bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Compositional and Metabolic Responses of Autotrophic Microbial Community to Salinity in Lacustrine Environments
Authors: Fang Yun , Liu Jun , Yang Jian , Wu Geng , Hua Zhengshuang , Dong Hailiang , Hedlund Brian P. , Baker Brett J. , Jiang Hongchen
Published: July 2022

The Qinghai-Tibetan lakes are experiencing water increase and salinity decrease due to climate warming. However, little is known about how the salinity decrease will affect the composition of autotrophic microbial populations and their carbon fixation pathways.
Variants of Streptococcus pneumoniae Serotype 14 from Papua New Guinea with the Potential to Be Mistyped and Escape Vaccine-Induced Protection
Authors: Manna Sam , Spry Leena , Wee-Hee Ashleigh , Ortika Belinda D. , Boelsen Laura K. , Batinovic Steven , Mazarakis Nadia , Ford Rebecca L. , Lo Stephanie W. , Bentley Stephen D. , Russell Fiona M. , Blyth Christopher C. , Pomat William S. , Petrovski Steve , Hinds Jason , Licciardi Paul V. , Satzke Catherine
Published: July 2022

Pneumococcus is a pathogen of major public health importance. Current vaccines have limited valency, targeting a subset (up to 20) of the more than 100 capsule types (serotypes).
Pyogenic spondylitis following endoscopic submucosal dissection for early gastric cancer
Authors: Takai Shun , Sudo Gota , Yawata Atsushi , Nakase Hiroshi
Published: July 2022

A man in his 80s who had a history of diabetes mellitus and aortic valve replacement was referred to our hospital for treatment of early gastric cancer and underwent endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD). Three days after ESD, the patient presented with low back pain and fever (38.7°). We initially considered adverse events associated with gastric ESD such as delayed perforation. Moreover, thromboembolism and infectious endocarditis were suspected because of his medical history. However, there were no remarkable findings suggestive of these diseases. Finally, based on the results of blood cultures and MRI, the diagnosis of pyogenic spondylitis (PS) was made. We administered antibiotics for 12 weeks, and the patient improved without neurological impairments. This case indicates that bacteraemia and subsequent PS can occur following gastric ESD. Physicians should not overlook the patient’s physical signs related to various adverse events after ESD.
Fever therapy in febrile adults: systematic review with meta-analyses and trial sequential analyses
Authors: Holgersson Johan , Ceric Ameldina , Sethi Naqash , Nielsen Niklas , Jakobsen Janus Christian
Published: July 2022

Objective

To investigate the effects of fever therapy compared with no fever therapy in a wide population of febrile adults.

Design

Systematic review with meta-analyses and trial sequential analyses of randomised clinical trials.

Data sources

CENTRAL, BIOSIS, CINAHL, MEDLINE, Embase, LILACS, Scopus, and Web of Science Core Collection, searched from their inception to 2 July 2021.

Eligibility criteria

Randomised clinical trials in adults diagnosed as having fever of any origin. Included experimental interventions were any fever therapy, and the control intervention had to be no fever therapy (with or without placebo/sham).

Data extraction and synthesis

Two authors independently selected studies, extracted data, and assessed the risk of bias. Primary outcomes were all cause mortality and serious adverse events. Secondary outcomes were quality of life and non-serious adverse events. Aggregate data were synthesised with meta-analyses, subgroup analyses, and trial sequential analyses, and the evidence was assessed using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach.

Results

Forty two trials assessing 5140 participants were included. Twenty three trials assessed 11 different antipyretic drugs, 11 trials assessed physical cooling, and eight trials assessed a combination of antipyretic drugs and physical cooling. Of the participants, 3007 were critically ill, 1892 were non-critically ill, 3277 had infectious fever, and 1139 had non-infectious fever. All trials were assessed as being at high risk of bias. Meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis showed that the hypothesis that fever therapy reduces the risk of death (risk ratio 1.04, 95% confidence interval 0.90 to 1.19; I2=0%; P=0.62; 16 trials; high certainty evidence) and the risk of serious adverse events (risk ratio 1.02, 0.89 to 1.17; I2=0%; P=0.78; 16 trials; high certainty evidence) could be rejected. One trial assessing quality of life was included, showing no difference between fever therapy and control. Meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis showed that the hypothesis that fever therapy reduces the risk of non-serious adverse events could be neither confirmed nor rejected (risk ratio 0.92, 0.67 to 1.25; I2=66.5%; P=0.58; four trials; very low certainty evidence).

Conclusions

Fever therapy does not seem to affect the risk of death and serious adverse events.

Systematic review registration

PROSPERO CRD42019134006
Persistent symptoms are diverse and associated with health concerns and impaired quality of life in patients with paediatric coeliac disease diagnosis after transition to adulthood
Authors: Vuolle Satu , Laurikka Pilvi , Repo Marleena , Huhtala Heini , Kaukinen Katri , Kurppa Kalle , Kivelä Laura
Published: July 2022

Objective

To investigate the prevalence and associated factors of persistent symptoms despite a strict gluten-free diet in adult patients with coeliac disease diagnosed in childhood.

Design

Medical data on 239 currently adult patients with paediatric diagnosis were collected from patient records. Also, patients completed structured study questionnaire. All variables were compared between those with and without persistent symptoms.

