bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Gradenigo’s and Vernet’s syndrome in an adult man with Candida mastoiditis
Authors: Parekh Maria A , Pacheco Vitor H
Published: April 2021

The authors report a case of fungal otitis media complicated by extension of the infection into adjacent structures causing apical petrositis and subsequently involvement of the jugular foramen in a 71-year-old diabetic man. First described in 1907, Gradenigo’s syndrome is a serious but rare clinical triad of acute otitis media, unilateral pain in the distribution of cranial nerve V (trigeminal) and ipsilateral cranial nerve VI (abducens) palsy that commonly presents without all three features and is therefore often missed. In this report, our patient was initially misdiagnosed as having a diabetic cranial neuropathy, and later he developed Vernet’s syndrome. Despite aggressive surgical and medical management, he did poorly and died a few weeks later. Clinicians need to be aware of this serious and life-threatening complication of otitis media in high-risk individuals with diabetes or immunocompromised states, to allow early diagnosis and improved clinical outcomes.
Pneumocystis pneumonia causing cavitating lung nodules in an immunocompetent individual
Authors: Ojuawo Olutobi , Htwe Thidar , Thein Onn Shaun , Sahal Adeel
Published: April 2021

Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PCP) is a potential life-threatening pulmonary infection which commonly manifests in immunosuppressed patients especially with HIV, with underlying malignancies, severe malnutrition as well as those on immunosuppressive treatments. There have been case reports of symptomatic PCP in individuals with a normally functioning immune system with typical clinical features and radiologic findings of bilateral and diffuse interstitial opacities. However, PCP in immunocompetent individuals presenting with lung nodules had been rarely reported. We report a 53-year-old immunocompetent gentleman who presented with subacute cough, progressive shortness of breath and radiographic findings of multiple lung nodules with central cavitation. The diagnosis of PCP was made by detection of PCP DNA PCR in bronchoalveolar lavage sample following fibreoptic bronchoscopy. This case also highlights the atypical radiographic findings of multiple cavitating lung nodules as a presentation of PCP in an immunocompetent patient.
Atypical presentation of autoimmune polyglandular syndrome type 1 in the fifth decade
Authors: Sanjeevi Aditya , Asirvatham Adlyne Reena , Balachandran Karthik , Mahadevan Shriraam
Published: April 2021

A 45-year-old woman presented to us with a short-term history of nausea, vomiting and giddiness. On arrival at our hospital, examination revealed postural hypotension. Fluid resuscitation with intravenous normal saline was commenced. She also had chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis and nail changes suggestive of ectodermal dystrophy. Detailed history taking revealed that she had never attained menarche. Serum biochemistries showed hyponatraemia, hyperkalaemia, and hypocalcaemia (sodium, 127 mEq/L; potassium, 6 mEq/L; and albumin-corrected calcium, 6 mg/dL). Adrenocorticotropic hormone-stimulated cortisol (16.7 mcg/dL) was suboptimal favouring adrenal insufficiency. She was started on hydrocortisone and fludrocortisone supplementation. Additionally, the parathyroid hormone was inappropriately low (3.8 pg/mL) confirming hypoparathyroidism. Oral calcium and active vitamin D supplementation were added. With the above clinical and biochemical picture, namely, clustering of primary amenorrhoea, adrenal insufficiency and hypoparathyroidism, the diagnosis pointed towards autoimmune polyglandular syndrome. Genetic workup revealed a deletion in exon 8 of the autoimmune regulator gene confirming the diagnosis of autoimmune polyendocrinopathy–candidiasis–ectodermal dystrophy/autoimmune polyglandular syndrome type 1 .
The impact of cash transfers on mental health in children and young people in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Zimmerman Annie , Garman Emily , Avendano-Pabon Mauricio , Araya Ricardo , Evans-Lacko Sara , McDaid David , Park A-La , Hessel Philipp , Diaz Yadira , Matijasevich Alicia , Ziebold Carola , Bauer Annette , Paula Cristiane Silvestre , Lund Crick
Published: April 2021

Introduction

Although cash transfer programmes are not explicitly designed to improve mental health, by reducing poverty and improving the life chances of children and young people, they may also improve their mental health. This systematic review and meta-analysis assessed the evidence on the effectiveness of cash transfers to improve the mental health of children and young people in low-income and middle-income countries.

Methods

We searched Pubmed, EBSCOhost, Scientific Electronic Library Online, ISI Web of Science and Social Sciences Citation Index and grey literature (from January 2000 to July 2020) for studies which quantitatively assessed the impact of cash transfers on mental health in young people (aged 0–24 years), using a design that incorporated a control group. We extracted Cohen’s d effects size and used a random-effects model for the meta-analysis on studies that measured depressive symptoms, I2statistic and assessment of study quality.

Results

We identified 12 116 articles for screening, of which 12 were included in the systematic review (covering 13 interventions) and seven in the meta-analysis assessing impact on depressive symptoms specifically. There was high heterogeneity (I2=95.2) and a high risk of bias (0.38, 95% CIs: −5.08 to 5.85; p=0.86) across studies. Eleven interventions (85%) showed a significant positive impact of cash transfers on at least one mental health outcome in children and young people. However, no study found a positive effect on all mental health outcomes examined, and the meta-analysis showed no impact of cash transfers on depressive symptoms (0.02, 95% CIs: −0.19 to 0.23; p=0.85).

