bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
PHQ-9 scores for depression associated with high prevalence of thyroid disease in US adults: a cross-sectional study
Authors: Zou¹ Lai-bin , Chen¹ Hao , Cao¹ Tian-sheng , Wu¹ Hong-sheng , Ma¹ Ke-qiang
Published: March 2023

Objective

Thyroid disease is a very common disease in the world, but the risk factor is not fully clear about present. This study aims to assess the relationship between Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) scores for depression and the prevalence of thyroid disease in United States (US) adults.

Methods

All samples of the study came from NHANES database from 2017–2020 pre-pandemic. Three different variable models were established; and the logistic regression analyses, generalized additive model, smoothed curve fitting, threshold effect analysis, subgroup analyses were used to assess the relationship between PHQ-9 scores for depression and the prevalence of thyroid disease.

Results

The results suggested that there is a positive relationship between PHQ-9 scores and the prevalence of thyroid disease, and the effect value was 1.0462(1.0311, 1.0615); each unit increase in PHQ-9 scores were associated with a 4.62% increase in the prevalence of thyroid disease. The threshold effect analysis found that log-likelihood ratio was P = 0.042, the inflection points K = 8. When the inflection points were less than 8, The incidence rate of thyroid disease increased by 7.15% for every one unit increase in PHQ-9 scores (P＜0.05); when K was greater than 8, the result was no significant difference. And the relationship between them was very stable according to subgroup analyses.

Conclusions

PHQ-9 scores for depression were positively associated with the prevalence of thyroid disease; the higher PHQ-9 scores of the minimal or mild depression in US adults, the prevalence of thyroid disease is higher; while there was no significant difference in moderately and severe depression adults. However, the causal relationship between the prevalence of thyroid disease and PHQ-9 scores for depression is not clear at present, further research is needed to explore.
Diagnosis and Treatment of Terrible Triad Injury of the Elbow with An Isolated Bone Fragment: A Case Report and Literature Review
Authors: Li Lei , Li Meng , Liu Lei , Xu Wei , Yao Gang , Fang Shiyuan
Published: March 2023

Background

An isolated radial head fracture fragment was rarely seen on the medial side from terrible triad injury. To date, this fracture pattern has not been previously reported and the mechanism of injury remains unknown.

Case Presentation

A 37-year-old male suffered the deformity and swelling of left elbow joint after falling from a high place. He was was rushed to the emergency room of the local hospital for reduction and cast immobilization of the dislocated elbow joint. This case described the rarely medial displacement of radial head fracture fragment from terrible triad injury of the elbow, including the radiologic characteristics and possible mechanisms of injury. The combination of medial and lateral incisions was performed and the patient obtained a good recovery.

Conclusions

The variants of the terrible triad injury of the elbow should be constantly recognized. A detailed surgical plan and favorable prognosis attributed to the the accurate judgment of the fracture and soft tissue injury. Additionally, an assistant incision is often necessary to remove the medial radial head fracture fragment.
Acute penile pain as a presentation of pulmonary embolism: a case report
Authors: Leng Tomas , Leff Rebecca , Milojkovic Klara , O'Sullivan Donnchadh , Schwartz Jonathan , Anderson Jana
Published: March 2023

Background

Pulmonary embolism (PE) in the pediatric population is uncommon, and due to a silent presentation often unrecognized entity that remains one of the most challenging medical conditions in the emergency department (ED). Risk factors for PE in children include nephrotic syndrome, immobility, obesity, congenital heart disease, and malignancy. In patients with PE, thromboembolism has been reported to occur at unusual venous sites including the veins within the central nervous system and abdomen. Although penile pain is a rare presenting symptom in the ED, in patients with hypercoagulability, it can herald a life threating event such as PE prompting further evaluation.

Case presentation

A 15-year-old male with a history of B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia who presented to the ED with an 18-hour history of penile pain. In the ED, the patient was in acute distress and rated his pain as 9/10. Initial vital signs were within normal limits, except mild tachypnea. On physical examination, his penile shaft was erythematous, indurated, and tender to palpation. He received fentanyl and morphine for pain. A complete blood cell count revealed pancytopenia with a platelet count of 73 x 109/L (139–320 x 109/L). A work-up for sexually transmitted diseases, urolithiasis, urinary tract infection, deep venous thrombosis (DVT), and priapism was negative. Approximately two hours after morphine administration, his saturations started dropping to mid-70’s. A computed tomography pulmonary angiogram (CTPA) revealed bilateral segmental acute pulmonary embolism involving multiple segmental right and left lower lobe pulmonary arteries. Penile pain and hypoxia have resolved with heparin.

