bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Exploring neuronal markers and early social environment influence in divergent quail lines selected for social motivation
Authors: Court Lucas , Talbottier Laura , Lemarchand Julie , Cornilleau Fabien , Pecnard Emmanuel , Blache Marie-Claire , Balthazart Jacques , Cornil Charlotte Anne , Keller Matthieu , Calandreau Ludovic , Pellissier Lucie
Published: June 2024

Vertebrates, including humans exhibit a wide range of social behaviors that are crucial for the adaptation and survival of most species. The brain organization and function are shaped by genetic and environmental factors, although their precise contributions have been poorly explored in the context of artificial selection. We used divergent lines of quail selected on their high versus low level of motivation to approach a group of conspecifics (S+ and S-, respectively) to investigate the influence of genetic selection and early social environment on sociability. We observed distinct sex- and brain-region-specific expression patterns of three neuronal markers: mesotocin, and vasotocin, the avian homologues of mammalian oxytocin and vasopressin, as well as aromatase, the enzyme that converts androgens into estrogens. These markers displayed pronounced and neuroanatomically specific differences between S+ and S- quail. Additionally, we assessed the influence of early social environment on social skills in adolescent birds. Mixing S+ and S- resulted in more S- males approaching the group without affecting the sociability of S+ or other behaviors, suggesting that the early social environment may influence the results of genetic selection. In conclusion, the divergent quail lines offer a valuable model for unraveling the neuronal and behavioral mechanisms underlying social behaviors.
The maturation of affective responses: physiological, behavioral, and self-reported emotions in children and youth
Authors: Konopkina Kseniia , Hirvaskoski Hilla , Hietanen Jari K. , Saarimäki Heini
Published: June 2024

Investigating age-related shifts in affective responses to emotionally salient stimuli is key to comprehending emotional development during childhood and adolescence. Most of the research regarding emotional experiences has focused on adults, while the understanding of the development of emotional experiences across childhood remains elusive. To address this gap, we explored whether physiological and behavioral responses as well as self-reported emotions elicited in children and adolescents by naturalistic stimuli differ from those in adults. We developed a set of emotional videos to elicit different emotions – fear, joy, anger, sadness, amusement, and tenderness - and measured emotional intensity ratings, electrocardiography, and eye movements from 8–15-year-old children and adults during the viewing of the videos. We identified an age-related maturation in all measured responses. Emotional intensity and behavioral responses varied across emotion categories. Furthermore, specific emotions showed different maturation patterns. The study highlights the importance of a multi-component approach to accurately discern and understand emotional states.
Invariance Compensation Pid Control for a Proportional Valve-controlled Asymmetric Cylinder System
Authors: XU Wenbin , ZENG Le
Published: June 2024

A load flow model of a proportional valve-controlled asymmetric cylinder system is developed to assess inconsistent dynamic properties. The load flow property is analyzed, and the basic state is defined for the system. In addition, an invariance compensation method is proposed that considers the structure and load effect. If any asymmetric state of the system is equivalent to the basic state through invariance compensation, then the symmetrical load flow property is obtained, which is verified through simulation. Proportion–integration–differentiation (PID) control based on invariant compensation is used in the system, and the dynamic characteristics are almost the same. The experimental results show that the flow error between the load state and the basic state is less than 11% in the linear region of the proportional valve for the asymmetric cylinder system when the system load pressure is less than half of the pump pressure. The response error is approximately 0.04 s between the forward and reverse directions under the given asymmetric load.
A novel polypeptide encoded by the circRACK1 suppresses gastric cancer via cytoskeleton remodeling
Authors: Qiao Lei , Zhou Zhengyang , Cheng Yanan , Pan Wen , Han Yueting , Zhu Qihang , Zhang Haiyang , Ba Yi
Published: June 2024

Gastric cancer (GC), particularly prevalent in China, is associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality. This study focuses on the role and mechanistic pathways of a novel 127-amino acid peptide, circR-127aa, encoded by hsa_circ_0075402 (circRACK1) in GC cells, exploring its implications in cancer development. Circular RNAs (circRNAs), which vary in expression across different cancers, contribute to tumorigenesis via mechanisms such as miRNA sponging, protein binding, and influencing transcription and translation.
Our research involved an extensive analysis of circRNAs ribo-seq data, complemented by mass spectrometry, Western blotting, and immunofluorescence to validate the encoding of circR-127aa by circRACK1. We explored the functional impact of circR-127aa, examining its effects on cell proliferation, apoptosis, and tumor formation in nude mice. A critical aspect of this study was investigating the interaction between circR-127aa and Vimentin, a significant player in cytoskeleton remodeling and cellular mobility during epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). The findings reveal that the circRACK1-encoded peptide functions as a tumor suppressor, facilitating Vimentin ubiquitination, highlighting its potential as a novel therapeutic target and biomarker in GC treatment.
In conclusion, this research unveils a groundbreaking role of the circRACK1-encoded peptide, circR-127aa, in GC, emphasizing its tumor-suppressing function through the ubiquitination of Vimentin. This discovery enhances our understanding of GC progression and presents circR-127aa as a valuable candidate for therapeutic strategies and as a biomarker in GC treatment.
Autoimmune thyroid disease and pituitary adenoma in a female patient with 18p deletion syndrome: a case report and review of the literature
Authors: Ye Jingwen , Shu Yi , Wang Mingzhu , Luo Haizhao , Liang Weiqiang , Lu Qiuping , Mei Wen , Deng Jiajin
Published: June 2024

