bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Financial Risk Prediction and Entrepreneurs’ Psychological Status Under Entrepreneurial Psychology
Authors: Liang Xiao , Yang Ying , Ruan Wenxi , Liu Ji , Zhang Bo , Xu Zheng , Xu Shaojun
Published: January 2022

Entrepreneurship plays an important role in the development of national economy. The study aims to accelerate the construction of social and economic structure by improving the success rate of new entrepreneurs in the process of innovation and entrepreneurship. First, the related theories of financial risk prediction are introduced, and entrepreneurial psychological status and the psychological states on entrepreneurship are analyzed. Second, the current situation of entrepreneurial psychology of new entrepreneurs is analyzed through a questionnaire survey and model test. The results show that private enterprises account for the largest proportion, with a percentage of 58.14% of 125. In total, 32 Chinese-foreign joint ventures rank second and account for 14.88% of the total, and the scale of each type of enterprises accounts for 25%, respectively. The operating years of enterprises are mainly between 10 and 20 years. Among the enterprises surveyed, the significant level of entrepreneurial psychology and entrepreneurial opportunity of entrepreneurs is p = 0.000–0.01. It indicates that males’ psychological adjustment ability and entrepreneurial ability in the entrepreneurial process are higher than females’, and their entrepreneurial psychological states and entrepreneurial ability will improve with the growth of age, education levels, and positions. It is concluded that entrepreneurial psychological capital and entrepreneurial opportunity are significantly positively correlated with financial risk expectation. The research results prove the impact of financial risks on the entrepreneurial psychology of new entrepreneurs, and provide a reference for new entrepreneurs in predicting financial risks.
Systematic Review on Information Technology Approaches to Evaluate the Impact of Public Health Campaigns: Real Cases and Possible Directions
Authors: Pinto Rafael , Silva Lyrene , Valentim Ricardo , Kumar Vivekanandan , Gusmão Cristine , Oliveira Carlos Alberto , Lacerda Juciano
Published: January 2022

Evaluating the success of a public health campaign is critical. It helps policy makers to improve prevention strategies and close existing gaps. For instance, Brazil's “Syphilis No!” campaign reached many people, but how do we analyze its real impact on population awareness? Are epidemiologic variables sufficient? This study examined literature on using of information technology approaches to analyze the impact of public health campaigns. We began the systematic review with 276 papers and narrowed it down to 17, which analyzed campaigns. In addition to epidemiological variables, other types of variables of interest included: level of (i) access to the campaign website, (ii) subject knowledge and awareness, based on questionnaires, (iii) target population's interest, measured from both online search engine and engagement with Social Network Service, and (iv) campaign exposure through advertising, using data from television commercials. Furthermore, we evaluated the impact by considering several dimensions such as: communication, epidemiology, and policy enforcement. Our findings provide researchers with an overview of various dimensions, and variables-of-interest, for measuring public campaign impact, and examples of how and which campaigns have used them.
Socio-Economic and Rural-Urban Differences in Healthcare and Catastrophic Health Expenditure Among Cancer Patients in China: Analysis of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study
Authors: Zhao Yang , Tang Shenglan , Mao Wenhui , Akinyemiju Tomi
Published: January 2022

Objective: In China, cancer accounts for one-fifth of all deaths, and exerts a heavy toll on patients, families, healthcare systems, and society as a whole. This study aims to examine the temporal trends in socio-economic and rural-urban differences in treatment, healthcare service utilization and catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) among adult cancer patients in China. We also investigate the relationship between different types of treatment and healthcare service utilization, as well as the incidence of CHE.

Materials and Methods: We analyzed data from the 2011 and 2015 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, a nationally representative survey including 17,224 participants (234 individuals with cancer) in 2011 and 19,569 participants (368 individuals with cancer) in 2015. The study includes six different types of cancer treatments: Chinese traditional medication (TCM); western modern medication (excluding TCM and chemotherapy medications); a combination of TCM & western medication; surgery; chemotherapy; and radiation therapy. Multivariable regression models were performed to investigate the association between cancer treatments and healthcare service utilization and CHE.

Results: The age-adjusted prevalence of cancer increased from 1.37% to 1.84% between 2011 and 2015. More urban patients (54%) received cancer treatment than rural patients (46%) in 2015. Patients with high socio-economic status (SES) received a higher proportion of surgical and chemotherapy treatments compared to patients with low SES in 2015. Incidence of CHE declined by 22% in urban areas but increased by 31% in rural areas. We found a positive relationship between cancer treatment and outpatient visits (OR = 2.098, 95% CI = 1.453, 3.029), hospital admission (OR = 1.961, 95% CI = 1.346, 2.857) and CHE (OR = 1.796, 95% CI = 1.231, 2.620). Chemotherapy and surgery were each associated with a 2-fold increased risk of CHE.

