bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Utilization of the ethyl acetate fraction of Padina boergesenii as a natural UV filter in sunscreen cream formulation
Authors: Soleimani Soolmaz , Yousefzadi Morteza , Nezhad Sepideh Babaei Mahani , Pozharitskaya Olga N. , Shikov Alexander N.
Published: September 2022

Brown seaweeds due to their wide range of bioactive compounds have a high ability to inhibit free radicals and protect against ultraviolet rays. In the present study, the ethyl acetate fraction was isolated from the Padina boergesenii brown alga. Antioxidant activity (by inhibition DPPH free radical method) and cytotoxicity against UVB-induced cytotoxicity in HaCaT human keratinocytes were evaluated. Then, this fraction was used as a biofilter in the formulation of sunscreen and was investigated physical properties and stability. The results showed that the ethyl acetate fraction could inhibit DPPH radical scavenging (54 ±1 %) and the ability to cell viability of HaCaT keratinocytes exposed to UVB irradiation (81.2 ± 0.1 %). The results of the stability study of the cream formulated with ethyl acetate fraction showed that temperatures 4°C and 25°C have high stability and at 40°C on the 28th day, was observed a slight decrease in its stability. The pH and SPF of the cream formulated with ethyl acetate fraction were reported at 5.8 and 20.55, respectively. Also, the DPPH scavenging activity of the cream was not altered for 28 days of storage at temperatures of 4 - 40°C. According to the obtained results, it was proved that the sunscreen formulated with ethyl acetate fraction of Padina boergesenii brown seaweed has promising properties and characteristics that can create a new opportunity for the development of cosmetics and skin care products.
BioByGANS: biomedical named entity recognition by fusing contextual and syntactic features through graph attention network in node classification framework
Authors: Zheng Xiangwen , Du Haijian , Luo Xiaowei , Tong Fan , Song Wei , Zhao Dongsheng
Published: September 2022

Background:Automatic and accurate recognition of various biomedical named entities from literature is an important task of biomedical text mining, which is the foundation of extracting biomedical knowledge from unstructured texts into structured formats. Using the sequence labeling framework and deep neural networks to implement biomedical named entity recognition (BioNER) is a common method at present. However, the above method often underutilizes syntactic features such as dependencies and topology of sentences. Therefore, it is an urgent problem to be solved to integrate semantic and syntactic features into the BioNER model.Results:In this paper, we propose a novel biomedical named entity recognition model, named BioByGANS (BioBERT/SpaCy-Graph Attention Network-Softmax), which uses a graph to model the dependencies and topology of a sentence and formulate the BioNER task as a node classification problem. This formulation can introduce more topological features of language and no longer be only concerned about the distance between words in the sequence. First, we use periods to segment sentences and spaces and symbols to segment words. Second, contextual features are encoded by BioBERT, and syntactic features such as POS, dependencies and topology are preprocessed by SpaCy respectively. A graph attention network is then used to generate a fusing representation considering both the contextual features and syntactic features. Last, a softmax function is used to calculate the probabilities and get the results. We conduct experiments on 8 benchmark datasets, and our proposed model outperforms existing BioNER state-of-the-art methods on the BC2GM, JNLPBA, BC4CHEMD, BC5CDR-chem, BC5CDR-disease, NCBI-disease, Species-800, and LINNAEUS datasets, and achieves F1-scores of 85.15%, 78.16%, 92.97%, 94.74%, 87.74%, 91.57%, 75.01%, 90.99%, respectively.Conclusion:The experimental results on 8 biomedical benchmark datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our model, and indicate that formulating the BioNER task into a node classification problem and combining syntactic features into the graph attention networks can significantly improve model performance.
Dynamic power and chirp measurements of a quantum dash semiconductor optical amplifier amplified picosecond pulses using a linear pulse characterization technique
Authors: Connelly Michael J. , Romero-Vivas Javier , Morel Pascal , Sharaiha Ammar , Pommereau Frédéric , Fortin Catherine
Published: September 2022

