bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Gut Microbiota Communities of Wild Arboreal and Ground-Feeding Tropical Primates Are Affected Differently by Habitat Disturbance
Authors: Barelli Claudia , Albanese Davide , Stumpf Rebecca M. , Asangba Abigail , Donati Claudio , Rovero Francesco , Hauffe Heidi C.
Published: May 2020

Gut microbiota diversity has become the subject of extensive research in human and nonhuman animals, linking diversity and composition to gut function and host health. Because wild primates are good indicators of tropical ecosystem health, we developed the idea that they are a suitable model to observe the consequences of advancing global change (e.g., habitat degradation) on gut microbiota. So far, most of the studies focus mainly on gut bacteria; however, they are not the only component of the gut: fungi also serve essential functions in gut homeostasis. Here, for the first time, we explore and measure diversity and composition of both bacterial and fungal microbiota components of two tropical primate species living in highly different habitat types (intact versus degraded forests). Results on their microbiota diversity and composition are discussed in light of conservation issues and potential applications.
Predicting Phenotypic Polymyxin Resistance in Klebsiella pneumoniae through Machine Learning Analysis of Genomic Data
Authors: Macesic Nenad , Bear Don’t Walk Oliver J. , Pe’er Itsik , Tatonetti Nicholas P. , Peleg Anton Y. , Uhlemann Anne-Catrin
Published: May 2020

Polymyxins are last-resort antibiotics used to treat highly resistant Gram-negative bacteria. There are increasing reports of polymyxin resistance emerging, raising concerns of a postantibiotic era. Polymyxin resistance is therefore a significant public health threat, but current phenotypic methods for detection are difficult and time-consuming to perform. There have been increasing efforts to use whole-genome sequencing for detection of antibiotic resistance, but this has been difficult to apply to polymyxin resistance because of its complex polygenic nature. The significance of our research is that we successfully applied machine learning methods to predict polymyxin resistance in
Klebsiella pneumoniae
clonal group 258, a common health care-associated and multidrug-resistant pathogen. Our findings highlight that machine learning can be successfully applied even in complex forms of antibiotic resistance and represent a significant contribution to the literature that could be used to predict resistance in other bacteria and to other antibiotics.
Supplemental Material: The spatial flux of Earth’s meteorite falls found via Antarctic data
Authors: Evatt G.W.
Published: May 2020

Ice flow model, pairing, calculation of total recoverable mass flux, latitudinal model, and fireball statistical analysis
Supplemental Material: Pliocene–Pleistocene megafloods as a mechanism for Greenlandic megacanyon formation
Authors: Keisling B.A.
Published: May 2020

Description of coupling between models, ice-sheet model parameters used, and calculation of erosion rates.
Supplemental Material: A 1000-yr-old tsunami in the Indian Ocean points to greater risk for East Africa
Authors: Maselli Vittorio
Published: May 2020

Additional information on the study area (Section S1), radiocarbon dating of the samples (Section S2), grain size analysis (Section S3), paleoenvironmental reconstructions (Section S4), tsunami modeling (Section S5), and eyewitnesses of the 2004 tsunami in Pangani (Section S6), and the Ethics statement (Section S7).
Supplemental Material: Reconciling seismic structures and Late Cretaceous kimberlite magmatism in northern Alberta, Canada
Authors: Chen Yunfeng
Published: May 2020

Summary of northern Alberta kimberlite emplacement ages.
Supplemental Material: Efficient preservation of young terrestrial organic carbon in sandy turbidity-current deposits
Authors: Hage Sophie
Published: May 2020

Supplementary methods (ramped oxidation system and sedimentation rate estimates).
Supplemental Material: Ordo-Silurian assemblage in the Indochina interior: Geochronological, elemental, and Sr-Nd-Pb-Hf-O isotopic constraints of early Paleozoic granitoids in South Laos
Authors: Wang Yuejun , al. et
Published: May 2020

Table S1: Zircon U-Pb dating results for the early Paleozoic granitoids in South Laos of the Indochina interior; Table S2: Zircon Hf-O isotopic analytical results for the early Paleozoic granitoids in South Laos of the Indochina interior.
Supplemental Material: Biomarker evidence of algal-microbial community changes linked to redox and salinity variation, Upper Devonian Chattanooga Shale (Tennessee, USA)
Authors: Song Yi , Xie Shucheng , al. et
Published: May 2020

Table S1: original data of all proxies in this paper and concentration of each element and compound; Figure S2: Mass chromatograms of selected sample showing the distribution of (a) n-alkanes, (b) C27-C29 steranes and diasteranes (m/z 217), (c) Terpane m/z 191 fingerprint, (d) aryl isoprenoids (m/z 133 or 134).
Supplemental Material: A Boost for the CURE: Improving Learning Outcomes with Curriculum-Based Undergraduate Research
Authors: Allen Joseph L.
Published: May 2020

MS-CURE research activities, learning goals, and rubric for student assessment
Diffuse excessive high signal intensity on term equivalent MRI does not predict disability: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Rath Chandra Prakash , Desai Saumil , Rao Shripada C , Patole Sanjay
Published: May 2020

Objective

To evaluate whether diffuse excessive high signal intensity (DEHSI) on term equivalent age MRI (TEA-MRI) predicts disability in preterm infants.