Background
18p deletion (18p-) syndrome is a rare chromosomal abnormality with a wide range of phenotypes. Its main clinical features are short stature, intellectual disability, and facial dysmorphism, which are rarely accompanied by autoimmune thyroid disease (ATD) or pituitary abnormalities. Herein, we report the first Chinese patient with a de novo 18p deletion who presented with ATD.
Case presentation:
A 24-year-old female patient presented with severe ptosis, intellectual disability, hypothyroidism associated with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, and a non-functional pituitary adenoma. Deletion of the short arm of chromosome 18 was detected in a G-banded karyotyping (46, XX, del [18] [p11.1]). Chromosomal microarray analysis revealed a 14.9Mb deletion in chromosome 18p11.32p11.21, defined as arr[GRCh38]18p11.32p11.21(136227–15079295)x1. The literature review indicated that patients with 18p- syndrome presenting with ATD were mainly female with early disease onset (mean age: 15 years).
Conclusions
18p- syndrome is associated with ATD and pituitary abnormalities. Therefore, examining the endocrine system and detecting defective genes in the 18p breakpoint region are crucial in predicting prognosis.
Negative bronchoscopy or computed tomography radiation in children with suspected foreign body aspiration? Pros and cons
Authors: Çelikkaya Mehmet Emin , Atıcı Ahmet , Korkmaz İnan , El Çiğdem , Karadağ Mehmet , Akçora Bülent
Published: June 2024

Purpose: Foreign body aspiration(FBA) remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality in childhood. Unfortunately, the clinical picture is often unclear and the clinician must decide which patients should undergo bronchoscopic evaluation. The aim of this study was to analyse patients who underwent bronchoscopy for suspected foreign body aspiration and to evaluate the properties of computed tomography(CT) in preventing unnecessary bronchoscopy, which carries the risk of serious complications.
Methods:All patients younger than 18 years of age who were evaluated for foreign body aspiration at a tertiary children's hospital between June 2014 and February 2023 were included in the retrospective review.
Results:A total of 165 children who underwent bronchoscopy were included in this study. 59.4% (n=98) of the cases were girls and 40.6% (n=67) were boys. The median age of the cases was 2 years, ranging from 0.5 to 18 years, and the interquartile range (Q3-Q1) value was 2. X-ray was performed in 100% of the cases (n=165) and CT scan was performed in 26.1% (n=43). In Group II (CT ± Bronchoscopy), the detection rate of FBA was 93%, whereas in Group I (only Bronchoscopy), it was significantly higher at 77.9% compared to 77.9%. Additionally, the negative diagnosis rate in Group II was significantly higher compared to Group I
Conclusions: Low-dose chest CT is a highly effective imaging modality with high sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of FBA in children. Since it can be performed rapidly with minimal radiation exposure and can prevent unnecessary bronchoscopies in suspicious cases.
Measuring Accuracy in AI-Generated Definitions: A Comparison Among Select GPTs Using Cosine Similarity Index
Authors: Patra Niyasha , Sharma Suraj , Ray Nilanjan , Bera Debkumar
Published: June 2024

Information generation are highly taking place now-a-days using generative pre-trained transformer (GPT). GPT is widely used in search engines, which generates texts, based on instructions given by humans. ChatGPT, Gemini, Pi and Perplexity are some applications of natural language processing which are widely based on GPT. It is a pre-trained model that uses artificial neural networks to generate the texts in a pattern. These programs are widely used in vast disciplines, most widely in academics. Hence it is imperative to understand the authenticity of the generated texts. The present study uses cosine similarity index to understand the similarity of the texts generated using ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Pi, along with that of the ground truth. Definitions of some science and social science subjects were generated using the GPT tools used in the present study and the true values were taken as definition provided in the Britannica encyclopedia. The present study opens the avenues for comparing the discipline wise knowledge of these GPT based software using a broader set of keywords.
Comparative assessment of rcd1 specific wwe domain in making evolutionary patterns against conserved genomic regions
Authors: Siddiqua Beena , Qamarunnisa Syeda , Azhar Abid
Published: June 2024

Conserved genomic sequences are of evolutionary importance, as they give information regarding speciation and divergence of taxa. Some sequences that have been used in the determination of plant taxonomic relationships through DNA are rbcL, MatK, atpB-rbcL intergenic spacer with varying success. With the increase in genomic data, the sro family of genes have been found conserved within the kingdom plantae. Among a subset of sro members, the wwe is a domain encoding short stretch of nucleotides that is easily amplified and exists in low copy number per genome. The nucleotides of this domain vary between different species of a plant family while it clusters plants belonging to a same family into statistically supported clades during phylogenetic analyses. This fact raised a need to identify the relationships it forms phylogenetically. To achieve this end, the plants belonging to diverse genera were analysed using wwe, rbcL and rcd1 sequences after amplification from genome and sequence retrieval from online databases. It was found that the plants were clustered by the wwe sequences into their taxonomic families with high bootstrap support. The trees were constructed by using Physcomitrella patens as outgroup as it belongs to order Funariales which is quite divergent to the angiosperms that harbour monocots and dicots. The results demonstrate a potential for using the wwe domain specific to sro family as a molecular marker either alone or in combination with other markers in DNA barcoding and phylogenetics studies, as it has shown to resolve all analysed plants at sub-familial level with high bootstrap support.
A Deep Learning Approach for Prediction of Heart Disease using Ensemble Learning Techniques
Authors: Hayat Mudasir , Javaid Nadeem , Nazir Amna , Alrajeh Nabil , Shafiq Muhammad , Choi Jin-Ghoo
Published: June 2024