Conclusions

PE is easily missed diagnosis among children who present to the ED and can be potentially fatal. A high index of suspicion is required in asymptomatic and oligo-symptomatic children with prothrombotic risk factors who develop thromboembolism-related symptoms at unusual sites as well as hypoxia in the ED setting.
Perfect planar polyynic cyclo[n]carbon complexes [Cs©C18]+ and [Na©C14]+ with alkaline-metal centers exhibiting record coordination numbers and transition metal behaviors
Authors: Zhang Min , Yuan Rui-Nan , Wu Yan-Bo , Chen Qiang , Wei Zhihong , Li Si-Dian
Published: March 2023

Searching for the maximum coordination number (CN) in planar species with novel bonding patterns has fascinated chemists for many years. Using the experimentally observed cyclo[18]carbonD9hC18and theoretically predicted cyclo[14]carbonD7hC14as effective ligands and based on extensive first-principles theory calculations, we predict herein their perfect planar alkaline-metal-doped complexesD9hCs©C18+(1) andD7hNa©C14+(4) which, as the global minima of the systems with an alkaline metal atom located exactly at the center, possess the record coordination numbers of CN = 18 and 14 in planar species, respectively. More interestingly, detailed energy decomposition and adaptive natural density partitioning bonding analyses indicate that the hypercoordinate alkaline-metal centers in these σ + π dually aromatic complexes exhibit obvious transition metal behaviors, with effective in-plane (π-6s)σ, (π-7p)σ, and (π-5d)σ coordination bonds formed in Cs©C18+(1) and (π-3s)σ, (π-3p)σ, and (π-3d)σ coordination interactions fabricated in Na©C14+(4) to dominate the overall attractive interactions between the metal center and its cyclo[n]carbon ligand. Similar dually aromatic alkaline-metal-centered planarCsCs©C17B (2),C2vCs©C17-(3),C2vNa©C13B (5), andC2vNa©C13-(6) have also been obtained with CN = 18, 17, 14, and 13, respectively.
Latent Class Analysis for Health-Related Quality of Life in Nurses in China
Authors: Zhao Yan , Wu Xiaoyi , Liu Kao , Li Qing , Hu Lulu , Wei Ning , Chu Jianying
Published: March 2023

Background
This study aimed to identify the types of quality of life (QoL) based on the five dimensions of the EQ-5D and predict factors affecting QoL.
Methods
A multistage stratified cluster sampling survey was conducted among the staff of 12 general hospitals, 1965 nurses completed the survey, and the data were analysed using SPSS 26.0 and Mplus 8.3 for latent analysis.
Results
Three latent classes of QoL were identified: low-level (2.8%), pain and discomfort (7.6%), medium-level (47.1%), and high-level (42.5%). The types and characteristics of QoL differed among these latent classes. The low-level group had the lowest EQ visual analogue scale (EQ-VAS) score (F = 75.217, P < 0.001) and the highest K10 score (F = 61.90, P < 0.001). Moreover, increased age (OR = 0.819, 95% CI: 0.817–0.973), never having drunk alcohol (OR = 0.107, 95% CI: 0.023, 0.488), and increased EQ-VAS scores (OR = 0.935, 95% CI: 0.919, 0.952) were protective factors for quality of life, while working in obstetrics and gynaecology (OR = 6.457, 95% CI:1.852, 22.512) and higher K10 scores (OR = 1.153, 95% CI: 1.100, 1.209) were risk factors for quality of life.
Conclusion
The results indicated significant heterogeneity in the types of QoL and identified predictors of QoL. These findings provide basic information for the development of nursing interventions to improve quality of life and identified specific characteristics that should be considered during intervention development.
An analysis of ridesharing trip time pre- and amid-COVID-19 pandemic using advanced text mining technique – the USA vs Indian case study across different age and gender groups
Authors: Xu Wenxiang , Sobhani Anae , Fu Ting , Khabooshani Amir Mahdi , Vazirinasab Aminreza , Shokoohyar Sina , Sobhani Ahmad , Raouf Behnaz
Published: March 2023

With the spread of the Covid-19 virus, the public transportation industry faced new challenges. This disease may have affected the decision of users in choosing travel modes by diluting the strengths of ridesharing. In this study, our aim was to investigate the opinions of users on the Twitter application pre- and post-pandemic about travel time in ridesharing. For this purpose, we analyzed 63,800 tweets from January 1, 2019 to April 30, 2022, focusing on the countries of the United States and India, taking into account the characteristics of users such as age and gender. The method we used was LDA for topic modelling and BERT for sentiment analysis. Our results show that trip time happening, such as mornings and other times, became more important after COVID-19 and users' concern about waiting time has increased. After the pandemic, men are more worried about the waiting time, while women and younger groups are worried about the time cost. Before the pandemic, older people gave more importance to waiting time, but after the pandemic, they are more concerned about the time cost and the trip time happening. We also found that women and US users were more positive than others about ridesharing trip time in the pre-pandemic era. Our findings showed that two main factors, the pandemic and the country, greatly affect sentiment, and the positive sentiment of the users of both countries increased after the epidemic, which was higher among all groups for the elderly and American users. Our results can be used to analyze the sentiments of ridesharing industry users in order to compete with other public transportation companies by providing better services and designing a standard to improve travel time.
Oxytocin neurons in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus circuit-dependently regulates social behavior, which malfunctions in BTBR mouse model of autism
Authors: Arakawa Hiroyuki , Higuchi Yuki , Ozawa Akihiko
Published: March 2023

