bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Pathogen detection and analysis in patients with sepsis complicated with new- onset atrial fibrillation: a retrospective observational study
Authors: Yang Ao-Ling , Li Li , Zhang Zhao-Hui , Li Xin-Xin , You Xiao-Xue , Sun Jin , Akram Muhammad Farhan , Liu Hai-Hua
Published: January 2023

Background: Patients with sepsis are prone to complications such as cardiac damage and arrhythmia, of which atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common. Previous studies have found that some pathogenic microorganisms infected by sepsis patients was related to the occurrence of new-onset atrial fibrillation (NOAF), but no study has conducted a detailed and comprehensive analysis of the pathogens associated with NOAF in sepsis patients.
Methods: This retrospective observational study examined 2123 patients diagnosed with sepsis in Yichang Central People's Hospital from August 1, 2016, to August 20, 2021. We selected 123 septic patients with AF as the case group and 2000 septic patients without AF as the control group. The sociodemographic characteristics, complications, laboratory test results, hospital clinical process and outcome of the two groups were compared. In addition, we assessed the proportion of pathogens with different types, common strains, gram-positive bacteria, gram-negative bacteria, different sites of infection, community infection, nosocomial infection, and culture-negative sepsis. We used logistic regression to determine the risk factors for NOAF in sepsis patients.
Results: In the adjusted multivariable analysis, we found that sepsis patients with NOAF are significantly more likely to have older age (OR 2.725; 95% CI 1.775-4.184), coronary heart disease (OR 2.124; 95% CI 1.300-3.471), heart failure (OR 2.289; 95% CI 1.462-3.585), severe inflammation (OR 4.012; 95% CI 2.654-6.064), septic shock (OR 2.297; 95% CI 1.532-3.445), Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection (OR 4.163; 95% CI 2.199-7.880), Streptococcus pneumoniae infection (OR 5.729; 95% CI 1.666-19.706) and central venous catheter infection (OR 3.954; 95% CI 1.651-9.470). Moreover, sepsis patients with NOAF might have a significantly higher risk of all-cause mortality (P-adj=0.000), higher hospitalization expenses (P-adj=0.000), a higher likelihood of admission to the ICU (P-adj=0.000), and a higher likelihood of using mechanical ventilation than those without NOAF (P-adj=0.000).
Conclusions: In addition to traditional risk factors (such as older age, coronary heart disease, heart failure, severe inflammation and septic shock), Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection, Streptococcus pneumoniae infection and central venous catheter infection also contributed to the risk of NOAF in sepsis patients. Furthermore, NOAF conferred an increased risk for in-hospital mortality and hospitalization expenses.
Experimental study on seismic performance of cold-formed thin-walled steel-concrete composite column-H steel beam frame
Authors: Hou HongJie , Chen ZhiHua , Wang XiuLi
Published: January 2023

For the light-weight steel frame structures consisting of cold-formed thin-walled steel-concrete composite columns and H-shaped steel beams, the seismic performance comparison tests and numerical simulation analyses were performed for the bare frame and the infilled frame. The effects of the lightweight wall panels, the axial compression ratio and the steel wall thickness of composite columns on the seismic properties of the structure have been investigated. The failure of the bare frame is concentrated in the weld fracture at the beam-column joints. When the infilled is embedded in the frame, the damage is concentrated at the corners and edges of the wall panel, and at the connectors. Wall panel significantly improves the frame’s initial stiffness, early energy dissipation and extreme load, with the wall panel energy dissipation rate as high as 91% at the beginning. As the axial compression ratio increases, the extreme load on the structure is significantly reduced. Under monotonic loading, the extreme load on the structure with axial compression ratio 0.4 is reduced by nearly 44% compared to the structure without axial compression. Increasing the wall steel thickness of the composite column increases the load-bearing capacity of the structure, but the increase diminishes with increasing wall thickness.
Clinical observation of dexmedetomidine nasal spray in the treatment of sleep disorders on the first night after undergoing maxillofacial surgery: A single- center double-blind randomized controlled study
Authors: Wang Ye , Jin Zibin , Xu Wenli , Chen Keyu , Wei Lingxin , Deng Xiaoming , Yang Dong , Yan Fuxia
Published: January 2023

