bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Regurgitation and prolapse of oesophageal mucosa: a dramatic presentation of the oesophagitis dissecans superficialis
Authors: Shaikh Oseen Hajilal , Gaur Naveen Kumar , Vijayakumar Chellappa , Kumbhar Uday Shamrao
Published: March 2022

Oesophagitis dissecans superficialis is a rare benign entity that is usually self-limited, characterised by sloughing of the oesophageal mucosa. We preset a 38-year-old woman, known case of epidermolysis bullosa acquisita who presented to us with regurgitation and prolapse of the oesophageal mucosa from the mouth. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy showed sloughing of the mucosa. The patient was managed conservatively and discharged.
Predicting 1-year mortality among patients with decompensated cirrhosis: results of a multicentre evaluation of the Bristol Prognostic Score
Authors: Bowers Sarah Pauline , Clare Kathleen , Hagerty Louise , McColl Kirsty , Smith Eva , Brown-Kerr Alana , Ahmed Asma , Finlay Fiona , Dillon John F , Barclay Stephen
Published: March 2022

Objective

Chronic liver disease continues to be a significant cause of morbidity and mortality yet remains challenging to prognosticate. This has been one of the barriers to implementing palliative care, particularly at an early stage. The Bristol Prognostic Score (BPS) was developed to identify patients with life expectancy less than 12 months and to act as a trigger for referral to palliative care services. This study retrospectively evaluated the BPS in a cohort of patients admitted to three Scottish hospitals.

Method

Routinely collated healthcare data were used to obtain demographics, BPS and analyse 1-year mortality for patients with decompensated liver disease admitted to three gastroenterology units over two 90-day periods. Statistical analysis was undertaken to assess performance of BPS in predicting mortality.

Results

276 patients were included in the final analysis. Participants tended to be late middle-aged men, socioeconomically deprived and have alcohol-related liver disease. A similar proportion was BPS+ve (>3) in this study compared with the original Bristol cohort though had more hospital admissions, higher ongoing alcohol use and poorer performance status. BPS performed poorer in this non-Bristol group with sensitivity 54.9% (72.2% in original study), specificity 58% (83.8%) and positive predictive value (PPV) 43.4% (81.3%).

Conclusion

BPS was unable to accurately predict mortality in this Scottish cohort. This highlights the ongoing challenge of prognostication in patients with chronic liver disease, furthering the call for more work in this field.
Lessons learnt from quality improvement collaboratives in Cambodia
Authors: Perry Kelly E , Rakhmanova Nilufar , Suos Premprey , Nhim Dalen , Voeurng Bunreth , Bouchet Bruno
Published: March 2022

Currently, Cambodia uses performance-based financing (PBF) and a national quality enhancement monitoring system as key components of its strategy to achieve universal health coverage and the health-related Sustainable Development Goals. PBF is one among many strategies to improve the quality of healthcare services and its effects and limitations have been widely documented. We share lessons learnt from the use of quality improvement collaboratives, a facility-based quality improvement strategy, to amplify and complement PBF to address specific service delivery gaps, improve provider competency, and increase patient trust and satisfaction in the health system, a driver of healthcare utilisation.
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on gastrointestinal infection trends in England, February–July 2020
Authors: Love Nicola K , Elliot Alex J , Chalmers Rachel M , Douglas Amy , Gharbia Saheer , McCormick Jacquelyn , Hughes Helen , Morbey Roger , Oliver Isabel , Vivancos Roberto , Smith Gillian
Published: March 2022

Objective

To establish the impact of the first 6 months of the COVID-19 outbreak response on gastrointestinal (GI) infection trends in England.

Design

Retrospective ecological study using routinely collected national and regional surveillance data from seven UK Health Security Agency coordinated laboratory, outbreak and syndromic surveillance systems using key dates of UK governmental policy change to assign phases for comparison between 2020 and historic data.

Results

Decreases in GI illness activity were observed across all surveillance indicators as COVID-19 cases began to peak. Compared with the 5-year average (2015–2019), during the first 6 months of the COVID-19 response, there was a 52% decrease in GI outbreaks reported (1544 vs 3208 (95% CI 2938 to 3478)) and a 34% decrease in laboratory confirmed cases (27 859 vs 42 495 (95% CI 40 068 to 44 922)). GI indicators began to rise during the first lockdown and lockdown easing, although all remained substantially lower than historic figures. Reductions in laboratory confirmed cases were observed across all age groups and both sexes, with geographical heterogeneity observed in diagnosis trends. Health seeking behaviour changed substantially, with attendances decreasing prior to lockdown across all indicators.

Conclusions

There has been a marked change in trends of GI infections in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The drivers of this change are likely to be multifactorial; while changes in health seeking behaviour, pressure on diagnostic services and surveillance system ascertainment have undoubtably played a role, there has likely been a true decrease in the incidence for some pathogens resulting from the control measures and restrictions implemented. This suggests that if some of these changes in behaviour such as improved hand hygiene were maintained, then we could potentially see sustained reductions in the burden of GI illness.
Qualitative focus group interview study of communication between patients, dentists and physicians for efficient osteonecrosis of the jaw practices
Authors: Choi Yiseul , Park Heajeong , Hong Namki , Rhee Yumie , Park Wonse
Published: March 2022

Objectives

To investigate problems and the current status of existing methods of communication between patients, dentists and physicians for the prevention and treatment of medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (MRONJ).

