bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Intravital fluorescence microscopy with negative contrast
Authors: Wu Juwell W. , Jung Yookyung , Yeh Shu-Chi A. , Seo Yongwan , Runnels Judith M. , Burns Christian S. , Mizoguchi Toshihide , Ito Keisuke , Spencer Joel A. , Lin Charles P.
Published: August 2021

Advances in intravital microscopy (IVM) have enabled the studies of cellular organization and dynamics in the native microenvironment of intact organisms with minimal perturbation. The abilities to track specific cell populations and monitor their interactions have opened up new horizons for visualizing cell biologyin vivo, yet the success of standard fluorescence cell labeling approaches for IVM comes with a “dark side” in that unlabeled cells are invisible, leaving labeled cells or structures to appear isolated in space, devoid of their surroundings and lacking proper biological context. Here we describe a novel method for “filling in the void” by harnessing the ubiquity of extracellular (interstitial) fluid and its ease of fluorescence labelling by commonly used vascular and lymphatic tracers. We show that during routine labeling of the vasculature and lymphatics for IVM, commonly used fluorescent tracers readily perfuse the interstitial spaces of the bone marrow (BM) and the lymph node (LN), outlining the unlabeled cells and forming negative contrast images that complement standard (positive) cell labeling approaches. The method is simple yet powerful, offering a comprehensive view of the cellular landscape such as cell density and spatial distribution, as well as dynamic processes such as cell motility and transmigration across the vascular endothelium. The extracellular localization of the dye and the interstitial flow provide favorable conditions for prolonged Intravital time lapse imaging with minimal toxicity and photobleaching.
Using partial least squares to identify a dietary pattern associated with obesity in a nationally-representative sample of Canadian adults: Results from the Canadian Community Health Survey—Nutrition 2015
Authors: Ng Alena (Praneet) , Jessri Mahsa , L’Abbe Mary R.
Published: August 2021

Background

Hybrid methods of dietary patterns analysis have emerged as a unique and informative way to study diet-disease relationships in nutritional epidemiology research.

Objective

To identify an obesogenic dietary pattern using weighted partial least squares (wPLS) in nationally representative Canadian survey data, and to identify key foods and/or beverages associated with the defined dietary pattern.

Design

Data from one 24-hr dietary recall data from the cross-sectional Canadian Community Health Survey-Nutrition (CCHS) 2015 (n = 12,049) were used. wPLS was used to identify an obesogenic dietary pattern from 40 standardized food and beverage categories using the variables energy density, fibre density, and total fat as outcomes. The association between the derived dietary pattern and likelihood of obesity was examined using weighted multivariate logistic regression. Key dietary components highly associated with the derived pattern were identified.

Results

Compared to quartile one (i.e. those least adherent to an obesogenic dietary pattern), those in quartile four had 2.40-fold increased odds of being obese (OR = 2.40, 95% CI = 1.91, 3.02, P-trend< 0.0001) with a monotonically increasing trend. Using a factor loading significance cut-off of ≥|0.17|, three food/beverage categories loaded positively for the derived obesogenic dietary pattern: fast food (+0.32), carbonated drinks (including energy drinks, sports drinks and vitamin water) (+0.30), and salty snacks (+0.19). Seven categories loaded negatively (i.e. in the protective direction): whole fruits (-0.40), orange vegetables (-0.32), “other” vegetables (-0.32), whole grains (-0.26), dark green vegetables (-0.22), legumes and soy (-0.18) and pasta and rice (-0.17).

Conclusion

This is the first study to apply weighted partial least squares to CCHS 2015 data to derive a dietary pattern associated with obesity. The results from this study pinpoint key dietary components that are associated with obesity and consumed among a nationally representative sample of Canadians adults.
Influence of dietary habits on depression among patients with rheumatoid arthritis: A cross-sectional study using KURAMA cohort database
Authors: Minamino Hiroto , Katsushima Masao , Hashimoto Motomu , Fujita Yoshihito , Torii Mie , Ikeda Kaori , Isomura Nozomi , Oguri Yasuo , Yamamoto Wataru , Watanabe Ryu , Murakami Kosaku , Murata Koichi , Nishitani Kohei , Tanaka Masao , Ito Hiromu , Uda Miyabi , Nin Kazuko , Arai Hidenori , Matsuda Shuichi , Morinobu Akio , Inagaki Nobuya
Published: August 2021

Objective

Although mental disorder is one of the most common comorbidities of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and is known as a critical influence on RA remission rates, there is little knowledge regarding a possible therapeutic strategy for depression or anxiety in a RA population. Most recently, clinical evidence of dietary improvement for depression has emerged in a general population, but the relationship between dietary habits and mental disorder has not been investigated in RA. The purpose of this study is to elucidate clinical associations between mental disorder (depression/anxiety), dietary habits and disease activity/physical function in patients with RA.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was performed with 267 female outpatients from the KURAMA database. Using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), we classified the participants into three groups by depression state, and their characteristics were compared. Using the 20-items on the self-reported food frequency questionnaire, we investigated the relationship between dietary habits and depression or anxiety, adopting a trend test and a multivariate standardized linear regression analysis for the HADS score of depression or that of anxiety as a dependent variable.

