bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Factors associated with carer psychological and physical health during end-of-life caregiving: an observational analysis of a population-based post-bereavement survey of carers of people with cancer
Authors: Grande Gunn , Rowland Christine , Cotterill Sarah , Batistatou Evridiki , Hanratty Barbara
Published: October 2021

Objective

Family caregivers play an essential role in end-of-life care but suffer considerable impact on their own health. A better understanding of main factors related to carers’ health is important to inform interventions. The purpose of the study was to test for the first time the potential impact of a comprehensive set of observable variables on carer health during end-of-life caregiving within a population-based carer sample.

Design

National retrospective, cross-sectional, 4-month post-bereavement postal census survey of family carers of people who died from cancer.

Setting and participants

Relatives who registered a death from cancer during a 2-week period in England were identified from death certificates by the Office of National Statistics; response rate was 1504/5271 (28.5%).

Outcome measures

Carers’ mental health was measured through General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)-12; general health was measured through EuroQoL EQ-Visual Analogue Scale (EQ-5D VAS).

Methods

Survey questions to measure potential variables associated with carer health were based on past research and covered patients’ symptoms and functioning; caregiving activities and hours; informal and formal help received; work hours, other caregiving, volunteering; changes to work, income and expenditure; sleep and relaxation; and demographic variables. Bivariate analyses and ordinary least square regression were performed to investigate these variables’ relationship with outcomes.

Results

Patients’ psychological symptoms and functioning, caregiving hours, female gender and self-sought formal help related to worse mental health. General practitioner and social care input and relaxation related to better mental health. Patients’ psychological symptoms, caregiving hours and female gender were associated with worse general health, and older age, employment and relaxation were associated with better general health.

Conclusions

Improvements in carers’ health overall may be made by focusing on potential impacts of patients’ psychological symptoms on carers, facilitating respite and relaxation, and paying particular attention to factors affecting female carers.
Combined use of two rapid tests for the conclusive diagnosis of Chagas disease: a systematic scoping review
Authors: Ortega-Arroyo Arturo , Flores-Chavez María Delmans , Puente-Alcaraz Jesús
Published: October 2021

Objective

The goal of this systematic scoping review is to collect and summarise scientific evidence regarding the validity of two simultaneous immunochromatographic tests for the conclusive diagnosis of Chagas disease. The research was informed by the following review questions: Will the use of two rapid tests be a valid method for the definitive diagnosis of Chagas disease when compared with conventional serological tests? In what type of population has the operation of two rapid tests been tried for the diagnosis of Chagas disease? What are the biomedical and public health advantages of the diagnostic method resulting from the combination of two rapid tests over the conventional serological method? Will it be a cost–benefit strategy for the diagnosis of Chagas with respect to conventional serological tests?

Design

Systematic scoping review.

Setting

A search of the published and unpublished literature in five databases was carried out, in order to identify, screen and select the studies included in this review.

Results

468 studies were identified, of which 46 were screened with a full-text reading, and finally, three articles were included in the review. All studies were in endemic countries with adult and paediatric populations (n=1133) and, together, they evaluated four different rapid tests. The rapid tests showed good sensitivity (97.4%–100%) and specificity (96.1%–100%) for the diagnosis of Chagas when used in combination and compared with the reference tests.

Conclusions

The simultaneous use of at least two immunochromatographic rapid tests is a valid option for the definitive diagnosis of chronic Chagas in endemic rural areas, as long as there are studies that previously evaluate their performance on the areas of implementation. Therefore, this could be an alternative to the current diagnostic standard. However, additional studies are still needed in more countries in order to provide further evidence and to investigate the cost–benefit.
Survival after surgery for spinal metastatic disease: a nationwide multiregistry cohort study
Authors: Carrwik Christian , Olerud Claes , Robinson Yohan
Published: November 2021

Objectives

To evaluate survival after surgery and indications for surgery due to spinal metastatic disease.

Design

A retrospective longitudinal multiregistry nationwide cohort study.

Setting

19 public hospitals in Sweden with spine surgery service, where 6 university hospitals account for over 90% of the cases.

Participants

1820 patients 18 years or older undergoing surgery due to spinal metastatic disease 2006–2018 and registered in Swespine, the Swedish national spine surgery registry.

Interventions

Decompressive and/or stabilising spine surgery due to spinal metastatic disease.

Primary outcome

Survival (median and mean) after surgery.

Secondary outcomes

Indications for surgery, types of surgery and causes of death.

Results

The median estimated survival after surgery was 6.2 months (95% CI: 5.6 to 6.8) and the mean estimated survival time was 12.2 months (95% CI: 11.4 to 13.1). Neurologic deficit was the most common indication for surgery and posterior stabilisation was performed in 70.5% of the cases. A neoplasm was stated as the main cause of death for 97% of the patients.

