bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Comparative study several feed formulation based on agro-industrial by-product on production performance and in vivo digestibility of beef cattle
Authors: Rahmawati N , Lisnanti E , Rudiono D , Mukmin A , Muladno M , Atabany A
Published: July 2022

The aims of this study was to determine the effect of agro-industrial by-products on the production performance and digestibility of nutrient of beef cattle with four feed formulations. The treatments such as F1, F2, F3 and F4. The material used was 28 cows with an initial weight in the range of 380.11 ± 13.69 kg with Simental and Limousine crossbreeds; beef cattle faeces samples were 112 samples from 4 feed treatments and 7 replications. The variables observed were production performance of beef cattle and digistibility of nutrient. The results of the study shows that the use of agricultural by-products has a significant effect on dry matter intake (P <0.05). (10.20 ± 0.43 kg/head/day), dry matter digestibility (75.48 ± 1.46%) and no significantly effect (P>0.05) on organic matter intake, crude protein intake, crude fibre intake, increasing of daily body weight, feed conversion ratio, feed efficiency, feed cost per gain, income over feed cost, digestibility of organic matter, digestibility of crude protein, and digestibility of crude fibre. The conclusion of this study was F3 had the best treatment to increase feed intake, digestibility of dry, digestibility of organic matter, digestibility of crude protein, crude fibre digestibility of beef cattle.
Analysis of factors affecting development dairy goat business in Hamparan Perak District of Deli Serdang Regency North Sumatera Province
Authors: Sembiring M , Hasnudi  , Ginting R
Published: July 2022

Goat farming become a main business, because goats breed relative quickly and are one of the types of livestock that are familiar with farming systems sustainability in rural areas. In the province of North Sumatra, in particular the Hamparan Perak sub-district, they have started to cultivate dairy goats. The research aims are to analyze what factors are the weaknesses, strengths, opportunities and threats in influencing thedevelopment of the dairy goat business in Hamparan Perak District; and to analyze and determine the effect of goat breeding factors, cage management, animal feed, maintenance, and harvesting systems on dairy goat business in Hamparan Perak District. The type of research used in this research is descriptive quantitative.The results showed that the factors that influenced the development of the dairy goat business in Hamparan Perak sub-district were the availability of breeds, cage management, animal feed management and harvesting systems and product marketing; and Simultaneously, goat breeds (X1), cage management (X2), animal feed (X3), goat care (X4) and harvesting system (X5) have an effect on dairy goat business (Y), while partially influencing variables are goat breeds (X1), Animal feed (X3) and goat care (X4).
The effect of brevibacillus laterosporus texasporus culture on percentage of carcass broilers chickens infected with salmonella pullorum
Authors: Purba M A , Sepriadi S , Yunilas  , Trisna A , Desnamrina K C , Hua L G
Published: July 2022

Salmonella is a common pathogenic bacteria in poultry production. Salmonella infection has been a principal challenge for the eco-friendly of broiler industry sustainability in the post-antibiotic era. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effects of Brevibacillus laterosporus texasporus culture (BT) on percentage of carcassed of broilers and also to determine whether Brevibacillus laterosporus texasporus culture has a potential to act as a probiotic additive within broiler diets. 300 one-day-old male Arbor Acres broilers chickens were randomly assigned to 5 treatments with 6 replications (10 individuals each replicate). The chicken challenged was infected with Salmonella Pullorum per os twice at 7 and 8 day-aged. The results showed The BT100 treatment showed had the highest carcass percentage or the best yield. The highest percentage of breast was found in the PC treatment while its did not show significant diference with BT50 and BT100. the average breast percentage ranged from 12.38 to 14.23%. The highest percentage of abdominal fat was obtained from the PC 2,16% and the lowest percentage of fat was observed in the NC1,45%. BT could protect chickens from the adverse impacts of Salmonella infection and it can be used as a feed additive to substitute antibiotics.
Improving the physical quality of beef meatballs using andaliman spice (Zanthoxylum acanthopodium DC) on shelflife
Authors: Patriani P , Apsari N L
Published: July 2022

Andaliman is a spice that has the potential as a source of natural antioxidants because it contains antimicrobial compounds that can inhibit damage to the food preservation process. Utilization of andaliman as traditional spice to increase the value of livestock products in terms of quality so that they can provide quality and sustainable food. This study aims to determine the best addition of andaliman for beef meatballs at 48 hours storage. The research method was a completely randomized design. This used 4 treatments which were repeated 6 times. The treatments in this study consisted of beef meatball dough with the addition of andaliman 0 grams (P0); 2 grams (P1); 4 grams (P2) and 6 grams (P3). The results showed that andaliman had a significant effect (P<0.05) on pH, water content, cooking loss, and meatball tenderness. It was concluded that the addition of andaliman to beef meatball dough could improve physical quality and prevent early signs of decay for up 48 hours. Andaliman is an alternative spice to improve the quality of processed livestock products as a safe, healthy, and sustainable food.
Physical quality of kampong chicken meat with cikala acid (Etlingera elatior) marinades at different shelf life
Authors: Patriani P , Wahyuni T H
Published: July 2022

