bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Using Palliative Leaders in Facilities to Transform Care for People with Alzheimer’s Disease (UPLIFT-AD): Protocol of a palliative care clinical trial in nursing homes
Authors: Unroe Kathleen T. , Ersek Mary , Tu Wanzhu , Floyd Alexander , Becker Todd , Orth Jessica , Lamie Jodi , Cagle John
Published: May 2023

Background
Palliative care is an effective model of care focused on maximizing quality of life and relieving the suffering of people with serious illnesses, including dementia. Evidence shows that many people receiving care in nursing homes are eligible for and would benefit from palliative care services. Yet, palliative care is not consistently available in nursing home settings. There is a need to test pragmatic strategies to implement palliative care programs in nursing homes.
Methods/design:
The UPLIFT-AD (Utilizing Palliative Leaders in Facilities to Transform care for people with Alzheimer’s Disease) study is a pragmatic stepped wedge trial in 16 nursing homes in Maryland and Indiana, testing the effectiveness of the intervention while assessing its implementation. The proposed intervention is a palliative care program, including 1) training at least two facility staff as Palliative Care Leads, 2) training for all staff in general principles of palliative care, 3) structured screening for palliative care needs, and 4) on-site specialty palliative care consultations for a one-year intervention period. All residents with at least moderate cognitive impairment, present in the facility for at least 30 days, and not on hospice at baseline are considered eligible. Opt-out consent is obtained from legal decision-makers. Outcome assessments measuring symptoms and quality of care are obtained from staff and family proxy respondents at four time points: pre-implementation (baseline), six months after implementation, at 12 months (conclusion of implementation), and six months after the end of implementation. Palliative care attitudes and practices are assessed through surveys of frontline nursing home staff both pre- and post-implementation. Qualitative and quantitative implementation data, including fidelity assessments and interviews with Palliative Care Leads, are also collected. The study will follow the Declaration of Helsinki.
Discussion
This trial assesses the implementation and effectiveness of a robust palliative care intervention for residents with moderate-to-advanced cognitive impairment in 16 diverse nursing homes. The intervention represents an innovative, pragmatic approach that includes both internal capacity-building of frontline nursing home staff, and support from external palliative care specialty consultants.
Trial registration:
The project is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04520698.
Co-infection of porcine astrovirus and other porcine viruses in diarrheic pigs in Haryana, India
Authors: Vaishali . , Gupta Renu , Kumar Mohit , Bansal Nitish , Vivek . , Kumar Parveen , Kumar Pawan , Jindal Naresh
Published: May 2023

In this study, 306 rectal swabs from diarrheal pigs of various ages (0–3 weeks, 3–6 weeks, and > 6 weeks) were collected from 54 piggery units in different climatic zones in Haryana, India. These samples were tested for the presence of porcine astrovirus (PAstV), porcine circovirus 2 (PCV-2), porcine rotavirus A (PRV-A), and classical swine fever virus (CSFv) by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Out of the 306 samples tested, 153 (50%), 108 (35.3%), 32 (10.6%), and 3 (0.9%) were detected positive for PAstV, PCV-2, PRV-A, and CSFv, respectively. Mixed infections were found in 77 samples, whereas 135 had only one virus, and 70 and 7 samples had two and more than 2 viruses, respectively. PAstV was more prevalent (55.31%) in pigs aged 3–6 weeks. PCV-2 was more predominant (36.53%) in pigs aged 0–3 weeks, whereas PRV-A was more common in pigs aged 3–6 weeks (11.3%). CSFv was observed in the age group of 0–3 weeks (1.92%). Phylogenetic analysis revealed the circulation of lineage − 2 and − 4 of PAstV in this region. Thus, it can be concluded that the one or more than one virus is circulating in piggery units in Haryana, India.
Machine learning tool for the prediction of electrode wear effect on the quality of resistance spot welds
Authors: Panza Luigi , Bruno Giulia , Antal Gabriel , De Maddis Manuela , Spena Pasquale Russo
Published: May 2023

The quality of resistance spot welding (RSW) joints is strongly affected by the electrode condition. Therefore, the capacity to automatically assess the effect of electrode deterioration on weld quality is crucial to ensure welds compliant with manufacturer quality requirements. This work develops a machine learning-based tool to automatically assess the influence of electrode wear on the quality of RSW welds. In this way, manufacturers can reduce the number of redundant spot welds due to electrode wear and increase competitiveness. Two different experimental campaigns were performed to evaluate the effect of electrode wear on the mechanical strength of spot welds. The resulting failure load of the joints have been used to build the weld quality classes of the machine learning tool, whereas data from electrode displacement and electrode force sensors, embedded in the welding machine, have been processed to identify the predictors of the tool. Five machine learning algorithms have been applied with a classification approach to predict whether the spot weld complies with the welding quality requirements. As a result, the artificial neural network is the most performing model with an accuracy of about 90%. This work paves the way for new maintenance strategies based on the real-time predictions provided by the machine learning algorithms and contributes to making the car-assembly process leaner and more sustainable.
A modular Approach for Multimodal Deep Learning for Object Detection of Mobile Robots
Authors: Kamm Simon , Jazdi Nasser , Yang Shilu , Weyrich Michael
Published: May 2023

