bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Characterization of the Functional Properties of Polycaprolactone Bone Scaffolds Fabricated Using Pneumatic Micro-Extrusion
Authors: Yu Mohan , Yeow Ye Jien , Lawrence Logan , Claudio Pier Paolo , Day James B. , Salary Roozbeh (Ross)
Published: June 2021

Pneumatic micro-extrusion (PME) is a direct-write additive manufacturing process, which has emerged as a robust, high-resolution method for the fabrication of a broad spectrum of biological tissues and organs. PME allows for noncontact multimaterial deposition of functional inks for tissue engineering applications. In spite of the advantages and engendered potential applications, the PME process is inherently complex, governed not only by complex physical phenomena but also by material–process interactions. Consequently, investigation of the influence of PME process parameters as well as the underlying physical phenomena behind material transport and deposition in PME would be inevitably a need. The overarching goal of this research work is to fabricate biocompatible, porous bone tissue scaffolds for the treatment of osseous fractures, defects, and diseases. In pursuit of this goal, the objectives of the work are: (i) to investigate the influence of seven consequential scaffold design factors and PME process parameters on the mechanical properties of fabricated bone tissue scaffolds and (ii) to explore the underlying dynamics behind material transport in the PME process, using a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. To investigate the effects of the design and process parameters, a series of experiments were designed and conducted. Layer height was identified as the most significant factor in this study. An increase in the layer height led to less overlap between subsequent layers, which allowed for more shrinkage and ultimately a reduction in scaffold diameter. In addition, print speed appeared as an influential factor in this study. An increase in the print speed resulted in a decline in linear mass density and thus in the extent of fusion between subsequent deposited layers. Besides, it was observed that there was a strong correlation between deposition mass and compression modulus. Overall, the results of this study pave the way for future investigation of PME-deposited polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffolds with optimal functional and medical properties for incorporation of stem cells toward the treatment of osseous fractures and defects.
Acoustic metrics to assess humpback whale song unit structure from the Atlantic sector of the Southern ocean
Authors: Schall Elena , Roca Irene , Van Opzeeland Ilse
Published: June 2021

Acoustic metrics (AMs) aggregate the acoustic information of a complex signal into a unique number, assisting our interpretation of acoustic environments and providing a rapid and intuitive solution to analyze large passive acoustic datasets. Manual identification and characterization of intraspecific call trait variation has been largely used in a variety of sonic taxa. However, it is time consuming, relatively subjective, and measurements can suffer from low replicability. This study assesses the potential of using a combination of standardized and automatically computed AMs to train a supervised classification model, as an alternative to discrimination protocols and manual measurements to categorize humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) song units from the Southern Ocean. Our random forest model successfully discriminated between the 12 humpback whale unit types (UT), achieving an average classification accuracy of 84%. UTs were further described and discussed in the context of the hierarchical structure of humpback whale song in the Southern Ocean. We show that accurate discriminant models based on relevant AM combinations provide an interesting automated solution to use for simple, rapid, and highly reproducible identification and comparison of vocalization types in humpback whale populations, with the potential to be applied to both aquatic and terrestrial contexts, on other vocal species, and over different acoustic scales.
U.S. Older Adults’ Participation in Balance Activities
Authors: Hyde Eric T. , Omura John D. , Chen Tiffany J. , Brown David R. , Fulton Janet E. , Carlson Susan A.
Published: June 2021

The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, second edition recommends that older adults do multicomponent physical activity, which includes balance training in addition to aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities. The authors estimated the prevalence of U.S. older adults (age ≥65 years) who do balance activities and meet the aerobic and muscle-strengthening physical activity guidelines. The authors analyzed data on 1,012 respondents to the 2019 FallStyles survey, a nationwide web-based panel survey. Approximately four in 10 respondents (40.7%) reported doing balance activities on ≥1 day/week, 34.0% on ≥2 days/week, and 25.3% on ≥3 days/week. Prevalence differed by sex, education level, income level, census region, body mass index category, and meeting the aerobic and/or muscle-strengthening guidelines. The combined prevalence of participation in balance activities and meeting aerobic and muscle-strengthening guidelines ranged from 12.0% for ≥3 days/week to 15.8% for ≥1 day/week. Opportunities exist to introduce and increase participation in balance and multicomponent activities by older adults.
Motor Control: Creating a Natural Science of Biological Movement
Authors: Latash Mark L.
Published: June 2021

Motor control is a young and aspiring field of natural science. Over the past 40 years, it has become an established field of study with several important theoretical developments, including the equilibrium-point hypothesis and its more recent version known as the control with referent spatial coordinates, the principle of abundance, the uncontrolled manifold hypothesis, and the concept of dynamic neural field as the means of task formulation. Important experimental advances have included the exploration of the notion of synergies, the links between descending signals from the brain and referent coordinates of the effectors, and applications of motor control principles to analysis of disordered movements. Further maturation of motor control requires focusing on theory-driven studies. It promises fruitful applications to applied fields such as movement disorders and rehabilitation.
High plasticity in marmoset monkey vocal development from infancy to adulthood
Authors: Gultekin Yasemin B. , Hildebrand David G. C. , Hammerschmidt Kurt , Hage Steffen R.
Published: June 2021

