bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Critical Illness in Patients with Metastatic Cancer: A Population-Based Cohort Study of Epidemiology and Outcomes
Authors: Oud Lavi
Published: September 2021

The appropriateness of intensive care unit (ICU) admission of patients with metastatic cancer remains debated. We aimed to examine the short-term outcomes and their temporal pattern in critically ill patients with metastatic disease. We used state-wide data to identify hospitalizations aged ≥18 years with metastatic cancer admitted to ICU in Texas during 2010–2014. Multivariable logistic regression modeling was used to examine the factors associated with short-term mortality and its temporal trends among all ICU admissions and those undergoing mechanical ventilation. Among 136,644 ICU admissions with metastatic cancer, 50.8% were aged ≥65 years, with one or more organ failures present in 53.3% and mechanical ventilation was used in 11.1%. The crude short-term mortality among all ICU admissions and those mechanically ventilated was 28.1% and 62.0%, respectively. Discharge to home occurred in 57.1% of all ICU admissions. On adjusted analyses, short-term mortality increased with rising number of organ failures (adjusted OR (aOR) 1.399, 95% CI 1.374 to 1.425), while being lower with chemotherapy (aOR 0.467, 95% CI 0.432 to 0.506) and radiation therapy (aOR 0.832, 95% CI 0.749 to 0.924), and decreased over time (aOR 0.934 per year, 95% CI 0.924 to 0.945). Predictors of short-term mortality were largely similar among those undergoing mechanical ventilation. Most ICU admissions with metastatic cancer survived hospitalization, although short-term mortality was very high among those undergoing mechanical ventilation. Short-term mortality decreased over time and was lower among those receiving chemotherapy and radiation therapy. These findings support consideration of critical care in patients with metastatic cancer, but underscore the need to address patient-centered goals of care ahead of ICU admission.
Turning a threat into an opportunity: British American Tobacco’s weakening of the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products
Authors: Gomis Benoît , Gallagher Allen William Andrew , Rowell Andy , Gilmore Anna B
Published: September 2021

Background

Previous research has outlined transnational tobacco company (TTC) efforts to undermine implementation of the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products (Protocol) and evidence of ongoing TTC complicity in the illicit tobacco trade (ITT). However, the industry’s views on the Protocol and role in its development are not well understood.

Methods

Systematic searching and analysis of leaked documents—approximately 15 000 from British American Tobacco (BAT) and 35 from Philip Morris International, triangulated via searches of online resources and interviews with five stakeholders across academia, international organisations, governments, civil society and the private sector.

Findings

Evidence indicates that after privately viewing the Protocol as a significant threat (2003), BAT worked to influence its content, while publicly signalling support for it (2007–2012), and was largely satisfied with the final text. BAT successfully pushed for a non-prescriptive text which enabled further country-level TTC influence during the Protocol’s implementation phase. The final text also reflected other BAT policy preferences, including preventing outright bans on duty-free sales and intermingling, and making it difficult to sanction and hold tobacco companies accountable for ongoing involvement in the ITT. TTC representatives were present during early Protocol negotiations, despite rules against this, and BAT obtained draft texts before they were public and paid at least one delegate to support its position.

Conclusions

BAT’s primary interest in shaping the Protocol was to minimise its financial and legal costs for BAT while maximising potential costs to small competitors. These findings raise concern about the Protocol’s ability to control the ITT, particularly given TTCs’ intention to influence ongoing national implementation. An effective Protocol is vital to controlling both the ITT and ongoing tobacco industry involvement in it and, in turn, governments’ ability to increase tobacco taxes and thereby save lives.
Co-application of thifensulfuron with glyphosate accentuates soybean injury
Authors: Soltani Nader , Shropshire Christy , Sikkema Peter H.
Published: September 2021

Three trials (two in 2019 and one in 2020) were completed at the University of Guelph, Huron Research Station near Exeter, ON, to determine if the co-application of thifensulfuron with glyphosate accentuates soybean injury in glyphosate-resistant (GR) soybean. At 1, 2, 4, and 8 weeks after treatment (WAT), thifensulfuron (6 and 12 g a.i.·ha−1 representing the 1× and 2× rate, respectively) applied POST with no adjuvants caused up to 5% soybean injury. The addition of a non-ionic surfactant + UAN to thifensulfuron increased soybean injury to up to 24%. There was no decrease in soybean density, dry biomass, height, and yield, except soybean dry biomass was reduced up to 22% with the addition of adjuvants to thifensulfuron at the 2× rate. Glyphosate (1800 and 3600 g·ha−1 representing the 1× and 2× rate, respectively) applied POST caused no adverse effect on soybean injury parameters evaluated. The co-application of glyphosate + thifensulfuron at the 1× and 2× rates, without additional adjuvants, caused a synergistic increase in soybean injury at 1, 2, 4, and 8 WAT, and a synergistic decrease in dry biomass and height. All other interactions were additive. The co-application of glyphosate + thifensulfuron at the 1× and 2× rates, with additional adjuvants, produced a synergistic increase in injury at 1 (1× and 2× rate), 4 (1× rate), and 8 (1× rate) WAT in soybean. All other interactions were additive.
Yukawa–Casimir wormholes
Authors: Garattini Remo
Published: September 2021

