bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Understanding perception and acceptance of Sinopharm vaccine and vaccination against COVID–19 in the UAE
Authors: Ahamed Faheem , Ganesan Subhashini , James Anila , Zaher Walid Abbas
Published: August 2021

Background

In the current COVID-19 pandemic, the world has reached an important milestone where vaccinations are discovered and are proven to be effective against SARS-COV-2 infections. Though vaccines against COVID-19 are now available, around the globe there is some hesitancy in getting the vaccine. This hesitancy to get vaccinated against COVID-19 is a complex phenomenon with various factors playing a role. This study aims at understanding the perception and expectations of the people about COVID-19 vaccine and the factors influencing the vaccine acceptance. This information is crucial to challenge vaccine hesitancy and to win the combat against the COVID-19 Pandemic through voluntary vaccine efforts.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey among the residents of the UAE to understand the expectations and perception on vaccination against COVID-19. The survey was conducted online, and the survey design included participant samples to be representative of UAE’s demographics. The results of the survey were analysed with various demographical variables of interest.

Results

The survey showed that people were more likely to get vaccinated when vaccines are (i) endorsed by trusted government health authorities, (ii) recommended by physicians and family doctors, and (iii) the merits are effectively communicated through government websites and trusted news channels. Availability of vaccines at multiple sites and providing vaccines free of charges are likely to improve the rate of vaccination. The perceptions, expectations and the motivational factors needed for people to get vaccinated differed with age, gender, marital status, income level, and employment status.

Conclusion

To attain herd immunity against COVID-19, a large proportion of the population needs to be vaccinated and to achieve this the vaccination campaigns should target on specific expectations and motivational factors pertaining to each target group to successfully overcome the challenge of vaccine hesitancy.
The relationship between postmenopausal women’s body image and the severity of menopausal symptoms
Authors: Nazarpour Soheila , Simbar Masoumeh , Majd Hamid Alavi , Torkamani Zahra Jafari , Andarvar Khadijeh Dodel , Rahnemaei Fatemeh
Published: August 2021

Background

Body image is the main element of an individual’s personality that may be influenced by many factors during menopause. We aimed to assess the relationship between postmenopausal women’s body image with the severity of menopausal symptoms.

Methods

This was a cross-sectional study on 300 postmenopausal women, aged 45 to 65 years old, in Tehran, Iran. We recruited the samples using the multi-stage sampling method. Tools for data collection were: 1) the Menopausal Rating Scale (MRS), 2) the Fisher’s Body Image questionnaire and 3) a socio-demographic questionnaire. We analyzed data using the independent samples t-test, Pearson correlation coefficient, Spearman’s correlation coefficient, and multiple linear regression tests.

Results

Three hundred women aged 55.11 ± 3.99 years old, participated in the study. Mean scores for body image and MRS were 163.07 ± 21.17 (Range: 46–230) and 16.45 ± 8.38 (Range: 0–44), respectively. About 50% of women had severe symptoms of menopause (MRS score ≥ 17). There was a negative correlation between the total score and the score of all dimensions of body image with the total score and all dimensions of MRS (P < 0.001). There were also significant relationships between women’s body image with: their education (P < 0.001, r = 0.20) the spouse’s education (P < 0.001, r = 0.26), adequacy of monthly household income (P < 0.001, r = 0.32), marital status (P = 0.36), their occupation (P = 0.007) and housing status (P = 0.012). There was also a significant negative correlation between women’s lower body organs image with the number of children (P = 0.017, r = − 0.14). According to the multiple linear regressions model, severity of menopausal symptoms (Beta = − 0.45, P < 0.001) and adequacy of monthly household income (Beta = 0.15, P = 0.005) are the significant related factors with postmenopausal women’s body image.

Conclusions

Body image is correlated with menopausal symptoms of women during menopause. Therefore, it seems that interventions aimed at relieving the annoying symptoms of menopause can help to improve their body image. Also, body image could be influenced by some socio-demographic factors which should be considered in menopause health promotion programs.
Treatment of Fabella syndrome with arthroscopic fabellectomy: a case series and literature review
Authors: Weng Shuo-Po , Wu Tsung-Mu , Chien Chi-Sheng , Lin Sheng-Hui
Published: August 2021

Background

The fabella is a sesamoid bone in the posterolateral capsule of the human knee joint. In quadrupedal mammals, the fabella is believed to have a role similar to the patella in redirecting extension forces of the knee joint from one point to another. In bipeds, the fabella is not touching the back of the bent knee, and therefore the role in redirecting forces declines. Posterolateral knee pain can be associated with the irritation between the fabella and lateral femoral condyle, a phenomenon also known as fabella syndrome. In cases that are unresponsive to conservative management, surgical fabellectomy can be a successful treatment option. Among the surgical approaches, open resection is most commonly seen. There are also literature reporting arthroscopic-assisted open resection, but seldom mentioned the all-arthroscopic fabellectomy.

Case presentation

We present 3 patients with a long history (> 12 month) of posterolateral knee pain under suspicion of different pain origins. The diagnosis of fabella impingement was eventually made by ruling out of other causes. All the patients underwent all-arthroscopic fabellectomy for diagnosis and treatment. Investigations of the resected fabella suggested chronic impingement with apparent osteophyte formation and cartilage wearing of the articular side. All patients have been continually followed up at our outpatient department and reported to be pain free after the procedure.

