bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Seismic ocean thermometry
Authors: Wu Wenbo , Zhan Zhongwen , Peng Shirui , Ni Sidao , Callies Jörn
Published: September 2020

Hearing the heat

Most of the excess heat that causes global warming is absorbed by the oceans. Quantifying that heat increase is challenging because it requires many different temperature measurements over both the vertical and horizontal extent of the oceans. Wu
et al.
report success in this effort through the use of a different method: They inferred temperature changes from sound waves generated by repeating earthquakes (see the Perspective by Wunsch). The travel time of these earthquakes from source to receiver reflects changes in the average water temperature that they encounter. This technique should substantially enhance our ability to monitor ocean warming.

Science
, this issue p.
1510
; see also p.
1433
An unexpected audience
Authors: Garcia-Pelegrin Elias , Schnell Alexandra K. , Wilkins Clive , Clayton Nicola S.
Published: September 2020

Experiments with magic effects might be informative about cognition in animals
The gut microbiota in kidney disease
Authors: Pluznick Jennifer L.
Published: September 2020

Dietary changes induce posttranslational modifications of microbial proteins to alter metabolite production
Safety and efficacy of human milk-based fortifier in enterally fed preterm and/or low birthweight infants: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Grace Erin , Hilditch Cathie , Gomersall Judith , Collins Carmel T , Rumbold Alice , Keir Amy K
Published: September 2020

Objective

To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of the efficacy and safety of fortification of human milk with human milk-based fortifier versus cow’s milk-based fortifier for use in preterm and/or very low birthweight infants.

Design

Randomised or quasi-randomised controlled trials comparing the effect of human milk fortification with human milk-based milk fortifier versus cow’s milk-based fortifier in infants born <34 weeks’ gestation and/or with birth weight <1500 g were identified by searching databases, clinical trial registries and reference lists until 5 November 2019. Two authors independently extracted data and assessed evidence quality. Meta-analyses were conducted using fixed or random effects models, as appropriate.

Main outcome measures

Necrotising enterocolitis (Bell’s stage II or higher) and late-onset sepsis.

Results

Of 863 unique records identified, 16 full-text trials were screened and 2 trials involving 334 infants were included. Primary outcome data were available for 332 infants. Use of human milk-based fortifier compared with cow’s milk-based fortifier reduced the risk of necrotising enterocolitis (risk ratio 0.47, 95% CI 0.22 to 0.98). There was no clear evidence of an effect on late-onset sepsis or any other outcomes. The quality of evidence was low to very low due to imprecision and lack of blinding in one study.

Conclusions

Findings suggest that there is a reduction in the incidence of necrotising enterocolitis with human milk-based fortifiers compared with cow’s milk-based fortifiers. The overall quality of evidence is low. Further appropriately powered trials are required before this intervention can be routinely recommended for preterm infants.
Primary adjunctive corticosteroid therapy is associated with improved outcomes for patients with Kawasaki disease with coronary artery aneurysms at diagnosis
Authors: Friedman Kevin G , Gauvreau Kimberlee , Baker Annette , Son Mary Beth , Sundel Robert , Dionne Audrey , Giorgio Thomas , De Ferranti Sarah , Newburger Jane W
Published: September 2020

Objective

Patients with Kawasaki disease (KD) with coronary artery enlargement at diagnosis are at the highest risk for persistent coronary artery aneurysms (CAAs) and may benefit from primary adjunctive anti-inflammatory therapy beyond intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG). We evaluate the effect of primary adjunctive corticosteroid therapy on outcomes in patients with CAA at diagnosis.

Design

Single-centre, retrospective review.

Patients

Patients with KD diagnosed within 10 days of fever onset and with baseline CA z-score ≥2.5.

Interventions

Primary treatment with IVIG (n=162) versus IVIG plus corticosteroids (n=48).

Main outcome measures

Treatment resistance (persistent fever >36 hours after initial treatment), CAA regression rate.

Results

Of the 92 patients with KD who received corticosteroids at our institution from 2012 to 2019, 48 met the inclusion criteria for primary adjunctive therapy. The corticosteroid group was younger and had larger baseline CAAs compared with historical controls. Demographics and laboratory values were otherwise similar between groups. The corticosteroid group had a less treatment resistance (4% vs 30%, p=0.003) and a greater improvement in C reactive protein. After adjusting for baseline CA z-score, age and baseline bilateral versus unilateral CAA, the corticosteroid group had a higher odds of (OR 2.77 (1.04, 7.42), p=0.042) and a shorter time to CAA regression (HR 1.94 (1.27, 2.96), p=0.002).

Conclusion

Primary adjunctive corticosteroid therapy is associated with decreased initial treatment resistance, greater improvement in inflammatory markers and higher likelihood of CAA regression in patients who have CAA at diagnosis. Multi-centre, randomised controlled trials are needed to confirm the benefits of corticosteroids in patients with CAA at diagnosis and to compare corticosteroids with other adjunctive therapies.
Computerised clinical decision support systems and absolute improvements in care: meta-analysis of controlled clinical trials
Authors: Kwan Janice L , Lo Lisha , Ferguson Jacob , Goldberg Hanna , Diaz-Martinez Juan Pablo , Tomlinson George , Grimshaw Jeremy M , Shojania Kaveh G
Published: September 2020

Objective

To report the improvements achieved with clinical decision support systems and examine the heterogeneity from pooling effects across diverse clinical settings and intervention targets.