Results

Altogether 180 patients reported adhering to a strict gluten-free diet. Of these, 18% experienced persistent symptoms, including various gastrointestinal symptoms (73%), arthralgia (39%), fatigue (39%), skin symptoms (12%) and depression (6%). Those reporting persistent symptoms had more often gastrointestinal comorbidities (19% vs 6%, p=0.023), health concerns (30% vs 12%, p=0.006) and experiences of restrictions on daily life (64% vs 43%, p=0.028) than the asymptomatic subjects. The patients with symptoms had poorer general health (median score 13 vs 14, p=0.040) and vitality (15 vs 18, p=0.015) based on a validated Psychological General Well-Being Questionnaire and more severe symptoms on a Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale scale (total score 2.1 vs 1.7, p<0.001). Except for general health, these differences remained significant after adjusting for comorbidities. The groups were comparable in current sociodemographic characteristics. Furthermore, none of the childhood features, including clinical, serological and histological presentation at diagnosis, and adherence and response to the diet after 6–24 months predicted symptom persistence in adulthood.

Conclusion

Almost one-fifth of adult patients diagnosed in childhood reported persistent symptoms despite a strict gluten-free diet. The ongoing symptoms were associated with health concerns and impaired quality of life.
Efficacy and safety of guanabenz acetate treatment for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a study protocol for a randomised investigator-initiated phase IIa study
Authors: Iwaki Michihiro , Kessoku Takaomi , Tanaka Kosuke , Ozaki Anna , Kasai Yuki , Yamamoto Atsushi , Takahashi Kota , Kobayashi Takashi , Nogami Asako , Honda Yasushi , Ogawa Yuji , Imajo Kento , Yoneda Masato , Kobayashi Noritoshi , Saito Satoru , Nakajima Atsushi
Published: July 2022

Introduction

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a metabolic syndrome phenotype in the liver and thus obviously associated with metabolic abnormalities, including insulin resistance-related to hyperglycaemic and hyperlipidaemia. The prevalence of NAFLD is increasing worldwide. However, currently, there is no consensus regarding the efficacy and safety of drugs used to treat patients with NAFLD/non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Guanabenz acetate, a selective α2-adrenoceptor stimulator used in the treatment of hypertension, binds at a high-affinity constant to a nuclear transcriptional coregulator, helicase with zinc finger 2 (Helz2) and inhibits Helz2-medaited steatosis in the liver; chronic oral administration of guanabenz acetate produces a dose-dependent inhibition of lipid accumulation by inhibiting lipogenesis and activating fatty acid Β-oxidation in the liver of obese mice, resulting in improvement of insulin resistance and hyperlipidaemia. Taken all together, guanabenz acetate has a potentially effective in improving the development of NAFLD/NASH and metabolic abnormalities. In this randomised, open label, parallel-group, phase IIa study, we made attempts to conduct a proof-of-concept assessment by evaluating the efficacy and safety of guanabenz acetate treatment in patients with NAFLD/NASH.

Methods and analysis

A total of 28 adult patients with NAFLD or NASH and hypertension complications meeting the inclusion/exclusion criteria will be enrolled. Patients will be randomised to receive either 4 or 8 mg guanabenz acetate (n=14 per group). Blood tests and MRI will be performed 16 weeks after commencement of treatment. The primary endpoint will be the percentage reduction in hepatic fat content (%) measured using MRI-proton density fat fraction from baseline by at least 3.46% at week 16 after treatment initiation.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethics approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee of Yokohama City University Hospital before participant enrolment (YCU021001). The results of this study will be submitted for publication in international peer-reviewed journals, and the key findings will be presented at international scientific conferences. Participants wishing to know the results of this study will be contacted directly on data publication.

Trial registration number

This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (number: NCT05084404).

Protocol version

V.1.1, 19 August 2021.
Characteristics of US hospitals using extraordinary collections actions against patients for unpaid medical bills: a cross-sectional study
Authors: Hashim Farah , Hennayake Sanuri , Walsh Christi M , Dun Chen , Paturzo Joseph Giuseppe , Das Indrani G , Stewart Emily A , Vervoort Dominique , Teinor Jonathan A , Schochet Morissa A , Keslar Allyson , Bai Ge , Makary Martin
Published: July 2022

Objective

This study aims to characterise and evaluate the largest 100 hospitals in the USA that have adopted aggressive collection tactics to pursue patients with unpaid medical bills, such as lawsuits, wage garnishments and liens.

Design

Cross-sectional study.

Setting

We examined state and county court record systems to measure the magnitude and prevalence of these practices at the largest 100 hospitals in the UA between 1 January 2018 and 31 July 2020.

Main outcomes measures

The main outcome of this study was the number of lawsuits, wage garnishments and liens. A secondary outcome was the characterisation of a hospital’s safety, charitability, size and financial practices.

Results

Between 1 January 2018 and 31 July 2020, 26 hospitals filed 38 965 court actions (lawsuits, wage garnishments and liens) against patients for unpaid medical debt. For 16 of 26 hospitals, the dollar amount pursued in the court claim was available for 100% of cases, totalling US$71.8 million. The average aggregate amount sought by hospital lawsuits during the study period was US$4.5 million. Three hospitals filed US$56.2 million in amounts pursued in court, or 78.3% of the total amount pursued by all hospitals in the sample. In the remaining 74 hospitals, the study team did not identify extraordinary collection actions through the court system.

