bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Significance of Education for Sustainable Menstrual Hygiene Management Practices: A rapid review
Authors: Pednekar Sulochana , Some Shreya , Thakore Renuka , Rivankar Kajal
Published: July 2022

This paper highlights the crucial role of education in the menstrual hygiene management, growth and development of a country, gender equality and women’s empowerment, which are integral parts of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Half of the world’s population are women, and women have specific needs to manage the menstrual cycle during their lifetime. To manage the bleeding during the menstrual cycle, girls and women use different products, depending on their accessibility and affordability. They are a) disposable – one-time use products such as disposable pads, tampons, and b) reusable products – reusable products such as cloth, washable and reusable cloth pads, menstrual cups, and period panties. On average, women use 6–8 sanitary napkins per cycle and generate approximately 125 kg of menstrual waste during menstruating. The literature search revealed that there are limited studies related to the use of menstrual products and the impacts of these products on women’s health and the environment. A rapid review of the literature identified factors responsible for choosing a particular type of menstrual product, the perceptions of women using the products, and their implications on the health and environment. The study concluded with the need to study the type of menstrual products preferred by women using appropriate variables, address the issues of disposal systems, provide adolescent girls with adequate infrastructure, and provide access to affordable sanitary products and gender equity to manage their periods with dignity, suggesting further investigation in menstrual hygiene management.
Robust and predictive 2D/3D-QSAR models for predicting the activities of novel pleuromutilin derivatives as antibacterial agents
Authors: Wang Fangfang , Zhou Bo
Published: July 2022

In recent years, antibiotics have been widely used and even caused abuse, many kinds of bacteria are becoming more and more resistant to existing antibiotics. Drug resistance has become a major problem to be solved, therefore, development of novel antibiotics is imperative. Studies have proven that novel pleuromutilin derivatives would provide powerful means to solve the problem of medical infection of drug-resistant pathogens, thus, it is noteworthy to in-depth study this series of derivatives. Therefore, the antibacterial activity of a series of novel pleuromutilin derivatives were investigated by 2D-QSAR and 3D-QSAR modeling. The CoMFA and CoMSIA methods were conducted to build up the 3D-QSAR models. Satisfactory statistical parameters (R2cv=0.608, R2pred=0.8596 for S. aureus-25923/CoMFA, R2cv=0.780, R2pred=0.8030 for S. aureus-25923/CoMSIA; R2cv=0.588, R2pred=0.6062 for MRSE-51625/CoMFA, R2cv=0.571, R2pred=0.5998 for MRSE-51625/CoMSIA; R2cv=0.604, R2pred=0.8061 for MRSA-337371/CoMFA, R2cv=0.737, R2pred=0.8241 for MRSA-3373715/CoMSIA; R2cv=0.704, R2pred=0.7504 for S. dysgalactiae/CoMFA, R2cv=0.683, R2pred=0.7852 for S. dysgalactiae/CoMSIA; R2cv=0.708, R2pred=0.7663 for S. agalactiae/CoMFA, R2cv=0.734, R2pred=0.6692 for S. agalactiae/CoMSIA) were obtained. To validate the results of 3D-QSAR models, MLR method was used to develop the 2D-QSAR models, which would provide structural information for the ligand modification. All the results would be of great help for the design of new antibacterial agents.
Raising CPR to 50% by 2025 in Pakistan: An analysis of number of users and service delivery channels
Authors: Abdullah Mujahid , Bilal Faiq , Khan Romesa , Ahmed Azadeh , Khawaja Aamir Ashraf , Sultan Faisal , Khan Adnan Ahmad
Published: July 2022

Background Pakistan is the fifth most populous country in the world with a population growing at 2.4% annually. Despite considerable political will, including a national commitment that was endorsed by the President to raise contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) to 50% by 2025, it has stagnated around 30-35%. Much of the dialogue on raising CPR is hypothetical and revolves around percentage point change rather than actual number of women that must be served. Methods DHS 2017-18 informs about the channels from which users avail their methods and disaggregates this information at the provincial level. Proportions of users from each of these channels were multiplied with Pakistan Census 2017 populations to arrive at the number of users. These users were compared with the total FP users and the number of women that availed any FP service in the past 12 months. Linear estimations of population were applied to calculate population numbers in 2025. Results National target of 50% CPR by 2025 translates into a population of 20.02 million users. Currently 11.26 million MWRA use any method, 8.22 million use a modern method and 4.94 million availed their method in the past 12 months. Of these 2.7 million did so from social marketing outlets, 0.76 million from public sector outreach (LHW), 0.55 million from private and 0.88 million from public sector facilities. However, arriving at CPR target means expanding annual service delivery from 4.94 to 13.7 million users. Since social marketing and LHW outreach may have become saturated, only health facilities are the likely channels for such an expansion. Conclusions We demonstrate triangulation of survey with census as a simple policy analysis tool that can help decision makers estimate the quantum of services they must provide. Such an analysis also allows an understanding of utilization patterns of each of these channels. In Pakistan’s context, under-utilization of funds and existing facilities suggest that increased funding or more providers will be unlikely helpful. The most effective policy changes that will likely help include adding outreach to support existing public and private sector facilities while ensuring that procurement of commodities is prioritized.
Uretero-neocystostomy: a retrospective comparison of open, laparoscopic and robotic techniques
Authors: Ramesmayer Christian , Pallauf Maximilian , Gruber Ricarda , Kunit Thomas , Oswald David , Lusuardi Lukas , Mitterberger Michael
Published: July 2022

