bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The relationship between mental health and risk of active tuberculosis: a systematic review
Authors: Hayward Sally E , Deal Anna , Rustage Kieran , Nellums Laura B , Sweetland Annika C , Boccia Delia , Hargreaves Sally , Friedland Jon S
Published: January 2022

Objectives

Tuberculosis (TB) and mental illnesses are highly prevalent globally and often coexist. While poor mental health is known to modulate immune function, whether mental disorders play a causal role in TB incidence is unknown. This systematic review examines the association between mental health and TB disease risk to inform clinical and public health measures.

Design

Systematic review, following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines.

Search strategy and selection criteria

MEDLINE, PsycINFO and PsycEXTRA databases were searched alongside reference list and citation searching. Inclusion criteria were original research studies published 1 January 1970–11 May 2020 reporting data on the association between mental health and TB risk.

Data extraction, appraisal and synthesis

Data were extracted on study design and setting, sample characteristics, measurement of mental illness and TB, and outcomes including effect size or prevalence. Studies were critically appraised using Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) and Appraisal Tool for Cross-Sectional Studies (AXIS) checklists.

Results

1546 records published over 50 years were screened, resulting in 10 studies included reporting data from 607 184 individuals. Studies span across Asia, South America and Africa, and include mood and psychotic disorders. There is robust evidence from cohort studies in Asia demonstrating that depression and schizophrenia can increase risk of active TB, with effect estimates ranging from HR=1.15 (95% CI 1.03 to 1.28) to 2.63 (95% CI 1.74 to 3.96) for depression and HR=1.52 (95% CI 1.29 to 1.79) to RR=3.04 for schizophrenia. These data align with evidence from cross-sectional studies, for example, a large survey across low-income and middle-income countries (n=242 952) reports OR=3.68 (95% CI 3.01 to 4.50) for a depressive episode in those with TB symptoms versus those without.

Conclusions

Individuals with mental illnesses including depression and schizophrenia experience increased TB incidence and represent a high-risk population to target for screening and treatment. Integrated care for mental health and TB is needed, and interventions tackling mental illnesses and underlying drivers may help reduce TB incidence globally.

PROSPERO registration number

CRD42019158071.
Association between initial opioid prescription diagnosis type and subsequent chronic prescription opioid use in Rhode Island: a population-based cohort study
Authors: Hallowell Benjamin D , Chambers Laura C , Barre Luke , Diao Nancy , Onyejekwe Collette , Banks Alexandra , Bratberg Jeffery , Weidele Heidi , Viner-Brown Samara , McDonald James
Published: January 2022

Objective

To identify initial diagnoses associated with elevated risk of chronic prescription opioid use.

Design

Population-based, retrospective cohort study.

Setting

State of Rhode Island.

Participants

Rhode Island residents with an initial opioid prescription dispensed between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2020.

Primary outcome measure

Subsequent chronic prescription opioid use, defined as receiving 60 or more days’ supply of opioids in the 90 days following an initial opioid prescription.

Results

Among the 87 055 patients with an initial opioid prescription, 3199 (3.7%) subsequently became chronic users. Patients who become chronic users tended to receive a longer days’ supply, greater quantity dispensed, but a lower morphine milligram equivalents on the initial opioid prescription. Patients prescribed an initial opioid prescription for diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue (adjusted OR (aOR): 5.9, 95% CI: 4.7 to 7.6), diseases of the nervous system (aOR: 6.3, 95% CI: 4.9 to 8.0) and neoplasms (aOR: 5.6, 95% CI: 4.2 to 7.5) had higher odds of subsequent chronic prescription opioid use, compared with a referent group that included all diagnosis types with fewer than 15 chronic opioid users, after adjusting for confounders.

Conclusions

By focusing interventions and prescribing guidelines on specific types of diagnoses that carry a high risk of chronic prescription opioid use and diagnoses that would benefit equally or more from alternative management approaches, states and healthcare organisations may more efficiently decrease inappropriate opioid prescribing while improving the quality of patient care.
Additional offer of sigmoidoscopy in colorectal cancer screening in Germany: rationale and protocol of the decision-analytic modelling approach in the SIGMO study
Authors: Diedrich Leonie , Brinkmann Melanie , Dreier Maren , Schramm Wendelin , Krauth Christian
Published: January 2022

Introduction

In Germany, statutory insured persons are entitled to a stool test (faecal immunochemical test (FIT)) or colonoscopy for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening, depending on age and sex, yet participation rates are rather low. Sigmoidoscopy is a currently not available screening measure that has a strong evidence base for incidence and mortality reduction. Due to its distinct characteristics, it might be preferred by some, who now reject colonoscopy. The objective of this study is to estimate the economic consequences of the additional offer of sigmoidoscopy for CRC screening in Germany compared with the present screening practice while considering the preferences of the general population.

