bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Association between pulmonary ventilatory function and mild cognitive impairment: A population-based study in rural China
Authors: Gu Cuiying , Ma Mingfeng , Xu Jiahui , Yuan Wei , Li Ruixue , Guo Hui , Gao Hanshu , Feng Wenjing , Guo Haiqiang , Zheng Liqiang , Zhang Yao
Published: November 2022

Background

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a reversible intermediate state, plays an important role in the development and prevention of dementia. The relationship between pulmonary function and MCI risk has not yet been well-elucidated.

Methods

We included 2,947 rural Chinese residents aged ≥35 years who were free from a history of stroke, dementia, or other brain diseases and measured pulmonary ventilatory function using calibrated spirometry according to the recommended method. MCI was assessed with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment-Basic for Chinese scale. Logistic regression models and restricted cubic splines with covariate adjustment were performed to explore the association between pulmonary function and MCI risk.

Results

The prevalence of MCI increased with decreasing pulmonary function, from the lowest quartile to the highest quartile of pulmonary function: 63.9, 50.5, 43.8, and 43.6%, respectively. After adjustment for confounding factors, participants in the first quartile had a significantly increased risk of MCI (ORs, 1.691, 95% CI, 1.267–2.258), with the highest quartile as the reference. In the subgroup analysis, a significant association of pulmonary function and MCI was found in females and those with low physical activity. Meanwhile, we observed an L-shaped relationship between pulmonary function and MCI (Pnon−linear = 0.032).

Conclusions

Poor pulmonary function was associated with an increased risk of MCI among rural Chinese adults, and presented a non-linear relationship. These findings remind us of the need for early cognitive assessment in local populations with lower pulmonary function.
The causal association between maternal smoking around birth on childhood asthma: A Mendelian randomization study
Authors: Ding Zijun , Pang Lei , Chai Hongqiang , Li Fei , Wu Ming
Published: November 2022

To explore the causal relationship between maternal smoking around birth and childhood asthma using Mendelian randomization (MR). Using the data from large-scale genome-wide association studies, we selected independent genetic loci closely related to maternal smoking around birth and maternal diseases as instrumental variables and used MR methods. In this study, we considered the inverse variance weighted method (MR-IVW), weighted median method, and MR-Egger regression. We investigated the causal relationship between maternal smoking around birth and maternal diseases in childhood asthma using the odds ratio (OR) as an evaluation index. Multivariable MR (MVMR) included maternal history of Alzheimer's disease, illnesses of the mother: high blood pressure and illnesses of the mother: heart diseaseas covariates to address potential confounding. Sensitivity analyses were evaluated for weak instrument bias and pleiotropic effects. It was shown with the MR-IVW results that maternal smoking around birth increased the risk of childhood asthma by 1.5% (OR = 1.0150, 95% CI: 1.0018–1.0283). After the multivariable MR method was used to correct for relevant covariates, the association effect between maternal smoking around birth and childhood asthma was still statistically significant (P < 0.05). Maternal smoking around birth increases the risk of childhood asthma.
Effect of alcohol consumption on relapse outcomes among tuberculosis patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Weiangkham Dao , Umnuaypornlert Adinat , Saokaew Surasak , Prommongkol Samrerng , Ponmark Jutamas
Published: November 2022

Introduction

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the major public health issues in every country. Alcohol consumption is one of the reasons associated with the severity of symptoms and death among TB patients. The impact of alcohol use on TB relapse outcomes is still debatable. This study aimed to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis (SR/MA) to find the link between alcohol use and TB relapse outcomes.

Methods

Data collection was performed from December 2021 to March 2022; and was obtained from electronic databases including CINAHL, PubMed, and Scopus. The researcher carefully searched and reviewed all the relevant research concerning drinking alcohol and relapse outcomes among TB patients. A set of inclusion and exclusion criteria was used to assess research publications. The methodological quality of eligible publications was assessed using the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale. Random meta-analysis was used to determine odds ratios (ORs) with a 95% confidence interval (CIs). The funnel plot, Begg's test, and Egger's test were employed to investigate publication bias.

Results

There were a total of 2,113 studies found and reviewed, and eight publications were chosen for the analysis. It was found that among TB patients with a moderate appearance of heterogeneity, drinking alcohol increases the probability of relapse (OR = 3.64; 95% CI: 2.26–5.88, p < 0.001) and mortality (OR = 1.72; 95% CI: 1.40–2.12, p < 0.001). The funnel plot, Begg's test, and Egger's test all revealed that there was no indication of publication bias.

Conclusions

Relapses and mortality among tuberculosis patients are considerably increased by alcohol drinking. More research into the causality of this link between the degree of alcohol use and the underlying processes is required.

