bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Disaster Response Among Hospital Nurses Dispatched To Evacuation Centers In And Beyond The Fukushima Prefecture
Authors: Yamamoto Chika , Onoda Katsuko , Hasegawa Arifumi , Oikawa Tomoyoshi , Tsubokura Masaharu
Published: October 2021

Introduction: Living in a shelter affects resident health, increasing mortality risk, making shelter management a crucial part of disaster response.Multiple stakeholders are involved in managing evacuation centers. However, little is known about the support needs of medical personnel within a disaster area. Methods: This study aimed to examine the role of nurses in this disaster response, including evacuation to shelters, and the challenges they faced, given the lack of previous training or experience. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nurses who were affected by the nuclear power plant accident, and qualitative content analysis was conducted.Results: The challenges of shelter activities included the experience of being rebuffed by residents affected in the same area and the need to manage the conflict between the positions of victims and supporters. In addition, it was shown that by building support among staff and relationships between staff and residents, they were able to continue their difficult shelter activities. Many nurses expressed interest in disaster nursing, as their experiences of supporting people in disasters and evacuation centers provided them with hints for their nursing practice, and they applied the lessons learned from their evacuation center activities to their future disaster response.Discussion: To improve staff management of trauma, suitable training should be provided during “normal” times to strengthen staff relationships; in addition, clinical and community nurses should be afforded opportunities to understand each other’s roles to support disaster response.
Exploring the Opportunities and Challenges of Female Health Leaders in Three Regional States of Ethiopia: A Phenomenological Study
Authors: Muktar Sualiha Abdulkader , Desta Binyam Fekadu , Demissie Heran , Heyi Wubishet Kebede , Gurmamo Elias Mamo , Abebe Melkamu Getu , Mesele Mestawot Getachew , Argaw Mesele Damte
Published: October 2021

Background: Gender equity involves fairness in all aspects of life for women and men and is usually determined by social, political, economic, and cultural contexts. The proportion of female leaders in healthcare within the health sector is low. The aim of this study was to explore and describe the experiences, opportunities, and challenges faced by women in their path towards becoming leaders within the health sector.Methods: This study was conducted using the phenomenological method of qualitative inquiry. A purposive sampling technique was used to identify six women leaders. Semi-structured interviews were conducted through telephone by the investigators. The qualitative data analysis was conducted parallel with data collection using steps of thematic analysis.Results: This study identified individual, societal, and organizational level opportunities and challenges that had an influence on the career paths of female health leaders in Ethiopia. The leadership positions were an opportunity in the career development of women who had long-term goals, were known for their empathy, and exercised wise use of resources. In addition, women who had the support of close family members and their peers are more likely to compete and rise to leadership positions. Furthermore, women who received organizational support in the form of affirmative action, training, development, and recognition also tended to rise to leadership positions. However, women who assumed leadership positions but whose day-to-day decision-making was influenced by their supervisors, those who had experienced sexual harassment, and those under the influence of societal norms were less likely to attain leadership positions.Conclusion: This study explored the opportunities and challenges of women leaders in the health sector in a low-income country. The findings highlight individual, social, organizational, and societal factors influencing the career development of women leaders. Therefore, enhancing the leadership capacity of women, and improving social and organizational support is recommended. In addition, addressing the low level of self-image among women and patriarchal societal norms at the community level is recommended.
Time Series Measurement Based on Multiscale High Order Entropy and Roughness Grain Exponents
Authors: Xu Meng , Shang Pengjian , Zhang Sheng
Published: October 2021

In multiscale time series analysis, multiscale entropy provides a good framework to quantify the information of time series. Multiscale fractional high-order entropy based on roughness grain exponents (MFHER) is able to identify dynamical, scale dependent and oscillation information. In detail, MFHERcan be seen as a powerful tool to assess the complex characteristics of time series. A set of synthetic time series and an application of real world data financial series are researched. The results show that high order entropy performs well in distinguishing different time series. It has also been found fractional high order entropy is highly sensitive to parameter variation and thus provides a broad perspective to research the complexity of dynamic systems. This study gains an insight into the measurement of MFHER to demonstrate the wide applicability of entropy measures.Aiming at the complexity of network and the uncertainty of internal and external environment, this paper proposes MFHER to quantify the time series information on multiscale time scales. It is of great interests in identifying dynamical properties of nancial series. The results show that the volatility of the sequence is gradually stable when the scale is greater than four. High order entropy can identify the difference among the time series.
Hyposensitive canopy conductance renders ecosystems vulnerable to extreme droughts
Authors: Xu Hang , Zhang Zhiqiang , Oren Ram , Wu Xiaoyun
Published: October 2021

