bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Effect of azoxystrobin on tobacco leaf microbial composition and diversity
Authors: Sun Meili , Wang Hancheng , Shi Caihua , Li Jianjun , Cai Liuti , Xiang Ligang , Liu Tingting , Goodwin Paul H. , Chen Xingjiang , Wang Ling
Published: February 2023

Azoxystrobin, a quinone outside inhibitor fungicide, reduced tobacco target spot caused by Rhizoctonia solani by 62%, but also affected the composition and diversity of other microbes on the surface and interior of treated tobacco leaves. High-throughput sequencing showed that the dominant bacteria prior to azoxystrobin treatment were Methylobacterium on healthy leaves and Pseudomonas on diseased leaves, and the dominant fungi were Thanatephorous (teleomorph of Rhizoctonia) and Symmetrospora on healthy leaves and Thanatephorous on diseased leaves. Both bacterial and fungal diversity significantly increased 1 to 18 days post treatment (dpt) with azoxystrobin for healthy and diseased leaves. For bacteria on healthy leaves, the relative abundance of Pseudomonas, Sphingomonas, Unidentified-Rhizobiaceae and Massilia declined, while Methylobacterium and Aureimonas increased. On diseased leaves, the relative abundance of Sphingomonas and Unidentified-Rhizobiaceae declined, while Methylobacterium, Pseudomonas and Pantoea increased. For fungi on healthy leaves, the relative abundance of Thanatephorous declined, while Symmetrospora, Sampaiozyma, Plectosphaerella, Cladosporium and Cercospora increased. On diseased leaves, the relative abundance of Thanatephorous declined, while Symmetrospora, Sampaiozyma, Plectosphaerella, Cladosporium, Phoma, Pantospora and Fusarium, increased. Compared to healthy leaves, azoxystrobin treatment of diseased leaves resulted in greater reductions in Thanatephorous, Sphingomonas and Unidentified-Rhizobiaceae, a greater increase in Methylobacterium, and similar changes in Phoma, Fusarium, Plectosphaerella and Cladosporium. Azoxystrobin had a semi-selective effect altering the microbial diversity of the tobacco leaf microbiome, which could be due to factors, such as differences among bacterial and fungal species in sensitivity to quinone outside inhibitors, ability to use nutrients and niches as certain microbes are affected, and metabolic responses to azoxystrobin.
Identification and validation of coding and non-coding RNAs involved in high-temperature-mediated seed dormancy in common wheat
Authors: Jiang Hao , Gao Wei , Jiang Bing-li , Liu Xue , Jiang Ya-ting , Zhang Li-tian , Zhang Yue , Yan Sheng-nan , Cao Jia-Jia , Lu Jie , Ma Chuan-xi , Chang Cheng , Zhang Hai-ping
Published: February 2023

Introduction

Seed dormancy (SD) significantly decreases under high temperature (HT) environment during seed maturation, resulting in pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) damage under prolonged rainfall and wet weather during wheat harvest. However, the molecular mechanism underlying HT-mediated SD remains elusive

Seed dormancy (SD) significantly decreases under high temperature (HT) environment during seed maturation, resulting in pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) damage under prolonged rainfall and wet weather during wheat harvest. However, the molecular mechanism underlying HT-mediated SD remains elusive.

Methods

Here, the wheat landrace ‘Waitoubai’ with strong SD and PHS resistance was treated with HT from 21 to 35 days post anthesis (DPA). Then, the seeds under HT and normal temperature (NT) environments were collected at 21 DPA, 28 DPA, and 35 DPA and subjected to whole-transcriptome sequencing.

Results

The phenotypic data showed that the seed germination percentage significantly increased, whereas SD decreased after HT treatment compared with NT, consistent with the results of previous studies. In total, 5128 mRNAs, 136 microRNAs (miRNAs), 273 long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), and 21 circularRNAs were found to be responsive to HT, and some of them were further verified through qRT-PCR. In particular, the known gibberellin (GA) biosynthesis gene TaGA20ox1 (TraesCS3D02G393900) was proved to be involved in HT-mediated dormancy by using the EMS-mutagenized wheat cultivar Jimai 22. Similarly, a novel gene TaCDPK21 (TraesCS7A02G267000) involved in the calcium signaling pathway was validated to be associated with HT-mediated dormancy by using the EMS mutant. Moreover, TaCDPK21 overexpression in Arabidopsis and functional complementarity tests supported the negative role of TaCDPK21 in SD. We also constructed a co-expression regulatory network based on differentially expressed mRNAs, miRNAs, and lncRNAs and found that a novel miR27319 was located at a key node of this regulatory network. Subsequently, using Arabidopsis and rice lines overexpressing miR27319 precursor or lacking miR27319 expression, we validated the positive role of miR27319 in SD and further preliminarily dissected the molecular mechanism of miR27319 underlying SD regulation through phytohormone abscisic acid and GA biosynthesis, catabolism, and signaling pathways.