Conclusions

Standardised medical debt collections best practices and metrics of medical debt collections quality are needed to increase public accountability for hospitals, particularly non-profit hospitals. There is a need to re-evaluate Internal Revenue Service rules pertaining to non-profit hospitals’ tax-exempt status to ensure tax-exempt hospitals provide community benefits commensurate with the value of tax exemption.
Prospective surveillance study to detect antimalarial drug resistance, gene deletions of diagnostic relevance and genetic diversity of Plasmodium falciparum in Mozambique: protocol
Authors: Mayor Alfredo , da Silva Clemente , Rovira-Vallbona Eduard , Roca-Feltrer Arantxa , Bonnington Craig , Wharton-Smith Alexandra , Greenhouse Bryan , Bever Caitlin , Chidimatembue Arlindo , Guinovart Caterina , Proctor Joshua L , Rodrigues Maria , Canana Neide , Arnaldo Paulo , Boene Simone , Aide Pedro , Enosse Sonia , Saute Francisco , Candrinho Baltazar
Published: July 2022

Introduction

Genomic data constitute a valuable adjunct to routine surveillance that can guide programmatic decisions to reduce the burden of infectious diseases. However, genomic capacities remain low in Africa. This study aims to operationalise a functional malaria molecular surveillance system in Mozambique for guiding malaria control and elimination.

Methods and analyses

This prospective surveillance study seeks to generate Plasmodium falciparum genetic data to (1) monitor molecular markers of drug resistance and deletions in rapid diagnostic test targets; (2) characterise transmission sources in low transmission settings and (3) quantify transmission levels and the effectiveness of antimalarial interventions. The study will take place across 19 districts in nine provinces (Maputo city, Maputo, Gaza, Inhambane, Niassa, Manica, Nampula, Zambézia and Sofala) which span a range of transmission strata, geographies and malaria intervention types. Dried blood spot samples and rapid diagnostic tests will be collected across the study districts in 2022 and 2023 through a combination of dense (all malaria clinical cases) and targeted (a selection of malaria clinical cases) sampling. Pregnant women attending their first antenatal care visit will also be included to assess their value for molecular surveillance. We will use a multiplex amplicon-based next-generation sequencing approach targeting informative single nucleotide polymorphisms, gene deletions and microhaplotypes. Genetic data will be incorporated into epidemiological and transmission models to identify the most informative relationship between genetic features, sources of malaria transmission and programmatic effectiveness of new malaria interventions. Strategic genomic information will be ultimately integrated into the national malaria information and surveillance system to improve the use of the genetic information for programmatic decision-making.

Ethics and dissemination

The protocol was reviewed and approved by the institutional (CISM) and national ethics committees of Mozambique (Comité Nacional de Bioética para Saúde) and Spain (Hospital Clinic of Barcelona). Project results will be presented to all stakeholders and published in open-access journals.

Trial registration number

NCT05306067.
Dietary antioxidant consumption and the risk of type 2 diabetes in South Korean adults: a prospective cohort study based on the Health Examinees study
Authors: Tan Li-Juan , Hwang Su Bin , Jun Shinyoung , Joung Hyojee , Shin Sangah
Published: July 2022

Objectives

Antioxidants are common dietary compounds with multiple health benefits. This study aimed to identify the association between dietary antioxidant consumption and the incidence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) mellitus (defined using the Korean Diabetes Association criteria) in South Korean adults.

Design

Baseline and follow-up data from the Health Examinees (HEXA) study, a large-scale community-based genomic cohort study conducted in South Korea

Setting

A South Korean community.

Participants

A total of 20 594 participants, aged 40–79 years, who participated in the baseline and follow-up surveys of the HEXA study were included. After an average of 5 years of follow-up, there were 332 men and 360 women with T2D.

Results

Participants with the highest total flavonoid consumption (Q5) had a lower risk of T2D (men: HR 0.63; 95% CI 0.42 to 0.93; p value for trend=0.0169; and women: HR 0.54; 95% CI 0.438 to 0.78; p value for trend=0.0001) than those with the lowest consumption (Q1). Dietary total antioxidant capacity was significantly inversely associated with the development of T2D mellitus in women participants alone (HR 0.58; 95% CI 0.40 to 0.83; p value for trend=0.0004). Stratified analyses according to age and body mass index (BMI) showed that dietary total flavonoid consumption and total antioxidant capacity had a negative association with the development of T2D in women aged >52 years and women with BMI >25 kg/m2.