Methods and analysis

A decision-analytic modelling approach will be developed that compares the present CRC screening programme in Germany (FIT, colonoscopy) with a programme extended by sigmoidoscopy from a societal perspective. A decision tree and Markov model will be combined to assess both short-term and long-term effects, such as CRC and adenoma detection rates, the number of CRC cases, CRC mortality as well as complications. The incremental cost per quality-adjusted life year gained for each alternative will be calculated. The model will incorporate the general population’s preferences based on a discrete choice experiment. Further, input parameters will be taken from the literature, the German cancer registry and health insurance claims data.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the Ethics Committee of Hannover Medical School (ID: 8671_BO_K_2019). The findings of the study will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at national and/or international conferences.

Trial registration number

DRKS00019010.
Real-world data from expanded access programmes in health technology assessments: a review of NICE technology appraisals
Authors: Polak Tobias B , Cucchi David GJ , van Rosmalen Joost , Uyl-de Groot Carin A
Published: January 2022

Objectives

To quantify and characterise the usage of expanded access (EA) data in National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) technology appraisals (TAs). EA offers patients who are ineligible for clinical trials or registered treatment options, access to investigational therapies. Although EA programmes are increasingly used to collect real-world data, it is unknown if and how these date are used in NICE health technology assessments.

Design

Cross-sectional study of NICE appraisals (2010–2020). We automatically downloaded and screened all available appraisal documentation on NICE website (over 8500 documents), searching for EA-related terms. Two reviewers independently labelled the EA usage by disease area, and whether it was used to inform safety, efficacy and/or resource use. We qualitatively describe the five appraisals with the most occurrences of EA-related terms.

Primary outcome measure

Number of TAs that used EA data to inform safety, efficacy and/or resource use analyses.

Results

In 54.2% (206/380 appraisals), at least one reference to EA was made. 21.1% (80/380) of the TAs used EA data to inform safety (n=43), efficacy (n=47) and/or resource use (n=52). The number of TAs that use EA data remained stable over time, and the extent of EA data utilisation varied by disease area (p=0.001).

Conclusion

NICE uses EA data in over one in five appraisals. In synthesis with evidence from well-controlled trials, data collected from EA programmes may meaningfully inform cost-effectiveness modelling.
Implementation and initial analysis of Cardiff Model data collection procedures in a level I trauma adult emergency department
Authors: Nguyen Peter , Kohlbeck Sara A , Levas Michael , Hernandez-Meier Jennifer
Published: January 2022

Objectives

Our understanding of community violence is limited by incomplete information, which can potentially be resolved by collecting violence-related injury information through healthcare systems in tandem with prior data streams. This study assessed the feasibility of implementing Cardiff Model data collection procedures in the emergency department (ED) setting to improve multisystem data sharing capabilities and create more representative datasets.

Design

Information collection fields were incorporated into the ED electronic health record (EHR), which gathered additional information from patients reporting assaultive injuries. ED nurses were surveyed to evaluate implementation and feasibility of information collection. Logistic regression was performed to determine associations between missing location information and patient demographic data.

Setting

60-bed academic level I trauma adult ED in a large Midwestern city.

Participants

2648 patients screened positive for assault injuries between 2017 and 2020. 198 patients were omitted due to age outside the range served by this ED. Unselected inclusion of 150 ED nurses was surveyed.

Main outcome measures

Main outcomes include nursing staff survey responses and ORs for providing complete injury information across various patient demographics.

Results

Most ED nurses believed that information collection aligned with the hospital’s mission (92%), wanted information collection to continue (88%), did not believe that information collection impacted their workflow (88%), and reported taking under 1 min to screen and document violence information (77%). 825 patients (31.2%) provided sufficient information for geospatial mapping. Likelihood of providing complete location information was significantly associated with patient gender, race, arrival means, accompaniment, trauma type and year.

Conclusions

It is feasible to implement information collection procedures about location-based, assault-related injuries through the EHR in the adult ED setting. Nurses reported being receptive to collecting information. Analyses suggest patient-level and time variables impact information collection completeness. The geospatial information collected can greatly improve preexisting law enforcement and emergency medical systems datasets.
Postoperative care in ICU versus non-ICU after head and neck free-flap surgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Mashrah Mubarak Ahmed , Aldhohrah Taghrid , Abdelrehem Ahmed , Sabri Bahia , Ahmed Hyat , Al-Rawi Natheer H , Yu Tian , Zhao Shiyong , Wang Liping , Ge Linhu
Published: January 2022

Objective

Admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) has long been considered as routine by most head and neck surgeons after microvascular free-flap transfer. This study aimed to answer the question ‘Is there a difference in the flap survival and postoperative complications rates between admission to intensive care unit (ICU) versus Non-ICU following microvascular head and neck reconstructive surgery?’.

Design

Systematic review, and meta-analysis.

Methods

The PubMed, Embase, Scopus and Cochrane Library electronic databases were systematically searched (till April 2021) to identify the relevant studies. Studies that compared postoperative nursing of patients who underwent microvascular head and neck reconstructive surgery in ICU and non-ICU were included. The outcome variables were flap failure and length of hospital stay (LOS) and other complications. Weighted OR or mean differences with 95% CIs were calculated.

