bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Morphological, phylogenetic, and genomic evidence reveals the causal agent of thread blight disease of cacao in Peru is a new species of Marasmius in the section Neosessiles, Marasmius infestans sp. nov.
Authors: Huamán-Pilco Angel Fernando , Ramos-Carrasco Tito Ademir , Franco Mario Emilio Ernesto , Tineo-Flores Daniel , Estrada-Cañari Richard , Romero Pedro Eduardo , Aguilar-Rafael Vilma , Ramírez-Orrego Lourdes Adriana , Tincopa-Marca Rosalina , Márquez Fanny-Rosario , Oliva-Cruz Manuel , Díaz-Valderrama Jorge Ronny
Published: October 2023

The thread blight disease (TBD) of cacao (Theobroma cacao) in the department of Amazonas, Peru was recently reported to be caused by Marasmius tenuissimus (Sect. Neosessiles). This same species is known to be the main causal agent of TBD in West Africa. However, some morphological characteristics, such as the presence of rhizomorphs, the almost exclusively white color, and pileus sizes less than 5 mm, among others, differ to the description of M. tenuissimus. Therefore, we aimed to conduct a taxonomic revision of the cacao-TBD causal agent in Peru, by using thorough micro and macro morphological, phylogenetic, and nuclear and mitochondrial genomic approaches. We showed that the causal agent of TBD of cacao in Amazonas, Peru, belongs to a new species, Marasmius infestans sp. nov. This study enriches our knowledge of species in the Sect. Neosessiles, and strongly suggests that the M. tenuissimus species complex is highly diverse.
The genome sequence of the broad-banded Epistrophe, Epistrophe grossulariae (Meigen, 1822)
Authors: Falk Steven , Wolton Robert , Mitchell Ryan , Woodcock Katie J. ,   University of Oxford and Wytham Woods Genome Acquisition Lab,   Natural History Museum Genome Acquisition Lab,   Darwin Tree of Life Barcoding collective,   Wellcome Sanger Institute Tree of Life programme,   Wellcome Sanger Institute Scientific Operations: DNA Pipelines collective,   Tree of Life Core Informatics collective,   Darwin Tree of Life Consortium
Published: October 2023

We present a genome assembly from an individual female Epistrophe grossulariae (the broad-banded Epistrophe; Arthropoda; Insecta; Diptera; Syrphidae). The genome sequence is 556.6 megabases in span. Most of the assembly is scaffolded into 5 chromosomal pseudomolecules, including the X sex chromosome. The mitochondrial genome has also been assembled and is 16.56 kilobases in length. Gene annotation of this assembly on Ensembl identified 28,968 protein coding genes.
ECONOMIC SECURITY OF THE REGIONS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION THROUGH THE PRISM OF THE FORMATION OF TERRITORIES OF SUSTAINABLE INNOVATIVE DEVELOPMENT
Authors: Belyaev Vladislav V. , Besedin Alexander L. , Egorushkina Tatyana N.
Published: October 2023

The current period of economic formation is characterized by the active development of global processes and global crises, which are accompanied by the strengthening and aggravation of relations between countries, the aggravation of political and economic problems, which ultimately entails a loss of stability and the potential for their development. In this connection, the most important problem is ensuring the economic security of the country, which is necessary not only for its independence and the protection of its economy from external and internal threats, but also will ensure the economic sovereignty of the country and the unity of its economic space. It is impossible to imagine the economic security of a country without an innovative component that combines various types of resources: technical, technological, managerial, infrastructural and other resources and factors affecting the implementation of innovative processes that are the basis of modern socio-economic development of countries and regions.

Preparation and implementation of projects to create a new formation of sustainable innovative development of the territory, taking into account the specific features of the development of cities and their regions during the period of deep transformational changes in the world economy is a priority task

The analysis makes it possible to conclude that it is necessary to develop a systematic approach to the formation of territories of sustainable innovative development, taking into account the assessment of the relationship between improving the efficiency of socio-economic development of the region with a stabilizing effect and the initialization of an innovative breakthrough in the activities of enterprises and organizations in the global global crisis.

Purpose. Development of a systematic approach to the formation of territories of sustainable innovative development in the context of the global crisis in order to ensure the economic security of the region.

Methodology in article: methods as classification, generalization, typology, analysis and synthesis, comparison and comparison, method of logical interpretation, method of analogy, method of proof, method of logical justification.

Results: Specific methods and tools for creating territories of innovative development of a new formation are formulated within the framework of economic transformations carried out in the country under the conditions of sanctions pressure in order to increase the level of national economic security.