Traditional seasoning in livestock products is one of the efforts to provide safe and sustainable food. Cikala acid (Etlingera elatior) is usually used as traditional spices and herbs with a fresh aroma. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of cikala acid marinade (Etlingera elatior) on the physical quality of kampong chicken meat during shelf life of 24 to 48 hours. This study used a completely randomized design with a factorial pattern with 4 treatments and 4 replications. The materials used were kampong chicken breast and 0%, 2%, 4%, and 6% cikala acid (Etlingera elatior). The results showed that 4% cikala acid can maintain the pH value, reduce cooking loss, and increase tenderness. In addition, cikala acid marinade was also effective in maintaining water content, freshness, and colour during shelf life. The conclusion is that Kampong chicken meat marinated with 4% cikala acid extract can improve physical quality during shelf life of 48 hours. This also proves that the use of cikala acid (Etlingera elatior) is an alternative in improving the quality of kampong chicken meat as a safe and sustainable food.
Chemical and physical quality of broiler meat with drinking water containing boiled and fermented water of various cooking spices as phytobiotics
Authors: Sari T V , Hasanah U , Harahap R I H , Zalukhu P , Trisna A
Published: July 2022

The chemical and physical quality of broiler breast meat usually be improved by soaking the meat in a solution of cooking spices, but in here, the spices is used a solution were given to drinking water. This study aims to know its effect on the pH value, water content, fat content, and cooking loss. The design of research used a CRD with 9 treatments and 3 replications. The treatment given was broiler drinking water with the addition of: K0 (control); K1-K4 as afermented and K5-K8 is a boiled of cooking spice solution. The total use of various cooking spice is 125 g/L of mixing water of the broilers daily drinking water needs. The result of Anova showed that the addition of cooking spice had a very significanteffect on the levels of pH, water content, fat content and cooking loss of broiler meat. It can be concluded that the use of cooking spices especially based on garlic and Kaempferia galanga can be used during broiler rearing as a feed additive to improve meat quality in drinking water because it is effective in reducing pH, water, fat content and cooking losses.
Potential food plants around salt licks for Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus) in Tangkahan Conservation Response Unit (CRU) area
Authors: Berliani K , Patana P , Azmi W , Manullang N S M
Published: July 2022

The habitat of elephants (Elephas maximus-sumatranus) naturally provides a wide variety of feed, availability of water sources, shelter and salt licks. A variety of plants can be found in salt lick locations. This study was conducted from October to December 2020, in the Tangkahan CRU area, Langkat, North Sumatra, with the aim of obtaining fundamental information about potential plant species as natural food plants in the salt licks inside of the Tangkahan CRU area. Four salt licks were Encepan 1, Encepan 2, Namocencen and hot springs followed by vegetation data analysis at the tree, pole, sapling, and seedling levels. The study recorded 24 plant species from 17 families while potential food plants were recorded for 16 species from 11 families. The most common plants found were understorey plants with a high sapling community in the location. The highest understorey IVI was Colocasia sp1 (28.03) for understorey, Aglaia sp2 (57.869) for seedling, Aglaia sp1 species (69.877) for sapling, Baccaurea sp (110.653) for pole and Shorea sp (150.918) for tree. The composition of the vegetation at the salt location, starting from the growth rate of seedlings to trees, has a positive impact on the potential and natural food plants for elephants.
The effectiveness of fermented and boiled solution of various medicinal plants in drinking as phytobiotics on broiler performance
Authors: Sari T V , Hasanah U
Published: July 2022

Medicinal plants research as phytobiotics in poultry continues to be developed. Its aim to maintain body health so that it can produce good performance without relying on the use of antibiotic growth promoters which are often added to commercial animal feed. This study used various medicinal plants as phytobiotics in drinking using a CRD with 9 treatment and 3 replications. Parameters observed were feed intake (g/head), body weight gain (g/head) and feed conversion ratio. The treatment given was drinking water with: D0 (control), D1-D4 is boiled medicinal plant and D5-D8 is fermented medicinal plant of: Zingiber officinale, Curcuma longa, Allium cepa, Allium sativum, Coriandrum sativum, Kaempferia galanga, Alpinia galanga, etc. The concentration of the active ingredient as phytobiotics in drinking water treatments given was 1.06%/L of broilers daily drinking water requirement. The results showed that the giving of various medicinal plants had a very significant effect (P<0.01) on all parameters research of 5 weeks. It can conclude that the best use of medicinal plants is to use garlic (Allium sativum) boiled (D1) because it is very effective in producing the low feed conversion value andhigh body weight gain compared to others treatments.
Novel hybrid models to predict the capillary water absorption values of building stones
Authors: Qian Du , Yang Jianxun , Wang Jiapeng
Published: July 2022

The water that moves upward inside the stone is affected by capillary water absorption (CWA). This upward trend in historic and old buildings causes rapid destruction. In the simple regression model, the relationship between

CWA

with resistance (compressive strength CS) and its physical characteristics, such as (water absorption by weight (

