bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Sparse confidence sets for normal mean models
Authors: Ning Yang , Cheng Guang
Published: March 2023

In this paper, we propose a new framework to construct confidence sets for a $d$-dimensional unknown sparse parameter ${\boldsymbol \theta }$ under the normal mean model ${\boldsymbol X}\sim N({\boldsymbol \theta },\sigma ^{2}\bf{I})$. A key feature of the proposed confidence set is its capability to account for the sparsity of ${\boldsymbol \theta }$, thus named as sparse confidence set. This is in sharp contrast with the classical methods, such as the Bonferroni confidence intervals and other resampling-based procedures, where the sparsity of ${\boldsymbol \theta }$ is often ignored. Specifically, we require the desired sparse confidence set to satisfy the following two conditions: (i) uniformly over the parameter space, the coverage probability for ${\boldsymbol \theta }$ is above a pre-specified level; (ii) there exists a random subset $S$ of $\{1,...,d\}$ such that $S$ guarantees the pre-specified true negative rate for detecting non-zero $\theta _{j}$’s. To exploit the sparsity of ${\boldsymbol \theta }$, we allow the confidence interval for $\theta _{j}$ to degenerate to a single point 0 for any $j\notin S$. Under this new framework, we first consider whether there exist sparse confidence sets that satisfy the above two conditions. To address this question, we establish a non-asymptotic minimax lower bound for the non-coverage probability over a suitable class of sparse confidence sets. The lower bound deciphers the role of sparsity and minimum signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the construction of sparse confidence sets. Furthermore, under suitable conditions on the SNR, a two-stage procedure is proposed to construct a sparse confidence set. To evaluate the optimality, the proposed sparse confidence set is shown to attain a minimax lower bound of some properly defined risk function up to a constant factor. Finally, we develop an adaptive procedure to the unknown sparsity. Numerical studies are conducted to verify the theoretical results.
Bicritical Rational Maps With a Common Iterate
Authors: Koch Sarah , Lindsey Kathryn , Sharland Thomas
Published: March 2023

Let $f$ be a degree $d$ bicritical rational map with critical point set $\mathcal{C}_f$ and critical value set $\mathcal{V}_f$. Using the group $\textrm{Deck}(f^k)$ of deck transformations of $f^k$, we show that if $g$ is a bicritical rational map that shares an iterate with $f$, then $\mathcal{C}_f = \mathcal{C}_g$ and $\mathcal{V}_f = \mathcal{V}_g$. Using this, we show that if two bicritical rational maps of even degree $d$ share an iterate, then they share a second iterate, and both maps belong to the symmetry locus of degree $d$ bicritical rational maps.
Resistance to antibacterial antifolates in multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: prevalence estimates and genetic basis
Authors: Kime Louise , Waring Tina , Mohamad Merianne , Mann Benjamin F , O’Neill Alex J
Published: March 2023

Objectives

Antibacterial antifolate drugs might have a wider role in the management of staphylococcal infection. One factor that could potentially limit their use in this context is pre-existing resistance. Here we explored the prevalence and genetic basis for resistance to these drugs in a large collection (n = 1470) of multidrug-resistant (MDR) Staphylococcus aureus.

Methods

Strains were subjected to susceptibility testing to detect resistance to trimethoprim, sulfamethoxazole, co-trimoxazole and the investigational drug, iclaprim. Whole-genome sequences were interrogated to establish the genetic basis for resistance.

Results

According to CLSI breakpoints, 15.2% of the strains were resistant to trimethoprim, 5.2% to sulfamethoxazole and 4.1% to co-trimoxazole. Using the proposed breakpoint for iclaprim, 89% of the trimethoprim-resistant strains exhibited non-susceptibility to this agent. Sulfamethozaxole resistance was exclusively the result of mutation in the drug target (dihydropteroate synthase). Resistance to trimethoprim and iclaprim also resulted from mutation in the target (dihydrofolate reductase; DHFR) but was more commonly associated with horizontal acquisition of genes encoding drug-insensitive DHFR proteins. Among the latter, we identified a novel gene (dfrL) encoding a DHFR with ∼35% identity to native and known resistant DHFRs, which was confirmed via molecular cloning to mediate high-level resistance.

Conclusions

This study provides a detailed picture of the genotypes underlying staphylococcal resistance to antifolate drugs in clinical use and in development. Prevalence estimates suggest that resistance to the diaminopyrimidines (trimethoprim/iclaprim) is not uncommon among MDR S. aureus, and considerably higher than observed for sulfamethoxazole or co-trimoxazole.
There are no minimal essentially undecidable theories
Authors: Murwanashyaka Juvenal , Pakhomov Fedor , Visser Albert
Published: March 2023

We show that there is no theory that is minimal with respect to interpretability among recursively enumerable essentially undecidable theories.
Outcomes Associated With Intensive Care and Organ Support Among Patients With COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Authors: Leazer Sahar , Collen Jacob , Alcover Karl , Tompkins Erin , Ambardar Shiva , Allard Rhonda J , Foster Brian , McNutt Ryan , Leon Matthew , Haynes Zachary , Bascome Makala , Williams Matthias , Bunin Jessica , O’Malley Patrick G , Moores Lisa K , Chung Kevin K
Published: March 2023

Background

Accurate accounting of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) critical care outcomes has important implications for health care delivery.