Increased drought intensity with rising atmospheric demand for water (hereafter VPD) increases the risk of tree mortality worldwide. Ecosystem-scale water-use strategy (WUSe), quantified here by canopy stomatal sensitivity to VPD (Sc), is increasingly recognized as a factor in drought-related ecosystem dysfunction. However, the links between Sc and ecosystem adaptation to and stability following droughts are poorly established. We examined how Sc regulates carbon sequestration, identifying ecosystems potentially susceptible to drought-induced mortality based on data from the global flux network, remote-sensing products, and plant functional-traits archive. We found that Sc is higher where ecosystem water availability is low in arid regions, reflecting conservative WUSe (i.e., hypersensitivity), but ecosystems of all regions converge on permissive WUSe (i.e., hyposensitivity) under ample water supply. During extreme droughts, hyposensitive and hypersensitive ecosystems achieved similar net ecosystem productivity employing considerably different structural-functional strategies. However, hyposensitive ecosystems, risking their hydraulic system with permissive WUSe, did not recover from extreme droughts as quickly. Models predicting current performance and future distributions of vegetation types should account for the greater vulnerability of hyposensitive ecosystems to intensifying atmospheric and soil drought.
Implementation and Findings On A One-Minute Sit-Stand Test for Prehospital Triage in Patients With Suspected COVID-19 - A Pilot Project
Authors: Kjerulff Julie Linding , Bach Allan , Væggemose Ulla , Skaarup Søren Helbo , Bøtker Morten Thingemann
Published: October 2021

Introduction:
During the initial Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic wave, sparse personal protection equipment made telephone triage of suscpeted COVID-19 patients for ambulance transport necessary. To spare resources, stable patients were often treated and released on-scene, but reports from Italy suggested that some later detoriated. We implemented a prehospital sit-stand test to identify patients in risk for detoriation.
Methods
The test was implemented as part of a new guideline in stable suspected COVID-19 patients younger than 70 years with no risk factors for serious disease triaged by general practitioners to ambulance response in the Central Denmark Region. Data were collected from April 6th to July 6th 2020. This was a two-part study evaluating guideline adherence and results of the sit-stand test. The primary outcome of each separate part was 1) the proportion of patients sit-stand tested before treat-and-released and 2) the proportion of patients treated with oxygen within 7 days among patients decompensating and not decompensation during the test.
Results
Data on 156 patients triaged to ambulance response by general practioners were analysed. In total 86/156 (55%) were tested with the sit-stand test, among these 30/86 (47%) were either older than 70 or had risk factors for serious disease. Of those treated and released, 50/52 (96%) were tested. In total, 17/86 (20%) decompensated during the test and of these, 9/17 (53%) were treated with oxygen compared to 2/69 (3%) in patients who did not decompensate (p < 0.001). This difference was only significant in the elderly group of patients with risk factors for serious disease. 10/156 (6%) of patients had a positive COVID-19-test.
Conclusion
The sit-stand test was implemented in 96% of patients treated and released on-scene, but was also used in elderly patients with risk factors for serious disease. Decompensation was observed in 20% of patients and was associated with oxygen treatment within 7 days – but only in the elderly group of patients with risk factors for serious disease. These findings are hypotheses-generating and suggest that physical exercise testing may be usefull for decision making in emergency settings.
Exosomal miR-224-5p from colorectal cancer cells promotes malignant transformation of human colon normal cells by promoting cell proliferation through downregulation of CMTM4
Authors: Wu Feng , Yang Jiani , Shang Guoyin , Zhang Zhijia , Niu Sijia , Liu Yang , Liu Hongru , Jing Jing , Fang Yu
Published: October 2021

Background

Interactions between malignant cells and neighboring normal cells is important for carcinogenesis. In addition, cancer cell-derived exosomes have been shown to promote the malignant transformation of recipient cells, but the mechanisms remain unclear.
Methods

The level of miR-224-5p in colorectal cancer (CRC) cell-derived exosomes was determined by RT-qPCR assay. In addition, PKH26 dye-labeled exosomes were used to assess the efficacy of the transfer of exosomes between SW620 and CCD 841 CoN cells.
Results

In this study, we found that overexpression of miR-224-5p significantly promoted the proliferation, migration and invasion of SW620 cells. In addition, miR-224-5p can be transferred from SW620 cells to CCD 841 CoN cells via exosomes. SW620 cell-derived exosomes overexpressing miR-224-5p markedly promoted proliferation, migration and invasion of CCD 841 CoN cells. Meanwhile, SW620 cell-derived exosomal miR-224-5p notably decreased the expression of CMTM4 in CCD 841 CoN cells. Furthermore, SW620 cell-derived exosomal miR-224-5p significantly inhibited tumor growth in a xenograft model in vivo.
Conclusion

These findings suggested that SW620 cell-derived exosomal miR-224-5p could promote malignant transformation and tumorigenesis in vitro and in vivo via downregulation of CMTM4, suggesting that miR-224-5p might be a potential target for therapies in CRC.
Household Predictors of Malaria Episode in Northern Uganda: Its Implication for Future Malaria Control
Authors: Echodu Richard , Oyet William Sam , Iwiru Tereza , Apili Felister , Lutwama Julius Julian , Opiyo Elizabeth Auma , Otim Ochan
Published: October 2021