Design

Systematic review and meta-analysis.

Data sources

Medline up to August 2019.

Eligibility criteria for selecting studies and methods

Randomised or quasi-randomised controlled trials reporting absolute improvements in the percentage of patients receiving care recommended by clinical decision support systems. Multilevel meta-analysis accounted for within study clustering. Meta-regression was used to assess the degree to which the features of clinical decision support systems and study characteristics reduced heterogeneity in effect sizes. Where reported, clinical endpoints were also captured.

Results

In 108 studies (94 randomised, 14 quasi-randomised), reporting 122 trials that provided analysable data from 1 203 053 patients and 10 790 providers, clinical decision support systems increased the proportion of patients receiving desired care by 5.8% (95% confidence interval 4.0% to 7.6%). This pooled effect exhibited substantial heterogeneity (I
2
=76%), with the top quartile of reported improvements ranging from 10% to 62%. In 30 trials reporting clinical endpoints, clinical decision support systems increased the proportion of patients achieving guideline based targets (eg, blood pressure or lipid control) by a median of 0.3% (interquartile range −0.7% to 1.9%). Two study characteristics (low baseline adherence and paediatric settings) were associated with significantly larger effects. Inclusion of these covariates in the multivariable meta-regression, however, did not reduce heterogeneity.

Conclusions

Most interventions with clinical decision support systems appear to achieve small to moderate improvements in targeted processes of care, a finding confirmed by the small changes in clinical endpoints found in studies that reported them. A minority of studies achieved substantial increases in the delivery of recommended care, but predictors of these more meaningful improvements remain undefined.
Firearm purchasing and storage during the COVID-19 pandemic
Authors: Lyons Vivian H , Haviland Miriam J , Azrael Deborah , Adhia Avanti , Bellenger M Alex , Ellyson Alice , Rowhani-Rahbar Ali , Rivara Frederick P
Published: September 2020

To better understand motivations behind purchase and storage of firearms during the COVID-19 pandemic, we used Amazon Mechanical Turk to conduct an online survey of individuals who did and did not purchase a firearm since 1 January 2020 in response to COVID-19. The survey was fielded between 1 and 5 May 2020. We asked about motivations for purchase, changes in storage practices and concern for themselves or others due to COVID-19. There were 1105 survey respondents. Most people who purchased a firearm did so to protect themselves from people. Among respondents who had purchased a firearm in response to COVID-19 without prior household firearm ownership, 39.7% reported at least one firearm was stored unlocked. Public health efforts to improve firearm-related safety during COVID-19 should consider increasing access to training and framing messages around the concerns motivating new firearm purchase.
Transient radial paralysis occurring in a Belgian White Blue bull undergoing general anaesthesia for claw amputation
Authors: La Rosa Lavinia , Schauvliege Stijn
Published: September 2020

A four‐year‐old, 973 kg Belgian White Blue bull was presented for further evaluation of a persistent right hindlimb lameness. The physical and radiographic examinations revealed osteitis of the medial second phalanx of the right hindlimb. A claw amputation was performed under general anaesthesia. The bull was premedicated with 0.17 mg/kg xylazine intramuscularly and general anaesthesia was induced with 2 mg/kg ketamine administered intravenously. During the recovery phase, the bull could not bear any weight on his left thoracic limb. Further examinations revealed left radial nerve paralysis. Treatment consists of a bolus of dexamethasone (0.05 mg/kg) intravenously in order to decrease the inflammation; fluid therapy in an attempt to improve muscle perfusion and to replace the fluid losses and cold showers to decrease the rise in temperature. After 90 minutes from the end of general anaesthesia, the radial paralysis resolved spontaneously without any major consequences.
Blunted blood pressure response to exercise and isolated muscle metaboreflex activation in patients with cirrhosis
Authors: Mira Pedro Augusto de Carvalho , Falci Maria Fernanda Almeida , Moreira Janaína Becari , Guerrero Rosa Virginia Diaz , Ribeiro Tarsila Campanha da Rocha , Barbosa Kátia Valéria Bastos Dias , Pace Fábio Heleno Lima , Martinez Daniel Godoy , Laterza Mateus Camaroti
Published: September 2020

We sought to test the hypothesis that the cardiovascular responses to isolated muscle metaboreflex activation would be blunted in patients with cirrhosis. Eleven patients with cirrhosis and 15 healthy controls were evaluated. Blood pressure (BP; oscillometric method), contralateral forearm blood flow (FBF; venous occlusion plethysmography), and heart rate (HR; electrocardiogram) were measured during baseline, isometric handgrip at 30% of maximal voluntary contraction followed by postexercise ischemia (PEI). Forearm vascular conductance (FVC) was calculated as follows: (FBF / mean BP) × 100. Changes in HR during handgrip were similar between groups but tended to be different during PEI (controls: Δ 0.5 ± 1.1 bpm vs. cirrhotic patients: Δ 3.6 ± 1.0 bpm, P = 0.057). Mean BP response to handgrip (controls: Δ 20.9 ± 2.7 mm Hg vs. cirrhotic patients: Δ 10.6 ± 1.5 mm Hg, P = 0.006) and PEI was attenuated in cirrhotic patients (controls: Δ 16.1 ± 1.9 mm Hg vs. cirrhotic patients: Δ 7.2 ± 1.4 mm Hg, P = 0.001). In contrast, FBF and FVC increased during handgrip and decreased during PEI similarly between groups. These results indicate that an abnormal muscle metaboreflex activation explained, at least partially, the blunted pressor response to exercise exhibited by cirrhotic patients.