Quantum Dash (QDash) SOAs are of interest as an alternative to quantum dot SOAs, since they have some dot-like properties and are easier to fabricate such as to operate in the 1550 nm region, albeit with longer gain recovery times in the range of hundreds of picoseconds. QDash-SOAs are promising core component is optical subsystems for applications in next generation coherent communications and optical signal processing, which often involve pulse amplification. It is of interest to measure both the dynamic power, phase and associated frequency chirp and thereby the spectrum of typical QDash-SOA amplified pulses. Non-linear measurement techniques are appropriate for pulsewidths less than 5 ps but have low sensitivity for wider pulsewidths often encountered in practice. This paper describes the use of a modified linear pulse characterization technique to measure the dynamic power and phase of a 20 GHz repetition rate QDash-SOA amplified 19 ps pulsewidth pulse train, from which the chirp and energy spectrum is calculated. The amplified pulses can exhibit a complex structure that is strongly dependent on the amplifier gain and the input pulse shape and energy.
Combination of Lymphocyte Count and Albumin Concentration as a New Prognostic Biomarker for Colorectal Cancer
Authors: Rencuzogullari Ahmet , Topal Ugur , Yalav Orcun , Eray İsmail Cem
Published: September 2022

Purpose: In this study, it is aimed to evaluate the prognostic importance of lymphocytexalbumin (LA) combination in patients having colorectal cancer who underwent curative resection, besides its relationship with postoperative complications.Method: Patients who underwent curative surgery for colorectal cancer between the dates of January 2015 and January 2019 were included in the study. We defined the LA as lymphocyte count (/L)×albumin (g/L). The cut-off point was determined by ROC curves. The patients were divided into two groups according to the cut-off point: Group 1 (Low LA) and Group 2 (High LA). Demographic, clinical and pathological characteristics and survival times were compared between the two groups.Results:Patients are divided into two groups based on the cut off point of 4413 Groups were comparable with respect to age, gender, ASA score, The rate of rectal tumor location was higher in Group 1 (60% vs 32.9 p<0.001). Rates of postoperative complications, unplanned readmission, and reoperation were similar in the groups. Low LA was found to be an independent risk factor with regards to decreased survival in multivariate analysis. (HR(95%-Cl) 2.840(1.332-6.057)p:0.007). Overall and disease free survival rates were lower in Group 1 compared to Group 2 (44.2 vs 51.02 p:0.005; 47.1 vs 52.18 p:0.025, respectively).Conclusion:This study indicated decreased overall and DFS associated with low LA index in patients managed with curative treatment for colorectal cancer. No association was found between LA index and postoperative quality markers. LA might be a new prognostic biomarker for colorectal carcinoma.
Droplet formation on an inclined needle
Authors: Wang Wei , Wang Pengfei , Lin Fangye , Zuo Qiang , Zou Jun
Published: September 2022

An experimental study of droplet formation on an inclined stainless-steel needle is presented. The detailed dynamics of the droplet formation is captured with the help of a high-speed camera. Droplet diameter is found to depend on both the needle diameter and the tilt angle. For the vertical condition, the droplet diameter increases with the needle diameter. A semiempirical model is built to elucidate this trend based on the force balance between gravity, capillary, and Laplace forces. For the inclined condition, the droplet diameter increases with the tilt angle. Effect of the tilt angle on the droplet diameter is attributed to the variation of the capillary force between the droplet and the inclined needle. Variation of the tilt angle plays a similar role to the variation of the needle diameter, which can be used to adjust the droplet diameter in practice.
Simultaneous Coloration and Antibacterial Modification of Wool with Chitosan Oligosaccharide via Maillard Reaction
Authors: Cui Li , Guan Ruoceng , Xie Qiuhua , Wang Ping , Yu Yuanyuan
Published: September 2022

Conventionally, dyeing and functional modification of wool fabrics has been accomplished by two bath two step processes with suitable dyes and functional chemicals, which is usually time-consuming and energy-wasting and causes a serious environmental problem due to the use of large amounts of dyes, chemicals and water. In this study, non-toxic chitosan oligosaccharide (COS) was applied to simultaneous dyeing and antibacterial finishing of wool by using Maillard reaction under a mild condition. The reaction between COS and wool keratin was demonstrated from the results of sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) which showed that new polymers were formed. The color yield (K/S) of the wool fabrics from maillard browning could be obtained via the adjustment of reaction time, temperature and pH. Proper chemical pretreatments could significantly improve the absorbency of COS on the wool and a stronger color strength (K/S) obtained. Meanwhile, the dyed wool revealed excellent antibacterial behavior.
Women’s Empowerment and Social Household Spending in Fragile States: Evidence from Chad1
Authors: MABALI Aristide , MALLAYE DOUZOUNET , KINDA Somlanare Romuald
Published: September 2022

