bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Advanced Abdominal Ectopic Pregnancy with Subsequent Fetal and Placental Extraction: A Case Report
Authors: Zuñiga Luis Armando , Alas-Pineda César , Reyes-Guardado Clarisa L. , Melgar German Isaías , Gaitán-Zambrano Kristhel , Gough Simmons
Published: February 2022

Abdominal ectopic pregnancy (AEP) occurs within the peritoneal cavity, outside the genital organs (uterus, tubes, ovaries). It is an unusual condition with an incidence that varies from 1:10,000 to 1:30,000 of all pregnancies worldwide. A 38-year-old primigravid patient was diagnosed in the second trimester with AEP. Pregnancy reached 35.6 gestational weeks, and the patient underwent surgery via laparotomy for extraction of the live fetus. Complete removal of the placenta was performed without maternal or fetal complications. AEP is an important cause of maternal and fetal death; the mortality rate in pregnant women with AEP is approximately 1–18%. Surgical intervention to deliver a baby in cases of AEP requires a multidisciplinary team, especially in countries with limited therapeutic options.
Hyalinizing Clear Cell Salivary Gland Carcinoma of the Epipharynx: A Minor Salivary/Tubarial Gland Malignancy
Authors: Brandt Hannes Hermann , Baumhoer Daniel , Tetter Nora
Published: February 2022

Minor salivary gland malignancies are a rare entity among head and neck tumors. As in major gland neoplasms, adenoid cystic carcinoma and mucoepidermoid carcinoma are the most common histological subtypes. Malignant tumors affecting minor salivary glands include a wide range of histopathologic types. Localization in the epipharynx and hyalinizing clear cell carcinoma subtype are exceedingly rare. A 47 year-old male presented to our clinic with a complaint of slowly progressing left-sided nasal obstruction. Endoscopy revealed a well-defined nodular epipharyngeal mass. Radiographic evaluation discovered a nonvascularized tumor of the tubal protuberance. The tumor was treated with wide local excision. Staging at the time found no evidence of regional lymph node metastases. Histologic examination revealed a hyalinizing clear cell salivary gland carcinoma demonstrating an EWSR1-ATF1 gene fusion. Restaging endoscopy and radiographic imaging 3 months after initial therapy did not reveal any signs of tumor persistence. The patient is currently in follow-up.
Pentraxin 3 Predicts Arteriovenous Fistula Functional Patency Loss and Mortality in Chronic Hemodialysis Patients
Authors: Tsai Heng-Cheng , Ou Shuo-Ming , Wu Chih-Cheng , Huang Chin-Chou , Hsieh Jyh-Tong , Tseng Po-Yu , Lee Chiu-Yang , Yang Chih-Yu , Tarng Der-Cherng
Published: February 2022

Introduction: Viable vascular access is the lifeline for hemodialysis patients. In the nondialysis population, emerging evidence suggests that circulating pentraxin 3 (PTX3), neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), and chitinase-3-like protein 1 (CHI3L1) are associated with cardiovascular inflammation and endothelial injury. However, predictive values of these three biomarkers on arteriovenous fistula (AVF) outcomes are unknown. Methods: This prospective observational cohort study enrolled 135 hemodialysis patients using AVF and then followed them for 3 years. Plasma levels of PTX3, NGAL, and CHI3L1 were measured. Patients were followed up prospectively for two clinical outcomes, including AVF functional patency loss and death. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to analyze hazard ratios for the commencement of AVF functional patency loss and mortality. Results: Among 135 patients, the mean age was 66.0 ± 15.7 years old and 48.1% were male. The plasma level of PTX3, NGAL, and CHI3L1 was 2.8 ± 2.3 ng/mL, 349.2 ± 111.4 ng/mL, and 185.5 ± 66.8 ng/mL, respectively. During a 3-year follow-up period, the plasma level of PTX3 was an independent predictor for AVF functional patency loss (per 1 ng/mL increase, HR 1.112 [95% CI: 1.001–1.235], p = 0.048). Besides, patients with higher plasma levels of PTX3 were more likely to suffer from cardiovascular mortality (per 1 ng/mL increase, HR 1.320 [95% CI: 1.023–1.703], p = 0.033), infectious mortality (per 1 ng/mL increase, HR 1.394 [95% CI: 1.099–1.769], p = 0.006), and all-cause mortality (per 1 ng/mL increase, HR 1.233 [95% CI: 1.031–1.476], p = 0.022). Conclusions: The plasma level of PTX3, not NGAL or CHI3L1, was associated with higher risks of AVF functional patency loss in chronic hemodialysis patients, showing its value in reflecting AVF endothelial dysfunction. Furthermore, PTX3 also predicts mortality in chronic hemodialysis patients.
Vaccination for SARS-CoV-2 in Hematological Patients
Authors: Riccardi Niccolò , Falcone Marco , Yahav Dafna
Published: February 2022