Results

Eight studies involving a total of 2349 patients were included. No statistically significant differences were observed between ICU and non-ICU admitted patients regarding flap survival reported (fixed, risk ratio, 1.46; 95% CI 0.80 to 2.69, p=0.231, I2=0%), reoperation, readmission, respiratory failure, delirium and mortality (p>0.05). A significant increase in the postoperative pneumonia (p=0.018) and sepsis (p=0.033) was observed in patients admitted to ICU compared with non-ICU setting.

Conclusion

This meta-analysis showed that an immediate postoperative nursing in the ICU after head and neck microvascular reconstructive surgery did not reduce the incidence of flap failure or complications rate. Limiting the routine ICU admission to the carefully selected patients may result in a reduction in the incidence of postoperative pneumonia, sepsis, LOS and total hospital charge.
Study protocol for a randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled phase III trial examining the add-on efficacy, cost–utility and neurobiological effects of low-dose naltrexone (LDN) in patients with fibromyalgia (INNOVA study)
Authors: Colomer-Carbonell Ariadna , Sanabria-Mazo Juan P , Hernández-Negrín Halbert , Borràs Xavier , Suso-Ribera Carlos , García-Palacios Azucena , Muchart Jordi , Munuera Josep , D'Amico Francesco , Maes Michael , Younger Jarred W , Feliu-Soler Albert , Rozadilla-Sacanell Antoni , Luciano Juan V
Published: January 2022

Introduction

There is evidence that low-dose naltrexone (LDN; <5.0 mg/day) reduces pain and improves the quality of life of people with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS). However, no randomised controlled trials with long-term follow-ups have been carried out. The INNOVA study will evaluate the add-on efficacy, safety, cost–utility and neurobiological effects of LDN for reducing pain in patients with FMS, with a 1-year follow-up.

Methods and analysis

A single-site, prospective, randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, parallel design phase III trial will be performed. Eligibility criteria include being adult, having a diagnosis of FMS and experiencing pain of 4 or higher on a 10-point numerical rating scale. Participants will be randomised to a LDN intervention group (4.5 mg/day) or to a placebo control group. Clinical assessments will be performed at baseline (T0), 3 months (T1), 6 months (T2) and 12 months (T3). The primary endpoint will be pain intensity. A sample size of 60 patients per study arm (120 in total), as calculated prior to recruitment for sufficient power, will be monitored between January 2022 and August 2024. Assessment will also include daily ecological momentary evaluations of FMS-related symptoms (eg, pain intensity, fatigue and sleep disturbance), and side effects via ecological momentary assessment through the Pain Monitor app during the first 3 months. Costs and quality-adjusted life years will be also calculated. Half of the participants in each arm will be scanned with MRI at T0 and T1 for changes in brain metabolites related to neuroinflammation and central sensitisation. Inflammatory biomarkers in serum will also be measured.

Ethics and dissemination

This study has been approved by the Ethics Committee of the Fundació Sant Joan de Déu. The results will be actively disseminated through peer-reviewed journals, conference presentations, social media and community engagement activities.

Trial registration number

NCT04739995.
Development of strategies to support home-based exercise adherence after stroke: a Delphi consensus
Authors: Mahmood Amreen , Deshmukh Anagha , Natarajan Manikandan , Marsden Dianne , Vyslysel Glade , Padickaparambil Sebastian , TS Shwetha , Direito Artur , Kumaran Senthil , N Girish , Sachdev Harpreet , Kumar Veluswamy Sundar , Karthikbabu Suruliraj , Unnikrishnan B , English Coralie , Solomon John M
Published: January 2022

Objective

To develop a set of strategies to enhance adherence to home-based exercises after stroke, and an overarching framework to classify these strategies.

Method

We conducted a four-round Delphi consensus (two online surveys, followed by a focus group then a consensus round). The Delphi panel consisted of 13 experts from physiotherapy, occupational therapy, clinical psychology, behaviour science and community medicine. The experts were from India, Australia and UK.

Results

In round 1, a 10-item survey using open-ended questions was emailed to panel members and 75 strategies were generated. Of these, 25 strategies were included in round 2 for further consideration. A total of 64 strategies were finally included in the subsequent rounds. In round 3, the strategies were categorised into nine domains—(1) patient education on stroke and recovery, (2) method of exercise prescription, (3) feedback and supervision, (4) cognitive remediation, (5) involvement of family members, (6) involvement of society, (7) promoting self-efficacy, (8) motivational strategies and (9) reminder strategies. The consensus from 12 experts (93%) led to the development of the framework in round 4.