Results

According to the classified stage of depression, current disease activity (DAS28-CRP: 28-Joint RA Disease Activity Score-C-reactive protein) and the health assessment questionnaire disability Index (HAQ-DI) were significantly increased. Trend analyses revealed that the depression score was inversely associated with the consumption of three food (fish, vegetables and fruit) out of twenty as was the anxiety score with only fish intake. Furthermore, multiple linear regression analysis revealed that the depression score was negatively associated with frequent fish intake (≥ 3 times per week) (Estimate -0.53, p = 0.033), HAQ-DI score within normal range (Estimate -0.88, p ≤ 0.001) and MTX use (Estimate -0.60, p ≤ 0.023). For the anxiety score, multivariate analysis showed similar but not significant associations with variables except for HAQ-DI score.

Conclusions

In a RA population, both depression and anxiety had a significant and negative association with HAQ-DI score, and depression rather than anxiety had negative association with frequent fish intake. Modification of dietary habits such as increased fish consumption may have a beneficial effect on the depression state in RA patients.
Automatic detection of vessel structure by deep learning using intravascular ultrasound images of the coronary arteries
Authors: Shinohara Hiroki , Kodera Satoshi , Ninomiya Kota , Nakamoto Mitsuhiko , Katsushika Susumu , Saito Akihito , Minatsuki Shun , Kikuchi Hironobu , Kiyosue Arihiro , Higashikuni Yasutomi , Takeda Norifumi , Fujiu Katsuhito , Ando Jiro , Akazawa Hiroshi , Morita Hiroyuki , Komuro Issei
Published: August 2021

Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) is a diagnostic modality used during percutaneous coronary intervention. However, specialist skills are required to interpret IVUS images. To address this issue, we developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) program that categorizes vessel components, including calcification and stents, seen in IVUS images of complex lesions. When developing our AI using U-Net, IVUS images were taken from patients with angina pectoris and were manually segmented into the following categories: lumen area, medial plus plaque area, calcification, and stent. To evaluate our AI’s performance, we calculated the classification accuracy of vessel components in IVUS images of vessels with clinically significantly narrowed lumina (< 4 mm2) and those with severe calcification. Additionally, we assessed the correlation between lumen areas in manually-labeled ground truth images and those in AI-predicted images, the mean intersection over union (IoU) of a test set, and the recall score for detecting stent struts in each IVUS image in which a stent was present in the test set. Among 3738 labeled images, 323 were randomly selected for use as a test set. The remaining 3415 images were used for training. The classification accuracies for vessels with significantly narrowed lumina and those with severe calcification were 0.97 and 0.98, respectively. Additionally, there was a significant correlation in the lumen area between the ground truth images and the predicted images (ρ = 0.97, R2 = 0.97, p < 0.001). However, the mean IoU of the test set was 0.66 and the recall score for detecting stent struts was 0.64. Our AI program accurately classified vessels requiring treatment and vessel components, except for stents in IVUS images of complex lesions. AI may be a powerful tool for assisting in the interpretation of IVUS imaging and could promote the popularization of IVUS-guided percutaneous coronary intervention in a clinical setting.
Combination therapy with cannabidiol and chemotherapeutics in canine urothelial carcinoma cells
Authors: Inkol Jordon M. , Hocker Samuel E. , Mutsaers Anthony J.
Published: August 2021

Background

Canine urothelial carcinoma is the most common form of canine bladder cancer. Treatment with chemotherapy has variable response rates leading to most dogs succumbing to their disease within a year. Cannabidiol is an emerging treatment within the field of oncology. In reportedin vivostudies, cannabidiol has induced apoptosis, reduced cell migration, and acted as a chemotherapy sensitizer in various human tumor types. The aim of this study was to characterize the effects of cannabidiol on canine urothelial carcinoma cell viability and apoptosis as both a single agent and in combination with chemotherapyin vitro.

Results

Cannabidiol reduced cell viability and induced apoptosis in canine urothelial cells as determined by crystal violet viability assay and annexin V/propidium iodide flow cytometry. Furthermore, combinations of cannabidiol with mitoxantrone and vinblastine chemotherapy yielded significantly reduced cell viability and increased apoptosis compared to single agent treatment alone. The drug interactions were deemed synergistic based on combination index calculations. Conversely, the combination of cannabidiol and carboplatin did not result in decreased cell viability and increased apoptosis compared to single agent treatment. Combination index calculations suggested an antagonistic interaction between these drugs. Finally, the combination of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug piroxicam with cannabidiol did not significantly affect cell viability, although, some cell lines demonstrated decreased cell viability when mitoxantrone was combined with piroxicam.