Conclusions

In the patients presenting posterolateral pain, fabella syndrome cannot be ignored due to its relative higher presence in Asian population. In our experience, the all-arthroscopic fabellectomy offers a smaller wound size, less post-operative pain, fewer days of hospitalization and quicker time to rehabilitation for the patients with chronic posterolateral knee pain caused by fabella syndrome.
Efficient framework for predicting MiRNA-disease associations based on improved hybrid collaborative filtering
Authors: Nie Ru , Li Zhengwei , You Zhu-hong , Bao Wenzheng , Li Jiashu
Published: August 2021

Background

Accumulating studies indicates that microRNAs (miRNAs) play vital roles in the process of development and progression of many human complex diseases. However, traditional biochemical experimental methods for identifying disease-related miRNAs cost large amount of time, manpower, material and financial resources.

Methods

In this study, we developed a framework named hybrid collaborative filtering for miRNA-disease association prediction (HCFMDA) by integrating heterogeneous data, e.g., miRNA functional similarity, disease semantic similarity, known miRNA-disease association networks, and Gaussian kernel similarity of miRNAs and diseases. To capture the intrinsic interaction patterns embedded in the sparse association matrix, we prioritized the predictive score by fusing three types of information: similar disease associations, similar miRNA associations, and similar disease-miRNA associations. Meanwhile, singular value decomposition was adopted to reduce the impact of noise and accelerate predictive speed.

Results

We then validated HCFMDA with leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV) and two types of case studies. In the LOOCV, we achieved 0.8379 of AUC (area under the curve). To evaluate the performance of HCFMDA on real diseases, we further implemented the first type of case validation over three important human diseases: Colon Neoplasms, Esophageal Neoplasms and Prostate Neoplasms. As a result, 44, 46 and 44 out of the top 50 predicted disease-related miRNAs were confirmed by experimental evidence. Moreover, the second type of case validation on Breast Neoplasms indicates that HCFMDA could also be applied to predict potential miRNAs towards those diseases without any known associated miRNA.

Conclusions

The satisfactory prediction performance demonstrates that our model could serve as a reliable tool to guide the following research for identifying candidate miRNAs associated with human diseases.
Bypassing primary care facilities: health-seeking behavior of middle age and older adults in China
Authors: Li Changle , Chen Zhuo , Khan M. Mahmud
Published: August 2021

Background

With economic development, aging of the population, improved insurance coverage, and the absence of a formal referral system, bypassing primary healthcare facilities appear to have become more common. Chinese patients tend to visit the secondary or tertiary healthcare facilities directly leading to overcrowding at the higher-level facilities. This study attempts to analyze the factors associated with bypassing primary care facilities among patients of age 45 years or older in China.

Methods

Random effects logistic models were used to examine bypassing of primary health facilities among rural-urban patients. Data from 2011 to 2015 waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study were used.

Results

Two in five older patients in China bypass primary health centers (PHC) to access care from higher-tier facilities. Urban patients were nearly twice as likely as rural patients to bypass PHC. Regardless of rural-urban residence, our analysis found that a longer travel time to primary facilities compared to higher-tier facilities increases the likelihood of bypassing. Patients with higher educational attainment were more likely to bypass PHCs. In rural areas, patients who reported their health as poor or those who experienced a recent hospitalization had a higher probability of bypassing PHC. In urban areas, older adults (age 65 years or older) were more likely to bypass PHC than the younger group. Patients with chronic conditions like diabetes also had a higher probability of bypassing.

Conclusions

The findings indicate the importance of strengthening the PHCs in China to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the health system. Significantly lower out-of-pocket costs at the PHC compared to costs at the higher tiers had little or no impact on increasing the likelihood of utilizing the PHCs. Improving service quality, providing comprehensive person-centered care, focusing on family health care needs, and providing critical preventive services will help increase utilization of PHCs as well as the effectiveness and efficiency of the health system.
Genus-level evolutionary relationships of FAR proteins reflect the diversity of lifestyles of free-living and parasitic nematodes
Authors: Yuan Dongjuan , Li Song , Shang Ziyu , Wan Muchun , Lin Yu , Zhang Yanhua , Feng Yaoyu , Xu Lian , Xiao Lihua
Published: August 2021

Background

Nematodes are a widespread and diverse group comprising free-living and parasitic species, some of which have major detrimental effects on crops, animals, and human health. Genomic comparisons of nematodes may help reveal the genetic bases for the evolution of parasitic lifestyles. Fatty acid and retinol-binding proteins (FARs) are thought to be unique to nematodes and play essential roles in their development, reproduction, infection, and possibly parasitism through promoting the uptake, transport, and distribution of lipid and retinol. However, the evolution of FAR family proteins across the phylum Nematoda remains elusive.

