bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Highly immunogenic cancer cells require activation of the WNT pathway for immunological escape
Authors: Takeuchi Yoshiko , Tanegashima Tokiyoshi , Sato Eiichi , Irie Takuma , Sai Atsuo , Itahashi Kota , Kumagai Shogo , Tada Yasuko , Togashi Yosuke , Koyama Shohei , Akbay Esra A. , Karasaki Takahiro , Kataoka Keisuke , Funaki Soichiro , Shintani Yasushi , Nagatomo Izumi , Kida Hiroshi , Ishii Genichiro , Miyoshi Tomohiro , Aokage Keiju , Kakimi Kazuhiro , Ogawa Seishi , Okumura Meinoshin , Eto Masatoshi , Kumanogoh Atsushi , Tsuboi Masahiro , Nishikawa Hiroyoshi
Published: November 2021

Activation of the WNT pathway allows highly immunogenic cancer cells to escape antitumor immunity and induce cancer progression.
Deep-water deposits of the Eocene Tyee Formation, Oregon
Authors: Gaillot* Gwladys T. , Sweet Michael L. , Santra Manasij
Published: November 2021

The Eocene Tyee Formation of west central Oregon, USA, records deposition in a forearc basin. With outcrop exposures of fluvial/deltaic to shelf and submarine fan depositional environments and known sediment sourcing constrained by detrital zircon dating and mineralogy linked to the Idaho Batholith, it is possible to place deposits of the Tyee Formation in a source-to-sink context. A research program carried out by the Department of Geological Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin and ExxonMobil Research Company’s Clastic Stratigraphy Group has reconstructed the Eocene continental margin from shelf to slope to basin floor using outcrop and subsurface data. This work allows us to put observations of individual outcrops into a basin-scale context. This field trip will visit examples of depositional environments across the entire preserved source-to-sink system, but it will focus on the deep-water deposits of the Tyee Formation that range from slope channels to proximal and distal basin-floor fans. High-quality roadcuts reveal the geometry of slope channel-fills in both depositional strike and dip orientations. Thick, sand-rich medial fan deposits show vertical amalgamation and a high degree of lateral continuity of sandstones and mudstones. Distal fan facies with both classic Bouma-type turbidites and combined flow or slurry deposits are well exposed along a series of new roadcuts east of Newport, Oregon. The larger basin-scale context of the Tyee Formation is illustrated at a quarry in the northern end of the basin where the contact between the oceanic crust of the underlying Siletzia terrane and submarine fan deposits of the Tyee Formation is exposed. The Tyee Formation provides an excellent opportunity to see the facies and three-dimensional geometry of deep-water deposits, and to show how these deposits can be used to help reconstruct ancient continental margins.
Is surgical exploration necessary in asymptomatic intestinal pneumatosis after lung transplantation?
Authors: Van Den Bosch Julie , Broos Pieter , Vijgen Guy
Published: November 2021

Pneumatosis intestinalis is described as gas within the bowel wall and can be a sign of bowel ischaemia with a pending perforation. The described patient presented with the incidental diagnosis of pneumatosis intestinalis with free intraperitoneal gas on CT scan. His medical history included a successful lung transplantation. We here describe the clinical decision-making and evaluate our case with previous cases in the literature.
Coma secondary to cerebral fat embolism syndrome due to sickle cell disease fully recovering following red cell exchange transfusion
Authors: Alajeel Nourah , Abdulmalek Kefaya , Al-Fares Abdulrahman
Published: November 2021

A 51-year-old woman known for sickle cell disease presented with 2 weeks of headache and bilateral lower limb pain. During admission, she suffered from multiple generalised tonic-clonic seizures but had an unremarkable CT of the brain. Incidentally, she had worsening baseline renal function. She was admitted to the intensive care unit with an acute confusional state. A bedside electroencephalogram showed triphasic waves and diffuse slow activity suggestive of encephalopathy with no epileptiform discharges. She remained obtunded despite appropriate medical therapy of hydration, antiepileptic and pain control. Lumbar puncture failed to identify an infectious cause. An urgent MRI of the brain was done and revealed features compatible with fat embolism syndrome (FES). Her haemoglobin S was 84.2%. Urgent red cell exchange transfusion was done, and within 3 days she fully regained her orientation and motor function. This represents the first case of such profound obtundation due to FES with a complete response to exchange transfusion.
Recurrent ataxia and dysarthria in myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disorder
Authors: Chakraborty Uddalak , Ghosh Shrestha , Datta Amlan Kusum , Chandra Atanu
Published: November 2021

The spectrum of central nervous system demyelinating disorders is vast and heterogeneous and, often, with overlapping clinical presentations. Misdiagnosis might occur in some cases with serious therapeutic repercussions. However, introduction of several new biomarkers such as aquaporin-4 IgG and myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein IgG has made distinction between diseases such as multiple sclerosis and myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disorder easier. Here, we report a case of a 15-year-old male patient with subacute multifocal neurological presentation without encephalopathy, eventually diagnosed as myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disorder.
Hepatic artery pseudoaneurysm secondary to a cholangitic abscess and its spontaneous thrombosis
Authors: Kaur Maninder , Bhatia Harsimran , Muktesh Gaurav , Gupta Pankaj
Published: November 2021

