bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Polymorphisms in SSR-loci associated with E genes in soybean mutant lines offer perspective for breeding
Authors: Zharikova D. , Chebotar G. , Aksyonova E. , Temchenko I. , Chebotar S.
Published: June 2020

Aim. To analyse genetic diversity in 10 new soybean lines created by using the chemical mutagens D-6, DMSSO-11, DMSSO-12, DMSNPIR-11, DUDMS12, D12DMC-11B obtained from four cultivars Femida, Oksana, Podils’ka 416, Zolotysta. The microsatellite (MS) markers Satt100, Satt229, Satt319, Satt354, Satt365, Sat_038 were used. These markers are linked with genes, which determine sensitivity of soybean plants to photoperiod and time to maturation. Methods of DNA extraction, PCR, MS-analysis, fi eld trial, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) have been applied. Results. Parental cultivars, mutant lines and control genotypes were characterized by alleles of microsatellite loci, 25 alleles of 6 microsatellite loci were detected. Signifi cant differences between investigated lines were detected in three year fi eld trials for traits − days to maturation (DTM) and length of the vegetative period (LV). We have revealed effects of the factor «Alleles of MS-locus», so alleles of Satt100 locus affected all traits except DTF
(days to fl owering); alleles of Satt319 and Satt354 affected DTM and LV; Sat_038 affected DTF and S-F (duration of the period shoots-fl owering). Lines with alleles 167 bp at Satt100 and 175 bp at Satt319 loci (that marks dominant E7) were shown to have a longer vegetation period and later maturity, than other. The lines with allele 247 bp at Sat_038 fl owered earlier, than lines with a 245 bp allele, and the lines with allele 232 bp at Satt354 reached maturity later, than lines with other alleles at this locus. Conclusions. We have found that applied mutagens induce changes in the soybean genome and by using these mutagens it is possible to effectively increase genetic diversity in loci associated with genes/loci that determine time of maturity and/or photoperiod sensitivity of soybean, enabling to obtain soybean cultivars with different terms of maturity and yield. The microsatellite markers, particularly Sat_038, Satt100, Satt319 and Satt354 that were applied in our study are considered to be useful
tools for marker assisted breeding of soybean cultivars with programmed time of development. We did not observe signifi cant effects of «Alleles of MS-locus Satt229» that is known to be linked with E3 on the investigated agronomical traits. For soybean genotypes with the E7 allele the DTF was longer for 3-9 days and LV for 10-11 days. In lines with an allele of 175 bp at locus Satt319 the S-F period was 6-9 days shorter
Morphofunctional condition of the harderian gland of chickens during the post-vaccine immunity to infectious bronchitis
Authors: Guralska S. , Kot T. , Pinskyi O. , Sokolyuk V. , Budnik T.
Published: June 2020

Aim. To fi nd out the contents and placement of CD4+, CD8+, CD45RA+, CD20+-lymphocyte subpopulations
and morphocytochemical architecture of the harderian gland in clinically healthy chickens and for vaccination
against infectious bronchitis. Methods. Anatomical, histological, immunohistochemical, optical, morphometric
and variational-statistical. Results. The obtained morphometric study results showed that the area of secretory
lobules and lymphoid formations was signifi cantly larger in the harderian gland of vaccinated 40-, 90- and
110-day-old chickens. Moreover, the organ size correlates signifi cantly with the development of lymphoid
formations, since the area of the secretory lobules in the gland of the experimental group chickens does not differ
from that of the control group. Immunohistochemical studies have shown that the number of lymphocytes
with CD20+ markers was characterized by a reliable (P < 0.001) increase in B-lymphocytes in the harderian
gland of the vaccinated chickens of all ages. Lymphocytes with CD8+ markers were not detected in the gland
of vaccinated 8- and 20-day-old chickens. According to cytomorphometric studies, their number in vaccinated
40-, 90- and 110-day-old chickens was signifi cantly (P < 0.001) higher compared to intact birds – 2.11, 2.38
and 2.96 times, respectively. Conclusions. The data on the composition of lymphocytes with CD4+, CD8+,
CD45RA+, CD20+ markers in the harderian gland of chickens of different age, on their changes in case of immunization
against infectious bronchitis were obtained, and the role of certain clusters at different stages of the
immunity formation was determined. The information on the structure, patterns of growth and development
of the harderian gland of chickens, which demonstrates the incompleteness of its morphogenesis at the early
stages of the postnatal ontogenesis period that should be taken into account during the compilation of vaccine
prophylaxis programs, has been supplemented.
Amphibians Diversity in Sulap Hill and Watervang Dam, Lubuklinggau
Authors: Rozi Zico Fakhrur , Samitra Dian
Published: June 2020

