dielectric constant, dielectric loss and dielectic tan loss were measured at ambient temperature and in 1.0 MHz to 3.0 GHz frequency range. Mn-Gd substituted Zn-Sr hexaferrites showed independent trend of dielectric parameters with frequency upto a certain value beyond which resonance type behavior was observed. The dielectric parameters initially decrease with frequency then become almost constant followed by resonance type behavior. Subsitution of Mn and Gd resulted in sharp decrease of dielectric parameters followed by gradual increase. Due to doping to Mn and Gd, saturation magnetization (Ms) and Remenance (Mr) is enhanced whereas the coercivity has been decreased. The squareness ratio of synthesized nanoferrites is less than 0.5.
hUMSCs transplantation regulates AMPK/NR4A1 signaling axis to inhibit ovarian fibrosis in POI rats
Authors: Cui Linlu , Jiang Zhonglin , Zhu Wenqian , Tang Yu , Luo Qianqian , Si Yaru , Fu Qiang , Zhang Hongqin
Published: April 2022

Background
The mechanism of human Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cells (hUMSCs) transplantation to improve ovarian function in the rats with Premature Ovarian Insufficiency (POI) is still unclear. The aim of this study is to investigate the signal axis mechanism that is involved in the ovarian function recovery of POI rats following hUMSCs transplantation.
Methods
The rat model with POI was established by intraperitoneal injection of cisplatin. The hUMSCs were transplanted by caudal vein injection into POI rats. Hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) staining was performed to examine the morphology of rat ovarian tissue. Masson staining, Sirus red staining and immunofluorescence were used to observe the fibrosis extent of ovarian tissue. The levels of serum sex hormones and the expression of fibrosis related markers in ovarian tissues were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The expression of NR4A1, Phospho-NR4A1 and AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) signaling in rat ovarian tissues was measured by immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence. The role of AMPK/NR4A1 signaling axis in the regulation of ovarian function recovery in POI rats following hUMSCs transplantation was further investigated by adenovirus and siRNA intervention in isolated stromal cells.
Results
The results showed that the hUMSCs transplantation significantly inhibited ovarian tissue fibrosis and restored the ovarian function in POI rats. The level of NR4A1 and AMPK expression in ovarian tissue of POI rats after hUMSCs transplantation was significantly increased compared with the control group. In the cultured ovarian stromal cells, the similar results were obtained on the expression of NR4A1 and its regulation on fibrosis related molecular markers in Cisplatin (CDDP) damaged stromal cells following hUMSCs supernatant treatment. Both hUMSCs supernatant treatment and the addition of AMPK inhibitors increased NR4A1 expression in stromal cells. And after NR4A1 molecular intervention, fibrosis-related indicators in stromal cells changed. The data suggests that the AMPK/NR4A1 signaling axis is involved in the ovarian function changes in POI rats following hUMSCs transplantation.
Conclusion
The data from this study indicate that the inhibition of tissue fibrosis and recovery of ovarian function is regulated by AMPK/NR4A1 signaling axis in POI rats following hUMSCs transplantation.
A highly selective fluorescent probe for the detection of nitroreductase based on a naphthalimide scaffold
Authors: Li Han , jintao Feng , Wang Zhen , Jia Yan , Li Peng , Yao Cuixia , Qu Zongjin
Published: April 2022

The development of fluorescent probes for nitroreductase (NTR) has received intense attention because of its biological significance and wide aplications. In this work, a novel fluorescent probe (MNI-NTR) based on a nitrobenzene switch for the detection of NTR in aqueous solution has been designed and synthesized on a 1,8-naphthalimide scaffold. The probe exhibited a high selectivity for NTR over various analyes with a detection limit of 9.8 ng/ml, especially without the interference from hydrogen sulfide. With the presence of NTR and NADH, MNI-NTR is converted into a 4-hydroxy-1,8-naphthalimide derivative under physiological conditions, showing a strong fluorescence peak at 550 nm. Theoretical calculations reveal that the reason for the fluorescence quenching of MNI-NTR is the photoinduced electron transfer (PET) from the nitrobenzene and morpholine groups to the naphthalimide fluorophore.
IsoQuant: a tool for accurate novel isoform discovery with long reads
Authors: Prjibelski Andrey , Mikheenko Alla , Joglekar Anoushka , Smetanin Alexander , Jarroux Julien , Lapidus Alla , Tilgner Hagen
Published: April 2022