Research Question

We aimed to determine critical care and organ support outcomes of intensive care unit (ICU) COVID-19 patients and whether they varied depending on the completeness of study follow-up or admission time period.

Study Design and Methods

We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of reports describing ICU, mechanical ventilation (MV), renal replacement therapy (RRT), and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) mortality. A search was conducted using PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane databases.

We included English language observational studies of COVID-19 patients, reporting ICU admission, MV, and ICU case fatality, published from December 1, 2019 to December 31, 2020. We excluded reports of less than 5 ICU patients and pediatric populations. Study characteristics, patient demographics, and outcomes were extracted from each article. Subgroup meta-analyses were performed based on the admission end date and the completeness of data.

Results

Of 6,778 generated articles, 145 were retained for inclusion (n = 60,357 patients). Case fatality rates across all studies were 34.0% (95% CI = 30.7%, 37.5%, P < 0.001) for ICU deaths, 47.9% (95% CI = 41.6%, 54.2%, P < 0.001) for MV deaths, 58.7% (95% CI = 50.0%, 67.2%, P < 0.001) for RRT deaths, and 43.3% (95% CI = 31.4%, 55.4%, P < 0.001) for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation deaths. There was no statistically significant difference in ICU and organ support outcomes between studies with complete follow-up versus studies without complete follow-up. Case fatality rates for ICU, MV, and RRT deaths were significantly higher in studies with patients admitted before April 31st 2020.

Interpretation

Coronavirus disease 2019 critical care outcomes have significantly improved since the start of the pandemic. Intensive care unit outcomes should be evaluated contextually (study quality, data completeness, and time) for the most accurate reporting and to effectively guide mortality predictions.
A new method to synthesize multiple gRNA libraries and functional mapping of mammalian H3K4me3 regions
Authors: Pan Chen , Li Ran , Shui Liyan , Xiao Zhengyun , Wang Yali , Zhu Jing , Wu Chao , Zhang Long , Jia Junling , Zheng Min
Published: March 2023

Genetic screening based on the clustered regularly interspaced palindromic repeat (CRISPR) system has been indicated to be a powerful tool for identifying regulatory genes or cis-elements. However, when applying CRISPR screens to pinpoint functional elements at particular loci, a large number of guide RNA (gRNA) spacers may be required to achieve saturated coverage. Here, we present a controlled template-dependent elongation (CTDE) method relying on reversible terminators to synthesize gRNA libraries with genomic regions of interest. By applying this approach to H3K4me3 chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP)-derived DNA of mammalian cells, mega-sized gRNA libraries were synthesized in a tissue-specific manner, with which we conducted screening experiments to annotate essential sites for cell proliferation. Additionally, we confirmed that an essential site within the intron of LINC00339 regulates its own mRNA and that LINC00339 is a novel regulator of the cell cycle that maintains HepG2 proliferation. The CTDE method has the potential to be automated with high efficiency at low cost, and will be widely used to identify functional elements in mammalian genomes.
Francophone Writing
Authors: Ekotto Frieda
Published: March 2023

Due to its connections with colonialism, francophone writing, or literature written in French, has a complex genealogy and relationship to language. It is important to note here that French-led colonization preceded the colonization of Africa, in the French Caribbean/French Antilles. After the Berlin conference in 1885, in which European nations divided the continent of Africa among themselves without one single African present, France colonized many countries around the world, while Belgium colonized the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa. This colonial history is why global French literature exists. Places of origin include: Canada; Europe (Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Monaco, and Switzerland); Sub-Saharan Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, the Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Madagascar, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, the Seychelles, and Togo); North Africa (Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia); Asia (Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam); and the Caribbean (Guadeloupe, Haiti, Martinique, Saint Barthélemy, French Guiana, and Reunion). In addition, there are the Seychelles and Vanuatu, the territory of Puducherry, and Lebanon. Due to these vast geographic and cultural differences, a myriad of complex issues and ramifications must be taken in consideration when addressing francophone literature. From the colonial period onward, writing by French Europeans has been classified as “French writing,” while “francophone writing” has been used to denote everyone else. This enforces the clear division of us and them, colonizers and colonized. Before the term “francophone” was coined, writing produced by colonized nations was labeled as “colonial writing in the French language.” It was never included within or identified as French literature. With the advent of postcolonial studies, however, “francophone” has come to be assigned more specifically to writers from the former colonized nations of the French and Belgium empires who continue to write in the French language.
Urban Metabolism
Authors: Saguin Kristian
Published: March 2023