Oxytocin (OXT) a neuropeptide synthesized in the hypothalamic nuclei has a variety of function including socio-emotional processes in mammals. While the neural circuits and signaling pathways in central OXT converge in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN), we illuminate specific function of discrete PVN OXT circuits, which connect to the medial amygdala (MeA) and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BnST) in mouse models. The OXTPVN→BnST projections are innervated from entire portions of the PVN, while those OXTPVN→MeA projections are asymmetrically innervated from the posterior portion of the PVN. Compared with OXT neurons in B6 wild type mice, BTBR mice that are recognized as a behavior-based autism model exhibited defect in the OXTPVN→BnST projection. We demonstrate that chemogenetic activation of OXTPVN→MeA circuit enhances anxiety-like behavior and facilitates social approach behavior, while activation of OXTPVN→BnST circuit suppresses anxiety-like behavior along with inhibiting social approach. This chemogenetic manipulation on the OXTPVN→BnST circuit proves ineffective in BTBR mice. Accordingly, chemogenetic activation of OXTPVN neurons that stimulate both OXT circuits induces OXT receptor expressions in both MeA and BnST as with those by social encounter in B6 mice. The induction of OXT receptor genes in the BnST was not observed in BTBR mice. These data support the hypothesis that OXT circuits serve as a regulator for OXT signaling in PVN to control socio-emotional approach/avoidance behavior, and a defect of OXTPVN→BnST circuit contributes to autism-like social phenotypes in BTBR mice.
Development of high-quality nuclei isolation to study plant root-microbe interaction for microfluidic single nuclei-transcriptomic sequencing
Authors: D’Agostino Leonidas W. , Yong-Villalobos Lenin , Herrera-Estrella Luis , Patil Gunvant B.
Published: March 2023

Single-nucleus RNA sequencing (sNucRNA-seq) is an emerging technology that has been rapidly adopted and demonstrated to be a powerful tool for detailed characterization of each cell- and sub cell-types in complex tissues of higher eukaryotes. sNucRNA-seq has also been used to dissect cell-type-specific transcriptional responses to environmental or developmental signals. In plants, this technology is being utilized to identify cell-type-specific trajectories for the study of several tissue types and important traits, including the single-cell dissection of the genetic determinants regulating plant-microbe interactions. The isolation of high-quality nuclei is one of the prerequisite steps to obtain high quality sNucRNA data and study gene expression at the single-cell level. Although nuclei isolation from several plant tissues is well established, this process is highly troublesome when plant tissues are associated with microorganism (bacterial or fungal). Therefore, isolation of microbe-free, high-quality nuclei from plant tissues is necessary to avoid clogging the microfluidic channel of droplet-based sNucRNA-seq platforms (e.g., 10X Genomics) and ensure accurate nuclei staining and counting. Here, we developed a simple, effective, and efficient method to isolate high-quality nuclei from soybean roots and root nodules. This protocol has been designed to be easily implemented into any lab environment, and it can also be scaled up for use with multiple samples and applicable to a variety of samples with the presence of microbes. We validated this protocol by successfully generating a barcoded library using the 10x genomics microfluidic platform from tissue subjected to this procedure. This workflow was developed to provide an accessible alternative without use of instrument-based approaches (e.g., fluorescent cell sorting) and will expand the ability of researchers to perform experiments such as sNucRNA-seq and sNucATAC-seq on inherently heterogeneous plant tissue samples.
Impact of THIONIL ® on reducing water and soil micropollutant and enhancement of growth, survival, antivibrio, immunity and health indices of Litopenaeus vannamei in pond trial
Authors: Thamarai Rajkumar , Sivaprakasam Thiyagarajan , Harikrishnan Dhatchayani , Prak Jawahar sri , Swaminathan Jeyashree , Subramanium Kalidass , Mani Koteeswaran , Prabhakaran Rajkumar , Sukumar Vimal
Published: March 2023

There is an urgent requisite for an improvement of the white leg shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei health related indices and immunity due to the emerging diseases. Recently, probiotics have been playing an important role in L. vannamei health management. Therefore, the current pond trail was to evaluate the probiotic proficiency of commercial probiotic product of THIONIL (THIO) on enhancement of the water, soil, growth, digestibility, survival, immune related indices and susceptibility of L. vannamei pond level trials. The study was carried out in the major shrimp culturing regions of Kavali, Nellore and Ponneri, Tamil Nadu, India. The experimental L. vannamei was divided into seven groups (1Lacks/ha), such as, negative control (THIO 0% - untreated), positive control (challenge with vibriosis) 2%, 4%, 6%, 8%, and 10% of THIO was encapsulated with commercial feed (CP Aqua). Bioassays were carried out in different day intervals includes, 0, 5, 25, 50, 100 and 123 for evaluating the productivity, anti-vibrio activity, digestive enzyme for digestibility, histological, immunological indices, and cytotoxicity in Artemia nauplii. The significant differences were observed in the increased growth (35.71 g/ shrimp) and digestive parameters in 10% THIO-fed shrimp, however, the other THIO-fed shrimp groups were also showed notable growth compared with control group. The results revealed that, the gill, hepatopancreas and gastro intestine have ha lesser tissue damage in 10% THIO when compared with control. The 10% THIO fed exhibited resistant potential against Vibrio parahaemolyticus (0.008 × 104 cfu/g) (AHPND-Acute Hepatopancreatic Necrosis Disease) and Vibrio harveyi (0.051×105 cfu/g) (Vibriosis). Additionally, 10% THIO fed shrimp revealed significant enhancement of immune related parameters when compared with control. In conclusion the results documented the THIO treatment shrimp had significant enhancement in the water and soil quality growth, strengthens the innate immunity and showed protection against Vibrio infections.
Mortality and Prognostic Factors for Spontaneous Pneumothorax in Older Adults: A Retrospective Study
Authors: Nishizawa Saori , Tobino Kazunori , Murakami Yousuke , Uchida Kazuki , Kawabata Takafumi , Ota Hiroyuki , Hiramatsu Yuri , Sueyasu Takuto , Tsuruno Kosuke
Published: March 2023