Heart Disease (HD) stands as a significant contributor to escalating mortality rates worldwide, impacting communities on a vast scale. While numerous Deep Learning (DL) methodologies have been proposed for HD detection and diagnosis, prior studies have encountered limitations, notably small dataset sizes leading to overfitting. To address these challenges, we present novel ensemble learning approaches aimed at enhancing the authenticity and accuracy of HD prediction. Our work introduces two ensemble techniques, blending and voting, leveraging a combination of Multi-Layer Perceptron, AlexNet, and Deep Belief Network models. Utilizing the heart-disease-health-indicators-BRFSS2015 dataset, characterized by significant imbalances, we employ Adaptive Synthetic oversampling technique to balance the data. Results demonstrate the superior performance of our ensemble models over individual models. The blending model achieves an accuracy of 90.0%, precision of 90.1%, recall of 90.0%, and an F1-score of 90.0%. The voting model attains an accuracy score of 89.3%, precision of 92.2%, recall of 85.9%, and an F1-score of 88.9%. The blending model exhibits superior classification ability compared to the voting model. To assess the generalizability and validate results, K-Fold Cross Validation is employed. For model interpretability and explainability, we utilize an eXplainable Artificial Intelligence technique, Shapley Additive Explanations.
In vitro inhibitory activities of indolealkaloid derivatives against porcine epidemic diarrhea virus
Authors: Jian Yaoying , Dong Siqi , Zhang Qianyi , Pan Jiali , Hu Ruimin , Ding Zhen , Wu Huansheng , Ke Shaoyong , Chen Zheng
Published: June 2024

Porcine Epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) is an enteric coronavirus, which can cause acute diarrhea, vomiting, dehydration and high mortality of newborn piglets, and leading to huge economic losses to the world pig industry. Given the limited efficacy of current PEDV vaccines, there is an urgent need for the development of antiviral drugs. In this study, the antiviral effects of 17 synthesized indole alkaloid derivatives against PEDV were investigated. It was observed that the No.14 indole alkaloid derivative exhibited significant inhibition of PEDV replication in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, through time-of-addition assays and RT-qPCR, it was determined that delayed administration of the No.14 indole alkaloid derivative resulted in weaker inhibitory effects on PEDV compared to early treatment. Mechanistic analysis revealed that the No.14 indole alkaloid derivative exerts its inhibitory effects during the entry stage of the PEDV life cycle. This study demonstrates the anti-PEDV effects of the No.14 indole alkaloid derivative, suggesting its potential as a candidate drug for treating PEDV infections.
Pathogen-specific IgE-reactive cytosolic allergenic epitopes of Aspergillus fumigatus for immunodiagnostic/immunotherapeutic applications against allergic aspergillosis
Authors: Singh Bharat , Koundal Priya , Manhas Sunita , Dangi Mehak , Sharma Gainda L. , Oellerich Michael , Bhadoria Dharam P. , Tuli Hardeep S. , Haque Shafiul , Mathkor Darin M. , Ramniwas Seema , Asif Abdul R.
Published: June 2024

Aspergillus fumigatus is the causative agent of a global infectious respiratory disease (aspergillosis). Its accurate diagnosis is difficult due to overlapping clinical/radiological features with other respiratory infections. Thus, to identify A. fumigatus-specific entities for more comprehensive use in the immunodiagnosis/immunotherapy of aspergillosis, this work was conducted. We recruited aspergillosis patients after clinical diagnosis; the results included immunoreactivity to A. fumigatus crude/recombinant allergens. Furthermore, 2DE immunoblotting of the A. fumigatus cytosolic fraction was performed with the sera of 10 individual patients, and subsequent Q-TOF analysis of the corresponding IgE-reactive spots from the 2DE-gles identified 18 proteins. These 18 allergenic proteins included 2 known (Asp-f12 and Asp-f22) and 3 predicted allergens (sorbitol/xylulose-reductase, Hsp70-chaperone Hsp88, and Hsp70) of A. fumigatus that exhibited cross-reactivity with other fungal allergens. However, 11 other 13 allergenic proteins from A. fumigatus contained significant immunoreactivity to aspergillosis patient sera. Furthermore, in silico analysis of the antigenic epitopes and cross-reactivity predictions revealed A. fumigatus-specific 9/B-cell and 4/T-cell epitopes. Subsequent docking of representative B-cell and T-cell epitopes with the respective B-cell receptor and MHC-II complex also confirmed receptor-specific binding. These identified pathogen-specific allergens and epitopes could be valuable for future immunodiagnostic and immunotherapeutic applications for better management of aspergillosis and for reducing the disease burden globally.
Cross-domain Load Balancing Communication Mechanism Based on the Auction Game Theory
Authors: shang fengjun , Mao Lin
Published: June 2024