Conclusions

Cannabidiol showed promising results as a single agent or in combination with mitoxantrone and vinblastine for treatment of canine urothelial carcinoma cells. Further studies are justified to investigate whether these results are translatablein vivo.
Propofol-based total intravenous anesthesia is associated with better survival than desflurane anesthesia in glioblastoma surgery
Authors: Huang Yi-Hsuan , Wu Zhi-Fu , Lee Meei-Shyuan , Lou Yu-Sheng , Wu Ke-Li , Cheng Kuang-I , Lai Hou-Chuan
Published: August 2021

Background

Previous research has shown that anesthetic techniques can influence patient outcomes following cancer surgery. However, the effects of anesthesia in patients undergoing glioblastoma surgery are still not known. We studied the relationship between the type of anesthesia and patient outcomes following elective glioblastoma surgery.

Methods

This was a retrospective cohort study of patients who underwent elective glioblastoma surgery between January 2008 and December 2018. Patients were grouped according to the anesthesia they received, desflurane or propofol. A Kaplan-Meier analysis was conducted, and survival curves were presented from the date of surgery to death. Univariable and multivariable Cox regression models were used to compare hazard ratios for death after propensity matching.

Results

A total of 50 patients (45 deaths, 90.0%) under desflurane anesthesia and 53 patients (38 deaths, 72.0%) under propofol anesthesia were included. Thirty-eight patients remained in each group after propensity matching. Propofol anesthesia was associated with improved survival (hazard ratio, 0.51; 95% confidence interval, 0.30–0.85; P = 0.011) in a matched analysis. Furthermore, patients under propofol anesthesia exhibited less postoperative recurrence than those under desflurane anesthesia (hazard ratio, 0.60; 95% confidence interval, 0.37–0.98; P = 0.040) in a matched analysis.

Conclusions

In this limited sample size, we observed that propofol anesthesia was associated with improved survival and less postoperative recurrence in glioblastoma surgery than desflurane anesthesia. Further investigations are needed to examine the influence of propofol anesthesia on patient outcomes following glioblastoma surgery.
Microbial communities of poultry house dust, excreta and litter are partially representative of microbiota of chicken caecum and ileum
Authors: Bindari Yugal R. , Moore Robert J. , Van Thi Thu Hao , Hilliar Matthew , Wu Shu-Biao , Walkden-Brown Stephen W. , Gerber Priscilla F.
Published: August 2021

Traditional sampling methods for the study of poultry gut microbiota preclude longitudinal studies as they require euthanasia of birds for the collection of caecal and ileal contents. Some recent research has investigated alternative sampling methods to overcome this issue. The main goal of this study was to assess to what extent the microbial composition of non-invasive samples (excreta, litter and poultry dust) are representative of invasive samples (caecal and ileal contents). The microbiota of excreta, dust, litter, caecal and ileal contents (n = 110) was assessed using 16S ribosomal RNA gene amplicon sequencing. Of the operational taxonomic units (OTUs) detected in caecal contents, 99.7% were also detected in dust, 98.6% in litter and 100% in excreta. Of the OTUs detected in ileal contents, 99.8% were detected in dust, 99.3% in litter and 95.3% in excreta. Although the majority of the OTUs found in invasive samples were detected in non-invasive samples, the relative abundance of members of the microbial communities of these groups were different, as shown by beta diversity measures. Under the conditions of this study, correlation analysis showed that dust could be used as a proxy for ileal and caecal contents to detect the abundance of the phylumFirmicutes, and excreta as a proxy of caecal contents for the detection ofTenericutes. Similarly, litter could be used as a proxy for caecal contents to detect the abundance ofFirmicutesandTenericutes. However, none of the non-invasive samples could be used to infer the overall abundance of OTUs observed in invasive samples. In conclusion, non-invasive samples could be used to detect the presence and absence of the majority of the OTUs found in invasive samples, but could not accurately reflect the microbial community structure of invasive samples.
Evaluating the feasibility and acceptability of a community dialogue intervention in the prevention and control of schistosomiasis in Nampula province, Mozambique
Authors: Martin Sandrine , Rassi Christian , Antonio Valdimar , Graham Kirstie , Leitão Jordana , King Rebecca , Jive Ercilio
Published: August 2021

Background

Schistosomiasis is a parasitic neglected tropical disease that ranks second only to malaria in terms of human suffering in the tropics and subtropics. Biomedical disease control interventions need to be complemented with effective prevention and health education strategies, that address the social and environmental determinants of disease. Malaria Consortium conducted an implementation research study between May 2014 and February 2016, in four districts of Nampula province, Mozambique, to test a Community Dialogue (CD) intervention to enhance schistosomiasis prevention and control. The study aimed to evaluate the acceptability and feasibility of using CD to improve communities’ level of knowledge, attitudes and practices, and engagement in wider schistosomiasis prevention and control efforts.

Methods

The feasibility and acceptability of the CD intervention was evaluated using qualitative and process evaluation data collected throughout the development and implementation phases. Qualitative data sets included key informant interviews (N = 4) with health system personnel, focus group discussions (N = 22) with Community Dialogue facilitators and participants, field observation visits (N = 11), training reports (N = 7), feedback meeting reports (N = 5), CD monitoring sheets (N = 1,458) and CD planning sheets (N = 152).