Design

This is a systematic review and meta-analysis. Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, EMCARE, Google Scholar and MedNar databases were searched in July 2019. Studies comparing developmental outcomes of isolated DEHSI on TEA-MRI versus normal TEA-MRI were included. Two reviewers independently extracted data and assessed the risk of bias. Meta-analysis was undertaken where data were available in a format suitable for pooling.

Main outcome measures

Neurodevelopmental outcomes ≥1 year of corrected age based on validated tools.

Results

A total of 15 studies (n=1832) were included, of which data from 9 studies were available for meta-analysis. The pooled estimate (n=7) for sensitivity of DEHSI in predicting cognitive/mental disability was 0.58 (95% CI 0.34 to 0.79) and for specificity was 0.46 (95% CI 0.20 to 0.74). The summary area under the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve was low at 0.54 (CI 0.50 to 0.58). A pooled diagnostic OR (DOR) of 1 indicated that DEHSI does not discriminate preterm infants with and without mental disability. The pooled estimate (n=8) for sensitivity of DEHSI in predicting cerebral palsy (CP) was 0.57 (95% CI 0.37 to 0.75) and for specificity was 0.41 (95% CI 0.24 to 0.62). The summary area under the ROC curve was low at 0.51 (CI 0.46 to 0.55). A pooled DOR of 1 indicated that DEHSI does not discriminate between preterm infants with and without CP.

Conclusions

DEHSI on TEA-MRI did not predict future development of cognitive/mental disabilities or CP.

PROSPERO registration number

CRD42019130576.
Oxaliplatin infusion-related venous pain: prevention by simultaneous intravenous fluids
Authors: van Ravensteijn Stefan , van Merrienboer Britt , van Asten Stefan , Pruijt Johannes , Hilbink Mirrian , Tol Jolien
Published: May 2020

Objective

Oxaliplatin is a cytotoxic agent frequently used in the treatment of gastrointestinal cancer patients. A known side effect of oxaliplatin administration via a peripheral vein is infusion-related pain. In this retrospective cohort study we compared the incidence of infusion-related pain in patients treated with oxaliplatin with or without simultaneous fluid infusion (FI) (800 mL glucose 5% in 2 hours).

Methods

We retrospectively defined two cohorts: Patients treated with oxaliplatin and simultaneous intravenous FI and the same number of patients treated without FI.

The incidence of infusion-related venous pain was the primary outcome measure. Secondary outcomes included: Incidence of hypersensitivity reactions, infusion time, dose density, number of patients switched to a central venous catheter and incidence of peripheral neuropathy.

Results

100 patients were included, 50 patients in both groups. Baseline characteristics were comparable, except for age (median 66.8 vs 62.4 years in groups with and without FI; p=0.017), and body mass index (28.0 vs 25.7 kg/m2, respectively; p=0.012). Patients treated with simultaneous FI experienced significantly less vascular pain compared with those without FI (10% vs 78%, respectively; p<0.0001; OR 0.031 (95% CI: 0.01 to 0.098)). No difference was observed in dose density, treatment delay or the need of central venous catheter. Logistic regression analysis showed no confounders affecting the primary outcome. No adverse events of FI were observed.

Conclusion

Concurrent infusion of 800 mL glucose 5% with peripheral venous administration of oxaliplatin significantly reduces the incidence of infusion-related pain in gastrointestinal cancer patients and is highly feasible and affordable in everyday clinical practice.
Do underlying cardiovascular diseases have any impact on hospitalised patients with COVID-19?
Authors: Zhang Jixiang , Lu Shimin , Wang Xiaoli , Jia Xuemei , Li Jiao , Lei Hongbo , Liu Zhengru , Liao Fei , Ji Mengyao , Lv Xiaoguang , Kang Jian , Tian Shan , Ma Jingjing , Wu Dandan , Gong Yang , Xu Yu , Dong Weiguo
Published: May 2020

Objectives

An outbreak of the highly contagious severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has sickened thousands of people in China. The purpose of this study was to explore the early clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Methods

This is a retrospective analysis of patients with COVID-19 from a single centre. All patients underwent real-time reverse transcription PCR for SARS-CoV-2 on admission. Demographic and clinical factors and laboratory data were reviewed and collected to evaluate for significant associations.

Results

The study included 541 patients with COVID-19. A total of 144 (26.6%) patients had a history of CVD. The mortality of patients with CVD reached 22.2%, which was higher than that of the overall population of this study (9.8%). Patients with CVD were also more likely to develop liver function abnormality, elevated blood creatinine and lactic dehydrogenase (p<0.05). Symptoms of sputum production were more common in patients with CVD (p=0.026). Lymphocytes, haemoglobin and albumin below the normal range were pervasive in the CVD group (p<0.05). The proportion of critically ill patients in the CVD group (27.8%) was significantly higher than that in the non-CVD group (8.8%). Multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed that CVD (OR: 2.735 (95% CI 1.495 to 5.003), p=0.001) was associated with critical COVID-19 condition, while patients with coronary heart disease were less likely to reach recovery standards (OR: 0.331 (95% CI 0.125 to 0.880), p=0.027).