Conclusion

Both median and mean survival times were well above the generally accepted thresholds for surgical treatment for spinal metastases, suggesting that patient selection for surgical treatment on a national level is adequate. Further research on quality of life after surgery and prognostication is needed.
Abortion decision-making trajectories and factors influencing such trajectories in low- and middle-income countries: a protocol for mixed-methods systematic review
Authors: Lokubal Paul , Frischer Sandrena Ruth , Corcuera Ines , Balil Jessica Macias , Nalwadda Kayemba Christine , Kurinczuk Jennifer J , Nair Manisha
Published: November 2021

Introduction

Globally, about half of all pregnancies are unintended and/or unwanted and three-fifths of these end in induced abortion. When faced with a choice to terminate pregnancy, women’s abortion decision-making processes are often complex and multiphasic and maybe amplified in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) which bear the major burden of abortion-related morbidity and mortality. Our review aims to (1) describe abortion decision-making trajectories for women in LMICs and (2) investigate factors influencing the choice of abortion decision-making trajectories in LMICs.

Methods and analysis

We will search and retrieve published and unpublished qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods, community and/or hospital-based studies conducted in LMICs from 1 January 2000 up to 16 February 2021. We will search Ovid Medline, Ovid EMBASE, Ovid PsycInfo, Ovid Global Health, Web of Science (including Social Science Citation Index), Scopus, IBSS, CINAHL via EBSCO, WHO Global Index Medicus, the Cochrane Library, WHO website, ProQuest and Google Scholar. We will search reference lists of eligible studies and contact experts for additional data/information, if required. We will extract all relevant data to answer our research questions and assess study quality using the appropriate appraisal tools. Depending on the extracted data, our analysis will use sequential or convergent synthesis methods proposed by Honget al. For qualitative studies, we will synthesise evidence using thematic synthesis, meta-ethnography or ‘best-fit’ framework synthesis; and for quantitative findings, we will provide a narrative synthesis and/or meta-analysis. We will do sensitivity analyses and assess confidence in our findings using Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, and Evaluation –Confidence in Evidence from Reviews of Qualitative Research (GRADE-CERQUal) for qualitative findings and Grades of Recommednation, Assessment, and Evaluation (GRADE) for quantitative findings.

Ethics and dissemination

We did not require ethics approval for this systematic review. We will publish our findings in an open-access peer-reviewed journal with global and maternal health readership. We will also present our findings at national and international scientific conferences.
Awareness and readiness to use telemonitoring to support diabetes care among care providers at teaching hospitals in Ethiopia: an institution-based cross-sectional study
Authors: Seboka Binyam Tariku , Yilma Tesfahun Melese , Birhanu Abraham Yeneneh
Published: October 2021

Objectives

This survey aimed to assess the awareness and readiness of healthcare providers to use telemonitoring (TM) technologies for managing diabetes patients as well as to identify associated factors in Ethiopia.

Design

An institution-based cross-sectional quantitative survey was conducted by using a pretested self-administered questionnaire from February to March 2020. Data analysis used a binary logistic regression and partial proportional odds model for factor identification.

Participants

Randomly selected 423 study physicians and nurses.

Setting

This study was conducted at the University of Gondar and Tibebe Ghion specialised teaching referral hospitals.

Outcome measures

Awareness and readiness towards TM in diabetes care.

Result

Out of 406 healthcare providers (69.7%, n=283 nurses and 30.3%, n=123 physicians) who completed the survey, 345 (38.7%) heard about TM, when it came to readiness, 321 (25.1%) and 121 (65.5%) of respondents had average and low readiness towards TM, respectively. The result of regression analysis shows that awareness towards TM was higher among respondents who had access to a computer (adjusted OR (AOR): 2.8 (95% CI 1.1 to 7.1)), computer-related training (AOR: 4.6 (95% CI 1.63 to 12.95)) and those who had the experience of supporting patients through digital tools (AOR: 1.7 (95% CI 1.0 to 2.8)). Self-perceived innovators and those who had access to a computer, computer-related training and favourable attitude towards TM had significantly higher readiness to use TM.

Conclusion

The findings of this survey revealed low awareness and readiness of participant’s towards TM. However, this study suggests the need of improving participant’s attitudes, access to smartphones and computers and technical skills to fill this gap.
Willingness, preferred ways and potential barriers to use pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention among men who have sex with men in China
Authors: Yu Simin , Cross Wendy , Lam Louisa Lok Yi , Zhang Kaili , Banik Biswajit , Li Xianhong , Wang Honghong
Published: October 2021

Objective

To explore willingness and preferred ways to use HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), factors associated with willingness, and potential barriers to PrEP use among men who have sex with men (MSM) in Changsha, China.

Design

A cross-sectional survey was conducted from 25 June to 31 August 2019. Two hundred and fifty-five MSM were recruited from three community-based organisations (CBOs) in Changsha City. Willingness and potential barriers to use PrEP were examined using researcher-created scales. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression was used to analyse the factors associated with willingness to use PrEP. P values <0.05 were considered significant.

Setting

Three MSM inclusive CBOs in Changsha, Hunan Province, China.

Participants

255 HIV-negative MSM were recruited through their CBOs with snowball sampling.

Results

Less than half of the participants (43.1%) had heard of PrEP and 15.3% were willing to use PrEP. The participants reported higher willingness to use event-driven PrEP (3.70±0.07) than daily PrEP (2.65±0.07). Higher self-rated risk and fear of contracting HIV (OR: 14.47, 95% CI 2.19 to 95.53), awareness of PrEP (OR: 4.20, 95% CI 1.64 to 10.73), sharing one’s own sexual orientation with parents or siblings (OR: 2.52, 95% CI 1.54 to 7.20) and having a university education or above (OR:0.29, 95% CI 0.12 to 0.72) were associated with willingness to use PrEP. Only 12.2% of the sample was concerned about potential barriers to PrEP use.

