bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Nitric Oxide as a Central Molecule in Hypertension: Focus on the Vasorelaxant Activity of New Nitric Oxide Donors
Authors: da Silva Gabriela , da Silva Mirelly , Nascimento Déborah , Lima Silva Ellen , Gouvêa Fabíola , de França Lopes Luiz , Araújo Alice , Ferraz Pereira Kelli , de Queiroz Thyago
Published: October 2021

Cardiovascular diseases include all types of disorders related to the heart or blood vessels. High blood pressure is an important risk factor for cardiac complications and pathological disorders. An increase in circulating angiotensin-II is a potent stimulus for the expression of reactive oxygen species and pro-inflammatory cytokines that activate oxidative stress, perpetuating a deleterious effect in hypertension. Studies demonstrate the capacity of NO to prevent platelet or leukocyte activation and adhesion and inhibition of proliferation, as well as to modulate inflammatory or anti-inflammatory reactions and migration of vascular smooth muscle cells. However, in conditions of low availability of NO, such as during hypertension, these processes are impaired. Currently, there is great interest in the development of compounds capable of releasing NO in a modulated and stable way. Accordingly, compounds containing metal ions coupled to NO are being investigated and are widely recognized as having great relevance in the treatment of different diseases. Therefore, the exogenous administration of NO is an attractive and pharmacological alternative in the study and treatment of hypertension. The present review summarizes the role of nitric oxide in hypertension, focusing on the role of new NO donors, particularly the metal-based drugs and their protagonist activity in vascular function.
Molecular Characterization and Defense Functions of the Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) DnaJ B9b and DnaJ C3a Genes in Response to Pathogenic Bacteria under High-Temperature Stress Conditions
Authors: Srisapoome Prapansak , Thummabancha Kubpaphas , Wongpanya Ratree
Published: October 2021

DnaJ proteins or heat shock protein 40s (HSP40s) form one of the largest heat shock protein families. In this study, 2 cDNAs encoding Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) DnaJ proteins (On-DnaJ B9b and On-DnaJ C3a) were successfully cloned and characterized. The structures and organizations of these two genes are first reported in the present study. On-DnaJ B9b is approximately 2.1 kb long and contains 2 exons and 1 intron, while On-DnaJ C3a is approximately 12 kb long and contains 12 exons and 11 introns. Under normal conditions, On-DnaJ B9b mRNA is highly expressed in gonad and trunk kidney tissues, while On-DnaJ C3a transcripts are abundantly expressed in gills, intestine, liver, and trunk kidney tissues. Following pathogenic infections, the expression of both genes is induced in the liver, spleen and head kidney tissues of Nile tilapia that were infected with two virulent pathogenic bacteria, Streptococcus agalactiae and Flavobacterium columnare. Silencing of these two genes was first carried out, and the results clearly indicated their crucial roles under both heat and bacterial stress conditions. The fundamental knowledge obtained from this study indicates the characteristic basic biofunctions of heat shock proteins in the regulation of intracellular proteins during infection, which involve preventing protein aggregation, promoting protein refolding, and activating unfolded protein degradation.
Resveratrol Treatment in Human Parkin-Mutant Fibroblasts Modulates cAMP and Calcium Homeostasis Regulating the Expression of Mitochondria-Associated Membranes Resident Proteins
Authors: Signorile Anna , Ferretta Anna , Pacelli Consiglia , Capitanio Nazzareno , Tanzarella Paola , Matrella Maria Laura , Valletti Alessio , De Rasmo Domenico , Cocco Tiziana
Published: October 2021

Parkin plays an important role in ensuring efficient mitochondrial function and calcium homeostasis. Parkin-mutant human fibroblasts, with defective oxidative phosphorylation activity, showed high basal cAMP level likely ascribed to increased activity/expression of soluble adenylyl cyclase and/or low expression/activity of the phosphodiesterase isoform 4 and to a higher Ca2+ level. Overall, these findings support the existence, in parkin-mutant fibroblasts, of an abnormal Ca2+ and cAMP homeostasis in mitochondria. In our previous studies resveratrol treatment of parkin-mutant fibroblasts induced a partial rescue of mitochondrial functions associated with stimulation of the AMPK/SIRT1/PGC-1α pathway. In this study we provide additional evidence of the potential beneficial effects of resveratrol inducing an increase in the pre-existing high Ca2+ level and remodulation of the cAMP homeostasis in parkin-mutant fibroblasts. Consistently, we report in these fibroblasts higher expression of proteins implicated in the tethering of ER and mitochondrial contact sites along with their renormalization after resveratrol treatment. On this basis we hypothesize that resveratrol-mediated enhancement of the Ca2+ level, fine-tuned by the ER–mitochondria Ca2+ crosstalk, might modulate the pAMPK/AMPK pathway in parkin-mutant fibroblasts.
Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles Exhibit Favorable Properties to Promote Tissue Integration of Biomaterials
Authors: Wiesmann Nadine , Mendler Simone , Buhr Christoph R. , Ritz Ulrike , Kämmerer Peer W. , Brieger Juergen
Published: October 2021

