bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Mask-associated ‘de novo’ headache in healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic
Authors: Ramirez-Moreno José María , Ceberino David , Gonzalez Plata Alberto , Rebollo Belen , Macias Sedas Pablo , Hariramani Roshan , Roa Ana M , Constantino Ana B
Published: December 2020

Objectives

The pandemic caused by the new coronavirus (COVID-19) has changed care activities of health professionals. We analysed the possible association between the appearance of ‘de novo’ headache according to the type of mask used, the related factors and the impact of the cephalalgia on health professionals.

Methods

Cross-sectional study in a tertiary hospital in Extremadura, Spain. We provided an online questionnaire to healthcare workers during the period of maximum incidence of COVID-19 in our setting.

Results

The subjects are n=306, 244 women (79.7%), with an average age of 43 years (range 23–65). Of the total, 129 (42.2%) were physicians, 112 (36.6%) nurses and 65 (21.2%) other health workers. 208 (79.7%) used surgical masks and 53 (20.3%) used filter masks. Of all those surveyed, 158 (51.6%) presented ‘de novo’ headache. The occurrence of a headache was independently associated with the use of a filter mask, OR 2.14 (95% CI 1.07 to 4.32); being a nurse, OR 2.09 (95% CI 1.18 to 3.72) or another health worker, OR 6.94 (95% CI 3.01 to 16.04); or having a history of asthma, OR 0.29 (95% CI 0.09 to 0.89). According to the type of mask used, there were differences in headache intensity, and the impact of a headache in the subjects who used a filter mask was worse in all the aspects evaluated.

Conclusion

The appearance of ‘de novo’ headache is associated with the use of filter masks and is more frequent in certain healthcare workers, causing a greater occupational, family, personal and social impact.
Serum pepsinogen levels and OLGA/OLGIM staging in the assessment of atrophic gastritis types
Authors: Ogutmen Koc Deniz , Bektas Sibel
Published: December 2020

Background

We assessed the validity of using serum pepsinogen tests (sPGTs) to differentiate autoimmune atrophic gastritis (AAG) from environmental atrophic gastritis (EAG). We also investigated the correlation and prognostic value between disease stage, according to Operative Link for Gastritis Assessment (OLGA)/Operative Link on Gastric Intestinal Metaplasia Assessment (OLGIM), and sPGT results in patients with gastric atrophy.

Methods

We enroled 115 patients in this prospective study: 95 with atrophic gastritis (16 with AAG and 79 with EAG) and 20 non-atrophic gastritis. These patients, along with 32 control patients, underwent esophagogastroduodenoscopy. Atrophy and intestinal metaplasia of the gastric biopsy specimens were staged according to the OLGA/OLGIM staging systems.

Results

The median (IQR) age of the patients (83 females (56.5%)) was 58 (46–67) years. Patients in the AAG group represented histologically advanced stages. The AAG group had lower pepsinogen (PG) I and II levels, as well as a lower PGI/PGII ratio, compared with the EAG group (p<0.01, p<0.05 and p<0.01, respectively). The optimal PGI/PGII ratio for predicting AAG was ≤1.9 (100% sensitivity and 100% specificity), and that for predicting EAG was ≤9.2 (47.5% sensitivity and 90.6% specificity). The OLGA/OLGIM stage was negatively correlated with the PGI level and PGI/PGII ratio. In the AAG group, four of five patients with low-grade dysplasia had OLGA/OLGIM stage III–IV disease.

Conclusions

sPGT may provide valuable information for differentiating advanced-stage AAG from EAG, and in patients with atrophic gastritis, use of sPGTs and OLGA/OLGIM staging together may predict gastric cancer risk.
Direct admission to improve timely access to care for patients requiring transfer to a level 1 trauma center
Authors: Safavi Kyan C , Gaitanidis Apostolos , Breen Kerry , Seelen Mark , Raja Ali , Velmahos George C , Dunn Peter F
Published: December 2020

Background

Emergency departments (EDs) at level 1 trauma centers are often overcrowded and deny ED-to-ED transfers from lower-tiered centers. Lack of access to timely level 1 care is associated with increased mortality. We evaluated the feasibility of a direct admission (DA) protocol as a method to increase timely access to a level 1 trauma center during periods of ED overcrowding.

Methods

During periods of ED overcrowding between 1 May and 31 December 2019, we admitted patients from referring EDs directly to the intensive care unit (ICU) or inpatient ward using the DA protocol. In a prospective comparative study design, we compared their outcomes to patients during the same period who were admitted through the ED when the ED was not overcrowded.

Results

During periods of ED overcrowding, transfer was requested and clinically accepted for 28 patients, of which 23 (82.1%, age 63±20.3 years, men 52.2% men) were successfully admitted via the DA protocol. Five (17.9%) were not successfully transferred due to lack of available inpatient beds. During periods when the ED was not overcrowded, 106 patients (age 62.8±23.1 years, men 52.8%) were admitted via the ED. There were no morbidity or mortality events attributed to the DA process. Time to patient arrival was 2.7 hours (95% CI 2.3 to 3.1) in the DA cohort and 1.9 hours (95% CI 1.5 to 2.4) in the ED-to-ED cohort (p=0.104). Up-triage to the ICU within 24 hours was performed in only one patient (4.3%). In-hospital mortality did not differ (3 (13%) vs. 8 (7.6%), p=0.392).