Background: Uses of indoor residual spraying (IRS), long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINS) and treatment with artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) are greatly promoted in northern part of Uganda as mitigating strategies for malaria episodes. Unfortunately, the region still records the highest malaria prevalence of 63%. This study assesses household predicators of malaria in the region and their impact on malaria episodes at the household levels.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in four districts of Gulu, Oyam, Kitgum and Agago covering sixteen villages in northern Uganda. In total, 193 households were surveyed. Data was collected through pre-tested structured questionnaire and systematically coded for analysis using R software.Results:Women headed 58% of the 193 households surveyed. Six hundred and five (605) individuals were declared to have spent the previous night in these households. On average, there were two bed nets per household and 502 (86%) spent the night prior to interview under a bed net. Overall, malaria episodes were strongly related to lack of bed nets or lack of use thereof, and directly linked to the number of individuals in a household. Children were prone to malaria more than adults by a ratio of 2:1. When given a choice between insecticides (IRS) and treated bed nets, 1 in 3 households preferred treated bed nets. At the same time, data suggests that bed nets were perceived unnecessary once IRS was applied. If true, the driving force to spraying insecticides indoor then becomes lack of a bed net. Conclusions:Household predicators of incidence of malaria in northern Uganda includes bed nets, use of treated bed nets, and indoor residual spraying with households not practicing any of these bearing the heaviest burden of malaria. Hierarchical clustering on principal components (HCPC) clusters households into four types in northern Uganda, 1) household that use bed nets and sleep in houses sprayed with insecticides; 2) households that use bed nets but no indoor residual spraying with insecticides; 3) households that have no bed nets and no indoor residual spraying; and 4) test bed nets before use. Malaria incidence was higher in children as compared to the adults.
The LCN2/LOXL2/MMP9 ternary protein complex promotes migration and invasion through the FAK/AKT/GSK3β signaling pathway in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma
Authors: Xia Qiaoxi , Chen Mantong , Zhou Xiao , Bai Wenjing , Lin Ling , Zhao Yan , Ding Jiyu , Zheng Xiaoqi , Zou Haiying , Wang Shaohong , Xu Liyan , Li Enmin , Du Zepeng , Wu Bingli
Published: October 2021

Background

During tumor malignant development, the extracellular matrix (ECM) is usually abnormally regulated. Dysregulated expression of lysyl oxidase-like 2 (LOXL2), matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9) and lipocalin 2 (LCN2) are associated with ECM remodeling. Nevertheless, the evidence of an LCN2/LOXL2/MMP9 protein complex and its potential molecular mechanisms remain unclear.
Methods

In this study, the LCN2/LOXL2/MMP9 ternary complex and their specific interaction domains were determined by co-immunoprecipitation. Next, biological functions of the complex were assessed by wound-healing, migration, invasion and MTS assays. Xenografts were applied to study the effect of the LCN2/LOXL2/MMP9 ternary complex on the tumor progression in vivo. Finally, the molecular mechanism of this ternary complex was explored by zymography, immunofluorescence, and fluorescent matrix degradation.
Results

Protein-protein interaction assays indicated LCN2 and LOXL2, and LCN2 and MMP9 both had intracellular and extracellular interactions, but the interaction between LOXL2 and MMP9 only occurred intracellularly. The LCN2/LOXL2/MMP9 ternary complex promoted migration and invasion of ESCC cells, as well as tumor growth and malignant progression in vivo, while the iron chelator deferoxamine mesylate (DFOM) inhibited ESCC tumor growth. Co-overexpression of LCN2/LOXL2/MMP9 enhanced the ability of tumor cells to degrade fibronectin and Matrigel, increased the formation and extension of filopodia, promoted the rearrangement of microfilaments through upregulation of profilin 1. In addition, the LCN2/LOXL2/MMP9 ternary complex promoted the expression of SPOCK1, and abnormally activated the FAK/AKT/GSK3β signaling pathway.
Conclusion

The LCN2/LOXL2/MMP9 ternary complex promotes the migration and invasion of cancer cells and malignant tumor progression through multiple mechanisms, which could be a potential therapeutic target.
Implementation of Adaptive Fault-Tolerant Tracking Control for Robot Manipulators with Integral Sliding Mode
Authors: Liu Linzhi , Zhang Liyin , Hou Yinlong , Tang Dafeng , Liu Hui
Published: October 2021

This paper addresses an adaptive fault-tolerant tracking control for robot manipulators. By fully considering the effects of uncertainties and actuator effectiveness faults (UAEFs), a robust fault-tolerant tracking control combining with an auxiliary function and an integral sliding manifold is first developed for uncertain robot manipulators. Then, an adaptive law for unknown parameters of the upper bounded uncertainties is constructed to obtain a robust fault-tolerant approach with the elimination of the reaching phase of sliding mode control (SMC). The stability of the proposed approaches is accomplished by Lyapunov stable theory. The key contributions of the proposed approach are as follows: i) the reaching phase of SMC is removed in the control design and then the sliding mode starts at very beginning; (ii) the nominal control term is eliminated in the design of integral sliding surface and then the algebraic loop problem is also avoided in the proposed approach for robot manipulators; (iii) the simple control structure with an adaptive law is obtained for improving chattering-restraining ability of the proposed approach and then the effects of time delay and computational burden are also restrained from the proposed approach. Simulation and experimental comparisons have been accomplished for verifying the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
How is People's Awareness of “Biodiversity” Measured ?Using Sentiment Analysis and LDA Topic Modeling in the Twitter Discourse Space from 2010 to 2020
Authors: Ohtani Shimon
Published: October 2021