Systematic review registration

PROSPERO [CRD 42022295865].
Electronic health records in Brazil: Prospects and technological challenges
Authors: Barbalho Ingridy M. P. , Fernandes Felipe , Barros Daniele M. S. , Paiva Jailton C. , Henriques Jorge , Morais Antônio H. F. , Coutinho Karilany D. , Coelho Neto Giliate C. , Chioro Arthur , Valentim Ricardo A. M.
Published: November 2022

Electronic Health Records (EHR) are critical tools for advancing digital health worldwide. In Brazil, EHR development must follow specific standards, laws, and guidelines that contribute to implementing beneficial resources for population health monitoring. This paper presents an audit of the main approaches used for EHR development in Brazil, thus highlighting prospects, challenges, and existing gaps in the field. We applied a systematic review protocol to search for articles published from 2011 to 2021 in seven databases (Science Direct, Web of Science, PubMed, Springer, IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, and SciELO). Subsequently, we analyzed 14 articles that met the inclusion and quality criteria and answered our research questions. According to this analysis, 78.58% (11) of the articles state that interoperability between systems is essential for improving patient care. Moreover, many resources are being designed and deployed to achieve this communication between EHRs and other healthcare systems in the Brazilian landscape. Besides interoperability, the articles report other considerable elements: (i) the need for increased security with the deployment of permission resources for viewing patient data, (ii) the absence of accurate data for testing EHRs, and (iii) the relevance of defining a methodology for EHR development. Our review provides an overview of EHR development in Brazil and discusses current gaps, innovative approaches, and technological solutions that could potentially address the related challenges. Lastly, our study also addresses primary elements that could contribute to relevant components of EHR development in the context of Brazil's public health system.

Systematic review registration: PROSPERO, identifier CRD42021233219, https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42021233219.
Barriers and facilitators to implementation of the Accountable Health Communities (AHC) Model: Findings from a between-site qualitative assessment of implementation strategies
Authors: Highfield Linda , Ferguson Gayla M. , Holcomb Jennifer
Published: November 2022

Introduction

A multitude of HRSN interventions are undergoing testing in the U.S., with the CMS Accountable Health Communities (AHC) Model as the largest. HRSN interventions typically include screening for social needs, referral to community resources, and patient navigation to ensure needs are met. There is currently a paucity of evidence on implementation of HRSN interventions. The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) is a determinant framework widely used to plan and assess implementation. To the authors knowledge, there are no published studies assessing CFIR constructs for HRSN intervention implementation in the U.S. In the Assessment step of the Strengthening Peer AHC Navigation (SPAN) model, a between-site qualitative assessment methodology was used to examine implementation within and between AHC bridge organizations (BOs) within six ERIC implementation strategies identified by the authors based on AHC Model requirements.

Objective

Our aim was to identify and present between-site barriers and facilitators to AHC Model implementation strategies.

Design

A multi-site qualitative analysis methodology was used. CFIR determinants were linked to six Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change (ERIC) strategies: staff training, identify and prepare champions, facilitation, community resource engagement (alignment through advisory boards and working groups), data systems, and quality monitoring and assurance. Interviews were analyzed using thematic content analysis in NVivo 12 (QSR International).

Setting

Five health-related bridge organizations participating in the AHC Model.

Results

Fifty-eight interviews were completed with 34 staff and 24 patients or patient proxies. Facilitators were identified across five of the six ERIC strategies. Barriers were identified across all six. While organizations found the AHC Model compatible and facilitators to implementation included previous experience, meeting patient needs and resources, and leadership engagement and support, a number of barriers presented challenges to implementation. Issues with adequate staff training, staff skills to resolve HRSN, including patient communication and boundary spanning, setting staff goals, beneficiary caseloads and measurement of progress, data infrastructure (including EHR), available resources to implement and differences in perceptions between clinical delivery site (CDS), and CSP of how to measure and resolve HRSN.

Conclusions and relevance

The conduct of a pre-implementation readiness assessment benefited from identifying CFIR determinants linked to various ERIC implementation strategies.
Strategies for effective implementation and scale-up of a multi-level co-designed men's health initiative “Sheds for Life” in Irish Men's Sheds
Authors: McGrath Aisling , Richardson Noel , Murphy Niamh
Published: November 2022

Sheds for Life is a gender-specific tailored men's health initiative engaging “hard-to-reach” men in the Men's Shed setting in Ireland. It is implemented by multiple stakeholders at individual, provider, organization and systems level and thus multiple contextual factors influence its scalability. This research used established implementation science frameworks to guide participatory research approaches that captured the process and identified facilitators of and barriers to implementation and scale-up. Active recruitment, co-design processes, leadership and stakeholder engagement emerged as key facilitators of implementation. Prominent barriers were institutional capacity and funding. Acceptability, adoption and appropriateness of the initiative were high among stakeholders with sustainability largely contingent on funding and staff resources. Findings make a valuable contribution to knowledge by capturing the process involved in the implementation of a complex multi-level men's health intervention. It provides a “how to” guide of strategies to engage hard-to-reach men with health promotion, the operationalization and application of implementation frameworks in community-based health promotion, and the implementation of health promotion in Men's Sheds. Documented barriers and facilitators that impact implementation of a community-based men's health program are rare and provide a valuable blueprint for practitioners, researchers and policy makers in the field.
Mapping of dental graduates’ career paths in Hong Kong, Japan and mainland China
Authors: Jiang Chloe Meng , Nishioka Takashi , Hong Guang , Yu Hao , Zhang Chang-yuan , Chu Chun Hung
Published: November 2022

