bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Kidney Stone Disease and Osteoporosis: A Mendelian Randomization Study
Authors: He Qiushi , Huang Qingfeng , Hao Zongyao
Published: August 2023

Purpose
We analysed whether kidney stone disease is a risk factor for osteoporosis by conducting a two-sample Mendelian randomization study.
Methods
The SNPs associated with kidney stones were mainly derived from a large genome-wide association study that included 395,044 cases. We identified 46 SNPs that were considered to be strongly associated with the occurrence of kidney stones at a genome-wide significance level, independently inherited and without any linkage disequilibrium, and the above SNPs were selected as instrumental variables for this study. We selected several datasets on bone mineral density grouped by age and common measurement areas. A random-effects model using primarily IVW analysis was used to predict whether BMD levels were considered to change.
Results
The MR analysis shows that kidney stones were considered a possible cause of decreased total-body BMD (Beta=-3.5006, p-value = 0.0003) and in a subgroup analysis of the total-body BMD sample based on age grouping, the results showed that in the subgroup excluding the age grouping of 30 to 45 years, almost In all subgroups, kidney stones could be considered to be the cause of the decrease in total-body BMD. Among the specific sites of decreased BMD caused by kidney stones, the results showed that the occurrence of kidney stones caused a decrease in forearm BMD (p-value < 0.0001), heel BMD (p = 0.0088) and lumbar spine BMD (p = 0.0184).
Conclusion
This study supports renal stone disease as a risk factor for osteoporosis.
Application of PET imaging delta radiomics for predicting progression-free survival in rare high-grade glioma
Authors: Ahrari Shamimeh , Zaragori Timothée , Zinsz Adeline , Oster Julien , Imbert Laetitia , Verger Antoine
Published: August 2023

This study assesses the feasibility of using radiomics changes over time to predict progression-free survival in rare diseases. High-grade glioma patients (n = 53) underwent L-3,4-dihydroxy-6-[18F]-fluoro-phenylalanine (18F-FDOPA) positron emission tomography (PET) scans at the time of temozolomide chemotherapy discontinuation. Among these patients, 18 had previously undergone an18F-FDOPA PET during treatment. Radiomics features from static/dynamic parametric images, and conventional features, were extracted. After excluding highly correlated features, various feature selection methods and time-to-event survival algorithms were employed to generate 16 model combinations. Delta radiomics features, as relative and absolute changes, were either computed using informative features derived from the entire cohort or directly selected from the subset of 18 patients, and performances evaluated with the cross-validation technique. Delta-absolute radiomics achieved the highest performance when the pipeline was applied to the 18-patient subset (combination of support vector machine (SVM) and recursive feature elimination (RFE): C-index = 0.783 [0.744–0.818]). This result was comparable to using top-rank features from all 53 patients (SVM + RFE: C-index = 0.730 [0.700–0.760], p = 0.0034) and significantly outperformed delta-absolute conventional features (C-index = 0.584 [0.548–0.620], p < 0.001) and single-time-point radiomics features (C-index = 0.546 [0.512–0.580], p < 0.001). This highlights the considerable potential of delta radiomics to outperform delta conventional features and single-time-point radiomics features, in rare cancer cohorts.
Local-environment regulation engineering to boost acidic H2O2 electrosynthesis on cobalt porphyrin molecular electrocatalyst
Authors: Yang Hui , Chen Yihe , Zhen Cheng , Zhao Hao , Wang Yuda , Yue Zhouying , Wang Qiansen , Li Jun , Gu Meng , Cheng Qingqing
Published: August 2023

Electrosynthesis of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) based on proton exchange membrane (PEM) reactor represents a promising route to industrial-level H2O2 production, while it is hampered by the lack of high-efficiency electrocatalysts in acidic medium. Herein, we present a local-environment regulation engineering to promote the H2O2 selectivity up to 92% on the structurally-defined cobalt porphyrin molecular catalyst through precisely-controlling specific oxygen functional group (OFG) on the reduced graphene oxide carrier. X-ray adsorption spectroscopy and Kelvin probe unravel that carboxyl and epoxy indirectly cause the charge-accumulation of Co center via delocalization of π-electrons on carbon plane, while hydroxyl directly induces the charge-depletion via axial coordination with Co center. Density functional theory illuminates the positive correlation between the electron density of Co center and H2O2 selectivity. At an industrial current density of 200 mA cm− 2, the optimized catalyst unprecedentedly achieves a steady H2O2 productivity of ~ 20 mol h− 1 gcat−1 in a flow cell and the continuous production of high-concentration (ca. 11 wt%) pure H2O2 in a PEM electrolyzer, suggesting a practical application potential in H2O2 industry.
Comparative Life Cycle Assessment for End-Of-Life Treatment of Expanded Polystyrene Produced in Street Markets of the Municipality of Thessaloniki, Greece
Authors: Christos Charalampidis , George Perkoulidis , Nicolas Moussiopoulos
Published: August 2023