Due to the demographic change, medicine faces a growing demand for tissue engineering solutions and implants. Often, satisfying tissue regeneration is difficult to achieve especially when co-morbidities hamper the healing process. As a novel strategy, we propose the incorporation of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) into biomaterials to improve tissue regeneration. Due to their wide range of biocompatibility and their antibacterial properties, ZnO NPs are already discussed for different medical applications. As there are versatile possibilities of modifying their form, size, and function, they are becoming increasingly attractive for tissue engineering. In our study, in addition to antibacterial effects of ZnO NPs, we show for the first time that ZnO NPs can foster the metabolic activity of fibroblasts as well as endothelial cells, both cell types being crucial for successful implant integration. With the gelatin sponge method performed on the chicken embryo’s chorioallantoic membrane (CAM), we furthermore confirmed the high biocompatibility of ZnO NPs. In summary, we found ZnO NPs to have very favorable properties for the modification of biomaterials. Here, incorporation of ZnO NPs could help to guide the tissue reaction and promote complication-free healing.
GJA1 Expression and Left Atrial Remodeling in the Incidence of Atrial Fibrillation in Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome
Authors: Chen Yung-Lung , Chen Yung-Che , Chang Ya-Ting , Wang Hui-Ting , Liu Wen-Hao , Chong Shaur-Zheng , Lin Pei-Ting , Hsu Po-Yuan , Su Mao-Chang , Lin Meng-Chih
Published: October 2021

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is an important risk factor for atrial fibrillation (AF). GJA1 gene encoding connexin43, a major protein in cardiac gap junctions, plays a crucial role in the synchronized contraction of the heart and in cardiac arrhythmia. However, little is known regarding the role of GJA1 expression in the incidence of AF in patients with OSAS. All prospectively enrolled OSAS patients underwent polysomnography, electrocardiography, a 24-h Holter test, and echocardiography. Moderate-to-severe OSAS was defined as an apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) ≥ 15. Exosomes were purified from the plasma of all OSAS patients and incubated in HL-1 cells to investigate the effect of exosomes from patients with and without AF on GJA1 expression. A total of 129 patients were recruited for this study; 26 were excluded due to an AHI < 15. Of the 103 enrolled patients, 21 had AF, and 82 did not. Multivariate analysis showed diabetes mellitus, lower sleep efficiency, lower left ventricular ejection fraction, and larger left atrial (LA) size were independent predictors of AF occurrence in OSAS patients. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for LA with a size ≥38.5 mm for predicting AF occurrence in OSAS patients was 0.795 (95% confidence interval [0.666, 0.925]); p < 0.001). GJA1 expression in HL-1 cells incubated with exosomes from OSAS patients with AF was lower than that with exosomes from patients without AF after controlling for age and sex and was negatively correlated with the AHI and oxygen desaturation index (ODI), especially during the non-rapid eye movement period (NREM) of OSAS patients with AF (all p < 0.05). LA size was an independent predictor of AF occurrence in OSAS patients. The AHI and ODI in the NREM period of OSAS patients with AF were negatively correlated with GJA1 expression in HL-1 cells, which offers a hint that GJA1 may play a crucial role in the development of AF in patients with OSAS.
Endocardial Endothelial Dysfunction and Unknown Polymorphic Composite Accumulation in Heart Failure
Authors: Kuo Hsuan-Fu , Liu I-Fan , Li Chia-Yang , Tsai Chien-Sung , Chen Yung-Hsiang , Lian Wei-Shiung , Lin Tzu-Chieh , Liu Yu-Ru , Lee Tsung-Ying , Huang Chi-Yuan , Hsieh Chong-Chao , Hsu Chih-Hsin , Lin Feng-Yen , Liu Po-Len
Published: October 2021

The accumulation of unknown polymorphic composites in the endocardium damages the endocardial endothelium (EE). However, the composition and role of unknown polymorphic composites in heart failure (HF) progression remain unclear. Here, we aimed to explore composite deposition during endocardium damage and HF progression. Adult male Sprague–Dawley rats were divided into two HF groups—angiotensin II-induced HF and left anterior descending artery ligation-induced HF. Heart tissues from patients who had undergone coronary artery bypass graft surgery (non-HF) and those with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and ischemic cardiomyopathy (ICM) were collected. EE damage, polymorphic unknown composite accumulation, and elements in deposits were examined. HF progression reduced the expression of CD31 in the endocardium, impaired endocardial integrity, and exposed the myofibrils and mitochondria. The damaged endocardial surface showed the accumulation of unknown polymorphic composites. In the animal HF model, especially HF caused by myocardial infarction, the weight and atomic percentages of O, Na, and N in the deposited composites were significantly higher than those of the other groups. The deposited composites in the human HF heart section (DCM) had a significantly higher percentage of Na and S than the other groups, whereas the percentage of C and Na in the DCM and ICM groups was significantly higher than those of the control group. HF causes widespread EE dysfunction, and EndMT was accompanied by polymorphic composites of different shapes and elemental compositions, which further damage and deteriorate heart function.
The Role of Circulating MicroRNAs in Patients with Early-Stage Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma
Authors: Eid Michal , Karousi Paraskevi , Kunovský Lumír , Tuček Štěpán , Brančíková Dagmar , Kala Zdeněk , Slabý Ondřej , Mayer Jiří , Kontos Christos K. , Trna Jan
Published: October 2021

