bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Association between vitamin D receptor gene polymorphisms and benign prostatic hyperplasia risk: A meta-analysis
Authors: Ruan Li
Published: August 2023

Background: Benign prostatic hyperplasia is one of the global public health challenges due to the complexity of its mechanisms of occurrence. Many studies have suggested that vitamin D receptor gene polymorphisms are associated with BPH susceptibility. Still, their conflicting findings need to be analyzed in aggregate to gain a better understanding.
Method: We identified 10 trials involving 1539 Benign prostatic hyperplasiacases and 1915 controls through a systematic search of Embase, with data obtained from the Web of Science, PubMed, and China Knowledge Network databases as of 31 December 2021. A meta-analysis was then performed to investigate the association between four constant polymorphisms of this associated vitamin D receptor gene (Fok-Ⅰ, Bsm-Ⅰ, Taq-Ⅰ, and Apa-Ⅰ) and BPH risk.
Result: In the overall population analysis, a significant positive association with Benign prostatic hyperplasia risk was found only in the Taq-1 variant (p<0.001). Of these, the pure-hybrid model (95% CI=1.384-3.196), the heterozygous model (95% CI=1.207-2.021), the dominant model (95% CI=1.312-2.133) and the allelic inheritance model (95% CI=1.205-1.730) showed low heterogeneity. In subtype analyses, Bam-1 variants showed a significant association with Benign prostatic hyperplasia risk for both the recessive (95%CI=0.100-0.943, p=0.039) and over-dominant (95%CI=1.553-3.100, p=0) models in the Caucasian population, and for the recessive (95%CI=1.242-3.283, p=0.039) and over-dominant (95%CI=0.281-0.680, p=0) models in the Asian population. In addition, a high degree of heterogeneity was found in the subgroup analysis of the association between Fok-1 variants and Benign prostatic hyperplasia risk.
Conclusion: Overall, there is an association between vitamin D receptor polymorphisms and Benign prostatic hyperplasia risk. Identification of BPH susceptibility by vitamin D receptor gene polymorphisms has potential.
RETRACTED: Real understanding and investigation of crack propagation in natural teeth and dental orthodontics: Common dangerous crack paths under occlusal loads
Authors: El-Sheikhy Refat , Al-Khuraif Abdulaziz
Published: August 2023

The authors have requested that this preprint be removed from Research Square.
Morphogenesis of a chiral liquid crystalline droplet with topological reconnection and Lehmann rotation
Authors: Yoshioka Jun , Ito Yuki , Fukao Koji
Published: August 2023

Morphogenesis is a hierarchical phenomenon that produces various macroscopic structures in living organisms, with high reproducibility. This study demonstrates that such structural formation can also be observed in a chiral liquid crystalline droplet under a temperature gradient. Through specific control of the temperature change process, we were able to switch the final structure obtained as a result of the formation via the appearance and reconnection of loop defects in the transient state during structure formation. Simultaneously, the existence of the gradient resulted in a characteristic rotational phenomenon called Lehmann rotation, which was prominently induced in the transient state. By demonstrating three-dimensional measurements of the flow field, we revealed the existence of Marangoni convection in the state. Consequently, it is indicated that the convection results in high-speed Lehmann rotation and large structural deformation with topological changes, thereby playing a significant role in the structure formation.
Is Iodine deficiency a burden among school-age children in Ethiopia: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Baffa Lemlem Daniel , Angaw Dessie Abebaw , Abriham Zufan Yiheyis , Gashaw Moges , Agimas Muluken Chanie , Sisay Mekonnen , Muhammad Esmael Ali , Mengistu Berhanu , Belew Aysheshim Kassahun
Published: August 2023

Background
Nowadays, Iodine deficiency has become a huge burden to the globe, leaving 2 billion people and 29.8% of school-age children iodine deficient. It is a leading cause of preventable brain damage among children, resulting in impaired cognitive and motor development. Even though, salt iodization was started to be implemented to alleviate this burden in Ethiopia, primary studies assessing Iodine deficiency in the country show inconsistent findings which make it difficult to assess the effect of the intervention as well as to design appropriate and timely measures. Therefore, this systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to determine the pooled prevalence of iodine deficiency and the common factors affecting its occurrence among school-age children in Ethiopia.
Method
To obtain the eligible studies, databases (EMBASE, Scopus, Hinari, and PubMed), websites (Google and Google Scholar), and references of the eligible studies were searched systematically. Data were extracted using an Excel spreadsheet and analyzed using STATA 17 version. I2 test was used to assess heterogeneity between the studies. Random-effect model was used to estimate the pooled prevalence and pooled odds ratio. Funnel plot and Egger’s test were done to detect publication bias.
Result
A total of 15 eligible studies, having 15,611 school-age children were included in the systematic review and meta-analysis. The pooled prevalence of Iodine deficiency among school-age children in Ethiopia was found to be 58% (95%CI: 44.00–77.00), while the highest prevalence was recorded in Oromia region, which was 64% (95% CI: 49–79). Goitrogenic food consumption (AOR: 2.93, 95% CI: 1.60–5.35) and sex of the child (AOR: 1.87, 95% CI: 1.43–2.44) showed a significant association with the prevalence of iodine deficiency.
Conclusion
Iodine deficiency among school-age children in Ethiopia was found noticeably high. Goitrogenic food consumption and the sex of the child were determinant factors for the occurrence of iodine deficiency among the children. Therefore, appropriate advice should be given to the households to limit goitrogenic foods in the diet of their children by giving due attention to their female children.
Reactive Aldehyde Chemistry explains the Missing Source of Hydroxyl Radicals
Authors: Yang Xinping , Wang Haichao , Ma Xuefei , Tan Zhaofeng , Chen Xiaorui , Li Chunmeng , Zhai Tianyu , Li Yang , Qu Kun , Long Bo , Xia Yu , Zhang Yuqiong , Li Xin , Chen Shiyi , Dong Huabin , Zeng Limin , Lu Keding , Zhang Yuanhang
Published: August 2023

