bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Assessment of the quality of routine ambulatory healthcare for common disorders in children and adolescents in Germany: study protocol for a retrospective medical record review (QualiPäd)
Authors: Tischlik Viktor , Mehl Claudia , Ewald Dominik , Heinzel-Gutenbrunner Monika , Geraedts Max , Bachmann Christian J
Published: November 2021

Introduction

The quality of healthcare in childhood and adolescence is of key importance, in order to foster a healthy development and to avoid chronic health problems. Yet, data for Germany regarding the quality of healthcare for this patient group are lacking. The QualiPäd research project aims to estimate the quality of outpatient healthcare for children and adolescents in Germany, focusing on common psychiatric and physical disorders.

Methods and analysis

Quality indicators for seven common physical and mental childhood and adolescent clinical conditions (attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, asthma, atopic dermatitis, depression, otitis media, conduct disorder/oppositional defiant disorder, tonsillitis) will be developed and ratified by experts, using the RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method.

Initially, 1400 medical records of children and adolescents with one of the aforementioned clinical conditions will then be randomly drawn from 40 outpatient practices in the German federal state of Hessen. The records will then be assessed regarding their adherence to the respective quality indicators. Based on this, the percentage of appropriate and inappropriate (eg, wasteful) healthcare of all clinical conditions (primary endpoint) will be estimated. Additionally, possible factors influencing the quality of care (eg, patient characteristics, type of condition, type of practice) will be identified using generalised estimation equation models.

Ethics and dissemination

This study will show for which of the studied clinical conditions and/or patients improvement of quality of care is necessary within the German health system. Also, the quality indicators designed for the study can afterwards be implemented in regular care and thus enable regular reporting of the outpatient care of this target group. The authors plan to disseminate their findings through international, peer-reviewed scientific publications, and through presentations at national and international paediatric and child psychiatric conferences.

Trial registration number

DRKS00022408.
Development of an intervention to support reproductive health of garment factory workers in Cambodia: a qualitative study
Authors: Smith Chris , Sokhey Ly , Tijamo Camille Florence Eder , McLaren Megan , Free Caroline , Watkins Justin , Amra Ou , Masuda Chisato , Oreglia Elisa
Published: November 2021

Objectives

The aim of this study was to describe the development of an intervention to support the reproductive health of garment factory workers in Cambodia.

Design

A qualitative study informed by intervention mapping which included semistructured interviews and participant observation, followed by intervention development activities including specifying possible behaviour change, designing the intervention, and producing and refining intervention content.

Setting

The research was conducted by a multidisciplinary team with backgrounds in public health, linguistics, digital cultures and service delivery in a suburb of Phnom Penh where many garment factories cluster.

Participants

Garment factory workers in Cambodia; typically young women aged under 30 years who have migrated from rural areas to Phnom Penh city.

Outcomes

Analysis of reproductive health issues facing garment factory workers and metrics of videos developed.

Results

Our research identified some challenges that Cambodian garment factory workers experience regarding contraception and abortion. Concerns or experience of side-effects were identified as an important determinant leading to non-use of effective contraception and subsequent unintended pregnancy. Financial constraints and a desire to space pregnancies were the main reported reasons to seek an abortion. Information about medical abortion given to women by private providers was often verbal, with packaging and the drug information leaflet withheld. In order to address limitations in the provision of accessible reproductive health information for factory workers, and given their observed widespread use of social media, we decided to make three ‘edutainment’ videos about family planning. Key social media metrics of the videos were evaluated after 1 month.

Conclusions

We describe the development of an intervention to support reproductive health among garment factory workers in Cambodia. These videos could be further improved and additional videos could be developed. More work is required to develop appropriate and effective interventions to support reproductive health of garment factory workers in Cambodia.
Multimorbidity, psychoactive substance use and psychological distress among acute medically ill patients: a cross-sectional study
Authors: Kabashi Saranda , Gamboa Danil , Vindenes Vigdis , Berg Thomas , Hilberg Thor Arthur , Jørgenrud Benedicte , Lerdal Anners , Bogstrand Stig Tore
Published: November 2021

Background

In order to target the complex health needs of patients with multimorbidity using psychoactive substances, knowledge regarding the association between substance use and multimorbidity in an acute setting is needed.

Aims

Examine psychoactive substance use patterns among acute medically ill patients, and determine the association between multimorbidity and substance use, and psychological distress.

Design

Cross-sectional study.

Setting and participants

2874 acute medically ill patients admitted to a medical emergency department in Oslo, Norway.

Measurements

Primary outcome: multimorbidity recorded by the presence of ≥2 International Classification of Diseases 10th revision—physical and/or mental health conditions per patient, extracted from medical records. Predictor variables: self-reported data on age, sex, occupational status, psychological distress (Hopkins Symptom Check List-5), alcohol use (Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test-4) and results from blood samples on psychoactive medicinal and illicit drugs.