Conclusion

Cash transfers may have positive effects on some mental health outcomes for young people, with no negative effects identified. However, there is high heterogeneity across studies, with some interventions showing no effects. Our review highlights how the effect of cash transfers may vary by social and economic context, culture, design, conditionality and mental health outcome.
Combined effects of individual and neighbourhood socioeconomic status on older adults’ mortality: a retrospective follow-up study in Hong Kong
Authors: Guo Yingqi , Chan Kristy Shuk Ting , Chan Chee Hon , Chang Qingsong , Lee Ruby SY , Yip Paul Siu Fai
Published: April 2021

Objectives

This study examined the interaction effects of individual and neighbourhood socioeconomic status (SES) in older adults in Hong Kong, considering all-cause and cause-specific mortality from respiratory disease, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, nonmedical disease and suicide.

Design

A retrospective follow-up study.

Setting

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, a rapidly ageing society with 16.1% residents aged 65 years or older in 2020.

Participants

43 910 people aged 65 years or older were enrolled at baseline. They had participated in health check-ups during 2000–2003 in one of the Elderly Health Centres. Observation periods started on the date of the participant’s first health check-up, and ended at death, or 31 December 2011, whichever occurred first.

Outcome measures

All-cause and cause-specific mortality over the study timeframe.

Analysis

Cox’s proportional hazards regression models were applied to estimate the adjusted HRs of mortality, by including covariates at neighbourhood (deprivation) and individual levels (poverty, education and type of housing).

Results

The ‘double tragedy theory’ (ie, lower SES persons living in lower SES neighbourhoods have worst health outcomes) was more related to cancer, while the ‘psychosocial comparison theory’ (ie, lower SES persons living in higher SES neighbourhoods have poorer health outcomes) was more related to cardiovascular, ischaemic heart disease, and stroke.

Conclusion

There were important interaction effects between neighbourhood and individual factors on mortality. Policies based on the interaction between individual and neighbourhood SES should be considered. For instance, for cancer, targeted services (ie, free consultation, relevant treatment information, health check-up, etc) could be allocated in socioeconomically deprived areas to support individuals with low SES. On the other hand, more free public services to reduce psychological stresses (ie, psychological support services, recreational services, health knowledge information, etc) could be provided for those individuals with low SES living in higher SES areas to reduce stroke, cardiovascular and ischaemic heart diseases.
Increasing breast cancer awareness and breast examination practices among women through health education and capacity building of primary healthcare providers: a pre-post intervention study in low socioeconomic area of Mumbai, India
Authors: Prusty Ranjan Kumar , Begum Shahina , Patil Anushree , Naik D D , Pimple Sharmila , Mishra Gauravi
Published: April 2021

Objectives

The present study aimed to improve breast cancer (BC) awareness and practices using Information, Education and Communication (IEC) modules and health educational sessions for women and primary healthcare providers in low socioeconomic community of Mumbai.

Design

Pre-post quasi-experimental design.

Setting

The study was conducted in a lower socioeconomic area of G-South ward of Mumbai, Maharashtra. The baseline and endline survey was conducted using structured interview schedules.

Participants

410 women were selected, aged between 18 and 55 years who were not pregnant, lactating or diagnosed with BC.

Intervention

A health education-based intervention module was developed to educate women through group and individual sessions.

Outcomes

Summative indices were constructed to understand the net mean difference in knowledge of signs, symptoms and risk factors. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and paired t-test were used to check the significant improvement of intervention.

Results

Our results showed statistical significance in difference in mean knowledge scores for both signs and symptoms (mean difference (MD) 4.09, SD 4.05, p<0.00)) and risk factors of BC knowledge (MD 5.64, SD 4.00, p<0.00) among women after intervention. There was a marked improvement in the knowledge of BC among women with low education category. A significant improvement in knowledge of symptoms and risk factors among health workers was also observed. Our interventions resulted in positive change in breast examination practices. The breast self-examination (BSE) practices improved from around 3% to 65% and around 41% additional women went for clinical breast examination after intervention.

Conclusions

This study found a significant improvement in knowledge of BC signs and symptoms, risk factors and BSE practices among study participants following our health education interventions among these subpopulations. This evidence calls for inclusion of similar interventions through health education and capacity building of primary healthcare providers in national programmes.
Experimental Study on Alleviating Atherosclerosis through Intervention of Mitochondrial Calcium Transport and Calcium-Induced Membrane Permeability Transition
Authors: Chen Sisi , Wang Jianing , Zhang Lei , Xia Hao
Published: April 2021