BACKGROUND: Uretero-neocystostomy (UNC) is the gold-standard for distal-ureter repair. Whether the surgery should be conducted minimally invasive (laparoscopic (LAP), robotic RAL)) or open remains unanswered by the literature.METHODS: Retrospective analysis of surgical outcome of patients treated with UNC for distal ureteral stenosis (January 2012-March 2021). Patient demographics, estimated blood loss (EBL), surgical technique, operative time, complications and length of hospital stay (LOS) were recorded. During the follow-up period, patient underwent renal ultrasound and kidney function tests. Success was defined as relieve of symptoms or no findings of obstruction needing urine drainage. RESULTS: 57 patients were included (6 RAL, 25 LAP, 26 open). The different cohorts were similar of age, gender, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score, body-mass index and history of prior treatment of the ureter. No intraoperative complications were detected in all groups. There was no conversion to open surgery in the RAL group, whereas one was found in the LAP arm. Six patients had a recurrent stricture, but with no significant difference between the cohorts. EBL was not different between the groups. LOS was significantly lower in the RAL group compared to LAP and open (7 vs. 9. vs. 13 days, p=0.030), despite significantly longer operating times (164.5 vs. 193.1 vs. 125.5 minutes, p=0.007). CONCLUSIONS: RAL UNC is a feasible and safe surgical method and provides similar results in terms of success rates in comparison to LAP and open approach. A shorter LOS could be detected. Further prospective studies need to be done.
Novel method to predict nonvisible symptoms using machine learning in cancer palliative care
Authors: Shimada Kazuki , Tsuneto Satoru
Published: July 2022

Purpose: Patients with cancer at the end of life may find it difficult to express their symptoms if they can no longer communicate verbally because of deteriorating health.Methods: In this study, we assessed these symptoms using machine learning. We conducted a clinical survey of 213 cancer patients from August 2015 to August 2016. We divided the reported symptoms into two groups—visible and nonvisible symptoms. Our machine learning model used patient background data and visible symptoms to predict nonvisible symptoms: pain, dyspnea, fatigue, drowsiness, anxiety, delirium, inadequate informed consent, and spiritual issues.Results: The highest and/or lowest values for prediction accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity, respectively, are as follows: 88.0%/55.5%, 84.9%/3.3%, and 96.7%/24.1%.Conclusion: This work will facilitate better assessment and management of symptoms in patients with cancer. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to predict non-visible symptoms using decision tree analyses for patients with cancer receiving palliative care. Notably, applications based on our results may assess symptoms to the same extent as healthcare professionals.
Evaluation of intracellular water lifetime of glioma cells measured using Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI with two flip angles
Authors: Kiser Karl , Zhang Jin , Das Ayesha Bharadwaj , Tranos James A. , Wadghiri Youssef Zaim , Kim S. Gene
Published: July 2022

This manuscript aims to evaluate the robustness and significance of the intracellular water lifetime (τi) parameter estimated using the two flip-angle Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced (DCE) MRI approach. The repeatability of contrast kinetic parameter measurement was assessed by a test-retest experiment (n=7). The association of τi with cellular metabolism was investigated through DCE-MRI and FDG-PET experiments (n=7). Tumor response to a combination therapy of bevacizumab and fluorouracil (5FU) monitored by contrast kinetic parameters including τi (n=10). Test-retest experiments demonstrated compartmental volume fractions (ve and vp) remained consistent between scans while the vascular functional measures (Fp and PS) and ti showed noticeable changes, most likely due to physiological changes of the tumor. The standardized uptake value (SUV) of tumors has a strong negative linear correlation with ti (R2=0.838), a positive correlation with Fp (R2=0.504), and weak correlations with ve (R2=0.150), vp (R2=0.077), PS (R2 =0.117), Ktrans (R2 =0.088) and whole tumor volume (R2=0.174). In the treatment study, the ti of the treated group was significantly higher than the control group one day after bevacizumab treatment and increased significantly after 5FU treatment compared to the baseline. This study results support the feasibility of measuring τi using the two flip-angle DCE-MRI approach in cancer imaging.
Analysis of Mueller-Muller Clock and Data Recovery Circuits with a Linearized Model
Authors: Gu Youzhi , Feng Xinjie , Chi Runze , Chen Yongzhen , Wu Jiangfeng
Published: July 2022

With the development of high-speed analog-to-digital converter (ADC) based wireline receivers, Mueller-Muller clock and data recovery (MM-CDR) circuit also get more and more attention. But in the design stage, the MM-CDR circuit used in ADC-based wireline receiver is difficult to evaluate its loop performance, owing to the lack of linearized model of Mueller-Muller phase detector (MMPD). In this paper, by analyzing the slope and distribution of the signal at different positions, a linearized model of MMPD is proposed and the model is combined with an entire MM-CDR system to analyze the performance of the MM-CDR loop. Through the analysis of the linearized model and the verification of the actual simulation, we can know that when the VREF level in the MMPD is set equal to the amplitude of the main-cursor h0, the MMPD can obtain the maximum gain, and the jitter transfer function and jitter tolerance can achieve optimum performance.
Comparison of the DRASTIC+L and Modified VABHAT models in vulnerability assessment of Karaj Aquifer, Central Iran, using MCDM, SWARA, and BWM methods
Authors: Shakeri Reza , Alijani Farshad , Nassery Hamid Reza
Published: July 2022