Hydroxyl radicals (OH) drive the removal of most primary pollutants and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, determine the tropospheric oxidation capacity, and regulate air quality and climate. However, the state-of-the-art mechanisms still underestimate the observed high OH concentrations at the low nitrogen oxide and high volatile organic compounds regime, indicating a missing OH source. The missing mechanism would bias the understanding of tropospheric air pollution and the lifetime of greenhouse gases. People attempted but failed to find the mechanism to explain high OH radicals in the past decades fully. Here, with a retrospective meta-analysis of a comprehensive warm-season field observation dataset and theoretical study, we find the reactive aldehyde chemistry, especially the autoxidation of carbonyl RC(O)O2 radicals derived from higher aldehydes, is a noteworthy OH regeneration mechanism that overwhelms the contribution of isoprene autoxidation mechanism, the latter is proved to largely contribute to the missing OH source under high isoprene condition. The R(CO)O2 radicals undergo fast H-migration, confirmed by the quantum chemical calculations, to produce unsaturated hydroperoxyl-carbonyls that generate OH radicals by fast photolysis. The new chemistry can explain almost all unknown OH sources with significant contributions in areas rich in both natural and anthropogenic emissions. It would be further enhanced on a larger spatiotemporal scale under a future low nitrogen oxide society.
Leveled Fuzzy Identity-Based Fully Homomorphic Signatures
Authors: Li Mingxiang
Published: August 2023

In fuzzy identity-based fully homomorphic signature (FIBFHS), the output of homomorphic computation, which is related to the identity id, can be verified by the receiver using the identity id^ as long as id and id^ are within a certain distance of each other. Gorbunov, Vaikuntanathan and Wichs (STOC 2015) introduced a new notion called homomorphic trapdoor functions (HTDFs) and constructed the first leveled fully homomorphic signature (FHS) scheme from HTDFs. In this paper, firstly, we extend the notion of HTDFs to fuzzy identity-based homomorphic trapdoor functions (FIBHTDFs). Next, we construct a FIBHTDF based on the small integer solution (SIS) problem by borrowing ideas from the secret-sharing techniques developed by Agrawal et al. (PKC 2012) and Boyen (TCC 2013) and prove that it is selective-identity secure in the standard model. Finally, we construct the first leveled FIBFHS scheme from FIBHTDFs and prove that it satisfies existential unforgeability under selective-identity and static chosen-message attacks in the standard model.
Transfer Learning for Gas Emission Prediction:A Comparative Analysis of Six Machine Learning Methods and TabNet
Authors: deng sen , Li Xijian
Published: August 2023

Gas emissions in the tunnel will be a significant hindrance to its safe construction and may result in major consequences such as injuries and financial losses. Due to the peculiar characteristics of gas emission, the sample size of data on gas emissions is typically tiny; therefore, it is crucial to prevent over-fitting and to raise the precision and stability of predictions. We propose in this study to use tunnel inflow data as the source data and gas emission data as the target data, and then use transfer learning to predict gas emissions. For transfer learning, several well-known and effective machine learning models are used: AAN (artificial neural network), ET (extra tree), GB (gradient boost), KNN (K-nearest neighbor), MLP (multilayer perception), SVM (support vector machine), and XGBOOST (extreme gradient boost). To ensure the correctness and effectiveness of the experiment, the Tabnet model without transfer learning is used as a comparison. The method's viability and effectiveness are then confirmed by comparison with three sets of actual measurement data and the Tabnet model without transfer learning. The research demonstrates that: The transfer learning method, which uses tunnel water gushing data as the source data and gas emission data as the target data, confirms the viability and effectiveness of the method through the prediction of three groups of measured data and the comparison with the accurate and efficient Tabnet model, Indications are promising that the approach can provide a novel framework for improving the accuracy with which gas emissions are predicted.
Identifying Meaningful Facial Configurations during Iterative Prisoner’s Dilemma Games
Authors: Robertson Olly , Parkinson Brian , Shore Danielle
Published: August 2023