Practical implications it is advisable to apply the results obtained to improve the quality of management in the formation of an innovative strategy for the economic security of the subjects of the Russian Federation
Leveraging the Digital Tracing Alert in Virus Fight: The Impact of COVID-19 Cell Broadcast on Population Movement
Authors: Ghose Anindya , Lee Heeseung Andrew , Oh Wonseok , Son Yoonseock
Published: October 2023

Digital tracing alerts (DTAs) have emerged as effective means to share information with agility in responding to disaster outbreaks. Governments are able to instantaneously coordinate the available information to provide information related to the disaster and promote preventive actions. However, despite the opportunities granted by these innovative technologies in managing disasters, privacy concerns can arise in regard to how much of individuals’ private information should be collected and disclosed. With these considerations, we examine the extent to which instant digital tracing alerts and the information included in the alerts affect people’s actions toward disaster management in the context of South Korea. Our results show that collecting and disclosing detailed private information is unnecessary and may instead diminish the effects of DTAs. The effect of digital alerts being more pronounced among young and male individuals and in business-centric areas. Furthermore, because the effectiveness of DTAs decreases with the cumulative number of DTAs received, governments should send alerts that include more urgent information that is directly related to the risk posed by a disaster. Our results provide policymakers and law enforcement with novel insights into whether and how the usage of information technology can facilitate disaster management and to what extent they should collect and expose private information to effectively safeguards public health and safety during a crisis. The fast and comprehensive implementation of DTAs in South Korea in response to the global outbreak offers other countries learning opportunities with respect to successful collaboration among parties involved in the development and design of DTA-related infrastructure and education. We emphasize that collaboration among central policymakers, local/municipal districts, telecommunications companies, and healthcare centers is essential to establishing an innovative IT-driven disaster management infrastructure and mechanisms that help inform citizens in taking desired actions in an emergency or disastrous events.
Comparative Performance of Various Wavelet Transformation for the Detection of Normal and Arrhythmia ECG Signal
Authors: Gusnam Mu'thiana , Kusuma Hendra , Sardjono Tri Arief
Published: October 2023

Cardiac Activity forms a signal of electrical potential waves in the heart that can be recorded using an Electrocardiogram (ECG). The results of the ECG signal can determine the conditions and abnormalities experienced by the heart, such as arrhythmias. Medical personnel diagnoses normal and arrhythmia heart conditions by looking at R peaks and R-R interval features. Normal conditions have regular R peaks and R-R intervals, whereas arrhythmias are irregular. The challenges in diagnosing ECG signals are that sometimes the signal has some noises that need reducing noise (denoising) are not required in the signal so it can be easier to detect abnormalities. This paper is a brief study of the comparison of the best performance in detecting ECG signals using various wavelet transforms and optimal threshold values based on empirical methods to obtain R peaks and R-R interval features. Wavelet transform describes the signals that can compress the ECG signal and reduce noise without losing important clinical information that can be achieved by medical personnel. The wavelet transform is suitable for approaching data with a discontinuity signal, so the frequency component will increase if noise or anomalies occur in the ECG signal. The various wavelet transforms used Daubechies (db4), Symlets (sym4), Coiflets (coif4), and Biorthogonal (bior3.7) with four types of Detail and Approximate levels; they are Level 1, 2, 3, and 4. The comparison result for the best performance of the various wavelet transforms is using Daubechies wavelet, and biorthogonal wavelet with an accuracy percentage of 100% at level 2 for diagnosing arrhythmia and 93.1% at level 1 for normal diagnosis from 31 data for arrhythmia and 18 for Normal sourced of the MIT-BIH Database. Hence, the total accuracy results obtained from all the data tested is 96.55%.
Prosumer-Based Optimization of Educational Building Grid Connected with Plug-in Electric Vehicle Integration using Modified Firefly Algorithm
Authors: Sandy Yusdiar , Priyadi Ardyono , Lystianingrum Vita
Published: October 2023

Educational buildings have the potential to support government programs in efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Installing photovoltaics and providing charging stations can reduce the use of fossil fuels and increase the number of electric vehicle users. This paper aims to optimize educational buildings when implementing a prosumer scheme and integrating Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEV) to meet building electricity demands. Optimization is carried out through two case studies, namely the application of a prosumer scheme with independent photovoltaic generators with and without PEV integration. The optimization process uses the Modified Firefly Algorithm. The results obtained by applying the prosumer scheme to educational buildings, the two case studies can produce LCOE cheaper than just buying electricity from the grid. Optimizing results show that photovoltaic installation and charging stations in educational buildings can be beneficial when implementing a prosumer scheme.
Load Frequency Control by Quadratic Regulator Approach with Compensating Pole using SIMULINK
Authors: Saeed Zubair , Ur Rehman Haseeb , Haseeb Abdul , Taseen Rabia , Shah Muhammad Shahzaib , Shaikh Inam Ul Hasan , Haider Ali Muhammad Zulqarnain
Published: October 2023

In this research, for the load frequency control (LFC) challenge, we provide a few possible approaches to building an optimum PID controller. This scheme employs the Quadratic Regulator Approach with Compensating Pole (QRAWCP) approach. In both multi-area and single-area power systems, this control law is used to solve load frequency concerns. And the other scenario that is considerable, the controller's robustness is evaluated on the same systems in terms of non-linearities, external disturbances, and parametric uncertainty such as the Governor Dead Band (GDB) as well as the Generation Rate Constraint (GRC). The performance of the control method is evaluated using Simulink simulations.
Temperature and Humidity Control System for 20 kV of Cubicle with Multiple Input Multiple Output Fuzzy Logic Controller
Authors: Ramadhan Mochammad Berliano Putra , Efendi Moh. Zaenal , Nugraha Syechu Dwitya
Published: October 2023