Dental graduates have a variety of career-path choices. After graduation, they may join private dental practice, government- or hospital-based dental care services, research groups, academia, business or industry. With globalization and frequent international exchange, dental graduates nowadays can explore careers outside their home country. However, dental education systems and job opportunities vary widely across different regions and countries. Diversity of accreditation in dental education, different licensure requirements, and lack of global competencies in dental care often limit the globalization, operation and survival of dental practice and education worldwide. The requirements for professional education and practice can be quite diverse, and these differences will be barriers to dental graduates seeking career development outside their home home country. Fresh dental graduates have minimal experience in job hunting. More specifically, they are unfamiliar with potential career paths. This paper was based on the 4th trilateral symposium 2022 organized by The University of Hong Kong, Tohoku University, and Fujian Medical University, which offered a lecture to discuss career paths for dental graduates in Hong Kong, Japan, and mainland China. The aim of this paper was to provide dentists, particularly fresh graduated dental students, with practical insight into different career paths in Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region of China, SAR), Japan and mainland China, and factors that may influence their career options. It assists dental students in exploring possibilities in dentistry and preparing for their career development after graduation from dental school.
Do Lichens and Mosses Drink From Tree Bark?
Authors: Porada Philipp , Giordani Paolo
Published: November 2022

Lichens and mosses often live on tree branches in the forest canopy. They store large amounts of rain, fog, or dew, because they cannot reach water in the soil. However, we do not know what their most important source of water actually is. For example, is water uptake from wet bark important? This is hard to answer, because these lichens and mosses live high above us, so it is difficult to make direct measurements. Computer mathematical simulations can be useful to answer this question. We used a computer model of lichens and mosses to calculate how much water these organisms may take up from bark. We found that water from bark supports about 20% of the growth of lichens and mosses per year, so it is important for their survival. We also found that lichens and mosses are well adapted to taking up water from bark.
Cascading parametric decay coupling between whistler and ion acoustic waves: Darwin particle-in-cell simulations
Authors: Karbashewski Scott , Sydora Richard D. , Agapitov Oleksiy V.
Published: November 2022

We present the results of numerical studies of the whistler wave parametric decay instability in the system with the suppressed Landau damping of ion acoustic waves (IAWs) based on the self-consistent Darwin particle-in-cell (PIC) model. It has been demonstrated that a monochromatic whistler wave launched along the background magnetic field couples to a counter-propagating whistler mode and co-propagating ion acoustic mode. The coupling of the electromagnetic mode to the electrostatic mode is guided by a ponderomotive force that forms spatio-temporal beat patterns in the longitudinal electric field generated by the counter-propagating whistler and the pump whistler wave. The threshold amplitude for the instability is determined to be δBw/B0 = 0.028 and agrees with a prediction for the ion decay instability: δBw/B0 = 0.042 based on the linear kinetic damping rates, and δBw/B0 = 0.030 based on the simulation derived damping rates. Increasing the amplitude of the pump whistler wave, the secondary and tertiary decay thresholds are reached, and cascading parametric decay from the daughter whistler modes is observed. At the largest amplitude (δBw/B0 ∼ 0.1) the primary IAW evolves into a short-lived and highly nonlinear structure. The observed dependence of the IAW growth rate on the pump wave amplitude agrees with the expected trend; however, quantitatively, the growth rate of the IAW is larger than expected from theoretical predictions. We discuss the relevant space regimes where the instability could be observed and extensions to the parametric coupling of whistler waves with the electron acoustic wave (EAW).
NLRP3 inflammasome activation contributes to the cognitive decline after cardiac surgery
Authors: Ma Gang , Sun Ping , Chen Yi , Jiang Xin , Zhang Caixia , Qu Baofu , Meng Xiangkun
Published: November 2022

Background

Perioperative neurocognitive disorders (PND) are a common complication of cardiac surgery in elderly patients. The etiopathogenesis of PND is not clear. Nod-like receptor family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome, a macromolecular protein complex, regulates inflammation by inducing the release of proinflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-18. Studies have demonstrated a close link between the NLRP3 inflammasome and central nervous system diseases. Nevertheless, the involvement of NLRP3 inflammasome in the causation of PND occurring after cardiac surgery is unclear. This study aimed to investigate the association of serum NLRP3 level with PND.

Methods

We performed a retrospective study, enrolled 75 patients undergoing elective cardiac surgery and evaluated their cognitive functions one day before and 7 days after surgery. PND were determined according to the International Study of Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction studies. Demographics and perioperative parameters were recorded. Perioperative serum NLRP3 protein, IL-1β, and IL-18 levels were monitored.