Expanded polystyrene (EPS) is a useful material, often used as food packaging, mainly in the form of fish boxes. Though, after its useful life, EPS waste should be properly disposed of to avoid impacts on the environment or human health. In this study, three EPS end-of-life options are considered and compared for EPS waste produced in street markets of the Municipality of Thessaloniki, Greece: (a) collection and landfill disposal, (b) collection and recycling at a local facility and (c) collection, compacting and long-distance transport for recycling in Athens. Field research was carried out to obtain the total quantity of EPS waste produced per week. In general, recycling has favorable results, but certain trade-offs have been found. Transport has no significant effect for the scenarios in question. This is not the case with electricity consumption, which has a significant effect in shaping environmental impacts. Improvements regarding the country’s energy mix, which are already taking place, as well as minimization of water usage during or before recycling are important steps in achieving the maximum benefits of recycling.
The difference in clinical characteristics and outcomes between hospital acquired pleural infection and community acquired pleural infection
Authors: Zhu Qiang , Yu Mingzi , Zhang Xu , Du Mingmei , Cui Jiewei , Liang Zhixin
Published: August 2023

Background: This study intends to describe the clinical characteristics and microbiological features, drug resistance situations and outcomes associated with hospital acquired and community acquired pleural infection (PI) in a large Chinese tertiary-care hospital in Beijing, China.
Methods: The patients were divided into hospital acquired and community acquired pleural infection groups. The basic clinical data of the two groups were collected and
statistically analyzed, and the outcomes and prognostic factors of PI were summarized.
Results: There were 832 patients with PI over a history of 10 years in the hospital. Among them, 84.86% were hospital-acquired pleural infection (HAPI) and 15.14% were community-acquired pleural infection (CAPI). The most common cause of CAPI was pneumonia and tuberculous pleurisy, but malignant tumor, thoracic surgery and trauma were the most common cause of HAPI. The thoracic catheterization ≥10 days, abdominal catheterization, broad-spectrum antibiotics were used more than 2 days before PI, serum albumin and adenosine deaminase levels of HAPI and CAPI were statistically different. Gram-negative bacteria showed varying degrees of resistance to almost antibiotic, while there were hardly any Gram-positive bacteria resistant to linezolid and vancomycin except Enterococcus faecium, which has shown resistance to vancomycin(9.88%). The 30-day mortality after the onset of PI was 13.1%, and there was no significant statistical difference in prognosis between the patients with CAPI and HAPI. The multivariate logistics analysissuggested that ICU admission, solid tumor, chronic renal failure and decreasedserum albumin level were independent risk factors for PI.
Conclusion: There are differences in clinical characteristics between HAPI and CAPI, which should be paid more attention and got individualized treatment in clinical.
Genetic Preservation of SLC22A3 in Local South African Populations
Authors: Pearce Brendon , Jacobs Clifford , Benjeddou Mongi
Published: August 2023

Organic cation transporters of the amphiphilic solute facilitator family of membrane proteins are involved in the translocation of a diverse range of endogenous and exogenous organic cations. These organic cations include clinically important substrates such as the anti-diabetic drug metformin, the anti-neoplastic drug oxaliplatin, and the anti-retroviral drug lamivudine. Inter-individual variation in drug disposition and efficacy is a major clinical problem and the role of these transporters is increasingly being recognized as a possible mechanism explaining this variation. Moreover, it is estimated that between 15 and 30% of interindividual variation in drug disposition and response is a result of genetic factors The aim of this study was to determine the baseline minor allele frequency distribution of 18 known coding SNPs in the SLC22A3 gene of ~ 140 Cape Admixed and Xhosa individuals residing in Cape Town, South Africa. This study found no genetic polymorphisms in the coding region of the SLC22A3 gene of the Xhosa individuals investigated. This study has shown that SLC22A3 coding SNPs observed in other populations are absent in the sample of both Cape Admixed and Xhosa individuals studied. The lack of protein sequence variation was consistent with other studies and may reflect the significant physiological role of hOCT3 in maintaining cellular and organismal homeostasis.
An in-silico approach of assessments of human serotonin transporter inhibitory potential of various flavonoids for anti-depressants: molecular docking, MM-GBSA, molecular dynamics simulation studies
Authors: Nagarajan Sudhakar , Jeyabalan Srikanth , Dhanasekaran Sivaraman , Sekar Mahendran , Wong Ling Shing , B Logeshwari , Ashok Chetan
Published: August 2023

Depression is one of the typical CNS disorders. Millions of people suffer from depression, a chronic illness with economic consequences. Tricyclic antidepressants, selective dopamine reuptake inhibitors, selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are only few of the antidepressants that can used to treat depression. The main target of therapeutic activity is known to be the serotonin transporter (SERT) against depressants. In this article, various flavonoids were found with conditions of pharmacological activity and were designed by molecular docking, MM-GBSA and molecular dynamics (MD) Simulation studies for the treatment of depressants activity. The docking of ligands performed against depressant with protein of human serotonin transporter (SERT) PDB-ID:5I6X are performed by using Glide module, in silico ADMET screening by QikProp module, binding energy using Prime MMGB/SA module, MD simulation by Desmond module and atomic charges were derived by Jaguar module of Schrodinger suite 2021-1. Compounds with top binding affinity using extra precision in glide recorded as (-16.25) when compared to standard FDA approved drug Fluoxetine (-8.711) which were proposed for anti-depressant action. The residues PHE 335, TYR 95, ALA 96, PHE 341, VAL 501, TRP 103, TYR 175, ALA 169, GLY 338 of SERT Play a crucial role as binding pocket of ligands. The in-silico ADMET properties of the molecules were within the recommended values. The binding free energy was calculated using PRIME MM-GB/SA studies. Compound with top binding affinity of flavonoids was subjected to MD simulation at 100 ns to study the dynamic behavior of protein–ligand complex.
Third Trimester Serum Amino Acid Metabolism is Associated with Maternal Breast Cancer Diagnosed within 15 years of Pregnancy
Authors: Teeny Sami , Jarrell Zachery R. , Krigbaum Nickilou Y. , Cirillo Piera M. , Go Young-Mi , Cohn Barbara A. , Jones Dean P.
Published: August 2023