Long reads are reshaping RNA biology. However, determining alternative isoforms from long-read RNA data is a complex and incompletely solved problem even when the reference genome is known. Here we present IsoQuant - a reference-based tool that accurately discovers novel transcripts with at least 3-fold lower false positive rate and 1.8-fold increase in F1-score compared to other tools for Oxford Nanopore data. IsoQuant also increases performance for Pacific Biosciences data.
Reprocessed Magnetorheological Elastomers with Reduced Carbon Footprint and their Piezoresistive Properties
Authors: Sedlacik Michal , Ronzova Alena , Munteanu Andrei , Kutalkova Erika , Drohsler Petra , Moucka Robert , Kracalik Milan , Bilek Ondrej , Mazlan Saiful Amri
Published: April 2022

Magnetorheological elastomers (MREs) are widely studied materials, however not many research papers have been initiated on their reprocessing. This paper presents a new type of recyclable MRE which is composed of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and carbonyl iron particles (CI). The chosen TPU can be processed by injection moulding (IM) and allows several reprocessing cycles. Numerous types of injection moulded MREs, which have undergone several recycling cycles, have been prepared. The effect of thermo-mechanical degradation on the recycled MREs has been investigated. An apparent decrease in molecular weight of all examined matrices during reprocessing cycles was observed. These changes are attributed to the intermolecular bonding between the hydroxyl groups on the surface of the CI particles and the matrix. An evaluation of the mechanical properties of the matrices was conducted via tensile strength tests. Generally, MREs suffer from minor degradation due to reprocessing, yet the rheological and piezoresistivity properties are at an acceptable level despite using 100% of recyclates while in real applications only up to 30% of recycled material is used.
Pregnancy Intentions of Youth in the Era of Climate Change: A Qualitative Auto- Photography Study
Authors: Smith Danielle M. , Sales Javier , Williams Aleyah , Munro Sarah
Published: April 2022

Background
Climate change poses a global health risk through consequences such as sea level rise, wildfires, and increased air pollution. Children born today and in the future may be disproportionately affected by climate change. As a result, many young adults are rethinking having children. The impacts of the climate crisis on the decision-making of parents is an understudied area of research. This study aims to be one of the first to explore how climate change impacts the pregnancy intentions of youth and their perspectives towards childbearing.
Methods
We conducted auto-photography and qualitative interviews. Participants were recruited using social media, and were aged 18–25, nulliparous, assigned female at birth, and were either current or previous residents of British Columbia, Canada. We asked participants to take photos that responded to the question, “Show us how climate change impacts your decision to have a family,” then complete a virtual, one-on-one interview during which photo-elicitation was employed to guide conversation about participants’ decision-making related to childbearing and climate change. We subjected all transcribed interviews to qualitative thematic analysis.
Results
We conducted in-depth interviews with 7 participants who discussed a total of 33 photographs. Analysis of participants’ interviews and photographs identified themes of eco-anxiety, hesitancy towards having children, and a desire for systemic change. Participants experienced anxiety, grief, and loss when faced with thoughts of change associated with their environments. Climate change was a consideration for many participants in their childbearing decision making, and it was interrelated with social-environmental factors, such as cost of living.
Conclusion
We aimed to identify the ways in which climate change may impact youth decisions to have a family. Responses ranged from feeling that climate change had no effect on family planning to choosing not to have children entirely because of climate change. Further research on this topic is needed in order to direct climate change policy.
Triglyceride-glucose index predicts the risk of coronary artery disease in premenopausal women
Authors: Guo Qifeng , Zhan Yinge , Ma Guoping , Duan Linan , Liu Yongsheng , Chen Jie , Liu Gang , Zheng Mingqi , Wei Mei
Published: April 2022