To investigate the effort of mitochondrial calcium transport and calcium-induced membrane permeability transition in alleviating atherosclerosis. The experimental mice were divided into three groups: the control group (C57BL/6 mice with normal diet), the atherosclerosis group (apolipoprotein E-deficient (ApoE−/−) mice with high-fat diet) and the mitochondrial targeting agent group (ApoE−/− mouse with high-fat diet). The mean fluorescence intensity of Ca2+ in the atherosclerosis group is significantly higher than control group and mitochondrial targeting agent group. But the mean fluorescence intensity of Ca2+-ATPase is lower than other groups. The macrophage recruitment (F4/80 positive area) and the expression of tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin-6, pyrin domain containing protein 3, intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1, p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase and Jun kinase 1/2 phosphorylation in the atherosclerosis group are higher that other groups. Treatment with mitochondrial targeting agents reduced the levels of elevated cyt C and cleaved caspase-3 in atherosclerotic mice (p<0.05). Mitochondrial targeting agents interfere with mitochondrial calcium transport and calcium-induced membrane permeability transition, inhibit MAPK/JNK pathway activation, inhibit foam cell formation and alleviate the process of atherosclerosis.
Bilateral staged magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound thalamotomy for the treatment of essential tremor: a case series study
Authors: Martínez-Fernández Raúl , Mahendran Sujitha , Pineda-Pardo Jose Angel , Imbach Lukas L , Máñez-Miró Jorge U , Büchele Fabian , del Álamo Marta , Rodriguez-Rojas Rafael , Hernández-Fernández Frida , Werner Beat , Matarazzo Michele , Obeso Ignacio , Gonzalez-Quarante Lain H , Deuschl Günther , Stieglitz Lennart , Baumann Christian R , Obeso Jose A
Published: April 2021

Background

Unilateral magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound (FUS) thalamotomy is efficacious for the treatment of medically refractory essential tremor (ET). Viability of bilateral FUS ablation is unexplored.

Methods

Patients diagnosed with medically refractory ET and previously treated with unilateral FUS thalamotomy at least 5 months before underwent bilateral treatment. The timepoints were baseline (before first thalamotomy) and FUS1 and FUS2 (4 weeks before and 6 months after second thalamotomy, respectively). The primary endpoint was safety. Efficacy was assessed through the Clinical Rating Scale for Tremor (CRST), which includes subscales for tremor examination (part A), task performance (part B) and tremor-related disability (part C).

Results

Nine patients were treated. No permanent adverse events were registered. Six patients presented mild gait instability and one dysarthria, all resolving within the first few weeks. Three patients reported perioral hypoesthesia, resolving in one case. Total CRST score improved by 71% from baseline to FUS2 (from 52.3±12 to 15.5±9.4, p<0.001), conveying a 67% reduction in bilateral upper limb A+B (from 32.3±7.8 to 10.8±7.3, p=0.001). Part C decreased by 81% (from 16.4±3.6 to 3.1±2.9, p<0.001). Reduction in head and voice tremor was 66% (from 1.2±0.44 to 0.4±0.54, p=0.01) and 45% (from 1.8±1.1 to 1±0.8, p=0.02), respectively.

Conclusion

Bilateral staged FUS thalamotomy for ET is feasible and might be safe and effective. Voice and head tremor might also improve. A controlled study is warranted.
Endovascular treatment of vertebral artery dissecting aneurysms : a 20-year institutional experience
Authors: Catapano Joshua S , Ducruet Andrew F , Cadigan Megan S , Farhadi Dara S , Majmundar Neil , Nguyen Candice L , Baranoski Jacob F , Cole Tyler S , Wilkinson D Andrew , Fredrickson Vance L , Srinivasan Visish M , Albuquerque Felipe C
Published: April 2021

Background

The ideal treatment for unruptured vertebral artery dissecting aneurysms (VADAs) and ruptured dominant VADAs remains controversial. We report our experience in the management and endovascular treatment of patients with VADAs.

Methods

Patients treated endovascularly for intradural VADAs at a single institution from January 1, 1999, to December 31, 2019, were retrospectively reviewed. Primary neurological outcomes were assessed using modified Rankin Scale (mRS) scores, with mRS >2 considered a poor neurological outcome. Additionally, any worsening (increase) in the mRS score from the preoperative neurological examination was considered a poor outcome.

Results

Ninety-one patients of mean (SD) age 53 (11.6) years (48 (53%) men) underwent endovascular treatment for VADAs. Fifty-four patients (59%) presented with ruptured VADAs and 44 VADAs (48%) involved the dominant vertebral artery. Forty-seven patients (51%) were treated with vessel sacrifice of the parent artery, 29 (32%) with flow diversion devices (FDDs), and 15 (17%) with stent-assisted coil embolization (stent/coil). Rates of procedural complications and retreatment were significantly higher with stent/coil treatment (complications 4/15; retreatment 6/15) than with vessel sacrifice (complications 1/47; retreatment 2/47) or FDD (complications 2/29; retreatment 4/29) (p=0.008 and p=0.002, respectively). Of 37 patients with unruptured VADAs treated, only two (5%) had mRS scores >2 on follow-up.