A prospective metabolome-wide association study revealed widespread amino acid limitation in late pregnancy is associated with early onset breast cancer. Archival third trimester pregnancy serum samples from 172 women who subsequently were diagnosed with breast cancer within 38 years after pregnancy were compared to 351 women without breast cancer. No individual metabolite differed after false discovery rate adjustment, indicating that individual metabolites are unlikely to be useful for classification or prediction. Despite this, pathway enrichment analysis showed that amino acid pathways, including lysine, arginine, proline, aspartate, asparagine, alanine, tyrosine, tryptophan, histidine, branched-chain amino acid and urea cycle, were enriched among metabolites that differed at raw p < 0.05. Several of these pathways previously were linked to breast carcinogen exposures, including dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane and perfluorinated alkyl substances. Network analyses showed that amino acids correlated with parity and the ratio of estriol to estrone and estradiol known risk factors for breast cancer in this cohort. Overall, amino acid associations were stronger for early onset breast cancer, defined here as occurring within the first 15 years following pregnancy. Although results must be interpreted cautiously, lower amino acid concentrations for histidine, threonine and proline, and stronger associations for tryptophan, histidine, and lysine pathways with breast cancer within 15 years, suggests that amino acid limitations during late pregnancy contribute to metabolic reprogramming that is causally related to early onset breast cancer. Environmental chemical effects on nutrient sensing could account for these effects through known oncogenic mechanisms linked to nutrient stress.
Uncommon Presentations of Type A Quadricuspid Aortic Valve in the Septuagenarian
Authors: Choi Perry , Paulsen Michael , Lin Yihan , Moskalik William , Ji Angela , Burton Elan , Woo Y , Burdon Thomas
Published: August 2023

Background:
Quadricuspid aortic valve (QAV) is a rare congenital anomaly characterized by the presence of four cusps instead of the usual three. It is estimated to occur in less than 0.05% of the population, with Type A (four equal-sized leaflets) accounting for roughly 30% of QAV subtypes. Based on limited clinical series, the usual presentation is progressive aortic valve regurgitation (AR) with symptoms occurring in the fourth to sixth decade of life. Severe aortic valve stenosis (AS) and acute AR are very uncommon.
Case Presentation:
We describe two cases of Type A QAV in patients who remained asymptomatic until their seventies with very uncommon presentations: one with severe AS and one with acute, severe AR and flail leaflet. In Case A, a 72-year-old patient presents to clinic with progressive exertional dyspnea, and pre-operative computed tomography angiogram (CTA) reveals a quadricuspid aortic valve with severe AS. Although transcatheter option is considered, surgical aortic valve replacement is chosen due to poor femoral access and severe left carotid stenosis. Post-operative transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) shows good prosthetic valve function with no gradient or regurgitation. In Case B, a 76-year-old patient is intubated upon arrival to the hospital for acute desaturation, found to have wide open AR on catheterization, and transferred for emergent intervention. Intraoperative TEE reveals QAV with flail leaflet and severe AR. Repair is considered but deferred ultimately due to emergent nature. Post-operative TTE demonstrates good prosthetic valve function with no regurgitation and normal biventricular function.
Conclusions:
QAV can present as progressive severe AS and acute AR, with symptoms first occurring in the seventh decade of life. The optimal treatment for QAV remains uncertain. Although aortic valve repair or transcatheter option may be feasible in some patients, aortic valve replacement remains a tenable option.
Hypoxia-induced LncRNA CTD-2510F5.4 facilitates hepatocellular carcinoma cell proliferation and invasion, predicts prognosis, tumor microenvironment, and drug efficacy in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma
Authors: Abulihaiti Zulipiya , Li Weihong , Yang Liangyu , Zhang Haihang , Du Ainong , Tang Ni , Zeng Jiangzheng
Published: August 2023