Conclusions

Considering the high prevalence of CVD, a thorough CVD assessment at diagnosis and early intervention are recommended in COVID-19 patients with CVD. Patients with CVD are more vulnerable to deterioration.
Anisotropic dark energy cosmological model with cosmic strings
Authors: Vinutha T. , Rao V.U.M. , Mengesha M.
Published: May 2020

This study deals with a spatially homogeneous locally rotationally symmetric Bianchi type-I dark energy cosmological model containing a one-dimensional cosmic string fluid source. Einstein’s field equations are solved by using a relation between the metric potentials and hybrid expansion law of the average scale factor. We discuss the accelerated expansion of our model through the equation of state (EOS; ωde) and deceleration parameter (q). We observe that in the evolution of our model, the EOS parameter starts from matter-dominated phase ωde > −1/3 and ultimately attains a constant value in the quintessence region (−1 < ωde < −1/3). The EOS parameter of the model never crosses the phantom divide line (ωde = −1). These facts are consistent with recent observations. We also discuss some other physical parameters.
History of the Pharmacological Society of Canada 1956–2008
Authors: Sawynok Jana , Nakatsu Kanji
Published: May 2020

The Pharmacological Society of Canada (PSC) formed in 1956 and became a constituent society of the Canadian Federation of Biological Sciences (CFBS) in 1958. Over subsequent decades, it met annually with CFBS, matured as a society, and established an identity as the voice of pharmacology in Canada. During the 1980s, it sought a larger stage and bid for, and then hosted, the XIIth International Congress of Pharmacology in Montreal in 1994. The society then participated in several joint meetings with other national pharmacology societies. In 2008, the PSC merged with the Canadian Society for Clinical Pharmacology to form the Canadian Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics. The following article is a history of the PSC from its formation in the mid-1950s to amalgamation in 2008.
The jurogam 3 spectrometer
Authors: Pakarinen J. , Ojala J. , Ruotsalainen P. , Tann H. , Badran H. , Calverley T. , Hilton J. , Grahn T. , Greenlees P. T. , Hytönen M. , Illana A. , Kauppinen A. , Luoma M. , Papadakis P. , Partanen J. , Porras K. , Puskala M. , Rahkila P. , Ranttila K. , Sarén J. , Sandzelius M. , Szwec S. , Tuunanen J. , Uusitalo J. , Zimba G.
Published: May 2020

The jurogam 3 spectrometer has been constructed for in-beam $$\gamma $$γ-ray spectroscopy experiments in the Accelerator Laboratory of the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. jurogam 3 consists of germanium-detector modules in a compact geometry surrounding a target to measure $$\gamma $$γ rays emitted from radioactive nuclei. jurogam 3 can be employed in conjunction with one of two recoil separators, the mara vacuum-mode separator or the ritu gas-filled separator, and other ancillary devices.
Diagonal and Hall holographic conductivities dual to a bulk condensate of magnetic monopoles
Authors: Rougemont Romulo
Published: May 2020

By employing the holographic operator mixing technique to deal with coupled perturbations in the gauge/gravity duality, I numerically compute the real and imaginary parts of the diagonal and Hall AC conductivities in a strongly coupled quantum field theory dual to a bulk condensate of magnetic monopoles. The results obtained show that a conclusion previously derived in the literature, namely, the vanishing of holographic DC conductivities in 3-dimensional strongly coupled quantum field theories dual to a 4-dimensional bulk magnetic monopole condensate, also applies to the calculation of diagonal and Hall conductivities in the presence of a topological$$\theta $$θ-term. Therefore, the condensation of magnetic monopoles in the bulk is suggested as a rather general and robust mechanism to generate dual strongly coupled quantum field theories with zero DC conductivities. The interplay between frequency,$$\theta $$θ-angle and the characteristic mass scale of the monopole condensate on the results for the conductivities is also investigated.
Novel route to prepare lanthanum oxide nanoparticles for optoelectronic devices
Authors: Ismail Raid A. , Fadhil Fattin A. , Rashed Halah H.
Published: May 2020

In this study, we report, for the first time, on synthesis of lanthanum oxide [Formula: see text] nanoparticles NPs by laser ablation in water without using surfactant. The effect of laser wavelength on the optical and structural properties of [Formula: see text] NPs was investigated. X-ray diffraction studies show formation of polycrystalline lanthanum oxide with pure cubic phase and the crystallinity of the nanoparticles synthesized with [Formula: see text] nm was better than that prepared with [Formula: see text] nm. The optical absorption investigations reveal that a strong absorption peak at 234 nm was observed for [Formula: see text] NPs prepared at 532 nm laser wavelength. The optical energy gap of [Formula: see text] NPs synthesized with 532 and 1064 nm laser wavelengths were 5 and 4.5 eV, respectively. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) investigation indicated the formation of nanoparticles with average particle size of 35 nm for [Formula: see text] prepared with 532 nm and was 75 nm for [Formula: see text] prepared with 1064 nm laser wavelength. The effect of laser wavelength on the optoelectronic properties of hybrid In/p-[Formula: see text]/n-Si photodetector was studied. The responsivity studies of the photodetectors show the presence of two response peaks at 250 and 750 nm.
Some new results on the construction and stability of K-g-frames in Hilbert spaces
Authors: Xiang Zhong-Qi
Published: May 2020

