bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Analysing home-care services costing by microcosting: A scoping review
Authors: Silva Kênia Lara , Souza Amanda Damasceno , França Bruna Dias , Castro Edna Aparecida Barbosa , Lopes Elaine Silva , Junior Helvo Slomp , Oliveira Jurema , Coelho Karla Santa Cruz , Feuerwerker Laura Camargo Macrus , Rezende Lilian Cristina , Alemão Márcia Mascarenhas , Keulen Maria do Socorro Van , Pereira Paula Bertoluci Alves , Guimarães Rayssa Assunção , Souza Roseli Lino
Published: April 2023

Objectiveto map models of Home Care services in the world and the costs associated with them.MethodScope review developed in five stages: identification of the research question; identification of relevant studies; selection of studies; analysis, grouping, synthesis and presentation of data. The search was carried out in seven scientific databases and the gray literature was searched. Texts were included containing a description of the Home Care model/service addressing measures, analyzes or cost comparison, as well as components and cost calculation methods. The texts found were evaluated by two independent researchers for judgment on inclusion. Forty articles that addressed service models and their costs were included and analyzed in depth, in this publication, the eight articles referring to the micro-costing method for calculating costs.ResultThe eight articles, which deal with the micro-costing method in calculating the costs of home care services, were published between 1997 and 2005, one in Spanish and seven in English. The texts deal with two service models: Hospital-at-Home and Home Visit Care. The direct cost components considered were: personnel, medication, inputs, diagnostic and therapeutic tests, transport, equipment depreciation; health care and support services. As indirect and fixed costs, the following were identified: general maintenance, management and administration, hospitality, inpatient units, archives and others, according to hospital cost accounting data. The studies adopt the benchmarks of cost-effectiveness or cost-minimization for economic evaluation. For the cost analysis, the concepts of cost savings and the difference between average cost and cost are used marginally.Conclusionthe concepts of health care costs were mostly approached from the accounting-financial perspective, with calculation of direct, variable or fixed costs. The economic or indirect costs related to the opportunity for HC, costs of family members who care for patients, absenteeism and loss of productivity due to illness are rare and partial in the studies included. This analysis reinforces the need to recognize costs as metadata in the management of health organizations, which means that cost information carries other information.
Conjugated Cu-Ni bimetallic complex supported on Fe 3 O 4 @SiO 2 : An efficient nanocatalyst with synergistic performance for the solvent-free Sonogashira, and C-N cross-couplings
Authors: Nasseri Fatemeh , Nasseri Mohammad Ali , Kassaee Mohamad Zaman , Yavari Issa
Published: April 2023

Synthesis of a novel Cu-Ni bimetallic system comprising magnetic nanoparticles as the core and 4-amino-3,5-bis(pyridin-2-yl)-1,2,4-triazole (4-ABPT) as a conjugated bridge between nickel and copper species is described. With low Cu and Ni loading (0.06 mol% Ni, 0.08 mol% Cu), the resulting Fe3O4@SiO2@4-ABPT/Cu-Ni is discovered to be a highly efficient catalyst for the Sonogashira and C-N cross-coupling reactions. It is well characterized by FT-IR, XRD, EDX, FE-SEM, TEM, ICP, VSM, TGA/DTG/DTA, and XPS techniques. Fe3O4@SiO2@4-ABPT/Cu-Ni as a nanocatalyst in the Sonogashira and C-N cross-coupling reactions is compatible with a wide range of amines and aryl halides and gives desired coupling products in high to excellent yields under palladium- and solvent-free conditions. The XPS results show that the 4-ABPT as a ligand can adjust electron transfer between Ni and Cu in Fe3O4@SiO2@4-ABPT/Cu-Ni, which promotes the formation and stabilization of Cu+ and Ni3+ species. Electronic interactions and the synergistic effect between these metals increase the selectivity and activity of Fe3O4@SiO2@4-ABPT/Cu-Ni as a catalyst in the Sonogashira and C-N cross-coupling reactions in comparison with its monometallic counterparts. Additionally, the magnetic properties of the Fe3O4@SiO2@4-ABPT/Cu-Ni make it easy to separate from the reaction mixture, and it can be reused several times without a significant loss in its catalytic activity or performance.
Urban flood risk management needs nature-based solution from social-ecological system perspective
Authors: Kong Fanhua , zhou Kejing , Yin Haiwei , Andersson Erik , Meadows Michael , Li Zhenya , Su Jie
Published: April 2023

People-nature interdependencies in the social-ecological system (SES) are fundamental to coping with urban flood risks. Nature-based solutions (NbS), a holistic tool considering the people-nature interdependencies, have been advocated widely for urban flood risk management (FRM). However, how NbS has been used from SES perspectives in urban FRM is still not well elaborated, which refers to how NbS contribute to SES factors, processes, and effects? and what SES approaches may support NbS design, implementation, and governance? Therefore, this study first conducted a systematic review of ecological measures in urban FRM during 2000–2022, which showed an imbalance distribution of global knowledge, divergent linkages with social and ecological benefits, and growing insights from SES perspectives. According to the proposed conceptual framework, NbS’ contributions to urban FRM are explained by three dimensions: integrating socioeconomic and ecological factors, coupling social and biophysical processes, and identifying potential tradeoffs/synergies. However, inadequate understandings of NbS’ resilience, effectiveness, and synergy are still key challenges in existing studies that might hamper their contributions to both people and nature. Hence, SES approaches that leverage NbS in future FRM are suggested based on the conceptual framework, including multiple-scale flood resilience assessment, process-based effectiveness modeling, “win-win” effects prediction, and monitoring. We hope that urban FRM can leverage NbS through SES approaches to jointly achieve flood risk mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity protection, and human well-being in the sustainable and resilient pathway.
Metabolic, oxidoreductive and immune profile of dairy buffaloes from the prepartum to postpartum based on different levels of non- esterified fatty acids
Authors: Lisuzzo Anastasia , Fiore Enrico , Contiero Barbara , Mazzotta Elisa , Vuolo Gabriele , Cappelli Giovanna , Martucciello Alessandra , De Donato Immacolata , Schiavo Lorena , Carlo Esterina , Monteiro Bruno Moura , Sales José Nélio Sousa , Rossi Pasquale , Vecchio Domenico
Published: April 2023