Purpose
Hypoxia induces abnormal expression of various long non-coding RNAs (LncRNAs) highly correlated with tumorigenesis. In this study, we identified CTD-2510F5.4, a hypoxia-induced LncRNA, based on microarray and TCGA analyses, and evaluated its impact on HCC prognosis, tumor microenvironment (TME), and drug efficacy.
Methods
We cultured Huh7 cells in a hypoxic chamber and detected CTD-2510F5.4 expression levels using RT-PCR analysis. Then we tested the effects of CTD-2510F5.4 overexpression on cell proliferation, invasion, and metastasis potential using CCK8, wound-healing, and transwell assays, respectively. We performed GO and Guilt-by-Association (GBA) correlation analysis to predict CTD-2510F5.4 functions. Besides, mutation signature, immune characteristics, and therapeutic response prediction between high- and low-CTD-2510F5.4 groups were further compared.
Results
Our results showed that CTD-2510F5.4 expression markedly increased under hypoxia and significantly promoted HCC cell proliferation, invasion, and metastasis. Functional enrichment analyses revealed that CTD-2510F5.4 is involved in cell proliferation and various tumor-related signaling pathways, including cell cycle, E2F targets, G2M checkpoint, and MYC targets V1. Patients with high CTD-2510F5.4 expression rates are preferentially associated with worse prognosis, higher TP53 mutation rates, higher infiltration by immune-suppressive regulatory cells, expressed immune checkpoints at elevated levels, and higher TIDE scores. The half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) indicated that patients with low CTD-2510F5.4 expression are more responsive to immunotherapy and antiangiogenic targeted therapy, whereas those with high CTD-2510F5.4 expression are more sensitive to chemotherapy.
Conclusion
Our findings suggest that CTD-2510F5.4 could be a valuable biomarker for guiding the personalized treatment of HCC patients.
Solutions of fractional differential equations using power series method and Sumudu transform
Authors: Zhang Qunli
Published: August 2023

An analytic function can be approximated by its corresponding power series. The advantage of the Sumudu transform is to turn differential equations into algebraic equations. Combining the power series method with the Sumudu transform, the approximation solutions of the fractional differential equations are studied. Several numerical examples show the better, efficient and high accurate results by utilizing the proposed approach.
2020 MSC: O175.11
Practical application of modern extracurricular painting landscape art to promote environmental protection
Authors: Tan Li , Zheng Qiaolin
Published: August 2023

On the basis of the original capsule network, the pre-convolution structure is firstly introduced to extract high-level features of the mural image; secondly, the fitting performance of the model is enhanced by adding uniform layer activation; finally, the adaptability of the capsule network is enhanced, on the basis of improving the gradient smoothness Optimization using adaptive learning rate improves the classification accuracy of the model. An art style painting classification algorithm based on information entropy is proposed. First, seven representative landscape art painting styles are selected as the research objects, and the images are preprocessed such as denoising and normalization. Secondly, extract the style characteristics of painting artworks, obtain the color entropy, block entropy and contour entropy of the image respectively, and combine them to form the information entropy of different painting styles. When the information entropy is obtained, the color space is converted into the Lab color space, and the color entropy of the image is obtained through the color values of the a and b channels and the weighting function; the information entropy of the block is obtained by dividing the information entropy of the landscape art image The mean value is used to obtain the block entropy; through the Contourlet transformation, the contour information of the landscape art image is obtained to obtain the contour entropy. Next, combine the extracted color entropy, block entropy, and contour entropy, and use support vector machine (SVM) to learn and train artistic style images to obtain a classification model of artistic painting style; SVM classification recognition obtains the final classification result.
A Comprehensive Survey of Techniques Used for Part-of-Speech Tagging of Code-Mixed Social Media Text
Authors: Sunita Sunita , Kumar Ajit , Neetika Neetika
Published: August 2023

Part-of-speech tagging faces unique difficulties when dealing with code-mixed social media text, which combines multiple languages in informal content created by users. In India, many web users employ a mixture of regional languages and English on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp to express their messages and emotions. Text derived from social media is used in a variety of applications, such as speech recognition, machine learning, information retrieval, question answering, sentiment analysis, and named entity recognition. Due to training with monolingual texts, natural language processing tools such as part-of-speech taggers and parsers don't perform well. Assigning grammatical labels to individual words (such as verbs, adjectives, and nouns) is a critical task in natural language processing. This review paper extensively surveys the existing literature on part-of-speech tagging specifically developed for Indian and Foreign code-mixed social media text. We examine and categorize the approaches utilized in prior studies, taking into account the diverse techniques and methodologies employed to handle the complexities of code-mixed data. These approaches encompass rule-based methods, statistical models, and deep learning techniques such as recurrent neural networks and transformers. To enable comprehensive analysis, we compare and evaluate the performance of various state-of-the-art code-mixed part-of-speech taggers using benchmark datasets. We discuss the evaluation metrics used in these studies. Lastly, we explore the challenges introduced by noisy and informal language commonly found in code-mixed social media text. This review paper serves as a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners seeking to understand the current state of the art in code-mixed part-of-speech tagging for social media text. It offers insights into the strengths and weaknesses of existing approaches, identifies research gaps, and proposes potential avenues for future research to advance the field.
Temperature Distribution of Blood Flow Through W-Shaped Tapered Stenosis Artery
Authors: Srivast Rashmi , Mishra Swati
Published: August 2023

The blood flow through w-shaped tapered artery in the presence of catheter is discussed. The equations governing the fluid flow have been solved analytically under the assumption of the mild stenosis. The blood flow behavior through the w-shaped stenosed artery is considered using the Prandlt fluid model and the flow of blood is considered as suspension of nano-particles. The analysis with respect to various parameters arising out of fluid and geometry considered, on temperature distribution of the w-shaped stenosis as well as across the entire length of the stenosis has been reported. Heat transfer phenomena have been examined for the physical features of the flow of blood through a stenosed artery, which is tapered in shape and with the presence of a clot. The temperature profile has been discussed with graphs for several different parameters of clot size, stenosis height, heat source, and sink parameter. It is observed that in converging tapering the temperature provides greater values as estimated together with the non-tapered arteries and diverging tapering arteries
Textural Attributes and Lithofacies Analysis of Quaternary Geomorphic Surfaces in Middle Ganga Plain, India
Authors: Singh S. , Chaubey K. , Kanhaiya S. , Yadav S.K. , Singh P.
Published: August 2023