Marmoset vocal behavior shows high plasticity throughout development, a crucial precursor for human vocal development.
Force-mediated cellular anisotropy and plasticity dictate the elongation dynamics of embryos
Authors: Fang Chao , Wei Xi , Shao Xueying , Lin Yuan
Published: June 2021

Active forces trigger cellular anisotropy and plasticity to dictate embryo elongation dynamics.
Helical springs as a color indicator for determining chirality and enantiomeric excess
Authors: Maeda Katsuhiro , Hirose Daisuke , Nozaki Mai , Shimizu Yoichi , Mori Taro , Yamanaka Kentaro , Ogino Koji , Nishimura Tatsuya , Taniguchi Tsuyoshi , Moro Munetsugu , Yashima Eiji
Published: June 2021

Helical polymer–based molecular systems allow naked-eye determination of chirality and enantiomeric excess of chiral amines.
Charge order lock-in by electron-phonon coupling in La
1.675
Eu
0.2
Sr
0.125
CuO
4
Authors: Wang Qisi , von Arx Karin , Horio Masafumi , Mukkattukavil Deepak John , Küspert Julia , Sassa Yasmine , Schmitt Thorsten , Nag Abhishek , Pyon Sunseng , Takayama Tomohiro , Takagi Hidenori , Garcia-Fernandez Mirian , Zhou Ke-Jin , Chang Johan
Published: June 2021

Electron-phonon and electron-electron interactions are found to cooperatively drive the long-range charge order in cuprates.
Gene-rich UV sex chromosomes harbor conserved regulators of sexual development
Authors: Carey Sarah B. , Jenkins Jerry , Lovell John T. , Maumus Florian , Sreedasyam Avinash , Payton Adam C. , Shu Shengqiang , Tiley George P. , Fernandez-Pozo Noe , Healey Adam , Barry Kerrie , Chen Cindy , Wang Mei , Lipzen Anna , Daum Chris , Saski Christopher A. , McBreen Jordan C. , Conrad Roth E. , Kollar Leslie M. , Olsson Sanna , Huttunen Sanna , Landis Jacob B. , Burleigh J. Gordon , Wickett Norman J. , Johnson Matthew G. , Rensing Stefan A. , Grimwood Jane , Schmutz Jeremy , McDaniel Stuart F.
Published: June 2021

Moss sex chromosomes retain thousands of broadly expressed genes despite millions of years of suppressed recombination.
Order and disorder—An integrative structure of the full-length human growth hormone receptor
Authors: Kassem Noah , Araya-Secchi Raul , Bugge Katrine , Barclay Abigail , Steinocher Helena , Khondker Adree , Wang Yong , Lenard Aneta J. , Bürck Jochen , Sahin Cagla , Ulrich Anne S. , Landreh Michael , Pedersen Martin Cramer , Rheinstädter Maikel C. , Pedersen Per Amstrup , Lindorff-Larsen Kresten , Arleth Lise , Kragelund Birthe B.
Published: June 2021

Integrative structure of a complete cytokine receptor in a nanodisc opens for mechanistic decoding of disorder-based biology.
Retromer stabilizes transient membrane insertion of L2 capsid protein during retrograde entry of human papillomavirus
Authors: Xie Jian , Zhang Pengwei , Crite Mac , Lindsay Christina V. , DiMaio Daniel
Published: June 2021

Artificial transmembrane proteins can be used to dissect virus entry and provide new insights into cell biology.
Toward a living soft microrobot through optogenetic locomotion control of
Caenorhabditis elegans
Authors: Dong Xianke , Kheiri Sina , Lu Yangning , Xu Zhaoyi , Zhen Mei , Liu Xinyu
Published: June 2021

The combination of microrobotics and optogenetics enables closed-loop locomotion control of a living nematode worm.
The robot explorers
Authors: Lee Michael M.
Published: June 2021

Robots are at the frontier of space and deep-sea exploration; they will continue to lead our search into the unknown.
High-Level Diversity of Basal Fungal Lineages and the Control of Fungal Community Assembly by Stochastic Processes in Mangrove Sediments
Authors: Zhang Zhi-Feng , Pan Yue-Ping , Liu Yue , Li Meng
Published: June 2021

As key components of microbial community in mangroves, fungi have important ecological functions. However, the fungal community in mangroves on a large scale is generally elusive, and mangroves are declining rapidly due to climate change and anthropogenic activities.
Comparing Results of Five SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Assays Before and After the First Dose of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 Vaccine among Health Care Workers
Authors: Jeong Seri , Lee Nuri , Lee Su Kyung , Cho Eun-Jung , Hyun Jungwon , Park Min-Jeong , Song Wonkeun , Jung Eun Ju , Woo Heungjeong , Seo Yu Bin , Park Jin Ju , Kim Hyun Soo
Published: June 2021

Reliable results regarding serologic positivity for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibody before and after AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccination are essential for estimating the efficacy of vaccination. We assessed positivity rates and associated factors using five SARS-CoV-2 antibody assays.
Gender Differences in Student Comfort Voluntarily Asking and Answering Questions in Large-Enrollment College Science Courses
Authors: Nadile Erika M. , Williams Keonti D. , Wiesenthal Nicholas J. , Stahlhut Katherine N. , Sinda Krystian A. , Sellas Christopher F. , Salcedo Flor , Rivera Camacho Yasiel I. , Perez Shannon G. , King Meagan L. , Hutt Airyn E. , Heiden Alyssa , Gooding George , Gomez-Rosado Jomaries O. , Ford Sariah A. , Ferreira Isabella , Chin Megan R. , Bevan-Thomas William D. , Barreiros Briana M. , Alfonso Emilie , Zheng Yi , Cooper Katelyn M.
Published: June 2021