State fragility in Chad has been narrowly associated with insecurity due to a long cycle of violent conflict and recurrent droughts, leading to low social development. In this paper, we have investigated the impact of women’s empowerment on household social expenditures using data from the Chadian household consumption and informal sector survey carried out in 2011, and Propensity Score Matching as empirical model. The social expenditures used as outcome variables are education, health and food. We find that social expenditures are higher when a household is headed by a woman than when it is headed by a man with similar observed characteristics. In particular, differences between female-headed households and male-headed households are higher in food expenditures after controlling for observed characteristics (covariates). The results also show that there is a composition effect in household expenditure. While female-headed households spend their incomes in social sectors (health, food and education), those headed by men spend for temptation goods (alcohol and leisure). These results hold when we control both model specification and common support hypothesis. Our findings provide decision makers with economic policy tools to promote the social development focusing on women’s empowerment.
JEL Classification: J16, H31 and C52
Health Related Quality of Life and its predictors among Postpartum Mother in Southeast Ethiopia: A Cross sectional study
Authors: Gomora Degefa , Kene Chala , Embiale Ayinamaw , Tekalegn Yohannes , Geta Girma , Seyoum Kenbon , Beressa Girma , Atlaw Daniel , Sahiledengle Biniyam , Desta Fikreab , Ejigu Neway , Hussein Usman , Mwanri Lillian
Published: September 2022

Background: Impaired Health related quality of life (HRQOL) after women's childbirth affects women in a wide range of ways including limiting their daily activity, reducing self-care capacity, impairing childcare including effective breastfeeding and baby weaning, and increasing the cost of medical care, both for women and for their newborn babies. This study aimed to assess the HRQOL and its predictors among postpartum women in Southeast Ethiopia.
Methods: Between March and May 2022, an institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted among a simply randomly selected sample of 794 postpartum women who were attending immunization services in public health facilities in Southeast Ethiopia. The pretested interviewer-administered structured, Short Form 36 (SF-36), validated questionnaire was used to collect data and to assess the HRQOL. This Descriptive statistics were computed and the bivariable and multivariable logistic regression model was fitted to predictors of HRQOL. Odds ratio (OR), along with a 95% confidence interval (CI), were used to estimate the strength of the associations.
Results: The mean scores (mean ± SD) of overall HRQOL, physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS) of quality of life were 43.80 ± 27.88, 45.39 ± 28.58 and 42.20 ± 28.15) respectively. Walking to the health facility [(AOR = 2.09; 95% CI: (1.31,3.31)], using public transport (AOR=2.58; 95% CI=1.69–3.93), giving birth to ≤ 3 deliveries (AOR = 1.81; 95% CI: 1.36 –2.65), having health facility admission history during the recent baby’s pregnancy (AOR=1.62; 95% CI=1.08–2.44), having postpartum depression (PPD) (AOR=2.13; 95% CI=1.57–2.89) and having the fear of COVID-19 (AOR=1.46; 95% CI=1.08–1.99) were predictors of a lower level of HRQOL among postpartum women.
Conclusion: This study revealed that nearly half of the postpartum women had a lower HRQOL. Means of transport used, the number of total deliveries they had, admission history during the recent baby pregnancy, PPD and Fear of COVID 19 (FCV 19) showed a statistically significant association with the lower overall HRQOL. To improve the HRQOL among postpartum women in Ethiopia, programs should be implemented by applying appropriate strategies that address the identified factors.
Identification of Suitable Sites for Rain Water Harvesting Structures based on Water Budgeting using Remote Sensing & GIS Tools on Watershed Basis
Authors: Pendke M. S. , Khodke U. M. , Gourkhede P. H. , Sreeniv G.
Published: September 2022