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is increasing in incidence and is still associated with a high rate of mortality. Only a minority of patients are diagnosed in the early stage. Radical surgery is the only potential curative procedure. However, radicality is reached in 20% of patients operated on. Despite the multidisciplinary approach in resectable tumors, early tumor recurrences are common. Options on how to select optimal candidates for resection remain limited. Nevertheless, accumulating evidence shows an important role of circulating non-coding plasma and serum microRNAs (miRNAs), which physiologically regulate the function of a target protein. miRNAs also play a crucial role in carcinogenesis. In PDAC patients, the expression levels of certain miRNAs vary and may modulate the function of oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes. As they can be detected in a patient’s blood, they have the potential to become promising non-invasive diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers. Moreover, they may also serve as markers of chemoresistance. Thus, miRNAs could be useful for early and accurate diagnosis, prognostic stratification, and individual treatment planning. In this review, we summarize the latest findings on miRNAs in PDAC patients, focusing on their potential use in the early stage of the disease.
Reference Curves of Selected Circumferential Parameters for Czech Children Aged 6 to 11 Years
Authors: Vendula Jancikova , Miroslava Pridalova , Tereza Kaplanova
Published: October 2021

(1) Background/objective: the globally discussed current issue is the increasing body weight of the population. This trend is observed in all age categories. Pediatricians and anthropologists use BMI percentile curves to determine the optimal body weight of children, based on which the child is categorized in the category of underweight, normal weight, overweight, or obese. Medical or anthropological examinations also use some methods to determine the amount of body fat. In addition to evaluating amounts of body fat, it is important to assess its distribution. The distribution of fat in the body, especially in terms of disproportionate distribution, is a risk factor for health complications, especially in terms of metabolic and health risk. Part of monitoring children’s growth is also measuring and evaluating circumferential parameters, such as abdominal circumference, gluteal circumference, and waist circumference. This study aimed to define age- and gender-specific reference curves for waist circumference (WC), abdominal circumference (AbC), and gluteal circumference (GC) in Czech children. (2) Methods: data on children’s circumferential parameters were collected via anthropometric measurements. The research sample consisted of 2093 children aged 6–11 years (boys, n = 1008; girls, n = 1085). Only children with parental informed consent were included. The statistical analysis was performed separately by age and gender using SPSS v. 22. Anthropometric data were summarized by mean and standard deviation. The percentile curves of WC, AbC, and GC were calculated (P3, P10, P25, P50, P75, P90, P97) in R 3.4.2 software (R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria) using the gamlss package. (3) Results and conclusions: the study developed age- and gender-specific percentile curves of WC, AbC, and GC for Czech children aged 6–11 years. All parameters increased with age in both boys and girls. Generally, the boys had higher WC and AbC than did girls, but girls had higher GC than did boys. Female and male median WC percentiles (M) increased from the age of 6. Both girls’ and boys’ median percentiles showed a continuous increase. We found similar trends in the median GC and AbC percentile curves. All percentile curves showed similar trends in both sexes, but the 90th and 97th WC percentiles in boys were exceptions: from the age of 10, they exceeded the values of girls, reaching their peak at the age of 11 followed by a decrease in the case of the 97th percentile and a plateau in the case of the 90th percentile. This study serves as a reference to enrich the methods of evaluation of somatic and medical status in Czech children. Up–to–date percentile curves would be a practical addition to the BMI percentiles for the screening and evaluation of overweight and obese conditions and the related risks of abdominal obesity in the pediatric population.
Toys in the Playrooms of Children’s Hospitals: A Potential Source of Nosocomial Bacterial Infections?
Authors: Aleksejeva Viktorija , Dovbenko Anastasija , Kroiča Juta , Skadiņš Ingus
Published: October 2021

Pediatric patients are more susceptible and vulnerable to nosocomial infections, in part because of their nascent and developing immune system and in part due to certain congenital conditions. Consequently, we found limited literature that investigated and reported children’s toys in hospital playrooms as potential reservoirs of pathogenic microbes. Hence, in the present study, we aimed to investigate toys as potential vectors for nosocomial infections in children’s hospitals. Microbiological samples from 120 toys were collected between April 2018 and November 2018. The specimens were cultivated on suitable cultivation agars for 24–72 h at 37 °C and CFU/cm2 (colony forming units) was determined. Antibiotic susceptibility testing was performed using disc diffusion and E-tests. Our results indicate that 84% of samples were contaminated with different microbes. Four distinct genera and thirty-seven species of bacteria were identified. The most frequently isolated pathogen was Sphingomonas paucimobilis (>603 CFU/cm2). Most of the identified microorganisms were members of normal human microbiota. Although Staphylococcus aureus and Acinetobacter baumannii were identified, CFU/cm2 was relatively low and they were found to be sensitive to antibiotics. Additionally, plastic toys showed the highest average CFU/cm2 of 91.9. Our results bolster the need for adoption and strict enforcement of proper disinfection techniques for toys in the hospital playrooms.
Defective Microwave Photonic Crystals for Salinity Detection
Authors: Zhu Yuxia , Yang Hongwei
Published: October 2021