Novelty: Patients with cirrhosis present abnormal muscle metaboreflex activation. BP response was blunted but forearm vascular response was preserved. HR response was slightly elevated.
Influence of phase difference between kinematic and inertial loads on seismic behaviour of pile foundations in layered soils
Authors: Garala Thejesh Kumar , Madabhushi Gopal Santana Phani
Published: September 2020

A series of dynamic centrifuge experiments was conducted on model pile foundations embedded in a two-layered soil profile consisting of soft-clay layer underlain by dense sand. These experiments were specifically designed to investigate the individual effect of kinematic and inertial loads on a single pile and a 3 × 1 row pile group during model earthquakes. It was observed that the ratio of free-field soil natural frequency to the natural frequency of structure might not govern the phase relationship between the kinematic and inertial loads for pile foundations as reported in some previous research. The phase relationship obtained in this study agrees well with the conventional phase variation between the force and displacement of a viscously damped simple oscillator subjected to a harmonic force. Further, as expected, the pile accelerations and bending moments can be smaller when the kinematic and inertial loads act against each other compared to the case when they act together on the pile foundations. This study also revealed that the peak kinematic pile bending moment will be at the interface of soil layers for both single pile and pile group. However, in the presence of both kinematic and inertial loads, the peak pile bending moment can occur either at the shallower depths or at the interface of soil layers depending on the pile cap rotational constraint.
Effect of nonlinear temperature and concentration profiles on the stability of a layer of fluid with chemical reaction
Authors: Mahajan Amit , Tripathi Vinit Kumar
Published: September 2020

Investigation of the onset of thermosolutal convection with chemical reaction is carried out for different types of basic temperature and concentration gradients using linear theory and energy method. An unconditional nonlinear stability with exponential decay of finite amplitude perturbations is achieved and the Galerkin technique is utilized to solve the resulting eigenvalue problem obtained from linear and nonlinear analysis. The numerical scheme is validated with existing results and the results are obtained for linear, parabolic, inverted parabolic, piecewise linear, oscillatory, and step-function profiles of temperature and concentration gradients. The linear and nonlinear results show the existence of subcritical instability.
Sublethal effects of wild-type and a vIF-2α-knockout Frog virus 3 on postmetamorphic wood frogs (Rana sylvatica): potential for a stage-specific reservoir
Authors: Bienentreu Joe-Felix , Grayfer Leon , Schock Danna M. , Guerreiro Matthew , Mehes-Smith Melanie , DeWitte-Orr Stephanie J. , Robert Jacques , Brunetti Craig R. , Lesbarrères David
Published: September 2020

Ranaviruses have been associated with rising numbers of mass die-offs in amphibian populations around the globe. However, most studies on ranaviruses to date focused on larval amphibians. To assess the role of postmetamorphic amphibians in the epidemiology of ranaviruses and to determine the role of viral immune-suppression genes, we performed a bath-exposure study on post-metamorphic wood frogs ( Rana sylvatica) using environmentally relevant concentrations of wild-type Frog virus 3 (WT FV3), and a gene-knockout mutant (KO FV3), deficient for the putative immune-suppression gene vIF-2α. We observed a 42% infection rate and 5% mortality across the virus challenges, with infection rates and viral loads following a dose-dependent pattern. Individuals exposed to the knockout variant exhibited significantly decreased growth and increased lethargy compared with wild-type treatments. Although 85% of exposed individuals exhibited common signs of ranavirosis throughout the experiment, most of these individuals did not exhibit signs of infection by 40 d post-exposure. Overall, we showed that even a single short time exposure to environmentally relevant concentrations of ranavirus may cause sublethal infections in postmetamorphic amphibians, highlighting the importance of this life stage in the epidemiology of ranaviruses. Our study also supports the importance of the vIF-2α gene in immune-suppression in infected individuals.
A Complete Arithmetic Calculator Constructed from Spiking Neural P Systems and its Application to Information Fusion
Authors: Zhang Gexiang , Rong Haina , Paul Prithwineel , He Yangyang , Neri Ferrante , Pérez-Jiménez Mario J.
Published: September 2020

Several variants of spiking neural P systems (SNPS) have been presented in the literature to perform arithmetic operations. However, each of these variants was designed only for one specific arithmetic operation. In this paper, a complete arithmetic calculator implemented by SNPS is proposed. An application of the proposed calculator to information fusion is also proposed. The information fusion is implemented by integrating the following three elements: (1) an addition and subtraction SNPS already reported in the literature; (2) a modified multiplication and division SNPS; (3) a novel storage SNPS, i.e. a method based on SNPS is introduced to calculate basic probability assignment of an event. This is the first attempt to apply arithmetic operation SNPS to fuse multiple information. The effectiveness of the presented general arithmetic SNPS calculator is verified by means of several examples.
Adsorption and dissociation of dinitrogen on mono-metallic and bimetallic dimers
Authors: Acharya R. , Pant N. , Jha V. K. , Yadav M. K.
Published: September 2020