Results

We report here the evolutionary relationship of the FAR gene family across nematodes. No FAR was found in Trichocephalida species and Romanomermis culicivorax from Clade I, and FAR could be found in species from Clades III, IV, and V. FAR proteins are conserved in Clade III species and separated into three clusters. Tandem duplications and high divergence events lead to variable richness and low homology of FARs in Steinernema of Clade IVa, Strongyloides of Clade IVb, and intestinal parasitic nematodes from Clades Vc and Ve. Moreover, different richness and sequence variations of FARs in pine wood, root-knot, stem, and cyst nematodes might be determined by reproduction mode or parasitism. However, murine lungworm Angiostrongylus and bovine lungworm Dictyocaulus viviparus from Clade Vd have only 3–4 orthologs of FAR. RNA-seq data showed that far genes, especially far-1 and far-2, were highly expressed in most nematodes. Angiostrongylus cantonensis FAR-1 and FAR-3 have low sequence homology and distinct ligand-binding properties, leading to differences in the cavity volume of proteins. These data indicate that FAR proteins diverged early and experienced low selective pressure to form genus-level diversity. The far genes are present in endophyte or root-colonized bacteria of Streptomyces, Kitasatospora sp., Bacillus subtilis, and Lysobacter, suggesting that bacterial far genes might be derived from plant-parasitic nematodes by horizontal gene transfer.

Conclusions

Data from these comparative analyses have provided insights into genus-level diversity of FAR proteins in the phylum Nematoda. FAR diversification provides a glimpse into the complicated evolution history across free-living and parasitic nematodes.
Engineering of microbial cells for L-valine production: challenges and opportunities
Authors: Gao Hui , Tuyishime Philibert , Zhang Xian , Yang Taowei , Xu Meijuan , Rao Zhiming
Published: August 2021

L-valine is an essential amino acid that has wide and expanding applications with a suspected growing market demand. Its applicability ranges from animal feed additive, ingredient in cosmetic and special nutrients in pharmaceutical and agriculture fields. Currently, fermentation with the aid of model organisms, is a major method for the production of L-valine. However, achieving the optimal production has often been limited because of the metabolic imbalance in recombinant strains. In this review, the constrains in L-valine biosynthesis are discussed first. Then, we summarize the current advances in engineering of microbial cell factories that have been developed to address and overcome major challenges in the L-valine production process. Future prospects for enhancing the current L-valine production strategies are also discussed.
Study of cellular heterogeneity and differential dynamics of autophagy in human embryonic kidney development by single-cell RNA sequencing
Authors: Wen-jin Chen , Xiu-wu Pan , Jian Chu , Da Xu , Jia-xin Chen , Wei-jie Chen , Lin-hui Wang , Xin-gang Cui
Published: August 2021

Background

Autophagy is believed to participate in embryonic development, but whether the expression of autophagy-associated genes undergoes changes during the development of human embryonic kidneys remains unknown.

Methods

In this work, we identified 36,151 human renal cells from embryonic kidneys of 9–18 gestational weeks in 16 major clusters by single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), and detected 1350 autophagy-related genes in all fetal renal cells. The abundance of each cell cluster in Wilms tumor samples from scRNA-seq and GDC TARGET WT datasets was detected by CIBERSORTx. R package Monocle 3 was used to determine differentiation trajectories. Cyclone tool of R package scran was applied to calculate the cell cycle scores. R package SCENIC was used to investigate the transcriptional regulons. The FindMarkers tool from Seurat was used to calculate DEGs. GSVA was used to perform gene set enrichment analyses. CellphoneDB was utilized to analyze intercellular communication.

Results

It was found that cells in the 13th gestational week showed the lowest transcriptional level in each cluster in all stages. Nephron progenitors could be divided into four subgroups with diverse levels of autophagy corresponding to different SIX2 expressions. SSBpod (podocyte precursors) could differentiate into four types of podocytes (Pod), and autophagy-related regulation was involved in this process. Pseudotime analysis showed that interstitial progenitor cells (IPCs) potentially possessed two primitive directions of differentiation to interstitial cells with different expressions of autophagy. It was found that NPCs, pretubular aggregates and interstitial cell clusters had high abundance in Wilms tumor as compared with para-tumor samples with active intercellular communication.

Conclusions

All these findings suggest that autophagy may be involved in the development and cellular heterogeneity of early human fetal kidneys. In addition, part of Wilms tumor cancer cells possess the characteristics of some fetal renal cell clusters.

Graphical abstract
The regulatory role of antisense lncRNAs in cancer
Authors: Liu Biao , Xiang Wei , Liu Jiahao , Tang Jin , Wang Jinrong , Liu Bin , Long Zhi , Wang Long , Yin Guangming , Liu Jianye
Published: August 2021

Antisense long non-coding RNAs (antisense lncRNAs), transcribed from the opposite strand of genes with either protein coding or non-coding function, were reported recently to play a crucial role in the process of tumor onset and development. Functionally, antisense lncRNAs either promote or suppress cancer cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and chemoradiosensitivity. Mechanistically, they exert their regulatory functions through epigenetic, transcriptional, post-transcriptional, and translational modulations. Simultaneously, because of nucleotide sequence complementarity, antisense lncRNAs have a special role on its corresponding sense gene. We highlight the functions and molecular mechanisms of antisense lncRNAs in cancer tumorigenesis and progression. We also discuss the potential of antisense lncRNAs to become cancer diagnostic biomarkers and targets for tumor treatment.
Prediction of exercise sudden death in rabbit exhaustive swimming using deep neural network
Authors: Zhang Yao , Zheng Yineng , Wang Menglu , Guo Xingming
Published: August 2021