Metabolic adaptations to negative energy balance as lipomobilization may influence inflammatory responses, immune function and oxidative stress in animals. The aim of this study was to assess the metabolic, oxidoreductive and immune status of buffaloes from prepartum to postpartum period by grouping animals according to mild, medium, or severe lipomobilization. Seventy-six Mediterranean Buffaloes were enrolled and a weekly blood sample was taken from 7 weeks before to 6 weeks after calving. The concentration of non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) was determined in serum and used to divide buffaloes at 7 weeks before calving into: mild (NEFA-I; NEFA ≤ 0.29 mEq/L; n = 18), medium (NEFA-II; 0.29 < NEFA < 0.57 mEq/L; n = 20), and severe (NEFA-III; NEFA ≥ 0.57 mEq/L; n = 38) lipomobilization groups. Two-way ANOVA was used to assess changes between groups and over time. Differences were found in the concentration of NEFA, β-hydroxybutyrate, glucose, cholesterol, protein profile, oxygen radicals, antioxidant, lysozyme, complement and minerals. These results suggest a greater or lesser severity in energy metabolism and oxidative stress in the medium and severe lipomobilization groups.
Using the follicular unit extraction technique in treatment of male androgenetic alopecia
Authors: wang fang , chen ying , yang chen , li chao , zhang Huifeng , he jie , li meng , lei ting , lei huibin , zhang wei
Published: April 2023

Background
Androgenetic alopecia in male is increasing in incidence every year. And hair transplantation with hair follicle unit extraction (FUE) is becoming increasingly accepted as a suitable treatment for these male patients.
Methods
A retrospective study was conducted, encompassing 158 male patients with androgen alopecia, of whom were diagnosed and operated in January 2016 to December 2020 in the medical cosmetology department of The First Affiliated
Hospital of Xi 'an Medical University. Demographic data and treatments characteristics were recorded and analyzed. clinical curative effect,operation related complications ,satisfaction rate and life quality score of the patients were scored and analyzed.
Results
After FUE hair transplantation, the hair follicle survival rate of 158 patients was more than ninety percent, in addition, more than eighty-five percent of patient hair follicle survival rate was over ninety-five percent at 12 months, the patient satisfaction rate was higher than ninety-eight percent, but the complication rate was less than six percent.
Conclusion
Our data show that FUE is a minimally invasive hair transplant technique that has high hair follicle survival rate and ideal hair density, which is an effective method to treat male androgen alopecia and is worthy of clinical application.
Valve pressure adjustments of cerebrospinal fluid shunts – longitudinal analysis of 614 patients
Authors: Schön Victoria , Krigers Aleksandrs , Klingenschmid Julia , Thomé Claudius , Freyschlag Christian F.
Published: April 2023

Background
The implantation of a cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) shunt is one of the most common interventions in neurosurgery. However, there is a high rate of re-interventions e.g., surgical revisions, changes of valve pressure or radiological examinations. Various operating techniques, shunt valves and settings have been used in the past decades.
Our goal was to investigate the clinical and technical characteristics influencing the need for intervention.
Methods
614 patients between 2000 and 2019 which were treated surgically or seen as out-patients with a CSF-shunt dependent hydrocephalus at our department were longitudinally analyzed. Interventions were defined as any change in valve pressure setting or revision surgery. The clinical and technical data were retrospectively collected and analyzed using integrated regression and cox regression.
Results
289 (47.1%) male and 325 (52.9%) female patients with a median age of 61 years (IqR: 47 – 70), with 441 (71.9%) ventriculoperitoneal shunts (VP) and 150 (24.4%) ventriculoatrial shunts, 351 (57.7%) programmable and 257 (42.3%) non-programmable shunts were documented. The median follow-up was 53.9 months (CI95%: 47.5 – 60.2, range: 0 – 463). Female patients were looked after significantly longer (60.0 months, CI95% 50.9 - 69.1). The average time until the first intervention was 98 months (IqR: 81.8 – 115.2). Gender, height, weight and BMI did not influence the need for earlier intervention.
In long-term follow-up, valve pressure which never needed an intervention was influenced by the type of the shunt (VA or VP) and the programmability of the valve. Gender, height, weight and BMI had no impact on the pressure setting.
Conclusion
The individual pressure setting with none to fewer interventions is influenced by the programmability of the CSF-shunt, the age of the patient and the shunt-type. Gender, height, weight and BMI are not clinically relevant to identify the ideal valve pressure.
Systematic Review: Emotion Dysregulation and Challenging Behavior Interventions for Children andAdolescents with Autism with Graded Key Evidence-Based Strategy Recommendations
Authors: Nuske PhD Heather J. Nuske Heather J. , BA BSN Amanda V. Young Amanda V. Young , Khan MPH MPH Farzana Khan Farzana , Palermo BA BA Emma H. Palermo Emma H. , Ajanaku Bukola Ajanaku Bukola , Pellecchia NCSP BCBA PhD Melanie Pellecchia NCSP BCBA Melanie , Vivanti PhD Giacomo Vivanti Giacomo , Mazefsky PhD Carla A. Mazefsky Carla A. , Brookman-Frazee PhD Lauren Brookman-Frazee Lauren , McPartland Ph Ph James C. McPartland James C. , Goodwin PhD Matthew S. Goodwin Matthew S. , Mandell ScD ScD David S. Mandell David S.
Published: April 2023