Discussion

The DA pathway is a feasible method to safely transfer patients from a referring ED to a higher-care trauma center when its ED is overcrowded.

Level of evidence

Level III, care management.
Generalized Witt, Witt n-algebras, Virasoro algebras and KdV equations induced from ℛ(p,q)-deformed quantum algebras
Authors: Hounkonnou Mahouton Norbert , Melong Fridolin , Mitrović Melanija
Published: December 2020

We perform generalizations of Witt and Virasoro algebras, and derive the corresponding Korteweg–de Vries equations from known [Formula: see text]-deformed quantum algebras previously introduced in J. Math. Phys. 51 (2010) 063518. Related relevant properties are investigated and discussed. Besides, we construct the [Formula: see text]-deformed Witt [Formula: see text]-algebra, and determine the Virasoro constraints for a toy model, which play an important role in the study of matrix models. Finally, as a matter of illustration, explicit results are provided for the main particular deformed quantum algebras known in the literature.
Battlefield Acupuncture for Adult Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
Authors: Yang Juan , Ganesh Ravindra , Wu Qinglong , Li Langping , Ogletree Sandra P. , Del Fabro Anna S. , Wahner-Roedler Dietlind L. , Xiong Donglin , Bauer Brent A. , Chon Tony Y.
Published: December 2020

Pain is a major public health problem, causing heavy social and economic burdens to patients and society while consuming tremendous medical resources at the same time. Thus, there is a critical need to find low-cost, efficacious, and therapeutic approaches to help manage pain. While acupuncture is increasingly recognized as a promising pain-relieving method, less is known about a specific form of auricular acupuncture known as Battlefield Acupuncture (BFA). The BFA technique involves the sequential placement of semi-permanent, single-use, French ASP[Formula: see text] golden needles to five specific acupoints in one or both ears, where they are left in place for 3–4 days or longer [Niemtzow, R.C., Battlefield acupuncture. Med. Acupunct. 19: 225–228, 2007]. The BFA needles (more accurately described as tiny conical darts) pierce the ear in designated locations in a particular order [Levy, C.E., N. Casler and D.B. FitzGerald. Battlefield acupuncture: an emerging method for easing pain. Am. J. Phys. Med. Rehabil. 97: e18–e19, 2018.]. (Figs. 4 and 5) It was developed by Dr. Richard C. Niemtzow in 2001, as a subgroup form of an auricular acupuncture technique based on the somatotopic arrangement of an inverted fetus pattern on the external ear [Romoli, M. Ear acupuncture: historical abstract–differences of ear cartography between the east and the west. Dtsch. Z. Akupunkt. 53: 24–33, 2010.]. Currently, BFA is widely used in the US military, but to our knowledge, there is no review which comprehensively synthesizes the current publications surrounding pain management. This review aims to investigate the effects and safety of BFA in adults with pain. Electronic databases were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published in English evaluating efficacy and safety of BFA in adults with pain, from database inception to September 6, 2019. The primary outcome was pain intensity change, and the secondary outcome was safety. Nine RCTs were included in this review, and five trials involving 344 participants were analyzed quantitatively. Compared with no intervention, usual care, sham BFA, and delayed BFA interventions, BFA had no significant improvement in the pain intensity felt by adults suffering from pain. Few adverse effects (AEs) were reported with BFA therapy, but they were mild and transitory. BFA is a safe, rapid, and easily learned acupuncture technique, mainly used in acute pain management, but no significant efficacy was found in adult individuals with pain, compared with the control groups. Given the poor methodological quality of the included studies, high-quality RCTs with rigorous evaluation methods are needed in the future.
A Surface of Heteroclinic Connections Between Two Saddle Slow Manifolds in the Olsen Model
Authors: Musoke Elle , Krauskopf Bernd , Osinga Hinke M.
Published: December 2020

The Olsen model for the biochemical peroxidase-oxidase reaction has a parameter regime where one of its four variables evolves much slower than the other three. It is characterized by the existence of periodic orbits along which a large oscillation is followed by many much smaller oscillations before the process repeats. We are concerned here with a crucial ingredient for such mixed-mode oscillations (MMOs) in the Olsen model: a surface of connecting orbits that is followed closely by the MMO periodic orbit during its global, large-amplitude transition back to another onset of small oscillations. Importantly, orbits on this surface connect two one-dimensional saddle slow manifolds, which exist near curves of equilibria of the limit where the slow variable is frozen and acts as a parameter of the so-called fast subsystem.