Geomorphic surfaces of the Ganga plain are depositional surfaces, and the succession of sediment deposited on their top is younger than the time of the formation of the relevant surface. The relative timing of their deposition is recognized based on their morphological interrelationship and order of superposition. In the middle Ganga plain, three geomorphic surfaces are well-developed. The oldest geomorphic surface (T2), formed by sheet flow processes during monsoon season, consists of silt, sandy silt, and silty sand. Sediments are poorly to very poorly sorted, very fine skewed to fine skewed, and kurtosis ranges from leptokurtic to platykurtic. The Ganga River is incised into the T1surface up to 4–8 m in the study area; T1,also known as the river valley terrace, is incised into the T2surface exposing cliffs of 8 to 20 m heights. T1surface representing older sediments of active channels is characterized by rippled and cross-bedded silt, sand, and lensoid units of silty mud. Mean grain size ranges from very fine sand to medium silt; sediments are poorly to moderately sorted, Skewness ranges from very fine skewed to fine skewed, and kurtosis ranges from very leptokurtic, leptokurtic, and mesokurtic. The T0surface is the youngest geomorphic surface of the Ganga basin representing river channels and their associated flood plains. The Ganga River shows varied channel patterns, from meandering to braided and straight channels. Channels carry medium sand to very fine silt; sorting is very poorly to poorly sorted, Skewness is very fine skewed to fine skewed, and kurtosis ranges from leptokurtic, mesokurtic, and platykurtic.
WITHDRAWN: Establishment of regeneration system from leaves wrapped by bud scales of Neolamarckia cadamba in the wild
Authors: Li Buye , Que Qingmin , Li Chunmei , Zhou Wei , Zhong Tianxiu , Chen Xiaoyang , Zhang Lifeng , Wang Rui , Xu Qixian , Chen Wenping , Zhong Ming , Huang Xiaoling , Ouyang Kunxi
Published: August 2023

Neolamarckia cadamba is an evergreen tree species growing fast, with not only good wood properties, but also great value in medicine, feeding and landscape. In order to clone an excellent genotype individual of N. cadamba, the plant regeneration protocol was successfully established with leaves wrapped by bud scales in the wild as explants. The optimal sterilization method for the leaves was 0.1% HgCl2 treatment for 1 min before culturing on Murashige and Skoog’s (MS) medium supplemented with 3.0 mg/L thidiazuron (TDZ), 0.1 mg/L 2–4 dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2-4D) and 0.05 mg/L α-naphthaleneacetic (NAA) acid to induce calluses. Additionally, the medium supplemented with 1 mL/L PPM could effectively inhibit the medium contamination without an unfavorable influence on the final induction rate of calluses from the leaves. Three types of calluses were induced from the leaves cultured on the above medium. Among them, only the emerald callus with bud points on its surface could differentiate into adventitious shoots on the MS medium supplemented with 1.5 mg/L 6–benzylaminopurine (6-BA) and 0.05 mg/L NAA, with the induction rate of 78.89%. The adventitious shoots were proliferated on the MS medium supplemented with 1.0 mg/L 6-BA and 0.05 mg/L indole-3- butyric acid (IBA). And the micro-shoots developed roots in the MS medium supplemented with 0.05 mg/L NAA and 0.05 mg/L IBA. The regeneration protocol can be used in the propagation and large scale production of seedlings with the same genotype as an excellent individual of N. cadamba in the wild.
CENPF as a Potential Biomarker Associated with the immune microenvironment of renal cancer
Authors: Chen Meilin , Tang Xiuxin , Liang YanPing , Ding Tangdang , He Meifang , Wang Dong , Wang Ruizhi
Published: August 2023

Purpose:
Our objective is to explore potential biomarkers of renal cancer and their function in tumor progession.
Methods:
We integrated data from the TCGA database, including Kidney Chromophobe(KICH), Kidney renal papillary cell carcinoma(KIRP), and Kidney renal clear cell carcinoma(KIRC), to identify the widespread differentially expressed genes. Molecular Complex Detection (MCODE) was then utilized to screen the most important module among the upregulated genes. Further, univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed on the hub genes. The results demonstrated that Centromere Protein F(CENPF) overexpression was significantly associated with a worse survival in KIRC patients. To validate the overexpression of CENPF, we conducted qPCR analysis on tissues and plasma samples from KIRC patients. we observedthat patients with high expression of CENPF had a poorer prognosis based on KIRC TCGA data. Through single-cell sequencing analysis of KIRC patients in GSE159115, we found that CENPF is predominantly expressed in the T cell cluster. Finally, we used CIBERSORT to analyze the differences in composition of tumor immune infiltrating cell (TIIC) between KIRC patients exhibiting high and low expression of CENPF.
Results:
1. We screen out CENPA, Centromere Protein M(CENPM), Centromere Protein U(CENPU), Centromere Protein E(CENPE), and CENPF as key oncogenic genes upregulated in KIRC, KICH, and KIRP.
2. We found that CENPF expression was significantly associated with KIRC progression.
3. We observed a T-cell sub-cluster that exhibited high expression of CENPF.
4. CENPF displayed a significant negative correlation with resting mast cells, while it exhibited a positive correlation with follicular helper T-cells and memory-activated CD4 T-cells.
5. Prognostic analysis revealed that patients with high expression of follicular helper T-cells had poorer prognosis, while those with high expression of plasma cells had a better prognosis.
Conclusion:
CENPF is upregulated and modulates the immune microenvironment in KIRC.
Adaptive Approximation of Persistent Homology
Authors: Herick Maria , Joachim Michael , Vahrenhold Jan
Published: August 2023