Discussion

These findings not only broaden our understanding of the complex regulatory network of HT-mediated dormancy but also provide new gene resources for improving wheat PHS resistance to minimize PHS damage by using the molecular pyramiding approach.
The role of photorespiration in plant immunity
Authors: Jiang Xiaotong , Walker Berkley J. , He Sheng Yang , Hu Jianping
Published: February 2023

To defend themselves in the face of biotic stresses, plants employ a sophisticated immune system that requires the coordination of other biological and metabolic pathways. Photorespiration, a byproduct pathway of oxygenic photosynthesis that spans multiple cellular compartments and links primary metabolisms, plays important roles in defense responses. Hydrogen peroxide, whose homeostasis is strongly impacted by photorespiration, is a crucial signaling molecule in plant immunity. Photorespiratory metabolites, interaction between photorespiration and defense hormone biosynthesis, and other mechanisms, are also implicated. An improved understanding of the relationship between plant immunity and photorespiration may provide a much-needed knowledge basis for crop engineering to maximize photosynthesis without negative tradeoffs in plant immunity, especially because the photorespiratory pathway has become a major target for genetic engineering with the goal to increase photosynthetic efficiency.
Molecular cloning and functional analysis of Chinese bayberry MrSPL4 that enhances growth and flowering in transgenic tobacco
Authors: Wu Xiangqi , Zhang Shuwen , Yu Zheping , Sun Li , Liang Senmiao , Zheng Xiliang , Qi Xingjiang , Ren Haiying
Published: February 2023

Chinese bayberry (Myrica rubra) is an important tree in South China, with its fruit being of nutritional and high economic value. In this study, early ripening (ZJ), medium ripening (BQ) and late ripening (DK) varieties were used as test materials. Young leaves of ZJ, BQ and DK in the floral bud morphological differentiation periods were selected for transcriptome sequencing to excavate earliness related genes. A total of 4,538 differentially expressed genes were detected. Based on clustering analysis and comparisons with genes reportedly related to flowering in Arabidopsis thaliana, 25 homologous genes were identified. Of these, one gene named MrSPL4 was determined, with its expression down-regulated in DK but up-regulated in ZJ and BQ. MrSPL4 contained SBP domain and the target site of miR156, and its total and CDS length were 1,664 bp and 555 bp respectively. The overexpression vector of MrSPL4 (35S::35S::MrSPL4-pCambia2301-KY) was further constructed and successfully transfected into tobacco to obtain MrSPL4-positive plants. Based on the results of qRT-PCR, the relative expression of MrSPL4 was up regulated by 3,862.0-5,938.4 times. Additionally, the height of MrSPL4-positive plants was also significantly higher than that of wild-type (WT), with the bud stage occurring 12 days earlier. Altogether, this study identified an important gene -MrSPL4 in Chinese bayberry, which enhanced growth and flowering, which provided important theoretical basis for early-mature breeding of Chinese bayberry.
A cross-sectional examination of service complexity in youths with co-occurring autism spectrum disorder and psychiatric or medical diagnoses across service sectors
Authors: Semovski Valbona , King Colin , Lapshina Natalia , Stewart Shannon L.
Published: February 2023

Introduction

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a heterogeneous, life-long, and complex condition. Youth diagnosed with ASD require several supports addressing core symptoms associated with the disorder, but also those resulting from co-occurring mental and physical health conditions. As a result, their care is overseen by numerous professionals spanning various service sectors, but communication between sectors is hindered due to the absence of a standardized assessment system to identify and triage youth to services. A paucity of information surrounding this population’s service use lingers and a siloed delivery system persists.

Methods

Using archival data collected from 1,020 youth between 12 and 18 years of age, this study explored service complexity among autistic youth with and without psychiatric and medical co-occurring conditions in Ontario, Canada. In doing so, a negative binomial regression was utilized to investigate which predisposing, enabling, and need variables were associated with service complexity.

Results

Results revealed that experiencing financial difficulties was not associated with service complexity. However, age, sex, caregiver distress, comorbidity, intellectual disability, and evaluated health status were significant predictors. More specifically, female youth and youth with distressed caregivers had greater mental health service complexity scores. Additionally, youth diagnosed with two or more conditions in addition to ASD who required longer durations of programming, controlling for other predictors, had greater mental health service complexity scores. Yet, youth with an intellectual disability had lower service complexity scores.

Discussion

Clinical implications of this study are discussed to inform future investments into mental health efforts for autistic youth.
From self-regulated learning to computer-delivered integrated speaking testing: Does monitoring always monitor?
Authors: Zhang Weiwei , Wilson Aaron
Published: February 2023