Conclusions: Significant improvements in health insurance benefit packages are necessary to ensure universal, affordable and patient-centered health coverage for cancer patients in China.
Acceptability of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Chinese People Based on 10-Year's Real World Study With Mutiple Big Data Mining
Authors: Guo Yan , Wang Tengjiao , Chen Wei , Kaptchuk Ted J. , Li Xilian , Gao Xiang , Yao Jiahui , Tang Xudong , Xu Ziming
Published: January 2022

In the past decades, numerous clinical researches have been conducted to illuminate the effects of traditional Chinese medicine for better inheritance and promotion of it, which are mostly clinical trials designed from the doctor's point of view. This large-scale data mining study was conducted from real-world point of view in up to 10 years' big data sets of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in China, including both medical visits to hospital and cyberspace and contemporaneous social survey data. Finally, some important and interesting findings appear: (1) More Criticisms vs. More Visits. The intensity of criticism increased by 2.33 times over the past 10 years, while the actual number of visits increased by 2.41 times. (2) The people of younger age, highly educated and from economically developed areas have become the primary population for utilizing TCM, which is contrary to common opinions on the characteristics of TCM users. The discovery of this phenomenon indicates that TCM deserves further study on how it treats illness and maintains health.
Leveraging Multi-Task Learning to Cope With Poor and Missing Labels of Mammograms
Authors: Tardy Mickael , Mateus Diana
Published: January 2022

In breast cancer screening, binary classification of mammograms is a common task aiming to determine whether a case is malignant or benign. A Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CADx) system based on a trainable classifier requires clean data and labels coming from a confirmed diagnosis. Unfortunately, such labels are not easy to obtain in clinical practice, since the histopathological reports of biopsy may not be available alongside mammograms, while normal cases may not have an explicit follow-up confirmation. Such ambiguities result either in reducing the number of samples eligible for training or in a label uncertainty that may decrease the performances. In this work, we maximize the number of samples for training relying on multi-task learning. We design a deep-neural-network-based classifier yielding multiple outputs in one forward pass. The predicted classes include binary malignancy, cancer probability estimation, breast density, and image laterality. Since few samples have all classes available and confirmed, we propose to introduce the uncertainty related to the classes as a per-sample weight during training. Such weighting prevents updating the network's parameters when training on uncertain or missing labels. We evaluate our approach on the public INBreast and private datasets, showing statistically significant improvements compared to baseline and independent state-of-the-art approaches. Moreover, we use mammograms from Susan G. Komen Tissue Bank for fine-tuning, further demonstrating the ability to improve the performances in our multi-task learning setup from raw clinical data. We achieved the binary classification performance of AUC = 80.46 on our private dataset and AUC = 85.23 on the INBreast dataset.
Prediction of E. coli Concentrations in Agricultural Pond Waters: Application and Comparison of Machine Learning Algorithms
Authors: Stocker Matthew D. , Pachepsky Yakov A. , Hill Robert L.
Published: January 2022

The microbial quality of irrigation water is an important issue as the use of contaminated waters has been linked to several foodborne outbreaks. To expedite microbial water quality determinations, many researchers estimate concentrations of the microbial contamination indicator Escherichia coli (E. coli) from the concentrations of physiochemical water quality parameters. However, these relationships are often non-linear and exhibit changes above or below certain threshold values. Machine learning (ML) algorithms have been shown to make accurate predictions in datasets with complex relationships. The purpose of this work was to evaluate several ML models for the prediction of E. coli in agricultural pond waters. Two ponds in Maryland were monitored from 2016 to 2018 during the irrigation season. E. coli concentrations along with 12 other water quality parameters were measured in water samples. The resulting datasets were used to predict E. coli using stochastic gradient boosting (SGB) machines, random forest (RF), support vector machines (SVM), and k-nearest neighbor (kNN) algorithms. The RF model provided the lowest RMSE value for predicted E. coli concentrations in both ponds in individual years and over consecutive years in almost all cases. For individual years, the RMSE of the predicted E. coli concentrations (log10 CFU 100 ml−1) ranged from 0.244 to 0.346 and 0.304 to 0.418 for Pond 1 and 2, respectively. For the 3-year datasets, these values were 0.334 and 0.381 for Pond 1 and 2, respectively. In most cases there was no significant difference (P > 0.05) between the RMSE of RF and other ML models when these RMSE were treated as statistics derived from 10-fold cross-validation performed with five repeats. Important E. coli predictors were turbidity, dissolved organic matter content, specific conductance, chlorophyll concentration, and temperature. Model predictive performance did not significantly differ when 5 predictors were used vs. 8 or 12, indicating that more tedious and costly measurements provide no substantial improvement in the predictive accuracy of the evaluated algorithms.
Dalfampridine for Mobility Limitations in People With Multiple Sclerosis May Be Augmented by Physical Therapy: A Non-randomized Two-Group Proof-of-Concept Pilot Study
Authors: Plummer Prudence , Markovic-Plese Silva , Giesser Barbara
Published: January 2022

Purpose: To demonstrate proof-of-concept for a combined physical therapy and pharmacological intervention and obtain preliminary estimates of the therapeutic efficacy of a motor-relearning physical therapy intervention with and without concurrent dalfampridine treatment on gait speed in people with mobility limitations due to multiple sclerosis (MS).