Due to the development of big data, there are more and more available data sources leading to heterogeneous data. The field of multi-modal machine learning can process heterogeneous data from multiple sources and modalities and fuse heterogeneous features appropriately to provide higher efficiency and precision. In this contribution, a new modular Camera-LiDAR-Map-Fusion model is proposed and implemented with one feature extraction stage and two fusion stages: Feature Extraction is done using two object detection tools, the OpenPCDet and MMDetection codebases to assure a modular framework, allowing support of a variety of popular 2D and 3D feature extractors as well as heterogeneous (or multimodal) datasets. The first fusion step is the MapFusion, which is a feature-level LiDAR and map data fusion. The second fusion (Proposal Fusion) is a late fusion of camera 2D proposals with LiDAR-Map 3D proposals. The experiment on a subset nuScenes dataset showed that, as compared to a baseline 3D detector (CenterPoint with mAP 66.32%), the MapFusion model improves accuracy by 2.4%, while the usage of the late fusion improves precision further by 5.7%. Aside from that, the outcomes on the KITTI dataset and a self-built mobile robot dataset showed similar accuracy improvement by using the mentioned fusion approach. These results suggest that the Camera-LiDAR-Map-Fusion model is a feasible fusion model for 3D object detection, with good usability and extensibility.
Hybrid Nanocomposite Wound Dressings by a Novel Nanorod Vitamin-B3-Ag Metal-Organic Framework and Bacterial Cellulose Nanofibers
Authors: Barjasteh Mahdi , Dehnavi Seyed Mohsen , Seyedkhani Shahab Ahmadi , Akrami Mehrdad , Rahimi Marzieh
Published: May 2023

This paper presents a novel nanorod metal-organic framework made of silver nods configured within nicotinic acid (vitamin-B3) linkers (AgNA) aimed at wound healing applications. X-ray diffraction analysis indicated that the synthesized AgNA MOFs comprised of zigzag chains of silver (I) nicotinate with orthorhombic crystal structure. Electron microscopy showed nanorod structures for the MOFs with uniform dimensions and element distribution. By seeding the AgNA MOFs into the bacterial cellulose (BC) nanofibers, an innovative BC-xAgNA nanocomposite was fabricated for wound dressing applications. MTT assay demonstrated improved biocompatibility for the BC-AgNA nanocomposites up to more than 116% cell viability. The Acridine Orange staining showed more than 87% of live/dead cells ratio for the prepared wound dressings. The fibroblast cells attached on the BC-AgNA nanocomposite exhibited expanded morphologies with long filopodia. The in vitro cellular scratch analysis demonstrated excellent wound healing by more than of 96% wound closure rate of the wound cured with the BC-AgNA nanocomposite. Evaluating the BC-xAgNA nanocomposites revealed their appropriate antibacterial activities against different bacterial strains. Synergistic wound healing effects corresponding to vitamin-B3, Ag, and BC nanofibers were observed. The results confirmed that the designed BC-AgNA nanocomposite can potentially be considered for wound healing and damaged tissue regeneration.
Turnip yellows virus variants differ in host range, transmissibility, and virulence
Authors: Congdon Benjamin Steven , Baulch Jonathan R , Filardo Fiona , Nancarrow Narelle
Published: May 2023

Turnip yellows virus (TuYV; family Solemoviridae, genus Polerovirus, species Turnip yellows virus) is a genetically diverse virus that infects a broad range of plant species across the world. Due to its global economic significance, most attention has been given to the impact of TuYV on canola (syn. oilseed rape; Brassica napus). In Australia, a major canola exporting country, TuYV isolates are highly diverse with most variation concentrated in open reading frame 5 (ORF 5) which encodes the readthrough domain (P5) component of the readthrough protein (P3P5) which plays an important role in host adaptation and aphid transmission. When analysing ORF 5, Australian TuYV isolates form three phylogenetic groups with just 45 to 49% aa identity; variants P5-I, P5-II and P5-III. Despite the possible implications for TuYV epidemiology and management, research examining phenotypic differences between TuYV variants is scarce. This study was designed to test the hypothesis that three TuYV isolates, representing each of the Australian P5 variants, differ phenotypically. In particular, the host range, vector species, transmissibility, and virulence of isolates 5414 (P5-I5414), 5509 (P5-II5509) and 5594 (P5-III5594) were examined in a series of glasshouse experiments. Only P5-I5414 readily infected faba bean (Vicia faba), only P5-II5509 infected chickpea (Cicer arietinum), and only P5-I5414 and P5-III5594 infected lettuce (Lactuca sativa). Myzus persicae transmitted each isolate, but Brevicoryne brassicae and Lipaphis pseudobrassicae did not. When using individual M. persicae to inoculate canola seedlings, P5-I5414 had significantly higher transmission rates (82%) than P5-II5509 (62%) and P5-III5594 (59%). As indicated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay absorbance values, P5-I5414 reached higher virus titers in canola than P5-II5509 which, in turn, reached higher titers than P5-III5594. P5-I5414 was also more virulent in canola than P5-II5509 and P5-III5594, inducing more severe foliar symptoms, stunting and, in one of two experiments, seed yield loss. Results from this study compared to those of previous studies suggest that analysis of ORF 5 alone is insufficient to assign isolates to coherent strain categories, and further sequencing and phenotyping of field isolates is required.
A Random Forest Algorithm-Based Prediction Model for Moderate to Severe Acute Postoperative Pain After Orthopedic Surgery Under General Anesthesia
Authors: Shi Gaoxiang , Liu Geliang , Gao Qichao , Zhang Shengxiao , Wang Qi , Wu Li , He Peifeng , Yu Qi
Published: May 2023

