bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
“It hurt but it helped”: A mixed methods audit of the implementation of trauma- focused cognitive-behavioral therapy for psychosis
Authors: Hardy Amy , Good Sophie , Dix Jayde , Longden Eleanor
Published: October 2022

Background

Emerging evidence supports the safety, acceptability, and efficacy of trauma therapies for people experiencing post-traumatic stress and psychosis, despite common concerns about iatrogenic harm when processing trauma memories for this population. However, to date there have been no mixed-method studies examining whether trauma-focused therapy can be implemented in routine care. This study reports an audit of a post-traumatic stress in psychosis clinic based in an inner-city trust in the U.K. National Health Service.

Materials and methods

People under the care of psychosis community mental health teams with a significant history of past trauma were referred to the clinic by their multidisciplinary clinicians. Referral outcomes were recorded, including the proportion of people for whom trauma-focused cognitive-behavior therapy for psychosis was indicated. Post-traumatic stress symptoms were assessed pre- and post-therapy for clinically significant change on the Post-traumatic Stress Checklist (version 4) and Post-traumatic Stress Checklist (version 5). A subgroup of service users was also interviewed about their experience of therapy, with transcripts analyzed using inductive thematic analysis.

Results

Seventy one service-users were referred to the clinic between 2014 and 2018, of which 51 (71.8%) attended an assessment. Of these, 20 (39.2%) were identified as having clinically significant PTSD symptoms with re-experiencing and were offered trauma-focused cognitive-behavior therapy for psychosis. Sixteen (80%) accepted and completed therapy, with no dropouts, and received a mean of 17.54 sessions (SD = 17.60, range = 12–91). There were no serious adverse events related to therapy. Clinically significant change was observed in 68.8% (n= 11) of the therapy group and post-therapy six people (37.5%) no longer met the threshold for clinically significant PTSD. Six service users completed an interview about their therapy experiences with findings organized within four main themes and associated subthemes: (1) Perseverance, (2) Establishing safety, (3) The challenges of therapy, and (4) Rebuilding one’s life after trauma.

Conclusion

Trauma-focused cognitive-behavior therapy for psychosis can be safe, acceptable, and effective when implemented in routine care. Lived experience perspectives highlight the emotional demands of therapy and long-term impact of trauma, thus underscoring the necessity of sufficient support and continuity of care both during and after therapy.
Role of leukocytes, gender, and symptom domains in the influence of depression on hospitalization and mortality risk: Findings from the Moli-sani study
Authors: Gialluisi Alessandro , Bracone Francesca , Costanzo Simona , Santonastaso Federica , Di Castelnuovo Augusto , Orlandi Sabatino , Magnacca Sara , De Curtis Amalia , Cerletti Chiara , Donati Maria Benedetta , de Gaetano Giovanni , Iacoviello Licia
Published: October 2022

Background

Major depressive disorder is a mental illness associated with chronic conditions like cardiovascular disease (CVD). Circulating inflammation has been proposed as a potential mechanism underlying this link, although the role of specific biomarkers, gender, and symptom domains is not well elucidated.

Methods

We performed multivariable Cox regressions of first hospitalization/all-cause mortality and CVD, ischemic heart (IHD), and cerebrovascular disease (CeVD) causes vs. depression severity in an Italian population cohort (N = 13,191; age ≥ 35 years; 49.3% men; 4,856 hospitalizations and 471 deaths, median follow-up 7.28 and 8.24 years, respectively). In models adjusted for age, sex, and socioeconomic status, we estimated the proportion of association explained by C-reactive protein (CRP), platelet count, granulocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (GLR), and white blood cell count (WBC). Gender-by-depression interaction and gender-stratified analyses were performed. Associations of polychoric factors tagging somatic and cognitive symptoms with incident clinical risks were also tested, as well as the proportion explained by a composite index of circulating inflammation (INFLA score).

Results

Significant proportions of the influence of depression on clinical risks were explained by CRP (4.8% on IHD hospitalizations), GLR (11% on all-cause mortality), and WBC (24% on IHD/CeVD hospitalizations). Gender-by-depression interaction was significantly associated only with all-cause mortality (p = 0.03), with moderate depression showing a + 60% increased risk in women, but not in men. Stable associations of somatic, but not of cognitive, symptoms with increased hospitalization risk were observed (+ 16% for all causes, + 14% for CVD causes), with INFLA score explaining small but significant proportions of these associations (2.5% for all causes, 8.6% for IHD causes).

Conclusions

These findings highlight the importance of cellular components of inflammation, gender, and somatic depressive symptoms in the link between depression and clinical (especially CVD) risks, pointing to the existence of additional pathways through which depression may play a detrimental effect on the cardiovascular system.
Long-term effect of transcranial direct current stimulation in the treatment of chronic tinnitus: A randomized, placebo-controlled trial
Authors: Mares Tadeas , Albrecht Jakub , Buday Jozef , Podgorna Gabriela , Le Thai Hong , Magyarova Eva , Poshor Katerina , Halik Jakub , Buna Jan , Capek Vaclav , Kostylkova Lenka , Klasova Johana , Fabian Vratislav , Anders Martin
Published: October 2022

Introduction

Tinnitus is an intrusive and chronic illness affecting a significant portion of the population, decreasing affected individuals’ quality of life and socioeconomic functioning. Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive neuromodulatory method utilizing weak electrical currents to elicit short and long-term central nervous system changes. Several studies have proven its effect on tinnitus. We aimed to broaden the knowledge and provide data on the effect and its retention.

