bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Analysis of the clinical manifestations and diagnostic process of the pleural effusion associated with constrictive pericarditis
Authors: Wei Weifeng , Shen Panxiao , Liu Shaowei , Li Naijian , Zeng Yunxiang , Ma Lunchao , Wang Jinlin
Published: September 2023

Objectives: Constrictive pericarditis is one of the rare causes of pleural effusion and is easily misdiagnosed and missed clinically, precisely due to the non-specific clinical features of constrictive pericarditis.
Methods: In this study, we conducted a retrospective analysis of 19 cases of pathologically confirmed constrictive pericarditis. These patients were admitted to our hospital between January 2019 and December 2022 after pericardial stripping. The collected data included imaging findings, clinical manifestations, pleural effusion characteristics, postoperative pathology, and the diagnostic process.
Results: In this study, the age of the 19 patients ranged from 25 to 74 years, with a median age of 59 years. The duration of the disease varied from 20 days to 24 months, with a median duration of 4 months. All patients presented with bilateral pleural effusion, with or without pericardial lesions such as pericardial effusion or thickening. Pleural effusion biochemistry did not exhibit specific characteristics, and both etiology and pleural pathology were negative. Radiographic examinations, including cardiac ultrasound and chest CT, revealed signs of pericardial thickening and/or pericardial effusion or no abnormalities. Pericardial stripping was performed in all patients, and the postoperative pathology confirmed various degrees of thickened pericarditis, consistent with constrictive pericarditis. During a follow-up period of 6-18 months, most patients (17 out of 19) showed favorable recovery with no recurrence of bilateral pleural effusion.
Conclusions: In patients presenting with bilateral pleural effusion and pericardial lesions, the possibility of constrictive pericarditis should be considered. CT and cardiac ultrasound play a significant role in its diagnosis, while pericardial stripping serves as a confirmatory diagnostic method and an effective treatment approach.
A rolling bearing fault diagnosis technique based on fined-grained multi-scale symbolic entropy and whale optimization algorithm-MSVM
Authors: Wang Bing , Qiu Tao wen , Hu Xiong , Wang Wei
Published: September 2023

As a critical and fragile rotary supporting component in mechanical equipment, fault diagnosis of rolling bearing has been a hot issue. A rolling bearing fault diagnosis technique based on fined-grained multi-scale symbolic entropy and whale optimization algorithm-multiclass support vector machine (abbreviated as FGMSE-WOA-MSVM). Firstly, the vibration signals are decomposed with fine-grained multi-scale decomposition, and the symbolic entropy of the sub-signals at different analysis scales are extracted and constructed as the multi-dimension fault feature vector. In order to address the problem of sensitive parameters for MSVM model, whale optimization algorithm (abbreviated as WOA) is introduced to optimize the penalty factor and kernel function parameters to construct the optimal WOA-MSVM model. Finally, Instance analysis is carried out with bearing fault dataset from Jiangnan University to verify the parameters influence and the effectiveness on the unbalanced sample set. The results show that compared with different feature vector inputs and learning models such as KNN, DT, RF, etc., the proposed technique can achieve an accuracy rate of 99.33%, besides, the computation speed is fast and the diagnosis efficiency is high which means its potential value for engineering application.
Hexaxial external fixator versus intramedullary nail in treating segmental tibial fractures: a retrospective study
Authors: Zhao Zhiming , Shu Hengsheng , Jia Peng , Chen Xu , Guo Feng , Liu Yabin , Shi Bowen , Ji Guoqi , Cai Chengkuo , Sheng Yidong
Published: September 2023

Background
It’s difficult to treat segmental tibial fractures (STFs), which are intricate injuries associated with significant soft tissue damage. The aim of this study was to compare the clinical effect of hexaxial external fixator (HEF) and intramedullary nail (IMN) in treatment of STFs.
Methods
A total of 42 patients with STFs were finally recruited between January 2018 and June 2022. There were 25 males and 17 females with age range of 20 to 60 years. All fractures were classified as type 42C2 using the Arbeitsgemeinschaftfür Osteosythese/Orthopaedic Trauma Association (AO/OTA) classification. 22 patients were treated with HEF and 20 patients were treated with IMN. The condition of vascular and neural injuries, time of full weight bearing, bone union time and infection rate were documented and analyzed between the two groups. The mechanical medial proximal tibial angle (mMPTA), mechanical posterior proximal tibial angle (mPPTA), mechanical lateral distal tibial angle (mLDTA), mechanical anterior distal tibial angle (mADTA), hospital for special surgery (HSS) knee joint score, American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) ankle joint score, range of motion (ROM) of flexion of keen joint and ROM of plantar flexion and dorsal flexion of ankle joint were compared between the two groups at the last clinical visit.
Results
There were no vascular and neural injuries or other severe complications in both groups. All 22 patients in HEF group underwent closed reduction but 3 patients in IMN group were treated by open reduction. The time of full weight bearing was (11.3 ± 3.2) days in HEF group and (67.8 ± 5.8) days in IMN group(P < 0.05), with bone union time for (6.9 ± 0.8) months and (7.7 ± 1.4) months, respectively(P < 0.05). There was no deep infection in both groups. In the HEF group and IMN group, mMPTA was (86.9 ± 1.5)° and (89.7 ± 1.8)°(P < 0.05), mPPTA was (80.8 ± 1.9)° and (78.6 ± 2.0)°(P < 0.05), mLDTA was (88.5 ± 1.7)° and (90.3 ± 1.7)°(P < 0.05), while mADTA was (80.8 ± 1.5)° and (78.4 ± 1.3)°(P < 0.05). No significant differences were found between the two groups at the last clinical visit concerning HSS knee joint score and AOFAS ankle joint score, ROM of flexion of keen joint and ROM of plantar flexion of ankle joint (P > 0.05). The ROM of dorsal flexion of ankle joint in IMN group was (30.4 ± 3.5)°, better than (21.6 ± 2.8)° in HEF group (P < 0.05).
Conclusion
For STFs, HEF is superior to IMN in aspects of completely closed reduction, early full weight bearing, early bone union and alignment.
The Prognostic Significance of Postoperative High-Sensitivity Troponin I in Acute Type A Aortic Dissection
Authors: Matniyaz Yusanjan , Gao Ya-Xuan , Zhang Ke-Yin , Wang Wen-Zhe , Pan Tuo , Luo Yuan-Xi , Jiang Yi , Xue Yun-Xing , Wang Dong-Jin
Published: September 2023