Conclusion

We developed a framework of comprehensive strategies to assist clinicians in supporting exercise adherence among stroke survivors. It provides practical methods that can be deployed in both research and clinical practices. Future studies should explore stakeholders’ experiences and the cost-effectiveness of implementing these strategies.
Health service costs of treating venous leg ulcers in the UK: evidence from a cross-sectional survey based in the north west of England
Authors: Urwin Sean , Dumville Jo C , Sutton Matt , Cullum Nicky
Published: January 2022

Objectives

To estimate and examine the direct healthcare costs of treating people with open venous leg ulcers in the UK.

Design

Cost-of-illness study.

Setting

A cross-sectional survey of nine National Health Service community locales over 2-week periods in 2015/2016.

Methods

We examined the resource use and prevalence of venous leg ulcer treatment in the community. Examination of variation in these obtained costs was performed by ordinary least squares regression. We used additional resource use information from a randomised control trial and extrapolated costs to the UK for an annual period.

Results

The average 2-week per person cost of treating patients where a venous leg ulceration was the primary (most severe) wound was estimated at £166.39 (95% CI £157.78 to £175.00) with community staff time making up over half of this amount. Costs were higher where antimicrobial dressings were used and where wound care was delivered in the home. Among those with any recorded venous leg ulcer (primary and non-primary), we derived a point prevalence of 3.2 per 10 000 population and estimated that the annual prevalence could be no greater than 82.4 per 10 000 population. We estimated that the national cost of treating a venous leg ulcer was £102 million with a per person annual cost at £4787.70.

Conclusion

Our point prevalence figures are in line with the literature. However, our annual prevalence estimations and costs are far lower than those reported in recent literature which suggests that the costs of treating venous leg ulcers are lower than previously thought. Movement towards routinely collected and useable community care activity would help provide a transparent and deeper understanding of the scale and cost of wound care in the UK.
Expression and possible role of Smad3 in postnecrotizing enterocolitis stricture
Authors: Chen Rui , Lv Chengjie , Zhao Xiaoxia , Ma Dong , Lai Dengming , Zhao Yun , Zhang Luyin , Tou Jinfa
Published: January 2022

Objective

To investigate the expression of Smad3 (mothers against decapentaplegic homolog 3) protein in postnecrotizing enterocolitis stricture and its possible mechanism of action.

Methods

We used immunohistochemistry to detect the expression characteristics of Smad3 and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) proteins in human postnecrotizing enterocolitis stricture. We cultured IEC-6 (crypt epithelial cells of rat small intestine) in vitro and inhibited the expression of Smad3 using siRNA technique. Quantitative PCR, western blotting, and ELISA were used to detect the changes in transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), NF-κB, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1) messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein expressions in IEC-6 cells. CCK8 kit and Transwell cellular migration were used to detect cell proliferation and migration. Changes in epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers (E-cadherin and vimentin) in IEC-6 cells were detected by immunofluorescence technique.

Results

The results showed that Smad3 protein and NF-κB protein were overexpressed in narrow intestinal tissues and that Smad3 protein expression was positively correlated with NF-κB protein expression. After inhibiting the expression of Smad3 in IEC-6 cells, the mRNA expressions of NF-κB, TGF-β1, ZO-1, and VEGF decreased, whereas the mRNA expression of TNF-α did not significantly change. TGF-β1, NF-κB, and TNF-α protein expressions in IEC-6 cells decreased, whereas ZO-1 and intracellular VEGF protein expressions increased. IEC-6 cell proliferation and migration capacity decreased. There was no significant change in protein expression levels of EMT markers E-cadherin and vimentin and also extracellular VEGF protein expression.

Conclusions

We suspect that the high expression of Smad3 protein in postnecrotizing enterocolitis stricture may promote the occurrence and development of secondary intestinal stenosis. The mechanism may be related to the regulation of TGF-β1, NF-κB, TNF-α, ZO-1, and VEGF mRNA and protein expression. This may also be related to the ability of Smad3 to promote epithelial cell proliferation and migration.
Rigour and reproducibility in Canadian research: call for a coordinated approach
Authors: Thibault Robert T. , Munafò Marcus R. , Moher David
Published: January 2022

Shortcomings in the rigour and reproducibility of research have become well-known issues and persist despite repeated calls for improvement. A coordinated effort among researchers, institutions, funders, publishers, learned societies, and regulators may be the most effective way of tackling these issues. The UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN) has fostered collaboration across various stakeholders in research and are creating the infrastructure necessary to advance rigorous and reproducible research practices across the United Kingdom. Other Reproducibility Networks, modelled on UKRN, are now emerging in other countries. Canada could benefit from a comparable network to unify the voices around research quality and maximize the value of Canadian research.
A multi-messenger view of cosmic dawn: Conquering the final frontier
Authors: Padmanabhan Hamsa
Published: January 2022