Conclusion

Endovascular FDD treatment of VADAs appears to be associated with lower retreatment and complication rates than stenting/coiling, although further study is required for confirmation. Endovascular treatment of unruptured VADAs was safe and was associated with favorable angiographic and neurological outcomes.
Relationship of cuticle development with water loss and texture of pepper fruit
Authors: Konishi Ayako , Terabayashi Satoshi , Itai Akihiro
Published: April 2021

Postharvest water loss in pepper fruit (Capsicum annuum L.) reduces its shelf life. Fruit texture is one of the most important components of fruit quality for consumers. In this study, the anatomical traits of pepper fruit related to postharvest water loss and texture were assessed. There was a strong positive relationship between postharvest water loss and the thickness of the cuticular membrane, cuticular weight, total cutin weight, and polysaccharide-cutan weight. An amorphous fibrous structure that forms a path for diffusion and increases water loss was observed in the thick cuticle of the pericarp. In addition, positive correlations between the hardness of the exocarp and the weight of cuticular membrane, cutin content, and polysaccharide-cutan content were found. These results indicate that the thickness of the cuticular membrane wedged between subepidermal cells may influence water loss through the pericarp of pepper fruit and fruit with a high cutin and polysaccharide content have a hard tough texture.
The influence of the methionine residue on the dissociation mechanisms of photoionized methionine-enkephalin probed by VUV action spectroscopy
Authors: Dörner Simon , Schwob Lucas , Schubert Kaja , Girod Marion , MacAleese Luke , Pieterse Cornelius L. , Schlathölter Thomas , Techert Simone , Bari Sadia
Published: April 2021

VUV action spectroscopy has recently gained interest for the study of peptides and proteins. However, numerous aspects of the fundamental processes involved in the photodissociation are yet to be understood. It can, for example, be expected that sulfur-containing amino-acid residues have a significant impact on the dissociation processes following photoionization because of their potential involvement in the transport of electron holes in proteins. In order to investigate the influence of the sulfur-containing methionine residue on the VUV photodissociation of a small peptide a VUV action spectroscopy study of gas-phase protonated methionine-enkephalin and leucine-enkephalin in the photon energy range of 6–35 eV was performed. The results show that upon non-ionizing photoexcitation, the fragmentation patterns of the two peptides are nearly identical, whereas significant differences were observed upon photoionization. The differences between the fragment yields and the identified specific dissociation channels for methionine-enkephalin could be explained by the high electron hole affinity of sulfur, which efficiently directs the radical to the methionine side chain. Additionally, for both peptides the presence of the intact photoionized precursor ions was confirmed by their isotopic patterns and the stability of these species could be evaluated.

Graphic abstract
Study and Implementation of Partial Resonant High-Frequency AC-Link Inverter Operating in Soft-Switching Condition
Authors: Aouiti Abdelkarim , Marzougui Hajer , Bacha Faouzi
Published: April 2021

In this paper, a high-frequency AC-link DC–AC converter is presented with detailed analysis. This converter is used as an interface between a dc power source and a grid. The studied converter is a universal power converter which consists of two bridges separated by an AC-link; each bridge is connected to a source or it feeds a load. The link of this converter contains a parallel pair inductance-capacitor. The inductance is used to stock/supply energy and for the link capacitor, it allows to perform soft switching during turning on/turning off of the switches. The studied converter has considerable advantages compared to the other topologies. Its fundamental properties are, especially, the compactness, reliability and efficiency which it ensures. Also, it guarantees longer lifetime and the possibility to transfer power in the two power flow directions. In this talk, the principles of the ac-link inverter operation are clearly explained in this paper. Simulation results, under MATLAB/SIMULINK, are shown to validate the correct operation and the efficiency of the proposed converter topology. The control algorithm is, also, experimentally implemented using a dSPACE 1104 control board.
Neural Twins Talk and Alternative Calculations
Authors: Zohourianshahzadi Zanyar , Kalita Jugal K.
Published: April 2021

Inspired by how the human brain employs more neural pathways when increasing the focus on a subject, we introduce a novel twin cascaded attention model that outperforms a state-of-the-art image captioning model that was originally implemented using one channel of attention for the visual grounding task. Visual grounding ensures the existence of words in the caption sentence that are grounded into a particular region in the input image. After a deep learning model is trained on visual grounding task, the model employs the learned patterns regarding the visual grounding and the order of objects in the caption sentences, when generating captions. We report the results of our experiments in three image captioning tasks on the COCO dataset. The results are reported using standard image captioning metrics to show the improvements achieved by our model over the previous image captioning model. The results gathered from our experiments suggest that employing more parallel attention pathways in a deep neural network leads to higher performance. Our implementation of Neural Twins Talk (NTT) is publicly available at: https://github.com/zanyarz/NeuralTwinsTalk .
An Unsupervised Normalization Algorithm for Noisy Text: A Case Study for Information Retrieval and Stance Detection
Authors: Roy Anurag , Ghosh Shalmoli , Ghosh Kripabandhu , Ghosh Saptarshi
Published: April 2021