Background
Postoperative pain is one of the most common complications after surgery. In order to detect early and intervene in time for moderate to severe postoperative pain, it is necessary to identify risk factors and construct clinical prediction models. This study aimed to identify significant risk factors and establish a better-performing model to predict moderate to severe acute postoperative pain after orthopedic surgery under general anesthesia.
Methods
Patients who underwent orthopedic surgery under general anesthesia were divided into patients with moderate to severe pain group (group P) and patients without moderate to severe pain group (group N) based on VAS scores. The features selected by Lasso regression were processed by the random forest and multivariate logistic regression models to predict pain outcomes. The classification performance of the two models was evaluated through the testing set. The area under the curves (AUC), the accuracy of the classifiers, and the classification error rate for both classifiers were calculated, the better-performing model was used to predict moderate to severe acute postoperative pain after orthopedic surgery under general anesthesia.
Results
A total of 327 patients were enrolled in this study (228 in the training set and 99 in the testing set). The incidence of moderate to severe postoperative pain was 41.3%. The random forest model revealed a classification error rate of 25.2% and an AUC of 0.810 in the testing set. The multivariate logistic regression model revealed a classification error rate of 31.3% and an AUC of 0.764 in the testing set. The random forest model was chosen for predicting clinical outcomes in this study. The risk factors with the greatest and second contribution were immobilization and duration of surgery, respectively.
Conclusions
The random forest model can be used to predict moderate to severe acute postoperative pain after orthopedic surgery under general anesthesia, which is of potential clinical application value.
Exploring the role of LIAS-related cuproptosis in systemic lupus erythematosus
Authors: Li Yan , Xu Bojun , Zhang Jimin , Liu Xiaoyan , Shi Guixiu
Published: May 2023

Background
Cuproptosis is a novel mode of cell death, which is strongly related to energy metabolism in mitochondria and regulated by protein lipoylation. Currently, the molecular mechanisms of cuproptosis-related genes (CRGs) involved in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) largely remained unclear, our study is aimed to explore the mechanisms of cuproptosis and CRGs involved in SLE.
Methods
Bulk RNA-seq datasets were collected to display the expressions of CRGs in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of SLE and healthy individuals, then ROC analysis was used to establish the diagnostic models of CRGs. Next, the immune infiltration analyses were applied to reveal the difference of immune cells infiltration in LIAS-low and LIAS-high group. Additionally, WGCNA analysis was performed to find the gene modules significantly corelated with the LIAS expression level. We also performed the functional enrichment analyses for LIAS-related gene modules to determine the potential pathways involved in the development of SLE. Finally, scRNA-seq dataset was used to cluster immune cell subsets, reveal the activated pathways, and study cell-cell interactions in LIAS-low and LIAS-high cells.
Result
We found CDKN2A was significantly increased and LIAS was significantly decreased in SLE patients compared with healthy individuals. The AUC score showed that LIAS had a great diagnostic value than other CRGs. Additionally, the results of immune infiltration analyses showed that immune cells proportion were diverse in LIAS-low and LIAS-high samples. The gene sets related to LIAS expression level were involved in dephosphorylation of JAK1 by SHP1, phosphorylation of STAT2, cytokine signaling in immune system, expression of interferon-alpha and beta, inhibition of JAK kinase activity by SOCS1/3 and so on. Finally, the results of cell-cell communication showed that CCL- (CCL5 + CCR1) and ANNEXIN- (ANXA1 + FPR1) might play an essential role in the communication network between LIAS-low and LIAS-high cells.
Conclusions
Above findings inferred that LIAS-mediated cuproptosis might involve in a comprehensive cellular and molecular mechanism to cause the occurrence and development of SLE.
Bioinformatics analysis highlights CCNB1 as a potential prognostic biomarker and an anti-kidney renal papillary cell carcinoma drug target
Authors: Gong Xiaoming , Gong Yahong , Ke Hengning
Published: May 2023

Kidney renal papillary cell carcinoma (KIRP) is a common tumor in the urinary system, which is easy to cause lymph node invasion. Once metastatic, the prognosis is poor, and there is a lack of effective early diagnostic markers for this tumor. We used R language to process the data from TCGA and GTEx combined with multiple online databases. Sensitive drugs targeting CCNB1 were screened out by the ‘pRRophetic’ package and molecular docking technology. Our data indicated that the expression level of CCNB1 in KIRP was significantly higher than that in normal tissues. This result was validated at the IHC level through the HPA database. In addition, the CCNB1 was also significantly increased with the progression of the T and M stages. The patients with higher CCNB1 expression had a poor prognosis in KIRP. CCNB1 was also an independent prognostic factor for KIRP. What’s more, CCNB1 was associated with immune infiltration. Finally, we also screened out five drugs targeting CCNB1. Our results showed that CCNB1 is a potential and reliable diagnostic biomarker for KIRP and it is a good predictor of KIRP survival. The five selected drugs targeting CCNB1 may bring good social value to patients with KIRP metastasis.
Effects of different puncture approaches on the curative effect and safety of patients with combined cardiovascular and cerebrovascular angiography
Authors: Xi Hui , Lu Chang-Yu , Wang Yang , Zhao Yang , Zhao Yuan-Li , Zhang Wen-Chao
Published: May 2023