Sulap Hill and Watervang Dam are located in the central of the city of Lubuklinggau, South Sumatra Province, which has a variety of organisms, including amphibians. This study aimed to determine the diversity of amphibian species in the area of  Sulap Hill and Watervang Dam Lubuklinggau City. This research was conducted from June to August 2018. Data collection was an exploration method-combined visual encounter survey (VES). The samples obtained were identified at the Biology Education Laboratory, STKIP PGRI Lubuklinggau. Data analysis included species composition, diversity index, and Evenness index, and conservation status. The results of the study found 5 families, consist of 11 species: Duttaphyrnus melanotictus, Ingerophrynus divergens, Phrynoidis asper, Fejervarya cancrivora, Fejervarya limnocharis, Limnonectes kuhlii, Limnonectes macrodon, Limnonectes paramacrodon, Polypedates leucomystax, Hylarana erythraea, Ichthyophis sumatranus. The results of the data analysis showed that the amphibian diversity index in the Sulap hill (1.55) and Watervang dam (1.84) was categorized as low. The Evenness index in Sulap Hill (0.86) and Watervang Dam (0.88) was categorized as a high uniformity and stable community. Based on data from the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Red List, 8 species have the status of Least Concern, 1 species with Vulnerable status, 1 species with Near-threatened status and 1 species with data deficient status.
Phylogenetic Relationships of Ornamental Chaetodontidae in The South Coastal of West Java, Indonesia
Authors: Ihya Silma Safira , Nuryanto Agus , Prabowo Romanus Edy , Bhagawati Dian , Kusbiyanto Kusbiyanto
Published: June 2020

Marine ornamental trade has been developing for several years with Indonesia as one of the major exporter countries. Among the popular marine ornamental fish in the local and international markets belong to the family of Chaetodontidae. The existence of this family has been reported from several areas in Indonesia. However, no information is available in terms of their phylogenetic relationships of the fish from the south coast of West Java. The aim of this research was to asses the phylogenetic relationships among ornamental fish members of Chaetodontidae in the South Coast of West Java. Fish samples were collected from two trading sites Ujung Genteng and Taman Manalusu. Collected fish were identified using a previously published study. The evolutionary relationships among species were analyzed statistically through phylogenetic analysis based on maximum parsimony algorithm and Kimura 2- Parameter substitution model as implemented in PAUP 4.0 software. Tree branching pattern supported by 1000 bootstraps pseudo-replicates and out-group comparison. Daschyllus trimaculatus used as outgroup species. Based on the study, Chaetodontidae from the South Coast of West Java formed one monophyletic group compared to Dascylus trimaculatus with Chelmon rostratus was the basal species. All the remaining species were the derived species. There are CI and RI value gained. The consistency index (CI) value of this family is 0.5833, and the retention index (RI) is 0.5082.
Species Density and Lead (Pb) Pollution in Mangrove Ecosystem, South Kalimantan
Authors: Kadarsah Anang , Salim Dafiuddin , Husain Sadang , Dinata Marta
Published: June 2020

Its crucial to get information about lead (Pb) heavy metal pollution from mining and oil palm plantation on species density in mangrove ecosystem, to anticipate its impacts. This study aimed is to compare the types and densities of vegetation in mangrove ecosystems allegedly due to mining in Setarap village, Tanah Bumbu Regency and oil palm plantations in Kuala Tambangan Village, Tanah Laut Regency. We also analysis the condition of waters (TDS, pH and DO) and organic content in sediments to acquire data from the South Kalimantan mangrove ecosystems. The results showed there were four species of true mangroves (Avicennia alba, Acanthus ebracteatus, Nypa fruticans and Rhizophora apiculate) could live well in the environment affected by mining or oil palm plantations. The species density for trees was low (933 ind/ha) for mangroves affected by coal mines, while those affected by oil palm plantations had higher densities (1,067 ind/ha). pH value of waters in affected area by coal mining showed more acidic value (pH 5.76) especially at the back, while those by palm oil plantations are more acidic (pH 6) in the estuary. Organic matter content in sediments affected by coal mines was in the range of 0.61-6.59%, while those affected by oil palm plantations showed higher values (0.12-2.19%). Lead heavy metal content (Pb) in waters affected by coal mines was 0.031-0.056 mg/L, while the area affected by oil palm plantations was of higher value (0.110-0.128 mg/L). Lead (Pb) levels in sediments indicate higher values than waters, which reach 3.512-6.046 mg/Kg (affected by coal mines), and in areas affected by oil palm plantations reaching 6.658-6.66 mg/Kg. The general conclusion is that vegetation densities in areas affected by coal mines are lower than oil palm plantations. The level of lead  (Pb) pollution in the sediments is higher than in the waters.
A Note on The Genus Evolvulus (Convolvulaceae) In Java, Indonesia
Authors: Irsyam Arifin Surya Dwipa , Hariri Muhammad Rifqi , Irwanto Rina Ratnasih , Mustaqim Wendy Achmad
Published: June 2020

According to the Flora of Java, there is only one species of Evolvulus in Java, namely Evolvulus alsinoides. Since then, a second species was reported in 2017 from Universitas Indonesia, Depok, West Java, as an alien naturalized species. Some recent field studies have been conducted to provide updated taxonomic information of the genus on this island. The field observations were carried out in Banten, Jakarta, West Java, Jogjakarta, and East Java from March to December 2019. The herbarium studies were also conducted in Herbarium Bogoriense, Herbarium of Bogor Botanic Gardens, Herbarium Bandungense, and Herbarium of the Department of Biology, Universitas Indonesia. Our study reveals one newly recorded species of Evolvulus in Java already grown in cultivation, namely E. glomeratus Nees & Mart. subsp. grandiflorus (Parodi) Ooststr. Besides that, Evolvulus nummularius is now also reported to occur in other sites of West Java and extended to Central Java. An updated key to Evolvulus in Java, descriptions to both species, photographs, and brief discussions are provided.
Effectiveness of Modified Traps for Protection Against Fruit Flies on Mango
Authors: Susanto Agus , Sudrajat Sudrajat , Yulia Endah , Permana Agus Dana , Gunawan Aries , Yudistira Dwi Harya
Published: June 2020