Despite the salience of monitoring in self-regulated learning (SRL) and foreign and/or second language (L2) speech production in non-testing conditions, little is known about the metacognitive construct in testing contexts and its effects on learner performance. Given the reciprocal effects between L2 testing and L2 learning, a research effort in monitoring working in speaking tests, in particular computer-delivered integrated speaking tests, a testing format that has been advocated as an internal part of L2 classroom instruction and represents the future direction of L2 testing, is warranted. This study, therefore, serves as such an effort through investigating the use of monitoring by 95 Chinese English as foreign language (EFL) learners on a self-reported questionnaire after they performed three computer-delivered integrated speaking test tasks. Descriptive analysis followed by Hierarchical Linear Modelling (HLM) testing reveals that monitoring was used in a high-frequency manner, but it exerted no substantial effects on learner performance. Primarily, the results are expected to provide pedagogical implications for SRL: while fostering self-regulating learners, especially self-monitoring L2 speakers, it is necessary for L2 teachers to purposefully reduplicate testing conditions in their classroom instructions for helping the self-regulating learners be equally self-regulating test-takers. Moreover, the results are hoped to offer some insights into L2 testing through the perspective of self-monitoring, one proposed component of strategic competence, a construct that has been extensively acknowledged to reflect the essence of L2 testing.
A critical review of the US Senate examination report on the 2021 US Capitol riot
Authors: Kim Hakkyong , Lee Julak
Published: February 2023

The US Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, is currently regarded as an unprecedented armed occupation of the US Capitol that left an irreparable stain on the history of American democracy. Five months later, as part of reflective practice, the US Senate released an examination (review) report on the response failures of federal and local law enforcement agencies, along with corresponding recommendations. This research seeks to critically analyze not only response failures but also recommendations made by the US Senate with a comprehensive theoretical framework incorporating concepts of (1) legitimacy and power, (2) procedural justice, and (3) crowd psychology and the protest policing model. In the end, the research tries to present a practical cooperative dialogue or at least a dialogic approach as a means of strengthening legitimacy based on procedural justice, given that not only European countries but also the Republic of Korea currently operate ‘(Korean and Swedish) Dialogue Police’ and (British) ‘Police Liaison Officer’ in practice.
Exercise or not? An empirical illustration of the role of behavioral alternatives in exercise motivation and resulting theoretical considerations
Authors: Timme Sinika , Brand Ralf , Raboldt Michaela
Published: February 2023

Objective

Individuals’ decisions to engage in exercise are often the result of in-the-moment choices between exercise and a competing behavioral alternative. The purpose of this study was to investigate processes that occur in-the-moment (i.e., situated processes) when individuals are faced with the choice between exercise and a behavioral alternative during a computerized task. These were analyzed against the background of interindividual differences in individuals’ automatic valuation and controlled evaluation of exercise.

Method

In a behavioral alternatives task 101 participants were asked whether they would rather choose an exercise option or a behavioral alternative in 25 trials. Participants’ gaze behavior (first gaze and fixations) was recorded using eye-tracking. An exercise-specific affect misattribution procedure (AMP) was used to assess participants’ automatic valuation of exercise before the task. After the task, self-reported feelings towards exercise (controlled evaluation) and usual weekly exercise volume were assessed. Mixed effects models with random effects for subjects and trials were used for data analysis.

Results

Choosing exercise was positively correlated with individuals’ automatic valuation (r = 0.20, p = 0.05), controlled evaluation (r = 0.58, p < 0.001), and their weekly exercise volume (r = 0.43, p < 0.001). Participants showed no bias in their initial gaze or number of fixations towards the exercise or the non-exercise alternative. However, participants were 1.30 times more likely to fixate on the chosen alternative first and more frequently, but this gaze behavior was not related to individuals’ automatic valuation, controlled evaluation, or weekly exercise volume.

Conclusion

The results suggest that situated processes arising from defined behavioral alternatives may be independent of individuals’ general preferences. Despite one’s best general intention to exercise more, the choice of a non-exercise alternative behavior may seem more appealing in-the-moment and eventually be chosen. New psychological theories of health behavior change should therefore better consider the role of potentially conflicting alternatives when it comes to initiating physical activity or exercise.
Status quo and predictors of Weibo users’ attitudes toward lesbians and gay men in 31 provinces in the Chinese mainland: Analysis based on supervised machine learning and provincial panel data
Authors: Zheng Quan , Guo Ying , Wang Zhen , Andrasik Frank , Kuang Ziyi , Xu Sheng , Hu Xiangen
Published: February 2023

Introduction

Public attitudes toward consensual same-sex relations are crucial to lesbians’ and gay men’s rights and society’s well-being, but research addressing this topic in China is limited. We comprehensively explored the current status and predictors of Weibo users’ attitudes toward individuals who are lesbian or gay (IWLG) at the provincial level in the Chinese mainland.

Methods

Natural language processing and machine learning techniques were incorporated to analyze 1,934,008 Weibo posts from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2020, to evaluate Weibo users’ expressed attitudes toward IWLG in 31 provinces in the Chinese mainland guided by the ABC Model of attitude.

Results

Although the general attitudes, feelings, and support for the rights of Weibo users toward IWLG among different provinces were relatively positive, knowledge about IWLG was noticeably inaccurate. Economic development and educational level positively predicted certain aspects of attitudes at the provincial level.