Patients with specific hematological malignancies (HM) are at increased risk for severe disease and death from infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In healthy subjects, vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 has been demonstrated to be highly effective in disease prevention; however, immunocompromised patients were largely excluded from vaccine randomized controlled trials. In this review, we overview available non-randomized studies addressing effectiveness and safety of several coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines in patients with HM. Overall, COVID-19 vaccines are safe in patients with HM, with adverse events similar to those in the general population. Though serology testing is not recommended as a test to evaluate vaccine effectiveness, a correlation between higher antibody levels and protection against infection has been reported. Studies evaluating humoral response to COVID-19 vaccine in HM patients demonstrate low immunogenicity, mainly in patients with lymphoproliferative disorders, as well as with certain drugs, including mainly anti-CD20 antibodies, Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitors, and also ruxolitinib and venetoclax. Seropositivity rates of patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia following mRNA vaccination reach 40%–50%. T-cell responses to vaccination are also impaired among these patients. Better humoral response rates are reported in multiple myeloma patients and hematopoietic stem-cell transplant, reaching ∼75%–80%, but not in patients following chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy. Patients with chronic myeloid leukemia and myeloproliferative diseases have high response rate to vaccination. Third mRNA vaccine dose is currently recommended to all HM patients. Alternative approaches for vaccination and prevention in patients unable to mount an immune response following full vaccination are provided in the review.
Effects of Melatonin and Propolis Supplementation on Inflammation, Oxidative Stress, and Clinical Outcomes in Patients with Primary Pneumosepsis: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial
Authors: Pahlavani Naseh , Malekahmadi Mahsa , Sedaghat Alireza , Rostami Amirabbas , Alkadir Ola Kamal A. , Taifi Ahmed , Ranjbar Golnaz , Sahebkar AmirHossein , Abdelbasset Walid Kamal , Beigmohammadi Mohammad Taghi , Mir Mahdieh , Bagheri Moghaddam Ahmad , Tabesh Hamed , Sadeghi Omid , Gholizadeh Navashenaq Jamshid , Firouzi Safieh , Fathi Najafi Mohsen , Safarian Mohammad , Ghayour-Mobarhan Majid
Published: February 2022

Background and Objective: The present study aimed to investigate the effects of propolis and melatonin supplementation on inflammation, clinical outcomes, and oxidative stress markers in patients with primary pneumosepsis. Materials and Methods: This pilot randomized controlled trial was conducted on 55 patients with primary pneumosepsis who were randomly assigned to the intervention and control groups. In the three intervention groups, the patients received propolis alone (1,000 mg/day), propolis (1,000 mg/day) plus melatonin (20 mg/day), and melatonin alone (20 mg/day). The control group received placebo. The inflammatory and oxidative stress markers as well as clinical outcomes were evaluated before and after the intervention, and the 28-day survival rate was also recorded. Results: After the intervention, the combination of propolis and melatonin significantly reduced interleukin-6 (–55.282 pg/mL) and C-reactive protein (–21.656 mg/L) levels, while increasing gavage intake (326.680 mL/day) and improving some clinical outcomes (APACHE II, SOFA, and NUTRIC scores) compared to the control group. However, no significant difference was observed between the groups in terms of oxidative stress and hematological indices. In addition, there was no significant difference in the 28-day survival rate between the groups (p = 0.07). Conclusion: Supplementation with propolis and melatonin may improve clinical outcomes by reducing inflammation. Further investigations are required to confirm these findings.
Role of Melatonin in Temperature-Induced Activation of the Neuroendocrine Reproductive Axis in Garter Snakes
Authors: Winters Treven J. , Martin Stephanie , Anderson Holden , Procter Nichole D. , Lutterschmidt Deborah I.
Published: February 2022

An animal’s ability to respond optimally to changing environmental conditions is paramount to successfully reproducing and thus maximizing fitness. Studies on photoperiod-induced changes in neural thyroid hormone metabolism have conclusively linked environmental cues to the neuroendocrine reproductive axis of birds and mammals. Whether this conserved mechanism also transduces changes in environmental temperature, however, has not been fully addressed. We investigated whether the hormone melatonin mediates the effects of low-temperature dormancy on thyroid hormone metabolism within the hypothalamus of red-sided garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis). To address this question, we used immunohistochemistry to assess changes in thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) in the infundibulum of the pituitary and deiodinase 3 (Dio3) and gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) in the hypothalamus. We also asked if changes in TSH, Dio3, and/or GnRH immunoreactivity are associated with changes in male courtship behavior. In contrast to our predictions, 6 weeks of dormancy at 4°C significantly decreased the number of TSH-labeled cells in the infundibulum. It is possible that the observed decrease in TSH is related to the release of snakes from temperature refractoriness, but this idea needs further testing. Treatment of snakes with the melatonin precursor 5-hydroxytryptophan during dormancy at 4°C both reversed the temperature-induced change in TSH immunoreactivity and disrupted the temporal pattern of male courtship behavior. These results suggest that TSH cells within the infundibulum are both modulated by temperature and sensitive to changes in melatonin. As predicted, male snakes hibernated at an elevated temperature of 12°C for 6 weeks and treated with vehicle showed no change in TSH-, Dio3-, or GnRH-immunoreactive cell number. Treatment of snakes with the melatonin receptor antagonist luzindole was not sufficient in rescuing the effects of dormancy at 12°C on TSH immunoreactivity or courtship behavior. However, luzindole-treated snakes showed a significant increase in GnRH-immunoreactive cell number, suggesting that melatonin exerts an inhibitory effect on GnRH in garter snakes. In summary, our results provide critical insights into the mechanisms that mediate the effects of temperature on reproductive physiology and behavior.
Twice Daily Compared to Three Times Daily Hydrocortisone in Prepubertal Children with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia
Authors: Apsan Jennifer , Thomas Charlene , Elnaas Hailan , Lin-Su Karen , Lekarev Oksana
Published: February 2022