Challenging behavior, such as aggression, is highly prevalent in children and adolescents with autism and can have a devastating impact. Previous reviews of challenging behavior interventions did not include interventions targeting emotion dysregulation, a common cause of challenging behavior. We reviewed emotion dysregulation and challenging behavior interventions for preschoolers to adolescents to determine which evidence-based strategies have the most empirical support for reducing/preventing emotion dysregulation/challenging behavior. We reviewed 95 studies, including 29 group and 66 single-case designs. We excluded non-behavioral/psychosocial interventions and those targeting internalizing symptoms only. We applied a coding system to identify discrete strategies based on autism practice guidelines with the addition of strategies common in childhood mental health disorders, and an evidence grading system. Strategies with the highest quality evidence (multiple randomized controlled trials with low bias risk) were Parent-Implemented Intervention, Emotion Regulation Training, Reinforcement, Visual Supports, Cognitive Behavioral/Instructional Strategies and Antecedent-Based Interventions. Regarding outcomes, most studies included challenging behaviors measures while few included emotion dysregulation measures. This review highlights the importance of teaching emotion-regulation skills explicitly, positively reinforcing replacement/alternative behaviors, using visuals and metacognition, addressing stressors proactively, and involving parents. It also calls for more rigorously-designed studies and for including emotion dysregulation as an outcome/mediator in future trials.
Knowledge, attitudes, and practice toward digit replantation among new nurses
Authors: Zhang Shuang , Li Yuchen , Tong Mingxiao , Wen Zheng , Xue Yunhao
Published: April 2023

BackgroundKnowledge of the signs, symptoms, and management options of complications is essential for the nursing of patients after digit replantation and skin flap transplantation. This study aimed to explore the knowledge, attitudes, and practice (KAP) toward the postoperative nursing of patients with digit replantation and skin flap transplantation among new nurses.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted at Beijing Jishuitan Hospital and Beijing No.6 Hospital between October 2022 and December 2022 among new nurses who had been in the profession for less than 2 years by a self-administered questionnaire.ResultsA total of 206 valid questionnaires were collected. The participants showed poor knowledge (7.72 ± 3.28, total scores: 13), moderate attitude (37.95 ± 6.05, total scores: 50), and active practice (38.23 ± 6.12, total scores: 45). The multivariable logistic regression showed good knowledge (OR = 2.55, 95%CI: 1.18–5.49, P = 0.017) was independently associated with favorable attitude. And favorable attitude (OR = 9.03, 95%CI: 3.88-21.00, P < 0.001) was independently associated with active practice.ConclusionsThe new nurses have poor knowledge, moderately attitudes, and appropriate practice toward severed digit replantation and skin flap transplantation. Proper training to improve knowledge of new nurse might be an optional method to improve their practice.
Highly Efficient Removal of Organic Dyes from Wastewater Using Ultrathin Ag assisted TiO 2 Nanowires
Authors: Akram Bilal , Ahmad Khalil , Khan Ashfaq Ahmad , Khan Bilal Ahmad , Akhtar Javeed
Published: April 2023

High purity ultrathin Ag-assisted titania (TiO2) nanowires with controlled aspect ratio were prepared by a facile solvothermal approach. The dimensions of as-prepared nanowire structures such as length and diameter can be easily tuned from 100 nm to 3 nm and from few millimeters to several hundred nanometers respectively by optimizing concentration of precursors and octadecylamine (ODA) as surfactant. The as-prepared samples were studied and characterized by several analytical techniques like transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES), surface area measurement through Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and diffused reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). The main focus of present research work is the size-controlled synthesis of Ag assisted TiO2 nanowires and enhancement of their methylene blue (MB) degradation efficiency. A 98% photodegradation efficiency for methylene blue was achieved by utilizing 3nm thick annealed TiO2 nanowires within 20min. Recyclability of photocatalyst was also studied, with the material being found to be stable up to four runs.
Risk assessment scales to predict risk of lower extremity deep vein thrombosis among multiple trauma patients: A prospective cohort study
Authors: Chen Huijuan , Sun Libing , Kong Xiangyan
Published: April 2023