Methods

In the randomized, double-blinded, sham-controlled trial, 39 patients (active n = 19, sham n = 20) underwent bifrontal tDCS (anode over right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), cathode left DLPFC, current of 1.5 mA, 20 min, 6 sessions in 2 weeks). Tinnitus Functional Index (TFI), Iowa Tinnitus Handicap Questionnaire (ITHQ), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), and WHO-Quality of Life-BREF were employed in 4 evaluation points, including the follow-ups of 6 weeks and 6 months.

Results

We reached a delayed, significant long-term improvement (p < 0.05) in auditory difficulties associated with tinnitus and noticed it even after 6 months compared to placebo. We also reached a short-term, negative effect in the psychological domain of WHO-Quality of Life-BREF (p < 0.05). Not all subdomains of TFI and ITHQ reached statistical significance during the data analysis, even though specific positive trends were noticed.

Conclusion

We proved partial, positive, long-term effects of tDCS on tinnitus and short-term, negative, transient effect on a specific aspect of the general quality of life. We expanded upon the results of previous trials and provided data concerning the longevity and the precise effect of multiple sessions, bifrontal DLPFC tDCS. Our sample size (n = 39) was limited, which might have contributed to the lesser statistical power of the analyzed items.

Clinical trial registration

[www.ClinicalTrials.gov], identifier [NCT05437185].
Effectiveness of the Fiocruz recombinant ChadOx1-nCoV19 against variants of SARS-CoV-2 in the Municipality of Botucatu-SP
Authors: Costa Clemens Sue Ann , Fortaleza Carlos Magno Castelo Branco , Crowe Madeleine , Tasca Karen Ingrid , Spadaro André Gasparini , Souza-Neto Jayme Augusto , Grotto Rejane Maria Tommasini , Sider Regina , Jimeno Jose , Verstraeten Thomas , Clemens Ralf
Published: October 2022

Introduction

As the COVID-19 pandemic progresses, rapidly emerging variants of concern raise fears that currently licensed vaccines may have reduced effectiveness against these new strains. In the municipality of Botucatu, São Paulo State, Brazil, a mass vaccination campaign using ChadOx1-nCoV19 was initiated on 16th of May 2021, targeting people 18–60 years old. Two vaccine doses were offered 12 weeks apart, with the second delivered on 8th of August, 2021. This setting offered a unique opportunity to assess the effectiveness of two ChadOx1-nCoV19 doses in a real-life setting.

Materials and methods

Data on testing, hospitalization, symptoms, demographics, and vaccination were obtained from the Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu. A test-negative study design was employed; whereby the odds of being vaccinated among cases vs controls were calculated to estimate vaccine effectiveness (VE; 1-OR). All individuals aged 18–60 who received a PCR test after the 16th of May and were unvaccinated prior to this date were included in the analysis until the study ended in mid-November 2021.

Results

77,683 citizens of Botucatu aged 18–60 received the first dose, and 74,051 received a second ChadOx1-nCoV19 dose 12 weeks later for a vaccination coverage of 84.2 and 80.2%, respectively. Of 7.958 eligible PCR tests, 2.109 were positive and 5.849 negative. The VE against any symptomatic infection was estimated at 39.2%, 21 days after dose 1, and 74.5%, 14 days after dose 2. There were no COVID-19-related hospitalizations or deaths among the 74,051 fully vaccinated individuals. The VE against severe disease was estimated at 70.8 and 100% after doses 1 and 2, respectively. 90.5% of all lineages sequenced between doses 1 and 2 (16th of May−7th of August) were of the Gamma variant, while 83.0% were of the Delta variant during the second period after dose 2 (8th of August−18th of November).

Discussion

This observational study found the effectiveness of ChadOx1-nCoV19 to be 74.5% against COVID-19 disease of any severity, comparable to the efficacy observed in clinical trials (81.3% after dose 2), despite the dominance of the Gamma and Delta VoCs. No COVID-19-related hospitalizations or deaths in fully vaccinated individuals were reported.
Awareness, knowledge and attitude toward influenza vaccination in several population groups in China: A cross-sectional study
Authors: Jiang Binshan , Wang Zhenzhong , Jia Mengmeng , Yan Huijiao , Su Zheng , Liu Shujun , Yang Weizhong , Qiao You-lin , Feng Luzhao
Published: October 2022

Background

We aimed to comprehensively analyze awareness, knowledge and attitude toward influenza vaccine and the factors associated to vaccine acceptance among the young and middle-aged general population, healthcare workers, and health-related administrators in China. The factors influencing the promotion of influenza vaccination were also evaluated among healthcare workers and administrators.

Methods

This is a multicenter, cross-sectional study. General population adults, healthcare workers (HCWs), and health administrators were enrolled in seven regions across China during the 2020–2021 flu season. Data were collected via an online questionnaire, which included information request as to awareness, knowledge, and attitude toward influenza vaccination. Statistical significance set at p-values < 0.05.