In this work, we consider a Yukawa modification of the Casimir wormhole. With the help of an Equation of State, we impose Zero Tidal Forces. We will examine two different approaches: in a first approach, we will fix the form of the shape function of the Casimir wormholes modified by a Yukawa term in three different ways and finally a superposition of different profiles. In the second approach, we will consider the original Casimir source modified by a Yukawa term in three different ways and we will deduce the form of the shape function In both the approaches the reference energy density will be that of the Casimir source. Connection with the Absurdly Benign Traversable Wormhole are also discussed.
Adiabatic and nonadiabatic evolution of a generalized damped harmonic oscillator
Authors: Pedrosa I. A.
Published: September 2021

In this work we present a simple and elegant approach to study the adiabatic and nonadiabatic evolution of a generalized damped harmonic oscillator which is described by the generalized Caldirola–Kanai Hamiltonian, in both classical and quantum contexts. Based on time-dependent dynamical invariants, we find that the geometric phase acquired when the damped oscillator evolves adiabatically in time provides a direct connection between the classical Hannay’s angle and the quantum Berry’s phase. In addition, we solve the time-dependent Schrödinger equation for this system and calculate various quantum properties of the damped generalized harmonic one, such as coherent states, expectation values of the position and momentum operators, their quantum fluctuations and the associated uncertainty product.
Influence of Data Representations and Deep Architectures in Image Time Series Classification
Authors: Chelali Mohamed , Kurtz Camille , Puissant Anne , Vincent Nicole
Published: September 2021

Image time series, such as Satellite Image Time Series (SITS) or MRI functional sequences in the medical domain, carry both spatial and temporal information. In many pattern recognition applications such as image classification, taking into account such rich information may be crucial and discriminative during the decision making stage. However, the extraction of spatio-temporal features from image time series is difficult to handle due to the complex representation of the data cube. In this paper, we present a strategy based on Random Walk to build a novel segment-based representation of the data, passing from a 2D[Formula: see text] dimension to a 2D one, more easily manipulable and without losing too much spatial information. Such new representation is then used to feed a classical Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) in order to learn spatio-temporal features with only 2D convolutions and to classify image time series data for a particular classification problem. The influence of the way the 2D[Formula: see text] data are represented, as well as the impact of the network architectures on the results, are carefully studied. The interest of this approach is highlighted on a remote sensing application for the classification of complex agricultural crops.
Dual Channel Among Task and Contribution on OSS Communities: An Empirical Study
Authors: Zhang Yu , Yu Yue , Wang Tao , Li Zhixing , Wang Xiaochuan
Published: September 2021

Open Source Software (OSS) community has attracted a large number of distributed developers to work together, e.g. reporting and discussing issues as well as submitting and reviewing code. OSS developers create links among development units (e.g. issues and pull requests in GitHub), share their opinions and promote the resolution of development units. Although previous work has examined the role of links in recommending high-priority tasks and reducing resource waste, the understanding of the actual usage of links in practice is still limited. To address the research gap, we conduct an empirical study based on the 5W1H model and data mining from five popular OSS projects on GitHub. We find that links originating from a PR are more common than the other three types of links, and links are more frequently created in Documentation. We also find that average duration between development units’ create time in a link is half a year. We observed that link behaviors are very complex and the duration of link increases with the complexity of link structure. We also observe that the reasons of link are very different, especially in P–P and I–I. Finally, future works are discussed in conclusion.
MEAN STEINER DISTANCE OF VICSEK NETWORKS
Authors: LEI LEI , JIA QI , ZHAO BING
Published: September 2021

The four-point Steiner distance is the minimum of the total geodesic distances within the metric space from four given points to a point. For Vicsek networks, we obtain the asymptotic formula of their mean Steiner distances using the method of finite pattern.
AN ANALYTICAL MODEL FOR EFFECTIVE THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY OF THE MEDIA EMBEDDED WITH FRACTURE NETWORKS OF POWER LAW LENGTH DISTRIBUTIONS
Authors: MIAO TONGJUN , CHEN AIMIN , JIANG LIJUAN , ZHANG HUAJIE , LIU JUNFENG , YU BOMING
Published: September 2021

The effective thermal conductivity of porous media is of steady interest in the design of new materials. In this study, an analytical model for dimensionless effective thermal conductivity of media embedded with fracture networks of the power law length distributions is proposed. It is found that the proposed dimensionless effective thermal conductivity is a function of micro-structural parameters of media, such as the porosity [Formula: see text] and fracture orientation (dip [Formula: see text] and azimuth [Formula: see text]). The present results show that the dimensionless effective thermal conductivity of the media increases with the increase in the ratio [Formula: see text] and the power law exponent [Formula: see text] at [Formula: see text]. Inversely, when [Formula: see text], it decreases with the increase in the power law exponent [Formula: see text]. In addition, the dimensionless effective thermal conductivity is gradually independent of the orientation as the ratio [Formula: see text]. The present model may provide a significant insight into the mechanism of heat transfer in the media embedded with fracture networks of power law length distributions.
A Class of Higher-Order Newton-Like Methods for Systems of Nonlinear Equations
Authors: Sharma Janak Raj , Kumar Sunil , Argyros Ioannis K.
Published: September 2021

