bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Bovine colostrum and multidrug resistance: One Health Vision for human consumption
Authors: Jara Marisa Castro , Cardozo Camila dos Santos , Kraus Rosana Basso , Santos Pedro Rassier dos , Svenson Cristina Studzinski , Bohm Bianca Conrad , Brunh Fábio Raphael Pascoti , Nascente Patricia da Silva
Published: April 2024

One Health represents a holistic approach to understanding the interconnectedness of the human-animal-environment triad in the context of achieving health and well-being. In this context, surplus bovine colostrum (BC) not consumed by calves is important due to its potential nutritional value for human consumption. However, it is imperative to ensure their safety and quality to reach the market. It is important to reflect on the presence of pathogenic microorganisms and their multi-resistance to antimicrobials for use in animals and humans, which can have serious consequences for One Health. The objective here was to verify the susceptibility profile of bacteria found in BC and bovine colostrum silage to antibiotics. The strains studied cover the genera Escherichia spp., Klebsiella sp., Enterococcus sp., Staphylococcus spp. and Streptococcus sp.. Susceptibility tests were carried out using the Kirb & Bauer method following guidelines from BrCAST and CLSI (2023). Antibiotics evaluated included quinolones, penicillin, cephalosporins, carbapenems, β-lactamase inhibitors, polypeptides, aminoglycosides, glycopeptides, macrolides, oxalidinones, lincosamines, rifampins, and phenicols. Although the results indicate low overall resistance, the study highlights the presence of multi-resistant bacteria in raw BC and BC silage, highlighting the risk of transmission of these and their resistance genes to humans if rigorous processing measures are not carried out to mitigate the One Health risks.
Association between age-related macular degeneration and the gut microbiota: A two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis
Authors: He Maozhu , Nie Min
Published: April 2024

Objective To assess any potential associations between age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and the gut microbiota.
Methods Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was performed on summary data from genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of the gut microbiota and AMD. The gut microbiota was considered the exposure. Instrumental variables (IVs) were identified from a GWAS involving 7,738 participants. The GWAS for AMD from European cohorts served as the outcome dataset, comprising 8,931 AMD patients and 348,936 controls.
The primary analysis employed the inverse-variance weighted (IVW) method, with sensitivity analysis conducted to assess the robustness and reliability of the MR analysis results.
Results IVW revealed significant associations between specific microbial families/genera and AMD. Notably, the family Peptococcaceae (OR=1.176, 95% CI 1.012 to 1.366, P=0.004), genus Parasutterella (OR=1.167, 95% CI 1.011 to 1.347, P=0.035), and genus Faecalibacterium (OR=1.247, 95% CI 1.071 to 1.451, P=0.034) demonstrated positive causal associations with AMD, while the class Melainabacteria(OR=0.886, 95% CI 0.789 to 0.995, P=0.041) and family Rikenellaceae (OR=0.844, 95% CI 0.726 to 0.981, P=0.027) showed negative causal associations. Sensitivity analysis did not reveal evidence of reverse causality, pleiotropy, or heterogeneity.
Conclusion Utilizing MR, we conducted a comprehensive assessment to investigate the causal effect of 412 gut microbiota species spanning from the phylum to the genus level on AMD. Our study revealed significant positive associations between specific genetic variants related to the family Peptococcaceae, genus Parasutterella, and genus Faecalibacterium and an increased risk of AMD. Our findings provide strong evidence supporting a protective role of certain genetic variants related to the class Melainabacteria and family Rikenellaceae against AMD. These results highlight a potential causal relationship between several gut microbiota taxa and AMD. However, future studies employing MR in larger cohorts and incorporating functional analyses are warranted to elucidate the underlying mechanisms by which genetic variants related to the gut microbiota influence the development of AMD.
Nested Association Mapping in Oat (Avena Sativa L.) Identifies the Location of Multiple Genes Conferring Resistance to the Crown Rust Pathogen Puccinia Coronata f. sp. Avenae
Authors: Argenta Jéssica , Roake Jeremy , Pacheco Marcelo Teixeira , Singh Davinder , Ziems Laura , Park Robert F.
Published: April 2024

Oat crown rust, caused by the fungus Puccinia coronata f. sp. avenae (Pca), is the most destructive foliar pathogen of oat. Almost 100 genes conferring resistance to Pca have been catalogued. However, only limited genes have been mapped, and the chromosomal location of most remains undetermined. The goals of this study were to detect the chromosomal locations of 13 catalogued Pc genes and one uncharacterized but highly effective resistance gene and to identify functions related to them. We used an A. sativa L. nested association mapping population comprising 14 biparental F2:3 families, derived from crosses between a donor carrying Pca resistance and the Pca susceptible variety ‘Swan’. A total of 2,356 F2:3 lines were phenotyped for response to pathotypes of Pca, from which the final AsNAM population of 707 individuals were selected. Based on DArT-Seq genotype data were identified 15,940 high-quality single nucleotide polymorphisms. Using the IBD mixed model, eight resistance QTL to Pca with varying phenotypic variance were identified. The locations of four previously mapped genes were confirmed (Pc38, chr7D; Pc45, chr2D; Pc46, chr3D; Pc50, chr3D), and two genes were mapped for the first time (Pc36, chr1C; Pc70, chr5D). The results revealed some families had a single dominant gene controlling resistance, while others had more complex resistance. Several genes were linked or allelic (Pc13, Pc46, and Pc50 on chr3D; Pc36 and Pc60 on chr 1C; Pc38 and Pc64 on chr 7D). 31 putative genes belonging to eight protein families related with disease resistance were identified in detected QTL regions.
A Multi-Scale Channel Attention Network with Federated Learning for Magnetic Resonance Image Super-Resolution
Authors: Liu Feiqiang , Jiang Aiwen , Chen Lihui
Published: April 2024