A large fraction of textual data available today contains various types of “noise,” such as OCR noise in digitized documents, noise due to informal writing style of users on microblogging sites, and so on. To enable tasks such as search/retrieval and classification over all the available data, we need robust algorithms for text normalization, i.e., for cleaning different kinds of noise in the text. There have been several efforts towards cleaning or normalizing noisy text; however, many of the existing text normalization methods are supervised and require language-dependent resources or large amounts of training data that is difficult to obtain. We propose an unsupervised algorithm for text normalization that does not need any training data/human intervention. The proposed algorithm is applicable to text over different languages and can handle both machine-generated and human-generated noise. Experiments over several standard datasets show that text normalization through the proposed algorithm enables better retrieval and stance detection, as compared to that using several baseline text normalization methods.
Ensuring Data Readiness for Quality Requirements with Help from Procedure Reuse
Authors: Chirkova Rada , Doyle Jon , Reutter Juan
Published: April 2021

Assessing and improving the quality of data are fundamental challenges in Big-Data applications. These challenges have given rise to numerous solutions targeting transformation, integration, and cleaning of data. However, while schema design, data cleaning, and data migration are nowadays reasonably well understood in isolation, not much attention has been given to the interplay between standalone tools in these areas. In this article, we focus on the problem of determining whether the available data-transforming procedures can be used together to bring about the desired quality characteristics of the data in business or analytics processes. For example, to help an organization avoid building a data-quality solution from scratch when facing a new analytics task, we ask whether the data quality can be improved by reusing the tools that are already available, and if so, which tools to apply, and in which order, all without presuming knowledge of the internals of the tools, which may be external or proprietary.

Toward addressing this problem, we conduct a formal study in which individual data cleaning, data migration, or other data-transforming tools are abstracted as black-box procedures with only some of the properties exposed, such as their applicability requirements, the parts of the data that the procedure modifies, and the conditions that the data satisfy once the procedure has been applied. As a proof of concept, we provide foundational results on sequential applications of procedures abstracted in this way, to achieve prespecified data-quality objectives, for the use case of relational data and for procedures described by standard relational constraints. We show that, while reasoning in this framework may be computationally infeasible in general, there exist well-behaved cases in which these foundational results can be applied in practice for achieving desired data-quality results on Big Data.
PanoMan: Sparse Localized Components–based Model for Full Human Motions
Authors: Wang Yupan , Li Guiqing , Zhang Huiqian , Zou Xinyi , Liu Yuxin , Nie Yongwei
Published: April 2021

Parameterizing Variations of human shapes and motions is a long-standing problem in computer graphics and vision. Most of the existing methods only deal with a specific kind of motion, such as body poses, facial expressions, or hand gestures. We propose PanoMan (sParse locAlized compoNents based mOdel for full huMAn motioNs) to handle shape variation and full-motion across body, face, and hand in a unified framework. Like previous approaches, we factor shape variation into principal components to obtain a human shape space that approximates the shape of arbitrary identity. We then analyze sparse localized components in terms of relative edge length and dihedral angle to capture full motions of body poses, facial expressions, and hand gestures. The final piece of our model is a multilayer perceptron (MLP) that fits the residual between the ground truth and the aforementioned two-level approximation. As an application, we employ the discrete-shell deformation to drive the model to fit sparse constraints such as joint positions and surface feature points. We thoroughly evaluate PanoMan on body, face, and hand motion benchmarks as well as scanned data. The existing skinning-based techniques suffer from joint collapsing when encountering twisting motion of joints. Experiments show that PanoMan can capture all kinds of full human motions with high quality and is easier than the state-of-the-art models in recovering poses with wide joint twisting and complex hand gestures.
The Stress of Lung Aging: Endoplasmic Reticulum and Senescence Tête-à-Tête
Authors: Koloko Ngassie M. L. , Brandsma C. A. , Gosens R. , Prakash Y. S. , Burgess J. K.
Published: April 2021

Beyond the structural changes, features including the dysregulation of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response and increased senescence characterize the lung aging. ER stress response and senescence have been reported to be induced by factors like cigarette smoke. Therefore, deciphering the mechanisms underlying ER and senescent pathways interaction has become a challenge. In this review we highlight the known and unknown regarding ER stress response and senescence and their cross talk in aged lung.
Influence of Standardized Nursing Management of Hospital Based on Smart Electronic Medical Blockchain on Nursing Quality of Digestive Endoscopy Room
Authors: Niu Yufen
Published: April 2021