In this paper, a class of efficient iterative methods with increasing order of convergence for solving systems of nonlinear equations is developed and analyzed. The methodology uses well-known third-order Potra–Pták iteration in the first step and Newton-like iterations in the subsequent steps. Novelty of the methods is the increase in convergence order by an amount three per step at the cost of only one additional function evaluation. In addition, the algorithm uses a single inverse operator in each iteration, which makes it computationally more efficient and attractive. Local convergence is studied in the more general setting of a Banach space under suitable assumptions. Theoretical results of convergence and computational efficiency are verified through numerical experimentation. Comparison of numerical results indicates that the developed algorithms outperform the other similar algorithms available in the literature, particularly when applied to solve the large systems of equations. The basins of attraction of some of the existing methods along with the proposed method are given to exhibit their performance.
Comparison of Continuum Stresses in Granular Material Computed by Volume Average Approach and Boundary Average Approach Under Static and Quasi-Static Conditions
Authors: Li Wei Chao , Deng Gang , Zhang Qiang , Zhong Qi , Sun Xin Xin , Lee Min Lee
Published: September 2021

Averaging approaches have been widely used to estimate continuum stress in granular materials to facilitate the assimilation of granular materials’ behavior into a continuum mechanics framework. At present, selection criteria for the appropriate averaging approach are still poorly understood. This paper compares the stresses computed by two popular averaging approaches, i.e., volume average approach (VAA) and boundary average approach (BAA) in order to investigate relative errors between the two approaches under various conditions. The comparisons between VAA and BAA under a static condition were first carried out based on the rigid particle analytical framework proposed by Rothenburg, L. [1980] “Micromechanics of idealized granular systems,” Ph.D. thesis, Carleton University, Ottawa, followed by discrete element modelling (DEM) simulations using PFC3D under a quasi-static condition. The results of theoretical comparison suggested that the relative error in the computed stresses by VAA with an omission of overlap could be grossly estimated by the ratio of overlap to length of contact branch, while the relative error in the computed stresses by VAA with an omission of external contacts could be grossly estimated by the ratio of maximum particle diameter to specimen size. At the ratio of maximum particle diameter to specimen size of 5, which is usually taken as the minimum recommended ratio to minimize boundary effect, the relative error caused by omitting the external contacts was as high as 20%. Numerical comparisons suggested that the relative errors of the two approaches under a quasi-static condition were significantly influenced by the strain energy ratio defined in this study. The VAA was recommended as a preferred computation method over the BAA when the strain energy ratio was considerably lower than unity.
SNR:

S

queezing

N

umerical

R

ange Defuses Bit Error Vulnerability Surface in Deep Neural Networks
Authors: Ozen Elbruz , Orailoglu Alex
Published: September 2021

As deep learning algorithms are widely adopted, an increasing number of them are positioned in embedded application domains with strict reliability constraints. The expenditure of significant resources to satisfy performance requirements in deep neural network accelerators has thinned out the margins for delivering safety in embedded deep learning applications, thus precluding the adoption of conventional fault tolerance methods. The potential of exploiting the inherent resilience characteristics of deep neural networks remains though unexplored, offering a promising low-cost path towards safety in embedded deep learning applications. This work demonstrates the possibility of such exploitation by juxtaposing the reduction of the vulnerability surface through the proper design of the quantization schemes with shaping the parameter distributions at each layer through the guidance offered by appropriate training methods, thus delivering deep neural networks of high resilience merely through algorithmic modifications. Unequaled error resilience characteristics can be thus injected into safety-critical deep learning applications to tolerate bit error rates of up to

at absolutely zero hardware, energy, and performance costs while improving the error-free model accuracy even further.
Exploiting Activation Sparsity for Fast CNN Inference on Mobile GPUs
Authors: Oh Chanyoung , So Junhyuk , Kim Sumin , Yi Youngmin
Published: September 2021

Over the past several years, the need for on-device deep learning has been rapidly increasing, and efficient CNN inference on mobile platforms has been actively researched. Sparsity exploitation has been one of the most active research themes, but the studies mostly focus on weight sparsity by weight pruning. Activation sparsity, on the contrary, requires compression at runtime for every input tensor. Hence, the research on activation sparsity mainly targets NPUs that can efficiently process this with their own hardware logic. In this paper, we observe that it is difficult to accelerate CNN inference on mobile GPUs with natural activation sparsity and that the widely used CSR-based sparse convolution is not sufficiently effective due to the compression overhead. We propose several novel sparsification methods that can boost activation sparsity without harming accuracy. In particular, we selectively sparsify some layers with an extremely high sparsity and adopt sparse convolution or dense convolution depending on the layers. Further, we present an efficient sparse convolution method without compression and demonstrate that it can be faster than the CSR implementation. With ResNet-50, we achieved 1.88

speedup compared to TFLite on a Mali-G76 GPU.
MaxTracker: Continuously Tracking the Maximum Computation Progress for Energy Harvesting ReRAM-based CNN Accelerators
Authors: Qiu Keni , Jao Nicholas , Zhou Kunyu , Liu Yongpan , Sampson Jack , Kandemir Mahmut Taylan , Narayanan Vijaykrishnan
Published: September 2021