This paper deals with Density Functions Theory (DFT) based theoretical investigation of the dissociation of strong N–N triple bond of dinitrogen (N2). Mono-metallic and bimetallic dimers of selected transition metals (Zr, Nb, Hf, and Ta) are used as adsorbent. The dissociation of N–N bond is found to be strongly dependent on orientation of N–N axis with respect to the axis of the adsorbent dimer. N–N axis perpendicular to dimer axis has been found to be suitable for dissociative adsorption of dinitrogen. Apart from orientation the combination of two different transition metal atoms in the dimer also has significant effect in the elongation and dissociation of N–N bond. Our study shows even 2-atom clusters (dimers) of these transition metals are capable of breaking N–N triple bond.
Adaptive neural network with hybrid optimization oriented localization in wireless sensor network: A multi-objective model
Authors: Purusothaman P , Gunasekaran M.
Published: September 2020

The localization strategy is broadly utilized in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) to detect the present location of the sensor nodes. A WSN comprises of multiple sensor nodes, which makes the employment of GPS on each sensor node costly, and GPS does not give accurate localization outcomes in an indoor environment. The process of configuring location reference on each sensor node manually is also not feasible in the case of a large dense network. Hence, this proposal plans to develop an intelligent model for developing localization pattern in WSN with a group of anchor nodes, rest nodes, and target nodes. The initial step of the proposed node localization model is the selection of the optimal location of anchor nodes towards the target nodes using the hybrid optimization algorithm by concerning the constraints like the distance between the nodes. The second step is to optimally determine the location of the rest node by reference to the anchor nodes using the same hybrid optimization algorithm. Here, the weight has to be determined for each anchor sensor node based on its Received Signal Strength (RSS), and RSS threshold value with the assistance of Neural Network. The hybrid optimization algorithms check the direction to where the concerned node has to be moved by merging the beneficial concepts of two renowned optimization algorithms named as Rider Optimization Algorithm (ROA), and Chicken Swarm Optimization Algorithm (CSO) to solve the localization problem in WSN. The newly developed hybrid algorithm is termed as Rooster Updated Attacker-based ROA (RUA-ROA). Finally, the comparative evaluation indicates a significant improvement in the proposed localization model by evaluating the convergence and statistical analysis.
The chaotic dynamics of a quantum Cournot duopoly game with bounded rationality
Authors: Zhang Xinli , Sun Deshan , Jiang Wei
Published: September 2020

This paper analyzes the chaotic dynamics of a quantum Cournot duopoly game with bounded rational players by applying quantum game theory. We investigate the impact of quantum entanglement on the stability of the quantum Nash equilibrium points and chaotic dynamics behaviors of the system. The result shows that the stability region decreases with the quantum entanglement increasing. The adjustment speeds of bounded rational players can lead to chaotic behaviors, and quantum entanglement accelerates the bifurcation and chaos of the system. Numerical simulations demonstrate the chaotic features via stability region, bifurcation, largest Lyapunov exponent, strange attractors, sensitivity to initial conditions and fractal dimensions.
Fall Detection in Elderly Care System Based on Group of Pictures
Authors: Sowmyayani S. , Murugan V. , Kavitha J.
Published: September 2020

Fall detection is a serious problem in elder people. Constant inspection is important for this fall identification. Currently, numerous methods associated with fall detection are a significant area of research for safety purposes and for the healthcare industries. The objective of this paper is to identify elderly falls. The proposed method introduces keyframe based fall detection in elderly care system. Experiments were conducted on University of Rzeszow (UR) Fall Detection dataset, Fall Detection Dataset and MultiCam dataset. It is substantially proved that the proposed method achieves higher accuracy rate of 99%, 98.15% and 99% for UR Fall detection dataset, Fall Detection Dataset and MultiCam dataset, respectively. The performance of the proposed method is compared with other methods and proved to have higher accuracy rate than those methods.
How Effective Can Simple Ordinal Peer Grading Be?
Authors: Caragiannis Ioannis , Krimpas George A. , Voudouris Alexandros A.
Published: September 2020

Ordinal peer grading has been proposed as a simple and scalable solution for computing reliable information about student performance in massive open online courses. The idea is to outsource the grading task to the students themselves as follows. After the end of an exam, each student is asked to rank—in terms of quality—a bundle of exam papers by fellow students. An aggregation rule then combines the individual rankings into a global one that contains all students. We define a broad class of simple aggregation rules, which we call type-ordering aggregation rules, and present a theoretical framework for assessing their effectiveness. When statistical information about the grading behaviour of students is available (in terms of a noise matrix that characterizes the grading behaviour of the average student from a student population), the framework can be used to compute the optimal rule from this class with respect to a series of performance objectives that compare the ranking returned by the aggregation rule to the underlying ground-truth ranking. For example, a natural rule known as Borda is proved to be optimal when students grade correctly. In addition, we present extensive simulations that validate our theory and prove it to be extremely accurate in predicting the performance of aggregation rules even when only rough information about grading behaviour (i.e., an approximation of the noise matrix) is available. Both in the application of our theoretical framework and in our simulations, we exploit data about grading behaviour of students that have been extracted from two field experiments in the University of Patras.
Effect of TIG Welding and Rare Earth Elements Alloying on Corrosion Resistance of Magnesium Alloys
Authors: Nowak Paweł , Mosiałek Michał , Kharitonov Dmitry S. , Adamiec Janusz , Turowska Agata
Published: September 2020