Findings

The CD intervention was found highly acceptable and feasible, particularly well-suited to resource poor settings. Non-specialist community volunteers were able to deliver participatory CDs which resulted in increased knowledge among participants and triggered individual and communal actions for improved disease prevention and control. The visual flipchart was a key aid for learning; the use of participatory communication techniques allowed the correction of misconceptions and positioned correct prevention and control practices as the community recommendations, through consensus building.

Conclusion

The Community Dialogue Approach should be embedded within neglected tropical disease control programmes and the health system to create long-lasting synergies between the community and health system for increased effectiveness. However, for behavioural change to be feasible, community engagement strategies need to be supported by improved access to treatment services, safer water and sanitation.
A two level learning model for authorship authentication
Authors: Taha Ahmed , Khalil Heba M. , El-shishtawy Tarek
Published: August 2021

Nowadays, forensic authorship authentication plays a vital role in identifying the number of unknown authors as a result of the world’s rapidly rising internet use. This paper presents two-level learning techniques for authorship authentication. The learning technique is supplied with linguistic knowledge, statistical features, and vocabulary features to enhance its efficiency instead of learning only. The linguistic knowledge is represented through lexical analysis features such as part of speech. In this study, a two-level classifier has been presented to capture the best predictive performance for identifying authorship. The first classifier is based on vocabulary features that detect the frequency with which each author uses certain words. This classifier’s results are fed to the second one which is based on a learning technique. It depends on lexical, statistical and linguistic features. All of the three sets of features describe the author’s writing styles in numerical forms. Through this work, many new features are proposed for identifying the author’s writing style. Although, the proposed new methodology is tested for Arabic writings, it is general and can be applied to any language. According to the used machine learning models, the experiment carried out shows that the trained two-level classifier achieves an accuracy ranging from 94% to 96.16%.
The water supply association analysis method in Shenzhen based on kmeans clustering discretization and apriori algorithm
Authors: Liu Xin , Sang Xuefeng , Chang Jiaxuan , Zheng Yang , Han Yuping
Published: August 2021

Since water supply association analysis plays an important role in attribution analysis of water supply fluctuation, how to carry out effective association analysis has become a critical problem. However, the current techniques and methods used for association analysis are not very effective because they are based on continuous data. In general, there is different degrees of monotone relationship between continuous data, which makes the analysis results easily affected by monotone relationship. The multicollinearity between continuous data distorts these analytical methods and may generate incorrect results. Meanwhile, we cannot know the association rules and value interval between features and water supply. Therefore, the lack of an effective analysis method hinders the water supply association analysis. Association rules and value interval of features obtained from association analysis are helpful to grasp cause of water supply fluctuation and know the fluctuation interval of water supply, so as to provide better support for water supply dispatching. But the association rules and value interval between features and water supply are not fully understood. In this study, a data mining method coupling kmeans clustering discretization and apriori algorithm was proposed. The kmeans was used for data discretization to obtain the one-hot encoding that can be recognized by apriori, and the discretization can also avoid the influence of monotone relationship and multicollinearity on analysis results. All the rules eventually need to be validated in order to filter out spurious rules. The results show that the method in this study is an effective association analysis method. The method can not only obtain the valid strong association rules between features and water supply, but also understand whether the association relationship between features and water supply is direct or indirect. Meanwhile, the method can also obtain value interval of features, the association degree between features and confidence probability of rules.
Prolonged detection of complete viral genomes demonstrated by SARS-CoV-2 sequencing of serial respiratory specimens
Authors: Zuckerman Neta S. , Bucris Efrat , Erster Oran , Mandelboim Michal , Adler Amos , Burstein Saar , Protter Noam , Szwarcwort-Cohen Moran , Mendelson Ella , Mor Orna
Published: August 2021

Accurate and timely diagnosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is clinically essential, and is required also to monitor confirmed cases aiming to prevent further spread. Positive real-time PCR results at late time points following initial diagnosis may be clinically misleading as this methodology cannot account for the infection capabilities and the existence of whole genome sequences. In this study, 47 serial respiratory samples were tested by Allplex-nCoV test (Seegene), a triplex of three assays targeting the SARS-CoV-2 RdRP, E and N genes and subsequently assessed by next generation sequencing (NGS). COVID19 patients were tested at an early stage of the disease, when all these viral gene targets were positive, and at an advanced stage, when only the N gene target was positive in the Allplex-nCoV test. The corresponding NGS results showed the presence of complete viral genome copies at both early and advanced stages of the disease, although the total number of mapped sequences was lower in samples from advanced disease stages. We conclude that reduced viral transmission at this late disease stage may result from the low quantities of complete viral sequences and not solely from transcription favoring the N gene.
Workplace discrimination as risk factor for long-term sickness absence: Longitudinal analyses of onset and changes in workplace adversity
Authors: Clark Alice , Stenholm Sari , Pentti Jaana , Salo Paula , Lange Theis , Török Eszter , Xu Tianwei , Fabricius Jesper , Oksanen Tuula , Kivimäki Mika , Vahtera Jussi , Hulvej Rod Naja
Published: August 2021