Background and objective

Moderate exercise contributes to good health. However, excessive exercise may lead to cardiac fatigue, myocardial damage and even exercise sudden death. Monitoring the heart health has important implication to prevent exercise sudden death. Diagnosis methods such as electrocardiogram, echocardiogram, blood pressure and histological analysis have shown that arrhythmia and left ventricular fibrosis are early warning symptoms of exercise sudden death. Heart sounds (HS) can reflect the changes of cardiac valve, cardiac blood flow and myocardial function. Deep learning has drawn wide attention because of its ability to recognize disease. Therefore, a deep learning method combined with HS was proposed to predict exercise sudden death in New Zealand rabbits. The objective is to develop a method to predict exercise sudden death in New Zealand rabbits.

Methods

This paper proposed a method to predict exercise sudden death in New Zealand rabbits based on convolutional neural network (CNN) and gated recurrent unit (GRU). The weight-bearing exhaustive swimming experiment was conducted to obtain the HS of exercise sudden death and surviving New Zealand rabbits (n = 11/10) at four different time points. Then, the improved Viola integral method and double threshold method were employed to segment HS signals. The segmented HS frames at different time points were taken as the input of a combined CNN and GRU called CNN–GRU network to complete the prediction of exercise sudden death.

Results

In order to evaluate the performance of proposed network, CNN and GRU were used for comparison. When the fourth time point segmented HS frames were taken as input, the result shows that the proposed network has better performance with an accuracy of 89.57%, a sensitivity of 89.38% and a specificity of 92.20%. In addition, the segmented HS frames at different time points were input into CNN–GRU network, and the result shows that with the progress of the experiment, the prediction accuracy of exercise sudden death in New Zealand rabbits increased from 50.98 to 89.57%.

Conclusion

The proposed network shows good performance in classifying HS, which proves the feasibility of deep learning in exploring exercise sudden death. Further, it may have important implications in helping humans explore exercise sudden death.
Associations of acrylamide with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in American adults: a nationwide cross-sectional study
Authors: Liu Zhening , Wang Jinghua , Chen Shenghui , Xu Chengfu , Zhang Yu
Published: August 2021

Background

Acrylamide (AA) is a toxicant to humans, but the association between AA exposure and the risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) remains unclear. In this study, our objective is to examine the cross-sectional association between AA exposure and the risk of NAFLD in American adults.

Methods

A total of 3234 individuals who took part in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2003–2006 and 2013–2016 were enrolled in the study. NAFLD was diagnosed by the U.S. Fatty Liver Index. Multivariable logistic regression models were applied to estimate the association between AA and NAFLD in the whole group and the non-smoking group.

Results

We discovered that in the whole group, serum hemoglobin adducts of AA (HbAA) were negatively associated with the prevalence of NAFLD after adjustment for various covariables (P for trend < 0.001). Compared with individuals in the lowest HbAA quartiles, the odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) in the highest HbAA quartiles were 0.61 (0.46–0.81) and 0.57 (0.36–0.88) in the whole group and the non-smoking group, respectively. In contrast, HbGA/HbAA showed a significantly positive correlation with the prevalence of NAFLD in both groups (P for trend < 0.001). In addition, HbGA was not significantly associated with NAFLD in the whole group or the non-smoking group.

Conclusions

HbAA is negatively associated with NAFLD whereas HbGA/HbAA is positively associated with NAFLD in adults in the U.S. Further studies are needed to clarify these relationships.
Long-term personal air pollution exposure and risk for acute exacerbation of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
Authors: Tomos Ioannis , Dimakopoulou Konstantina , Manali Effrosyni D. , Papiris Spyros A. , Karakatsani Anna
Published: August 2021

Background

Urban air pollution is involved in the progress of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Its potential role on the devastating event of Acute Exacerbation of IPF (AE-IPF) needs to be clarified. This study examined the association between long-term personal air pollution exposure and AE- IPF risk taking into consideration inflammatory mediators and telomere length (TL).

Methods

All consecutive IPF-patients referred to our Hospital from October 2013-June 2019 were included. AE-IPF events were recorded and inflammatory mediators and TL measured. Long-term personal air pollution exposures were assigned to each patient retrospectively, for O3, NO2, PM2.5 [and PM10, based on geo-coded residential addresses. Logistic regression models assessed the association of air pollutants’ levels with AE-IPF and inflammatory mediators adjusting for potential confounders.

Results

118 IPF patients (mean age 72 ± 8.3 years) were analyzed. We detected positive significant associations between AE-IPF and a 10 μg/m3 increase in previous-year mean level of NO2 (OR = 1.52, 95%CI:1.15–2.0, p = 0.003), PM2.5 (OR = 2.21, 95%CI:1.16–4.20, p = 0.016) and PM10 (OR = 2.18, 95%CI:1.15–4.15, p = 0.017) independent of age, gender, smoking, lung function and antifibrotic treatment. Introduction of TL in all models of a subgroup of 36 patients did not change the direction of the observed associations. Finally, O3 was positively associated with %change of IL-4 (p = 0.014) whilst PM2.5, PM10 and NO2 were inversely associated with %changes of IL-4 (p = 0.003, p = 0.003, p = 0.032) and osteopontin (p = 0.013, p = 0.013, p = 0.085) respectively.