Background: Dexmedetomidine exerts a sedative effect by promoting the sleep pathway endogenously and producing a state similar to N2 sleep. Aims: To study the efficacy and safety of dexmedetomidine nasal spray in the treatment of postoperative sleep disturbance. Methods: We herein enrolled 120 participants [men and women; age, 18–40 years; American Society of Anesthesiologists grade, I or II] who underwent maxillofacial surgery under general anesthesia through nasotracheal intubation. The participants were randomly divided into three groups: blank control group (BC group), 1.0-µg/kg dexmedetomidine group (1.0 Dex group), and 1.5-µg/kg dexmedetomidine group (1.5 Dex group), with 40 patients allocated to each group. At 21:30 on the night after the operation, the intervention groups were administered their corresponding doses of dexmedetomidine nasal spray. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) scale was used to evaluate the baseline sleep status of participants 1 month preoperatively and on the night after the operation. Polysomnography (PSG) was used to record the sleep status on the night after the operation. We recorded the rescue times of sedative and analgesic drugs on the first night after surgery, adverse reactions, total hospital stay duration, and total costs. Results: Compared with patients in the BC group, those in 1.0 Dex and 1.5 Dex groups had longer N2 sleep duration, were awake for a shorter time after dose administration, woke up less often, and had significantly improved sleep efficiency (P < 0.05). Compared with the BC group, the PSQI scores of 1.0 Dex and 1.5 Dex groups were significantly lower on the night after operation, and the proportion of PSQI > 5 was significantly lower (P < 0.05). Compared with patients in the BC group and the 1.0 Dex group, those in the 1.5 Dex group had significantly prolonged N3 sleep, reduced frequency of requiring sufentanil rescue, lower incidence of sore throat after surgery, and shorter average length of hospital stay (all,P < 0.05). Conclusion: The sleep quality of participants on the night after having undergone maxillofacial surgery was safely and effectively improved by 1.0-µg/kg and 1.5-µg/kg dexmedetomidine atomized nasal sprays. Notably, only the latter could prolong N3 sleep.Level of Evidence II:Evidence was obtained from at least one properly designed randomized controlled trial.
GAP method: A dichotomization technique for outlier detection and its application to wildlife GPS data
Authors: Hirakawa Hirofumi , Muramatsu Daisuke , Gordo Marcelo , Takii Akiko , Izumiyama Shigeyuki
Published: January 2023

Outliers in datasets are a concern for analysts as disturbances or signals, and various techniques for their detection have been proposed. Some of them separate outliers as output, but others do not. The latter provide measures of how likely each data point is an outlier, but they leave the threshold-setting for separating outliers as a task for analysts. We developed a technique to help analysts perform this task. This technique uses value gaps between adjacent data pairs in a univariate dataset, where the data are sorted in ascending order of value. Its core process is to find the largest gap in the upper range of the dataset and remove the data above the gap as outliers; its supplementary process is to repeat the core process for the dataset after removal. Analysts need to decide when to stop this iteration. However, this process leaves analysts with only a few reasonable options for the decision. This method applies to any dataset, such as a time series or multivariate dataset, if a ratio-scale measure for quantifying the degree of data being an outlier is given. We demonstrate how to implement this technique using wildlife GPS data and discuss the uniqueness and usefulness of the approach.
Magnetically Recoverable Silica-Supported Magnetite-(K 10 ) Montmorillonite Nanoparticles and their Utilization for the Synthesis of Nitrile from Aldehyde
Authors: Patil Shripad M , Bedre Ashwini
Published: January 2023

Magnetic nanoparticles Fe3O4@SiO2@K10 as heterogeneous catalysts were found to be green and efficient for the synthesis of nitrile series by using aldehyde and hydroxylamine hydrochloride reflux under 80 0C conditions. The synthesized nanoparticles were analyzed using powder XRD, FT-IR spectra, EDX, WDX, and FE-SEM techniques. The size of the nanoparticles of the product was determined to be around 19 nm. That catalyst has the potential to function as a nano-reactor. The current approach has the following advantages: cleaner reaction, faster reaction, higher yield, easier set-up, and cheaper nanocatalyst availability. The nanocatalysts have been recycled and reused at least six times without losing their catalytic capabilities.
Spectral Interpolation method SIM for increasing X-ray laminography reconstruction with Limited Data projections
Authors: BACHA Mohammed reda AHMED , BENOUAR ALI , AKERMI Nesro , khorsi azzddine
Published: January 2023

The lamingoraphy imaging is an non-destructive testing used in the industrial field, commonly used to inspect industrial products using radiation sources, X-ray. Laminography has several advantages, such as high depth resolution. The reconstruction process of the image in This system use stationary inverse-geometry X-ray and causes Artifacts in final image due to limited number of projection. In this project, we proposed a spectral interpolation method (SIM) for correction to reduce the star artifacts. Tthe performance of the proposed method was evaluated with the SSIM. Comparing with conventional techniques, the SIM method showed superior performance in reducing star artifacts and improved the reconstructed images for poor number of projections.
3D Printable Electroconductive Gelatin-Hyaluronic Acid Composites Containing Polypyrrole Nanoparticles For Electroactive Tissue Engineering
Authors: Serafin Aleksandra , Culebras Mario , Oliveira J. Miguel , Koffler Jacob , Collins Maurice N.
Published: January 2023