Conclusion

Efforts to improve awareness and knowledge of PrEP, teach self-evaluation of HIV infection risk and provide social and emotional support for MSM are needed to scale up PrEP implementation in China.
Defining collective capability in Australian evaluations that are conducted by, for and with Indigenous peoples for health programmes, policies and services: a concept analysis protocol
Authors: Maher Bobby Lee , Guthrie Jillian , Sturgiss Elizabeth Ann , Cargo Margaret , Lovett Raymond
Published: October 2021

Introduction

Indigenist evaluation is emergent in Australia; the premise of which is that evaluations are undertaken for Indigenous, by Indigenous and with Indigenous people. This provides opportunities to develop new models and approaches. Exploring a collective capability approach could be one way to inform an Indigenist evaluation methodology. Collective capability suggests that a base of skills and knowledges exist, and when these assets come together, empowerment and agency emerge. However, collective capability requires defining as it is not common terminology in population health or evaluation. Our aim is to define the concept of collective capability in Indigenist evaluation in Australia from an Australian Indigenous standpoint.

Methods and analysis

A modified Rodgers’ evolutionary concept analysis will be used to define collective capability in an Australian Indigenous evaluation context, and to systematically review and synthesise the literature. Approximately 20 qualitative interviews with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge holders will clarify the meaning of collective capability and inform appropriate search strategy terms with a consensus process then used to code the literature. We will then systematically collate, synthesise and analyse the literature to identify exemplars or models of collective capability from the literature.

Ethics and dissemination

The protocol has approval from the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Ethics Committee, approval no. EO239-20210114. All knowledge holders will provide written consent to participate in the research. This protocol provides a process to developing a concept, and will form the basis of a new framework and assessment tool for Indigenist evaluation practice. The concept analysis will establish definitions, characteristics and attributes of collective capability. Findings will be disseminated through a peer-reviewed journal, conference presentations, the project advisory group, the Thiitu Tharrmay reference group and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community partners supporting the project.
Spatiotemporal depletion of tumor-associated immune checkpoint PD-L1 with near-infrared photoimmunotherapy promotes antitumor immunity
Authors: Taki Shunichi , Matsuoka Kohei , Nishinaga Yuko , Takahashi Kazuomi , Yasui Hirotoshi , Koike Chiaki , Shimizu Misae , Sato Mitsuo , Sato Kazuhide
Published: November 2021

Background

Near-infrared photoimmunotherapy (NIR-PIT) is a new modality for treating cancer, which uses antibody-photoabsorber (IRDye700DX) conjugates that specifically bind to target tumor cells. This conjugate is then photoactivated by NIR light, inducing rapid necrotic cell death. NIR-PIT needs a highly expressed targeting antigen on the cells because of its reliance on antibodies. However, using antibodies limits this useful technology to only those patients whose tumors express high levels of a specific antigen. Thus, to propose an alternative strategy, we modified this phototechnology to augment the anticancer immune system by targeting the almost low-expressed immune checkpoint molecules on tumor cells.

Methods

We used programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), an immune checkpoint molecule, as the target for NIR-PIT. Although the expression of PD-L1 on tumor cells is usually low, PD-L1 is almost expressed on tumor cells. Intratumoral depletion with PD-L1-targeted NIR-PIT was tested in mouse syngeneic tumor models.

Results

Although PD-L1-targeted NIR-PIT showed limited effect on tumor cells in vitro, the therapy induced sufficient antitumor effects in vivo, which were thought to be mediated by the ‘photoimmuno’ effect and antitumor immunity augmentation. Moreover, PD-L1-targeted NIR-PIT induced antitumor effect on non-NIR light-irradiated tumors.

Conclusions

Local PD-L1-targeted NIR-PIT enhanced the antitumor immune reaction through a direct photonecrotic effect, thereby providing an alternative approach to targeted cancer immunotherapy and expanding the scope of cancer therapeutics.
Microarray testing in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus identifies a high prevalence of CpG DNA-binding antibodies
Authors: Brunekreef Tammo , Limper Maarten , Melchers Rowena , Mathsson-Alm Linda , Dias Jorge , Hoefer Imo , Haitjema Saskia , van Laar Jacob M , Otten Henny
Published: November 2021

Objective

Many autoantibodies are known to be associated with SLE, although their role in clinical practice is limited because of low sensitivity and weak associations with clinical manifestations. There has been great interest in the discovery of new autoantibodies to use in clinical practice. In this study, we investigated 57 new and known antibodies and their potential for diagnostics or risk stratification.