Results

The PND incidence in our cohort was 33.33%. NLRP3 protein levels were significantly increased in all patients at each postoperative time-point after general anesthesia and cardiac surgery under cardiopulmonary bypass. Patients showing cognitive dysfunction had higher serum NLRP3 protein, caspase-1, IL-1β, and IL-18 levels immediately after the operation. Variables associated with the incidence of early PND were included in the regression models. After adjusting for confounding variables, high serum NLRP3 protein level at the end of the operation and old age were identified as independent predictors of PND.

Conclusions

High serum NLRP3 protein level at the completion of cardiac surgery was associated with a higher risk of PND seven days after surgery.

Trial registration

The study was registered at Clinicaltrials.gov (registration number: NCT04191642).
Supplementation with honeysuckle extract improves growth performance, immune performance, gut morphology, and cecal microbes in geese
Authors: Li Guangquan , Wang Xianze , Liu Yi , Wang Cui , Yang Yunzhou , Gong Shaoming , Zhu Lihui , He Daqian , Wang Huiying
Published: November 2022

The study aimed to investigate the effects of honeysuckle extract (HE) on growth performance, serum biochemical indexes, immune organ indexes, gut morphology, and gut microbes in geese. A total of 180 28-day-old Holdobaki geese were randomly divided into three groups. Each group contained 6 replicates (10 geese, with 5 males and 5 females). The BD group was fed the basal diet, the HE1 group was fed the basal diet supplemented with 1 g/kg of HE, and the HE2 group was fed the basal diet supplemented with 2 g/kg of HE. The experiment lasted for 42 days. The results showed that, compared with the BD group, the average daily gain (ADG) of the HE1 and HE2 groups tended to increase (0.05 < P < 0.10), but the average daily feed intake (ADFI) and final body weight (BW) did not differ significantly, and the feed/gain ratio (F/G) was significantly lower (P < 0.01). The bursa index and the thymus index tended to increase (0.05 < P < 0.10), and serum immunoglobulin A (IgA) and immunoglobulin G (IgG) levels increased significantly (P < 0.05). In the HE1 and HE2 groups, the crypt depth (CD) in the jejunum tended to decrease (0.05 < P < 0.10), and the villus height/crypt depth ratio (V/C) increased significantly in the jejunum and the ileum (P < 0.05). According to 16sRNA microbial community diversity analysis, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, and Actinobacteria were the dominant phyla. The abundance of Firmicutes was significantly decreased (P < 0.01), while that of Bacteroidetes was significantly increased (P < 0.01), in the HE1 and HE2 groups compared with the BD group. Bacteroides barnesiae, Subdoligranulum variabile, Bacteroides plebeius, and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii were the dominant species, and the abundance of B. plebeius and F. prausnitzii was significantly increased (P < 0.05). According to the LEfSe analysis, BD enriched g_Dorea and g_Dehalobacterium; HE1 enriched g_Faecalibacterium, g_Dialister, g_Prevotella, g_Megamonas, g_Phascolarctobacterium, g_Paraprevotella, g_Anaerostipes, g_Staphylococcus, g_Odoribacter, g_Succinivibrio, and g_Sutterella; and HE2 enriched g_Parabacteroides, g_Olsenella, g_human, and g_Rikenella. According to the Spearman correlation analysis, Bacteroides plebeius was positively correlated with final BW, ADG, IgA, IgG, VH (ileum), and V/C (ileum) and was negatively correlated with F/G and CD (ileum); Ruminococcus gnavus was negatively correlated with final BW, ADG, IgA, and IgG. HE supplementation at 1 g/kg improved growth performance, immune performance, gut morphology, and cecal microbes.
Meetings as an Arena for Coordination in Crisis: The County Governor’s Contingency Coordination through the County Emergency Council in Norway
Authors: Bjørkquist Catharina , Hansen Gunnar Vold , Ramsdal Helge
Published: November 2022

This article aims to study how Norwegian county governors (CGs) performed their coordination tasks shortly after the lockdown in March by emphasizing the use of the County Emergency Council (CEC) as a meeting arena for coordination in times of crisis management more generally and the challenges the CGs had to face in this particular situation. We ask (1) what kind of meeting arena is the CEC and (2) how does the CEC as a meeting arena facilitate coordination at this level of government? In order to analyze the dynamics of the CEC meetings, we will refer to two theoretical approaches, i.e., meetings science and coordination. The present study is based upon an exploratory research strategy to analyze how the CGs responded to the challenges and performed coordination through the CEC. We found that the CEC meetings could be seen as hybrids of organization, institution and network, and even a network of networks, where several CG offices established thematic networks. These smaller networks have the advantage of establishing personal relationships more easily than the larger networks; however, they may lack the comprehensive overview that is necessary in a crisis that cuts across sectors.
Detection of Parthenium Weed (Parthenium hysterophorus L.) and Its Growth Stages Using Artificial Intelligence
Authors: Costello Benjamin , Osunkoya Olusegun O. , Sandino Juan , Marinic William , Trotter Peter , Shi Boyang , Gonzalez Felipe , Dhileepan Kunjithapatham
Published: November 2022