The importance of biodiversity conservation is gradually being recognized worldwide, and 2020 was the final year of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets formulated at the 10th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP10) in 2010. Unfortunately, the majority of the targets were assessed as unachievable. While it is essential to measure public awareness of biodiversity when setting the post-2020 targets, it is also a difficult task to propose a method to do so. This study provides a diachronic exploration of the discourse on “biodiversity” from 2010 to 2020, using Twitter posts, in combination with sentiment analysis and topic modeling, which are commonly used in data science. Through the aggregation and comparison of n-grams, the visualization of eight types of emotional tendencies using the NRC emotion lexicon, the construction of topic models using Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA), and the qualitative analysis of tweet texts based on these models, I was able to classify and analyze unstructured tweets in a meaningful way. The results revealed the evolution of words used with “biodiversity” on Twitter over the past decade, the emotional tendencies behind the contexts in which “biodiversity” has been used, and the approximate content of tweet texts that have constituted topics with distinctive characteristics. While the search for people's awareness through SNS analysis still has many limitations, it is undeniable that important suggestions can be obtained. In order to further refine the research method, it will be essential to improve the skills of analysts and accumulate research examples as well as to advance data science.
Effects of Exercise Training on Behavior and Brain Function after High Dose Isoproterenol-Induced Cardiac Damage
Authors: Tóth Kata , Oroszi Tamás , Zee Eddy A. , Nyakas Csaba , Schoemaker Regien G.
Published: October 2021

Acute sympathetic stress can result in cardiac fibrosis, but may also lead to mental dysfunction. Exercise training after isoproterenol (ISO)-induced acute sympathetic stress was investigated regarding cardiac damage, neuroinflammation, brain function and behavior. Male Wistar rats (12 months) received ISO or saline. One week later, treadmill running or control handling (sedentary) started. After four weeks, cognitive- and exploratory behavior were evaluated, and heart and brain tissues were analyzed regarding cardiac damage, hippocampal neuroinflammation and neuronal function. ISO did not affect cognitive performance nor hippocampal function. However, ISO reduced anxiety, coinciding with locally reduced microglia (processes) size in the hippocampus. Exercise in ISO rats reversed anxiety, did not affect microglia morphology, but increased brain function. Thus, exercise after ISO did not affect cardiac damage, cognition or hippocampal neuroinflammation, but normalized anxiety. Increased localized BDNF expression may indicate improved brain function.
Is Early Diagnosis of Foreign Body Aspiration Effective in Reducing Re-bronchoscopy in Children?
Authors: Mohammadi Mahya Sadat , Modaresi Mohammadreza , shirzadi rohola , Mirlohi Seyed Hossein , Yousefzadegan Sedigheh , Zargarzadeh Nikan
Published: October 2021

Background:Flexible Fiber-optic Bronchoscopy (FFB) is a diagnostic and therapeutic tool for respiratory diseases and evaluation. One of its major advantages is in the diagnosis and treatment of foreign body aspiration.Objectives:This study reports the indications, outcomes, and possible complications of FFB in patients suspected of foreign body aspiration diagnosis in the Iranian population.Methods:The data for this study was gathered from medical records of the patients in Children’s Medical Centre, which is a tertiary pediatric hospital affiliated with Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), from August 2015 to February 2021.Results:Of the 358 FFBs that were performed for patients suspected of foreign body aspiration diagnosis, major indications included choking (158, 44.13%), coughing (157, 43.58%), wheezing (34, 9.49%), and stridor (6, 1.67%). Nuts were the most common foreign body that was removed among airways in these patients (116, 65.16%). In 15 (4.18%) cases the foreign object was extracted via re-bronchoscopy. The location of 130 foreign objects was identified which right bronchus (52, 40%), left bronchus (38, 29.23%), trachea (8, 6.15%), and carina (6, 4.61%). In 358 procedures that were performed, a total of 27 cases (7.54%) developed complications include hypoxia and laryngospasm. The mean interval from the first sign of choking and the admission of the child into the hospital was 44.43 days ± 10.88 (range: 1 to 1095 days, 95% CI: 22.87-65.99). There was a significant association between later days of admission and the necessity for re-bronchoscopy according to the logistic regression test (p-value=0.012).Conclusion:Our results show that by early diagnosis and hospitalization and so performing flexible fiber-optic bronchoscopy in an earlier time than foreign body aspiration can increase the number of successful procedures.
The Fisher Market Equilibrium Price Based Multi-Access Edge Computing Coalition Formation
Authors: Wang Xiaolong , Dang Jianwu , Zhao Shuxu , Zhang Zhanping , Wang Yangping , Hao Zhanjun
Published: October 2021