Cubicle 20 kV is a crucial electrical equipment in the 20 kV power distribution system. Often, cubicle issues arise due to excessively low or high temperatures and humidity, which can lead to the presence of water spots and corrosion on the components inside the 20 kV cubicle. One of the efforts to maintain the reliability of this 20 kV cubicle is to ensure that the temperature and humidity inside the cubicle remain within their operational limits. To achieve this, a system is needed to control the temperature and humidity in the 20 kV cubicle. The system can monitor and control the temperature and humidity inside the cubicle by adjusting the activation angle of the exhaust fan and heater. Control is achieved using a multiple-input, multiple-output fuzzy logic controller. The main components of this system are the STM32 microcontroller, DHT22 sensor, and ESP8266 module for monitoring temperature and humidity via a website. System has successfully controlled temperature and humidity d with a set point value of 35 °C and humidity of  60% RH. This implementation of fuzzy multiple input multiple outputs has performed well and resulted in only a small error of 0.55% for temperature and 1.05% for humidity.With the presence of this device, the temperature and humidity in the cubicle 20 kV can be controlled, and it enables the PLN operator to easily monitor and maintain the cubicle 20 kV.
Fusion of an Impacted Third and Supernumerary Fourth Molar Tooth with Concrescence of the Second Molar
Authors: Leow Julian , Solanki Kohmal , Kumar Mahesh
Published: October 2023

We report the case of a symptomatic 41-year-old female presenting with fusion of an impacted third (LL8) and fourth (LL9) mandibular molar tooth with concrescence of the second molar tooth (LL7). Cone-beam computed tomography showed direct contact with the inferior dental nerve (IDN) and lingual aspect of the double tooth. The patient underwent surgical removal of the LL8–LL9 using piezoelectric surgery. We present the first case of successfully using pre-operative CBCT in the planning of surgery and piezoelectric surgery to separate an impacted fused LL8–LL9 from a concrescent LL7 without causing trauma to the LL7 or intimately positioned IDN.

CPD/Clinical Relevance: An impacted fused mandibular third and supernumerary fourth molar with concrescence of the second molar requires very careful management.
Funding formula
Authors: Rawstrone Annette
Published: October 2023

With parents struggling to buy infant formula resorting to unsafe practices, there are calls for benefits to be increased. By Annette Rawstrone
Health check
Authors: Adebayo Shirley
Published: October 2023

In this series by senior health visitors, Shirley Adebayo, a senior health visitor at North Middlesex University Hospital, London, talks about stages of speech and language development following a case of pre-verbal three-year-old boys
safer practices part 4: Stay home?
Authors: Weinstein Nicole
Published: October 2023

Which diseases require official notification and when should children not attend? By Nicole Weinstein
Psychological status affects postoperative quality of life, function, and pain after periacetabular osteotomy
Authors: Wagener Nele , Löchel Jannis , Hipfl Christian , Perka Carsten , Hardt Sebastian , Leopold Vincent J.
Published: October 2023

Aims

Psychological status may be an important predictor of outcome after periacetabular osteotomy (PAO). The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of psychological distress on postoperative health-related quality of life, joint function, self-assessed pain, and sports ability in patients undergoing PAO.

Methods

In all, 202 consecutive patients who underwent PAO for developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) at our institution from 2015 to 2017 were included and followed up at 63 months (SD 10) postoperatively. Of these, 101 with complete data sets entered final analysis. Patients were assessed by questionnaire. Psychological status was measured by Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI-18), health-related quality of life was raised with 36-Item Short Form Survey (SF-36), hip functionality was measured by the short version 0f the International Hip Outcome Tool (iHOT-12), Subjective Hip Value (SHV), and Hip Disability and Outcome Score (HOS). Surgery satisfaction and pain were assessed. Dependent variables (endpoints) were postoperative quality of life (SF-36, HOS quality of life (QoL)), joint function (iHOT-12, SHV, HOS), patient satisfaction, and pain. Psychological distress was assessed by the Global Severity Index (GSI), somatization (BSI Soma), depression (BSI Depr), and anxiety (BSI Anx). Influence of psychological status was assessed by means of univariate and multiple multivariate regression analysis.

Results

In multiple multivariate regression, postoperative GSI, BSI Soma, and BSI Depr had a negative effect on postoperative SF-36 (e -2.07, -3.05, and -2.67, respectively; p < 0.001), iHOT-12 (e -1.35 and -4.65, respectively; p < 0.001), SHV (e -1.20 and -2.71, respectively; p < 0.001), HOS QoL (e -2.09 and -4.79, respectively; p < 0.001), HOS Function (e -1.00 and -3.94, respectively; p < 0.001), and HOS Sport (e -1.44 and -5.29, respectively; p < 0.001), and had an effect on postoperative pain (e 0.13 and 0.37, respectively; p < 0.001).

Conclusion

Psychological distress, depression, and somatization disorders affect health-related quality of life, perceived joint function, and sports ability. Pain perception is significantly increased by somatization. However, patient satisfaction with surgery is not affected.