Conclusion

Weibo users from different provinces are generally supportive and accepting of people who are gay and the rights of the gay community. However, considerable misconceptions and inaccurate knowledge of IWLG surfaced in Weibo users’ posts. Economic development and educational level were important predictors of specific attitudes toward IWLG at the provincial level. Increased efforts to address the unbalanced and insufficient development between different provinces could help reduce the public’s prejudice, stigma, and discrimination toward IWLG. Policies that facilitate greater implementation of Comprehensive Sexuality Education sequentially and effectively are suggested as well.
Meaning in life and smartphone addiction among Chinese female college students: The mediating role of school adjustment and the moderating role of grade
Authors: Zhao Hao , Rafik-Galea Shameem , Fitriana Mimi , Song Tianjiao
Published: February 2023

Background

The fact that female college students are more addicted to smartphones than male college students has raised public concerns. However, previous studies have rarely explored the mechanism of female college students’ smartphone addiction. Previous studies have shown that identity may affect the formation process of female college students’ smartphone addiction, and the identity of female college students in different grades may be different. Nonetheless, few studies have explored the grade differences in the formation process of female college students’ smartphone addiction.

Methods

The present study examined the relationship between meaning in life, school adjustment, and smartphone addiction among Chinese female college students using a moderated mediation model in which school adjustment played a mediating role and grade played a moderating role. A total of 1,076 Chinese female college students (Age: 19.83 ± 1.11; 369 freshmen, 379 sophomores, and 328 juniors) completed an online questionnaire regarding meaning in life, school adjustment, and smartphone addiction.

Results

(1) School adjustment mediated the relationship between meaning in life and smartphone addiction. (2) School adjustment had a partial mediating effect between meaning in life and smartphone addiction for female freshmen and sophomores, but it did not exist among female juniors. (3) The influence of school adjustment on female sophomores’ smartphone addiction was significantly stronger than that of female freshmen.

Conclusion

The findings of this study advance our understanding of the potential impacts of meaning in life on smartphone addiction and provide a grade perspective for targeted prevention or intervention with female college students’ smartphone addiction.
Job stress and university faculty members’ life satisfaction: The mediating role of emotional burnout
Authors: Xu Yin , Wang Yike
Published: February 2023

As one of the leading work-related health problems arising from increasingly fierce competition, work-related stress has become a significant predictor of the reduced wellbeing of university faculty members, especially for non-tenured junior faculty members. In light of this and based on a survey, this research seeks to examine how and why work-related stress impacts the life satisfaction level of university junior faculty members. The results indicate that the three subdivisions of university faculty members’ work-related stress, namely, research stress, teaching stress, and administrative stress, are all negatively related to their life satisfaction level. In addition, emotional burnout has been confirmed to function as the psychological mechanism for the aforementioned main effects. The research contributes to the literature mainly by offering a new insight in which the three subdivisions of work-related stress are regarded as independent variables affecting the life satisfaction level of university junior faculty members.
Leadership’s long arm: The positive influence of digital leadership on managing technology-driven change over a strengthened service innovation capacity
Authors: Brunner Timo J. J. , Schuster Tobias , Lehmann Claudia
Published: February 2023

Introduction

In this qualitative study, we examine digital leadership (DL) capabilities and their positive influence on the management of technology-driven change by leveraging service innovations. The context of digital transformation (DT) has triggered a new leadership paradigm, among others referred to as digital leadership (DL). However, despite its practical relevance, leadership research has yet paid little attention to conceptualise DL as an approach to digitally transform organisations.

Methods

Drawing on mid- and top-level mangers’ experiences with service innovation projects, and based on Grounded Theory, we develop a taxonomy of DL-related capabilities and a conceptual framework which exemplifies their influences on dynamic service innovation capabilities (DSICs). DSICs build on the dynamic capabilities view (DCV) and represent the “organisational muscle” to repeatedly deliver service innovations indicating an effective management of technology-driven change.

Results and Discussion

Taxonomy results show that aggregated dimensions in terms of a digital leader’s personal, social, and organisational capital serve as underpinnings (DL-related capabilities) to drive strategic change in DT contexts. The conceptual framework further reveals that especially the personal and organisational capital of a digital leader owns several strong and moderate influences on DSICs which demonstrates DL’s “long arm” on the management of technology-driven change. Our findings contribute to leadership research by advancing the conceptualisation of DL and by adding a novel micro-foundational perspective towards the DCV discourse. As organisations struggle to realise the full benefits of DT initiatives, our results also provide a valuable contribution for practitioners by supporting them to strategically prepare for the human-related challenges of DT.
Tackling emotional processing in adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder + autism spectrum disorder using emotional and action verbal fluency tasks
Authors: Walter Amélia , Martz Emilie , Weibel Sébastien , Weiner Luisa
Published: February 2023

Introduction

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are two neurodevelopmental conditions with neuropsychological, social, emotional, and psychopathological similarities. Both are characterized by executive dysfunction, emotion dysregulation (ED), and psychiatric comorbidities. By focusing on emotions and embodied cognition, this study aims to improve the understanding of overlapping symptoms between ADHD and ASD through the use of verbal fluency tasks.