The contraction and relaxation of facial muscles in humans is widely assumed to fulfil communicative and adaptive functions. However, to date most work has focussed either on individual muscle movements (action units) in isolation or on a small set of configurations commonly assumed to express “basic emotions”. As such, it is as yet unclear what information is communicated between individuals during naturalistic social interactions and how contextual cues influence facial activity occurring in these exchanges. The present study investigated whether consistent patterns of facial action units occur during dyadic iterative prisoners’ dilemma games, and what these patterns of facial activity might mean. Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, we identified three distinct and consistent configurations of facial musculature change across three different datasets. These configurations were associated with specific gameplay outcomes, suggesting that they perform psychologically meaningful context-related functions. The first configuration communicated enjoyment and the second communicated affiliation and appeasement, both indicating cooperative intentions after cooperation or defection respectively. The third configuration communicated disapproval and encouraged social partners not to defect again. Future work should validate the occurrence and functionality of these facial configurations across other kinds of social interaction.
Exploring Wedge and Bulk Viscous Dissipation in Droplets Moving on Inclined Surfaces by Means of Direct Numerical Simulations
Authors: Bodziony Francisco , Li Xiaomei , Yin Mariana , Berger Rüdiger , Butt Hans-Jürgen , Marschall Holger
Published: August 2023

The motion of droplets on inclined surfaces is a ubiquitous phenomenon, yet the underlying dissipative mechanisms remain poorly understood. Employing direct numerical simulations, we investigate water and water-glycerol (85% wt.) droplets (∼25 μL) moving on smooth surfaces, with contact angles of around 90º, at varying inclinations. Our focus is on elucidating the role of wedge and bulk viscous dissipation in the droplets. We observe that, for fast-moving droplets, both mechanisms contribute comparably, while the wedge dissipation dominates in slow-moving cases. Comparisons with existing estimates reveal the inadequacy of previous predictions in capturing the contributions of wedge and bulk dissipation forces in fast-moving droplets. Furthermore, we demonstrate that droplets with identical sliding velocities can exhibit disparate viscous dissipation forces due to variations in internal fluid dynamics.
A Study of Cubic B-Spline Based Three Numerical Algorithms for Solving Nonlinear Reaction-diffusion Equations
Authors: Mittal R. C. , Rohila Rajni
Published: August 2023

In this work, three numerical methods using B-splines have been proposed and numerical solutions of nonlinear time dependent reaction diffusion equations have been obtained. We call the methods as Method I, Method II and Method III. Method I is based on modified cubic B-spline differential quadrature method while Method II and III are based on the colloca-tion of cubic B-spline functions. In Method II, we discretize time derivative by Crank Nicolson scheme and use B-spline functions for spatial derivatives while in Method III , we use modified B-spline functions for spatial variables and derivatives so that it gives a system of ordinary differential equations which is solved by SSP-RK43 method, a method that needs low storage space resulting in less accumulation of computational errors. If we compare three schemes in terms of complexity of implementation, Method I is more straightforward than II and III that evaluates the solution directly rather than computation of time dependent coefficients of B-splines. Considering all aspects involved in the three methods, we conclude that differential quadrature method is better than other two collocation based methods in the numerical experiments carried out.
Microglia/macrophages are ultrastructurally altered by their proximity to spinal cord injury in adult female mice
Authors: St-Pierre Marie-Kim , Ibáñez Fernando González , Kroner Antje , Tremblay Marie-Ève
Published: August 2023

Traumatic spinal cord injury can cause immediate physical damage to the spinal cord and result in severe neurological deficits. The primary, mechanical tissue damage triggers a variety of secondary damage mechanisms at the injury site which significantly contribute to a larger lesion size and increased functional damage. Inflammatory mechanisms which directly involve both microglia (MG) and monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM) play important roles in the post-injury processes including inflammation and debris clearing. In the current study, we investigated changes in the structure and function of MG/MDM in the injured spinal cord of adult female mice, seven days after a thoracic contusion SCI. With the use of chip mapping scanning electron microscopy, which allows to image large samples at the nanoscale, we performed an ultrastructural comparison of MG/MDM located near the lesion versus adjacent regions to provide novel insights into the mechanisms at play post-injury. We found that MG/MDM located near the lesion had more mitochondria overall, including mitochondria with and without morphological alterations, and had a higher proportion of altered mitochondria. MG/MDM near the lesion also showed an increased number of phagosomes, including phagosomes containing myelin and partially-digested materials. MG/MDM near the injury interacted differently with the spinal cord parenchyma, as shown by their reduced number of direct contacts with synaptic elements, axon terminals and dendritic spines. In this study, we characterized the ultrastructural changes of MG/MDM in response to spinal cord tissue damage in mice, uncovering changes in phagocytic activity, mitochondrial ultrastructure, and inter-cellular interactions within the spinal cord parenchyma.
Subject-specific one-dimensional fluid dynamics model of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension
Authors: Kachabi Amirreza , Colebank Mitchel J. , Chesler Naomi
Published: August 2023

Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) develops due to the accumulation of blood clots in the lung vasculature that obstruct flow and increase pressure. The mechanobiological factors that drive progression of CTEPH are not understood, in part because mechanical and hemodynamic changes in the pulmonary vasculature due to CTEPH are not easily measurable. Using previously published hemodynamic measurements and imaging from a large animal model of CTEPH, we developed a subject-specific one-dimensional (1D) computational fluid dynamic (CFD) models to investigate the impact of CTEPH on pulmonary artery stiffening, time averaged wall shear stress (TAWSS), and oscillatory shear index (OSI). Our results demonstrate that CTEPH increases pulmonary artery wall stiffness and decreases TAWSS in extralobar (main, right and left pulmonary arteries) and intralobar vessels. Moreover, CTEPH increases the percentage of the intralobar arterial network with both low TAWSS and high OSI. This subject-specific experimental-computational framework shows potential as a predictor of the impact of CTEPH on pulmonary arterial hemodynamics and pulmonary vascular mechanics. By leveraging advanced modeling techniques and calibrated model parameters, we predict spatial distributions of flow and pressure, from which we can compute potential physiomarkers of disease progression, including the combination of low mean wall shear stress with high oscillation. Ultimately, this approach can lead to more spatially targeted interventions that address the needs of individual CTEPH patients.
Analysis of Antimicrobial resistance gene in Staphylococcus aureus by Gene Networking using Cytoscape
Authors: E Santhosh M , Selvam Prasanna Kumar , Vasudevan Karthick
Published: August 2023

Antibiotic resistance One of the major global issues of this century is AMR among microorganisms, which is still a challenge for mankind. It's crucial to understand the genes responsible for AMR and how those genes create resistance in order to solve this issue effectively. Staphylococcus aureus, which has AMR genes imparting resistance against numerous antibiotics, was the main subject of our investigation. We performed a phylogenetic study to examine the gene network's evolutionary history. To increase our understanding, a gene interaction network with 46 functional partners was built from String Database and Cytoscape and examined. Clustering analysis revealed one cluster (C1) that was linked to a multidrug resistance mechanism. According to Cluego's enrichment analysis, 20 genes are significantly involved in biological processes, as are 14 genes in cellular components and 16 genes in molecular functions. RpoB, RpoC, FusA, RplI, and RpsL had the most interactions by Cytohubba when the degree and closeness of the network were studied, according to the analysis of the gene interaction network. Understanding the molecular basis of AMR requires analysis of the enriched pathways and Gene Ontologies (GO). The suggested study may also help researchers find new ways to battle the multi-drug resistance of Staphylococcus aureus.
Unraveling the Radiative Properties of the Interstellar Medium: The First 3D Map of the Interstellar Dust Temperature
Authors: Zelko Ioana , Finkbeiner Douglas , Lee Albert , Green Gregory
Published: August 2023

Despite making up only 1% of the mass of the interstellar medium, dust has an outsize impact on the evolution of galaxies. Dust absorbs and scatters a substantial fraction of the ultraviolet and optical light produced in a galaxy, re-radiating it in the infrared. It influences the formation and evolution of stars and planetary systems. It also serves as an astrophysical probe, providing information about magnetic field structure and the radiation field, but only if we understand its properties in 3D. Recent years have brought rapid progress in mapping dust density in 3D [1, 2, 4, 5, 45], but attempts to derive its temperature and other optical properties have been few. Here, we present the first comprehensive large-scale, three-dimensional map of dust temperature in the Milky Way. We show that this methodology has enough precision to discern temperature differences with 3σ significance along the line of sight. Star formation regions are clearly observable in the map. This technique and the resulting 3D dust temperature map open up new areas of research into models of galactic magnetic field in 3D, polarization maps, cosmological foreground analysis, cosmic ray propagation for dark matter searches, correlations with star forming regions and other data catalogs.
Anatomical, physical and mechanical characterization of the wood of three eucalyptus species: E. camaldulensis Dehn, E. cladocalyx and E. gomphocephala
Authors: TAZROUT Mansour , BENOTMANE Benamar
Published: August 2023

Eucalyptus represents the second largest tree plantation in Algeria after Aleppo pine. However, the valorisation of its wood as lumber and wood products remains unsatisfactory. This study investigates the anatomical, physical and mechanical properties of three eucalyptus wood species (E. camaldulensis Dehn, E. cladocalyx, and E. gomphocephala), which are 35 years old. The obtained results showed that the wood of E. gomphocephala and E. cladocalyxare classified in the high-density category, while the wood of E. camaldulensis is in the medium-density category. The E. cladocalyxwood exhibits strong shrinkage in the volumetric, radial, and tangential directions. Whereas the wood of E. camaldulensis and E. gomphocephalapossesses strong volumetric shrinkage, and mean radial and tangential shrinkages. The wood of E. cladocalyx has lower average values for fiber length, fiber width, lumen diameter, and cell wall thickness, while E. camaldulensis wood exhibits higher average values for both fiber length and lumen diameter, and E. gomphocephala wood has greater average values for both fiber width and cell wall thickness. Moreover, the E. cladocalyxwood possesses the greatest bending strength and hardness, and the lowest modulus of elasticity in flexure and compression strength. Whereas, E. camaldulensis wood has the highest compression strength, and E. gomphocephala wood has the highest modulus of elasticity in bending. In addition, the bending strength, compressive strength, and hardness correlate positively with the wood density at 12% moisture content for three eucalyptus species. There are significant differences (P < 0.05) between the average values of the measured parameters for wood of three eucalyptus species. The results of this study can be used in the field of paper industry, timber structures, and industry of furniture and wood.
A rapid point-of-care population-scale dipstick assay to identify and differentiate SARS-CoV-2 variants in COVID-19-positive patients
Authors: Paul Deepjyoti , Verma Jyoti , Kumar Shakti , Talukdar Daizee , Jana Pradipta , Narendrakumar Lekshmi , Kumar Roshan , Tanwar Subhash , Gosain Mudita , Karmakar Sonali Porey , Pareek Madhu , Mani Shailendra , Chaudhuri Susmita , Kshetrapal Pallavi , Wadhwa Nitya , Bhatnagar Shinjini , Garg Pramod Kumar , Das Bhabatosh
Published: August 2023