Electrically conductive bio-scaffolds are being explored in the field of tissue engineering (TE) as a solution to address the clinical need of electroactive tissues, finding applications in nervous, cardiac, and spinal cord injury repair. In this work, we synthesise polypyrrole nanoparticles (PPy NP) via the mini-emulsion method with further combination with a gelatin/hyaluronic acid (HA) hydrogel to create electro-conductive Gel:HA:PPy-NP TE scaffolds. The electro-conductive Gel:HA:PPy-NP scaffolds possess excellent mechanical properties at 1.08 ± 0.26 MPa, closely matching to reported spinal cord mechanical performance. Scaffolds were designed with controlled porosity of 526.2 ± 74.6-403.9 ± 57.4 µm, and conductivities of 4.3×10− 6±1.1×10− 6 S.cm− 1 were reached. Rheological studies show that prior to lyophilisation, the Gel:HA:PPy-NP hydrogels display a shear-thinning behaviour. These gels were subsequently 3D printed into predefined 2 layer lattice geometries and displayed excellent post-printing shape fidelity. In-vitro studies show that the Gel:HA:PPy-NP scaffolds are cytocompatible with mesenchymal stem cells and neuronal stem cells and display encouraging cell attachment and proliferation profiles. Based on these results, the incorporation of PPy NPs into Gel:HA biomaterial scaffolds enhances the conductive capabilities of the material, while showcasing biocompatible behaviour with cell cultures. Hence, Gel:HA:PPy-NPs scaffolds are a promising TE option for the stimulating of nervous tissue injury regeneration.
Benign Late T wave Inversion Post coronary artery bypass grafting: of Myocardial Reperfusion Sign Appearing Late on ECG a case report
Authors: Aware Brahim Nassour , Mahoungou Noel , Adikpeto Fegus , Seydou Harouna , Arouss Salim , Bennouna Ghali , Drighil Abdel Nasser , Azzouzi Leila , Pacaud Didier , HABBAL Rachida
Published: January 2023

Bacground: The onset of new T wave inversion (TWI) on an electrocardiogram (ECG) has always been considered an alarming sign of myocardial ischemia. Successful myocardial infarction reperfusion is indicated by the presence of early TWI after revascularization. We report a case of benign late precordial TWI post-coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) with no evidence of myocardial ischemia.
Case report: A 44-year-old Middle, medically free apart from dyslipidemia on a trial of diet presented with non-ST-segment elevation MI (NSTEMI). Coronary catheterization revealed triple vessel disease involving ostial to mid LAD 80% lesion, ostial 80% D1 lesion, ostial 80% OM1 lesion, and diffusely disease RCA up to the bifurcation of PDA/PLV branches, followed by CABG two weeks later-LIMA to LAD, SVG to D1, OM1 and PDA
Conclusion:
Anterior precordial T wave inversion can present as a late ECG sign of successful myocardial reperfusion in Non ST segment myocardial infarction after revascularization via CABG.
The Impact of Governance on Poverty and Unemployment Control before and After the Covid Outbreak in the United States
Authors: Ronaghi Marzieh , Scorsone Eric
Published: January 2023

Covid-19 presents many social and economic challenges and exacerbates existing ones. One of these challenges is global poverty. Prior to the epidemic, poverty affected the rural population traditionally. Global poverty can spread to urban areas now with COVID-19 outbreak. Poverty increased in the United States in 2020 as the coronavirus outbreak, affecting the economy and rising unemployment. New figures confirm that the recession may have widened the gap between rich and poor, with those at the bottom of the economic ladder suffering the most, such as the rural population. In this study, we examine the relationship between Covid outbreak, governance and economic performance and its impact on number in poverty. To this end, data from the Center for American Progress is analyzed over 10 years (from 2011–2020) among the 49 states in America through spatial econometric techniques for panel data. The effect of each state's condition was examined on neighboring states. The results showed that the governance index (with a negative sign) and Income inequality variable (with a positive sign), have the greatest impact on poverty. The unemployment, Gender wage gap, Hunger and food insecurity, Health insurance, Population and Higher education also have an impact on poverty. The policy recommendations of this study are that because the variable of governance (accountability and responsibility of the government to compensate for the damage caused by the covid outbreak) is one of the most effective variables to control poverty.
JEL: I13, I18, I23, I28
Cosmic Time Calibrator for Wireless Sensor Network
Authors: Tanaka Hiroyuki K.M.
Published: January 2023

Time synchronization of the sensor nodes is a critical function for optimal operation of the wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Since clocks incorporated into each node tend to drift, recurrent corrections are required. Most of these correction schemes involve clients periodically receive RF timing signals from a time server. However, an RF-based scheme is prone to glitches or failure unless operating in a region with almost entirely unobstructed space; hence it only operates well in a limited range of environments. For example, GPS requires open-sky environments. Moreover, the precision of land-based RF schemes is limited to a few micro seconds. In this work, we report on a more versatile and new type of recurrent clock resynchronization scheme called cosmic time calibrator (CTC) and its development and testing. CTC utilizes cosmic-ray muon signals instead of RF signals. Muons are penetrative and continuously precipitating onto the Earth’s surface, and they tend to travel linearly through encountered matter at approximately a speed of light in a vacuum. Therefore, muons themselves can periodically transfer the precise timing information from node to node; hence, the performance of the inter-nodal communication devise such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth is minimized/unnecessary for an online/offline WSN analysis. The experimental results have indicated that a resynchronization frequency and precision of 60 Hz and ±4.3 ns (S.D.) can be achieved. Modelling work of the WSN-based structural health monitoring of aerospace structures has shown that CTC can contribute to the development of new critical and useful applications of WSN in a wider range of environments.
Effect of Jeffrey Fluid Flow and First Order Chemical Reaction on Magneto Convection of Immiscible Fluids in a Perpendicular Passage
Authors: Sharan Ashwini , Kalyan Shreedevi , chamkha ali j
Published: January 2023