Background Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a common complication in orthopedic patients. Previous studies have focused on major orthopedic surgery.There are few studies with multiple trauma. We aimed to describe the prevalence of DVT and compare the predictive power of the different risk assessment scales in patients with multiple trauma.Methods This prospective cohort study involved multiple trauma patients admitted to our hospital between October 2021 and December 2022. Data were prospectively collected for thrombotic risk assessments using the Risk Assessment Profile for thromboembolism(RAPT), the DVT risk assessment score (DRAS), and the Trauma Embolic Scoring System (TESS), respectively. The receiver operation characteristic (ROC) curve and the area under the curve (AUC) were evaluated to compare the predictive power. Doppler ultrasound was used to determine DVT incidence.Results A total of 210 patients were included, and the incidence of DVT was 26.19%. Distal DVT accounted for 87.27%; postoperative DVT, 72.73%; and bilateral lower extremity thrombosis, 30.91%. There were significant differences in age, education degree, pelvic fracture, surgery, ISS, D-dimmer level, length of hospital stay and ICU stay between the thrombosis group and the non-thrombosis group. The AUCs for RAPT, DRAS, and TESS were 0.737, 0.710, and 0.683, respectively. The RAPT had better predictive value, but there were no significant differences between the three ROC curves.Conclusions The incidence of DVT was relatively high during hospitalization. We prospectively validated the tests to predict risk of DVT among patients with multiple trauma to help trauma surgeons in the clinical administration of DVT prophylaxis.
Assessment of properties, photocatalytic activity, cytotoxicity, and antibacterial activity of (Cu, Cr) dual-doped ZnO nanoparticles
Authors: M Ashokkumar , M Rajkumar , Pugazhvadivu K. S.
Published: April 2023

Co-precipitation, a minimal technique, was used to successfully create novel (Cr, Cu) dual-doped ZnO nanoparticles (NPs). X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersion X-ray (EDX) analysis, scanning electron microscopes (SEM), and UV-visible absorption spectra had been used to characterize the produced nanoparticle. The produced NPs have a hexagonal wurtzite structure with a high phase purity, according to the XRD pattern. the substitution of Cr increased optical absorption and inducing new absorption peaks in the visible regions that correspond to the transitions from 4A2(4F) to CB and 4A2(4F) to 4T1(4F). Absorption of photon in the visible region led to increase the photo-generated electron-hole pairs and hence RO-species which responsible for photocatalytic activity. Therefore the (Cu, Cr) dual doped ZnO NPs had excellent photocatalytic activity under sun light irradiation. MTT assay was employed to analyze the in vitro cytotoxicity of Cr-doped Zn0.98Cu0.02O NPs on human normal PBMC. The toxicity is enhanced by an increase in Cr concentration in very small amounts at low concentrations and significantly at high concentrations. The antibacterial characteristics of the produced NPs was examined against the bacterial strains P. putida and B. subtilis.
Assessment of transpiration in different almond production systems with two-source energy balance models using high resolution aerial imagery
Authors: Quintanilla-Albornoz Manuel , Miarnau Xavier , Pelechá Ana , Casadesus Jaume , García-Tejera Omar , Bellvert Joaquim
Published: April 2023

A growing number of intensive irrigated production systems of the almond crop have been established in recent years. However, there is little information regarding the crop water requirements. Remote sensing-based models such as the two-source energy balance (TSEB) have proven to be reliable ways to accurately estimate actual crop evapotranspiration. However, few efforts have been made to validate the transpiration with sap flow measurements in woody row crops with different production systems and water status. In this study, the TSEB Priestley-Taylor (TSEB-PT) and contextual approach (TSEB-2T) models were assessed to estimate canopy transpiration. In addition, the effect of applying a basic clumping index for heterogeneous randomly placed clumped canopies and a rectangular hedgerow clumping index on the TSEB transpiration estimation was assessed. The TSEB inputs were obtained from high resolution multispectral and thermal imagery using an unmanned aerial vehicle. The leaf area index (LAI), stem water potential (Ψstem) and fractional intercepted photosynthetically active radiation (fIPAR) were also measured. Significant differences were observed in transpiration between production systems and irrigation treatments. The combined use of the TSEB-2T with the C&N-R transmittance model gave the best transpiration estimations for all production systems and irrigation treatments. The use of in situ PAR transmittance in the TSEB-2T model significantly improved the root mean squared error. Thus, the better agreement observed with the TSEB when using the C&N-R model and in situ PAR transmittance highlights the importance of improving radiative transfer models for shortwave canopy transmittance, especially in woody row crops.
Aggravation of Psoriasis Following Covid-19: A Study of 105 Patients
Authors: Aktas Meryem , Demir Ferhan Bulut , Altunok Ozge , Seckin Dilek , Ergun Tulin
Published: April 2023

Background:SARS-Cov 2 2019 (C-19) infection affects the course of various dermatological diseases. However, data on its impact on psoriasis course is limited.Objectives:To evaluate the impact of C-19 infection on psoriasis course and also investigate the frequency of post-covid complications in psoriasis patients.Methods:Psoriasis patients with at least one C-19 PCR positivity, having a control visit between March and June 2022 were included. The flare was defined as at least 25% increase in psoriasis severity within 4 weeks after C-19 PCR positivity, according to patient-reported assessment. As confounders, corticosteroid and hydroxychloroquine use and vaccination against SARS-Cov2 histories within the last 4 weeks were questioned. Also, post-covid complications were recorded.Results:105 patients (50 female, 55 male) with a total of 113 C-19 incidents were included. Psoriasis exacerbation following C-19 was observed in 23.8% (n:25) of patients. Among 22 patients, exacerbation was similar to baseline psoriasis phenotype (1 guttate, 2 generalized pustular, 19 plaque) whereas in 3 patients with plaque psoriasis, guttate (2) and generalized pustular (1) psoriasis emerged. The risk of post-covid psoriasis flare was found to be related with discontinuation of medications or unstable psoriasis during C-19. Six patients developed post-covid complications including pericardial effusion, pulmonary thromboembolism, cerebrovascular accident, fascial paralysis and arthritis.Conclusion:This study shows a high risk of psoriasis flare following C-19, which is mostly related to unstable psoriasis during C-19 or discontinuation of medications. Since psoriasis patients have increased risk of cardiovascular complications, careful follow-up for mainly thrombotic post-covid complications is mandatory.IRB approval status:Reviewed and approved by Marmara University School of Medicine IRB (Approval number: 09.2022.339)
The Effect of Rim-off Deep Lateral Orbital Decompression on the Lateral Rectus Shape and Oculomotor Balance
Authors: Caetano Fabiana B , Garcia Denny M , Abbud Christine M M , Cruz Antonio A V
Published: April 2023