Introduction: Glucocorticoid therapy in children with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) must be finely balanced between optimizing adrenal control and minimizing side effects. Twice (BID) rather than three times daily (TID) hydrocortisone may provide similar adrenal control and reduce metabolic risk. We compared BID and TID regimens with respect to adrenal control, growth, and metabolic effects. Methods: A retrospective chart review (n = 128 visits, 36 individual patients) of prepubertal children with classical CAH was conducted at a tertiary care center between March 2007 and February 2020. Adrenal control, growth, and metabolic data were extracted in those taking hydrocortisone BID versus TID. Univariate generalized estimating equations models were performed to analyze the effect of dose frequency on outcomes of interest. Results: Overall, we found no difference in adrenal control (8% vs. 18% poor control) or testosterone levels (9.65 ng/dL vs. 7.62 ng/dL) between the BID versus TID groups. We detected no difference in growth velocity (6.86 vs. 6.32 cm/year) or bone age advancement (11.3 vs. 5.91 months) between the groups. There was no difference in daily steroid dose (12.1 vs. 11.7 mg/m2/day), BMI Z-score (0.43 vs. 0.31), or systolic blood pressure percentile (65.5 vs. 61.7). Conclusion: BID dosing provides similar adrenal control and does not appear to impact growth or bone age advancement. On the other hand, TID dosing does not appear to increase the metabolic side effect profile in this age-group. Dosing should be patient-centered with individualized consideration.
Dairy Product Intake Modifies MicroRNA Expression among Individuals with Hyperinsulinemia: A Post-Intervention Cross-Sectional Study
Authors: Khorraminezhad Leila , Rudkowska Iwona
Published: February 2022

Introduction: MicroRNA (miRNA) profiles have been shown to change after intake of dairy products. Dysregulation of miRNA is associated with the changes in the level of glycemic parameters. The objectives are: (1) to investigate miRNA expression after consumption of dairy products and (2) to study the association between miRNAs and glycemic profile among individuals with hyperinsulinemia. Methods: In crossover design, 24 participants were randomized into 2 phases: high dairy (HD) (≥4 servings/day according to the Canadian food guide [2007]) and adequate dairy (AD) (≤2 servings/day) over 6 weeks. First, miRNAs were extracted from a pooled plasma sample of 10 subjects after HD and AD intervention which analyzed in duplicate by array hybridization (Affymetrix Gene Chip miRNA Array v. 4.0). Second, 6 miRNAs related to type 2 diabetes (T2D) were validated by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) from plasma of 24 participants. Results: Microarray analysis indicated that 297 miRNAs expressed differentially (FC ≥ ±1.2; p value <0.05) in a pooled plasma sample of 10 subjects. Among pooled miRNAs, the level of selected miRNAs, including miR-652-3p, miR-106b-5p, miR-93-5p, and miR-107 were downregulated; conversely, miR-223-3p and miR-122-5p were upregulated. After qRT-PCR validation, only the expression level of miR-106-5p tended to be increased after HD compared to AD (p = 0.06). After AD intervention, the level of fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and insulin and homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance were negatively correlated with miR-122-5p. Similarly, negative correlation was found between miR-106-5p and FPG. Conclusion: The miRNAs profile was modified after HD compared to AD, and this may have role in modifying the risk of T2D (registration No. NCT02961179).
Performance comparison and impact of weather conditions on different photovoltaic modules in two different cities
Authors: Bahanni Caouthar , Adar Mustapha , Boulmrharj Sofia , Khaidar Mohammed , Mabrouki Mustapha
Published: February 2022

This work is based on a comparative study of the impact of meteorological conditions as well as the assessment of the production performance of two identical photovoltaic stations installed in two Moroccan cities, the stations are based on three different technologies. The measures of one year of operation from January 2017 to December 2017 were evaluated. The annual average performance ratios were found to be 82.42%, 79.99% and 78.74% in Beni Mellal, and 85.29%, 84.61% and 70.41% in El Jadida for the polycrystalline (pc-Si), monocrystalline (mc-Si), and amorphous (a-Si) respectively. The photovoltaic efficiency was calculated at 12.24%, 11.89%, and 11.71% in Beni Mellal; and 12.59%, 12.49%, and 10.42% in El Jadida by the same order. Statistical analysis was carried out to establish the correlation with photovoltaic (PV) production showed that after irradiation, the temperature is the most influencing meteorological factor for PV production, revealing a degradation in the performance ratio of 2.5%, 2%, and 1% for each increase of 8 °C in temperature for monocrystalline, polycrystalline and amorphous technologies respectively at Beni Mellal. While at El Jadida the reduction in the performance ratio is evaluated by 5.5%, 5.2%, and 3% for each 8 °C increase in temperature for the same order.
Algorithm fuzzy scheduling (AFS) for realtime jobs on multiprocessor systems
Authors: Holagundi Nirmala , Ashwathsetty Girijamma Hollalkere , Basthikodi Mustafa
Published: February 2022