Workplace discrimination may affect the health of the exposed employees, but it is not known whether workplace discrimination is also associated with an increased risk of long-term sickness absence. The aim of this study was to examine the longitudinal associations of changes in and onset of workplace discrimination with the risk of long-term sickness absence. Data on workplace discrimination were obtained from 29,597 employees participating in survey waves 2004, 2006, 2008 and/or 2010 of the Finnish Public Sector Study. Four-year changes in long-term sickness absence (≥10 days of medically certified absence with a mental or non-mental diagnosis) were assessed. This covered successive study waves in analyses of onset of workplace discrimination as well as fixed effect analyses of change in workplace discrimination (concurrent i.e. during the exposure year and 1-year lagged i.e. within one year following exposure), by using each employee as his/her own control. The risk of long-term sickness absence due to mental disorders was greater for employees with vs. without onset of workplace discrimination throughout the 4-year period, reaching a peak at the year when the onset of discrimination was reported (adjusted risk ratio 2.13; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.80–2.52). The fixed effects analyses showed that workplace discrimination was associated with higher odds of concurrent, but not 1-year lagged, long-term sickness absence due to mental disorders (adjusted odds ratio 1.61; 95% CI 1.33–1.96 and adjusted odds ratio 1.02; 95% CI 0.83–1.25, respectively). Long-term sickness absence due to non-mental conditions was not associated with workplace discrimination. In conclusion, these findings suggest that workplace discrimination is associated with an elevated risk of long-term sickness absence due to mental disorders. Supporting an acute effect, the excess risk was confined to the year when workplace discrimination occurred.
Intimate partner violence among pregnant women attending antenatal care services in the rural Gambia
Authors: Jatta Joseph W. , Baru Ararso , Fawole Olufunmilayo I. , Ojengbede Oladosu A.
Published: August 2021

Background

Intimate partner violence (IPV) refers to any behavior by either a current or ex-intimate partner or would-be rejected lover that causes physical, sexual, or psychological harm. It is the most common form of violence in women’s lives. According to a World Health Organization report, about 1 in 3 women worldwide experience at least one form of IPV from an intimate partner at some point in her life. In the Gambia, about 62% of pregnant women experience at least one form of violence from an intimate partner. IPV has severe physical and mental health consequences on a woman ranging from minor bodily injury to death. It also increases the risk of low birth weight, premature delivery, and neonatal death.

Methods

A health facility-based cross-sectional study design was carried out to assess the magnitude and factors associated with intimate partner violence among pregnant women seeking antenatal care in the rural Gambia. The study enrolled 373 pregnant women, and a multi-stage sampling technique was used to select the respondents. An interviewer-administered structured questionnaire was used to obtain information from the study participants. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS Ver.22. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression were used to determine the association between dependent and independent variables. Odds ratio with 95% confidence interval (CI) was computed to determine the presence and strength of associated factors with IPV.

Result

The study reveals that the prevalence of IPV in The Gambia is 67%, with psychological violence (43%) being the most common form of IPV reported by the respondents. The multivariate logistic regression result reveals that being aged 35 years or older [AOR 5.1(95% CI 1.5–17.8)], the experience of parents quarreling during childhood [AOR 1.7(95% CI 1.0–2.75)], and having cigarette smoking partners [AOR 2.3 (95% CI 1.10–4.6)] were significantly associated with IPV during pregnancy.

Conclusion

This study has demonstrated that all forms of IPV in rural Gambia are frequent. Women older than 35 years, had experienced parents quarreling, had a partner who smoked, and a partner who fight with others were more likely report IPV compared to other pregnant women in the study. We recommend that IPV screening should be included as an integral part of routine antenatal care services in The Gambia. Community-based interventions that include indigenous leaders, religious leaders, and other key stakeholders are crucial to create awareness on all forms of IPV and address the risk factors found to influence the occurrence of IPV in rural Gambia.
Research on multi-objective optimal scheduling considering the balance of labor workload distribution
Authors: Hu Zhengyu , Liu Wenrui , Ling Shengchen , Fan Kuan
Published: August 2021

In order to solve the problem of unbalanced workload of employees in parallel flow shop scheduling, a method of job standard balance is proposed to describe the work balance of employees. The minimum delay time of completion and the imbalance of employee work are taken as the two goals of the model. A bi-objective nonlinear integer programming model is proposed. NSGA-II-EDSP, NSGA-II-KES, and NSGA-II-QKES heuristic rule algorithms are designed to solve the problem. A number of computational experiments of different sizes are conducted, and compared with solutions generated by NSGA-II. The experimental results show the advantages of the proposed model and method, which error is reduced 14.56%, 15.16% and 15.67%.
Influence of the use of various imaging units and projections on the radiation dose received by children during chest digital radiography
Authors: Xu Hongrong , Huang Kaiping , Liu Bo , Cai Jinhua , Zheng Huan , Zheng Helin , Yang Qiurui , Yao Changhong
Published: August 2021

Objective

To investigate the impact of the use of different imaging units and projections on radiation dose and image quality during chest digital radiography (DR) in 3- and 4-year-old children.