We study an important preprocessing step for the efficient calculation of persistent homology: coarsening a set of points while controlling the quality of the induced persistence diagram. This coarsening step is instrumental in reducing the overall runtime of state-of-the-art algorithms such as Ripser, GUDHI, or PHAT. For this, we adaptively sparsify the set of points and carefully define a dissimilarity function between the remaining points. This function takes into account local properties given by a separate function defined on the point set as well as the relation of the removed points to the subsample. It is then used to build simplicial filtrations and calculate their persistent homology. We assess the quality of our approach both theoretically by proving topological approximation guarantees and empirically by using the bottleneck distance. Since our subsample is calculated adaptively, we also prove adaptive properties of our result. Our results show that we can significantly reduce the size of the point sample with only very moderate bottleneck distance to the ground truth; in particular, we still are able to capture the salient topological features of the input through our approximated persistence diagrams.
Laboratory investigation of shear strength of pond ash using polymeric and natural fibre geosynthetic as reinforcement materials
Authors: Pradhan Sujit Kumar , Pothal Goutanm Kumar
Published: August 2023

Polymeric geogrid and woven Coir geotextiles has been considered as an appropriate substitute to geosynthetics for reinforcement because of the better engineering properties. It is generally used for reinforcement of pond ash which can be used in place of soil having lower bearing capacity that will reduce the scarcity of the natural soil, also decrease the cost of construction. In this study, pond ash such as coarse (CP) and Fine (FP) pond ash reinforced with two types of polymeric geogrid (RBG and FBG) and two types of woven coir geotextile (WCG1 and WCG2) were used. Triaxial testing performed on sample of size 100 mm x 200 mm on pond ash reinforced with polymeric geogrid and woven Coir geotextiles having variables such as confining pressure (25 kPa, 50 kPa, 100 kPa and 200 kPa) and number of reinforcement layers (Single, double and triple layer). The results shows that strength of the reinforced models increased significantly with inclusion of reinforcement. With the finer pond ash type, both WCG1 and WCG2 type of coir geotextile showed mixed result with single layer of reinforcement, whereas with multiple layers of reinforcement it was the WCG2 type which showed better results. The strength of reinforced pond ash increased with increase in the confining pressure and number of reinforcement layers. FP generally showed higher strength ratio than that of CP with all the types of reinforcements at high confining pressure except with some coir geotextiles. The coarser pond ash type CP generally showed higher strength ratio than the finer pond ash type FP with polymeric geogrid type FBG at low confining pressures (25 kPa to 100 kPa) with multiple layers of reinforcements.
Opsoclonus-Myoclonus-Ataxia Syndrome with Parainfective Etiology: A Case Report and Evaluation of Treatment Response Using the Mitchell Pike OMS-Rating Scale
Authors: Khan Muhammad Usman , Nawaz Ahmad , Numan Ahsan , Iftikhar Sadaf , Arshad Waqas , Farooq Sana , Shahid Seemab
Published: August 2023

Opsoclonus-myoclonus-ataxia syndrome (OMS), also known as Kinsbourne syndrome or dancing eyes-dancing feet syndrome, is a variable constellation of neurological symptoms. The majority of reported adult cases have been paraneoplastic, often associated with antineuronal nuclear antibody type 2 (ANNA-2; anti-Ri). However, its association with parainfective triggers remains underexplored in scientific literature. We present a unique and rare case of OMS diagnosed as secondary to acute viral cerebellitis. The patient exhibited opsoclonus, myoclonus, and ataxia, with cerebrospinal fluid analysis revealing lymphocytic pleocytosis and mildly elevated protein levels, indicative of a viral etiology. Investigations ruled out paraneoplastic OMS. The patient was managed with acyclovir, plasmapheresis, and steroids, resulting in a significant improvement in the Mitchell Pike scale score. The combined treatment approach led to progressive neurological improvement. This case report emphasizes the potential role of antiviral therapy, plasmapheresis, and steroids in managing parainfective OMS. It highlights the importance of considering viral etiologies in OMS cases and underscores the benefits of this therapeutic strategy. Furthermore, this case report also highlights the utility of the Mitchell Pike OMS-Rating Scale for the evaluation of treatment response. Clinicians should be diligent in investigating parainfective triggers and individualizing treatment approaches to optimize outcomes in OMS patients.
Elevated serum IP-10/CXCL10 levels are associated with sarcopenia development, a prognostic factor, in patients with primary hepatocellular carcinoma
Authors: Takada Hitomi , Yamashita Koji , Osawa Leona , Komiyama Yasuyuki , Muraoka Masaru , Suzuki Yuichiro , Sato Mitsuaki , Kobayashi Shoji , Yoshida Takashi , Takano Shinichi , Maekawa Shinya , Enomoto Nobuyuki
Published: August 2023