Methods

Fifty-two adults with ADHD, 13 adults with ADHD + ASD and 24 neurotypical (NT) participants were recruited in this study. A neuropsychological evaluation, including different verbal fluency conditions (e.g. emotional and action), was proposed. Subjects also completed several self-report questionnaires, such as scales measuring symptoms of ED.

Results

Compared to NT controls, adults with ADHD + ASD produced fewer anger-related emotions. Symptoms of emotion dysregulation were associated with an increased number of actions verbs and emotions produced in ADHD.

Discussion

The association between affective language of adults with ADHD and symptoms of emotion dysregulation may reflect their social maladjustment. Moreover, the addition of ADHD + ASD conditions may reflect more severe affective dysfunction.
Knowledge domain and emerging trends in HIV-MTB co-infection from 2017 to 2022: A scientometric analysis based on VOSviewer and CiteSpace
Authors: Liu Miaona , Li Wei , Qiao Wenmei , Liang Limian , Wang Zhaoqin
Published: February 2023

Co-infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected individuals is one of the leading causes of death. Also, research on HIV and MTB (HIV-MTB) co-infection was found to have a downward trend. In this work, we performed the knowledge domain analysis and visualized the current research progress and emerging trends in HIV-MTB co-infection between 2017 and 2022 by using VOSviewer and CiteSpace. The relevant literatures in this article were collected in the Web of Science (WoS) database. VOSviewer and CiteSpace bibliometric software were applied to perform the analysis and visualization of scientific productivity and frontier. Among all the countries, USA was dominant in the field, followed by South Africa, and England. Among all the institutions, the University of Cape Town (South Africa) had more extensive collaborations with other research institutions. The Int J Tuberc Lung Dis was regarded as the foremost productive journal. Survival and mortality analysis, pathogenesis, epidemiological studies, diagnostic methods, prognosis improvement of quality of life, clinical studies and multiple infections (especially co-infection with COVID-19) resulted in the knowledge bases for HIV-MTB co-infection. The clinical research on HIV-MTB co-infection has gradually shifted from randomized controlled trials to open-label trials, while the cognition of HIV-TB has gradually shifted from cytokines to genetic polymorphisms. This scientometric study used quantitative and qualitative methods to conduct a comprehensive review of research on HIV-MTB co-infection published over the past 5 years, providing some useful references to further the study of HIV-MTB co-infection.
Effect of basal metabolic rate on osteoporosis: A Mendelian randomization study
Authors: Zhou Jingyu , Ye Zhiwen , Wei Peng , Yi Feng , Ouyang Min , Xiong Shilang , Liu Yayun , Li Jintang , Liu Min , Xi Hanrui , Peng Qianyi , Xiong Long
Published: February 2023

Purpose

Basal metabolic rate may play a key role in the pathogenesis and progression of osteoporosis. We performed Mendelian random analysis to evaluate the causal relationship between basal metabolic rate and osteoporosis.

Methods

Instrumental variables for the basal metabolic rate were selected. We used the inverse variance weighting approach as the main Mendelian random analysis method to estimate causal effects based on the summary-level data for osteoporosis from genome-wide association studies.

Results

A potential causal association was observed between basal metabolic rate and risks of osteoporosis (odds ratio = 0.9923, 95% confidence interval: 0.9898–0.9949; P = 4.005e − 09). The secondary MR also revealed that BMR was causally associated with osteoporosis (odds ratio = 0.9939, 95% confidence interval: 0.9911–0.9966; P = 1.038e − 05). The accuracy and robustness of the findings were confirmed using sensitivity tests.

Conclusion

Basal metabolic rate may play a causal role in the development of osteoporosis, although the underlying mechanisms require further investigation.
A person-centered approach to home and community-based services outcome measurement
Authors: Roberts Matthew A. , Abery Brian H.
Published: February 2023

In the United States, over 2.5 million people with disabilities are recipients of supports through the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) program. Recent decades have seen a growing focus on providing HCBS in a person-centered manner thereby supporting outcomes that are both important for and to the person. HCBS outcome measurement, however, has not kept pace with advancements in person-centered thinking as it relates to providing supports to people with disabilities. The concept of person-centered outcome measurement has been inadequately defined and is frequently misunderstood including by those in the measurement field. The authors first operationally define person-centered measurement and establish its importance within the context of HCBS and the recent CMS's Final Settings Rule. The important role that person-centered measurement has to play in quality improvement efforts in this area is then explored. A discussion is subsequently provided as to the challenges that are faced in person-centered measurement specific to the disability field. In addition to further conceptualizing and defining this form of measurement, recommendations are provided for moving the field forward.
Effect of difficulty of task on throwing performance and coping strategies in team handball
Authors: van den Tillaar Roland , Hope Christopher
Published: February 2023