Delta and Omicron variants of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are remarkably contagious, and have been recognized as variants of concern (VOC). The acquisition of spontaneous substitutions or insertion–deletion mutations (indels) in the spike protein-encoding gene substantially increases the binding affinity of the receptor binding domain (RBD)-hACE2 complex and upsurges the transmission of both variants. In this study, we analyzed thousands of genome sequences representing 30 different SARS-CoV-2 variants and identified the Delta and Omicron variants specific nucleic acid signatures in the spike gene. Based on the variant-specific nucleic acid sequences, we synthesized different oligos and optimized a multiplex PCR (mPCR) assay that can identify and differentiate the Delta and Omicron variants of SARS-CoV-2. We further extended our work on this mPCR and translated it into a dipstick assay by adding a tag linker sequence to the 5’ end of the forward primer and biotin to the 3’ end of the oligos. Streptavidin-coated latex beads and the dipstick imprinted with a probe for the tag linker sequence in the test strips were used for the detection assay. Our dipstick-based assay, developed as a rapid point-of-care test for identifying and differentiating SARS-CoV-2 variants has the potential to be used in low-resource settings and scaled up to the population level.
Structure-Informed Protein Language Models are Robust Predictors for Variant Effects
Authors: Sun Yuanfei , Shen Yang
Published: August 2023

Predicting protein variant effects through machine learning is often challenged by the scarcity of experimentally measured effect labels. Recently, protein language models (pLMs) emerge as zero-shot predictors without the need of effect labels, by modeling the evolutionary distribution of functional protein sequences. However, biological contexts important to variant effects are implicitly modeled and effectively marginalized. By assessing the sequence awareness and the structure awareness of pLMs, we find that their improvements often correlate with better variant effect prediction but their tradeoff can present a barrier as observed in over-finetuning to specific family sequences. We introduce a framework of structure-informed pLMs (SI-pLMs) to inject protein structural contexts purposely and controllably, by extending masked sequence denoising in conventional pLMs to cross-modality denoising. Our SI-pLMs are applicable to revising any sequence-only pLMs through model architecture and training objectives. They do not require structure data as model inputs for variant effect prediction and only use structures as context provider and model regularizer during training. Numerical results over deep mutagenesis scanning benchmarks show that our SI-pLMs, despite relatively compact sizes, are robustly top performers against competing methods including other pLMs, regardless of the target protein family's evolutionary information content or the tendency to overfitting / over-finetuning. Learned distributions in structural contexts could enhance sequence distributions in predicting variant effects. Ablation studies reveal major contributing factors and analyses of sequence embeddings provide further insights. The data and scripts are available at https://github.com/Stephen2526/Structure-informed_PLM.git
Agroforestry Contributions to Ecosystem Services in Southeast Asia: a Systematic Review
Authors: Ahmadzai Mujib Rahman , Ismail Mohd Hasmadi , Zaki Pakhriazad Hassan , Bawon Paiman , Magiman Mohd. Maulana
Published: August 2023

This systematic review examines the current state of knowledge and research trends in agroforestry in the South Asian region. The study analyzed 150 scholarly publications on agroforestry techniques and their ecological, financial, and community benefits. The results show that the proportion of agroforestry-associated papers focusing on the South Asian region is rapidly increasing, but it remains tiny in comparison to the literature on the topic worldwide. The most frequently studied agroforestry systems are schemes focused on simultaneous implementation, such as planted agriculture combined with tree administration and species/natural management sanctuaries combined with genetic diversity/gene pool processes. In comparison to the West, where silvopastoral technologies are widely used, South Asia has paid less attention to agrosilvopastoral and silvopastoral systems. Ultimately, the study identified and highlighted the types, volumes, and characteristics of agroforestry and ecological facilities research in South Asia. The findings suggest that agroforestry is a crucial strategy for improving the ecological, financial, and community benefits of a region's social-ecological systems.
Health-related quality of life and factors associated with depression among people with oculocutaneous albinism in Jinja , Uganda
Authors: Gaylord INENA WA INENA
Published: August 2023