Conclusions

Long-term personal exposure to increased concentrations of air pollutants is an independent risk factor of AE-IPF. Inflammatory mediators implicated in lung repair mechanisms are involved.
Joint mapping of cardiovascular diseases: comparing the geographic patterns in incident acute myocardial infarction, stroke and atrial fibrillation, a Danish register-based cohort study 2014–15
Authors: Bihrmann Kristine , Gislason Gunnar , Larsen Mogens Lytken , Ersbøll Annette Kjær
Published: August 2021

Background

Disease mapping aims at identifying geographic patterns in disease. This may provide a better understanding of disease aetiology and risk factors as well as enable targeted prevention and allocation of resources. Joint mapping of multiple diseases may lead to improved insights since e.g. similarities and differences between geographic patterns may reflect shared and disease-specific determinants of disease. The objective of this study was to compare the geographic patterns in incident acute myocardial infarction (AMI), stroke and atrial fibrillation (AF) using the unique, population-based Danish register data.

Methods

Incident AMI, stroke and AF was modelled by a multivariate Poisson model including a disease-specific random effect of municipality modelled by a multivariate conditionally autoregressive (MCAR) structure. Analyses were adjusted for age, sex and income.

Results

The study included 3.5 million adults contributing 6.8 million person-years. In total, 18,349 incident cases of AMI, 28,006 incident cases of stroke, and 39,040 incident cases of AF occurred. Estimated municipality-specific standardized incidence rates ranged from 0.76 to 1.35 for AMI, from 0.79 to 1.38 for stroke, and from 0.85 to 1.24 for AF. In all diseases, geographic variation with clusters of high or low risk of disease after adjustment was seen. The geographic patterns displayed overall similarities between the diseases, with stroke and AF having the strongest resemblances. The most notable difference was observed in Copenhagen (high risk of stroke and AF, low risk of AMI). AF showed the least geographic variation.

Conclusion

Using multiple-disease mapping, this study adds to the results of previous studies by enabling joint evaluation and comparison of the geographic patterns in AMI, stroke and AF. The simultaneous mapping of diseases displayed similarities and differences in occurrence that are non-assessable in traditional single-disease mapping studies. In addition to reflecting the fact that AF is a strong risk factor for stroke, the results suggested that AMI, stroke and AF share some, but not all environmental risk factors after accounting for age, sex and income (indicator of lifestyle and health behaviour).
On the roles of intrinsically disordered proteins and regions in cell communication and signaling
Authors: Bondos Sarah E. , Dunker A. Keith , Uversky Vladimir N.
Published: August 2021

For proteins, the sequence → structure → function paradigm applies primarily to enzymes, transmembrane proteins, and signaling domains. This paradigm is not universal, but rather, in addition to structured proteins, intrinsically disordered proteins and regions (IDPs and IDRs) also carry out crucial biological functions. For these proteins, the sequence → IDP/IDR ensemble → function paradigm applies primarily to signaling and regulatory proteins and regions. Often, in order to carry out function, IDPs or IDRs cooperatively interact, either intra- or inter-molecularly, with structured proteins or other IDPs or intermolecularly with nucleic acids. In this IDP/IDR thematic collection published inCell Communication and Signaling, thirteen articles are presented that describe IDP/IDR signaling molecules from a variety of organisms from humans to fruit flies and tardigrades (“water bears”) and that describe how these proteins and regions contribute to the function and regulation of cell signaling. Collectively, these papers exhibit the diverse roles of disorder in responding to a wide range of signals as to orchestrate an array of organismal processes. They also show that disorder contributes to signaling in a broad spectrum of species, ranging from micro-organisms to plants and animals.
CD146 controls the quality of clinical grade mesenchymal stem cells from human dental pulp
Authors: Ma Lan , Huang Zhiqing , Wu Di , Kou Xiaoxing , Mao Xueli , Shi Songtao
Published: August 2021

Background

Human mesenchymal stem cells from dental pulp (hMSC-DP), including dental pulp stem cells from permanent teeth and exfoliated deciduous teeth, possess unique MSC characteristics such as expression of specific surface molecules and a high proliferation rate. Since hMSC-DP have been applied in numerous clinical studies, it is necessary to establish criteria to evaluate their potency for cell-based therapies.

Methods

We compared stem cell properties of hMSC-DP at passages 5, 10 and 20 under serum (SE) and serum-free (SF) culture conditions. Cell morphology, proliferation capacity, chromosomal stability, surface phenotypic profiles, differentiation and immunoregulation ability were evaluated. In addition, we assessed surface molecule that regulates hMSC-DP proliferation and immunomodulation.

Results

hMSC-DP exhibited a decrease in proliferation rate and differentiation potential, as well as a reduced expression of CD146 when cultured under continuous passage conditions. SF culture conditions failed to alter surface marker expression, chromosome stability or proliferation rate when compared to SE culture. SF-cultured hMSC-DP were able to differentiate into osteogenic, adipogenic and neural cells, and displayed the capacity to regulate immune responses. Notably, the expression level of CD146 showed a positive correlation with proliferation, differentiation, and immunomodulation, suggesting that CD146 can serve as a surface molecule to evaluate the potency of hMSC-DP. Mechanistically, we found that CD146 regulates proliferation and immunomodulation of hMSC-DP through the ERK/p-ERK pathway.