Magnetic resonance (MR) images are widely used for clinical diagnosis, whereas its resolution is always limited by some surrounding factors, and under-sampled data is usually generated during imaging. Since high-resolution (HR) MR images contribute to the clinic diagnosis, reconstructing HR MR images from these under-sampled data is pretty important. Recently, deep learning (DL) methods for HR reconstruction of MR images have achieved impressive performance. However, it is difficult to collect enough data for training DL models in practice due to medical data privacy regulations. Fortunately, federated learning (FL) is proposed to eliminate this issue by local/distributed training and encryption. In this paper, we propose a multi-scale channel attention network (MSCAN) for MR image super-resolution (SR) and integrate it into an FL framework named FedAve to make use of data from multiple institutions and avoid privacy risk. Specifically, to utilize multi-scale information in MR images, we introduce a multi-scale feature block (MSFB), in which multi-scale features are extracted and attention among features at different scales is captured to re-weight these multi-scale features. Then, a spatial gradient profile loss is integrated into MSCAN to facilitate the recovery of textures in MR images. Last, we incorporate MSCAN into FedAve to simulate the scenery of collaborated training among multiple institutions. Ablation studies show the effectiveness of the multi-scale features, the multi-scale channel attention, and the texture loss. Comparative experiments with some state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods indicate that the proposed MSCAN is superior to the compared methods and the model with FL has close results to the one trained by centralized data.
On the osteogenic differentiation of dental pulp stem cells by a fabricated porous nano-hydroxyapatite scaffold loaded with sodium fluoride
Authors: Arab Samaneh , Bahraminasab Marjan , Asgharzade Samira , Doostmohammadi Ali , Zadeh Zahra Khatib , Nooshabadi Vajihe Taghdiri
Published: April 2024

In this study, after the extraction of nano-hydroxyapatite (n-HA) powder from carp bone waste, porous n-HA scaffolds were fabricated by a sintering process and subsequently loaded with different amounts of sodium fluoride (NaF) through immersion in NaF suspensions for 10, 7.5, and 5 minutes. The NaF-loaded scaffolds were then examined for their structural properties, loading and release profile, cytotoxicity and osteogenic effect on dental pulp stem cells at the level of RNA and protein expression. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images showed that the scaffolds were porous and had rough surfaces, and NaF could be successfully applied. The NaF loaded on the n-HA scaffolds was 6.43, 4.50, and 1.47 mg, respectively at 10-, 7.5-, and 5-minutes immersion in the NaF suspensions. The NaF release rate was fast during the first hour in all groups (38.6%, 29.7%, and 25.7% for 10, 7.5, and 10 min, respectively), and decreased dramatically thereafter, especially after 6h, indicating a slow detachment of NaF. The results of the cytotoxicity assay rejected any toxicity of the fabricated scaffolds on DPSCs, and the cells could adhere to the scaffold surfaces with enlarged morphology. The results obtained showed no effect on osteogenic differentiation at the protein level. Nevertheless, this effect was observed at the gene level.
Comparison and Prediction of the Ecological Footprint of Water Resources in the Nine Cities and States of Guizhou Province
Authors: Wang Yongtao , Liu Jian , Li Rong , Lu EnHui , Li Shiwen , Chen Ning
Published: April 2024

The study of the ecological footprints of urban water resources is of great significance for sustainable urban development and water resource management. To study the scientific utilization of urban water resources, the water resources of the nine cities and states in Guizhou Province were analyzed from 2013 to 2022 based on the water resources ecological footprint model, the water resources ecological carrying capacity model, and the water resources sustainable utilization evaluation indices. This allowed for a comparison of the regional water resource use status and prediction of the water resources ecological footprints of Guizhou Province from 2023 to 2027 using the long short-term memory (LSTM) model. The results showed that: (1) the ecological footprint of production water use in the nine cities and states of Guizhou Province had fluctuated slightly in the past decade, while both the ecological water use and domestic water use had rapidly risen after 2017. (2) The ecological carrying capacities of the nine cities and states in Guizhou Province were divided into three levels. The three cities at the highest level and with the relatively highest ecological carrying capacities fluctuated the most, and several other cities and states fluctuated less. (3) The nine cities and states in Guizhou Province were in ecological surplus, the pressure indices were all in a safe state, and the fluctuations were relatively smooth, except for in Guiyang City, where the pressure index was relatively high, and the other pressure indices were very small. (4) With economic development, the ecological footprint of water resources per capita of 10,000-yuan gross domestic product (GDP) in Guizhou Province showed a decreasing trend, indicating an improvement in the efficiency of water resource utilization. This study of the ecological footprint of urban water resources helps to realize urban development sustainability, promote effective water resource management, and protect aquatic environments. This study has important implications for the long-term prosperity of cities and the quality of life of residents.
Surgical and Audiological Outcomes of Cartilage Perichondrial Grafting Myringoplasty
Authors: Chalabi Yousif Ibrahim
Published: April 2024