One of the most important and perilous groundwater contaminants is nitrate, which is considered a potential environmental risk in Iran and an international issue globally. The study area is the Karaj unconfined aquifer, Central Iran, subjected to quantity and quality hazards due to unbalanced urban, industrial, and agricultural developments. Evaluation of the vulnerability condition of this aquifer against nitrate as the Contamination index is essential since the most amount of consumption water in the area is provided from groundwater. The study aims to detect vulnerable zones of the Karaj aquifer using DRASTIC + L and Modified VEBHAT vulnerability models. The weighting of the parameters has been performed employing the recent Multiple-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) methods, including Stepwise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA) and Best Worst Method (BWM). The results demonstrated that the most vulnerability had occurred from the east to the south of the aquifer (high to super-critical), including urban and residential areas, regarding both the vulnerability models' plots. The plots of the two methods are similar and did not exhibit considerable differences. The Modified VEBHAT has more certainty than the DRASTIC + L and has optimized and improved the DRASTIC + L model because the most vulnerable zone in the output plots of the Modified VEBHAT model is in the east of the aquifer, which has good agreement with the nitrate contaminant mass with the highest concentration.
DS4NN: Direct training of deep spiking neural networks with single spike-based temporal coding
Authors: Mirsadeghi Maryam , Shalchian Majid , Kheradpisheh Saeed Reza
Published: July 2022

Backpropagation is the most popular and common algorithm for training of traditional deep neural networks. Herewe propose temporal version of backpropagation to directly train spiking neural networks with deep structure andsingle spikebased temporal coding scheme (DS4NN). We consider a convolutional spiking neural networkconsisting of simple non-leaky integrate-and-fire (IF) neurons, and a temporal coding known as timeto-first-spikecoding. These together lead to lower computational cost and higher inference speed. We use surrogate gradient atfiring times to solve the non-differentiability of spike times with respect to membrane potential of spiking neurons,and to prevent the emergence of dead neurons in deep layers, we propose a relative encoding scheme fordetermining desired firing times. Evaluations on two classification tasks of MNIST and FashionMNIST datasetsconfirm the capability of DS4NN on deep SNNs. It achieves the accuracy of 99.3% and 91.6% on respectivelyMNIST and FashionMNIST datasets with the mean required number of 1126 and 1863 spikes in the whole network.This shows that the proposed approach can make fast decisions with low cost and high accuracy.
Phytoplankton Bloom Changes during Three Regime Shift derived from Sea Ice Concentration in Ross Sea, Antarctica
Authors: Jo Young-Heon , Bae Dukwon , Yang Hyunjin , Park JinKu , Kim Hyun-Cheol
Published: July 2022

Sea ice concentration (SIC) plays an important role in the Antarctic polynyas, especially biological changes through chlorophyll-a (CHL) concentration phenology. To understand how much SIC changes affect CHL, the regime shift index (RSI) was applied to SIC anomaly and we obtained three regimes: 1997–2004 for Regime 1 (R1), 2005–2016 for Regime 2 (R2), and 2016–2019 for Regime 3 (R3). Based on reconstructed daily remotely sensed CHL observations using a random forest algorithm with 11 physical predictors, our analysis revealed that: (1) the earlier the SIC melting time, the earlier the CHL bloom peaks for each regime resulting from sea ice melting duration and physical forces; (2) SIC changes account for 10%-12.5% of CHL variation, which is the first estimation in the Ross Sea polynya; and (3) although they are significantly influenced by SIC changes, the 11 physical predictors for CHL were more dominant for each regime. Thus, these results could explain why CHL decreased even in with unprecedent decrease in Antarctic SIC from 2016. Therefore, this quantitative analysis can estimate the contribution of SIC formation and physical environmental parameters to CHL changes based on the random forest machine learning algorithm.
End of life care needs in cancer patients at home: A retrospective study on clinical, geographical and socio-cultural differences
Authors: Ostan Rita , Varani Silvia , Pannuti Francesco , Pannuti Raffaella , Biasco Guido , Bruera Eduardo
Published: July 2022

Purpose. Palliative care (PC) is recognized by a National Law in Italy, a country with a National Health Service covering the entire territory. However, the Italian PC system still presents regional heterogeneity, particularly regarding home care. Timely, effective and personalized identification of the multi-dimensional needs in advanced cancer patients are major goals of appropriate PC delivery. This retrospective study aims to describe geographical patterns in clinical and demographic characteristics at the inception point and their association with the intensity of care during the last month of life in advanced cancer patients assisted at-home. Methods. Cancer patients entered in home PC during 2020 in Italy were considered. The association between home PC services during the last month of life (primary outcome) and demographic data, performance status (KPS), symptoms, therapies at the entry was explored. Results. Among 1721 consecutive patients (919 in Centre-North and 802 in Centre-South Italy), patients from Centre-South were younger (p<.001), had worse KPS (p<.001), and shorter survival (p=.010). Patient age was inversely associated with the number of total/physician/nurses services during the last month of life (p<.001, p=.001, p=.008, respectively). Patients with severe symptoms (asthenia, pain and anxiety) at inception needed more PC services at the end-of-life (p=.026, p=.008, p=.038, respectively). The distribution of workload differed according the geographical area, with higher number of PC services provided by physicians (p<.001) in Centre-North and by nurses (p=.002) in Centre-South. Conclusion. These findings highlight major disparity in access and nature of PC in a country with universal access to health services.
In vitro Green Globular Body Induction, Proliferation and Plantlet Regeneration of Adiantum reniforme var. sinense
Authors: Lin Cheng-Wei , Shih Chia-Hung , Chu Yu , Kao Chien-Yuan
Published: July 2022