Results

A total of 3,239 individuals were included in our analyses. There were gaps in consciousness to action, especially between awareness (87.1%) and knowledge (57.7%), and between willingness (57.3%) and vaccination (22.3%). The downward trends were similar in all three groups. HCW group and the health administrator group showed more positive propensity to accept influenza vaccines than the general population group. For the general population group, those with a lower educational level (lower than a bachelor's degree) were less likely to be vaccinated (aOR = 0.66, 95% CI: 0.45–0.96). For the HCW group, practitioners older than 45 years were more reluctant to be vaccinated than those under 25 years (aOR = 0.41, 95% CI: 0.19–0.86). For the health administrator group, personnel aged 26 years and above were less inclined to be vaccinated (aORs = 0.17–0.20). In all groups, people who had received influenza vaccines in the past 5 years (aOR = 1.72, 95% CI: 1.31–2.26 in general population group, 13.05, 95% CI: 7.71–22.10 in HCW group, and 19.30, 95% CI: 9.66–42.63 in health administrator group) were more likely to be vaccinated in future seasons. People who were not covered by the free program or those without awareness of the related programs were less likely to be vaccinated (aORs < 0.63). Most (70.8%) of HCWs showed intention to recommend the influenza vaccine. Clinical doctors, those who had flu shots themselves, and those who had more knowledge, were more like to make recommendations. Health administrators stated that insufficient budget resources and workforce, and low public awareness are main difficulties in the promotion of influenza vaccine.

Conclusion

The influencing factors of the attitude toward influenza vaccination vary across populations. Governments need to carry out focused vaccination promotion programs, especially for healthcare workers, to improve the coverage of influenza vaccination.
Parents' acceptance to vaccinate children against COVID-19: A Syrian online survey
Authors: Swed Sarya , Alibrahim Hidar , Bohsas Haidara , Shoib Sheikh , Hasan Mohammad Mehedi , Motawea Karam R. , Albuni Mhd Kutaiba , Battikh Elias , Sawaf Bisher , Elkalagi Nashaat Kamal Hamdy , Mohamed Alsharief Ahmed Safaa , Mohammed Sharif Ahmed Eman , Khairy Lina Taha , Bakkour Agyad , Hadi Hussein Muwaili Ali , Abubaker Abdalla Abdelmajid Fatima , Hadi Hussein Muwaili Dhuha , Elsayed Mohamed , Ahmad Shoaib , Lee Ka Yiu
Published: October 2022

After the widespread of COVID-19 virus worldwide, vaccination targeted reducing spread of cases and mortality rates. However, vaccination hesitancy was observed among the communities worldwide. Vaccination hesitancy involved parents regarding the decision of vaccinating their children- After obtaining ethical approval, an online cross-sectional study was conducted from 1 March to 22 April 2021 to evaluate the parents' acceptance of vaccinating their children against the COVID-19 virus in Syria. Data were analyzed using descriptive and multivariate logistic regression analysis in IBM, SPSS V. 28.0 package program (IBM Corporation, Armonk, NY, USA). Among 283 participants, 105 participants agreed to vaccinate their children, and 178 were not. A significant correlation between age and vaccine willingness was found (P-value < 0.0001*), especially in the age group between 18 and 30 years old (45.2%). Parents who accepted vaccinating themselves were more willing to vaccinate their children (34.6%). According to our results, there is a greater need to enhance awareness and knowledge programs about the vaccine's effectiveness and encourage parents to accept giving the vaccine to their children.
Design and process optimization of combined medical and elderly care services: An integrated service blueprint–TRIZ model
Authors: Shie An-Jin , Wu Wei-Feng , Yang Ming , Wan Xiaoji , Li Hailin
Published: October 2022

China's increasingly aging population is resulting in an imbalance between supply and demand for elderly care resources. The theory of “combined medical and elderly care” (CMEC) has introduced a new perspective in the conception of China's elderly care problems. This study employed the service blueprint, fuzzy failure mode and effects analysis (Fuzzy-FMEA), and the theory of inventive problem solving (TIPS or the Russian acronym TRIZ) for the process optimization of CMEC services in three phases. In the first phase (service process analysis), potential service failure points in the service process were analyzed using the service blueprint technique. In the second phase (service failure diagnosis), Fuzzy-FMEA was applied to diagnose the service failure modes and explore the possible causes and effects. The service failure modes were then prioritized based on fuzzy numbers and the cumulative fuzzy risk priority number (Fuzzy-RPN). Finally, in the third phase (generation of service optimization solutions), the TRIZ parameters, inventive principles, and contradiction matrix were first employed to select TRIZ inventive principles. The selected TRIZ inventive principles were then used to inspire inventive solutions for new service processes. Finally, a case study was conducted on the service processes of elderly care institutions to demonstrate the applicability of the optimization solutions.
Impact of COVID-19 on the wellbeing of micro and small entrepreneurs of rural Pakistan
Authors: Khan Wajid , Zahid R. M. Ammar , Ullah Ikram , Chuadhry Muhammad Asif , Malik Saqib Yaqoob , Mughal Yasir Hayat , Batool Nazia , Begum Abida , Han Heesup , Mohamed Abdullah
Published: October 2022