We present a numerical method, based on formulating suitable boundary value problems, to compute such a surface of connecting orbits. It involves a number of steps to compute the slow manifolds, certain submanifolds of their stable and unstable manifolds and, finally, a first connecting orbit that is then used to sweep out the surface by continuation. If it exists, such a surface of connecting orbits between two one-dimensional saddle slow manifolds is robust under parameter variations. We compute and visualize it in the Olsen model and show how this surface organizes the global return mechanism of MMO periodic orbits from the end of small oscillations back to a region of phase space where they start again.
A New Four-Dimensional Non-Hamiltonian Conservative Hyperchaotic System
Authors: Gu Shuangquan , Du Baoxiang , Wan Yujie
Published: December 2020

This paper presents a new four-dimensional non-Hamiltonian conservative hyperchaotic system. In the absence of equilibrium points in the system, the phase trajectories generated by the system have hidden features. The conservative features that vary with the parameter have been analyzed in detail by Lyapunov exponent spectrum, bifurcation diagram, the sum of Lyapunov exponents, and the fractional dimensions, and during the analysis, multiple quasi-periodic four-dimensional tori as well as hyperchaotic attractors have been observed. The Poincaré sections confirm these dynamic behaviors. Amidst the process of studying the dynamical behavior of the system with initial values, the hidden extreme multistability, and the initial offset boosting behavior, the results have been witnessed for the very first time in a conservative chaotic system. The phase diagram and attraction basin also confirm this assertion, while two complex transient transition behaviors have been observed. Moreover, through the introduction of a spectral entropy algorithm, the complexity analysis of the time sequences generated by the system have been performed and compared with the existing literature. The results show that the system has a high degree of complexity. The design and construction of the analog circuit of the system for simulation, the circuit experimental results are consistent with the numerical simulation, further verifying the physical realizability of the newly proposed system. This lays a good foundation for its practical application in engineering.
Bifurcations of Double Homoclinic Loops in Reversible Systems
Authors: Bai Yuzhen , Liu Xingbo
Published: December 2020

This paper is devoted to the study of bifurcation phenomena of double homoclinic loops in reversible systems. With the aid of a suitable local coordinate system, the Poincaré map is constructed. By means of the bifurcation equation, we perform a detailed study to obtain fruitful results, and demonstrate the existence of the R-symmetric large homoclinic orbit of new type near the primary double homoclinic loops, the existence of infinitely many R-symmetric periodic orbits accumulating onto the R-symmetric large homoclinic orbit, and the coexistence of R-symmetric large homoclinic orbit and the double homoclinic loops. The homoclinic bellow can also be found under suitable perturbation. The relevant bifurcation surfaces and the existence regions are located.
Analysis of Coexistence and Extinction in a Two-Species Competition Model
Authors: Karimi Sohrab , Ghane F. H.
Published: December 2020

We study a competition model of two competing species in population biology having exponential and rational growth functions described by Alexander et al. [1992]. They observed that, for some choice of parameters, the competition model has a chaotic attractor [Formula: see text] for which the basin of attraction is riddled. Here, we give a detailed analysis to illustrate what happens when the normal parameter in this model changes. In fact, by varying the normal parameter, we discuss how the geometry of the basin of attraction of [Formula: see text], the region of coexistence or extinction, changes and illustrate the transitions between the set [Formula: see text] being an asymptotically stable attractor (extinction of rational species), a locally riddled basin attractor and a normally repelling chaotic saddle (extinction of exponential species). Additionally, we show that the riddling and the blowout bifurcation occur. Numerical simulations are presented graphically to confirm the validity of our results. In particular, we verify the occurrence of synchronization for some values of parameters. Finally, we apply the uncertainty exponent and the stability index to quantify the degree of riddling basin. Our observation indicates that the stability index is positive for Lebesgue for almost all points whenever the riddling occurs.
On the Scaling Law of Phase Drift in Coupled Nonlinear Oscillators for Precision Timing
Authors: Palacios Antonio , Buono Pietro-Luciano , In Visarath , Longhini Patrick
Published: December 2020

Computational and experimental works reveal that the coupling of similar crystal oscillators leads to a variety of collective patterns, mainly various forms of discrete rotating waves and synchronization patterns, which have the potential for developing precision timing devices through phase drift reduction. Among all observed patterns, the standard traveling wave, in which consecutive crystals oscillate out of phase by [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text] is the network size, leads to optimal phase drift error that scales down as [Formula: see text] as opposed to [Formula: see text] for an uncoupled ensemble. In this manuscript, we provide an analytical proof of the scaling laws, for uncoupled and coupled symmetric networks, and show that [Formula: see text] is the fundamental limit of phase-error reduction that one can obtain with a symmetric network of nonlinear oscillators of any type, not just crystals.
Modeling a 2.5M⊙ compact star with quark matter
Authors: Horvath J. E. , Moraes P. H. R. S.
Published: December 2020