Background
Acute type A aortic dissection (ATAAD) is a life-threatening condition requiring urgent surgical intervention. Despite advancements in surgical techniques, identifying reliable postoperative prognostic markers remains essential for optimizing patient outcomes. This study aimed to investigate the association between initial postoperative High-Sensitivity Troponin I (hs-cTnI) levels and short- to long-term prognosis in patients undergoing surgery for ATAAD.
Methods
A retrospective analysis was conducted on 384 patients diagnosed with ATAAD between March 2019 and March 2022. The hs-cTnI and other clinical features were collected and subjected to logistic and Cox regression analyses. The patients were stratified based on their initial postoperative hs-cTnI levels, with a cut off value of 1.54.
Results
The findings demonstrate that higher initial postoperative hs-cTnI ≥ 1.54 were independently associated with increased in-hospital mortality within 30 days post-surgery (OR: 1.505; 95% CI: 1.327, 1.704; p < 0.001). Mortality rates were consistently higher in the hs-cTnI ≥ 1.54 group at 30 days, 90 days, 1 year, and 4 years post-surgery (p < 0.001 for all). hs-cTnI ≥ 1.54 group showed higher incidences of gastrointestinal bleeding (p = 0.008), cerebral infarction (p = 0.039), endotracheal intubation (p < 0.001), and CRRT (p < 0.001). Gender disparities were observed in hs-cTnI levels, with male overrepresentation and reduced female representation in the hs-cTnI ≥ 1.54 group. High-Sensitivity Troponin I exhibited good specificity, sensitivity, and AUC for predicting short-term mortality. These findings emphasize the prognostic value of initial postoperative hs-cTnI levels and shed light on their utility for risk assessment and clinical decision-making.
Conclusion
This study underscores the clinical significance of early postoperative hs-cTnI monitoring in patients undergoing surgery for ATAAD. Elevated initial postoperative hs-cTnI levels are associated with increased short- and long-term mortality rates, as well as specific postoperative complications.
CNS Repopulation by Hematopoietic-Derived Microglia-Like Cells Corrects Progranulin deficiency
Authors: Gomez-Ospina Natalia , Colella Pasqualina , Sayana Ruhi , Suarez-Nieto Maria , Sarno Jolanda , Nyame Kwamina , Xiong jian , Vera Luisa Pimentel , Basurto Jessica Arozqueta , Corbo Marco , Limaye Anay , Davis Kara , Abu-Remaileh Monther
Published: September 2023

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation can deliver therapeutic proteins to the CNS through donor-derived hematopoietic cells that become microglia-like cells. However, using standard conditioning approaches, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is currently limited by low and slow engraftment of microglia-like cells. We report an efficient conditioning regimen based on Busulfan and a six-day course of microglia depletion using the colony-stimulating factor receptor 1 inhibitor PLX3397. Combining Busulfan-myeloablation and transient microglia depletion results in robust, rapid, and persistent microglia replacement by bone marrow-derived microglia-like cells throughout the CNS. Adding PLX3397 does not affect neurobehavior or has adverse effects on hematopoietic reconstitution. Through single-cell RNA sequencing and high-dimensional CyTOF mass cytometry, we show that microglia-like cells are a heterogeneous population and describe six distinct subpopulations. Though most bone-marrow-derived microglia-like cells can be classified as homeostatic microglia, their gene signature is a hybrid of homeostatic/embryonic microglia and border associated-macrophages. Busulfan-myeloablation and transient microglia depletion induce specific cytokines in the brain, ultimately combining myeloid proliferative and chemo-attractive signals that act locally to repopulate microglia from outside the niche. Importantly, this conditioning approach demonstrates therapeutic efficacy in a mouse model of GRN deficiency. Transplanting wild-type bone marrow into Grn-/- mice conditioned with Busulfan plus PLX3397 results in high engraftment of microglia-like cells in the brain and retina, restoring GRN levels and normalizing lipid metabolism.
Channel Coordination Attention for Crop and Weed Segmentation Neural Networks
Authors: Bai Xinfeng , Xue Yuming , Dai Hongli , Wang Luoxin , Bai Xin , Hu Xiaofeng , Li Bo
Published: September 2023