Background: The triglyceride glucose index (TyG index), a reliable alternative marker of insulin resistance (IR), has been regarded as an independent predictor of cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, the relationship between TyG index and coronary artery disease (CAD) in premenopausal women remains unclear. We aimed to investigate the prognostic value of TyG index in premenopausal women with CAD. Methods: A total of 158 Chinese female subjects were enrolled in this retrospective study. Clinical data were collected from medical records. The severity of CAD was assessed by coronary angiography. CAD was defined as Coronary artery stenosis ≥50% in at least one major coronary artery. Patients were divided into different groups according to their TyG index and whether they had CAD. Multivariate logistic regression model was used to evaluate the relationship between TyG index and CAD. Results: The patients with high TyG index had a higher risk of CAD than those with low TyG index (P<0.01). The difference was pronounced in the age group of 49 years or older. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the TyG index was an independent risk factor for CAD in premenopausal women (fully adjusted model: OR 2.730, 95%CI 1.102-6.764, P=0.030). Conclusions: Elevated TyG index is associated with increased risk of CAD in Chinese premenopausal women, suggesting that the TyG index may be used as a marker of CAD risk in premenopausal women in China.
Glyoxal Fixation Allows Consistent Staining of Brain Vessels, Pericytes, and Blood-Brain Barrier Proteins
Authors: Thomas Sithara , Sadanandan Jayanarayanan , Blackburn Spiros L , McBride Devin W , Dienel Ari , Ha Sung , Zeineddine Hussein , T Peeyush Kumar
Published: April 2022

Brain vascular staining has great importance in understanding cerebrovascular pathologies. 4% Paraformaldehyde is considered as the gold standard fixation technique for immunohistochemistry and it revolutionized the examination of proteins in fixed tissues. However, this fixation technique produces inconsistent immunohistochemical staining results due to antigen masking. Here we test a new fixation protocol using 3% glyoxal and demonstrate that this method improves staining of the brain vasculature, pericytes, and tight junction proteins compared to 4% paraformaldehyde. Using this new fixation technique will provide more detailed information about vascular protein expressions, their distributions, and colocalizations with other proteins at the molecular level in the brain vasculature.
Low-cost enzymatic deacidification of corn oil with high triglyceride retention
Authors: Gao Rui , Sun Shangde , Zhou Yanxia , Chen Xiaowei , Zhang Hao , Yao Ning
Published: April 2022

Free fatty acid is one kind of impurities in edible oil, which is often removed by deacidification in oil refining. However, traditional deacidification methods using alkali and immobilized lipase have the issues of serious losses of neutral oil and bioactive compounds. In this work, several low-cost liquid lipases were screened for the selective deacidification of corn oil. The thermodynamic and kinetic parameters were investigated. Results showed that liquid lipase CALB showed good selective deacidification efficiency. The conditions were optimized by response surface methodology as follows: 3% enzyme dosage, 50oC and 50 min. Under these conditions, the acid value, retention rate of neutral oil, and contents of sterol and VE of corn oil were 0.31 ± 0.06 mg/g, 94.0 ± 0.5%, 1,012.87 ± 11.23 mg/100g, and 1,320.0 ± 3.8 mg/kg, respectively. These results showed that liquid lipase CALB was beneficial to selective deacidification, high retentions of neutral oil and bioactive components in corn oil.
Identification of hub genes and candidate herbal treatment in obesity through integrated bioinformatic analysis and reverse network pharmacology
Authors: Tai Yuxing , Tian Hongying , Yang Xiaoqian , Feng Shixing , Chen Shaotao , Zhong Chongwen , Gao Tianjiao , Gang Xiaochao , Liu Mingjun
Published: April 2022