The detection of an unexpected [Formula: see text] component in the gravitational wave event GW190814 has puzzled the community of high-energy astrophysicists, since in the absence of further information it is not clear whether this is the heaviest “neutron star” ever detected or either the lightest black hole known, of a kind absent in the local neighborhood. We show in this work a few possibilities for a model of the former, in the framework of three different quark matter models with and without anisotropy in the interior pressure. As representatives of classes of “exotic” solutions, we show that even though the stellar sequences may reach this ballpark, it is difficult to fulfill simultaneously the constraint of the radius as measured by the NICER team for the pulsar PSR J0030+0451. Thus, and assuming both measurements stand, compact neutron stars cannot be all made of self-bound quark matter, even within anisotropic solutions which boost the maximum mass well above the [Formula: see text] figure. We also point out that a very massive compact star will limit the absolute maximum matter density in the present universe to be less than 6 times the nuclear saturation value.
Drones in Emergency Medical Services: A Systematic Literature Review with Bibliometric Analysis
Authors: Pulsiri Nonthapat , Vatananan-Thesenvitz Ronald
Published: December 2020

This paper conducts a systematic literature review with bibliometric analysis for drone-related research in Emergency Medical Services (EMS). Forty publications were extracted from the SCOPUS database during 2015–2019 for further analysis. The results show the current research landscape and guide future research directions. Interestingly, the occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic made the use of drones necessary to assist EMSs lifesaving tasks to reduce fatality, which has also attracted more attention from the academic community. It was found that the co-evolution of drone technologies and entrepreneurial activities in the EMS ecosystem offers drone uses beyond medical applications.
Poles of triple product L-functions involving monomial representations
Authors: Hahn Heekyoung
Published: December 2020

In this paper, we study the order of the pole of the triple tensor product [Formula: see text]-functions [Formula: see text] for cuspidal automorphic representations [Formula: see text] of [Formula: see text] in the setting where one of the [Formula: see text] is a monomial representation. In the view of Brauer theory, this is a natural setting to consider. The results provided in this paper give crucial examples that can be used as a point of reference for Langlands’ beyond endoscopy proposal.
Bifurcation of perturbations of non-generic closed self-shrinkers
Authors: Lin Zhengjiang , Sun Ao
Published: December 2020

We discover a bifurcation of the perturbations of non-generic closed self-shrinkers. If the perturbation is outward, then the next mean curvature flow singularity is cylindrical and collapsing from outside; if the perturbation is inward, then the next mean curvature flow singularity is cylindrical and collapsing from inside.
Computationally aware systems: Recommended features through a review of 188 definitions and its relevance to advanced simulation
Authors: Irani Reza , Monfared Pouria Sharifian , Kazemifard Mohammad , Ören Tuncer
Published: December 2020

In this paper, 188 definitions of aware, awareness, conscious, and consciousness, classified in different categories including cognitive science, computation, medicine, neurology, and philosophy, are reviewed. Based on this systematic review, desirable features of computationally aware systems (CASs) are gleaned and reported. A discussion about the relevance of computational awareness to advanced simulation is also outlined.
Safe and Private Forward-trading Platform for Transactive Microgrids
Authors: Eisele Scott , Eghtesad Taha , Campanelli Keegan , Agrawal Prakhar , Laszka Aron , Dubey Abhishek
Published: December 2020

Power grids are evolving at an unprecedented pace due to the rapid growth of distributed energy resources (DER) in communities. These resources are very different from traditional power sources, as they are located closer to loads and thus can significantly reduce transmission losses and carbon emissions. However, their intermittent and variable nature often results in spikes in the overall demand on distribution system operators (DSO). To manage these challenges, there has been a surge of interest in building decentralized control schemes, where a pool of DERs combined with energy storage devices can exchange energy locally to smooth fluctuations in net demand. Building a decentralized market for transactive microgrids is challenging, because even though a decentralized system provides resilience, it also must satisfy requirements such as privacy, efficiency, safety, and security, which are often in conflict with each other. As such, existing implementations of decentralized markets often focus on resilience and safety but compromise on privacy. In this article, we describe our platform, called TRANSAX, which enables participants to trade in an energy futures market, which improves efficiency by finding feasible matches for energy trades, enabling DSOs to plan their energy needs better. TRANSAX provides privacy to participants by anonymizing their trading activity using a distributed mixing service, while also enforcing constraints that limit trading activity based on safety requirements, such as keeping planned energy flow below line capacity. We show that TRANSAX can satisfy the seemingly conflicting requirements of efficiency, safety, and privacy. We also provide an analysis of how much trading efficiency is lost. Trading efficiency is improved through the problem formulation, which accounts for temporal flexibility, and system efficiency is improved using a hybrid-solver architecture. Finally, we describe a testbed to run experiments and demonstrate its performance using simulation results.
Implementations in Machine Ethics
Authors: Tolmeijer Suzanne , Kneer Markus , Sarasua Cristina , Christen Markus , Bernstein Abraham
Published: December 2020

Increasingly complex and autonomous systems require machine ethics to maximize the benefits and minimize the risks to society arising from the new technology. It is challenging to decide which type of ethical theory to employ and how to implement it effectively. This survey provides a threefold contribution. First, it introduces a trimorphic taxonomy to analyze machine ethics implementations with respect to their object (ethical theories), as well as their nontechnical and technical aspects. Second, an exhaustive selection and description of relevant works is presented. Third, applying the new taxonomy to the selected works, dominant research patterns, and lessons for the field are identified, and future directions for research are suggested.
Assessing the Severity of Smart Attacks in Industrial Cyber-Physical Systems
Authors: Khaled Abdelaziz , Ouchani Samir , Tari Zahir , Drira Khalil
Published: December 2020