The computing in Real-time is rapidly focusing much developments in technologies so that the real-time jobs are to be scheduled and executed on computing systems in particular time frame. The scheduling and load balancing techniques in distributed systems face numerous challenges because of lack of centralized strategy to dispatch the jobs in multiprocessors systems. In this work, we propose an Algorithm Fuzzy Scheduling (AFS) for real-time jobs that includes of Arrival time, Deadline and Computation time as the scheduling parameters of input. The approach AFS is analyzed and compared with Existing Fuzzy Algorithm (EFA) model for evaluation of performances from the outcome of the simulation. The jobs are scheduled on multiprocessor at higher system load by making use of fuzzy mechanisms in the algorithms. The experimental results prove that the proposed AFS achieves a better performance comparatively to EFA at various system load factors with respect to mean turnaroundtime, mean response time and count of missed deadlines. This is the initial phase of the algorithm, that will be enhanced to consider a greater number of parameters to be associated with jobs for better decision making and to investigate the scope for algorithm level parallelism.
Development of a new linearizing controller using Lyapunov stability theory and model reference control
Authors: Mfoumboulou Yohan Darcy , Mnguni Mkhululi Elvis Siyanda
Published: February 2022

One of the most challenging aspects in the nonlinear control of a magnetic levitation (Maglev) system is to find an efficient control algorithm to achieve the stability and accuracy of the closed-loop system. The challenge is then to develop a linearizing control algorithm to maintain a steel ball at a desired position. In this paper, a novel linearizing control algorithm is proposed, which consists of the Lyapunov direct method (LDM) and the model reference control (MRC). The Lyapunov function is developed using the nonlinear equations of the magnetic levitation system, and the reference model is a linear second order system. Two control methods are developed to guarantee system robustness and output stability. Firstly, a new integral linear quadratic regulator (ILQR) is designed for the reference model. Then, an additional innovative proportional gain is combined with the linearizing controller to make the nonlinear control signal stronger. The simulation results indicate that the proposed linearizing controller has excellent set-point tracking, no time delay, fast rising and settling times, and achieves states stability.
An optimal proportional integral derivative tuning for a magnetic levitation system using metamodeling approach
Authors: Abdalhadi Abdualrhman , Wahid Herman , Hanafi Burhanuddin Dirman
Published: February 2022

A magnetic levitation system (MLS) is a complex nonlinear system that requires an electromagnetic force to levitate an object in the air. The electromagnetic field is extremely sensitive to noise which can cause the acceleration on the spherical object, leading it to move into the unbalanced region. This paper presents a comparative assessment of controllers for the magnetic levitation system using proportional integral derivative (PID) controller based optimal tuning. The analysis was started by deriving the mathematical model followed by the implementation of radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) based metamodel. The optimal tuning of the PID controller has offered better transient responses with the improvement of overshoot and the rise time as compared to the standard optimization methods. It is more robust and tolerant as compared to gradient descent method. The simulation output using the radial basis based metamodel approach showed an overshoot of 9.34% and rise time of 9.84 ms, which are better than the gradient descent (GD) and conventional PID methods. For the verification purpose, a Simscape model has been developed which mimic the real model. It was found that the model has produced about similar performance as what has been obtained from the MATLAB simulation.
Fast image watermarking based on signum of cosine matrix
Authors: Ernawan Ferda , Adi Prajanto Wahyu , Liew Siau-Chuin , Sarwoko Eko Adi , Winarno Edy
Published: February 2022

In the field of image watermarking, the singular value decomposition has good imperceptibility and robustness, but it has high complexity.  It divides a host image into matrices of U, S, and V. Singular matrix S has been widely used for embedding and extracting watermark, while orthogonal matrices of U and V are used in decomposition and reconstruction. The proposed signum of cosine matrix method is carried out to eliminate the generation of the three matrices at each block and replace it with a signum of cosine matrix. The proposed signum of cosine matrix is performed faster on the decomposition and reconstruction. The image is transformed into a coefficient matrix C using the signum matrix. The C matrix values are closer to the S value of singular value decomposition which can preserve high quality of the watermarked image. The experimental results show that our method is able to produce similar imperceptibility and robustness level of the watermarked image with less computational time.
Alzheimer’s disease detection from optimal EEG channels and Tunable Q-Wavelet Transform
Authors: Puri Digambar Vithhalbuwa , Nalbalwar Sanjay , Nandgaonkar Anil , Wagh Abhay
Published: February 2022

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a non-curable neuro-degenerative disorder that has no cure to date. However, it can be delayed through daily activity assessment using a robust Electroencephalogram (EEG) based system at an early stage. A selection tech- nique using a Shannon entropy to signal energy ratio is proposed to select optimal EEG channels for AD detection. A threshold for channel selection is calculated using the best detection accuracy during backward elimination. The selected EEG channels are decomposed using Tunable Q-wavelet transform (TQWT) into nine different sub- bands (SBs). Four features: Katz’s fractal dimension, Tsallis entropy, Relyi’s entropy, and kurtosis are extracted for each SB. These features are used to train and test sup- port vector machine, k-nearest neighbor, Ensemble bagged tree (EBT), decision tree, and neural network for detecting AD patients from normal subjects. 16-channel EEG signals from 12 AD and 11 normal subjects recorded using the 10-20 electrode place- ment method are used for evaluation. Ten optimized channels are selected, resulting in 32.5% compression. The experimental results of the proposed method showed promis- ing classification accuracy of 96.20% with the seventh SB features and EBT classifier. The significance of these features was inspected by using the Kruskal-Wallis test.
Accurate skin cancer diagnosis based on convolutional neural networks
Authors: Diab Amal G. , Fayez Nehal , El-Seddek Mervat Mohamed
Published: February 2022

