bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Construction and validation of a nomogram for predicting the prognosis of patients with lymph node-positive invasive micropapillary carcinoma of the breast: based on SEER database and external validation cohort
Authors: Li Yifei , Liu Jinzhao , Xu Zihang , Shang Jiuyan , Wu Si , Zhang Meng , Liu Yueping
Published: October 2023

Background

Invasive micropapillary carcinoma (IMPC) of the breast is a rare subtype of breast cancer with high incidence of aggressive clinical behavior, lymph node metastasis (LNM) and poor prognosis. In the present study, using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database, we analyzed the clinicopathological characteristics and prognostic factors of IMPC with LNM, and constructed a prognostic nomogram.

Methods

We retrospectively analyzed data for 487 breast IMPC patients with LNM in the SEER database from January 2010 to December 2015, and randomly divided these patients into a training cohort (70%) and an internal validation cohort (30%) for the construction and internal validation of the nomogram, respectively. In addition, 248 patients diagnosed with IMPC and LNM at the Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University from January 2010 to December 2019 were collected as an external validation cohort. Lasso regression, along with Cox regression, was used to screen risk factors. Further more, the discrimination, calibration, and clinical utility of the nomogram were assessed based on the consistency index (C-index), time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC), calibration curve, and decision curve analysis (DCA).

Results

In summary, we identified six variables including molecular subtype of breast cancer, first malignant primary indicator, tumor grade, AJCC stage, radiotherapy and chemotherapy were independent prognostic factors in predicting the prognosis of IMPC patients with LNM (P < 0.05). Based on these factors, a nomogram was constructed for predicting 3- and 5-year overall survival (OS) of patients. The nomogram achieved a C-index of 0.789 (95%CI: 0.759-0.819) in the training cohort, 0.775 (95%CI: 0.731-0.819) in the internal validation cohort, and 0.788 (95%CI: 0.756-0.820) in the external validation cohort. According to the calculated patient risk score, the patients were divided into a high-risk group and a low-risk group, which showed a significant difference in the survival prognosis of the two groups (P<0.0001). The time-dependent ROC curves, calibration curves and DCA curves proved the superiority of the nomogram.

Conclusions

We have successfully constructed a nomogram that could predict 3- and 5-year OS of IMPC patients with LNM and may assist clinicians in decision-making and personalized treatment planning.
Management and clinical outcomes of follicular lymphoma across continuous lines of treatments: a retrospective analysis in China
Authors: Liu Jiaxin , Hu Yunfei , Zhao Linjun , Nuersulitan Reyizha , Liu Yanfei , Yu Hui , Ye Yingying , Wang Dedao , Tang Yongjing , Feng Feier , Liu Weiping , Zhu Jun , Ping Lingyan , Song Yuqin
Published: October 2023

Background

Follicular lymphoma (FL) is characterized by an incurable course that frequently necessitates multiple lines of treatment. While a range of new approaches have broadened therapeutic options for patients in later lines, data regarding treatment patterns and outcomes of Chinese patients with relapsed/refractory(R/R) FL was scarcely reported.

Methods

This retrospective single-center study included patients diagnosed with FL grades 1–3a at our institution between January 2002 and December 2019. Endpoints of interest were analyzed according to lines and types of interventions. The endpoints mainly included overall response rate (ORR), progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS).

Results

The study enrolled 566 biopsy-proven patients. Among them, 544 patients initiated the first line of treatment, followed by 240 initiating the second line, 146 initiating the third line, 88 initiating the fourth line, 47 initiating the fifth line, and 28 initiating the sixth line. In terms of treatment patterns, anti-CD20 chemotherapy was a major modality in the first and second lines. However, for patients in the third line and subsequent lines, treatment approaches were diverse, and participation in clinical trials for new medications was common, which correlated with a survival benefit. The study also revealed that clinical indicators (such as ORR, PFS, and OS) gradually decreased with each subsequent line of treatment. The ORR at the first line was 86.6%, but decreased to 48.6% at the third line and 40.4% at the sixth line, respectively. Similarly, median OS and PFS decreased to 88.8 and 7.1 months at the third line and further reduced to 21.7 and 2.8 months at the sixth line, respectively. A total of 133 patients developed progression within 24 months from the initiation of first line anti-CD20 chemotherapy (POD24), and these patients exhibited poorer response rates and outcomes in subsequent lines of therapycompared to the non-POD24 group.