The induction of green globular bodies (GGBs) represents an unique phenomenon in the tissue culture of pteridophytes. In this first attempt study GGBs were induced with the embryos of Adiantum reniforme var. sinense. The influences of basal salts, plant growth regulators, sugar concentrations, and gelling agents on the proliferation and differentiation of GGBs were examined. The highest induction rate of GGBs resulted from Murashige & Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with benzyl aminopurine (BA) (0.1 mg L−1) and 1-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) (0.15 mg L−1). The subsequent proliferation of GGBs required a higher concentration of NAA (10 mg L−1) to have the highest fresh weight of 0.29 g. However, cytokinins, such as BA, kinetin (KT), and thidiazuron (TDZ), exhibited inhibitory effects on GGB proliferation. Hyponex was superior to MS medium in terms of GGBs proliferation and differentiation, which led to the highest fresh weight (1.72±0.63 g) and shoot number (7.25±1.89) after 60 days of cultivation. Among different sucrose concentration in media, GGBs cultured with 15 g L−1 sucrose had the highest fresh weight (1.01 g). Gelling agents also showed evident effects on the proliferation of GGBs, and the fresh weight of GGBs cultured in gelrite medium was approximately three times greater than that of GGBs cultured in agar medium. Distinct histological characteristics of embryos and GGBs were revealed by paraffin sections. All regenerates from GGBs survived in the greenhouse, with normal appearances, after acclimation in the medium of peat soil and pearlite (1:1).
Discernment of cerebral amyloid and cognitive status using ultrasensitive blood biomarkers collected with a non-traditional anticoagulant
Authors: Green Zachary D. , Kueck Paul J. , John Casey S. , Burns Jeffrey M. , Morris Jill K.
Published: July 2022

Background: The development of biomarkers that are easy to collect, process, and store is a major goal of current Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) research, and underlies the growing interest in plasma biomarkers. Biomarkers with these qualities will improve confidence in diagnosis and allow for better monitoring of therapeutic interventions. However, blood collection strategies have historically differed between studies. We examined the ability of various ultrasensitive plasma biomarkers to predict cerebral amyloid status in cognitively unimpaired individuals when collected using acid citrate dextrose (ACD). We then examined the ability of these biomarkers to predict cognitive impairment, independent of amyloid status. Methods: We measured amyloid beta 42/40 ratio, pTau-181, neurofilament-light, and glial fibrillary acidic protein using the Quanterix Simoa® HD-X platform. To evaluate the discriminative accuracy of these biomarkers in determining cerebral amyloid status, we used both banked plasma and 18F-AV45 PET cerebral amyloid neuroimaging data from 140 cognitively unimpaired participants. We further examined their ability to discriminate cognitive status, by leveraging data from 42 cognitively impaired older adults. This study is the first to our knowledge to examine these specific tests using plasma collected using acid citrate dextrose (ACD), as well as the relationship with amyloid PET status. Results: Plasma AB42/40 had the highest AUC (0.833, 95% C.I. 0.767-0.899) at a cut-point of 0.0706 for discriminating between the two cerebral amyloid groups (sensitivity 76%, specificity 78.5%). Plasma NFL at a cut-point of 20.58pg/mL had the highest AUC (0.908, 95% CI 0.851-0.966) for discriminating cognitive impairment (sensitivity 84.8%, specificity 89.9%). The addition of age and apolipoprotein e4 status did not improve the discriminative accuracy of these biomarkers. Conclusions: Our results suggest that Aβ42/40 ratio is useful in discriminating clinician-rated elevated cerebral amyloid status, and that NFL is useful for discriminating cognitive impairment status. These findings reinforce the growing body of evidence regarding the general utility of these biomarkers, and extend their utility to plasma collected in a non-traditional anticoagulant.
Single-phase earth fault line selection method based on ICEEMAN grid
Authors: Lu Ming , Liu Zezhong , He Xianke , Chen Zuguo , Zou Ying
Published: July 2022