Convolutional neural network is widely used in the field of intelligent agricultural production, but in weed control, the complexity of the environment and the similarity between plants place higher demands on the task of crop and weed image recognition and segmentation. In this paper, a hybrid attention mechanism was proposed to establish global feature dependence by using channel autocorrelation matrix, named channel coordination attention. The attention mechanism established an autocorrelation matrix by obtaining the dependency relationships of feature channels, and used this matrix to aggregate spatial features in different directions to strengthen the location features. The resulting pair of spatial attention and previously obtained channel attention worked together on the input feature map to enhance feature representation capability. In this study, the reasonableness of the design of attention module was verified by burning experiments, and the proposed attention mechanism was superior to other mainstream attention, such as Squeeze-and-Excitation attention (SE), Convolutional Block Attention Module (CBAM), Coordinate Attention (CA), etc. in terms of interaction ratio, accuracy and average pixel accuracy on the Unet network model. In addition, the effectiveness of the proposed attention mechanism was demonstrated in different semantic segmentation models.
The neurosurgical immigrant experience in Italy: analysis of a northeast tertiary center.
Authors: Giordan Enrico , Marton Elisabetta , Canova Giuseppe
Published: September 2023

Introduction: Italy’s immigrant population has risen for the last two decades. Integration into society, including access to healthcare, is critical for the well-being of these individuals. We analyzed two groups: regular immigrants and Italians, to determine whether immigrant and native Italian populations receive different care.
Methods: inpatient and outpatient medical records were collected from January 2017 to December 2021. We abstracted: identification code, nationality, sex, age, ICD-9 codes, date of the first visit, date of additional visits, and data on surgical intervention. ICD-9 codes were utilized to categorize patients based on their pathologies. Patients were grouped according to their geographical origin: European Union (EU), Central and Eastern Europe, North, Central, and South Africa, and North and Central and South America.
Results: more patients from Asia and Africa presented to inpatient than outpatient clinics (p-value: 0.001). Median age was lower for Asian and Eastern European patients than EU ones. More patients presented with acute spine pain (p-value: 0.001) as inpatients, while outpatients presented more for degenerative spine issues (p-value: <0.001) but less for brain neoplasms (p-value: 0.009). Additional visit rates were higher for immigrants than Italians (IRR 1.32 visit- year, 95% CI 0.99–1.77 visits - year, p-value: 0.06), especially when spinal and younger patients.
Conclusions: access to emergency care and additional visits was more prevalent in the recent immigrant population, especially from Asia, reflecting unconsolidated health habits. Immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe or North Africa seem fully integrated.
The impact of dementia on Quality of Life and wellbeing of informal caregivers in Asia: A Scoping Review Comparing High and Low-Middle Income Countries
Authors: Hanna Fahad , Padre-e Aiza Amore , Raymonds Millicent , Brahmbhatt Priya , Samnani Shelina
Published: September 2023

Background
As the population ages, the need for informal caregiving is becoming an increasingly serious topic for researchers and policymakers. To draw awareness to the consequences of informal caregiving among Asian populations, this review explored the psychosocial impact of providing dementia care on caregivers in the context of both high-income and low-middle-income Asian countries.
Methodology: A scoping review was undertaken following the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) protocol. A systematic search of 4 databases (PubMed, ProQuest, Medline and Medline Complete) was conducted using topic specific keywords to identify the relevant peer-reviewed studies conducted in Asian countries. Articles were screened and selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, and following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-analysis- extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA- ScR) guidelines. Data was extracted from selected studies and thematically synthesized and analyzed to show the overall impacts to caregivers of providing care to people with dementia.
Result
Fourteen articles (11 cross-sectional, one longitudinal, one case-control, and one descriptive-phenomenological study) were selected for the final analysis. Eight studies were conducted in low-to-middle-income Asian countries, while six studies were conducted in high-income Asian countries. The most frequently reported findings were dementia caregivers working longer hours, having financial issues, poor physical health, and lower life satisfaction, which progressively and collectively affected caregivers' quality of life. However, the impacts were less significant in high-income Asian countries, particularly in countries like Japan and Korea due to efforts been made to identify burdens associated with caring for people with dementia and the provision of appropriate support.
Conclusion
The scoping review demonstrates clear evidence that caring for people with dementia may affect the quality of life of informal caregivers, particularly in low-middle income countries of Asia. Systematic reviews and meta-analysis may be needed to confirm these findings.
CD20 is a mammalian odorant receptor expressed in a subset of olfactory sensory
neurons that mediates innate avoidance of predators
Authors: Greer Paul , Jiang Hao-Ching , Park Sung Jin , Wang I-Hao , Bear Daniel , Nowlan Alexandra
Published: September 2023