Background: Myringoplasty, which is type 1 tympanoplasty, is the surgical reconstruction of the tympano-ossicular continuity after thorough disease clearance from a tympano-mastoid portion of the middle ear cleft. The success of the myringoplasty, a reconstruction of the vibrating tympanic membrane, is in hearing improvement and the closure of the tympanic membrane perforation.
Objectives: To determine the surgical and audiological results of myringoplasty (tympanoplasty type-1) using cartilage perichondrium graft.
Patients & methods: A prospective study was conducted on 100 patients with tympanic membrane perforation (TMP) at Sulaimani Ear-Nose-Throat (ENT) Teaching Center and Azmar Private Hospital, Sulaimaniyah, Iraq, from June 2013 to June 2016. Patients underwent TM repair using an underlay cartilage perichondrium graft and were followed up for three months after surgery. Graft taking with the closure of perforation was considered a surgical success, and hearing improvement of 10 dB as the minimum gain was regarded as an audiological success.
Results: The overall success rate was 84%. The graft take rate for large-sized perforation was 80%, and for medium-sized perforation was 90%. The success rate for posterior perforation was 100%, followed by anterior perforation (84.6%) and subtotal perforation (70%). The mean postoperative hearing gain was 11.5 dB.
Conclusions: The cartilage perichondrium graft underlay technique for myringoplasty tympanoplasty type 1 is an effective method for closure of the tympanic membrane perforations and, consequently, improving hearing provided that a thorough disease clearance from Middle ear cleft was secured.
Best Respiratory Compliance Following a Recruitment Maneuver Allows Hemodynamically Stability During Laparoscopic Surgery: a Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial
Authors: Ma Xiaojing , Ma Libin , Piao Xiangmei , Fu Yunke , Santiago Roberta Ribeiro Santis , Berra Lorenzo , Guo Zhenggang , Mi Weidong , Zhang Changsheng
Published: April 2024

Background
Strategies involving positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) and alveolar recruitment maneuvers (RMs) aim to provide better respiratory mechanics and prevent atelectasis but may have adverse cardiovascular effects. We hypothesized that individualized PEEP to best lung compliance should be hemodynamically well tolerated as it restores normal lung volumes in patients undergoing laparoscopic surgery.
Methods
This study analyzed the cardiovascular effects of individualized PEEP in laparoscopic surgery patients. Cardiac index [CI], mean arterial pressure [MAP], heart rate [HR], stroke volume variation [SVV] changes were recorded and analyzed during RMs and decremental PEEP trials.
Results
Sixty-four patients were enrolled in this study. Our findings revealed that the hemodynamic effects, including reduction in CI (p < 0.001), MAP (p < 0.001), and increase in SVV (p < 0.001), were transient and not associated with vasopressors requirement. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis demonstrated that PEEP levels above 17 cmH2O significantly affected CI (Area Under the ROC Curve = 0.638), while post-hoc analysis from ANOVA indicated that PEEP levels below 16 cmH2O had minimal impact on CI (p < 0.001). Notably, individualized PEEP levels led to decreased CI in 10 (16%) patients and decreased MAP in 11 (17%) patients. Mixed effects modeling showed that age negatively influenced MAP (Estimate = -0.207, p = 0.010).
Conclusion
RMs and decremental PEEP trials transiently affect hemodynamics such as CI, MAP and SVV, and age negatively influencing MAP. PEEP levels below 16 cmH2O had minimal impact on hemodynamics. Notably, individualized PEEP levels do not guarantee consistent hemodynamic stability across all individuals.
Study URL: https://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.html?proj=123129
Date of the study first posted on ChiCTR.org.cn: Apr 7th, 2021
Date of enrolment of the first research participant: May 6th, 2021
Accelerated biological aging, genetic susceptibility, and incident severe MASLD, liver cirrhosis and cancer
Authors: Tian Tian , Zeng Jing , Meng Shi-Yin , Wang Xiang , Zhang Shang-Xin , Fan Jian-Gao , Pan Hai-Feng , Ni Jing
Published: April 2024

Background
There is an explicit link between biological age (BA) and chronic liver disease (CLD). This study aimed to explore the association between clinical biomarker-based BA and potential interaction with genetic risk on incident CLD.
Methods
This prospectively cohort study was conducted in UK Biobank included 347,917 participants. We quantified clinical biomarker-based BAs using the KDM-BA and PhenoAge algorithms and constructed the polygenic risk score (PRS) to examine its interactions with BAs on CLD risk.
Results
We first identified acceleration for KDM-BA (KDM-BAaccel) and PhenoAge (PhenoAgeAccel) were significantly associated with prevalent severe metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), as well as liver cirrhosis and cancer. Each SD increase in KDM-BAaccel and PhenoAgeAccel was correlated with an 10% elevated risk of MASLD. Particularly, we observed the deleterious effects of advanced biological aging on three CLDs in males were mostly stronger than in females. In predicting MASLD, the two BA indicators showed better performance than chronological age, with AUC values of 0.526, 0.571 and 0.595 for chronological age, KDM-BAaccel and PhenoAgeAccel, respectively. Moreover, individuals with the highest BA acceleration and PRS had the highest risk of developing severe MASLD, although no significant additive and multiplicative interactions were found. Additionally, participants who at a high genetic risk level had the greatest 10-year absolute risk reduction of severe MASLD (6.74 per 1000 person-years) if their PhenoAgeAccel decreased.
Conclusion
Our findings elucidate that relieving biological aging is important for preventing serious fatty liver-related diseases and could offset the adverse effects of inherent genetic risk.
Inefficient Labor-Saving Technological Change Due to Frictions in the Labor Market
Authors: Perera-Tallo Fernando
Published: April 2024