In this study the effect of level of opposition on throwing performance and coping strategies in the jump throw was examined in elite, amateur, and adolescent players in team handball. Twenty four participants consisting of 13 female elite junior handball players (age: 15.5 ± 0.7 years; height: 1.72 ± 0.07 m; body mass: 64.2 ± 7.0 kg; years of handball experience: 8.4 ± 1.76 years) and 11 senior recreational female handball players (age: 19.5 ± 1.04 years; height: 1.68 ± 0.08 m; body mass: 65.2 ± 9.3 kg; years of handball experience: 11 ± 2.61 years) performed ten jump throws under four conditions: (1) without opposition; (2) with a passive opponent; (3) with an opponent moving sideways; and (4) with a defender who was instructed to be unpredictable without physical contact with the thrower. Ball velocity and accuracy were measured for every throw together with answering a questionnaire consisting of 18 questions after each condition to investigate if coping strategies changed with increasing difficulty of task and if this was different for playing level. The main findings were that ball velocity and accuracy decreased when opposition was introduced, but with no differences when the opposition moved only sideways or unpredictably (forwards and/or sideways), similarly for both groups. Furthermore, the level had no influence on the coping strategies or a relationship with either of these coping strategies, but the avoidance coping strategy scored lower than the other two categories for both groups. It was concluded that level of opposition had a negative effect on throwing velocity and accuracy in elite junior and recreational level senior players which was probably caused by the change of given attention to one target (overcome opponent), which leaves less available for others (throwing velocity and accuracy). Furthermore, coping strategies did not change or have any correlation with throwing performance, indicating that these strategies seem to be influenced by trait and that most players mainly used problem- and emotional-focused coping strategies and less avoidance strategies when dealing with the level of opposition.
Discussion on operation: To compare the curative effect of PMT and CDT in the treatment of middle and high risk stratified APE and the clinical application value of serum BNP, TnI and plasma DFR levelse
Authors: Guan Qinglong , Liu Chenglong , Li Wei , Wang Xiaofei , Gu Ruiyuan , Wang Ruihua , Li Gang , Liu Shuai
Published: February 2023

Objective

To compare the efficacy of Percutaneous mechanical thrombectomy (PMT) and Catheter directed thrombolysis (CDT) in the treatment of patients with moderate and high-risk ape and explore the clinical application value of biomarkers in the treatment of moderate and high-risk ape.

Method

A total of 84 patients with ape were selected from the Department of vascular surgery of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Shandong First Medical University and the Department of vascular surgery of Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital Affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine. According to the relevant guidelines, they were divided into high-risk and medium-risk groups, including PMT groups (35 cases) and CDT groups (49 cases). To detect the changes of serum B-type brain natriuretic peptide (BNP),Troponin I (TnI) and plasma D-dimer/fibrinogen ratio (DFR) levels in different risk stratification before and after PMT and CDT, the correlation and diagnostic value of each index, and compare the thrombus clearance rate, pulmonary artery pressure, average dosage of urokinase, effective thrombolytic time, average hospitalization time and complications of PMT and CDT.

Result

Under different treatment methods and risk stratification, there was no statistically significant difference in the clinical data of patients at general baseline;The preoperative BNP, TnI and DFR levels of PMT and CDT in the middle and high risk stratification were significantly lower than those in the other groups (P < 0.005),Compared with the CDT group, PMT has significantly better therapeutic effect on ape than the CDT group in terms of thrombus clearance rate, pulmonary artery pressure, average dosage of urokinase, effective thrombolytic time and average hospitalization time (P < 0.05),meanwhile,there was no significant difference in postoperative complications between the two groups (P < 0.05). After half a year of follow-up, the levels of BNP, TnI and DFR in the cured group were significantly lower than those in the effective group and the ineffective group. The areas under the curve of serum BNP, TnI and plasma DFR were 0.91, 0.87 and 0.93 and the area under the curve DFR has higher diagnostic efficiency than BNP and TnI, while the sensitivity and specificity of TnI are significantly higher than BNP and DFR.

Conclusion

Serum BNP, TnI and plasma DFR levels can reflect the risk stratification and better clinical diagnostic value of ape,PMT and CDT are used to treat high-risk ape. For hospitals with medical conditions, PMT is more worthy of clinical recommendation.
Heparin Thromboprophylaxis in Simultaneous Pancreas-Kidney Transplantation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies
Authors: Ai Li Erica , Farrokhi Kaveh , Zhang Max Y. , Offerni Juliano , Luke Patrick P. , Sener Alp
Published: February 2023