Urban metabolism broadly refers to the sum of material resource transformation and processes in cities, often measured through flows within an urban system. As a boundary metaphor, research paradigm, and methodological tool, urban metabolism has been employed in a variety of fields in diverse ways. Industrial ecology contains the most mainstream and largest body of work so far. It approaches urban metabolism from a systems-based perspective and accounting of flows, stocks, inputs, and outputs, with the goal of planning and optimizing material throughput for urban sustainability. A subfield within industrial ecology called the Vienna school incorporates ecological economic principles through the concept of socioeconomic metabolism to link socioeconomic transitions with material throughput shifts within and beyond the urban context. Mass-balance accounting using material and substance flow analysis continues to be the most common quantification methodology for urban metabolism case studies of cities and urban regions around the world. However, other emerging tools such as the emergy synthesis, life cycle analysis, ecological footprint, network analysis, and increasingly complex modeling have been developed, refined, and expanded over the past few decades. The field of urban ecology presents a similar systems-based perspective on urban resource transformation but finds the industrial ecology’s input-output framing and metabolism’s organicist metaphor less appropriate within a cities-as-complex-ecosystems framework. Finally, critical social sciences draw from the Marxist theory of metabolism to frame socionatural circulation, exchange, and transformations associated with capitalist production. In cities, urban political ecologists mobilize urban metabolism as a metaphor to capture the hybrid socionatural, uneven, and power-laden processes of the urban production of nature. Despite urban metabolism’s heterogeneous definitions and diverging intellectual histories, recent works have attempted to build on the strengths of each of these fields while transcending individual limitations. Conceptual and methodological integration of urban metabolism approaches is necessary to enable an interdisciplinary outlook on urban sustainability challenges.
Paracelsus
Authors: Daniel Dane Thor , Gunnoe Charles
Published: March 2023

Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim, called Paracelsus (b. 1493/94–d. 1541), was a prominent 16th-century figure in the history of science, medicine, and esoterica, and also a radical reformer of the early Reformation. Often called the “Luther of Medicine,” the itinerant Swiss-German has often been hailed as an exceptionally influential physician with his alchemical-mystical approach to medicine. Whether in medicine, science, or religion, his contributions were largely iconoclastic, increasingly so after his disastrous Basel (1527) and Nuremberg (1529) experiences, and included not only his medical opposition to Galenic humoral pathology, but also his rejection of Aristotelian-Scholastic cosmological and anthropological teachings, perhaps most notably the Scholastic matter theory based on the combination of earth, water, air, and fire. Paracelsus retained the four elements as spheres but influentially replaced the elements with his alchemical tria prima of salt, sulphur, and mercury. Much of his overall thinking—inspired by alchemists, his unique reading of scripture, Renaissance Neoplatonists and humanists, as well as craftsmen, surgeons, and folklore—was deeply mystical and featured the analogy between microcosm (the human being) and macrocosm (the mortal heavens and earth). Regarding theology, his spiritualist sacramental theology, the veneration of Mary in his early thought, and his idiosyncratic two-creation cosmogony and cosmology had a much deeper impact than is commonly understood, particularly among adherents to the ideas of Jakob Böhme, Valentin Weigel, and the Rosicrucians in the early modern period, and among theosophists and Jungians in the modern era. A radical spiritualist, Paracelsus admonished the “Mauerkirche” (the physical “church in walls”) and its “nefarious” ceremonies, favoring a spiritual church of all true believers instead. His name would be both applauded and maligned in a variety of arenas, including luminaries of the Scientific Revolution, university medical faculties, theological treatises, Romantic literature, esoterica, National Socialism, and modern histories of science and medicine. In the twentieth century, he was embraced as the iconic figure in the early modern history of medicine in central Europe, though Anglophone scholars remained skeptical of his concrete achievement. In this bibliography’s tight space, it is not possible to provide an exhaustive overview, but rather an introduction to Paracelsus via a selection. Given the forum and audience, Anglophone studies and translations are stressed more than would be the case in a German or multilingual bibliography.
Plantations
Authors: Besky Sarah
Published: March 2023

Plantations are landscapes of empire and extraction, governed by networks of colonial consumption and production, as well as capitalist logics of growth. They are a material instantiation of European colonial practices of accumulation and dispossession. Far from the product of a bygone era, the plantation is thriving in the early twenty-first century. It persists as a system of material production, undergirding a global market that incorporates former colonies in Asia, Africa, and Latin America in uneven ways. Significantly, plantations have been, and continue to be, means of producing particular crops: sugar, cotton, tea, coffee, bananas, rubber, and oil palm. These are commodity crops that are grown to meet consumer demand both far away, in former imperial metropolises, as well as in sites closer to the plantations themselves. Plantations thrive in a global market in which power tilts to large-scale producers who can turn out low-cost products, which are in turn produced by workers who have been dispossessed of their ancestral land and livelihoods, often as part of or even as a precondition for plantation formation. While the moniker “plantation” has been extended to many large-scale, monocropped, and industrial formations in anthropological literature in recent years, it is important to attend to the specifics of what made the plantation a peculiar social and ecological form in the past, and the continuities (and discontinuities) in what distinguishes the plantation from other forms of agricultural production in the present. Land, labor, dispossession, slavery, indenture, bondage, control: these are key concepts in the study of plantations. It is also important to attend to geographical and historical specificity in the study of the plantation’s formation, persistence, and afterlives. In some locations, the plantation is a living and even expanding socio-ecological form; in others, its immaterial legacy shapes social and political life, particularly in sites where plantation production was afforded only by the enslavement and later indenture of millions of people. Multispecies ethnography attends to how plantations foreclose people’s capacity to develop affective ties to place and nonhuman beings (as well as nonhuman actors to do so as well). Scholars of the slave plantation agriculture and its legacies highlight the spaces of food cultivation as such affective spaces, showing how forms of resistance and fugitivity emerge from within the plantation system itself. The plantation—for different reasons, and for different ends—shapes the future. This review is oriented primarily to work within sociocultural anthropology. As such, it does not do justice to the richness of historical or archaeological research on plantations, which will also certainly be of interest to anthropologists and allied scholars studying plantations.
National Identity
Authors: Kandola Sondeep
Published: March 2023