Allowing students to ask and answer questions is a common practice employed by college science instructors. However, recent literature has identified that women participate in whole-class discussions less often than men. One hypothesized reason for this gender gap is that women may be less comfortable participating.
Development of a Tool to Assess Inference-Making and Reasoning in Biology
Authors: Cromley Jennifer G. , Dai Ting , Fechter Tia S. , Nelson Frank E. , Van Boekel Martin , Du Yang
Published: June 2021

Making inferences and reasoning with new scientific information is critical for successful performance in biology coursework. Thus, identifying students who are weak in these skills could allow the early provision of additional support and course placement recommendations to help students develop their reasoning abilities, leading to better performance and less attrition within biology courses.
Morphological and Taxonomic Properties of the Newly Isolated
Cotonvirus japonicus
, a New Lineage of the Subfamily
Megavirinae
Authors: Takahashi Haruna , Fukaya Sho , Song Chihong , Murata Kazuyoshi , Takemura Masaharu
Published: June 2021

We have isolated a new virus of an independent lineage belonging to the family
Mimiviridae
, subfamily
Megavirinae
, from the fresh water of a canal in Japan, named
Cotonvirus
. In a proteomic tree, this new nucleocytoplasmic large DNA virus (NCLDV) is phylogenetically placed at the root of three lineages of the subfamily
Megavirinae
—lineages A (mimivirus), B (moumouvirus), and C (megavirus).
How the PhoP/PhoQ System Controls Virulence and Mg
2+
Homeostasis: Lessons in Signal Transduction, Pathogenesis, Physiology, and Evolution
Authors: Groisman Eduardo A. , Duprey Alexandre , Choi Jeongjoon
Published: June 2021

The PhoP/PhoQ two-component system governs virulence, Mg
2+
homeostasis, and resistance to a variety of antimicrobial agents, including acidic pH and cationic antimicrobial peptides, in several Gram-negative bacterial species. Best understood in
Salmonella enterica
serovar Typhimurium, the PhoP/PhoQ system consists of the sensor PhoQ and the transcriptional regulator PhoP.
Zika Virus Hijacks Extracellular Vesicle Tetraspanin Pathways for Cell-to-Cell Transmission
Authors: York Sara B. , Sun Li , Cone Allaura S. , Duke Leanne C. , Cheerathodi Mujeeb R. , Meckes David G.
Published: June 2021

Zika virus is a reemerging infectious disease that spread rapidly across the Caribbean and South America. Infection of pregnant women during the first trimester has been linked to microcephaly, a neurological condition where babies are born with smaller heads due to abnormal brain development.
Transcriptional Response of
Wolbachia
to Dengue Virus Infection in Cells of the Mosquito Aedes aegypti
Authors: Leitner Michael , Bishop Cameron , Asgari Sassan
Published: June 2021

Aedes aegypti
is a vector of several pathogenic viruses, including dengue, Zika, chikungunya, and yellow fever viruses, which are of importance to human health.
Wolbachia
is an endosymbiotic bacterium currently used in transinfected mosquitoes to suppress replication and transmission of dengue viruses. However, the mechanism of
Wolbachia
-mediated virus inhibition is not fully understood.
A 28-Day Toxicity Study of Tenofovir Alafenamide Hemifumarate by Subcutaneous Infusion in Rats and Dogs
Authors: Zane Doris , Roller Shane , Shelton Josephine , Singh Roshni , Jain Rachna , Wang Yan , Yang Bing , Felx Melanie , Alessi Thomas , Feldman Paul L.
Published: June 2021

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection continues to be a serious global human health issue, with ∼38 million people living with HIV worldwide at the end of 2019. HIV preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has introduced the use of antiretroviral therapies as another helpful tool for slowing the spread of HIV worldwide.
Patient disease knowledge, attitudes and behaviours related to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a qualitative study
Authors: Tincopa Monica A , Wong Jane , Fetters Michael , Lok Anna S
Published: June 2021

Objective

Despite clear evidence that weight loss via nutritional and physical activity changes improves histological outcomes in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), many patients struggle to implement and maintain these health behaviour changes. The aim of this study was to characterise disease knowledge, attitudes and behaviours among persons with NAFLD and to identify the factors driving these health behaviours and perceptions.

Design

We conducted semistructured interviews among patients with NAFLD. We used purposeful sampling to enroll equivalent percentages based on age and sex, and enrolled approximately one-third of patients with cirrhosis to capture those perspectives. Interviews were conducted until thematic saturation was achieved. Transcripts were coded using NVivo software to identify themes and subthemes.

Results

A total of 29 patient interviews were completed. Ambiguity about the diagnosis and aetiology of their liver disease was a key theme, though the vast majority of patients were aware that weight loss via nutrition and exercise was the primary therapy. Most patients were asymptomatic, diagnosed incidentally, and reported low level of concern regarding their diagnosis. The primary barriers and facilitators to health behaviour change were the presence of social support, competing medical comorbidities and low motivation to change behaviours.