According to the constitution of Pakistan, the state is responsible for the provision of necessities of life to its citizens whenever their livelihood is permanently or temporarily threatened. COVID-19 and its associated lockdowns were a series of events where amenities of life around the world were seriously endangered. Especially, hard hit were the small- and medium-sized entrepreneurs (SMEs) of rural Pakistan. To quantitatively assess the social and economic impact of COVID-19, we interviewed the local microenterprise owners in rural Pakistan from January to February 2021 and then June 2021. Mean comparison tests were estimated for pre- and post-COVID-19 periods. Results reveal that the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly and negatively affected wellbeing of micro and small entrepreneurs in the regions as the income of most of the sampled entrepreneurs significantly decreased during the pandemic. Disaggregated consumption analysis however revealed that nominal consumption of food, clothing, energy, health, and education all increased, except for communication, during the pandemic. Furthermore, the regression analysis revealed that changes in income, occupation, borrowing during COVID-19, and family type of the respondents were significant factors in mitigating the effects of COVID-19. Based on the findings, policy recommendations are also spelled out in the last section.
Developing and testing a prediction model for periodontal disease using machine learning and big electronic dental record data
Authors: Patel Jay S. , Su Chang , Tellez Marisol , Albandar Jasim M. , Rao Rishi , Iyer Vishnu , Shi Evan , Wu Huanmei
Published: October 2022

Despite advances in periodontal disease (PD) research and periodontal treatments, 42% of the US population suffer from periodontitis. PD can be prevented if high-risk patients are identified early to provide preventive care. Prediction models can help assess risk for PD before initiation and progression; nevertheless, utilization of existing PD prediction models is seldom because of their suboptimal performance. This study aims to develop and test the PD prediction model using machine learning (ML) and electronic dental record (EDR) data that could provide large sample sizes and up-to-date information. A cohort of 27,138 dental patients and grouped PD diagnoses into: healthy control, mild PD, and severe PD was generated. The ML model (XGBoost) was trained (80% training data) and tested (20% testing data) with a total of 74 features extracted from the EDR. We used a five-fold cross-validation strategy to identify the optimal hyperparameters of the model for this one-vs.-all multi-class classification task. Our prediction model differentiated healthy patients vs. mild PD cases and mild PD vs. severe PD cases with an average area under the curve of 0.72. New associations and features compared to existing models were identified that include patient-level factors such as patient anxiety, chewing problems, speaking trouble, teeth grinding, alcohol consumption, injury to teeth, presence of removable partial dentures, self-image, recreational drugs (Heroin and Marijuana), medications affecting periodontium, and medical conditions such as osteoporosis, cancer, neurological conditions, infectious diseases, endocrine conditions, cardiovascular diseases, and gastroenterology conditions. This pilot study demonstrated promising results in predicting the risk of PD using ML and EDR data. The model may provide new information to the clinicians about the PD risks and the factors responsible for the disease progression to take preventive approaches. Further studies are warned to evaluate the prediction model's performance on the external dataset and determine its usability in clinical settings.
Multivariate analysis of abiotic and biota samples for three perfluoroalkane acids
Authors: Fiedler Heidelore , Baabish Abeer , Sadia Mohammad
Published: October 2022

Perfluoroalkane substances (PFAS) comprise a large family of chemicals of environmental concern and are subject to chemical analyses, international regulation, and risk assessments. Environmental samples including air, water, sediment, and soil as abiotic matrices, food samples comprising fish, meat (beef, sheep, chicken), egg, butter, and milk as well as human milk samples were assessed using uni- and multivariate methods. Participating countries were asked to provide baseline samples and not target potential hotspots. Chemometric analysis was possible for only three of the 15 PFAS monitored, namely perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), and perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS). The assessments showed that PFAS contamination in developing countries and in all matrices considered was almost equally attributed to PFOS and PFOA; PFHxS did not play a role. Subsequently, across all samples, PFOS and PFOA were strongly negatively correlated (spearman correlation coefficient r = −0.94). The measured values showed moderate positive correlation between PFOS and PFOA (r = 0.76) indicating common sources or environmental behavior. No clear pattern could be observed for geographic locations nor for transfers between matrices. Whereas the abiotic samples—soil, sediment, air—gave a very heterogenous picture (very small p-values) and had wide ranges and outliers, the measured values of the biota samples were not significantly different between matrices.
Compromised endothelial progenitor cell exosomal communication with endothelial cells in hypertension ischemia conditions
Authors: Chen Shuzhen , Polaki Venkata , Bihl Ji C. , Wang Jinju
Published: October 2022

We have previously demonstrated that endothelial progenitor cell (EPC) derived exosomes (EPC-EXs) can protect endothelial cells (ECs) against hypoxia injury. Given that EX function varies upon the cellular status and EPC function is declined in hypertension, we speculate the function of EPC-EXs is altered in hypertension-ischemia conditions. Here, we studied the EPC-EX mediated communications of EPCs with ECs in hypertension-ischemia conditions. EPC-EXs were prepared from the bone marrow EPCs of wild-type (WT) and hypertensive renin transgene (R+) mice (WT-EPC-EXs and R-EPC-EXs, respectively). To mimic hypertension-ischemia injury, ECs were challenged with angiotensin II (Ang II; 10−6 M) plus hypoxia (1% O2 for 6 h) and reoxygenation (21% O2 for 24 h). To determine the function of EPC-EXs, ECs were co-cultured with EXs during the reoxygenation period. EX uptake efficiency, EC viability, and angiogenic function were assessed. We found that: (1) The incorporation efficiency of R-EPC-EXs by ECs was significantly decreased compared to the WT-EPC-EXs. (2) Ang II plus hypoxia reoxygenation-injured ECs displayed decreased cell viability, increased cell apoptosis, and compromised angiogenic ability, which were alleviated by R-EPC-EXs. (3) WT-EPC-EXs elicited better effects than R-EPC-EXs on protecting ECs from hypertension plus hypoxia injury. In conclusion, our data have demonstrated that EPC-EXs mediated communication of EPCs and ECs is compromised in hypertension-ischemia conditions, suggesting that impairment of EPC exosomal communication might contribute to the exaggerated cerebral ischemia injury in hypertension-associated ischemic stroke.
Soil bacterial community response to cover crops, cover crop termination, and predicted climate conditions in a dryland cropping system
Authors: Ouverson Tindall , Boss Darrin , Eberly Jed , Seipel Tim , Menalled Fabian D. , Ishaq Suzanne L.
Published: October 2022