In the United Kingdom in the Victorian period, contemporary commentators concerned themselves with questions of a collective “national character” rather than the modern, and arguably more individualistic, concept of “national identity” (The English National Character: The History of an Idea from Edmund Burke to Tony Blair cited under Theorizing the Victorian Nation). The Victorian period saw the development of a science of national character which was shaped in both its domestic and imperial iterations by the pressures of imperial expansion, technological progress, and attendant discussions of culture and ethnicity. Theorists, critics, and historians such as John Stuart Mill, Matthew Arnold, Thomas Babington Macaulay, and Robert Knox variously sought to identify the attributes of not only the English national character but also those of their Celtic confrères and colonial peoples and the historical, cultural, and political agency (or lack thereof) that arose from it in increasingly racialized and scientific terms. Where English national stereotypes such as industriousness, vigor, discipline, and self-sufficiency were seen to have powered both the Industrial Revolution and Britain’s imperial mission, racist stereotypes of the Irish as feckless, savage, and mercurial were used to explain away outbreaks of political dissent. Historians, such as the authors of The Making of English National Identity. (cited under Theorizing the Victorian Nation) and The English National Character: The History of an Idea from Edmund Burke to Tony Blair (cited under the Union, have pointed to the incremental Anglicization of the four nations that made up the United Kingdom in this period. For Kumar, this was a form of internal colonialism that was engineered by the English (the “wealthiest, most numerous, and most powerful group within the United Kingdom”) which was then successfully repeated overseas to form a second land empire (p. 589). The success of this Anglicization saw historian John Seeley confidently assert in his 1883 lectures “The Expansion of England” that his contemporaries should no longer confine themselves to the domestic affairs of the British Isles but to the “Greater Britain” which, for him, referred to the white settler dominions of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa. However, Seeley also believed that the privilege of an English identity could not be extended to India as a colonized territory. Rising national confidence both in Britain’s growing primacy on the world stage as an industrial powerhouse and in the success of its “civilizing” imperial mission was inevitably undermined by instances of mass labor unrest and events such as the Great Hunger (1848–1852), the Indian Mutiny (1857–1858), and the Boer Wars (1880–1881; 1899–1902). Literature of the period, from the novels of Charles Dickens to the fin-de-siècle poetry of Rudyard Kipling, played a crucial role in registering and negotiating the social and political changes afoot in Victorian Britain and beyond which were both shaped by the national character and also came to reshape it.
Kristallnacht: The November Pogrom 1938 in Nazi Germany
Authors: Gruner Wolf
Published: March 2023

The notorious pogrom of 9–10 November 1938, also known as “Kristallnacht,” or Crystal Night, was launched by the Nazi leadership to drive the majority of German Jews out of the country before the start of a war. This happened after other options, such as the mass expulsion of Polish Jews two weeks earlier, had mostly failed. Using the assassination of a German diplomat in Paris by a young Polish Jew as a pretext, Hitler and Goebbels unleashed an unprecedented orchestrated wave of violence against Jews in Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland. The Schutzstaffel (SS), Sturmabteilung (SA), Hitler Youth, and civilians beat and murdered hundreds of Jewish men and women. They destroyed and plundered countless shops; burned and demolished more than two thousand synagogues and many Jewish community buildings, including orphanages and schools; and invaded and demolished over ten thousand private homes and rental apartments. Countless Jewish men, women, and children were left without shelter, and many committed suicide. Ordnungspolizei (Order Police) and the Gestapo (Secret Police) arrested thirty thousand Jews, overwhelmingly men, during the week after the pogroms, hundreds of whom died during the next weeks from beatings, starvation, and cold during their internment in concentration camps. After the pogrom, with no future in the Third Reich, tens of thousands of Jews left the country, while the Nazi state enacted more centralized radical measures against the remainder of the German Jewish community. This state-sponsored Nazi pogrom has been recognized by scholars as the turning point in anti-Jewish policies toward mass violence and genocide. New and evolving research considers the attacks on Jewish homes and the plundering of Jewish goods. There are also substantial local and regional studies available.
Headaches in a Horseback Rider
Authors: Hunter Nicole , Kostowniak Christian , Hamayel Abdallah , Bliss Aaron , Lakin Hunter , Tan Josenia , Proia Laurie
Published: March 2023

An immunocompetent woman presented with headaches. She previouslyworked at a farm in upstate New York. Brain MRI noted pituitary enlargement and neurosurgerypursued trans-sphenoidal pituitary biopsy. Histopathology revealed ill-defined granulomaswith clusters of yeast, consistent with Histoplasma.
Are Trajectories of Preferred Retirement Ages Associated with Health, Work Ability and Effort–Reward Imbalance at Work? Findings from a 6-Year Swedish Longitudinal Study
Authors: Sousa-Ribeiro Marta , Stengård Johanna , Leineweber Constanze , Bernhard-Oettel Claudia
Published: March 2023