In this article describes the effects of transfer heat and mass on free convective flow of developed fully electrically conducting with electrically Non-conducting immiscible fluids towards a perpendicular parallel passage. The resulting nonlinear governing coupled equations describes the fluid behaviour for velocity and temperature distributions are analysed and by applying method regular perturbation the differential equations are analytically solved with appropriate boundary and interface conditions for each fluid. Furthermore, the jump conditions for velocity and temperature are implemented on the left and right walls in the magnetic field existence in a perpendicular passage. The solutions are revealed through graphs for major parameters like thermal Grashof number, mass Grashof number, ratio of viscosity, width and conductivity, pressure gradient, Jeffrey parameter and chemical reaction parameter.
An Ionic Thermoelectric Material with Long Operation Duration and High Energy Density
Authors: He Yongjie , Li Shaowei , Chen Rui , Liu Xu , Odunmbaku George , Fang Wei , Lin Xiaoxue , Ou Zeping , Gou Qianzhi , Wang Jiacheng , Ouedraogo Nabonswende , Li Jing , Li Meng , Li Chen , Zheng Yujie , Chen Shanshan , Zhou Yongli , Sun Kuan
Published: January 2023

Ionic thermoelectrics (i-TE) possesses great potential in powering distributed electronics because it can generate thermopower up to tens of millivolts per Kelvin. However, as ions cannot enter external circuit, the utilization of i-TE is currently based on capacitive charge/discharge, which results in discontinuous working mode and low energy density. Here, we introduce an ion-electron thermoelectric synergistic (IETS) effect by utilizing an ion-electron conductor. Electrons/holes can drift under the electric field generated by thermodiffusion of ions, thus converting the ionic current into electrical current that can pass through the external circuit. Due to the IETS effect, i-TE is able to operate continuously for over 3000 min. Moreover, our i-TE exhibits a thermopower of 32.7 mV K-1 and an energy density of 553.9 J m-2, which is more than 6.9 times the highest reported value. Consequently, direct powering of electronics is achieved with i-TE. This work provides a novel strategy for the design of high-performance i-TE materials.
First Record of Ganoderma multipileum Associated with Delonix regia (Boj. ex Hook.) Raf. Die-back in Vietnam
Authors: Nguyen Trang Thi Thu , Nguyen Hoang Duc , Bui Anh Tu , Tran Linh Thuoc , Pham Khanh Huyen Thi , Van Kim Thuong Pham , Tran Manh Hung
Published: January 2023

Ganoderma multipileum was initially discovered in Taiwan as a wood decay fungus on many host plants. However, the detailed taxonomy of this genus has suffered from a lack of in-depth investigation. In this study, the classification of these fungi was described based on their morphology, the phylogeny of three regions (ITS, RPB2, and TEF1 sequences), and the assessment of scanning electron microscope photographs of basidiospores. In addition, the similarities and differences in the characteristics of this mushroom in comparison to related species were analyzed and discussed from morphological and phylogenetic perspectives. The results indicate that G. multipileum was newly recorded in Vietnam, and its relation to ornamental plant die-back is noted.
Usage of Particle Swarm Optimization in Digital Images Selection for Monkeypox Virus Prediction and Diagnosis
Authors: Mandal Akshaya Kumar
Published: January 2023

Identifying skin diseases by using digital images of skin that are also automated, efficient, and accurate is essential for biomedical image analysis. Many researchers have developed numerous machine-learning techniques for the prediction and diagnosis of various diseases that help clinicians identify infections early and provide crucial data for virus management. In this work, we use the inherent attributes of PSO, such as exploration and exploitation, to identify images for monkeypox virus prediction and diagnosis. Alongside, monkeypox, chickenpox, smallpox, cowpox, measles, tomato flu, and normal skin images were all considered in this study for monkeypox virus prediction and diagnosis. We collect photos from the International Skin Imaging Collaboration (ISIC) for analysis and experimentation purposes. Finally, we compare the proposed model PSOMPX for monkeypox virus identification with four distinct pre-trained deep learning models (e.g., VGG16 [29], ResNet50 [29], InceptionV3 [31], and Ensemble [30]), and the classifier hidden Markov model along with the GLCM-SVM is used in the diagnostic test to separate monkeypox skin lesions from other skin infections. The four performance evaluation metrics—accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 score—evaluate the model and analyze the outcomes of experiments. Finally, the experimental results obtained through the PSOMPX model significantly outperformed other models due to its numerous traits, with a total accuracy of 90.01% (F1-Score: 85.87%) achieved.
Exploring the Potential of Serum Periostin as a Predictive biomarker for Early- Onset Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis: A Follow-Up Study
Authors: Liu Mingtao , Cheng Zhangkai J. , Li Haiyang , Lin Runpei , Xue Mingshan , Li Yanjun , Wang Jiaxin , You Chenwei , Hu Haisheng , Guo Baojun , Huang Huimin , Sun Baoqing
Published: January 2023