Soil microbial communities are integral to highly complex soil environments, responding to changes in aboveground plant biodiversity, influencing physical soil structure, driving nutrient cycling, and promoting both plant growth and disease suppression. Cover crops can improve soil health, but little is known about their effects on soil microbial community composition in semiarid cropping systems, which are rapidly becoming warmer and drier due to climate change. This study focused on a wheat-cover crop rotation near Havre, Montana that tested two cover crop mixtures (five species planted early season and seven species planted mid-season) with three different termination methods (chemical, grazed, or hayed and baled) against a fallow control under ambient or induced warmer/drier conditions. Soil samples from the 2018 and 2019 cover crop/fallow phases were collected for bacterial community 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The presence and composition of cover crops affected evenness and community composition. Bacterial communities in the 2018 ambient mid-season cover crops, warmer/drier mid-season cover crops, and ambient early season cover crops had greater richness and diversity than those in the warmer/drier early season cover crops. Soil microbial communities from mid-season cover crops were distinct from the early season cover crops and fallow. No treatments affected bacterial alpha or beta diversity in 2019, which could be attributed to high rainfall. Results indicate that cover crop mixtures including species tolerant to warmer and drier conditions can foster diverse soil bacterial communities compared to fallow soils.
Relationship between the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio or platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio and deep venous thrombosis (DVT) following femoral neck fractures in the elderly
Authors: Niu Shuai , Pei Yueying , Hu Xin , Ding Dianzhu , Jiang Guangwei
Published: October 2022

Purpose

This study aimed to investigate whether the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) or platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) was associated with deep venous thrombosis (DVT) following femoral neck fractures in the elderly.

Method

This was a retrospective cohort study and used data extracted from the hospitalization electronic medical record and the laboratory biomarker reports. Patients were included if they were aged above 60 years with a definite diagnosis of femoral neck fracture caused by low-energy trauma. Duplex ultrasound scanning was routinely performed to detect the potential DVT. Two independent multivariate logistic regression models were constructed to identify the association of NLR or PLR with the risk of DVT.

Results

A total of 708 patients with femoral neck fractures were included, and 112 were found to have DVT, indicating an incidence rate of 15.8%. There were significant differences across five subgroups for NLR or PLR, in terms of age (p = 0.020, 0.006), white blood cell (p < 0.001, =0.006), hemoglobin (p < 0.001, <0.001), and albumin (p < 0.001, <0.001). BMI was tested to be significantly different across subgroups for NLR (p = 0.030) and prevalence of cerebrovascular disease for PLR (p = 0.014). The multivariate analyses demonstrated that not NLR but PLR in Q3 (range, 179–238) was associated with an increased risk of DVT, and the risk for the latter was 1.86 (95%CI, 1.07–3.36).

Conclusion

We concluded that a PLR value of 179–238 was associated with a 1.86-fold increased risk of DVT after femoral neck fracture. This study paves the way toward further exploration of inflammatory/immune biomarkers with the risk of DVT in the elderly with trauma.
Combining portable coagulometers with the Internet: A new model of warfarin anticoagulation in patients following mechanical heart valve replacement
Authors: Huang Yu , Huang Lei , Han Zhen
Published: October 2022

Heart valve replacement, as a safe and effective treatment for severe valvular heart disease, can significantly improve hemodynamics in patients. However, such patients then require lifelong anticoagulant therapy. Warfarin, a cheap and highly effective vitamin K antagonist, remains the major anticoagulant recommended for lifelong use following mechanical heart valve replacement. However, the effect of warfarin anticoagulant therapy is complicated by physiological differences among patients and non-compliance with treatment at different degrees. Effective management of warfarin therapy after heart valve replacement is currently an important issue. Portable coagulometers and the emergence of the Internet have provided new opportunities for long-term management of anticoagulation therapy, but the safety and affordability of this approach remain to be fully evaluated. This paper reviews recent progress on the use of portable coagulometers and the Internet in the management of warfarin anticoagulation therapy following mechanical heart valve replacement, which offers opportunities for reducing complications during postoperative anticoagulation and for facilitating patient compliance during follow-up.
A newly developed strain of Enterococcus faecium isolated from fresh dairy products to be used as a probiotic in lactating Holstein cows
Authors: Azzaz Hossam H. , Kholif Ahmed E. , Murad Hussein A. , Vargas-Bello-Pérez Einar
Published: October 2022