Sarcopenia is a prognostic factor in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the mechanism underlying sarcopenia development in patients with HCC remains unclear. The chemokine interferon-gamma-induced protein 10/C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 10 (IP-10/CXCL10) has emerged as one of the mechanisms in previous studies. Therefore, we aimed to elucidate the significance of sarcopenia, and investigate the association between serum IP-10/CXCL10 levels and sarcopenia development. This retrospective study included 738 patients with primary HCC, and among these patients, serum IP-10/CXCL10 levels ​​were measured both at baseline and after 1–3 years in a subset of 135 patients. Among patients with primary HCC, those with sarcopenia at baseline had a poorer prognosis than those without, and patients with sarcopenia at 1, 3, and 5 years after the first occurrence of HCC had a poorer prognosis. Furthermore, serum IP-10/CXCL10 ratios were found to be higher in patients with sarcopenia at baseline and those who developed sarcopenia during the observation period than in those without sarcopenia (p = 0.0016). This study revealed that the significance of sarcopenia as a prognostic factor in patients with HCC, and the changes in serum IP-10/CXCL10 levels appear to be associated with the development of sarcopenia following the first occurrence of HCC.
OpenMS 3 expands the frontiers of open-source computational mass spectrometry
Authors: Sachsenberg Timo , Pfeuffer Julianus , Bielow Chris , Wein Samuel , Jeong Kyowon , Netz Eugen , Walter Axel , Alka Oliver , Nilse Lars , Colaianni Pasquale , McCloskey Douglas , Kim Jihyung , Rosenberger George , Bichmann Leon , Walzer Mathias , Veit Johannes , Boudaud Bertrand , Bernt Matthias , Patikas Nikolaos , Pilz Matteo , Startek Michał Piotr , Kutuzova Svetlana , Heumos Lukas , Charkow Joshua , Sing Justin , Feroz Ayesha , Siraj Arslan , Weisser Hendrik , Dijkstra Tjeerd , Perez-Riverol Yasset , Röst Hannes , Kohlbacher Oliver
Published: August 2023

Mass spectrometry has become an indispensable tool in the life sciences. The new major version 3 of the computational framework OpenMS provides significant advancements regarding open, scalable, and reproducible high-throughput workflows for proteomics, metabolomics, and oligonucleotide mass spectrometry. OpenMS makes analyses from emerging fields available to experimentalists, enhances computational workflows, and provides a reworked Python interface to facilitate access for bioinformaticians and data scientists.
Bedside Examination Technique for Taste
Authors:   Department of Neurosciences, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kelantan, Malaysia, Sa’uadi Mohammad Iskandar ,   Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kelantan, Malaysia, King Peng Lee ,   Department of Neurosciences, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kelantan, Malaysia,   Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kelantan, Malaysia, Abd Halim Sanihah ,   Department of Neurosciences, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kelantan, Malaysia,   Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kelantan, Malaysia, Abdullah Jafri Malin ,   Department of Neurosciences, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kelantan, Malaysia,   Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kelantan, Malaysia
Published: August 2023

Taste disorders are uncommon and frequently unrecognised during neurological and even oral examinations. Nevertheless, understanding taste pathway, its disorders, as well as assessment of taste are crucial as it can reveal various oral, systemic and neurological pathologies that manifest as an alteration of taste. Multiple taste examination techniques have been described in the literature; however, certain techniques are complicated and may not be feasible. This paper describes the adoption of a relatively simple technique for taste assessment that can be performed at the bedside. The bedside detection of taste disorders will allow examiners to assign the patient for more detailed and invasive taste assessments.
Organizational factors fostering employee green behavior in the workplace: Study on the leather industry
Authors: Atikur Rahaman Md. , Dilip Taru Rupali , Kundu Debashis , Das Joyshree , Ahammad Issa
Published: August 2023

This study investigates the influencing factors that foster green employee behavior in the workplace. The objective of this study is to measure the impact of environmental concern, green human resources practices, environmental knowledge, and green organizational culture on green employee behavior at the workplace. As the potential sample, the study only considered working employees of various medium-sized organizations of the leather industry in Bangladesh. The survey questionnaire was developed on Google Forms using a five-point Likert scale. 300 online questionnaires were sent to the respondents, and 215 responses were deemed valid, showing a response rate of 71%. Moreover, a 5% significance level and SPSS software were used to analyze the data regarding the research purpose of this study. Cronbach’s alpha (α) and factor loading values were used for the reliability and validity of the variables. OLS regression was used to test the hypotheses. This study results find that employees’ concern for the environment, organizational green HRM, necessary information about the environment, green culture, and leadership style are critical for fostering green behavioral outcomes at the workplace. These four factors explained 48.6% of variations on the dependent variable. It is also found that environmental concern (β = 0.274, p < 0.05**) has the highest impact on employee behavior, and green HR practices (β = 0.145, p < 0.05**) have the lowest impact on employee behavior.
Spatial Modeling of Fixed Effect and Random Effect with Fast Double Bootstrap Approach
Authors: Ngabu Wigbertus , Pramoedyo Henny , Fitriani Rahma , Astuti Ani Budi
Published: August 2023