The neutral resonant grounding system occurs when the single-phase ground fault redundant fault information and the traditional fault routing party to the fault signal characteristics of the poor degree of self-adaptive extraction, routing accuracy is low and other problems. This paper proposes a single-phase ground fault routing method for distribution networks based on Improved Complete Ensemble Empirical Modal Decomposition of Noise (Improved complete ensemble EMD, ICEEMAN) and Stacking ensemble learning. Firstly, the transient zero-sequence currents are separated by combining the ICEEMAN and HHT energy spectra for the I.F. eigenmode components (IMF) and the transient non-I.F. component IMF. Then, the sample entropy of the transient non-working frequency component IMF is calculated as the fault feature. Finally, the Stacking ensemble learning model is built to select the fault lines. The experimental results show that this paper's new line selection method can accurately select the fault line under different fault locations, transition resistance, fault initial phase angle, and added noise. The adaptability and accuracy of the method in this paper are further verified by comparing it with EEMD-SVM and ICEEMDAN-Bagging, and thus it has strong robustness.
Effects of land-cover characteristics, physiochemical variables and river connectivity on fish assemblages in a lowland basin
Authors: Zhang Zhiming , Gao Junfeng , Cai Yongjiu
Published: July 2022

Human disturbances (e.g., land-use changes, dam construction, and pollutant emissions) can have severe environmental impacts on freshwater ecosystems. The main aim of this study was to detect the influences of physiochemical variables, land-cover characteristics, and river connectivity on fish assemblages in Lake Chaohu Basin, China. A cluster analysis of the river connectivity variables identified four groups of sites that were characterized by significantly different river-connectivity and longitudinal gradients in local scale. These four groups of sites showed increasing connectivity from the upper reaches to the lower reaches. At the same time, among the four groups, the values of the environmental variables generally increased from the upper reaches with less human activity towards the lower reaches with more human activities. For instance, some main physiochemical variables (e.g., river width, water depth, total phosphorus, nitrate, phosphate, and dissolved organic carbon) significantly increased among the four groups. In contrast, fish taxa richness and diversity indices were not significantly different among the four connectivity groups. However, fish assemblages showed significant variation among the connectivity groups (global R = 0.089, p = 0.026). In addition, the study determined that upper riparian land uses (e.g., woodland and grassland), flow velocity, and elevation were environmental variables regulating the variance in the fish communities, and for the connectivity variables, only river order and number of branches along a path to the left of the main stem affected the variance in the fish communities. Therefore, new practices aimed at maintaining and even increasing the riparian canopy coverage and the flow velocity of rivers should be integrated into local conservation planning for freshwater ecosystems, especially in the upper reaches of the basin.
Filling gaps in historical earthquake archive by geo-archaeological methods: a case history from Italy
Authors: Falcone Francesca , Valerio Eugenio di , Salvia Vasco La , Rosatelli Gianluigi , Perna Maria Grazia , Frances Rachel , STOPPA Francesco
Published: July 2022

All over the world, archaeological sites, which have alternated destruction and reconstruction following strong earthquakes can disclose important historical / seismological data. Particularly instructive is the case of St. Angel cave in Palombaro (Abruzzo Region, Italy). Combining the geological, archaeological, archaeometrical and chronachistic study, we constrained the seismic history of the last 1000 years of a large area of central Apennines of Italy, and therefore results are of wide interest. This place reveals various phases of worship, confirming itself as a place of religious importance bridging the gap between paganism and Christianity. The lithostratigraphy of the area made possible to practice water-worship, as deduced by a system of tubs present in the cave. The interpretation of the cult refers to chthonian divinities in charge of thaumaturgic properties symbolically linked to endogenous geologic phenomena. A rupestrian church from the 10th-11th -century was built and reported in a 1064 CE chronicle as dedicated to St. Michael Archangel. Two vast collapses of the church, have been documented by the archaeological stratigraphy, dating of the archaeological finds, layering of the church walls, and changes in style and building materials. Geoarchaeological data, combined with the chronicles, suggests that the first collapse should be attributed to the 1209 CE earthquake (Mw >>6, I HD). Therefore, the failure of the Church of St. Angel would represent the first evaluated point of the seismic damage extension, assessable to the IX MCS intensity. A more recent collapse is attributed to the 1706 CE earthquake (Mw 6.8, I XI MCS). Finally, the remains of the church were seriously damaged and spoiled after the 1933 earthquake (Mw 5.9, I IX MCS) and then poorly restored.
Operando condition reaction modeling shows highly dynamic attachment of oligomeric ruthenium catalysts
Authors: Trivino Juan Angel de Gracia , Ahlquist Mårten
Published: July 2022

To increase the stability and current density of molecular-catalyst-based electroanodes for water oxidation immobilization of the catalysts at the electrode surface is a common strategy. A prominent example it the oligomerized Ru(tda) molecular catalyst which showed outstanding current densities even at neutral pH values. One of the most challenging aspects of immobilized catalysts is to understand the interaction between the catalyst and the surface under operando conditions. Experiments are often performed under model conditions and computational methods to study reaction steps are typically limited to a few hundred atoms. In this study, we combined three computational methods, density functional theory electronic structure computations, molecular dynamics for large scale simulations of the catalyst-solid interaction, and empirical valence bond for reaction modeling the catalyst at the interface of a large carbon support and a phosphate water buffer. These techniques allowed us to explore the combined effects of solvent, hydrophobic directionality, and electric field on the attachment and reactivity of a Ru(tda) pentamer at a graphene surface. Our simulations have perfect agreement with the experimental characterization under model conditions. However, we find that under operando conditions, where the catalyst is oxidized to the active RuV state, with a phosphate containing electrolyte and an applied electric field, the attachment is completely reversed compared to the model conditions with RuII and organic solvents. This reversed attachment leads to a water excluded region close to the active RuV=O center. The EVB reaction modeling showed that the reaction could still proceed to form an O-O bond via the oxide relay mechanism where a dangling carboxylate reacts with the oxo via nucleophilic attack. We find that the activation energy is identical in water solution and at the electrode surface, showing how this mechanism is key to highly active molecular water oxidation catalysts immobilized on surfaces. Since attachment to surfaces could have strong, and often negative, influence on the reactions this study provides a guideline in how to model reactions without compromising the complexity of the electrode environment.
Coupling strategy between high-index and mid-index micro-metric waveguides for O-band applications
Authors: Skandalos Ilias , Bucio Thalia Dominguez , Mastronardi Lorenzo , Rutirawut Teerapat , Gardes Frederic Y.
Published: July 2022