There is an ongoing trend to increasingly offload inference tasks, such as CNNs, to edge devices in many IoT scenarios. As energy harvesting is an attractive IoT power source, recent ReRAM-based CNN accelerators have been designed for operation on harvested energy. When addressing the instability problems of harvested energy, prior optimization techniques often assume that the load is fixed, overlooking the close interactions among input power, computational load, and circuit efficiency, or adapt the dynamic load to match the just-in-time incoming power under a simple harvesting architecture with no intermediate energy storage.

Targeting a more efficient harvesting architecture equipped with both energy storage and energy delivery modules, this paper is the first effort to target whole system, end-to-end efficiency for an energy harvesting ReRAM-based accelerator. First, we model the relationships among ReRAM load power, DC-DC converter efficiency, and power failure overhead. Then, a maximum computation progress tracking scheme (
MaxTracker
) is proposed to achieve a joint optimization of the whole system by tuning the load power of the ReRAM-based accelerator. Specifically,
MaxTracker
accommodates both continuous and intermittent computing schemes and provides dynamic ReRAM load according to harvesting scenarios.

We evaluate
MaxTracker
over four input power scenarios, and the experimental results show average speedups of 38.4%/40.3% (up to 51.3%/84.4%), over a full activation scheme (with energy storage) and order-of-magnitude speedups over the recently proposed (energy storage-less)
ResiRCA
technique. Furthermore, we also explore
MaxTracker
in combination with the
Capybara
reconfigurable capacitor approach to offer more flexible tuners and thus further boost the system performance.
Real-time Attack-recovery for Cyber-physical Systems Using Linear-quadratic Regulator
Authors: Zhang Lin , Lu Pengyuan , Kong Fanxin , Chen Xin , Sokolsky Oleg , Lee Insup
Published: September 2021

The increasing autonomy and connectivity in cyber-physical systems (CPS) come with new security vulnerabilities that are easily exploitable by malicious attackers to spoof a system to perform dangerous actions. While the vast majority of existing works focus on attack prevention and detection, the key question is “what to do after detecting an attack?”. This problem attracts fairly rare attention though its significance is emphasized by the need to mitigate or even eliminate attack impacts on a system. In this article, we study this attack response problem and propose novel real-time recovery for securing CPS. First, this work’s core component is a recovery control calculator using a Linear-Quadratic Regulator (LQR) with timing and safety constraints. This component can smoothly steer back a physical system under control to a target state set before a safe deadline and maintain the system state in the set once it is driven to it. We further propose an Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) based algorithm that can fast solve the LQR-based recovery problem. Second, supporting components for the attack recovery computation include a checkpointer, a state reconstructor, and a deadline estimator. To realize these components respectively, we propose (i) a sliding-window-based checkpointing protocol that governs sufficient trustworthy data, (ii) a state reconstruction approach that uses the checkpointed data to estimate the current system state, and (iii) a reachability-based approach to conservatively estimate a safe deadline. Finally, we implement our approach and demonstrate its effectiveness in dealing with totally 15 experimental scenarios which are designed based on 5 CPS simulators and 3 types of sensor attacks.
Excluding Parallel Execution to Improve Global Fixed Priority Response Time Analysis
Authors: Zhou Quan , Li Jianjun , Li Guohui
Published: September 2021

Response Time Analysis (RTA) is an effective method for testing the schedulability of real-time tasks on multiprocessor platforms. Existing RTAs for global fixed priority scheduling calculate the upper bound of the worst case response time of each task. Given a target task, existing RTAs first calculate the workload upper bound of each higher priority task (than the target task), and then calculate the interference on the target task by each higher priority task according to the obtained workload upper bounds. The workload of a task consists of three parts: carry-in, body and carry-out. The interference from all these three parts may be overestimated in existing RTAs. However, although the overestimation of the interference from body is the major factor that causes the low accuracy of existing RTAs, all existing work only focuses on how to reduce the overestimation of the interference from carry-in, and there is no method to reduce the overestimation of the interference from body or carry-out. In this work, we propose a method to calculate the lower bound of the accumulative time in which the target task and higher priority tasks are executed in parallel. By excluding the parallel execution time from the interference, we derive a new RTA test that can reduce the overestimation of the interference from all three parts of the workload. Extensive experiments are conducted to verify the superior performance of the proposed RTA test.
Perfecting Targeting in CRISPR
Authors: Zhang Hainan , Li Tong , Sun Yidi , Yang Hui
Published: September 2021