Methods: Using a non-randomized, two-group design, 4 individuals with MS newly prescribed dalfampridine as part of their routine medical care, and 4 individuals with MS not taking dalfampridine completed a 3-week drug run-in or no-treatment baseline, respectively. After 3 weeks, all participants commenced physical therapy twice weekly for 6 weeks. Participants taking dalfampridine took the medication for the study duration. The physical therapy program comprised functional strengthening, gait training, balance training, and dual-task training. The primary outcome was Timed 25-foot Walk (T25FW) at the end of the 6-week physical therapy program.

Results: For the 4 participants taking dalfampridine, average improvement in T25FW on drug only was 12.8% (95% CI 1.2 to 24.4%). During the 6-week physical therapy phase, both groups significantly improved T25FW, but the effect tended to favor the group taking dalfampridine (mean difference = −0.93 s, 95% CI −1.9 to 0.07 s, p = 0.064, d = 1.6). Whereas the physical therapy group had average T25FW improvement of 10.8% (95% CI 1.0 to 20.5%), the physical therapy plus dalfampridine group demonstrated average improvement of 20.7% (95% CI 3.8 to 37.6%).

Conclusions: Further research is warranted to examine whether dalfampridine for mobility impairment may be augmented by physical therapy in people with MS.
Stochastic Assessment of Groundwater Contamination Risks From Onshore Gas Development Using Computationally Efficient Analytical and Numerical Transport Models
Authors: Rassam David , Sreekanth J. , Mallants Dirk , Gonzalez Dennis , Doble Rebecca , Pickett Trevor
Published: January 2022

Regulators require the gas industry to assess the risks of unintentional release of chemicals to the environment and implement measures to mitigate it. Industry standard models for contaminant transport in aquifers do not explicitly model processes in the unsaturated zone and groundwater models often require long run times to complete simulation of complex processes. We propose a stochastic numerical-analytical hybrid model to overcome these two shortcomings and demonstrate its application to assess the risks associated with onshore gas drilling in the Otway Basin, South Australia. The novel approach couples HYDRUS-1D to an analytical solution to model contaminant transport in the aquifer. Groundwater velocities and chemical trajectories were derived from a particle tracking analysis. The most influential parameters controlling solute delivery to the aquifer were the soil chemical degradation constant and the hydraulic conductivity of a throttle soil horizon. Only 18% of the flow paths intercepted environmental receptors within a 1-km radius from the source, 87% of which had concentrations of <1% of the source. The proposed methodology assesses the risk to environmental assets and informs regulators to implement measures that mitigate risk down to an acceptable level.
My Home is my Castle? The Role of Living Arrangements on Experiencing the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence From Germany
Authors: Langenkamp Alexander , Cano Tomás , Czymara Christian S.
Published: January 2022

During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany, social restrictions and social distancing policies forced large parts of social life to take place within the household. However, comparatively little is known about how private living situations shaped individuals experiences of this crisis. To investigate this issue, we analyze how experiences and concerns vary across living arrangements along two dimensions that may be associated with social disadvantage: loneliness and care. In doing so, we employ quantitative text analysis on open-ended questions from survey data on a sample of 1,073 individuals living in Germany. We focus our analyses on four different household structures: living alone, shared living without children, living with a partner and children, and single parents. We find that single parents (who are primarily single mothers) are at high risk of experiencing care-related worries, particularly regarding their financial situation, while individuals living alone are most likely to report feelings of loneliness. Those individuals living in shared houses, with or without children, had the lowest risk of experiencing both loneliness and care-related worries. These findings illustrate that the living situation at home substantially impacts how individuals experienced and coped with the pandemic situation during the first wave of the pandemic.
Toward Agricultural Intersectionality? Farm Intergenerational Transfer at the Fringe. A Comparative Analysis of the Urban-Influenced Ontario's Greenbelt, Canada and Toulouse InterSCoT, France
Authors: Akimowicz Mikaël , Landman Karen , Képhaliacos Charilaos , Cummings Harry
Published: January 2022

Peri-urban agriculture can foster the resilience of metropolitan areas through the provision of local food and other multifunctional agricultural amenities and externalities. However, in peri-urban areas, farming is characterized by strong social uncertainties, which slow the intergenerational transfer of farm operations. In this article, we tackle the beliefs that underlie farmers' decision-making to identify planning opportunities that may support farm intergenerational transfers. The design of an institutionalist conceptual framework based on Keynesian uncertainty and Commonsian Futurity aims to analyze farmers' beliefs associated with farm intergenerational transfer dynamics. The dataset of this comparative analysis includes 41 interviews with farmers involved in animal, cash-crop, and horticulture farming in the urban-influenced Ontario's Greenbelt, Canada, and Toulouse InterSCoT, France, during which farmers designed a mental model of their investment decision-making. The results highlight the dominance of a capital-intensive farm model framed by a money-land-market nexus that slows farm structural change. The subsequent access inequalities, which are based on characteristics of farmers and their farm projects, support the idea of the existence of an agricultural intersectionality. The results also highlight the positive role of the institutional context; when farmers' beliefs are well-aligned with the beliefs that shape their institutional environment, the frictions that slow farm structural change in peri-urban areas are moderated by a shared vision of the future.
Establishment and Validation of Prognostic Nomograms for Patients With Parotid Gland Adenocarcinoma Not Otherwise Specified: A SEER Analysis From 2004 to 2016
Authors: Wang Zi-Meng , Xiang Zuo-Lin
Published: January 2022

Background: Parotid gland adenocarcinoma not otherwise specified (PANOS) is a rare malignant tumor with limited data on its characteristics and prognosis. This research is aimed at characterizing PANOS and developing prognostic prediction models for patients with PANOS.