Hepatic artery pseudoaneurysm (HAP) is mostly encountered secondary to trauma or iatrogenic causes. HAP associated with cholangitic liver abscess is a rare complication. We present a case of gallstone disease and choledocholithiasis who developed moderate cholangitis and a liver abscess. A small HAP was detected incidentally on a biphasic CT done to evaluate the biliary system. Repeat CT after management with endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography and antibiotics showed resolution of cholangitic abscess with spontaneous thrombosis of HAP.
Management of a large outbreak of COVID-19 at a British Army training centre: lessons for the future
Authors: Routledge Matthew , Lyon J , Vincent C , Gordon Clarke A , Shawcross K , Turpin C , Cormack H , Robson S C , Beckett A , Glaysher S , Cook K , Fearn C , Goudarzi S , Hutley E J , Ross D
Published: November 2021

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed major challenges for infection control within training centres, both civilian and military. Here we present a narrative review of an outbreak that occurred at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS) in January–March 2021, in the context of the circulating, highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.1.7.

Methods

Testing for SARS-CoV-2 was performed using a combination of reverse transcriptase PCR and Lateral Flow Devices (LFDs). Testing and isolation procedures were conducted in line with a pre-established symptom stratification system. Genomic sequencing was performed on 10 sample isolates.

Results

By the end of the outbreak, 185 cases (153 Officer Cadets, 32 permanent staff) had contracted confirmed COVID-19. This represented 15% of the total RMAS population. This resulted in 0 deaths and 0 hospitalisations, but due to necessary isolation procedures did represent an estimated 12 959 person-days of lost training. 9 of 10 (90%) of sequenced isolates had a reportable lineage. All of those reported were found to be the Alpha lineage B.1.1.7.

Conclusions

We discuss the key lessons learnt from the after-action review by the Incident Management Team. These include the importance of multidisciplinary working, the utility of sync matrices to monitor outbreaks in real time, issues around Officer Cadets reporting symptoms, timing of high-risk training activities, infrastructure and use of LFDs. COVID-19 represents a vital learning opportunity to minimise the impact of potential future pandemics, which may produce considerably higher morbidity and mortality in military populations.
Development and validation of multivariable prediction models for adverse COVID-19 outcomes in patients with IBD
Authors: Sperger John , Shah Kushal S , Lu Minxin , Zhang Xian , Ungaro Ryan C , Brenner Erica J , Agrawal Manasi , Colombel Jean-Frédéric , Kappelman Michael D , Kosorok Michael R
Published: November 2021

Objectives

Develop an individualised prognostic risk prediction tool for predicting the probability of adverse COVID-19 outcomes in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Design and setting

This study developed and validated prognostic penalised logistic regression models using reports to the international Surveillance Epidemiology of Coronavirus Under Research Exclusion for Inflammatory Bowel Disease voluntary registry from March to October 2020. Model development was done using a training data set (85% of cases reported 13 March–15 September 2020), and model validation was conducted using a test data set (the remaining 15% of cases plus all cases reported 16 September–20 October 2020).

Participants

We included 2709 cases from 59 countries (mean age 41.2 years (SD 18), 50.2% male). All submitted cases after removing duplicates were included.

Primary and secondary outcome measures

COVID-19 related: (1) Hospitalisation+: composite outcome of hospitalisation, ICU admission, mechanical ventilation or death; (2) Intensive Care Unit+ (ICU+): composite outcome of ICU admission, mechanical ventilation or death; (3) Death. We assessed the resulting models’ discrimination using the area under the curve of the receiver operator characteristic curves and reported the corresponding 95% CIs.

Results

Of the submitted cases, a total of 633 (24%) were hospitalised, 137 (5%) were admitted to the ICU or intubated and 69 (3%) died. 2009 patients comprised the training set and 700 the test set. The models demonstrated excellent discrimination, with a test set area under the curve (95% CI) of 0.79 (0.75 to 0.83) for Hospitalisation+, 0.88 (0.82 to 0.95) for ICU+ and 0.94 (0.89 to 0.99) for Death. Age, comorbidities, corticosteroid use and male gender were associated with a higher risk of death, while the use of biological therapies was associated with a lower risk.

Conclusions

Prognostic models can effectively predict who is at higher risk for COVID-19-related adverse outcomes in a population of patients with IBD. A free online risk calculator (https://covidibd.org/covid-19-risk-calculator/) is available for healthcare providers to facilitate discussion of risks due to COVID-19 with patients with IBD.
Current trends in the application of causal inference methods to pooled longitudinal non-randomised data: a protocol for a methodological systematic review
Authors: Yeboah Edmund , Mauer Nicole Sibilla , Hufstedler Heather , Carr Sinclair , Matthay Ellicott C , Maxwell Lauren , Rahman Sabahat , Debray Thomas , de Jong Valentijn M T , Campbell Harlan , Gustafson Paul , Jänisch Thomas , Bärnighausen Till
Published: November 2021

Introduction

Causal methods have been adopted and adapted across health disciplines, particularly for the analysis of single studies. However, the sample sizes necessary to best inform decision-making are often not attainable with single studies, making pooled individual-level data analysis invaluable for public health efforts. Researchers commonly implement causal methods prevailing in their home disciplines, and how these are selected, evaluated, implemented and reported may vary widely. To our knowledge, no article has yet evaluated trends in the implementation and reporting of causal methods in studies leveraging individual-level data pooled from several studies. We undertake this review to uncover patterns in the implementation and reporting of causal methods used across disciplines in research focused on health outcomes. We will investigate variations in methods to infer causality used across disciplines, time and geography and identify gaps in reporting of methods to inform the development of reporting standards and the conversation required to effect change.