Design

A focus group interview study with a descriptive design using qualitative content analysis of transcripts.

Setting

Secondary care in Korea.

Participants

3 patient groups and 4 health professional groups in a total of 32 participants including patients with osteoporosis or bone metastasis, dentists and physicians.

Results

This study revealed that patients lacked medical knowledge of osteoporosis drugs, whereas dentists and physicians lacked each other’s expertise. All patients reported undergoing dental treatments during the osteoporosis drug treatment, but dentists and physicians had different MRONJ experiences depending on their work setting in primary or secondary care. Patients expressed dissatisfaction with the current system of communication with health professionals via letter as they found this to be a slow process. Dentists and physicians reported the need for effective communication because they felt defensive when sending and receiving medical consults.

Conclusions

Despite the low incidence of MRONJ among patients with osteoporosis, it is difficult to treat; thus, it is necessary to inform dentists, physicians and patients about the importance of MRONJ prevention. To this end, close communication among all involved stakeholders about osteoporosis drugs is required.
Effects of depression on employment and social outcomes: a Mendelian randomisation study
Authors: Campbell Desmond , Green Michael James , Davies Neil , Demou Evangelia , Howe Laura D , Harrison Sean , Smith Daniel J , Howard David M , McIntosh Andrew M , Munafò Marcus , Katikireddi Srinivasa Vittal
Published: March 2022

Background

Depression is associated with socioeconomic disadvantage. However, whether and how depression exerts a causal effect on employment remains unclear. We used Mendelian randomisation (MR) to investigate whether depression affects employment and related outcomes in the UK Biobank dataset.

Methods

We selected 227 242 working-age participants (40–64 in men, 40–59 years for women) of white British ethnicity/ancestry with suitable genetic data in the UK Biobank study. We used 30 independent genetic variants associated with depression as instruments. We conducted observational and two-sample MR analyses. Outcomes were employment status (employed vs not, and employed vs sickness/disability, unemployment, retirement or caring for home/family); weekly hours worked (among employed); Townsend Deprivation Index; highest educational attainment; and household income.

Results

People who had experienced depression had higher odds of non-employment, sickness/disability, unemployment, caring for home/family and early retirement. Depression was associated with reduced weekly hours worked, lower household income and lower educational attainment, and increased deprivation. MR analyses suggested depression liability caused increased non-employment (OR 1.16, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.26) and sickness/disability (OR 1.56, 95% CI 1.34 to 1.82), but was not causal for caring for home/family, early retirement or unemployment. There was little evidence from MR that depression affected weekly hours worked, educational attainment, household income or deprivation.

Conclusions

Depression liability appears to cause increased non-employment, particularly by increasing disability. There was little evidence of depression affecting early retirement, hours worked or household income, but power was low. Effective treatment of depression might have important economic benefits to individuals and society.
Bifurcation occlusions and endovascular treatment outcome in acute ischemic stroke
Authors: Arrarte Terreros Nerea , Bruggeman Agnetha A E , van Voorst Henk , Konduri Praneeta R , Jansen Ivo G H , Kappelhof Manon , Tolhuisen Manon L , Boodt Nikki , Dippel Diederik W J , van der Lugt Aad , van Zwam Wim H , van Oostenbrugge Robert J , van der Worp H. Bart , Emmer Bart J , Meijer Frederick J A , Roos Yvo B W E M , van Bavel Ed , Marquering Henk A , Majoie Charles B L M
Published: March 2022

Background

A thrombus in the M1 segment of the middle cerebral artery (MCA) can occlude this main stem only or extend into the M1-M2 bifurcation. The occlusion pattern may affect endovascular treatment (EVT) success, as a bifurcated thrombus may be more prone to fragmentation during retrieval.

Objective

To investigate whether bifurcated thrombus patterns are associated with EVT procedural and clinical outcomes.

Methods

Occlusion patterns of MCA thrombi on CT angiography from MR CLEAN Registry patients were classified into three groups: main stem occlusion, bifurcation occlusion extending into one M2 branch, and bifurcation occlusion extending into both M2 branches. Procedural parameters, procedural outcomes (reperfusion grade and embolization to new territory), and clinical outcomes (24-48 hour National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale [NIHSSFU] score, change in NIHSS scores between 24 and 48 hours and baseline ∆[NIHSS], and 90-day modified Rankin Scale [mRS] scores) were compared between occlusion patterns.

Results

We identified 1023 patients with an MCA occlusion of whom 370 (36%) had a main stem occlusion, 151 (15%) a single branch, and 502 (49%) a double branch bifurcation occlusion. There were no statistically significant differences in retrieval method, procedure time, number of retrieval attempts, reperfusion grade, and embolization to new territory between occlusion patterns. Patients with main stem occlusions had lower NIHSSFUscores than patients with single (7 vs 11, p=0.01) or double branch occlusions (7 vs 9, p=0.04). However, there were no statistically significant differences in ∆NIHSS or in 90-day mRS scores.