Background
Spontaneous pneumothorax occurs predominantly in young males and older adults, in whom it is often secondary to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or interstitial lung disease (ILDs) and can be refractory and fatal. We aimed to investigate the mortality and prognostic factors for pneumothorax in older patients.
Methods
We retrospectively studied patients with pneumothorax aged ≥ 65 years who visited our department from October 2012 to January 2019. Data on sex, age, medical history, smoking history, underlying lung disease, treatment, and prognosis were extracted from the medical records. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was used to investigate pneumothorax mortality and prognostic factors.
Results
A total of 239 patients were included (median age, 78 years; 203 males and 36 females). Thirty-six patients (15%) died during hospitalisation, respiratory disease was the direct cause of death in 30 patients (83.3%), and 211 (88.3%) patients had underlying lung disease. The incidence of pneumonia in our hospital was 22.6% (54 cases), higher than previous reports (11%). On admission, the mortality rate was 33% (18/54) in patients with concomitant pneumonia; univariate analysis showed significant differences in the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI), activities of daily living (ADL), and concomitant pneumonia. Cox proportional hazard regression analyses for ADL, CCI, and concomitant pneumonia showed that concomitant pneumonia was the only independent predictor of death during hospitalisation (log-rank, p = 0.005).
Conclusion
Although COPD and ILDs are generally considered as mortality risks for pneumothorax, this study suggests that concomitant pneumonia at admission may be a mortality risk factor for pneumothorax.
DeTformer: A Novel Efficient Transformer Framework for Image Deraining
Authors: Ragini Thatikonda , Cheruku Ramalingaswamy , Prakash Kodali
Published: March 2023

Captured rainy images severely degrade outdoor vision systems performance, such as semi-autonomous or autonomous driving systems and video surveillance systems. Consequently, removing heavy and complex rain streaks i.e., undesirable rainy artifacts from a rainy image plays a crucial role for many high-level computer vision tasks and has drawn researchers’ attention from the past few years. The main drawbacks of Convolutional neural networks: have smaller receptive field, lack the model’s ability to capture long-range dependencies and complicated rainy artifacts, non-adaptive to input content and also computational complexity grows quadratically with input image size. These factors limit the deraining model performance improvement further. Recently, transformer has achieved better performance in both Natural language processing (NLP) and high-level computer vision (CV). We cannot adopt transformer directly to image deraining task as it has following limitations: a) although the transformer possesses powerful long-range computational capability, it lacks the ability to model local features b) to process input image, transformer uses fixed patch size, therefore pixels at the patch edges cannot use local features of surrounding pixels while removing heavy rain streaks. To address these issues, in single image deraining, we proposed a novel and efficient De-raining Transformer (DeTformer). In DeTformer, we designed a “Gated-Depth-wise Convolution Feed-forward Network” (GDWCFN) to address the first issue and applied depthwise convolution to improve the modelling capability of local features and suppress unnecessary features and allow only useful information further. Also, the second issue was addressed, by introducing multi-resolution features in our network, and we applied progressive learning in the transformer and thus it allows the edge pixels to utilize local features effectively. Furthermore, to integrate the extracted multi-scale features and provide feature interaction across channel dimensions, we introduced a “Multi-head Depth-wise Convolution Transposed Attention” (MDWCTA) module. The proposed model experimented with various de-rained datasets and compared with various state-of-the-art models. The experimental results show that DeTformer network achieves superior performance compared to state-of-the-art networks on synthetic and real-world rain datasets.
Isolation, characterization and anti-oxidant potential of melanin pigment from Trichomerium bhatii NFCCI 4305
Authors: Suthar Malika , Singh Sanjay K.
Published: March 2023

Melanin is usually formed by oxidative polymerization of phenolic compounds produced by bacteria, fungi, plants as well as animals. They have gained popularity for its multifarous properties and applications in various industries, especially the derma-cosmetic industries where fungal melanin has recently been highlighted as a potential source of natural bioactive compounds beneficial to skin and hair. The anti-oxidant potential and free radical scavenging activities of natural melanin makes them suitable for application in cosmetic products. In the present we have isolated and characterized a melanin pigment from Trichomerium bhatii NFCCI 4305, an unconventional fungus of Indian origin. The biological properties of purified melanin from the fungus were evaluated for its antioxidant activity. Following alkali acid treatment of the fermented broth, the pigment was extracted and further, its nature was confirmed as melanin through physico-chemical tests and spectral (UV and FTIR) analysis. The analysis of the elemental composition indicated that the pigment fall into DOPA category of melanin. The purified melanin showed a good DPPH (1, 1-Diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) free radical-scavenging activity. To our understanding this is the first report on melanin characterization from the fungal genus Trichomerium.
Medical Communication Training: The Effect of Gender and Experience with Goals of Care Discussions
Authors: Dorough Ramona , Adamuti-Trache Maria , Sekar Dheepa , Siropaides Caitlin
Published: March 2023