W

a

), surface porosity (

n

), P-wave velocity (

V

p

), dry unit weight (

ρ

d

)) can be extracted. Several samples were collected from several rocks. To aim the prediction design, SVR and ANFIS models were proposed, in which two main ANFIS variables and the optimal quantity of SVR’s decisive variables were indicated via linking with a multi-verse optimizer (MVO) algorithm. So as to develop models, the gathered data records for estimating

CWA

from published articles were separated into two parts after being sorted randomly. Numerous stones containing igneous, metamorphic, and travertine were gathered from Turkey and Anatolia to use in experimental affairs. The outputs of hybrid models for predicting the

CWA

of building stones depict that both models have the justifiable capability in the prediction process, indicating the acceptable correlation between recorded and predicted values of

CWA
.

All in all, it is proved that the MVO-SVR has the best performance among the comprising approaches.
Simultaneous compression of multiple error-corrected short-read sets for faster data transmission and betterde novoassemblies
Authors: Tang Tao , Hutvagner Gyorgy , Wang Wenjian , Li Jinyan
Published: July 2022

Next-Generation Sequencing has produced incredible amounts of short-reads sequence data for de novo genome assembly over the last decades. For efficient transmission of these huge datasets, high-performance compression algorithms have been intensively studied. As both the de novo assembly and error correction methods utilize the overlaps between reads data, a concern is that the will the sequencing errors bring up negative effects on genome assemblies also affect the compression of the NGS data. This work addresses two problems: how current error correction algorithms can enable the compression algorithms to make the sequence data much more compact, and whether the sequence-modified reads by the error-correction algorithms will lead to quality improvement for de novo contig assembly. As multiple sets of short reads are often produced by a single biomedical project in practice, we propose a graph-based method to reorder the files in the collection of multiple sets and then compress them simultaneously for a further compression improvement after error correction. We use examples to illustrate that accurate error correction algorithms can significantly reduce the number of mismatched nucleotides in the reference-free compression, hence can greatly improve the compression performance. Extensive test on practical collections of multiple short-read sets does confirm that the compression performance on the error-corrected data (with unchanged size) significantly outperforms that on the original data, and that the file reordering idea contributes furthermore. The error correction on the original reads has also resulted in quality improvements of the genome assemblies, sometimes remarkably. However, it is still an open question that how to combine appropriate error correction methods with an assembly algorithm so that the assembly performance can be always significantly improved.
A framework for predicting variable-length epitopes of human-adapted viruses using machine learning methods
Authors: Yin Rui , Zhu Xianghe , Zeng Min , Wu Pengfei , Li Min , Kwoh Chee Keong
Published: July 2022

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has alerted people of the threat caused by viruses. Vaccine is the most effective way to prevent the disease from spreading. The interaction between antibodies and antigens will clear the infectious organisms from the host. Identifying B-cell epitopes is critical in vaccine design, development of disease diagnostics and antibody production. However, traditional experimental methods to determine epitopes are time-consuming and expensive, and the predictive performance using the existing in silico methods is not satisfactory. This paper develops a general framework to predict variable-length linear B-cell epitopes specific for human-adapted viruses with machine learning approaches based on Protvec representation of peptides and physicochemical properties of amino acids. QR decomposition is incorporated during the embedding process that enables our models to handle variable-length sequences. Experimental results on large immune epitope datasets validate that our proposed model’s performance is superior to the state-of-the-art methods in terms of AUROC (0.827) and AUPR (0.831) on the testing set. Moreover, sequence analysis also provides the results of the viral category for the corresponding predicted epitopes with high precision. Therefore, this framework is shown to reliably identify linear B-cell epitopes of human-adapted viruses given protein sequences and could provide assistance for potential future pandemics and epidemics.
BioRED: a rich biomedical relation extraction dataset
Authors: Luo Ling , Lai Po-Ting , Wei Chih-Hsuan , Arighi Cecilia N , Lu Zhiyong
Published: July 2022

Automated relation extraction (RE) from biomedical literature is critical for many downstream text mining applications in both research and real-world settings. However, most existing benchmarking datasets for biomedical RE only focus on relations of a single type (e.g. protein–protein interactions) at the sentence level, greatly limiting the development of RE systems in biomedicine. In this work, we first review commonly used named entity recognition (NER) and RE datasets. Then, we present a first-of-its-kind biomedical relation extraction dataset (BioRED) with multiple entity types (e.g. gene/protein, disease, chemical) and relation pairs (e.g. gene–disease; chemical–chemical) at the document level, on a set of 600 PubMed abstracts. Furthermore, we label each relation as describing either a novel finding or previously known background knowledge, enabling automated algorithms to differentiate between novel and background information. We assess the utility of BioRED by benchmarking several existing state-of-the-art methods, including Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT)-based models, on the NER and RE tasks. Our results show that while existing approaches can reach high performance on the NER task (F-score of 89.3%), there is much room for improvement for the RE task, especially when extracting novel relations (F-score of 47.7%). Our experiments also demonstrate that such a rich dataset can successfully facilitate the development of more accurate, efficient and robust RE systems for biomedicine.