Although melanoma is not the most common type of skin cancer, it is supposed to extend to other areas of the body if not early diagnosed. Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer and accounts for about 75% of deaths associated with skin cancer. The present study introduces an automated technique for skin cancer prediction, detection, and diagnosis including trending noninvasive and nonionizing techniques that combines deep learning methods to diagnose melanoma with high accuracy. Computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) using medical images is utilized to distinguish benign and malignant tumors, which can assist physicians in early identification of symptoms, thus lowering the mortality rate. The CAD system consists of four phases; detection of the region of interest (RoI), using data augmentation techniques, processing RoI using convolutional neural network (CNN) to extract the most important features, and finally the extracted CNN features are input to a support vector machine (SVM) classifier to decode the two classes benign (B) and malignant (M). Two datasets, ISIC and CPTAC-CM, were utilized to train the CNNs. GoogleNet, ResNet-50, AlexNet, and VGG19 were investigated and compared. The accuracy of the proposed CAD system has reached 99.8% for ISIC database and 99.9% for CPTAC-CM database.
Transfer learning with Resnet-50 for detecting COVID-19 in chest X-ray images
Authors: Hamlili Fatima-Zohra , Beladgham Mohammed , Khelifi Mustapha , Bouida Ahmed
Published: February 2022

The novel coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, initially appeared in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 and has since spread around the world. The purpose of this paper is to use deep convolutional neural networks (DCCN) to improve the detection of COVID-19 from X-ray images. In this study, we create a DCNN based on a residual network (Resnet-50) that can identify COVID-19 from two other classes (pneumonia and normal) in chest X-ray images. DCNN was evaluated using two classification methods: binary (BC-1: COVID-19 vs. normal, BC-2: COVID-19 vs. pneumonia) and multi-class (pneumonia vs. normal vs. COVID-19). In all experiments, four fold cross-validation was used to train and test the model. This architecture's average accuracy is 99.9% for BC-1, 99.8% for BC-2, and 97.3% for multi-class cases. The experimental findings demonstrated that the suggested system detects COVID-19 with an average precision and sensitivity of 95% and 95.1% for multi-class classification, respectively. According to our findings, the proposed DCNN may help health professionals in confirming their first evaluation of COVID-19 patients.
Improving spam email detection using deep recurrent neural network
Authors: Larabi-Marie-Sainte Souad , Ghouzali Sanaa , Saba Tanzila , Aburahmah Linah , Almohaini Rana
Published: February 2022

Nowadays the entire world depends on emails as a communication tool. Spammers try to exploit various vulnerabilities to attack users with spam emails. While it is difficult to prevent spam email attacks, many research studies have been developed in the last decade in an attempt to detect spam emails. These studies were conducted using machine learning techniques and various types of neural networks. However, with all their attempts the highest accuracy acquired was 94.2% by random forest classifier. Deep learning techniques have demonstrated higher accuracy performance compared to the traditional machine learning algorithms. In this paper, deep recurrent neural network was used to determine whether an email is a spam email. After investigating different configurations for this method, the best setting that generated the highest accuracy was based on using Tanh as the activation function with the dropout rate equals to 0.1 and the number of epochs achieving 100. The proposed approach attained a high accuracy of 99.7% which surpassed the best accuracy (98.7%) obtained by the hybrid gated recurrent unit recurrent neural network approach.
An artificial intelligence solution for crop recommendation
Authors: N. Varshitha D. , Choudhary Savita
Published: February 2022

Agriculture is the major occupation in India. The development of India is in the hands of farmers. Farmers are said to be our nation’s backbone, so there is a need to support our farmers technologically so that the difficulties of traditional agricultural practices would be overcome and also there will be positive impact on the yield, harvest, healthy crop output and the income of the farmers. Farmer needs awareness about his soil and the methods to improve his soil to grow the healthy crops. We propose an approach which involves deep learning and some IOT features to help our farmers. Soil parameters such as nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium (NPK), pH, organic carbon, moisture content and few more things are considered for predicting the fertility of the soil and also to predict the right crops to be grown and nutrition required for it. We have developed a deep neural network model to predict the crop which can be suitably grown in the soil. We have also implemented the other machine learning classifiers on the same collected dataset to test the accuracies of each classifier and our deep neural network model.
Analyzing semantic similarity amongst textual documents to suggest near duplicates
Authors: Devarajan Viji , Subramanian Revathy
Published: February 2022

Data deduplication techniques removing repeated or redundant data from the storage. In recent days, more data has been generated and stored in the storage environment. More redundant and semantically similar content of the data occupied in the storage environment due to this storage efficiency will be reduced and cost of the storage will be high. To overcome this problem, we proposed a method hybrid bidirectional encoder representation from transformers for text semantics using graph convolutional network hybrid bidirectional encoder representation from transformers (BERT) model for text semantics (HBTSG) word embedding-based deep learning model to identify near duplicates based on the semantic relationship between text documents. In this paper we hybridize the concepts of chunking and semantic analysis. The chunking process is carried out to split the documents into blocks. Next stage we identify the semantic relationship between documents using word embedding techniques. It combines the advantages of the chunking, feature extraction, and semantic relations to provide better results.
An investigation study for risk calculation of security vulnerabilities on android applications
Authors: Abdullah Radhwan M. , Abualkishik Abedallah Zaid , Isaacc Najla Matti , Alwan Ali A. , Gulzar Yonis
Published: February 2022