Background: The diagnostic value of periostin and Krebs von den Lungen-6 (KL-6) in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) has been reported, but the superiority of serum periostin or KL-6 as a biomarker in early-onset IPF is yet to be determined.
Methods: A total of 51 IPF patients with anti-fibrotic therapy who underwent twice high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) fibrosis scoring evaluation and 27 healthy controls were retrospectively enrolled from the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University between January 2020 and May 2022. Serum levels of periostin and KL-6 by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and clinical diagnosis test were evaluated in both cohorts.
Results:The levels of serum KL-6 levels in patients with initial diagnosis and with anti-fibrotic therapy decreased from 1680.71 ± 1842.60U/mL to 1263.25 ± 1488.19 U/mL (P<0.05), while serum periostin levels decreased from 73.92 ± 13.48pg/mL to 43.78 ± 15.52 pg/mL (P<0.001). In survival probability analysis, the combined performance of periostin-KL-6 was noteworthy compared with periostin and KL-6 alone (AUC: 0.894, 0.875, 0.639, respectively). Significant performances were observed between periostin levels and total fibrosis score < 100than KL-6 in the stage of early-onset IPF (r: 0.2266 > 0.1118), while KL-6 showed a better when total fibrosis score > 100, namely in the later stage of IPF (r: 0.2197 > 0.1050).
Conclusions: Our findings indicate that serum periostinexpression was more remarkable than KL-6 in the early-onset IPF diagnosis (Total fibrosis score < 100), and innovative HRCT fibrosis score stratification was a significant supplementation in UIP-IPF patients.
Durability of HIV viral suppression and associated factors among adults living with HIV initiated on antiretroviral therapy in Tanzania: a retrospective cohort study
Authors: Mtoro Mtoro J. , Sabasaba Amon , Hugho Ephrasia , Masika Lyidia , Ngocho James
Published: January 2023

Background: HIV infection remains a global public health issue. As of 2017, there were an estimated 36.9million people living with HIV (PLHIV) and 0.9 million deaths were reported due to HIV-related causes. The scale up of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for PLHIV has decrease HIV incidence and averted significant number of deaths over the last decade. To accelerate the efforts in HIV control and end the HIV epidemic by 2030, the Joint United Nations programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) recommended the 95-95-95 targets. Viral suppression is the ultimate clinical biomarker for healthy outcomes and HIV transmission. Sustaining Viral Suppression is desirable in the prevention of HIV transmission and thus achieving the third ‘95’ target. Reports show PLHIV on ART has achieved viral suppression, but the durability of viral suppression is not known.This study aimed to determine the durability of viral suppression and its associated factors among adults living with HIV initiated on ART in Tanzania mainland between 2018 and 2019.
Methodology: We conducted a retrospective cohort study from routinely collected data among PLHIV attending care and treatment clinics in mainland Tanzania. Adults living with HIV who were initiated on ART from 2018 to 2019 were recruited and followed for two years. Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics such as age, sex, HIV stages, and CD4 count were collected. A cleaned dataset was analyzed by using STATA version 15.0. Numerical and categorical variables were summarized using descriptive statistics. A multilevel mixed effects generalized linear model was used to account for health facility random effects to determine factors associated with durability of Viral suppression at <50 copies/ml.
Results: In total, 109,590 PLHIV were included in the study. The mean (±SD) age was 37.5 (± 11.6) years. Seventy-four thousand (68.3%) were females, of which 5,252 (7.0%) were pregnant. About half 50,274 (46.9%) had HIV WHO clinical stage I. The proportion of durable viral suppression was 84.2% (95% CI: 84.0-84.4). Factors associated with durability of viral suppression were female gender (aRR: 1.07; 95% CI: 1.05-1.09), married or cohabiting (aRR: 1.03; 95% CI: 1.02-1.04), HIV stage I (aRR: 1.03; 95% CI: 1.01-1.06), those in multi months dispensing (aRR: 1.14; 95% CI: 1.12-1.15), and being in lake zone (aRR: 1.09; 95% CI: 1.05-1.13). Body mass index (BMI) and CD4 cell count were not significant.
Conclusion: Overall, durable suppression was high among PLHIV in Tanzania's mainland. The durable suppression was associated with Sex, marital status, and HIV stage I. Viral load should be monitored longitudinally to determine any treatment failure.
Effectiveness of peer-assisted teaching of medical English skills to nonnative English-speaking medical students
Authors: Shihabi Ahmad Al , Mardini Hiba , Alkhaledi Ahmad N. , Jarad Lana , Jaber Rama , Jaber Ramez , Naoura Sara , Izzat Mohammad Bashar
Published: January 2023

Background
Peer-assisted learning has been shown to be constructive in numerous aspects of undergraduate medical education. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of peer-assisted teaching of medical English skills to nonnative English-speaking medical students.
Methods
A medical English conversation course was conducted by a group of medical students (i.e. peer-teachers), and targeted participants were intermediate level fellow students from the same program. A longitudinal study was carried out to assess changes in self-assessment of English language skills among course participants. Pre- and post-course appraisal involved a review of previous experience with medical English language, a self-assessment of five English language skills, and an objective measurement of medical English knowledge. In addition, participants were requested to respond to a set of statements related to the importance of medical English skills and the usefulness of peer-assisted teaching of medical English skills. Paired-sample Student t-test was used to compare pre- and post-course appraisal results.
Results
Forty-two students attended the course and completed pre- and post-course appraisals in full. Data analyses showed a statistically significant increase in participants’ confidence in speaking medical English in public (p < 0.001) and in using English in other medical settings (presenting and discussing cases, writing clinical reports, interviewing patients and reading English medical texts). Objective measurements of medical English knowledge confirmed a significant increase in participants’ knowledge of methods of administration of therapeutics, knowledge of human body parts in English and familiarity with English medical abbreviations. Most course participants agreed that peer-education was effective in teaching medical English skills to non-native English-speaking students and in increasing their confidence when using English in real-life medical scenarios.
Conclusions
The present study highlights the effectiveness of peer-assisted teaching of medical English skills to nonnative English-speaking medical students. Further validation is required and should compare the effectiveness of traditional versus peer-assisted teaching approaches.
Transglutaminases are oncogenic biomarkers in human cancers and therapeutic targeting of TGM2 blocks chemoresistance and macrophage infiltration in pancreatic cancer
Authors: Zhang Shan , Yao Hong-Fei , Li Hui , Su Tong , Jiang Shu-Heng , Wang Hao , Zhang Zhi-Gang , Dong Fang-Yuan , yang Qin , Yang Xiao-Mei
Published: January 2023