Background. Communication skills are increasingly recognized as a crucial component of medical training. However, little is known about the efficacy of various training methods when considering diverse student backgrounds, such as gender and prior training experience (i.e., year of residency).
Objective. This study explores medical learners’ perception of effective communication in conducting goals of care (GOC) discussions with patients after receiving communication training as well as assessing for differences in preparedness for GOC discussions by gender and prior training experience.
Participants. A sample of 114 residents in either their first, second, or third year of internal medicine residency.
Main Measure. Participants participated in the communication training and completed pre- and –post- surveys on perceived effectiveness in GOC discussions.
Design. We employed multivariate analyses of the surveys.
Main Measures. The main measure was to examine residents’ perception of preparedness as defined by residents perceived effectiveness of care, confidence in having GOC discussions with patients, confidence in making recommendations that align with patient values, and the perceived value of GOC training.
Key Results. We found that after communication training most residents, regardless of gender or year of residency, felt more effective in having healthcare conversations with patients and making GOC healthcare recommendations. We also found that males and females reported differences in experiences in practicing GOC discussions depending on prior training in medical school.
Conclusion. The study also shows that the same curriculum is effective for residents at each level of training, but more research on the interaction effect between prior training and gender is needed.
Anomaly-Based Detection of Microarchitectural Attacks for IoT Devices
Authors: Li Congmiao , Gaudiot Jean-Luc
Published: March 2023

With the rapid growth of Internet of Things (IoT) technology, the number of connected devices and information processed through the Internet has significantly risen. As a result, cyber-attacks targeting vulnerable IoT devices have also dramatically increased. Microarchitectural attacks pose a serious threat to IoT security because they can not only leak confidential information to adversaries through shared processor resources such as caches, branch predictors and various functional units but also fully compromise the embedded system devices themselves. Traditional signature-based antivirus software cannot effectively detect microarchitectural attacks, particularly zero-day attacks. In this paper, an anomaly-based detector for IoT devices is developed to demonstrate the feasibility of detecting unknown microarchitectural attacks for resource-constrained devices using features collected from hardware performance counters with unsupervised machine learning and feature selection methods. Our experiments show promising detection results for the tested devices. The methodology will be used to guide the development of such detectors for similar IoT devices.
Monocytes Subsets Altered Distribution and Dysregulated Plasma hsa-miR-21-5p and hsa- miR-155-5p in HCV-Linked Liver Cirrhosis Progression to Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Authors: Hammad Reham , Dosoky Mona A El , Madbouly Asmaa A El , Aglan Reda Badr , Hamid Sherihan G Abdel , Zaki Samy , Ali Elham , Hakem Fatma Al Zahraa Abdel , Mosaad Alshimaa M , Mageed Neamat A Abdel , Kotb Fatma M , Kotb Hend G , Aboul-Kheir Omaima I , Kujumdshiev Sandy , Sack Ulrich , Lambert Claude , Hamdy Nadia M.
Published: March 2023

Cirrhosis-associated immune dysfunction (CAID) is an
immunological perturbation that develops on top of liver cirrhosis
(LC). Immune perturbation directs LC progression to hepatocellular
carcinoma (HCC). Innate immune cells, in particular, monocytes,
play key roles in inflammation and tumorigenesis. MicroRNAs (miRs)
have been regarded as master regulators of the immune networks. We
aim to investigate the altered monocytes subsets distribution in LC
and subsequent HCC in association with the expression level of
plasma homo sapiens (hsa)-miR-21-5p and hsa-miR-155-5p. A step
toward non-protein coding (nc) RNA precision medicine based on the
immune perturbation, manifested as altered monocytes distribution,
on top of LC and HCC. Subjects and Methods: Seventy-nine patients
diagnosed with chronic hepatitis C virus (CHCV) infection with LC
were enrolled in the current study. Patients were sub-classified
into LC group without HCC (n=40), LC with HCC (n=39), and 15
apparently healthy controls. Monocyte subsets frequencies were
assessed by flow-cytometry. Real-time quantitative PCR was used to
measure plasma hsa-miR-21-5p and hsa-miR-155-5p expression.
Results: hsa-miR-21-5p correlated with intermediate monocytes
(r=0.30, p=0.007), while hsa-miR-155-5p negatively
correlated with nonclassical monocytes (r= -0.316,
p=0.005). ROC curve analysis revealed that combining
intermediate monocytes frequency and hsa-miR-21 yielded
sensitivity= 79.5%, specificity= 75%, and AUC= 0.84. In comparison,
AFP yielded a lower sensitivity = 69% and 100% specificity with
AUC= 0.85. Logistic regression analysis proved that up-regulation
of intermediate monocytes frequency and hsa-miR-21-5p were
independent risk factors for LC progression to HCC, after
adjustment for co-founders. Conclusion: Monocyte subsets
differentiation in HCC was linked to hsa-miR-21-5p and
hsa-miR-155-5p. Combined up-regulation of intermediate monocytes
frequency and hsa-miR-21-5p expression could be considered a
sensitive indicator of LC development to HCC. Circulating
intermediate monocytes and hsa-miR-21-5p were independent risk
factors for HCC evolution, clinically and in
silicoproofed.
Integration of skin phenome and microbiome reveals the ­key role of bacteria in human skin aging
Authors: Xia Jingjing , Li Zhiming , Zhong Qian , Wei Qingzhen , Jiang Liuyiqi , Duan Cheng , Jia Huijue , Tan Yimei , Han Lianyi , Wang Jiucun , Liu Xiao
Published: March 2023