In this paper, defective microwave photonic crystals (MPCs) are designed to sense the salinity of aqueous solutions. The defective MPC sensors are constructed by two kinds of microwave dielectric layers and one defective salt solution layer. Transfer matrix method (TMM) for lossy medium is developed to calculate the transmittance spectra of the sensors. It is found that the peak transmittance of both the defective resonance within the microwave band gap (MBG) and transmitting modes outside the MBG monotonously decrease with the increase of salinity, while the resonant and transmitting mode frequencies remain unchanged. By comparing the four MPC sensor structures, the first transmitting mode in the upper frequency band outside the MBG of the 15-layer MPC sensor has the largest salinity sensing range from 0 to 40‰ with relative stable detecting sensitivity. The sensing principle is based on the fact that the dielectric loss factor of saline solution is much more sensitive to salinity than the dielectric constant in the microwave frequency band. The sensitivity, quality factor, and salinity detection range of the MPC sensors are calculated and compared. The reported defective MPC sensors are suitable to be used for non-contact salinity detection.
Lumbar Stabilization with DSS-HPS® System: Radiological Outcomes and Correlation with Adjacent Segment Degeneration
Authors: Angelini Andrea , Baracco Riccardo , Procura Alberto , Nena Ugo , Ruggieri Pietro
Published: October 2021

Arthrodesis has always been considered the main treatment of degenerative lumbar disease. Adjacent segment degeneration is one of the major topics related to fusion surgery. Non-fusion surgery may prevent this because of the protective effect of persisting segmental motion. The aims of the study were (1) to describe the radiological outcomes in the adjacent vertebral segment after lumbar stabilization with DSS-HPS® system and (2) to verify the hypothesis that this system prevents the degeneration of the adjacent segment. This is a retrospective monocentric analysis of twenty-seven patients affected by degenerative lumbar disease underwent spinal hybrid stabilization with the DSS-HPS® system between January 2016 and January 2019. All patients completed 1-year radiological follow-up. Preoperative X-rays and magnetic resonance images, as well as postoperative radiographs at 1, 6 and 12 months, were evaluated by one single observer. Pre- and post-operative anterior and posterior disc height at the dynamic (DL) and adjacent level (AL) were measured; segmental angle (SA) of the dynamized level were measured. There was a statistically significant decrease of both anterior (p = 0.0003 for the DL, p = 0.036 for the AL) and posterior disc height (p = 0.00000 for the DL, p = 0.00032 for the AL); there were a statistically significant variations of the segmental angle (p = 0.00000). Eleven cases (40.7%) of radiological progression of disc degeneration were found. The DSS-HPS® system does not seem to reduce progression of lumbar disc degeneration in a radiologic evaluation, both in the dynamized and adjacent level.
Automated Segmentation of Median Nerve in Dynamic Sonography Using Deep Learning: Evaluation of Model Performance
Authors: Wu Chueh-Hung , Syu Wei-Ting , Lin Meng-Ting , Yeh Cheng-Liang , Boudier-Revéret Mathieu , Hsiao Ming-Yen , Kuo Po-Ling
Published: October 2021

There is an emerging trend to employ dynamic sonography in the diagnosis of entrapment neuropathy, which exhibits aberrant spatiotemporal characteristics of the entrapped nerve when adjacent tissues move. However, the manual tracking of the entrapped nerve in consecutive images demands tons of human labors and impedes its popularity clinically. Here we evaluated the performance of automated median nerve segmentation in dynamic sonography using a variety of deep learning models pretrained with ImageNet, including DeepLabV3+, U-Net, FPN, and Mask-R-CNN. Dynamic ultrasound images of the median nerve at across wrist level were acquired from 52 subjects diagnosed as carpal tunnel syndrome when they moved their fingers. The videos of 16 subjects exhibiting diverse appearance and that of the remaining 36 subjects were used for model test and training, respectively. The centroid, circularity, perimeter, and cross section area of the median nerve in individual frame were automatically determined from the inferred nerve. The model performance was evaluated by the score of intersection over union (IoU) between the annotated and model-predicted data. We found that both DeepLabV3+ and Mask R-CNN predicted median nerve the best with averaged IOU scores close to 0.83, which indicates the feasibility of automated median nerve segmentation in dynamic sonography using deep learning.
Brachial Plexus Injury Associated with Median Sternotomy during Cardiac Surgery: Three Cases of C8 Radiculopathy Due to the Fracture of the First Rib
Authors: Im Yu Jin , Kang Min Soo , Kim Sun Woong , Sung Duk Hyun
Published: October 2021