The emergence of multi-access edge computing (MEC) aims at extending cloud computing capabilities to the edge of the radio access network. As the large-scale IoT services are rapidly growing, a single edge infrastructure provider (EIP) may not be sufficient to handle the data traffic generated by these services. The coalition method has been used in MEC for resource optimization, latency, energy consumption reduction, computation offloading, etc. However, the majority of research does not consider the price of computing resources corresponded to a container. Moreover, each SP does not choose EIP with the highest cost-performance to sign a medium/long-term computing resource purchase or lease contract. In this work, we consider a scenario with a collection of SPs with different budgets and several EIPs distributed in geographical locations. During the first phase, we get the market equilibrium price and select the optimal EIPs to make a deal by solving the Eisenberg-Gale convex program. In the second stage, using a mathematical model, we maximize EIP's profits and form stable coalitions between EIPs by a distributed coalition formation algorithm. Numerical results demonstrate that the effectiveness of our method is significantly better than the existing model.
Untangling competition between epitaxial strain and growth stress through examination of variations in local oxidation
Authors: Yankova Maria , Garner Alistair , Baxter Felicity , Armson Samual , Race Christopher , Preuss Michael , Frankel Philipp
Published: October 2021

Understanding oxide formation during corrosion of high-performance alloys in harsh environments is of great fundamental and industrial interest and provides a potential route for reducing the significant annual cost of corrosion globally. However, corrosion mechanisms involve multiple length scales, requiring a multitude of advanced experimental procedures. Here, we use correlated high resolution electron microscopy techniques over a range of length scales, combined with crystallographic modelling to show that there is a clear competition between epitaxial strain and growth stress during oxidation. The degree to which these competing mechanisms operate is shown to depend on the orientation of the substrate grains leading to significant local variations in oxide microstructure and thus protectiveness, even across a single sample. This leads to the possibility of tailoring substrate crystallographic textures in order to promote gradual phase transformation and the development of stress driven, well-oriented protective oxides, and so to improving overall corrosion performance.
Deep Ensemble Learning for Automatic Modulation Classification
Authors: Nie Jiali , Tan Wenke , Zhang Houmei
Published: October 2021

Automatic modulation classification (AMC) plays an increasingly vital role in cognitive radio (CR), cognitive electronic warfare, and other areas. It aims at classifying the modulated modes of the received signals accurately and provides a guarantee for the subsequent detailed parameter identification. Deep learning (DL) methods allow the computer to automatically learn the pattern features and integrate features into the process of building the model, thereby reducing the incompleteness caused by artificial design features. At the same time, the DL methods have been applied in the AMC field as its powerful ability to process complex data and have achieved excellent performance in recent years. In this paper, we propose a deep ensemble learning AMC network, which uses a multi-model ensemble method to fuse multiple DL features. Specifically, different DL models are integrated by ensemble learning, which enhances the learning ability of the single model. With the proposed ensemble model trained on a measured wireless signal dataset, we conclude that the ensemble structure of Inception and CLDNN can fuse spatial features and temporal features, and achieve state-of-the-art performance in AMC tasks. Besides, the impact of the inphase/quadrature (I/Q) sample-length on wireless signals is further investigated, and find that the classification accuracy of the deep ensemble model is improved by 0.7% to 10% compared to the single model under various sample-length. Simultaneously, we visualize convergence clustering with t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE), and the visualization results prove that the deep ensemble model has a stronger clustering ability than a single model.
Comorbidities in Unclassifiable Interstitial Lung Disease
Authors: Prior Thomas Skovhus , Hyldgaard Charlotte , Torrisi Sebastiano Emanuele , Kronborg-White Sissel , Ganter Claudia , Bendstrup Elisabeth , Kreuter Michael
Published: October 2021

BackgroundComorbidities are common in interstitial lung diseases (ILD) and have an important association with survival, but the frequency and prognostic impact of comorbidities in unclassifiable interstitial lung disease (uILD) remains elusive. We aimed to describe the prevalence of comorbidities and assess the impact on survival in patients with uILD. Furthermore, we aimed to identify and characterize potential phenotypes based on clusters of comorbidities and examine their association with disease progression and survival.MethodsIncident patients diagnosed with uILD were identified at two ILD referral centers in Denmark and Germany from 2003 to 2018. The diagnosis uILD was based on multidisciplinary team meetings. Clinical characteristics and comorbidities were extracted from ILD registries and patient case files. Survival analyses were performed using Cox regression analyses, disease progression was analyzed by linear mixed effects models, and clusters of comorbidities were analyzed using self-organizing maps.ResultsA total of 249 patients with uILD were identified. The cohort was dominated by males (60%), former (49%) or current (15%) smokers, median age was 70 years, mean FVC was 75.9% predicted, and mean DLCO was 49.9% predicted. One-year survival was 89% and three-year survival was 73%. Eighty-five percent of the patients had ≥1 comorbidities, 33% had ≥3 comorbidities and 9% had ≥5 comorbidities. The only comorbidity associated with excess mortality was dyslipidemia. No association between survival and number of comorbidities or the Charlson comorbidity index was observed. Three clusters with different comorbidities profiles and clinical characteristics were identified. A significant annual decline in FVC and DLCO % predicted was observed in cluster 1 and 2, but not in cluster 3. No difference in mortality was observed between the clusters.ConclusionsThe comorbidity burden in uILD is lower than in other types of ILD and the impact of comorbidities on mortality is less clear. Three clusters with distinct comorbidity profiles were identified and could represent specific phenotypes. No difference in mortality was observed between clusters, but slower disease progression was observed in cluster 3. Better understanding of disease behavior and mortality will require further studies of subgroups of uILD with longer observation time.
Decreased Physical Activity With Subjective Pleasure Is Associated With Rumination and Avoidance Behaviors
Authors: Kagawa Fumi , Yokoyama Satoshi , Takamura Masahiro , Takagaki Koki , Mitsuyama Yuki , Shimizu Ayaka , Jinnin Ran , Ihara Hirotaka , Kurata Akiko , Okada Go , Okamoto Yasumasa
Published: October 2021