CRISPR-based genome editing holds promise for genome engineering and other applications in diverse organisms. Defining and improving the genome-wide and transcriptome-wide specificities of these editing tools are essential for realizing their full potential in basic research and biomedical therapeutics. This review provides an overview of CRISPR-based DNA- and RNA-editing technologies, methods to quantify their specificities, and key solutions to reduce off-target effects for research and improve therapeutic applications.
How to Switch from Mitosis to Meiosis: Regulation of Germline Entry in Plants
Authors: Böwer Franziska , Schnittger Arp
Published: September 2021

One of the major cell fate transitions in eukaryotes is entry into meiosis. While in single-celled yeast this decision is triggered by nutrient starvation, in multicellular eukaryotes, such as plants, it is under developmental control. In contrast to animals, plants have only a short germline and instruct cells to become meiocytes in reproductive organs late in development. This situation argues for a fundamentally different mechanism of how plants recruit meiocytes, and consistently, none of the regulators known to control meiotic entry in yeast and animals are present in plants. In recent years, several factors involved in meiotic entry have been identified, especially in the model plant Arabidopsis, and pieces of a regulatory network of germline control in plants are emerging. However, the corresponding studies also show that the mechanisms of meiotic entry control are diversified in flowering plants, calling for further analyses in different plant species.
Cardiac PANK1 deletion exacerbates ventricular dysfunction during pressure overload
Authors: Audam Timothy N. , Howard Caitlin M. , Garrett Lauren F. , Zheng Yi Wei , Bradley James A. , Brittian Kenneth R. , Frank Matthew W. , Fulghum Kyle L. , Pólos Miklós , Herczeg Szilvia , Merkely Béla , Radovits Tamás , Uchida Shizuka , Hill Bradford G. , Dassanayaka Sujith , Jackowski Suzanne , Jones Steven P.
Published: September 2021

Changes in CoA homeostasis have been implicated in a variety of metabolic diseases; however, the extent to which changes in CoA homeostasis impacts remodeling has not been explored. We show that limiting cardiac CoA levels via PANK deletion exacerbated ventricular remodeling during pressure overload. Our results suggest that metabolic alterations, rather than structural alterations, associated with Pank1 deletion may underlie the exacerbated cardiac phenotype during pressure overload.
Fast Software Implementation of Serial Test and Approximate Entropy Test of Binary Sequence
Authors: Yang Xian-wei , Zhan Xue-qiu , Kang Hong-juan , Luo Ying
Published: September 2021

In many cryptographic applications, random numbers and pseudorandom numbers are required. Many cryptographic protocols require using random or pseudorandom numbers at various points, e.g., for auxiliary data in digital signatures or challenges in authentication protocols. In NIST SP800-22, the focus is on the need for randomness for encryption purposes and describes how to apply a set of statistical randomness tests. These tests can be used to evaluate the data generated by cryptographic algorithms. This paper will study the fast software implementation of the serial test and the approximate entropy test and propose two types of fast implementations of these tests. The first method is to follow the basic steps of these tests and replace bit operations with byte operations. Through this method, compared with the implementation of Fast NIST STS, the efficiency of the serial test and approximate entropy test is increased by 2.164 and 2.100 times, respectively. The second method is based on the first method, combining the statistical characteristics of subsequences of different lengths and further combining the two detections with different detection parameters. In this way, compared to the individual implementation of these tests, the efficiency has been significantly improved. Compared with the implementation of Fast NIST STS, the efficiency of this paper is increased by 4.078 times.
Digital Storytelling as a Reflective Tool in Occupational Therapy Curriculum
Authors: Sonday Amshuda
Published: September 2021

With a shift in moving towards the 4th industrial revolution, digital storytelling has been identified as a novel way of facilitating teaching and learning. This paper will be aimed at offering an understanding of the experience and perspective of occupational therapy students in using digital storytelling as a reflective tool as an assignment as part of their undergraduate and masters occupational therapy curriculum at a university in South Africa. A descriptive qualitative study was undertaken, and five participants were purposively recruited. Individual semistructured interviews were conducted as well as a focus group with participants. An inductive analysis revealed two themes: Reflections on relevance within the occupational therapy curriculum and Is technology the new direction? The findings conclude that digital storytelling as a medium to showcase reflections on identifying formation was an innovative and novel way of documenting the reflective experiences of occupational therapy students.
Evaluation of Rabbits Liver Fibrosis Using Gd-DTPA-BMA of Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Authors: Cui Qian , He FengTai , Hu Jiawei , Li Shuo , Guo Dongmei , Bie Xu , Liu Wei , Zhao Yiping
Published: September 2021