Obesity is a worldwide epidemic disease that increases the risk of various metabolic disorders. However, in the absence of ideal drugs for obesity, Chinese herbs and other natural materials have been explored for their potential obesity treatment and low-side effects. The focus of this research was to use bioinformatics and reverse network pharmacology to discover possible therapy and treatment targets for obesity. We identified differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of adipose tissue after weight-loss by analyzing the five expression profiles of the GEO database (GSE103766, GSE35411, GSE112307, GSE43471, and GSE35710). Protein–Protein Interaction (PPI) network was performed with the STRING, and the 27 hub genes were identified with the MCODE. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses revealed several biological features and potential mechanisms of these hub genes. Subsequently, the TCMSP platform was used to identify potential therapeutic herbs targeting hub genes. The top 10 key potential Chinese herbs were found and annotated with Chinese pharmaceutical properties (CMPs). Finally, the Herbs-Ingredient-Target Network and Herb-Taste-Meridian Tropism Network were constructed using Cytoscape to elucidate their complex relationship. Our outputs could provide new insights into strategies for treating obesity and screening targeted drugs.
Predictive Analytical Model for Ectopic pregnancy diagnosis: Statistics vs. Machine learning methods.
Authors: Rueangket Ploywarong , Rittiluechai Kristsanamon , Prayote Assistant Professor Akara
Published: April 2022

Background:
Ectopic pregnancy is well-known for its serious outcome. Early detection could make the difference between life and death in pregnancy. Although, prompt diagnosis was challenged and numbers of predictive models had been developed, there’s still lack of gold standard tool. Our research introduces predictive analytical models using both conventional statistics and machine learning methods based on all three domains of features (clinical factors, serum human chorionic gonadotropin and ultrasound findings).
Methods:
Retrospective cohort study on 377 pregnancy of unknown location women, training and validating for model for prediction of ectopic pregnancy outcome, using set of 22 features. Analysis performed by three difference machine learning models neural networks (NNs), decision tree (DT) and support vector machines (SVMs) using cross validation technique. In addition, with traditional statistical model, logistic regression (LR). In which we compare the model performance with ROC-AUC and accuracy, PPV and NPV. Finally, new 30 PULs were tested for external validation.
Result
Comparing of model performance (validation) to predict EP, LR Ranked first, followed by NNs, DT and SVMs with mean ROC-AUC ± SD of 0.904, 0.895, 0.871 and 0.862 respectively. In terms of clinical parameters, we found sensitivity ± SD performed in the same sequence as AUC (LR; 87.97% ± 7.86%, NNs; 85.97% ± 9.34%, SVM; 87.47% ± 8.23% and DT; 85.47% ± 10.37%, orderly. While specificity (± SD) was ranked by DT, then followed by SVMs, LG and NNs, which were 84.08 ± 8.56%, 83.53 ± 9.18%, 82.94 ± 9.84% and 81.76 ± 9.84%, respectively. In testing data, NNs and SVM performed equally best, then DTs and LR at ROC-AUC of 0.784, 0.778 and 0.739, respectively.
Conclusion
The result demonstrates that both statistics and ML model could be utilized to achieve satisfied predictions for EP. Surprisingly, the highest ranked model was LR in validating test, but in new testing data machine learning, NNs and SVMs could overcome statistics. This could shade a new light for further research of unsolved medical problem with more complexity and bigger database.
A Novel Poly (o-anisidine) Encapsulated K2ZrO3 Nano-core based Gelatin Nano Composites: Investigations of Optical, Thermal, Microcrystalline and Morphological Characteristics
Authors: Madhukar BS , Al-Gunaid Murad Q. A. , Somesh T.E , Kavya R , H Anupama B , S Shashikala B , B Siddaramaiah
Published: April 2022