Conclusion

This study revealed the clinical routine practices and prognosis of R/R FL patients within the Chinese population. It underscored the unmet need for optimal strategies to improve survival and also served as a benchmark for future trials.
Lung cancer organoids: models for preclinical research and precision medicine
Authors: Liu Yajing , Zhou Yanbing , Chen Pu
Published: October 2023

Lung cancer is a malignancy with high incidence and mortality rates globally, and it has a 5-year survival rate of only 10%–20%. The significant heterogeneity in clinical presentation, histological features, multi-omics findings, and drug sensitivity among different lung cancer patients necessitate the development of personalized treatment strategies. The current precision medicine for lung cancer, primarily based on pathological and genomic multi-omics testing, fails to meet the needs of patients with clinically refractory lung cancer. Lung cancer organoids (LCOs) are derived from tumor cells within tumor tissues and are generated through three-dimensional tissue culture, enabling them to faithfully recapitulate in vivo tumor characteristics and heterogeneity. The establishment of a series of LCOs biobanks offers promising platforms for efficient screening and identification of novel targets for anti-tumor drug discovery. Moreover, LCOs provide supplementary decision-making factors to enhance the current precision medicine for lung cancer, thereby addressing the limitations associated with pathology-guided approaches in managing refractory lung cancer. This article presents a comprehensive review on the construction methods and potential applications of LCOs in both preclinical and clinical research. It highlights the significance of LCOs in biomarker exploration, drug resistance investigation, target identification, clinical precision drug screening, as well as microfluidic technology-based high-throughput drug screening strategies. Additionally, it discusses the current limitations and future prospects of this field.
Multidimensional visualization and analysis of chronic pain variables of patients who attended a chronic pain program
Authors: Li Yuelin (Cindy) , Hapidou Eleni G.
Published: October 2023

Psychologically-based chronic pain variables measure multiple domains of the pain experience such as anxiety, depression, catastrophizing, acceptance and stages of change. These variables measure specific areas such as emotional and cognitive states towards chronic pain and its management, acceptance towards the chronic pain condition, and an individual’s readiness to move towards self-management methods. Conceptually, these variables appear to be interrelated to each other, and also form groupings of similar underlying themes. Groupings that have been previously discussed for these variables include positive and negative affect, and improved and poor adjustment. Psychological experience of chronic pain as a whole is mostly understood through conceptually consolidating individual scores across different measures covering multiple domains. A map of these variables in relation to each other can offer an overview for further understanding and exploration. We hereby visualize highlights of relationships among 11 psychosocial chronic pain variables including measures examining physical and somatic aspects, using three-dimensional biplots. Variables roughly form two groupings, with one grouping consisting of items of negative affect, cognition, and physical state ratings, and the other grouping consisting of items of acceptance and the later three stages of change (contemplation, action, maintenance). Also, we follow up with canonical correlation as a complement to further identify key relationships between bimodal groupings. Key variables linking bimodal relationships consist of catastrophizing, depression and anxiety in one grouping and activity engagement in the other. Results are discussed in the context of existing literature.
Study on the movement mechanism of rice stem under the action of canopy-opening device based on explicit dynamics simulation
Authors: Jing Lin-long , Wei Xin-hua , Song Qi , Wang Fei
Published: October 2023

The dense canopy of rice causes attenuation of droplet dispersion during pesticide application. The canopy-opening device can increase droplet deposition in the middle and lower canopy of rice by causing disturbance to the rice canopy. However, the conditions for use of the canopy-opening device are difficult to determine. Rice morphological structure parameters and material parameters were measured to study the movement mechanism of the rice stems under the action of the canopy-opening device, and the canopy-opening process was then simulated using the explicit dynamic method. The simulation scene of the rice canopy-opening process considered the combination of three different heights and three different driving velocities of the canopy-opening device. The movement mechanism of the rice stems under the operation of the canopy-opening device was investigated, and the entire movement process was separated into two stages: contact and oscillation. The simulation results and high-speed photography experimental results show a strong correlation, with a correlation coefficient of 0.733. The simulation results indicate that when the canopy-opening device is closer to the ground and the driving velocity is higher, the disturbance to the rice stem during the contact stage is stronger. However, for the oscillation stage, there exists a critical value for both the height and driving velocity of the canopy-opening device. During the oscillation stage, there is a critical value for both the height and driving velocity of the canopy-opening device. The numerical-based explicit dynamics approach was employed in this work to investigate the rice canopy motion mechanism, and this study has a definite reference value for the investigation of complicated motion mechanisms in the field crop production process.
Cohort differences in attitudes toward sexual orientation: the formative political climate as a socializing agent
Authors: Jeannet Anne-Marie , Dražanová Lenka
Published: October 2023

Introduction

Why do cohorts differ in their attitudes toward sexual orientation and what is the role of societal values during formative years? We investigate whether discontinuities in the prevailing values of equality and tradition in a person's formative years impinge on their attitudes toward sexual orientation as adults.

Methods

We test this by integrating historical political data from the Manifesto Project Dataset with contemporary micro-data on attitudes toward sexual orientation from 10 rounds of the European Social Survey (2002-2020) across 13 cohorts in 13 European countries.