With the increase of the incidence rate of digestive system diseases, digestive endoscopy has become an essential measure. The nursing quality of digestive endoscopy room will have a direct impact on the examination results and treatment effect, so improving the nursing quality of digestive endoscopy room has always been the focus of attention. In this paper, the smart electronic medical blockchain technology and hospital standardized nursing management mode are combined to develop the smart medical standardized nursing management mode. Firstly, 88 patients with digestive endoscopy in a hospital from October 2018 to October 2019 were selected as the experimental subjects: 44 cases in the control group and 44 cases in the experimental group. The control group implemented the traditional management mode of digestive endoscopy room, and the experimental group implemented the standardized nursing management mode of smart medicine. The blood pressure level before and after nursing and the probability of adverse reactions in the process of nursing were counted. After nursing, the patients were asked to fill in the nursing satisfaction questionnaire, evaluate the nursing quality of nursing staff, and make statistics and comparison on the occurrence of safety events in digestive endoscopy room. After nursing, the systolic pressure drop of the experimental group was 125.36 ± 7.27 mmhg, diastolic pressure drop was 73.24 ± 4.21 mmhg, and the incidence of adverse reactions was 11.36%. The satisfaction rate of the experimental group was 15%, 29.55%, and 22.73% higher than that of the control group. The average scores of nursing skills, operation level, and examination results of nursing staff in the experimental group were 94.49, 95.12, and 95.89, respectively; the qualified rate of disinfection of digestive endoscopy room in the experimental group was 100%, the degree of cooperation between doctors and nurses was 100%, the timely rate of emergency measures was 95.45%, and the incidence of accidents was 0%. This shows that, under the standardized nursing of smart medicine, the blood pressure of patients is more stable, the incidence of adverse reactions is lower, the nursing satisfaction is higher, and the nursing quality of nursing staff and the safety of digestive endoscopy room are also improved.
A Modified Scaled Spectral-Conjugate Gradient-Based Algorithm for Solving Monotone Operator Equations
Authors: Abubakar Auwal Bala , Muangchoo Kanikar , Ibrahim Abdulkarim Hassan , Fadugba Sunday Emmanuel , Aremu Kazeem Olalekan , Jolaoso Lateef Olakunle
Published: April 2021

This paper proposes a modified scaled spectral-conjugate-based algorithm for finding solutions to monotone operator equations. The algorithm is a modification of the work of Li and Zheng in the sense that the uniformly monotone assumption on the operator is relaxed to just monotone. Furthermore, unlike the work of Li and Zheng, the search directions of the proposed algorithm are shown to be descent and bounded independent of the monotonicity assumption. Moreover, the global convergence is established under some appropriate assumptions. Finally, numerical examples on some test problems are provided to show the efficiency of the proposed algorithm compared to that of Li and Zheng.
Quantification of Hydrogen Peroxide in Cretan Honey and Correlation with Physicochemical Parameters
Authors: Alygizou Amalia , Grigorakis Spyros , Gotsiou Panagiota , Loupassaki Sofia , Calokerinos Antony C.
Published: April 2021

The aim of the present study is to quantify hydrogen peroxide, generated from various types of honey produced in Crete, as a potent antimicrobial agent, and establish any correlation with their physicochemical parameters. The basic physicochemical parameters (diastase activity, HMF content, moisture, electrical conductivity, color, and sugars) of 30 authentic honey samples were determined. The concentration of hydrogen peroxide in all samples was found to be within the range 0.010–0.092 mM. The known correlation between the electrical conductivity and the color of honey was confirmed in this study. Univariate and multivariate statistics applied to the results indicate that the results can be used to discriminate honey sample groups of different botanical origins.
Understanding Offline Password-Cracking Methods: A Large-Scale Empirical Study
Authors: Shi Ruixin , Zhou Yongbin , Li Yong , Han Weili
Published: April 2021

Researchers proposed several data-driven methods to efficiently guess user-chosen passwords for password strength metering or password recovery in the past decades. However, these methods are usually evaluated under ad hoc scenarios with limited data sets. Thus, this motivates us to conduct a systematic and comparative investigation with a very large-scale data corpus for such state-of-the-art cracking methods. In this paper, we present the large-scale empirical study on password-cracking methods proposed by the academic community since 2005, leveraging about 220 million plaintext passwords leaked from 12 popular websites during the past decade. Specifically, we conduct our empirical evaluation in two cracking scenarios, i.e., cracking under extensive-knowledge and limited-knowledge. The evaluation concludes that no cracking method may outperform others from all aspects in these offline scenarios. The actual cracking performance is determined by multiple factors, including the underlying model principle along with dataset attributes such as length and structure characteristics. Then, we perform further evaluation by analyzing the set of cracked passwords in each targeting dataset. We get some interesting observations that make sense of many cracking behaviors and come up with some suggestions on how to choose a more effective password-cracking method under these two offline cracking scenarios.
A Reinforcement Learning-Based Configuring Approach in Next-Generation Wireless Networks Using Software-Defined Metasurface
Authors: Aliannejad Fatemeh , Tahanian Esmaeel , Fateh Mansoor , Rezvani Mohsen
Published: April 2021

The next generation of wireless networks including Five and Six Generations (

5
G

and

6
G

) can provide very high data rates as a demand for the Internet of Everything (IoE) system which connects millions of people and billions of machines. To reach such a high data rate, the wireless networks should work at high enough frequencies, such as millimeter and THz bands, which in turn suffer from a large attenuation and acute multipath fading. The idea of coating any objects in the environment with Software-Defined Metasurfaces (SDMs) was presented to control these effects by managing the electromagnetic properties of the environment. Since the programmable environment can be changed during the communication, for example, a sudden obstacle appears, this management should be adaptive. This paper presents the use of a reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm for dynamically configuring such an environment. In other words, when a change happens in the environment, for example, an obstacle blocks some EM waves, the agent receives a large punishment, and therefore a new action is selected. In our model, the transmitted electromagnetic waves and the tiles are considered as the agents and states, respectively. Moreover, the actions of each tile include absorbing or reflecting the impinging waves in a specific direction. We utilize the Q-learning technique to establish proper wireless links between the users and the access point (AP) by controlling the state of the tiles in an environment covered by the SDMs. Evaluation of the proposed model for different scenarios, including emerging sudden obstacles, indicates its potential to provide a proper signal level for all the users and improve the average received power up to