Methods and analysis

We will search four databases (EBSCO, Embase, PubMed, Web of Science) using a search strategy developed with librarians from three universities (Heidelberg University, Harvard University, and University of California, San Francisco). The search strategy includes terms such as ‘pool*’, ‘harmoniz*’, ‘cohort*’, ‘observational’, variations on ‘individual-level data’. Four reviewers will independently screen articles using Covidence and extract data from included articles. The extracted data will be analysed descriptively in tables and graphically to reveal the pattern in methods implementation and reporting. This protocol has been registered with PROSPERO (CRD42020143148).

Ethics and dissemination

No ethical approval was required as only publicly available data were used. The results will be submitted as a manuscript to a peer-reviewed journal, disseminated in conferences if relevant, and published as part of doctoral dissertations in Global Health at the Heidelberg University Hospital.
Social and life skills in adolescents who have self-harmed: analysis of survey responses from a national sample of adolescents in Norway
Authors: Fadum Elin Anita , Carlsen Ellen Øen , Ramberg Maria , Strand Leif Aage , Håberg Siri Eldevik , Borud Einar , Martinussen Monica
Published: November 2021

Objective

Social and life skills (SLS) may be important in the prevention and treatment of self-harm, but few studies have described this relationship. We examined three components of SLS in adolescents who reported self-harm that was, according to themselves, diagnosed by a clinician.

Design

Cross-sectional.

Setting

National screening prior to military service.

Participants

176 284 residents of Norway born in 1999–2001 received a declaration of health. We included 171 486 individuals (84 153 (49%) women and 87 333 (51%) men) who were 17 (n=1 67 855) or 18 years of age (n=3631) when they completed the declaration.

Outcome measure

The main outcome was clinically diagnosed self-harm, defined as self-harm that the adolescents themselves stated had been diagnosed by a clinician. Components of SLS were social interactions; coping strategies; and emotional regulation/aggression. The association between SLS and self-reported clinically diagnosed self-harm was assessed in hierarchical multiple regression models controlling for sex; school absence; and feelings of emotional pain.

Results

Three percent (n=5507) of the adolescents reported clinically diagnosed self-harm. The three components of SLS together added little to the prediction of clinically diagnosed self-harm (∆R2=0.02). After controlling for school absence and emotional pain, emotional regulation/aggression was the only SLS-component that was independently associated with clinically diagnosed self-harm (OR 1.33, 95% CI 1.31 to 1.36). The young men who said they had been clinically diagnosed for self-harm scored slightly worse on social interactions (Hedge’s g (g) = −0.13, p<0.001) and emotional regulation/aggression (g= −0.18, p<0.001) than the young women in this group.

Conclusion

Young women and young men who reported clinically diagnosed self-harm had more problems with emotional regulation/aggression than other adolescents, but did not have worse social interactions or coping strategies.
4-1BB co-stimulation further enhances anti-PD-1-mediated reinvigoration of exhausted CD39+CD8 T cells from primary and metastatic sites of epithelial ovarian cancers
Authors: Leem Galam , Park Junsik , Jeon Minwoo , Kim Eui-Soon , Kim Sang Wun , Lee Yong Jae , Choi Seong Jin , Choi Baekgyu , Park Seongyeol , Ju Young Seok , Jung Inkyung , Kim Sunghoon , Shin Eui-Cheol , Lee Jung Yun , Park Su-Hyung
Published: November 2021

Background

Responses to immunotherapy vary between different cancer types and sites. Here, we aimed to investigate features of exhaustion and activation in tumor-infiltrating CD8 T cells at both the primary and metastatic sites in epithelial ovarian cancer.

Methods

Tumor tissues and peripheral blood were obtained from 65 patients with ovarian cancer. From these samples, we isolated tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and peripheral blood mononuclear cells. These cells were used for immunophenotype using multicolor flow cytometry, gene expression profile using RNA sequencing and ex vivo functional restoration assays.

Results

We found that CD39+CD8 TILs were enriched with tumor-specific CD8 TILs, and that the activation status of these cells was determined by the differential programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) expression level. CD39+CD8 TILs with high PD-1 expression (PD-1high) exhibited features of highly tumor-reactive and terminally exhausted phenotypes. Notably, PD-1highCD39+CD8 TILs showed similar characteristics in terms of T-cell exhaustion and activation between the primary and metastatic sites. Among co-stimulatory receptors, 4-1BB was exclusively overexpressed in CD39+CD8 TILs, especially on PD-1highcells, and 4-1BB-expressing cells displayed immunophenotypes indicating higher degrees of T-cell activation and proliferation, and less exhaustion, compared with cells not expressing 4-1BB. Importantly, 4-1BB agonistic antibodies further enhanced the anti-PD-1-mediated reinvigoration of exhausted CD8 TILs from both primary and metastatic sites.