Results and discussion

Using hierarchical age-period-cohort analysis with synthetic age cohorts, we find if the value of equality is politically diffuse, it can have a socializing effect. We find that the individuals who came of age during a period when political values of equality were more dominant are more tolerant of gays and lesbians. On the other hand, we do not find any evidence that individuals who experience youth during a time of more traditional political values have more negative opinions about different sexual orientations. Overall, these findings suggest that cohorts adopt distinct patterns of attitudes toward gays and lesbians as a result of a collective process of socialization during their impressionable years.
Association of depressive symptoms with chronic liver disease among middle-aged and older adults in China
Authors: Zeng Jingke , Lai Xiaohuan , Wang Shuigen , Zeng Dijing , Ye Jiangmin , Huang Chunhua , Liu Minhua , Zhang Wenjuan , Xu Hui
Published: October 2023

Background

The relationship between depressive symptoms and chronic liver disease (CLD) is still unclear. We aimed to determine whether depressive symptoms are associated with CLD in a large population sample.

Methods

The data was from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), an ongoing nationally representative prospective cohort study. Depressive symptoms were assessed with the catchment-area epidemiology survey-depression (CES-D). CLD was identified by the patient’s self-report about a physician’s diagnosis at each visit. Multi-adjusted logistic regression and Cox regression models were used.

Results

A total of 14,995 participants (53.1% female; mean age: 58.85 ± 9.87 years) and 13,405 participants (53.64% female; mean age: 58.58 ± 9.69 years) were included in the cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses, respectively. In the cross-sectional analysis, the odds ratio of CLD in patients with moderate and severe depressive symptoms were 1.46 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.16–1.83] and 1.78 (95% CI, 1.23–2.56) than those with none/mild depressive symptoms, respectively. In the longitudinal analysis, compared to participants with none/mild depressive symptoms, the hazard rates of CLD in those with moderate and severe depressive symptoms were 1.65 (95%CI, 1.33–2.03) and 1.80 (95%CI, 1.24–2.60). And the 50th percentile difference of time (years) at the incidence of CLD in participants with moderate and severe depressive symptoms were − 0.83 (95%CI, −1.18, −0.49) and − 0.96 (95%CI, −1.56, −0.35), respectively.

Conclusion

Elevated depressive symptoms were associated with an increased risk of CLD among middle-aged and older adults in China.
Biological correlates of treatment resistant depression: a review of peripheral biomarkers
Authors: Mancuso Emiliana , Sampogna Gaia , Boiano Alessia , Della Rocca Bianca , Di Vincenzo Matteo , Lapadula Maria Vita , Martinelli Flavia , Lucci Federico , Luciano Mario
Published: October 2023

Introduction

Many patients fail to respond to multiple antidepressant interventions, being defined as “treatment-resistant depression” (TRD) patients. TRD is usually associated with increased severity and chronicity of symptoms, increased risk of comorbidity, and higher suicide rates, which make the clinical management challenging. Efforts to distinguish between TRD patients and those who will respond to treatment have been unfruitful so far. Several studies have tried to identify the biological, psychopathological, and psychosocial correlates of depression, with particular attention to the inflammatory system. In this paper we aim to review available studies assessing the full range of biomarkers in TRD patients in order to reshape TRD definition and improve its diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis.

Methods

We searched the most relevant medical databases and included studies reporting original data on possible biomarkers of TRD. The keywords “treatment resistant depression” or “TRD” matched with “biomarker,” “inflammation,” “hormone,” “cytokine” or “biological marker” were entered in PubMed, ISI Web of Knowledge and SCOPUS databases. Articles were included if they included a comparison with healthy controls (HC).

Results

Of the 1878 papers identified, 35 were included in the present study. Higher plasma levels of IL-6 and TNF-α were detected in TRD patients compared to HC. While only a few studies on cortisol have been found, four papers showed elevated levels of C-reactive protein among these patients and four articles focused on immunological cells. Altered kynurenine metabolism in TRD patients was reported in two studies, while contrasting results were found with regard to BDNF.

Conclusion

Only a few biological alterations correlate with TRD. TNF-α seems to be the most relevant biomarker to discriminate TRD patients from both HC and treatment-responsive MDD patients. Moreover, several discrepancies among studies have been found, due to methodological differences and the lack of a standardized diagnostic definition of TRD.
Vaccine efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 for Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna, and AstraZeneca vaccines: a systematic review
Authors: Reynolds Lia , Dewey Cate , Asfour Ghaid , Little Matthew
Published: October 2023

The purpose of this systematic review was to report on the vaccine efficacy (VE) of three SARS-CoV-2 vaccines approved by Health Canada: Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna, and AstraZeneca. Four databases were searched for primary publications on population-level VE. Ninety-two publications matched the inclusion criteria, and the extracted data were separated by vaccine type: mRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) and the AstraZeneca vaccine. The median VE for PCR-positive patients and various levels of clinical disease was determined for the first and second doses of both vaccine types against multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants. The median VE for PCR-positive infections against unidentified variants from an mRNA vaccine was 64.5 and 89%, respectively, after one or two doses. The median VE for PCR-positive infections against unidentified variants from the AstraZeneca vaccine was 53.4 and 69.6%, respectively, after one or two doses. The median VE for two doses of mRNA for asymptomatic, symptomatic, and severe infection against unidentified variants was 85.5, 93.2, and 92.2%, respectively. The median VE for two doses of AstraZeneca for asymptomatic, symptomatic, and severe infection against unidentified variants was 69.7, 71, and 90.2%, respectively. Vaccine efficacy numerically increased from the first to the second dose, increased from the first 2 weeks to the second 2 weeks post-vaccination for both doses, but decreased after 4 months from the second dose. Vaccine efficacy did not differ by person's age.
The effect of urban–rural health insurance integration on consumption of middle-aged and older adult households in rural areas: evidence from China
Authors: Wang Lianjie , Hu Qi
Published: October 2023