The integration of fast and power efficient electro-absorption modulators on silicon is of utmost importance for a wide range of applications. To date, Franz Keldysh modulators formed of bulk Ge or GeSi have been widely adopted due to the simplicity of integration required by the modulation scheme. Nevertheless, to obtain operation for a wider range of wavelengths (O to C band) a thick stack of Ge/GeSi layers forming quantum wells is required, leading to a dramatic increase in the complexity linked to sub-micron waveguide coupling. In this work, we present a proof-of-concept integration between micro-metric waveguides, through the butt-coupling of a 1.25 μm thick N-rich silicon nitride (SiN) waveguide with a 1.25 μm thick silicon waveguide for O-band operation. A numerical analysis is conducted for the design of the waveguide-to-waveguide interface, with the aim to minimize the power coupling loss and back-reflection levels. The theoretical results are compared to the measured data, demonstrating a coupling loss level of 0.5 dB for TE and TM polarisation. Based on the SiN-SOI interconnection, a theoretical analysis of a quantum-confined Stark effect (QCSE) stack waveguide coupled to an SiN waveguide is then proposed.
An Efficient Method to Compute the Stationary Probabilities of the GIX/M/c/N Model
Authors: Taha Muhammad El , Michaud Thomas
Published: July 2022

Consider the batch-arrival GIX/M/c/N model with c servers, general inter-arrival batch times, finite buffer, and exponential service times. Inter-arrival batch times, batch sizes, and service times are i.i.d. and independent of each other. In this article we give a simple efficient algorithm to derive an exact solution for the steady state system size probabilities. The starting point is computing the one-step transition probabilities of the imbedded Markov chain observed at the system arrival epochs of the the corresponding G/M/c model. The one-step transition probabilities are computed exactly by converting a numerical integration problem into a finite sum. Another key contribution is generating the transition probabilities of the batch-arrival model by using a simple and intuitive method to extend the results of the standard GI/M/c model to batch arrivals with and without a finite buffer, and in the case of finite buffer with partial and full batch rejection. Moreover, we develop an efficient stable algorithm that can accurately solve problems with a larger number of servers than previously known. We give numerical examples to demonstrate the performance of our method.
Lnc NR2F1-AS1 promotes breast cancer metastasis by targeting miR-25-3p/ZEB2 axis
Authors: Zhou Yu , Zhai Duanyang , Kuang Xiaying , Shao Fangyuan , Zhen Tiantian , Lin Ying , Wang Qing , Shao Nan
Published: July 2022

Background: Long noncoding RNAs (LncRNAs) has been demonstrated to have a considerable effect on tumor metastasis and are aberrently expressed in a variety of cancers. Nevertheless, its role in breast cancer (BC) remains incompletely inventoried.Methods: The microarray assay of differentially expressed lncRNAs in epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and non-EMT cells was performed. The prognostic value of lnc NR2F1-AS1 expression in BC patients were analyzed in the TCGA database. Lnc NR2F1-AS1 expression level in different BC cell line were assessed by qPCR. The role of lnc NR2F1-AS1 in BC cell metastasis was investigated in vitro and in vivo. Dual luciferase reporter assay and RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) were performed to uncover the relationship between lnc NR2F1-AS1, miR-25-3p, and ZEB2. Results: High level of lnc NR2F1-AS1 was observed in BC cells undergoing EMT and was clolsely correlated with adverse prognosis in BC patients. Lnc NR2F1-AS1 knockdown notably inhibited BC cell migration, invasiveness in vitro and metastasis in vivo. Mechanistically, lnc NR2F1-AS1 competitively bind with miR-25-3p to impede the degradation of ZEB2, which is a positive EMT transcription factor in BC. Conclusions: Taken together, our study reveals a novel lnc NR2F1-AS1/miR-25-3p/ZEB2 axis for BC metastasis and indicate that lnc NR2F1-AS1 may serve as a potential therapeutic target for breast cancer metastasis.
Comparative antibacterial analysis of the anthraquinone compounds based on the AIM theory, molecular docking and dynamics simulation analysis
Authors: Qi Yanjiao , Wang Mingyang , Zhang Bo , Liu Yue , Song Li , Jin Nengzhi , Zhang Hong
Published: July 2022