This paper studied the cross-domain load balancing communication mechanism based on the game model. Firstly, the problem of routing between SDN/IP heterogeneous network inter-domain communication is analyzed. The SDN/IP cross-domain hybird network communication model is proposed. The network abstraction idea is introduced. The OpenFlow controller can be supported by the three-layer routing module and edge nodes. IP routing protocol to synchronize network reachable information between hybrid networks. In the Layer 3 routing module, the routing engine sub-module parses and responds to routing messages, and abstracts the OpenFlow network as a standard "Router". At the same time, three sub-modules of edge management, routing processing, and routing engine management are designed on the controller side. Forward control of inter-domain datagrams of SDN internal networks and management of routing engine sub-modules. Then, a feedback mechanism is added at the edge node location to actively detect and report the edge location state information to expand SDN impact. Secondly, for the problem of elephant stream forwarding in SDN/IP cross-domain network, a multi-path load balancing communication mechanism oriented to cross-domain is designed. The mechanism monitors the elephant flow in the network through the traffic monitoring module in real time, and proposes a multi-path dynamic load balancing algorithm to achieve network load balancing. Firstly, according to the real-time QoS index of the link, multiple minimum cost paths are calculated, and the idea of stream splitting is introduced. Multiple paths are used to bear an elephant stream, which reduces the burden of a single path and improves the utilization of network resources. Then the game model based auction model is introduced to calculate the offload strategy to optimize the maximum link utilization of the network. The simulation results show that the algorithm can effectively balance network traffic, meet the QoS requirements of the service, and increase the network resource utilization rate to 83%.
Optimizing Treatment Facility Locations in Oklahoma Using Haversine, Euclidean, Manhattan, and Chebyshev Distance Optimization
Authors: Roberts-Licklider Karen , Trafalis Theodore
Published: June 2024

In this study we are optimizing the treatment facility locations in the eight regions of Oklahoma. Drug court data was used for each county in Oklahoma to optimize the placement of treatment facilities. The objectives of this model were to optimally place treatment facilities minimizing cost, total haversine distance and maximizing the total number of facilities located in each region, while not exceeding the number of facilities allowed to be located according to the maximum covering location problem. An integer multi-criteria nonlinear programming model was utilized with several models comparing the results with and without fairness constraints, using fairness measures such as Hoover index and Gini coefficient at various thresholds. Gurobi was the solver used to solve each model. The Euclidean, Haversine, Manhattan, and Chebyshev distance metrics were all used and compared to see which metric performs the best when coupled with Hoover and Gini index fairness measures.
Development of an Advanced Analytical Technique for Detecting Multiple Pesticide Residues in Vegetables Through Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectroscopy (LC-MS/MS)
Authors: Majumder Sujan , Kumar Arvind , Debnath Sadhan , . Abhinay , Singh A. N. , Behera T. K.
Published: June 2024

A comprehensive LC-MS/MS method, which employs Positive Electrospray Ionization (PEI) and Multiple Reaction Monitoring (MRM) was developed for simultaneous determination of 35 pesticides belonging to various chemical classes in tomato, brinjal, chilli, and okra samples. Extraction was facilitated using a modified QuEChERS method, which allows efficient sample analysis in a single run. Calibration curves for each pesticide exhibited linearity within the concentration range of 0.0025 to 0.1 µg mL− 1, with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.993 to 0.999. Mean recoveries at five fortification levels (0.01 to 0.5 µg/g) ranged from 80–90%, demonstrating satisfactory precision (RSD < 20%). The matrix effects, mitigated through an optimized cleanup process, were observed within the range of 6.42–19.52%. The developed method having the limit of quantification of 0.01 mg kg− 1 for all 35 pesticides, proved to be highly sensitive and rapid for multi-residue estimation in diverse vegetable samples. Subsequently the method was used to analyze the market samples from Varanasi, India, which revealed the presence of pesticides like Chlorpyrifos, Chlorantraniliprole and Indoxacarb in tomato, brinjal, chilli and okra. Therefore, the method could be considered as a robust tool for monitoring pesticide residues in vegetables, aiding in quality assessment and regulatory compliance in the agriculture sector.
Chattering-free Adaptive Iterative Learning Control for Linear-Motor-Driven Gantry Stage With Initial State Errors
Authors: Yu Chaohai , Ma Jie , Wang Jue , Pan Huihui
Published: June 2024

This paper aims to investigate a chattering-free adaptive iterative learning strategy for trajectory tracking tasks on linear-motor-driven-gantry-stages with initial state errors. The reduction mechanism of the proposed parameter learning law effectively addresses initial state tracking errors, unmodeled system dynamics, and external disturbances during the iterative process. Furthermore, to mitigate the oscillation issues caused by traditional iterative learning control signals, this paper adopts the approximation for the sign function. However, this approximation introduces the non-negative definite problems. Therefore, this paper introduces a novel analysis method based on contraction mapping and composite energy functions in the Lyapunov-like theory. This method rigorously proves the boundedness and convergence during the entire iteration under non-negative definite problems with initial state errors. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is validated through experiments on a linear motor platform.
The risk factors for ocular biological parameters in Chinese preschool children: a Beijing eye study
Authors: Qin Xi , Wang Shana , Xie Xiaolan , Sun Yunyun , Gao Lei , Li Huijian , Fu Jing , Zhu Bidan
Published: June 2024