Introduction

Rural consumption is crucial in promoting economic and social development in China’s economic slowdown. Integrating urban-rural residents’ health insurance has alleviated the financial burden of medical expenses for rural households and boosted rural household consumption. This study examines the effect of integrating urban–rural residents’ health insurance on the consumption patterns of middle-aged and older adult households in rural China. Our research provides a reference basis for improving rural healthcare security and enhancing the sustainable consumption capacity in rural areas.

Methods

We employed a Propensity Score Matching Difference-in-Differences model (PSM-DID) to estimate the association between health insurance integration and household consumption using panel data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) from 2013 to 2018. Furthermore, we employed a mediation model to analyze the influencing mechanisms.

Results

Our findings suggested a positive association between health insurance integration and survival consumption as well as total consumption among rural middle-aged and older adult households. The conclusion remained valid after endogeneity treatment, robustness and placebo tests. Furthermore, we found that the impact of health insurance integration is more pronounced for middle-aged, female, and high-income rural residents’ households. Integrating urban–rural residents’ health insurance raised consumption by reducing medical expenses and increasing health and life expectancy.

Discussion

Policymakers should deepen the rural medical and health system reform, improve the convenience of medical services for middle-aged and older adult families in rural areas, and improve the medical and life assistance mechanism for vulnerable groups in rural areas. Additionally, the local government should continuously broaden rural household income channels to promote upgrading consumption structure while improving overall consumption levels.
Multi-sensory evaluation of urban design in creating obesity encouraging environments: The experience of town centres in Auckland, New Zealand
Authors: Parekh Jayesh , Liu Wen , Beattie Lee
Published: October 2023

This article presents a multi-sensory study on pedestrian activities in the public realm of two town centers in Auckland, New Zealand. We utilize mixed-method and multi-sensory evaluation methods, combined with sensory experience and activity mapping, to explore the effects of the obesity encouraging environment of town centers on the activity concentrations of pedestrians. We further discuss the influences of urban design and land use diversity on generating obesity encouraging environments of town centers. The article aims to provide a basis to initiate discussion around the importance of understanding the multiple-sensory experience of public space beyond merely sight sense which traditionally dominates urban design discipline. Furthermore, this article demonstrates the role and quality of sensory experience in shaping obesogenic behaviors within the built environment of two town centres; with a diversity of type and quality of land uses. It also highlights that the mere provision of urban morphology or built form factors linked with walking activities is not a precursor for healthier communities. Thus, the impacts of urban design and quality uses of the built environment on the multiple senses of the users should be considered in urban design research and practices.
Heart rate responses, agreement and accuracy among persons with severe disabilities participating in the indirect movement program: Team Twin—an observational study
Authors: Jørgensen Andreas , Toftager Mette , Eghøj Martin , Ried-Larsen Mathias , Bjørk Petersen Christina
Published: October 2023

Introduction

Heart rate (HR) monitors are rarely used by people living with disabilities (PLWD), and their accuracy is undocumented. Thus, this study aims to describe the HR response during the Team Twin co-running program and, secondly, to assess the agreement and accuracy of using HR monitors among PLWD.

Methods

This 16-week single-arm observational study included 18 people with various disabilities. During the study, the subjects wore a Garmin Vivosmart 4 watch (wrist). To evaluate the agreement and accuracy we applied Garmin’s HRM-DUAL™ chest-worn HR monitors for comparison with the Vivosmart 4. The HR response analysis was performed descriptively and with a mixed regression model. The HR agreement and accuracy procedure was conducted on a subsample of five subjects and analyzed using Lin’s concordance analysis, Bland and Altman’s limits of agreement, and Cohen’s kappa analysis of intensity zone agreement. This study was prospectively registered at Clinical Trials.gov (NCT04536779).

Results

The subjects had a mean age of 35 (±12.6), 61% were male, 72% had cerebral palsy were 85% had GMFCS V-IV. HR was monitored for 202:10:33 (HH:MM:SS), with a mean HR of 90 ± 17 bpm during training and race. A total of 19% of the time was spent in intensity zones between light and moderate (30%–59% HR reserve) and 1% in vigorous (60%–84% HR reserve). The remaining 80% were in the very light intensity zone (<29% HR reserve). HR was highest at the start of race and training and steadily decreased. Inter-rater agreement was high (k = 0.75), limits of agreement were between −16 and 13 bpm, and accuracy was acceptable (Rc = 0.86).