Background: Despite the complexity, distinct ecological niches are believed to primarily drive the skin microbiome composition. Meanwhile, skin aging is a dynamic process with a spectrum of phenotypical changes, making it an attractive model for studying microbiome-phenotype interactions. Although a large number of studies confirmed the impact of chronological age in skin bacterial communities, the understanding of cross-kingdom microbiome variation with skin aging remains minimal. And this is not trivial because one’s skin condition or perceived age may deviate largely from their actual age as skin aging is a complex process combining chronological and extrinsic aging.
Results: To this end, 822 facial microbial samples and skin phenotypes from the corresponding area were assessed in a Chinese cohort, the largest population size to date for skin shotgun metagenomic profiling. Our data revealed that among 14 measured variables, porphyrin and chronological age explained the most significant microbial variability. Consistent with previous studies based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing, we revealed increased biodiversity with aging and further specified age-associated species across kingdoms. While the abundance of most bacteria increased with age, two species, Cutibacterium acnes and Aeromicrobium choanae, declined. Microbiome undergoes active function selection from energy demands/growth to stress adaptation along aging. In addition, we characterized microbial changes in skin aging, asa combined consequence of both intrinsic and extrinsic reasons and reflecting the actual dynamic of niche conditions rather than chronological age. Using the multiple linear regression model, we predicted premature-aging/delayed-aging-related microbial species, mainly localizing to Moraxella osloensis and C. acnes. Furthermore, we validated the biological functions in vitro of some host-microbe interactions predicted by the microbiome-skin phenome association network. M. osloensis regulated collagen metabolism, extracellular matrix assembly and promoted cell senescence in human keratinocyte and fibroblast cells.
Conclusions: We presume that application of both culture-independent and culture-dependent approaches can advance a good understanding of microbiome-phenotype interactions. Our study is of significance for designing interventions against aging-related skin conditions.
Efficacy analysis of axillary approach in the treatment of Ideberg type I and II scapular glenoid fractures
Authors: Ding Hao , Bao YonGang , Yin Bo , Chang Qing Hua , Zai Qing Shu , Shi Qiang , Hu Hua Jian , Wang Hai Bin , Zhao Yi Feng , Song Fu Qiang , Wu Bin
Published: March 2023

Background:To investigate the clinical efficacy of the axillary approach in the surgical treatment of Ideberg type I and II scapular glenoid fractures.Methods:Retrospective analysis of 13 cases of scapular glenoid fracture treated in the affiliated Hospital of Jining Medical College, Jiaxiang County People hospital, Zoucheng City people Hospital, Yanzhou District People Hospital, and Juancheng County people Hospital from December 2020 to January 2022. Eight males (including one bilateral) and five females, with an average age of 57.5 years (range from 33 to 75 years). According to Ideberg classification, there were 10 cases of type Ⅰ a, 1 case of type Ⅰ a combined with type Ⅰ b, and 2 cases of type Ⅱ. All patients were treated with axillary approach surgery and seven patients with combined anterior shoulder dislocation were treated by first-stage manipulation and second-stage reoperation. Seven patients were fixed with a wire anchor, three patients with type Ⅰ a were fixed with a "T" plate, and five patients were complicated with rotator cuff tear and were repaired with a wire anchor. At the last follow-up, the Constant-Murley shoulder function score, visual analog score (VAS), DASH score, and Hawkins grade were used to evaluate shoulder function, pain, and stability after treatment.Results:All 13 patients in this group were followed up thoroughly, and the follow-up time was 12-25 months, with an average of 18.6 months. The operation time was 65-135min, with an average of 85.6 min. Intraoperative blood loss ranged from 20 to 120mL, averaging 55.6ml. The duration of hospitalization ranged from 7 to 22 days, with an average of 9.6 days. The surgical incisions of all patients were grade-A healing. Bone healing of glenoid fractures was observed three months after the operation. At the last follow-up, the shoulder range of motion was forward flexion 160.5°±9.3°, abduction 155.6°±12.5°, external rotation (neutral position) 40.7°±5.8°, internal rotation (neutral position) 65.4°±12.1°. The Constant-Murley score for the shoulder joint was (92.3±6.5) points (range 85-95), and the DASH score was (12.16±6.86) points (range 3.26 to 26.75).Conclusions:The axillary approach for Ideberg type I and II scapular glenoid fractures is a feasible surgical approach with complete access through the muscle gap, minimal surgical trauma, mild postoperative pain, and satisfactory clinical results.
Synthetically-charged Bose gas in the fast rotating regime
Authors: Abdulghani H. , Abbas A. H. , Ellithi A. , ElSherbini T h.M. , Hassan A. S.
Published: March 2023