Cite this article: Bone Jt Open 2023;4(10):758–765.
NY-ESO-1 antigen-antibody interaction process based on an TFBG plasmonic sensor
Authors: Qu Hang , Tan Linyao , Wu Fang-Cai , Huang Weiyuan , Li Kaiwei , Chen Xiaoyong , Xu Yi-Wei , Hu Xuehao
Published: October 2023

Autoantibodies against New York esophageal squamous cell cancer 1 (NY-ESO-1) play a crucial role in the diagnosis of esophageal cancer. In this work, a surface plasmonic tilted fiber Bragg grating (TFBG) biosensor is proposed for the detection of NY-ESO-1 antibody, as well as the investigation of the hook effect (which refers to the false negative result in some immunoassays when the concentration of antibodies in the sample is very high) during biomolecular binding between NY-ESO-1 antigen and antibody. The biosensor is made by an 18° TFBG coated with a 50-nm-thick gold film over the fiber surface together with NY-ESO-1 antigens attached to the metallic surface serving as bio-receptors. This biosensor can provide a limit of detection at a concentration of 2 × 10−7 µg/ml with a good linearity in the range from 2 × 10−7 to 2 × 10−5 µg/ml. For a concentration higher than 2 × 10−3 µg/ml, the performance of the sensor probe is reduced owing to the hook effect. Furthermore, experimental results have also demonstrated the repeatability of the proposed biosensor. This proposed biosensor features label-free, compactness, and fast response, which could be potentially applied in the diagnosis of esophageal cancer.
Generating local oscillator locally in continuous variable quantum key distribution using optical injection phase locked loop: a theoretical approach
Authors: Khaksar Zeinab S. , Bahrampour Alireza
Published: October 2023

In this study, we investigate the feasibility of utilizing optical injection locking with phase-locked loop feedback to generate a true local oscillator for continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD). We evaluate the noise and imperfections associated with this novel approach and compare our findings with existing CV-QKD schemes. Notably, our calculations demonstrate significantly lower noise levels compared to other locally generated local oscillator-based CV-QKD schemes. Furthermore, we assess the secure key rate and achievable distance under collective attack for our proposed scheme and compare it to other variants of CV-QKD protocols employing a true local oscillator. Our results align well with experimental data, highlighting the promise of our approach.
Enhanced Fourier-Hilbert-transform suppression for saturation-induced phase error in phase-shifting profilometry
Authors: Wan Yingying , Cao Yiping , Xu Min , Tang Tao
Published: October 2023

Intensity saturation tends to induce severe errors in high dynamic range three-dimensional measurements using structured-light techniques. This paper presents an enhanced Fourier-Hilbert-transform (EFHT) method to suppress the saturation-induced phase error in phase-shifting profilometry, by considering three types of residual errors: nonuniform-reflectivity error, phase-shift error, and fringe-edge error. Background normalization is first applied to the saturated fringe patterns to suppress the effect of the nonuniform reflectivity. A self-correction method is proposed to correct the large phase-shift error in the compensated phase. The self-corrected phase error is detected to assist in locating the fringe-edge area, within which the true phase is computed based on the sub-period phase error model. Experimental results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method in suppressing the saturation-induced phase error and other three types of residual errors with fewer images.
450 W pulsed laser system with M2 < 1.2 based on a 969-nm laser diode end-pumped Yb:YAG rod amplifier
Authors: Wang Chunhua , Khurgin Jacob B. , Yu Huakang
Published: October 2023

We demonstrated a compact and power-efficient multi-stage pulsed end-pumped amplifier with stabilized output power of 450 W and near-diffraction-limited beam quality (M2 < 1.2) at a repetition rate of 1 MHz. The pulsed amplifier produced an exceptional average power and optimal beam quality achieved in laser diode (LD) end-pumped Yb:YAG thin rod configuration at room temperature. A preliminary pulse compression with a chirped volume Bragg grating (CVBG) was performed reducing pulse duration to ∼730 fs at a compression efficiency of 90%. With the combined features, including compactness, reliability, and efficiency, of the end-pumped scheme, the demonstrated laser system would be of great value in both industry and scientific research.
Assessing the performance of methods for cell clustering from single-cell DNA sequencing data
Authors: Khan Rituparna , Mallory Xian
Published: October 2023

Background

Many cancer genomes have been known to contain more than one subclone inside one tumor, the phenomenon of which is called intra-tumor heterogeneity (ITH). Characterizing ITH is essential in designing treatment plans, prognosis as well as the study of cancer progression. Single-cell DNA sequencing (scDNAseq) has been proven effective in deciphering ITH. Cells corresponding to each subclone are supposed to carry a unique set of mutations such as single nucleotide variations (SNV). While there have been many studies on the cancer evolutionary tree reconstruction, not many have been proposed that simply characterize the subclonality without tree reconstruction. While tree reconstruction is important in the study of cancer evolutionary history, typically they are computationally expensive in terms of running time and memory consumption due to the huge search space of the tree structure. On the other hand, subclonality characterization of single cells can be converted into a cell clustering problem, the dimension of which is much smaller, and the turnaround time is much shorter. Despite the existence of a few state-of-the-art cell clustering computational tools for scDNAseq, there lacks a comprehensive and objective comparison under different settings.