Conclusion

This study indicates that SF-cultured hMSC-DP are appropriate for producing clinical-grade cells. CD146 is a functional surface molecule to assess the potency of hMSC-DP.
Antibiotic resistance, virulence-associated genes analysis and molecular typing of Klebsiella pneumoniae strains recovered from clinical samples
Authors: Mirzaie Amir , Ranjbar Reza
Published: August 2021

Klebsiella pneumoniaeis a multidrug-resistant (MDR) opportunistic pathogen that causes nosocomial infections. Virulence analysis and molecular typing as powerful approaches can provide relevant information onK. pneumoniaeinfection. In the current study, antibiotic resistance, virulence-associated genes analysis, as well as molecular typing ofK. pneumoniaestrains were investigated. Out of 505 clinical samples collected from hospitalized patients, 100K. pneumoniaestrains were isolated by standard microbiological methods and subjected to the phenotypic and genotyping analysis. The highest prevalence of resistance was observed against ciprofloxacin (75%), trimethoprim–sulfamethoxazole (73%) and nitrofurantoin (68%). Virulence associated genes includingentB,traT,ybts, magA, iucC, htrAandrmpAwere found in 80%, 62%, 75%, 5%, 30%, 72% and 48%, of the isolates, respectively. The prevalence of biofilm-associated genes includingmrkA, fimH, andmrkDwere equally 88% for all tested isolates. Moreover, the efflux pump genes includingAcrAB, TolCandmdtKwere observed in 41 (41%), 33 (33%) and 26 (26%) of the strains respectively. A significant statistical association was observed between MDR strains and high expression of efflux pump and biofilm genes. TheK. pneumoniaestrains were differentiated into 11 different genetic patterns using the repetitive element sequence-based PCR (rep-PCR) technique. High prevalence of resistance, presence of various virulence factors, high level of efflux pump, and biofilm gene expression in diverse clones ofK. pneumoniaestrains pose an important health issue in clinical settings.
Alarm method of communication intelligent manhole cover based on multiple event fusion
Authors: Li Chengfan , Gu Shanming , Guo Gang , Liu Xuefeng , Liu Lan , Zhao Junjuan
Published: August 2021

As a comprehensive utilization of pipeline resources, communication intelligent manhole cover (CIMC) can effectively real-time monitor communication manhole cover and protect the safety of communication pipeline. Due to the complex working environment of manhole cover and the random error of sensor, the traditional monitoring method usual leads to frequent false alarm in actual applications. In order to ensure the monitoring service quality and improve the service efficiency, a new alarm method of CIMC with multiple event fusion in this paper via jointing analysis of multi-sensor status signals is proposed based on the equipment status signals generated by the CIMC terminal and abnormal alarm events definition. The experimental result shows that the proposed CIMC alarm method by means of multiple sensor signals in this paper can not only make up for the defect of a single sensor, but also reduces the false alarm rate caused by the random error of sensor and CIMC system. It can promote the intelligent monitoring efficiency of the manhole cover and be conducive to the construction of intelligent transportation and smart city.
Renewable energy and population growth for sustainable development in the Southeast Asian countries
Authors: Vo Duc Hong , Vo Anh The
Published: August 2021

The energy–environment–growth nexus has been examined for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region, mainly using time series data. However, the important role of renewable energy and population has largely been ignored in previous studies. As such, this study is conducted to investigate a causal link between renewable energy usage, population, carbon dioxide emissions, and economic growth. In addition, a relatively new and advanced panel vector autoregressive model and the Granger non-causality test for heterogeneous panels are utilized with a sample of seven ASEAN countries for almost three decades since 1990. Key findings from this paper are as follows. First, renewable energy usage responds to population growth and leads to carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Second, economic growth and renewable energy usage explain a substantial proportion of the change in energy consumption. Third, a bidirectional Granger causality does exist in each pair among energy consumption, economic growth and CO2 emissions. We argue that moderating population growth and extending renewable energy usage are vital to achieving sustainable economic growth in the ASEAN region.
Towards more efficient CNN-based surgical tools classification using transfer learning
Authors: Jaafari Jaafar , Douzi Samira , Douzi Khadija , Hssina Badr
Published: August 2021