Findings

Of all patients, 57.2% had multimorbidity. Of these, 62.6% reported psychological distress, 85.5% consumed either alcohol, medicinal and/or illicit drugs and 64.4% combined alcohol with psychoactive medicinal drugs. Patients with risky alcohol use were more likely to have multimorbidity compared with patients with low-risk alcohol use (OR 1.53; 95% CI 1.05 to 2.24). Patients using psychoactive medicinal drugs were more likely to have multimorbidity compared with non-users (OR 1.34; 95% CI 1.07 to 1.67).

Conclusion

Multimorbidity was associated with psychoactive medicinal drug and risky alcohol use, and psychological distress. Substance use was widespread, with alcohol and psychoactive medicinal drugs most frequently combined. Monitoring substance use among multimorbid patients is necessary to develop tailored treatments, and reduce burden on the healthcare system.
Cross-sectional associations of housework with cognitive, physical and sensorimotor functions in younger and older community-dwelling adults: the Yishun Study
Authors: Lee Shuen Yee , Pang Benedict Wei Jun , Lau Lay Khoon , Jabbar Khalid Abdul , Seah Wei Ting , Chen Kenneth Kexun , Ng Tze Pin , Wee Shiou-Liang
Published: November 2021

Objectives

Regular moderate-to-vigorous intensity recreational physical activity (PA) improves physical and cognitive functions. However, the age-associated relationships between non-recreational PA and functional ability remain less explored. We examined the associations between housework and functional health among younger and older Singaporean community-dwelling adults.

Design

Cross-sectional study.

Setting and participants

Younger (<65 years, n=249) and older (≥65 years, n=240) community-dwelling adults were randomly recruited from a large residential town in Singapore.

Outcome measures

Physical function was assessed using Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB), repeated-chair-sit-to-stand and gait speed. Cognitive and sensorimotor functions were assessed using Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) and Physiological Profile Assessment (PPA), respectively.

Methods

Light housework (LH) and heavy housework (HH), recreational, and occupational and transport-related PAs were assessed using PA questionnaires. Participants were dichotomised into low-volume and high-volume LH and HH groups. Results were adjusted for level of recreational and other non-recreational PAs.

Results

Among older but not younger adults, RBANS scores were 8% and 5% higher in high HH and LH groups compared with low HH and LH groups, respectively (p=0.012 and p=0.016). Specifically, HH was associated with 14% higher attention score (p=0.014), and LH was associated with 12% and 8% higher immediate and delayed memory scores, respectively (p<0.001 and p=0.004). In older adults, sit-to-stand time and PPA scores were 8% and 23% lower in the high HH group than the low HH group, respectively (p=0.011 and p=0.040). SPPB and gait speed did not differ with age or HH. LH was not associated with physical or sensorimotor function.

Conclusions

Among older adults, housework is associated with higher cognitive function, specifically in attention and memory. Associations of housework with physical function and sensorimotor performance were intensity dependent. Housework PA is positively associated with functional health among community-dwelling older adults, independent of recreation and other non-recreational PAs. Further longitudinal and intervention studies are needed to establish causality.
Evaluation of the safety and efficacy of dihydroartemisinin–piperaquine for intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in HIV-infected pregnant women: protocol of a multicentre, two-arm, randomised, placebo-controlled, superiority clinical trial (MAMAH project)
Authors: González Raquel , Nhampossa Tacilta , Mombo-Ngoma Ghyslain , Mischlinger Johannes , Esen Meral , Tchouatieu André-Marie , Pons-Duran Clara , Dimessa Lia Betty , Lell Bertrand , Lagler Heimo , Garcia-Otero Laura , Zoleko Manego Rella , El Gaaloul Myriam , Sanz Sergi , Piqueras Mireia , Sevene Esperanca , Ramharter Michael , Saute Francisco , Menendez Clara
Published: November 2021

Introduction

Malaria infection during pregnancy is an important driver of maternal and neonatal health especially among HIV-infected women. Intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp) with sulphadoxine–pyrimethamine is recommended for malaria prevention in HIV-uninfected women, but it is contraindicated in those HIV-infected on cotrimoxazole prophylaxis (CTXp) due to potential adverse effects. Dihydroartemisinin–piperaquine (DHA–PPQ) has been shown to improve antimalarial protection, constituting a promising IPTp candidate. This trial’s objective is to determine if monthly 3-day IPTp courses of DHA–PPQ added to daily CTXp are safe and superior to CTXp alone in decreasing the proportion of peripheral malaria parasitaemia at the end of pregnancy.

Methods and analysis

This is a multicentre, two-arm, placebo-controlled, individually randomised trial in HIV-infected pregnant women receiving CTXp and antiretroviral treatment. A total of 664 women will be enrolled at the first antenatal care clinic visit in sites from Gabon and Mozambique. Participants will receive an insecticide-treated net, and they will be administered monthly IPTp with DHA-PPQ or placebo (1:1 ratio) as directly observed therapy from the second trimester of pregnancy. Primary study outcome is the prevalence of maternal parasitaemia at delivery. Secondary outcomes include prevalence of malaria-related maternal and infant outcomes and proportion of adverse perinatal outcomes. Participants will be followed until 6 weeks after the end of pregnancy and their infants until 1 year of age to also evaluate the impact of DHA–PPQ on mother-to-child transmission of HIV. The analysis will be done in the intention to treat and according to protocol cohorts, adjusted by gravidity, country, seasonality and other variables associated with malaria.