The main hypothesis for the relation between physical activity and mental health is that autonomous motivation, such as subjective pleasure for the activity, plays an important role. However, no report has described empirical research designed to examine the role of subjective pleasure in the relation between objectively measured physical activity and psychological indexes. We used accelerometers to collect data indicating participants' physical activity intensity during a week. Participants recorded their subjective pleasure of activity per hour. In 69% of them, the individual correlation coefficients between physical activity and pleasure in an hour (an index of Physical Activity-Pleasure; PA-PL) were positive (r=0.22, 95%Cl=[0.11 0.38]), indicating that pleasant sensations increased concomitantly with increasing physical activity. Conversely, 31% participants exhibited negative values of PA-PL, which means that the increase in physical activity had the opposite effect, decreasing pleasure. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that avoidance/rumination behaviors decreased significantly with increased PA-PL (β=-6.82, 95%CI: [-13.27 -0.38], p<.05). These results indicate that subjective pleasure attached to the PA is more important than the PA amount for reducing depressive behavior.
Overexpression of FTO Protects Human Granulosa Cells From Cisplatin-Induced Injury
Authors: Wang Rongli , Yang Xinyuan
Published: October 2021

Background: Premature ovarian failure (POF) is a serious problem for young women who received chemotherapy, and its pathophysiological basis is the dysfunction of granulosa cells. The RNA methylation on the sixth Natom of adenylate (m6A) plays an important role in epigenetic regulation, and previous studies have demonstrated that the fat mass- and obesity-associated (FTO) was decreased in POF and may be a biomarker for the occurrence of POF. Furthermore, to preserve the fertility of these young females, various approaches have been used to prevent chemotherapy-induced ovarian failure, and menstrual-derived stem cells (MenSCs) have been considered as a promising treatment strategy. Here, we aimed to explore the role of FTO in the MenSCs recovering the function of injured granulosa cells.Method: First, the cisplatin was used to make a granulosa cell injury model. Then, the menstrual-derived stem cells (MenSCs)-injured granulosa cells co-culture model and POF mouse model were established in this study to explore the role of FTO. Human ovarian granulosa cell lines (KGN) were used to explore the effect of FTO on cell proliferation and apoptosis. Furthermore, gain- and loss-of-function studies, small interfering RNA transfection, and meclofenamic acid (MA), a highly selective inhibitor of FTO, were also conducted to clarified the regulation mechanism of FTO in granulosa.Results: MenSCs co-culture could improve the function of injured granulosa cells by increasing the expression of FTO. MenSCs transplantation could restore the expression of FTO in the ovary of POF mice. Overexpression of FTO could restore the injured cells’ proliferation and decrease its apoptosis through regulating the expression of BNIP3. Down-regulation of FTO got the opposite results.Conclusion: FTO has a protective effect, which could improve the viability of granulosa cells after cisplatin treatment by decreasing the expression of BNIP3, and it may provide new insight into the therapeutic targets for the cisplatin-induced POF.
Mutations of PI3K-AKT-mTOR Pathway as Predictors for Immune Cell Infiltration and Immunotherapy Efficacy in dMMR/MSI-H Gastric Adenocarcinoma
Authors: wang zhenghang , Wang Xinyu , Xu Yu , Li Jian , Zhang Xiaotian , Peng Zhi , Hu Yajie , Zhao Xinya , Dong Kun , Zhang Bei , Gao Chan , Zhao Xiaochen , Chen Hui , Cai Jinping , Bai Yuezong , Sun Yu , Shen Lin
Published: October 2021