Purpose – To measure the effect of rim-off deep lateral decompression for Graves orbitopathy on the lateral rectus muscle path and oculomotor balance.
Methods – Retrospective analysis of the medical records and pre- and postoperative computed tomography scans of 34 orbits of 23 patients who underwent deep lateral decompression alone. The oculomotor balance of these 23 patients was measured with the alternate cover test and prisms before and after surgery. Bezier functions were used to measure the postoperative path of the lateral rectus in all decompressed orbits.
Results – Deep lateral decompression induced a curvilinear deformation of the lateral rectus.
There was no significant correlation between the position of the point of maximum muscle displacement and the size of the residual lateral wall. The changes in the lateral rectus path had no adverse effects on the oculomotor balance of the patients.
Conclusions – The location of the curvilinear deformation of the lateral rectus do not depends on the residual segment of the lateral wall. The changes of the lateral rectus path have no deleterious effect on the oculomotor balance.
Molecular dynamics study on dynamic interlayer friction of graphene and its strain effect
Authors: Gan Shuang , Huang Jianzhang , Cai Yi , Liang Yingjing , Liu Yijie
Published: April 2023

The mechanism of dynamic sliding friction between graphene layers and its strain effect is theoretically analyzed in this paper. A friction pair model with an annular graphene as slider is built to eliminate the influence of commensurability and edge effect. The effects of temperature, normal load, sliding velocity, support stiffness and axial strain on the friction between graphene layers are investigated. The coupling effect of temperature and other influencing factors are clarified. The results show that normal load increases the friction force by decreasing layer spacing. The friction is firstly enhanced as the sliding velocity increase and then is reduced by severe interlayer residual deformation and lattice resonance frequency at high sliding velocity. The support stiffness regulates the interlayer friction by affecting the atomic vibration amplitude of the graphene lattice. By mechanism analysis, it is found that by changing the number of atoms in friction region between layers and the frequency of lattice vibration, the strain can effectively regulate the dynamic friction between graphene layers. Our findings reveal the influence mechanism of affecting factor on dynamic friction of graphene and provide a fundamental understanding for the strains engineering of nanoscale friction.
Association Between Air Pollution and Incidence of Psoriasis: A Nationwide Population-based Case-control Study
Authors: Li Chia-Lun , Ma Sheng-Hsiang , Wu Chun-Ying , Lyu Ying-Syuan , Chang Yun-Ting , Ao Chon-Kit , Wu Chen-Yi
Published: April 2023

Background Air pollutants may aggravate psoriasis. However, the association between air pollution and psoriasis incidence remains unclear. We aimed to identify the association between air pollution and psoriasis incidence.Methods This case-control study included patients with psoriasis and age-, sex-, urbanization level-, index date-, and comorbidities-matched controls from the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan from January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2018. Exposure to air pollutants (sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone, coarse particulate matter [PM10], fine particulate matter [PM2.5], and nitrogen dioxide [NO2]) was analyzed in the 5 years preceding psoriasis diagnosis and in controls.Results Overall, 45,093 patients with psoriasis and 180,372 controls were included. After adjusting for age, sex, urbanization level, index date, and comorbidities, our conditional logistic models showed that exposure to PM10 and PM2.5 was associated with a slightly increased psoriasis incidence. Estimating the effects of different air pollutants simultaneously, the adjustment model showed that PM10, PM2.5, and NO2 were associated with a slight increase in psoriasis incidence.Conclusion Although exposure to certain PM10, PM2.5, and NO2 levels was significantly associated with incident psoriasis, the increased risks were trivial, with no dose-response relationship.
DSNet: A Dual-Scaled Network for Multivariate Time Series Classification with Learning Temporal Features
Authors: Qu Xin , Yao Zhilin
Published: April 2023

Multivariate time series classification (MTSC) is a widely recognized and important task in machine learning. Current methods often fail to account for the correlation between holistic and local temporal features. In this paper, we propose a novel dual-scaled network called DSNet, which combines holistic and local features and merges temporal information through a dual-scaled gating mechanism. The DSNet model's holistic module introduces the encoder part of the native Transformer, while the local module mainly consists of our proposed residual convolution module (ResBlock) and Squeeze-And-Excite Block to extract local features. Our experimental results show that our proposed method achieves higher accuracy on 12 out of the 20 UEA MTSC archive datasets. Furthermore, our method has a higher average ranking of 1.55 compared to the other 7 state-of-the-art methods.
Sexual dimorphism in mitochondrial dysfunction and diabetes mellitus: evidence from a population-based cohort study
Authors: Wang Shanjie , Guo JunChen , Liu Xiaoxuan , Tian Wei , Zhang Yiyin , Wang Ye , Liu Yige , E Mingyan , Fang Shaohong
Published: April 2023