Availability: The BioRED dataset and annotation guidelines are freely available at https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/lu/BioRED/.
Immune infiltration and clinical significance analyses of the coagulation-related genes in hepatocellular carcinoma
Authors: He Qifan , Yang Jian , Jin Yonghai
Published: July 2022

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common types of cancers and a global health challenge with a low early diagnosis rate and high mortality. The coagulation cascade plays an important role in the tumor immune microenvironment (TME) of HCC. In this study, based on the coagulation pathways collected from the KEGG database, two coagulation-related subtypes were distinguished in HCC patients. We demonstrated the distinct differences in immune characteristics and prognostic stratification between two coagulation-related subtypes. A coagulation-related risk score prognostic model was developed in the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) cohort for risk stratification and prognosis prediction. The predictive values of the coagulation-related risk score in prognosis and immunotherapy were also verified in the TCGA and International Cancer Genome Consortium cohorts. A nomogram was also established to facilitate the clinical use of this risk score and verified its effectiveness using different approaches. Based on these results, we can conclude that there is an obvious correlation between the coagulation and the TME in HCC, and the risk score could serve as a robust prognostic biomarker, provide therapeutic benefits for chemotherapy and immunotherapy and may be helpful for clinical decision making in HCC patients.
Clair3-trio: high-performance Nanopore long-read variant calling in family trios with trio-to-trio deep neural networks
Authors: Su Junhao , Zheng Zhenxian , Ahmed Syed Shakeel , Lam Tak-Wah , Luo Ruibang
Published: July 2022

Accurate identification of genetic variants from family child–mother–father trio sequencing data is important in genomics. However, state-of-the-art approaches treat variant calling from trios as three independent tasks, which limits their calling accuracy for Nanopore long-read sequencing data. For better trio variant calling, we introduce Clair3-Trio, the first variant caller tailored for family trio data from Nanopore long-reads. Clair3-Trio employs a Trio-to-Trio deep neural network model, which allows it to input the trio sequencing information and output all of the trio’s predicted variants within a single model to improve variant calling. We also present MCVLoss, a novel loss function tailor-made for variant calling in trios, leveraging the explicit encoding of the Mendelian inheritance. Clair3-Trio showed comprehensive improvement in experiments. It predicted far fewer Mendelian inheritance violation variations than current state-of-the-art methods. We also demonstrated that our Trio-to-Trio model is more accurate than competing architectures. Clair3-Trio is accessible as a free, open-source project at https://github.com/HKU-BAL/Clair3-Trio.
Lyme neuroborreliosis: known knowns, known unknowns
Authors: Halperin John J , Eikeland Randi , Branda John A , Dersch Rick
Published: July 2022

Lyme borreliosis affects the nervous system in three principal ways—mononuclear cell meningitis, cranial neuropathies and radiculoneuropathies—the last a broad term encompassing painful radiculopathy, unifocal and multifocal peripheral nerve involvement. Diagnostic tools have been significantly refined—including improved peripheral blood and CSF serodiagnostics—and much has been learned about the interactions between the causative pathogen and the nervous system. Despite these advances in our understanding of this disease, a broad range of other disorders continue to be misattributed to nervous system Lyme borreliosis, supported by, at best, limited evidence. These misattributions often reflect limited understanding not only of Lyme neuroborreliosis but also of what constitutes nervous system disease generally. Fortunately, a large body of evidence now exists to clarify many of these issues, establishing a clear basis for diagnosing nervous system involvement in this infection and, based on well performed studies, clarifying which clinical disorders are associated with Lyme neuroborreliosis, which with non-neurologic Lyme borreliosis, and which with neither.
How COVID-19 affects microvessels in the brain
Authors: Wenzel Jan , Schwaninger Markus
Published: July 2022

This scientific commentary refers to ‘Neurovascular injury with complement activation and inflammation in COVID-19’ by Lee et al. (https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awac151).
Near-infrared fluorescence imaging of thoracic duct in minimally invasive esophagectomy
Authors: Yang Feng , Gao Jian , Cheng Sida , Li Hao , He Kunshan , Zhou Jian , Chen Kezhong , Wang Zhenfan , Yang Fan , Zhang Zeyu , Li Jianfeng , Zhou Zuli , Chi Chongwei , Li Yun , Wang Jun
Published: July 2022