Preferred retirement age (PRA) is one key dimension when studying retirement decision-making. However, little is known concerning how PRA develops over the late career years. This study used a person-centered approach to longitudinally investigate trajectories of PRA and how they differ in self-rated health, perceived work ability, and effort–reward imbalance (ERI) at baseline levels and over 6 years. The study used data from four waves (2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016) of the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health. The sample consisted of 1,510 individuals aged 50–55 in 2010, who answered to the questionnaire for those in paid work (including self-employment) at the baseline and at least one of the following waves. Results from the latent class growth curve modeling show both within- and between-person variability in PRA over the 6-year span. We found four distinct trajectories, which differed both at the baseline levels and in the patterns of change in PRA: “C1: normative, relatively stable PRA” (42% of all participants); “C2: considerably early, increasing PRA” (6% of the participants); “C3: late, relatively stable PRA” (4% of the participants); and “C4: early, increasing PRA” (49% of the participants). Participants revealed a clear preference for retirement before the age of 65. Trajectories comprising earlier PRA showed poorer self-rated health, poorer work ability, and higher levels of ERI at the baseline and over time. The findings reinforce the importance of healthy work environments that promote work ability and facilitate a balance between efforts and rewards for encouraging longer working lives.
Examination of Large Chromosomal Inversions in the Genome of Erwinia amylovora Strains Reveals Worldwide Distribution and North America-Specific Types
Authors: Yang Ho-Wen , Thapa Ranjita , Johnson Kenneth , DuPont S. Tianna , Khan Awais , Zhao Youfu
Published: March 2023

Erwinia amylovora is a relatively homogeneous species with low genetic diversity at the nucleotide level. However, phenotypic differences and genomic structural variations among E. amylovora strains have been documented. In this study, we identified 10 large chromosomal inversion (LCI) types in the Spiraeoideae-infecting (SI) E. amylovora strains by combining whole genome sequencing and PCR-based molecular markers. It was found that LCIs were mainly caused by homologous recombination events among seven rRNA operons ( rrns) in SI E. amylovora strains. Although ribotyping results identified inter- and intra-variations in the internal transcribed spacer (ITS1 and ITS2) regions among rrns, LCIs tend to occur between rrns transcribed in the opposite directions and with the same tRNA content (tRNA-Glu or tRNA-Ile/Ala) in ITS1. Based on the LCI types, physical/estimated replichore imbalance (PRI/ERI) was examined and calculated. Among the 117 SI strains evaluated, the LCI types of Ea1189, CFBP1430, and Ea273 were the most common, with ERI values at 1.31, 7.87, and 4.47°, respectively. These three LCI types had worldwide distribution, whereas the remaining seven LCI types were restricted to North America (or certain regions of the United States). Our results indicated ongoing chromosomal recombination events in the SI E. amylovora population and showed that LCI events are mostly symmetrical, keeping the ERI less than 15°. These findings provide initial evidence about the prevalence of certain LCI types in E. amylovora strains, how LCI occurs, and its potential evolutionary advantage and history, which might help track the movement of the pathogen.
Molecular Characterization of Defense of Brassica napus (Oilseed Rape) to Rhizoctonia solani AG2-1 Confirmed by Functional Analysis in Arabidopsis thaliana
Authors: Sims Isabelle , Jayaweera Dasuni , Swarup Kamal , Ray Rumiana V.
Published: March 2023

Rhizoctonia solani is a necrotrophic, soilborne fungal pathogen associated with significant establishment losses in Brassica napus (oilseed rape; OSR). The anastomosis group (AG) 2-1 of R. solani is the most virulent to OSR, causing damping-off, root and hypocotyl rot, and seedling death. Resistance to R. solani AG2-1 in OSR has not been identified, and the regulation of OSR defense to its adapted pathogen, AG2-1, has not been investigated. In this work, we used confocal microscopy to visualize the progress of infection by sclerotia of AG2-1 on B. napus varieties with contrasting disease phenotypes. We defined their defense response using gene expression studies and functional analysis with Arabidopsis thaliana mutants. Our results showed existing variation in susceptibility to AG2-1 and plant growth between OSR varieties, and differential expression of genes of hormonal and defense pathways related to auxin, ethylene, jasmonic acid, abscisic acid, salicylic acid, and reactive oxygen species regulation. Auxin, abscisic acid signaling, and the MYC2 branch of jasmonate signaling contributed to the susceptibility to AG2-1, while induced systemic resistance was enhanced by NAPDH RBOHD, ethylene signaling, and the ERF/PDF branch of jasmonate signaling. These results pave the way for future research, which will lead to the development of Brassica crops that are more resistant to AG2-1 of R. solani and reduce dependence on chemical control options.
Effect of a Podiatric Health Education Intervention on the Level of Self-care in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus
Authors: Reina-Bueno María , González-López José Rafael , de los Ángeles Núñez-Baila María , del Carmen Vázquez-Bautista María , Munuera-Martínez Pedro V. , Palomo-Toucedo Inmaculada C.
Published: March 2023

OBJECTIVE

To test the effect of a podiatric health education activity on foot self-care and the degree of foot-related disability in a group of people with diabetes mellitus (DM) in the province of Seville. A pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design was used.