Is labor-saving technological change efficient when labor market frictions arise? Does it exacerbate them? This paper presents a growth model with R&D and two types of technological change: labor-saving technological change, which reduces the labor share (the output elasticity of labor), and labor-complementary, which increases it. The paper presents two kinds of friction in the labor market: unemployment and dual labor markets. When there are dual labor markets, the marginal product of labor and the wages are higher in the “good-jobs sector” than in the “bad-jobs sector,” involving an inefficiently low amount of labor allocated to the good-jobs sector. Labor-saving technological change exacerbates the source of inefficiency in the labor market. It raises unemployment and destroys jobs in the good-jobs sector, generating negative external effects in the labor market. Consequently, investment in labor-saving technological change is inefficiently large and should be taxed. The results regarding labor-complementary technological change are the opposite.
JEL: D60, E24, J31, J50, J60, H21, H23, O30, O41.
Plants that have naturalized as aliens abroad have also become more common at home during the Anthropocene
Authors: Paudel Rashmi , Fristoe Trevor , Kinlock Nicole , Davis Amy , Zhao Weihan , Calster Hans Van , Chytry Milan , Danihelka Jiří , Decocq Guillaume , Ehrendorfer-Schratt Luise , Kaplan Zdeněk , Wild Jan , Dawson Wayne , Essl Franz , Kreft Holger , Pergl Jan , Pyšek Petr , Winter Marten , Kleunen Mark van
Published: April 2024

Changes in species' native range size and occupancy have been dramatically accelerated by anthropogenic pressures in the last centuries. At the same time humans have introduced thousands of species beyond their historic range limits, and some of these have established self-sustaining populations (i.e. become naturalized). It is known that particularly common plant species have become naturalized, but how dynamics in native distributions relate to global naturalization is unknown. We retrieved data on grid-cell occupancy of native vascular plant species for 10 European regions, for at least two periods, to calculate for each species an occupancy-change index. For nine of the ten regions, we found a significant increase in global naturalization with both the early period occupancy and occupancy-change index. This finding shows that many of the plant species expanding globally as naturalized aliens are also expanding within their native ranges and suggests that the same drivers underlie both processes.
Association of Cholecystectomy with Short-term and Long-term Risks of Depression and Suicide
Authors: Yu Ji Won , Park Sangwoo , Jeong Seogsong , Ko Ahryoung , Lee Jaewon , Han Saemi , Park Sang min
Published: April 2024

Background: This study explores the relationship between cholecystectomy and short- and long-term depression and suicide risk in Korean adults.
Method: A retrospective cohort study used data from the National Health Insurance Service of Korea (2002-2019). A total of 6,688 cholecystectomy patients were matched with 66,880 individuals without a history of cholecystectomy for suicide analysis, and 6,694 cholecystectomy patients were matched with 66,940 individuals for depression analysis. The non-cholecystectomy group was created by matching the experimental group at a 1 to 10 ratio for sex and age. The incidence of depression and suicide was followed from the day of cholecystectomy to December 31, 2019. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression was used to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
Results: Short-term depression risk within 3 years of cholecystectomy was significantly elevated (aHR 1.37 [95% CI 1.19-1.58]), but the long-term depression risk over 3 years was not significantly greater (aHR 1.09 [95% CI 0.98-1.22]). There was no significant association between cholecystectomy and suicide risk during any period.
Conclusions: Cholecystectomy correlated with a higher risk of short-term depression, underscoring the importance of close monitoring and support postoperatively. However, no such association was observed with long-term depression or suicide.
Maladaptive exercise in eating disorders: lifetime and current impact on mental health and treatment seeking
Authors: liao zhenxin , Birgegård Andreas , Monell Elin , Borg Stina , Bulik Cynthia M , Mantilla Emma Forsén
Published: April 2024