Parthenium weed (Parthenium hysterophorus L. (Asteraceae)), native to the Americas, is in the top 100 most invasive plant species in the world. In Australia, it is an annual weed (herb/shrub) of national significance, especially in the state of Queensland where it has infested both agricultural and conservation lands, including riparian corridors. Effective control strategies for this weed (pasture management, biological control, and herbicide usage) require populations to be detected and mapped. However, the mapping is made difficult due to varying nature of the infested landscapes (e.g., uneven terrain). This paper proposes a novel method to detect and map parthenium populations in simulated pastoral environments using Red-Green-Blue (RGB) and/or hyperspectral imagery aided by artificial intelligence. Two datasets were collected in a control environment using a series of parthenium and naturally co-occurring, non-parthenium (monocot) plants. RGB images were processed with a YOLOv4 Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) implementation, achieving an overall accuracy of 95% for detection, and 86% for classification of flowering and non-flowering stages of the weed. An XGBoost classifier was used for the pixel classification of the hyperspectral dataset—achieving a classification accuracy of 99% for each parthenium weed growth stage class; all materials received a discernible colour mask. When parthenium and non-parthenium plants were artificially combined in various permutations, the pixel classification accuracy was 99% for each parthenium and non-parthenium class, again with all materials receiving an accurate and discernible colour mask. Performance metrics indicate that our proposed processing pipeline can be used in the preliminary design of parthenium weed detection strategies, and can be extended for automated processing of collected RGB and hyperspectral airborne unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) data. The findings also demonstrate the potential for images collected in a controlled, glasshouse environment to be used in the preliminary design of invasive weed detection strategies in the field.
ROS Regulate NCF2, Key Metabolic Enzymes and MDA Levels to Affect the Growth of Fusarium solani
Authors: Li Jie , Feng Lidan , Li Dong , Liu Xianglin , Pan Yangyang , He Jing , Zhang Junxia
Published: November 2022

Fusarium solani is the most significant pathogen that causes root rot in wolfberry, which has led to serious economic losses in terms of production. As an important enzyme in organisms, NADPH oxidase produces ROS. However, the mechanism of ROS mediated by NADPH oxidase in the growth of F. solani has not been studied. In this study, F. solani colonies were treated with 40 µmol/L DPI and 0.0012% H2O2. The growth rate in terms of colonies, number of spores, key gene expression levels, activity of key enzymes and the content of key products of ROS metabolic pathways were determined. The results showed that the growth rate of colonies treated by DPI decreased by 19.43%, the number of macroconidia increased by 231.03%, the IOD/area values of O2− and H2O2 decreased by 34.88% and 16.97%, respectively, the expression levels in terms of NCF2, SOD1, CTA1 and PXMP4 significantly decreased and the activities of SOD, CAT and POD decreased significantly, while the MDA content increased significantly. Additionally, in the case of the colonies treated with exogenous H2O2, the MDA content decreased significantly while the other indicators increased. Taken together, the NCF2 gene is involved in regulating the activity of NADPH oxidase and regulates the products of O2− and ROS metabolism enzyme genes and their activities to affect colony growth in the F. solani growth process.
Development of Sensory Lexicon for Edible Jellyfish
Authors: Leone Antonella , De Domenico Stefania , Medoro Chiara , Cianciabella Marta , Daniele Giulia Maria , Predieri Stefano
Published: November 2022

In recent years, the jellyfish (JF) blooms in many coastal areas around the world, due to climate change, have pointed toward its possible exploitation as an alternative seafood product to support the global fishery sector. However, being a novel food in Western countries, there is a gap in knowledge on JF sensory properties. This research aims to develop a sensory lexicon for edible JF through a fast but reliable method, such as RATA. Sensory attributes collected from the literature were selected through RATA applied to five mildly processed JF. The lexicon selected was then validated on three JF samples, through descriptive analysis, to test its applicability and discrimination power. The results showed that RATA could be a reliable tool in the lexicon development of novel foods, such as JF. Moreover, the lexicon developed provides a valuable communication instrument, which will open new sensory research studies focusing on JF palatability.
Antibiofilm and Antivirulence Activities of Gold and Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles Synthesized from Kimchi-Isolated Leuconostoc sp. Strain C2
Authors: Kang Min-Gyun , Khan Fazlurrahman , Jo Du-Min , Oh DoKyung , Tabassum Nazia , Kim Young-Mog
Published: November 2022