Methods

Two hundred forty 3- and 4-year-old participants requiring chest DR were included; they were divided into three groups: supine anterior-posterior projection (APP), standing APP and standing posterior-anterior projection (PAP). Each group included 40 participants who were evaluated using the same imaging unit. The dose area product (DAP) and the entrance surface dose (ESD) were recorded after each exposure. The visual grading analysis score (VGAS) was used to evaluate image quality, and the longitudinal distance (LD) from the apex of the right lung to the apex of the right diaphragm was used to evaluate the inspiration extent.

Results

DAP and ESD were significantly lower in the standing PAP and APP groups than in the supine APP group (P<0.05), but LD was significantly higher in the standing PAP and APP groups than in the supine APP group (P<0.05). Additionally, the pulmonary field area was significantly higher for the standing PAP group than for the standing and supine APP groups (P<0.05). The correlations between ESD, DAP, and VGAS were positive (P<0.001), showing that larger ESD and DAP correspond to higher VGAS. The correlations between ESD, DAP, and body mass index (BMI) were also positive (P<0.05), indicating that higher BMI corresponds to larger ESD and DAP. Finally, no differences in DAP, ESD, VGAS, LD, pulmonary field area, or BMI were noted between males and females (P>0.05).

Conclusion

The radiation dose to superficial organs may be lower with standing PAP than with standing APP during chest DR. Standing PAP should be selected for chest DR in 3- and 4-year-old children, as it may decrease the required radiation dose.
Multi-EPL: Accurate multi-source domain adaptation
Authors: Lee Seongmin , Jeon Hyunsik , Kang U.
Published: August 2021

Given multiple source datasets with labels, how can we train a target model with no labeled data?Multi-source domain adaptation (MSDA) aims to train a model using multiple source datasets different from a target dataset in the absence of target data labels. MSDA is a crucial problem applicable to many practical cases where labels for the target data are unavailable due to privacy issues. Existing MSDA frameworks are limited since they align data without considering labels of the features of each domain. They also do not fully utilize the target data without labels and rely on limited feature extraction with a single extractor. In this paper, we proposeMulti-EPL, a novel method for MSDA.Multi-EPLexploits label-wise moment matching to align the conditional distributions of the features for the labels, uses pseudolabels for the unavailable target labels, and introduces an ensemble of multiple feature extractors for accurate domain adaptation. Extensive experiments show thatMulti-EPLprovides the state-of-the-art performance for MSDA tasks in both image domains and text domains, improving the accuracy by up to 13.20%.
Level of adherence to option B plus PMTCT and associated factors among HIV positive pregnant and lactating women in public health facilities of Hawassa city, Southern Ethiopia
Authors: Abdisa Samuel , Tenaw Zelalem
Published: August 2021

Background

Adherence to antiretroviral therapy is very essential to achieve a great outcome of drugs via suppressing viral load, preventing multidrug resistance, and reducing mother to a child transmission rate of the Human Immune Virus.

Objective

This study aimed to assess the level of adherence to option B plus PMTCT and associated factors among HIV Positive pregnant and lactating women in public health facilities of Hawassa city, Southern Ethiopia, 2020 G.C.

Methods

Institution-based cross-sectional study was done on 254 HIV-positive pregnant and lactating women attending the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) follow-up. Participants were selected by simple random sampling. Data collected through a structured interviewer-administered questionnaire were cleaned and entered into Epi-data 3.1 and exported to SPSS 20 for statistical analysis. Descriptive analysis was done. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regressions were done to measure the strength of association between independent and dependent variables using the odds ratio and 95% of confidence interval. A p-value <0.05 was taken as statistically significant.

Result

The overall adherence level to option B+ was 224 (88.2%). Respondents in age group of ≤ 25 [AOR = 0.12, 95% CI (0.03, 0.42)], with no formal education [AOR = 0.12, 95% CI (0.03, 0.51)], experienced drug side effects [AOR = 0.11, 95% CI (0.04, 0.32)], have good knowledge of PMTCT [AOR = 3.6, 95% CI (1.16, 11.3)], and get support from partner/family [AOR = 4.5, 95% CI (1.62, 12.4)] were identified associated factors with adherence level.

Conclusion

The level of adherence to option B plus PMTCT was 88.2% which is suboptimal. Ages, educational level, knowledge on PMTCT, getting support from partner/family, and drug side effect were significantly associated with adherence. Therefore, educating and counseling on the service of PMTCT to improve their knowledge and encouraging partner/family involvement in care are mandatory to achieve the standard adherence level.
The degree of polymerization and sulfation patterns in heparan sulfate are critical determinants of cytomegalovirus entry into host cells
Authors: Mitra Dipanwita , Hasan Mohammad H. , Bates John T. , Bierdeman Michael A. , Ederer Dallas R. , Parmar Rinkuben C. , Fassero Lauren A. , Liang Quntao , Qiu Hong , Tiwari Vaibhav , Zhang Fuming , Linhardt Robert J. , Sharp Joshua S. , Wang Lianchun , Tandon Ritesh
Published: August 2021