Objective. To evaluate the different pharmacokinetic parameters of the DCE-MRI method on diagnosing and staging of rabbits’ liver fibrosis. Methods. We had performed DCE-MRI for rabbits that had been divided into the experiment group and the control group. Then, rabbits’ images were transferred to a work station to get three parameters such as Ktrans, Kep, and Ve, which had been measured to calculate. After data were analyzed, ROC analyses were performed to assess the diagnostic performance of Ktrans, Kep, and Ve to judge liver fibrosis. Results. The distribution of the different liver fibrosis group was as follows: F1, n = 8; F2, n = 9; F3, n = 6; F4, n = 5. No fibrosis was deemed as F0, n = 6. Kep is statistically significant

P
<
0.05

for F0 and mild liver fibrosis stage, and the Kep shows AUC of 0.814. Three parameters are statistically significant for F0 and advanced liver fibrosis stage (Ktrans and Kep,

P
<
0.01

; Ve,

P
<
0.05

), and the Ktrans shows AUC of 0.924; the Kep shows AUC of 0.909; the Ve shows AUC of 0.848; Ktrans and Kep are statistically significant for mild and advanced liver fibrosis stages (Ktrans,

P
<
0.01

; Kep,

P
<
0.05

), and the Ktrans shows AUC of 0.840; the Kep shows AUC of 0.765. Both Ktrans and Kep are negatively correlated with the liver fibrosis stage. Ve is positively correlated with the liver fibrosis stage. Conclusion. Ktrans is shown to be the best DCE parameter to distinguish the fibrotic liver from the normal liver and mild and advanced fibrosis. On the contrary, Kep is moderate and Ve is worst. And Kep is a good DCE parameter to differentiate mild fibrosis from the normal liver.
Disseminated Blastomycosis Presenting as Oligoarthritis, Pneumonia, and Skin Disease in an Immunocompetent Child
Authors: Schildt Emily , Bockrath Robyn
Published: September 2021

Blastomyces species (spp) can cause clinical disease affecting nearly every organ system, including the skeletal system. However, isolated joint involvement without concurrent osteomyelitis is rare, especially in children. We present a pediatric case from a tertiary care center in urban Chicago of disseminated blastomycosis caused by Blastomyces dermatitidis presenting as oligoarthritis (in the absence of osteomyelitis), pneumonia, and skin involvement, with clinical improvement on IV amphotericin and oral azole treatment.
The Correlation between 18F-FDG PET/CT Imaging SUVmax of Preoperative Colon Cancer Primary Lesions and Clinicopathological Factors
Authors: Li Dacheng , Wang Ying , Liu Weili , Chen Qiusong , Cai Li , Xing Xiling , Gao Shuo
Published: September 2021

Background. The purpose of this study is to explore the correlation between the 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) of preoperative colon cancer primary lesions and clinicopathological factors. Methods. 88 colon cancer patients diagnosed by histopathology were collected from January 2014 to December 2015. 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging was performed before surgery. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis was used to assess the prognosis of colon cancer patients. Results. The 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging SUVmax value of preoperative colon cancer primary lesion was significantly correlated with the length of the lesion, clinical stage, histopathological type, and the degree of tumor differentiation. The SUVmax value of tumors with long-diameter, ≥ 3 cm, clinically high-stage, adenocarcinoma, and poorly differentiated lesions was significantly high. In addition, the consistency between PET/CT and surgical pathological results at stage I and IV was higher. Stage II and III PET/CT are basically consistent with the pathological results of surgery. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis showed that the 5-year event-free survival rate of the SUVmax > 18.26 group was significantly lower than that of the SUVmax ≤ 18.26 group. Conclusion. 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging SUVmax of preoperative colon cancer primary lesions can not only reflect the proliferation and invasion ability but also monitor the recurrence and metastasis of colon cancer.
Research on Land Use Change and Ecological Environment Effect Based on Remote Sensing Sensor Technology
Authors: Liu Yuntong , Zhang Dan , He Kuan , Gao Qiong , Qin Fen
Published: September 2021

In the regional landscape pattern, woodland landscape patches are developed in a regular manner, showing a trend of agglomeration as a whole; the concentration and dominance of landscape patches of cultivated land, grassland, and unused land are decreasing, and the overall situation is fragmented; the water landscape pattern is also showing a regular development state to varying degrees. On the whole, the landscape of a certain area is scattered and fragmented, and the dominant landscape types dominate the overall landscape layout of the region. The diversity of land use landscape pattern shows positive autocorrelation as a whole. According to the Moran’s I index of the diversity of land use landscape patterns, the overall agglomeration effect of the region has increased, but the overall trend is in a balanced trend. The ecological service value of urban land use change continues to increase, but the regional differences are significant, the structure is simple, and it is mainly supported by ecosystems such as forest land, water area, and agricultural land. Based on the analysis of the spatiotemporal evolution of land use, an in‐depth analysis of the urban water environment, atmospheric environment, soil environment, urban heat island, and other environmental issues of the urban land use in the study area is carried out. The calculation and analysis results of the ecological service value of urban land use change and its flow direction change show that the ecosystem service value has increased, and the regional difference and flow direction of the ecosystem service value have changed significantly.
Nonlinear Unsteady Aerodynamics Reduced Order Model of Airfoils Based on Algorithm Fusion and Multifidelity Framework
Authors: Shi Yan , Wan Zhiqiang , Wu Zhigang , Yang Chao
Published: September 2021