Methods: Cases from 2004–2016 were selected from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program database. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression were applied to ascertain the factors associated with survival. Competing risk analysis and Gray's tests were employed to analyze cancer-specific death. Propensity score matching (1:1) was conducted to reduce the influence of confounding variables.

Results: A total of 446 patients with a median age of 66 years were selected, of which 307 were diagnosed with stage III/IV PANOS. The 5-year overall survival (OS) rate of all patients was 51.8%, and the median survival time was 66 months. Surgical treatment clearly improved survival time (p < 0.001). In the subgroup analysis, radiotherapy showed survival benefits in patients with stage III/IV disease (p < 0.001). Multivariate Cox regression analyses showed that age, T classification, N classification, M classification and surgery were independent prognostic indicators for OS; T classification, N classification, M classification and surgery were independent risk factors for cancer-specific survival (CSS). In addition, age was independently associated with other cause-specific death. Based on the results of multivariate analysis, two nomograms were developed and verified by the concordance index (C-index) (0.747 and 0.780 for OS and CSS) and the area under the time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (0.756, 0.764, and 0.819 regarding for nomograms predicting 3-, 5-, and 10- year OS, respectively and 0.794, 0.789, and 0.806 for CSS, respectively).

Conclusions: Our study clearly presents the clinicopathological features and survival analysis of patients with PANOS. In addition, our constructed nomogram prediction models may assist physicians in evaluating the individualized prognosis and deciding on treatment for patients.
Video-Assisted Thoracic Surgery vs. Thoracotomy for the Treatment in Patients With Esophageal Leiomyoma: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Authors: Shen Cheng , Li Jue , Che Guowei
Published: January 2022

Background: Surgical treatment is usually suitable for patients with esophageal leiomyoma. Video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) offers a minimally invasive approach to thoracotomy. However, there is no clear conclusion on whether VATS can achieve an equal or even better surgical effect when compared with the traditional open approach in the treatment of esophageal leiomyoma. We performed this meta-analysis to explore and compare the outcomes of VATS vs. thoracotomy for patients with esophageal leiomyoma.

Methods: PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Medline, and Web of Science databases were searched for full-text literature citations. The quality of the articles was evaluated using the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale and the data were analyzed using the Review Manager 5.3 software. Fixed or random effect models were applied according to heterogeneity.

Results: A total of 8 studies with 290 patients, of whom 141 patients were in the VATS group and 149 in the thoracotomy group, were involved in the analysis. Compared with thoracotomy, VATS was associated with shorter operative time, less blood loss in operation, and shorter postoperative hospital stay. There is no significant difference in postoperative pleural drainage day and postoperative complications between the two groups.

Conclusions: VATS has more advantages over thoracotomy, indicating that VATS is better than thoracotomy in terms of postoperative recovery. We look forward to more large-sample, high-quality studies published in the future.
Benefits of Veterinary Herd Health Management on German Dairy Farms: Status Quo and Farmers' Perspective
Authors: Ries Jenny , Jensen Katharina Charlotte , Müller Kerstin-Elisabeth , Thöne-Reineke Christa , Merle Roswitha
Published: January 2022

Veterinary Herd Health Management plays an important role in veterinary medicine on dairy farms and has also been mandatory at the European Union level since April 21, 2021. Despite the increasing importance of VHHM, little is known about the extent of utilization of VHHM by dairy farmers and their view on this type of collaboration. Therefore, this cross-sectional study aimed to determine the status quo of the currently practiced VHHM in Germany. For this purpose, an online survey was conducted among dairy farmers in November and December 2020. From 216 analyzed questionnaires, about half (n = 106) of the surveyed dairy farmers used VHHM at different scopes. However, regardless of the group, the term “veterinary herd health management” generally was given most relative importance by the participants as a veterinary service for herd fertility improvement, rather than the actual definition of a holistic approach. In contrast to this, the actual motivation of the VHHM participants, to take part in such a program was primarily based on the desire to safeguard animal health by employing preventive measures, that is, to avoid the occurrence of diseases via improved management and to improve farm performance (and profitability). Dairy farmers who opted for VHHM tended to manage larger higher yielding herds than those who did not. Additionally, the farmers in latter farms were more likely to make joint animal health decisions with their veterinarians. Using a latent class analysis, two groups of farmers among farms that were not currently using VHHM were identified, one of which expressed great interest in using VHHM while the other did not. Since the new legal basis makes the topic even more relevant than before, dairy farmers, animals, and veterinarians might benefit from the study to exploit hidden opportunities for VHHM collaboration.
A Measurement Equivalence Study of the Family Bondedness Scale: Measurement Equivalence Between Cat and Dog Owners
Authors: Nugent William R. , Daugherty Linda
Published: January 2022