Conclusions

Although patients are aware that lifestyle interventions are the primary therapy for NAFLD, there is a gap in knowledge about the condition. The presence of social support and competing medical comorbidities were the most consistent facilitators and barriers to lifestyle change. Tailoring treatment recommendations to provide relevant disease education, specific nutrition and exercise regimens, and personalised approaches based on specific individual barriers and facilitators will likely aid in uptake and maintenance of first-line therapy for NAFLD.
Higher adenoma detection, sessile serrated lesion detection and proximal sessile serrated lesion detection are associated with physician specialty and performance on Direct Observation of Procedural Skills
Authors: Telford Jennifer , Gondara Lovedeep , Pi Steven , Gentile Laura , Enns Robert
Published: June 2021

Objective

Adenoma detection rate (ADR) and sessile serrated lesion detection rate (SSLDR) vary among physicians. We sought to determine physician characteristics associated with ADR and SSLDR in a population-based colon screening programme.

Design

Retrospective study of 50–74 year olds with positive faecal immunochemical test and colonoscopy from 15/11/2013 to 31/12/2018. Physician characteristics included: gender, specialty, year and country of medical school graduation, colonoscopy volume and Direct Observation of Procedural Skills (DOPS) performance. Multivariable regression was performed on the following dependent variables: ADR, advanced ADR, proximal and distal ADR, SSLDR, proximal and distal SSLDR.

Results

104 326 colonoscopies were performed by 261 physicians. A higher ADR was associated with gastroenterology (OR for general surgery 0.87, 95% CI 0.80 to 0.95; OR for general/family/internal medicine 0.70, 95% CI 0.55 to 0.88), fewer years since graduation (OR for graduation>2000 10.48, 95% CI 1.30 to 1.69 compared with <1980) and DOPS performance (OR for lowest DOPS performance 0.64, 95% CI 0.50 to 0.82 compared with highest DOPS performance). SSLDR was associated with gastroenterology (OR for general surgery 0.89, 95%, CI 0.81 to 0.97; OR for general/family/internal medicine 0.67, 95% CI 0.49 to 0.92) and DOPS performance (OR for lowest DOPS performance 0.71, 95% CI 0.51 to 0.99 compared with highest DOPS performance). Proximal SSLDR was associated with gastroenterology (OR for general surgery 0.90, 95% CI 0.82 to 0.99; OR for general/family/internal medicine 0.69, 95% CI 0.50 to 0.97) and DOPS performance (OR for lowest DOPS performance 0.68, 95% CI 0.47 to 0.99).

Conclusion

Higher ADR, SSLDR and proximal SSLDR was associated with gastroenterology specialty and improved performance on DOPS.
Improving pathways to care through interventions cocreated with communities: a qualitative investigation of men’s barriers to tuberculosis care-seeking in an informal settlement in Blantyre, Malawi
Authors: Phiri Mackwellings Maganizo , Makepeace Effie , Nyali Margaret , Kumwenda Moses , Corbett Elizabeth , Fielding Katherine , Choko Augustine , MacPherson Peter , MacPherson Eleanor Elizabeth
Published: June 2021

Introduction

Men have a higher prevalence of undiagnosed tuberculosis (TB) than women and can spend up to a year longer contributing to ongoing transmission in the community before receiving treatment. Health outcomes are often worse for patients with TB living in informal settlements especially men. This study aimed to understand the barriers preventing men from seeking care for TB and cocreate interventions to address these barriers.

Methods

We used qualitative research methods including in-depth interviews and participatory workshops. Researchers worked with women and men living in Bangwe, an informal settlement in Blantyre, Malawi to develop interventions that reflected their lived realities. The study took place over two phases, in the first phase we undertook interviews with men and women to explore barrier to care seeking, in the second phase we used participatory workshops to cocreate interventions to address barriers and followed up on issues emerging from the workshops with further interviews. In total, 30 interviews were conducted, and 23 participants joined participatory workshops. The team used a thematic analysis to analyse the data.

Results

Three interconnected thematic areas shaped men’s health TB seeking behaviour: precarious socioeconomic conditions; gendered social norms; and constraints in the health system. Insecurity of day labour with no provision for sick leave; pressure to provide for the household and a gendered desire not to appear weak and a severely under-resourced health system all contributed to men delaying care in this context. Identified interventions included improved patient–provider relations within the health-system, improved workers’ health rights and broader social support for households.

Conclusion

Improving mens’ pathways to care requires interventions that consider contextual issues by addressing individual level socioeconomic factors but also broader structural factors of gendered social dynamics and health systems environment.
Italian version of the short 10/66 dementia diagnostic schedule: a validation study
Authors: Ibnidris Aliaa , Piumatti Giovanni , Carlevaro Fabio , Fadda Marta , Magno Francesca , Magistro Daniele , Albanese Emiliano
Published: June 2021

Objectives

To determine the criterion and concurrent validity of the Italian version of the short 10/66 Dementia Diagnostic Schedule and algorithm in a sample of Italian native speakers, older adults.

Design

A cross-sectional, validation study.

Setting

The study was conducted with older adults living in the community and in nursing homes in the Canton of Ticino, Switzerland, and the Piedmont region in Italy between March and August 2019.

Participants

A convenience sample of 229 participants (69% females) were recruited. The eligibility criteria were being ≥60 years old and having an informant. The final sample included 74 participants (32%) with a previous clinical diagnosis of dementia and 155 (68%) cognitively healthy older adults.