Background:
Pathophysiological mechanisms underlying sex-based differences in diabetes remain poorly understood. We aimed to investigate the sex-specific associations between mortality risk and methylmalonic acid (MMA) in adults with the presence or absence of type 2 diabetes.
Methods:
This cohort study included 24164 adults (12123 females and 12041 males) from NHANES study during 1999-2014. Both sexes were separately categorized as those with no diabetes, prediabetes, undiagnosed diabetes, and diagnosed diabetes. Serum MMA was measured at baseline by mass-spectrometric detection. Mortality status was ascertained from baseline until December 31, 2015.
Results:
During a median follow-up of 11.1 years, 3375 deaths were documented. Males had a particularly higher mortality than females in adults with diagnosed diabetes (42.14% vs 32.38%, p<0.001). Notably, the sex-specific difference in associations between MMA and mortality was significant only in adults with diagnosed diabetes (p = 0.028). In addition, MMA levels had an insignificant or weak correlation with sex hormone profiles at baseline, regardless of diabetes status and sex.
Conclusions:
Sex difference in mortality risk was especially significant in diagnosed type 2 diabetes. Increasing equivalent exposure of mitochondrial metabolite MMA was associated with a greater excess risk of future mortality in males with diabetes than females.
Remaining useful life prediction method based on gated dilation causal convolution
Authors: He Jing , Sun Wei , Zhang Changfan , Yu Yue
Published: April 2023

Time series modeling is key to predicting the remaining useful life (RUL) of operating equipment. However, the design of traditional convolutional neural networks cannot flexibly adapt to various time window sizes, and when dealing with long sequences, it needs to have a corresponding deep structure, which is prone to the problem of gradient disappearing. These defects make traditional convolutional neural networks have high prediction errors in mechanical RUL prediction, so this paper proposed a new gated dilation causal convolutional (GDCC) network with multi-feature squeeze excitation unit (MSEU) and sinusoidal position coding, and used it for RUL prediction of rolling bearings. Specifically, MSEU adaptively corrects feature responses from both local and global perspectives; Second, sinusoidal position encoding adds a global order relationship to the hidden layer features; Then, build and stack GDCC for further learning of the front layer features; Finally, the RUL of the rolling bearings is predicted by the Relu activation function. The proposed method was evaluated using vibration data from the accelerated degradation test of rolling bearings and the performance of this method was compared with several advanced predictive methods. Experimental results show that the proposed method is effective in improving the prediction accuracy of bearings RUL, and is better than some existing data-driven prediction methods.
A Graph Neural Network Recommendation Model with Knowledge Graph and Attention Mechanism
Authors: Hill Mabeline , Finch Horatio , Phillips Priya , Martin Aisha
Published: April 2023

With the growth of e-commerce and social media platforms, recommendation systems have become crucial for businesses to increase user satisfaction and retention. Collaborative filtering has been the primary recommendation algorithm, but it faces challenges such as the cold start problem and data sparsity. Researchers have tried to introduce supplementary information to complement the data, and Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) have been useful in capturing the relevance of graphs in recommender systems. In addition, traditional GNNs only fuse the first-order neighborhood features of nodes and cannot capture the deeper structural relationships of nodes in the network. Therefore, when the data set is sparse and each node has only a very small number of neighbors, the recommendation quality of traditional GNN-based recommendation algorithms decreases significantly. In this paper, we propose a GNN recommendation model based on user-side information, which can effectively capture the potential interest of users through user relationship graph for recommendation, and fully exploit the large amount of association information among users. The traditional collaborative filtering idea is incorporated with the knowledge graph as the auxiliary information to fully utilize the potential information from both ends to improve the accuracy and diversity of the recommendation model. In addition, the interaction behaviors and opinions in the user-item graph are jointly captured. Different strengths of user-item interactions are considered, which indicate that various interactions contribute differently to user preferences (or item characteristics), and thus attention mechanisms are used to achieve this goal. The algorithm has been verified by public dataset, and it has better recommendation effect than several other classical recommendation algorithms.
Protective Effects of Aureobasidium pullulans Lysate on Human Skin Fibroblasts and HaCaT Cells Damaged by UV Radiation
Authors: Wang Xin , Zhang Yongtao , Wang Dongdong , Su Ning , Yang Li , Fu Hao , Zhang Jiachan , Li Meng , Wang Changtao
Published: April 2023

Aureobasidium pullulans, commonly known as black yeast, can produce extracellular polysaccharides, heavy oil, melanin and other products which are widely used in food, medicine, cosmetics and other fields. In this study, cytotoxicity experiments are carried out to obtain the optimal concentration of A. pullulans lysis products. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) are used to detect the contents of extracellular matrix components, changes of related gene levels and content of inflammatory factors. The results show that A. pullulanslysis products can significantly reduce the content of reactive oxygen species (ROS), increase the activity of catalase, enhance the ability of peroxidation and weaken the oxidative stress caused by UVA. They can also significantly reduce the gene expression level of intracellular matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), up-regulate the gene expression of the tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMP), improve protein content and its gene expression, slow down cell damage, reduce the content of inflammatory factors and weaken inflammatory response. In addition, A. pullulanslysis products can regulate the Nrf2/Keap1 and MAPK signaling pathways, and regulate the oxidative stress balance and related factor levels. It is concluded that the cytolytic products of A. pullulans exhibits good protective effects by alleviating inflammatory reactions, easing the degradation of extracellular matrix components and reducing oxidative stress in human skin fibroblasts (HSF) and human immortalized keratinocytes (HaCaT) damaged by UV radiation.
Cost analysis of MXene for low-cost production, and pinpointing of its economic footprint
Authors: Zaed Md Abu , Han Tan Kim , Rahman Saidur , Panday Adarsh Kumar , Saleque Ahmed Mortuza
Published: April 2023