METHODS

Twenty-nine people with DM participated. The intervention was a podiatric health education activity consisting of a 1-hour informative talk. Foot pain-related disability was measured using the Manchester Foot Pain and Disability Index. The degree of foot self-care was measured with the University of Malaga Foot Self-care questionnaire.

RESULTS

One month after the intervention, both parameters had improved significantly. The mean score on the Manchester Foot Pain and Disability Index increased from 59.96 (SD, 8.69) at baseline to 67.39 (SD, 6.99) at 1 month, and the mean score on the University of Malaga Foot Self-care questionnaire improved from 11.65 (SD, 20.07) at baseline to 4.52 (SD, 5.47) after 1 month.

CONCLUSIONS

Therapeutic education increases the level of self-care and decreases the degree of foot-related disability in people with DM.
Effect of Yoga Among Women at Risk and With Breast Cancer–Related Lymphedema: A Systematic Review
Authors: Levenhagen Kimberly , Davies Claire , Perdomo Marisa , Ryans Kathryn , Gilchrist Laura
Published: March 2023

Background:

Participation in exercise improves function, restores fitness, and enhances quality of life in survivors of breast cancer. There is robust evidence regarding resistance and aerobic training for women at risk for and with breast cancer–related lymphedema; however, the effect of yoga on impairments and functional outcomes has not been well documented. The purpose of this systematic review is to examine the effect of yoga on arm volume, strength, range of motion, function, and quality of life among women at risk for and with breast cancer–related lymphedema and create evidence-based recommendations.

Methods:

This review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines (Prospero registration number: 42022311574). EMBASE, PubMed, CINAHL Complete, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar were searched from January 2010 through December 2021. Quality and bias of included studies were assessed using the American Physical Therapy Association's Critical Appraisal Tool for Experimental Intervention Studies.

Results:

A total of 132 articles were screened for eligibility and 9 studies met inclusion criteria. Based on 3 acceptable and 6 low-quality studies, this review found that participation in yoga demonstrated a positive effect on arm range of motion, strength, function, and quality of life among women at risk for and with breast cancer–related lymphedema. No safety issues, including new onset or exacerbation of lymphedema, were found in the reviewed studies.

Conclusion:

Integration of yoga into a therapeutic plan of care is supported. Variations in yoga type, mode, duration, and frequency currently make it challenging to generate specific guidelines. Adherence and an ongoing commitment to yoga practice may promote long-term effects.
Needles in a Haystack: Finding Qualitative and Quantitative Collaborators in Academic Medical Centers
Authors: Pomann Gina-Maria , Truong Tracy , Boulos Mary , Ebony Boulware L. , Brouwer Rebecca N. , Curtis Lesley H. , Kapphahn Kristopher , Khalatbari Shokoufeh , McKeel Julie , Messinger Shari , O’Hara Ruth , Pencina Michael J. , Samsa Greg P. , Spino Cathie , Zidanyue Yang Lexie , Desai Manisha
Published: March 2023

Translational research is a data-driven process that involves transforming scientific laboratory- and clinic-based discoveries into products and activities with real-world impact to improve individual and population health. Successful execution of translational research requires collaboration between clinical and translational science researchers, who have expertise in a wide variety of domains across the field of medicine, and qualitative and quantitative scientists, who have specialized methodologic expertise across diverse methodologic domains. While many institutions are working to build networks of these specialists, a formalized process is needed to help researchers navigate the network to find the best match and to track the navigation process to evaluate an institution’s unmet collaborative needs. In 2018, a novel analytic resource navigation process was developed at Duke University to connect potential collaborators, leverage resources, and foster a community of researchers and scientists. This analytic resource navigation process can be readily adopted by other academic medical centers. The process relies on navigators with broad qualitative and quantitative methodologic knowledge, strong communication and leadership skills, and extensive collaborative experience. The essential elements of the analytic resource navigation process are as follows: (1) strong institutional knowledge of methodologic expertise and access to analytic resources, (2) deep understanding of research needs and methodologic expertise, (3) education of researchers on the role of qualitative and quantitative scientists in the research project, and (4) ongoing evaluation of the analytic resource navigation process to inform improvements. Navigators help researchers determine the type of expertise needed, search the institution to find potential collaborators with that expertise, and document the process to evaluate unmet needs. Although the navigation process can create a basis for an effective solution, some challenges remain, such as having resources to train navigators, comprehensively identifying all potential collaborators, and keeping updated information about resources as methodologists join and leave the institution.
Comparison of Surgical Outcomes of Anterior and Posterior Fusion Surgeries for K-line (−) Cervical Ossification of the Posterior Longitudinal Ligament
Authors: Nagoshi Narihito , Yoshii Toshitaka , Egawa Satoru , Sakai Kenichiro , Kusano Kazuo , Tsutsui Shunji , Hirai Takashi , Matsukura Yu , Wada Kanichiro , Katsumi Keiichi , Koda Masao , Kimura Atsushi , Furuya Takeo , Sato Yasunori , Maki Satoshi , Nishida Norihiro , Nagamoto Yukitaka , Oshima Yasushi , Ando Kei , Nakashima Hiroaki , Takahata Masahiko , Mori Kanji , Nakajima Hideaki , Murata Kazuma , Miyagi Masayuki , Kaito Takashi , Yamada Kei , Banno Tomohiro , Kato Satoshi , Ohba Tetsuro , Moridaira Hiroshi , Fujibayashi Shunsuke , Katoh Hiroyuki , Kanno Haruo , Watanabe Kota , Taneichi Hiroshi , Imagama Shiro , Kawaguchi Yoshiharu , Takeshita Katsushi , Nakamura Masaya , Matsumoto Morio , Yamazaki Masashi
Published: March 2023