Industrial cyber-physical systems (ICPS) are heterogeneous inter-operating parts that can be physical, technical, networking, and even social like agent operators. Incrementally, they perform a central role in critical and industrial infrastructures, governmental, and personal daily life. Especially with the Industry 4.0 revolution, they became more dependent on the connectivity by supporting novel communication and distance control functionalities, which expand their attack surfaces that result in a high risk for cyber-attacks. Furthermore, regarding physical and social constraints, they may push up new classes of security breaches that might result in serious economic damages. Thus, designing a secure ICPS  is a complex task, since this needs to guarantee security and harmonize the functionalities between the various parts that interact with different technologies. This article highlights the significance of cyber-security infrastructure and shows how to evaluate, prevent, and mitigate ICPS-based cyber-attacks. We carried out this objective by establishing an adequate semantics for ICPS’s entities and their composition, which includes social actors that act differently than mobile robots and automated processes. This article also provides the feasible attacks generated by a reinforcement learning mechanism based on multiple criteria that selects both appropriate actions for each ICPS component and the possible countermeasures for mitigation. To efficiently analyze ICPS’s security, we proposed a model-checking-based framework that relies on a set of predefined attacks from where the security requirements are used to assess how well the model is secure. Finally, to show the effectiveness of the proposed solution, we model, analyze, and evaluate the ICPS  security on two real use cases.
Pattern Discovery in Colored Strings
Authors: Lipták Zsuzsanna , Puglisi Simon J. , Rossi Massimiliano
Published: December 2020

In this article, we consider the problem of identifying patterns of interest in colored strings. A colored string is a string where each position is assigned one of a finite set of colors. Our task is to find substrings of the colored string that always occur followed by the same color at the same distance. The problem is motivated by applications in embedded systems verification, in particular, assertion mining. The goal there is to automatically find properties of the embedded system from the analysis of its simulation traces.

We show that, in our setting, the number of patterns of interest is upper-bounded by
O
(
n
2
), where
n
is the length of the string. We introduce a baseline algorithm, running in
O
(
n
2
) time, which identifies all patterns of interest satisfying certain minimality conditions for all colors in the string. For the case where one is interested in patterns related to one color only, we also provide a second algorithm that runs in
O
(
n
2
log
n
) time in the worst case but is faster than the baseline algorithm in practice. Both solutions use suffix trees, and the second algorithm also uses an appropriately defined priority queue, which allows us to reduce the number of computations. We performed an experimental evaluation of the proposed approaches over both synthetic and real-world datasets, and found that the second algorithm outperforms the first algorithm on all simulated data, while on the real-world data, the performance varies between a slight slowdown (on half of the datasets) and a speedup by a factor of up to 11.
Event-Triggered

H

∞

Filtering for Markovian Jump Neural Networks under Random Missing Measurements and Deception Attacks
Authors: Wang Jinxia , Gao Jinfeng , Tan Tian , Wang Jiaqi , Ma Miao
Published: December 2020

This paper concentrates on the event-triggered

H

∞

filter design for the discrete-time Markovian jump neural networks under random missing measurements and cyber attacks. Considering that the controlled system and the filtering can exchange information over a shared communication network which is vulnerable to the cyber attacks and has limited bandwidth, the event-triggered mechanism is proposed to relieve the communication burden of data transmission. A variable conforming to Bernoulli distribution is exploited to describe the stochastic phenomenon since the missing measurements occur with random probability. Furthermore, seeing that the communication networks are vulnerable to external malicious attacks, the transferred information via the shared communication network may be changed by the injected false information from the attackers. Based on the above consideration, sufficient conditions for the filtering error system to maintain asymptotically stable are provided with predefined

H

∞

performance. In the end, three numerical examples are given to verify the proposed theoretical results.
Expression of Selected Epithelial‐Mesenchymal Transition Transcription Factors in Endometrial Cancer
Authors: Sadłecki Paweł , Jóźwicki Jakub , Antosik Paulina , Walentowicz-Sadłecka Małgorzata
Published: December 2020