Chylothorax is a serious complication after esophagectomy and there are unmet needs for new intraoperative navigation tools to reduce its incidence. The aim of this study is to explore the feasibility and effectiveness of near-infrared fluorescence imaging (NIR-FI) with indocyanine green (ICG) to identify thoracic ducts (TDs) and chyle leakage during video-assisted thoracoscopic esophagectomy. We recruited 41 patients who underwent thoraco-laparoscopic minimally invasive esophagectomy (MIE) for esophageal cancer in this prospective, open-label, single-arm clinical trial. ICG was injected into the right inguinal region before operations, after which TD anatomy and potential chyle leakage were checked under the near-infrared fluorescence intraoperatively. In 38 of 41 patients (92.7%) using NIR-FI, TDs were visible in high contrast. The mean signal-to-background ratio (SBR) value of all fluorescent TDs was 3.05 ± 1.56. Fluorescence imaging of TDs could be detected 0.5 hours after ICG injection and last up to 3 hours with an acceptable SBR value. The optimal observation time window is from about 1 to 2 hours after ICG injection. Under the guidance of real-time NIR-FI, three patients were found to have chylous leakage and the selective TD ligations were performed intraoperatively. No patient had postoperative chylothorax. NIR-FI with ICG can provide highly sensitive and real-time assessment of TDs as well as determine the source of chyle leakage, which might help reduce TD injury and direct selective TD ligation. It could be a promising navigation tool to reduce the incidence of chylothorax after minimally invasive esophagectomy.
Temperature-dependent Development, Survival, and Oviposition of Laricobius osakensis (Coleoptera: Derodontidae): A Specialist Predator of Adelges tsugae (Hemiptera: Adelgidae)
Authors: Foley Jeremiah R , McAvoy Thomas J , Saint-Amant Rémi , Régnière Jacques , Biggs Abby , Wright Erika , Mayfield Albert E , Brewster Carlyle , Salom Scott M
Published: July 2022

A predator, Laricobius osakensis Montgomery and Shiyake (Coleoptera: Derodontidae), is being mass-produced and released for the biological control of the invasive hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA), Adelges tsugae Annand (Hemiptera: Adelgidae). To better understand and predict the seasonality of this predator in North America, the development and reproduction of L. osakensis were evaluated at constant temperatures ranging from 5 to 22°C. The predicted seasonal biology was compared with data from field collections. L. osakensis did not complete development from egg to adult at the two lowest temperatures tested, 5 and 8°C, but did so at the highest temperature of 22°C. The minimum development thresholds were estimated for eggs (4.2°C), first (1.8°C), second (5.5°C), third (4.6°C), and fourth instar (4.1°C), prepupa (3.6°C), and pupa (7.5°C). Oviposition rates were significantly greater at 5 and 10°C than at 20 and 25°C. Head capsule width significantly increased for each of the four larval instars with a mean of 0.19, 0.26, 0.35, and 0.44 mm, respectively. Laboratory and field data were used to develop a phenology forecasting model to predict the occurrence of all developmental stages of L. osakensis. This model will allow land managers to more accurately predict the optimal timing for L. osakensis larval sampling throughout its established range.
Relation between the food environment and oral health—systematic review
Authors: Mackenbach Joreintje D , Ibouanga Elodie L , van der Veen Monique H , Ziesemer Kirsten A , Pinho Maria G M
Published: July 2022

Background

There is increasing evidence that the food environment, i.e. the availability, accessibility, price and promotion of foods and beverages, has a significant influence on oral health through food consumption. With this systematic literature review, we systematically summarize the available evidence on relations between the food environment and oral health outcomes in children and adults.

Methods

English-language studies were identified through a systematic literature search, executed by a medical information specialist, on OVID/Medline, Embase, Web of Science and CINAHL. Title and abstract screening, full-text screening and quality assessment [using the Quality Assessment with Diverse Studies (QuADS) tool] were done independently by two authors.

Results

Twenty-three studies were included, of which 1 studied the consumer food environment (food labeling), 3 the community food environment (e.g. number of food stores in the community), 5 the organizational food environment (availability of healthy foods and beverages in schools), 2 the information environment (television advertisements) and 13 government and industry policies related to the food environment (e.g. implementation of a sugar-sweetened beverage tax). Almost all studies found that unhealthy food and beverage environments had adverse effects on oral health, and that policies improving the healthiness of food and beverage environments improved—or would improve in case of a modeling study—oral health.

Conclusions

This systematic literature review provides evidence, although of low to moderate quality and available in a low quantity only, that several aspects of the food environment, especially policies affecting the food environment, are associated with oral health outcomes.
A GP’s clinical reasoning in the context of multimorbidity: beyond the perception of an intuitive approach
Authors: Sader Julia , Diana Alessandro , Coen Matteo , Nendaz Mathieu , Audétat Marie-Claude
Published: July 2022

Introduction

GP’s clinical reasoning processes in the context of patients suffering from multimorbidity are often a process which remains implicit. Therefore, the goal of this case study analysis is to gain a better understanding of the processes at play in the management of patients suffering from multimorbidity.

Methods

A case study analysis, using a qualitative thematic analysis was conducted. This case follows a 54-year-old woman who has been under the care of her GP for almost 10 years and suffers from a number of chronic conditions. The clinical reasoning of an experienced GP who can explicitly unfold his processes was chosen for this case analysis.

Results

Four main themes emerged from this case analysis: The different roles that GPs have to manage; the GP’s cognitive flexibility and continual adaptation of their clinical reasoning processes, the patient’s empowerment, and the challenges related to the collaboration with specialists and healthcare professionals.