Methods

Between 2014 and 2017, residual sera of all anti-dsDNA tests in the UMC Utrecht were stored in a biobank. This included sera of patients with SLE, patients with a diagnosis of another immune-mediated inflammatory disease (IMID), patients with low (non-IMID) or medium levels of clinical suspicion of SLE but no IMID diagnosis (Rest), and self-reported healthy blood bank donors. Diagnosis and (presence of) symptoms at each blood draw were retrospectively assessed in the patient records with the Utrecht Patient-Oriented Database using a newly developed text mining algorithm. Sera of patients were analysed for the presence of 57 autoantibodies with a custom-made immunofluorescent microarray. Signal intensity cut-offs for all antigens on the microarray were set to the 95th percentile of the non-IMID control group. Differences in prevalence of autoantibodies between patients with SLE and control groups were assessed.

Results

Autoantibody profiles of 483 patients with SLE were compared with autoantibody profiles of 1397 patients from 4 different control groups. Anti-dsDNA was the most distinguishing feature between patients with SLE and other patients, followed by antibodies against Cytosine-phosphate-Guanine (anti-CpG) DNA motifs (p<0.0001). Antibodies against CMV (cytomegalovirus) and ASCA (anti-Saccharomyces cerevisiaeantibodies) were more prevalent in patients with SLE with (a history of) lupus nephritis than patients with SLE without nephritis.

Conclusion

Antibodies against CpG DNA motifs are prevalent in patients with SLE. Anti-CMV antibodies are associated with lupus nephritis.
Contrasting role of NLRP12 in autoinflammation: evidence from a case report and mouse models
Authors: Lévy Dan , Mariotte Alexandre , DeCauwer Aurore , Macquin Cecile , Pichot Angélique , Molitor Anne , Maurier Francois , Meyer Alain , Carapito Raphael , Georgel Philippe
Published: November 2021

Objective

To explore at the molecular level the phenotype of a patient suffering an autoinflammatory syndrome which was diagnosed as familial cold autoinflammatory syndrome type 2 (FCAS-2). To explore the functions of Nlrp12 in inflammation using mouse models.

Methods

Whole exome sequencing and Nlrp12 targeted resequencing were performed on DNA isolated from the patient and her family members. In vivo and ex vivo models of inflammation (urate crystals-dependent acute joint inflammation and urate crystals-induced peritonitis) were analysed in Nlrp12-deficient and Nlrp12-competent mice.

Results

A rare missense NLRP12 variant (c.857C>T, p.P286L) was identified in the patient and her healthy relatives. Nlrp12-deficient mice exhibit reduced systemic inflammation and neutrophilic infiltration.

Conclusion

Nlrp12 mediates proinflammatory functions in mice. In humans, the identification of Nlrp12 variants must be cautiously interpreted depending on clinical and paraclinical data to diagnose FCAS-2.
Immunomodulatory therapies for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection: an update of the systematic literature review to inform EULAR points to consider
Authors: Alunno Alessia , Najm Aurélie , Mariette Xavier , De Marco Gabriele , Emmel Jenny , Mason Laura , McGonagle Dennis G , Machado Pedro M
Published: November 2021

Objective

To update the EULAR 2020 systematic literature review (SLR) on efficacy and safety of immunomodulatory agents in SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Methods

As part of a EULAR taskforce, a systematic literature search update was conducted from 11 December 2020 to 14 July 2021. Two reviewers independently identified eligible studies and extracted data on efficacy and safety of immunomodulatory agents used therapeutically in SARS-CoV-2 infection at any stage of disease. The risk of bias (RoB) was assessed with validated tools.

Results

Of the 26 959 records, 520 articles were eligible for inclusion. Studies were mainly at high or unclear RoB. New randomised controlled trials (RCTs) on tocilizumab clarified its benefit in patients with severe and critical COVID-19, mainly if associated with glucocorticoids. There are emergent data on the usefulness of baricitinib and tofacitinib in severe COVID-19. Other therapeutic strategies such as the use of convalescent plasma and anti-SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies showed efficacy in subjects not mounting normal anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody responses.

Conclusion

This new SLR confirms that some immunomodulators (tocilizumab and JAK inhibitors) have a role for treating severe and critical COVID-19. Although better evidence is available compared with the previous SLR, the need of RCT with combination therapy (glucocorticoids+anti-cytokines) versus monotherapy with glucocorticoids still remains alongside the need for standardisation of inclusion criteria and outcomes to ultimately improve the care and prognosis of affected people. This SLR informed the 2021 update of the EULAR points to consider on the use of immunomodulatory therapies in COVID-19.
Influence of Ca2+ on mitochondrial apoptosis activation and yak meat tenderization during postmortem aging
Authors: Wang Lin-lin , Chen Lian-hong , Li Jian , Du Rong-sheng , Han Ling , Yu Qun-li
Published: November 2021