The objective of this study was to determine the ability of an isolated strain (EGY_NRC1) or commercial (NCIMB 11181) Enterococcus faecium as a probiotic for lactating cows. Two experiments were conducted: In Experiment 1, the effects of three levels (1, 2, and 3 g/kg diet, DM basis) of isolated and commercial E. faecium on in vitro ruminal fermentation kinetics, gas, methane (CH4) and nutrient degradability were determined. In Experiment 2, thirty multiparous Holstein cows (633 ± 25.4 kg body weight) with 7 days in milk, were randomly assigned to 3 treatments in a completely randomized design in a 60-day experiment. Cows were fed without any additives (control treatment) or supplemented with 2 g/kg feed daily of E. faecium EGY_NRC1 (contain 1.1 × 109 CFU/g) or commercial E. faecium NCIMB 11181 (contain 2 × 1012 CFU/g). Diets were prepared to meet cow's nutrient requirements according to NRC recommendations. Probiotic doses were based on the in vitro Experiment 1. Feed intake, digestibility, blood parameters and lactation performance were evaluated. In Experiment 1, the isolated E. faecium linearly and quadratically increased (P < 0.001) in vitro total gas production (TGP), the degradability of dry matter (dDM) and organic matter (dOM) while decreased (P < 0.05) methane (CH4) percent of TGP, NH3CH4 production, and pH. The commercial E. faecium increased TGP and decreased (P < 0.01) CH4 production, pH and increased the dDM and dOM, short chain fatty acids and ruminal NH3-N concentration. In Experiment 2, the isolated E. faecium increased (P < 0.01) total tract digestibility of DM, neutral and acid detergent fiber, daily milk production and feed efficiency compared to the control treatment without affecting feed intake and milk composition. Moreover, the isolated E. faecium increased (P < 0.05) the proportion of C18:1 trans-9, C18:2 cis-9-12 and C18:2 trans-10 cis-12. Both isolated and commercial E. faecium improved (P < 0.01) organic matter, crude protein and nonstructural carbohydrates digestibility, increased serum glucose (P = 0.002) and decreased serum cholesterol (P = 0.002). Additionally, both E. faecium strains decreased C23:0 (P = 0.005) in milk. In conclusion, the use of E. faecium (isolated and commercial) at 2 g/kg DM of feed improved feed efficiency and production performance, with superior effects on animal performance from isolated E. faecium compared to the commercial one.
Comprehensive Molecular Analyses of an SLC Family-Based Model in Stomach Adenocarcinoma
Authors: Yu Tao , Yu Shao-kun , Lu Kai-hua
Published: October 2022

Background: Solute carrier (SLC) family members are crucial in transporting amino acids across membranes. Amino acids are indispensable for both cancer and immune cells. However, the clinical significance of amino acid transporting SLC members in stomach adenocarcinoma (STAD) remains unclear. This study aimed to develop an SLC family-based model to predict the prognosis and the response of STAD patients to immunotherapy.

Methods: A total of 1239 tumor cases were obtained from online databases. The training set (n = 371) consisted of RNA sequencing profiles obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), while those from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) were used as the test set. Subsequently, the clinical characteristics and immune profiles were investigated, and potential immunotherapy response prediction values of the model were assessed.

Results: Based on the TCGA cohort, an SLC family-based model was developed using multivariate Cox analysis. All tumor cases were stratified into high- and low-risk groups considering the SLC model. High-risk patients had a worse overall survival (OS) than low-risk patients, consistent with the results of GEO cohorts. Comprehensive analyses revealed that the high-risk group was correlated with aggressiveness-related pathways, whereas the low-risk group had better T helper cell infiltration and stronger immunotherapy response. Compared to the high-risk group, the low-risk group presented increased PD-L1 and tumor mutation burden.

Conclusion: This SLC family-based model has the potential to predict the prognosis and immunotherapy outcomes of STAD patients. The survival of patients in the low-risk group was greatly prolonged, and the patients may benefit more from immunotherapy.
Data Driven Models for the Design of Rocket Injector Elements
Authors: Zapata Usandivaras José Felix , Urbano Annafederica , Bauerheim Michael , Cuenot Bénédicte
Published: October 2022

Improving the predictive capabilities of reduced-order models for the design of injector and chamber elements of rocket engines could greatly improve the quality of early rocket chamber designs. In the present work, we propose an innovative methodology that uses high-fidelity numerical simulations of turbulent reactive flows and artificial intelligence for the generation of surrogate models. The surrogate models that were generated and analyzed are deep learning networks trained on a dataset of 100 large eddy simulations of a single-shear coaxial injector chamber. The design of experiments was created considering three design parameters: chamber diameter, recess length, and oxidizer–fuel ratio. The paper presents the methodology developed for training and optimizing the data-driven models. Fully connected neural networks (FCNNs) and U-Nets were utilized as surrogate-modeling technology. Eventually, the surrogate models for the global quantity, average, and root mean square fields were used in order to analyze the impact of the length of the post’s recess on the performances obtained and the behavior of the flow.
Root System Architecture and Omics Approaches for Belowground Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Plants
Authors: Joshi Shubham , Chinnusamy Viswanathan , Joshi Rohit
Published: October 2022