Background Many patients with eating disorders report exercise as a central symptom of their illness—as a way to compensate for food intake, prevent weight-gain, and/or reduce negative affect. Previous findings show associations between maladaptive exercise and more severe eating disorder pathology, higher risk for relapse, other co-morbid symptoms, and worse treatment outcome.Methods In this study, we included 8165 participants with eating disorders and investigated associations between maladaptive exercise (both lifetime and current) and ED pathology, illness duration, depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicidal ideation, and treatment seeking patterns in individuals with lifetime maladaptive exercise. Participants were included via the Swedish site of the large global study The Eating Disorders Genetics Initiative (EDGI) and completed measures of both lifetime and current symptomatology.Results Results indicate that lifetime maladaptive exercise is associated with higher prevalence of lifetime depression and anxiety and with patients more often receiving treatment, although these results need to be investigated in future studies. Current maladaptive exercise was associated with more severe ED symptoms, and higher levels of depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive traits, and suicidal ideation.Conclusions Our findings point to the complexities of exercise as an eating disorder symptom and the need for clearly assessing and acknowledging this, as well as tailoring interventions to treat this symptom to achieve sustainable recovery.
Anesthetic management of a patient with bilateral subclavian artery stenosis undergoing lower extremity arterial thrombectomy
Authors: Yong Hui , WU Chun-lin , He Ming-xia , Ding Wei , Xie Qian
Published: April 2024

Background Bilateral subclavian artery stenosis is a rare peripheral artery disease. This case study presents a patient who underwent an emergency thrombectomy for this condition.
Case presentation The diagnosis of bilateral subclavian artery stenosis was confirmed through perioperative measurement of radial arterial blood pressure in both upper limbs and postoperative examination.
Conclusion The study highlights the crucial need for accurately measuring blood pressure in all limbs to prevent perioperative complications resulting from inaccurate readings, delayed interventions, or unnecessary procedures.
Effect of local Zoledronic acid application in alveolar bone healing: An experimental study
Authors: Su Xin-Yi , Li Shu , Fan Ying-Ying , Wei Tai , Ye Peng
Published: April 2024

Objectives:This experimental study aimed to assess the effects of local ZA application in alveolar bone healing.
Methods:Nine male New Zealand White Rabbits were randomly allocated into 2, 4, and 8 weeks group after extraction of four incisor teeth. The upper and lower right sockets were filled with ZA + collagen sponge (ZA-CS group), while the left sockets were filled with collagen sponge alone (CS group) postoperatively. At 2, 4, and 8 weeks (T1, T2 and T3) after the extraction, radiographic and histomorphometric evaluations were conducted for both groups.
Results: The increase in alveolar bone density of the ZA-CS group at T3 was more significant than the CS group (P＜0.01). Three-dimensional evaluations demonstrated no statistically significant differences in ridge height and width between the two groups at T3. On histological evaluation, the ZA-CS group included significantly fewer TRAP-positive cells than the CS group at T1 and T2. Masson’s trichrome staining showed significantly higher mean red collagen volume fraction in the ZA-CS group (76.09%) than in the CS group (66.17%) at T3.
Conclusions: Although local ZA application with collagen sponge did not reduce alveolar ridge contraction, it improved the bone density and maturity of newly formed bone after tooth extraction. Thus, local ZA application seems to be effective for alveolar bone healing, albeit it might not be suitable for ridge preservation.
Detection and Delineation of Lateral and Vertical Extent to Fresh-Saline Water Boundary: Recent Development in Badagary Axis of the Dahomey Basin, Nigeria
Authors: OJO Olabanji Adeolu , Babafemi Emmanuel Olumuyiwa , Jabo Stephen Margima , Hussaini Sunday , Akinlabi Joseph Oluwafemi , Saidu S.S
Published: April 2024

This research is aimed at detecting evidence of saline water intrusion in the aquifers, delineate the depth to and lateral extent of saline water incursion into the Badagary area of Dahomey Basin, South western Nigeria. This was done by combining information derived from water quality analysis, geophysical well logs, lithologic logs and geophysical field data. Groundwater samples were collected from shallow wells and abandoned deep wells close to the vertical electrical sounding (VES) points. Variations in resistivity of the subsurface downwards were measured from six (6) different points using the VES technique along six traverses that covers about 1 kilometer long. VES data were interpreted using the RES 2D inversion tool Result from water quality test revealed saline water incursion into the aquifers with values of Na+ concentration found to be as low as 76 mg/l in Badagary well 2, a shallow well and as high as 162 mg/l in Badagary well 4, an abandoned deep well. Cl− values range from as low as 257 mg/l in Badagary well 6 and as high as 321 mg/l in well 3, an average of 287.83 mg/l. Na+ and Cl− ions contributing about 70% of the concentration of the cations and the anions. The results of geophysical study revealed that the Badagary axis of Dahomey Basin exhibit a multi-aquifer system having three levels of aquifers as follows: shallow unconfined aquifer unit which exist around 30–40 meters deep at the hinterland, intermediate semi-confined and confined aquifer at about 40–120 meters deep and deeper confined aquifer unit occurring at about 40–150 meters deep or at the coast at about 120–270 meters deep. The aquifers are thick at greater depths towards the coast but thins out at shallower depths around the hinterland except in certain cases where thick sequence of Coastal Plain Sands confines the aquifers at the hinterland. Results from geophysical field data interpretation and lithologic logs indicates saline water incursion especially in areas that borders the Atlantic Ocean. To date, saline water incursion has extended up to about 2,265 meters from the sea shore and about 138 meters deep in boreholes.
Development of Immersive 360° Virtual Reality Videos for Intervention with Test Anxiety
Authors: DOĞAN Uğur , ÜZMEZ Halil , DAĞILGAN Elif Betül , SARICAOĞLU Halim , ACAR Sinem , ÖZKARACA Osman
Published: April 2024