In cardiac surgery, median sternotomy is often necessary during certain surgical processes and it can cause the rare complication of brachial plexus injury. Retraction of the rib cage during median sternotomy may produce a fracture of the first thoracic rib at the costovertebral junction which might penetrate or irritate the lower root of the brachial plexus. Because the C8 ventral root is located immediately superior to the first thoracic rib, the extraforaminal C8 root is thought to be the key location of brachial plexus injury by the first rib fracture. This report describes three cases of brachial plexus injury after median sternotomy in a single center. In our cases, fracture of the first rib and consequent brachial plexus injury is confirmed with imaging and electrophysiologic studies. The fracture of the first rib is not detected with standard plain images and it is confirmed only with CT or MRI studies. Advanced imaging tools are recommended to assess the first rib fracture when brachial plexus injury is suspected after median sternotomy.
Paravertebral Muscle Mechanical Properties in Patients with Axial Spondyloarthritis or Low Back Pain: A Case-Control Study
Authors: Alcaraz-Clariana Sandra , García-Luque Lourdes , Garrido-Castro Juan Luis , Aranda-Valera I. Concepción , Ladehesa-Pineda Lourdes , Puche-Larrubia María Ángeles , Carmona-Pérez Cristina , Rodrigues-de-Souza Daiana Priscila , Alburquerque-Sendín Francisco
Published: October 2021

Different musculoskeletal disorders are a source of pain in the spinal region; most of them can be divided into mechanical, such as low back pain (LBP), or inflammatory origins, as is the case of axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA). Nevertheless, insufficient information is available about the muscle negative consequences of these conditions. Thus, the objective of this study was to identify whether mechanical muscle properties (MMPs) of cervical and lumbar muscles are different between patients with axSpA, subacute LBP (sLBP), and healthy controls. Furthermore, we aimed identify whether MMPs were related to sociodemographic and clinical variables in various study groups. The MMPs, sociodemographic, and clinical variables were obtained in 43 patients with axSpA, 43 subjects with sLBP, and 43 healthy controls. One-way ANOVAs and ROC curves were applied to identify whether the MMPs could differentiate between the study groups. Intra-group Pearson r coefficients to test the associations between MMPs and the rest of the variables were calculated. The results showed that axSpA subjects have a higher tone and stiffness and a lower relaxation and creep than sLBP and healthy ones (p < 0.05). All lumbar and cervical MMPs, except for decrement, could correctly classify axSpA and healthy subjects and axSpA and sLBP patients (in both cases, Area Under the Curve > 0.8). However, no MMP could differentiate between sLBP and healthy subjects. Each group had a different pattern of bivariate correlations between MMPs and sociodemographic and clinical data, with a worse state and progression of the axSpA group associated with a higher tone and stiffness in both spinal regions. This study supports that MMPs are different and show different patterns of correlations depending on the type of spinal pain.
Local Integral Regression Network for Cell Nuclei Detection
Authors: Zhou Xiao , Gu Miao , Cheng Zhen
Published: October 2021

Nuclei detection is a fundamental task in the field of histopathology image analysis and remains challenging due to cellular heterogeneity. Recent studies explore convolutional neural networks to either isolate them with sophisticated boundaries (segmentation-based methods) or locate the centroids of the nuclei (counting-based approaches). Although these two methods have demonstrated superior success, their fully supervised training demands considerable and laborious pixel-wise annotations manually labeled by pathology experts. To alleviate such tedious effort and reduce the annotation cost, we propose a novel local integral regression network (LIRNet) that allows both fully and weakly supervised learning (FSL/WSL) frameworks for nuclei detection. Furthermore, the LIRNet can output an exquisite density map of nuclei, in which the localization of each nucleus is barely affected by the post-processing algorithms. The quantitative experimental results demonstrate that the FSL version of the LIRNet achieves a state-of-the-art performance compared to other counterparts. In addition, the WSL version has exhibited a competitive detection performance and an effortless data annotation that requires only 17.5% of the annotation effort.
Associations between Cardiovascular Signal Entropy and Cognitive Performance over Eight Years
Authors: Knight Silvin P. , Newman Louise , Scarlett Siobhan , O’Connor John D. , Davis James , De Looze Celine , Kenny Rose Anne , Romero-Ortuno Roman
Published: October 2021

In this study, the relationship between non-invasively measured cardiovascular signal entropy and global cognitive performance was explored in a sample of community-dwelling older adults from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), both cross-sectionally at baseline (n = 4525; mean (SD) age: 61.9 (8.4) years; 54.1% female) and longitudinally. We hypothesised that signal disorder in the cardiovascular system, as quantified by short-length signal entropy during rest, could provide a marker for cognitive function. Global cognitive function was assessed via Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) across five longitudinal waves (8 year period; n = 4316; mean (SD) age: 61.9 (8.4) years; 54.4% female) and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MOCA) across two longitudinal waves (4 year period; n = 3600; mean (SD) age: 61.7 (8.2) years; 54.1% female). Blood pressure (BP) was continuously monitored during supine rest at baseline, and sample entropy values were calculated for one-minute and five-minute sections of this data, both for time-series data interpolated at 5 Hz and beat-to-beat data. Results revealed significant associations between BP signal entropy and cognitive performance, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Results also suggested that as regards associations with cognitive performance, the entropy analysis approach used herein potentially outperformed more traditional cardiovascular measures such as resting heart rate and heart rate variability. The quantification of entropy in short-length BP signals could provide a clinically useful marker of the cardiovascular dysregulations that potentially underlie cognitive decline.
Conceiving Particles as Undulating Granular Systems Allows Fundamentally Realist Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics
Authors: Avner Stéphane
Published: October 2021