Applications within mobile devices, although useful and entertaining, come with security risks to private information stored within the device such as name, address, and date of birth. Standards, frameworks, models, and metrics have been proposed and implemented to combat these security vulnerabilities, but they remain to persist today. In this review, we discuss the risk calculation of android applications which is used to determine the overall security of an application. Besides, we also present and discuss the permission-based access control models that can be used to evaluate application access to user data. The study also focuses on examining the predictive analysis of security risks using machine learning. We conduct a comprehensive review of the leading studies accomplished on investigating the vulnerabilities of the applications for the Android mobile platform. The review examines various well-known vulnerabilities prediction models and highlights the sources of the vulnerabilities, prediction technique, applications and the performance of these models. Some models and frameworks prove to be promising but there is still much more research needed to be done regarding security for Android applications.
B-1b Cells Possess Unique bHLH-Driven P62-Dependent Self-Renewal and Atheroprotection
Authors: Pattarabanjird Tanyaporn , Marshall Melissa , Upadhye Aditi , Srikakulapu Prasad , Garmey James C. , Haider Antony , Taylor Angela M. , Lutgens Esther , McNamara Coleen A.
Published: February 2022

Background:

B1a and B1b lymphocytes produce IgM that inactivates oxidation-specific epitopes (IgM
OSE
) on LDL (low-density lipoprotein) and protects against atherosclerosis. Loss of ID3 (inhibitor of differentiation 3) in B cells selectively promotes B1b but not B1a cell numbers, leading to higher IgM
OSE
production and reduction in atherosclerotic plaque formation. Yet, the mechanism underlying this regulation remains unexplored.

Methods:

Bulk RNA sequencing was utilized to identify differentially expressed genes in B1a and B1b cells from
Id3
KO and
Id3
WT mice. CRISPR/Cas9 and lentiviral genome editing coupled with adoptive transfer were used to identify key
Id3
-dependent signaling pathways regulating B1b cell proliferation and the impact on atherosclerosis. Biospecimens from humans with advanced coronary artery disease imaging were analyzed to translate murine findings to human subjects with coronary artery disease.

Results:

Through RNA sequencing, P62 was found to be enriched in
Id3
KO B1b cells. Further in vitro characterization reveals a novel role for P62 in mediating BAFF (B-cell activating factor)-induced B1b cell proliferation through interacting with TRAF6 (tumor necrosis factor receptor 6) and activating NF-κB (nuclear factor kappa B), leading to subsequent C-MYC (C-myelocytomatosis) upregulation. Promoter-reporter assays reveal that Id3 inhibits the E2A protein from activating the P62 promoter. Mice adoptively transferred with B1 cells overexpressing P62 exhibited an increase in B1b cell number and IgM
OSE
levels and were protected against atherosclerosis. Consistent with murine mechanistic findings, P62 expression in human B1 cells was significantly higher in subjects harboring a function-impairing single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) at rs11574 position in the
ID3
gene and directly correlated with plasma IgM
OSE
levels.

Conclusions:

This study unveils a novel role for P62 in driving BAFF-induced B1b cell proliferation and IgM
OSE
production to attenuate diet-induced atherosclerosis. Results identify a direct role for Id3 in antagonizing E2A from activating the
p62
promoter. Moreover, analysis of putative human B1 cells also implicates these pathways in coronary artery disease subjects, suggesting P62 as a new immunomodulatory target for treating atherosclerosis.
Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy With and Without Prepregnancy Hypertension Are Associated With Incident Maternal Kidney Disease Subsequent to Delivery
Authors: Malek Angela M. , Hunt Kelly J. , Turan Tanya N. , Mateus Julio , Lackland Daniel T. , Lucas Anika , Wilson Dulaney A.
Published: February 2022

Background:

Maternal morbidity and mortality are related to prepregnancy hypertensive disease and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) including preeclampsia (41.1% of HDP), eclampsia (1.3% of HDP), and gestational hypertension (39.9% of HDP). Less information is available on the risk of maternal kidney disease and potential racial/ethnic differences following a hypertensive condition during pregnancy. Our objective was to examine the relationships between HDP and prepregnancy hypertension with maternal incident kidney disease subsequent to delivery (up to 3, 5, and 14 years) with consideration of racial/ethnic differences.

Methods:

In a retrospective cohort study, 391 838 women 12 to 49 years of age had a live birth in South Carolina between 2004 and 2016; 35.1% non-Hispanic Black (NHB) and 64.9% non-Hispanic White (NHW). Hospitalization, emergency department, and birth certificate data defined prepregnancy hypertension and HDP. Hospitalization and death certificate data identified incident kidney disease.