Mango is one of the primary fruit export commodities in Indonesia. The productivity of mango can be increased by controlling the pest population, including fruit flies Bactrocera spp. Various efforts to control the population of fruit flies have been carried out, either by implementing traditional methods or by using synthetic pesticides. However, synthetic pesticides can cause pollution, and therefore we need to control the fruit flies’ population by using the most effective fruit fly trap mode. The study was conducted in the mango yield (monoculture) of Department of Agriculture in Majalengka. The traps in this study were modified Steiner traps with funnels, modified Steiner traps without funnels, bottle traps with funnels, bottle traps without funnels, and modified gypsy moth traps. Each trap was fed with 0.2 ml of Methyl eugenol dripped on a cotton roll and hung in the trap. The results showed that the number of fruit flies caught in each trap every week is significantly different. The highest number of fruit flies caught in each trap every week was achieved by bottle traps without funnels that caught 135 flies, while the lowest number of fruit flies caught was recorded by the gypsy moth traps with 16 flies. The transparent color of the bottles and a large number of holes effectively lured the fruit flies into the bottle traps without funnels.
Physical performance is associated with visual acuity in university students: results of a school-based study
Authors: Wu Koulong , Yang Liu , Sun Xugui , He Lianping , Du Tianhua
Published: June 2020

SUMMARY OBJECTIVE The aim of our study is to explore the relationship between physical performance and visual acuity in university students in China. METHODS tests of standing long jump, 50-meter dash and pull-ups sit-ups were conducted. The visual acuity was measured using a logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR) chart. Pearson correlation was used to test the correlation of physical performance with visual acuity in university students. RESULTS The number of pull-ups was negatively associated with visual acuity in the left eye for male students, while a negative correlation was found between the time of the 50-meter dash and visual acuity in the right eye for female students. CONCLUSIONS Our study identified that physical exercise might help improve visual acuity. University students should practice strength exercises to improve physical performance.
Oncology practice during COVID-19 pandemic: a fast response is the best response
Authors: Sternberg Cinthya , Andrade Thamine Lessa , Nova Ana Paula Gomes Alcântara Villa , Fiscina Bianca Vivas , Fernandes Ana Paula Laranjeira , Alves Camila Dias , Alves Adriana Batista , Hizumi Lise Oliveira , Dias Simone Sacramento Novais , Nobre Pablicio , Calabrich Aknar , Coutinho Anelisa K. , Silva Alex Pimenta da
Published: June 2020

SUMMARY The first confirmed case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Brasil was reported on February 25th, 2020, and by April 3rd, 8076 were confirmed in the country. As COVID-19 disease incidence escalates in Brasil, management of cancer patients requires immediate action and oncology clinics are urged to establish a contingency plan. We have installed a COVID-19 Management Committee to elaborate and implement best practices to assist cancer outpatients as well as to provide a safe environment for clinical staff and other employees at the outpatient clinics. The challenges of cancer treatment in the midst of COVID-19 global pandemic highlight the importance of a rapid response by institutions, where organizational structure, strategic planning, agility in guidelines implementation and alternative ways to protect and support clinical staff, employees and patients may be the key to mitigate pandemic effects.
Severe Cerebellar Degeneration and Chiari I Malformation - Speculative pathophysiology based on a systematic review
Authors: Joaquim Andrei Fernandes
Published: June 2020

SUMMARY BACKGROUND Symptomatic Chiari Type I Malformation (CM) is treated with posterior fossa decompression with or without duroplasty. We have noticed some cases with concomitant severe cerebellar ataxia due to cerebellar atrophy. The aim of this study is to review the literature of CM associated with severe cerebellar atrophy and discuss its potential physiopathology. METHODS A systematic literature review in the Pubmed Database was performed using the following key-terms: “cerebellar atrophy Chiari”, and “cerebellar degeneration Chiari”. Articles reporting the presence of cerebellar degeneration/atrophy associated with CM were included. RESULTS We found only six studies directly discussing the association of cerebellar atrophy with CM, with a total of seven cases. We added one case of our own practice for additional discussion. Only speculative causes were described to justify cerebellar atrophy. The potential causes of cerebellar atrophy were diffuse cerebellar ischemia from chronic compression of small vessels (the most mentioned speculative cause), chronic raised intracranial pressure due to CSF block, chronic venous hypertension, and association with platybasia with ventral compression of the brainstem resulting in injury of the inferior olivary nuclei leading to mutual trophic effects in the cerebellum. Additionally, it is not impossible to rule out a degenerative cause for cerebellar atrophy without a causative reason. CONCLUSIONS Severe cerebellar atrophy is found in some patients with CM. Although chronic ischemia due to compression is the most presumed cause, other etiologies were proposed. The real reasons for cerebellar degeneration are not known. Further studies are necessary.
Análise da Percepção de Acadêmicos sobre o Ensino de Urgência e Emergência em Curso Médico
Authors: Sorte Érica Manuela da Silva Boa , Silva Jéssica Novais Fonseca da , Santos Carlos Gabriel dos , Pinho Paula Dandara Correia de , Nascimento Jairo Evangelista , Reis Claudiojanes
Published: June 2020