The epoch of Cosmic Dawn, when the first stars and galaxies were born, is widely considered as the final frontier of observational cosmology today. Mapping the period between Cosmic Dawn and the present-day provides access to more than 90% of the baryonic (normal) matter in the universe, and unlocks several thousand times more Fourier modes of information than available in today’s cosmological surveys. We review the progress in modeling baryonic gas observations as tracers of the cosmological large-scale structure from Cosmic Dawn to the present day. We illustrate how the description of dark matter haloes can be extended to describe baryonic gas abundances and clustering. This innovative approach allows us to fully utilize our current knowledge of astrophysics to constrain cosmological parameters from future observations. Combined with the information content of multi-messenger probes, this will also elucidate the properties of the first supermassive black holes at Cosmic Dawn. We present a host of fascinating implications for constraining physics beyond the [Formula: see text]CDM model, including tests of the theories of inflation and the cosmological principle, the effects of nonstandard dark matter, and possible deviations from Einstein’s general relativity on the largest scales.
Tellus regional stream water geochemistry: environmental and mineral exploration applications
Authors: Gallagher Vincent , Grunsky Eric C. , Fitzsimons Mairéad M. , Browne Margaret A. , Lilburn Sophie , Symons James
Published: January 2022

Regional stream water geochemistry acquired as part of the Tellus programme in Ireland has been analysed to assess its potential for application to environmental assessment and mineral exploration. Interpolated geochemical maps and multivariate statistical analysis, including principal component analysis and random forest classification, demonstrate broad geogenic control of stream water chemistry, with both bedrock and subsoil contributing to the patterns observed. Surface water regulations set Environmental Quality Standard values for individual Priority Substances and Specific Pollutants that may depend on background concentrations and/or water hardness. The high resolution of Tellus stream water data and their location on low-order streams have allowed estimation of background concentrations and water hardness in the survey area, with significant implications for water monitoring programmes. Anthropogenic inputs to stream water in the survey area come mainly from agricultural sources and Tellus data suggest few catchments are unaffected. Comparison of Tellus stream water geochemistry with stream sediment and topsoil geochemistry suggest that stream water geochemistry has strong potential for use in mineral exploration, with the same base metal and gold pathfinder anomalies apparent in all three data sets. Cluster analysis indicates that base metals in stream water are associated with organic matter but statistical analysis may be employed to distinguish mineralization-related signatures.

Supplementary material:
Comparison of cation/anion associations using Piper plots and principal component analysis is available at
https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5683094

Thematic collection:
This article is part of the Hydrochemistry related to exploration and environmental issues collection available at:
https://www.lyellcollection.org/cc/hydrochemistry-related-to-exploration-and-environmental-issues
The Perceptual Consistency and Association of the LMA Effort Elements
Authors: Kim Hye Ji , Neff Michael , Lee Sung-Hee
Published: January 2022

Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) and its Effort element provide a conceptual framework through which we can observe, describe, and interpret the intention of movement. Effort attributes provide a link between how people move and how their movement communicates to others. It is crucial to investigate the perceptual characteristics of Effort to validate whether it can serve as an effective framework to support a wide range of applications in animation and robotics that require a system for creating or perceiving expressive variation in motion. To this end, we first constructed an Effort motion database of short video clips of five different motions:
walk, sit down, pass, put, wave
performed in eight ways corresponding to the extremes of the Effort elements. We then performed a perceptual evaluation to examine the perceptual
consistency
and perceived
associations
among Effort elements:
Space (Indirect/Direct), Time (Sustained/Sudden), Weight (Light/Strong),
and
Flow (Free/Bound)
that appeared in the motion stimuli. The results of the perceptual consistency evaluation indicate that although the observers do not perceive the LMA Effort element 100% as intended, true response rates of seven Effort elements are higher than false response rates except for
light
Effort. The perceptual consistency results showed varying tendencies by motion. The perceptual association between LMA Effort elements showed that a single LMA Effort element tends to co-occur with the elements of other factors, showing significant correlation with one or two factors (e.g., indirect and free, light and free).
The Effects on Driving Behavior When Using a Head-mounted Display in a Dynamic Driving Simulator
Authors: Blissing Björn , Bruzelius Fredrik , Eriksson Olle
Published: January 2022

Driving simulators are established tools used during automotive development and research. Most simulators use either monitors or projectors as their primary display system. However, the emergence of a new generation of head-mounted displays has triggered interest in using these as the primary display type. The general benefits and drawbacks of head-mounted displays are well researched, but their effect on driving behavior in a simulator has not been sufficiently quantified.

This article presents a study of driving behavior differences between projector-based graphics and head-mounted display in a large dynamic driving simulator. This study has selected five specific driving maneuvers suspected of affecting driving behavior differently depending on the choice of display technology. Some of these maneuvers were chosen to reveal changes in lateral and longitudinal driving behavior. Others were picked for their ability to highlight the benefits and drawbacks of head-mounted displays in a driving context.