In this paper, we obtain some new results on the construction of [Formula: see text]-g-frames and meanwhile, we correct two corresponding results. We also give a Paley–Wiener type stability theorem for [Formula: see text]-g-frames, which provides an improvement to one known result on this topic.
A Benchmark Dataset and Comparison Study for Multi-modal Human Action Analytics
Authors: Liu Jiaying , Song Sijie , Liu Chunhui , Li Yanghao , Hu Yueyu
Published: May 2020

Large-scale benchmarks provide a solid foundation for the development of action analytics. Most of the previous activity benchmarks focus on analyzing actions in RGB videos. There is a lack of large-scale and high-quality benchmarks for multi-modal action analytics. In this article, we introduce PKU Multi-Modal Dataset (PKU-MMD), a new large-scale benchmark for multi-modal human action analytics. It consists of about 28,000 action instances and 6.2 million frames in total and provides high-quality multi-modal data sources, including RGB, depth, infrared radiation (IR), and skeletons. To make PKU-MMD more practical, our dataset comprises two subsets under different settings for action understanding, namely Part I and Part II. Part I contains 1,076 untrimmed video sequences with 51 action classes performed by 66 subjects, while Part II contains 1,009 untrimmed video sequences with 41 action classes performed by 13 subjects. Compared to Part I, Part II is more challenging due to short action intervals, concurrent actions and heavy occlusion. PKU-MMD can be leveraged in two scenarios: action recognition with trimmed video clips and action detection with untrimmed video sequences. For each scenario, we provide benchmark performance on both subsets by conducting different methods with different modalities under two evaluation protocols, respectively. Experimental results show that PKU-MMD is a significant challenge to many state-of-the-art methods. We further illustrate that the features learned on PKU-MMD can be well transferred to other datasets. We believe this large-scale dataset will boost the research in the field of action analytics for the community.
Human Activity Recognition from Multiple Sensors Data Using Multi-fusion Representations and CNNs
Authors: Noori Farzan Majeed , Riegler Michael , Uddin Md Zia , Torresen Jim
Published: May 2020

With the emerging interest in the ubiquitous sensing field, it has become possible to build assistive technologies for persons during their daily life activities to provide personalized feedback and services. For instance, it is possible to detect an individual’s behavioral pattern (e.g., physical activity, location, and mood) by using sensors embedded in smart-watches and smartphones. The multi-sensor environments also come with some challenges, such as how to fuse and combine different sources of data. In this article, we explore several methods of fusion for multi-representations of data from sensors. Furthermore, multiple representations of sensor data were generated and then fused using
data-level, feature-level
, and
decision-level fusions
. The presented methods were evaluated using three publicly available human activity recognition (HAR) datasets. The presented approaches utilize Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). A generic architecture for fusion of different sensors is proposed. The proposed method shows promising performance, with the best results reaching an overall accuracy of 98.4% for the Context-Awareness via Wrist-Worn Motion Sensors (HANDY) dataset and 98.7% for the Wireless Sensor Data Mining (WISDM version 1.1) dataset. Both results outperform previous approaches.
LosPem
Authors: Li Sumin , Huang Linpeng
Published: May 2020

New and emerging types of Persistent Memory (PM) technologies boost the opportunity to improve the performance of storage systems. PM can unify the main memory and secondary storage by incorporating it into legacy computer systems through the memory bus. In recent years, innovative results have been presented that exploit the byte-addressability, low latency, and non-volatility of PM; these have included local PM file systems and PM systems. However, the high overhead of ensuring data consistency has limited the performance of these systems.

In this article, we propose LosPem, a novel log-structured framework for persistent memory to address the performance challenge. LosPem utilizes two techniques to accomplish this. Firstly, LosPem deploys efficient hash-indexed linked lists to maintain the log contents to reduce the significant overhead of log content retrieval. Secondly, LosPem improves the transaction throughput by decoupling a transaction into two asynchronous steps and creating a write buffer on Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) write buffer for processing the frequent data writes. The experimental results show that LosPem outperforms Non-volatile Memory Library (NVML), Mnemosyne and Log-structured Non-volatile Main Memory (LSNVMM) by 27%, 1.2x, and 1.0x on a read-intensive workload. On a write-intensive workload, LosPem outperforms NVML, Mnemosyne, and LSNVMM by 1.8x, 1.2x, and 34%, respectively.
Image to Modern Chinese Poetry Creation via a Constrained Topic-aware Model
Authors: Wu Lingxiang , Xu Min , Qian Shengsheng , Cui Jianwei
Published: May 2020