Results:

317 006 (80.8%) women experienced neither condition, 1473 (0.4%) had prepregnancy hypertension, 64 050 (16.3%) had HDP, and 9662 (2.5%) had both conditions (prepregnancy hypertension with superimposed HDP, ie, preeclampsia). Five years after delivery, incident kidney disease risk was increased for NHB and NHW women with HDP (NHB: hazard ratio, 2.30 [95% CI, 1.94–2.73]; NHW: hazard ratio, 1.97 [95% CI, 1.64–2.37]) and with both conditions (NHB: hazard ratio, 3.88 [95% CI, 3.05–4.93]; NHW: hazard ratio, 1.86 [95% CI, 1.20–2.87]) compared with counterparts with neither condition after adjustment (
P
value for race/ethnicity interaction=0.003).

Conclusions:

Increased kidney disease risk 5 years after delivery was observed for women with HDP and with both compared with neither condition, with associated risk higher in NHB than NHW women.
Biological Age Acceleration Is Lower in Women With Ischemic Stroke Compared to Men
Authors: Gallego-Fabrega Cristina , Muiño Elena , Cullell Natalia , Cárcel-Márquez Jara , Lazcano Uxue , Soriano-Tárraga Carolina , Lledós Miquel , Llucià-Carol Laia , Aguilera-Simón Ana , Marín Rebeca , Prats-Sánchez Luis , Camps-Renom Pol , Delgado-Mederos Raquel , Martín-Campos Jesús M. , Delgado Pilar , Martí-Fàbregas Joan , Montaner Joan , Krupinski Jerzy , Jiménez-Conde J. , Roquer Jaume , Fernández-Cadenas Israel
Published: February 2022

Background:

Stroke onset in women occurs later in life compared with men. The underlying mechanisms of these differences have not been established. Epigenetic clocks, based on DNA methylation (DNAm) profiles, are the most accurate biological age estimate. Epigenetic age acceleration (EAA) measures indicate whether an individual is biologically younger or older than expected. Our aim was to analyze whether sexual dichotomy at age of stroke onset is conditioned by EAA.

Methods:

We used 2 DNAm datasets from whole blood samples of case-control genetic studies of ischemic stroke (IS), a discovery cohort of 374 IS patients (N women=163, N men=211), from GRECOS (Genotyping Recurrence Risk of Stroke) and SEDMAN (Dabigatran Study in the Early Phase of Stroke, New Neuroimaging Markers and Biomarkers) studies and a replication cohort of 981 IS patients (N women=411, N men=570) from BASICMAR register. We compared chronological age, 2 DNAm-based biomarkers of aging and intrinsic and extrinsic epigenetic age acceleration EAA (IEAA and extrinsic EAA, respectively), in IS as well as in individual IS etiologic subtypes. Horvath and Hannum epigenetic clocks were used to assess the aging rate. A proteomic study using the SOMAScan multiplex assay was performed on 26 samples analyzing 1305 proteins.

Results:

Women present lower Hannum-extrinsic EAA values, whereas men have higher Hannum-extrinsic EAA values (women=−0.64, men=1.24,
P
=1.34×10
-2
); the same tendency was observed in the second cohort (women=−0.57, men=0.79,
P
=0.02). These differences seemed to be specific to cardioembolic and undetermined stroke subtypes. Additionally, 42 blood protein levels were associated with Hannum-extrinsic EAA (
P
<0.05), belonging to the immune effector process (
P
=1.54×10
-6
) and platelet degranulation (
P
<8.74×10
-6
) pathways.

Conclusions:

This study shows that sex-specific underlying biological mechanisms associated with stroke onset could be due to differences in biological age acceleration between men and women.
Diplomacy of Disaster: The Afghanistan ‘Peace Process’ and the Taliban Occupation of Kabul
Authors: Maley William , Jamal Ahmad Shuja
Published: February 2022

On 29 February 2020 in Doha, the United States signed an ‘Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan’ with the extremist Taliban movement. Yet on 15 August 2021, the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul. This article argues that the Doha Agreement did not simply precede the Taliban takeover; in significant ways it contributed to it. In its negotiation, content and implementation, it created destructive incentives for domestic and international parties, and it had effects on mass psychology in Afghanistan that its creators seemed not to have anticipated or understood. In that sense, it serves as a cautionary tale about the danger of assuming that negotiated ‘diplomatic solutions’ are necessarily superior to messy alternatives. The closest 20th-century equivalent was the Munich Agreement of September 1938.
Strengthening Foreign Policy through Subnational Diplomacy
Authors: Bouchet Max
Published: February 2022

National foreign policy actors traditionally neglect the opportunities and challenges that local actors active on the global stage create. Cities and regional authorities have become important international players, engaging in bilateral and multilateral relations outside national borders. They exemplify a style of global co-operation perceived as pragmatic and effective. Subnational diplomacy does not undercut national diplomacy; instead, it can extend it. National governments need their cities and local governments to achieve certain domestic and foreign policy goals related to national security, competitiveness and international development. National governments also need local actors to solve 21st-century challenges linked to promoting democracy and addressing climate change, violent extremism and global migration. National governments should adapt their diplomatic tools and cultivate partnerships with their local governments to leverage their international strength, support their global reach and, where useful, amplify it.
Social Media and Social Movements
Authors: Artz Lee
Published: February 2022