Conclusion

This could help GPs gain a clearer understanding of their clinical reasoning processes and motivate them to communicate their findings with others during clinical supervision or teaching. Furthermore, this may emphasize the importance of valuing the role of the primary care physician in the management of multimorbid patients.
Limitations of microbial iron reduction under extreme conditions
Authors: Nixon Sophie L , Bonsall Emily , Cockell Charles S
Published: July 2022

Microbial iron reduction is a widespread and ancient metabolism on Earth, and may plausibly support microbial life on Mars and beyond. Yet, the extreme limits of this metabolism are yet to be defined. To investigate this, we surveyed the recorded limits to microbial iron reduction in a wide range of characterized iron-reducing microorganisms (n = 141), with a focus on pH and temperature. We then calculated Gibbs free energy of common microbially mediated iron reduction reactions across the pH–temperature habitability space to identify thermodynamic limits. Comparing predicted and observed limits, we show that microbial iron reduction is generally reported at extremes of pH or temperature alone, but not when these extremes are combined (with the exception of a small number of acidophilic hyperthermophiles). These patterns leave thermodynamically favourable combinations of pH and temperature apparently unoccupied. The empty spaces could be explained by experimental bias, but they could also be explained by energetic and biochemical limits to iron reduction at combined extremes. Our data allow for a review of our current understanding of the limits to microbial iron reduction at extremes and provide a basis to test more general hypotheses about the extent to which biochemistry establishes the limits to life.
Intersex Activism, Medical Power/Knowledge and the Scalar Limitations of the United Nations
Authors: Garland Fae , Lalor Kay , Travis Mitchell
Published: July 2022

This article considers the extent to which human rights mechanisms can ameliorate intersex rights at a sub-national, or medico-local, level. It engages with both intersex activism and the academy where the United Nations (UN) has become understood as a key mechanism through which to challenge day-to-day practices of healthcare practitioners and bring an end to nontherapeutic surgical and hormonal interventions on intersex infants and children. Using the UK as an example, this article examines how and why the UN’s engagement with intersex has had little effect on the medical regulation of intersex people. To do so, the article draws on legal geography to examine how scale prevents the UN from having a clear and lasting impact on domestic issues – particularly those in healthcare settings. The different ways in which intersex bodies are recognised and regulated at different scales, coupled with the UN’s inability to form dialogue with the institutions of the state, such as the healthcare profession, are problematic barriers to challenge practice at the medico-local scale.
Learning from three decades of Management Strategy Evaluation in South Africa
Authors: de Moor Carryn L , Butterworth Douglas S , Johnston Susan
Published: July 2022

South Africa is well known for being one of the first countries to implement management procedures that had been fully tested using Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE). Beginning in the early 1990s, Operational Management Procedures (OMPs) have been developed and implemented for the fisheries for seven important commercial species. Barring a few teething problems, for the first two decades, South Africa's track record of OMP implementation, with OMP-recommended catch limits being signed off by the responsible Minister without change, was exemplary. The sustainable management of some fisheries using OMPs continues without mishap, with regular reviews. However, the past decade has resulted in a number of deviations of decisions from OMP outputs following the declaration of “Exceptional Circumstances” (ECs). This occurred when a resource moved outside the range of scenarios tested at the time the OMP was developed. The reasons why ECs were declared, the methods used to recommend catch limits during ECs and whether ECs might have been avoided are reviewed. The experience gained over three decades of managing fisheries using MSE provides a basis to assess whether the highly time-intensive task of developing these OMPs has been worth the expected benefits, and to provide recommendations related to lessons learned.
Potential roles of community-based pharmacists in assisting home-quarantined patients with COVID-19 in a resource-challenged setting
Authors: Wibowo Yosi Irawati , Irawati Sylvi , Setiawan Eko , Halim Steven Victoria , Sunderland Bruce , Setiadi Adji Prayitno
Published: July 2022

Objectives

To present the experiences of community-based drug information centre (DIC) pharmacists assisting home-quarantined patients with COVID-19 in Indonesia.

Methods

A prospective case study included home-quarantined patients with suspected/confirmed COVID-19 contacting pharmacists at a DIC in Indonesia in July 2021. Patient characteristics, pharmacist interventions and outcomes were reported.

Key findings

Fifteen home-quarantined patients were screened for COVID-19 and were provided with follow-up services (i.e. medication review and monitoring). Worsening symptoms and/or reduction in oxygen saturation were reported in seven patients where a referral to medical services was made for them. Most patients recovered at follow-up (4–14 days).