Results

In this paper, we evaluated six state-of-the-art cell clustering tools–SCG, BnpC, SCClone, RobustClone, SCITE and SBMClone–on simulated data sets given a variety of parameter settings and a real data set. We designed a simulator specifically for cell clustering, and compared these methods’ performances in terms of their clustering accuracy, specificity and sensitivity and running time. For SBMClone, we specifically designed an ultra-low coverage large data set to evaluate its performance in the face of an extremely high missing rate.

Conclusion

From the benchmark study, we conclude that BnpC and SCG’s clustering accuracy are the highest and comparable to each other. However, BnpC is more advantageous in terms of running time when cell number is high (> 1500). It also has a higher clustering accuracy than SCG when cluster number is high (> 16). SCClone’s accuracy in estimating the number of clusters is the highest. RobustClone and SCITE’s clustering accuracy are the lowest for all experiments. SCITE tends to over-estimate the cluster number and has a low specificity, whereas RobustClone tends to under-estimate the cluster number and has a much lower sensitivity than other methods. SBMClone produced reasonably good clustering (V-measure > 0.9) when coverage is > = 0.03 and thus is highly recommended for ultra-low coverage large scDNAseq data sets.
Clinical performance validation of the STANDARD G6PD test: A multi-country pooled analysis
Authors: Adissu Wondimagegn , Brito Marcelo , Garbin Eduardo , Macedo Marcela , Monteiro Wuelton , Mukherjee Sandip Kumar , Myburg Jane , Alam Mohammad Shafiul , Bancone Germana , Bansil Pooja , Pal Sampa , Sharma Abhijit , Zobrist Stephanie , Bryan Andrew , Chu Cindy S. , Das Santasabuj , Domingo Gonzalo J. , Hann Amanda , Kublin James , Lacerda Marcus V. G. , Layton Mark , Ley Benedikt , Murphy Sean C. , Nosten Francois , Pereira Dhélio , Price Ric N. , Talukdar Arunansu , Yilma Daniel , Gerth-Guyette Emily
Published: October 2023

Introduction

Screening for G6PD deficiency can inform disease management including malaria. Treatment with the antimalarial drugs primaquine and tafenoquine can be guided by point-of-care testing for G6PD deficiency.

Methods and findings

Data from similar clinical studies evaluating the performance of the STANDARD G6PD Test (SD Biosensor, South Korea) conducted in Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States were pooled. Test performance was assessed in a retrospective analysis on capillary and venous specimens. All study sites used spectrophotometry for reference G6PD testing, and either the HemoCue or complete blood count for reference hemoglobin measurement. The sensitivity of the STANDARD G6PD Test using the manufacturer thresholds for G6PD deficient and intermediate cases in capillary specimens from 4212 study participants was 100% (95% Confidence Interval (CI): 97.5%–100%) for G6PD deficient cases with <30% activity and 77% (95% CI 66.8%–85.4%) for females with intermediate activity between 30%–70%. Specificity was 98.1% (95% CI 97.6%–98.5%) and 92.8% (95% CI 91.6%–93.9%) for G6PD deficient individuals and intermediate females, respectively. Out of 20 G6PD intermediate females with false normal results, 12 had activity levels >60% on the reference assay. The negative predictive value for females with G6PD activity >60% was 99.6% (95% CI 99.1%–99.8%) on capillary specimens. Sensitivity among 396 P. vivax malaria cases was 100% (69.2%–100.0%) for both deficient and intermediate cases. Across the full dataset, 37% of those classified as G6PD deficient or intermediate resulted from true normal cases. Despite this, over 95% of cases would receive correct treatment with primaquine, over 87% of cases would receive correct treatment with tafenoquine, and no true G6PD deficient cases would be treated inappropriately based on the result of the STANDARD G6PD Test.

Conclusions

The STANDARD G6PD Test enables safe access to drugs which are contraindicated for individuals with G6PD deficiency. Operational considerations will inform test uptake in specific settings.
Chemical control and herbicide resistance of hairy fleabane (Erigeron bonariensis L.) in Jordan
Authors: Qasem Jamal R.
Published: October 2023

The effect of paraquat, oxadiazon and oxyfluorfen herbicides was tested on two populations of hairy fleabane (Erigeron bonariensis L.), collected from a date palm orchard at Tal al-Ramil (Central Jordan Valley) and al-Twal (Northern Jordan Valley) sites using the recommended rates (0.5, 1.25 and 0.792kg a.i ha-1 for each herbicide, respectively) and 10-fold (5, 12.50 and 7.92 kg a.i. ha-1, respectively) under glasshouse conditions. Results showed that the date palm weed population was resistant to the three herbicides at both application rates and al-Twal site population was highly susceptible. Two field experiments were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of 12 herbicides in controlling the weed in the date palm orchard during the spring of 2017, revealed that E. bonariensis resists paraquat (0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 kg a.i. ha-1), oxadiazon (1.25 kg a.i. ha-1) and oxyfluorfen (0.792 kg a.i. ha-1) herbicides. None of the three herbicides was effective against the weed and treated plants continued to grow normally similar to those of untreated control. Ten-fold higher rates of these herbicides failed to control the weed. The effect of other tested herbicides was variable with bromoxynil plus MCPA (buctril®M), 2,4-D- iso-octyl ester, glyphosate, glyphosate trimesium and triclopyr being the most effective and completely controlling the weed at recommended rates of application. It is concluded that the tested populations of E. bonariensis developed resistance to paraquat, oxadiazon and oxyfluorfen but control of the weed was possible using other herbicides with different mechanisms of action. Herbicide rotation or other nonchemical weed control methods have been suggested to prevent or reduce the buildup and spread of resistant populations of this weed. These results represent the first report of herbicide resistance of E. bonariensis in Jordan.
Outcome measures for assessing the effectiveness of physiotherapy interventions on equinus foot deformity in post-stroke patients with triceps surae spasticity: A scoping review
Authors: Campanini Isabella , Bò Maria Chiara , Bassi Maria Chiara , Damiano Benedetta , Scaltriti Sara , Lusuardi Mirco , Merlo Andrea
Published: October 2023