The strange behavior of subatomic particles is described by quantum theory, whose standard interpretation rejected some fundamental principles of classical physics such as causality, objectivity, locality, realism and determinism. Recently, a granular relativistic electrodynamical model of the electron could capture the measured values of its observables and predict its mass from the stability of its substructure. The model involves numerous subparticles that constitute some tight nucleus and loosely bound envelope allegedly forming real waves. The present study examines whether such a substructure and associated dynamics allow fundamentally realist interpretations of emblematic quantum phenomena, properties and principles, such as wave-particle duality, loss of objectivity, quantization, simultaneous multipath exploration, collapse of wavepacket, measurement problem, and entanglement. Drawing inspiration from non-linear dynamical systems, subparticles would involve realist hidden variables while high-level observables would not generally be determined, as particles would generally be in unstable states before measurements. Quantum mechanics would constitute a high-level probabilistic description emerging from an underlying causal, objective, local, albeit contextual and unpredictable reality. Altogether, by conceiving particles as granular systems composed of numerous extremely sensitive fluctuating subcorpuscles, this study proposes the possible existence of a local fundamentally realist interpretation of quantum mechanics.
High Dimensional Atomic States of Hydrogenic Type: Heisenberg-like and Entropic Uncertainty Measures
Authors: Dehesa Jesús S.
Published: October 2021

High dimensional atomic states play a relevant role in a broad range of quantum fields, ranging from atomic and molecular physics to quantum technologies. The D-dimensional hydrogenic system (i.e., a negatively-charged particle moving around a positively charged core under a Coulomb-like potential) is the main prototype of the physics of multidimensional quantum systems. In this work, we review the leading terms of the Heisenberg-like (radial expectation values) and entropy-like (Rényi, Shannon) uncertainty measures of this system at the limit of high D. They are given in a simple compact way in terms of the space dimensionality, the Coulomb strength and the state’s hyperquantum numbers. The associated multidimensional position–momentum uncertainty relations are also revised and compared with those of other relevant systems.
Short-Term Event-Driven Analysis of the South-East Asia Financial Crisis: A Stock Market Approach
Authors: Alfonso Perez Gerardo
Published: October 2021

A systematic short-term event review of the major events in the South-East Asia Financial crisis is presented in this article. This analysis adds to the existing literature by focusing on the equity market, rather than on the foreign exchange market where there is already abundant literature, as well as going to a granular level with the hope that the analysis of the short-term market reactions can help policy-maker make appropriate decisions understanding the likely implications on the stock market. Short-term movements in the equity market might have very substantial economic impacts on investors and on the broad economy. The existing literature tends to focus on longer time horizons but from an equity investor point of view short-term fluctuations might be equally important or even more. When analyzing longer time horizons these short-term fluctuations, which might cause investors to fully unwind their positions or even bankruptcies, might be average out, underestimating the potential impact on the investor. Given these practical considerations it seems important to carry out a short-term event driven analysis of this crisis.
Forecasting for the Optimal Numbers of COVID-19 Infection to Maintain Economic Circular Flows of Thailand
Authors: Intapan Chanamart , Chaiboonsri Chukiat , Piboonrungroj Pairach
Published: October 2021

We evaluated the movement in the daily number of COVID-19 cases in response to the real GDP during the COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand from Q1 2020 to Q1 2021. The aim of the study was to find the number of COVID-19 cases that could maintain circulation of the country’s economy. This is the question that most of the world’s economies have been facing and trying to figure out. Our theoretical model introduced dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models with a special emphasis on Bayesian inference. From the results of the study, it was found that the most reasonable number of COVID-19 cases that still maintains circulation of the country’s economy is about 3000 per month or about 9000 per quarter. This demonstrates that the daily number of COVID-19 cases significantly affects the growth of Thailand’s real GDP. Economists and policymakers can use the results of empirical studies to come up with guidelines or policies that can be implemented to reduce the number of infections to satisfactory levels in order to avoid Thailand lockdown. Although the COVID-19 outbreak can be suppressed through lockdown, the country cannot be locked down all the time.
Humble Hopes in Mentorship and Education: Thinking with Temporality
Authors: Ulla Bente , Larsen Ann Sofi
Published: October 2021

This article juxtaposes mentoring with an extended concept of time, arguing against the idea of mentoring as a unilaterally forward-moving progression. We discuss how time and temporality unfold in mentoring in the teaching profession. We further explore how temporality might create different potentialities of hope. Ultimately, we suggest the necessity of destabilising narratives of mentoring as constant and linear improvements. We use an example of an inheritance from the past as an analogy in order to provide a thematic starting point for our discussion. This example supports the exploration of how mentorship programme assignments are experienced as well as how conversations are constantly filtered through time. The article builds on the empirical elements of a study of a mentorship programme to explore potentialities that are of importance in mentorship and education.
Soft Skills for Entry-Level Engineers: What Employers Want
Authors: Hirudayaraj Malar , Baker Rose , Baker Francie , Eastman Mike
Published: October 2021