Several enveloped viruses, including herpesviruses attach to host cells by initially interacting with cell surface heparan sulfate (HS) proteoglycans followed by specific coreceptor engagement which culminates in virus-host membrane fusion and virus entry. Interfering with HS-herpesvirus interactions has long been known to result in significant reduction in virus infectivity indicating that HS play important roles in initiating virus entry. In this study, we provide a series of evidence to prove that specific sulfations as well as the degree of polymerization (dp) of HS govern human cytomegalovirus (CMV) binding and infection. First, purified CMV extracellular virions preferentially bind to sulfated longer chain HS on a glycoarray compared to a variety of unsulfated glycosaminoglycans including unsulfated shorter chain HS. Second, the fraction of glycosaminoglycans (GAG) displaying higher dp and sulfation has a larger impact on CMV titers compared to other fractions. Third, cell lines deficient in specific glucosaminyl sulfotransferases produce significantly reduced CMV titers compared to wild-type cells and virus entry is compromised in these mutant cells. Finally, purified glycoprotein B shows strong binding to heparin, and desulfated heparin analogs compete poorly with heparin for gB binding. Taken together, these results highlight the significance of HS chain length and sulfation patterns in CMV attachment and infectivity.
Blocking HSV-1 glycoprotein K binding to signal peptide peptidase reduces virus infectivity in vitro and in vivo
Authors: Wang Shaohui , Jaggi Ujjaldeep , Yu Jack , Ghiasi Homayon
Published: August 2021

HSV glycoprotein K (gK) is an essential herpes protein that contributes to enhancement of eye disease. We previously reported that gK binds to signal peptide peptidase (SPP) and that depletion of SPP reduces HSV-1 infectivity in vivo. To determine the therapeutic potential of blocking gK binding to SPP on virus infectivity and pathogenicity, we mapped the gK binding site for SPP to a 15mer peptide within the amino-terminus of gK. This 15mer peptide reduced infectivity of three different virus strains in vitro as determined by plaque assay, FACS, and RT-PCR. Similarly, the 15mer peptide reduced ocular virus replication in both BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice and also reduced levels of latency and exhaustion markers in infected mice when compared with control treated mice. Addition of the gK-15mer peptide also increased the survival of infected mice when compared with control mice. These results suggest that blocking gK binding to SPP using gK peptide may have therapeutic potential in treating HSV-1-associated infection.
What women want: Fashion, morality and gendered subjectivities in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea
Authors: Barnett-Naghshineh Olivia
Published: August 2021

This article brings Papua New Guinean women’s perspectives on fashion, gender and morality into conversation with questions of colonial histories and global consumerism. The article shows that adherence to social norms is policed by women in the public sphere and that one person’s choices are enmeshed in ideas of responsibility and obligation to others. Increasingly, younger generations of women believe it is an individual woman’s right to wear what she wants in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Yet young women confront their peers in much the same way older women do. What women wear in PNG is embroiled in ideas of collective morality; plays out at intersections of class, age, race and gender; and demonstrates tensions between ideas of autonomy and collectivity. On whose terms do contemporary Papua New Guinean women get to decide how to dress: their own, or in accordance with community norms and standards? What are the contemporary and historical contexts of whiteness and colonial power that have influenced these norms and standards? This article brings together the experiences and perspective of a young professional Papua New Guinean woman, and her relatives, in dialogue with a young English–Iranian woman anthropologist.
T-Shirts, style and the social construction of modern masculinities in urban Fiji
Authors: Presterudstuen Geir Henning
Published: August 2021

In this article I consider fashion as a key modality through which young Fiji citizens experience modernity and construct contemporary self-identities in dialogue with global popular culture. A multi-dimensional tool, fashion is effectively used as self-performance; a way of carrying the body in public spaces, including dress and style as well as mannerisms, demeanour, body shape and comportment. It follows that fashion also intersects with other social categories such as gender, sexual identity and race in order to inform local social scripts in which people judge their own and others’ appearance and define the nature of a desirable, modern body.
Execution Time Reduction in Function Oriented Scientific Workflows
Authors: Al-Haboobi Ali , Kecskemeti Gabor
Published: August 2021

Scientific workflows have been an increasingly important research area of distributed systems (such as cloud computing). Researchers have shown an increased interest in the automated processing scientific applications such as workflows. Recently, Function as a Service (FaaS) has emerged as a novel distributed systems platform for processing non-interactive applications. FaaS has limitations in resource use (e.g., CPU and RAM) as well as state management. In spite of these, initial studies have already demonstrated using FaaS for processing scientific workflows. DEWE v3 executes workflows in this fashion, but it often suffers from duplicate data transfers while using FaaS. This behaviour is due to the handling of intermediate data dependencies after and before each function invocation. These data dependencies could fill the temporary storage of the function environment. Our approach alters the job dispatch algorithm of DEWE v3 to reduce data dependency transfers. The proposed algorithm schedules jobs with precedence requirements to primarily run in the same function invocation. We evaluate our proposed algorithm and the original algorithm with small- and large-scale Montage workflows. Our results show that the improved system can reduce the total workflow execution time of scientific workflows over DEWE v3 by about 10\% when using AWS Lambda.
Symbolic Regression for Approximating Graph Geodetic Number
Authors: Anaqreh Ahmad T. , G.-Tóth Boglárka , Vinkó Tamás
Published: August 2021