Artificial creativity has attracted increasing research attention in the field of multimedia and artificial intelligence. Despite the promising work on poetry/painting/music generation, creating modern Chinese poetry from images, which can significantly enrich the functionality of photo-sharing platforms, has rarely been explored. Moreover, existing generation models cannot tackle three challenges in this task: (1) Maintaining semantic consistency between images and poems; (2) preventing topic drift in the generation; (3) avoidance of certain words appearing frequently. These three points are even common challenges in other sequence generation tasks. In this article, we propose a Constrained Topic-aware Model (CTAM) to create modern Chinese poetries from images regarding the challenges above. Without image-poetry paired dataset, we construct a visual semantic vector to embed visual contents via image captions. For the topic-drift problem, we propose a topic-aware poetry generation model. Additionally, we design an Anti-frequency Decoding (AFD) scheme to constrain high-frequency characters in the generation. Experimental results show that our model achieves promising performance and is effective in poetry’s readability and semantic consistency.
Spatio-temporal Saliency-based Motion Vector Refinement for Frame Rate Up-conversion
Authors: He Jiale , Yang Gaobo , Liu Xin , Ding Xiangling
Published: May 2020

A spatio-temporal saliency-based frame rate up-conversion (FRUC) approach is proposed, which achieves better quality of interpolated frames and invalidates existing texture variation-based FRUC detectors. A spatio-temporal saliency model is designed to select salient frames. After obtaining initial motion vector field by texture- and color-based bilateral motion estimation, two motion vector refining (MVR) schemes are adopted for high and low saliency frames to hierarchically refine the motion vectors, respectively. To produce high-quality interpolated frames, image enhancement are performed for salient frames after frame interpolation. Due to distinct MVR schemes, there are different degrees of texture information in interpolated frames. Some edge and texture information is supplemented into salient frames as post-processing, which can invalidate existing texture variation-based FRUC detectors. Experimental results show that the proposed approach outperforms state-of-the-art works in both objective and subjective qualities of interpolated frames, and achieves the purpose of FRUC anti-forensics.
QoS-aware Automatic Web Service Composition with Multiple Objectives
Authors: Chattopadhyay Soumi , Banerjee Ansuman
Published: May 2020

Automatic web service composition has received a significant research attention in service-oriented computing over decades of research. With increasing number of web services, providing an end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS) guarantee in responding to user queries is becoming an important concern. Multiple QoS parameters (e.g., response time, latency, throughput, reliability, availability, success rate) are associated with a service, thereby, service composition with a large number of candidate services is a challenging multi-objective optimization problem. In this article, we study the multi-constrained multi-objective QoS-aware web service composition problem and propose three different approaches to solve the same, one optimal, based on Pareto front construction, and two others based on heuristically traversing the solution space. We compare the performance of the heuristics against the optimal and show the effectiveness of our proposals over other classical approaches for the same problem setting, with experiments on WSC-2009 and ICEBE-2005 datasets.
Path persistence in the cloud
Authors: Reda Waleed , Bogdanov Kirill , Milolidakis Alexandros , Ghasemirahni Hamid , Chiesa Marco , Maguire Gerald Q. , Kostić Dejan
Published: May 2020

A commonly held belief is that traffic engineering and routing changes are infrequent. However, based on our measurements over a number of years of traffic between data centers in one of the largest cloud provider's networks, we found that it is common for flows to change paths at ten-second intervals or even faster. These frequent path and, consequently, latency variations can negatively impact the performance of cloud applications, specifically, latency-sensitive and geo-distributed applications.

Our recent measurements and analysis focused on observing path changes and latency variations between different Amazon aws regions. To this end, we devised a path change detector that we validated using both ad hoc experiments and feedback from cloud networking experts. The results provide three main insights: (1) Traffic Engineering (TE) frequently moves (TCP and UDP) flows among network paths of different latency, (2) Flows experience unfair performance, where a subset of flows between two machines can suffer large latency penalties (up to 32% at the 95th percentile) or excessive number of latency changes, and (3) Tenants may have incentives to selfishly move traffic to low latency classes (to boost the performance of their applications). We showcase this third insight with an example using rsync synchronization.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to reveal the high frequency of TE activity within a large cloud provider's network. Based on these observations, we expect our paper to spur discussions and future research on how cloud providers and their tenants can ultimately reconcile their independent and possibly conflicting objectives. Our data is publicly available for reproducibility and further analysis at http://goo.gl/25BKte.
Eating and Grooming Abilities Predict Outcomes in Patients with Early Middle Cerebral Infarction: A Retrospective Cohort Study
Authors: Suzuki Yumi , Tsubakino Sachiko , Fujii Hiromi
Published: May 2020