The mammalian olfactory system detects and discriminates between millions of odorants to elicit appropriate behavioral responses. While much has been learned about how olfactory sensory neurons detect odorants and signal their presence, how specific innate, unlearned behaviors are initiated in response to ethologically relevant odors remains poorly understood. Here, we show that the 4-transmembrane protein CD20, also known as MS4A1, is expressed in a previously uncharacterized subpopulation of olfactory sensory neurons in the main olfactory epithelium of the murine nasal cavity and functions as a mammalian odorant receptor that recognizes compounds produced by mouse predators. While wild-type mice avoid these predator odorants, mice genetically deleted of CD20 do not appropriately respond. Together, this work reveals a novel CD20-mediated odor-sensing mechanism in the mammalian olfactory system that triggers innate behaviors critical for organismal survival.
Languages with more speakers tend to be harder to (machine-)learn
Authors: Koplenig Alexander , Wolfer Sascha
Published: September 2023

Computational language models (LMs), most notably exemplified by the widespread success of OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot, show impressive performance on a wide range of linguistic tasks, thus providing cognitive science and linguistics with a computational working model to empirically study different aspects of human language. Here, we use LMs to test the hypothesis that languages with more speakers tend to be easier to learn. In two experiments, we train several LMs – ranging from very simple n-gram models to state-of-the-art deep neural networks – on written cross-linguistic corpus data covering 1,294 different languages and statistically estimate learning difficulty. Using a variety of quantitative methods and machine learning techniques to account for phylogenetic relatedness and geographical proximity of languages, we show that there is robust evidence for a relationship between learning difficulty and speaker population size. However, contrary to expectations derived from previous research, our results suggest that languages with more speakers tend to be harder to learn.
Development of a unique protocol for the production of doubled haploids in Hot Pepper
Authors: Misal Sachin , Das Arunava
Published: September 2023

Hot pepper ranks seventh among the most produced vegetables in the world. This crop is famous for its color and pungency. Hot pepper contains many important phytonutrients that enable it to fight against cancer. Conventional breeding in Hot Pepper is labor-consuming and a long-term process. This can be overcome by using novel approaches, such as, in vitro doubled haploid plant production. This method not only accelerate breeding programs but also facilitates recovery of recessive mutations. There are many articles published on doubled haploid development in Capsicum annuum; it reports both anther culture and shed-microspore culture methods, but both these methods require either subculture of anthers or the addition of new media, which makes both protocols laborious. The present study aims to develop a single-step direct embryogenesis protocol to produce doubled haploids in Capsicum annuum. We analyzed effectiveness of microspore embryogenesis on ten Hot pepper genotypes with six media combinations including shed-microspore culture protocol (Supena et.al 2006) and two-step anther culture protocol (Dumas de vaulx et.al 1981 and Para-Vega et.al 2016). Among six, one media combination responded very well to single-step direct embryogenesis compared to other protocols with more than 20% plant regeneration frequency. We observed an average embryogenesis of 7.53% and plant regeneration frequency of 3.81%. We achieved a survival index of 97.61% after acclimatization of plants in the polyhouse. The results of these experiments show that, one-step direct embryogenesis can be achieved with unique combination of plant growth regulators.
Singlet oxygen-induced alteration of bacteria associated with phytodetritus: effect of bacterial pigments
Authors: Simon Gwénola , Casalot Laurie , Valette Corinne , Burot Christopher , Rontani Jean-François , Bonin Patricia
Published: September 2023

We sought to determine whether the presence of carotenoids actively protects bacteria associated with senescent phytoplankton cells from damage caused by singlet oxygen (1O2) resulting from the cessation of photosynthetic reactions. We irradiated senescent cells of the diatom Thalassiosira sp. associated with the bacterial strains Pseudomonas stutzeri (a ubiquitous planktonic unpigmented heterotrophic bacterium) or Dinoroseobacter shibae (an aerobic anoxygenic bacterium often associated with phytoplankton rich in the spheroidenone, carotenoid). The analysis focused on the photooxidation of bacterial membrane lipids (vaccenic acid) and the expression of genes involved in DNA repair systems. In P. stutzeri cells, 1O2 transferred from senescent algae was not completely scavenged by bacterial membrane MUFAs and reached the cytoplasm, allowing both 1O2 and UV radiation to cause DNA damage. In D. shibae, scavenging by bacterial membrane MUFAs quenching by spheroidenone allowed only a small fraction of 1O2 to reach the cytoplasm, where the efficient detoxifying activity of mutY limited their impact on the DNA of this strain, thus preventing oxidative stress. The fact that Rhodobacteriales is the dominant order in bacterioplankton communities associated with algal blooms could thus be due to the protective effect of its constituent carotenoids against 1O2- and UV-induced damage.
Efficacy of Online Counseling During Pandemics in Zambia: A Client and Therapist Perspective
Authors: Mulungu Choongo , Mindu Tafadzwa , Mulungu Kelvin
Published: September 2023