Backgroud:
Transglutaminases (TGs) are multifunctional enzymes with transglutaminase cross-linking, atypical GTPase/ATPase and kinase activity. Here, an integrated comprehensive analysis shows the genomic, transcriptomic and immunological landscapes of the TGs varies among different cancers.
Methods
Gene expression pattern and immune cell infiltration in pan-cancer were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) databases and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) datasets. Western blotting, immunofluorescence, ELISA, and orthotopic xenograft model were performed to validate our database-derived results.
Results
The overall expression of TGs (designated as TG score) is significantly upregulated in multiple cancers and related to worse patient survial. The expression of the TG family can be regulated by multiple mechanisms at the genetic, epigenetic and transcriptional levels. Transcriptionfactors crucial for epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) are commonly correlated with TG score in many cancer types. Importantly, TGM2 expression displays a close connection with the chemoresistances of a wide range of chemodrugs. TGM2, F13A1 and overall TG score are positively correlated with the infiltration of immune cells in all cancer types tested. Functional and clinical verification reveals that higher TGM2 expression is linked with worse patient survival, increased IC50 value of gemcitabine, and abundant tumor-infiltrating macrophages in pancreatic cancer. Mechanistically, increased C-C motif chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2) release affored by TGM2 contributes to macrophage infiltration with tumor microenvironment.
Conclusions
These results reveal the relevances and molecular networks of TG genes in human cancers, highlighting the significance of TGM2 in pancreatic cancer which may provide some promising directions for immunotherapy and dealing with chemoresistance.
Graph connectedness and Homophily: An inquiry into feature selection
Authors: Gavande Ashish
Published: January 2023

Homophily in graphs can be well understood if the underlying causes for homophilic associations are identified. As associations are generally based on feature selection, it necessitates understanding the reasons for decision making for feature selection. This work tries to establish relationships between graphs’ properties and the degrees of homophily exhibited by them on the basis of feature selection approaches which entails decision-making. The analysis is performed in both social and non-social context using three approaches for feature selection based on importance, variance within features and dimensionality reduction. This work by co-relating the properties of datasets and homophily across different feature selection approaches and different dataset sizes, proves that the importance-based feature selection is the most likely approach for feature selection for homophilic associations in graphs.
Biostimulation of Resident Bacteria flora from Freshwater during Biodegradation of Organotin Compounds
Authors: Ate M. L. , Ichor Tersagh , Ebah Esther E. , Amua Q.
Published: January 2023

Water samples obtained from five (5) locations along River Benue were spiked with organotin (TBTCl) in a ratio of 3mM to 1 liter. Two nutrient amendments (NPK fertilizer and poultry dung) were added to stimulate bacterial activity as degradation set up of 3 treatments including a control was monitored for 56 days. Organotin degradation activity was measured by monitoring decrease in TBTCl using X-ray fluorescence spectrometer on day 0, 14, 28, 42 and 56. Test chemical concentrations as well as microbial counts were recorded accordingly. Bacteria which demonstrated consistent growth in the presence of test organotin after 56 days were screened for organotin resistance potential by culturing on MSA medium containing varying concentrations of test organotins; 5 mM, 7 mM, and 10 mM. Organotin utilizing bacteria from fresh water were molecularly characterized and sequenced using pacBio sequencing. Degradation experiment showed an initial increase in microbial growth with counts hitting peak values on the 28th day after which microbial counts continuously dropped until the 56th day. There was a corresponding reduction in the concentration of the test organotin from 350 mg/L on day 0 to an average of 66.78 mg/L on day 56 indicating an average of 81.67% reduction. Organotin degradation by bacteria was significant p < 0.05 (One Way Anova) and Pearson correlation analysis showed a significant relationship between decrease in test organotins and bacterial growth (r = -215; p = 1.33). Metagenomic results showed that 76.27% of bacteria capable of organotin utilization belong to the phylum Proteobacteria. Azospira spp 36% was identified as a potent organotin degrader while commamonas spp 6.7%, Sedimentibaacter spp 3%, Clostridium bowmanii 2.66% and Serpens flexibilis 2.08%, demonstrated only mild growth. Rate of degradation of test organotins was faster when stimulated with NPK fertilizer compared to poultry dung. Further research on large scale, on-site biostimulation strategies is highly advocated.
Recent Climate Change in Western Black Sea Region of Turkey by Paleoclimatic Reconstruction of Borehole Temperatures
Authors: Çelik Buğra , Erkan Kamil , Tayanç Mete , Baltaci Hakki , Akkoyunlu Bulent , Balkan-Pazvantoğlu Elif
Published: January 2023