Ethics and dissemination

The protocol was reviewed and approved by the institutional and national ethics committees of Gabon and Mozambique and the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona. Project results will be presented to all stakeholders and published in open-access journals.

Trial registration number

NCT03671109.
Collaborative maternity and newborn dashboard (CoMaND) for the COVID-19 pandemic: a protocol for timely, adaptive monitoring of perinatal outcomes in Melbourne, Australia
Authors: Hui Lisa , Marzan Melvin B , Potenza Stephanie , Rolnik Daniel L , Said Joanne M , Palmer Kirsten R , Whitehead Clare L , Sheehan Penelope M , Ford Jolyon , Pritchard Natasha , Mol Ben W , Walker Susan P
Published: November 2021

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a range of unprecedented disruptions to maternity care with documented impacts on perinatal outcomes such as stillbirth and preterm birth. Metropolitan Melbourne has endured one of the longest and most stringent lockdowns in globally. This paper presents the protocol for a multicentre study to monitor perinatal outcomes in Melbourne, Australia, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

Multicentre observational study analysing monthly deidentified maternal and newborn outcomes from births>20 weeks at all 12 public maternity services in Melbourne. Data will be merged centrally to analyse outcomes and create run charts according to established methods for detecting non-random ‘signals’ in healthcare. Perinatal outcomes will include weekly rates of total births, stillbirths, preterm births, neonatal intensive care admissions, low Apgar scores and fetal growth restriction. Maternal outcomes will include weekly rates of: induced labour, caesarean section, births before arrival to hospital, postpartum haemorrhage, length of stay, general anaesthesia for caesarean birth, influenza and COVID-19 vaccination status, and gestation at first antenatal visit. A prepandemic median for all outcomes will be calculated for the period of January 2018 to March 2020. A significant shift is defined as ≥6 consecutive weeks, all above or below the prepandemic median. Additional statistical analyses such as regression, time series and survival analyses will be performed for an in-depth examination of maternal and perinatal outcomes of interests.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethics approval for the collaborative maternity and newborn dashboard project has been obtained from the Austin Health (HREC/64722/Austin-2020) and Mercy Health (ref. 2020-031).

Trial registration number

ACTRN12620000878976; Pre-results.
Feasibility study of a multicentre cluster randomised control trial to investigate the clinical and cost-effectiveness of a structured diagnostic pathway in primary care for chronic breathlessness: protocol paper
Authors: Doe Gillian , Clanchy Jill , Wathall Simon , Chantrell Stacey , Edwards Sarah , Baxter Noel , Jackson Darren , Armstrong Natalie , Steiner Michael , Evans Rachael A
Published: November 2021

Introduction

Chronic breathlessness is a common and debilitating symptom, associated with high healthcare use and reduced quality of life. Challenges and delays in diagnosis for people with chronic breathlessness frequently occur, leading to delayed access to therapies. The overarching hypothesis is a symptom-based approach to diagnosis in primary care would lead to earlier diagnosis, and therefore earlier treatment and improved longer-term outcomes including health-related quality of life. This study aims to establish the feasibility of a multicentre cluster randomised controlled trial to assess the clinical and cost-effectiveness of a structured diagnostic pathway for breathlessness in primary care.

Methods and analysis

Ten general practitioner (GP) practices across Leicester and Leicestershire will be cluster randomised to either a structured diagnostic pathway (intervention) or usual care. The structured diagnostic pathway includes a panel of investigations within 1 month. Usual care will proceed with patient care as per normal practice. Eligibility criteria include patients presenting with chronic breathlessness for the first time, who are over 40 years old and without a pre-existing diagnosis for their symptoms. An electronic template triggered at the point of consultation with the GP will aid opportunistic recruitment in primary care. The primary outcome for this feasibility study is recruitment rate. Secondary outcome measures, including time to diagnosis, will be collected to help inform outcomes for the future trial and to assess the impact of an earlier diagnosis. These will include symptoms, health-related quality of life, exercise capacity, measures of frailty, physical activity and healthcare utilisation. The study will include nested qualitative interviews with patients and healthcare staff to understand the feasibility outcomes, explore what is ‘usual care’ and the study experience.

Ethics and dissemination

The Research Ethics Committee Nottingham 1 has provided ethical approval for this research study (REC Reference: 19/EM/0201). Results from the study will be disseminated by presentations at relevant meetings and conferences including British Thoracic Society and Primary Care Respiratory Society, as well as by peer-reviewed publications and through patient presentations and newsletters to patients, where available.

Trial registration number

ISRCTN14483247.
Birth weight and refractive state measured by Spot Vision Screener in children aged 40 months
Authors: Tatara Shunya , Ishii Masako , Nogami Reiko
Published: November 2021

Objectives

Children with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) often have myopia. Even without ROP, birth weight and refractive state are related immediately after birth, but this relationship is reduced with increasing age. Here, we examined whether refractive state and birth weight were associated in 40-month-old children.