Conclusion

Severely exhausted PD-1highCD39+CD8 TILs displayed a distinctly heterogeneous exhaustion and activation status determined by differential 4-1BB expression levels, providing rationale and evidence for immunotherapies targeting co-stimulatory receptor 4-1BB in ovarian cancers.
Selective IL-1 activity on CD8+ T cells empowers antitumor immunity and synergizes with neovasculature-targeted TNF for full tumor eradication
Authors: Van Den Eeckhout Bram , Huyghe Leander , Van Lint Sandra , Burg Elianne , Plaisance Stéphane , Peelman Frank , Cauwels Anje , Uzé Gilles , Kley Niko , Gerlo Sarah , Tavernier Jan
Published: November 2021

Background

Clinical success of therapeutic cancer vaccines depends on the ability to mount strong and durable antitumor T cell responses. To achieve this, potent cellular adjuvants are highly needed. Interleukin-1β (IL-1β) acts on CD8+ T cells and promotes their expansion and effector differentiation, but toxicity and undesired tumor-promoting side effects hamper efficient clinical application of this cytokine.

Methods

This ‘cytokine problem’ can be solved by use of AcTakines (Activity-on-Target cytokines), which represent fusions between low-activity cytokine mutants and cell type-specific single-domain antibodies. AcTakines deliver cytokine activity to a priori selected cell types and as such evade toxicity and unwanted off-target side effects. Here, we employ subcutaneous melanoma and lung carcinoma models to evaluate the antitumor effects of AcTakines.

Results

In this work, we use an IL-1β-based AcTakine to drive proliferation and effector functionality of antitumor CD8+ T cells without inducing measurable toxicity. AcTakine treatment enhances diversity of the T cell receptor repertoire and empowers adoptive T cell transfer. Combination treatment with a neovasculature-targeted tumor necrosis factor (TNF) AcTakine mediates full tumor eradication and establishes immunological memory that protects against secondary tumor challenge. Interferon-γ was found to empower this AcTakine synergy by sensitizing the tumor microenvironment to TNF.

Conclusions

Our data illustrate that anticancer cellular immunity can be safely promoted with an IL-1β-based AcTakine, which synergizes with other immunotherapies for efficient tumor destruction.
Combining CTLA-4 and angiopoietin-2 blockade in patients with advanced melanoma: a phase I trial
Authors: Ott Patrick A , Nazzaro Matthew , Pfaff Kathleen L , Gjini Evisa , Felt Kristen D , Wolff Jacquelyn O , Buchbinder Elizabeth I , Haq Rizwan , Sullivan Ryan J , Lawrence Donald P , McDermott David F , Severgnini Mariano , Giobbie-Hurder Anita , Rodig Scott J , Stephen Hodi F
Published: November 2021

Background

Angiogenic factors promote the growth of tumor vasculature, modulate lymphocyte trafficking into tumors, and inhibit maturation of dendritic cells. We hypothesized that MEDI3617, a human IgG1 kappa monoclonal antibody directed against human angiopoietin-2, in combination with tremelimumab (treme), an IgG2 monoclonal antibody blocking cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein- (CTLA-4), is safe in patients with advanced melanoma.

Methods

In a phase I, 3+3 dose escalation trial, patients with metastatic or unresectable melanoma received treme in combination with MEDI3617. The primary objectives of the study were safety and determination of recommended phase II dose (RP2D). The secondary objectives included determination of 6-month and 1-year overall survival and best overall response rate. Immune cell populations and soluble factors were assessed in peripheral blood and metastatic tumors using Fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS), Luminex, and multiplexed immunofluorescence.

Results

Fifteen patients (median age: 62) were enrolled in the study (3 patients in cohort 1: treme at 10 mg/kg and MEDI3617 at 200 mg; and 12 patients in cohort 2: treme at 10 mg/kg and MEDI3617 at 600 mg). The most common all-grade treatment-related adverse events were rash, pruritus, fatigue, and extremity edema. No dose-limiting toxicities were observed. Cohort 2 was determined to be the RP2D. There were no patients with confirmed immune-related complete response or immune-related partial response. Six of 15 patients had immune-related stable disease, resulting in a disease control rate of 0.40 (95% CI 0.16 to 0.68). An increase in frequencies of circulating inducible T-cell costimulator (ICOS)+ and human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DR+ CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and production of Interleukin-2 and Interleukin-10 was observed post therapy.

Conclusions

Tremelimumab in combination with MEDI3617 is safe in patients with advanced melanoma. Angiopoietin-2 inhibition in combination with immune checkpoint inhibition warrants further exploration.

Trial registration number

NCT02141542.
Longitudinal changes in circulating concentrations of inflammatory markers throughout pregnancy: are there associations with diet and weight status?
Authors: Savard Claudia , Lemieux Simone , Plante Anne-Sophie , Gagnon Marianne , Leblanc Nadine , Veilleux Alain , Tchernof André , Morisset Anne-Sophie
Published: November 2021

The natural inflammation occurring during pregnancy can, under certain conditions, be associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. This study aimed to (1) quantify changes in circulating concentrations of leptin, adiponectin, interleukin-6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein (CRP) across trimesters of pregnancy, according to pre-pregnancy body mass index (ppBMI); and (2) examine the trimester-specific associations between the inflammatory markers’ concentrations, a Mediterranean diet score (MDS) and the dietary inflammatory index (DII). We measured leptin, adiponectin and IL-6 by ELISA and CRP by high-sensitivity immunonephelometry, in blood samples from 79 pregnant women (age: 32.1 ± 3.7 years; ppBMI: 25.7 ± 5.8 kg/m2). Three Web-based 24-h recalls were completed at each trimester and used to compute the MDS and the DII. CRP concentrations remained stable across trimesters, whereas concentrations of leptin and IL-6 increased, and adiponectin concentrations decreased (p < 0.001). Changes in leptin and adiponectin concentrations also differed according to ppBMI categories (p < 0.05). As for the dietary scores, the only significant association was observed in the second trimester between leptin concentrations and the MDS (r = −0.26, p < 0.05). In conclusion, ppBMI and the progression of pregnancy itself probably supplant the potential associations between diet and the inflammation occurring during that period.