Population-based studies show that a growing number of counsellors have been providing counselling via the Internet. There are mixed findings regarding the efficacy of online counselling when compared to traditional face-to-face counselling and other modalities. During the COVID-19 outbreak, online counselling services were advanced as the only safe means of attending to mental health conditions, especially during lockdowns. However, the efficacy of online counselling remained unclear especially in developing countries with low digital literacy and poor Internet connectivity. The study's main purpose was to investigate and determine the clients' and therapists' perspectives about the efficacy of online counselling during the pandemic based on the level of preparedness, mode of delivery and challenges faced. The study used mixed methods employing parallel convergent design and collected data from 284 participants (44 therapists and 240 counselling clients). The study found that therapists were not prepared to offer online counselling services but were compelled by high demands for counselling services from clients during the pandemic. Both clients and therapists cited the cost of data bundles to connect to the Internet. Further, both the clients and therapists agreed that the most efficacious platform was video conferencing. Findings also show that therapists observed slowed progress on the client's recovery due to clients missing sessions. Logistic regression results on factors associated with preparedness and positive perception of online counselling showed that older therapists and lay counsellors were more likely to be less prepared and evaluate session as less efficacious respectively. Living in Lusaka (the capital) was associated with a higher odd of perceiving online counselling as efficacious. Client results showed that older clients had lower odds while being female, and the counsellor being prepared increased the odds of the session being efficacious. The researcher concluded that online counselling, in the context of a developing country, was inefficacious due to poor network connectivity, the multiplicity of ICT channels, concerns with privacy, low digital literacy, and lack of knowledge or experience using these platforms.
Visual Transductive learning via Iterative Label Correction
Authors: Rezaie Samaneh , Ahmadvand Mahya , Tahmoresnezhad Jafar
Published: September 2023

Unsupervised domain adaptation (UDA) aims to transfer knowledge across domains when there is no labeled data available in the target domain. In this way, UDA methods attempt to utilize pseudo-labeled target samples to align distribution across the source and target domains. To mitigate the negative impact of inaccurate pseudo-labeling on knowledge transfer, we propose a novel UDA method known as visual transductive learning via iterative label correction (VTL) that benefits from a novel label correction paradigm. Specifically, we learn a domain invariant and class discriminative latent feature representation for samples of both source and target domains. Simultaneously, VTL attempts to locally align the information of samples by learning the geometric structure of samples. In the new shared feature space, the novel label correction paradigm is utilized to effectively maximize the reliability of pseudo labels by correcting inaccurate pseudo-labeled target samples, which significantly improves VTL classification performance. The experimental results on several object recognition tasks verified our proposed VTL superiority in comparison with other state-of-the-arts.
Influence of nitrogen fertilization, seed inoculation and the synergistic effect of these treatments on soybean yielding under conditions in south-western Poland
Authors: Serafin-Andrzejewska Magdalena , Jama-Rodzeńska Anna , Helios Waldemar , Kozak Marcin , Lewandowska Sylwia , Kotecki Andrzej
Published: September 2023

Soybean, belonging to legumes, has a specific ability to biological nitrogen fixation, which can be reinforced by seeds inoculation. However, support with a starter dose of mineral nitrogen fertiliser may be necessary to achieve high seed yields. A four-year field experiment was conducted to determine the effect of mineral N fertilization (0, 30, 60 kg∙ha− 1), seed inoculation with different commercial preparation (HiStick Soy and Nitragina) and combinations of these treatments on yield components and yielding of soybean in conditions of south-western part of Poland. The synergistic effect of mineral fertilization at dose 30 kg ha− 1 and inoculation on soybean productivity was the most beneficial. Similar effects were observed when 60 kg N·ha− 1 was applied both separately and with inoculation. However, due to the environmental impact of mineral fertilisers and to promote plants to BNF, it is advisable to use lower doses of N fertiliser (at 30 kg∙ha− 1) and inoculate soybean seeds in agro- climatic conditions of south-western Poland.
A visible-light photoinduced controlled radical polymerization using recyclable MIL-100(Fe) metal-organic frameworks
Authors: Nguyen Tuyen Bich Thi , Nguyen Tam Huu , Nguyen Thao Phuong Le , Nguyen Cam Hong Thi , Nguyen Viet Quoc , Nguyen Le-Thu T. , Cu Thanh Son , Hoang Mai Ha , Nguyen Ha Tran , Nguyen Thiet Quoc
Published: September 2023

Controlled polymer techniques have significantly advanced thanks to using the energy of light to control radical polymerizations. Although many photocatalysts (e.g. metal catalysts, organocatalysts, semiconductor materials, etc.) have been reported, most of these catalysts are still expensive synthetic, trace oxygen-sensitive, and often use UV source light to create the activator to the polymerization. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), consisting of metal clusters coordinated to organic ligands, are rising stars as heterogeneous photocatalysis for living radical polymerization techniques because they have many advantages such as facile operation, low-toxic, air stability, and sustainability. Herein, we reported a robust and versatile Fe(III)-MOF, MIL-100(Fe), as a heterogeneous photocatalyst for controlled atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) under visible light and natural sunlight without any additives. Moreover, controlled polymerization was also achieved in the presence of oxygen. Many polymer compositions including homopolymers, random copolymers, and diblock copolymers were successfully prepared with well-defined molecular weights and narrow dispersity index values (Đ < 1.5). Most importantly, the heterogeneous Fe(III)-MOF catalyst was allowed easily separated and can be reused again for ATRP reaction for ten cycles that remains the high photocatalytic efficiency. This method provides a new avenue for exploring MIL-100(Fe) as a low-cost, high-performance, and sustainable catalyst for photo-ATRP.
Asthma Control and Sputum Eosinophils in Adult Patients: A Cross-Sectional Study in Southern Brazil
Authors: Barcellos Vanessa Albano , Santos Vanessa Cristina Hartmann dos , Moreira Maria Ângela Fontoura , Dalcin Paulo de Tarso Roth
Published: September 2023