Herein we present the synthesis of K2ZrO3 by solution combustion method and insitu coating technique is used for the coating of poly (ortho- anisidine) (POA) on prepared nanoparticles. Furthermore, a series of Gelatin/poly-o-anisidine coated K2ZrO3 polymer nanocomposite were fabricated by varying the POA coated K2ZrO3 viz 0, 1, 2, and 4 wt % using the solvent intercalation method. High-resolution transition electron microscopy (HRTEM) was used to study the size and morphology of the synthesized nanoparticles and polymer coated nanoparticles. From the results it is cleared that the average size of the prepared nanoparticles and polymer coated nanoparticles are around 18-20 and 95-100 nm respectively, and the polymer coated nanoparticles are spherical in shape, and form a core shell. The phase purity and microcrystalline behavior of the prepared nano particles, POA coated nanoparticles and gelatin nanocomposites were analyzed by using X-ray diffraction (XRD). From the results it was noticed the changes in the peak intensities of nanocomposites films, and a little shift in the peak position towards the lower 2θ values. Scanning electron microscope [SEM] and energy dispersive spectroscopy[EDX] were employed for the analysis of the surface morphology and the elemental composition of the prepared nanoparticles and nanocomposites. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was used to assess the physical interactions between the components in nanocomposites. The thermal stability and effect of polymer coated nanoparticles inclusions on glass transitions temperatures were studied by using Thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) respectively. UV–Visible spectroscopy technique is used to study the optical properties of the Gelatin/POA@K2ZrO3 nanocomposites and the optical constants of nanocomposites were determined. From the results it is clear that, with increase in POA coated K2ZrO3 nanoparticles concentration from 0 to 4 wt % in a gelatin matrix, the band gap energy (Eg) value drops from 4.13 to 2.16 eV, and the refractive index rises from 1.529 to 3.25.
Evaluating the incremental value of systemic inflammatory response markers in estimating the malignant probability of ovarian masses: development of a diagnostic nomogram
Authors: Du Jun-hong , Xing Yi-juan , Hu Dan , He Rui-fen , Yue Ling , Cheng Yue-mei , Liu Chang , Liang Xiao-lei , Yang Yong-xiu
Published: April 2022

Purpose
To investigate the incremental value of systemic inflammatory response markers in the differential diagnosis of ovarian masses and develop a nomogram to predict ovarian malignancy in patients with ovarian masses.
Methods
1087 eligible women with ovarian masses were randomly allocated to a training cohort (N = 761) and validation cohort (N = 326). The LASSO logistic regression was implemented to select the most significant ovarian cancer-related predictors. Multivariable logistic regressions were then performed to build different prediction models. The model with best performance was presented as a nomogram and compared with reference ovarian cancer prediction tools in terms of discrimination ability.
Results
Seven variables including age, CA125, HE4, fibrinogen (FIB), monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR), the presence of solid areas and strong blood flow signal were identified as significant predictors. The final model combining all seven variables yield an AUC of 0.973 in the training cohort and 0.964 in the validation cohort. The NRI and IDI revealed that the addition of FIB and MLR significantly improved the model’s discrimination ability. The nomogram based on the final model outperformed some well-known ovarian cancer prediction tools (RMI, LR2, ROMA, CPH-I and R-OPS) and exhibited an excellent performance in detecting early-stage ovarian cancer with an AUC value of 0.946 (95% CI: 0.925–0.967).
Conclusion
The systemic inflammatory response markers and ultrasound-based nomogram provided a convenient and accurate tool for estimating the malignant probability in women with ovarian masses. The addition of FIB and MLR significantly improved the predictive ability of the nomogram.
Sparse ECG denoising with generalized entropy penalty
Authors: Guo Shuli , Wu Lei , Han Lina , Song Xiaowei , Wang Hui , Zhao Yuanyuan
Published: April 2022