The impact of recent climate change varies around the world and understanding the regional variations is important for making accurate deductions and generating future climate predictions and mitigation plans. Borehole temperature reconstruction is one of the common methods to determine the ground surface temperature (GST) history of a region. In this study, high-precision (<0.01 K) borehole temperature-depth data from five different locations in Western Black Sea Region of Turkey were used for reconstruction of the ground surface temperature changes for the last century. Measurement sites are located in rural areas so the results are free from the urban heat island interference. The reconstructions reveal that ground surface temperatures have risen by an average of 0.91 °C in the study area during the last century. Results from inland sites show cooling of 0.24°C until 1975 and 0.99°C warming since then. The results in the coastal area show no such cooling period. The rapid warming trend in the last three decades revealed by GST reconstructions indicates high sensitivity of the region to present-day global warming.
HBV integration affect the efficacy of systematic drug therapy after radical resection of liver cancer: a prospective cohort study
Authors: Li Zixiong , Chen Chao , Si Anfeng , Qu Wenshu , Zhang Jue , Xia Zhaojun , Luo Linhua , Zhang Yuanjing , Liu Xiufeng
Published: January 2023

Objective: HBV gene integration event is an important factor to reveal the occurrence and development of HBV-HCC, but its role in the clinical treatment of liver cancer is still unclear. This study intends to collect HCC patients, find HBV integration events based on whole genome sequencing (WGS), and finally determine their impact on the clinical prognosis of patients.
Method: After strict screening of inclusion and exclusion criteria, 20 HBV-HCC patients were finally included, and the whole genome of cancer tissue was sequenced to identify HBV gene integration events. After systematic drug treatment (TKIs or combined with ICIs), the efficacy was evaluated based on RECIST 1.1 criteria. COX regression model was used to analyze the factors affecting PFS and OS of HCC patients, and Kaplan-meier method was used to draw the survival curve.
Result: In this study, a total of 20 HBV-HCC patients were included, and HCC tissue samples were sequenced and matched with standard sequence. Among them, HBV integration events were found in 10 HBV-HCC patients, and the highest number of integration events in a single sample was 7. The highest frequency of HBV integration occurred on chromosome 5. The baselines of non-integration group and integration group are consistent and comparable. Survival analysis showed that HBV integration was a risk factor for HCC recurrence, with HR value of 3.366, P=0.019. However, in the PFS outcome of first-line systematic drug treatment, there was no significant difference between the two groups, P=0.313. Compared with the control group, the survival period of HCC patients with HBV integration was shorter, HR (95% CI): 6.335 (1.237-32.446) (P=0.027). In terms of the choice of different treatment methods, due to the limited sample size, the differences observed were not statistically significant.
Conclusion: HBV integration event is not only a risk factor for the occurrence and development of HCC, but also a risk factor for the recurrence of HBV-HCC patients after surgery. The highest frequency of HBV integration occurred on chromosome 5. HBV integration events significantly shortened the survival period of patients, and should be actively intervened in the early postoperative period.
What dictates alkane isomerization? A combined density functional theory and information-theoretic approach study
Authors: Luo Chenyu , He Xin , Zhong Aiguo , Liu Shubin , Zhao Dongbo
Published: January 2023

Alkanes are deceptively simple in their geometric structures, yet their electronic structures are a tough nut to crack. We employ two total energy partition schemes in density functional theory and the information-theoretic approach quantities to dissect the so-called isomerization problem. From our validation results, we have found theoretical methods, basis sets, dispersion corrections, and numerical integration grids all make contributions to the total energy difference. We highly recommend that PBE0-D3(BJ)/def2-QZVPP is a good choice for studying the longer alkane isomerization issue. We further find that the electrostatic potential dominates the isomerization of alkanes, provided that empirical dispersion is added. This observation contrasts the commonly held belief that electron delocalization dictates alkane isomerization. We also find that molecular polarizability can be linearly correlated with some ITA quantities (such as Shannon entropy and Fisher information), indicating that simple density-based functions can be good descriptors of molecular properties.
The effect of hinokitiol agaist three plant pathogenic fungi and toxicity of hinokitiol to cucumber
Authors: hongjie liang , xiongfei luo , Zhi-Jun Zhang , Shao-Yong Zhang , Jun-Xia An , yinqian liu
Published: January 2023

In the present study, the effect of hinokitiol agaist Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, Rhizoctonia solani, and Botrytis cinerea and toxicity of hinokitiol to cucumber were determined. Overall, hinokitiol showed the promising antifungal activity against S. sclerotiorum both in vitroand in vivo. The results showed that hinokitiol inhibited cucumber seed germination and leaves photosynthesis, and had no obvious effect on the normal growth of seedlings. We also found that after the root treatment of hinokitiol at 50 µg/mL, cucumber seedlings wilted. Thestudy investigated hinokitiol had moderateantimicrobial activity and its preventive effect is significant. Hinokitiol is a promising spray fungicide candidate for stems and leaves rather than seed and root treatments.
Named Entity Recognition of Kumauni Language using Machine Learning (ML)
Authors: Pant Vinay Kumar , Sharma Rupak , Kundu Shakti
Published: January 2023