The objective of this study was to investigate the underlying molecular mechanisms of mitochondrial Ca2+ homeostasis disequilibrium in mitochondrial apoptosis and its impact on yak meat tenderness. Results indicated that CaCl2 treatment significantly promoted glycolysis by increasing lactic acid level and decreasing glycogen content, pH, and ATP production (P < 0.01 and P < 0.05). The activities of Na+-K+-ATPase pump and Ca2+-ATPase pump in the early aging stage were significantly influenced by CaCl2 treatment. The activities of synchronous digital hierarchy and citrate synthase were also significantly improved by CaCl2 treatment (P < 0.01 and P < 0.05). Mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels were significantly higher in the CaCl2 group than in the control group (P < 0.01); at 24 h, the value in the Ca2+ group was 64.27% higher than that in the control group. Furthermore, CaCl2 treatment significantly enhanced the mitochondrial apoptosis cascade reaction and meat tenderization by improving the myofibril fragmentation index and shear force (P < 0.01). These results demonstrated that the imbalance of mitochondrial Ca2+ homeostasis played a significant role in the mitochondrial apoptosis pathway by regulating energy metabolism factors, meat intracellular environment, mitochondrial functions, and ROS-mediated oxidative stress. These conditions further improved meat tenderization during postmortem aging.
Meshfree Approach for the Torsional Analysis of Non-Circular Orthotropic and Functionally Graded Sections
Authors: Prasad Ram Bilas , Singh Jeeoot , Shukla K. K.
Published: November 2021

This paper presents the torsional analysis of isotropic, orthotropic, and functionally graded material (FGM) triangular and rectangular sections. The formulation of the governing equation of the torsion problem is done using the Saint–Venant torsion theory. Classical power law has been considered for the modeling of FGM material. A meshfree technique based on various radial basis functions is used for the solution of the governing differential equation. MATLAB code is developed to solve the discretized partial differential equations. To demonstrate the effectiveness and accuracy of this technique, convergence study and numerical examples are presented by varying the various parameters. The torsional rigidity factors and shear stress factors are obtained for different new conditions. The solution presented here is validated from the analytical and numerical results along with some new results, which shows the satisfactory performance of the present method.
Confidence Indexing of Automated Detected Synsets: A Case Study on Contemporary Turkish Dictionary
Authors: Turan Erhan , Orhan Umut
Published: November 2021

In this study, a novel confidence indexing algorithm is proposed to minimize human labor in controlling the reliability of automatically extracted synsets from a non-machine-readable monolingual dictionary. Contemporary Turkish Dictionary of Turkish Language Association is used as the monolingual dictionary data. First, the synonym relations are extracted by traditional text processing methods from dictionary definitions and a graph is prepared in Lemma-Sense network architecture. After each synonym relation is labeled by a proper confidence index, synonym pairs with desired confidence indexes are analyzed to detect synsets with a spanning tree-based method. This approach can label synsets with one of three cumulative confidence levels (CL-1, CL-2, and CL-3). According to the confidence levels, synsets are compared with KeNet which is the only open access Turkish Wordnet. Consequently, while most matches with the synsets of KeNet is determined in CL-1 and CL-2 confidence levels, the synsets determined at CL-3 level reveal errors in the dictionary definitions. This novel approach does not find only the reliability of automatically detected synsets, but it can also point out errors of detected synsets from the dictionary.
Persian Fake News Detection: Neural Representation and Classification at Word and Text Levels
Authors: Samadi Mohammadreza , Mousavian Maryam , Momtazi Saeedeh
Published: November 2021

Nowadays, broadcasting news on social media and websites has grown at a swifter pace, which has had negative impacts on both the general public and governments; hence, this has urged us to build a fake news detection system. Contextualized word embeddings have achieved great success in recent years due to their power to embed both syntactic and semantic features of textual contents. In this article, we aim to address the problem of the lack of fake news datasets in Persian by introducing a new dataset crawled from different news agencies, and propose two deep models based on the Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers model (BERT), which is a deep contextualized pre-trained model for extracting valuable features. In our proposed models, we benefit from two different settings of BERT, namely pool-based representation, which provides a representation for the whole document, and sequence representation, which provides a representation for each token of the document. In the former one, we connect a Single Layer Perceptron (SLP) to the BERT to use the embedding directly for detecting fake news. The latter one uses Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) after the BERT’s embedding layer to extract extra features based on the collocation of words in a corpus. Furthermore, we present the TAJ dataset, which is a new Persian fake news dataset crawled from news agencies’ websites. We evaluate our proposed models on the newly provided TAJ dataset as well as the two different Persian rumor datasets as baselines. The results indicate the effectiveness of using deep contextualized embedding approaches for the fake news detection task. We also show that both BERT-SLP and BERT-CNN models achieve superior performance to the previous baselines and traditional machine learning models, with 15.58% and 17.1% improvement compared to the reported results by Zamani et al. [
30
], and 11.29% and 11.18% improvement compared to the reported results by Jahanbakhsh-Nagadeh et al. [
9
].
An Unsupervised and Robust Line and Word Segmentation Method for Handwritten and Degraded Printed Document
Authors: Mukherjee Jayati , Parui Swapan K. , Roy Utpal
Published: November 2021