Plant growth and productivity is negatively affected by several abiotic stresses. To overcome the antagonistic effect of a changing environment, plants have evolved several modifications at the physiological as well as molecular levels. Besides being a vital organ for a plant’s nutrient uptake, roots also plays a significant role in abiotic stress regulation. This review provides insight into changing Root System Architecture (RSA) under varying environmental stimuli using high-throughput omics technologies. Several next-generation and high-throughput omics technologies, such as phenomics, genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, will help in the analysis of the response of root architectural traits under climatic vagaries and their impact on crop yield. Various phenotypic technologies have been implied for the identification of diverse root traits in the field as well as laboratory conditions, such as root-box pinboards, rhizotrons, shovelomics, ground-penetrating radar, etc. These phenotypic analyses also help in identifying the genetic regulation of root-related traits in different crops. High-throughput genomic as well as transcriptome analysis has led researchers to unravel the role of the root system in response to these environmental cues, even at the single-cell level. Detailed analysis at the protein and metabolite levels can provide a better understanding of the response of roots under different abiotic stresses. These technologies will help in the improvement of crop productivity and development of resistant varieties.
A Method for Obtaining the Number of Maize Seedlings Based on the Improved YOLOv4 Lightweight Neural Network
Authors: Gao Jiaxin , Tan Feng , Cui Jiapeng , Ma Bo
Published: October 2022

Obtaining the number of plants is the key to evaluating the effect of maize mechanical sowing, and is also a reference for subsequent statistics on the number of missing seedlings. When the existing model is used for plant number detection, the recognition accuracy is low, the model parameters are large, and the single recognition area is small. This study proposes a method for detecting the number of maize seedlings based on an improved You Only Look Once version 4 (YOLOv4) lightweight neural network. First, the method uses the improved Ghostnet as the model feature extraction network, and successively introduces the attention mechanism and k-means clustering algorithm into the model, thereby improving the detection accuracy of the number of maize seedlings. Second, using depthwise separable convolutions instead of ordinary convolutions makes the network more lightweight. Finally, the multi-scale feature fusion network structure is improved to further reduce the total number of model parameters, pre-training with transfer learning to obtain the optimal model for prediction on the test set. The experimental results show that the harmonic mean, recall rate, average precision and accuracy rate of the model on all test sets are 0.95%, 94.02%, 97.03% and 96.25%, respectively, the model network parameters are 18.793 M, the model size is 71.690 MB, and frames per second (FPS) is 22.92. The research results show that the model has high recognition accuracy, fast recognition speed, and low model complexity, which can provide technical support for corn management at the seedling stage.
Microbial Consortium Inoculum with Rock Minerals Increased Wheat Grain Yield, Nitrogen-Use Efficiency, and Protein Yield Due to Larger Root Growth and Architecture
Authors: Tshering Kinley , Rengel Zed , Storer Paul , Solaiman Zakaria M.
Published: October 2022

Polymer-coated rock mineral fertiliser (RMF) has the potential to increase wheat growth and yield; however, its effect on grain protein concentration (GPC) and nitrogen-use efficiency (NUE) remains unclear. Therefore, we examined the efficacy of slow-release RMF combined with microbial consortium inoculant (MI) compared with inorganic fertiliser (IF) with or without the MI to explore their effects on wheat growth, NUE, GPC, grain protein yield and grain yield. The glasshouse experiment was conducted with three factors (fertiliser type (control, RMF and IF), fertiliser rate (0, 23 and 46 mg N kg−1 soil), and MI (with or without)) replicated four times and harvested twice (anthesis and maturity). The treatments were arranged in a randomised complete block design. NUE was higher in plants treated with RMF plus MI compared to IF (with or without MI), likely due to extensive root system, higher shoot N content (at anthesis and maturity) and grain N content in plants treated with RMF plus MI than IF. The application of RMF enhanced grain yield and GPC compared with IF. The grain yield increased due to more grains in RMF-treated than IF-treated plants. The RMF application increased N content in shoots at anthesis and maturity and grain N content, which increased GPC compared to IF-treated plants. RMF in combination with MI can be viewed as a practical approach to assist RMF in supplying nutrients to improve NUE, grain yield and GPC in wheat.
A Real-Time Detection Algorithm for Sweet Cherry Fruit Maturity Based on YOLOX in the Natural Environment
Authors: Li Zhiyong , Jiang Xueqin , Shuai Luyu , Zhang Boda , Yang Yiyu , Mu Jiong
Published: October 2022

Fast, accurate, and non-destructive large-scale detection of sweet cherry ripeness is the key to determining the optimal harvesting period and accurate grading by ripeness. Due to the complexity and variability of the orchard environment and the multi-scale, obscured, and even overlapping fruit, there are still problems of low detection accuracy even using the mainstream algorithm YOLOX in the absence of a large amount of tagging data. In this paper, we proposed an improved YOLOX target detection algorithm to quickly and accurately detect sweet cherry ripeness categories in complex environments. Firstly, we took a total of 2400 high-resolution images of immature, semi-ripe, and ripe sweet cherries in an orchard in Hanyuan County, Sichuan Province, including complex environments such as sunny days, cloudy days, branch and leaf shading, fruit overlapping, distant views, and similar colors of green fruits and leaves, and formed a dataset dedicated to sweet cherry ripeness detection by manually labeling 36068 samples, named SweetCherry. On this basis, an improved YOLOX target detection algorithm YOLOX-EIoU-CBAM was proposed, which embedded the Convolutional Block Attention Module (CBAM) between the backbone and neck of the YOLOX model to improve the model’s attention to different channels, spaces capability, and replaced the original bounding box loss function of the YOLOX model with Efficient IoU (EIoU) loss to make the regression of the prediction box more accurate. Finally, we validated the feasibility and reliability of the YOLOX-EIoU-CBAM network on the SweetCherry dataset. The experimental results showed that the method in this paper significantly outperforms the traditional Faster R-CNN and SSD300 algorithms in terms of mean Average Precision (mAP), recall, model size, and single-image inference time. Compared with the YOLOX model, the mAP of this method is improved by 4.12%, recall is improved by 4.6%, F-score is improved by 2.34%, while model size and single-image inference time remain basically comparable. The method in this paper can cope well with complex backgrounds such as fruit overlap, branch and leaf occlusion, and can provide a data base and technical reference for other similar target detection problems.
Temporal Impact of Mulch Treatments (Pinus halepensis Mill. and Olea europaea L.) on Soil Properties after Wildfire Disturbance in Mediterranean Croatia
Authors: Delač Domina , Kisić Ivica , Pereira Paulo
Published: October 2022