Background
Electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring can quickly obtain the human body's ECG signal, and it is convenient for researchers to analyze the variability of heart rate. Some noise is often introduced in the process of signal acquisition and transmission. The existence of these noises interferes with the authenticity of the signal, and it is not conducive to the signal analysis and processing.
Method
In this paper, for the purpose of suppressing these noises, a sparse ECG denoising framework combining low-pass filtering and sparsity recovery is investigated. We propose a sparse ECG denoising method based on generalized entropy penalty. We use a novel denoising penalty function for sparse recovery, and compared the proposed generalized entropy penalty (GEP) with \({\ell _{\text{1}}}\)-norm penalty.
Result
The proposed method is evaluated on ECG signals from the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia database. The results show that the proposed method overcomes the problem of underestimation of the high-frequency components amplitude of the ECG signal. At the same time, the GEP punishes the large values less severely than \({\ell _{\text{1}}}\)-norm, and can also be used to overcome the shortcomings of "\({\ell _{\text{1}}}\)-norm" underestimating the QRS wave in ECG signal.
Conclusion
The proposed GEP-based penalty can be used for ECG denoising. The result of signal denoising is to remove the noise without destroying the information of the signal itself. The method has a higher restoration degree of the original signal and has relatively excellent denoising effect.
Work Environment Problems of Hospital Nurses and its Relation to their Professional Commitment
Authors: Sabra Hanaa E. , Elzaher Omima M. Abd , El-elle mona M Abo , Mahmoud Soad S , Ahmed Asmaa
Published: April 2022

Background
Nursing is an essential component in the functionality of the health system. Nurse's shortage is recognized as worldwide issue. So, understanding the problems that faces them and overcome these problems is crucial in retaining them. This study aimed to identify the most important work environment problems (WEPs) of hospital nurses and its relation to their professional commitment.
Methods
This a descriptive explorative study included a convenience sample of 245 nurses from ICUs, medical, special medical, surgical, and obstetrics and gynecological units in Qena General Hospital. The WEPs questionnaire, professional commitment scale and socio demographic characteristics questionnaire were used for data collection.
Results
Showed that the highest mean score in WEPs was related to lack of material and moral incentives (28.89 ± 7.41) while lowest was related to Poor physical environment and support services (11.36 ± 3.22).There were a statistically significance negative correlations between work environment problems and professional commitment of hospital nurses.
Conclusion
WEPs of hospital nurses have a strong impact on their professional commitment.
Recommendations:
Improving the image of nursing in the media for the purpose of awareness and to clarify the role of nursing and its importance in the medical field. Nursing managers must provide support for nurses and spread the organizational culture that encourages cooperation, participation and teamwork, develop strategies for clarify the tasks and provision of appropriate standards and develop ethical rules for the profession that clarify the limits and standards for the nurses.
Riboflavin and FMN Oversynthesis on Whey by the Engineered Strains of the Flavinogenic yeast Candida famata
Authors: Sibirny Andriy , Ruchala Justyna , Tsyrulnyk Andriy , Andreieva Yuliia , Sobchuk Svitlana , Najdecka Alicja , Liu Wen , Kang Yingqian , Dmytruk Olena , Dmytruk Kostyantyn , Fedorovych Daria
Published: April 2022

BackgroundRiboflavin is a precursor of FMN and FAD which act as coenzymes of numerous enzymes. Riboflavin is an important biotechnological commodity with annual market sales exceeding nine billion US dollars. It is used primarily as a component of feed premixes, a food colorant, a component of multivitamin mixtures and medicines. FMN is a valuable biotechnological product used in numerous applications; its most important advantage over riboflavin is its 200 times greater solubility in water. FMN is mostly produced by chemical phosphorylation of riboflavin; however, the chemically synthesized product contains in the range 20-30% impurities. Currently, industrial riboflavin production uses the bacterium, Bacillus subtilis, and the filamentous fungus, Ashbya gossypii, and utilizes glucose and/or oils as carbon substrates. ResultsWe studied riboflavin and FMN biosynthesis in the flavinogenic yeast Candida famata that are genetically stable riboflavin and FMN overproducers. Here it was found that the wild type C. famata is characterized by robust growth on lactose and cheese whey and the engineered strains also overproduce riboflavin and/or FMN on whey. The riboflavin synthesis on whey was close to that obtained on glucose and lactose. To further enhance riboflavin production on whey, the gene of the transcription activator SEF1 was expressed under control of the lactose-induced promoter of the native β-galactosidase gene LAC4. These transformants produced elevated amounts of riboflavin and FMN on lactose and especially on whey. Overexpression of the D. hansenii FMN1 gene (coding for riboflavin kinase) led to the accumulation of FMN by C. famata transformants cultivated on whey. Activation of riboflavin synthesis was also obtained after overexpression of the GND1 gene that is involved in the synthesis of the riboflavin precursor ribulose-5-phosphate. Cultivation of these strains in shake flasks or in bioreactors on whey with ammonium sulfate led to the accumulation of near 1.5 - 1.8 g of riboflavin/L. The use of concentrated whey inhibited growth of wild-type and engineered strains of C. famata, so the mutants tolerant to concentrated whey were isolated. ConclusionsOur data indicate that the waste whey from milk industry, can be a promising substrate for riboflavin production by C. famata. Opportunities for using the engineered strains of C. famata to produce high-value commodities (riboflavin, FMN) from whey are discussed.
Nitrogen Doped Activated Carbon Derived From Chitosan/ Hexamethylenetetramine: Structural and CO2 Adsorption Properties
Authors: D Selvakumar , K Malini , N.S Kumar
Published: April 2022