Patients with cerebrovascular disorders are often forced to rest, with early prognosis made by bedside examination. However, overloading, for example, talking for a long time, may worsen the condition. We hypothesized that activities of daily living (ADL) from the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) that were actually performed regularly are useful to predict prognosis. The present study was aimed at determining the predictive items related to predicting prognosis from the status of early motor paralysis and ADL in patients with acute middle cerebral artery (MCA) infarction. We examined 367 patients with MCA infarction for Brunnstrom recovery stage (BRS) and FIM within 4 days of admission and modified the Rankin Scale before onset and just before discharge. Logistic regression analysis was used to compare two groups of patients based on their postdischarge destination (Home/another hospital or facility). The logistic regression analysis showed the following: BRS Hand: odds ratio (OR) 1.641 (95% CI 1.642 (1.336–2.017), p<0.001); FIM Grooming: OR 1.279 (95% CI 1.220–1.807, p<0.001); and FIM Eating: OR 1.280 (95% CI 1.102–1.488, p<0.001). On the other hand, the ROC analysis showed the ROC area for Eating to be 0.830 (95% CI 0.787–0.874), for Grooming to be 0.81 (95% CI 0.765–0.865), and for BRS Hand to be 0.805 (95% CI 0.760–0.851). The BRS Hand and FIM Eating and Grooming domains were identified as predictive factors using the following cutoff points: BRS Hand stage V and FIM scores of 5 for Eating and 4 for Grooming. The cutoff points for the BRS Hand and FIM Eating revealed that, at a minimum, such patients can use the nonaffected hand. The presence of cognitive dysfunction or dysphagia affects these domains. Therefore, these results suggested that Eating and Grooming are appropriate as evaluation items.
Physiological Effect of Ghrelin on Body Systems
Authors: Akalu Yonas , Molla Meseret Derbew , Dessie Gashaw , Ayelign Birhanu
Published: May 2020

Ghrelin is a relatively novel multifaceted hormone that has been found to exert a plethora of physiological effects. In this review, we found/confirmed that ghrelin has effect on all body systems. It induces appetite; promotes the use of carbohydrates as a source of fuel while sparing fat; inhibits lipid oxidation and promotes lipogenesis; stimulates the gastric acid secretion and motility; improves cardiac performance; decreases blood pressure; and protects the kidneys, heart, and brain. Ghrelin is important for learning, memory, cognition, reward, sleep, taste sensation, olfaction, and sniffing. It has sympatholytic, analgesic, antimicrobial, antifibrotic, and osteogenic effects. Moreover, ghrelin makes the skeletal muscle more excitable and stimulates its regeneration following injury; delays puberty; promotes fetal lung development; decreases thyroid hormone and testosterone; stimulates release of growth hormone, prolactin, glucagon, adrenocorticotropic hormone, cortisol, vasopressin, and oxytocin; inhibits insulin release; and promotes wound healing. Ghrelin protects the body by different mechanisms including inhibition of unwanted inflammation and induction of autophagy. Having a clear understanding of the ghrelin effect in each system has therapeutic implications. Future studies are necessary to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of ghrelin actions as well as its application as a GHSR agonist to treat most common diseases in each system without any paradoxical outcomes on the other systems.
The Effects of Auricular Therapy for Cancer Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis
Authors: Yang Yulan , Wen Jian , Hong Jianyun
Published: May 2020

Objective. This study aims to systematically assess the efficacy and safety of auricular therapy for cancer pain. Methods. A systematic search was conducted using PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane library databases, CNKI, VIP, WanFang Data, and CBM for randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Review Manager 5.3 was used for meta‐analysis. Results. Of the 275 screened studies, nine RCTs involving 783 patients with cancer pain were systematically reviewed. Compared with drug therapy, auricular therapy plus drug therapy has significant advantages both in the effective rate for pain relief (RR = 1.40; 95% CI 1.22, 1.60; P < 0.00001) and adverse effects rate (RR = 0.46; 95% CI 0.37, 0.58; P < 0.00001). And the result revealed that auricular acupuncture had superior pain‐relieving effects as compared with sham auricular acupuncture (SMD = ‐1.45; 95% CI ‐2.80, ‐0.09; P = 0.04). However, the analysis indicated no difference on the effective rate for pain relief between auricular therapy and drug therapy (RR = 1.24; 95% CI 0.71, 2.16; P = 0.46). Conclusion. Our meta‐analysis indicated that auricular therapy is effective and safe for the treatment of cancer pain, and auricular therapy plus drug therapy is more effective than drug therapy alone, whether in terms of pain relief or adverse reactions. However, the included RCTs had some methodological limitations; future large, rigor, and high‐quality RCTs are still needed to confirm the benefits of auricular therapy on cancer pain.
Infeasible Path Detection Based on Code Pattern and Backward Symbolic Execution
Authors: Song Yang , Zhang Xuzhou , Gong Yun-Zhan
Published: May 2020

This paper sets out to reveal the relationship between code pattern and infeasible paths and gives advices to the selection of infeasible path detection techniques. Lots of program paths are proved to be infeasible, which leads to imprecision and low efficiency of program analysis. Detection of infeasible paths is required in many areas of software engineering including test coverage analysis, test case generation, and security vulnerability analysis. The immediate cause of path infeasibility is the contradiction of path constraints, whose distribution will affect the performance of different program analysis techniques. But there is a lack of research on the distribution of contradict constraints currently. We propose a code pattern based on the empirical study of infeasible paths; the statistical result proves the correlation of the pattern with contradict constraints. We then develop a path feasibility detection method based on backward symbolic execution. Performance of the proposed technique is evaluated from two aspects: the efficiency of detecting infeasibility paths for specific program element and the improvement of applying the technique on code coverage testing.
A Study of the Mechanical Properties of Au Nanomeshes
Authors: Li Dongjing , Li Ganming , Wan Qing , Xu Wuxiong , Liu Jianghua , Li Zeping
Published: May 2020