Objective

Equinus foot deformity (EFD) is the most common deviation after stroke. Several physiotherapy interventions have been suggested to treat it. However, studies evaluating the efficacy of these treatments vary widely in terms of assessment modalities, type of data analysis, and nomenclature. This scoping review aimed to map current available evidence on outcome measures and the modalities employed to assess the effectiveness of physiotherapy programs for the reduction of triceps surae (TS) spasticity and EFD in patients with stroke.

Methods

Scoping review methodological frameworks have been used. Three databases were investigated. Primary literature addressing TS spasticity in adult patients with stroke using physiotherapy interventions was included. Findings were systematically summarized in tables according to the intervention used, intervention dosage, control group, clinical, and instrumental outcome measures.

Results

Of the 642 retrieved studies, 53 papers were included. TS spasticity was assessed by manual maneuvers performed by clinicians (mainly using the Ashworth Scale), functional tests, mechanical evaluation through robotic devices, or instrumental analysis and imaging (such as the torque-angle ratio, the H-reflex, and ultrasound images). A thorough critical appraisal of the construct validity of the scales and of the statistics employed was provided, particularly focusing on the choice of parametric and non-parametric approaches when using ordinal scales. Finally, the complexity surrounding the concept of “spasticity” and the possibility of assessing the several underlying active and passive causes of EFD, with a consequent bespoke treatment for each of them, was discussed.

Conclusion

This scoping review provides a comprehensive description of all outcome measures and assessment modalities used in literature to assess the effectiveness of physiotherapy treatments, when used for the reduction of TS spasticity and EFD in patients with stroke. Clinicians and researchers can find an easy-to-consult summary that can support both their clinical and research activities.
Serum high sensitivity C-reactive protein poorly predicts bone mineral density: A NHANES 2017–2020 analysis
Authors: Little-Letsinger Sarah E.
Published: October 2023

A reliable, widely available method to detect osteoporosis prior to fracture is needed. Serum levels of C-reactive protein may independently predict low bone mineral density (BMD) and high fracture risk. Existing empirical data focus on sexually and/or racially homogenous populations. This study tests the hypotheses that: C-reactive protein (1) negatively correlates with BMD and (2) fracture history, and (3) independently predicts BMD and fracture history in a diverse population. NHANES 2017–2020 pre-pandemic cycle data were analyzed in R studio. Strength and direction of relationships (-1 to +1) between variables were determined using Kendall’s rank correlation coefficient (τ). Linear models were optimized to predict femoral neck or lumbar spine BMD. C-reactive protein positively correlated with femoral (τ = 0.09, p<0.0001) and spine BMD (τ = 0.10, p<0.0001). Individuals identifying as female demonstrated more robust, but still weak, correlations between C-reactive protein and femoral neck (τ = 0.15, p<0.0001; male, τ = 0.06, p = 0.051) and spine BMD (τ = 0.16, p<0.0001; male, τ = 0.06, p = 0.04). C-reactive protein positively correlated with fracture history (τ = 0.083, p = 0.0009). C-reactive protein significantly predicted femoral neck (R2 = 0.022, p = 0.0001) and spine BMD (R2 = 0.028, p<0.0001) and fracture history (R2 = 0.015, p<0.0001). Exploratory analyses identified weight was the single best predictor for femoral neck (R2 = 0.24, p<0.0001) and spine BMD (R2 = 0.21, p<0.0001). In sum, C-reactive protein statistically correlates with and predicts femoral neck and spine BMD, but the magnitude is too low to be biologically meaningful. While weight is a more robust predictor, individuals who are overweight or obese account for nearly half of all osteoporotic fractures, limiting the predictive power of this variable at identifying individuals at risk for osteoporosis. Identification of a robust predictor of fracture risk in a diverse population and across of range of body weights and compositions is needed.
Prevalence of depression among students at Ethiopian universities and associated factors: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Anbesaw Tamrat , Zenebe Yosef , Necho Mogessie , Gebresellassie Moges , Segon Tesfaye , Kebede Fasikaw , Bete Tilahun
Published: October 2023

Background

Depression is the most common cause of disability in the world, which affects 350 million people. University students struggle to cope with stressors that are typical of higher education institutions as well as anxiety related to education. Although evidence indicates that they have a high prevalence of depression, no reviews have been done to determine the prevalence of depression among students at Ethiopian universities comprehensively.