Thrombosis is a leading causes of pancreas graft loss after simultaneous pancreas kidney (SPK), pancreas after kidney (PAK), and pancreas transplant alone (PTA). There remains no standardized thromboprophylaxis protocol. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to evaluate the impact of heparin thromboprophylaxis on the incidence of pancreas thrombosis, pancreas graft loss, bleeding, and secondary outcomes in SPK, PAK, and PTA. Following PRISMA guidelines, we systematically searched BIOSIS®, PubMed®, Cochrane Library®, EMBASE®, MEDLINE®, and Web of Science® on April 21, 2021. Primary peer-reviewed studies that met inclusion criteria were included. Two methods of quantitative synthesis were performed to account for comparative and non-comparative studies. We included 11 studies, comprising of 1,122 patients in the heparin group and 236 patients in the no-heparin group. When compared to the no-heparin control, prophylactic heparinization significantly decreased the risk of early pancreas thrombosis and pancreas loss for SPK, PAK and PTA without increasing the incidence of bleeding or acute return to the operating room. Heparin thromboprophylaxis yields an approximate two-fold reduction in both pancreas thrombosis and pancreas loss for SPK, PAK and PTA. We report the dosage, frequency, and duration of heparin administration to consolidate the available evidence.
Machine Learning for Early Outcome Prediction in Septic Patients in the Emergency Department
Authors: Greco Massimiliano , Caruso Pier Francesco , Spano Sofia , Citterio Gianluigi , Desai Antonio , Molteni Alberto , Aceto Romina , Costantini Elena , Voza Antonio , Cecconi Maurizio
Published: February 2023

Background: Sepsis is one of the major causes of in-hospital death, and is frequent in patients presenting to the emergency department (ED). Early identification of high-risk septic patients is critical. Machine learning (ML) techniques have been proposed for identification and prognostication of ED septic patients, but these models often lack pre-hospital data and lack validation against early sepsis identification scores (such as qSOFA) and scores for critically ill patients (SOFA, APACHE II). Methods We conducted an electronic health record (EHR) study to test whether interpretable and scalable ML models predict mortality in septic ED patients and compared their performance with clinical scores. Consecutive adult septic patients admitted to ED over 18 months were included. We built ML models, ranging from a simple-classifier model, to unbalanced and balanced logistic regression, and random forest, and compared their performance to qSOFA, SOFA, and APACHE II scores. Results: We included 425 sepsis patients after screening 38,500 EHR for sepsis criteria. Overall mortality was 15.2% and peaked in patients coming from retirement homes (38%). Random forest, like balanced (0.811) and unbalanced logistic regression (0.863), identified patients at risk of mortality (0.813). All ML models outperformed qSOFA, APACHE II, and SOFA scores. Age, mean arterial pressure, and serum sodium were major mortality predictors. Conclusions: We confirmed that random forest models outperform previous models, including qSOFA, SOFA, and APACHE II, in identifying septic patients at higher mortality risk, while maintaining good interpretability. Machine learning models may gain further adoption in the future with increasing diffusion and granularity of EHR data, yielding the advantage of increased scalability compared to standard statistical techniques.
Transfer Learning Approach for Human Activity Recognition Based on Continuous Wavelet Transform
Authors: Pavliuk Olena , Mishchuk Myroslav , Strauss Christine
Published: February 2023

Over the last few years, human activity recognition (HAR) has drawn increasing interest from the scientific community. This attention is mainly attributable to the proliferation of wearable sensors and the expanding role of HAR in such fields as healthcare, sports, and human activity monitoring. Convolutional neural networks (CNN) are becoming a popular approach for addressing HAR problems. However, this method requires extensive training datasets to perform adequately on new data. This paper proposes a novel deep learning model pre-trained on scalograms generated using the continuous wavelet transform (CWT). Nine popular CNN architectures and different CWT configurations were considered to select the best performing combination, resulting in the training and evaluation of more than 300 deep learning models. On the source KU-HAR dataset, the selected model achieved classification accuracy and an F1 score of 97.48% and 97.52%, respectively, which outperformed contemporary state-of-the-art works where this dataset was employed. On the target UCI-HAPT dataset, the proposed model resulted in a maximum accuracy and F1-score increase of 0.21% and 0.33%, respectively, on the whole UCI-HAPT dataset and of 2.82% and 2.89%, respectively, on the UCI-HAPT subset. It was concluded that the usage of the proposed model, particularly with frozen layers, results in improved performance, faster training, and smoother gradient descent on small HAR datasets. However, the use of the pre-trained model on sufficiently large datasets may lead to negative transfer and accuracy degradation.
Performance Evaluation of NoSQL Document Databases: Couchbase, CouchDB, and MongoDB
Authors: Carvalho Inês , Sá Filipe , Bernardino Jorge
Published: February 2023

NoSQL document databases emerged as an alternative to relational databases for managing large volumes of data. NoSQL document databases ensure big data storage and good query performance and are essential when the data scheme does not fit into the scheme of relational databases. They store their data in the form of documents and can handle unstructured, semi-structured, and structured data. This work evaluates the top three open-source NoSQL document databases: Couchbase, CouchDB, and MongoDB with Yahoo! Cloud Serving Benchmark (YCSB), which has become a standard for NoSQL database evaluation. The performance and scale-up of document databases are assessed using YCSB workloads with a different number of records and threads, where the runtime is measured for each database. In the experimental evaluation, we concluded that MongoDB is the database with the best runtime, except for the workload composed by scan operations. In addition, we identified CouchDB as the database with the best scale-up when varying the number of threads.
Human Resources Analytics for Public Personnel Management: Concepts, Cases, and Caveats
Authors: Cho Wonhyuk , Choi Seeyoung , Choi Hemin
Published: February 2023