Objective To compare the curative effect and safety of transradial artery approach and transfemoral artery approach in combined heart-brain angiography.Methods 120 patients who received combined cardio-cerebral angiography in our hospital were selected and divided into a transradial artery approach group (TRA) and a transfemoral artery approach group (TFA) according to the random number table. The postoperative efficacy and safety of the two groups were compared.Results There was no statistically significant difference in puncture time and operation time between the two groups ( P > 0. 05). Postoperative bed rest time, hospitalization time, and X-ray exposure time in the TRA group were shorter than those in the TFA group, and the difference was statistically significant ( P < 0. 05). Before operation and 3 days after operation, there was no significant difference in LVEF between the two groups ( P > 0. 05). The overall incidence of complications in the TFA group was higher than that in the TRA group. The incidence of hematoma and pseudoaneurysm in TFA group was higher, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05).Conclusions For simultaneous heart-brain angiography, interventional therapy via radial artery and femoral artery has good curative effect and can improve cardiac function. However, interventional therapy through the radial artery can shorten the postoperative bed rest time and hospitalization time, and reduce the incidence of complications.
Preparation of graded structured ZnO/g-C3N4 micron sphere and their ethanol gas sensing properties
Authors: Li Xiao-Dong , Pang Jia-Wen , Ge Chen-Jiao , Ma Yi-Ming , Yan Jun-Lin , Shang Yan
Published: May 2023

In this paper, graded structured ZnO/g-C3N4 micron spheres were prepared by a combination method of hydrothermal reaction and high temperature calcination. The structure and morphology of the synthesized samples were characterized via X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and N2 adsorption-desorption. The gas sensitive property of the ZnO/g-C3N4-3 composite and pure ZnO to ethanol are compared and investigated. It showed that the response of ZnO/g-C3N4-3 composite to 100 ppm ethanol at 260 °C was 26.36, which was 2.19 times higher than that of pure ZnO. The response and recovery time of this experiment are 26 s and 31 s. In addition, the gas sensor exhibited excellent selectivity, good repeatability, and long-term stability to ethanol. The gas-sensitive property of the graded structure ZnO/g-C3N4 microspheres to ethanol was attributed to the unique graded structure of the material and the n-n heterojunction.
Swin-YOLOv3 Improving YOLOv3 network for grain insects detection
Authors: Zhu Chunhua , Liang Jiarui , Zhou Fei
Published: May 2023

Aiming at the problems of low target detection rate and high false alarm rate originating from incomplete edge target, blurred target and overlapping target in grain insect image, one improved YOLOv3, reffered as Swin-YOLOv3, is presented. In the traditional YOLOv3, the receptive field of the ResNet feature extraction network is limited and powerless when facing the smaller grain insect target, and its sensitivity to the local detail features is also poorer. Thus, the Swin Transformer block structure is introduced to increase the receptive field by the shift window operation and enhance the communication ability between network layers, so as to obtain more local feature information; Besides, due to the diversity of grain insects, the difference of their shapes and sizes inevitably causes the conflicts between features at different levels. These conflicts interfere with the gradient calculation in the training process, reducing the effectiveness of the feature pyramid in the traditional YOLOv3 feature fusion module. Adaptive Spatial Feature Fusion(ASFF) has the advantage of adaptive multi-scale feature fusion, thereby, the ASFF is adopted to fuse the features of each layer and adjust them to the same resolution, besides, the optimal fusion can be obtained through training; finally, the downsampled ResNet residual block in the traditional YOLOv3 is replaced by the RepVGG structure, which adapts the convolution layer of the straight tube single path structure with a high degree of parallelism, so that the memory occupancy of the network can be increased obviously and the network training and detection speed is improved accordingly. The experimental results show that, in the public AI insect identification dataset, the mean precision (mAP) of the proposed Swin-YOLOv3 is 89.9%, which is 12.2% and 5.6% higher than the tranditional YOLOv3 and the YOLOv5, respectively; In the self-made dense grain insect dataset, the mAP of the proposed Swin-YOLOv3 is 77.1%, which is 12.4%, 3.8% and 4.6% higher than the traditional YOLOv3, the Swin Transformer and the YOLOv5, respectively; moreover, the proposed Swin-YOLOv3 has a higher detection speed of 36 frames/second.
Intergenerational Transmission of Parental Child-rearing Gender-role Attitudes and its Influence on Gender Roles in Single-parent Families
Authors: Chen I-Jun , Wang Xiaoxiao , Sun Zhiyin , Yang Mengping , Tang panlin
Published: May 2023