We study the mechanical behavior of Au nanomeshes (AuNMs) based on finite element analysis (FEA) simulation and deformation tests. The simulated results of mechanical flexibility indicate that polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate can release the stress of AuNMs under mechanical stretching and bending, the displacement of stretched AuNMs yields a 2% promotion, and the displacement of bent AuNMs yields a 3.5% promotion under buffering of PET substrate at 5 GPa yield strength of nanoscale Au. The stress and displacement distribution of the AuNMs/PET is demonstrated and analyzed. The further deformation tests of AuNMs under compressive and tensile loading indicate that the simulation data are in good agreement with experimental results. This paper is conducive to understanding the mechanical behavior and corresponding structural response and structural fracture dynamics of AuNMs.
Cross-Sectional Relationship between Carotid-Femoral Pulse Wave Velocity and Biomarkers in Vascular-Related Diseases
Authors: Liu Jinbo , Wang Kuanting , Liu Huan , Zhao Hongwei , Huang Wei , Zhao Na , Li Lihong , Wang Hongyu
Published: May 2020

Objectives. The present study was done to investigate the relationship between carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (CFPWV) and biomarkers such as homocysteine (Hcy), N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), and urine albumin (microalbumin) (UAE) in vascular-related diseases. Methods. 656 subjects were enrolled into our study. There were 377 patients with hypertension, 231 with coronary heart disease, 154 with diabetes mellitus, and 186 healthy subjects. They were divided into four groups according to the number of suffered diseases: group 1 had only one of three diseases, group 2 had two, and group 3 had all of three diseases. CFPWV was measured by Complior apparatus. Results. CFPWV was significantly higher in group 3 than in the healthy group, group 1, and group 2 (12.71 ± 2.38 vs 10.11 ± 2.28, 10.70 ± 2.12, and 11.92 ± 2.55, all p<0.05). The level of Hcy was significantly higher in group1, group 2, and group 3 than in healthy subjects, respectively. Levels of Log NT-proBNP and Log UAE were significantly higher in group 3 than in group 1 (2.27 ± 0.4 vs 2.10 ± 0.4, 1.00 ± 0.65 vs 0.68 ± 0.56, both p<0.05). Positive correlation between CFWV and Hcy, Log UAE, and Log NT-proBNP was found in the entire study group (r = 0.109, 0.196, and 0.119, all p<0.05). Multivariate analysis showed that pulse pressure, age, fasting plasma glucose, diastolic blood pressure, body mass index, and Log UAE were independent associating factors of CFPWV in all subjects (β = 0.334, p<0.001; β = 0.333, p<0.001; β = 0.126, p=0.004; β = 0.137, p=0.003; β = −0.142, p=0.002; and β = 0.098, p=0.031). Conclusions. CFPWV was significantly higher in subjects with hypertension, CHD, and DM. There was correlation between CFPWV and biomarkers such as NT-proBNP, Hcy, and urine albumin (microalbumin).
A New Method for Artificial Core Reconstruction of a Fracture‐Control Matrix Unit
Authors: Liu Qiang , Liu Jianjun , Pei Guihong , Zhu Zhengwen , Lei Yun
Published: May 2020

The fracture‐control matrix unit (F‐CMU) is a special body present in low‐permeability fractured reservoirs that can be distinguished by a fracture system and a matrix system. The imbibition phenomenon of the F‐CMU provides the possibility for secondary development of low‐permeability fractured reservoirs because of the driving force including capillary force and gravity. However, the F‐CMU is difficult to obtain during the field core drilling, which has limited the development for laboratory dynamic imbibition tests. Therefore, a new F‐CMU reconstruction method is proposed in this study. According to the geometry and parameters, combining laser engraving technology, the fracture system is designed and engraved. Then, the F‐CMU is established using a three‐dimensional (3D) printed material called polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as fracture support material which has a faster dissolution rate and causes less damage to the core due to water being the solvent. Finally, the porosity, permeability, and wettability of the matrix system and the T2 spectra from nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) before and after reconstruction are measured. In addition, numerical simulation calculation of F‐CMU permeability is performed. The results show that the characteristic parameters of the matrix system hardly change, indicating low damage to the core. The reconstructed fracture system is found on the T2 spectra, and the fracture permeability is consistent by comparing with the experimental and numerical simulation results. The permeability of the fracture system is about 104 orders of magnitude of the matrix system, which is closer to real core and meets the requirements needed for dynamic permeability experiments.
Simultaneous Improvement in the Tensile and Impact Strength of Polypropylene Reinforced by Graphene
Authors: Juan Li
Published: May 2020

The nanocomposites of polypropylene (PP)/graphene were prepared by melt blending. The effects of the dosage of graphene on the flow and mechanical properties of the nanocomposites were investigated. The morphologies of fracture surfaces were characterized through scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The graphene simultaneous enhanced tensile and impact properties of nanocomposites. A 3.22% increase in tensile strength, 39.8% increase in elongation at break, and 26.7% increase in impact strength are achieved by addition of only 1 wt.% of graphene loading. The morphological behavior indicates the fracture surface of PP/graphene is more rough than that of pure PP.
Extensive Superior Vena Caval Territory Thrombosis and Pulmonary Embolism: A Rare Clinical Entity of Haemorrhagic Pancreatitis
Authors: Thineskaran P. , Abiramy K. , Kumanan T. , Sujanitha V. , Suganthan N. , Selvaratnam G.
Published: May 2020