Novelty: Circulating leptin and IL-6 concentrations increased across trimesters whereas CRP was stable, and adiponectin decreased. Variations in circulating leptin and adiponectin concentrations differed by ppBMI categories. Very few associations were observed between dietary scores and inflammatory markers.
Inflationary quantum dynamics and backreaction using a classical-quantum correspondence
Authors: Bernardo Reginald Christian
Published: November 2021

We study inflationary dynamics using a recently introduced classical-quantum correspondence for investigating the backreaction of a quantum mechanical degree of freedom to a classical background. Using specifically a coupled Einstein–Klein–Gordon system, an approximation that holds well during the very early inflationary era when modes are very deep inside the Hubble horizon, we show that the backreaction of a mode of the quantum field will renormalize the Hubble parameter only if the mode’s wavelength is longer than some threshold Planckian length scale. Otherwise, the mode will destabilize the inflationary era. We also present an approximate analytical solution that supports the existence of such short-wavelength threshold and compare the results of the classical-quantum correspondence with the traditional perturbative-iterative method in semiclassical gravity.
Non-vanishing of certain cyclotomic multiple harmonic sums and application to the non-vanishing of certain p-adic cyclotomic multiple zeta values
Authors: Jarossay David
Published: November 2021

We define and apply a method to study the non-vanishing of p-adic cyclotomic multiple zeta values. We prove the non-vanishing of certain cyclotomic multiple harmonic sums, and, via a formula proved in another paper, which expresses certain cyclotomic multiple harmonic sums as infinite sums of products of p-adic cyclotomic multiple zeta values, this implies the non-vanishing of certain p-adic cyclotomic multiple zeta values.
Ostracods from the Pingyi Basin (eastern China) and their significance for the K/Pg boundary
Authors: Wang He , Du Shengxian , Yu Tingting , Li Sha , Lu Huinan , Zhang Haichun , Cao Meizhen , Horne David J.
Published: November 2021

The Pingyi Basin is a late Mesozoic to Cenozoic fault basin in East China, containing a good record of Cretaceous to Paleogene non-marine carbonate and gypsum deposits. Abundant microfossils including gastropods, ostracods, charophytes and palynomorphs have been reported from this basin. A taxonomic study of ostracods from the Gejiazhuang section in the Pingyi Basin reveals a total of 17 species assigned to 11 genera. A further ostracod biostratigraphic correlation suggests the K/Pg boundary lies within Member 1 of the Bianqiao Formation in the Gejiazhuang section, which is supported by charophyte biostratigraphy.
Protohemiphlebiidae fam. nov., a stem hemiphlebioid damselfly from Cretaceous amber in Kachin
Authors: Zheng Daran , Jarzembowski Edmund A. , Zhuo De , Nel André
Published: November 2021

Hemiphlebiidae are the most basal lestomorphan family following the latest phylogenetic analysis of the Zygoptera: this unique damselfly family today contains one relict species found in the wetlands of Australia. It was, however, very diverse and widespread during the Mesozoic. Nevertheless, very few species were known, obscuring the origination and early evolution of the family. Here we propose a new stem hemiphlebioid taxon (Protohemiphlebiidae Zheng, Jarzembowski and Nel, fam. nov.) based on a new genus and two species:
Protohemiphlebia zhangi
Zheng, Jarzembowski and Nel, sp. nov. and
Protohemiphlebia meiyingae
Zheng, Jarzembowski and Nel, sp. nov. The new family shares the characteristics of both Hemiphlebiidae and Coenagrionoidea, but it is more closely related to Hemiphlebiidae in having the pterostigma with a ‘star-shaped’ microsculpture and AA originating from the wing base slightly distal of Ax0.
Protohemiphlebia
Zheng, Jarzembowski and Nel, gen. nov. is further considered to belong to the stem group of Hemiphlebioidea, instead of belonging to the Hemiphlebiidae, in possessing pretibial combs and a weakly kinked RP1 below the Pt brace. The new damselflies will help to calibrate the origin of Hemiphlebiidae, which could be earlier than the current oldest records in the Kimmeridgean (Late Jurassic).
New data on gastropod genus
Hirsuticyclus
(Caenogastropoda, Cyclophoridae) from mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber
Authors: Yu Tingting
Published: November 2021