Conclusions

Dietary flavonoid consumption and total antioxidant capacity were associated with a lower risk of T2D in South Korean adults, especially in women aged >52 years and overweight. The findings of this study may provide reference data for the modification of dietary guidelines for South Koreans.
Dendritic cell-mediated cross presentation of tumor-derived peptides is biased against plasma membrane proteins
Authors: Fessenden Tim B , Stopfer Lauren E , Chatterjee Fiona , Zulueta Julian , Mesfin Josh , Cordero Dumit Therese , Reijers Irene , Hoefsmit Esmee P , Blank Christian , White Forest , Spranger Stefani
Published: July 2022

Background

For effective tumor elimination, cytotoxic CD8+T cells must recognize tumor-derived antigens presented on class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC-I). Despite a general association between the expression of immunogenic antigens, typically neoantigens, and response to immunotherapy, the majority of patients lack strong endogenous responses to most putative neoantigens due to mechanisms that are not well understood. Cytotoxic CD8+T-cell responses are induced by dendritic cells (DCs) cross-presenting tumor-derived peptides on MHC-I. We hypothesized that cross presentation may form an unappreciated source of bias in the induction of cytotoxic T-cell responses.

Methods

We used stable isotope labeling of amino acids combined with immunopeptidomics to distinguish cross-presented from endogenous MHC-I peptides on DCs. To test impacts on T-cell activation, we targeted the model antigen SIINFEKL to specific subcellular compartments in tumor cells, which were used as sources for cross presentation to T cells. In vitro observations were validated using DNA and RNA sequencing data from two cohorts of patients with melanoma undergoing checkpoint blockade therapy. We used a novel quantitative mass spectrometry approach to measure the levels of model antigen on cross-presenting DCs following various means of tumor cell death.

Results

DCs exhibited a strong bias for cross-presenting peptides derived from cytoplasmic proteins and against those from plasma membrane proteins, which was confirmed using the model antigen SIINFEKL. In patients with melanoma, the proportion of membrane-derived neoantigens was correlated with reduced survival and failure to respond to therapy. Quantification of cross-presented SIINFEKL revealed that the mode of cell death could overcome DCs’ bias against plasma membrane proteins.

Conclusions

Cross presentation of cellular antigens by DCs may impose constraints on the range of peptides available to activate CD8+T cells that have previously gone unappreciated. The share of neoantigens arising from membrane-derived sources may render some tumors less immunogenic due to inefficient cross presentation. These observations carry important implications for the encounter and intracellular processing of cellular antigens by DCs and merit further clinical studies for their therapeutic potential in stratifying patient populations and design of vaccine-based therapies.
Adolescent Depression Detection Model Based on Multimodal Data of Interview Audio and Text
Authors: Zhang Lei , Fan Yuanxiao , Jiang Jingwen , Li Yuchen , Zhang Wei
Published: July 2022

Depression is a common mental disease that has a tendency to develop at a younger age. Early detection of depression with psychological intervention may effectively prevent youth suicide. The establishment of the computer-aided model may be efficient for early detection. However, the existing methods of automatic detection for depression mostly rely on unimodal data. Clinical research shows that patients with depression have specificity in speech, text, expression, and other modal data. Multimodal machine learning is emerging but not yet widely used for the detection of psychiatric disorders. The problem of existing multimodal detection models is that only global or local information is considered in feature fusion, which leads to the low accuracy of the depression detection model. Therefore, this study constructs an automatic detection model based on multimodal machine learning for adolescent depression. The proposed method first extracted four features from audio and text globally and locally; then construct a coarse-grained fusion model and fine-grained fusion model base on these four features; and fuse the coarse-grained and the fine-grained fusion model finally. Experiments on the real-world dataset demonstrate that the proposed method could improve the accuracy of depression detection automatically.
Diagnosis of Autism Disorder Based on Deep Network Trained by Augmented EEG Signals
Authors: Ardakani Habib Adabi , Taghizadeh Maryam , Shayegh Farzaneh
Published: July 2022

Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder typically characterized by abnormalities in social interaction and stereotyped and repetitive behaviors. Diagnosis of autism is mainly based on behavioral tests and interviews. In recent years, studies involving the diagnosis of autism based on analysis of EEG signals have increased. In this paper, recorded signals from people suffering from autism and healthy individuals are divided to without overlap windows considered as images and these images are classified using a two-dimensional Deep Convolution Neural Network (2D-DCNN). Deep learning models require a lot of data to extract the appropriate features and automate data classification. But, in most neurological studies, preparing a large number of measurements is difficult (a few 1000s as compared to million natural images), due to the cost, time, and difficulty of recording these signals. Therefore, to make the appropriate number of data, in our proposed method, some of the data augmentation methods are used. These data augmentation methods are mainly introduced for image databases and should be generalized for EEG-as-an-image database. In this paper, one of the nonlinear image mixing methods is used that mixes the rows of two images. According to the fact that any row in our image is one channel of EEG signal, this method is named channel combination. The result is that in the best case, i.e., augmentation according to channel combination, the average accuracy of 88.29% is achieved in the classification of short signals of healthy people and ASD ones and 100% for ASD and epilepsy ones, using 2D-DCNN. After the decision on joined windows related to each subject, we could achieve 100% accuracy in detecting ASD subjects, according to long EEG signals.
Toward the (non-cellular) automata interpretation of quantum mechanics: Volovich postulates as a roadmap
Authors: Anashin Vladimir
Published: July 2022