Resumo: Introdução: O atendimento em urgência e emergência (UE) envolve situações de risco que exigem intervenção imediata para aumentar as chances de sobrevivência do paciente. O ensino dessa disciplina durante a graduação de Medicina não tem sido efetivo, e os alunos apresentam deficiência no atendimento, tornando-se importante realizar avaliação para conhecer a realidade sobre esse processo formativo. O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar o conhecimento e a satisfação pessoal dos acadêmicos de Medicina que se encontram no internato quanto à disciplina de Urgência e Emergência, em faculdade privada do norte de Minas Gerais. Método: Trata-se de um estudo transversal, quantitativo e descritivo, com aplicação de 185 questionários que abordaram dados demográficos, conhecimento da política de atenção à UE aplicada ao Samu, conhecimento da epidemiologia dos atendimentos pré-hospitalares do Samu, avaliação e conduta durante o atendimento, e percepção do ensino de UE. A população foi constituída por estudantes de Medicina, do oitavo ao 12º período, divididos em dois grupos em relação ao estágio em UE. Realizou-se análise estatística por meio do teste qui-quadrado de Pearson ou exato de Fisher com significância p < 0,05. Resultados: A população foi predominantemente do sexo feminino. Quanto à opção de trabalho, 123 (66,5%) dos estudantes optaram por consultório médico, 35,1% escolheram os serviços de UE, e 95 (51,4%) citaram a saúde da família. Quanto aos profissionais que compõem a ambulância básica ou avançada, 40,5% e 54,1% acertaram a composição da básica e avançada, respectivamente, sendo estatisticamente significante com p-valor 0,001 e 0,002. Dos participantes do estudo, 15,7% marcaram corretamente todas as causas de atendimento pelo Samu, e 36,2% acertaram a natureza clínica como a maior demanda de atendimento. Não houve diferenças estatísticas quanto à percepção da importância do conhecimento do médico generalista sobre UE. Quanto à percepção dos acadêmicos em relação à própria formação, foi identificada diferença estatística nas questões relacionadas às temáticas triagem - Protocolo de Manchester, monitorização, suporte básico e avançado de vida, e emergências pediátricas. Conclusões: O ensino de UE, na percepção dos alunos, mostra-se efetivo nessa avaliação, mas com lacunas em urgências pediátricas e toxicológicas. Os alunos formam-se inseguros quanto ao atendimento nessa área. Há a necessidade de discutir mais essa temática por causa da relevância dela para a prática profissional.
Audiological and electrophysiological assessment of professional orchestral musicians
Authors: Samelli Alessandra Giannella , Rabelo Camila Maia , Silva Liliane Aparecida Fagundes , Gonzaga Denise , Santiago Joyce Miranda , Magliaro Fernanda Cristina Leite , Matas Carla Gentile
Published: June 2020

ABSTRACT Purpose: to verify whether the frequent musical exposure can impair peripheral and central auditory pathway responses in professional orchestral musicians. Methods: 45 male individuals from 19 to 40 years old participated in the study. They were divided into two groups: one comprising 30 orchestral musicians who played strings or wind instruments, and another with 15 nonmusicians. The two groups were submitted to both conventional and high-frequency pure-tone audiometry, transient-evoked otoacoustic emissions, and frequency-following response. The results were subjected to descriptive and inferential statistical analysis, using the one-way ANOVA unmatched samples parametric test, with a 5% significance level. Results: no significant differences were observed between the hearing thresholds in both conventional and high-frequency audiometry and frequency-following response. However, there were statistically significant differences between transient-evoked otoacoustic emission responses, with lower responses to musicians in comparison to the nonmusician group. Conclusion: the results suggest that frequent musical exposure experienced by orchestral musicians can impair the cochlear hair cells’ function. Therefore, audiological monitoring is important to detect subclinical impairments.
Transcultural translation and adaptation of the Assessment Battery for Communication (ABaCo) for the Portuguese population
Authors: Agrela Nicole , Santos Maria Emília , Guerreiro Sandra
Published: June 2020