The genus
Hirsuticyclus
Neubauer, Xing and Jochum, 2019
was the first record of an exceptionally preserved land snail with dense periostracal hairs from mid-Cretaceous Kachin (Burmese) amber. Here, we document four newly-discovered shells from Kachin amber, one belonging to the type species
Hirsuticyclus electrum
Neubauer, Xing and Jochum, 2019
and the remaining three shells belonging to a new species,
Hirsuticyclus canaliculatus
sp. nov. Well-preserved morphological characteristics of these two species could be clearly demonstrated under light microscopy combined with modern micro-CT scans with computer 3D reconstructions. Our new material of the type species amends the generic diagnosis based on a better-preserved shell including the peristome and operculum. The new species shows distinctive shell characteristics such as numerous spiral keels and a flaring, folded peristome interrupted by two canals. These excellently preserved fossils contribute to our understanding of the morphological diversity and evolution of these ancient members of cyclophoroids.
Where Are They Going? Predicting Human Behaviors in Crowded Scenes
Authors: Zhang Bo , Zhang Rui , Bisagno Niccolo , Conci Nicola , De Natale Francesco G. B. , Liu Hongbo
Published: November 2021

In this article, we propose a framework for crowd behavior prediction in complicated scenarios. The fundamental framework is designed using the standard encoder-decoder scheme, which is built upon the long short-term memory module to capture the temporal evolution of crowd behaviors. To model interactions among humans and environments, we embed both the social and the physical attention mechanisms into the long short-term memory. The social attention component can model the interactions among different pedestrians, whereas the physical attention component helps to understand the spatial configurations of the scene. Since pedestrians’ behaviors demonstrate multi-modal properties, we use the generative model to produce multiple acceptable future paths. The proposed framework not only predicts an individual’s trajectory accurately but also forecasts the ongoing group behaviors by leveraging on the coherent filtering approach. Experiments are carried out on the standard crowd benchmarks (namely, the ETH, the UCY, the CUHK crowd, and the CrowdFlow datasets), which demonstrate that the proposed framework is effective in forecasting crowd behaviors in complex scenarios.
Dual-Stream Structured Graph Convolution Network for Skeleton-Based Action Recognition
Authors: Xu Chunyan , Liu Rong , Zhang Tong , Cui Zhen , Yang Jian , Hu Chunlong
Published: November 2021

In this work, we propose a
dual-stream structured graph convolution network
(
DS-SGCN
) to solve the skeleton-based action recognition problem. The spatio-temporal coordinates and appearance contexts of the skeletal joints are jointly integrated into the graph convolution learning process on both the video and skeleton modalities. To effectively represent the skeletal graph of discrete joints, we create a structured graph convolution module specifically designed to encode partitioned body parts along with their dynamic interactions in the spatio-temporal sequence. In more detail, we build a set of structured intra-part graphs, each of which can be adopted to represent a distinctive body part (e.g., left arm, right leg, head). The inter-part graph is then constructed to model the dynamic interactions across different body parts; here each node corresponds to an intra-part graph built above, while an edge between two nodes is used to express these internal relationships of human movement. We implement the graph convolution learning on both intra- and inter-part graphs in order to obtain the inherent characteristics and dynamic interactions, respectively, of human action. After integrating the intra- and inter-levels of spatial context/coordinate cues, a convolution filtering process is conducted on time slices to capture these temporal dynamics of human motion. Finally, we fuse two streams of graph convolution responses in order to predict the category information of human action in an end-to-end fashion. Comprehensive experiments on five single/multi-modal benchmark datasets (including NTU RGB+D 60, NTU RGB+D 120, MSR-Daily 3D, N-UCLA, and HDM05) demonstrate that the proposed DS-SGCN framework achieves encouraging performance on the skeleton-based action recognition task.
A New Foreground-Background based Method for Behavior-Oriented Social Media Image Classification
Authors: Nandanwar Lokesh , Shivakumara Palaiahnakote , Krishnani Divya , Ramachandra Raghavendra , Lu Tong , Pal Umapada , Kankanhalli Mohan
Published: November 2021

Due to various applications, research on personal traits using information on social media has become an important area. In this paper, a new method for the classification of behavior-oriented social images uploaded on various social media platforms is presented. The proposed method introduces a multimodality concept using skin of different parts of human body and background information, such as indoor and outdoor environments. For each image, the proposed method detects skin candidate components based on R, G, B color spaces and entropy features. The iterative mutual nearest neighbor approach is proposed to detect accurate skin candidate components, which result in foreground components. Next, the proposed method detects the remaining part (other than skin components) as background components based on structure tensor of R, G, B color spaces, and
Maximally Stable Extremal Regions (MSER
) concept in the wavelet domain. We then explore Hanman Transform for extracting context features from foreground and background components through clustering and fusion operation. These features are then fed to an SVM classifier for the classification of behavior-oriented images. Comprehensive experiments on 10-class datasets of
Normal Behavior-Oriented Social media Image (NBSI)
and
Abnormal Behavior-Oriented Social media Image (ABSI)
show that the proposed method is effective and outperforms the existing methods in terms of average classification rate. Also, the results on the benchmark dataset of five classes of personality traits and two classes of emotions of different facial expressions (FERPlus dataset) demonstrated the robustness of the proposed method over the existing methods.
Cross-Modal Hybrid Feature Fusion for Image-Sentence Matching
Authors: Xu Xing , Wang Yifan , He Yixuan , Yang Yang , Hanjalic Alan , Shen Heng Tao
Published: November 2021