Context-aware system (CAS) is a system that can understand the context of a given situation and either share this context with other systems for their response or respond by itself. In surgery, these systems are intended to assist surgeons enhance the scheduling productivity of operating rooms (OR) and surgical teams, and promote a comprehensive perception and consciousness of the OR. Furthermore, the automated surgical tool classification in medical images is a real-time computerized assistance to the surgeons in conducting different operations. Moreover, deep learning has embroiled in every facet of life due to the availability of large datasets and the emergence of convolutional neural networks (CNN) that have paved the way for the development of different image related processes. The aim of this paper is to resolve the problem of unbalanced data in the publicly available Cholec80 laparoscopy video dataset, using multiple data augmentation techniques. Furthermore, we implement a fine-tuned CNN to tackle the automatic tool detection during a surgery, with prospective use in the teaching field, evaluating surgeons, and surgical quality assessment (SQA). The proposed method is evaluated on a dataset of 80 cholecystectomy videos (Cholec80 dataset). A mean average precision of 93.75% demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method, outperforming the other models significantly.
Adjunctive ketamine for sedation in critically ill mechanically ventilated patients: an active-controlled, pilot, feasibility clinical trial
Authors: Amer Marwa , Maghrabi Khalid , Bawazeer Mohammed , Alshaikh Kamel , Shaban Mohammad , Rizwan Muhammad , Amin Rashid , De Vol Edward , Baali Mawadah , Altewerki Malak , Bano Mehreen , Alkhaldi Fawziah , Alenazi Sanaa , Hijazi Mohammed
Published: August 2021

Objective

Ketamine has been shown to decrease sedative requirements in intensive care unit (ICU). Randomized trials are limited on patient-centered outcomes. We designed this pilot trial to evaluate the feasibility of a large randomized controlled trial (RCT) testing the effect of ketamine as an adjunct analgosedative compared with standard of care alone as a control group (CG) in critically ill patients with mechanical ventilation (MV). We also provided preliminary evidence on clinically relevant outcomes to plan a larger trial.

Material and methods

Pilot, active-controlled, open-label RCT was conducted at medical, surgical, and transplant ICUs at a large tertiary and quaternary care medical institution (King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Saudi Arabia). The study included adult patients who were intubated within 24 h, expected to require MV for the next calendar day, and had institutional pain and sedation protocol initiated. Patients were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to adjunct ketamine infusion 1–2 μg/kg/min for 48 h or CG alone.

Results

Of 437 patients screened from September 2019 through November 2020, 83 (18.9%) patients were included (43 in CG and 40 in ketamine) and 352 (80.5%) were excluded. Average enrollment rate was 3–4 patients/month. Consent and protocol adherence rates were adequate (89.24% and 76%, respectively). Demographics were balanced between groups. Median MV duration was 7 (interquartile range [IQR] 3–9.25 days) in ketamine and 5 (IQR 2–8 days) in CG. Median VFDs was 19 (IQR 0–24.75 days) in ketamine and 19 (IQR 0–24 days) in the CG (p = 0.70). More patients attained goal Richmond Agitation–Sedation Scale at 24 and 48 h in ketamine (67.5% and 73.5%, respectively) compared with CG (52.4% and 66.7%, respectively). Sedatives and vasopressors cumulative use, and hemodynamic changes were similar. ICU length-of-stay was 12.5 (IQR 6–21.2 days) in ketamine, compared with 12 (IQR 5.5–23 days) in CG. No serious adverse events were observed in either group.

Conclusions

Ketamine as an adjunct analgosedative agent appeared to be feasible and safe with no negative impact on outcomes, including hemodynamics. This pilot RCT identified areas of improvement in study protocol before conducting a large, adequately powered, multicenter RCT which is likely justified to investigate ketamine association with patient-centered outcomes further.

Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04075006. Registered on 30 August 2019. Current controlled trials: ISRCTN14730035. Registered on 3 February 2020
The mobility paradigm in higher education: a phenomenological study on the shift in learning space
Authors: Chattaraj Dishari , Vijayaraghavan Arya Parakkate
Published: August 2021

The study, through the framework of mobility and space, explores the phenomenon of multiple shifts in learning spaces induced by COVID-19. The Interpretative Phenomenological Approach (IPA) is adopted to document the experiences and perceptions of learners caught within these spatial shifts—physical, online, and hybrid. Online interviews were conducted with six first-year undergraduate and three first-year postgraduate students enrolled at the department of English and Cultural Studies in a Southern Indian University. Some of the dominant patterns emerging from the accounts of the participants are (1) the changing perception of conducive learning space, (2) the changing perceptions and roles of various classroom actors, and (3) the evolving nature of the learners and the learning process. The study utilizes the framework of mobility to locate the stage of embodied skill acquisition of the participants within the online learning space and illuminates the possibilities offered by this paradigm within the context of higher education. Some of the insights gained through the study include a changing perception of the conventional built classroom space, a notable preference towards a complete online or offline mode as opposed to the hybrid mode, and a transition towards self-directed learning. The study argues that these implications are highly pertinent and can significantly shape the way pedagogues and researchers engage with the various modes of learning—physical, online, and hybrid—and the future of higher education that is shaped by technology-enabled learning.
Experimental study on improving the accuracy of marine gravimetry by combining moving-base gravimeters with GNSS antenna array
Authors: Shi Zhimin , Lang Junjian , Liang Xinghui , Zhou Zhibo , Guo Aizhi , Liu Lintao
Published: August 2021