ABSTRACT Purpose: to perform the transcultural adaptation and translation of the ABaCo battery for the Portuguese population and check its psychometric properties. Methods: initially, the translation and retroversion of ABaCo was done. A total of 40 participants without pathology were recruited. Two equivalent Forms (Form A and Form B) were used, consisting of linguistic, extralinguistic, paralinguistic and context scales. The instrument was also applied to 12 people who were in the chronic phase after severe or moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI). For statistical analysis the following tests were used: Mann-Whitney U test, Student t test for independent samples, Pearson's correlation (the value is considered significant when p ≤ 0.05) and Cronbach's alpha (the value is considered minimally acceptable when superior to 0.65). Results: TBIs’ participants showed lower results as compared to those without neurological pathology. The evidence was discriminatory for the population with TBI, although, on some scales, it was not, due to the ceiling effect. Differences were not found between the two Forms. The results also showed the existence of correlation of schooling and age with some of the components of ABaCo, as verified in the original version. No differences in gender-conditioned responses were found. The battery showed good metrical qualities with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.90 (Form A) and 0.71 (Form B), for the total sample. Conclusion: ABaCo has proved to be an appropriate instrument for assessing communication in the Portuguese adult population. Despite the limitations, this instrument is expected to be useful in the evaluation of the communication, following TBI.
Internal structure of the Parenting Practices Scales in a vulnerable sample: a confirmatory factor analysis
Authors: PINHEIRO-CAROZZO Nádia Prazeres , GATO Jorge Júlio de Carvalho Valadas , FONTAINE Anne Marie Germaine Victorine , MURTA Sheila Giardini
Published: June 2020

Abstract The objective of this study was to assess the internal structure of the Brazilian version of the Parenting Practices Scales, examining its dimensionality and the internal consistency of their subscales in a sample of vulnerable young individuals (N = 452). The six-factor structure was replicated through Confirmatory Factor Analysis; however, Cronbach’s alpha values for two factors indicated poor internal consistency: autonomy granting (α = 0.55) and punitive control (α = 0.51). Considering the correlations between the factors and the theoretical framework, a 2nd-order structure was performed, evidencing two correlated latent dimensions: demandingness and responsiveness. This model presented a good fit to the data and the 2nd latent dimensions achieved satisfactory internal consistency. The results were discussed considering sociocultural-related issues. Recommendations about the usage of this instrument were made, regarding both assessment and intervention contexts.
Child Development, Maternal Depression and Associated Factors: A Longitudinal Study
Authors: Schiavo Rafaela de Almeida , Perosa Gimol Benzaquen
Published: June 2020

Abstract Maternal depression can compromise child development, but little about its effects has been investigated since the pregnancy stage. This longitudinal study aimed to compare, in two moments, the development of children of mothers with depressive symptoms and to identify whether these symptoms and other sociodemographic variables were associated with development at 6 and 14 months. One hundred and thirty nine women answered a questionnaire referring to sociodemographic and birth data and the Beck Depression Inventory, in the third gestational trimester, 6 and 14 months after childbirth. At 6 and 14 months of age, children were assessed using the Denver Developmental Screening Test. There was a high percentage of babies at risk at 6 and 14 months. Depressive symptoms were associated with delays in the development of subareas, but not with overall development. It is believed that the relationship between maternal depression and developmental delay is mediated by other variables that indirectly interfere in the process and would need further investigation.
Reflexos da imigração venezuelana na assistência em saúde no maior hospital de Roraima: análise qualitativa
Authors: Arruda-Barbosa Loeste de , Sales Alberone Ferreira Gondim , Souza Iara Leão Luna de
Published: June 2020

Resumo O crescente fluxo de imigração venezuelana provocou discussões acerca da inserção dessa comunidade no território brasileiro. Atualmente, o sistema de saúde roraimense tem o desafio de efetivar a universalização do acesso à saúde ao imigrante. Logo, este estudo objetiva conhecer as repercussões desse fenômeno sob a ótica de profissionais de saúde. Para isso, trata-se de um estudo qualitativo com abordagem exploratória que analisou a percepção dos técnicos de enfermagem do maior hospital de Roraima sobre os reflexos da imigração nos serviços de saúde e na qualidade da assistência. A análise das entrevistas semiestruturadas foi pautada na técnica de avaliação de conteúdo, sendo elencadas categorias. Por meio de análise da categoria de entraves na assistência de saúde, observaram-se problemas estruturais, como as fragilidades de infraestrutura e a carência de profissionais técnicos, resultando na sobrecarga de trabalho, e étnicos-culturais, como a barreira linguística, que representa um fator limitante para a realização de um atendimento de saúde com qualidade, além da maior fragilidade na condição de saúde dos imigrantes. Os achados deste trabalho podem auxiliar o estado de Roraima a refletir criticamente acerca do emprego correto dos investimentos na saúde, para garantir eficácia, dignidade e humanidade aos imigrantes, bem como aos brasileiros.
Análise de curvas epidêmicas da Covid-19 via modelos generalizados de crescimento: Estudo de caso para as cidades de Recife e Teresina
Authors: Vasconcelos Giovani L. , Duarte-Filho Gerson C. , Brum Arthur A. , Ospina Raydonal , Almeida Francisco A. G. , Macêdo Antônio M. S.
Published: June 2020