Conclusion

Disability type, individual, and contextual factors will likely affect HR responses and the agreement and accuracy for PLWD. The Vivosmart 4, while overall accurate, had low precision due to high variability in the estimation. These findings implicate the methodical and practical difficulties of utilizing HR monitors to measure HR and thus physical activity in adapted sports activities for severely disabled individuals.
Exploring the Root Morphological Traits of Diverse-Origin Cultivated Soybean
Authors: Khan Waleed , Amos Stanley Ahamefula , Islam Mohammad Shafiqul , Ghimire Amit , Lay Liny , Kim Yoonha
Published: October 2023

Root morphological traits (RMTs) profoundly influence plant growth, resilience to abiotic stresses, and yield in soybean (Glycine max). In a comprehensive study spanning two consecutive years (2021–2022), the RMTs were assessed in 216 soybean accessions from 34 diverse origins. The investigation involved randomized batches with plants cultivated in PVC pipes filled with horticultural soil and harvested at the V2 growth stage. All the germplasms exhibited significant differences (p < 0.001) in all measured traits, i.e., total root length (TRL), root volume (RV), average diameter (AD), number of tips (NT), number of forks (NF), and tertiary total length (TTL). Among the top 5% performers in TRL, which, interestingly, were exclusively of Korean origin, germplasm IT115491 displayed an impressive average TRL value of 1426.24 cm. Notably, germplasms from Serbia and Korea predominantly occupied the upper AD quantile, with IT156262 exhibiting the highest AD value of 0.57 mm. A correlation analysis showed strong positive associations of TRL with RV (r = 0.85), NT (r = 0.84), NF (r = 0.96), and TTL (r = 0.88), whereas it had a negative association with AD (r = −0.25). A principal component analysis (PCA) showed a cumulative 95% of the total variance in the data in the first three principal components (PCs). PC1 (eigenvalue = 4.64) accounted for a 77.00% variance, with TRL, RV, NF, NT, and TTL exhibiting the highest associated eigenvectors. K-means clustering was performed with three clusters. Cluster 2 contained accessions with higher AD values, whereas Cluster 3 comprised accessions with increased TRL, NT, NF, and TTL, which mostly originated from Korea. Our findings offer targeted insights for plant breeders to optimize specific root traits and enhance crop performance across diverse environmental conditions by strategically targeting these clusters. Additionally, the influence of cultivar origin on root traits warrants further investigation, with implications for future breeding programs.
Spread of Pseudomonas aeruginosa ST274 Clone in Different Niches: Resistome, Virulome, and Phylogenetic Relationship
Authors: Chichón Gabriela , López María , de Toro María , Ruiz-Roldán Lidia , Rojo-Bezares Beatriz , Sáenz Yolanda
Published: October 2023

Pseudomonas aeruginosa ST274 is an international epidemic high-risk clone, mostly associated with hospital settings and appears to colonize cystic fibrosis (CF) patients worldwide. To understand the relevant mechanisms for its success, the biological and genomic characteristics of 11 ST274-P. aeruginosa strains from clinical and non-clinical origins were analyzed. The extensively drug-resistant (XDR/DTR), the non-susceptible to at least one agent (modR), and the lasR-truncated (by ISPsp7) strains showed a chronic infection phenotype characterized by loss of serotype-specific antigenicity and low motility. Furthermore, the XDR/DTR and modR strains presented low pigment production and biofilm formation, which were very high in the lasR-truncated strain. Their whole genome sequences were compared with other 14 ST274-P. aeruginosa genomes available in the NCBI database, and certain associations have been primarily detected: blaOXA-486 and blaPDC-24 genes, serotype O:3, exoS+/exoU− genotype, group V of type IV pili, and pyoverdine locus class II. Other general molecular markers highlight the absence of vqsM and pldA/tleS genes and the presence of the same mutational pattern in genes involving two-component sensor-regulator systems PmrAB and CreBD, exotoxin A, quorum-sensing RhlI, beta-lactamase expression regulator AmpD, PBP1A, or FusA2 elongation factor G. The proportionated ST274-P. aeruginosa results could serve as the basis for more specific studies focused on better antibiotic stewardship and new therapeutic developments.
PSI Photoinhibition and Changing CO2 Levels Initiate Retrograde Signals to Modify Nuclear Gene Expression
Authors: Kılıç Mehmet , Käpylä Ville , Gollan Peter J. , Aro Eva-Mari , Rintamäki Eevi
Published: October 2023