The corrosion resistance of the welds made of QE22, ZRE1, and WE43 rare-earth-metals-containing magnesium alloys was investigated in 0.5% NaCl solution saturated with Mg(OH)2using the electrochemical methods: linear sweep voltammetry, small amplitude cyclic voltammetry, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. These tests elucidated how welding influences the susceptibility to corrosion of that class of magnesium alloys. For the sake of comparison AZ91 magnesium alloy was investigated too. All welds were obtained by tungsten inert-gas welding method. In the case of all investigated alloys welds showed corrosion resistance comparable to the base material. However, all rare-earth-metals-containing magnesium alloys show corrosion resistance inferior to AZ91 alloy. Significant differences in corrosion resistance evaluated by different electrochemical methods were observed.
Electrochemically Induced Diels-Alder Reactions of Some Substituted o-quinones with 1,3-cyclopentadiene: An Interesting Finding in the Diels–Alder Reactions
Authors: Ghorbani Adel , Amani Ameneh , Nematollahi Davood , Sharafi-kolkeshvandi Mahnaz
Published: September 2020

The electrochemical oxidation of 4-methylcatechol (1a), 4-tert-butylcatechol (1b), and 3-methylcatechol (5) has been studied in the presence of 1,3-cyclopentadiene (3) in an ethanol/water (60:40 v/v) mixture using cyclic voltammetry, controlled-potential coulometry, and preparative electrolysis. The electrochemically generated benzoquinones took part, as dienophiles, in a Diels-Alder reaction with 3 to form methanotetrahydronaphtoquinones through an EC mechanism. The cycloaddition of 3-methyl-o-benzoquinone (5a) to 3 is highly regioselective, affording product 6, a novel regioisomer. It is proposed that the cycloaddition would occur with the benzoquinones adsorbed on the carbon electrode surface. The controlled potential electrolyses were carried out in a one-compartment cell.
Daily generation of a footward fluid shift attenuates ocular changes associated with head-down tilt bed rest
Authors: Lawley Justin S. , Babu Gautam , Janssen Sylvan L. J. E. , Petersen Lonnie G. , Hearon Christopher M. , Dias Katrin A. , Sarma Satyam , Williams Michael A. , Whitworth Louis A. , Levine Benjamin D.
Published: September 2020

Choroid measurements appear to be sensitive to changes in gravitational gradients, as well as periods of head-down tilt (HDT) bed rest, suggesting that they are potential indicators of early ocular remodeling and could serve to evaluate the efficacy of countermeasures for SANS. Eight hours of lower body negative pressure (LBNP) daily attenuates the choroid expansion associated with 3 days of strict −6° HDT bed rest, indicating that LBNP may be an effective countermeasure for SANS.
Kinetic differences between macro- and microvascular measures of reactive hyperemia
Authors: Bartlett Miles F. , Oneglia Andrew , Jaffery Manall , Manitowabi-Huebner Shayla , Hueber Dennis M. , Nelson Michael D.
Published: September 2020

NEW & NOTEWORTHY

We extend our understanding of macro- versus microvascular hemodynamics in humans, by using near-infrared diffuse correlation spectroscopy (micro-) and Doppler ultrasound (macro-) to characterize reperfusion hemodynamics following experimental manipulation of the ischemic stimulus and tissue perfusion pressure. Our results suggest kinetic differences between macro- and microvascular reperfusion are largely determined by differences in fluid mechanical energy (i.e., pressure, gravitational, and kinetic energies) between the two compartments, rather than inherent differences between the macro- and microvasculature.
Delayed Hypoparathyroidism following Thyroidectomy, a Diagnostic Conundrum: A Report of Three Cases from Sri Lanka
Authors: Wijewickrama Piyumi Sachindra Alwis , Rajaratnam Henry N.
Published: September 2020

Introduction. Hypoparathyroidism, which is a common complication following total thyroidectomy can be transient in majority and permanent in 1.5% of the patients and usually occurs secondary to an inadvertent removal of parathyroid glands, mechanical or thermal injury or disruption of the vasculature. In some patients, it is observed that symptoms of hypocalcemia can occur for the first time several years after the surgery, which is known as “delayed hypoparathyroidism.” We report three cases of delayed hypoparathyroidism from Sri Lanka, presenting several years after total thyroidectomy.Case Presentation.Case 1- a 60-year-old Sri Lankan woman who presented with symptomatic hypocalcemia for the first time, 30 years after total thyroidectomy for follicular thyroid carcinoma. Case 2- a 53-year-old Sri Lankan woman presenting with neuropsychiatric manifestations of hypocalcemia for the first time, 12 years after total thyroidectomy for papillary thyroid carcinoma. Case 3- a 49-year-old Sri Lankan woman developing symptoms of hypocalcemia for the first time, 11 years after completion of thyroidectomy for papillary thyroid carcinoma. All these patients were detected to have low parathyroid hormone levels, without an alternative etiology for hypoparathyroidism, hence leading to a diagnosis of delayed post-thyroidectomy hypoparathyroidism.Conclusion. Delayed hypoparathyroidism is a rare phenomenon, which is secondary to progressive atrophy of parathyroid glands and slowly progressive hypovascularization of parathyroids due to scar tissue retraction following thyroidectomy. The nonspecific nature of hypocalcemic symptoms and lack of continuous follow-up for a long time after thyroidectomy could contribute to a further delay in diagnosis. However, it is an important diagnosis to consider in any patient with a history of neck surgery presenting with hypocalcemia, irrespective of the time duration of surgery, as timely diagnosis and treatment can prevent long-term complications of hypocalcemia and improve the quality of life.
Attenuated Subcomponent Vaccine Design Targeting the SARS-CoV-2 Nucleocapsid Phosphoprotein RNA Binding Domain: In Silico Analysis
Authors: Chukwudozie Onyeka S. , Chukwuanukwu Rebecca C. , Iroanya Onyekachi O. , Eze Daniel M. , Duru Vincent C. , Dele-Alimi Temiloluwa O. , Kehinde Busuyi D. , Bankole Taiwo T. , Obi Perpetua C. , Okinedo Elizabeth U.
Published: September 2020