Methods and analysis

Of 541 children aged 40 months in Tsubame City, Japan, who underwent a medical examination between April 2018 and March 2019, this cross-sectional study enrolled 411 whose birth weights were available (76% of all).

We measured the non-cycloplegic refraction using a Spot Vision Screener and correlated this with birth weight. Children were divided into three groups according to normal (2500–3500 g), high (>3500 g) or low (<2500 g) birth weights, and mean differences in spherical equivalent (SE) between the groups were analysed.

Results

The average SE for the right eye was 0.34 D (95% CI 0.28 to 0.40). Average birth weight was 3032.1 g (95% CI 2990.2 to 3073.9). Birth weight did not correlate with SE for the right eye (Pearson’s correlation, r=−0.015, p=0.765) or with the degree of anisometropia (Pearson’s correlation, r=−0.05, p=0.355). Furthermore, the mean SE showed no significant difference across the three groups of children with different birth weights (one-way analysis of variance, p=0.939).

Conclusion

Data on refractive states and birth weight for 411 children of similar age in one Japanese city were analysed, showing that birth weight did not influence SE, J0, J45 and the absolute degree of anisometropia at about 40 months of age.
Emergency department use and hospital admission in children following ambulatory surgery: a retrospective population-based cohort study
Authors: Sawhney Monakshi , VanDenKerkhof Elizabeth G , Goldstein David H , Wei Xuejiao , Pare Genevieve , Mayne Ian , Tranmer Joan
Published: November 2021

Introduction

Paediatric ambulatory surgery (same day surgery and planned same day discharge) is more frequently being performed more in Canada and around the world; however, after surgery children may return to hospital, either through the emergency department (ED) or through a hospital admission (HA). The aim of this study was to determine the patient characteristics associated with ED visits and HA in the 3 days following paediatric ambulatory surgery.

Methods

This population-based retrospective cohort study used de-identified health administrative database housed at ICES and included residents of Ontario, younger than 18 years of age, who underwent ambulatory surgery between 2014 and 2018. Patients were not involved in the design of this study. The proportion of ED visit and HA were calculated for the total cohort, and the type of surgery. The ORs and 95% CIs were calculated for each outcome using logistic regression.

Results

83 468 children underwent select ambulatory surgeries. 2588 (3.1%) had an ED visit and 608 (0.7%) had a HA in the 3 days following surgery. The most common reasons for ED visits included pain (17.2%) and haemorrhage (10.5%). Reasons for HA included haemorrhage (24.8%), dehydration (21.9%), and pain (9.1%).

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that pain, bleeding and dehydration symptoms are associated with a return visit to the hospital. Implementing approaches to prevent, identify and manage these symptoms may be helpful in reducing ED visits or hospital admissions.
Prevalence of microcephaly: the Latin American Network of Congenital Malformations 2010–2017
Authors: Morris Joan , Orioli Ieda M , Benavides-Lara Adriana , de la Paz Barboza-Arguello María , Tapia Maria Aurora Canessa , de França Giovanny Vinícius Araújo , Groisman Boris , Holguin Jorge , Hurtado-Villa Paula Margarita , Ibarra Ramirez Marisol , Mellado Cecilia , Pardo Rosa , Pastora Bucardo Dania Maria , Rodríguez Catherin , Zarante Ignacio , Limb Elizabeth , Dolk Helen
Published: November 2021

Objective

The Latin American Network of Congenital Malformations: ReLAMC was established in 2017 to provide accurate congenital anomaly surveillance. This study used data from ReLAMC registries to quantify the prevalence of microcephaly from 2010 to 2017 (before, during and after the Zika virus epidemic).

Design

Nine ReLAMC congenital anomaly registries provided case-level data or aggregate data for any live births, still births or terminations of pregnancy with microcephaly. Births to pregnant women infected with Zika virus first occurred in Brazil in 2015, and in the remaining registry areas in 2016 with the exception of Chile that did not experience Zika virus. Therefore the prevalence of microcephaly for 2010–2014 and individual years 2015, 2016 and 2017 was estimated using multilevel random effect Poisson models. Clinical classification and characteristics of the cases were compared pre and post Zika for all centres providing individual case-level data.

Results

The prevalence of microcephaly for all registries excluding Brazil was 2.3 per 10 000 (95% CI 2.0 to 2.6) for 2010–2014 rising to 5.4 (95% CI 4.8 to 6.0) in 2016 and 5.9 (95% CI 5.3 to 6.6) in 2017. Brazil had a prevalence of 0.6 per 10 000 (95% CI 0.5 to 0.6) in 2010–2014, rising to 5.8 (95% CI 5.6 to 6.1) in 2015, 8.0 (95% CI 7.6 to 8.3) in 2016 and then falling in 2017. Only 29 out of 687 cases of microcephaly were reported as congenital Zika syndrome in countries excluding Brazil.