Background
To investigate the genetic and environmental factors associated with axial length (AL), the corneal radius of curvature (CR) and the axial length to corneal radius of curvature (AL/CR) ratio among 3- to 6-year-old children in Beijing, China.
Methods
This cohort study of kindergarten children in Tongzhou District, Beijing, started in November 2021 and was conducted over three months. A total of 1403 children aged 3–6 years from 9 kindergartens were randomly selected for ocular biological parameter measurements and cycloplegia refraction. Ocular biological parameters, including axial length (AL) and the corneal radius of curvature (CR), were collected before cycloplegia. The spherical equivalent (SE) and AL-to-CR ratio (AL/CR) were calculated. The questionnaire of each child's parental myopia and environmental influence was completed by the children’s parents.
Results
A total of 1403 participants (733 males, 52.25%) aged 3–6 years (mean 4.36 ± 0.82 years) were included. According to the one-way analysis of variance, longer ALs were associated with male sex, older age, myopic diopter and parental myopia. A greater CR was associated with male sex and more outdoor time. A greater AL/CR ratio was significantly associated with male sex, older age, myopic refractive strength and parental myopia. Multiple regression analysis revealed that a longer AL and a greater AL/CR ratio were significantly associated with male sex, older age, diopter with myopia and parental myopia. CR values were greater in males. In addition, when the time spent outdoors increased, the CR value increased, and the AL/CR ratio decreased.
Conclusion
Ocular biological parameters are influenced by genetic and environmental factors. A longer AL was associated with older age, male sex and parental myopia among children aged 3–6 years in Beijing, China. Parental myopia and male sex are associated with a greater risk of a higher AL/CR ratio in preschool-aged children. When the time spent outdoors increases, the CR increases, and the AL/CR decreases.
Translating Risk Narratives in Socio-technical Systems into Infrastructure Utilization Metrics during Compounding Hazard Events
Authors: Kays H M Imran , Momin Khondhaker Al , Muraleetharan K. K. Muralee , Sadri Arif Mohaimin
Published: June 2024

Risk communication in times of disasters is complex, involving rapid and diverse communication in social networks (i.e., public and/or private agencies; residents) as well as limited mobilization capacity and operational constraints of physical infrastructure networks. Despite a growing literature on infrastructure interdependencies and co-dependent social-physical systems, an in-depth understanding of how risk communication in online social networks weighs into physical infrastructure networks during major disasters remains limited, let alone in compounding risk events. This study analyzes large-scale datasets of crisis mobility and activity-related social interactions and concerns available through social media (Twitter) for communities impacted by an ice storm in October 2020 in Oklahoma. Compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, this aberrant ice storm caused significant traffic disruptions (among others) due to excessive ice accumulation. By using Twitter’s academic Application Programming Interface (API) that provides complete and unbiased data, geotagged tweets (~25.7K) were collected covering the entire state of Oklahoma. First, the study employes natural language processing techniques, such as topic modeling and Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) model to classify crisis narratives (e.g., tweets), and text quantification techniques to analyze them. Next, the geotagged quantified tweets are transformed into a weighting factor for the transportation infrastructure network by employing spatial analysis. Finally, using network analysis, this study develops an infrastructure risk map that integrates the co-located road network. The findings reveal that quantifying online social media content and communication patterns can highlight significant disruptions in critical infrastructure during compounding disaster events. By mapping the risks associated with road networks, the study provides emergency management agencies with valuable situational awareness, facilitating more efficient resource allocation and prioritization aimed at enhancing disaster response efforts.
BDR-Net: Digital Recognition Network for Billet Surface Based on Flow Alignment and Attention Mechanism
Authors: Xu Jinyu , Liu Yipeng , Liu Zhitai
Published: June 2024

The surface characteristics of billets are crucial for subsequent traceability, yet the production process generates intricate digital features on their surfaces. This paper introduces BDR-Net, a novel billet surface digit recognition network. Drawing inspiration from Inception, the network adopts a ResNext-like architecture as its primary framework. It uniformly distributes output in dimension, extracts positional and scale features separately, and introduces a mixed dilated convolution block to reduce parameters while expanding the sensory field. To address the challenge of lost up-sampled features during fusion, an innovative stream alignment-based up-sampled feature fusion algorithm is proposed. Additionally, to enhance the network's focus on extracting salient spatial and channel features, a mixed-dimensional attention mechanism (scSE) is integrated into the alignment-based upsampling feature fusion module. Experimental results showcase BDR-Net's outstanding performance, achieving an impressive 95.6\% accuracy in digitally classifying billet surfaces, surpassing the ResNext50\_32x4d benchmark model by 4.3\% in recognition accuracy. Moreover, compared to current classification networks, this model exhibits significant accuracy improvements. Furthermore, the mAP@0.95 metric reaches 0.897, surpassing current classification networks. These findings underscore the remarkable performance of the model in billet surface digit recognition, offering an effective solution for digit recognition on billet surfaces in steel mills.
Real-World Effectiveness of Nirmatrelvir in Protecting Long COVID for Outpatient Adult Patients – A Large-Scale Observational Cohort Study from the RECOVER Initiative
Authors: Wang Fei , Zang Chengxi , Li Haoyang , Khullar Dhru , Zhang Yongkang , Strobel Stephenson , Chen Yong , Sala Marc , Patel Payal , Comellas Alejandro , Wylam Andrew , Weiner Mark , Forrest Christopher , Carton Thomas , Kaushal Rainu
Published: June 2024