The paper announces results which may lead to a novel (basically, information-theoretic) interpretation of quantum mechanics under assumptions of causality and existence of the smallest temporal interval. The main mathematical tool of the interpretation is [Formula: see text]-adic 1-Lipschitz maps. The latter maps are exactly the maps produced by letter-to-letter transducers (or, sequential Mealy machines) rather than by cellular automata. Physically the maps can be judged as causal functions over discrete time which are models of physical systems. A wide class of the maps can naturally be expanded to continuous real functions; therefore the maps may serve as mathematical models of physical systems both over discrete and over continuous time.
Spatial inhomogeneous effect on single-order harmonic enhancement
Authors: Liu Hang , Wang Yuning , McCain John , Feng Liqiang
Published: July 2022

The spatial inhomogeneous effect of the laser pulse on the enhancement of the single-order harmonic has been theoretically investigated. It is shown that the single-order harmonic enhancement from the symmetric and negative inhomogeneous laser pulses presented the similar phenomena. Specifically, as the inhomogeneous parameter increases, the blue-shift of the single-order harmonic enhancement can be found. While in the case of the positive inhomogeneous effect, as the inhomogeneous parameter increases, the multiple harmonic enhancements can be found instead of the single-order harmonic enhancement. Finally, the reason behind the change of the single-order harmonic enhancement with the inhomogeneous effect is given by the time–frequency analyses of the harmonic emission process.
Fractal networks with hierarchical structure: Mean fermat distance and small-world effect
Authors: Zeng Cheng , Huang Yuke , Xue Yumei
Published: July 2022

The Fermat point of a triangle is the point with the minimal total distance from the three vertices of the triangle. Meanwhile, the total distance from the three vertices to the Fermat point is called the Fermat distance. In this paper, we discuss the Fermat distance on some networks. We study the mean Fermat distance of an unweighted and undirected hierarchical network [Formula: see text], which is obtained by analytical method and iterative calculation. We then reveal the relation between the mean Fermat distance [Formula: see text] and the mean geodesic distance [Formula: see text] in general networks, namely, [Formula: see text]. The ratio of the mean Fermat distance to the mean geodesic distance of [Formula: see text] tends to [Formula: see text], which is the lower bound of the inequality above. Moreover, the result shows the small-world effect of [Formula: see text]. Finally, we illustrate that the mean Fermat distance is significant in both small-world and scale-free networks.
An Extended MMP Algorithm: Wavefront and Cut-Locus on a Convex Polyhedron
Authors: Tateiri Kazuma , Ohmoto Toru
Published: July 2022

In the present paper, we propose a novel generalization of the celebrated MMP algorithm in order to find the wavefront propagation and the cut-locus on a convex polyhedron with an emphasis on actual implementation for instantaneous visualization and numerical computation.
Symplectic structure of equilibrium thermodynamics
Authors: Aragón-Muñoz Luis , Quevedo Hernando
Published: July 2022

The contact geometric structure of the thermodynamic phase space is used to introduce a novel symplectic structure on the tangent bundle of the equilibrium space. Moreover, it turns out that the equilibrium space can be interpreted as a Lagrange submanifold of the corresponding tangent bundle, if the fundamental equation is known explicitly. As a consequence, Hamiltonians can be defined that describe thermodynamic processes.
DEVELOPMENT OF MULTILOCUS SEQUENCE TYPING (MLST) OF ACTINOBACILLUS PLEUROPNEUMNIAE
Authors: Lo Dan-Yuan , Yeh Tsung-Li , Kuo Hung-Chih , Wu Ching-Fen
Published: July 2022

Porcine pleuropneumonia caused by Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (AP) infection leads to considerable financial loss in the swine industry worldwide. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST), a definitive molecular typing technique that is highly reproducible and is capable of comparing data across laboratories, has not been studied on AP. Therefore, the aim of this work is to develop a MLST assay to characterize AP isolates collected from Taiwan. A total of 85 AP isolates collected from pleuropneumonia of diseased pigs with respiratory symptoms and seven reference isolates from other countries were included for comparison. Seven housekeeping genes (recF, gly, rho, tpi, pyk, recN, and rpo) were selected for sequencing. Capsule types that determine serotypes and Apx toxins were analyzed by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The sequencing results showed that the 7 housekeeping genes differentiated the 92 isolates into 14 sequence types that belonged to three major clonal complexes and five singletons by eBURST. The 85 isolates assigned to detection of capsule types and Apx toxins showed that serotype 1 with Apx I, II, IV (55.3%) followed by serotype 5 with Apx I, II, IV (29.4%) were the most prevalent in Taiwan. Notably, serotype 15 was identified for the first time. Clonal complexes based on ST profiles from MLST analysis were highly associated with the distribution of capsule types, suggesting that MLST scheme was sufficient to identify DNA samples directly from AP. Therefore, MLST might be a useful tool for identification and further epidemiological assay of AP.
Evaluating Online Products Using Text Mining: A Reliable Evidence-Based Approach
Authors: Xu Haiping , Wei Ran , Degroof Richard , Carberry Joshua
Published: July 2022

To address the uncertainty about the quality of online merchandise, e-commerce sites often provide product review ranking services to help customers make purchasing decisions. Such services can be very useful, but they are not necessarily reliable when the ranking results are based on ratings without considering their reliability. In this paper, we propose a reliable evidence-based approach to online product evaluation by using text mining to analyze product reviews while taking into account the reliability of each review. We parse the product reviews and classify the opinion orientations for each recognized product feature as positive or negative. Then, we weigh the classified opinion orientations by their reliability and use them as independent evidence to calculate the belief values of the product using Dempster–Shafer (DS) theory. Based on the belief values of a list of similar products, we can calculate their product effectiveness and cost-effectiveness values for product ranking. The case studies show that our approach can greatly help customers make better decisions when choosing the right online products.
Taiwan in APEC
Authors: LU Yeh-chung
Published: July 2022