Segmentation of text lines and words in an unconstrained handwritten or a machine-printed degraded document is a challenging document analysis problem due to the heterogeneity in the document structure. Often there is un-even skew between the lines and also broken words in a document. In this article, the contribution lies in segmentation of a document page image into lines and words. We have proposed an unsupervised, robust, and simple statistical method to segment a document image that is either handwritten or machine-printed (degraded or otherwise). In our proposed method, the segmentation is treated as a two-class classification problem. The classification is done by considering the distribution of gap size (between lines and between words) in a binary page image. Our method is very simple and easy to implement. Other than the binarization of the input image, no pre-processing is necessary. There is no need of high computational resources. The proposed method is unsupervised in the sense that no annotated document page images are necessary. Thus, the issue of a training database does not arise. In fact, given a document page image, the parameters that are needed for segmentation of text lines and words are learned in an unsupervised manner. We have applied our proposed method on several popular publicly available handwritten and machine-printed datasets (ISIDDI, IAM-Hist, IAM, PBOK) of different Indian and other languages containing different fonts. Several experimental results are presented to show the effectiveness and robustness of our method. We have experimented on ICDAR-2013 handwriting segmentation contest dataset and our method outperforms the winning method. In addition to this, we have suggested a quantitative measure to compute the level of degradation of a document page image.
Recurrent Neural Hidden Markov Model for High-order Transition
Authors: Hiraoka Tatsuya , Takase Sho , Uchiumi Kei , Keyaki Atsushi , Okazaki Naoaki
Published: November 2021

We propose a method to pay attention to high-order relations among latent states to improve the conventional HMMs that focus only on the latest latent state, since they assume Markov property. To address the high-order relations, we apply an RNN to each sequence of latent states, because the RNN can represent the information of an arbitrary-length sequence with their cell: a fixed-size vector. However, the simplest way, which provides all latent sequences explicitly for the RNN, is intractable due to the combinatorial explosion of the search space of latent states.

Thus, we modify the RNN to represent the history of latent states from the beginning of the sequence to the current state with a fixed number of RNN cells whose number is equal to the number of possible states. We conduct experiments on unsupervised POS tagging and synthetic datasets. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves better performance than previous methods. In addition, the results on the synthetic dataset indicate that the proposed method can capture the high-order relations.
Investigating the Feasibility of Deep Learning Methods for Urdu Word Sense Disambiguation
Authors: Saeed Ali , Nawab Rao Muhammad Adeel , Stevenson Mark
Published: November 2021

Word Sense Disambiguation (WSD), the process of automatically identifying the correct meaning of a word used in a given context, is a significant challenge in Natural Language Processing. A range of approaches to the problem has been explored by the research community. The majority of these efforts has focused on a relatively small set of languages, particularly English. Research on WSD for South Asian languages, particularly Urdu, is still in its infancy. In recent years, deep learning methods have proved to be extremely successful for a range of Natural Language Processing tasks. The main aim of this study is to apply, evaluate, and compare a range of deep learning methods approaches to Urdu WSD (both Lexical Sample and All-Words) including Simple Recurrent Neural Networks, Long-Short Term Memory, Gated Recurrent Units, Bidirectional Long-Short Term Memory, and Ensemble Learning. The evaluation was carried out on two benchmark corpora: (1) the ULS-WSD-18 corpus and (2) the UAW-WSD-18 corpus. Results (Accuracy = 63.25% and F1-Measure = 0.49) show that a deep learning approach outperforms previously reported results for the Urdu All-Words WSD task, whereas performance using deep learning approaches (Accuracy = 72.63% and F1-Measure = 0.60) are low in comparison to previously reported for the Urdu Lexical Sample task.
Toward a Framework for Teaching Artificial Intelligence to a Higher Education Audience
Authors: Allen Becky , McGough Andrew Stephen , Devlin Marie
Published: November 2021

Artificial Intelligence and its sub-disciplines are becoming increasingly relevant in numerous areas of academia as well as industry and can now be considered a core area of Computer Science [
84
]. The Higher Education sector are offering more courses in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence than ever before. However, there is a lack of research pertaining to best practices for teaching in this complex domain that heavily relies on both computing and mathematical knowledge. We conducted a literature review and qualitative study with students and Higher Education lecturers from a range of educational institutions, with an aim to determine what might constitute best practices in this area in Higher Education. We hypothesised that confidence, mathematics anxiety, and differences in student educational background were key factors here. We then investigated the issues surrounding these and whether they inhibit the acquisition of knowledge and skills pertaining to the theoretical basis of artificial intelligence and machine learning. This article shares the insights from both students and lecturers with experience in the field of AI and machine learning education, with the aim to inform prospective pedagogies and studies within this domain and move toward a framework for best practice in teaching and learning of these topics.
Local and Systemic T Cell Immunity in Fighting Pig Viral and Bacterial Infections
Authors: Gerner Wilhelm , Mair Kerstin H. , Schmidt Selma
Published: November 2021

T cells are an essential component of the adaptive immune system. Over the last 15 years, a constantly growing toolbox with which to study T cell biology in pigs has allowed detailed investigations on these cells in various viral and bacterial infections. This review provides an overview on porcine CD4, CD8, and γδ T cells and the current knowledge on the differentiation of these cells following antigen encounter. Where available, the responses of these cells to viral infections like porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus, classical swine fever virus, swine influenza A virus, and African swine fever virus are outlined. In addition, knowledge on the porcine T cell response to bacterial infections like Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae and Salmonella Typhimurium is reviewed. For CD4 T cells, the response to the outlined infections is reflected toward the Th1/Th2/Th17/Tfh/Treg paradigm for functional differentiation.
PPV and Frequency Characteristics of Tunnel Blast‐Induced Vibrations on Tunnel Surfaces and Tunnel Entrance Slope Faces
Authors: Wang Zeming , Yang Jianhua , Zhang Ting , Yao Chi , Zhang Xiaobo , Gu Ping
Published: November 2021