Introdução: A pandemia da Covid-19 é uma das maiores crises de saúde pública que o mundo já enfrentou. Nesse contexto, é importante ter modelos eficazes para descrever os diferentes estágios da evolução da epidemia, a fim de orientar as autoridades competen- tes na adoção de políticas públicas para o enfrentamento da mesma. Objetivo: Apresentar uma análise de curvas epidêmicas com base em modelos fenomenológicos de crescimento, tomando como exemplo as curvas acumuladas de casos confirmados de infecção pelo novo coronavírus (Sars-Cov-2) e de óbitos atribuídos à doença (Covid-19) causada pelo vírus, para as cidades do Recife e Teresina. Métodos: Foram utilizados o modelo generalizado de Richards e o modelo de crescimento generalizado para fazer o ajuste numérico das respectivas curvas empíricas. Resultados: Verificou-se que os modelos utilizados descrevem muito bem as curvas empíricas em que foram testados. Em particular, o modelo generalizado de Richards é capaz de identificar com razoável confiabilidade o surgimento do ponto de infle- xão nas curvas acumuladas, o qual corresponde ao ponto de máximo das respectivas curvas diárias. Apresenta-se ainda uma breve discussão sobre a relação entre os parâmetros obtidos no ajuste do modelo e as medidas de mitigação adotadas para retardar a propagação da Covid-19 em cada um dos municípios considerados. Conclusões: O modelo generalizado de Richards mostrou-se bastante eficaz para descrever curvas epidêmicas da Covid-19 e es- timar parâmetros epidemiológicos importantes, como o pico das curvas de casos e óbitos diários, permitindo assim realizar de modo prático e eficiente o monitoramento da evolução da epidemia.
Dental care and the COVID-19 pandemic: the precautionary principle and the best available evidence
Authors: Rösing Cassiano , Cavagni Juliano , Langa Gerson Pedro José , Mazzetti Thais , Muniz Francisco Wilker Mustafa Gomes
Published: June 2020

The precautionary principle is part of evidence-based healthcare. However, since it is not always based in the most qualified evidence, it is frequently questioned. The emergence of a highly contagious disease, with increased levels of morbimortality, an acute respiratory syndrome, the so called Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), led health professionals to look for the best alternatives to save lives. In this sense, the precautionary principle was evocated. The precautionary principle is used both preventively and therapeutically when knowledge about how to manage problems/diseases/conditions that are especially life-threatening. The aim of this short communication is to make a reflection about the precautionary principle, the dental profession and COVID-19. It is important to have in mind that in such a disease, guidelines, protocols and approaches can change very fast, since a continuous evaluation of all policies is mandatory.
Author Name Disambiguation on Heterogeneous Information Network with Adversarial Representation Learning
Authors: Wang Haiwen , Wan Ruijie , Wen Chuan , Li Shuhao , Jia Yuting , Zhang Weinan , Wang Xinbing
Published: June 2020

Author name ambiguity causes inadequacy and inconvenience in academic information retrieval, which raises the necessity of author name disambiguation (AND). Existing AND methods can be divided into two categories: the models focusing on content information to distinguish whether two papers are written by the same author, the models focusing on relation information to represent information as edges on the network and to quantify the similarity among papers. However, the former requires adequate labeled samples and informative negative samples, and are also ineffective in measuring the high-order connections among papers, while the latter needs complicated feature engineering or supervision to construct the network. We propose a novel generative adversarial framework to grow the two categories of models together: (i) the discriminative module distinguishes whether two papers are from the same author, and (ii) the generative module selects possibly homogeneous papers directly from the heterogeneous information network, which eliminates the complicated feature engineering. In such a way, the discriminative module guides the generative module to select homogeneous papers, and the generative module generates high-quality negative samples to train the discriminative module to make it aware of high-order connections among papers. Furthermore, a self-training strategy for the discriminative module and a random walk based generating algorithm are designed to make the training stable and efficient. Extensive experiments on two real-world AND benchmarks demonstrate that our model provides significant performance improvement over the state-of-the-art methods.
CORE: Automatic Molecule Optimization Using Copy & Refine Strategy
Authors: Fu Tianfan , Xiao Cao , Sun Jimeng
Published: June 2020

Molecule optimization is about generating molecule Y with more desirable properties based on an input molecule X. The state-of-the-art approaches partition the molecules into a large set of substructures S and grow the new molecule structure by iteratively predicting which substructure from S to add. However, since the set of available substructures S is large, such an iterative prediction task is often inaccurate especially for substructures that are infrequent in the training data. To address this challenge, we propose a new generating strategy called “Copy&Refine” (CORE), where at each step the generator first decides whether to copy an existing substructure from input X or to generate a new substructure, then the most promising substructure will be added to the new molecule. Combining together with scaffolding tree generation and adversarial training, CORE can significantly improve several latest molecule optimization methods in various measures including drug likeness (QED), dopamine receptor (DRD2) and penalized LogP. We tested CORE and baselines using the ZINC database and CORE obtained up to 11% and 21% relatively improvement over the baselines on success rate on the complete test set and the subset with infrequent substructures, respectively.
GAN-Based Unpaired Chinese Character Image Translation via Skeleton Transformation and Stroke Rendering
Authors: Gao Yiming , Wu Jiangqin
Published: June 2020