Background
Depression is among the common psychiatric disorders with high prevalence in the general population across the world. Studies carried out on specific populations have shown that this prevalence is higher in vulnerable populations including people living with albinism. Despite the fact that several aspects linked with it have been found among people with oculocuteneous albinism in the Busoga region, data have remained unclear locally. Limited information is available regarding prevalence of depression, its associated factors and health related quality of life in the study area.The main objective of the present study was to determine the health related quality of life and factors associated with depression among people with oculocutaneous albinism in Jinja,Uanda.
Methods
A cross-sectional design was used to capture data from a study sample size of 384 adults
living with oculocutaneous albinism who were involved in completion of the screening tests for depression Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25(HSCL-25).The summation of scores for depression were averaged and the probable depression determined for each participant using a cut-off of 1.75. Logistic regression analyses were used to examine associations between depression and associated factors. Dermatology life quality index (DLQI) was used to assess the health related quality of life.The DLQI was calculated by the summation of the score of each question resulting in a maximum of 30 and a minimumof 0.The higher was the score,the more quality of life was impaired.
Results
The analyses revealed that the prevalence of depression among people with oculocutaneous albinism in jinja city stands at 65.4 %. The risk of depression was significantly associated with age (AOR = 1.059, 95% CI = 1.020–1.100, P = 0.003), history of diabetes mellitus (AOR = 12.030, 95% CI = 1.117–12.961, P = 0.040) and taking chronically medication (AOR = 6.583, 95% CI = 1.618–26.782, P = 0.008).Family support (AOR = 0.505, 95% CI = 0.286–0.892, P = 0.019) and marital status (AOR = 0.505, 95% CI = 0.286–0.892, P = 0.019) were significantly protective factors.The mean Dermatology Life Quality Index scores was 14.55.Oculocutaneous albinism had no effect on the quality of life of only 5.7% of the participants. On the remaining 95% affected participants, 48.7% were largely affected.
Conclusions
These findings show that the estimated prevalence of depression among people with oculocutaneous albinism in the study area is high and worrying and oculocutaneous albinism highly impacts negatively the quality of life of people with oculocutaneous albinism. Strategies targeted at early interventions and ultimately depression prevention need urgent attention in order to reduce risk factors of the disease and improve the health related quality of life of People with oculocutaneous albinism in the study area.
SVision-pro: comparative sequence-to-image representation and instance segmentation for de novo and somatic structural variant discovery
Authors: Ye Kai , Wang Songbo , Lin Jiadong , Jia Peng , Xu Tun , Meng DeYu
Published: August 2023

Long-read based de novo and somatic structural variant (SV) discovery remains challenging, necessitating genomic comparison between samples. Here, SVision-pro visually represents genome-to-genome-level sequencing differences and comparatively discoveries SV between genomes by a neural-network-based instance segmentation framework without prerequisite of SV inference models. SVision-pro outperforms state-of-the-art approaches, particularly in resolving complex SV (CSV), with low Mendelian error rates and high sensitivity of low-frequency SVs. Moreover, SVision-pro successfully discoveries 26 high-quality de novo SVs in six family datasets and retrieves eight somatic CSVs in normal-tumor-paired samples.
Mineral and crystal chemical study of pseudo-C2/mnon-metamict chevkinite-(Ce): An investigation into the intracrystalline distribution of LREE, HREE, and octahedral cations in samples from the Azores and Pakistan
Authors: Carbonin Susanna , Ridolfi Filippo , Renzulli Alberto , Belluso Elena , Nodari Luca , Liziero Federica , Capella Silvana
Published: August 2023

The cation distribution among the A, B, C, and D sites of 13 crystals of chevkinite-(Ce) by X-ray single-crystal diffraction and electron microprobe analyses is reported in this article. The general formula of chevkinite-(Ce) is A4BC2D2O8(Si2O7)2, where A = REE, Ca, Th, Sr; B = Fe, Mn, Mg; C = Fe, Ti, Nb, Zr, Mg, Al; and D = Ti. Ten crystals come from quartz-bearing syenite samples of Agua de Pau (Azores Islands), and three are euhedral chevkinite crystals of a quartz-bearing pegmatite from Tangir Valley, northwestern Pakistan. The real space group for these samples is P21/a, but the average structure in space group C2/m was used for structural refinement and further interpretation. Cation distribution was determined by minimization of the function fΣNσ2 that represents the sum of the squared numbers of standard deviation by which each expected quantity differs from the calculated one. Both X-ray diffraction and electron microprobe data were considered in minimization. Our results show that the two non-equivalent A sites are occupied dominantly by REE and Ca, distributed mainly as a function of their ionic size. Lanthanum enters only the 10-coordinated A2 site, whereas heavier and smaller REE enter only the 8-coordinated A1. Furthermore, comparison between bond valence sum and formal charge revealed highly stretched bonds for the A1 polyhedron, suggesting that bond lengths are too long for HREE. These findings can help better characterize the well-known ability of chevkinite to fractionate LREE from HREE. The Azores chevkinite is particularly enriched in Nb relative to its host rock. Our results show that Ti occupancy in the D sites can be as low as ca. 50% due to the presence of significant amounts of Nb, besides Fe and Zr. For two Azores crystals showing patchy zoning, a complex history of late-stage crystallization is inferred, with multiple events of Ca and REE enrichments. One of these crystals showed the best structure refinement, implying that late-magmatic to deuteric alteration stages did not affect its crystallinity. The CaO content of Azores chevkinites practically spans the entire chevkinite field in the chevkinite/perrierite CaO vs. FeO discrimination diagram. In addition, we identified possible structural stability limits that can be linked to the occupancy of the B site at high CaO, and of the C sites at high-FeO contents. The Pakistan chevkinites were also analyzed by Mössbauer spectroscopy. Only one Fe3+ component was identified, which occupies the C sites. Among the two ferrous doublets, the component with the highest isomeric shift value is Fe2+ entering the most distorted crystallographic site B, while the other, representative of a less distorted octahedral site, corresponds to Fe2+ entering the D sites.
ORAL HEALTH KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE AMONG MBBS STUDENTS OF GOVT MEDICAL COLLEGE, KOZHIKODE: A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY
Authors:   Assistant Professor, Dept of Conservative Dentistry, Government Dental College, Kozhikode., R. Varna , N.T Nishad ,   Assistant Professor, Dept of Conservative Dentistry, Government Dental College, Kozhikode., Prabha James Elizabeth ,   Associate Professor, Dept of Conservative Dentistry, Government Dental College, Kozhikode., Mohanan T.V Soumya ,   Assistant Professor, Dept of Public Health Dentistry, Government Dental College, Kozhikode., S. Jayasree ,   Professor And HOD, Dept of Conservative Dentistry, Government Dental College, Kozhikode.
Published: August 2023