About 38.4% of U.S. households include a dog, and 25.4% a cat, as pets, and a recent poll suggested over 90% of pet owners feel their companion animal is a family member. Numerous studies have suggested pet ownership has physical, mental, and social health benefits, though much of this research has yielded mixed results. Results of a recent review suggested significant measurement problems in human-animal interaction (HAI) and human-animal bond (HAB) research, including the absence of validity evidence, overly long measures, lack of evidence for measurement equivalence across species of pets, and measures lacking a basis in important psychological, family, and attachment theories. This article describes the development and results of a measurement equivalence study of a new measure of the HAB called the family bondedness scale (FBS). This scale, and the research results, address multiple gaps in HAB measurement. Results of multi-group confirmatory factor analyses with multiple covariates indicated the scores on the FBS showed equivalence between cat and dog owners. The use of the FBS in both veterinary research and practice, as well as in research and practice in other disciplines, such as social work and psychology, are considered.
Comparison of Tethered Post-Capture System Models for Space Debris Removal
Authors: Shan Minghe , Shi Lingling
Published: January 2022

The space debris problem poses a huge threat to operational satellites and has to be addressed. Multiple removal methods have been proposed to keep Earth’s orbit stable. Flexible connection capturing methods, such as the harpoon system, tether–gripper system and the net system, are potential candidate methods for space debris removal in the future. However, the tethered system is usually assumed as a dumbbell model where two end masses are connected by a rigid bar. This traditional model is not accurate enough to predict the motion of the target, neither the whole system. In this paper, three models, namely the modified dumbbell model, lumped-mass model and the ANCF model, to describe a tethered post-capture system for space debris removal are described and compared. Moreover, modal analysis of the tethered system is performed, and an analytical solution of the system’s natural frequency is derived. In addition, two configurations of the tethered system, namely the single tether configuration and the sub-tether configuration are simulated and compared based on three models, respectively. Finally, the influence on the chaser satellite by the initial angular velocity of the target is analyzed.
Aerodynamic Design, Analysis and Validation of a Small Blended-Wing-Body Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
Authors: Wang Kelei , Zhou Zhou
Published: January 2022

This paper describes the aerodynamic design and assessment of a blended-wing–body (BWB) configuration under the distributed electric propulsion (DEP) installation constraints. The aerodynamic design rationale and process is described, as well as how the DEP system is considered and simplified in the optimization design process. Both the BWB configuration and the DEP induced effects are numerically simulated and analyzed using the Reynolds Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) flow solvers. To further demonstrate the feasibility and reliability of the design approach, the wind tunnel tests of a scaled model of the designed BWB configuration are carried out, and both the aerodynamic characteristics and the BWB surface flow are measured and analyzed. The results indicate the reliability and feasibility of the optimization design method introduced in this paper.
Camelina sativa (L. Crantz) Fresh Forage Productive Performance and Quality at Different Vegetative Stages: Effects of Dietary Supplementation in Ionica Goats on Milk Quality
Authors: Tedone Luigi , Giannico Francesco , Tufarelli Vincenzo , Laudadio Vito , Selvaggi Maria , De Mastro Giuseppe , Colonna Maria Antonietta
Published: January 2022

The research meant to study the productive performances of Camelina sativa and the effects of feeding Camelina fresh forage harvested during five phenological stages (I: main stem elongation; II: maximum stem elongation: III: inflorescence appearance; IV: flowering; V: fruit set visible) on the yield, chemical composition and fatty acid profile of milk from autochthonous Ionica goats. Goats were randomly assigned to two groups (n = 15) that received a traditional forage mixture (Control) or Camelina forage harvested at different stages (CAM). The field experiment was conducted in two years; no significant differences between years were recorded for any of the Camelina production traits. The total biomass increased (p < 0.05) from phase I (1.4 t/ha) to phase V (5.2 t/ha). The distribution of stem, leaves and pod also changed during growth, showing a significant increase of stem from 40.8 to 45.6% and of pod from 0 to 19.4%, whereas leaves decreased from 59.2 to 35.1%. The milk yield and chemical composition were unaffected by the diet, while supplementation with Camelina forage increased milk CLA content (on average 1.14 vs. 0.78%). A markedly higher concentration of PUFAs was found in milk from goats fed Camelina harvested during the last three phenological stages. The index of thrombogenicity of milk from the CAM fed goats was significantly lower compared to the control group. In conclusion, Camelina sativa is a multi-purpose crop that may be successfully cultivated in Southern Italy regions and used as fresh forage for goat feeding. Milk obtained from Camelina fed goats showed satisfactory chemical and fatty acid composition, with potential benefits for human health.
The Influence of Dense Planting System on the Technical Efficiency of Saffron Production and Land Use Sustainability: Empirical Evidence from Gonabad County, Iran
Authors: Ramezani Mohammadreza , Dourandish Arash , Jamali Jaghdani Tinoush , Aminizadeh Milad
Published: January 2022