Introduction: Asthma control and health related quality of life are an important goal of asthma management, but their association with sputum eosinophilic inflammation has been less firmly established.
Objective: To investigate the relationship of asthma control and quality of life with sputum eosinophils in clinical practice. Methods: Cross-sectional study with a convenience sample, including patients with asthma, aged between 18 and 65 years, attending to outpatient clinic. Patients underwent sputum induction, pulmonary function tests, Juniper’s Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ), Asthma Control Test (ACT), Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) criteria for evaluation of asthma control and severity of the disease, blood count analysis, serum IgE and cutaneous prick test. Sputum sample was considered as eosinophilic if the percentage of eosinophils was ≥3%.
Results: A total of 45 individuals were enrolled, 15 with eosinophilic sputum (≥ 3% eosinophil cells) and 30 with non-eosinophilic sputum (<3% eosinophil cells). There were no association of ACT an AQLQ scores with sputum eosinophilia (p>0.05).
Conclusion: This study suggested that the finding of sputum eosinophilia was not related to asthma control neither with health-related quality of life in patients with severe asthma.
The association between the type of offline social participation and digital literacy among Korean older adults
Authors: Kim Jinhyun , Kim Hyunkyu , Park Eun-Cheol , Jang Suk-Yong
Published: September 2023

Background
Poor social connections are associated with the digital divide. The digital divide could induce poor outcomes in daily life or health status, especially among older adults. This study aimed to investigate the effect of social participation based on its absolute magnitude on digital literacy and to confirm the well-known fact that social participations are good for digital literacy is applicable regardless of activity types.
Methods
Data from the 2020 National Survey of Older Koreans were analyzed. The digital divide was determined by usage of digital devices. Offline social participation was evaluated using seven different social activities: senior community activities, learning activities, religious activities, volunteer work, leisure, political groups, and club activities. Multivariable logistic regression analysis with covariate adjustment was used for the analysis.
Results
Engaging in more than two kinds of social participation was associated with good digital literacy: adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 1.965, 95% confidence intervals (CI) = 1.567–2.465 for two kinds of participation, aOR 2.558, 95% CI = 2.040–3.208 for more than three kinds of participation. Also, social participations even less than once a month and most types of offline activities were associated with better digital literacy. However, senior community activities were negatively associated with digital literacy (aOR = 0.762; 95% CI = 0.681–0.852).
Conclusions
The lower the social participation, the poorer the digital literacy. This association would induce the isolation of older adults from societies especially for older adults with senior community activities.
Discriminating Between Parkinson's Disease and Control Sin-gle Task and Dual Task Groups Using Fractal Dimension Analysis of Center of Pressure (CoP)
Authors: Niaty A , Ghorbani AR , Jalali M , Abdolali A
Published: September 2023

Parkinson disease (PD) is one of the well-known neurodegenerative disease that deteriorates human regular planning procedure, motor control, and movements especially walking. PD patients may pay more attention to their gait in order to compensate and achieve a more normal walking. So, this may cause more difficulties for them to do a dual-task (DT) while walking. The center of pressure (CoP) in walking is introduced as a theoretical point where represents distributed pressure between the floor and various parts of the foot. The CoP traces, represents the movement of a person to maintain a stable position in both the sagittal and frontal planes. The aim of this study is to report the results of discrimination between Parkinson and Control subject’s CoP data using nonlinear analysis such az Higuchi Fractal Dimension (HFD). The effect of single-task and dual-task on the non-linear characterestics of CoP in both Parkinson and Control groups are also investigated. A fractal pattern helps us to describe irregular and chaotic shapes such as CoP traces and its complexity. Given the fact that FD can be used to characterize the signal complexity, we explored the ability of HFD to discriminate between CoP signals of 21 PD patients and 15 control subjects.
Neural Mechanisms of Visual-Spatial Judgment Behavior under Visual and Auditory Constraints: Evidence from EEG during Handgun Shooting
Authors: Shi Qidi , Gong Anmin , Ding Peng , Wang Fan , Fu Yunfa
Published: September 2023

Light and noise are important factors affecting shooting performance, and shooters will develop physiological processes that differ from normal shooting when they are subjected to disturbed visual and auditory conditions. The purpose of this study was to explore the neural mechanism of shooting preparation in skilled shooters with visual and auditory limitations. We designed an experiment and recorded the electroencephalograph (EEG) and shooting performance indexes of 40 skilled marksmanship during the shooting preparation stage under three conditions: low light, noise interference and normal environment. EEG relative band power features and event-related desynchronization/synchronization(ERD/ERS) features were extracted and analyzed. The results showed that (1) the average score of shooters was 8.55 under normal conditions, 7.71 under visually restricted conditions, and 8.50 under auditory restricted conditions; (2) the relative EEG band power in the frontal lobe (Fp1, Fp2), frontal lobe (F4, F8), left temporal region (T7), central lobe (CP2) and parietal lobe (P3, PO3) in the theta band was significantly lower than that in the other two environments (p < 0.05).(3) In low-light environment, a significant negative correlation was found between the central region, the left and right temporal region and the parietal lobe (p < 0.05).
WITHDRAWN: Circular RNA expression in ALS is progressively deregulated and tissue-dependent
Authors: García Leticia Moreno , Moreno-Martínez Laura , Torre Miriam de la , Schoorlemmer Jon , Macías-Redondo Sofía , García-Redondo Alberto , Osta Rosario , Toivonen Janne Markus , Calvo Ana Cristina
Published: September 2023