Endometrial cancer (EC) is the most common gynecologic malignancy in developed countries. The aim of this study was to analyze the expression of SNAIL, SLUG, TWIST1, TWIST2, ZEB1, and ZEB 2 in primary tumor and the correlation with morphological and clinical characteristics of EC. The study included 158 patients with EC after surgical treatments: total hysterectomy and lymphadenectomy. The percentages of EC specimens testing positively for the EMT transcription factors were 84.5% for SNAIL, 92.2% for SLUG, 10.9% for TWIST1, 100% for TWIST2, 89% for ZEB1, and 98% for ZEB2. The expression of SLUG in patients with FIGO stage III or IV, type II EC, myometrial invasion ≥ 50% of the uterine wall thickness, and adnexal involvement and in patients with distant metastases was significantly higher. SLUG and ZEB2 expressions were identified as significant predictors of higher FIGO stages (III or IV) on univariate analysis. The overexpression of SLUG was a significant predictor of more aggressive type II EC, myometrial invasion ≥ 50% of the uterine wall thickness, and distant metastases on both univariate and multivariate analysis. Moreover, the overexpression of SLUG and ZEB2 was shown to be significant predictors of adnexal involvement on univariate analysis. ZEB 2 overexpression was identified in multivariate analysis as another independent predictor associated with a lesser likelihood of type II EC. Both univariate and multivariate analyses demonstrated that SLUG expression was the only predictor of 5‐year survival in the study group. The overexpression of SLUG was associated with a significant increase in mortality hazard on univariate analysis and was shown to be a highly significant predictor of death on multivariate analysis. Conclusions. Selected proteins of the EMT pathway play a role in endometrial carcinogenesis; SLUG and ZEB2 expressions in the primary tumor might predict clinical outcomes in EC and drive therapeutic decisions regarding adjuvant treatment in patients with this malignancy.
Fabrication of TiO2 Nanotube by Electrochemical Anodization: Toward Photocatalytic Application
Authors: Zakir O. , Idouhli R. , Elyaagoubi M. , Khadiri M. , Aityoub A. , Koumya Y. , Rafqah S. , Abouelfida A. , Outzourhit A.
Published: December 2020

In this study, a self-organized nanotubular titanium dioxide (TiO2) array was successfully produced by anodizing pure titanium in a mixture of glycerol, distilled water (8% vol.), and ammonium fluoride using a dual electrode system. The size control and distribution of the nanopores were performed in a DC voltage range varying from 30 V to 60 V. The diameter of TiO2 nanopores varies from 59 to 128 nm depending on the anodizing voltage. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) analysis reveals that the as-prepared films are essentially composed of TiO2. According to the X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy analysis, the nanotubular arrays of TiO2 annealed at 600°C for 2 hours are composed of a phase mixture of anatase and rutile. Mott-Schottky analysis showed that the TiO2 nanotubes are consistent with an n-type semiconductor with a donor density of about 1017 cm-3. Preliminary results on the photocatalytic degradation of a pharmaceutical pollutant showed that the TiO2 nanotubes can be used as a promising material for application in wastewater treatment.
Gradation Design and Performance Evaluation of High Viscosity Asphalt Mixtures
Authors: Hu Xudong , Li Sheng , Yao Hui , Wang Hui , Xu Mei , Cao Dandan , Mohd Hasan Mohd Rosli , Duan Cong , Zhang Ran
Published: December 2020

The property of asphalt binder plays an important role in the performance of asphalt mixture. The natural rubber additive (NRA) was recommended as a modifier in the preparation of high viscosity asphalt (HVA) binder. Then, the gradation named LASTIKA‐13 was adopted to design the high viscosity asphalt mixture (HVAM) according to the orthogonal test analysis and the optimized gradation. The performance of the proposed HVAM was evaluated through a series tests including the permanent deformation at high temperature, moisture stability, low‐temperature cracks, and bending fatigue test. The results indicate that the proposed modified asphalt binder shows a comparable property with the conventional modified asphalt binder. The proposed HVAM with the NRA modifier has a superior performance to other conventional mixtures in the temperature susceptibility and resistance to moisture damage. Furthermore, the proposed HVAM was less sensitive to the temperature change and has good performance in terms of resistance to low‐temperature cracks, bonding characteristics, and fatigue behaviors.
Realistic Speech-Driven Talking Video Generation with Personalized Pose
Authors: Zhang Xu , Weng Liguo
Published: December 2020

In this work, we propose a method to transform a speaker’s speech information into a target character’s talking video; the method could make the mouth shape synchronization, expression, and body posture more realistic in the synthesized speaker video. This is a challenging task because changes of mouth shape and posture are coupled with audio semantic information. The model training is difficult to converge, and the model effect is unstable in complex scenes. Existing speech-driven speaker methods cannot solve this problem well. The method proposed in this paper first generates the sequence of key points of the speaker’s face and body postures from the audio signal in real time and then visualizes these key points as a series of two-dimensional skeleton images. Subsequently, we generate the final real speaker video through the video generation network. We take a random sampling of audio clips, encode audio contents and temporal correlations using a more effective network structure, and optimize and iterate network outputs using differential loss and attitude perception loss, so as to obtain a smoother pose key-point sequence and better performance. In addition, by inserting a specified action frame into the synthesized human pose sequence window, action poses of the synthesized speaker are enriched, making the synthesis effect more realistic and natural. Then, the final speaker video is generated by the obtained gesture key points through the video generation network. In order to generate realistic and high-resolution pose detail videos, we insert a local attention mechanism into the key point network of the generated pose sequence and give higher attention to the local details of the characters through spatial weight masks. In order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, we used the objective evaluation index NME and user subjective evaluation methods, respectively. Experiment results showed that our method could vividly use audio contentsto generate corresponding speaker videos, and its lip-matching accuracy and expression postures are better than those of previous work. Compared with existing methods in the NME index and user subjective evaluation, our method showed better results.
Discovering Travel Spatiotemporal Pattern Based on Sequential Events Similarity
Authors: Chen Juanjuan , Huang Liying , Wang Chengliang , Zheng Nijia
Published: December 2020