Conclusions

The prevalence of microcephaly was influenced both by Zika causing congenital Zika syndrome and by increased reporting awareness.
Palliative medicine trainees be should learn about frailty: meta-synthesis and Delphi study to establish curriculum content
Authors: Dewhurst Felicity , Hanratty Barbara , Frew Katherine , Paes Paul , Walker Richard , Barnes Catherine , Maddock Helena , Elverson Joanna , Byrne-Davis Lucie
Published: November 2021

Objectives

Frailty is common and highly associated with morbidity and mortality, a fact that has been highlighted by COVID-19. Understanding how to provide palliative care for frail individuals is an international priority, despite receiving limited mention in Palliative Medicine curricula or examinations worldwide. This study aimed to synthesise evidence and establish expert consensus on what should be included in a Palliative-Medicine Specialist Training Curriculum for frailty.

Methods

Literature Meta-synthesis conducted by palliative medicine, frailty and education experts produced a draft curriculum with Bologna based Learning-Outcomes. A Delphi study asked experts to rate the importance of Learning-Outcomes for specialist-training completion and propose additional Learning-Outcomes. This process was repeated until 70% consensus was achieved for over 90% of Learning-Outcomes. Experts divided Learning-Outcomes into specific (for inclusion in a frailty subsection) or generic (applicable to other palliative conditions). The Delphi panel was Subject Matter Experts: Palliative-Medicine Consultants (n=14) and Trainees (n=10), representing hospital, community, hospice and care home services and including committee members of key national training organisations. A final reviewing panel of Geriatric Medicine Specialists including experts in research methodology, national training requirements and frailty were selected.

Results

The meta-synthesis produced 114 Learning-Outcomes. The Delphi Study and Review by Geriatric Medicine experts resulted in 46 essential and 33 desirable Learning-Outcomes.

Conclusions

This frailty curriculum is applicable internationally and highlights the complex and unique palliative needs of frail patients. Future research is required to inform implementation, educational delivery and service provision.
Metformin reduces PD-L1 on tumor cells and enhances the anti-tumor immune response generated by vaccine immunotherapy
Authors: Munoz Luis Enrique , Huang Lei , Bommireddy Ramireddy , Sharma Richa , Monterroza Lenore , Guin Rohini N. , Samaranayake Sarah G. , Pack Christopher D. , Ramachandiran Sampath , Reddy Shaker J.C. , Shanmugam Mala , Selvaraj Periasamy
Published: November 2021

Background

PD-L1 is one of the major immune checkpoints which limits the effectiveness of antitumor immunity. Blockade of PD-L1/PD-1 has been a major improvement in the treatment of certain cancers, however, the response rate to checkpoint blockade remains low suggesting a need for new therapies. Metformin has emerged as a potential new drug for the treatment of cancer due to its effects on PD-L1 expression, T cell responses, and the immunosuppressive environment within tumors. While the benefits of metformin in combination with checkpoint blockade have been reported in animal models, little remains known about its effect on other types of immunotherapy.

Methods

Vaccine immunotherapy and metformin were administered to mice inoculated with tumors to investigate the effect of metformin and TMV vaccine on tumor growth, metastasis, PD-L1 expression, immune cell infiltration, and CD8 T cell phenotype. The effect of metformin on IFN-γ induced PD-L1 expression in tumor cells was assessed by flow cytometry, western blot, and RT-qPCR.

Results

We observed that tumors that respond to metformin and vaccine immunotherapy combination show a reduction in surface PD-L1 expression compared with tumor models that do not respond to metformin. In vitro assays showed that the effect of metformin on tumor cell PD-L1 expression was mediated in part by AMP-activated protein kinase signaling. Vaccination results in increased T cell infiltration in all tumor models, and this was not further enhanced by metformin. However, we observed an increased number of CD8 T cells expressing PD-1, Ki-67, Tim-3, and CD62L as well as increased effector cytokine production after treatment with metformin and tumor membrane vesicle vaccine.

Conclusions

Our data suggest that metformin can synergize with vaccine immunotherapy to augment the antitumor response through tumor-intrinsic mechanisms and also alter the phenotype and function of CD8 T cells within the tumor, which could provide insights for its use in the clinic.
Probing the gluon plasma with charm balance functions
Authors: Basu Sumit , Christiansen Peter , Ohlson Alice , Silvermyr David
Published: November 2021

Recent theoretical explanations for how hydrodynamic-like flow can build up quickly in small collision systems (hydrodynamization) has led to a microscopic picture of flow building up in a gluon-dominated phase before chemical equilibrium between quarks and gluons has been attained. The goal of this contribution to Offshell-2021 is to explore consequence of assuming a long-lived gluon-dominated phase, which we shall denote a gluon plasma (GP). As these consequences are naturally enhanced in a large systems, we assume and explore the extreme scenario in which a GP would be created in AA collisions and exist for significant time before the formation of a chemically-equilibrated quark-gluon plasma (QGP). The GP and its formation would be impossible to probe with light-quark hadrons, which are first produced later in this scenario. As charm quarks are produced early in the collision, they can circumvent the limitations of light quarks and we propose charm balance functions as an effective tool to test this idea and constrain the dynamics of the GP.
Thermal Lie superalgebras
Authors: Trindade Marco A. S. , Pinto Eric
Published: November 2021