The rapid emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) among bacterial pathogens results in antimicrobial treatment failure and the high mortality rate associated with AMR. The application of nanoparticles synthesized from probiotics will be widely accepted due to their efficacy and biocompatibility in treating microbial infections in humans. The current work sought to isolate and identify lactic acid bacteria (LAB) from Kimchi. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing, the LAB isolate C2 was identified as a member of the genus Leuconostoc. The obtained supernatant from Leuconostoc sp. strain C2 was employed for the green synthesis of metal (AuNPs) and metal oxide (ZnONPs) nanoparticles. UV–vis absorption spectra, FTIR analysis, XRD, DLS, FE-TEM, and EDS mapping were used to fully characterize these C2-AuNPs and C2-ZnONPs. The C2-AuNPs were found to be spherical in shape, with a size of 47.77 ± 5.7 nm and zeta potential of −19.35 ± 0.67 mV. The C2-ZnONPs were observed to be rod-shaped and 173.77 ± 14.53 nm in size. The C2-ZnONPs zeta potential was determined to be 26.62 ± 0.35 mV. The C2-AuNPs and C2-ZnONPs were shown to have antimicrobial activity against different pathogens. Furthermore, these nanoparticles inhibited the growth of Candida albicans. The antibiofilm and antivirulence properties of these NPs against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus were thoroughly investigated. C2-AuNPs were reported to be antibiofilm and antivirulence against P. aeruginosa, whereas C2-ZnONPs were antibiofilm and antivirulence against both P. aeruginosa and S. aureus. Furthermore, these nanoparticles disrupted the preformed mature biofilm of P. aeruginosa and S. aureus. The inhibitory impact was discovered to be concentration-dependent. The current research demonstrated that C2-AuNPs and C2-ZnONPs exhibited potential inhibitory effects on the biofilm and virulence features of bacterial pathogens. Further studies are needed to unravel the molecular mechanism behind biofilm inhibition and virulence attenuation.
Therapeutic Efficacy of Bromelain in Alveolar Ridge Preservation
Authors: Chisci Glauco , Fredianelli Luca
Published: November 2022

Most of research in regenerative oral surgery describes materials or techniques for increasing volumetric results for implant-supported prosthesis. The use of bio-materials in alveolar ridge preservation after tooth extraction commonly leads to a delayed recovery. Bromelain is an enzyme that belongs to a family of proteolytic enzymes derived from the stem of the pineapple plant (Ananas comosus) with effectiveness in decreasing the inflammation development and swelling. The present paper reports a prospective comparative study performed in order to test the possible use of oral bromelain 40 mg in alveolar ridge preservation. Evaluations were performed at three time points after the surgery: after 2 days (t1), after 7 days (t2) and after 14 days (t3). A statistically significant difference among patients that used bromelain and patients that used placebo resulted among the use of bromelain and lower Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) at t1 (r = −0.75, p = 0.0067), t2 (r = −0.90, p = 0.0001) and t3 (r = −0.8566, p = 0.0008). Bromelain therapy reported a statistically significant difference among patients that used bromelain and patients that used placebo even with regards to the use of bromelain and postoperative swelling at t1 (r = −0.79, p = 0.0034), t2 (r = −0.81, p = 0.0020) but not at t3 (r = −0.34, p = 0.2967). With the result of the present paper, and the poorness of contraindication of the investigated drug, bromelain may be suggested to be used for patients that undergo to alveolar ridge preservation after tooth extraction.
Impact of the COVID-19 Outbreak on the Antibiotic Use Patterns among a Rural Community Population in Eastern China
Authors: Zhu Bingbing , Zhao Xinping , Li Yurong , Wang Na , Lambert Helen , Yan Fei , Jiang Qingwu , Fu Chaowei
Published: November 2022

There are growing concerns that the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may change antibiotic use patterns and accelerate antibiotic resistance, but evidence from the community level is lacking. This study aims to estimate the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the antibiotic use patterns among a community population in Eastern China. A self-administered medicine diary was used to collect information on antibiotic use from July 2019 to June 2021 among a rural community in Eastern China. We analyzed the changes in antibiotic use patterns over five months from August to December 2019 and the corresponding months in 2020. The risk of antibiotic use and its changes were measured with the incidence rate (IR) and relative risk (RR). In total, 1111 participants were eligible for the final analysis (440 in 2019 and 671 in 2020). After the COVID-19 outbreak, antibiotic use increased by 137% (5.43 per 100 person months in the 2019 vs. 12.89 per 100 person months in the 2020), and after the adjustment of covariates, the adjusted RR was 1.72 (95% CI: 1.10~2.34). It was higher among those who were women (RR = 2.62), aged 35–59 years old (RR = 2.72), non-farmers (RR = 2.75), had less than six years of education (RR = 2.61), had an annual household income over CNY 100,000 (USD 14,940) (RR = 2.60), and had no history of chronic diseases (RR = 2.61) (all p < 0.05). The proportion of cephalosporins consumed increased from 54.29% in 2019 to 64.92% in 2020 (p = 0.011). Among those aged 35 years and older, the proportion of antibiotics obtained from medical facilities increased, while the proportion obtained from retail pharmacies, homes, and other sources decreased (all p < 0.05). The COVID-19 outbreak changed antibiotic use patterns in this study population (Eastern China) significantly. More efforts to monitor and enhance antibiotic stewardship activities at the community level are needed in future.
A Study on Chemical Characterization and Biological Abilities of Alstonia boonei Extracts Obtained by Different Techniques
Authors: Mollica Adriano , Zengin Gokhan , Sinan Kouadio Ibrahime , Marletta Marcella , Pieretti Stefano , Stefanucci Azzurra , Etienne Ouattara Katinan , Jekő József , Cziáky Zoltán , Bahadori Mir Babak , Picot-Allain Carene , Mahomoodally Mohamad Fawzi
Published: November 2022