Chitosan and chitosan/ hexamethylenetetramine (HMT) macrospheres were prepared respectively by dropping chitosan and chitosan/HMT (in wt/wt ratios of 1:1 and 1:3) solutions in aq. NaOH solution. Here, HMT served as an additional nitrogen precursor for in-situ N-doping with chitosan derived activated carbon (AC). The as-formed macrospheres were impregnated using ZnCl2, freeze-dried, and carbonized at 500°C under inert atmosphere to yield ACs of average size 2.6 mm. All the samples were characterized using SEM, EDS, CHNS Analyzer, TGA, FT-IR, Raman, XRD and BET surface area analyzer. All the samples showed mesoporous characteristics. The surface area of the AC without HMT, with 1:1 HMT, and 1:3 HMT were 391.502, 259.017, and 111.717 m2/g respectively. Similarly, the pore volumes of AC without HMT, with 1:1 HMT and 1:3 HMT were 0.138, 0.095 and 0.075 cc/g respectively. The chitosan/HMT derived AC possessed higher N-content and better thermal stability, however exhibited lower surface properties with increasing HMT content. Deterioration in adsorption capacity of chitosan/HMT derived AC may be attributed to the physical cross-linking of chitosan polymer chains induced by increase in pH with addition of HMT and also the intermolecular H-bonding interaction between HMT and chitosan, which in turn reduces the surface area of as-formed N-doped ACs progressively.
A study on the seasonal distribution of mosquito vectors and a multidimensional approach towards their eradication using perception surveys on mobile software with concepts of AI among college students in Purba Bardhaman, India
Authors: Goswami Bishnu , Pal Sarmila
Published: April 2022

Combating vector-borne diseases requires a multidisciplinary approach for best results. Here we undertook field surveys in the potential mosquito breeding habitats in a rapidly urbanizing rural region in West Bengal, India. Secondly, we measured the knowledge about the mosquito vectors from students of a local college and we introduced a multilingual mobile software application “Mosa Nirmul” (EradicationOfMosquitoes) with an AI and game element and measured their perception and future scopes.
The seasonal survey about the possible breeding grounds of mosquitoes revealed the presence of the larva of all three common genera of disease carrying mosquitoes Aedes , Culex and Anopheles . The presence was noted in a various types water and garbage sources. Their prevalence was found to be the highest in the post-monsoon season. In the second study, the college students demonstrated reasonably competent knowledge about the basics of protection against mosquitoes, but the score was lower when the questions were about the breeding grounds of mosquitoes. In the third study, the software application was received on the positive side, with a mean score of 3.98/5.. The AI module was also understood by many with about half of them were confident to collect data by themselves for related projects, with a score of mean score of 3.56.
The surveys showed that mosquito vectors are still a threat in rural areas. However, with the positive results from the usage of the app, existing baseline knowledge, and willingness to adopt modern technologies, many factors looked promising for the future.
Brain Tumor Classification from MRI using Vision Transformers Ensembling
Authors: Tummala Sudhakar
Published: April 2022