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has previously never been identified with humans, thereby creating devastation in public health. The need for an effective vaccine to curb this pandemic cannot be overemphasized. In view of this, we designed a subcomponent antigenic peptide vaccine targeting the N-terminal (NT) and C-terminal (CT) RNA binding domains of the nucleocapsid protein that aid in viral replication. Promising antigenic B cell and T cell epitopes were predicted using computational pipelines. The peptides “RIRGGDGKMKDL” and “AFGRRGPEQTQGNFG” were the B cell linear epitopes with good antigenic index and nonallergenic property. Two CD8+ and Three CD4+ T cell epitopes were also selected considering their safe immunogenic profiling such as allergenicity, antigen level conservancy, antigenicity, peptide toxicity, and putative restrictions to a number of MHC-I and MHC-II alleles. With these selected epitopes, a nonallergenic chimeric peptide vaccine incapable of inducing a type II hypersensitivity reaction was constructed. The molecular interaction between the Toll-like receptor-5 (TLR5) which was triggered by the vaccine was analyzed by molecular docking and scrutinized using dynamics simulation. Finally, in silico cloning was performed to ensure the expression and translation efficiency of the vaccine, utilizing the pET-28a vector. This research, therefore, provides a guide for experimental investigation and validation.
Radial Nerve Neuropraxis due to Compression by C-Arm Fluoroscopy in Spine Surgery: A Case Report
Authors: Bragança João , Hanauer Matthieu , Racloz Guillaume
Published: September 2020

Introduction. Peripheral nerve injury is a well-known surgical complication related to the position of the patient. Moreover, in spine surgery, prone position for prolonged period places the patient at increased risk. The aim of this study was to report a case of a radial nerve neuropraxis due to compression by C-arm fluoroscopy during spine surgery. Case Presentation. An 81-year-old-female underwent a posterior spinal fixation L2-S1 due to lumbar spinal stenosis. In the recovery room, she presented an hematoma at the posterolateral part of her arm associated with a wrist drop due to radial nerve neuropraxis. The patient was referred to an occupational therapist and fully recovered four months later. After analysis of the patient positioning during the intervention, we came to the conclusion that this radial nerve injury was very possibly due to a compression by the C-arm fluoroscopy during the surgery. Conclusion. Our case describes a rare case of compression of the radial nerve during lumbar spine surgery, which is an unexpected complication as the site of the nerve injury is not at all related to the surgery itself, but to the position of the patient. Although C-arm fluoroscopy is essential, spine surgeons should be aware of this possible complication related to its use in order to avoid it.
Dynamic Response of a Semiactive Suspension System with Hysteretic Nonlinear Energy Sink Based on Random Excitation by means of Computer Simulation
Authors: Chen Hui , Jin Wuyin
Published: September 2020

This paper aims to investigate the property and behavior of the hysteretic nonlinear energy sink (HNES) coupled to a half vehicle system which is a nine-degree-of-freedom, nonlinear, and semiactive suspension system in order to improve the ride comfort and increase the stability in shock mitigation by using the computer simulation method. The HNES model is a semiactive suspension device, which comprises the famous Bouc–Wen (B-W) model employed to describe the force produced by both the purely hysteretic spring and linear elastic spring of potentially negative stiffness connected in parallel, for the half vehicle system. Nine nonlinear motion equations of the half vehicle system are derived in terms of the seven displacements and the two dimensionless hysteretic variables, which are integrated numerically by employing the direct time integration method for studying both the variables of vertical displacements, velocities, accelerations, chassis pitch angle, and the ride comfort and driver safety, respectively, based on the bump and random road inputs of the pseudoexcitation method as excitation signal. Simulation results show that, compared with the HNES model and the magnetorheological (MR) model coupled to the half vehicle system, the ride comfort and stability have been evidently improved. A successful validation process has been performed, which indicated that both the ride comfort and driver safety properties of the HNES model coupled to half vehicle significantly improved.
Associations of Triglyceride-Glucose Index and Its Derivatives with Hyperuricemia Risk: A Cohort Study in Chinese General Population
Authors: Gu Qing , Hu Xue , Meng Jian , Ge Jun , Wang Sui Jun , Liu Xing Zhen
Published: September 2020