Methods

Without regard to time constraints, PubMed, Scopus, and EMBASE were investigated. A manual search for an article reference list was also conducted. The Meta XL software was used to extract relevant data, and the Stata-11 meta-prop package was used to analyze it. The Higgs I2 test was used to test for heterogeneity.

Results

A search of the electronic and manual systems resulted in 940 articles. Data were extracted from ten studies included in this review involving a total number of 5207 university students. The pooled prevalence of depression was 28.13% (95% CI: 22.67, 33.59). In the sub-group analysis, the average prevalence was higher in studies having a lower sample size (28.42%) than studies with a higher sample; 27.70%, and studies that utilized other (PHQ-9, HADS); 30.67% higher than studies that used BDI-II; 26.07%. Being female (pooled AOR = 5.56) (95% CI: 1.51, 9.61), being a first-year (pooled AOR = 4.78) (95% CI: 2.21, 7.36), chewing khat (pooled AOR = 2.83) (95% CI: 2.32, 3.33), alcohol use (pooled AOR = 3.12 (95% CI:3.12, 4.01) and family history of mental illness (pooled AOR = 2.57 (95% CI:2.00, 3.15) were factors significantly associated with depression.

Conclusion

This systematic review and meta-analysis revealed that more than one-fourth of students at Ethiopian universities had depression. More efforts need to be done to provide better mental healthcare to university students in Ethiopia.
The syntax of wh-questions in unaccusative and (Un)ergative structures in Mehri language: A Phase-based approach
Authors: Fakih Abdul-Hafeed , Al-Qumairi Saeed Saad , Alzubi Ali Abbas Falah
Published: October 2023

The Mehri Language is an endangered language spoken in eastern Yemen, a sub-group of the Semitic language family, and a Southern Arabic language. The syntax of Mehri wh-questions has not been explored within minimalism; hence, there is a morpho-syntactic need to provide a modern analysis of wh-questions in order to show how the interrogative structures can be derived. This study aims to examine the syntax of the wh-question movement in Mehri’s unaccusative/ergative and unergative structures and answer the following questions within Chomsky’s (2000 and 2008) Phase-based Theory: (i) Does the Mehri language allow fronting of wh-phrases to [Spec-CP]? And (ii) how can wh-movement in Mehri unaccusative and (un)ergative structures be accounted for? This work presents a novel analysis of wh-question movement in unaccusative/ergative and unergative structures in Mehri; it demonstrates that the source head C triggers the movement of wh-adjunct and wh-subject phrases. In wh-adjunct extraction, two strategies are employed: overt wh-fronting and wh-in-situ; when the head Foc inherits an edge feature from C, wh-adjunct overtly undergoes movement from its original position within v*P to the left peripheries of [Spec-FocP] and subsequently to [Spec-CP]. When the lexical wh-adjunct remains within v*P, its question features covertly move to [Spec-CP], because the head Foc does not inherit an edge feature from C. In wh-subject extraction, the wh-subject overly undergoes movement to [Spec-CP] because C obligatorily inherits the edge feature to the head Top, which triggers movement of the illogical subject in unaccusative/ergative structures and the logical external specifier in unergative structures to [Spec-CP]. Moreover, Mehri obeys the Phase Impenetrability Condition of Chomsky, where wh-subject and wh-adjunct phrases must pass through certain phases until [Spec-CP].
The prevalence of infertility and factors associated with infertility in Ethiopia: Analysis of Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS)
Authors: Legese Nanati , Tura Abera Kenay , Roba Kedir Teji , Demeke Henok
Published: October 2023

Background

Despite having a high fertility rate, low-resource countries are also home to couples with infertility problems. Although many couples are suffering from the psychological impacts of infertility, its level and determinants are not adequately known. The main objective of this study is to assess the prevalence and factors associated with infertility among couples in Ethiopia using the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS) data.

Method

The study employed a cross-sectional study design extracting variables from the 2016 EDHS. The study included all married or cohabitating women aged 15 to 49 years in the Couples Recode (CR) file data set. Weighted samples of 6141 respondents were analyzed. We used Stata 14 software for analyzing the data. The association of selected independent variables with primary, secondary, and total infertility was analyzed using a logistic regression model. We presented the results using an adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI) and a p-value <0.05 as a cut-off point for declaring statistical significance.

Results

The prevalence of infertility in the past 12 months was 24.2% (95% CI: 23.1–25.3%), of which the majority (90.7%) was secondary infertility. Greater than 35 years of age (AOR = 2.45, 95% CI (1.58–3.79)), rural residence (AOR = 1.06, 95% CI (1.01–1.39)), smoking (AOR = 2.29, 95% CI (1.39–3.77)), and <18.5 Body Mass Index (BMI) (AOR = 1.71, 95% CI (1.43–2.04)) were significantly associated with infertility. Conversely, infertility was less likely among women with formal education and better wealth index. Primary infertility was significantly higher among women whose partners drink alcohol (AOR = 1.55; 95% CI 1.06–2.28)) and chew khat (AOR = 1.62; 95% CI (1.12–2.36)). Secondary infertility was significantly higher among women with <18.5 BMI (AOR = 1.59, 95% CI (1.37–1.84)), >30 BMI (AOR = 1.54; 95% CI 1.01–2.35)), and <15 years of age at first birth (AOR = 1.40; 95% CI 1.15–1.69)).