Study Design.

A prospective multicenter study.

Objective.

To compare the surgical outcomes of anterior and posterior fusion surgeries in patients with K-line (−) cervical ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL).

Summary of Background Data.

Although laminoplasty is effective for patients with K-line (+) OPLL, fusion surgery is recommended for those with K-line (−) OPLL. However, whether the anterior or posterior approach is preferable for this pathology has not been effectively determined.

Methods.

A total of 478 patients with myelopathy due to cervical OPLL from 28 institutions were prospectively registered from 2014 to 2017 and followed up for 2 years. Of the 478 patients, 45 and 46 with K-line (−) underwent anterior and posterior fusion surgeries, respectively. After adjusting for confounders in baseline characteristics using a propensity score-matched analysis, 54 patients in both the anterior and posterior groups (27 patients each) were evaluated. Clinical outcomes were assessed using the cervical Japanese Orthopaedic Association and the Japanese Orthopaedic Association Cervical Myelopathy Evaluation Questionnaire.

Results.

Both approaches showed comparable neurological and functional recovery. The cervical range of motion was significantly restricted in the posterior group because of the large number of fused vertebrae compared with the anterior group. The incidence of surgical complications was comparable between the cohorts, but the posterior group demonstrated a higher frequency of segmental motor paralysis, whereas the anterior group more frequently reported postoperative dysphagia.

Conclusion.

Clinical improvement was comparable between anterior and posterior fusion surgeries for patients with K-line (−) OPLL. The ideal surgical approach should be informed based on the balance between the surgeon’s technical preference and the risk of complications.
COVID-19 and the Genetics of Inflammation
Authors: Choudhri Yasmeen , Maslove David M. , Rauh Michael J.
Published: March 2023

Objective:

Interindividual variability in the clinical progression of COVID-19 may be explained by host genetics. Emerging literature supports a potential inherited predisposition to severe forms of COVID-19. Demographic and inflammatory characteristics of COVID-19 suggest that acquired hematologic mutations leading to clonal hematopoiesis (CH) may further increase vulnerability to adverse sequelae. This review summarizes the available literature examining genetic predispositions to severe COVID-19 and describes how these findings could eventually be used to improve its clinical management.

DATA SOURCES:

A PubMed literature search was performed.

STUDY SELECTION:

Studies examining the significance of inherited genetic variation or acquired CH mutations in severe COVID-19 were selected for inclusion.

DATA EXTRACTION:

Relevant genetic association data and aspects of study design were qualitatively assessed and narratively synthesized.

DATA SYNTHESIS:

Genetic variants affecting inflammatory responses may increase susceptibility to severe COVID-19. Genome-wide association studies and candidate gene approaches have identified a list of inherited mutations, which likely alter cytokine and interferon secretion, and lung-specific mechanisms of immunity in COVID-19. The potential role of CH in COVID-19 is more uncertain at present; however, the available evidence suggests that the various types of acquired mutations and their differential influence on immune cell function must be carefully considered.

CONCLUSIONS:

The current literature supports the hypothesis that host genetic factors affect vulnerability to severe COVID-19. Further research is required to confirm the full scope of relevant variants and the causal mechanisms underlying these associations. Clinical approaches, which consider the genetic basis of interindividual variability in COVID-19 and potentially other causes of critical illness, could optimize hospital resource allocation, predict responsiveness to treatment, identify more efficacious drug targets, and ultimately improve outcomes.
Intraoperative body temperature and emergence delirium in elderly patients after non-cardiac surgery: a secondary analysis of a prospective observational study
Authors: Wang Guojun , He Shuting , Yu Mengyao , Zhang Yan , Mu Dongliang , Wang Dongxin
Published: March 2023

Background:

Emergence delirium (ED) is a kind of delirium that occured in the immediate post-anesthesia period. Lower body temperature on post-anesthesia care unit (PACU) admission was an independent risk factor of ED. The present study was designed to investigate the association between intraoperative body temperature and ED in elderly patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery.

Methods:

This study was a secondary analysis of a prospective observational study. Taking baseline body temperature as a reference, intraoperative absolute and relative temperature changes were calculated. The relative change was defined as the amplitude between intraoperative lowest/highest temperature and baseline reference. ED was assessed with the confusion assessment method for intensive care unit at 10 and 30 min after PACU admission and before PACU discharge.