Background: A significant subset of mismatch repair-deficient (dMMR)/microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) gastric adenocarcinomas (GAC) are resistant to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), yet the underlying mechanism remains largely unknown. We sought to investigate the genomic correlates of the density of tumor-infiltrating immune cells (DTICs) and primary resistance to ICI treatment.Methods: Four independent cohorts of MSI-H GAC were included: (i) the surgery cohort (n=175) with genomic and DTIC data, (ii) the 3DMed cohort (n=32) with genomic and PD-L1 data, (iii) the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) cohort (n=73) with genomic, transcriptomic, and survival data and (iv) the ICI treatment cohort (n=36) with pre-treatment genomic profile and ICI efficacy data.Results: In the dMMR/MSI-H GAC, the number of mutated genes in the PI3K-AKT-mTOR pathway (NMP) was positively correlated with tumor mutational burden (P<0.001) and sensitivity to PI3K-AKT-mTOR inhibitors, and negatively correlated with CD3+ (P<0.001), CD4+ (P=0.065), CD8+ (P=0.004), and FOXP3+ cells (P=0.033) in the central-tumor rather than invasive-margin area, and the transcription of immune-related genes. Compared to the NMP-low (NMP=0/1) patients, the NMP-high (NMP≥2) patients exhibited a poorer objective response rate (29.4% vs. 85.7%, P<0.001), progression-free survival (HR=3.40, P=0.019), and overall survival (HR=3.59, P=0.048) upon ICI treatment.Conclusion: Higher NMP was identified as a potential predictor of lower DTICs and primary resistance to ICIs in the dMMR/MSI-H GAC. Our results highlight the possibility of using mutational data to estimate DTICs and administering the PI3K-AKT-mTOR inhibitor as an immunotherapeutic adjuvant in NMP-high subpopulation to overcome the resistance to ICIs.
Structural evolution and synthesis mechanism of ytterbium disilicate powders prepared by cocurrent chemical coprecipitation method
Authors: Wu Nannan , Wang Yalei , Liu Rutie , Liu Huaifei , Xiong Xiang
Published: October 2021

Ytterbium disilicate powders were synthesized by cocurrent chemical coprecipitation method. The influence of Si/Yb molar ratio and calcination temperature on compositions and structures of Yb2Si2O7 products were investigated. The formation mechanism and thermal behavior of precursor as well as the phase evolution of Yb2Si2O7 were also discussed in depth. Results show that pure β-Yb2Si2O7 powders with nanoscale size can be obtained from the precursor with Si/Yb molar ratio of 1.1 after being calcinated at temperatures above 1200 ℃. The Yb2Si2O7 precursor is an amorphous polymer cross-linked with -[Si-O-Yb]- chain segments which are formed though Yb atoms embedding in the -[Si-O-Si]- network. After a continuous dihydroxylation and structural ordering, the amorphous precursor transformed to α-Yb2Si2O7 crystals by atomic rearrangement. Elevated calcination temperature can induce to the coordination structures and environment evolutions of structural units and then converted to stable (Si2O7) groups and (YbO6) polyhedrons, which results in the formation of β-Yb2Si2O7.
Genetic Architecture of End-use Quality Traits in Soft White Winter Wheat
Authors: Aoun Meriem , Carter Arron H. , Morris Craig F. , Kiszonas Alecia M.
Published: October 2021

Background:Genetic improvement of end-use quality is an important objective in wheat breeding programs to meet the requirements of grain markets, millers, and bakers. However, end-use quality phenotyping is expensive and laborious thus, testing is often delayed until advanced generations. To better understand the underlying genetic architecture of end-use quality traits, we investigated the phenotypic and genotypic structure of 14 end-use quality traits in 672 advanced soft white winter wheat breeding lines and cultivars adapted to the Pacific Northwest region of the United States.Results:This collection of germplasm had continuous distributions for the 14 end-use quality traits with industrially significant differences for all traits. The breeding lines and cultivars were genotyped using genotyping-by-sequencing and 40,518 SNP markers were used for association mapping (GWAS). The GWAS identified 178 marker-trait associations (MTAs) distributed across all wheat chromosomes. A total of 40 MTAs were positioned within genomic regions of previously discovered end-use quality genes/QTL. Among the identified MTAs, 12 markers had large effects and thus could be considered in the larger scheme of selecting and fixing favorable alleles in breeding for end-use quality in soft white wheat germplasm. We also identified 15 loci (two of them with large effects) that can be used for simultaneous breeding of more than a single end-use quality trait. The results highlight the complex nature of the genetic architecture of end‑use quality, and the challenges of simultaneously selecting favorable genotypes for a large number of traits. This study also illustrates that some end-use quality traits were mainly controlled by a larger number of small-effect loci and may be more amenable to alternate selection strategies such as genomic selection.Conclusions:In conclusion, a breeder may be faced with the dilemma of balancing genotypic selection in early generation(s) versus costly phenotyping later on.
Selective Catalytic Conversion of Acetylene to Ethylene Powered by Water and Visible Light
Authors: Arcudi Francesca , Dordevik Luka , Schweitzer Neil , Stupp Samuel , Weiss Emily
Published: October 2021