The advancement of data technology such as machine learning and artificial intelligence has broadened the scope of human resources (HR) analytics, commonly referred to as “people analytics.” This field has seen significant growth in recent years as organizations increasingly rely on algorithm-based predictive tools for HR-related decision making. However, its application in the public sector is not yet fully understood. This study examined the concepts and practices of HR analytics through a thematic review, and proposed a five-step process (define, collect, analyze, share, and reflect) for implementation in the public sector—the process aims to assist with the integration of HR analytics in public personnel management practices. By analyzing cases in both the public and private sectors, this study identified key lessons for functional areas such as workforce planning, recruitment, HR development, and performance management. This research also identified the necessary conditions for introducing HR analytics in public organizations, including data management, staff capabilities, and acceptance, and discussed the potential challenges of privacy, integrity, algorithmic bias, and publicness.
Global Reconstruction Method of Maize Population at Seedling Stage Based on Kinect Sensor
Authors: Xu Naimin , Sun Guoxiang , Bai Yuhao , Zhou Xinzhu , Cai Jiaqi , Huang Yinfeng
Published: February 2023

Automatic plant phenotype measurement technology based on the rapid and accurate reconstruction of maize structures at the seedling stage is essential for the early variety selection, cultivation, and scientific management of maize. Manual measurement is time-consuming, laborious, and error-prone. The lack of mobility of large equipment in the field make the high-throughput detection of maize plant phenotypes challenging. Therefore, a global 3D reconstruction algorithm was proposed for the high-throughput detection of maize phenotypic traits. First, a self-propelled mobile platform was used to automatically collect three-dimensional point clouds of maize seedling populations from multiple measurement points and perspectives. Second, the Harris corner detection algorithm and singular value decomposition (SVD) were used for the pre-calibration single measurement point multi-view alignment matrix. Finally, the multi-view registration algorithm and iterative nearest point algorithm (ICP) were used for the global 3D reconstruction of the maize seedling population. The results showed that the R2 of the plant height and maximum width measured by the global 3D reconstruction of the seedling maize population were 0.98 and 0.99 with RMSE of 1.39 cm and 1.45 cm and mean absolute percentage errors (MAPEs) of 1.92% and 2.29%, respectively. For the standard sphere, the percentage of the Hausdorff distance set of reconstruction point clouds less than 0.5 cm was 55.26%, and the percentage was 76.88% for those less than 0.8 cm. The method proposed in this study provides a reference for the global reconstruction and phenotypic measurement of crop populations at the seedling stage, which aids in the early management of maize with precision and intelligence.
Improved Management of Grassland to Promote Sustainable Use Based on Farm Size
Authors: He Xin , Wei Jingru , Gu Suhua , Wang Luping , Tian Zechen , Chen Danqiong , Yuan Jiazhi
Published: February 2023

Grassland farms form the basis of grassland resource management in China. Farm sizes in China are generally small, which obviously increases the risk of grassland ecosystems. It is necessary to analyze the impact of farm size on grasslands from the perspective of livestock production in order to improve grassland management. This study combines field investigations and statistical analysis from 2004 to 2020, using a total of 126 farms from the Xilinguole League of Inner Mongolia in China as samples. These sample farms are divided into large farms and small farms. Different production scale and management behaviors are explored, along with their different impacts on grassland resources use. The results show that the expansion of farm size is constrained by the government management policies. Different behaviors are adopted by large and small farms in terms of finance, grassland circulation, and overgrazing management. The differentiation mechanisms of different farm size and the utilization of grassland resources are clarified in this study. This work suggests that managers promote sustainable use based on farm size and build appropriate policies to avoid future risks. The results of this study can provide a framework for solving similar problems.
Automation of Crop Disease Detection through Conventional Machine Learning and Deep Transfer Learning Approaches
Authors: Orchi Houda , Sadik Mohamed , Khaldoun Mohammed , Sabir Essaid
Published: February 2023

With the rapid population growth, increasing agricultural productivity is an extreme requirement to meet demands. Early identification of crop diseases is essential to prevent yield loss. Nevertheless, it is a tedious task to manually monitor leaf diseases, as it demands in-depth knowledge of plant pathogens as well as a lot of work, and excessive processing time. For these purposes, various methods based on image processing, deep learning, and machine learning are developed and examined by researchers for crop leaf disease identification and often have obtained significant results. Motivated by this existing work, we conducted an extensive comparative study between traditional machine learning (SVM, LDA, KNN, CART, RF, and NB) and deep transfer learning (VGG16, VGG19, InceptionV3, ResNet50, and CNN) models in terms of precision, accuracy, f1-score, and recall on a dataset taken from the PlantVillage Dataset composed of diseased and healthy crop leaves for binary classification. Moreover, we applied several activation functions and deep learning optimizers to further enhance these CNN architectures’ performance. The classification accuracy (CA) of leaf diseases that we obtained by experimentation is quite impressive for all models. Our findings reveal that NB gives the least CA at 60.09%, while the InceptionV3 model yields the best CA, reaching an accuracy of 98.01%.