In this paper, we derive a general formulation for thermal Lie superalgebras motivated by thermofield dynamics formalism (TFD). Particularly, we construct the thermal Poincaré superalgebras. The operators in TFD are defined through the doubling of the degrees of freedom of the system and it can be related to Hopf algebras. In this way, we explore the notion of quantum group associated with these superalgebras and we show the noncommutativity in this thermal scenario. Furthermore, the thermal M-superalgebra is also derived from TFD prescription.
Tool Integration for Automated Synthesis of Distributed Embedded Controllers
Authors: Roy Debayan , Zhang Licong , Chang Wanli , Goswami Dip , Vogel-Heuser Birgit , Chakraborty Samarjit
Published: November 2021

Controller design and their software implementations are usually done in isolated design spaces using respective COTS design tools. However, this separation of concerns can lead to long debugging and integration phases. This is because assumptions made about the implementation platform during the design phase—e.g., related to timing—might not hold in practice, thereby leading to unacceptable control performance. In order to address this, several
control/architecture co-design
techniques have been proposed in the literature. However, their adoption in practice has been hampered by the lack of design flows using commercial tools. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first article that implements such a
co-design
method using commercially available design tools in an automotive setting, with the aim of minimally disrupting existing design flows practiced in the industry. The goal of such co-design is to
jointly
determine controller and platform parameters in order to avoid any
design-implementation gap
, thereby minimizing implementation time testing and debugging. Our setting involves distributed implementations of control algorithms on automotive
electronic control units
(
ECUs
) communicating via a FlexRay bus. The co-design and the associated toolchain
Co-Flex
jointly determines controller and FlexRay parameters (that impact signal delays) in order to optimize specified design metrics. Co-Flex seamlessly integrates the modeling and analysis of control systems in MATLAB/Simulink with platform modeling and configuration in SIMTOOLS/SIMTARGET that is used for configuring FlexRay bus parameters. It automates the generation of multiple
Pareto-optimal
design options with respect to the quality of control and the resource usage, that an engineer can choose from. In this article, we outline a step-by-step software development process based on Co-Flex tools for distributed control applications. While our exposition is automotive specific, this design flow can easily be extended to other domains.
A Novel Approach for Deploying Minimum Sensors in Smart Buildings
Authors: Agarwal Anshul , Ramamritham Krithi
Published: November 2021

Buildings, viewed as cyber-physical systems, become smart by deploying Building Management Systems (BMS). They should be aware about the state and environment of the building. This is achieved by developing a sensing system that senses different interesting factors of the building, called as “facets of sensing.” Depending on the application, different facets need to be sensed at various locations. Existing approaches for sensing these facets consist of deploying sensors at all the places so they can be sensed directly. But installing numerous sensors often aggravate the issues of user inconvenience, cost of installation and maintenance, and generation of e-waste. This article proposes how intelligently using the existing information can help to estimate the facets in cyber-physical systems like buildings, thereby reducing the sensors to be deployed. In this article, an optimization framework has been developed, which optimally deploys sensors in a building such that it satisfies BMS requirements with minimum number of sensors. The proposed solution is applied to real-world scenarios with cyber-physical systems. The results indicate that the proposed optimization framework is able to reduce the number of sensors by 59% and 49% when compared to the baseline and heuristic approach, respectively.
A Survey on String Constraint Solving
Authors: Amadini Roberto
Published: November 2021

String constraint solving refers to solving combinatorial problems involving constraints over string variables. String solving approaches have become popular over the past few years given the massive use of strings in different application domains like formal analysis, automated testing, database query processing, and cybersecurity.

This article reports a comprehensive survey on string constraint solving by exploring the large number of approaches that have been proposed over the past few decades to solve string constraints.
A Novel Hybrid Approach for Multi-Dimensional Data Anonymization for Apache Spark
Authors: Bazai Sibghat Ullah , Jang-Jaccard Julian , Alavizadeh Hooman
Published: November 2021

Multi-dimensional data anonymization approaches (e.g., Mondrian) ensure more fine-grained data privacy by providing a different anonymization strategy applied for each attribute. Many variations of multi-dimensional anonymization have been implemented on different distributed processing platforms (e.g., MapReduce, Spark) to take advantage of their scalability and parallelism supports. According to our critical analysis on overheads, either existing iteration-based or recursion-based approaches do not provide effective mechanisms for creating the optimal number of and relative size of resilient distributed datasets (RDDs), thus heavily suffer from performance overheads. To solve this issue, we propose a novel hybrid approach for effectively implementing a multi-dimensional data anonymization strategy (e.g., Mondrian) that is scalable and provides high-performance. Our hybrid approach provides a mechanism to create far fewer RDDs and smaller size partitions attached to each RDD than existing approaches. This optimal RDD creation and operations approach is critical for many multi-dimensional data anonymization applications that create tremendous execution complexity. The new mechanism in our proposed hybrid approach can dramatically reduce the critical overheads involved in re-computation cost, shuffle operations, message exchange, and cache management.
PURE: A Framework for Analyzing Proximity-based Contact Tracing Protocols
Authors: Cicala Fabrizio , Wang Weicheng , Wang Tianhao , Li Ninghui , Bertino Elisa , Liang Faming , Yang Yang
Published: November 2021