The automatic style translation of Chinese characters (CH-Char) is a challenging problem. Different from English or general artistic style transfer, Chinese characters contain a large number of glyphs with the complicated content and characteristic style. Early methods on CH-Char synthesis are inefficient and require manual intervention. Recently some GAN-based methods are proposed for font generation. The supervised GAN-based methods require numerous image pairs, which is difficult for many chirography styles. In addition, unsupervised methods often cause the blurred and incorrect strokes. Therefore, in this work, we propose a three-stage Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) architecture for multi-chirography image translation, which is divided into skeleton extraction, skeleton transformation and stroke rendering with unpaired training data. Specifically, we first propose a fast skeleton extraction method (ENet). Secondly, we utilize the extracted skeleton and the original image to train a GAN model, RNet (a stroke rendering network), to learn how to render the skeleton with stroke details in target style. Finally, the pre-trained model RNet is employed to assist another GAN model, TNet (a skeleton transformation network), to learn to transform the skeleton structure on the unlabeled skeleton set. We demonstrate the validity of our method on two chirography datasets we established.
RL-Duet: Online Music Accompaniment Generation Using Deep Reinforcement Learning
Authors: Jiang Nan , Jin Sheng , Duan Zhiyao , Zhang Changshui
Published: June 2020

This paper presents a deep reinforcement learning algorithm for online accompaniment generation, with potential for real-time interactive human-machine duet improvisation. Different from offline music generation and harmonization, online music accompaniment requires the algorithm to respond to human input and generate the machine counterpart in a sequential order. We cast this as a reinforcement learning problem, where the generation agent learns a policy to generate a musical note (action) based on previously generated context (state). The key of this algorithm is the well-functioning reward model. Instead of defining it using music composition rules, we learn this model from monophonic and polyphonic training data. This model considers the compatibility of the machine-generated note with both the machine-generated context and the human-generated context. Experiments show that this algorithm is able to respond to the human part and generate a melodic, harmonic and diverse machine part. Subjective evaluations on preferences show that the proposed algorithm generates music pieces of higher quality than the baseline method.
DeepAlerts: Deep Learning Based Multi-Horizon Alerts for Clinical Deterioration on Oncology Hospital Wards
Authors: Li Dingwen , Lyons Patrick G. , Lu Chenyang , Kollef Marin
Published: June 2020

Machine learning and data mining techniques are increasingly being applied to electronic health record (EHR) data to discover underlying patterns and make predictions for clinical use. For instance, these data may be evaluated to predict clinical deterioration events such as cardiopulmonary arrest or escalation of care to the intensive care unit (ICU). In clinical practice, early warning systems with multiple time horizons could indicate different levels of urgency, allowing clinicians to make decisions regarding triage, testing, and interventions for patients at risk of poor outcomes. These different horizon alerts are related and have intrinsic dependencies, which elicit multi-task learning. In this paper, we investigate approaches to properly train deep multi-task models for predicting clinical deterioration events via generating multi-horizon alerts for hospitalized patients outside the ICU, with particular application to oncology patients. Prior knowledge is used as a regularization to exploit the positive effects from the task relatedness. Simultaneously, we propose task-specific loss balancing to reduce the negative effects when optimizing the joint loss function of deep multi-task models. In addition, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the feature-generating techniques from prediction outcome interpretation. To evaluate the model performance of predicting multi-horizon deterioration alerts in a real world scenario, we apply our approaches to the EHR data from 20,700 hospitalizations of adult oncology patients. These patients' baseline high-risk status provides a unique opportunity: the application of an accurate model to an enriched population could produce improved positive predictive value and reduce false positive alerts. With our dataset, the model applying all proposed learning techniques achieves the best performance compared with common models previously developed for clinical deterioration warning.
Urban2Vec: Incorporating Street View Imagery and POIs for Multi-Modal Urban Neighborhood Embedding
Authors: Wang Zhecheng , Li Haoyuan , Rajagopal Ram
Published: June 2020

Understanding intrinsic patterns and predicting spatiotemporal characteristics of cities require a comprehensive representation of urban neighborhoods. Existing works relied on either inter- or intra-region connectivities to generate neighborhood representations but failed to fully utilize the informative yet heterogeneous data within neighborhoods. In this work, we propose Urban2Vec, an unsupervised multi-modal framework which incorporates both street view imagery and point-of-interest (POI) data to learn neighborhood embeddings. Specifically, we use a convolutional neural network to extract visual features from street view images while preserving geospatial similarity. Furthermore, we model each POI as a bag-of-words containing its category, rating, and review information. Analog to document embedding in natural language processing, we establish the semantic similarity between neighborhood (“document”) and the words from its surrounding POIs in the vector space. By jointly encoding visual, textual, and geospatial information into the neighborhood representation, Urban2Vec can achieve performances better than baseline models and comparable to fully-supervised methods in downstream prediction tasks. Extensive experiments on three U.S. metropolitan areas also demonstrate the model interpretability, generalization capability, and its value in neighborhood similarity analysis.
DeepDualMapper: A Gated Fusion Network for Automatic Map Extraction Using Aerial Images and Trajectories
Authors: Wu Hao , Zhang Hanyuan , Zhang Xinyu , Sun Weiwei , Zheng Baihua , Jiang Yuning
Published: June 2020