Oral health plays an important role in the overall health of the body. Most of the patients with pain in the oro-facial region make their first make their first contact with a general medical practitioner. Medical professionals receive very little training in addressing oral health issues during their educational programs or elsewhere thus they display low levels of oral health knowledge and low levels of confidence in its applications.Thisstudy was carried out to assess the oral health knowledge, attitude and practice among medical undergraduate students of Govt Medical College, Kozhikode.
EFFICACY OF LOCALISED APPLICATION OF TRANEXEMIC ACID AND MEFENAMIC ACID TABLET POWDER IN EXTRACTION SOCKETS FOR CONTROL OF POST EXTRACTION BLEEDING AND PAIN:A SPLIT-MOUTH RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED CLINICAL TRIAL
Authors:   Professor and HOD Department of Dentistry GMC Doda., Yunis Saleem Bhat Mohd. , Iftikhar Shapoo Moin ,   Senior Resident Trauma Team GMC Doda., Sharma Dheeraj ,   Senior Resident Department of Dentistry GMC Doda., Zargar Atoofa ,   Senior Resident Department of Dentistry GMC Doda.
Published: August 2023

Background: Post extraction bleeding and pain are two common complications in routine dental practice .There are no studies in which Tranexamic acid and Mefenamic acid combination powder is used locally to control post extraction bleeding and pain. Methodology: This study was conducted in 18 patients indicated for orthodontic extraction of mandibular first premolar and right side was the study side in which pre crushed TRANSET MF powder was placed and compared to the left side which was the control side .Post extraction bleeding immediately and 30 min post extraction was compared along with pain using VAS pain scale on 1,2,3,7 th day post extraction.. Results: There was statistically significant difference in time of post extraction bleeding between study side (less time) and the control side .There is statistically significant difference in pain scale less pain perceived in the study side than the control side. Conclusion: This study is the first one to evaluate the efficacy of crushed TRANSET MF Tablet Powder in post extraction sockets and has shown significant results in reducing post extraction pain and bleeding with no local and systemic side effects .Hence this will be a simple and cost effective technique that can reduce both post extraction bleeding and pain.
THE ROLE OF NOTARY/PPAT (LAND DEED OFFICIAL) IN MAINTAINING THE PREFERRED POSITION OF CREDITORS WITH THE MAKING OF DEED OF GRANTING COLLATERAL AND POWER OF ATTORNEY
Authors:   Master Student,FacultyofLaw, JenderalSoedirmanUniversity, Indonesia., Adjeng Fanestha Reza , Lisiani Prihatinah Tri ,   Associate Professor,FacultyofLaw, JenderalSoedirmanUniversity, Indonesia., Wahyu Handayani Sri ,   Senior Lecturer,FacultyofLaw,JenderalSoedirmanUniversity,Indonesia.
Published: August 2023

The Mortgage is a guarantee institution over land that is erased if the Land Rights entrusted with it are erased. One of the reasons for the abolition of land rights is when the rights expire or are in the process of renewing rights. Renewal of rights is the addition of the validity period of a right after the expiration period or before the expiration of the renewal period. The research is normative juridical legal research and has an analytical perspective, with research data in the form of secondary data collected by document study. The collected data will be analyzed using conceptual, statute, and case approaches. Based on the data obtained, it can be concluded that the role of the Notary in maintaining the preferred position of the creditor is to assist the debtor in renewing rights for the benefit of the creditor who has lost the object of collateral, as well as making a Deed of Granting Collateral and Power of Attorney which contains the debtors promise to fulfill his achievements and rebinding the collateral object after completion of the rights renewal process.
PROSTATE CANCER SCREENING USING THE PROSTATE-SPECIFIC ANTIGEN (PSA) TEST
Authors: Abbas Rahim
Published: August 2023