MXene, a two-dimensional (2D) carbide, carbonitride, and nitride, was invented in 2011. A certain number of elements in the periodic table have contributed to the synthesis of MXene from the beginning to the present. Most researchers, however, are focused on a particular type of MXene, Ti3C2Tx, although the scientific community seldom considers the synthesis cost of this outstanding and potentially helpful substance. Herein, we explore the cost of MXene by going through each stage of the production process. Instead, the actual cost may vary by a small margin due to differences in the materials and procedures. However, this study provides a clear understanding of the cost, which is governed by the steps directly involved in the synthesis and characterization of MXene. The cost associated with various essential characterization tools like SEM, TEM, UV-Vis, and XRD is necessary to ensure the successful synthesis of MXene. All local expenses are converted into USD, except for the instrumental life cycle analysis (LCA) and infrastructure cost values. The cost of each gram of MXene is predicted to be $12.20. The predicted cost is close to the market price of MXene, proving the accuracy of the cost calculation presented in this research. This work will assist the scientific community in planning and optimizing MXene's synthesis procedures so that the production cost can be potentially reduced if this material is produced on a larger scale.
Spatial and temporal variation of meteorological parameters in the lower Tigris–Euphrates basin, Türkiye: application of non-parametric methods and an innovative trend approach
Authors: Esit Musa , Çelik Recep , Akbas Ergun
Published: April 2023

In this study, Mann–Kendall (MK), Spearman's rho (SR), and innovative trend analysis with significance test (ITA-ST) are performed on about 53 years of meteorological parameters obtained from 23 meteorological stations located in the lower Tigris–Euphrates basin (LTEB), Türkiye. Finally, sequential Mann–Kendall (SMK) and Cusum tests are applied to detect any abrupt changes in annual time series. Results indicate that MK and SR demonstrate a significant trend in seven of the total annual precipitation series, and ITA-ST captures the existence of a significant trend in 21 of the 23 total annual precipitations. Three methods reveal that there is an increasing trend in both the annual mean temperature and the annual total evapotranspiration (EP). MK, SR, and ITA-ST capture a significant decreasing trend in the 10, 8, and 16 of the 23 annual mean relative humidity (RH) series, respectively. According to the findings, ITA-ST is more sensitive than the classical MK and SR methods. Cusum and SMK tests are detected the start of trend year 21.7 and 8.6% of annual total precipitation, 95.65 and 69.56% of annual mean temperature, 47.82 and 17.4% of total mean RH, and 95.65 and 69.56% of annual total EP time series, respectively. The Cusum test is found to be more sensitive than the SMK test.
Janusz Bogumił Gilas - Professor and Teacher
Authors: Mik Cezary
Published: April 2023

Janusz Bogumil Gilas
Is There a Space for jus cogens in Present International Law? Remarks in the Context of a Ban on the Use of Force
Authors: Czapliński Władysław
Published: April 2023

The work of the ILC on jus cogens constitutes an important factor in a discussion on peremptory norms in international law. The present paper presents reflections on the definition and identification of jus cogens, the legal effects of jus cogens, and consequences of its violations. Finally, the author discusses the ban on the use of force in the context of jus cogens, presenting doubts as to its qualification as peremptory.
Navigational Rights in Archipelagic Waters
Authors: Bugajski Dariusz
Published: April 2023

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982, through the institutions of the  right of innocent passage, the right of transit passage, and the right of archipelagic sea lanes  passage, defines the rules for the navigation of foreign-flagged vessels, including warships, in territorial waters (internal waters, territorial sea, and archipelagic waters). The paper analyses the concept of archipelagic waters, the right of innocent passage within Archipelagic Waters, and the right of archipelagic sea lanes passage, respectively. How vital for the global economy and security are archipelagic waters with navigational rights and overflight on them exemplify waters of Indonesia, where nowadays shipping accounts for approximately 50% of total world trade (including Malacca and Singapore Strait, from the Indian Ocean to the Far East), and is rapidly growing.
Web 2.0 Destekli Sosyobilimsel Konuların Ortaokul Öğrencilerinin Çevre Etiği Algılarına Etkisinin İncelenmesi
Authors: Yazıcıoğlu Şebnem , Benzer Elif , Yıldırım Mehtap
Published: April 2023