On 28 July 2019, in the hinterland of Šibenik City, 900 ha were affected by wildfire of moderate to high severity. This study aims to evaluate the effects of two mulch treatments—needles of Pinus halepensis Mill. (PM) and leaves of Olea europaea L. (OM), as compared to an unmulched control (UM)—on soil quality. The study was conducted over 15 months, and soil samples were collected every 3 months. The studied soil properties were soil water repellence (SWR; composite, 1–2, 0.5–1, 0.5–0.25, <0.25 mm), soil hydraulic conductivity (SHC), mean weight diameter (MWD), water stability of aggregates (WSA), soil pH and electrical conductivity (EC), soil organic matter (SOM), total sulphur (TS), total carbon (TC), total nitrogen (TN), extractable phosphorus (P2O5), and available potassium (K2O). Six principal component analyses (PCA) were applied to observe the temporal dynamics of the soil properties studied for each sampling date. Mulching increased the aggregate stability (MWD and WSA) and improved SHC. SWR was only indicated on the first sampling date. Soil pH and EC showed high variability due to natural soil processes and vegetation regrowth. PM showed higher efficiency in increasing the TS, TC, and SOM, while OM increased soil P2O5 and K2O. Both mulch treatments increased the soil nutrient content, but the effect was variable due to the different chemical compositions of the material. Using native mulch is recommended because it improves soil quality.
Exogenous Melatonin Attenuates Cd Toxicity in Tea (Camellia sinensis)
Authors: Tan Xiaoqin , Huang Jiacheng , Lin Lijin , Tang Qian
Published: October 2022

Cadmium (Cd) is highly toxic and not easily degradable. It damages plant growth and results in large-scale economic losses. The present study explored the feasibility of using melatonin to alleviate Cd toxicity, and to reduce Cd accumulation in tea seedlings cultivated in Cd-contaminated soil. Exogenous melatonin, especially at 150 μM, promoted tea seedling growth under Cd stress, and increased the photosynthetic pigment by 16% and soluble protein content by 5%. Furthermore, melatonin effectively increased the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), and peroxidase (POD) by 21 and 31%, respectively, contributed to a decrease of the malondialdehyde (MDA) by 2% and the Cd content in leaves by 52%. Furthermore, soil enzyme activities were enhanced, including acid phosphatase (ACP), urease (UE), soil sucrase (SC), and soil catalase (CAT), by 11, 70, 1, and 18%, respectively, along with a pH reduction and available Cd content increase, after melatonin application. Taken together, our results provide evidence that melatonin lessens the adverse Cd effects on tea seedlings’ physiology, mainly through enhancing the antioxidant capacity of the plants and soils to scavenge reactive oxygen species (ROS) upon Cd exposure. Therefore, melatonin may be used as a modulator to alleviate Cd-induced toxicity in tea seedlings, thereby resulting in healthier tea plant growth.
Species-Specific and Altitude-Induced Variation in Karst Plants’ Use of Soil Dissolved Inorganic Carbon
Authors: Rao Sen , Wu Yanyou
Published: October 2022

Root-derived carbon sources supporting photosynthesis have been demonstrated to contribute to plant carbon gain in many laboratory experiments. However, it remains largely unknown whether and to what extent soil dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) influences leaf photosynthesis in karst habitats characterized by alkaline soils with low water content. We explored this relationship by measuring the concentrations and carbon isotope signals (δ13C) of soil DIC, as well as the δ13C of water-soluble organic matter (δWSOM) in leaves of nine woody species across an altitudinal gradient in karst habitats. The δWSOM varied among species by 7.23‰ and deviated from the δ13C of photosynthates solely assimilated from atmospheric CO2 (δA) by 0.44–5.26‰, with a mean value of 2.20‰. This systematical discrepancy (δA − δWSOM) could only be explained by the contribution of soil DIC to leaf total photosynthesis (fDIC_soil). The average values of fDIC_soil considerably varied among the nine species, ranging from 2.48% to 9.99%, and were comparable with or slightly lower than those of previous laboratory experiments. Furthermore, the fDIC_soil of two species significantly increased with altitude, whereas another species exhibited an opposite pattern, suggesting a highly spatial heterogeneity of DIC utilization. The present study improved our understanding of how plants adapt to the alkaline–drought soil conditions of karst habitats and thus acquire additional carbon for growth.