The cultivation of saffron, which is one of the most expensive agricultural products in the world, is the main source of livelihood and economic wellbeing for the rural communities of Gonabad county in the eastern part of Iran. Nevertheless, farm monitoring in the region has shown that many saffron growers apply a high-density planting system for more profit. This practice results in the loss of land productivity after a six-year production cycle. As a consequence, farmers abandon the cultivated lands and move to plant saffron in available virgin lands. The purpose of this study is to analyse the technical efficiency of saffron farms and its determinants with an emphasis on the role of planting density. A survey was conducted in 2019, and a cross-sectional random sampling technique was used to select 110 saffron growers. We first assessed the technical efficiency of farms using a data envelopment analysis (DEA) model with input orientation. In the next step, efficiency scores were regressed on explanatory variables using OLS and bootstrapped truncated regression to identify efficiency related factors. We find that planting density negatively influenced technical efficiency, suggesting that it is necessary for saffron growers to be educated on the negative impacts of the dense planting system.
Identification of Genetic Loci on Chromosome 4B for Improving the Grain Number per Spike in Pre-Breeding Lines of Wheat
Authors: Zhang Jinpeng , Yao Qifu , Li Ruixin , Lu Yuqing , Zhou Shenghui , Han Haiming , Liu Weihua , Li Xiuquan , Yang Xinming , Li Lihui
Published: January 2022

The grain number per spike (GNPS) is an important yield component, and much attention is given to the increase in GNPS for current yield improvement of common wheat. Here, a panel of 259 pre-breeding lines and elite commercial varieties were collected for the investigation of 12 agronomic traits, especially for spike-related traits, with 2-year replicates. The high correlation between GNPS and kernel number per spikelet (KNS) suggested that the high GNPS trait in our pre-breeding lines was mainly controlled by grain set number per spikelet. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) using the 660K SNP genotyping assay suggested that a major locus on chromosomes 4BS contributed to the high GNPS trait, which contributed to 33% and 48% of the variation in KNS and GNPS, respectively. A good diagnostic KASP marker AX-109286577 flanking the 4BS locus was developed for easy selection of the large spike trait. Taken together, the results suggested that untapped rare allele variation in our pre-breeding lines can be used for improvement of the yield component of set grain number per spike.
Cereal Husks: Versatile Roles in Grain Quality and Seedling Performance
Authors: Grafi Gideon , Singiri Jeevan R.
Published: January 2022

The seed is the fundamental unit of the dispersal of dry, dehiscent fruits, in which the fruit splits open at maturity to allow for seed dispersal. However, dry fruits may be indehiscent and therefore represent the dispersal unit (DU). Cereals possess a one-seeded fruit, whereby the seed coat and the fruit coat are fused together to generate the caryopsis. This caryopsis may be covered by floral bracts to generate two types of DUs, namely florets, whereby the caryopsis is enclosed by the lemma and the palea (e.g., Avenasterilis) or spikelet, whereby the floret(s) is further covered by the glumes (Triticum turgidum var. dicoccoides). Here, we highlight the dead coverings enclosing the caryopsis in cereals, namely the husks as an integral component of the dispersal unit that play multifaceted roles in grain biology. Thus, besides protection and dispersal means, the husks function as a rich maternal supply of proteins and metabolites for enhancing growth and development, combat potential pathogens as well as confer tolerance to abiotic stresses. These attributes might have broad implications for crop performance, plant population dynamics and diversity in ecological systems, and for conservation of genetic resources in seed banks.
Dietary Cinnamon Bark Affects Growth Performance, Carcass Characteristics, and Breast Meat Quality in Broiler Infected with Eimeria tenella Oocysts
Authors: Qaid Mohammed M. , Al-Mufarrej Saud I. , Azzam Mahmoud M. , Al-Garadi Maged A. , Alqhtani Abdulmohsen H. , Al-abdullatif Abdulaziz A. , Hussein Elsayed O. , Suliman Gamaleldin M.
Published: January 2022

A total of 150 broiler chicks were used to determine the impact of dietary cinnamon bark powder (CBP; Cinnamomum verum) on breast meat quality, growth performance, and carcass characteristics of birds under coccidiosis, as one of the protozoan parasitic diseases. A total of 5 replicates of birds received 1 of the following 6 groups for 34 days: control groups (1 and 2) received a basal diet without the addition of CBP or salinomycin; group 3 received a basal diet with 0.066 g salinomycin; groups 4–6 were given a basal diet supplemented with 2, 4, and 6 g CBP/kg feed, respectively. On day 21, 4 × 104/100 µL of Eimeria tenella oocysts/bird were challenged, except for the negative control (NC). At the end of the experimental trial, five birds/group were sampled for carcass characteristics and breast attributes. Overall, emeriosis negatively affects slaughter body mass, carcass yield, and the majority of carcass characteristics in birds, and cinnamon can mitigate these effects. Cinnamon groups, particularly at the 2 g level, alleviated the negative effect on performance caused by coccidia infestation to the same or greater extent as the negative control and salinomycin treatment groups. Furthermore, when compared with the other experimental groups, the addition of cinnamon improved some physicochemical properties with some affecting meat quality, such as decreasing MFI and increasing toughness in cinnamon-treated groups. In summary, it can be concluded that CBP can enhance the shelf life, carcass, and quality of birds’ meat by maximizing the productive performance efficiency and breast meat productivity of birds under coccidiosis infestation. Further research is required to investigate the use of cinnamon to optimize the quality of meat and the productivity of both healthy and diseased broilers.
Ceftriaxone for the Treatment of Chronic Bacterial Prostatitis: A Case Series and Literature Review
Authors: Kuiper Sander G. , Ploeger Maarten , Wilms Erik B. , van Dijk Marleen M. , Leegwater Emiel , Huis in’t Veld Robert A. G. , van Nieuwkoop Cees
Published: January 2022