Taiwan joined the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) as a member economy in 1991 and has since been actively engaged in this regional intergovernmental organisation. Trade facilitation and liberalisation are of importance to the export-driven island. In line with economic reasons, the accession to APEC also helps Taiwan advance its diplomatic goals, which do not aim to challenge China’s seat in the organisation, but rather they demonstrate how interdependent Taiwan and the APEC could be with each other.
Biomechanical Comparison of a Horizontal Mattress, Cross Suture and Vertical Mattress for Repair of a Tendon Weave in a Porcine Model
Authors: SENJU Takahiro , TAKEUCHI Naohide , KOZONO Naoya , HIGAKI Hidehiko , SHIMOTO Takeshi , NAKASHIMA Yasuharu
Published: July 2022

Background: An effective suture method enables early active motion exercises and optimal post-surgical outcomes. The aim of this study is to evaluate the tensile strength of three suture configurations – horizontal mattress (HM), vertical mattress (VM) and a cross suture for repair of a tendon weave. We hypothesised that the direction of mattress sutures relative to the tendon fibres would affect the tensile strength of tendon repair.

Methods: Using porcine flexor tendons and the same number of surgical sutures, three tendon weave constructs differing in the method of suture were compared: HM suture configuration (conventional technique), cross-stitch (CS) configuration (conventional technique) and VM suture configuration (novel technique). Ten pairs of each group were mounted in a material testing machine and subjected to a simple tensile test and a cyclic loading test for their biomechanical comparison.

Results: The VM group and CS group had significantly higher ultimate failure load, linear stiffness and fatigue strength as compared to the HM group. The failure mode was suture breakage or tendon rupture for the VM and the CS group, while the suture pullout of the tendon only occurred in the HM group.

Conclusion: Among the three techniques used for repair of a tendon weave, the VM suture technique was demonstrated to have the greatest tensile strength and least associated with suture pull-out. The direction of the mattress suture in relation the direction of tendon fibres affects the strength of repair.
DeResolver: A Decentralized Conflict Resolution Framework with Autonomous Negotiation for Smart City Services
Authors: Yuan Yukun , Ma Meiyi , Han Songyang , Zhang Desheng , Miao Fei , Stankovic John A. , Lin Shan
Published: July 2022

As various smart services are increasingly deployed in modern cities, many unexpected conflicts arise due to various physical world couplings. Existing solutions for conflict resolution often rely on centralized control to enforce predetermined and fixed priorities of different services, which is challenging due to the inconsistent and private objectives of the services. Also, the centralized solutions miss opportunities to more effectively resolve conflicts according to their spatiotemporal locality of the conflicts. To address this issue, we design a decentralized negotiation and conflict resolution framework named DeResolver, which allows services to resolve conflicts by communicating and negotiating with each other to reach a Pareto-optimal agreement autonomously and efficiently. Our design features a two-step self-supervised learning-based algorithm to predict acceptable proposals and their rankings of each opponent through the negotiation. Our design is evaluated with a smart city case study of three services: intelligent traffic light control, pedestrian service, and environmental control. In this case study, a data-driven evaluation is conducted using a large dataset consisting of the GPS locations of 246 surveillance cameras and an automatic traffic monitoring system with more than 3 million records per day to extract real-world vehicle routes. The evaluation results show that our solution achieves much more balanced results, i.e., only increasing the average waiting time of vehicles, the measurement metric of intelligent traffic light control service, by 6.8% while reducing the weighted sum of air pollutant emission, measured for environment control service, by 12.1%, and the pedestrian waiting time, the measurement metric of pedestrian service, by 33.1%, compared to priority-based solution.
Systematic Scalability Modeling of QoS-aware Dynamic Service Composition
Authors: Duboc Leticia , Bahsoon Rami , Alrebeish Faisal , Mera-Gómez Carlos , Nallur Vivek , Kazman Rick , Bianco Philip , Babar Ali , Buyya Rajkumar
Published: July 2022

In Dynamic Service Composition (DSC), an application can be dynamically composed using web services to achieve its functional and Quality of Services (QoS) goals. DSC is a relatively mature area of research that crosscuts autonomous and services computing. Complex autonomous and self-adaptive computing paradigms (e.g., multi-tenant cloud services, mobile/smart services, services discovery and composition in intelligent environments such as smart cities) have been leveraging DSC to dynamically and adaptively maintain the desired QoS, cost and to stabilize long-lived software systems. While DSC is fundamentally known to be an NP-hard problem, systematic attempts to analyze its scalability have been limited, if not absent, though such analysis is of a paramount importance for their effective, efficient, and stable operations.