Background The development of children’s gender roles in single-parent families is worthy of attention. It may be affected by family members’ gender roles and parental child-rearing gender-role attitudes (PCGA). PCGA will form a consistent or inconsistent intergenerational relationship between grandparents and parents.Objective This study examined the intergenerational similarities in gender roles and PCGA. Also, the intergenerational transmission of parental child-rearing gender-role attitudes (ITPCGA) in single-parent families, and the impact of various family factors on children’s gender roles were comprehensively considered.Method Participants were 550 single-parent parent-adolescent dyads. Gender-role Scale and Parental Child-rearing Gender-role Attitude Scale were used to evaluate evaluated participants’ gender-role and PCGA. Chi-square tests and logistic regression analyses were used to examine the intergenerational similarities in gender roles and PCGA, and the influencing family factors of ITPCGA and children’s gender roles.Results The intergenerational similarities of gender role types and PCGA types were existed. Both parent’s gender roles and family gender pairs affected ITPCGA, father-daughter families and parents’ undifferentiated and sex-typed gender roles significantly predicted undesirable ITPCGA. Family gender pair, parent’s gender roles and ITPCGA types affected children’s gender roles. Undesirable ITPCGA significantly predicted children’s undifferentiated gender roles; father-daughter families and mother-son families, parents’ undifferentiated and sex-typed gender roles significantly predicted children’s sex-typed gender roles, and mother-son families and parents’ reversed gender roles significantly predicted children’s reversed gender role.Conclusions This study highlights the effects of single-parent family gender pairs and parents’ gender roles on ITPCGA, which influences the development of children’s gender roles.
Analysis of global Napier grass (Cenchrus purpureus) collections reveals high genetic diversity among genotypes with some redundancy between collections
Authors: Muktar Meki , Bizuneh Tadelech , Anderson William , Assefa Yilikal , Negawo Alemayehu T. , Teshome Abel , Habte Ermias , Muchugi Alice , Feyissa Tileye , Jones Chris S.
Published: May 2023

Genetic diversity amongst genotypes of several Napier grass collections was analyzed and compared with the diversity in a set of open pollinated progeny plants. A total of 114,886 SNP and 46,293 SilicoDArT genome-wide markers were generated on 574 Napier grass genotypes. Of these, 89% of the SNP and 76% of the SilicoDArT markers were mapped onto the fourteen chromosomes of the Napier grass genome. For genetic diversity analysis, a subset of highly polymorphic and informative SNP markers, filtered using a maximum of 10% missing values, a minimum minor allele frequency of 5%, and a maximum linkage-disequilibrium value of 0.5, from those mapped across the Napier grass genome was used. Extensive genetic variability, with an average Nei’s genetic distance value of 0.23, was identified in the material. The genotypes clustered into three major and eleven sub-clusters with high levels of genetic variation contained both within (54%) and between (46%) clusters. However, we found that there was low to moderate genetic differentiation among the collections and some overlap and redundancy occurred between collections. The progeny plants were genetically diverse and diverged from the germplasm collections, with an average FST value of 0.08. The findings of this study offer useful information for Napier grass breeding strategies, enhancement of genetic diversity, and provide a guide for the management and conservation of the collections.
Factors Predicting Pathological Upstaging of Gastric Low-Grade Dysplasia Post Endoscopic Resection: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Authors: Wang Fangning , Chou Shutong , Li Peng
Published: May 2023

Background
Some lesions of gastric low-grade dysplasia (LGD) or low-grade intraepithelial neoplasia (LGIN) on forceps biopsy (FB) are diagnosed as gastric cancer or high-grade dysplasia (HGD)/high-grade intraepithelial neoplasia (HGIN) after endoscopic resection. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to investigate the risk factors that predict pathological upstaging to HGD/HGIN or LGD/LGIN in FB.
Methods
We conducted a systematic search of Medline, EMBASE, and Web of Science for observational studies that included the terms “risk factor,” “low-grade dysplasia,” or “low-grade intraepithelial neoplasia.”
Results
We identified 15 studies on pathologic upstaging associated with 5 different risk factors: erythema, lesion diameter, depressed lesions, nodularity, and lesion location. We observed that factors that significantly increase the risk of early diagnosis of pathological stages included erythema (Odds Ratio [OR], 2.87; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.94–4.25), lesion diameters (OR, 2.50; 95%CI, 1.85–3.371), depressed lesions (OR, 1.61; 95%CI, 1.00– 2.59), and nodularity (OR, 2.95; 95%CI, 1.81– 4.811). A significant risk reduction factor was lesions located in the middle 1/3 of the stomach (OR, 0.75; 95%CI, 0.60– 0.93). No significant associations were detected between the pathological upstaging diagnosis and Helicobacter pylori infection status and ulceration.
Conclusion
Several endoscopic factors, including lesion diameter and surface morphology, are associated with the pathologic upstaging of LGD/LGIN on pre-treatment forceps biopsy. These findings enhance our understanding of lesion diagnosis of LGD/LGIN using forceps biopsy.
Prevalence and Morphological Analysis of Isthmuses in Mandibular Molars of Indian Population: A Micro-Computed Tomographic Study
Authors: Lavanya A , Tewari Rajendra K , Ali Sajid , Mahajan Puneet , Yusufi Faiz Noor Khan , Zoya Asma
Published: May 2023