Conclusions

In our population, EVT procedural and long-term clinical outcomes were similar for MCA bifurcation occlusions and MCA main stem occlusions.
Assessment of three MR perfusion software packages in predicting final infarct volume after mechanical thrombectomy
Authors: Bani-Sadr Alexandre , Cho Tae-Hee , Cappucci Matteo , Hermier Marc , Ameli Roxana , Filip Andrea , Riva Roberto , Derex Laurent , De Bourguignon Charles , Mechtouff Laura , Eker Omer F , Nighoghossian Norbert , Berthezene Yves
Published: March 2022

Aims

To evaluate the performance of three MR perfusion software packages (A: RAPID; B: OleaSphere; and C: Philips) in predicting final infarct volume (FIV).

Methods

This cohort study included patients treated with mechanical thrombectomy following an admission MRI and undergoing a follow-up MRI. Admission MRIs were post-processed by three packages to quantify ischemic core and perfusion deficit volume (PDV). Automatic package outputs (uncorrected volumes) were collected and corrected by an expert. Successful revascularization was defined as a modified Thrombolysis in Cerebral Infarction (mTICI) score ≥2B. Uncorrected and corrected volumes were compared between each package and with FIV according to mTICI score.

Results

Ninety-four patients were included, of whom 67 (71.28%) had a mTICI score ≥2B. In patients with successful revascularization, ischemic core volumes did not differ significantly from FIV regardless of the package used for uncorrected and corrected volumes (p>0.15). Conversely, assessment of PDV showed significant differences for uncorrected volumes. In patients with unsuccessful revascularization, the uncorrected PDV of packages A (median absolute difference −40.9 mL) and B (median absolute difference −67.0 mL) overestimated FIV to a lesser degree than package C (median absolute difference −118.7 mL; p=0.03 and p=0.12, respectively). After correction, PDV did not differ significantly from FIV for all three packages (p≥0.99).

Conclusions

Automated MRI perfusion software packages estimate FIV with high variability in measurement despite using the same dataset. This highlights the need for routine expert evaluation and correction of automated package output data for appropriate patient management.
Occupational exposures to pesticides and other chemicals: a New Zealand motor neuron disease case–control study
Authors: Chen Grace Xia , Douwes J , van den Berg Leonard , Pearce Neil , Kromhout Hans , Glass Bill , McLean David J , 't Mannetje Andrea Martine
Published: March 2022

Objectives

To assess associations between occupational exposures to pesticides and other chemicals and motor neuron disease (MND).

Methods

A population-based case–control study that included 319 MND cases (64% male/36% female) recruited through the New Zealand MND Association complemented with hospital discharge data, and 604 controls identified from the Electoral Roll. For each job held, a questionnaire collected information on 11 exposure categories (dust, fibres, tobacco smoke, fumes, gas, fumigants, oils/solvents, acids/alkalis, pesticides, other chemicals and animals/animal products). ORs were estimated using logistic regression adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, education, smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activities, head/spine injury and other occupational exposures.

Results

Two exposure categories were associated with increased MND risks: pesticides (OR 1.70, 95% CI 1.17 to 2.48) and fumigants (OR 3.98, 95% CI 1.81 to 8.76), with risks increasing with longer exposure duration (p<0.01). Associations were also observed for: methyl bromide (OR 5.28, 95% CI 1.63 to 17.15), organochlorine insecticides (OR 3.28, 95% CI 1.18 to 9.07), organophosphate insecticides (OR 3.11, 95% CI 1.40 to 6.94), pyrethroid insecticides (OR 6.38, 95% CI 1.13 to 35.96), inorganic (copper) fungicides (OR 4.66, 95% CI 1.53 to 14.19), petrol/diesel fuel (OR 2.24, 95% CI 1.27 to 3.93) and unspecified solvents (OR 1.91, 95% CI 1.22 to 2.99). In women, exposure to textile fibres (OR 2.49, 95% CI 1.13 to 5.50), disinfectants (OR 9.66, 95% CI 1.29 to 72.44) and cleaning products (OR 3.53, 95% CI 1.64 to 7.59) were also associated with MND; this was not observed in men (OR 0.80, 95% CI 0.44 to 1.48; OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.29 to 1.84; OR 0.57, 95% CI 0.21 to 1.56, respectively).

Conclusions

This study adds to the evidence that pesticides, especially insecticides, fungicides, and fumigants, are risk factors for MND.
Occupational lifting, carrying, pushing, pulling loads and risk of surgery for subacromial impingement syndrome: a register-based cohort study
Authors: Riddervold Bjørn , Andersen Johan Hviid , Dalbøge Annett
Published: March 2022

Aim

The aim was to examine exposure–response relations between surgery for subacromial impingement syndrome (SIS) and intensities of lifting/carrying and pushing/pulling loads during a 10-year time window.

Methods

We conducted a register-based cohort study (2003–2008), comprising persons born in Denmark (1933–1977) with ≥5 years of work experience (N=2 374 403). Information on surgery for SIS was retrieved from the Danish National Patient Register (N=14 188). Occupational mechanical exposures comprising lifting/carrying loads ≥10 kg and pushing/pulling loads ≥50 kg were assessed by combining individual register-based job codes with our expert-based Shoulder job exposure matrix. We created three intensity-specific exposure duration variables by dividing the intensity for lifting/carrying and pushing/pulling loads into three categories (low, medium and high), and summed up number of years in each exposure category for a 10-year time window. The associations were analysed using logistic regression technique equivalent to discrete survival analysis.