Paxlovid has been approved for use in patients who are at high risk for severe acute COVID-19 illness. Evidence regarding whether Paxlovid protects against Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC), or Long COVID, is mixed in high-risk patients and lacking in low-risk patients. With a target trial emulation framework, we evaluated the association of Paxlovid treatment within 5 days of SARS-CoV-2 infection with incident Long COVID and hospitalization or death from any cause in the post-acute period (30–180 days after infection) using electronic health records from the Patient-Centered Clinical Research Networks (PCORnet) RECOVER repository. The study population included 497,499 SARS-CoV-2 positive patients between March 1, 2022, to February 1, 2023, and among which 165,256 were treated with Paxlovid within 5 days since infection and 307,922 were not treated with Paxlovid or other COVID-19 treatments. Compared with the non-treated group, Paxlovid treatment was associated with reduced risk of Long COVID with a Hazard Ratio (HR) of 0.88 (95% CI, 0.87 to 0.89) and absolute risk reduction of 2.99 events per 100 persons (95% CI, 2.65 to 3.32). Paxlovid treatment was associated with reduced risk of all-cause death (HR, 0.53, 95% CI 0.46 to 0.60; risk reduction 0.23 events per 100 persons, 95% CI 0.19 to 0.28) and hospitalization (HR, 0.70, 95% CI 0.68 to 0.73; risk reduction 2.37 events per 100 persons, 95% CI 2.19 to 2.56) in the post-acute phase. For those without documented risk factors, the associations (HR, 1.03, 95% CI 0.95 to 1.11; risk increase 0.80 events per 100 persons, 95% CI -0.84 to 2.45) were inconclusive. Overall, high-risk, nonhospitalized adult patients with COVID-19 who were treated with Paxlovid within 5 days of SARS-CoV-2 infection had a lower risk of Long COVID and all-cause hospitalization or death in the post-acute period. However, Long COVID risk reduction with Paxlovid was not observed in low-risk patients.
Open Packing in Interval Graphs
Authors: Shalu M A , Kirubakaran V K
Published: June 2024

Total Domination and Open Packing forms a primal-dual pair of problems. A vertex subset S of a graph G is called an open packing in G if no pair of distinct vertices in S have a common neighbour in G. The cardinality of a maximum open packing in G is called the open packing number, ρᵒ(G), of G which is a lower bound for the total domination number of G. Given a graph G and a positive integer k, the problem OPEN PACKING tests whether G has an open packing of size at least k. It is known that OPEN PACKING is NP-complete for split graphs (and so for chordal graphs) [Ramos et al., 2014]. In this work, we use a dynamic programming based approach to show that a maximum open packing in interval graphs (a subclass of chordal graphs) can be found in O(n³) time.
Revealing molecular determinants governing mambalgin-3 pharmacology at acid-sensing ion channel 1 variants
Authors: Cristofori-Armstrong Ben , Budusan Elena , Smith Jennifer J. , Reynaud Steve , Voll Kerstin , Chassagnon Irène R. , Durek Thomas , Rash Lachlan Douglas
Published: June 2024

Acid-sensing ion channels (ASICs) are trimeric proton-gated cation channels that play a role in neurotransmission and pain sensation. The snake venom-derived peptides, mambalgins, exhibit potent analgesic effects in rodents by inhibiting central ASIC1a and peripheral ASIC1b. Despite their distinct species- and subtype-dependent pharmacology, previous structure-function studies have focussed on the mambalgin interaction with ASIC1a. Currently, the specific channel residues responsible for this pharmacological profile, and the mambalgin pharmacophore at ASIC1b remain unknown. Here we identify non-conserved residues at the ASIC1 subunit interface that drive differences in the mambalgin pharmacology from rat ASIC1a to ASIC1b, some of which likely do not make peptide binding interactions. Additionally, variation below the core binding site explains potency differences between rat and human ASIC1. Two regions within the palm domain, which contribute to subtype-dependent effects for mambalgins, play key roles in ASIC gating, consistent with subtype-specific differences in mechanism. Lastly, there is a shared primary mambalgin pharmacophore for ASIC1a and ASIC1b activity, with certain peripheral peptide residues showing variant-specific significance for potency. Through our broad mutagenesis studies across various species and subtype variants, we gain a more comprehensive understanding of the pharmacophore and the intricate molecular interactions that underlie ligand specificity. These insights pave the way for the development of more potent and targeted peptide analogues required to advance our understating of human ASIC1 function and its role in disease.
Endogenous LXR signaling controls pulmonary surfactant homeostasis and prevents lung inflammation
Authors: Hernández-Hernandez Irene , Rosa Juan Vladimir De La , Martín-Rodríguez Patricia , Díaz-Sarmiento Mercedes , Recio Carlota Pilar , Guerra Carlos Borja , Fernández-Pérez Leandro Francisco , León Theresa E. , Torres Rosa , Font-Díaz Joan , Roig Angela , de Mora Fernando , Boscá Lisardo , Díaz Mario , Valledor Annabel F. , Castrillo Antonio , Tabraue Carlos
Published: June 2024