Primary and secondary outcome measures

The short version of 10/66 Dementia Diagnostic Schedule consists of the Community Screening Instrument for Dementia, the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s Disease (CERAD) 10-word list learning task with delayed recall and the depression scale, Euro-Depression (EURO-D) scale. Disability was measured using the WHO Disability Assessment Schedule (WHO-DAS II).

Results

The Italian version of the short 10/66 Dementia Diagnostic Schedule showed fair sensitivity (87%), specificity (61%) and agreement with the clinical diagnosis of dementia (kappa=0.40, area under the receiver operating characteristics curve=0.74). Older adults with dementia living in nursing homes had higher disability scores (WHO-DAS II mean=23.14, SE=1.29) than those living in the community (WHO-DAS II mean=7.08, SE=0.66). WHO-DAS II was positively correlated with the short version of the 10/66 dementia diagnosis (β=5.23, 95% CI 2.05 to 8.41).

Conclusions

In settings where lengthy diagnostic procedures are not feasible, the short 10/66 is a practical tool to identify dementia in older adults. Our findings extend evidence on the validity of the 10/66 dementia diagnostic algorithm to high-income countries, where epidemiological evidence on dementia and its impact is outdated.
Restoring invisible and abandoned trials of gabapentin for neuropathic pain: a clinical and methodological investigation
Authors: Mayo-Wilson Evan , Chen Xiwei , Qureshi Riaz , Dickinson Stephanie , Golzarri-Arroyo Lilian , Hong Hwanhee , Görg Carsten , Li Tianjing
Published: June 2021

Introduction

Gabapentin (Neurontin) is prescribed widely for conditions for which it has not been approved by regulators, including certain neuropathic pain conditions. There is limited evidence that gabapentin is safe and effective for the treatment of neuropathic pain. Published trial reports, and systematic reviews based on published trial reports, mislead patients and providers because information about gabapentin’s harms has been published only partly. We confirmed that trials conducted by the drug developer have been abandoned, and we plan to conduct a restoration with support from the Restoring Invisible and Abandoned Trials Support Centre (https://restoringtrials.org/).

Methods and analysis

In this study, we will analyse and report the harms that were observed in six trials of gabapentin, which have not been reported publicly (eg, in journal articles). We will use clinical study reports and individual participant data to identify and report the harms observed in each individual trial and to summarise the harms observed across all six trials. We will report all adverse events observed in the included trials by sharing deidentified data and summary tables on the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/w8puv/). Additionally, we will produce a summary report that describes differences between the randomised groups in each trial and across trials for prespecified harms outcomes.

Ethics and dissemination

We will use secondary data. This study was determined to be exempt from Institutional Review Board (IRB) review (protocol #1910607198).
Challenges of enforcing cellphone use while driving laws among police in the USA: a cross-sectional analysis
Authors: Rudisill Toni Marie , Zhu Motao
Published: June 2021

Objectives

Research suggests that cellphone use while driving laws may be difficult for police to enforce in the USA, but this is unknown. A national survey of police officers was conducted to determine whether barriers to enforcing these laws exist, what aspects of laws make them easier to enforce and ways to discourage the behaviour among drivers.

Design

Cross-sectional survey.

Setting

USA.

Participants

Individuals >18 years of age employed as a law enforcement officer from all 50 states were recruited via convenience sampling through multiple modalities from November 2019 to April 2020. Officers (N=353) from 31 states participated.

Primary and secondary outcome measures

Descriptive statistics and multi-level logistic regression analyses were run to assess the responses.

Results

The most common barriers to enforcing texting bans (ie, the most prevalent law) were drivers concealing their phone use (78%) and the officer not being able to determine what the driver was doing on their phone (65%). If a universal hand-held cellphone ban was in effect in their state, officers were 77% less likely (adjusted OR=0.23; 95% CI 0.08 to 0.70) to report that a texting ban was difficult to adjudicate. The majority of officers (86%) agreed that having one general law that prohibits any type of hand-held cellphone use would aid with enforcement, and that laws must be a primary offence (87%), and be applicable to all licensed drivers (91%). Most officers felt that driver education is needed.

Conclusions

While numerous barriers to enforcement were identified, opportunities exist to improve current legislation to aid enforcement efforts and to prevent the behaviour among drivers.
Post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC): a protocol for a multidisciplinary prospective observational evaluation of a cohort of patients surviving hospitalisation in Sao Paulo, Brazil
Authors: Busatto Geraldo Filho , de Araújo Adriana Ladeira , Duarte Alberto José da Silva , Levin Anna Sara , Guedes Bruno Fukelmann , Kallas Esper Georges , Pinna Fabio Rezende , de Souza Heraldo Possolo , da Silva Katia Regina , Sawamura Marcio Valente Yamada , Seelaender Marilia , Imamura Marta , Garcia Michelle Louvaes , Forlenza Orestes Vicente , Nitrini Ricardo , Damiano Rodolfo Furlan , Rocha Vanderson Geraldo , Batisttella Linamara Rizzo , Carvalho Carlos Roberto Ribeiro de ,   on behalf of the HCFMUSP PASC Initiative
Published: June 2021

Introduction

COVID-19 may lead to persistent and potentially incapacitating clinical manifestations (post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC)). Using easy-to-apply questionnaires and scales (often by telephone interviewing), several studies evaluated samples of COVID-19 inpatients from 4 weeks to several months after discharge. However, studies conducting systematic multidisciplinary assessments of PASC manifestations are scarce, with thorough in-person objective evaluations restricted to modestly sized subsamples presenting greatest disease severity.