12
%

in comparison with the related works.
Development of Monoclonal Antibody-Based EIA for Tetranor-PGDM which Reflects PGD2 Production in the Body
Authors: Nagata Nanae , Masuko Sakura , Inoue Rikako , Nakamura Tatsuro , Aritake Kosuke , Murata Takahisa
Published: April 2021

Tetranor-PGDM is a metabolite of PGD2. Urinary tetranor-PGDM levels were reported to be increased in some diseases, including food allergy, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and aspirin-intolerant asthma. In this study, we developed a monoclonal antibody (MAb) and a competitive enzyme immunoassay (EIA) for measuring tetranor-PGDM. Spleen cells isolated from mice immunized with tetranor-PGDM were utilized to generate Ab-producing hybridomas. We chose hybridomas and purified MAb against tetranor-PGDM to develop competitive EIA. The assay evaluated the optimal ionic strength, pH, precision, and reliability. Specificity was determined by cross-reactivity to tetranor-PGEM, tetranor-PGFM, and tetranor-PGAM. Recovery was determined by spiking experiments on artificial urine. Optimal ionic strength was 150 mM NaCl, and optimal pH was pH 7.5. Metabolites other than tetranor-PGDM did not show any significant cross-reactivity in the EIA. The assay exhibited a half-maximal inhibition concentration (IC50) of 1.79 ng/mL, limit of detection (LOD) of 0.0498 ng/mL, and range of quantitation (ROQ) value of 0.252 to 20.2 ng/mL. The intra- and inter-assay variation for tetranor-PGDM was 3.9–6.0% and 5.7–10.4%, respectively. The linearity-dilution effect showed excellent linearity under dilution when artificial urine samples were applied to solid-phase extraction (SPE). After SPE, recovery of tetranor-PGDM in artificial urine averaged from 82.3% to 113.5% and was within acceptable limits (80%–120%). We successfully generated one monoclonal antibody and developed a sensitive competitive EIA. The established EIA would be useful for routine detection and monitoring of tetranor-PGDM in research or diagnostic body fluids.
Feasibility of a Self-Managed, Video-Guided Exercise Program for Community-Dwelling People with Stroke
Authors: Scrivener Katharine , Sewastenko Jessica , Bouvier-Farrell Alexandra , MacDonald Katherine , Van Rijn Tegan , Tezak Joshua , Mandis Nicholas , Love Sherrie
Published: April 2021

Background. Ongoing rehabilitation after stroke is limited. Using video-guided exercises, which are implemented with a self-management approach, may be a way to facilitate ongoing exercise in the home environment. Objectives. To investigate the feasibility of a video-guided exercise program, implemented with a self-management approach for people with stroke. Methods. A phase I, single-group, clinical trial. The study comprised two phases: in phase one, four weeks of the program was supported by weekly supervised sessions and in phase two, four weeks of the program was completed without direct supervision. Demographic information was recorded at baseline. Adherence and adverse events were self-reported via a logbook. Acceptability was measured through a purpose-built scale. Physical performance, physical activity, and exercise self-efficacy were measured at baseline and 4 and 8 weeks. Results. Sixteen people with stroke were recruited; however, 14 commenced and completed the study. Adherence during the supervised phase was 3.3 hours per week and 2.3 hours per week during the self-directed phase. There were no adverse events. Most participants indicated that the program was easy to use (92%) and would recommend the program to others (86%). Walking speed improved over the duration of the program (mean difference -0.12 m/s, 95% CI -0.22 to -0.02,

p
=
0.02

). Self-efficacy and physical activity did not change over the duration of the program. Conclusion. The findings support the feasibility of a video-guided exercise program for people with stroke. Further research to confirm the effectiveness of this intervention to improve physical function is warranted.
Using Hybrid Wavelet‐Exponential Smoothing Approach for Streamflow Modeling
Authors: Nourani Vahid , Najafi Hessam , Amini Alireza Babaeian , Tanaka Hitoshi
Published: April 2021

Considering the three intrinsic components (of autoregressive, seasonality, and error) of streamflow time series, the overall performance of the streamflow modeling tool is associated with the correct estimation of these components. In this study, a new hybrid method based on the wavelet transform (WT) as a multiresolution forecasting tool and exponential smoothing (ES) method, with two presented scenarios (WES1 and WES2), was introduced. To this end, the performance of the proposed method was investigated versus four conventional methods of the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), ES ad‐hoc, artificial neural network (ANN), and wavelet‐ANN (WANN) for daily and monthly streamflow modeling of West Nishnabotna and Trinity River watersheds with different hydro‐geomorphological conditions. In the presented WES technique, firstly, WT is employed for decomposing the observed signal to one approximation (deterministic trend) and more diverse components of subseries (each at a specific frequency). Then, for the first scenario (WES1), only two subseries are introduced to the model as input parameters; however, for the second scenario (WES2), decomposed subseries are separately used as the inputs of ES models. The obtained results indicated that combining WT with the ES method and ANN led to more accurate modeling. The proposed methodology (WES2) that used all decomposed subseries separately improved the efficiency of models up to 30% and 10% for the daily dataset and up to 88% and 57% for the monthly dataset, respectively, for the West Nishnabotna and Trinity Rivers.
Irreducible Distal Tibia Physeal Injury with Tibialis Posterior Tendon Interposition
Authors: Doshi Chintan , Dua Simran , Parikh Shital N.
Published: April 2021