Automatic map extraction is of great importance to urban computing and location-based services. Aerial image and GPS trajectory data refer to two different data sources that could be leveraged to generate the map, although they carry different types of information. Most previous works on data fusion between aerial images and data from auxiliary sensors do not fully utilize the information of both modalities and hence suffer from the issue of information loss. We propose a deep convolutional neural network called DeepDualMapper which fuses the aerial image and trajectory data in a more seamless manner to extract the digital map. We design a gated fusion module to explicitly control the information flows from both modalities in a complementary-aware manner. Moreover, we propose a novel densely supervised refinement decoder to generate the prediction in a coarse-to-fine way. Our comprehensive experiments demonstrate that DeepDualMapper can fuse the information of images and trajectories much more effectively than existing approaches, and is able to generate maps with higher accuracy.
Fairness-Aware Demand Prediction for New Mobility
Authors: Yan An , Howe Bill
Published: June 2020

Emerging transportation modes, including car-sharing, bike-sharing, and ride-hailing, are transforming urban mobility yet have been shown to reinforce socioeconomic inequity. These services rely on accurate demand prediction, but the demand data on which these models are trained reflect biases around demographics, socioeconomic conditions, and entrenched geographic patterns. To address these biases and improve fairness, we present FairST, a fairness-aware demand prediction model for spatiotemporal urban applications, with emphasis on new mobility. We use 1D (time-varying, space-constant), 2D (space-varying, time-constant) and 3D (both time- and space-varying) convolutional branches to integrate heterogeneous features, while including fairness metrics as a form of regularization to improve equity across demographic groups. We propose two spatiotemporal fairness metrics, region-based fairness gap (RFG), applicable when demographic information is provided as a constant for a region, and individual-based fairness gap (IFG), applicable when a continuous distribution of demographic information is available. Experimental results on bike share and ride share datasets show that FairST can reduce inequity in demand prediction for multiple sensitive attributes (i.e. race, age, and education level), while achieving better accuracy than even state-of-the-art fairness-oblivious methods.
GMAN: A Graph Multi-Attention Network for Traffic Prediction
Authors: Zheng Chuanpan , Fan Xiaoliang , Wang Cheng , Qi Jianzhong
Published: June 2020

Long-term traffic prediction is highly challenging due to the complexity of traffic systems and the constantly changing nature of many impacting factors. In this paper, we focus on the spatio-temporal factors, and propose a graph multi-attention network (GMAN) to predict traffic conditions for time steps ahead at different locations on a road network graph. GMAN adapts an encoder-decoder architecture, where both the encoder and the decoder consist of multiple spatio-temporal attention blocks to model the impact of the spatio-temporal factors on traffic conditions. The encoder encodes the input traffic features and the decoder predicts the output sequence. Between the encoder and the decoder, a transform attention layer is applied to convert the encoded traffic features to generate the sequence representations of future time steps as the input of the decoder. The transform attention mechanism models the direct relationships between historical and future time steps that helps to alleviate the error propagation problem among prediction time steps. Experimental results on two real-world traffic prediction tasks (i.e., traffic volume prediction and traffic speed prediction) demonstrate the superiority of GMAN. In particular, in the 1 hour ahead prediction, GMAN outperforms state-of-the-art methods by up to 4% improvement in MAE measure. The source code is available at https://github.com/zhengchuanpan/GMAN.
Phase I Study of Alternate-Day Administration of S-1, Oral Leucovorin, and Bevacizumab for Refractory Metastatic Colorectal Cancer
Authors: Masuishi Toshiki , Taniguchi Hiroya , Komori Azusa , Mitani Seiichiro , Narita Yukiya , Kadowaki Shigenori , Ura Takashi , Ando Masashi , Muro Kei
Published: June 2020

Trial Information

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Lessons Learned

The recommended S-1 dose was 40 mg/m2, twice daily on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, with oral leucovorin and bevacizumab. Compared with daily administration, the alternate-day administration of S-1 with oral leucovorin may reduce mucositis with promising antitumor activity in refractory metastatic colorectal cancer.

Background

Daily S-1 plus oral leucovorin administration in a 1-week-on/1-week-off schedule has promising efficacy in gastrointestinal cancer but is associated with high risk of mucositis and diarrhea.

Methods

This phase Ib, 3+3 dose-escalation trial included patients with chemorefractory metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) receiving S-1 (40 mg/m2) and leucovorin (25 mg) orally twice daily (level 1, even-numbered days; level 2, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday) and intravenous bevacizumab (5 mg/kg) every 2 weeks. Enrollment continued at the recommended dose level in the expansion cohort.

Results

We enrolled 21 patients (3 and 18 patients in levels 1 and 2, respectively). Briefly, 12 and 9 patients had Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status of 0 and 1, respectively, and 8 and 13 patients had 1–3 and ≥4 prior treatment lines, respectively. Dose-limiting toxicity (DLT) was not observed, and level 2 was confirmed as the recommended dose. Common grade 3–4 adverse events at level 2 were anemia (22%), anorexia (6%), and diarrhea (6%). In the entire cohort, response rate, disease control rate, and median progression-free survival were 10%, 71%, and 4.2 months, respectively.

Conclusion

The recommended S-1 dose was 40 mg/m2, twice daily on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, with 25 mg oral leucovorin twice daily and 5 mg/kg bevacizumab every 2 weeks. Compared with the daily administration, alternate-day administration of S-1 plus leucovorin may reduce mucositis with promising antitumor activity in refractory mCRC.