Among the requirements for engineering programs, the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET) criteria for student outcomes require students to have the ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences, recognize ethical and professional responsibilities, function effectively on a team, and apply new knowledge. A review of literature for skills comprised within these ABET criteria determined 26 topics necessary for the entry-level and continued success of engineers. Nearly 500 companies and organizations rated the importance and proficiency of their recent entry-level engineers for these 26 identified soft (professional) skills. The findings suggest that although entry-level engineers have proficiency in all of these ABET required skills, the entry-level engineers were not meeting the level of importance expressed by the organization for 24 of these 26 skills. A specific ABET required skill, the ability to communicate effectively with diverse groups of people, has the greatest difference between the level of proficiency and the level of importance. Analysis of variance was conducted using each of the demographic variables to determine the effect sizes in the ratings of importance, proficiency, and the differences between importance and proficiency. These results were shared with industry members to confirm the relevance of the survey findings during the pandemic. This survey research has implications for any university engineering department where students are seeking entry-level engineering positions after graduation.
Lifestyle Sports and Physical Education Teachers’ Professional Development in the United Kingdom: A Qualitative Survey Analysis
Authors: Leeder Thomas M. , Beaumont Lee C.
Published: October 2021

Lifestyle sports can contribute to national sport and physical activity agendas. However, schools in the United Kingdom (UK) have generally resisted the implementation of such activities within the physical education (PE) curriculum. This may stem from PE teachers’ limited knowledge and restricted engagement with lifestyle sports continuing professional development (CPD), coupled with the dominance of traditional team sports within the PE curriculum. Consequently, the aim of this research was to explore the opportunities and challenges PE teachers in the UK encounter when delivering lifestyle sports, in addition to understanding their current professional development needs to enhance their practice. Data were collected via an online qualitative survey involving 53 UK-based PE teachers. Following a reflexive thematic analysis process, three themes were developed: (1) PE teachers’ understanding, conceptualisation, and delivery of lifestyle sports; (2) challenges to delivering lifestyle sports within the PE curriculum; and (3) the learning needs and CPD preferences of PE teachers. Findings indicated that the participants possessed diverse conceptualisations of lifestyle sports, while faced with logistical, contextual, and personal factors which impacted their practice. Furthermore, the participants outlined their preferences towards lifestyle sports CPD and the challenges restricting their engagement with learning opportunities. Recommendations for future research are discussed.
Dropout Time and Learners’ Performance in Computer Programming MOOCs
Authors: Rõõm Marili , Lepp Marina , Luik Piret
Published: October 2021

One of the problems regarding MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) is the high dropout rate. Although dropout periods have been studied, there is still a lack of understanding of how dropout differs for MOOCs with different levels of difficulty. A quantitative study was conducted to determine the periods with the highest dropouts in computer programming MOOCs and the performance of the dropouts on the course before dropping out. Four occurrences of three MOOCs, with different durations, difficulty of the topic, and the degree of supportive methods, were included. The results showed that dropout was highest at the beginning of all studied courses. Learners also dropped out before the project. In the easier and shorter courses, most dropouts were successful until they quit the course. In longer and more difficult courses, learners mainly dropped out in the week they started due to experiencing problems with the course activities. It is suggested to recommend that learners take courses at a level that suits them if their current course is too easy or difficult and encourage learners to use course resources for help. It would be a good idea to provide learners with example topics to assist them in starting with a project.
Area-Efficient Universal Code Generator for Multi-GNSS Receivers
Authors: Kim Minsu , Park Jiwoon , Jo Gwanghee , Yoo Hoyoung
Published: October 2021

Although conventional global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) receivers were originally designed for single signals, studies on multi-signal receiver design have recently been actively conducted to achieve high accuracy, precision, and reliability. However, in order for a multi-signal receiver to support various codes, the receiver should support the generation of individual codes. Therefore, the resulting problem of increased complexity must be solved. This paper proposes a hardware structure for an area-efficient linear feedback shift register (LFSR)-based multi-frequency universal code generator. Whereas the existing universal code generators were configured so that feedback polynomials, output registers, and initial values can be selected by placing read-only memories (ROMs), multiplexers (MUXs), and exclusive ORs (XORs) by register bit, in the case of the proposed universal code generator; the circuit was implemented by applying the hardwiring technique to those register bits that have fixed values. According to the results of field programmable gate array (FPGA) implementation, the proposed LFSR-based universal code generator can improve look up table (LUT) by up to 37% and register by up to 78% when compared to conventional code generators, and LUT by up to 36% when compared to the previous universal code generator. Therefore, the proposed universal code generator is a good candidate for implementing multi-frequency receivers to achieve high precision and high reliability.
An Integrated Cost-Aware Dual Monitoring Framework for SMPS Switching Device Diagnosis
Authors: Kareem Akeem Bayo , Ejike Akpudo Ugochukwu , Hur Jang-Wook
Published: October 2021