The need for application of modem approaches like Remote Sensing and GIS techniques has been emphasized for efficient management of water resources (Jha et aI., 2007). In recent years, use of satellite remote sensing data along with GIS and topographical maps has made it easier to establish the base line information on water resource planning. To identify the suitable sites for surface water conservation structures, GIS has been found to be an effective tool using satellite remote sensing data, topographical maps and collateral information (Krishnamurthy et al., 2000). The study on water budgeting was undertaken in order to assess the water deficit /surplus in every sub-watershed of Pingalgarh watershed located in Parbhani district of Maharashtra state (India). Various thematic maps viz., land use /cover, geomorphology, hydrological soil group, slope, Lineament, land capability, soil texture and soil depth were generated using RS and GIS. Drainage line delineation and water bodies mapping were undertaken using satellite images. The data on area of each crop and population in each sub watershed were collected to estimate the total water requirement. Cadastral map for the study area was geo-referenced. The surface runoff potential was estimated using curve number technique. Based on the water deficit in each sub watershed and by integrating the thematic maps of geomorphology, land use, soil texture and land slope by UNION tool in arc GIS, the suitable location of water harvesting structures were decided preferably on the 1st and 2ndorder streams and marked on the satellite image along with its latitude and longitude. Based on the present water deficit in each sub watershed and considering the geomorphology and land use, the water harvesting structures like cement plugs and percolation tanks are suggested for improving the surface and ground water availability.
Family-based Plant Disease Characterization using Deep Neural Networks
Authors: Janarthan Sivasubramaniam , Thuseethan Selvarajah , Rajasegarar Sutharshan , Yearwood John
Published: September 2022

Over the years, researchers have applied various deep learning techniques to automatically recognise plant diseases from both raster and spectral images. The primary focus of the existing studies is developing individual species-specific or disease-specific models, where the former recognises diseases of single crop type and the latter recognises single diseases of single or multiple crop types. Building one global model to recognise diseases of multiple crops has also been widely explored, where a class is treated as a crop-disease combination. While training individual species-specific or disease-specific deep models is labour-intensive, embracing a vast number of crop species and inherent diseases present on this planet makes the model cumbersome. In order to address this problem, a more intuitive and feasible family-based plant disease characterisation approach with botanical reasoning is proposed in this study. This approach demonstrates the feasibility of six state-of-the-art deep neural networks through a set of extensive experiments incorporating six key strategies. The results on a newly built family-based plant disease dataset confirm that the proposed novel approach is convincing to be applied in a plant family-based disease recognition problem. Further, this study creates future opportunities for more intuitive plant disease data collection and benchmark classification model development.
A New Human-Inspired Metaheuristic Algorithm for Solving Optimization Problems Based on Mimicking Sewing Training
Authors: Dehghani Mohammad , Trojovská Eva , Zuščák Tomáš
Published: September 2022

This paper introduces a new human-based metaheuristic algorithm called Sewing Training-Based Optimization (STBO). The fundamental inspiration of STBO is the process of teaching sewing to beginner tailors. The process is described in three phases: (i) training, (ii) imitation of the instructor's skills, and (iii) practice, and is then mathematically modeled. STBO performance is evaluated on twenty-three objective functions of the types of unimodal, high-dimensional multimodal, and fixed-dimensional multimodal. The optimization results show that STBO, with its high power of exploration and exploitation, has provided suitable solutions for benchmark functions. Also, to evaluate the quality of STBO, the results are compared with ten well-known metaheuristic algorithms. Furthermore, the simulation results show that STBO has a much more competitive performance than competitor algorithms by providing superior results. Finally, the implementation of STBO in solving four engineering design problems demonstrates the capability of the proposed approach in dealing with real-world applications.
Assessment of corticospinal tract remodeling based on diffusion tensor imaging in the treatment of motor dysfunction after ischemic stroke by acupuncture: a meta-analysis study
Authors: Zhu Weiming , Deng Shizhe , Jiang Hailun , Li Boxuan , Jia Qingqing , Liu Wei , Meng Zhihong
Published: September 2022