Conclusions

Community-based DIC pharmacists potentially contributed to the frontline emergency response, as observed during the COVID-19 crisis in Indonesia.
Components in Meandric Systems and the Infinite Noodle
Authors: Féray Valentin , Thévenin Paul
Published: July 2022

We investigate here the asymptotic behaviour of a large, typical meandric system. More precisely, we show the quenched local convergence of a random uniform meandric system $\boldsymbol {M}_n$ on $2n$ points, as $n \rightarrow \infty $, towards the infinite noodle introduced by Curien et al. [3]. As a consequence, denoting by $cc( \boldsymbol {M}_n)$ the number of connected components of $\boldsymbol {M}_n$, we prove the convergence in probability of $cc(\boldsymbol {M}_n)/n$ to some constant $\kappa $, answering a question raised independently by Goulden–Nica–Puder [8] and Kargin [12]. This result also provides information on the asymptotic geometry of the Hasse diagram of the lattice of non-crossing partitions. Finally, we obtain expressions of the constant $\kappa $ as infinite sums over meanders, which allows us to compute upper and lower approximations of $\kappa $.
Local Systems on Diamonds and p-Adic Vector Bundles
Authors: Mann Lucas , Werner Annette
Published: July 2022

We use Scholze’s framework of diamonds to gain new insights in correspondences between $p$-adic vector bundles and local systems. Such correspondences arise in the context of $p$-adic Simpson theory in the case of vanishing Higgs fields. In the present paper, we provide a detailed analysis of local systems on diamonds for the étale, pro-étale, and the $v$-topology and study the structure sheaves for all three topologies in question. Applied to proper adic spaces of finite type over $\mathbb {C}_p$, this enables us to prove a category equivalence between $\mathbb {C}_p$-local systems with integral models, and modules under the $v$-structure sheaf that modulo each $p^n$ can be trivialized on a proper cover. The flexibility of the $v$-topology together with a descent result on integral models of local systems allows us to prove that the trivializability condition in the module category may be checked on any normal proper cover. This result leads to an extension of the parallel transport theory by Deninger and the second author to vector bundles with numerically flat reduction on a proper normal cover. 2020 MSC: 14G45, 14G22, 11G25.
In vivo translational assessment of the GES genotype on the killing profile of ceftazidime, ceftazidime/avibactam and meropenem against Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Authors: Gill Christian M , Oliver Antonio , Fraile-Ribot Pablo Arturo , Nicolau David P
Published: July 2022

Objectives

To evaluate the in vivo killing profile of human-simulated exposures of ceftazidime, ceftazidime/avibactam and meropenem against GES-harbouring Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the murine thigh infection model.

Methods

Five P. aeruginosa isolates [three isogenic (GES-1, GES-5 and GES-15) and two clinical (GES-5 and GES-15)] were evaluated. MICs were determined using broth microdilution. Human-simulated regimens (HSRs) of ceftazidime 2 g IV q8h as a 2 h infusion, ceftazidime/avibactam 2.5 g IV q8h as a 2 h infusion and meropenem 2 g IV q8h as a 3 h infusion were administered. Change in bacterial burden relative to baseline was assessed.

Results

Modal MICs ranged from 8 to >64 mg/L for ceftazidime, from 1 to 16 mg/L for ceftazidime/avibactam and from 1 to >64 mg/L for meropenem. In vivo, for the isogenic strains, avibactam augmented ceftazidime activity against the GES-1- and GES-15-harbouring isolates. Both ceftazidime and ceftazidime/avibactam resulted in significant kill against the GES-5 isogenic isolate. The meropenem HSR produced >1 log10 kill against each isogenic isolate (MICs of 1–4 mg/L). Against the GES-5 clinical isolate, ceftazidime and ceftazidime/avibactam resulted in >1 log10 kill compared with bacterial growth with the meropenem HSR. In the clinical isolate harbouring GES-15, the elevated MICs of ceftazidime and ceftazidime/avibactam reduced the effectiveness of both compounds, while the observed reduction in meropenem MIC translated into in vivo efficacy of the HSR regimen, predictive of clinical efficacy.

Conclusions

In GES-harbouring P. aeruginosa, quantitative reductions in bacterial density observed with the translational murine model suggest that the phenotypic profile of ceftazidime, ceftazidime/avibactam and meropenem is predictive of clinical efficacy when using the evaluated dosing regimens.
Restriction in Program Algebra
Authors: Jackson Marcel , Stokes Tim
Published: July 2022

We provide complete classifications of algebras of partial maps for a significant swathe of combinations of operations not previously classified. Our focus is the many subsidiary operations that arise in recent considerations of the ‘override’ and ‘update’ operations arising in specification languages. These other operations turn out to have an older pedigree: domain restriction, set subtraction and intersection. All signatures considered include domain restriction, at least as a term. Combinations of the operations are classified and given complete axiomatizations with and without the presence of functional composition. Each classification is achieved by way of providing a concrete representation of the corresponding abstract algebras as partial maps acting on special kinds of filters determined with respect to various induced orders. In contrast to many negative results in the broader area, all of the considered combinations lead to finite axiomatizations.
Surgical repair of the medial head of the gastrocnemius: two case reports and review
Authors: Pereira Vitor Luis , Andreoli Carlos Vicente , Santos Rafaella Figueiredo Vieira , Belangero Paulo Santoro , Ejnisman Benno , Castro Pochini Alberto de
Published: July 2022