Objectives
This study evaluated the prevalence, configurations, and correlation of isthmuses at coronal, middle, and apical root thirds in mandibular molars of the Indian population using micro-computed tomography.
Materials & Methods
105 permanent mandibular molar teeth were scanned under micro-CT. The axial sections were analyzed at the coronal, middle, and apical thirds of the root for isthmus types and classified according to Hsu and Kim's classification. Descriptive statistics for each isthmus type were calculated. The correlations between the apical, middle, and coronal thirds of the root were determined using Pearson's correlation coefficient.
Results
Type IV isthmus was most common in the coronal third of mesial root of mandibular first molar (42.9%), while type V was prevalent in coronal third of mesial root of second molar (42.9%). Type I isthmus was found to be highly prevalent in the middle third (71.4%) and apical third (61.9%) of mesial roots of first molars, and in the middle third (71.4%) and apical third (42.9%) of mesial roots of second molars. Type V isthmus was the most prevalent in all the thirds of the distal roots of both first and second molars, ranging from 40–50%. Also, a strong correlation of 0.965 (P < 0.01) was found between the isthmuses in the apical and middle thirds of roots.
Conclusion
There are variations in the prevalence and type of isthmuses across different sections of the root, including the presence of atypical isthmuses. Micro-CT with high-resolution imaging and 3D reconstruction is crucial for investigating root canal morphology. Clinicians could benefit from considering demographic characteristics to better predict the presence of isthmus variations.
Clinical relevance:
The isthmus configurations and frequency differs at each section of mandibular teeth.
Morphometric Micro-CT Study of Contralateral Mandibular Incisors
Authors: Sevgi Usame , Johnsen Gaute Floer , Hussain Badra , Piasecki Lucila , Nogueira Liebert Parreiras , Haugen Håvard Jostein
Published: May 2023

Background
This study aimed to determine the degree of similarity and symmetry in the anatomy of contralateral mandibular incisors. Three-dimensional (3D) models of extracted teeth were obtained from microtomography (micro-CT) scans. Qualitative and quantitative assessments of the morphology and comparison of contralateral pairs were made. The null hypothesis was that contralateral mandibular incisors could not be considered identical in simple morphometric measurements.
Methods
Sixty pairs of mandibular incisors were extracted from 30 patients and scanned with micro-CT. Virtual models of the cemento-enamel junction to the root apex were rendered. Parameters such as length, canal width, dentinal thicknesses, tortuosity, centerline length, accessory canals, root canal configurations, and root canal orifice cross sections were used to compare the teeth. Width and thickness comparisons between paired teeth in the same individual were made by paired t-test (Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test for variables not normally distributed). An online randomization tool generated randomized pairs (independent of the individual/patient). Subsequently, an unpaired t-test (or Mann-Whitney U test for non-normally distributed parameters) and a correlation analysis were conducted. Canal configurations were classified according to preexisting classification schemes. The number and location of accessory canals and apical foramina were registered and compared.
Results
Contralateral mandibular incisors showed high similarity in the selected linear parameters (lengths, widths, and thicknesses). The apical third showed a high degree of inter-variability for the contralateral pairs. The comprehensive statistical analysis of the normalized parameters by Z score showed no statistically significant differences between the contralateral mandibular incisors.
Conclusions
The findings of this study further establish the significant similarities between contralateral mandibular incisors, reinforcing their suitability as a reliable substrate for root canal comparison studies.
A Universal Framework for Accurate and Efficient Geometric Deep Learning of Molecular Systems
Authors: Zhang Shuo , Liu Yang , Xie Lei
Published: May 2023

Molecular sciences address a wide range of problems involving molecules of different types and sizes and their complexes. Recently, geometric deep learning, especially Graph Neural Networks (GNNs), has shown promising performance in molecular science applications. However, most existing works often impose targeted inductive biases to a specific molecular system, and are inefficient when applied to macromolecules or large-scale tasks, thereby limiting their applications to many real-world problems. To address these challenges, we present PAMNet, a universal framework for accurately and efficiently learning the representations of three-dimensional (3D) molecules of varying sizes and types in any molecular system. Inspired by molecular mechanics, PAMNet induces a physics-informed bias to explicitly model local and non-local interactions and their combined effects. As a result, PAMNet can reduce expensive operations, making it time and memory efficient. In extensive benchmark studies, PAMNet outperforms state-of-the-art baselines regarding both accuracy and efficiency in three diverse learning tasks: small molecule properties, RNA 3D structures, and protein-ligand binding affinities. Our results highlight the potential for PAMNet in a broad range of molecular science applications.
Investigation of the effect of laser energy density on selective laser sintering of PA12 using a multi-physics field simulation method
Authors: Li Mei , Zhao Ze , Yang Qiang , Wei Yuan , Li Junchao
Published: May 2023

Selective laser sintering (SLS) polymer powders involve multi-physical field transient phenomena that are critical to the optimization of SLS process parameters, but challenging to observe experimentally. In this study, a two-dimensional multi-physics field simulation method was used to couple the thermal-force-flow fields involved in SLS. Laser energy density was introduced to characterize the interaction between process parameters such as laser power and scanning speed, and the free surface evolution, material migration, and molten pool evolution of nylon 12 (PA12) at different energy densities were thoroughly investigated. Accordingly, the optimal process parameters for SLS were determined as laser energy density of 0.08 J/mm2, i.e., laser power 12 W, scanning pitch 0.12 mm and scanning speed 1500 mm/s. The same process parameters were then used to validate the simulation model. Experimental results show that the density, cross-sectional profile and compression property are also the optimal with the same energy density of 0.08 J/mm2. Full agreement with the simulation results indicates that the multi-physics simulation method provides an effective approach for SLS parameter optimization.
Effect of Aziridino[60]fullerenes on Thermal Stability of Nitrocellulose
Authors: Xiong Jie , Feng Shuang , Peng Rufang , Jin Bo
Published: May 2023