Currently, acupuncture therapy has been widely used in the late rehabilitation of dysfunction in patients after ischemic stroke(IS), especially motor dysfunction. The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of acupuncture in improving motor dysfunction after IS and to investigate the effect of acupuncture on corticospinal tract(CST) remodeling using diffusion tensor imaging. Therefore, we systematically searched the literature and performed meta-analysis. Eleven eligible RCTs involving 459 patients were eventually included. The combined evidence results showed that the acupuncture group significantly improved patients' National Institute of Health stroke scale, Fugl-Meyer Assessment Scale, and Barthel index compared with conventional medical treatment. The acupuncture group significantly promoted remodeling of the CST, as reflected by an increase in FA throughout the CST (MD=0.04, 95% CI (0.02, 0.07), P=0.001), and in addition subgroup analysis showed that the acupuncture group significantly improved Fractional Anisotropy(FA) in the infarct area compared with conventional medical treatment at around 4 weeks (MD=0.04, 95% CI (0.02, 0.07), P=0.001) and FA of the affected cerebral peduncle (MD=0.04, 95% CI (0.02, 0.07). Also, compared with conventional medical treatment, the acupuncture group significantly increased Average Diffusion Coefficient(ADC) of the affected cerebral peduncle (MD=-0.21, 95% CI (-0.28, -0.13), P<0.00001). Taken together, the results of the meta-analysis suggest that acupuncture therapy can improve the clinical manifestations of motor dysfunction in patients after IS and advance a possibly beneficial effect on CST remodeling. However, due to the number and quality of eligible studies, these findings need to be further validated in more standardized, rigorous, high-quality clinical trials.
Analysis of the formation mechanism of rainfall-induced loess landslide: A case study of Beiyin landslide
Authors: Bao Xun , Cui Deshan , Liao Mingke , 彭 佳乐 , Mo Yun
Published: September 2022

The increase in extreme precipitation in summer is one of the clearest changes in climate observed in Shanxi Province, China. The loess is dry, loose uncemented, and has well-developed internal pores in initial state. When extreme rainfall occurs, the special structure of loess provides a favorable channel for rainwater infiltration, which means decreasing the shear strength parameters. Loess landslide induced by extreme rainfall has caused great economic losses and casualties. This paper takes the Beiyin landslide as an example, the seepage field of the loess slope under rainfall infiltration is analyzed by the finite element method, and the stability of the loess slope is analyzed by the limit equilibrium method based on field survey. The pore water pressure, saturation zone, and horizontal seepage velocity at different altitudes of the loess landslide are investigated under various extreme precipitation. The results showed that the concentrated infiltration of extreme rainfall was in the trailing edge of the landslide, formed a saturated zone in the Tertiary water-resisting clay layer, and extended to the slope angle. When the saturated zone is formed in the middle shallow layer of the landslide and connects with the saturated zone of the trailing edge, the sliding force of each block is greater than the anti-sliding force in the sliding section and the slope will be unstable.
Warfarin-induced Isolated Spontaneous Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: Rare Case Report
Authors: Hasan Mohamed Sheikh
Published: September 2022

Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is mostly associated with head trauma. Non-traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage is mostly due to vascular abnormalities: either hemorrhage from ruptured aneurysm or bleeding from atriovenous malformation. Aneurysmal hemorrhage is the biggest cause in non-traumatic cases. Warfarin is associated with cerebral intraparenchymal hemorrhage, but it is rarely associated with SAH. Here, we report a case of a 45-year old male patient who was admitted to the neurology ward of our hospital due to acute ischemic stroke. The patient was treated with a vitamin K antagonist (warfarin). However, on the third day, his condition deteriorated (his GCS regressed from 11/15 to 5/15). Pupils were anisocoric. Brain CT done immediately showed extensive subarachnoid hemorrhage without intraparenchymal involvement. The patient was intubated and transferred to the intensive care unit. Due to his poor condition, neurosurgical intervention could not be done. The patient was managed conservatively, but the patient passed away 4 days later in the intensive care unit.
Warfarin is rarely associated with subarachnoid hemorrhage, especially when it is only isolated subarachnoid hemorrhage. Aneurismal rupture and trauma should be excluded before diagnosis of warfarin related SAH is made.
Title: Discriminating between p16-negative oropharyngeal and non-oropharyngeal origins by their metastatic lymph nodes using machine learning approach based on MRI radiomics
Authors: Bao Dan , Zhao Yanfeng , Li Lin , Lin Meng , Wu Wenli , Zhang Ya , Xu Haijun , Zhu Zheng , Zhao Xinming , Luo Dehong
Published: September 2022