The ability of a switch-mode AC/DC power supply to shrink supplies is a benefit and a requirement for most electronic devices with limited space. Major failures in switch-mode power supply (SMPS) during adverse working conditions are subject to mostly the switching devices and capacitors. For effective condition monitoring of the SMPS, dual (or multiple) sensing provides a more reliable standpoint against the traditional single sensing techniques as it provides a more comprehensive paradigm for accurate condition monitoring. This study proposes an integrated approach to SMPS condition monitoring by exploiting statistically extracted features from current and voltage signals for system fault diagnosis based on electrical stress. Following a correlation-based feature selection approach, salient features were utilized for improved fault detection and isolation (FDI) using ML-based classifiers. Diagnostic results by the classifiers reveal that the random forest and gradient boosting classifiers are highly reliable but computationally expensive when compared with the others while the decision tree was quite cost-efficient with reliable diagnostic results. The proposed framework is effectively applicable for use in diagnosing the switching devices and classification at different states.
Reliable Memory Model for Visual Tracking
Authors: Ge Daohui , Liu Ruyi , Li Yunan , Miao Qiguang
Published: October 2021

Effectively learning the appearance change of a target is the key point of an online tracker. When occlusion and misalignment occur, the tracking results usually contain a great amount of background information, which heavily affects the ability of a tracker to distinguish between targets and backgrounds, eventually leading to tracking failure. To solve this problem, we propose a simple and robust reliable memory model. In particular, an adaptive evaluation strategy (AES) is proposed to assess the reliability of tracking results. AES combines the confidence of the tracker predictions and the similarity distance, which is between the current predicted result and the existing tracking results. Based on the reliable results of AES selection, we designed an active–frozen memory model to store reliable results. Training samples stored in active memory are used to update the tracker, while frozen memory temporarily stores inactive samples. The active–frozen memory model maintains the diversity of samples while satisfying the limitation of storage. We performed comprehensive experiments on five benchmarks: OTB-2013, OTB-2015, UAV123, Temple-color-128, and VOT2016. The experimental results show that our tracker achieves state-of-the-art performance.
A High-Speed Programmable Frequency Divider for a Ka-Band Phase Locked Loop-Type Frequency Synthesizer in 90-nm CMOS
Authors: Tang Lu , Chen Kuidong , Zhang Youming , Tang Xusheng , Zhang Changchun
Published: October 2021

A high-speed programmable frequency divider for a Ka-band phase-locked loop (PLL)-type frequency synthesizer system is presented and fabricated in 90 nm CMOS technology. It consists mainly of a divided-by-8/9 dual-modulus prescaler (DMP) and pulse swallow counters. An active-inductor-based source-coupled logic (SCL) D flip-flop (DFF) and the “OR” gate are used in the DMP in order to promote its locking range and operation frequency. The measured operation frequency range of the improved programmable frequency divider covers from 6 to 20 GHz with a low phase noise of less than −136 dBc/Hz at a 1 MHz offset of output signals, an optimum sensitivity of −27 dBm at 15 GHz, and a low power consumption of 9.1 mW.
Using Language Model to Bootstrap Human Activity Recognition Ambient Sensors Based in Smart Homes
Authors: Bouchabou Damien , Nguyen Sao Mai , Lohr Christophe , LeDuc Benoit , Kanellos Ioannis
Published: October 2021

Long Short Term Memory (LSTM)-based structures have demonstrated their efficiency for daily living recognition activities in smart homes by capturing the order of sensor activations and their temporal dependencies. Nevertheless, they still fail in dealing with the semantics and the context of the sensors. More than isolated id and their ordered activation values, sensors also carry meaning. Indeed, their nature and type of activation can translate various activities. Their logs are correlated with each other, creating a global context. We propose to use and compare two Natural Language Processing embedding methods to enhance LSTM-based structures in activity-sequences classification tasks: Word2Vec, a static semantic embedding, and ELMo, a contextualized embedding. Results, on real smart homes datasets, indicate that this approach provides useful information, such as a sensor organization map, and makes less confusion between daily activity classes. It helps to better perform on datasets with competing activities of other residents or pets. Our tests show also that the embeddings can be pretrained on different datasets than the target one, enabling transfer learning. We thus demonstrate that taking into account the context of the sensors and their semantics increases the classification performances and enables transfer learning.
Design and Implementation of Intelligent Automated Production-Line Control System
Authors: Lee Jeng-Dao , Hsu Hung-Yu , Li Cheng-Yi , Yang Jun-Yi
Published: October 2021

Owing to the different consumption habits of people, the market has rapidly changed, and customized demands have increased in recent years. This issue has led to the need for manufacturing industry to improve their production-process automation system control to become faster and more flexible. An intelligent automated production-line control system (IAPLCS) is proposed in this study, in which a graphic control system (GCS) is designed to integrate equipment communications in automated production. This system runs complex packaged programs for function blocks, which enable users to easily build function blocks in GCS. Users can plan the control flow of the system to control the machine operation. Not only is a web interface set in the IAPLCS, which makes it easier for users to operate and monitor, but also Internet-of-Things (IoT) sensors can be added for data collection and analysis based on the characteristics of the production line and equipment. Finally, the proposed control system was implemented in an actual production line to verify its feasibility.