Hızlı nüfus artışı sebebiyle doğal kaynaklarımızın azaldığı bu dönemde çevre kirliliğinin oluşmasında, doğal dengenin bozulmasında insanın rolü oldukça fazladır. Bu durum insanları çevre konusunda düşünmeye yönlendirmiştir ve çevre etiğini önemli kılmıştır. Sosyobilimsel konuların öğretiminde kullanılan web 2.0 araçlarının öğrencilerin çevre etiği algılarına etkisini araştırmak amaçlanmıştır. Çalışmada iç içe gömülü karma desen kullanılmıştır. Nicel boyutunda zayıf deneysel desen kullanılmış, nitel boyutunda ise “Çevre Etiği Etkinlik Formu” uygulanmış ve uygulama sonrasında öğrencilerden görüş alınmıştır. Çalışma grubu ortaokul 6. Sınıfta öğrenim gören 38 öğrenciden oluşmaktadır. Çalışmada öğrencilerin çevre etiğine yönelik algılarını değerlendirmek için “Çevre Etiğine Yönelik Algı Ölçeği (ÇEYAÖ)”, çevre etiğine yönelik bilgi birikimi ve farkındalıklarındaki artış ile çevre etiğine yönelik algılarını değerlendirmek için Çevre Etiği Etkinlik Formu kullanılmıştır. Öğrencilerin web 2.0 araçları ile sosyobilimsel konuların öğretiminin çevre etiği algılarına etkisi ve öğretim sürecine yönelik görüşlerini belirlemek amacıyla Yarı Yapılandırılmış Görüşme Formu kullanılmıştır. “ÇEYAÖ” ve Çevre Etiği Etkinlik Formu öntest ve sontest olarak uygulanmıştır. Araştırmada elde edilen nicel verilerin analizinde Wilcoxon İşaretli Sıralar Testi, nitel verilerin analizinde içerik analizi kullanılmıştır. Sosyobilimsel konuların öğretiminde web 2.0 araçlarının kullanılmasıyla yapılan öğretimin öğrenciler tarafından eğlenceli, akılda kalıcı ve kolay anlaşılır bulunduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Web 2.0 araçlarının öğretime katkılarıyla geliştirilmesi hedeflenen çevre etiği algılarında anlamlı farklılığa ulaşılmıştır.
Biomimetic Synthesis of Biologically Active Natural Products: An Updated
Review
Authors: Shakour Neda , Mohadeszadeh Manijeh , Iranshahi Mehrdad
Published: April 2023

Background::

Natural products have optical activities with unusual structural characteristics
or specific stereoselectivity, mostly including spiro-ring systems or quaternary carbon atoms.
Expensive and time-consuming methods for natural product purification, especially natural
products with bioactive properties, have encouraged chemists to synthesize those compounds in
laboratories. Due to their significant role in drug discovery and chemical biology, natural products
have become a major area of synthetic organic chemistry. Most medicinal ingredients available
today are healing agents derived from natural resources, such as plants, herbs, and other natural
products.

Methods::

Materials were compiled using the three databases of ScienceDirect, PubMed, and
Google Scholar. For this study, only English-language publications have been evaluated based on
their titles, abstracts, and full texts.

Results::

Developing bioactive compounds and drugs from natural products has remained challenging
despite recent advances. A major challenge is not whether a target can be synthesized but
how to do so efficiently and practically. Nature has the ability to create molecules in a delicate but
effective manner. A convenient method is to imitate the biogenesis of natural products from microbes,
plants, or animals for synthesizing natural products. Inspired by the mechanisms occurring
in the nature, synthetic strategies facilitate laboratory synthesis of natural compounds with complicated
structures.

Conclusion::

In this review, we have elaborated on the recent syntheses of natural products conducted
since 2008 and provided an updated outline of this area of research (Covering 2008-2022)
using bioinspired methods, including Diels-Alder dimerization, photocycloaddition, cyclization,
and oxidative and radical reactions, which will provide an easy access to precursors for biomimetic
reactions. This study presents a unified method for synthesizing bioactive skeletal products.
SVM-Root: Identification of Root-Associated Proteins in Plants by
Employing the Support Vector Machine with Sequence-Derived Features
Authors: Kumar Meher Prabina , Hati Siddhartha , Sahu Tanmaya Kumar , Pradhan Upendra , Gupta Ajit , Rath Surya Narayan
Published: April 2023

Background:

Root is a desirable trait for modern plant breeding programs, as the roots play a
pivotal role in the growth and development of plants. Therefore, identification of the genes governing
the root traits is an essential research component. With regard to the identification of root-associated
genes/proteins, the existing wet-lab experiments are resource intensive and the gene expression studies
are species-specific. Thus, we proposed a supervised learning-based computational method for the identification
of root-associated proteins.

Method:

The problem was formulated as a binary classification, where the root-associated proteins and
non-root-associated proteins constituted the two classes. Four different machine learning algorithms
such as support vector machine (SVM), extreme gradient boosting, random forest, and adaptive boosting
were employed for the classification of proteins of the two classes. Sequence-derived features such
as AAC, DPC, CTD, PAAC, and ACF were used as input for the learning algorithms.

Results:

The SVM achieved higher accuracy with the 250 selected features of AAC+DPC+CTD than
that of other possible combinations of feature sets and learning algorithms. Specifically, SVM with the
selected features achieved overall accuracies of 0.74, 0.73, and 0.73 when evaluated with single 5-fold
cross-validation (5F-CV), repeated 5F-CV, and independent test set, respectively.

Conclusions:

A web-enabled prediction tool SVM-Root (https://iasri-sg.icar.gov.in/svmroot/) has
been developed for the computational prediction of the root-associated proteins. Being the first of its
kind, the proposed model is believed to supplement the existing experimental methods and high
throughput GWAS and transcriptome studies.