Objectives:To examine the capability of MRI radiomic analysis to differentiate oropharyngeal and non-oropharyngeal origins of cervical metastatic lymph nodes (LNs) in p16-negative patients following machine-learning approaches.
Methods:A total of 150 patients (training set: 90, validation set: 60) diagnosed with p16-negative head and neck squamous cell carcinoma with cervical metastatic LNs were retrospectively included. Radiomic features were extracted from pretreatment diagnostic T2-weighted fat-suppressed and contrast-enhanced T1-weighted images of the cervical metastatic LNs. The Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test (with p < 0.05) and absolute biserial correlation (> 0.48) were used to identify the discriminant features between the oropharyngeal and non-oropharyngeal groups. The discriminant features were used to train and test four different machine-learning classifiers. The discriminative performances of classifiers were evaluated by AUC, sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV and compared.
Results:Five radiomic features were significantly different (P < 0.05, |biserial correlation| > 0.48) between the p16-negative oropharyngeal and non-oropharyngeal groups. Among the four classifiers trained and applied for discrimination between oropharyngeal and non-oropharyngeal origins, the logistic regression and neural network both showed the highest prediction power, with AUC of 0.87 and 0.74 in the training and validation cohorts, respectively. The accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV of the two classifiers in the validation cohort were 0.72, 0.82, 0.66, 0.58, and 0.86, respectively.
Conclusion:Radiomics and machine-learning diagnostic models with MRI data are potentially useful supportive tools to discriminate between oropharyngeal and non-oropharyngeal origins in p16-negative patients with cervical metastatic LNs.
The princess and the pea - Comparison of different stiffness assessment tools on a multi-layered phantom tissue model
Authors: Bartsch Katja , Brandl Andreas , Weber Patrick , Wilke Jan , Bensamoun Sabine F. , Bauermeister Wolfgang , Klingler Werner , Schleip Robert
Published: September 2022

Changes in the mechanical properties (i.e., stiffness) of soft tissues have been linked to musculoskeletal disorders, pain conditions, and cancer biology, leading to a rising demand for diagnostic methods. Despite the general availability of different stiffness assessment tools (SAT), it is unclear as to which are best suited for different tissue types and the related measurement depths. The study aimed to compare different SAT’ reliability on a multi-layered phantom tissue model (MPTM). A polyurethane MPTM simulated the four layers of the thoracolumbar region: cutis (CUT), subcutaneous connective tissue (SCT), fascia profunda (FPR), and erector spinae (ERS), with varying stiffness parameters. Evaluated SAT included Shore Durometer, Semi-Electronic Tissue Compliance Meter (SCTM), IndentoPRO, MyotonPRO, and ultrasound imaging. Measurements were made by two independent, blinded examiners. Shore Durometer, SCTM, IndentoPRO, and MyotonPRO reliably detected stiffness changes in three of the four MPTM layers, but not in the thin (1 mm thick) layer simulating FPR. With ultrasound imaging, only stiffness changes in layers thicker than 3 mm could be measured reliably. Significant correlations ranging from 0.70 to 0.98 (all p < 0.01) were found. The interrater reliability ranged from good to excellent (ICC(2,2) = 0.75~0.98). The results are encouraging for researchers and clinical practitioners as the investigated SAT are easy-to-use and comparatively affordable.
A telephone problem-solving intervention for Spanish-speaking caregivers of veterans post-stroke: an 8-session investigator-blinded, two-arm parallel (intervention vs usual care), randomized clinical trial
Authors: Freytes I. Magaly , Schmitzberger Magda K. , Rivera-Rivera Naiomi , Lopez Janet , Motta-Valencia Keryl , Wu Samuel S. , Orozco Tatiana , Hale-Gallardo Jennifer , Eliazar-Macke Nathaniel , LeLaurin Jennifer , Uphold Constance R.
Published: September 2022