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of 360-degree virtual reality videos on simulating test anxiety among students who already experience it. In this study, which used a phenomenological design, one of the qualitative research methodologies, various questions were asked of the students about their immersion in the virtual environment. Questions such as "How much did the visual elements of the environment draw you in?", "How convincing were the feelings that the video objects evoked?", "How quickly did you adapt to the virtual environment?", "How much did you feel involved in the virtual environment?" and "How deeply did you experience your senses during this encounter?" were asked. The study aimed to determine the level of interaction with the virtual world, the realism of the environment, and the intensity of emotional experiences in the simulated test environment by utilizing the insights and experiences of the students. The research was conducted with a cohort of seven students (four girls and three boys) who met the predetermined study criteria. The obtained data were subjected to content analysis to obtain meaningful insights. The findings revealed that exposure to virtual reality created an effective sense of reality among users. Participants who shared their experiences confirmed that 360-degree VR videos triggered test anxiety symptoms similar to those experienced during real tests, increasing their sense of immersion in the virtual environment. Users also stated that distressing emotions that are intensely experienced during real tests intensified similarly when they were exposed to 360-degree VR videos. In particular, individuals with test anxiety reported that unwanted emotions were stimulated more prominently through exposure to 360-degree VR videos compared to exposure based on imagination alone. In this context, exposure to 360-degree VR videos yielded expected results and showed potential to be a powerful tool, although not superior to in vivo (real-life) exposure.
Oral Administration of Probiotic Spore Ghosts for Efficient Attenuation of Radiation-Induced Intestinal Injury
Authors: Zheng Cuixia , Niu Mengya , Kong Yueyue , Liu Xinxin , Zhao Hongjuan , Song Qingling , Zhang Dandan , Hong Chen , Li Junxiu , Wang Lei
Published: April 2024

Radiation-induced intestinal injury is the most common side effect during radiotherapy of abdominal or pelvic solid tumors significantly impacting patients’ quality of life and even resulting in poor prognosis. Until now, oral application of conventional formulations for intestinal radioprotection remains challenging with no preferred method available to mitigate radiation toxicity in small intestine. Our previous study revealed that nanomaterials derived from spore coat of probiotics exhibit superior anti-inflammatory effect and even prevent the progression of cancer. The aim of this work is to determine the radioprotective effect of spore coat (denoted as spore ghosts, SGs) from three clinically approved probiotics (B.coagulans, B.subtilis and B.licheniformis). All the three SGs exhibit outstanding reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging ability and excellent anti-inflammatory effect. Moreover, these SGs can reverse the balance of intestinal flora by inhibiting harmful bacteria and increasing the abundance of Lactobacillus. Consequently, administration of SGs significantly reduce radiation-induce intestinal injury by alleviating diarrhea, preventing X-ray induced apoptosis of small intestinal crypt epithelial cells and promoting restoration of barrier integrity in a prophylactic study. Notably, SGs markedly improve weight gain and survival of mice received total abdominal X-ray radiation. This work may provide promising radioprotectants for efficiently attenuating radiation-induced gastrointestinal syndrome and promote the development of new intestinal predilection.
Analysis of oral microbiota diversity in Medication-Related Osteonecrosis of the Jaws based on 16S rDNA sequencing: A preliminary research
Authors: Cao Ruirui , Zhang Jian
Published: April 2024

Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore the diversity of oral flora in MRONJ patients and assess the differences between MRONJ patients and individuals with common oral infections.
Methods: We investigated the oral microbial species and diversity of 33 subjects (10 in group R1, MRONJ patients; 6 in group R2, patients who have used antiresorptive drugs but without MRONJ; 9 in group R3, patients without history of antiresorptive drugs but have oral infection; 8 in group C, healthy controls without oral disease) , through the utilization of 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing technology.
Results: MRONJ patients (group R1) exhibited a higher species diversity of oral flora. The oral microbiota composition of patients in the group R1 was significantly different from that of the group C. Dominant microbes in the R1 group included Porphyromonas gingivalis, Treponema denticola, Prevotella intermedia, Prevotella nigrescens, Campylobacter showae, Porphyromonas endodontalis and Dialister pneumosintes, which are closely associated with the pathogens of dental infections. There was a significant difference in the oral microbiota between group R1 and group R3, with some microbial communities having a significantly higher relative abundance in the R1 group. These differential communities at the genus level included Prevotella and Ligilactobacillus, and at the species level, Prevotella intermedia was notable. In this study, the oral microbiota composition of patients in the group R2 showed no significant differences compared to the group C.
Conclusion: Although the sample size is small, the results of this study preliminarily demonstrate the oral microbial diversity in patients with MRONJ. The dominant oral microbiota in MRONJ patients, closely related to periodontitis and root canal infections, suggests that infections associated with dental tissue could be potential factors leading to the onset or exacerbation of MRONJ.
Knowledge level of Neonatal Resuscitation and Its Associated factors among Healthcare Professionals at Asella Referral and Teaching Hospital, in Southeast Ethiopia.
Authors: Wubishet Mesfin , Assefa Tadesse , G/Meskel Tesfa , Zelalem Hiwot , Shimelis Betre
Published: April 2024