Graph properties are certain attributes that could make the structure of the graph understandable. Occasionally, standard methods cannot work properly for calculating exact values of graph properties due to their huge computational complexity, especially for real-world graphs. In contrast, heuristics and metaheuristics are alternatives proved their ability to provide sufficient solutions in a reasonable time. Although in some cases, even heuristics are not efficient enough, where they need some not easily obtainable global information of the graph. The problem thus should be dealt in completely different way by trying to find features that related to the property and based on these data build a formula which can approximate the graph property. In this work, symbolic regression with an evolutionary algorithm called Cartesian Genetic Programming has been used to derive formulas capable to approximate the graph geodetic number which measures the minimal-cardinality set of vertices, such that all shortest paths between its elements cover every vertex of the graph. Finding the exact value of the geodetic number is known to be NP-hard for general graphs. The obtained formulas are tested on random and real-world graphs. It is demonstrated how various graph properties as training data can lead to diverse formulas with different accuracy. It is also investigated which training data are really related to each property.
Component-based Error Detection of P4 programs
Authors: Tóth Gabriella , Tejfel Máté
Published: August 2021

P4 is a domain-specific language to develop the packet processing of network devices. These programs can easily hide errors, therefore we give a solution to analyze them and detect predefined errors in them. This paper shows the idea, which works with the P4 code as a set of components and processes them one by one, while calculating their pre- and postconditions. This method does not only detect errors between the components and their connections, but it is capable to reveal errors, which are hidden in the middle of a component. The paper introduces the method and shows its calculation in an example.
THE ROLE OF PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS IN THE FORMATION OF ETHNIC AND CIVIL IDENTITY AMONG REPRESENTATIVES OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF THE ALTAI REPUBLIC (ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE ACTIVITIES OF THE NGO «CCN «TUULU ALTAI»)
Authors: Kasenova Nadezhda N. , Kergilova Natalia V.
Published: August 2021

In contemporary Russia, in the conditions of polyethnicity and multiculturalism, it becomes necessary to form civil and ethnic identities of its citizens. This problem is becoming one of the main directions of the state social policy of the Russian Federation, as there is an active migration within the country, which causes the relocation of Russian citizens from their native region. This circumstance prompted the authors of the article to turn to this topic. In the article, the authors reveal the importance of preserving the identity of the indigenous peoples of Altai (Altaians, Telengites, Tubalars, Kumandins and Chelkans) in the conditions of a large metropolis. They also present the historical facts of preserving their ethnic identity, emphasizing the importance for these peoples of obtaining a new status for their ancestral territory of residence in the 90s and being allocated to the national republic as part of the Russian Federation. They reveal the role of ethnic public organizations in the preservation and development of the culture, traditions and language of the Altai peoples, using the example of the activities of the NROO "TSKN "Tuulu Altai", as well as the formation of ethnic and civil identity in a multicultural society. The purpose of the article is a historical description (way of life, places of traditional residence, etc.) of the indigenous peoples of the Republic of Altai and a description of the role and activities of the non-profit public organization "Tuulu Altai Cultural Heritage Center "for the formation of ethnic and civil identity among the representatives of the indigenous peoples of the Republic of Armenia. The scientific novelty of the provisions proposed in the article is to identify the features of the formation of ethnic and civil identity of representatives of the indigenous peoples of the Altai Republic living in Novosibirsk. The practical significance lies in the possibility of using the materials of the article in organizing the activities of non-profit public organizations for the formation of ethnic and civic identity among young people.
SOCIAL CONFLICTS AS CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF CONTRADICTIONS IN RUSSIAN SOCIETY
Authors: Murasheva Svetlana V.
Published: August 2021

The relevance of the problem of studying social conflicts in the modern world is due to the extreme complexity and inconsistency of social relations, the struggle of opposing forces and trends in all spheres of life. Changes in social interaction are accompanied by an expansion of the sphere of conflict manifestation. They involve not only large social groups, but also entire territories, both homogeneous in national respects and populated by different communities. The complication of the social structure, the differentiation of society, the emergence of freedom, pluralism, divergent and sometimes mutually exclusive interests, goals and values create sources for potential conflicts. At the present stage of development of social relations there is an urgent need for the development and subsequent implementation in practice of the system of prevention and settlement of social conflicts. Due to these circumstances, the study of tension and conflict of social interaction has conceptual and practical importance, attracting the close attention of researchers from various fields of scientific knowledge and encourages them to develop and implement in practice effective ways to prevent and resolve conflicts of this type. The aim of the article was to present the results of the study of the specifics of social conflicts in modern Russia. The important place is given to the influence of this type of conflicts on the development of social relations. The scientific novelty of the provisions proposed in the article lies in the study of the peculiarities of social interaction and conflicts. The practical significance lies in the possibility of using the conclusions of the article for the development of programs to prevent and resolve social conflicts.