Results

The adjusted OR (ORadj) increased with both exposure duration and intensity of lifting/carrying and pushing/pulling. For lifting/carrying, the ORadjreached a maximum of 1.78 (95% CI 1.66 to 1.89), 2.52 (95% CI 2.32 to 2.74) and 2.96 (95% CI 2.53 to 3.47) after 10 years of exposures for the three exposure intensities. For pushing/pulling, maximum ORadjwas 1.44 (95% CI 1.31 to 1.58), 1.68 (95% CI 1.58 to 1.79) and 1.72 (95% CI 1.50 to 2.00), respectively.

Conclusion

We found exposure–response relations for lifting/carrying and pushing/pulling across the 10-year time window. The risk was especially pronounced for lifting/carrying compared with pushing/pulling. We did not find indications of safe exposure intensities.
Silica and nitrogen-doped carbon co-coated lithium manganese iron phosphate microspheres as cathode materials for lithium batteries
Authors: Liu Jiangtao , Shi Jiayuan , Wang Zhenbo
Published: March 2022

Lithium manganese iron phosphate (LiMn1-xFexPO4, LMFP) combines the advantages of LiFePO4 and LiMnPO4. However, low electronic conductivity and sluggish lithium ion diffusion of the LMFP cathode limits its commercial application. In this work, the LMFP microspheres were co-coated by silica and N-doped carbon for the improvement of electronic and ionic conductivity of LMFP. The hydrolysis of tetraethyl orthosilicate and the polymerization of dopamine can be mutually promoted in one reaction system to realize the simultaneous precipitation of Si and C species on the LMFP surfaces without the addition of acid–base catalysts or buffering agents. After high-temperature treatment in argon, the silica and N-doped carbon co-coated LMFP microspheres were obtained with improved cycling stability (84.4% of capacity retention for 300 cycles at 1 C) and enhanced rate performance (80.0 mAh g−1 at 5 C). Therefore, this work shows a facile and common method for the composite coating of cathode materials.
Subalpine fir microsatellite variation reveals the complex relationship between var. lasiocarpa and var. bifolia
Authors: Ritland Kermit , Miscampbell Allyson , Cartwright Charlie , Bohlmann Nikhil , Ritland Carol
Published: March 2022

Subalpine fir, Abies lasiocarpa, occurs throughout western North America, often in forest–tundra parkland. To resolve the presence of varieties in this species, we surveyed microsatellite genetic markers in 11 populations containing three putative varieties of Abies lasiocarpa: (1) var. lasiocarpa, (2) var. bifolia, and (3) var. arizonica. We tested primers from related taxa, and 13 of the best primer pairs were used for assays. Within populations, both heterozygosity and allelic richness were approximately 10% lower in var. lasiocarpa. The STRUCTURE procedure struggled to assign populations to groups correctly; at K = 3, individuals were assigned to their putative varieties with approximately 70% accuracy. Regardless, both lasiocarpa and bifolia were correctly assigned more than expected by chance, indicating that these taxa are distinct. A dendrogram of genetic distances showed var. arizonica to exhibit higher evolutionary distance from the other two varieties and serves as an outgroup. The dendrogram also showed a nesting of var. bifolia clades within var. lasiocarpa, indicating a complex relationship between var. lasiocarpa and var. bifolia. Comparisons among the STRUCTURE population assignments for K = 2, K = 3, and K = 4 identified populations with cryptic admixture and indicate a “ lasiocarpa–bifolia” subspecies complex that warrants further study.
Simulation-based design study for the passive shielding of the COSINUS dark matter experiment
Authors: Angloher G. , Dafinei I. , Marco N. Di , Ferroni F. , Fichtinger S. , Filipponi A. , Friedl M. , Fuss A. , Ge Z. , Heikinheimo M. , Huitu K. , Maji R. , Mancuso M. , Pagnanini L. , Petricca F. , Pirro S. , Pröbst F. , Profeta G. , Puiu A. , Reindl F. , Schäffner K. , Schieck J. , Schmiedmayer D. , Schwertner C. , Stahlberg M. , Stendahl A. , Wagner F. , Yue S. , Zema V. , Zhu Y. ,   (The COSINUS Collaboration), Pandola L.
Published: March 2022

The COSINUS (Cryogenic Observatory for SIgnatures seen in Next-generation Underground Searches) experiment aims at the detection of dark matter-induced recoils in sodium iodide (NaI) crystals operated as scintillating cryogenic calorimeters. The detection of both scintillation light and phonons allows performing an event-by-event signal to background discrimination, thus enhancing the sensitivity of the experiment. The choice of using NaI crystals is motivated by the goal of probing the long-standing DAMA/LIBRA results using the same target material. The construction of the experimental facility is foreseen to start by 2021 at the INFN Gran Sasso National Laboratory (LNGS) in Italy. It consists of a cryostat housing the target crystals shielded from the external radioactivity by a water tank acting, at the same time, as an active veto against cosmic ray-induced events. Taking into account both environmental radioactivity and intrinsic contamination of materials used for cryostat, shielding and infrastructure, we performed a careful background budget estimation. The goal is to evaluate the number of events that could mimic or interfere with signal detection while optimising the geometry of the experimental setup. In this paper we present the results of the detailed Monte Carlo simulations we performed, together with the final design of the setup that minimises the residual amount of background particles reaching the detector volume.
Addendum to: Vacuum stability conditions and potential minima for a matrix representation in lightcone orbit space
Authors: Kannike Kristjan
Published: March 2022