In the quest for novel therapeutic agents from plants, the choice of extraction solvent and technique plays a key role. In this study, the possible differences in the phytochemical profile and bioactivity (antioxidant and enzyme inhibitory activity) of the Alstonia boonei leaves and stem bark extracted using water, ethyl acetate and methanol, and different techniques, namely infusion, maceration and Soxhlet extraction, were investigated. Data collected showed that methanol extracts of both A. boonei leaves (48.34–53.08 mg gallic acid equivalent [GAE]/g dry extract) and stem bark (37.08–45.72 mg GAE/g dry extract) possessed higher phenolic content compared to the ethyl acetate extracts (leaves: 30.64–40.19 mg GAE/g; stem bark: 34.25–35.64 mg GAE/g). The methanol extracts of A. boonei leaves showed higher radical scavenging and reducing capacity, and these findings were in accordance with phenolic content results. In general, water extracts of A. boonei leaves and stem bark obtained by infusion were poor inhibitors of acetylcholinesterase, α-amylase, α-glucosidase, and tyrosinase, except for butyrylcholinesterase. The chemical profiles of the extracts were determined by UHPLC–MS and the presence of several compounds, such as phenolic acids (caffeic, chlorogenic and ferulic acids, etc.), flavonoids (rutin and isoquercetin) and flavonolignans (Cinchonain isomers). Cell viability was tested using the human peripheral blood monocytic cell line (THP-1), and the extracts were safe up to 25 μg/mL. In addition, anti-inflammatory effects were investigated with the releasing of IL-6 TNF-α and IL-1β. In particular, stem bark extracts exhibited significant anti-inflammatory effects. Data presented in this study highlight the key role of solvent choice in the extraction of bioactive secondary metabolites from plants. In addition, this study appraises the antioxidant and enzyme inhibitory action of A. boonei leaves and stem bark, which are extensively used in traditional medicine.
On the Relationship of the Acoustic Properties and the Microscale Geometry of Generic Porous Absorbers
Authors: Ring Tobias P. , Langer Sabine C.
Published: November 2022

When tailoring porous absorbers in acoustic applications, an appropriate acoustic material model, as well as the relationship between the material model parameters and the microscale geometry of the material, is indispensable. This relationship can be evaluated analytically only for few simple material geometries. Machine-learning models can close this gap for complex materials, but due to their black-box nature, the interpretability of obtained inferences is rather low. Therefore, an existing neural network model that predicts the acoustic properties of a porous material based on the microscale geometry is subject to statistics-based sensitivity analysis. This is conducted to gain insights into the relationship between the microscale geometry and the acoustic material parameters of a generic bar-lattice design porous material. Although it is a common approach in the field of explainable artificial intelligence research, this has not been widely investigated for porous materials yet. By deriving statistics-based sensitivity measures from the neural network model, the explainability and interpretability is increased and insights into the relationship of the acoustic properties and their microscale geometry of the porous specimen can be obtained. The results appear plausible and comparable to existing studies available in the literature, showing if and how the bar-lattice geometry influences the acoustic material parameters. Moreover, it could be shown that the applied global sensitivity analysis method allows us to not only derive a one-to-one parameter impact relation, but also reveals interdependencies that are important to address during a material tailoring process.
Integrating Different Scales into Species Distribution Models: A Case for Evaluating the Risk of Plant Invasion in Chinese Protected Areas under Climate Change
Authors: Xie De-Juan , Zhang Fei-Xue , Wang Chun-Jing , Wan Ji-Zhong
Published: November 2022

Species distribution models (SDMs) based on fine-scale environmental data may reduce the uncertainty in predicting species distributions. However, many scientists have also projected the robust potential distributions of species using environmental data of different scales and found that the potential distributions modeled using SDMs are scale dependent. This may be due to the impact of the scale effect on species richness (as well as on multi-species distributions). To eliminate the impact of the scale effect, we aim to develop an improved method to integrate different scales into species distribution models. We use protected areas as the study regions and propose the hypothesis that there is a spatial element to the threat of invasive species for protected areas under climate change. We use Maxent to compute the current and future invasion ability and invasion inequality of invasive species for protected areas based on the potential distributions of species across different scales to evaluate the risk of invasive species. We find that an increase in the number of present records could reduce the accuracy of SDMs. There is a significant linear relationship between the fine-scale and coarse-scale risk of invasive species of alien plants in protected areas, and an appropriate scale should thus be selected to assess species risk based on this linear relationship of invasive risk. There is a significant relationship between the potential of IAPS to invade protected areas and the invasion inequality of IAPS in protected areas across all scales, and 5.0 arcminutes is the most appreciate scale to evaluate the risk of IAPS for protected areas under climate change based on principal component analysis. We provide new insights into the use of species distribution models coupled with different spatial scales to analyze the regional risks associated with species and to assess regional biodiversity.
Modeling and Analysis of the Sustainable Development of Chinese Archival Work in the Past Four Years
Authors: Li Hong , Chen Zilin
Published: November 2022