Hydroxyanthraquinones and anthraquinone glucoside derivatives are always considered as the active antibacterial components. Comprehensive comparison and analysis of these compounds were performed for their structure characteristics and antibacterial effect by applying quantum chemical calculations, atoms in molecules theory, molecular docking and dynamics simulation procedure. The molecular geometric configuration, stability, electrostatic potential, the frontier orbital energies and topological properties were analyzed. Once glucose ring is introduced into the hydroxyanthraquinone rings, almost all of the positive molecular potentials are distributed among the hydroxyl hydrogen atoms of the glucose rings. In addition, low electron density ρ (r) and positive Laplacian value of the O-H bond of the anthraquinone glucoside are the evidences of the highly polarized and covalently decreased bonding interactions. The anthraquinone glucoside compounds have generally higher intermolecular binding energies than the corresponding aglycones due to the strong interaction between the glucose rings and the surrounding amino acids. Molecular dynamics simulations further explored the stability and dynamic behavior of the anthraquinone compound and protein complexes through RMSD, RMSF, SASA and Rg. The type of carboxyl, hydroxyl, hydroxylmethyl groups on phenyl ring and the substituent glucose rings are important to the interactions with the topoisomerase type II enzyme DNA gyrase B.
The Relationship between Academic Stress and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Behavior among Adolescents in Ethnic Areas: The Moderating Effect of Self-efficacy and Parental Supports
Authors: LAN Zhensong , Pau Kee , Yu Hapsah Md , Huang Xuefang , Xu Ruiying
Published: July 2022

Background
Due to China's large population and uneven distribution of educational resources, teenagers are faced with various competitions from birth, coupled with the importance parents attach to education in Chinese culture, which undoubtedly makes teenagers bear more pressure. Academic stress has always been one of the main pressures faced by Chinese adolescents, and there is a strong link between academic stress and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) behavior of Chinese adolescents.
Methods
a cross-sectional study was conducted in 10 randomly selected middle schools in Guangxi Province, China to examine the relationship between academic stress and adolescents' NSSI behavior, and to further analyze the relationship between adolescents' self-efficacy and parental support in stress and NSSI. A total of 2344 children were included in the analysis, including 1142 boys (48.72%) and 1202 girls (51.28%). Descriptive statistics will be used to understand the levels of adolescents' NSSI, academic stress, self-efficacy, and parental support; T-tests will be used to compare differences in adolescents' NSSI across demographic characteristics, academic achievement, and family economic status. A multiple linear regression model was used to examine the interaction between academic stress and NSSI in terms of adolescents' self-efficacy and parental support.
Results
The prevalence of NSSI was not significant among adolescents of different ethnic groups (t=-1.48, p = 0.139), but academic stress had a positive effect on adolescents' NSSI behavior (R = -0. 246, p < 0.01). Self-efficacy and parental support can moderate the relationship between academic stress and NSSI behavior, and the moderating effect of parental support is stronger than that of self-efficacy; the interaction of self-efficacy and parental support has a negative effect on the relationship between adolescent stress and NSSI behavior, but for adolescents with high level of self-efficacy, the more parental support, the more likely it is to cause adolescent NSSI behavior.
Conclusion
Academic stress has a negative effect on adolescents' NSSI behavior, and self-efficacy and parental support can alleviate the negative effect of adolescent stress on NSSI behavior. However, it is necessary to provide appropriate parental support for adolescents with different levels of self-efficacy.
How does long-term artificial intervention select the microbial community? A case study of the cellar mud chronosequence in the Chinese liquor brewing ecosystem
Authors: Zhong Xiaozhong , Chai Lijuan , Zeng Yan , Zhang Xiaojuan , Lu Zhenming , Liu Guangqian , Tu Tingyao , Lu Lingfei , Zhang Rui , Yu Hui , Zhang Suyi , Wang Songtao , Shen CaiHong , Shi Jinsong , Xu Zhenghong
Published: July 2022

Background: Despite artificial selection being proposed to engineer microbiome from the top down to obtain the desired practical phenotypes, we lack the empirical evidence regarding the feasibility of the community-level selection. Chinese liquor fermentation for centuries caused sustained shifts of the diversity and structure of the microbial community within the cellar mud, thus providing an ideal ecosystem to study the microbiome evolution under long-term artificial selection. While multiple previous studies have reported the microbial diversity of cellar mud microbiome, few have resolved the metabolic roles of the microbial community and their relationships with cellar mud aging. Results: We used genome-centric metagenomics to analyze the microbial community of cellar mud samples (n=120) for four ages spanning 100 years. Our results showed that cellar mud microbiota was dominated by Bacteroidota, Firmicutes, and Halobacteriota lineages, with the discovery of diverse novel species. Metabolic reconstruction of these microorganisms indicated that macromolecules hydrolysis, fatty acid chain elongation, syntrophic fatty acid oxidation, and methanogenesis pathways were core functions of the cellar mud microbial ecosystem. During cellar mud initiation, we identified Bacteroidota with high hydrolysis capability as the dominant community members. Contrastingly, the proportion of Bacteroidota in mature and deep aging cellar mud decreased, while that of Firmicutes with potential of syntrophic fatty acids oxidation and methanogens increased. Metabolic potential of fatty acid chain elongation was stable throughout the development of cellar mud, with taxonomic variation being observed against environmental change. Conclusions: This study unravels the structure, function, and succession of microbial communities inhabiting the cellar mud, with changing metabolic cross-feeding interactions for environmental adaption. Our findings provide fundamental and comprehensive knowledge for exploring the impact of artificial ecosystem selection on the microbial community.
Single-Cell Analysis of Cell-Type Specific Immune Response in Pneumococcal Meningitis
Authors: Zhang Yujie , Duan Jing , Lin Sufang , Wen Jialun , Liao Jianxiang
Published: July 2022