The use of panel data on spatial regression has many advantages. However, testing the spatial dependency and parameter presumption generated in spatial regression of panel data becomes inaccurate when applied to regions with large numbers of small spatial units. One method of overcoming problems of small spatial unit sizes is the bootstrap method. The research aimed to combine cross-section and time-series panel data. The analysis was performed to extract information based on observations modified by the influences of space or location, known as spatial analysis of panels. The influence of location effects on spatial analysis was presented in the form of weighting. The research applied the Fast Double Bootstrap (FDB) method by modeling poverty rates on Flores Island. The results of the Hausman test show the right model, which is a random effect. Meanwhile, spatial dependency testing concludes spatial dependence and poverty modeling in Flores Island, which is more likely to be the Spatial Autoregressive Random (SAR) model. SAR random effect in modeling value has R2 of 77,38% and does not meet the normality assumption. SAR effect in modeling the FDB approach can explain the diversity of poverty rate in the Flores Island with 88,64% and meets residual normality assumptions. The analysis with the FDB approach on spatial panels shows better results than the common spatial panels.
A Robust Optimizing Reverse Logistics Model for Beef Products Using Multi Depot Vehicle Routing Problem
Authors: Paduloh Paduloh , Djatna Taufik
Published: August 2023

Beef is a perishable product and requires special handling. Demand for beef also fluctuates quite high and is heavily influenced by various religious events and traditions in Indonesia. Under these conditions, for various reasons, beef products are returned from customers to distributors. An increase in the number of products returned from customers leads to high costs and the risk of product damage. The research created an optimization model for product distribution and product recall from customers with minimal costs and risks. The research applied a clustering method using the Density-Based Spatial Clustering (DBSCAN) algorithm to determine the density of customers’ locations and the number of orders. Optimization of distance and distribution and withdrawal costs applied Multi Depot Vehicle Routing Problem (MDVRP) and Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) mathematical modeling. The results indicate three customer clusters with one noise, with the most potential customers in cluster 1. From this condition, product delivery optimization is based on the distance and number of shipments from the two central warehouses. Optimization uses of MDVRP and MILP to model and make company-owned trucks more profitable at high rental truck replacement costs. The research produces a robust model for changes in the truck number and capacity based on sensitivity analysis.
Callus Induction and Bioactive Compounds Production from Various Cultivars of Medicago sativa L. (alfalfa)
Authors: ALBAYRAK TURGUT Büşra , BEZİRGANOGLU İsmail
Published: August 2023

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) belongs to fabacaea family widely grown in Turkey. It is rich in bioactive compounds such as phenolic compounds, flavonoid, essential amino acids (threonine, leucine, lysine, and valine) and tannins, vitamins (A, B1, B2, B6, B12, C and E) or β-carotene. In this study, it was aimed to investigate the impact of secondary metabolite content of explants on callus biomass. For this purpose, cotyledon explants were obtained under sterile conditions, and transferred to standard MS medium containing 1 mg/L 2,4-D (Dichlorophenoxy Acetic Acid) and 0.0125 mg/L kinetin to induce callus formation. The phenolic, flavonoid and tannin contents of the explants were also determined. Leaves and cotyledons explants of 74 M. sativa L. cultivars have been used for callus biomass. The 74 tested alfalfa cultivars varied in their callus growth and callus biomass formation. Van-22, Konya-Ereğli, Alsancak, Gözlü-1 and Iside cultivars were observed with higher callus biomass: Conversely, Van Gevaş, Bitlis Hizan and Van-Çaldıran responded with lower callus biomass in tissue culture. A high-callus biomass cultivar of alfalfa has been shown to have higher total phenolic, flavonoid and tannin content activity than the lower-callus biomass cultivar in terms of leaf explants under tissue culture conditions. Total phenolic content activity was significantly increased in cotyledon explants with higher callus biomass as compared to lower callus biomass. The accumulation of leaf tannin and flavonoid was strongly linked to callus biomass. Cotyledon phenolic and flavonoid content exhibited an increasing trend in response to the increasing biomass of callus.
Removal of pharmaceuticals and personal care products from wastewater via anodic oxidation and electro-Fenton processes: current status and needs regarding their application
Authors: Lozano Iván , Cervantes-Aviles Pabel , Keller Arturo , Aguilar Claudia López
Published: August 2023

This review provides a current opinion on the most recent works that have been published toward the application of electrochemical advance oxidation processes (EAOPs) for the degradation of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) in water streams. Advances in the application of anodic oxidation (AO)- and electro-Fenton (EF)-based processes are reported, including operational conditions, electrode performance, and removal. Although AO- and EF-based processes can easily reach 100% removal of PPCPs, mineralization is desirable to avoid the generation of potential toxic byproducts. The following section exploring some techno-economic aspects of the application of EAOPs is based on electrode selection, operational costs as well as their use as cotreatments, and their synergistic effects. Finally, this short review ends with perspectives about the emerging topics that are faced by these technologies applied for the degradation of PPCPs in research and practice.