A reduced order modeling method based on algorithm fusion and multifidelity framework for nonlinear unsteady aerodynamics is proposed to obtain a low-cost and high-precision unsteady aerodynamic model. This method integrates the traditional algorithm, intelligent algorithm, and multifidelity data fusion algorithm. In this method, the traditional algorithm is based on separated flow theory, the intelligent algorithm refers to the nonlinear autoregressive (NARX) method, and the multifidelity data fusion algorithm uses different fidelity data for aerodynamic modeling, which can shorten the time cost of data acquisition. In the process of modeling, firstly, a multifidelity model with NARX description provides a general intelligent algorithm framework for unsteady aerodynamics. Then, based on the separated flow theory, the correction equation from low-fidelity model to high-fidelity result is constructed, and the cuckoo algorithm based on chaos optimization is used to identify the parameters. In order to verify the effectiveness of the method, an unsteady aerodynamic model of NACA0012 airfoil is established. Three kinds of data with low, medium, and high fidelity are used for modeling. The low-fidelity and medium-fidelity data is obtained from the CFD-Euler solver and CFD-RANS solver, respectively, while the high-fidelity data comes from the experimental results. Then, the model is established, and its prediction of unsteady aerodynamic coefficients is in good agreement with the CFD results and the experimental data. After that, the model is applied to a two-dimensional aeroelastic system, and the bifurcation and limit cycle response analysis are compared with the experimental results, which further shows that the model can accurately capture the main flow characteristics in the flow range of low speed and high angle of attack. In addition, the convergence of the model is studied; the accuracy and generalization ability as well as applicability scope of the model are compared with other aerodynamic models and finally discussed.
Yap-Hippo Signaling Activates Mitochondrial Protection and Sustains Breast Cancer Viability under Hypoxic Stress
Authors: Shi Chen , Zhang Siyuan , Guo Changkuo , Tie Jian
Published: September 2021

Yes-associated protein (Yap) is a transcriptional regulator that upregulates oncogenes and downregulates tumor repressor genes. In this study, we analyzed protein expression, RNA transcription, and signaling pathways to determine the function and mechanism of Yap in breast cancer survival during hypoxic stress. Yap transcription was drastically upregulated by hypoxia in a time-dependent manner. siRNA-mediated Yap knockdown attenuated breast cancer viability and impaired cell proliferation under hypoxic conditions. Yap knockdown induced mitochondrial stress, including mitochondrial membrane potential reduction, mitochondrial oxidative stress, and ATP exhaustion after exposure to hypoxia. It also repressed mitochondrial protective systems, including mitophagy and mitochondrial fusion upon exposure to hypoxia. Finally, our data showed that Yap knockdown suppresses MCF-7 cell migration by inhibiting F-actin transcription and promoting lamellipodium degradation under hypoxic stress. Taken together, Yap maintenance of mitochondrial function and activation of F-actin/lamellipodium signaling is required for breast cancer survival, migration, and proliferation under hypoxic stress.
HIV/AIDS-Pneumonia Coinfection Model with Treatment at Each Infection Stage: Mathematical Analysis and Numerical Simulation
Authors: Teklu Shewafera Wondimagegnhu , Mekonnen Temesgen Tibebu
Published: September 2021

In the paper, we have considered a nonlinear compartmental mathematical model that assesses the effect of treatment on the dynamics of HIV/AIDS and pneumonia coinfection in a human population at different infection stages. Our model revealed that the disease-free equilibrium points of the HIV/AIDS and pneumonia submodels are both locally and globally asymptotically stable whenever the associated basic reproduction numbers (

R

H

and

R

P

) are less than unity. Both the submodel endemic equilibrium points are locally and globally asymptotically stable whenever the associated basic reproduction numbers (

R

P

and

R

H

) are greater than unity. The full HIV/AIDS-pneumonia coinfection model has both locally and globally asymptotically stable disease-free equilibrium points whenever the basic reproduction number of the coinfection model

R

H
P

is less than unity. Using standard values of parameters collected from different kinds of literature, we found that the numerical values of the basic reproduction numbers of the HIV/AIDS-only submodel and pneumonia-only submodel are 17 and 7, respectively, and the basic reproduction number of the HIV/AIDS-pneumonia coinfection model is

max

7
,
17

=
17

. Applying sensitive analysis, we identified the most influential parameters to change the behavior of the solution of the considered coinfection dynamical system are the HIV/AIDS and pneumonia transmission rates