Methods and analyses

We will conduct a prospective observational study of surviving individuals (above 18 years of age) from a cohort of over 3000 subjects with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 who were treated as inpatients at the largest academic health centre in Sao Paulo, Brazil (Hospital das Clínicas, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de São Paulo). All eligible subjects will be consecutively invited to undergo a 1–2-day series of multidisciplinary assessments at 2 time-points, respectively, at 6–9 months and 12–15 months after discharge. Assessment schedules will include detailed multidomain questionnaires applied by medical research staff, self-report scales, objective evaluations of cardiopulmonary functioning, physical functionality and olfactory status, standardised neurological, psychiatric and cognitive examinations, as well as diagnostic laboratory, muscle ultrasound and chest imaging exams. Remaining material from blood tests will be incorporated by a local biobank for use in future investigations on inflammatory markers, genomics, transcriptomics, peptidomics and metabolomics.

Ethics and dissemination

All components of this programme have been approved by local research ethics committees. We aim to provide insights into the frequency and severity of chronic/post-COVID multiorgan symptoms, as well as their interrelationships and associations with acute disease features, sociodemographic variables and environmental exposures. Findings will be disseminated in peer-reviewed journals and at scientific meetings. Additionally, we aim to provide a data repository to allow future pathophysiological investigations relating clinical PASC features to biomarker data extracted from blood samples.

Trial registration number

RBR-8z7v5wc; Pre-results.
Pro-inflammatory cytokine profile is present in the serum of Mexican patients with different stages of diabetic retinopathy secondary to type 2 diabetes
Authors: Quevedo-Martínez Jonathan Uriel , Garfias Yonathan , Jimenez Joanna , Garcia Osvaldo , Venegas Diana , Bautista de Lucio Victor Manuel
Published: June 2021

Aim

It’s been reported that pro-inflammatory cytokines are elevated in patients with diabetic retinopathy (DR); this may contribute to the pathophysiology of the disease. The aim of this study is to measure the concentration of various inflammatory cytokines from the main CD4+ T helper inflammatory responses in blood serum from Mexican patients with DR in different stages using cytometric bead array (CBA) technology and correlate them with the presence and severity of DR in order to find possible DR biomarkers that serve as diagnostic or therapeutic predictors.

Methods

64 subjects were included in the study, 16 in the control group, 16 in the type 2 diabetes mellitus no DR (NDR) group, 16 in the non-proliferative DR (NPDR) group and 16 in the proliferative DR (PDR) group. Cytokine concentrations of interleukin (IL) 1ß, IL‐2, IL‐4, IL‐6, IL‐8, IL‐10, IL‐12, IL‐17A, tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) and interferon-gamma in serum samples were measured using Human Inflammatory and TH1/TH2/TH17 CBA Kit.

Results

IL-6, IL-12, IL-17a and TNFα were significantly higher in the patients with DR compared with the control group. The PDR group showed a slightly lower concentration of serum cytokines IL-6, IL-12 and IL-17a. TNFα showed a higher concentration compared with healthy controls, NDR and NPDR subjects. We also found a positive statistical correlation between the presence and severity of DR with the clinical parameters haemoglobin A1c, body mass index and serum creatinine and the concentration of serum cytokines IL-6 and TNFα.

Conclusion

Our findings suggest that patients with diabetes and DR have a stronger chronic inflammatory profile compared with non-diabetic subjects.
IFN-γ- and IL-17-producing CD8+ T (Tc17-1) cells in combination with poly-ICLC and peptide vaccine exhibit antiglioma activity
Authors: Ohkuri Takayuki , Kosaka Akemi , Ikeura Maki , Salazar Andres M , Okada Hideho
Published: June 2021

Background

While adoptive transfer of T-cells has been a major medical breakthrough for patients with B cell malignancies, the development of safe and effective T-cell-based immunotherapy for central nervous system (CNS) tumors, such as glioblastoma (GBM), still needs to overcome multiple challenges, including effective homing and persistence of T-cells. Based on previous observations that interleukin (IL)-17-producing T-cells can traffic to the CNS in autoimmune conditions, we evaluated CD8+ T-cells that produce IL-17 and interferon-γ (IFN-γ) (Tc17-1) cells in a preclinical GBM model.

Methods

We differentiated Pmel-1 CD8+ T-cells into Tc17-1 cells and compared their phenotypic and functional characteristics with those of IFN-γ-producing CD8+ T (Tc1) and IL-17-producing CD8+ T (Tc17) cells. We also evaluated the therapeutic efficacy, persistence, and tumor-homing of Tc17-1 cells in comparison to Tc1 cells using a mouse GL261 glioma model.

Results

In vitro, Tc17-1 cells demonstrated profiles of both Tc1 and Tc17 cells, including production of both IFN-γ and IL-17, although Tc17-1 cells demonstrated lesser degrees of antigen-specific cytotoxic activity compared with Tc1 cells. In mice-bearing intracranial GL261-Quad tumor and treated with temozolomide, Tc1 cells, but not Tc17-1, showed a significant prolongation of survival. However, when the T-cell transfer was combined with poly-ICLC and Pmel-1 peptide vaccine, both Tc1 and Tc17-1 cells exhibited significantly prolonged survival associated with upregulation of very late activation antigen−4 on Tc17-1 cells in vivo. Glioma cells that recurred following the therapy lost the susceptibility to Pmel-1-derived cytotoxic T-cells, indicating that immuno-editing was a mechanism of the acquired resistance.