This article reports on a new application of goal-modeling, providing a systematic technique that can support DSC designers and architects in identifying DSC-relevant characteristics and metrics that can potentially affect the scalability goals of a system. The article then applies the technique to two different approaches for QoS-aware dynamic services composition, where the article describes two detailed exemplars that exemplify its application. The exemplars hope to provide researchers and practitioners with guidance and transferable knowledge in situations where the scalability analysis may not be straightforward. The contributions provide architects and designers for QoS-aware dynamic service composition with the fundamentals for assessing the scalability of their own solutions, along with goal models and a list of application domain characteristics and metrics that might be relevant to other solutions. Our experience has shown that the technique was able to identify in both exemplars application domain characteristics and metrics that had been overlooked in previous scalability analyses of these DSC, some of which indeed limited their scalability. It has also shown that the experiences and knowledge can be transferable: The first exemplar was used as an example to inform and ease the work of applying the technique in the second one, reducing the time to create the model, even for a non-expert.
Electrical Characteristics of Metal Contacts to Carbon Nanowalls
Authors: Sun Zewen , Cho Minsu , Huang Lei , Hijiya Ryota , Kato Yoshimine , Teii Kungen
Published: July 2022

The electrical characteristics of metal contacts to vertically-aligned nanographite structures, the so-called carbon nanowalls (CNWs), are examined using nickel as the electrode material. The total resistance between a pair of electrodes on CNWs is regarded as the sum of the serial resistance of CNWs and two metal-CNWs contacts to measure the contact resistance and specific contact resistivity by the transmission line method and transfer line method, respectively. The contact resistance and resistivity are around 2.8 Ω and 0.1 Ω cm2, respectively, at room temperature and decrease gently to 2.4 Ω and 0.06 Ω cm2, respectively, when the temperature is increased up to 300 °C. The apparent activation energy corresponding to the conduction barrier at the contact is in the range of 10−3 eV to 10−2 eV, which is comparable with that for the sheet resistance of CNWs. The contact resistance occupies a large portion of the total resistance between a pair of electrodes even at high temperatures, thus affecting electrical signal measurement in electronic and electrochemical device applications.
Review—The Negative Capacitance of a Novel Structure Au/PPy-MWCNTs/TiO2/Al2O3/p-Si/Al
Authors: Ashery A.
Published: July 2022

A novel structure of Au/PPy-MWCNTs/TiO2/Al2O3/p-Si/Al is presented for application in electronic devices such as diodes, supercapacitors, energy storage devices, and sensors. The negative capacitance (NC) in this structure appeared at a high frequency of 2 × 107 Hz for all voltages and temperatures, with positive and negative values of −8 × 10–9 to 12 × 10–9 Farad, NC disappeared at frequencies 107, 106, 105 and appeared another time at a frequency of 103, 102 and 10 Hz. Their values were positive and negative values, except at 10 Hz, where the capacitance had negative values only. The conductance at all frequencies, voltages, and temperatures had positive values only, with the values increasing with frequencies increased. The capacitance with lnf at all frequencies, temperatures, and voltages has positive and negative values. From 1/C2 –V the electric parameters such as the width of the depletion layer (Wd), the series resistance (Rs), the surface density of states (NSS), the width of the oxide layer dox, the barrier height (ɸb), the Fermi level (Ef), (Vd), and the acceptor carrier concentration (Na), were calculated.
A Study of the Safety and Morbidity Profile of Closed versus Open Technique of Laparoscopic Primary Peritoneal Access Port in Patients Undergoing Routine Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Northeastern India
Authors: Baruah A. , Topno N. , Ghosh S. , Naku N. , Hajong R. , Tongper D. , Khongwar D. , Baruah P. , Chishi N. , Sutradhar S.
Published: July 2022

Introduction. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is the gold standard operation for gallstone disease. Primary port placement into the abdomen is a blind procedure and is challenging with chances of unforeseen complications. The complication rate has remained the same during the past 25 years. Both closed/Veress and open/Hasson’s techniques are commonly employed and have their typical indications for use. Materials and Methods. This prospective study was carried out in the Department of General Surgery, North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS), Shillong, from January 2014 to January 2016, with the aim to compare the safety profile of closed/Veress and open/Hasson’s methods of access to the abdomen during laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC). The study had 400 eligible cases undergoing LC who were randomly allotted into 2 groups with 200 cases each: group A: closed/Veress needle method and group B: open/Hasson’s method. Results. Closed/Veress and open/Hasson’s method of establishing pneumoperitoneum in laparoscopic cholecystectomy is equally safe in terms of major complications. The closed/Veress method gives faster access to the abdomen as compared to the open method (5.62 ± 2.23 minutes and 7.18 ± 2.52 minutes, respectively,

p

value <0.0001). The open/Hasson’s method is associated with more primary port site complications (9/200 vs. 0/200,

p

value 0.0036) and troublesome intraoperative gas leaks (39/200 vs. 2/200,

p

value <0.0001). The open technique for primary peritoneal access port for laparoscopic cholecystectomy does not impart any additional benefits in terms of safety and morbidity profile in patients undergoing LC. Conclusion. The closed/Veress method of establishing pneumoperitoneum in laparoscopic cholecystectomy is equally safe in terms of major complications and gives quicker access to the abdomen as compared to the open method.
Neuroprotective Effects of Curcumin against Oxygen-Glucose Deprivation/Reoxygenation-Induced Injury in Cultured Primary Rat Astrocyte by Improving Mitochondrial Function and Regulating the ERK Signaling Pathway
Authors: Chen Haojie , Tang Guoke , Yu Jiangming , Yu Ronghua
Published: July 2022