Chronic bacterial prostatitis is increasingly difficult to treat due to rising antimicrobial resistance limiting oral treatment options. In this case series, 11 men with CBP (including patients with urological comorbidities) due to multi-resistant E. coli were treated with once-daily ceftriaxone intravenously for 6 weeks. Nine patients were clinically cured at 3 months follow up. No early withdrawal of medication due to side effects occurred. A literature review was conducted to describe the prostate pharmacokinetics of ceftriaxone and its use in prostatic infection. In conclusion, ceftriaxone can be considered an appropriate treatment of chronic bacterial prostatitis.
The Effect of Antibiotics on Planktonic Cells and Biofilm Formation Ability of Collected Arcobacter-like Strains and Strains Isolated within the Czech Republic
Authors: Švarcová Karolína , Pejchalová Marcela , Šilha David
Published: January 2022

The purpose of this study was to test the in vitro effects of ampicillin, ciprofloxacin, clindamycin, erythromycin, gentamicin, and tetracycline on planktonic cells of Arcobacter-like microorganisms and on their biofilm formation ability. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) were determined by the microdilution method. Further, biofilm formation ability in the presence of various concentrations of antibiotics was evaluated by a modified Christensen method. Most of the 60 strains exhibited high susceptibility to gentamicin (98.3%), ciprofloxacin (95.0%), and erythromycin (100.0%). High level of resistance was observed to clindamycin and tetracycline with MIC50 and MIC90 in range of 4–32 mg/L and 32–128 mg/L, respectively. Combined resistance to both clindamycin and tetracycline was found in 38.3% of tested strains. In general, higher biofilm formation was observed especially at lower concentrations of antibiotics (0.13–2 mg/L). However, a significant decrease in biofilm formation ability of Pseudarcobacter defluvii LMG 25694 was exhibited with ampicillin and clindamycin at concentrations above 32 or 8 mg/L, respectively. Biofilm formation represents a potential danger of infection and also a risk to human health, in particular due to antimicrobial-resistant strains and the ability to form a biofilm structure at a concentration that is approximately the MIC determined for planktonic cells.
Alcohol and Head and Neck Cancer: Updates on the Role of Oxidative Stress, Genetic, Epigenetics, Oral Microbiota, Antioxidants, and Alkylating Agents
Authors: Ferraguti Giampiero , Terracina Sergio , Petrella Carla , Greco Antonio , Minni Antonio , Lucarelli Marco , Agostinelli Enzo , Ralli Massimo , de Vincentiis Marco , Raponi Giammarco , Polimeni Antonella , Ceccanti Mauro , Caronti Brunella , Di Certo Maria Grazia , Barbato Christian , Mattia Alessandro , Tarani Luigi , Fiore Marco
Published: January 2022

Head and neck cancer (HNC) concerns more than 890,000 patients worldwide annually and is associated with the advanced stage at presentation and heavy outcomes. Alcohol drinking, together with tobacco smoking, and human papillomavirus infection are the main recognized risk factors. The tumorigenesis of HNC represents an intricate sequential process that implicates a gradual acquisition of genetic and epigenetics alterations targeting crucial pathways regulating cell growth, motility, and stromal interactions. Tumor microenvironment and growth factors also play a major role in HNC. Alcohol toxicity is caused both directly by ethanol and indirectly by its metabolic products, with the involvement of the oral microbiota and oxidative stress; alcohol might enhance the exposure of epithelial cells to carcinogens, causing epigenetic modifications, DNA damage, and inaccurate DNA repair with the formation of DNA adducts. Long-term markers of alcohol consumption, especially those detected in the hair, may provide crucial information on the real alcohol drinking of HNC patients. Strategies for prevention could include food supplements as polyphenols, and alkylating drugs as therapy that play a key role in HNC management. Indeed, polyphenols throughout their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory actions may counteract or limit the toxic effect of alcohol whereas alkylating agents inhibiting cancer cells’ growth could reduce the carcinogenic damage induced by alcohol. Despite the established association between alcohol and HNC, a concerning pattern of alcohol consumption in survivors of HNC has been shown. It is of primary importance to increase the awareness of cancer risks associated with alcohol consumption, both in oncologic patients and the general population, to provide advice for reducing HNC prevalence and complications.
Sodium Thiosulfate Improves Hypertension in Rats with Adenine-Induced Chronic Kidney Disease
Authors: Hsu Chien-Ning , Hou Chih-Yao , Chang-Chien Guo-Ping , Lin Sufan , Yang Hung-Wei , Tain You-Lin
Published: January 2022