Lung type 2 pneumocytes (T2Ps) and alveolar macrophages (AMs) play crucial roles in the synthesis, recycling and catabolism of surfactant material, a lipid/protein fluid essential for respiratory function. The liver X receptors (LXR), LXRα and LXRβ, are transcription factors important for lipid metabolism and inflammation. While LXR activation exerts anti-inflammatory actions in lung injury caused by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and other inflammatory stimuli, the full extent of the endogenous LXR transcriptional activity in pulmonary homeostasis is incompletely understood. Here, using mice lacking LXRα and LXRβ as experimental models, we describe how the loss of LXRs causes pulmonary lipidosis, pulmonary congestion, fibrosis and chronic inflammation due to defective de novo synthesis and recycling of surfactant material by T2Ps and defective phagocytosis and degradation of excess surfactant by AMs. LXR-deficient T2Ps display aberrant lamellar bodies and decreased expression of genes encoding for surfactant proteins and enzymes involved in cholesterol, fatty acids, and phospholipid metabolism. Moreover, LXR-deficient lungs accumulate foamy AMs with aberrant expression of cholesterol and phospholipid metabolism genes. Using a house dust mite aeroallergen-induced mouse model of asthma, we show that LXR-deficient mice exhibit a more pronounced airway reactivity to a methacholine challenge and greater pulmonary infiltration, indicating an altered physiology of LXR-deficient lungs. Moreover, pretreatment with LXR agonists ameliorated the airway reactivity in WT mice sensitized to house dust mite extracts, confirming that LXR plays an important role in lung physiology and suggesting that agonist pharmacology could be used to treat inflammatory lung diseases.
Design of cost-effective Automatic Infant Radiant Warmer by using manually operated warmers mini project
Authors: Kassaw Ewunate Assaye
Published: June 2024

Temperature control in neonatology is one of the main concerns in any hospital or health service provider. A newly born infant's body temperature is different from the external world since they come from a regulated temperature area in the mother’s womb. Accurate temperature assessment enables early intervention or treatments of infection or disorder of a thermoregulatory system. An infant incubator, radiant warmer and embrace warmer are being used for the thermoregulation of neonates. In Gondar university specialized hospital there are limited number of infant incubators and automatic radiant warmers since they are very costy to own. On contrary there are a many number of manual radiant warmers with the drawback of always being on state of on or off, they didn’t have any mechanism to regulate the environment temperature. Optimizing the currently existing radiant warmer is a cost-effective way to feel the gaps of the currently available devices. An electronic system design and simulation which automatically measures the temperature of the environment and act accordingly is done using proteus and Arduino IDE together. By designing the circuit using proteus, by writing the instruction (algorithm) using arduino IDE then by loading the Arduino algorithm in to the Arduino UNO component in the proteus the simulation of the project was done successfully. The result of the simulation showed that the electronic system designed was successfully controlled the environmental temperature with the temperature input via the LM35. While simulating the controlling action was visible and exactly as needed.
Ovarian transcriptome profile from egg-laying period to incubation period of Changshun green-shell laying hens
Authors: Chen Zhi , Wen Di , Mu Ren
Published: June 2024

Background: Changshun green-shell laying hen with strong broodiness is a Chinese indigenous chicken breed. Little is known about the mechanisms responsible for ovary development of Changshun green-shell laying hens from egg-laying period (LP) to incubation period (BP). Here, RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) of ovaries from Changshun hens in LP and BP was performed to identify candidate genes and pathways associated with broodiness.
Results: We identified 1650 differently expressed genes (DEGs), including 429 up-regulated and 1221 down-regulated DEGs, in chicken ovaries between LP and BP groups. GO and KEGG analysis further revealed that these DEGs were mainly involved in the pathways related to follicle development in chicken ovaries, including focal adhesion, MAPK signaling pathway, and FoxO signaling pathway, and vascular smooth muscle contraction, ECM-receptor interaction, and GnRH signaling pathway were down-regulated in incubating ovaries. Eight candidate genes (EGFR, VEGFRKDRL, FLT1, KDR, PDGFRA, TEK, KIT and FGFR3) related to angiogenesis, folliculogenesis, steroidogenesis and oogenesis in ovaries were suggested to play important roles in the ovarian development of Changshun hens during the transition from LP to BP.
Conclusions: We discovered critical genes and pathways which is closely associated with ovary development in incubating chickens, indicating the complexity of reproductive behaviour of different chicken breeds.
Investigation of Lead Clamps Used in Roman Period Buildings in the Ancient City of Anavarza With Pb Isotope Analysis
Authors: AKYILDIZ Mustafa , AYNA Erkan
Published: June 2024

The ancient city of Anavarza is one of the most important cities of the Roman Period, established in the Cilicia region of Ovalık, within the borders of Anatolia. The center of the city is built on a land of approximately 4000 acres, on a plain with an altitude of 33 meters. The ancient city of Anavarza is divided into two parts: the lower city, surrounded by walls, and the upper city, built on the rocks. The Romans used clamps and iron to connect the columns and their capitals to each other. The clamping bars, which are curved at both ends, were added horizontally to the stone wall and inserted into the cavities created in the stone in order to strengthen the joined part, and the curved ends were covered with lead pouring. Bright section, SEM-EDX and Pb isotope analyzes were performed on the lead samples to determine the source of the lead used here. Primary galena mineral was detected in bright sections. According to EDX analysis results, 41.98 Pb, 15.48 O, 19.43 C, 13.66 Si, 4.45 Fe, 3.89 Al, 0.4 Co elements were detected. When comparing Pb isotope analyzes made from Pb-Zn deposits in regions close to the ancient city of Anavarza, it is thought that lead was supplied from the vicinity of Aladağ and Horzum, close to the region.
N6-methyladenosine-modified circRPS6KC1 regulated cell senescence in prostate cancer via FOXM1/PCNA axis
Authors: Shu Xuan , Yi Jiahe , Li Jiangfeng , Ying Yufan , Tang Yijie , Chen Ziyan , Wang Jiaming , Zhang Fenghao , Lu Dingheng , Wu Yuqing , Sun Jiazhu , Lin Shen , Qi Zhixiang , Chen Danni , Wang Xiao , Chen Hong , Xie Liping , Ma Xueyou , Luo Jindan
Published: June 2024