Results:

A total of 874 patients were analyzed with a mean age of 71.8 ± 5.3 years. The incidence of ED was 38.4% (336/874). When taking 36.0°C, 35.5°C, and 35.0°C as thresholds, the incidences of absolute hypothermia were 76.7% (670/874), 38.4% (336/874), and 17.5% (153/874), respectively. In multivariable logistic regression analysis, absolute hypothermia (lowest value <35.5°C) and its cumulative duration were respectively associated with an increased risk of ED after adjusting for confounders including age, education, preoperative mild cognitive impairment, American Society of Anesthesiologists grade, duration of surgery, site of surgery, and pain intensity. Relative hypothermia (decrement >1.0°C from baseline) and its cumulative duration were also associated with an increased risk of ED, respectively. When taking the relative increment >0.5°C as a threshold, the incidence of relative hyperthermia was 21.7% (190/874) and it was associated with a decreased risk of ED after adjusting above confounders.

Conclusions:

In the present study, we found that intraoperative hypothermia, defined as either absolute or relative hypothermia, was associated with an increased risk of ED in elderly patients after non-cardiac surgery. Relative hyperthermia, but not absolute hyperthermia, was associated with a decreased risk of ED.

Registration:

Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (No. ChiCTR-OOC-17012734).
Single-cell transcriptomic analysis of tumor heterogeneity and intercellular networks in human urothelial carcinoma
Authors: Jin Xingwei , Wang Qizhang , Luo Fangxiu , Pan Junwei , Lu Tingwei , Zhao Yang , Zhang Xiang , Xiang Enfei , Zhou Chenghua , Huang Baoxing , Lu Guoliang , Chen Peizhan , Shao Yuan
Published: March 2023

Background:

Heterogeneity of tumor cells and the tumor microenvironment (TME) is significantly associated with clinical outcomes and treatment responses in patients with urothelial carcinoma (UC). Comprehensive profiling of the cellular diversity and interactions between malignant cells and TME may clarify the mechanisms underlying UC progression and guide the development of novel therapies. This study aimed to extend our understanding of intra-tumoral heterogeneity and the immunosuppressive TME in UC and provide basic support for the development of novel UC therapies.

Methods:

Seven patients with UC were included who underwent curative surgery at our hospital between July 2020 and October 2020. We performed single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) analysis in seven tumors with six matched adjacent normal tissues and integrated the results with two public scRNA-seq datasets. The functional properties and intercellular interactions between single cells were characterized, and the results were validated using multiplex immunofluorescence staining, flow cytometry, and bulk transcriptomic datasets. All statistical analyses were performed using the R package with two-sided tests. Wilcoxon-rank test, log-rank test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test, and Pearson correlation analysis were used properly.

Results:

Unsupervised t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding clustering analysis identified ten main cellular subclusters in urothelial tissues. Of them, seven urothelial subtypes were noted, and malignant urothelial cells were characterized with enhanced cellular proliferation and reduced immunogenicity. CD8+ T cell subclusters exhibited enhanced cellular cytotoxicity activities along with increased exhaustion signature in UC tissues, and the recruitment of CD4+ T regulatory cells was also increased in tumor tissues. Regarding myeloid cells, coordinated reprogramming of infiltrated neutrophils, M2-type polarized macrophages, and LAMP3+ dendritic cells contribute to immunosuppressive TME in UC tissues. Tumor tissues demonstrated enhanced angiogenesis mediated by KDR+ endothelial cells and RGS5+/ACTA2+ pericytes. Through deconvolution analysis, we identified multiple cellular subtypes may influence the programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) immunotherapy response in patients with UC.

Conclusions:

Our scRNA-seq analysis clarified intra-tumoral heterogeneity and delineated the pro-tumoral and immunosuppressive microenvironment in UC tissues, which may provide novel therapeutic targets.
Apocrine Papillary Hidrocystoma With Mucinous Metaplasia (Goblet Cell Type): A Case Report and Review of the Literature
Authors: Epperson Jonathan , Bergfeld Wilma
Published: March 2023

Mucinous metaplasia (goblet cell type) is exceptionally rare in the skin. This is the second case of apocrine papillary hidrocystoma with mucinous metaplasia (goblet cell type) and a review of the literature exploring the significance and frequency of mucinous metaplasia with goblet cells in nongenital skin. The patient is an elderly man who presented with a blue-pigmented nodule on the scalp that was clinically suggestive of an atypical nevus. Histologically, the lesion was composed of a simple cyst of cuboidal cells with decapitation secretion and mucinous metaplasia with goblet cells. Papillary formation was identified in the cysts. Most cases of cutaneous mucinous metaplasia have been reported on genital skin, usually after chronic inflammation of the area. This type of mucinous metaplasia is categorized as benign mucinous metaplasia of the genitalia (BMM) and is believed to be unrelated to apocrine glands owing to the different histologic features and absence of apocrine differentiation by immunohistochemistry. Mucinous metaplasia (goblet cell type) has been previously reported in benign adnexal tumors (eccrine acrospiroma/hidroadenoma, mixed tumor, and syringocystadenoma papilliferum) and in malignant tumors (apocrine hidradenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma). To date, mucinous metaplasia has not been identified in the histologically normal apocrine glands.