A 14-year-old basketball player presented with a displaced distal tibia physeal fracture which is typically treated with closed reduction with or without internal fixation. However, repeated attempts at closed reduction failed to align the fracture fragments. At open reduction, tibialis posterior tendon interposition was identified within the fracture site and bowstringing of the tendon prevented closed reduction. A tendon interposition should be suspected when repeated closed reduction attempts fail to achieve satisfactory fracture reduction. The features of tendon interposition should be differentiated from the more common periosteal interposition for physeal fractures of the tibia.
One-Kind Hybrid Power Means of the Two-Term Exponential Sums and Quartic Gauss Sums
Authors: Li Xiaoxue , Chen Li
Published: April 2021

The main purpose of this article is using the analytic methods and the properties of the classical Gauss sums to study the calculating problem of the hybrid power mean of the two-term exponential sums and quartic Gauss sums and then prove two interesting linear recurrence formulas. As applications, some asymptotic formulas are obtained.
Demonstration of Participation Networks in Urban Transport Policy of Public and Private Sectors through Social Media: The Case of Bike-Sharing Pricing Strategy in China
Authors: Ye Qian , Chen Xiaohong , Zhang Hua , Cai Junjie , Ozbay Kaan
Published: April 2021

Social media has become a valuable platform that enables public and private stakeholders to participate and interact in various transport policies. Using a network-based perspective and a case study of bike-sharing pricing strategies in China, this paper aims to quantitatively characterize the pattern and structure of multi-stakeholders engagement networks. Furthermore, this paper also empirically examines the confirmation bias that might exist among participants. Dataset on retweets from the Chinese Twitter-Sina Weibo is collected. Results reveal two types of important actors with unequal roles in terms of information diffusion: the “network root” and the “network bridge.” The former is mainly comprised of organizations and influential individuals who dominate message sharing, whereas the latter is comprised of the general public with various occupational backgrounds who control the efficiency and the scope of information spreading. The result also reveals a hierarchical structure in both networks and a community gathering like-minded individuals. The empirical result also demonstrates the existence of echo chambers in the transport participation network of governments and enterprises. Most echo chambers operate such that organizations or influential individuals amplify the views of the general public with more critical viewpoints. These findings of this study can assist transport stakeholders in crafting more sustainable strategies based on the understanding of uneven patterns in online public participation. Furthermore, this study sheds insights on how social media could be used to facilitate the collection of diverse people’s opinions and the evaluation of multi-stakeholder engagement for major transport issues.
Enhanced Estimators of Population Variance with the Use of Supplementary Information in Survey Sampling
Authors: Lone Showkat Ahmad , Subzar Mir , Sharma Ankita
Published: April 2021

In the present study, we propose the proficient class of estimators of the finite population mean, while incorporating the nonconventional location and nonconventional measures of dispersion with coefficient of variation of the auxiliary variable. Properties associated with the suggested class of improved estimators are derived, and an efficiency comparison with the usual unbiased ratio estimator and other existing estimators under consideration in the present study is established. An empirical study has also been provided to validate the theoretical results. Finally, it is established that the proposed class of estimators of the finite population variance proves to be more efficient than the existing estimators mentioned in this study.
Study on Intelligent Diagnosis of Rotor Fault Causes with the PSO-XGBoost Algorithm
Authors: Gu Kai , Wang Jianqi , Qian Hong , Su Xiaoyan
Published: April 2021

On basis of fault categories detection, the diagnosis of rotor fault causes is proposed, which has great contributions to the field of intelligent operation and maintenance. To improve the diagnostic accuracy and practical efficiency, a hybrid model based on the particle swarm optimization-extreme gradient boosting algorithm, namely, PSO-XGBoost is designed. XGBoost is used as a classifier to diagnose rotor fault causes, having good performance due to the second-order Taylor expansion and the explicit regularization term. PSO is used to automatically optimize the process of adjusting the XGBoost’s parameters, which overcomes the shortcomings when using the empirical method or the trial-and-error method to adjust parameters of the XGBoost model. The hybrid model combines the advantages of the two algorithms and can diagnose nine rotor fault causes accurately. Following diagnostic results, maintenance measures referring to the corresponding knowledge base are provided intelligently. Finally, the proposed PSO-XGBoost model is compared with five state-of-the-art intelligent classification methods. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method has higher diagnostic accuracy and practical efficiency in diagnosing rotor fault causes.