Background
Prostate cancer (PCa) gradually becomes the most common cancer in men in many countries, of which circRNAs and methylated modification exert an essential role in prostate cancer progression. However, the concrete mechanism of N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification of circRNAs in prostate cancer remains unclear.
Methods
circRNA-seq and bioinformatic analysis reveal the novel up-regulated circRPS6KC1 in PCa. Function experiments in vitro and in vivo, such as colony formation assay, cell counting kit-8 assay, cell cycle analysis, EdU assays, senescence associated β-galactosidase staining and subcutaneous xenograft tumor models, were conducted to show the effect of circRPS6KC1 on prostate cancer cell senescence. RNA Immunoprecipitation (RIP), methylated RNA Immunoprecipitation (MeRIP), RNA pull-down, chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and dual-luciferase reporter assays were performed to explore the regulatory mechanism.
Results
We identified a novel circRNA, circRPS6KC1, which was significantly up-regulated in prostate cancer cells and clinical tissues. METTL3/YTHDF1 participated in the m6A modification of circRPS6KC1 and stabilized it. Suppression of circRPS6KC1 contributed to cell senescence in prostate cancer. Mechanically, circRPS6KC1 acted as the miR-761 sponge to regulate the FOXM1 expression. FOXM1 mediated the transcription of PCNA and influenced the p21 degradation, which resulted in p21 up-regulation induced in a p53-independent manner.
Conclusion
N6-methyladenosine modification by METTL3/YTHDF1 stabilized circRPS6KC1, and circRPS6KC1 regulated cell senescence in prostate cancer via FOXM1/PCNA axis in a p53-independent manner.
A Multi-level Deep Neural Network to Diagnose Coronavirus Disease with Imbalanced Data
Authors: Zabbah Iman , Layeghi Kamran , Ebrahimpour Reza
Published: June 2024

One of the main challenges of medical data mining is the classification of imbalanced datasets. Often the data which are used for training classification is of no proper distribution. It occurs when a class has few samples in nature inclining the learner model to the major class. This imbalance is quite obvious in the data X-ray image of coronavirous, due to its newness, so the samples of healthy and pneumonia are more than COVID- 19 ones. Here we proposed a multi-level model that improves diagnosis of the disease using data augmentation in the minor class of coronavirous cases. The model contains a deep feature extractor, a novel algorithem to find the scatter topolgy of the minor class, a mechanism to selectively generate synthetic samples and finally clasify input data. Coronavirous images are fed to a deep neural networks as a feature estractor. Then, finding scatter topology of the minor class, synthetic samples are generated in the feature space and evaluated by some expertes so that the synthetic samples resemble real ones mostly. Finally, the pool of synthetic and real samples of each classes are transferred to a discriminator network after the dataset is balanced. Results indicate that the production of samples by the framework not only improves classification performance but also has a more desirable performance than other data augmentation methods.
Equal Work, Unequal Pay: Gender Wage Discrimination in India
Authors: Taneja Arz , Batra Rachel
Published: June 2024

This paper investigates gender wage discrimination in India using data from the nationally representative Indian Human Development Survey round I (IHDS 2005) as well as round II (IHDS 2011). We examine the gender wage gap in the country across rural and urban areas separately as well as at an aggregate level. Controlling for financial and household characteristics, we employ a modified Mincer regression for men and women. We then breakdown the wage differential into explainable and unexplainable components using the Blinder–Oaxaca methodology. We find that education and experience significantly influence wages across genders in both rural and urban areas, while their affect is more prominent in urban areas. Through the decomposition analysis, we find that although the log wage differential decreased between 2005 and 2011, this reduction is overshadowed by a larger portion of the differential being attributed to different treatment of the same skills, indicative of potential discrimination.
Water structure and dynamics in microporous mordenite
Authors: Egorov Andrei V. , Egorova Maria I. , Mizyulin Dmitry A. , Shelyapina Marina G.
Published: June 2024

The local ordering and features of the molecular mobility of water confined in voids of a pure silica mordenite was studied using the molecular dynamics simulation over a temperature range from 298 to 163 K. The simulated system was a fragment of mordenite consisted of 2×2×4 unit cells filled with 384 water molecules. Three different water models: SPCE, SPCF, and TIP5P were considered. To study the effect of nanoconfinment the results were compared with bulk water. The modelling suggests that at room temperature a 2D (in c and b directions of the mordenite cell) water diffusion takes place, while upon cooling the diffusion in b direction essentially slows down. The analysis of microstructure shows that the pores prevent the formation of a full tetrahedral structure of water environment that results in formation of several water substructures. A detailed analysis of water reorientational motion was carried out and the activation energies were determined from temperature dependence of the correlation times. Of the three water models considered, SPCE demonstrated the best performance. The results obtained can be helpful for interpretation of experimental temperature dependence of NMR relaxation rates for water molecules confined in porous media with complex topology.