Background: Stroke is one of the leading causes of death and the main cause of long-term disability in the United States. The significant risk factors of stroke among Hispanics are well-documented. The majority of stroke survivors return home following a stroke and are cared for by family caregivers. Due to the abrupt nature of strokes, caregivers experience unexpected changes and demands that oftentimes lead to caregiver burden and depression. Given the significant risk factors for stroke in Hispanics and the influence of culture in family norms and family management, we developed a telephone and online problem-solving intervention for Spanish-speaking stroke caregivers. This study tests the impact of a telephone and online problem-solving intervention for Spanish-speaking stroke caregivers on caregiver outcomes.
Methods: The design is a two-arm parallel randomized clinical trial with repeated measures. We will enroll 290 caregivers from 3 Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers. Participants randomized into the intervention arm receive a problem-solving intervention that uses telephone and online education and care management tools on the previously developed and nationally available RESCUE en Español Caregiver website. In the usual care group, participants receive the information and/or support caregivers of veterans with stroke normally receive through existing VA resources (e.g., stroke-related information and support). The primary outcome is change in caregiver’s depressive symptoms at 1- and 12-weeks post-intervention. Secondary outcomes include changes in stroke caregivers’ burden, self-efficacy, problem-solving, and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and veterans’ functional abilities. We will also determine the budgetary impact, the acceptability of the intervention and participation barriers and facilitators for Spanish-speaking stroke caregivers.
Discussion: This is an ongoing study. It is the first known randomized controlled trial testing the effect of a telephone and online problem-solving intervention in Spanish for caregivers of veterans post-stroke. If successful, findings will support an evidence-based model that can be transported into clinical practice to improve the quality of caregiving post-stroke.
Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03142841— Spanish Intervention for Caregivers of Veterans with Stroke (RESCUE Español). Registered on February 23, 2018.
Protocol version 8. 08.11.2022
Lipid metabolism disorder in cerebrospinal fluid related to Parkinson’s disease
Authors: Mo Mingshu , Qiu Jiewen , Tang Yuting , Wei Lijian , Peng Guoyou , Lin Yuwan , Dai Wei , Zhang Zhiling , Chen Xiang , Liu Hanqun , Ding Liuyan , Guo Wenyuan , Xu Pingyi
Published: September 2022

Background: Abnormal accumulation of lipids is found in dopamine neurons and resident microglia in the substantia nigra of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). The accumulation of lipids is an important risk factor for PD. Previous studies havemainly focused on lipid metabolism in peripheral blood, but little attention has been givento cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).
Objective:
We drew the lipidomic signature in CSF from PD patients and evaluated the role of lipids in CSF as biomarkers for PD diagnosis.
Methods:
Based on lipidomic approaches, we investigated and compared lipid metabolism in CSF from PD patients and healthy controls without dyslipidaemia in peripheral blood and explored the relationship of lipids between CSF and serum by Pearson correlation analysis.
Results:
A total of 231 lipid species were detected and classified into 13 families in the CSF. The lipid families, including phosphatidylcholine (PC), sphingomyelinase (SM) and cholesterol ester (CE), had significantly increased expressioncompared withthecontrol. Hierarchical clustering was performed to distinguish PD patients based on the significantly changed expression of 37 lipid species. Unsupervisedand supervised methods were used to refine this classification. A total of 12 lipid species, including 3-hydroxy-dodecanoyl-carnitine, PC (O-18:3/20:3), PC (O-20:2/24:3), PC (14:0/18:2), PC (O-18:3/20:2), Cer (d18:1/24:1), CE (22:6), CE (20:4), SM (d18:1/20:1), SM (d18:2/14:0), SM (d18:0/16:0) and SM (d18:2/24:1), were selected to draw the lipidomic signature of PD. Correlation analysis was performed and showed that the CE family and CE (22:6) in CSF had a positive association with TC in the peripheral blood from PD patientsbut not from healthy controls.
Conclusions
Our results revealed that thelipidomic signature in CSF may be considered a potential biomarker for PD diagnosis, and increased CE, PC and SM in CSF may reveal pathological changes,such as blood‒brainbarrier leakage,in the brainsof PD patients.
Usefulness of hepatobiliary scintigraphy for predicting late complications in patients with choledochal cysts
Authors: Kawaguchi Yunosuke , Terui Keita , Komatsu Shugo , Nakata Mitsuyuki , Shibata Ryohei , Yoshizawa Hiroko , Hirokawa Tomoya , Nakatani Erika , Hishiki Tomoro
Published: September 2022