A series of aziridino[60]fullerenes was synthesized by the reaction of octabromo[60]fullerene with various anilines. Their ability to absorb free radicals and acid gases was studied, and their potential applications as stabilizers in nitrocellulose-containing propellants were discussed. The structure of aziridino[60]fullerenes was characterized by X-ray single-crystal diffraction, NMR, HRMS, FT-IR, and UV-vis. The compatibilities of aziridino[60]fullerenes with nitrocellulose and their stabilization effect on nitrocellulose were evaluated by methyl violet, differential thermal analysis, isothermal weight loss, and vacuum stability test methods. The results reveal that aziridino[60]fullerenes have more excellent compatibility and stability than the traditional stabilizers DPA and C2. Moreover, their stabilization mechanism was studied by electron spin resonance spectroscopy. The results show that aziridino[60]fullerenes could effectively eliminate the nitrogen oxides released by nitrocellulose autocatalysis, and they could be used as a new stabilizer for nitrocellulose-containing propellants.
AraSpell: A Deep Learning Approach for Arabic Spelling Correction
Authors: Salhab Mahmoud , Abu-Khzam Faisal
Published: June 2023

Spelling correction is the task of identifying spelling mistakes, typos, and grammatical mistakes in a given text and correcting them according to their context and grammatical structure. This work introduces "AraSpell," a framework for Arabic spelling correction using different seq2seq model architectures such as Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) and Transformer with artificial data generation for error injection, trained on more than 6.9 Million Arabic sentences. Thorough experimental studies provide empirical evidence of the effectiveness of the proposed approach, which achieved 4.8% and 1.11% word error rate (WER) and character error rate (CER), respectively, in comparison with labeled data of 29.72% WER and 5.03% CER. Our approach achieved 2.9% CER and 10.65% WER in comparison with labeled data of 10.02% CER and 50.94% WER. Both of these results are obtained on a test set of 100K sentences.
Anemia in patients ≥75 years with metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma: An important poor prognostic factor in the international metastatic renal cell carcinoma database consortium model
Authors: Mizuno Ryuichi , Yasumizu Yota , Tanaka Nobuyuki , Takeda Toshikazu , Morita Shinya , Matsumoto Kazuhiro , Kosaka Takeo , Asanuma Hiroshi , Oya Mototsugu
Published: May 2023

Background
Due to an increase in life expectancy, the incidence of metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) in patients aged ≥75 years has been increasing. In this study we investigated the characteristics before treatment and the outcomes of systemic therapies for patients aged ≥75 years with mRCC and compared the results with those for patients aged <75years in order to determine whether differences in age influenced survival.
Methods
A total of 206 consecutive Japanese patients with mRCC, including 47 patients aged ≥75 years, who received systemic therapy were included. Clinical data from medical records were retrieved and analyzed retrospectively. Survival analyses were determined using a Kaplan–Meier method, and analyzed with a log-rank test.
Results
Elderly patients categorized as favorable risk group based on the International Metastatic RCC Database Consortium (IMDC) stratification system were significantly lower. Among IMDC risk factors, the rate of anemia was significantly higher in elderly patients. No statistically significant benefit in progression free survival for first and second line treatment was observed, whereas improvements in overall survival as well as cancer specific survival were seen in patients aged <75 years.
Conclusions
For mRCC patients aged ≥75 years, a higher proportion of base line anemia, which resulted in higher rates of IMDC intermediate/poor risk, would be responsible for shorter OS/CSS. Furthermore, mRCC patients aged ≥75 years tend to receive BSC instead of second line active treatment. Overcoming under-treatment in elderly patients might help to prolong survival in mRCC.
Pathogenicity of the genus Colletotrichum from fruit rot and healthy flowers in Nagasaki prefecture, Japan and identification of C. nagasakiense sp. nov.
Authors: Takata Yoshiki , Komine Masayuki , Uchikawa Keisuke , Nozawa Shunsuke , Watanabe Kyoko
Published: May 2023

Colletotrichum is the second most common pathogen that causes loquat fruit rot in Nagasaki prefecture, Japan. To clarify the anthracnose disease cycle in loquat trees, pathogens were isolated from collected asymptomatic flowers and rotten fruits. The isolates were identified at the species level based on morphological and molecular phylogenetic analyses. Nineteen isolates were obtained from 148 collected rotten fruits. The isolates were identified as C. fioriniae (12 isolates), C. nymphaeae (2 isolates), C. gloeosporioides (1 isolate), and four unidentified species. From 900 asymptomatic flowers, C. fioriniae (5 isolates), C. gloeosporioides (1 isolate), C. siamense (2 isolates), an unknown species (11 isolates) belonging to the acutatum species complex, and 2 were unidentified. All isolates exhibited pathogenic reactions to leaves and fruits. These results imply that C. fioriniae and C. gloeosporioides infect flowers and cause loquat fruit rot after maturation. However, those in other species remain unclear. We were unable to prove the reason for the differences in the composition of species in fruits and flowers and their proportions in this study. An isolate obtained from asymptomatic flowers that also cause anthracnose disease in loquat was identified as a novel species of Colletotrichum, and was named C. nagasakiense sp. nov.
Pandemic exposure, fear, and mobile phone dependence among adolescents: The buffering role of optimism
Authors: Wang Jingxi , Li Tianchang , Li Qian , Chen Bo , chen Zhanjie , Zhen Rui
Published: May 2023