We address the thermodynamic properties of a rotating Bose gas in a 3D space in the rapid rotation regime. In such a rotation regime, the 3D system has the shape of a flat pancake and shows exotic features that can never be found in the original system. Using the semi-classical approximation, the temperature dependence of the magnetization of rotating Bose gas is investigated. In the degenerate limit, the system does not show a Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) phase transition at a definite transition temperature. However, it exhibits a large Landau diamagnetism at low temperatures, which diminishes as the speed of rotation decreases. Our findings are compared with the previous results.
Evidence for clinical subtypes of early childhood caries
Authors: Simancas-Pallares Miguel , Gormley Alexander , Shrestha Poojan , Gu Yu , Cho Hunyong , Spangler Hudson , Burk Zachary , Smith Michael , Dashper Stuart , Burgner David , Zandona Andrea Ferreira , Ginnis Jeannie , Vann William , Esberg Anders , Roach Jeff , Ribeiro Apoena , Wu Di , Silva Mihiri , Holgerson Pernilla Lif , Haworth Simon , Johansson Ingegerd , North Kari , Divaris Kimon
Published: March 2023

The current early childhood caries (ECC) case definition contains a substantial degree of clinical heterogeneity, and to address this, we sought to identify clinical subtypes of the disease. We used tooth surface-level dental caries experience from a discovery and 3 replication community-based cohorts of 3-to-5-year-old children (N=226,471). We identified five disease subtypes with distinct patterns of caries lesion intraoral distribution that largely replicated across cohorts. These subtypes were associated with established caries risk factors (e.g., history of nighttime bottle-feeding), showed familial concordance and microbiome differences, and predicted dental caries experience 7 years after subtype assignment. Notably, classification of children in these subgroups can be achieved by inspecting small sets of easily examinable tooth surfaces with reasonable accuracy. Collectively, our findings provide evidence for generalizable and clinically recognizable subtypes of ECC. Etiology, targeted prevention, and optimal management of these subtypes should be systematically investigated in future studies.
Depositional Facies and Palynofacies Provenance Reconstruction of the Upper Cretaceous by Means of Particulate Organic Matter and Clastic Deposits of the Nsukka Formation, Southeastern Nigeria
Authors: Okeke Kachikwulu Kingsley
Published: March 2023

The authors have requested that this preprint be removed from Research Square.
Clinical manifestations, antimicrobial resistance and genomic feature analysis of the multi-drug resistance Elizabethkingia strains
Authors: Wu Chongyang , Xiong Li , Liao Quanfeng , Zhang Weili , Xiao Yuling , Xie Yi
Published: March 2023

Background Elizabethkingia
are now emerging as an opportunistic pathogenic bacterium in human. The aim of this study is to investigate the clinical epidemiology, antimicrobial resistance, virulence factors, genome features, and comparative genomics of this pathogen.
Methods
Seven Elizabethkingia isolates were identified by MALDI-TOF MS, and antimicrobial susceptibility testing also was performed. They were conducted whole-genome sequencing (WGS) and compared with a global strain data set, including 83 Elizabethkingia whole-genomes sequences collected from NCBI database. Average nucleotide identity (ANI), pan-genome analysis, and KEGG analyses were performed, and orthologous groups were evaluated.
Results
A total of 71 Elizabethkingia strains were mainly obtained from the department of ICU (36.6%, 26/71) and emergency (32.4%, 23/71). The number of strains isolated from the respiratory tract specimens was the highest. The mean age of the infected patients was 56.9 years and 64.8% were male. All patients had a history of broad-spectrum antimicrobial exposure. Hospitalization for invasive mechanical ventilation or catheter insertion were found to be the risk factors for infection. Isolates displaced high susceptibility rate to levofloxacin, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, and all were sensitive to minocycline. Genomics analysis revealed that five β-lactamase genes (blaGOB, blaB, blaCME, blaOXA, blaTEM) responsible for β-lactams resistance, seventeen virulence genes involve in stress adaption, adherence and immune modulation. The bulk of the core genomes in the Elizabethkingia genomes were associated with metabolism, according to a function study of the COGs, whereas the unique gene families were largely involved in "information storage and processing." The five type species of the Elizabethkingia genus were identified by pan-genome analysis to have a total of 2,077 clusters of orthologous groups.
Conclusion
The comparative analysis of the clinical data and associated genomes of patients infected with Elizabethkingia can provide a better understanding of this organism.
Heavy metal health risk assessment of cow’s milk from an industrialized area of Dhaka, Bangladesh
Authors: Islam Md. Didarul , Hasan M. Mehedi , Rahaman Ashiqur , Haque Papia
Published: March 2023

The objective of this study was to evaluate the contamination level of toxic and essential metals in milk samples with varying lactation periods (1 to 5 years) near an industrial area on the bank of Buriganga River, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Milk samples were collected and analyzed for 6 toxic metals (Cr, Ni, Pb, Hg, Cd, and As) and 5 essential (Ca, Fe, Zn, Mn, and Cu) by using wet digestion and atomic absorption spectroscopy. In this study, maximum metal contamination was detected for Ca, followed by Fe > Cr > Zn > Mn > Cu > Ni > Pb > Hg > Cd > As. The concentration of Fe, Cr, Ni, Pb, and Hg exceeded their respective national and international reference value. The potential health risk for milk consumption was investigated by estimating various exposure indices including; daily intake (EDI), Target hazard quotient (THQ), hazard index (HI), and target cancer risk (TCR). The THQ < 1 values of individual metals indicate there was no or less potential health risk due to the consumption of these milk samples. While the hazard index (HI) > 1 suggested that there might be health risk due to milk consumption. Long-time consumption of those milk samples may raise the carcinogenic risk in terms of TCR values as the TCR values of Cr, Ni, and As were obtained much higher for average consumers which exceed the maximum permeable limit (1.0×10− 6).
Indicator bacteria in subtropical natural wetlands waters
Authors: Vergara-Franco Angela , Sosa-Benegas Gabriela , Correa-Pérez Cecilio , Imas-Garay Lourdes , Netto Flavia , Lombardo Laura , Bamberg-Ames Jenifer , Alonso-Ortiz Evelyn , Mereles-Aranda Eva
Published: March 2023