Streptococcus pneumoniae is a Gram-positive, human-specific commensal infectious pathogen that can lead to death worldwide, especially in children under five. A deeper understanding of the immune response in pneumococcal meningitis (PM) has high scientific importance. In this study, we performed single-cell RNA sequencing of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from PM patients and healthy individuals. Both platelets and neutrophils were found with higher proportions in the PM group compared to the control group. Of the differentially expressed genes (DEGs), the genes involved in the immune functions of neutrophils were up-regulated in many immune cells, including platelets, myeloid cells and B cells, suggesting excessive neutrophil activation; while the genes involved in antigen processing and presentation in myeloid cells and B cells were down-regulated in the PM group, which indicated adaptive immune deficiency in the PM patients. Consistently, the proportions of plasmacytoid dendritic cells and T cells were decreased. Furthermore, genes involved in cytotoxity were down-regulated in both NK cells and T cells, and T cell activation was deficient. Many DEGs were also enriched in some signaling pathways that mediate interactions between S. pneumoniae and immune cells, including the Toll-like receptor pathway, the Nucleotide oligomerization domain-like signaling pathway, and the tumor necrosis factor signaling pathway. In conclusion, our study provided a global characterization of S. pneumoniae-induced systemic immune responses, which may have implications for identification of potential targets to improve the immune response in PM.
New record of brachyuran crabs from the Visakhapatnam coast, Andhra Pradesh
Authors: Kumar J. S. Yogesh , Mahapatra Parnasree , Sen Arya , Panda Pradip
Published: July 2022

Two species of brachyuran crabs from two families, Eucrate indica Castro & Ng, 2010 belonging to the family Euryplacidae and another one is Liagore rubromaculata (De Haan, 1983) belonging to the family Xanthidae are reported for the first time from the Visakhapatnam coast, Andhra Pradesh. The crabs were collected from the Visakhapatnam fishing harbour in the trawl bycatch during the reef and reef-associated faunal survey along Andhra coast. The morphological features, taxonomical systematic, colour and distribution of these crabs are discussed herein.
Axonal Spectrum Imaging (AxSI): In-Vivo mapping of axonal diameter distributions in the human brain
Authors: Gast Hila , Horowitz Assaf , Krupnik Ronnie , Barazany Daniel , Lifshits Shlomi , Ben-Amitay Shani , Assaf Yaniv
Published: July 2022

In this paper we demonstrate a generalized and simplified pipeline called axonal spectrum imaging (AxSI) for in-vivo estimation of axonal characteristics in the human brain. Whole-brain estimation of the axon diameter, in-vivo and non-invasively, across all fiber systems will allow exploring uncharted aspect of brain structure and function relations. While axon diameter mapping is important in and of itself, its correlation with conduction velocity will allow, for the first time, the explorations of information transfer mechanisms within the brain. We demonstrate various well-known aspects of axonal morphometry (e.g., the corpus callosum axon diameter variation) as well as other aspects that are less explored (e.g., axon diameter-based separation of the superior longitudinal fascicules into segments). Moreover, we have created an MNI based mean axon diameter maps over the entire brain for a large cohort of subjects providing the reference basis for future studies exploring relation between axon properties, brain function, physiology and behavior.
Outcomes of the crushing and ligation technique for pancreatic dissection: A cohort study
Authors: Abe Kyohei , Okamoto Tomoyoshi , Matsumoto Michinori , Futagawa Yasuro , Yanaga Katsuhiko
Published: July 2022

Background
Prevention and treatment of postoperative pancreatic fistulas is a crucial problem associated with pancreaticoduodenectomies and distal pancreatectomies. The objective of this study was to determine the outcomes of the “crushing and ligation” technique for liver dissection during pancreaticoduodenectomy and distal pancreatectomy procedures.
Methods
We evaluated the outcomes of 44 patients who underwent pancreatic dissections using the crushing and ligation technique and 44 patients who underwent the ultrasonically activated scalpel technique. Operative duration, blood loss, length of hospital stay, incidence of postoperative pancreatic fistulas (grade BC), and postoperative drainage amylase fluid level were compared between groups.
Results
Postoperative pancreatic fistulas (grade BC) occurred in 2 (8.0%) and 13 (44.8%) patients in the pancreaticoduodenectomy-crushing and ligation and pancreaticoduodenectomy-ultrasound groups, respectively (p = 0.0026). The pancreaticoduodenectomy-crushing and ligation group had significantly lower maximum amylase levels in drainage fluid (p = 0.0387) and significantly longer operative durations (p = 0.0422), but a shorter postoperative length of hospital stay (p = 0.0159), than the pancreaticoduodenectomy-ultrasound group. Postoperative pancreatic fistulas (grade BC) occurred in 2 (10.5%) patients in the distal pancreatectomy-crushing and ligation group, which was significantly lower than in the distal pancreatectomy-ultrasound group (7 patients, 46.7%).
Conclusion
Crushing and ligation may lead to better outcomes and fewer complications than the conventional ultrasonically activated scalpel technique.