Image-sentence matching is a challenging task in the field of language and vision, which aims at measuring the similarities between images and sentence descriptions. Most existing methods independently map the global features of images and sentences into a common space to calculate the image-sentence similarity. However, the image-sentence similarity obtained by these methods may be coarse as (1) an intermediate common space is introduced to implicitly match the heterogeneous features of images and sentences in a global level, and (2) only the inter-modality relations of images and sentences are captured while the intra-modality relations are ignored. To overcome the limitations, we propose a novel
Cross-Modal Hybrid Feature Fusion
(CMHF) framework for directly learning the image-sentence similarity by fusing multimodal features with inter- and intra-modality relations incorporated. It can robustly capture the high-level interactions between visual regions in images and words in sentences, where flexible attention mechanisms are utilized to generate effective attention flows within and across the modalities of images and sentences. A structured objective with ranking loss constraint is formed in CMHF to learn the image-sentence similarity based on the fused fine-grained features of different modalities bypassing the usage of intermediate common space. Extensive experiments and comprehensive analysis performed on two widely used datasets—Microsoft COCO and Flickr30K—show the effectiveness of the hybrid feature fusion framework in CMHF, in which the state-of-the-art matching performance is achieved by our proposed CMHF method.
Cross-Domain Object Representation via Robust Low-Rank Correlation Analysis
Authors: Shen Xiangjun , Zhou Jinghui , Ma Zhongchen , Bao Bingkun , Zha Zhengjun
Published: November 2021

Cross-domain data has become very popular recently since various viewpoints and different sensors tend to facilitate better data representation. In this article, we propose a novel
cross-domain object representation algorithm (RLRCA)
which not only explores the complexity of multiple relationships of variables by
canonical correlation analysis (CCA)
but also uses a low rank model to decrease the effect of noisy data. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first try to smoothly integrate CCA and a low-rank model to uncover correlated components across different domains and to suppress the effect of noisy or corrupted data. In order to improve the flexibility of the algorithm to address various cross-domain object representation problems, two instantiation methods of RLRCA are proposed from feature and sample space, respectively. In this way, a better cross-domain object representation can be achieved through effectively learning the intrinsic CCA features and taking full advantage of cross-domain object alignment information while pursuing low rank representations. Extensive experimental results on CMU PIE, Office-Caltech, Pascal VOC 2007, and NUS-WIDE-Object datasets, demonstrate that our designed models have superior performance over several state-of-the-art cross-domain low rank methods in image clustering and classification tasks with various corruption levels.
Effect of Dealloying Time and Post-Annealing on the Surface Morphology and Electrocatalytic Behavior of Nanoporous Copper Films for CO2 Reduction Reaction
Authors: Zeng Wang-You , Lai Jia-Hao , Cheng I-Chung
Published: November 2021

Electrocatalytic reduction reaction of CO2 (CO2RR) is one of the promising routes to mitigate global warming via transforming greenhouse gas into valuable chemical feedstocks. By adding proper electrocatalysts, such as nanoporous copper (NPC) with an average ligament size of 37 ± 6 nm, hydrocarbons could be produced at a relatively low overpotential. As the dealloying time increased to 156 h, the NPC was transformed into CuO nanosheet structure, which yielded larger electrochemical surface area (ECSA) and current density than the as-prepared NPC films. However, the Faraday efficiency (FE) of the major conversion product, formic acid (HCOOH), decreased from 29 to 8% when the nanosheet structure was used as electrocatalyst. On the other hand, the surface morphology of the NPC films remained similar while the average ligament size increased from 37 to 63 nm after a post-annealing treatment at 500 °C for 4 h. Both the current density and ECSA of this post-annealed NPC film were nearly 3 times higher than those of as-prepared NPC film, and the FE toward HCOOH increased from 29 to 45%. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy revealed that Cu2O were present on the nanoporous structure, which enhanced the selectivity and FE toward HCOOH in CO2RR.
Optimizing transesophageal atrial pacing in mice to detect atrial fibrillation
Authors: Murphy Matthew B. , Kim Kyungsoo , Kannankeril Prince J. , Subati Tuerdi , Van Amburg Joseph C. , Barnett Joey V. , Murray Katherine T.
Published: November 2021

Methods were developed to optimize transesophageal rapid atrial pacing (RAP) to detect AF susceptibility in new and established mouse models. High stimulus intensity and pacing rates caused parasympathetic stimulation, with pacing-induced AV block and excessive AF induction in normal mice. For a given model, pacing at twice TH enabled improved phenotype discrimination in a pacing mode and sex-specific manner. Transesophageal RAP should be individually optimized when developing a mouse model of AF.
Naringenin: A Promising Therapeutic Agent against Organ Fibrosis
Authors: Du Yanfei , Ma Jun , Fan Yu , Wang Xinyu , Zheng Shuzhan , Feng Jian , Li Jiafu , Fan Zhongcai , Li Guang , Ye Qiang
Published: November 2021