The production of polymer-grade ethylene requires the purification of ethylene feed from acetylene contaminant. Accomplishing this task by state-of-the-art thermal hydrogenation requires high temperature, external feed of H2 gas, and noble metal catalysts, and is not only expensive and energy-intensive but also prone to overhydrogenate to ethane. We report a photocatalytic system to reduce acetylene to ethylene with >99% selectivity for ethylene under both non-competitive (no ethylene co-feed) and competitive (ethylene co-feed) conditions, and near 100% conversion under the latter industrially relevant condition. Our system uses a molecular catalyst based on earth-abundant cobalt operating under ambient conditions and sensitized by either [Ru(bpy)3]2+ or an inexpensive organic semiconductor (mpg-CN) under visible light. These features and the use of water as a proton source offer substantial advantages over current hydrogenation technologies with respect to selectivity and sustainability.
Prognostic Nomogram in Children and Adolescents with Central Nervous System Germ Cell Tumors
Authors: Jia Zetian , Yan Yaqi , Wang Jiuxin , Yang He , Liu Shuo , Han Chengxi , Hu Yuhua
Published: October 2021

Background: The prognostic risk factors for primary central nervous system (CNS) germ cell tumors (GCTs) in children and adolescents remain controversial. This study aimed to develop and validate a nomogram that predicts 5-and 10-year survival rates for CNS GCTs in children and adolescents.Methods: Pediatric with intracranial GCTs in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database from 2000 to 2018 were analyzed. All GCTs children were randomly divided into the development group (70%) and the validation group (30%). The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) was used to screen the characteristic variables, and the 5- and 10-year survival probability nomogram was constructed. The accuracy of the nomogram was evaluated by consistency index (C-index), calibration plot, receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC), decision curve analysis (DCA) and survival curve.Results: We identified 819 cases of CNS GCTs in children. Three variables (histology, site and size) were selected by lasso regression to construct the nomogram. The C-index of the development group and verification group is 0.744 and 0.759. According to the time points of 5 and 10 years, the area under the curve of the development group is 0.753 and 0.696, and the verification set is 0.787 and 0.718. The results show that the prognostic nomogram developed by us has good accuracy.Conclusions: This is the first prognostic nomogram of CNS GCTs in children and adolescents. It can effectively predict the 5- and 10-year survival probability of children. It provides a useful prediction tool for clinicians.
ELECTRA-DTA: A New Compound-protein Binding Affinity Prediction Model based on the Contextualized Sequence Encoding
Authors: wang junjie , Wen NaiFeng , Wang Chunyu , Zhao Lingling , Cheng Liang
Published: October 2021

Motivation: Drug-target binding affinity (DTA) reflects the strength of the drug-target interaction; therefore, predicting the DTA can considerably benefit drug discovery by narrowing the search space and pruning drug-target (DT) pairs with low binding affinity scores. Representation learning using deep neural networks has achieved promising performance compared with traditional machine learning methods; hence, extensive research efforts have been made in learning the feature representation of proteins and compounds. However, such feature representation learning relies on a large-scale labelled dataset, which is not always available.Results: We present an end-to-end deep learning framework, ELECTRA-DTA, to predict the binding affinity of drug-target pairs. This framework incorporates an unsupervised learning mechanism to train two ELECTRA-based contextual embedding models, one for protein amino acids and the other for compound SMILES string encoding. In addition, ELECTRA-DTA leverages a squeeze-and-excitation (SE) convolutional neural network block stacked over three fully connected layers to further capture the sequential and spatial features of the protein sequence and SMILES for the DTA regression task. Experimental evaluations show that ELECTRA-DTA outperforms various state-of-the-art DTA prediction models, especially with the challenging, interaction-sparse BindingDB dataset. In target selection and drug repurposing for COVID-19, ELECTRA-DTA also offers competitive performance, suggesting its potential in speeding drug discovery and generalizability for other compound- or protein-related computational tasks.
MCM6 Versus Ki-67 in Diagnosis of Luminal Molecular Subtypes of Breast Cancers
Authors: Sadeghian Dorsay , Saffar Hana , Sharif Pouya Mahdavi , Soleimani Vahid , Jahanbin Behnaz
Published: October 2021

Background: Currently, breast cancers are divided into four major molecular subtypes. The distinction between the luminal A and luminal B subtypes is mainly based on the cellular proliferation indices and is assessed by the Ki-67 scoring. Due to the limitations in the assessment and expression of Ki-67, we hypothesized that minichromosome maintenance protein 6 (MCM6) can be taken as a surrogate marker to differentiate molecular subtypes and aid in more precise grading of tumors. Methods: We performed a retrospective, cross-sectional study on 124 samples of breast cancer and 40 samples of normal breast tissue. Relevant clinical information was retrieved from the relevant Cancer Institute database.Results: MCM6 could discriminate between different histologic grades. The luminal B subtype exhibited a higher MCM6 score in comparison to luminal A (P=0.01). There were significantly higher MCM6 scores in the hormone receptor (HR) negative, in comparison to luminal breast cancers (P<0.001). MCM6 score had a significant correlation with the mitotic count (P<0.001).Conclusion: MCM6 can reliably differentiate luminal A and luminal B subtypes and was correlated with the mitotic counts. More studies are needed to standardize its assessment methods, determine more robust cut-off values, and evaluate its associations with prognostic features of breast cancer.