β

1

and

β

2

, respectively. The coinfection model was numerically simulated to investigate the stability of the coinfection endemic equilibrium point, the impacts of transmission rates, and treatment strategies for HIV/AIDS-only, pneumonia-only, and HIV/AIDS-pneumonia coinfected individuals. Finally, we observed that numerical simulations indicate that treatment against infection at every stage lowers the rate of infection or disease prevalence.
Human Ace D/I Polymorphism Could Affect the Clinicobiological Course of COVID-19
Authors: Aladag Elifcan , Tas Zahit , Ozdemir Bilgesu Safak , Akbaba Tayfun Hilmi , Akpınar Meltem Gulsun , Goker Hakan , Unalan-Altintop Tugce , Inkaya Ahmet Cagkan , Alp Alpaslan , Metan Gokhan , Haznedaroglu Ibrahim Celalettin , Balci-Peynircioglu Banu , Sayinalp Nilgun
Published: September 2021

Introduction. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), that is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has spread rapidly worldwide since December 2019. The SARS-CoV-2 virus has a great affinity for the angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE-2) receptor, which is an essential element of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS). This study is aimed at assessing the impact of the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene insertion (I)/deletion (D) polymorphisms, on the susceptibility and clinical outcomes of the COVID-19 immunoinflammatory syndrome. Patients and Methods. A total of 112 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 between 1 and 15 May 2020 were enrolled in the study. ACE gene allele frequencies were compared to the previously reported Turkish population comprised of 300 people. Results. The most common genotype in the patients and control group was DI with 53% and II with 42%, respectively. The difference in the presence of the D allele between the patient and control groups was statistically significant (67% vs. 42%, respectively, [Formula: see text]). Severe pneumonia was observed more in patients with DI allele (31%) than DD (8%) and II (0%) ([Formula: see text]). The mortality rate, time to defervescence, and the hospitalization duration were not different between the genotype groups. Conclusion. Genotype DI of ACE I/D polymorphism is associated with the infectious rate particularly severe pneumonia in this study conducted in the Turkish population. Therefore, ACE D/I polymorphism could affect the clinical course of COVID-19.
A New Method of Achieving Single Three-Dimensional Building Model Automatically Based on Oblique Photography Data
Authors: Che Defu , Li Zonghui , Liu Yining , Zhong Renqing , Ma Baodong
Published: September 2021

Operating and managing single three-dimensional building model individually are critical in the application of oblique photography models. However, these models are usually complete and continuous, and the single three-dimensional building model in these models cannot be managed individually. Generally, achieving a single three-dimensional building model requires a human-computer interaction to determine the cutting range, but this process is time-consuming and inefficient. To overcome this problem, this study proposed a new method for automatically achieving single three-dimensional building model without the need for human-computer interaction. First, the point clouds of an oblique photography model are divided into virtual grids, and the point clouds in each virtual grid are seen as a whole. In this way, the number of point clouds involved in the calculation is reduced, thereby improving computing efficiency. Second, the point clouds of a building facade are extracted by setting the height difference. By comparing the height difference between the highest point and the lowest point of the grid with height difference threshold, all point clouds in the grid that do not meet the requirements are eliminated. Third, the point clouds of the building facade are classified, and the contour line is extracted by the classified point clouds. Finally, the single three-dimensional building model is achieved by reconstructing the triangles that intersect with the extracted contour line. Experimental results show that the proposed method can effectively achieve single bodies automatically from an oblique photography building model. This method is then useful for achieving single three-dimensional building model from massive oblique photography data.
Expression Pattern of Genes in Condyloma Acuminata Treated with Clinacanthus nutans Lindau Cream versus Podophyllin
Authors: Jantaravinid Jiraporn , Jiamton Sukhum , Srisawat Chatchawan , Suktitipat Bhoom , Tirawanchai Napatara
Published: September 2021

Clinacanthus nutans Lindua (C. nutans), a strong antiviral traditional medicine, can be used to treat condyloma acuminata (CA) caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV). However, its molecular mechanism for CA elimination is unknown. Herein, we conducted a randomized clinical trial to evaluate the effectiveness of C. nutans and its molecular mechanism compared with podophyllin, the gold standard treatment. Using a randomized block design, six patients were treated with C. nutans and podophyllin for four weeks. Efficacy of drugs was assessed by size reduction of the warts and HPV viral load quantification using droplet digital PCR. The gene expression profiling of CA was analyzed using NanoString Technology. After the podophyllin and C. nutans treatments, CA lesion sizes were reduced to 97.0% and 84.4% clearance, and the HPV viral loads were reduced by 74.0% and 46.6%, respectively. The gene expression pattern of immune profiling showed that 23 genes (i.e., HLA-DPB, CCL3, CXCL2, CXCR2, and OSM) were significantly differentially expressed by podophyllin, whereas 2 genes (IFNL1 and IRF2) were remarkably expressed by C. nutans. In inflammatory profiling, 108 genes (i.e., CXCL2, IL8, and STAT3) were highly expressed by podophyllin, but none of genes were observed to change expression by C. nutans. These results suggested that podophyllin may reduce the HPV infection through a mechanism related to proinflammatory response. In addition, C. nutans was found to suppress the HPV infection through mechanism related to the activation of immune response. This study shows novel therapeutic mechanisms of podophyllin and C. nutans. It is suggested that C. nutans might be used as an alternative treatment for CA treatment.