Conclusions

Tc17-1 cells were equally effective as Tc1 cells when combined with poly-ICLC and peptide vaccine treatment.
An Approach to Target Reselection for Anti-Ship Missile Against Centroid Jamming with Accurate Tracking Information
Authors: Zhang Jianqiang , Li Ke , Li Yan , Li Jialin
Published: June 2021

By equaling the detection of centroid jamming to the “outlier” detection in the process of tracking with Kalman filter, an approach to target reselection for anti-ship missile against centroid jamming with accurate tracking information is proposed in this paper considering the mutation of the law of motion at the tracking point under centroid jamming. For this approach, an accurate target tracking model is built on the basis of extended Kalman filter (EKF). Using the information collected by radar seeker including distance, velocity and angle, it could achieve the accurate tracking of the target and determine the motion state of the target accurately. On this basis, the orthogonality of innovation in the process of Kalman filtering is utilized to detect any mutation of the motion state of the target, so that the existence of centroid jamming is detected when there is any mutation of the law of motion at the tracking point in the process of chaff centroid jamming. This offers a new solution for remote beyond-visual-range (BVR) anti-ship missile against centroid jamming.
An Efficient Method for Mining Rare Association Rules: A Case Study on Air Pollution
Authors: Borah Anindita , Nath Bhabesh
Published: June 2021

Most pattern mining techniques almost singularly focus on identifying frequent patterns and very less attention has been paid to the generation of rare patterns. However, in several domains, recognizing less frequent but strongly related patterns have greater advantage over the former ones. Identification of compelling and meaningful rare associations among such patterns may proved to be significant for air quality management that has become an indispensable task in today’s world. The rare correlations between air pollutants and other parameters may aid in restricting the air pollution to a manageable level. To this end, efficient and competent rare pattern mining techniques are needed that can generate the complete set of rare patterns, further identifying significant rare association rules among them. Moreover, a notable issue with databases is their continuous update over time due to the addition of new records. The users requirement or behavior may change with the incremental update of databases that makes it difficult to determine a suitable support threshold for the extraction of interesting rare association rules. This paper, presents an efficient rare pattern mining technique to capture the complete set of rare patterns from a real environmental dataset. The proposed approach does not restart the entire mining process upon threshold update and generates the complete set of rare association rules in a single database scan. It can effectively perform incremental mining and also provides flexibility to the user to regulate the value of support threshold for generating the rare patterns. Significant rare association rules representing correlations between air pollutants and other environmental parameters are further extracted from the generated rare patterns to identify the substantial causes of air pollution. Performance analysis shows that the proposed method is more efficient than existing rare pattern mining approaches in providing significant directions to the domain experts for air pollution monitoring.
Data-driven Gene Regulatory Networks Inference Based on Classification Algorithms
Authors: Peignier Sergio , Schmitt Pauline , Calevro Federica
Published: June 2021

Inferring Gene Regulatory Networks from high-throughput gene expression data is a challenging problem, addressed by the systems biology community. Most approaches that aim at unraveling the gene regulation mechanisms in a data-driven way, analyze gene expression datasets to score potential regulatory links between transcription factors and target genes. So far, three major families of approaches have been proposed to score regulatory links. These methods rely respectively on correlation measures, mutual information metrics, and regression algorithms. In this paper we present a new family of data-driven inference methods. This new family, inspired by the regression-based paradigm, relies on the use of classification algorithms. This paper assesses and advocates for the use of this paradigm as a new promising approach to infer gene regulatory networks. Indeed, the development and assessment of five new inference methods based on well-known classification algorithms shows that the classification-based inference family exhibits good results when compared to well-established paradigms.
Effects of substrate temperature and sodium source temperature on Na doping of ZnO by MOCVD
Authors: Lu Yangfan , Ye Zhizhen
Published: June 2021

In this paper, Na-doped ZnO thin films were grown by MOCVD using cyclopentadienylsodium (CpNa) as the sodium source. The effects of substrate temperature and sodium source temperature on the properties of Na-doped ZnO thin films were studied. SIMS measurement verified that higher substrate temperature would result in higher Na doping content in ZnO:Na thin films. SEM and Hall measurements revealed that both surface morphology and electrical properties of ZnO:Na thin films showed nonlinear variation with substrate temperature and sodium source temperature. When the substrate temperature or the sodium source temperature was increased, the surface morphology of ZnO:Na thin films turned to sheet structures tilted in all directions first and then back to perpendicular hexagonal structure dominant morphology, and the hole concentration increased first and then decreased. This nonlinear variation trend was ascribed to be related to the variation of doping content and impurity position in ZnO:Na thin films, especially the Na impurity position.
A Hybrid Genetic-Fuzzy Controller for a 14-Inch Astronomical Telescope Tracking
Authors: Eid Doaa , Attia Abdel-Fattah , Elmasry Said , Helmy Islam
Published: June 2021