This contribution assesses the function and use of corporate-run social media, including its efficacy for organizing social movements. An extended critique of Black Lives Matter considers the impact of its social media activities on mitigating racial inequality. Drawing from successful social movements, participatory democracy, mass physical protest, and independence from established political institutions appear as necessary ingredients for constructing social media strategies for social change.
A new early Barremian amber outcrop from Mount Sannine (Central Lebanon)
Authors: MAKSOUD SIBELLE , AZAR DANY
Published: February 2022

Lebanon has a massive number of Mesozoic amber outcrops: 19 from the Kimmeridgian, Upper Jurassic (Azar et al., 2010b; Nohra et al., 2013; Maksoud & Azar, 2020) and about 450 from the lower Barremian (Granier et al., 2016; Maksoud et al., 2017), Lower Cretaceous (Maksoud & Azar, 2020). This latter number is still continuously growing, with 28 presently-known outcrops yielding biological inclusions (Maksoud et al., 2019, 2020, 2021a, b, c).
The first maguviopseids (Hemiptera, Cicadomorpha, Prosboloidea) from the Triassic of China
Authors: FU YAN-ZHE , HUANG DI-YING
Published: February 2022

The extinct hemipteran superfamily Prosboloidea Handlirsch, 1906 comprises two ancient families (viz., Prosbolidae Handlirsch, 1906 and Maguviopseidae Shcherbakov, 2011) reported from the Permian (Artinskian) to the Jurassic (Callovian) (Szwedo, 2018). The Triassic family Maguviopseidae was established by Shcherbakov (2011) with relatively high generic diversity, including eleven genera within two subfamilies: Sacvoyageinae Shcherbakov, 2011; and Maguviopseinae Shcherbakov, 2011 comprising two tribes, occurring from the Middle to Upper Triassic Madygen Formation of Madygen, Kyrgyzstan. The known maguviopseids show diversified tegminal shapes with sculptured ornamentations on surface, and some genera with highly convex costal margin are considered as an adaptative to mimicry among their hostplants (probably seeds or buds) in order to avoid predators (Shcherbakov, 2011).
Trucking in the Era of COVID-19
Authors: Sperry Danielle , Schuster Amy M. , Cotten Shelia R. , Agrawal Shubham , Mack Elizabeth , Britt Noah , Liberman Jessica
Published: February 2022

COVID-19 resulted in health and logistical challenges for many sectors of the American economy, including the trucking industry. This study examined how the pandemic impacted the trucking industry, focused on the pandemic’s impacts on company operations, health, and stress of trucking industry employees. Data were collected from three sources: surveys, focus groups, and social media posts. Individuals at multiple organizational levels of trucking companies (i.e., supervisors, upper-level management, and drivers) completed an online survey and participated in online focus groups. Data from focus groups were coded using a thematic analysis approach. Publicly available social media posts from Twitter were analyzed using a sentiment analysis framework to assess changes in public sentiment about the trucking industry pre- and during-COVID-19. Two themes emerged from the focus groups: (1) trucking company business strategies and adaptations and (2) truck driver experiences and workplace safety. Participants reported supply chain disruptions and new consumer buying trends as having larger industry-wide impacts. Company adaptability emerged due to freight variability, leading organizations to pivot business models and create solutions to reduce operational costs. Companies responded to COVID-19 by accommodating employees’ concerns and implementing safety measures. Truck drivers noted an increase in positive public perception of truck drivers, but job quality factors worsened due to closed amenities and decreased social interaction. Social media sentiment analysis also illustrated an increase in positive public sentiment towards the trucking industry during COVID-19. The pandemic resulted in multi-level economic, health, and social impacts on the trucking industry, which included economic impacts on companies and economic, social and health impacts on employees within the industry levels. Further research can expand on this study to provide an understanding of the long-term impacts of the pandemic on the trucking industry companies within the industry and segments of the trucking industry workforce.
Short-Term Readmission Following Community-Acquired Pneumonia: A Cross-Sectional Study
Authors: Nguyen Dung Thien , Huynh Sang Thanh , Nguyen Ho Nhu
Published: February 2022

Background:Community-acquired pneumonia continues to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Hospital readmissions following community-acquired pneumonia are linked to significant cost of care and medical burdens. This study aimed to determine the incidence and reasons for readmission as well as to assess factors associated with short-term hospital readmission among community-acquired pneumonia patients. Methods:A retrospective, cross-sectional study was conducted on 582 medical records of community-acquired pneumonia inpatients from December 2018 to December 2019 at an 800-bed tertiary hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. We collected data on patient characteristics, pneumonia severity at hospital admission, microbiology and antibiotic resistance, appropriateness of empiric antibiotic therapies, and the readmissions information. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to identify factors associated with 30-day hospital readmission. Results: Of the 582 hospitalized community-acquired pneumonia patients, 11.9% were readmitted to the hospital within 30 days. About half of the cases (43.5%) were due to pneumonia. Multidrug-resistant bacteria accounted for 43.2% of the pathogen isolates. A high Charlson comorbidity index (aOR, 1.40; CI 95%, 1.08-1.82) and multidrug-resistant infection (aOR, 2.63; CI 95%, 1.05-6.56) were associated with higher odds of all-cause readmission. Conclusions:Hospital readmissions within 30 days occurred frequently among community-acquired pneumonia inpatients, and the most common reason for readmission recorded was pneumonia-related. Monitoring closely patients with multimorbidity or multidrug-resistant infections may improve treatment outcomes.