Objectives. Curcumin (Cur) is a natural polyphenol isolated from turmeric and has potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities. This study aimed to explore the effects and possible mechanisms of curcumin on oxygen-glucose deprivation/reoxygenation (OGD/R)-induced injury in cultured rat astrocyte primary cells. Methods. After screening for effective doses, the cultured rat astrocyte primary cells were divided into three groups: control, OGD/R, and OGD/R + curcumin (10 μM, 20 μM, and 40 μM). Cell viability was detected using CCK8 assays. The level of malondialdehyde and superoxide dismutase activity was determined using commercial kits. The endothelial nitric oxide synthase and adenosine triphosphate concentrations were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The mRNA levels of the inflammatory indexes interleukin (IL)-6, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, and interleukin (IL)-1β were evaluated by quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. Annexin V-fluorescein isothiocyanate/propidium iodide was used to detect apoptosis. JC-1 was used to assess the mitochondrial membrane potential. The protein expression of apoptosis-related proteins (B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2), BCL-2-associated X (Bax), and cleaved caspase 3), mitochondria-related proteins (dynamin-related protein 1 (DRP1), phosphorylated DRP1 (p-DRP1), and mitofusin 2), and essential proteins of the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling pathway (ERK1/2, p-ERK1/2) were analyzed by western blot. Results. Our data indicated that curcumin reversed OGD/R-induced cell viability loss, oxidative stress, inflammatory cytokine production, and cell apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, curcumin attenuated OGD/R-induced mitochondrial dysfunction and ERK1/2 phosphorylation in a dose-dependent manner. Conclusions. Curcumin protected against OGD/R-induced injury in rat astrocyte primary cells through improving mitochondrial function and regulating the ERK signaling pathway.
H

β

-Hausdorff Functions and Common Fixed Points of Multivalued Operators in a
b
-Metric Space and Their Applications
Authors: Alshammari Fahad Sameer , Alrashedi Naif R. , George Reny
Published: July 2022

H

β

-Hausdorff functions for

β
∈

0
,
1

are introduced, and common fixed-point theorems for a pair of multivalued operators satisfying generalized contraction conditions are proven in a

b

-metric space. Our results are proper extensions and new variants of many contraction conditions existing in literature. In order to demonstrate applications of our result, we have proven an existence theorem for a unique common multivalued fractal of a pair of iterated multifunction systems and also an existence theorem for a common solution of a pair of Volterra-type integral equations.
A Novel Piano Arrangement Timbre Intelligent Recognition System Using Multilabel Classification Technology and KNN Algorithm
Authors: Lu Yuan , Chu Chiawei
Published: July 2022

In this paper, melody and harmony are regarded as the task of machine learning, and a piano arranger timbre recognition system based on AI (Artificial Intelligence) is constructed by training a series of samples. The short-time Fourier transform spectrum analysis method is used to extract the piano timbre characteristic matrix, and the electronic synthesis of timbre recognition is improved by extracting the envelope function. Using the traditional multilabel classification method and KNN (K-nearest neighbor) algorithm, a combined algorithm of these two algorithms is proposed. The experimental results show that the detection rate increases from 61.3% to 70.2% after using the combined classification algorithm. The correct rate also increased from 40.3% to 48.9%, and the detection rate increased to 74.6% when the K value was set to 6. The experimental results show that, compared with the traditional classification algorithm, this algorithm has a certain improvement in recognition rate. Using this system to recognize the timbre of piano arrangement has a high recognition accuracy, which is worthy of further popularization and application.
SBP-0636457, a Novel Smac Mimetic, Cooperates with Doxorubicin to Induce Necroptosis in Breast Cancer Cells during Apoptosis Blockage
Authors: Yu Rui , Wang Lei , Ji Xiaochun , Mao Chenxiao
Published: July 2022

Breast cancer (BC) is a common health concern worldwide. Doxorubicin (Dox) is a widely used chemotherapeutic agent to treat various cancers, including BC. However, drug resistance and severe side effects often hinder the clinical application of Dox. Combination therapy is an effective potent strategy to increase chemosensitivity and reduce the adverse effects. Smac is a proapoptotic protein that interacts with inhibitors of apoptosis proteins (IAPs) and thereby promotes cell death. Smac mimetic compounds can mimic its function and can be used to kill cancer cells. In this study, Dox and SBP-0636457, a novel Smac mimetic, were found to have cooperative effects in inducing BC cell death. Dox and SBP-0636457 cotreatment induced necroptosis instead of apoptosis in BC cells. Receptor-interacting serine/threonine-protein kinase 1 or mixed-lineage kinase domain-like silencing could attenuate cell death caused by Dox/SBP-0636457 in BC cells. In addition, this combined treatment caused synergistic induction of TNFα, and TNFα/TNFR signalling is essential for cell death induced by Dox/SBP-0636457 in BC cells. Moreover, both canonical and noncanonical nuclear factor kappa B pathways were found to contribute to TNFα upregulation induced by Dox/SBP-0636457. Therefore, the findings suggest that SBP-0636457 combined with Dox is an alternative strategy for treating BC.