There is increasing evidence on the role of circular RNAs (circRNAs) in neuronal and muscular processes. Accordingly, their dysregulation is associated with neurodegenerative diseases and myopathies. We investigated circRNA expression in the central nervous system (CNS) and skeletal muscle, the two main tissues affected in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Based on circRNA sequencing analysis in spinal cord from ALS mice (SOD1G93A) followed by a literature search, 30 circRNAs potentially involved in ALS were tested. All selected circRNAs were downregulated in the SOD1G93A spinal cord, whereas only half of these were quantifiable and were generally upregulated in quadriceps muscle of SOD1G93A mice. Such tissue-dependent expression pattern was observed in both sexes and circRNA abundance in the spinal cord was higher than in the muscle, both in wild-type and in SOD1G93A mice. Finally, we assessed the 18 circRNAs with the largest expression differences and the highest degree of interspecies conservation in brain samples from sporadic ALS (sALS) patients and healthy controls. Similar to the mouse model, circRNA levels tended to decrease in the CNS of sALS patients. We conclude that the expression of circRNAs may be systematically altered in the two tissues most affected by ALS in a progressive and opposed manner. Although more detailed studies are warranted, circRNAs are potentially related to ALS etiopathogenesis and could possibly serve as future biomarkers, therapeutic targets, or customized therapeutic tools to modulate the pathology.
Automatic Farmland Recognition of Remote Sensing Images Using Transfer Deep Learning
Authors: LUO GONGKUN , WANG ZHIWEN
Published: September 2023

Aiming at the feature extraction of farmland from remote sensing images relying on greatly manual interpretation, which consumes a lot of manpower, financial resources, and is inefficient. This paper proposes a remote sensing image farmland recognition method based on a transfer deep learning model. We also propose a simple but effective method to overcome the problems of unclear edge segmentation and partial field of view of the convolutional network. The experimental results show that the PA of the U-Net network model has reached PA 0.9124, mPA 0.7757, mIoU 0.6832, Recall 0.9586, Precision 0.94215, F1-Score 0.9503. We have obtained a competitive result and the U-Net neural network has an excellent capacity for remote sensing image farmland recognition, robustness, and practicability.
Automatic Deidentification of French Electronic Health Records: A Cost-Effective Approach Exploiting Distant Supervision and Deep Learning Models
Authors: azzouzi Mohamed El , Coatrieux Gouenou , Bellafqira Reda , Delamarre Denis , Riou Christine , Oubenali Naima , Cabon Sandie , Cuggia Marc , Bouzillé Guillaume
Published: September 2023

Background: Electronic health records (EHRs) contain valuable information for clinical research; however, the sensitive nature of healthcare data presents security and confidentiality challenges. Deidentification is therefore essential to protect personal data in EHRs and comply with government regulations. Named entity recognition (NER) methods have been proposed to remove personal identifiers, with deep learning-based models achieving better performance. However, manual annotation of training data is time-consuming and expensive. The aim of this study was to develop an automatic deidentification pipeline for all kinds of clinical documents based on a distant supervised method to significantly reduce the cost of manual annotations and to facilitate the transfer of the deidentification pipeline to other clinical centers.
Methods: We proposed an automated annotation process for French clinical deidentification, exploiting data from the eHOP clinical data warehouse(CDW) of the CHU de Rennes and national knowledge bases, as well as other features. In addition, this paper proposes an assisted data annotation solution using the Prodigy annotation tool. This approach aims to reduce the cost required to create a reference corpus for the evaluation of state-of-the-art NER models. Finally, we evaluated and compared the effectiveness of different NER methods.
Results: A French deidentification dataset was developed in this work, based on EHRs provided by the eHOP CDW at Rennes University Hospital, France. The dataset was rich in terms of personal information, and the distribution of entities was quite similar in the training and test datasets. We evaluated a Bi-LSTM + CRF sequence labeling architecture, combined with Flair + FastText word embeddings, on a test set of manually annotated clinical reports. The model outperformed the other tested models with a significant F1 score of 96,96%, demonstrating the effectiveness of our automatic approach for deidentifying sensitive information.
Conclusions: This study provides an automatic deidentification pipeline for clinical notes, which can facilitate the reuse of EHRs for secondary purposes such as clinical research. Our study highlights the importance of using advanced NLP techniques for effective de-identification, as well as the need for innovative solutions such as distant supervision to overcome the challenge of limited annotated data in the medical domain.
Elevated mercury exposure to bird communities inhabiting Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining landscapes of the southeastern Peruvian Amazon
Authors: Pisconte Jessica Nataly , Vega Claudia Maribel , Pillaca-Ortiz Jorge Martin , Quispe Edwin , Sevillano-Ríos Cristian Steven , Tejeda Vania , Ascorra Cesar , Silman Miles R. , Fernandez Luis E.
Published: September 2023

Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining (ASGM) represents a significant source of anthropogenic mercury release into ecosystems, with potentially severe implications for avian biodiversity. In the Madre de Dios department of the Southern Peruvian Amazon, ASGM activities have created landscapes marred by deforestation and post-mining water bodies (mining ponds) with notable methylation potential. While data on Hg contamination in terrestrial wildlife remains limited, this study measures Hg exposure in bird communities, using feathers as bioindicators. Total Hg (THg) levels in feathers from birds near water bodies, including mining ponds and oxbow lakes, were analyzed. Our results showed significantly higher Hg concentrations in birds from ASGM sites (3.14 ± 7.97 µg/g, n = 312) compared to control sites (0.47 ± 0.42 µg/g, n = 52). Factors such as trophic guilds, ASGM presence, and water body area significantly influenced feather Hg concentrations. Notably, one measurement (72.7 µg/g) exceeded known concentrations that affect reproductive success in birds and is among the highest ever reported in South America. This research quantifies Hg exposure in avian communities in Amazonian regions affected by ASGM, highlighting potential risks to regional bird populations.
Microscopic Mechanism and Evolution Model of Cracks Development in Expansive Soil under Rainfall-Evaporation Cycle
Authors: Han Liwei , Chen Ming , Ji Weibin , Si Jiaxuan , Ji Wenhui , Ma Liyuan
Published: September 2023

This study investigated the cracking development of expansive soils under cycling conditions of rainfall evaporation using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance(NMR) testing and image analysis methods. The study examined both internal and surface perspectives and analyzed the impact of small and medium rainfall cycles on the fine-scale mechanism of expansive soils. The experimental results showed that micropores and small-medium pores transformed into macropores during the cycling process, and this transformation was directly related to the intensity of rainfall. Furthermore, the porosity of the expansive soil increased during moisture absorption and decreased during dehumidification. Additionally, as the number of cycles increased, irreversible pores formed, resulting in the dispersion and damage of soil samples. The surface cracking development was divided into four stages, with primary cracking development occurring more rapidly during cycles of moderate rainfall evaporation. The average width of cracks was used to quantify the degradation of soil samples, and a model was developed to predict the evolution of crack width with an approximate relative error of 20% between predicted and measured values. This study has significant theoretical and practical implications for understanding the mechanisms of deformation and damage in expansive soils.
LncRNA LINC01671/YY1 positive feedback loop induced EMT modulates CCL2 secretion in colorectal cancer to attract M2-like TAM infiltration
Authors: Tan Yan , Wei Chaojie , Zhang Guqin , Ni Lan , Chen Yifei , Du Xiaohui , Zhu Minghui , Zhao Huanhuan , Cheng Zhenshun , Liu Qing
Published: September 2023

Background
Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is involved in the interaction between cancer cells and tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) in the tumor microenvironment (TME), which intimately affects tumorigenicity and metastasis. However, the potential mechanisms of EMT and the understanding of how EMT-programmed cancer cells affect TAMs recruitment and polarization remain further investigation.
Methods
The expression of LINC01671, miR-141-3p, miR-186-5p, and YY1 in CRC tissues and cells were detected by RT-qPCR. Functions of LINC01671 on cancer cell proliferation, migration, invasion and EMT were examined by a series of in vitro assays. The underlying mechanism of LINC01671 was investigated by bioinformatics analysis, RNA pull-down, luciferase reporter, RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays. A co-culture assay in vitro was used to detect the effect of LINC01671 on macrophage recruitment and polarization in TME. A xenograft mouse model was performed to explore the role of LINC01671 on tumorigenicity and TAM polarization.
Results
LncRNA LINC01671 was significantly overexpressed in colorectal cancer (CRC) tissues, and high LINC01671 level was positively correlated with poor prognosis in CRC patients. Elevated LINC01671 promoted CRC cells proliferation, migration, invasion and EMT in vitro as well as tumor growth and metastasis in vivo. Mechanistically, LINC01671 served as a sponge for miR-141-3p and miR-186-5p to facilitate YY1 expression, which in turn transcriptionally activated LINC01671 expression. Moreover, LINC01671/YY1 modulated CCL2 secretion during CRC cells EMT and subsequently favored TAMs infiltration and M2-like polarization in TME.
Conclusion
Our data demonstrate that LINC01671, identified as an oncogene, may play a crucial role in regulating YY1-mediated cancer cell EMT, thereby affecting CCL2-related M2-like TAM recruitment in CRC.
Quasi-Two-Dimensional Cs0.9Rb0.1PbBr2.1Cl0.9:PEABr Sky-Blue Light- Emitting Diodes by Potassium Bromide Doping Engineering and Interface Modification in Nickel Oxide
Authors: Chang Yi-Tsung , Zhang Lingun , Lai Mu-Jen , Liu Po-An , Chen Lung-Chien
Published: September 2023

This paper presents the quasi-two-dimensional (QTD) perovskite (Cs0.9Rb0.1PbBr2.1Cl0.9:PEABr) sky-blue light-emitting diode (LED) was prepared through composition engineering, doping engineering and interface modification engineering by using spin coating, it was succeed fabricated which the PEABr organic cations of large volume were introduced into three-dimensional (2D) perovskite through content proportional control, the solution of potassium bromide (KBr) was doped in the nickel oxide (NiOx) hole injection layer and the interface of the NiOx film and the perovskite film. The optimized luminance and external quantum efficiency (EQE) of the sky-blue LED with Cs0.9Rb0.1PBBr2.1Cl0.9: 80% PEABr were 989 cd/m2 and 0.68%, respectively.