Many proximity-based tracing (PCT) protocols have been proposed and deployed to combat the spreading of COVID-19. In this article, we take a systematic approach to analyze PCT protocols. We identify a list of desired properties of a contact tracing design from the four aspects of Privacy, Utility, Resiliency, and Efficiency (PURE). We also identify two main design choices for PCT protocols:
what information patients report
to the server and
which party performs the matching
. These two choices determine most of the PURE properties and enable us to conduct a comprehensive analysis and comparison of the existing protocols.
Roadrunner+: An Autonomous Intersection Management Cooperating with Connected Autonomous Vehicles and Pedestrians with Spillback Considered
Authors: Wang Michael I.-C. , Wen Charles H.-P. , Chao H. Jonathan
Published: November 2021

The recent emergence of Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) enables the Autonomous Intersection Management (AIM) system, replacing traffic signals and human driving operations for improved safety and road efficiency. When CAVs approach an intersection, AIM schedules their intersection usage in a collision-free manner while minimizing their waiting times. In practice, however, there are pedestrian road-crossing requests and spillback problems, a blockage caused by the congestion of the downstream intersection when the traffic load exceeds the road capacity. As a result, collisions occur when CAVs ignore pedestrians or are forced to the congested road. In this article, we present a cooperative AIM system, named
Roadrunner+
, which simultaneously considers CAVs, pedestrians, and upstream/downstream intersections for spillback handling, collision avoidance, and efficient CAV controls. The performance of Roadrunner+ is evaluated with the SUMO microscopic simulator. Our experimental results show that Roadrunner+ has 15.16% higher throughput than other AIM systems and 102.53% higher throughput than traditional traffic signals. Roadrunner+ also reduces 75.62% traveling delay compared to other AIM systems. Moreover, the results show that CAVs in Roadrunner+ save up to 7.64% in fuel consumption, and all the collisions caused by spillback are prevented in Roadrunner+.
Analysis and Control of Autonomous Mobility-on-Demand Systems
Authors: Zardini Gioele , Lanzetti Nicolas , Pavone Marco , Frazzoli Emilio
Published: November 2021

Challenged by urbanization and increasing travel needs, existing transportation systems need new mobility paradigms. In this article, we present the emerging concept of autonomous mobility-on-demand, whereby centrally orchestrated fleets of autonomous vehicles provide mobility service to customers. We provide a comprehensive review of methods and tools to model and solve problems related to autonomous mobility-on-demand systems. Specifically, we first identify problem settings for their analysis and control, from both operational and planning perspectives. We then review modeling aspects, including transportation networks, transportation demand, congestion, operational constraints, and interactions with existing infrastructure. Thereafter, we provide a systematic analysis of existing solution methods and performance metrics, highlighting trends and trade-offs. Finally, we present various directions for further research.
Action Intention Understanding EEG Signal Classification Based on Improved Discriminative Spatial Patterns
Authors: Xiong Xingliang , Yu Hua , Wang Haixian , Jiang Jiuchuan
Published: November 2021

Objective. Action intention understanding EEG signal classification is indispensable for investigating human‐computer interactions and intention understanding mechanisms. Numerous investigations on classification tasks extract classification features by using graph theory metrics; however, the classification results are usually not good. Method. To effectively implement the task of action intention understanding EEG signal classification, we proposed a new feature extraction method by improving discriminative spatial patterns. Results. The whole frequency band and fusion band achieved satisfactory classification accuracies. Compared with other authors’ methods for action intention understanding EEG signal classification, the new method performs more satisfactorily in some aspects. Conclusions. The new feature extraction method not only effectively avoids complex values when solving the generalized eigenvalue problem but also perfectly realizes appreciable classification accuracies. Fusing the classification features of different frequency bands is a useful strategy for the classification task.
The Effect of miR-138 on the Function of Follicular Helper T Cells and the Differentiation of B Cells in Osteosarcoma
Authors: Wang Zhitao , Liang Jianxiao , Jiang Shanyong , Zhao Gang , Lu Jianshu , Jiang Baoen
Published: November 2021