The results show minor changes in lateral and longitudinal driver behavior changes when comparing projectors and a head-mounted display. The most noticeable difference in favor of projectors was seen when the display resolution is critical to the driving task. The choice of display type did not affect simulator sickness nor the realism rated by the subjects.
Continuous Operator Authentication for Teleoperated Systems Using Hidden Markov Models
Authors: Yan Junjie , Huang Kevin , Lindgren Kyle , Bonaci Tamara , Chizeck Howard J.
Published: January 2022

In this article, we present a novel approach for continuous operator authentication in teleoperated robotic processes based on Hidden Markov Models (HMM). While HMMs were originally developed and widely used in speech recognition, they have shown great performance in human motion and activity modeling. We make an analogy between human language and teleoperated robotic processes (i.e., words are analogous to a teleoperator’s gestures, sentences are analogous to the entire teleoperated task or process) and implement HMMs to model the teleoperated task. To test the continuous authentication performance of the proposed method, we conducted two sets of analyses. We built a virtual reality (VR) experimental environment using a commodity VR headset (HTC Vive) and haptic feedback enabled controller (Sensable PHANToM Omni) to simulate a real teleoperated task. An experimental study with 10 subjects was then conducted. We also performed simulated continuous operator authentication by using the JHU-ISI Gesture and Skill Assessment Working Set (JIGSAWS). The performance of the model was evaluated based on the continuous (real-time) operator authentication accuracy as well as resistance to a simulated impersonation attack. The results suggest that the proposed method is able to achieve 70% (VR experiment) and 81% (JIGSAWS dataset) continuous classification accuracy with as short as a 1-second sample window. It is also capable of detecting an impersonation attack in real-time.
A Survey on Differential Privacy for Unstructured Data Content
Authors: Zhao Ying , Chen Jinjun
Published: January 2022

Huge amounts of unstructured data including image, video, audio, and text are ubiquitously generated and shared, and it is a challenge to protect sensitive personal information in them, such as human faces, voiceprints, and authorships. Differential privacy is the standard privacy protection technology that provides rigorous privacy guarantees for various data. This survey summarizes and analyzes differential privacy solutions to protect unstructured data content before it is shared with untrusted parties. These differential privacy methods obfuscate unstructured data after they are represented with vectors and then reconstruct them with obfuscated vectors. We summarize specific privacy models and mechanisms together with possible challenges in them. We also discuss their privacy guarantees against AI attacks and utility losses. Finally, we discuss several possible directions for future research.
Black Twitter is gold
Authors: Klassen Shamika
Published: January 2022

Community + Culture features practitioner perspectives on designing technologies for and with communities. We highlight compelling projects and provocative points of view that speak to both community technology practice and the interaction design field as a whole.
--- Sheena Erete, Editor
Constraint Enforcement on Decision Trees: A Survey
Authors: Nanfack Géraldin , Temple Paul , Frénay Benoît
Published: January 2022

Decision trees have the particularity of being machine learning models that are visually easy to interpret and understand. Therefore, they are primarily suited for sensitive domains like medical diagnosis, where decisions need to be explainable. However, if used on complex problems, then decision trees can become large, making them hard to grasp. In addition to this aspect, when learning decision trees, it may be necessary to consider a broader class of constraints, such as the fact that two variables should not be used in a single branch of the tree. This motivates the need to enforce constraints in learning algorithms of decision trees. We propose a survey of works that attempted to solve the problem of learning decision trees under constraints. Our contributions are fourfold. First, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first survey that deals with constraints on decision trees. Second, we define a flexible taxonomy of constraints applied to decision trees and methods for their treatment in the literature. Third, we benchmark state-of-the art depth-constrained decision tree learners with respect to predictive accuracy and computational time. Fourth, we discuss potential future research directions that would be of interest for researchers who wish to conduct research in this field.
Dietary Organosulfur-Containing Compounds and Their Health-Promotion Mechanisms
Authors: Lu Yuyun , Zhang Molan , Huang Dejian
Published: January 2022

Dietary organosulfur-containing compounds (DOSCs) in fruits, vegetables, and edible mushrooms may hold the key to the health-promotion benefits of these foods. Yet their action mechanisms are not clear, partially due to their high reactivity, which leads to the formation of complex compounds during postharvest processing. Among postharvest processing methods, thermal treatment is the most common way to process these edible plants rich in DOSCs, which undergo complex degradation pathways with the generation of numerous derivatives over a short time. At low temperatures, DOSCs are biotransformed slowly during fermentation to different metabolites (e.g., thiols, sulfides, peptides), whose distinctive biological activity remains largely unexplored. In this review, we discuss the bioavailability of DOSCs in human digestion before illustrating their potential mechanisms for health promotion related to cardiovascular health, cancer chemoprevention, and anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial activities. In particular, it is interesting that different DOSCs react with glutathione or cysteine, leading to the slow release of hydrogen sulfide (H2S), which has broad bioactivity in chronic disease prevention. In addition, DOSCs may interact with protein thiol groups of different protein targets of importance related to inflammation and phase II enzyme upregulation, among other action pathways critical for health promotion.
The Influence of the Western Diet on Microbiota and Gastrointestinal Immunity
Authors: Las Heras Vanessa , Melgar Silvia , MacSharry John , Gahan Cormac G.M.
Published: January 2022