Travel route preferences can strongly interact with the events that happened in networked traveling, and this coevolving phenomena are essential in providing theoretical foundations for travel route recommendation and predicting collective behaviour in social systems. While most literature puts the focus on route recommendation of individual scenic spots instead of city travel, we propose a novel approach named City Travel Route Recommendation based on Sequential Events Similarity (CTRR-SES) by applying the coevolving spreading dynamics of the city tour networks and mine the travel spatiotemporal patterns in the networks. First, we present the Event Sequence Similarity Measurement Method based on modelling tourists’ travel sequences. The method can help measure similarities in various city travel routes, which combine different scenic types, time slots, and relative locations. Second, by applying the user preference learning method based on scenic type, we learn from the user’s city travel historical data and compute the personalized travel preference. Finally, we verify our algorithm by collecting data of 54 city travellers of their historical spatiotemporal routes in the ten most popular cities from Mafeng.com. CTRR-SES shows better performance in predicting the user’s new city travel sequence fitting the user’s individual preference.
Defending Application Layer DDoS Attacks via Multidimensional Parallelotope
Authors: Zhao Xiaolin , Peng Hui , Li Xiang , Li Yue , Xue Jingfeng , Liang Yaoyuan , Pei Mingzhe
Published: December 2020

The Internet is more and more integrated into people’s life; because of the complexity and fragility of the network environment, network attack presents a more and more serious trend. Application Layer DDoS (AL-DDoS) attack is the most complex form of DDoS attack, which is hindering the availability for the legitimate users by taking up a large number of requests of web server. The paper introduced the concept of behavior utility to portray the network. The concept of attack and defense utility was defined by a specific property which was the manifestation of the network risk after the offset of attack and defense. In the utility model, traffic metrics were mapped to the multidimensional parallelotope in the Euclidean space to express as a diagonal matrix. To determine the threshold status, the defense strategies of load balancing and limiting the maximum number of connections were used with different attack scales. Finally, the attack and defense utility value was calculated to evaluate the network risk level. The proposed method can master the capacity of network system against each attack means and the defense capability of network system. Its availability and accuracy are verified by comparing with the relevant works.
Methylation of Hypothalamic Tsc1‐mTOR Signaling in Regulation of Obesity and Obesity Resistance
Authors: Wang Yanli , Diao Sijun , Hu Maoqing , Zhang Lin
Published: December 2020

The Tsc1‐mTOR signaling pathway is often related to obesity, and epigenetic modification may lead to expression changes of obesity‐related gene. Therefore, we aim to investigate the methylation of the Tsc1‐mTOR signaling pathway in regulation of obesity susceptibility. Wistar rats were fed a normal diet or a high‐fat diet to develop animal models. Protein and mRNA expression levels of Tsc1‐mTOR signaling in the hypothalamus were determined by Western blot and quantitative real‐time PCR. Methylation of Tsc1 gene promoter was detected by bisulfite genomic sequence. Both mRNA and protein expression levels of Tsc1 in DIO group hypothalamus were lower; mTOR and its downstream targets S6K1, 4EBP1, and S6 protein expression levels were higher than those of the DIO‐R group and the chow group. The Tsc1 gene promoter methylation rate in the hypothalamus was 92.05 ± 3.07% in the DIO group, 87.27 ± 1.91% in the DIO‐R group, and 88.18% ± 3.20% in the chow group, respectively, with significantly higher levels in the DIO group. Both the expression levels of Tsc1 gene promoter methylation and Tsc1‐mTOR signaling pathway in the hypothalamus of DIO rats and DIO‐R rats are different. These findings may shed light on the potential mechanism for the differentiation of obesity susceptibility.
Severe Enteritis as the Sole Manifestation of Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Adolescent Patients
Authors: Gupta Sandeep , Kaushik Ashlesha , Kest Helen , Charles Alexandra K. , De Bruin William , Colletti Mario , Goldberg David
Published: December 2020

Enteritis as the only manifestation of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in adolescents without features of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) or a prior history of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has not been described. We report two adolescent patients (a 14-year-old male and a 20-year-old pregnant female) presenting to tertiary-care centers in the United States with severe enteritis as the only manifestation of COVID-19 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. The patients were hospitalized with acute abdominal pain and gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding, with no evidence of MIS-C, and were previously healthy with no history of IBD. The patients’ nasopharyngeal swabs were positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and testing for other infectious etiologies was negative. Both patients received intravenous corticosteroids and recovered without short-term complications. None of the patients died. This report highlights the need for keeping a high index of suspicion for SARS-CoV-2 infection in adolescents presenting solely with gastrointestinal manifestations, in the absence of respiratory symptoms or multisystem involvement, for prompt recognition and timely management.
Prediction of the RFID Identification Rate Based on the Neighborhood Rough Set and Random Forest for Robot Application Scenarios
Authors: Wang Hong-Gang , Wang Shan-Shan , Pan Ruo-Yu , Pang Sheng-Li , Liu Xiao-Song , Luo Zhi-Yong , Zhou Sheng-Pei
Published: December 2020