Photosystem I (PSI) is a critical component of the photosynthetic machinery in plants. Under conditions of environmental stress, PSI becomes photoinhibited, leading to a redox imbalance in the chloroplast. PSI photoinhibition is caused by an increase in electron pressure within PSI, which damages the iron–sulfur clusters. In this study, we investigated the susceptibility of PSI to photoinhibition in plants at different concentrations of CO2, followed by global gene expression analyses of the differentially treated plants. PSI photoinhibition was induced using a specific illumination protocol that inhibited PSI with minimal effects on PSII. Unexpectedly, the varying CO2 levels combined with the PSI-PI treatment neither increased nor decreased the likelihood of PSI photodamage. All PSI photoinhibition treatments, independent of CO2 levels, upregulated genes generally involved in plant responses to excess iron and downregulated genes involved in iron deficiency. PSI photoinhibition also induced genes encoding photosynthetic proteins that act as electron acceptors from PSI. We propose that PSI photoinhibition causes a release of iron from damaged iron–sulfur clusters, which initiates a retrograde signal from the chloroplast to the nucleus to modify gene expression. In addition, the deprivation of CO2 from the air initiated a signal that induced flavonoid biosynthesis genes, probably via jasmonate production.
Effect of In Ovo Administration of a Multi-Strain Probiotic and Zinc Glycine Chelate on Antioxidant Capacity and Selected Immune Parameters in Newly Hatched Chicks
Authors: Ciszewski Artur , Jarosz Łukasz S. , Bielecka Arletta , Marek Agnieszka , Szymczak Bartłomiej , Grądzki Zbigniew , Rysiak Anna
Published: October 2023

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of in ovo co-supplementation of chicken embryos with a multi-strain probiotic containing effective microorganisms and zinc glycine chelate on total antioxidant capacity; concentrations of sulfhydryl groups, bityrosine bridges, formylkynurenines, hydroperoxides, proteins, corticosterone, pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines and heat shock proteins; and the activity of catalase and superoxide dismutase in the serum, yolk sac and tissues of broiler chickens at 12 h and at 7 days after hatching. The results indicate high SOD activity in the small and large intestines of chicks at 12 h post-hatch in the groups receiving the multi-strain probiotic and in the small intestine and yolk sac of birds receiving the multi-strain probiotic and Zn-Gly chelate. High concentrations of TNF-α and IFN-γ in the yolk sac and serum after in ovo administration of Zn-Gly chelate were observed 12 h after hatching. The use of a probiotic and a probiotic with Zn-Gly chelate increased the total antioxidant capacity in the tissues of chickens. It can be concluded that in ovo administration of a multi-strain probiotic and Zn-Gly chelate can maintain the oxidant/antioxidant balance in chickens and increase the defense capacity against oxidative stress.
Experimental Study on the Influence of Different Dam Body on the Sediment Interception and Discharge Capacity of the Cascade Permeable Dams
Authors: Liu Jian , Zhou Hongwei , Pan Longyang , Cai Junyi , Li Niannian , Wang Mingyang
Published: October 2023

Sediment deposition is an ecological and environmental problem faced by most water bodies. In view of the poor structural stability and unrepeatable use of existing permeable structures, this paper proposes a cascade permeable dam, which consists of four dam bodies. As the composition of the dam material is the key to sediment interception and discharge capacity, this study sets up two groups of dam material particle sizes for experiments. The results show that the sediment interception performance of the cascade permeable dam is good. When the dam material with a small particle size is selected, the percentage of intercepted sediment mass inside the four dam bodies is 75–89%. The interception sediment rate is much greater than that of the dam material with a large particle size, which tends to decline one by one along the flow direction. The discharge capacity of the dam gradually decreases with time, and there is an obvious decrease in the permeability coefficient of 1# dam. The results of this study provide programmatic support for reducing sediment entering shallow lakes and rivers, which can further optimize the structure design of permeable dams.
Integrated Artificial Intelligence in Data Science
Authors: Lin Jerry Chun-Wei , Tomasiello Stefania , Srivastava Gautam
Published: October 2023

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly pervading everyday life since it can be used to solve high-complexity problems, as well as determine optimal solutions, in various domains and for numerous applications [...]
Oxygen Demand Forecasting and Optimal Scheduling of the Oxygen Gas Systems in Iron- and Steel-Making Enterprises
Authors: Cheng Zhen , Zhang Peikun , Wang Li
Published: October 2023

Due to the imbalance between the supply and demand of oxygen, the oxygen systems of iron- and steel-making enterprises in China have problems with high oxygen emissions and high pressure in the pipelines, resulting in the energy consumption of oxygen production being high. To reduce the energy consumption of oxygen systems, this study took a large-scale iron- and steel-making enterprise as a case study and developed a two-stage forecasting and scheduling model. The novel aspect and progressiveness of this work are as follows: First, an oxygen demand forecasting model was developed based on the backpropagation neural network with genetic algorithm optimization (GABP) and is driven only by historical data. Compared with some complex models in the literature, although the accuracy of this model has been reduced, the model does not need to consider production plans for other process steps, making it more practical and feasible. Second, different from the existing literature, an oxygen production scheduling model was developed for load-variable ASUs with an internal compression process, and both the oxygen emissions and pipeline pressure are included in the objective function. The case study showed that based on the oxygen demand forecast and optimal scheduling, the oxygen emissions and pipeline pressure in the studied iron- and steel-making enterprise can be significantly reduced, thereby achieving considerable energy-saving effects and economic benefits. Specifically, the following conclusions were obtained: (1) For the oxygen demand forecast, the prediction accuracy of the GABP model was better than that of the ARIMA model. The average MAPE of the 12 sets of data of the ARIMA and GABP models was 23.8% and 20.2%, respectively. (2) By comparing the scheduling results and the field data, it was found that after scheduling, the amount of oxygen emissions decreased by 6.32%, the pipeline pressure decreased by 0.61%, and the energy consumption of oxygen compression decreased by 1.6%. Considering both the oxygen emission loss and the energy consumption of oxygen compression, the total power consumption of the studied oxygen system was reduced by 1.38%, resulting in electricity cost savings of approximately 9.03 million RMB per year.
Vision Transformers and Transfer Learning Approaches for Arabic Sign Language Recognition
Authors: Alharthi Nojood M. , Alzahrani Salha M.
Published: October 2023