Automated classification of brain tumors plays an important role in supporting radiologists in decision making. Recently, Vision Transformer (ViT) based deep neural network architectures have gained attention in the computer vision research domain owing to the tremendous success of transformer models in natural language processing. However, studies involving vision transformers for various tasks in the medical imaging domain, including in the field of neuroimaging, are still growing. Many methods have been developed for the classification of brain tumors using traditional machine learning and deep learning methods. In particular, there are several convolutional neural network based transfer learning approaches for achieving good tumor classification accuracy. In this study, pretrained and finetuned ViT models on the ImageNet were adopted for the classification task. A brain tumor dataset from figshare consisting of 3064 T1-weighted contrast-enhanced (CE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) slices with meningioma, glioma, and pituitary tumor was used for cross-validation and testing of ensembled ViT models ability for 3-class classification task. The ensemble of all four ViT models B/16, B/32, L/16, and L/32, has demonstrated an overall testing accuracy of 98.7% at 384 × 384 resolution. Therefore, an ensemble of ViT models could be deployed for the computer-aided diagnosis of brain tumors based on T1w CE MRI leading to radiologist relief.
Impact of seasonal urban greening variability on land surface temperature in Benin (West Africa).
Authors: Alexis Akakpo Bokon , Appollonia Okhimamhe A. , Vincent Orekan A.O.
Published: April 2022

Urban greening quantification and seasonal variation impact for surface temperature mitigation have been poorly understood and monitored in Benin. We have attempted to assess of season variability of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) using Landsat 7 and 8 data to get more accurate information about the vegetation tendency and effects on urban surface temperature mitigation. Monthly satellite derived NDVI series were collected using Google Earth Engine open-source while observed surface temperature were obtained at National Agency of Meteorology in Benin. We performed Mann-Kendall trend test to assess the significance of the trend chats. ANOVA followed by SNK test was applied to examine seasonal variation on NDVI significance. Likewise, a simple linear regression was applied to show the relationship between surface temperature and NDVI variables. No significant linear trends (p-values > 0.05) were observed for annual vegetation index (NDVI) and surface temperature. The NDVI tendency decreased from 2000 to around 2011 and started to increase up to 2020. However significant difference (P-Value < 0.001) between seasons was found for the mean NDVI and January-March period showed the lowest values of mean NDVI. Despite the negative relationship between annual mean land surface temperature (LST) and NDVI, the dry seasons showed a positive correlation in each city. Thereby, judicious urban management of water availability such as greenery irrigation would be more helpful for ensuring the sustainable urban surface temperature mitigation.
Low-carbon Innovation, Economic Growth and CO2 Emissions: Evidence from a Dynamic Spatial Panel Approach in China
Authors: Zhou Yu , Zhang Caijiang , Li Zhangwen
Published: April 2022

Low-carbon innovation plays an essential role in carbon reduction worldwide. This study investigates the nexus between low-carbon innovation, economic growth, and carbon emissions by the dynamic spatial Durbin model from 2007 to 2019, along with environmental policy, energy structure, industrial structure, foreign direct investment, energy intensity, and population density as the control variables. First, the results show that provincial agglomeration of carbon emissions exists. High emission provinces concentrate in major economic zones and energy extraction areas. Second, the effect decomposition results show that long-term and short-term effects are consistent. Low-carbon innovation has a significant mitigation effect on carbon emissions in local regions, which effect, however, is not significant in the adjacent areas. The environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis is validated locally, but all provinces and cities have not reached the inflection point of the environmental Kuznets curve, and the linkage effect in adjacent regions remains insignificant. There is both a direct local abatement effect and a demonstration effect in environmental policy. Third, the heterogeneity test results show that there are synergies between environmental policies and low carbon innovation, and for regulated pilot areas, there is a higher mitigation effect of low carbon innovation. Finally, robustness tests for replacing the spatial weight matrics confirmed the robustness of the previous results. Based on the above findings, policy recommendations include providing targeted financial support to stimulate green Research & Development input, building a regional green technology exchange system to enhance knowledge spillovers, promoting the application of carbon trading policies to more regions and industries, and setting comprehensive development goals for a green and high-quality economy.