Fibrosis is the final common pathology of most chronic diseases as seen in the heart, liver, lung, kidney, and skin and contributes to nearly half of death in the developed countries. Fibrosis, or scarring, is mainly characterized by the transdifferentiation of fibroblasts into myofibroblasts and the excessive accumulation of extracellular matrix (ECM) secreted by myofibroblasts. Despite immense efforts made in the field of organ fibrosis over the past decades and considerable understanding of the occurrence and development of fibrosis gained, there is still lack of an effective treatment for fibrotic diseases. Therefore, identifying a new therapeutic strategy against organ fibrosis is an unmet clinical need. Naringenin, a flavonoid that occurs naturally in citrus fruits, has been found to confer a wide range of pharmacological effects including antioxidant, anti‐inflammatory, and anticancer benefits and thus potentially exerting preventive and curative effects on numerous diseases. In addition, emerging evidence has revealed that naringenin can prevent the pathogenesis of fibrosis in vivo and in vitro via the regulation of various pathways that involved signaling molecules such as transforming growth factor‐β1/small mother against decapentaplegic protein 3 (TGF‐β1/Smad3), mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK), phosphatidylinositol 3‐kinase/protein kinase B (PI3K/Akt), sirtuin1 (SIRT1), nuclear factor‐kappa B (NF‐κB), or reactive oxygen species (ROS). Targeting these profibrotic pathways by naringenin could potentially become a novel therapeutic approach for the management of fibrotic disorders. In this review, we present a comprehensive summary of the antifibrotic roles of naringenin in vivo and in vitro and their underlying mechanisms of action. As a food derived compound, naringenin may serve as a promising drug candidate for the treatment of fibrotic disorders.
Secret Image-Sharing Scheme Based on Multinode Authentication in the Internet of Things
Authors: Zhang Lina , Wang Tong , Zheng Xiangqin , Yang Junhan , Lv Liping
Published: November 2021

Internet of things (IoT) has been developed and applied rapidly because of its huge commercial value in recent years. However, security problem has become a key factor restricting the development of IoT. The nodes of IoT are easy to be impersonated or replaced when attacked, which leads to the mistake of the uploaded data, the abnormal use of the application, and so on. Identifying the authenticity of the data submitted by the nodes is the top priority. We propose a scheme to verify the authenticity of multinode data. In this scheme, the authenticity of node data is checked through visual secret recovery and XOR operation together. The least significant bit (lsb) operation converts data from nodes into a bit, which improves the efficiency of data verification and reduces the risk of data leakage. This scheme achieves the purpose of verifying the data provided by the node, which avoids malicious attacks from illegal nodes. By analyzing the experiment result and comparing with other works, our scheme has the advantages of high verification efficiency, lightweight storage of nodes, and security verification.
A Study of Novel Education and Classicization of Ancient Chinese Novels in the Age of Fusion Media
Authors: Yang Liuxiuzi
Published: November 2021

In today’s new media environment, more and more communication contents have been digitized. Also because of digitization, traditional media and new media, which were previously well-defined services, have now merged, media fusion. In the age of media fusion, communication systems are updated more rapidly and more and more novels are being adapted into TV series. Literary education in ancient China has a long history and has played an important role in the development and dissemination of the ancient Chinese literature. Literary education refers to an educational behavior in which the educator and the educated acquire knowledge, enrich emotional experience, and obtain aesthetic pleasure through the reading, explanation, and acceptance of literary texts and then cultivate language ability and cultivate spirituality. There are many factors that promote the classicization of ancient Chinese fiction works. This thesis examines the relationship between fiction education and the classicization of ancient Chinese fiction works. The experiment shows that there are still many problems with the reading of ancient Chinese novels today; the number of respondents who have an average interest in reading ancient Chinese novels accounts for 51%, and only 12% have a high interest in reading. In terms of the choice of reading content, 16% of the students focus on reading literary masterpieces, 70% are inclined to reading young adult literature and campus literature, and 14% prefer to read romance martial arts novels, popular science books, and newspaper publications, etc.
A Utility Method for the Matching Optimization of Ride‐Sharing Based on the E‐CARGO Model in Internet of Vehicles
Authors: Li Xiaohui , Dong Hongbin , Han Shuang , Wang Xiaowei , Yu Xiaodong
Published: November 2021

The Internet of Vehicles (IoV) is the extension of the Internet of Things (IoT) technology in the field of transportation systems. Ride‐sharing is one of intelligent travel applications in IoV. Ride‐sharing is aimed at taking passengers with similar itineraries and time arrangements to travel in the same car according to a certain matching rule. To effectively integrate transport capacity resources and reduce the number of cars on the road, ride‐sharing has become a popular and economical way of travel. The matching and optimizing of drivers and passengers are the core contents of a ride‐sharing application system. This paper mainly studies the dynamic real‐time matching of passengers and drivers in IoV, considering the main factors such as travel cost, car capacity, and utility. The matching problem is formulated in a ride‐sharing system as a Role‐Based Collaboration (RBC). A new utility method for the matching optimization of ride‐sharing is present. In this paper, we establish a model for simulating the assignment of ride‐sharing with the help of the Environments‐Classes, Agents, Roles, Groups, and Objects (E‐CARGO) model. The objective function and formal definitions are proposed. The utility and time of optimal matching are obtained by using the Kuhn‐Munkres algorithm on the revenue matrix. The experimental results show that the proposed formal method based on the E‐CARGO model and utility theory can be applied in the ride‐sharing problem. Numerical experiments show that the matching time cost increases with the increase of the number of drivers and passengers participating in the ride‐sharing system. When the number of drivers and passengers is different, one‐to‐many matching takes the least time, and one‐to‐one matching takes more time. When the number of drivers and passengers is the same, the time cost of one‐to‐one matching increases sharply with a certain value (bigger than 800). Compared with other matching methods, the time spent by the one‐to‐many method is reduced by 30%. The results show that the proposed solution can be applied to the matching and pricing in a ride‐sharing system.