Conclusion

More than one in five couples in Ethiopia has an infertility problem. Both male and female-related factors are associated with infertility. Primary infertility was significantly higher among women whose partner chews khat and drinks alcohol. Secondary infertility was significantly associated with being underweight, obese, smoking, and young age at first birth. Hence, taking action on preventable factors is the most critical treatment approach and will improve the health status of the couples in other ways.
U-Net based vessel segmentation for murine brains with small micro-magnetic resonance imaging reference datasets
Authors: Praschl Christoph , Zopf Lydia M. , Kiemeyer Emma , Langthallner Ines , Ritzberger Daniel , Slowak Adrian , Weigl Martin , Blüml Valentin , Nešić Nebojša , Stojmenović Miloš , Kniewallner Kathrin M. , Aigner Ludwig , Winkler Stephan , Walter Andreas
Published: October 2023

Identification and quantitative segmentation of individual blood vessels in mice visualized with preclinical imaging techniques is a tedious, manual or semiautomated task that can require weeks of reviewing hundreds of levels of individual data sets. Preclinical imaging, such as micro-magnetic resonance imaging (μMRI) can produce tomographic datasets of murine vasculature across length scales and organs, which is of outmost importance to study tumor progression, angiogenesis, or vascular risk factors for diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Training a neural network capable of accurate segmentation results requires a sufficiently large amount of labelled data, which takes a long time to compile. Recently, several reasonably automated approaches have emerged in the preclinical context but still require significant manual input and are less accurate than the deep learning approach presented in this paper—quantified by the Dice score. In this work, the implementation of a shallow, three-dimensional U-Net architecture for the segmentation of vessels in murine brains is presented, which is (1) open-source, (2) can be achieved with a small dataset (in this work only 8 μMRI imaging stacks of mouse brains were available), and (3) requires only a small subset of labelled training data. The presented model is evaluated together with two post-processing methodologies using a cross-validation, which results in an average Dice score of 61.34% in its best setup. The results show, that the methodology is able to detect blood vessels faster and more reliably compared to state-of-the-art vesselness filters with an average Dice score of 43.88% for the used dataset.
How does government environmental investment promote green development: Evidence from China
Authors: Wang Qin , Zhou Chao
Published: October 2023

The 14th Five-Year Plan stated that China should accelerate green development and promote a comprehensive green transition in economic and social development. As China’s economic growth slows, green development becomes greatly significant for the high-quality development of the economy. Based on China’s provincial panel data from 2005 to 2021, this study applies fixed effects model and mediating effect model to explore the influence of the government environmental investment on green development. The results indicate that (1) the government environmental investment was conducive to green development, but such effect weakened with time. (2) The government environmental investment indirectly promoted green development through the application of green patents and economic agglomeration. (3) The promotional effect of the government environmental investment varied according to region and time. Specifically, investment exerted the most significant effect on the green development of eastern China, which became more evident after 2015. The government should promote green development by implementing long-term assessment and accountability mechanisms, expanding the scale of economic agglomeration, improving the efficiency of the application of green patents, and improving the accuracy of environmental investment.
On the utilization of the induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) model to study substance use disorders: A scoping review protocol
Authors: Niemis Wasiri , Peterson Shenita R. , Javier Chrisabella , Nguyen Amy , Subiah Sanchi , Palmer Rohan H. C.
Published: October 2023

Introduction

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are cells derived from somatic cells via reprogramming techniques. The iPSC approach has been increasingly used in neuropsychiatric research in the last decade. Though substance use disorders (SUDs) are a commonly occurring psychiatric disorder, the application of iPSC model in addiction research has been limited. No comprehensive review has been reported. We conducted a scoping review to collate existing evidence on the iPSC technologies applied to SUD research. We aim to identify current knowledge gaps and limitations in order to advance the use of iPSCs in the SUD field.

Methods and analysis

We employed a scoping review using the methodological framework first created by Arksey and O’Malley and further updated by Levac et al. and the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI). We adopted the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Protocols (PRISMA-P) to report items for the protocol. We searched evidence from four electronic databases: PubMed®, Embase®, Web of Science™, and Scopus®. Primary research, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses were included and limited to studies published in English, at the time from 2007 to March 2022. This is an “ongoing” scoping review. Searched studies will be independently screened, selected, and extracted by two reviewers. Disagreement will be solved by the third reviewer and discussion. Extracted data will be analyzed in descriptive and quantitative approaches, then summarized and presented in appropriate formats. Results will be reported following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guideline and disseminated through a peer-reviewed publication and conference presentations.

Conclusion

To our best knowledge, this is the first comprehensive scoping review of iPSC methods specifically applied to a broad range of addictive drugs/substances that lead to SUDs or misuse behavior.

Registration

This protocol is registered on Zenodo repository (https://zenodo.org/) with doi:10.5281/zenodo.7915252.