Adolescents' fear of pandemic and concern about their health have led them to collected the information about the pandemic constantly, and increased their dependence on mobile phones, which have caused adverse effects on adolescents’ physical and mental health. But optimism may mitigate the effect of pandemic exposure on fear and reduce phone-dependent behavior. This study aimed to discuss the mediating role of fear and the moderating role of optimism in the relation between pandemic exposure and mobile phone dependence. Self-report questionnaires were used to investigate the physical and mental status among 938 adolescents. Pearson correlation analysis, hierarchical regression analysis and simple slope test were used for data analysis. Pandemic exposure was positively related to mobile phone dependence or in an indirect way through fear, in which optimism moderated the mechanism of pandemic exposure on fear, but optimism could not significantly moderate the impact of pandemic exposure on mobile phone dependence.
The spatial distribution and prognostic features of cell subtypes in primary hepatocellular carcinoma
Authors: Wang Wei , Wang Xiaomei , Xie Bin , Li Hao , Lian Jinfeng , Chen Yanwen , Li Yao , Wei Wei
Published: May 2023

Primary hepatocellular carcinoma is a highly malignant and invasive disease with insidious onset. With the development of single-cell and spatial transcriptomics, tumor heterogeneity and tumor microenvironment in hepatocellular carcinoma have been deeply analyzed. However, the overall spatial distribution and prognostic characteristics of some tumor subgroups and stromal cell subgroups have not been fully described in detail. We combined single-cell sequencing, bulk RNA transcriptome sequencing, and spatial transcriptomics to describe in detail the spatial distribution characteristics of various cell types in primary hepatocellular carcinoma, as well as their relationship with prognosis. We found that the combination of different types of cell subgroups has a significant impact on patient survival. In addition, we also found that some cell subgroups have significant spatial distribution characteristics. These findings help us to understand the pathogenesis of primary hepatocellular carcinoma and potential clinical drug intervention targets more deeply.
Novel Lnc RNA WASH7P In Prognosis And Immune Infiltrates Of Cholangiocarcinoma
Authors: Zhang Baoluhe , Jin Bao , Liu Zeye , Wang Yuxin , Wu Xiangan , Xing Jiali , Du Shunda
Published: May 2023

Background
As a kind of highly lethal adenocarcinoma, cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) still suffers from lack of sufficient prognostic and therapeutic approaches nowadays, for which surgical resection remains the only potentially curative treatment. Recently long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) were discovered to be related with tumorigenesis and progression in many types of solid tumors, including CCA. However, the relation between WASP family homolog 7 pseudogene (WASH7P) and CCA has not been described yet.
Method
In this study, we evaluated the prognostic value and immune infiltration link of WASH7P in CCA based on data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. We use the ClusterProfiler package to perform Gene Ontology (GO) functional enrichment analysis. Spearman correlation and Wilcoxon rank sum test were used to evaluate the relationship between WASH7P expression and immune cell infiltration. The relation between WASH7P expression and clinical features was evaluated by Welch one-way ANOVA and logistic regression. Prognostic value of WASH7P was evaluated through univariate Cox regression analysis and multivariate Cox analysis. The receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis of WASH7P was performed through pROC software package.
Results
GO enrichment suggested WASH7P is closely related to oxygen consumption and hypoxia in tumor microenvironment (TME). Spearman correlation suggested that WASH7P expression is negatively correlated with immune cells infiltration, especially neutrophils and macrophages. And high WASH7P expression is associated with poor OS in CCA.
Conclusion
All those findings indicated that WASH7P was correlated with prognosis and
Who were the lonely people? A snapshot from a Spanish population-based cohort from before and during the COVID-19 pandemic
Authors: Sierralaya Jesus , Lara Elvira , Castelletti Chiara , Dolz-del-Castellar Blanca , Miret Marta , Domenech-Abella Joan , Gabarrel-Pascuet Aina , Haro Josep María , Ayuso-Mateos Jose Luis , Morillo Daniel
Published: May 2023

Purpose
This study aims to assess the changes in loneliness during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and to explore the factors that are associated with these changes.
Methods
We interviewed 1102 participants from a longitudinal adult population from the provinces of Madrid and Barcelona (Spain) belonging to the Edad con Salud project. Two interviews were carried out: before, and during the lockdown. Loneliness was measured with the UCLA loneliness scale, and covariates related to sociodemographic, psychosocial, and health and wellbeing domains were measured.
Results
Descriptive and multivariate analyses revealed a trend of increased loneliness among younger individuals, those experiencing economic decline, and participants depressed during the lockdown. In contrast, a decreasing trend in loneliness was observed among participants who were older, only had primary education, had limited virtual contact, previously had depression, or had medium/high neuroticism. A regression model showed that the relevant factors associated with the changes in loneliness during the lockdown were: changes in social relationships (β= 1.05, p-value < 0.001), depression during the lockdown (β = 1.12, p-value < 0.001), and neuroticism (β = -0.3, p-value < 0.001).
Conclusion
Identifying individuals at risk of increased loneliness during such crises is crucial for prevention and intervention. This study provides insights into relevant contributing factors, informing future public mental health responses.