Background. Identification and intervention of insulin resistance may be beneficial to the prevention of hyperuricemia (HUA) and its related diseases. Thus, we conducted this longitudinal study to examine the relation of triglyceride-glucose index (TyG), a simple noninsulin-based IR assessment tool, and its derivatives with the risk of HUA. Methods. A total of 42,387 adults who received routine health screening and were free of HUA were included for the longitudinal analyses. TyG, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and waist-to-height ratio (WtHR) were calculated through anthropometric and biochemical indicators. Associations of TyG, TyG-BMI, TyG-WC, and TyG-WHtR with HUA risk were estimated using Cox regression analyses. Results. The incident cases of HUA occurred in 4,230 subjects during the 138,163 person-years of observation, and the crude incidence rate of HUA was 30.6 per 1000 person-years. After multivariate adjustment, we observed an increased risk for incident HUA for the upper TyG and its derivatives’ tercile. The HRs of TyG were greater than that of its components in both sexes. Compared with TyG, TyG-related parameters only had higher HRs in women but not in men. Conclusions. TyG and its integration with obesity indicators have the potential to help risk stratification and prevention of HUA, especially among women.
Protective Role of Tangshen Formula on the Progression of Renal Damage indb/dbMice by TRPC6/Talin1 Pathway in Podocytes
Authors: Wang Qian , Tian Xuefei , Zhou Wei’e , Wang Yan , Zhao Hailing , Li Jialin , Zhou Xuefeng , Zhang Haojun , Zhao Tingting , Li Ping
Published: September 2020

Tangshen Formula (TSF) is a Chinese Medicine formula that has been reported to alleviate proteinuria and protect renal function in humans and animals with diabetic kidney disease (DKD). However, little is known about its mechanism in improving proteinuria. The dysregulation of podocyte cell-matrix adhesion has been demonstrated to play an important role in the pathogenesis and progression of proteinuric kidney diseases including DKD. In the present study, the underlying protective mechanism of TSF on podocytes was investigated using the murine model of type 2 DKDdb/dbmicein vivoand advanced glycation end products (AGEs)-stimulated primary mice podocytesin vitro. Results revealed that TSF treatment could significantly mitigate reduction of podocyte numbers and foot process effacement, reduce proteinuria, and protect renal function indb/dbmice. There was a significant increase in expression of transient receptor potential canonical channel 6 (TRPC6) and a decrease in expression of talin1 in podocytes ofdb/dbmice. The results of AGEs-stimulated primary mice podocytes showed increased cell migration and actin-cytoskeleton rearrangement. Moreover, primary mice podocytes stimulated by AGEs displayed an increase in TRPC6-dependent Ca2+influx, a loss of talin1, and translocation of nuclear factor of activated T cell (NFATC) 2. These dysregulations in mice primary podocytes stimulated by AGEs could be significantly attenuated after TSF treatment. 1-Oleoyl-2-acetyl-sn-glycerol (OAG), a TRPC6 agonist, blocked the protective role of TSF on podocyte cell-matrix adherence. In conclusion, TSF could protect podocytes from injury and reduce proteinuria in DKD, which may be mediated by the regulation of the TRPC6/Talin1 pathway in podocytes.
Principal Component Analysis Based Dynamic Fuzzy Neural Network for Internal Corrosion Rate Prediction of Gas Pipelines
Authors: Chen Xiaoxu , Wang Linyuan , Huang Zhiyu
Published: September 2020

Aiming at the characteristics of the nonlinear changes in the internal corrosion rate in gas pipelines, and artificial neural networks easily fall into a local optimum. This paper proposes a model that combines a principal component analysis (PCA) algorithm and a dynamic fuzzy neural network (D-FNN) to address the problems above. The principal component analysis algorithm is used for dimensional reduction and feature extraction, and a dynamic fuzzy neural network model is utilized to perform the prediction. The study implementing the PCA-D-FNN is further accomplished with the corrosion data from a real pipeline, and the results are compared among the artificial neural networks, fuzzy neural networks, and D-FNN models. The results verify the effectiveness of the model and algorithm for inner corrosion rate prediction.
Complexity of Deep Convolutional Neural Networks in Mobile Computing
Authors: Naeem Saad , Jamil Noreen , Khan Habib Ullah , Nazir Shah
Published: September 2020

Neural networks employ massive interconnection of simple computing units called neurons to compute the problems that are highly nonlinear and could not be hard coded into a program. These neural networks are computation-intensive, and training them requires a lot of training data. Each training example requires heavy computations. We look at different ways in which we can reduce the heavy computation requirement and possibly make them work on mobile devices. In this paper, we survey various techniques that can be matched and combined in order to improve the training time of neural networks. Additionally, we also review some extra recommendations to make the process work for mobile devices as well. We finally survey deep compression technique that tries to solve the problem by network pruning, quantization, and encoding the network weights. Deep compression reduces the time required for training the network by first pruning the irrelevant connections, i.e., the pruning stage, which is then followed by quantizing the network weights via choosing centroids for each layer. Finally, at the third stage, it employs Huffman encoding algorithm to deal with the storage issue of the remaining weights.
Risk Factors for Mortality in Patients with Aortoesophageal Fistula Related to Aortic Lesions
Authors: Li Shan , Gao Feng , Hu Hai-ou , Shi Jin , Zhang Jie
Published: September 2020