Acute haemorrhagic pancreatitis is a severe form of pancreatitis often encountered in ethanol abuse. Extensive venous thrombosis resulting in pulmonary embolism is a rare presenting clinical entity of acute haemorrhagic pancreatitis. Here, we report a young male with an extensive deep vein thrombosis involving superior vena caval territory associated with haemorrhagic pancreatitis presented with pulmonary embolism managed supportively. Prompt recognition and appropriate intervention of this rare complication would improve the outcome in patients with acute pancreatitis.
Bilateral Vertebral Artery Dissection: A Case Report with Literature Review
Authors: Gomez‐Rojas Olga , Hafeez Adam , Gandhi Nikhil , Berghea Ramona , Halalau Alexandra
Published: May 2020

Vertebral artery dissection (VAD) is a rare cause of ischemic stroke in young patients. The largely nonspecific symptoms and delayed presentation pose a serious diagnostic challenge. Medical management with either anticoagulation or antiplatelet therapy is recommended, but there are no reports of successful dual therapy. We report a case of spontaneous bilateral vertebral artery dissections (VADs) treated with both anticoagulation and antiplatelet therapy and a literature review on clinical presentation and the current medical and surgical management options. A 37-year-old healthy female presented to the emergency department with worsening neck pain and headache for two weeks despite over-the-counter medication, block therapy, yoga, and deep tissue neck massage. She denied any trauma but admitted to multiple roller coaster rides over the past few months. CT angiography was concerning for VADs, and MRI brain revealed multiple strokes in the left posterior inferior cerebellar artery (PICA) territory. Cerebral arteriography confirmed the diagnosis of VADs. The patient was initiated on warfarin, along with atorvastatin and aspirin. She was discharged home with no complications and followed up with neurology as an outpatient. MR angiography after three months revealed complete resolution of the dissection. The patient did not report any bleeding complications from dual therapy.
Boosting Up Operational Performance of Manufacturing Organizations through Interpretive Structural Modelling of Enabling Practices
Authors: Arshad Ali Asif , Mahmood Asif , Ahmad Ayyaz , Ikram Amir
Published: May 2020

For achieving world-class performance and competitiveness in today’s global highly complex environment and competition, there is an immense pressure on manufacturing organizations having limited resources to pursue operational excellence in terms of productivity and quality, reduce cost, and provide high-quality products in shorter lead times. Identification of representative practices affecting operational performance (OP) and understanding of mutual dependence among those practices will improve the performance of manufacturing organizations with available resources. A sample of 10 experts of academicians and senior company managers from different functional areas of large-scale textile, sugar, and cement industries were surveyed to identify critical practices influencing OP and then to develop the relationships among them. It also identifies those practices that support other practices (driving practices) and also those that are most influenced by other practices (dependent practices). Firstly, through in-depth review of relevant literature, 10 most influencing practices were identified. Then expert elicitation was employed, and a hierarchical structure was established by using interpretive structural modelling (ISM) technique. After determining driving and dependence power of practices, classification or clusters of these practices were made through an additionally carried out MICMAC (cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification) analysis. The results contribute that lean management, organizational culture, ISO 9001 (quality management system), and human resource management practices indicate strong driving power and are at the bottom of ISM model. This is a novel and useful application of ISM to identify inherent interactions among these practices and construct a structural graph. With the help of this strategic understanding, researchers and practitioners will be able to identify the focal areas and to pay more attention to driver practices to effectively incorporate them at their strategic and operational levels and the effectiveness in addressing these driver practices will influence the OP to a large extent.
Three-Dimensional MHD Mixed Convection Flow of Casson Nanofluid with Hall and Ion Slip Effects
Authors: Ibrahim Wubshet , Anbessa Temesgen
Published: May 2020

The intention of the present study is to scrutinize the three-dimensional MHD mixed convection flow of Casson nanofluid over an exponentially stretching sheet using the impacts of Hall and ion slip currents. Moreover, the impacts of thermal radiation and heat source are considered in this study. The governing partial differential equations are transformed into a system of joined nonlinear ordinary differential equations using similarity transformations, and they are solved numerically employing a spectral relaxation method (SRM). The obtained results are contrasted with existing specific cases, and a reasonable harmony is established. The impacts of noteworthy physical parameters on the velocities, thermal and concentration distributions, skin friction coefficients, local Nusselt number, and local Sherwood number are investigated graphically. It is found that the rise in Casson fluid and magnetic field parameters reduce the velocity profiles along bothx−andy−directions while the reverse tendency is observed with an increment in Hall, ion slip, and mixed convection parameters. Moreover, the increase in both radiation and heat source parameters enhances the temperature profile. It is also observed that both the skin friction coefficients reduced with an increase in Casson fluid, Hall, and ion slip parameters. Furthermore, the local Nusselt number enhances with an augment in radiation parameter, whereas the opposite trends of local Nusselt and Sherwood numbers are found with an increase in heat source parameter.