The gravity field is one of the Earth’s basic physical fields. The geoid can be calculated and the tectonic activity underground can be inversed by gravity anomaly. With the development of various ship-borne gravimeters and navigation technology, including the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and Strapdown Inertial Navigation System (SINS), the precision of marine gravimetry has been significantly improved (achieve or better than 1mGal). Errors arising from calculations of the correction term have become the main source of gravity measurement errors. At present, the traditional approach is to deploy a GNSS antenna, connect the GNSS antenna to the gravimeter, record the real-time position through data acquisition software, and then use this position to calculate the gravity correction item afterward. Two errors are inevitable. (1) The GNSS antenna position error is large. The pseudorange point positioning method is generally used to obtain real-time GNSS antenna positions, and the positioning accuracy is poor compared with that of precise point positioning. (2) The position coordinates of the gravimeter contain systematic errors related to the ship’s attitude. In this paper, a joint experiment including GNSS antenna arrays and ship-borne gravimeters was designed to evaluate the measurement accuracy via repeat lines on the same ship. The experimental results show the following: (1) attitude accuracies of 0.0299° for the yaw angle, 0.0361° for the pitch angle, and 0.1671° for the roll angle can be obtained at baseline lengths of 25 and 4 m. (2) The GNSS antenna array has an obvious role in determining the point acceleration in the low-frequency band (0–0.01 Hz) and the point position and velocity in the high-frequency band (0.01–1 Hz). (3) The vertical position eccentricity causes an absolute error of 1 mGal and a relative error of$${10}^{-1}$$10-1mGal in gravity measurements and can be corrected by the GNSS antenna array method. (4) Using a GNSS antenna array can obviously improve the measurement accuracy of an instrument with a precision equaling or exceeding 1 mGal, but cannot obviously improve that to an instrument with poor precision (2 mGal or below).
Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada Syndrome following COVID-19 and ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (AZD1222) vaccine
Authors: Saraceno Janaína Jamile Ferreira , Souza Guilherme Macedo , dos Santos Finamor Luciana Peixoto , Nascimento Heloisa Moraes , Belfort Rubens
Published: August 2021

The challenge of COVID-19 has rapidly changed medical management worldwide. The relatively small time from pandemic to vaccines regulatory approval triggered a race toward vaccines development. However, important questions regarding SARS-CoV-2 vaccines remain. A case of complete Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) Syndrome that occurred 4 days following SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and another patient that developed VKH 14 days post COVID-19 clinical onset are presented. A causal relationship between COVID-19 and uveitis may exist.
How long-term mass rearing affects the quality of the Trichogramma embryophagum (Hartig) (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae) reared on Sitotroga cerealella (Olivier) eggs
Authors: Sadat Farzaneh , Nazari Alireza , Jafari Shahriar , Karahroudi Zahra Rafiei
Published: August 2021

Background

Maintaining the quality and efficacy of biological control agents during long-term mass rearing plays a crucial role in the success of a biological control program. In this study, the biological traits of a local population colony ofTrichogramma embryophagum(Hartig) with rearing onSitotroga cerealella(Olivier) eggs for over 40 generations (G) were assessed.

Results

Female adult longevity was significantly different among generations, ranging from 7.98 d in G5 to 5.19 d in G40. The reared wasps showed highest fecundity (60.50 eggs/female) in G5 compared to the other generations. The female sex ratio varied from 63.16% in G5 to 49.31% in G40. Significant differences were observed in population growth parameters and the highest gross reproductive rate (GRR) (40.96 eggs/individual) and net reproductive rate (R0) (38.21 eggs/individual) were found in G5. However, a non-significant difference was found in the intrinsic rate of natural increase (r) until the 10th generation, but its values significantly declined with increasing the generation numbers. The finite parasitism rate (ω) ranged from 0.468 host/parasitoid/day in G5 to 0.274 host/parasitoid/day in G40.

Conclusions

The results showed that the quality ofT. embryophagumreared under continuous laboratory conditions declined after 10 generations, and for use of them in biological control programs under field conditions, the reared population should be refreshed by adding wild individuals from time to time.
Contemporary approach to understand and manage COVID-19-related arrhythmia
Authors: Nabeh Omnia Azmy , Helaly Maiada Mohamed , Menshawey Rahma , Menshawey Esraa , Nasser Mohammed Mansoor Matooq , Diaa El-deen Ahmed Mohamed
Published: August 2021

Arrhythmia, one of the most common complications of COVID-19, was reported in nearly one-third of diagnosed COVID-19 patients, with higher prevalence rate among ICU admitted patients. The underlying etiology for arrhythmia in these cases are mostly multifactorial as those patients may suffer from one or more of the following predisposing mechanisms; catecholamine surge, hypoxia, myocarditis, cytokine storm, QTc prolongation, electrolyte disturbance, and pro-arrhythmic drugs usage. Obviously, the risk for arrhythmia and the associated lethal outcome would rise dramatically among patients with preexisting cardiac disease such as myocardial ischemia, heart failure, cardiomyopathy, and hereditary arrhythmias. Considering all of these variables, the management strategy of COVID-19 patients should expand from managing a viral infection and related host immune response to include the prevention of predictable causes for arrhythmia. This may necessitate the need to investigate the role of some drugs that modulate the pathway of arrhythmia generation. Of these drugs, we discuss the potential role of adrenergic antagonists, trimetazidine, ranolazine, and the debatable angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors drugs. We also recommend monitoring the level of: unbound free fatty acids, serum electrolytes, troponin, and QTc (even in the absence of apparent pro-arrhythmic drug use) as these may be the only indicators for patients at risk for arrhythmic complications.