We aimed to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis on published literature extracted from PubMed/Medline, Google scholar, and Cochrane library. The results of the European Randomized Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer (ERSPC) trial showed a statistically significant 29% prostate cancer mortality reduction for the men screened in the intervention arm and a 23% negative impact on the life-years gained because of quality of life. However, alternative prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening strategies for the population may exist, optimizing the effects on mortality reduction, quality of life, over diagnosis, and costs.
RAMUS ONLAY BONE GRAFT FOR MAXILLARY ALVEOLAR RIDGE AUGMENTATION-A CASE REPORT
Authors:   Professor Department of Periodontology Rajarajeswari Dental College and Hospital,Bangalore., K. Rithesh , Sudhakar Kumararama Sindhu ,   Reader Department of Prosthodontics Rajarajeswari Dental College and Hospital,Bangalore., Babu K. Sharath ,   Professor and HOD Department ofOtorhinolaryngology(ENT) Gadag Institute of Medical Sciences, Gadag,Karnataka., Walvekar Amit ,   Professor and Head Department of Periodontology Coorg Institute of Dental Sciences Virajpet.
Published: August 2023

Background: Implant restoration in the anterior esthetic zone is always a clinicians challenge and tooth loss in the anterior region often affects ridge architecture resulting in ridge defects compromising esthetics and implant placement.This case report describes the onlay bone grafting along with PRF application for anterior ridge augmentation and subsequent implant placement. The second stage surgery describes preservation of the keratinised tissue and fabrication of implant restoration of the same. Case description: Block graft was obtained using piezosurgery and onlay bone grafting was done in a 28 year female patient with anterior ridge defect with subsequent implant placement. After 6 months of healing and prosthetic restoration of the implant was done with successful esthetic outcome. Conclusion: Uneventful post-operative healing was observed in the donor site with the use of piezosurgery. There was successful augmentation of the ridge defect with osseointegrated and esthetic implant restoration. Clinical significance: Management of ridge defects in the esthetic region with autogenous Onlay grafting offers the advantage of biologic compatibility and PRF acts as a membrane maintaining soft tissue contours thereby allowing placement of implant in the optimal three dimensional position.
APPORT DE LA GEOMATIQUE ALA DELIMITATION DES PERIMETRES DE PROTECTION AUTOUR DE LA PRISE DEAUPOUR LALIMENTATION EN EAU POTABLE SUR LA RIVIERE ME A KONGOFON (SUD EST DE LA COTE DIVOIRE)
Authors:   Universite Felix HouphouetBoigny, Abidjan, UFR des Sciences de la Terre et des RessourcesMinieres (STRM),Laboratoire des Sciences du Sol, de lEau et des Geomateriaux (LSSEG)., Serge Kouakou DEH , Anowa Evrade Larissa EBA ,   Universite Felix HouphouetBoigny, Abidjan, UFR des Sciences de la Terre et des RessourcesMinieres (STRM), Centre Universitaire de Recherche et dApplicationenTeledetection (CURAT)., Boyossoro Helene KOUADIO ,   VEOLIA/SIEE (Societe Ivoirienne des Eaux et de lEnvironnement)., Achou Donald Hyacinthe KOMA ,   Universite Felix HouphouetBoigny, Abidjan, UFR des Sciences de la Terre et des RessourcesMinieres (STRM), Centre Universitaire de Recherche et dApplicationenTeledetection (CURAT)., Kouassi Ernest AHOUSSI ,   Universite Felix HouphouetBoigny, Abidjan, UFR des Sciences de la Terre et des RessourcesMinieres (STRM),Laboratoire des Sciences du Sol, de lEau et des Geomateriaux (LSSEG)., Kan Jean KOUAME ,   Universite Felix HouphouetBoigny, Abidjan, UFR des Sciences de la Terre et des RessourcesMinieres (STRM), Centre Universitaire de Recherche et dApplicationenTeledetection (CURAT)., Jean Patrice JOURDA ,   VEOLIA/SIEE (Societe Ivoirienne des Eaux et de lEnvironnement).
Published: August 2023

The quality of the Me Rivers water is threatened by sources of pollution generated in the region without any measures being taken to protect this resource.So, to reduce the risk of pollution of this water resource, this study aims to delimit the protection perimeters around the water intake on the river.The methodological approach consisted firstly in assessing the vulnerability of the resource through the weighting and combination of five selected parameters, and then in determining the protection perimeters on the basis of the pre-established vulnerability map and data from previous studies.The pollution vulnerability map obtained reveals five classes of vulnerability around the water intake, with a dominance of the high class estimated at 29.44% of the watershed. Three protection perimeters have been defined. The immediate protection perimeter has a 200 m radius around the water intake and covers areas with a strong influence on the rivers vulnerability to pollution over a surface area of 1.97 km2.The close protection perimeter, covering a 1000 m radius, was delimited from the immediate protection perimeter. It covers an area of 43.7 km2 and takes into account the rivers low, medium and very high vulnerability classes, following the direction of water flow in the Me watershed.The remote protection perimeter covers a large part of the watershed, with an area of 1,480 Km2. It covers the rest of the catchments highly vulnerable areas and adjoins the close protection perimeter.The defined protection perimeters can serve as a guide for sustainable management and protection of river quality.