People used physical or pictorial note-taking methods to record and memorize in ancient times. With the development of productive forces, the emergence of classes, the formation of the state, and the invention of writing, many official documents appeared and were sorted, which then became archives. The natural attributes of archives are closely related to the development of human society. On the one hand, archival work develops with the development of human society. On the other hand, the status of archival work will affect the development of civilization as well. To fill the gap in the research on the sustainable development of archival work, we established a comprehensive evaluation model to analyze the development of Chinese archival work from 2018 to 2021. We found that the overall level was gradually flourishing and was less affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, but there is still a lot of room for improvement in some aspects. This study provides valuable insights for formulating targeting strategies to improve the development of archives.
Investigating Prompt Learning for Chinese Few-Shot Text Classification with Pre-Trained Language Models
Authors: Song Chengyu , Shao Taihua , Lin Kejing , Liu Dengfeng , Wang Siyuan , Chen Honghui
Published: November 2022

Text classification aims to assign predefined labels to unlabeled sentences, which tend to struggle in real-world applications when only a few annotated samples are available. Previous works generally focus on using the paradigm of meta-learning to overcome the classification difficulties brought by insufficient data, where a set of auxiliary tasks is given. Accordingly, prompt-based approaches are proposed to deal with the low-resource issue. However, existing prompt-based methods mainly focus on English tasks, which generally apply English pretrained language models that can not directly adapt to Chinese tasks due to structural and grammatical differences. Thus, we propose a prompt-based Chinese text classification framework that uses generated natural language sequences as hints, which can alleviate the classification bottleneck well in low-resource scenarios. In detail, we first design a prompt-based fine-tuning together with a novel pipeline for automating prompt generation in Chinese. Then, we propose a refined strategy for dynamically and selectively incorporating demonstrations into each context. We present a systematic evaluation for analyzing few-shot performance on a wide range of Chinese text classification tasks. Our approach makes few assumptions about task resources and expertise and therefore constitutes a powerful, task-independent approach for few-shot learning.
A Novel Continuous-Discontinuous Multi-Field Numerical Model for Rock Blasting
Authors: Li Yunpeng , Feng Chun , Ding Chenxi , Zhang Yiming
Published: November 2022

During blasting, rock failure is caused by blasting wave and explosive gas pressure, as a multi-field coupled process. Most numerical models focus on the effect of blasting wave where the gas pressure is commonly accounted for by empirical relations, ignoring the penetration and permeation of gas flow in cracks. This can underestimate the failure region. In this work, a novel multi-field model is developed in the framework of a continuous-discontinuous element method (CDEM), which is a coupled finite-discrete method with explicit integration strategy. The deformation and cracking of rock mass and the distribution of gas pressure are captured. The proposed method is verified by comparing the results to other results provided in published literature. Especially, by simulating the cases with blocked and unblocked blasting hole, we found that: (i) The fracture degree of the case with blocked blasting hole was 30% higher than that of the unblocked blasting hole. (ii) The radial main cracks in the fracture area are mainly caused by the explosive gas, and the tiny and dense cracks near the hole are induced by the explosion stress wave. (iii) The explosion crushing zone is mainly formed by the action of explosion stress wave, while the crack zone is formed by the combined action of the explosion stress wave and explosive gas. The proposed method provides a useful tool to properly simulate a rock blasting process.
Prediction of Construction and Production Safety Accidents in China Based on Time Series Analysis Combination Model
Authors: Meng Ge , Liu Jian , Feng Rui
Published: November 2022

At present, the data related to construction safety accidents in China have the characteristics of small sample size, large fluctuation, large base, nonlinearity, etc. It is of great significance in accident prevention to break through the limitations of traditional prediction models in dealing with time series and reduce the contingency of prediction results. The purpose of this study was to use the trend decomposition method to reduce the fluctuation of non-stationary time series and use the combination of an autoregressive integrated moving average model and Grey model with fractional order accumulation to accurately predict construction accidents. This paper analyzed the number of production safety accidents and deaths in housing municipal engineering in China from 2009 to 2019, which makes monthly, quarterly and annual forecasts and compares forecast results. The FOAGM model is based on a genetic algorithm and can forecast individual months separately, which improves the overall forecast of accident numbers. The rolling forecast was used to provide an idea of hierarchical optimization of the forecast results for the annual accident number forecast with a small number of samples. The study also emphasized that the prediction of the death toll is affected by larger and above accidents. By using the CRITIC method, the impacts were quantified, so as to revise the prediction results.