Tunnel blast‐induced vibration probably causes damage to the rock mass surrounding the tunnel surface and also to the rock mass of the slope at the tunnel entrance. It is important to simultaneously monitor the vibration on the tunnel surface and on the tunnel entrance slope face, especially when the blasting work face is close to tunnel entrance. During blasting excavation of the traffic tunnel at Baihetan hydropower station, vibration monitors were installed both on the tunnel surface and on the tunnel entrance slope face. Based on the monitoring data, a comparative study is conducted on the peak particle velocity (PPV) and frequency characteristics of the vibrations at these two locations. A three‐dimensional FEM simulation of the tunnel blast is then performed to verify the field test results. The field monitoring and the numerical simulation show that there is significant difference between the vibration on the tunnel surface and that on the tunnel entrance slope face. The vibration on the tunnel surface has greater PPV and faster attenuation, while the tunnel entrance slope face has higher frequency and faster reduction rate in the center frequency. These differences are attributed to the different wave types and wave propagation paths. The tunnel surface is mainly surface waves transmitted through the damaged rock mass around the tunnel profile, while the tunnel entrance slope face originates mainly from the body waves transmitted via the undamaged rock mass inside the mountain. The comparisons of the monitored vibrations with the velocity limits specified in the Chinese standard show that the most dangerous vibration that may exceed the limit occurs on the tunnel surface. Therefore, the maximum charge weight used in the tunnel blast is determined by the vibration on the tunnel surface. Under different control standards, the allowable maximum charge weight per delay is further discussed.
Improved Consistency of an Automated Multisatellite Method for Extracting Temporal Changes in Flood Extent
Authors: Mahmud Husniyah Binti , Katiyar Vaibhav , Nagai Masahiko
Published: November 2021

Malaysia is affected by floods almost every year. In this situation, high-frequency flood monitoring is crucial so that timely measures can be taken. However, the low revisit time of the satellites, as well as occlusion cast by clouds in optical images, limits the frequency of flood observation of the focused area. Therefore, this study proposes utilising multisatellite data from optical satellites such as Landsat 7, Landsat 8, and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), as well as Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images from Advanced Land Observation Satellite (ALOS-2) and Sentinel-1, to increase observation of flood. The main objective was to utilize Otsu image segmentation over both optical and SAR satellite images to distinguish water and nonwater areas in each image separately. For this, modified normalized difference water index (MNDWI) for the optical satellite and total dual-polarization backscatter for SAR satellite images were estimated. The focused area has been divided into Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) square-size grids of 30 pixels, and each satellite image was reprojected and resampled with a pixel size of 0.001° to standardize the flood map resolution. The second objective was to assess the potential of image fusion for increasing the consistency of water area extraction. Two pairs of satellite images with the same observation period covering a flood event in September 2017 in Perlis, Malaysia, were processed using 2D wavelet transform. Lastly, the temporal changes of the integrated surface water extent were evaluated by comparing the output from both multisatellite and fused images with the observed water level data from the Department of Drainage and Irrigation. The results showed that the proposed model can be used to estimate flood duration as well as to estimate the flood-related losses, especially in ungauged or data-poor regions.
Elevated Anthropometric and Metabolic Indicators among Young Adult Offspring of Mothers with Pregestational Diabetes: Early Results from the Transgenerational Effect on Adult Morbidity Study (the TEAM Study)
Authors: Bowers Katherine , Ehrlich Shelley , Dolan Lawrence M. , Gupta Resmi , Altaye Mekibib , Ollberding Nicholas J. , Szczesniak Rhonda , Catalano Patrick , Smith Emily , Khoury Jane C.
Published: November 2021

Exposure to maternal diabetes in utero increases the risk in the offspring for a range of metabolic disturbances. However, the timing and variability of in utero hyperglycemic exposure necessary to cause impairment have not been elucidated. The TEAM Study was initiated to evaluate young adult offspring of mothers with pregestational diabetes mellitus. This paper outlines the unique enrollment challenges of the TEAM Study and preliminary analysis of the association between exposure to diabetes in pregnancy and adverse metabolic outcomes. The TEAM Study enrolls offspring of women who participated in a Diabetes in Pregnancy (DiP) Program Project Grant between 1978 and 1995. The DiP Study collected medical and obstetric data across pregnancy. The first 96 eligible offspring of women with pregestational diabetes were age-, sex-, and race-matched to adults from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2015-2016 with an OGTT. Descriptive and regression analyses were employed to compare TEAM participants to NHANES participants. Among a subset of TEAM participants, we compared the metabolic outcomes across maternal glucose profiles using a longitudinal data clustering technique that characterizes level and variability, in maternal glucose across pregnancy. By comparing categories of BMI, TEAM Study participants had over 2.0 times the odds of being obese compared to matched NHANES participants (for class III obesity,