Hypertension is highly prevalent in chronic kidney disease (CKD). Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is an endogenously produced gasotransmitter with vasodilator properties. We, hence, investigated whether oral administration of sodium thiosulfate (STS), a clinically applicable H2S-based therapy, can exert a protective effect against hypertension in an adenine-induced CKD rat model. Eight-week-old male Sprague–Dawley rats were fed with 0.5% adenine chow for 3 weeks to induce CKD. After 1 week, the rats were divided into two groups: one without and one with STS (2 g/kg body weight/day) in drinking water for 2 weeks. Treatment with STS lowered systolic and diastolic blood pressure by 7 and 9 mm Hg, respectively. Renal H2S-generating enzyme expression was inhibited by CKD, while STS therapy increased plasma levels of H2S and thiosulfate. Additionally, restoration of nitric oxide bioavailability and rebalance of the renin–angiotensin system may contribute to the protective effects of STS. Our data suggest that the oral administration of STS improves hypertension in an adenine-induced CKD model, which brings us closer to the clinical translation of H2S-targeting therapy in CKD-induced hypertension.
In Silico Screening of Potential Phytocompounds from Several Herbs against SARS-CoV-2 Indian Delta Variant B.1.617.2 to Inhibit the Spike Glycoprotein Trimer
Authors: Bharathi Muruganantham , Sivamaruthi Bhagavathi Sundaram , Kesika Periyanaina , Thangaleela Subramanian , Chaiyasut Chaiyavat
Published: January 2022

In October 2020, the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.617 lineage was discovered in India. It has since become a prominent variant in several Indian regions and 156 countries, including the United States of America. The lineage B.1.617.2 is termed the delta variant, harboring diverse spike mutations in the N-terminal domain (NTD) and the receptor-binding domain (RBD), which may heighten its immune evasion potentiality and cause it to be more transmissible than other variants. As a result, it has sparked substantial scientific investigation into the development of effective vaccinations and anti-viral drugs. Several efforts have been made to examine ancient medicinal herbs known for their health benefits and immune-boosting action against SARS-CoV-2, including repurposing existing FDA-approved anti-viral drugs. No efficient anti-viral drugs are available against the SARS-CoV-2 Indian delta variant B.1.617.2. In this study, efforts were made to shed light on the potential of 603 phytocompounds from 22 plant species to inhibit the Indian delta variant B.1.617.2. We also compared these compounds with the standard drug ceftriaxone, which was already suggested as a beneficial drug in COVID-19 treatment; these compounds were compared with other FDA-approved drugs: remdesivir, chloroquine, hydroxy-chloroquine, lopinavir, and ritonavir. From the analysis, the identified phytocompounds acteoside (−7.3 kcal/mol) and verbascoside (−7.1 kcal/mol), from the plants Clerodendrum serratum and Houttuynia cordata, evidenced a strong inhibitory effect against the mutated NTD (MT-NTD). In addition, the phytocompounds kanzonol V (−6.8 kcal/mol), progeldanamycin (−6.4 kcal/mol), and rhodoxanthin (−7.5 kcal/mol), from the plant Houttuynia cordata, manifested significant prohibition against RBD. Nevertheless, the standard drug, ceftriaxone, signals less inhibitory effect against MT-NTD and RBD with binding affinities of −6.3 kcal/mol and −6.5 kcal/mol, respectively. In this study, we also emphasized the pharmacological properties of the plants, which contain the screened phytocompounds. Our research could be used as a lead for future drug design to develop anti-viral drugs, as well as for preening the Siddha formulation to control the Indian delta variant B.1.617.2 and other future SARS-CoV-2 variants.
Modeling and Profiling of Aggregated Industrial Network Traffic
Authors: Lavassani Mehrzad , Åkerberg Johan , Björkman Mats
Published: January 2022

The industrial network infrastructures are transforming to a horizontal architecture to enable data availability for advanced applications and enhance flexibility for integrating new technologies. The uninterrupted operation of the legacy systems needs to be ensured by safeguarding their requirements in network configuration and resource management. Network traffic modeling is essential in understanding the ongoing communication for resource estimation and configuration management. The presented work proposes a two-step approach for modeling aggregated traffic classes of brownfield installation. It first detects the repeated work-cycles and then aims to identify the operational states to profile their characteristics. The performance and influence of the approach are evaluated and validated in two experimental setups with data collected from an industrial plant in operation. The comparative results show that the proposed method successfully captures the temporal and spatial dynamics of the network traffic for characterization of various communication states in the operational work-cycles.
Impact of the Revetment on the Seashore in the Region of Babie Doły (KM 93.6–93.9), Poland
Authors: Szmytkiewicz Piotr , Ostrowski Rafał , Cerkowniak Grzegorz R.
Published: January 2022

The present paper addresses the litho-dynamic and morpho-dynamic processes in the coastal zone of Babie Doły (KM 93.6–93.9), Poland. As a background, the history of coastal engineering measures in this area is described. The impact of post-war structures on the seashore is analysed on the basis of historical maps, supported by results of the sediment transport modelling. Shore regression is caused by the so-called downstream erosion behind the headland with remains of rock palisade structures. The possible consequences for the seashore resulting from the removal of the analysed revetment are discussed. The paper also presents recommendations to the relevant authorities for the future.