Objective. Aortoesophageal fistula (AEF) related to aortic aneurysm and dissection is an uncommon but life-threatening condition. We performed a systematic review of risk factors for mortality and factors associated with the prognosis of AEF. Methods. A systematic search of the PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases was performed. Clinical characteristics, diagnostic methods, and treatments were assessed in terms of their ability to predict mortality. Results. The systematic review identified 184 eligible articles including 219 patients with AEF. Multivariable Cox regression revealed positive correlations of hemorrhagic shock (hazard ratio (HR): 1.824, 95% CI: 1.217-2.735, P=0.004), sepsis (HR: 1.714, 95% CI: 1.112-2.641, P=0.015), multiorgan failure (HR: 3.060, 95% CI: 1.470-6.368, P=0.003), and conservative treatment (HR: 5.257, 95% CI: 3.405-8.116, P<0.001) with mortality and a negative correlation between combination therapy (aortic graft replacement and esophagectomy) and mortality (HR: 0.319, 95% CI: 0.125-0.813, P=0.017). Kaplan–Meier survival analysis showed that the 1-year cumulative survival rate was 42.5±3.8%. The overall fistula-related mortality rate was 47.0% (103/219). The most common causes of death were bleeding (54.9%) and infection (29.2%). Conclusions. We found that hemorrhagic shock, sepsis, and multiorgan failure were risk factors for death in patients with AEF. Additionally, conservative treatment was associated with a higher rate of mortality, while combined aortic graft replacement and esophagectomy improved the prognosis.
Tea Polyphenols EGCG and Theaflavin Inhibit the Activity of SARS‐CoV‐2 3CL‐Protease In Vitro
Authors: Jang Minsu , Park Yea-In , Cha Yeo-Eun , Park Rackhyun , Namkoong Sim , Lee Jin I. , Park Junsoo
Published: September 2020

COVID‐19, a global pandemic, has caused over 750,000 deaths worldwide as of August 2020. A vaccine or remedy for SARS‐CoV‐2, the virus responsible for COVID‐19, is necessary to slow down the spread and lethality of COVID‐19. However, there is currently no effective treatment available against SARS‐CoV‐2. In this report, we demonstrated that EGCG and theaflavin, the main active ingredients of green tea and black tea, respectively, are potentially effective to inhibit SARS‐CoV‐2 activity. Coronaviruses require the 3CL‐protease for the cleavage of its polyprotein to make individual proteins functional. EGCG and theaflavin showed inhibitory activity against the SARS‐CoV‐2 3CL‐protease in a dose‐dependent manner, and the half inhibitory concentration (IC50) was 7.58 μg/ml for EGCG and 8.44 μg/ml for theaflavin. In addition, we did not observe any cytotoxicity for either EGCG or theaflavin at the concentrations tested up to 40 μg/ml in HEK293T cells. These results suggest that upon further study, EGCG and theaflavin can be potentially useful to treat COVID‐19.
Somatic Mutation Profiling of Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma: Comparison between Primary and Metastasis Tumor Tissues
Authors: Xu Shi-Feng , Guo Yuan , Zhang Xin , Zhu Xiao-Dan , Fan Ning , Zhang Zhi-Lei , Ren Gui-Bing , Rao Wei , Zang Yun-Jin
Published: September 2020

Introduction. Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) exhibited increasing incidence and mortality around the world, with a 35% five-year survival rate. In this study, the genetic alteration of primary ICC and metastasis ICC was exhibited to discover novel personalized treatment strategies to improve the clinical prognosis. Methods. Based on 153 primary and 49 metastasis formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded ICC samples, comprehensive genomic profiling was carried out. Results. In primary tumor samples (PSs) and metastasis tumor samples (MSs), the top alteration genes were TP53 (41.8% vs 36.7%), KRAS (30.7% vs 36.7%), and ARID1A (22.2% vs 14.2%). In the top 20 most frequent alteration genes, BRAF showed lower mutation frequency in MSs as compared to PSs (0 vs 11.1%, P=0.015), while LRP1B exhibited opposed trend (22.4% vs 10.4%, P=0.032). In PSs, patients with MSI-H showed all PDL1 negative, and patients with PDL1 positive exhibited MSS both in PSs and MSs. It was found that the Notch pathway had more alteration genes in MSI-H patients (P=0.027). Furthermore, the patients with mutated immune genes in PSs were more than that in MSs (28.8% vs 8.2%, P=0.003, odd ratio = 0.2). Interestingly, the platinum drug resistance pathway was only enriched by mutated genes of MSs. Conclusions. In this study, the identification of two meaningful mutated genes, BRAF and LRP1B, highly mutated immune gene harbored by primary ICC patients. Both in PSs and MSs, no patients with MSI-H showed PDL1 positive. The Notch pathway had more alteration genes in patients with MSI-H. And the enrichment of the platinum drug resistance pathway in MSs might offer reference for the novel therapeutic strategy of ICC.
Efficient BFCN for Automatic Retinal Vessel Segmentation
Authors: Jiang Yun , Wang Falin , Gao Jing , Liu Wenhuan
Published: September 2020

Retinal vessel segmentation has high value for the research on the diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy, hypertension, and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Most methods based on deep convolutional neural networks (DCNN) do not have large receptive fields or rich spatial information and cannot capture global context information of the larger areas. Therefore, it is difficult to identify the lesion area, and the segmentation efficiency is poor. This paper presents a butterfly fully convolutional neural network (BFCN). First, in view of the low contrast between blood vessels and the background in retinal blood vessel images, this paper uses automatic color enhancement (ACE) technology to increase the contrast between blood vessels and the background. Second, using the multiscale information extraction (MSIE) module in the backbone network can capture the global contextual information in a larger area to reduce the loss of feature information. At the same time, using the transfer layer (T_Layer) can not only alleviate gradient vanishing problem and repair the information loss in the downsampling process but also obtain rich spatial information. Finally, for the first time in the paper, the segmentation image is postprocessed, and the Laplacian sharpening method is used to improve the accuracy of vessel segmentation. The method mentioned in this paper has been verified by the DRIVE, STARE, and CHASE datasets, with the accuracy of 0.9627, 0.9735, and 0.9688, respectively.