Communication between humans is impossible without the use of language. Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a technique that is used so that computers can comprehend various natural languages. Named Entity Recognition (NER) is a subtask of information extraction that aims to discover and categorize the components in given text into pre-defined categories. NER is an abbreviation for the phrase ”named entity recognition”. Machine translation, question-answering systems, and automatic summarization are exam- ples of the types of NLP tasks that can benefit from NER. The purpose of this research is to investigate whether or if it is possible to create a chatbot that converses in the Kumaon language, as well as any poten- tial difficulties that could arise in the process. In addition to this, the authors provide an in-depth exami- nation of Kumaoni as well as a mapping of the language into other languages to make its use in industrial processing more accessible.
Multi-agent Collaborative Participation of Agricultural Machinery Service, High Quality Operation and Agricultural Production Efficiency: A Case Study of Conservation Tillage Technology
Authors: Zhang Fan , Shi Qingzhe , Cheng Guoqiang
Published: January 2023

The improvement of agricultural production efficiency is of great significance to eliminate rural poverty and ensure food security.Taking conservation tillage technology as an example, this paper analyzes the background and characteristics of multi-agent collaborative participation in agricultural machinery service. It analyzes the direct impact of agricultural machinery services provided by multi-service agents on farmers' agricultural production efficiency and the intermediary effect transmitted through high-quality conservation tillage operation by using intermediary effect model, based on survey data of four locations in the black soil region of China in 2021. The results show that: (1) The Agricultural Machinery Service with Multi-agent Collaborative Participation is characterized by its comprehensive service content, full service content, and high service availability, and the cooperative mode primarily demonstrates technical collaboration, service collaboration, and benefit collaboration; (2) The agricultural machinery service with multi-agent collaborative participation has a direct positive effect on agricultural production efficiency; (3) The agricultural machinery service with multi-agent collaborative participation has a significant impact on the high-quality operation of conservation tillage. The better the collaborative effect of multi-agent collaborative participation of agricultural machinery service, the higher the quality of farmers' conservation tillage operation; (4) High-quality conservation tillage operation can effectively improve agricultural production efficiency and play an intermediary effect in the influence of service of agricultural machinery with the cooperation of multiple service subjects on agricultural production efficiency. Under the background of the shortage of agricultural labor force and the increasingly serious pressure of aging in China, we should upgrade the service of agricultural machinery based on single transactional service to multi-agent cooperation, improve the development quality of multi-agent service consortium of agricultural machinery, and provide corresponding policy support measures such as compensation, financial credit and management evaluation, so as to promote the improvement of agricultural production efficiency and ensure national food security.
KVMod - A novel approach to designKey-Value NoSQL databases
Authors: DOURHRI Ahmed , HANINE Mohamed , OUAHMANE Hassan
Published: January 2023

The growth of structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data produced by the new applications is a result of the development and expansion of social networks, the Internet of Things, web technology, mobile devices, and other technologies. However, as traditional databases became less suitable to manage rapidly growing data quantity and the variety of data structures, a new class of database management systems named NoSQL is required to satisfy the new requirements. Although NoSQL databases are generally schemaless, significant research has been conducted on NoSQL design. A literature review presented in this paper let us claim the need to create modeling techniques to describe how to structure data in NoSQL databases. Key-value is one of the NoSQL families, which has received too little attention, especially about its design methodology. Most studies have focused on the other families like column-oriented and document-oriented. This paper aims to present a design approach named KVMod (key-value modeling) specific to key-value databases. The purpose is to provide to the scientific community and engineers a methodology for the design of key-value stores using the maximum automation and therefore the minimum human intervention, which equals the minimum of errors. A software tool called KVDesign has been implemented to automate the proposed methodology and thus the most time-consuming database modeling tasks. The complexity is also discussed to assess the efficiency of our proposed algorithms.
Numerical simulation research on UDF flexible roll forming of multi-specification thin-walled circular tubes
Authors: Cao Jianguo , Wang Xuesong , Ruan Kang , Cheng Jiaojiao , Wei Zhidong , Zhao Rongguo
Published: January 2023

In view of the problems of poor flexibility of conventional roll forming of circular tubes, the UDF (USTB-Durable F) flexible roll forming method was used to model and simulate five kinds of thin-walled circular tubes with different thicknesses and the same outer diameter, so as to verify the applicability of UDF flexible roll forming method. In order to realize the commonality of UDF rolls, according to the roll positions of seven kinds of thin-walled circular tubes with different outer diameters and thicknesses within the specification range, mathematical models between tube specifications and corresponding roll position parameters were established. Combined with the actual parameters of the thin-walled circular tube roll forming unit, the UDF forming process suitable for the flexible forming of thin-walled circular tubes was obtained and compared with the conventional process by finite element simulation. Results show that the edge molding quality of the UDF process is better than that of the conventional process, and the amount of springback is less and the accuracy of the outer diameter of the section is high. The establishment of the roll position mathematical model and the special process parameters of the UDF flexible roll forming method provides a reference for the development of flexible production of roll forming of circular tubes.