The performance of on telescope depend strongly on its operating conditions. During pointing, the telescope can move at a relatively high velocity, and the system can tolerate trajectory position errors higher than during tracking. On the contrary, during tracking, Alt-Az telescopes generally move slower but still in a large dynamic range. In this case, the position errors must be as close to zero as possible. Tracking is one of the essential factors that affects the quality of astronomical observations. In this paper, a hybrid Genetic-Fuzzy approach to control the movement of a two-link direct-drive Celestron telescope is introduced. The proposed controller uses the Genetic algorithm (GA) for optimizing a fuzzy logic controller (FLC) to improve the tracking of the 14-inch Celestron telescope of the Kottamia Astronomical Observatory (KAO). The fuzzy logic input is a vector of the position error and its rate of change, and the output is a torque. The GA objective function used here is the Integral Time Absolute Error (ITAE). The proposed method is compared with a conventional Proportional-Differential (PD) controller, an optimized PD controller with a GA, and a Fuzzy controller. The results show the effectiveness of the proposed controller to improve the dynamic response of the overall system.
Improving Action Recognition via Temporal and Complementary Learning
Authors: Elmadany Nour Eldin , He Yifeng , Guan Ling
Published: June 2021

In this article, we study the problem of video-based action recognition. We improve the action recognition performance by finding an effective temporal and appearance representation. For capturing the temporal representation, we introduce two temporal learning techniques for improving long-term temporal information modeling, specifically Temporal Relational Network and Temporal Second-Order Pooling-based Network. Moreover, we harness the representation using complementary learning techniques, specifically Global-Local Network and Fuse-Inception Network. Performance evaluation on three datasets (UCF101, HMDB-51, and Mini-Kinetics-200) demonstrated the superiority of the proposed framework compared to the 2D Deep ConvNets-based state-of-the-art techniques.
A Scalable Cluster-based Hierarchical Hardware Accelerator for a Cortically Inspired Algorithm
Authors: Dey Sumon , Baker Lee , Schabel Joshua , Li Weifu , Franzon Paul D.
Published: June 2021

This article describes a scalable, configurable and cluster-based hierarchical hardware accelerator through custom hardware architecture for Sparsey, a cortical learning algorithm. Sparsey is inspired by the operation of the human cortex and uses a Sparse Distributed Representation to enable unsupervised learning and inference in the same algorithm. A distributed on-chip memory organization is designed and implemented in custom hardware to improve memory bandwidth and accelerate the memory read/write operations for synaptic weight matrices. Bit-level data are processed from distributed on-chip memory and custom multiply-accumulate hardware is implemented for binary and fixed-point multiply-accumulation operations. The fixed-point arithmetic and fixed-point storage are also adapted in this implementation. At 16 nm, the custom hardware of Sparsey achieved an overall 24.39× speedup, 353.12× energy efficiency per frame, and 1.43× reduction in silicon area against a state-of-the-art GPU.
Response Time Distribution in a Tandem Pair of Queues with Batch Processing
Authors: Harrison P. G. , Bor J.
Published: June 2021

Response time density is obtained in a tandem pair of Markovian queues with both batch arrivals and batch departures. The method uses conditional forward and reversed node sojourn times and derives the Laplace transform of the response time probability density function in the case that batch sizes are finite. The result is derived by a generating function method that takes into account that the path is not overtake-free in the sense that the tagged task being tracked is affected by later arrivals at the second queue. A novel aspect of the method is that a vector of generating functions is solved for, rather than a single scalar-valued function, which requires investigation of the singularities of a certain matrix. A recurrence formula is derived to obtain arbitrary moments of response time by differentiation of the Laplace transform at the origin, and these can be computed rapidly by iteration. Numerical results for the first four moments of response time are displayed for some sample networks that have product-form solutions for their equilibrium queue length probabilities, along with the densities themselves by numerical inversion of the Laplace transform. Corresponding approximations are also obtained for (non-product-form) pairs of “raw” batch-queues—with no special arrivals—and validated against regenerative simulation, which indicates good accuracy. The methods are appropriate for modeling bursty internet and cloud traffic and a possible role in energy-saving is considered.
Reinforced NMT for Sentiment and Content Preservation in Low-resource Scenario
Authors: Kumari Divya , Ekbal Asif , Haque Rejwanul , Bhattacharyya Pushpak , Way Andy
Published: June 2021

The preservation of domain knowledge from source to the target is crucial in any translation workflows. Hence, translation service providers that use machine translation (MT) in production could reasonably expect that the translation process should transfer both the underlying pragmatics and the semantics of the source-side sentences into the target language. However, recent studies suggest that the MT systems often fail to preserve such crucial information (e.g., sentiment, emotion, gender traits) embedded in the source text in the target. In this context, the raw automatic translations are often directly fed to other natural language processing (NLP) applications (e.g., sentiment classifier) in a cross-lingual platform. Hence, the loss of such crucial information during the translation could negatively affect the performance of such downstream NLP tasks that heavily rely on the output of the MT systems.

In our current research, we carefully balance both the sides (i.e., sentiment and semantics) during translation, by controlling a global-attention-based neural MT (NMT), to generate translations that encode the underlying sentiment of a source sentence while preserving its non-opinionated semantic content. Toward this, we use a state-of-the-art reinforcement learning method, namely,
actor-critic
, that includes a novel
reward combination
module, to fine-tune the NMT system so that it learns to generate translations that are best suited for a downstream task, viz. sentiment classification while ensuring the source-side semantics is intact in the process. Experimental results for Hindi–English language pair show that our proposed method significantly improves the performance of the sentiment classifier and alongside results in an improved NMT system.