Sign languages are complex, but there are ongoing research efforts in engineering and data science to recognize, understand, and utilize them in real-time applications. Arabic sign language recognition (ArSL) has been examined and applied using various traditional and intelligent methods. However, there have been limited attempts to enhance this process by utilizing pretrained models and large-sized vision transformers designed for image classification tasks. This study aimed to create robust transfer learning models trained on a dataset of 54,049 images depicting 32 alphabets from an ArSL dataset. The goal was to accurately classify these images into their corresponding Arabic alphabets. This study included two methodological parts. The first one was the transfer learning approach, wherein we utilized various pretrained models namely MobileNet, Xception, Inception, InceptionResNet, DenseNet, and BiT, and two vision transformers namely ViT, and Swin. We evaluated different variants from base-sized to large-sized pretrained models and vision transformers with weights initialized from the ImageNet dataset or otherwise randomly. The second part was the deep learning approach using convolutional neural networks (CNNs), wherein several CNN architectures were trained from scratch to be compared with the transfer learning approach. The proposed methods were evaluated using the accuracy, AUC, precision, recall, F1 and loss metrics. The transfer learning approach consistently performed well on the ArSL dataset and outperformed other CNN models. ResNet and InceptionResNet obtained a comparably high performance of 98%. By combining the concepts of transformer-based architecture and pretraining, ViT and Swin leveraged the strengths of both architectures and reduced the number of parameters required for training, making them more efficient and stable than other models and existing studies for ArSL classification. This demonstrates the effectiveness and robustness of using transfer learning with vision transformers for sign language recognition for other low-resourced languages.
The Chinese Aviation Network: An Empirical Temporal Analysis on Its Structural Properties and Robustness
Authors: Yang Ruoshi , Sun Wei , Le Meilong , Zhang Hongyan
Published: October 2023

Complex networks have encouraged scholars to develop an effective method for abstracting and optimizing aviation networks. However, researchers often overlook the aviation network’s temporal attribute and treat it as a static network. Aviation networks have strong temporal characteristics and the dynamic connection cannot be realistically described by a static network. It is necessary to more accurately and realistically represent these connections during the operation of an aviation network. This study explored temporal structures of the Chinese aviation temporal network (CATN) based on flight schedules and actual operational time data. Temporal networks based on time windows were represented to analyze the temporal topology features and robustness of the CATN. The results demonstrated the following: (1) based on the spatial-temporal aviation network, there is a morning departure peak (7:00–8:00) and an evening arrival peak at the airline hub (20:00–21:00); (2) examining the centrality of each airport in the CATN at various time intervals exposed fluctuations in their rankings, which could not be identified by a static network, and (3) the robustness of the CATN was found to be unaffected by time windows, but it displayed poor resilience against deliberate attacks, particularly when subjected to betweenness and closeness attacks, which target the network’s shortest paths. For obtaining a greater understanding of the operating situation of civil aviation, displaying the topological features and robustness of the temporal network is of great importance.
Dentin Hypersensitivity: Etiology, Diagnosis and Contemporary Therapeutic Approaches—A Review in Literature
Authors: Dionysopoulos Dimitrios , Gerasimidou Olga , Beltes Charis
Published: October 2023

The aim of this review was to provide dentists with comprehensive information regarding dentin hypersensitivity. This includes presenting its etiology, outlining the process of diagnosis, discussing clinical management strategies, and exploring technical approaches aimed at alleviating sensitivity. Dentin hypersensitivity is characterized by distinctive short, sharp pain arising from exposed cervical dentin in response to various external stimuli. The etiological factors cause two specific changes in teeth. First, the dentin surface must be exposed and denuded, which requires the loss of enamel or gingival recession combined with the loss of cementum. The second condition is the opening of the dentin tubules to allow the sensory mechanisms in the pulpal area following stimulation of the dentin surface. The accurate diagnosis of dentin hypersensitivity before receiving therapies is critical for successful treatment. The diagnosis of the disease starts through investigating the medical history of the patient and examination. In the examination, some techniques such as air stream and water rinsing are used in order to simulate the stimulating factors and to determine the degree of pain of the patient. Numerous materials and methods have been proposed to reduce or alleviate sensitivity. These materials typically exert their effects by either sealing dentin tubules or disrupting the transmission of nerve impulses. Generally, the primary approach in addressing dentin hypersensitivity involves the utilization of toothpaste containing potassium salts and fluoride. Newly introduced materials and in-office methods for treating dentin hypersensitivity include bioactive glasses, iontophoresis, CPP-ACP, and lasers.
Dual PID Adaptive Variable Impedance Constant Force Control for Grinding Robot
Authors: Wu Chong , Guo Kai , Sun Jie
Published: October 2023