Diet exerts a major influence upon host immune function and the gastrointestinal microbiota. Although components of the human diet (including carbohydrates, fats, and proteins) are essential sources of nutrition for the host, they also influence immune function directly through interaction with innate and cell-mediated immune regulatory mechanisms. Regulation of the microbiota community structure also provides a mechanism by which food components influence host immune regulatory processes. Here, we consider the complex interplay between components of the modern (Western) diet, the microbiota, and host immunity in the context of obesity and metabolic disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and infection.
Next-Generation Genetic and Fermentation Technologies for Safe and Sustainable Production of Food Ingredients: Colors and Flavorings
Authors: Seo Seung-Oh , Jin Yong-Su
Published: January 2022

A growing human population is a significant issue in food security owing to the limited land and resources available for agricultural food production. To solve these problems, sustainable food manufacturing processes and the development of alternative foods and ingredients are needed. Metabolic engineering and synthetic biology can help solve the food security issue and satisfy the demand for alternative food production. Bioproduction of food ingredients by microbial fermentation is a promising method to replace current manufacturing processes, such as extraction from natural materials and chemical synthesis, with more ecofriendly and sustainable operations. This review highlights successful examples of bioproduction for food additives by engineered microorganisms, with an emphasis on colorants and flavors that are extensively used in the food industry. Recent strain engineering developments and fermentation strategies for producing selected food colorants and flavors are introduced with discussions on the current status and future perspectives.
Oxidative Stress and Metabolism: A Mechanistic Insight for Glyphosate Toxicology
Authors: Wang Xiaojing , Lu Qirong , Guo Jingchao , Ares Irma , Martínez Marta , Martínez-Larrañaga María-Rosa , Wang Xu , Anadón Arturo , Martínez María-Aránzazu
Published: January 2022

Glyphosate (GLYP) is a widely used pesticide; it is considered to be a safe herbicide for animals and humans because it targets 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase. However, there has been increasing evidence that GLYP causes varying degrees of toxicity. Moreover, oxidative stress and metabolism are highly correlated with toxicity. This review provides a comprehensive introduction to the toxicity of GLYP and, for the first time, systematically summarizes the toxicity mechanism of GLYP from the perspective of oxidative stress, including GLYP-mediated oxidative damage, changes in antioxidant status, altered signaling pathways, and the regulation of oxidative stress by exogenous substances. In addition, the metabolism of GLYP is discussed, including metabolites,metabolic pathways, metabolic enzymes, and the toxicity of metabolites. This review provides new ideas for the toxicity mechanism of GLYP and proposes effective strategies for reducing its toxicity.
Testing Causal Theories with Learned Proxies
Authors: Knox Dean , Lucas Christopher , Cho Wendy K. Tam
Published: January 2022

Social scientists commonly use computational models to estimate proxies of unobserved concepts, then incorporate these proxies into subsequent tests of their theories. The consequences of this practice, which occurs in over two-thirds of recent computational work in political science, are underappreciated. Imperfect proxies can reflect noise and contamination from other concepts, producing biased point estimates and standard errors. We demonstrate how analysts can use causal diagrams to articulate theoretical concepts and their relationships to estimated proxies, then apply straightforward rules to assess which conclusions are rigorously supportable. We formalize and extend common heuristics for “signing the bias”—a technique for reasoning about unobserved confounding—to scenarios with imperfect proxies. Using these tools, we demonstrate how, in often-encountered research settings, proxy-based analyses allow for valid tests for the existence and direction of theorized effects. We conclude with best-practice recommendations for the rapidly growing literature using learned proxies to test causal theories.
miR-338-3p blocks TGFβ-induced myofibroblast differentiation through the induction of PTEN
Authors: Rackow Ashley R. , Judge Jennifer L. , Woeller Collynn F. , Sime Patricia J. , Kottmann Robert M.
Published: January 2022

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic interstitial lung disease. The pathogenesis of IPF is not completely understood. However, numerous genes are associated with the development and progression of pulmonary fibrosis, indicating there is a significant genetic component to the pathogenesis of IPF. Epigenetic influences on the development of human disease, including pulmonary fibrosis, remain to be fully elucidated. In this paper, we identify miR-338-3p as a microRNA severely downregulated in the lungs of patients with pulmonary fibrosis and in experimental models of pulmonary fibrosis. Treatment of primary human lung fibroblasts with miR-338-3p inhibits myofibroblast differentiation and matrix protein production. Published and proposed targets of miR-338-3p such as TGFβ receptor 1, MEK/ERK 1/2, Cdk4, and Cyclin D are also not responsible for the regulation of pulmonary fibroblast behavior by miR-338-3p. miR-338-3p inhibits myofibroblast differentiation by preventing TGFβ-mediated downregulation of phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN), a known antifibrotic mediator.
Administration of particulate oxygen generators improves skeletal muscle contractile function after ischemia-reperfusion injury in the rat hindlimb
Authors: Dyer Sarah E. , Remer J. David , Hannifin Kelsey E. , Hombal Aishwarya , Wenke Joseph C. , Walters Thomas J. , Christ George J.
Published: January 2022