OR
=
2.81

; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.15, 6.87). Increasing levels of two-hour glucose were also associated with in utero exposure to pregestational diabetes in matched analyses. Exposure to pregestational diabetes in utero may be associated with an increased risk of metabolic impairment in the offspring with clinical implications.
Tetrahydropalmatine Alleviates Hyperlipidemia by Regulating Lipid Peroxidation, Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress, and Inflammasome Activation by Inhibiting the TLR4-NF-κB Pathway
Authors: Ding Ke , Chen Linjun , He Jiaqi , Wang Jiahong , Yu Chaohui , Wang Hui
Published: November 2021

Hyperlipidemia (HLP) is a lipid metabolism disorder that can induce a series of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, such as atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction, coronary heart disease, and stroke, which seriously threaten human health. Tetrahydropalmatine (THP) is a component of the plant Rhizoma corydalis and has been shown to exert hepatoprotective and anti-inflammatory effects in HLP. However, whether THP regulates lipid peroxidation in hyperlipidemia, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and inflammasome activation and even the underlying protective mechanism against HLP remain unclear. An animal model of HLP was established by feeding a high-fat diet to golden hamsters. Our results showed that THP reduced the body weight and adipose index; decreased the serum content of ALT, AST, TC, TG, and LDL-C; decreased the free fatty acid hepatic lipid content (liver index, TC, TG, and free fatty acid); inhibited oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation; extenuated hepatic steatosis; and inhibited ER stress and inflammasome activation in high-fat diet-fed golden hamsters. In addition, for the first time, the potential mechanism by which THP protects against HLP through the TLR4-NF-κB signaling pathway was demonstrated. In conclusion, these data indicate that THP attenuates HLP through a variety of effects, including antioxidative stress, anti-ER stress, and anti-inflammatory effects. In addition, THP also inhibited the TLR4-NF-κB signaling pathway in golden hamsters.
MicroRNA‐27a Promotes Oxidative‐Induced RPE Cell Death through Targeting FOXO1
Authors: Ren Chengda , Hu Weinan , Wei Qingquan , Cai Wenting , Jin Huizi , Yu Donghui , Liu Chang , Shen Tianyi , Zhu Meijiang , Liang Xiuwei , Yu Jing
Published: November 2021

Age‐related macular degeneration (AMD) is a multifactor disease, which is primarily characterized by retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cell loss. Since the retina is the most metabolically active tissue, RPE cells are exposed to consistent oxidative environment. So, oxidation‐induced RPE cell death has long been considered a contributor to the onset of AMD. Here, we applied a retinal degeneration (RD) rat model induced by blue light‐emitting diode (LED) and a cell model constructed by H2O2 stimulus to mimic the prooxidant environment of the retina. We detected that the expression of miR‐27a was upregulated and the expression of FOXO1 was downregulated in both models. So, we furtherly investigated the role of miR‐27a‐FOXO1 axis in RPE in protesting against oxidants. Lentivirus‐mediated RNA was injected intravitreally into rats to modulate the miR‐27a‐FOXO1 axis. Retinal function and histopathological changes were evaluated by electroretinography (ERG) analysis and hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining, respectively. Massive photoreceptor and RPE cell death were examined by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase‐mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL). The damage to the retina was aggravated in the FOXO1 gene‐knockdown and miR‐27a‐overexpression groups after exposure to LED but was alleviated in the FOXO1 gene‐overexpression or miR‐27a‐knockdown groups. Dual luciferase assay was used to detect the binding site of miR‐27a and FOXO1. Upregulated miR‐27a inhibited the expression of FOXO1 by directly binding to the FOXO1 mRNA 3 ′UTR and decreased the autophagy activity of ARPE‐19 cells, resulting in the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and decrease of cell viability. The results suggest that miR‐27a is a negative regulator of FOXO1. Also, our data emphasize the prominent role of miR‐27a/FOXO1 axis in modulating ROS accumulation and cell death in RPE cell model under oxidative stress and influencing the retinal function in the LED‐induced RD rat model.
BDNF Genetic Variant and Its Genotypic Fluctuation in Major Depressive Disorder
Authors: Ferreira Fratelli Caroline , Willatan Siqueira Jhon , Rodrigues Gontijo Bruna , de Lima Santos Maurício , de Souza Silva Calliandra Maria , Rodrigues da Silva Izabel Cristina
Published: November 2021

Major depressive disorder (MDD) still has an unknown etiology and mechanisms. Many studies have been conducted seeking to associate and understand the connection of different genetic variants to this disease. Researchers have extensively studied the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) Val66Met genetic variant in MDD; yet, their findings remain inconsistent. This systematic review sought to verify the GG (Val/Val) genotype frequency fluctuation in different populations with MDD. For this, we searched in different databases and, after applying the eligibility criteria, selected 17 articles. Most studies demonstrate the higher frequency of the ancestral (wild) GG (Val/Val) genotype, although associations of the polymorphic A (Met) allele, changes in BDNF protein serum levels, or both were also found in MDD, whether related to the disease’s development or other factors. Nevertheless, despite these findings, disagreements between several studies are seen. For this reason, further BDNF Val66Met genetic variant studies should not only bridge the gap in the knowledge of this polymorphism’s role in MDD’s different facets but also analyze the genotypic and phenotypic heterogeneity in different populations to help provide a better quality of life for patients.