The gastrocnemius medial head distal musculotendinous junction injury is relatively common. Musculature contraction in an already stretched structure leads to muscle breakdown. Patients affected are often physically active middle-aged men. The typical presentation includes sudden pain, audible popping, bruising and localized tenderness. Occasionally, there is a palpable defect if the rupture is complete. Although the initial diagnosis can be made on the basis of a careful history and clinical examination, ultrasound or magnetic resonance imaging can be used to better describe the lesion. In complete ruptures, even when conservative treatment shows good results, it is common that the patient presents decreased muscle strength, difficulty returning to sports and permanent and visible gap. Considering surgical treatment in patients with complete ruptures and extensive injuries with a more than 5 cm gap may lead to better healing process, rapid rehabilitation and more efficient return to sports.
Coping with the COVID-19 Pandemic: How a Master’s in Clinical Laboratory Sciences Program Adapted Through the Modification of Existing Resources
Authors: Carbonaro Carol A , Isabella Debbie , Ronny Faisal Huq
Published: July 2022

Objective

Our aim was to describe the rapid adaption of a Master of Clinical Laboratory Sciences (MCLS) program to the abrupt suspension of classroom instruction and laboratory training at affiliated hospitals in compliance with the New York governor’s executive order in March 2020.

Methods

Teaching modifications included greater emphasis on Zoom video conferencing, Media Lab assignments, independent self-study, and online testing.

Results

Instruction of academic coursework continued uninterrupted using previously established teaching modalities. Clinical training presented 2-fold concerns, credit hours needed for the master’s degree and clinical hours required for New York State licensing. The latter was delayed.

Conclusion

The real-time need to deliver laboratory science education during a time of statewide closure was fulfilled using available teaching modalities. The resulting uninterrupted academic and clinical training ensured the education of the incoming workforce of our clinical laboratories. This teaching strategy may be considered during new curricula development in preparation for times of future crises.
Patient and Treatment Characteristics Associated With Receipt of Core Patient-Reported Outcome Measures in VA Mental Health
Authors: Liebmann Edward P , Resnick Sandra G , Austin Karen L , Jedele Jenefer M
Published: July 2022

Objective

Measurement-based care (MBC) has been implemented in Veterans Affairs since 2016 and is increasingly used in other mental health care organizations. Little quantitative research exists that assesses patient-level barriers and facilitators of MBC. This study examines correlates of receiving patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) among veterans receiving both psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy (Both), psychotherapy only (Psychotherapy), and pharmacotherapy only (Pharmacotherapy).

Methods

Data on PROM administration were obtained for a 12-month period for 1,726,578 veterans who initiated outpatient mental health care during fiscal year 2019. Clinical, treatment, and PROM data were extracted from the electronic health record. Logistic regression was used to model the association between veteran and treatment characteristics and PROM administration.

Results

Thirty-two percent of veterans in Both, 26.0% in Psychotherapy, and 8.8% in Pharmacotherapy received at least one PROM. The probability of PROM administration was positively associated with the number of treatment encounters during the fiscal year 2019. Major depressive, generalized anxiety, and other depressive disorders were associated with an increased probability of PROM administration. Psychotic disorders, personality disorders, older age, dementia, and electronic health record suicide risk flag were associated with decreased odds of PROM administration across treatment types.

Conclusions

Rates of PROM administration differ depending on the type of treatment received. The probability of PROM administration is influenced by the frequency of encounters and, to a lesser extent, having a diagnosis congruent with symptoms assessed in the set of PROMs considered. Consistent with hypotheses from the MBC implementation literature, potential indicators of clinical severity and cognitive impairment decrease the likelihood of PROM utilization.
A fresh look at AGN spectral energy distribution fitting with the XMM-SERVS AGN sample
Authors: Marshall Adam , Auger-Williams Matthew W , Banerji Manda , Maiolino Roberto , Bowler Rebecca
Published: July 2022

We perform spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting to 711 luminous X-ray AGN at 0.7 < z < 4.5 using 10-bands of optical and infra-red photometric data for objects within XMM-SERVS. This fitting provided 510 reliable (reduced χ2 < 3) inferences on AGN and host galaxy properties. The AGN optical (3000 Å) luminosity inferred from SED-fitting is found to correlate with the measured X-ray (2–10 keV) luminosity, in good agreement with previous work. Using X-ray hardness as a proxy for AGN obscuration, we also study the differences in the host galaxy properties of obscured and unobscured AGNs. Both populations have consistent stellar masses (log10(M*/M⊙)  = 10.88 $\pm 0.09\, {\rm M}_\odot$ and log10(M*/M⊙)  = 10.8 $\pm 0.1\, {\rm M}_\odot$ for unobscured and obscured AGNs, respectively). We also find evidence for varying AGN emission line properties from a standard AGN template in 18.8 per cent of the sample with a reduced χ2 < 3 where the inclusion of an additional emission line strength free parameter was found to improve the quality of the fit. Comparison of these fits to SDSS spectra showed that emission line properties inferred from broad-band photometry were consistent with the results from spectroscopy for 91 per cent of objects. We find that the presence of weaker, more blueshifted emission lines as inferred from the SED fits are associated with more negative values of αox. While the correlation between the hardness of the ionizing SED and the emission line properties has been known for some time, we are able to derive this correlation purely from broad-band photometry.