High-precision and low-overshoot force control are important to guarantee the material removal rate and surface quality of robot grinding. However, traditional force control methods are subjected to positional disturbance, stiffness disturbance, contact process nonlinearity, and force-position coupling, leading to difficulties in robot constant force control. Therefore, how to achieve smooth, stable, and high-precision constant force control is an urgent problem. To address this problem, a dual PID adaptive variable impedance control is established (DPAVIC). Firstly, PD control is used to compensate for the force error, and PID is used to update the damping parameters to compensate for the disturbance. Secondly, a nonlinear tracking differentiator is used to smooth the desired force and reduce the contact force overshoot. Then, the stability, convergence, and effectiveness of the force control algorithm are verified via theoretical analysis, simulations, and experiments. The force tracking error and overshoot of a conventional impedance controller (CIC), adaptive variable impedance control (AVIC), and DPAVIC are analyzed. Finally, the algorithm is used in grinding experiments on a thin-walled workpiece. The force tracking error is controlled within ±0.2 N, and the surface roughness of the workpiece is improved to Ra 0.218 μm.
Research on Gearbox Fault Diagnosis Method Based on VMD and Optimized LSTM
Authors: Zhang Bang-Cheng , Sun Shi-Qi , Yin Xiao-Jing , He Wei-Dong , Gao Zhi
Published: October 2023

The reliability of gearboxes is extremely important for the normal operation of mechanical equipment. This paper proposes an optimized long short-term memory (LSTM) neural network fault diagnosis method. Additionally, a feature extraction method is employed, utilizing variational mode decomposition (VMD) and permutation entropy (PE). Firstly, the gear vibration signal is subjected to feature decomposition using VMD. Secondly, PE is calculated as a feature quantity output. Next, it is input into the improved LSTM fault diagnosis model, and the LSTM parameters are iteratively optimized using the chameleon search algorithm (CSA). Finally, the output of the fault diagnosis results is obtained. The experimental results show that the accuracy of the method exceeds 97.8%.
Construction of a Numerical Model for Flow Flash Evaporation with Non-Condensable Gas
Authors: Wang Wei , Li Bingrui , Wang Xin , Li Bingxi , Shuai Yong
Published: October 2023

Flash evaporation processes are widely used in petroleum, food, chemical, power, and other industries to separate products or extract heat. The liquid is often entrained by non-condensing gas components. This study develops a multiphase, multicomponent, and pressure-driven phase-change-coupled model to numerically study water flash evaporation with non-condensing CO2. The model includes the mass, momentum, energy, volume of fluid (VOF), species transport, turbulence (RNG k-ε), modified phase-change Lee, and non-condensing CO2 release governing equations. The steam generation rate and mechanism for pure water and different concentrations of CO2 are considered. The results show that the numerical model can accurately predict the flash evaporation process and has high accuracy compared with the experimental data. Both the dissolved and entrained CO2 that are released can severely disturb the flow field, leading to an increase in the steam generation rate. Under a 1–10% volume concentration of dissolved CO2 and 0.0661–0.1688% mass concentration of entrained CO2, the maximum increase ratio of steam generation can reach 20%.
Deep Learning in Barrett’s Esophagus Diagnosis: Current Status and Future Directions
Authors: Cui Ruichen , Wang Lei , Lin Lin , Li Jie , Lu Runda , Liu Shixiang , Liu Bowei , Gu Yimin , Zhang Hanlu , Shang Qixin , Chen Longqi , Tian Dong
Published: October 2023

Barrett’s esophagus (BE) represents a pre-malignant condition characterized by abnormal cellular proliferation in the distal esophagus. A timely and accurate diagnosis of BE is imperative to prevent its progression to esophageal adenocarcinoma, a malignancy associated with a significantly reduced survival rate. In this digital age, deep learning (DL) has emerged as a powerful tool for medical image analysis and diagnostic applications, showcasing vast potential across various medical disciplines. In this comprehensive review, we meticulously assess 33 primary studies employing varied DL techniques, predominantly featuring convolutional neural networks (CNNs), for the diagnosis and understanding of BE. Our primary focus revolves around evaluating the current applications of DL in BE diagnosis, encompassing tasks such as image segmentation and classification, as well as their potential impact and implications in real-world clinical settings. While the applications of DL in BE diagnosis exhibit promising results, they are not without challenges, such as dataset issues and the “black box” nature of models. We discuss these challenges in the concluding section. Essentially, while DL holds tremendous potential to revolutionize BE diagnosis, addressing these challenges is paramount to harnessing its full capacity and ensuring its widespread application in clinical practice.