We derive the vacuum stability conditions for a left-right-symmetric potential more general than originally considered.
The role of the 1.5 order formalism and the gauging of spacetime groups in the development of gravity and supergravity theories
Authors: Chamseddine Ali H. , West Peter
Published: March 2022

The 1.5 formalism played a key role in the discovery of supergravity and it has been used to prove the invariance of essentially all supergravity theories under local supersymmetry. It emerged from the gauging of the super Poincaré group to find supergravity. We review both of these developments as well as the auxiliary fields for simple supergravity and its most general coupling to matter using the tensor calculus.
SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF MAGNETIC NANOPARTICLES EMBEDDED ON IONIC POLYMER BY CHEMICAL REDUCTION METHOD
Authors: SHAMAILA S. , KHALID SIDRA , RAZA ADEEL , SHAHID REHANA
Published: March 2022

Magnetite nanoparticles (Fe3O4NPs) are prepared using chemical reduction method. This is a simple, economical, nontoxic, facile, clean, and environment friendly process. Preparation of composite polymeric membrane of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/Fe3O4has been performed using dry phase inversion technique for different medical/filtration applications. PVA coatings using magnetite NPs are focused to passivate the surface and decrease agglomeration and also reduce module biomedical absorption and most of the times increase dispersion stability. Therefore, research on PVA coatings on magnetite NPs are in trend now a days, as they are of high charge density that makes them stable in dispersion by electrostatic repulsion. The prepared samples (Fe3O4NPs) and PVA/Fe3O4composite membrane have been analyzed for their different properties by using X-ray direction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy (UV–Vis) and thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA).
Reliability of Divide-and-Swap Cube Based on r-Component Connectivity and Diagnosability
Authors: Zhou Qianru , Zhou Shuming , Liu Xiaoqing , Yu Zhengqin
Published: March 2022

When performing big data processing and high-performance computing, large-scale multiprocessor systems have always been committed to ensuring high reliability and fault tolerance. Connectivity and diagnosability are two important metrics to evaluate the fault tolerance and reliability of interconnection networks. In this paper, we determine [Formula: see text]-component connectivity and diagnosability of divide-and-swap cube [Formula: see text]. In detail, we show that, for [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] under the PMC and MM[Formula: see text] models.
IVF Outcome in Patients with Different Stages of Endometriosis: Can AMH Be a Predictor?
Authors: Marwaha Amarpreet Kaur
Published: March 2022

Background and Objectives: The role of Anti Mullerian Hormone (AMH) in determining the outcome of in vitro fertilization (IVF) in endometriosis has been controversial. This study was conducted to assess whether AMH can predict poor response in endometriosis patients undergoing IVF and to compare the IVF outcomes among the different stages of endometriosis.

Methodology: A retrospective study was conducted among 90 endometriosis patients undergoing IVF using the flexible antagonist protocol from January 2016 to December 2018 at DY Patil Medical College, Navi Mumbai. Serum AMH levels were obtained from different patients, primary outcome being clinical pregnancy rate (CPR) while the secondary outcome included the number of oocytes retrieved, number of mature oocytes obtained, fertilization rates (FR), and number of good quality embryos formed. Data was analyzed with SPSS 16.0. Mann-Whitney U and chi-square tests were used to compare the outcomes of IVF with AMH level in different stages of endometriosis. Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) curves were plotted to know the predictive ability of AMH by determining the area under the curve (AUC), P value < 0.05 was considered significant for all statistical tests.

Results: AUC was found to be significant for AMH in detecting poor response among those with late staged endometriosis but with poor accuracy (AUC = 0.65, P = 0.02∗). Considering a median AMH level of 1.24 ng/mL with sensitivity and specificity of > 60%, the primary and secondary outcomes were significantly higher among those with median AMH levels of more than 1.24 ng/mL compared to those with the median ≤ 1.24 ng/mL. The significance, however, was mainly found in the late stages of endometriosis (P < 0.05). Fertilization rates, good quality embryos, and CPR did not vary with AMH levels among those with early stages of endometriosis (P > 0.05). The outcomes of IVF did not vary significantly across the different stages of endometriosis except for good quality embryos which were formed in patients with early staged endometriosis (P < 0.05).