Skeletal muscle contraction was evaluated in the same animals at multiple time points up to 4 wk after injury, following administration of particulate oxygen generators (POGs) in a clinically relevant rat hindlimb model of tourniquet-induced ischemia. The observed POG-mediated improvement of muscle function over time confirms and extends previous studies to further document the potential clinical applications of POGs. Of particular significance in austere environments, this technology can be applied in the absence of an intact circulation.
Green Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles from Alhagi graecorum Leaf Extract and Evaluation of Their Cytotoxicity and Antifungal Activity
Authors: Hawar Sumaiya N. , Al-Shmgani Hanady S. , Al-Kubaisi Zainb A. , Sulaiman Ghassan M. , Dewir Yaser H. , Rikisahedew Jesamine J.
Published: January 2022

Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using different plant parts has shown a great potential in medicinal and industrial applications. In this study, AgNPs were in vitro green synthesized using A. graecorum, and its antifungal and antitumoractivities were investigated. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image result indicated spherical shape of AgNPs with a size range of 22‐36 nm indicated by using Image J program. The functional groups indicated by Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) represented the groups involved in the reduction of silver ion into nanoparticles. Alhagi graecorum AgNPs inhibited MCF‐7 breast cancer cell line growth in increased concentration depend manner, significant differences shown at 50, 100, and 150 μg/ml concentrations compared to the control. Strong antifungal activity against Candida species (C. albicans., C. glabrata, C. parapsilosis, C. tropicales, and C. krusei) was observed and the inhibition zone range from 14‐22 mm at a concentration of 0.01 mmol/ml and from 17‐27 mm at a concentration of 0.02 mmol/ml. Based on our findings, it is concluded that synthesized silver nanoparticles from A. graecorum can be used as a potential antitumor and antifungal agent for various therapeutical applications.
Using an Artificial Neural Network to Validate and Predict the Physical Properties of Self-Compacting Concrete
Authors: Thirumalai Raja K. , Jayanthi N. , Leta Tesfaye Jule , Nagaprasad N. , Krishnaraj R. , Kaushik V. S.
Published: January 2022

SCC (self-compacting concrete) is a high-flowing concrete that blasts into structures. Many academics have been interested in using an artificial neural network (ANN) to forecast concrete strength in recent years. As a result, the goal of this study is to confirm the various possibilities of using an artificial neural network (ANN) to detect the features of SCC when Portland Pozzolana Cement (PPC) is partially substituted with biowaste such as Bagasse Ash (BA) and Rice Husk Ash (RHA) (RHA). Specialist systems based on the fully connected cascade (FCC) architecture in artificial neural networks (ANN) are used to estimate the compressive toughness of SCC. The research results are confirmed with the forecasting results of ANN utilizing 73 trial datasets of differentiation focus proposals of cement, BA, and RHA containing parameters such as initial setting time (IST), final setting time (FST), and standard consistency. Experiments to determine compressive strength for a wider range of mixed prepositions will result in higher project expenses and delays. So, an expert system ANN is used to find the standard consistency, setting time, and compressive strength for the intermediate mix propositions according to IS 10262:2009. The experimental results of compressive strength for 28 days are considered, in which 70% was used to train the ANN and 30% was utilized for testing the accuracy of the predicted compressive strength for the intermediate mix proposition. Using all of the datasets, the number of hidden layers used for compressive strength prediction for intermediate mix proposal is determined in the first step. The compressive strength for the intermediate mix preposition was identified in the second phase of the research, using the number of hidden layers determined in the first phase. The results were validated using the correlation coefficient (R) and root mean square error (RMSE) obtained from ANN, resulting in an acceptance range of 97 percent to 99 percent.
A Robust Visual-Aided Inertial Navigation Algorithm for Pedestrians
Authors: An Langping , Pan Xianfei , Li Tingting , Wang Mang
Published: January 2022

Real-time and robust state estimation for pedestrians is a challenging problem under the satellite denial environment. The zero-velocity-aided foot-mounted inertial navigation system, with the shortcomings of unobservable heading, error accumulation, and poorly adaptable parameters, is a conventional method to estimate the pose relative to a known origin. Visual and inertial fusion is a popular technology for state estimation over the past decades, but it cannot make full use of the movement characteristics of pedestrians. In this paper, we propose a novel visual-aided inertial navigation algorithm for pedestrians, which improves the robustness in the dynamic environment and for multi-motion pedestrians. The algorithm proposed combines the zero-velocity-aided INS with visual odometry to obtain more accurate pose estimation in various environments. And then, the parameters of INS have adjusted adaptively via taking errors between fusion estimation and INS outputs as observers in the factor graphs. We evaluate the performance of our system with real-world experiments. Results are compared with other algorithms to show that the absolute trajectory accuracy in the algorithm proposed has been greatly improved, especially in the dynamic scene and multi-motions trials.