With the rapid development of Internet of Things technology, RFID technology has been widely used in various fields. In order to optimize the RFID system hardware deployment strategy and improve the deployment efficiency, the prediction of the RFID system identification rate has become a new challenge. In this paper, a neighborhood rough set and random forest (NRS-RF) combination model is proposed to predict the identification rate of an RFID system. Firstly, the initial influencing factors of the RFID system identification rate are reduced using neighborhood rough set theory combined with the principle of heuristic attribute reduction of neighborhood weighted dependency, thus obtaining a kernel factor subset. Secondly, a random forest prediction model is established based on the kernel factor subset, and a confusion matrix is established using out-of-bag (OOB) data to evaluate the prediction results. The test is conducted under the constructed RFID experimental environment, whose results showed that the model can predict the identification rate of the RFID system in a fast and efficient way, and the classification accuracy can reach 90.5%. It can effectively guide the hardware deployment and communication parameter protocol setting of the system and improve the system performance. Compared with BP neural network (BPNN) and other prediction models, NRS-RF has shorter prediction time and faster calculation speed. Finally, the validity of the proposed model was verified by the RFID intelligent archives management platform.
Transcutaneous Electrical Acupoint Stimulation in Early Life Changes Synaptic Plasticity and Improves Symptoms in a Valproic Acid-Induced Rat Model of Autism
Authors: Wang Xiaoxi , Ding Rui , Song Yayue , Wang Juan , Zhang Chen , Han Songping , Han Jisheng , Zhang Rong
Published: December 2020

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder characterized by social behavior deficit in childhood without satisfactory medical intervention. Transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation (TEAS) is a noninvasive technique derived from acupuncture and has been shown to have similar therapeutic effects in many diseases. Valproic acid- (VPA-) induced ASD is a known model of ASD in rats. The therapeutic efficacy of TEAS was evaluated in the VPA model of ASD in the present study. The offspring of a VPA-treated rat received TEAS in the early life stage followed by a series of examinations conducted in their adolescence. The results show that following TEAS treatment in early life, the social and cognitive ability in adolescence of the offspring of a VPA rat were significantly improved. In addition, the abnormal pain threshold was significantly corrected. Additional studies demonstrated that the dendritic spine density of the primary sensory cortex was decreased with Golgi staining. Results of the transcriptomic study showed that expression of some transcription factors such as the neurotrophic factor were downregulated in the hypothalamus of the VPA model of ASD. The reduced gene expression was reversed following TEAS. These results suggest that TEAS in the early life stage may mitigate disorders of social and recognition ability and normalize the pain threshold of the ASD rat model. The mechanism involved may be related to improvement of synaptic plasticity.
Growth and Yield of Taro (Colocasia esculenta (L) Schott.) as Affected by Planting Distance
Authors: Boampong Richard , Boateng Samuel Kwasi , Adu Amoah Richard , Adu Gyamfi Bright , Aboagye Lawrence Misa , Ansah Eric Osafo
Published: December 2020

Taro, Colocasia esculenta (L) Schott., is a staple food for many people in Africa. Despite the numerous importance of the crop, it still remains an underutilized crop in Ghana with little information on many aspects of the crop, especially agronomic practices. This experiment was conducted to identify the effect of planting distance on growth and yield of two promising taro accessions. The experiment was laid out using the split-plot design arranged in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications in which accessions (BL/SM/80 and BL/SM/16) were used as main plots and three planting distances (1 m × 1 m, 1 m × 0.75 m, and 1 m × 0.5 m) as subplots. Data were recorded on the 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, 20th, 24th, and 28th week after planting (WAP) for growth parameters while yield data were taken at harvest. The results indicated that plant height (63.4 cm), petiole length (44.0 cm), number of leaves (4.7), leaf length (31.7 cm), and width (20.5 cm) were significantly (P≤0.05) higher in closely spaced plants than widely spaced plants at 4 WAP and 8 WAP for petiole length (70.3 cm) and in the 28th WAP where there was an accession effect on leaf length and number of suckers/plant. The highest corm yield/plant (0.63 kg) and total corm yield/ha (11.7 t/ha) in both accessions were achieved by the medium plant spacing (1 m × 0.75 m) and lower plant spacing (1 m × 0.5 m), respectively. Accession BS/SM/80 recorded the highest total yield/ha of 13.0 t/ha for 1 m × 0.5 m plant spacing. The higher number of suckers (8.1) was recorded by higher spaced plants. From the study, it was seen that growth parameters correlated significantly and positively with yield. It is therefore recommended that farmers in the area and those in similar production areas use a spacing of 1 m × 0.5 m for optimum growth and yield.