Conclusion: AMH levels may be a predictor of nonconception with poor accuracy in late stages of endometriosis (III/IV), while good quality embryos were obtained in patients with early stages of endometriosis.
Photonic Networks-on-Chip Employing Multilevel Signaling: A Cross-Layer Comparative Study
Authors: Karempudi Venkata Sai Praneeth , Sunny Febin , Thakkar Ishan G. , Chittamuru Sai Vineel Reddy , Nikdast Mahdi , Pasricha Sudeep
Published: March 2022

Photonic network-on-chip (PNoC) architectures employ photonic links with dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) to enable high throughput on-chip transfers. Unfortunately, increasing the DWDM degree (i.e., using a larger number of wavelengths) to achieve a higher aggregated data rate in photonic links and, hence, higher throughput in PNoCs, requires sophisticated and costly laser sources along with extra photonic hardware. This extra hardware can introduce undesired noise to the photonic link and increase the bit error rate (BER), power, and area consumption of PNoCs. To mitigate these issues, the use of 4-pulse amplitude modulation (4-PAM) signaling, instead of the conventional on-off keying (OOK) signaling, can halve the wavelength signals utilized in photonic links for achieving the target aggregate data rate while reducing the overhead of crosstalk noise, BER, and photonic hardware. There are various designs of 4-PAM modulators reported in the literature. For example, the signal superposition (SS)–, electrical digital-to-analog converter (EDAC)–, and optical digital-to-analog converter (ODAC)–based designs of 4-PAM modulators have been reported. However, it is yet to be explored how these SS-, EDAC-, and ODAC-based 4-PAM modulators can be utilized to design DWDM-based photonic links and PNoC architectures. In this article, we provide a systematic analysis of the SS, EDAC, and ODAC types of 4-PAM modulators from prior work with regards to their applicability and utilization overheads. We then present a heuristic-based search method to employ these 4-PAM modulators for designing DWDM-based SS, EDAC, and ODAC types of 4-PAM photonic links with two different design goals: (i) to attain the desired BER of 10
-9
at the expense of higher optical power and lower aggregate data rate and (ii) to attain maximum aggregate data rate with the desired BER of 10
-9
at the expense of longer packet transfer latency. We then employ our designed 4-PAM SS–, 4-PAM EDAC–, 4-PAM ODAC–, and conventional OOK modulator–based photonic links to constitute corresponding variants of the well-known CLOS and SWIFT PNoC architectures. We eventually compare our designed SS-, EDAC-, and ODAC-based variants of 4-PAM links and PNoCs with the conventional OOK links and PNoCs in terms of performance and energy efficiency in the presence of inter-channel crosstalk. From our link-level and PNoC-level evaluation, we have observed that the 4-PAM EDAC–based variants of photonic links and PNoCs exhibit better performance and energy efficiency compared with the OOK-, 4-PAM SS–, and 4-PAM ODAC–based links and PNoCs.
Countering Modeling Attacks in PUF-based IoT Security Solutions
Authors: Lalouani Wassila , Younis Mohamed , Ebrahimabadi Mohammad , Karimi Naghmeh
Published: March 2022

Hardware fingerprinting has emerged as a viable option for safeguarding IoT devices from cyberattacks. Such a fingerprint is used to not only authenticate the interconnected devices but also to derive cryptographic keys for ensuring data integrity and confidentiality. A
Physically Unclonable Function (PUF)
is deemed as an effective fingerprinting mechanism for resource-constrained IoT devices since it is simple to implement and imposes little overhead. A PUF design is realized based on the unintentional variations of microelectronics manufacturing processes. When queried with input bits (challenge), a PUF outputs a response that depends on such variations and this uniquely identifies the device. However, machine learning techniques constitute a threat where intercepted
challenge-response pairs (CRPs)
could be used to model the PUF and predict its output. This paper proposes an adversarial machine learning based methodology to counter such a threat. An effective label flipping approach is proposed where the attacker's model is poisoned by providing wrong CRPs. We employ an adaptive poisoning strategy that factors in potentially leaked information, i.e., the intercepted CRPs, and introduces randomness in the poisoning pattern to prevent exclusion of these wrong CRPs as outliers. The server and client use a lightweight procedure to coordinate and predict poisoned CRP exchanges. Specifically, we employ the same pseudo random number generator at communicating parties to ensure synchronization and consensus between them, and to vary the poisoning pattern over time. Our approach has been validated using datasets generated via a PUF implementation on an FPGA. The results have confirmed the effectiveness of our approach in defeating prominent PUF modeling attack techniques in the literature.
Thermal and Performance Efficient On-Chip Surface-Wave Communication for Many-Core Systems in Dark Silicon Era
Authors: Karkar Ammar , Dahir Nizar , Mak Terrence , Tong Kin-Fai
Published: March 2022

Due to the exceedingly high integration density of VLSI circuits and the resulting high power density, thermal integrity became a major challenge. One way to tackle this problem is Dark silicon. Dark silicon is the amount of circuitry in a chip that is forced to switch off to insure thermal integrity of the system and prevent permanent thermal-related faults. In many-core systems, the presence of Dark Silicon adds new design constraints, in general, and on the communication fabric of such systems, in particular. This is due to the fact that system-level thermal-management systems tend to increase the distance between high activity cores to insure better thermal balancing and integrity. Consequently, a designing dilemma is created where a compromise has to be made between interconnect performance and power consumption. This study proposes a hybrid wire and surface-wave interconnect (SWI) based Network-on-Chip (NoC) to address the dark silicon challenge. Through efficient utilization of one-hop cross the chip communication SWI links, the proposed architecture is able to offer an efficient and scalable communication platform in terms of performance, power, and thermal impact. As a result, evaluations of the proposed architecture compared to baseline architecture under dark silicon scenarios show reduction in maximum temperature by 15∘C, average delay up to 73.1%, and energy-saving up to ∼3X. This study explores the promising potential of the proposed architecture in extending the utilization wall for current and future many-core systems in dark silicon era.
A Novel Social Interaction Assistive Device for Arab Deaf People
Authors: Otoom Mwaffaq , Alzubaidi Mohammad A. , Al-Raziq Lina Nasr Abd
Published: March 2022