Objective. To explore the effect of miR-138 on the function of follicular helper T (Tfh) cells and the differentiation of B cells in osteosarcoma. Methods. Clinically collect peripheral blood from osteosarcoma (OS) patients and healthy volunteers (HC), as well as OS tumor tissues (OS tumor) and adjacent tissues with normal histology (normal group). The CD4+CXCR5+Tfh cells of OS patients were screened and isolated by flow cytometry, and the expression of Tfh cell membrane surface antigens PD-1 and CTLA-4 was detected. In addition, qRT-PCR was used to detect the expression of miR-138 in tissues and Tfh cells, and the correlation relationship between miR-138 and PD-1 and CTLA-4 was analyzed. After interference or overexpression of miR-138 in Tfh cells, coculture with untreated B cells was done, and the levels of IL-10, IL-12, IL-21, and INF-γ in Tfh cell culture medium and the levels of IgM, IgG, and IgA in B cell culture medium after coculture were measured by ELISA. Flow cytometry was used to detect the expression of B cell membrane surface antigens CD27 and CD38 after coculture. Results. The rate of PD-1- and CTLA-4 positive cells in the peripheral blood and tissues of the OS group was significantly increased, the expression of miR-138 was significantly reduced, and the expression of miR-138 was negatively correlated with the expression of PD-1 and CTLA-4. In addition, upregulation of miR-138 can lead to a significant increase in the level of IL-10 in the supernatant of Tfh cells and a significant decrease in the levels of IL-12, IL-21, and INF-γ, which in turn leads to increased levels of IgM, IgG, and IgA released by B cells. At the same time, it significantly increases the rate of CD27- and CD38-positive cells and promotes the maturation of B cells. Downregulating miR-138 has the opposite effect. Conclusion. Downregulating the expression of miR-138 in osteosarcoma can improve the dysfunction of CD4+CXCR5+Tfh cells and promote the differentiation of B cells.
Analysis of Income Attribution of Consumption Tax in China’s Central and Local Government
Authors: Han Yanguo , Zhao Wenchao , Hao Haixia , Zhang Xianfeng , Zhou Jingjing
Published: November 2021

After the policy to replace the business tax with a value-added tax was launched, local finance has encountered greater difficulties. In recent years, the economic downward pressure has made the dilemma far more serious. Some scholars, even from state level, showed some intentions of recommending that the consumption tax should be changed from the current central tax to a local tax or a shared tax to relieve the pressure of local governments. In this paper, we proved by presenting recent year’s tax figures of business, consumption, and local and central fiscals and their growth rate that replacing the consumption tax with a local tax does not exactly correspond to the trend of China’s reform of the financial system, the functional orientation of the consumption tax, and the nature of the consumption tax itself and may trigger some problems, and it may still be a better choice for the consumption tax to serve as a central tax.
Attribute Extraction Study in the Field of Military Equipment Based on Distant Supervision
Authors: You Xindong , Yang Meijing , Han Junmei , Ma Jiangwei , Xiao Gang , Lv Xueqiang
Published: November 2021

The effective organization and utilization of military equipment data is an important cornerstone for constructing knowledge system. Building a knowledge graph in the field of military equipment can effectively describe the relationship between entity and entity attribute information. Therefore, relevant personnel can obtain information quickly and accurately. Attribute extraction is an important part of building the knowledge graph. Given the lack of annotated data in the field of military equipment, we propose a new data annotation method, which adopts the idea of distant supervision to automatically build the attribute extraction dataset. We convert the attribute extraction task into a sequence annotation task. At the same time, we propose a RoBERTa‐BiLSTM‐CRF‐SEL‐based attribute extraction method. Firstly, a list of attribute name synonyms is constructed, then a corpus of military equipment attributes is obtained through automatic annotation of semistructured data in Baidu Encyclopedia. RoBERTa is used to obtain the vector encoding of the text. Then, input it into the entity boundary prediction layer to label the entity head and tail, and input the BiLSTM‐CRF layer to predict the attribute label. The experimental results show that the proposed method can effectively perform attribute extraction in the military equipment domain. The F1 value of the model reaches 77% on the constructed attribute extraction dataset, which outperforms the current state‐of‐art model.
Enhancing the Therapeutic Efficacy of KRASG12C Inhibitors in Lung Adenocarcinoma Cell Models by Cotargeting the MAPK Pathway or HSP90
Authors: Liu Ying , Wu Lei , Lu Hong , Wu En , Ni Jun , Zhou Xiaorong
Published: November 2021

Background. KRASG12C inhibitors have shown promising efficacy in early clinical trials, but drug resistance compromises their long-term benefits. Therefore, it is critical to understand the mechanisms of drug resistance and to design appropriate combinatory treatments to improve efficacy. Methods. To understand the comprehensive mechanisms of drug resistance, we treated lung cancer cells with KRASG12C inhibitors for different periods and performed transcriptional profiling and signaling analysis to identify critical factors and pathways that drive drug tolerance and resistance. We also evaluated several drug combinations in vitro and in vivo to identify potentially effective therapeutics. Results. We found that the feedback activation of multiple receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) may have cooperatively induced intrinsic and adaptive resistance to KRASG12C inhibitors. Notably, continuous KRAS inhibition induced a multidrug-resistant phenotype, implying that upfront combinatory treatment might be required to treat this group of patients. We also demonstrated that concurrently targeting multiple nodes in the RTK/RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK axis improved the efficacy of KRASG12C inhibitors, mainly by suppressing the reactivation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway. Moreover, the combined use of HSP90 and KRASG12C inhibitors effectively induced tumor regression in lung adenocarcinoma models in vitro and in vivo. Conclusion. Together, our findings revealed mechanisms underlying KRASG12C inhibitors resistance and provided novel candidate combinatory strategies to improve their anticancer activity.