Background: Neonatal resuscitation is a critical intervention to save newborns’ life from the state of asphyxia. When performed Effectively by knowledgeable healthcare providers, it can significantly reduce neonatal mortality and morbidity associated with birth asphyxia. However, studies have shown that many health professionals, particularly in low-resource settings like Ethiopia, lack adequate knowledge and skills in neonatal resuscitation. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the knowledge level of health professionals towards neonatal resuscitation and its associated factors.
Method: An institutional-based cross-sectional survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire. The survey targeted all health professionals working in the Delivery and Neonatal Intensive Care Units of the hospital. Data were entered and verified using Epi-data version 4.6 and analyzed using SPSS version 26. A binary logistic regression model was used and, a P-value < 0.05 with a 95% confidence interval was used to declare a statistically significant association.
Results: The study showed that the majority, 83.2% of health professionals had poor knowledge regarding neonatal resuscitation. Factors significantly associated with a knowledge level of neonatal resuscitation were, being trained in neonatal resuscitation (AOR = 5.39, 95% CI [1.44-20.20]), being male (AOR = 5.80, 95% CI [1.16–29.09]), belonging to a specific profession (AOR = 8.94, 95% CI [1.36-58.68]), receiving supportive supervision (AOR = 3.39, 95% CI [1.01, 11.43]), and achieving a good attitude score (AOR = 5.36, 95% CI [1.52, 18.87]).
Conclusion: The overall knowledge level of health professionals regarding Neonatal Resuscitation was poor. Factors significantly associated with participants’ knowledge include receiving neonatal resuscitation training, having supportive supervision, belonging to a specific profession, being male, and achieving a good Attitude score. Therefore, to improve knowledge retention, it is recommended to organize regular and simulation-based neonatal resuscitation training. Furthermore, incorporating basic neonatal resuscitation procedures into undergraduate and postgraduate medical education can enhance students’ knowledge as they serve in the community.
Predictive validity and reliability of the Poisoning Severity Score in a pediatric poisoned population: a multicenter retrospective study
Authors: Canitrot Elisabeth , Moore Lynne , Turgeon Alexis F. , Charbonney Emmanuel , St-Onge Maude
Published: April 2024

Background: The Poisoning Severity Score (PSS) aims to assess the severity of poisoned patients based on their clinical presentation. In the absence of a validated severity score for assessing pediatric intoxications in clinical toxicology, we aimed to evaluate the predictive validity and reliability of the PSS in measuring poisoning severity and toxicity progression in poisoned children.
Methods: We conducted a multicenter retrospective cohort study using health records data from children aged 0 to 17 years poisoned by a carbo-adsorbable substance and managed in the emergency department at three academic centers in Québec, Canada. Logistic regression was used to estimate the accuracy of the initial PSS and the 12-hour delta PSS to predict hospital admission, intensive care unit admission, a hospital stay ≥ 12 hours, and the need for follow-up after discharge. Its performances were compared to that of the Pediatric Logistic Organ Dysfunction Score (PELODS) using the DeLong test for paired data. Inter-rater reliability of the PSS was measured using weighted Kappa coefficients.
Results: Of the 469 subjects included in the study, an initial PSS of 0 was observed for 97% of non-admitted subjects versus 58% of admitted subjects (p<0.05). The AUC-ROC of the PSS ranged from 0.626 (95% CI 0.581-0.670) to 0.690 (95% CI 0.649-0.506) for hospital admission. The AUC-ROC of the PSS were < 0.75 for all outcomes in the unadjusted models but significantly superior or equivalent to those of the PELODS (p≤0.05). Inter-rater reliability was good for the initial PSS (Kappa 82%) and moderate for the 12-hour delta PSS (Kappa 77%).
Conclusion: The Poisoning Severity Score appears to be a valid and reliable score to measure the severity of poisoning and the toxicity progression in poisoned children presenting to the Emergency Department within 12 hours of ingestion of a carbo-adsorbable substance, even if its discrimination remains poor.
Multimodal Query Enhancement for Image Retrieval using Transformer Networks - MQIRTN
Authors: Hosseini Seyed Mohammad Bagher , Bakhshandeh Soodeh
Published: April 2024

In today's world, with the dramatic increase of digital data and the variety of information, image recovery plays a very vital role in people's lives. For example, imagine a person in an online store looking for a dress similar to a friend's dress, but with distinct criteria such as blue flowers and red flags. The main challenge in this field is the existence of a semantic gap between the user's intention and the machine's understanding. The goal of image retrieval using multivariate (image-text) queries is to reduce this gap. An effective retrieval searches for images matching specific variations specified in a text expression related to the image. Existing methods use Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and recurrent neural networks (LSTM) to extract image and text features that do not express the semantic relationships between the image and text well. In this regard, in order to improve these profiles, a transformer-based architecture is presented. In this research, Vision Transformer (ViT) is used to extract image features and Bidirectional Encoder (BERT) is used to extract text features. After combining the image and text features and applying the attention mechanism on images and text to enhance visual and text understanding. The proposed model of this research is inspired by deep metric learning and seeks to reduce the distance between the image and the input text with the searched images and the user's intent. In addition, a symmetric constraint has been used to improve the model indices. The evaluation results show that the proposed approach from the base model provides better performance in multimodal query-based image retrieval. To reproduce the results of this research, our source code is available at: https://github.com/smb-h/mqirtn
Genetic overlap between impaired lung function and cardiovascular diseases revealed by a large-scale genome-wide cross-trait analysis
Authors: Wu Dongsheng , Zhou Jian , Lyu Mengyuan , Zheng Quan , Wang Tengyong , Huang Yuchen , Liu Lunxu
Published: April 2024