Natural wetlands are transitional ecosystems between aquatic and terrestrial systems. They have a variety of functions, one of the most outstanding being the ability to purify water mainly by microorganisms. Despite their importance, these ecosystems are threatened due to anthropogenic activities, so determining quality indicators is a growing need. Microbial communities respond to leaching, eutrophication, metals, natural or anthropogenic pollutants, and even competition for nutrients with other organisms, making them useful in wetland assessment. There are several bacterial indicators and techniques used to monitor wetlands, including molecular ones, which despite their advantages, remain economically unfeasible to allow long-term monitoring in developing countries. As an alternative, we have determined the bacterial indicators, total and thermotolerant coliforms, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonasin waters of three natural wetlands corresponding to areas of influence of agricultural and urban activity in Paraguay. Following the membrane filtration method, we obtained bacterial counts for all the indicators (TC max of 210±14 CFU/100mL in a protected zone, FC 15±7 CFU/100mL in a peri-urban area, and E. coli 105±7 CFU/100 mL) except Pseudomonas (<1 CFU/100mL). After analyzing our results, we observed that total coliforms could reflect better environmental conditions. In contrast, fecal coliforms and E. coli would reflect fecal contamination or discharges of nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen commonly used in agricultural and urban areas. The absence of Pseudomonascould be due to a non-ideal incubation temperature (37ºC). E. coli, whose growth occurred in all wetlands, together with coliforms, could be a valuable indicator for monitoring these environments.
Point-Like Defect on Radial Solution with generalized q-deformed Hulthen Plus Class of Yukawa Potential under the Influence of Flux Field
Authors: AHMED FAIZUDDIN
Published: March 2023

In this work, we solve the radial Schrödinger wave equation in three dimensions under Aharonov-Bohm (AB) flux field with generalized q-deformed Hulthen potential (GqHP) and class of Yukawa potential (CYP) in a point-like global monopole. We employ the Greene-Aldrich approximation scheme in the centrifugal term and determines the approximate eigenvalue solution using the parametric Nikiforov-Uvarov (NU) method. The eigenvalue solution is then analyzed for the topological defects of the geometry and the magnetic flux field with this potential. Finally, we utilize this eigenvalue solution for some superposed potential models and analyze effects on the eigenvalue solutions. We see that the presence of topological defects and the magnetic flux field modifies the eigenvalue solutions in comparison to the flat space results with this potential.
PACS Number(s): 03.65.Pm, 03.65.Ge, 14.80.Hv, 02.30.Gp, 03.65.Vf
Mathematics Subject Classification(s): 81T20, 81Q05, 81Q70, 81V17, 33C15
Bridging Drug Discovery through Hierarchical Subtractive Genomics against Asd, Trpg and Secy of Pneumonia Causing MDR Staphylococcus aureus
Authors: Wisal Ayesha , Ullah Asad , Anwar Waheed , Khan Yasmin , Basharat Zarrin , Irfan Muhammad , Karim Asad , Aurongzeb Muhammad , Imran Muhammad , Morel Carlos M. , Hassan Syed Shah
Published: March 2023

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is an opportunistic gram-positive, non-motile, and non-sporulating bacteria that induce pneumonia, a provocative lung infection affecting mainly the terminal bronchioles and the small air sacs known as alveoli. Recently, S. aureus has developed resistance to the available antibiotics consortium as per WHO reports, thereby, novel remedial targets and strong medications to forestall and cure this illness are desperately needed. Here, using pangenomics, a total of 1,387 core proteins were identified. Subtractive proteome analysis is utilized to further identify 12 proteins that are vital for bacteria. One membrane protein (secY) and two cytoplasmic proteins (asd and trpG) were chosen as possible therapeutic targets with respect to minimum % host identity, essentiality, and other cutoff values such as high resistance in MDR S. aureus. The amino acid sequence of selected targets was modeled and then docked against drug-like chemical libraries. The top-ranked compounds i.e., ZINC82049692, ZINC85492658 and 3a of Isosteviol derivative for Aspartate-semialdehyde dehydrogenase (asd); ZINC38222743, ZINC70455378, and 5m Isosteviol derivative for Anthranilate synthase component II (trpG); and finally, ZINC72292296, ZINC85632684, and 7m Isosteviol derivative for Protein translocase subunit SecY (secY), were further subjected to molecular dynamics studies for thermodynamic stability and validation. In this study, we discovered new therapeutic targets in S. aureus, some of which have previously been reported in other pathogenic microorganisms. Owing to further experimental validation, We anticipate that our method and results will make major contributions in the discovery of novel drugs and their targets in S. aureus-caused pneumonia.