Many deaf people worldwide face problems with integrating into society and interacting with people who do not understand sign language. This can lead to isolation and difficulty in expressing feelings. In this research, our primary goal is to help deaf people communicate, express their feelings, and socialize with others. Toward that end, 40 Arabic words that are commonly used in social interactions were used to build a dataset of hand movements used by deaf people to express these words. These movements were recorded using a
Leap Motion Controller
(
LMC
). The resulting dataset consists of 1,579 instances and 112 features, recorded with the help of five deaf persons. Feature reduction and oversampling techniques were applied to analyze the dataset. Machine learning algorithms were then used to build a model that is able to classify any given hand posture or gesture into one of those 40 words. This work compared the performance of nine classification algorithms: Random Forest, Decision Table, Classification via Regression, K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), Simple Logistic, Input Mapped Classifier, Random Tree, J48, and Bayes network. Results show that the Random Forest model achieved the highest accuracy with over 90%, outperforming the other eight models. Subsequently, a usability study was conducted by 10 deaf people to test the effectiveness of the proposed assistive device. The results suggest that the proposed device is useful for facilitating social communication with deaf people. It also suggests that the device was preferred, when compared with other relevant devices.
Deep Learning and Medical Image Analysis for COVID-19 Diagnosis and Prediction
Authors: Liu Tianming , Siegel Eliot , Shen Dinggang
Published: March 2022

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has imposed dramatic challenges to health-care organizations worldwide. To combat the global crisis, the use of thoracic imaging has played a major role in the diagnosis, prediction, and management of COVID-19 patients with moderate to severe symptoms or with evidence of worsening respiratory status. In response, the medical image analysis community acted quickly to develop and disseminate deep learning models and tools to meet the urgent need of managing and interpreting large amounts of COVID-19 imaging data. This review aims to not only summarize existing deep learning and medical image analysis methods but also offer in-depth discussions and recommendations for future investigations. We believe that the wide availability of high-quality, curated, and benchmarked COVID-19 imaging data sets offers the great promise of a transformative test bed to develop, validate, and disseminate novel deep learning methods in the frontiers of data science and artificial intelligence.
Rooting Out the Mechanisms of Root-Knot Nematode–Plant Interactions
Authors: Rutter William B. , Franco Jessica , Gleason Cynthia
Published: March 2022

Root-knot nematodes (RKNs; Meloidogyne spp.) engage in complex parasitic interactions with many different host plants around the world, initiating elaborate feeding sites and disrupting host root architecture. Although RKNs have been the focus of research for many decades, new molecular tools have provided useful insights into the biological mechanisms these pests use to infect and manipulate their hosts. From identifying host defense mechanisms underlying resistance to RKNs to characterizing nematode effectors that alter host cellular functions, the past decade of research has significantly expanded our understanding of RKN–plant interactions, and the increasing number of quality parasite and host genomes promises to enhance future research efforts into RKNs. In this review, we have highlighted recent discoveries, summarized the current understanding within the field, and provided links to new and useful resources for researchers. Our goal is to offer insights and tools to support the study of molecular RKN–plant interactions.
Electrochemical Modeling and Experimental Verification of Lithiation Gradients in Oxide Cathodes of Lithium-Ion Cells
Authors: Shkrob Ilya A. , Okasinski John S. , Rodrigues Marco-Tulio Fonseca , Abraham Daniel P.
Published: March 2022

Lithiated nickel-cobalt-manganese oxides, such as NCM523, are used in the positive electrode (cathode) of Li-ion cells. Using operando X-ray diffraction profilometry, lithiation gradients in the cathode matrix can be observed and quantified by expansion into Legendre polynomials with time-dependent weights. These weights (referred to as gradients) increase in magnitude when electric current flows through the cell, decrease during potentiostatic hold and finally relax to zero when the current is interrupted during open circuit rest. Both physics-based electrochemical models and operando X-ray experiments suggest that the time constants for gradient growth and abatement are primarily determined by ionic diffusion in the oxide particles, which in turn depends on their lithium content. In contrast, the magnitude of gradients depends mainly on the applied current. The X-ray profilometry provides a way of directly probing the formation and disappearance of Li gradients across the cathode during fast cycling, which can help to diagnose the effects of material degradation in the cells.
Communication—Design of Heated Cells for In Situ Absorption and Reflectance UV–Vis Spectroelectrochemistry
Authors: Khan Fariha , Kowalchik Tim , Nelson Tanner , Atnip Aaron , Johnson Johnathan , Young Jeremiah , Siri Connor , Dallon Adam , Warren Roseanne
Published: March 2022