Background
Increasing evidence have highlighted the phenotypic association between impaired lung function and cardiovascular diseases (CVD), but underlying shared genetic basis contributing to this association remain largely unexplored.
Methods
Utilizing summary data from the large-scale genome-wide association studies, our investigation delved into several aspects: the global and local genetic correlations, pleiotropic loci, and causal association between lung function and three prevalent CVD, namely coronary artery disease (CAD), heart failure (HF), and stroke.
Results
Our findings revealed significantly negative genetic correlations between lung function and CAD (rg = -0.20 to -0.17), HF (rg = -0.18 to -0.17), and stroke (rg = -0.17 to -0.16). After separating the whole genome into 2,353 independent regions, we determined 13, 4, and 3 significant regions for CAD, HF, and stroke with lung function, respectively. Furthermore, the global and local shared genetic basis were confirmed by the identification of multiple pleiotropic loci and multiple shared gene–tissue pairs. The pleiotropic loci were largely enriched in brain-related tissues, while shared gene-tissue pairs exhibited significant enrichment across nervous, cardiovascular, digestive, endocrine/exocrine, and respiratory systems. Mendelian randomization analysis demonstrated a significant causal association of genetically predicted lung function with CAD [OR (odds ratio) = 0.69 to 0.72] and stroke (OR = 0.81 to 0.90) but not with HF. No evidence of reverse causality was found.
Conclusions
These findings comprehensively uncover a shared genetic architecture as well as a causal association between impaired lung function and CVD, emphasizing the opportunity to enhance the quality of existing intervention strategies.
Cancer mortality and sectors of employment: a cohort study in Italy, 2011-2019
Authors: Massari Stefania , Bauleo Lisa , Gariazzo Claudio , Michelozzi Paola , Bardi Luca Dei , Zengarini Nicolas , Maio Sara , Stafoggia Massimo , Davoli Marina , Viegi Giovanni , Cesaroni Giulia , Marinaccio Alessandro
Published: April 2024

Background
Cancer is known to be a multifactorial disease, i.e. a combination of multiple factors, such as genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors influences its development (1, 2). The large impact of occupational exposures on the burden of cancer continues to be a paramount public health concern that deserves more attention.
Methods
The study aims at evaluating cancer-specific mortality risk in relation to sectors of employment by by using the cohort of Rome Longitudinal Study (ROLs) that has been linked with the National Social Insurance Agency (INPS) database to enrich it with information on working histories. A Cox regression models was used to examine the association between the cancer specific cause of death and the sector of employment in men and women. A similar analysis was performed considering the length of employment (£ 10 years versus ³ 10 years).
Results
The study population comprised 910,559 (52% of the total population of the cohort after linkage with INPS) 30+ yr employees (53% men and 47% women) followed for a mean period of about 7 million years. The outcomes confirmed some well-known associations (e.g. lung and pleura in construction, pleura in paper and printing, lung and prostate in wood and leather) and suggested possible high-risk sectors that have not been thoroughly investigated yet. In women, we found excess mortality risk in cleaning activities, chemical industry, transport, health services and agriculture.
Conclusions
The study concludes that occupational exposure in certain industrial sectors significantly influences cancer mortality rates among workers in Italy, in traditional sectors such as construction and wood and leather products and in unexpected sectors e.g. accommodation services and hairdressing. The adopted method proved to be effective in monitoring occupational risks and activating proper prevention initiatives.
Evaluation of empirical erosion and sedimentation models in the semi-humid and alpine regions: case of Mazdaran watershed, North of Iran
Authors: Alavinia Seyed Hassan , Motaghian Masoud
Published: April 2024

Soil erosion is a global problem that increasingly contributes to soil degradation. Although erosion analysis requires the availability of erosion and sedimentation data, the lack of sediment monitoring stations and the resulting limitations in collecting sediment measurements have necessitated the use of experimental models in many areas. The aim of the present study was to compare FSM and MPSIAC models for estimating erosion in the Mazdaran Basin (Firoozkuh, Iran). For this purpose, the required maps were prepared for both models and the erosion rate was estimated using the two models to compare their efficiency using the corresponding relative error (RE), root mean square error (RMSE) and coefficient of determination (R2) values. The results showed that, considering erodibility based on the FSM model, the studied catchment consisted of regions with a high and very high erosion rate, while the MPSIAC model identified regions with low, medium and high erosion rates. With an R2 value of 0.73, an RE value of 0.88% and an RMSE value of 3.23, the MPSIAC model provided more accurate estimates of the erosion rate in the studied area. Using the MPSIAC model, soil erosion was estimated at 18142.45 tons per year (i.e. 6.22 tons/ha per year), which is three times higher than the naturally occurring soil erosion rate. The high erosion rate in this area underlines the importance of erosion control measures in the region.