Spectroelectrochemistry (SEC) enables in-operando UV–vis study of electrochemical cells to explore the evolution of different cell components and understand cell mechanisms. Researchers have demonstrated various custom UV–vis cell designs to accommodate SEC experiments. However, existing designs do not easily permit temperature ramp techniques to examine the effects of rapidly changing cell temperature or high temperature conditions on cell mechanisms. This communication presents two easy-to-replicate, low-cost cell designs that are incorporable with existing UV–vis systems (transmittance, reflectance) and enable high temperature, rapid heating SEC experiments. Each cell design was tested to evaluate temperature ramp and sealing performance.
Reform of University English Teaching and Examination Based on Stratified Teaching Method and Mobile Computing
Authors: Zheng Xinning
Published: March 2022

Teachers should change the traditional mode of teaching with the same content, schedule, and method, take note of individual differences among university students, implement hierarchical teaching, and use mobile computing platforms to improve teaching quality, in light of the “polarization” phenomenon that university students are currently experiencing in English learning. The hierarchical teaching mode, as a new type of teaching mode, has the potential to improve the quality and efficiency of English reading instruction in junior high schools. The stratified teaching method, as a teaching mode that can effectively demonstrate the principles of teaching university students according to their intelligence and graded guidance, plays a very important role in improving university students’ English learning level and learning enthusiasm. Teachers must abandon the traditional teaching mode, actively apply the hierarchical teaching method to English reading instruction, and design teaching content that is reasonable in relation to the physical realities of university students in order to contribute to the improvement of junior high school English instruction and the reading ability of university students. To continue to adapt to the development and needs of today’s society, university English teaching should implement hierarchical teaching, cultivate university students’ interest in learning in a variety of ways, and constantly strengthen the exploration and implementation of classroom teaching models.
Multilevel RNN-Based PM10 Air Quality Prediction for Industrial Internet of Things Applications in Cleanroom Environment
Authors: Nurcahyanto Himawan , Prihatno Aji Teguh , Alam Md Morshed , Rahman Md Habibur , Jahan Israt , Shahjalal Md. , Jang Yeong Min
Published: March 2022

Adequate air ventilation systems and maintaining environmental air quality are essential things that need to be considered to create an excellent industrial environment in a company. Operating or maintaining ecological air quality is a challenge for companies to optimize the existing work environment. Especially at the economic and business level in the company are facing the main problems. In this case, monitoring and predicting future air quality are needed to maintain air quality conditions. PM10 concentration, humidity, and temperature were used to predict annual and seasonal indoor air quality using a recurrent neural network (RNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM). In this paper, we propose the IAQP method for air quality management systems that combines indoor air quality forecasting based on real-time data. To measure indoor air quality, we predict the outcome from the IIoT sensor and LoRa sensor. The result of prediction is that the multilevel RNN model outperformed the LSTM, as the model demonstrated excellent results and feasibility.
Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Medical Analysis for Intracranial Cerebral Hemorrhage Detection and Classification
Authors: Meng Fanhua , Wang Jianhui , Zhang Hongtao , Li Wei
Published: March 2022

Intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) becomes a crucial healthcare emergency, which requires earlier detection and accurate assessment. Owing to the increased death rate (around 40%), the earlier recognition and classification of disease using computed tomography (CT) images are necessary to ensure a favourable prediction and restrain the existence of neurologic deficits. Since the manual diagnosis approach is time-consuming, automated ICH detection and classification models using artificial intelligence (AI) models are required. With this motivation, this study introduces an AI-enabled medical analysis tool for ICH detection and classification (AIMA-ICHDC) using CT images. The proposed AIMA-ICHDC technique aims at identifying the presence of ICH and identifying the different grades. In addition, the AIMA-ICHDC technique involves the design of glowworm swarm optimization with fuzzy entropy clustering (GSO-FEC) technique for the segmentation process. Besides, the VGG-19 model was executed for generating a collection of feature vectors and the optimal mixed-kernel-based extreme learning machine (OMKELM) model is utilized as a classifier. To optimally select the weight parameter of the MKELM technique, the coyote optimization algorithm (COA) was utilized. A wide range of simulation analyses are carried out under varying aspects. As part of the AIMA-ICHDC method, ICH can be detected and graded using a single sample. For segmentation, the AIMA-ICHDC technique uses the GSO-FEC method, which is the design of glowworm swarm optimization (GSO). The comparative outcomes highlighted the betterment of the AIMA-ICHDC technique compared to the recent state-of-the-art ICH classification approaches in terms of several measures.
Institutional Governance Influence Mechanism and Model of Regional Green Development in China
Authors: Xiao Chunyue , Sun Jian
Published: March 2022

Green has become the underpinning of High-quality development in China. Green development is inseparable from the support of institutional governance. This study uses MVC mode to build institutional governance mechanism, and constructs institutional governance system and model of regional green development. The empirical results show the following: institutional governance has great influence on industrial green development. From the perspective of China's provincial industrial green development, Shandong Province has been maintaining the first position of governance investment. Green governance is better in southern China than in the northern provinces. And the institutional governance intensity of each province is not evenly distributed. Therefore, China's industrial green development still needs to further strengthen the system governance of northwest and northeast regions. Finally, this paper aims to improve the green development level of China's regional industrial economy through the construction of institutional governance system. It provides institutional environment for the development of green innovation.