Purpose:
Hepatobiliary scintigraphy is a minimally invasive imaging method that evaluates bile flow dynamics. At our hospital, it has been performed for postoperative evaluation of patients with choledochal cysts (CC). This study evaluated the usefulness of biliary scintigraphy for predicting late complications in patients with CCs.
Methods:
The study included pediatric patients with CC who underwent surgery at Chiba University Hospital from 1978 to 2020, followed by postoperative biliary scintigraphy and subsequent radiologic evaluation. The patients were divided into two groups according to the presence or absence of “biliary cholestasis” on biliary scintigraphy.
Results:
The study included 108 patients, with a median age at surgery of 2 years and 11 months. The median follow-up period was 5,203 days, with 11 hepatolithiasis cases and 8 cholangitis cases. No patients had cholangiocarcinoma. Twelve patients were considered to have "cholestasis" following biliary scintigraphy evaluation. There was no significant difference in the occurrence of hepatolithiasis between the cholestasis and non-cholestasis groups (p = 0.47), but cholangitis was significantly more common in the cholestasis group (p = 0.016).
Conclusion:
Biliary cholestasis on postoperative hepatobiliary scintigraphy was a risk factor for cholangitis in patients with CCs. These particular patients should be monitored carefully.
Reasons for implementation success despite health system constraints: qualitative insights on 'what worked' for cotrimoxazole preventive therapy
Authors: Müller Pia , Mabasso Edna , Lapão Luís Velez , Sidat Mohsin
Published: September 2022

Background: Although Cotrimoxazole preventive therapy (CPT) has shown to be highly efficacious in reducing mortality among people living with Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) under 'ideal world' study conditions, operational challenges are limiting its effectiveness when implementing in countries most affected by the epidemic. The fact that Mozambican authorities reported high coverage of CPT among patients with HIV, has led to this qualitative case study aimed at exploring possible factors responsible for the successful implementation of CPT in the Province of Maputo.
Methods: Between February and April 2019, we individually interviewed nine governmental stakeholders, including the person responsible for HIV, TB and Pharmaceutical management at three administrative levels (central, provincial and district level). Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analysed thematically using MAXQDA Analytics Pro. Findings were translated from Portuguese into English.
Results: Five themes iteratively emerged: (a) Role of governance & leadership, (b) Pharmaceutical strategies, (c) Service delivery modifications, (d) Health care provider factors, and (e) Patients' perspectives. Interviews revealed that continuous supply of cotrimoxazole (CTZ) had been facilitated through multiple-source procurement and a push-pull strategy. One part of CTZ arrived in kits that were imported from overseas and distributed to public health facilities based on their number of outpatient consultations (push strategy). Another part of CTZ was locally produced and distributed as per health facility demand (pull strategy). Strong district level accountability seemed to also have facilitated the public availability of CTZ. Interviewees praised models of differentiated care, the integrated HIV service delivery and drug delivery strategies for reducing long queues at the health facility, better accommodating patients' needs and reducing their financial and organisational burden.
Conclusions: This study presents aspects that governmental experts believed to be key for the implementation of CPT in the Province of Maputo, Mozambique. Enhancing the implementation outcomes – drug availability and feasibility of the health facility based service delivery – seemed crucial for the implementation progress. Reasons for the remarkable patient acceptability of CPT in our study setting should be further investigated.
A combination of power analysis and machine learning approaches to improve individual prediction of population pharmacokinetic modeling
Authors: li dingpeng , chen xiuyang , liang lihua , wang tianyu , li mingyue , wang yiyu , han shuyu , xiang rongwu
Published: September 2022

Objective The purpose of this study is to explore whether combining the power analysis of covariates and the machine learning (ML) analysis of correlated covariates can improve the model’s predictive performance.
Methods Two drugs were selected to explore the methodology of population pharmacokinetics. The parameter-covariate relationships were estimated by the SCM and COSSAC methods. The different covariates for each parameter selected by the SCM and COSSAC methods implement the power analysis. And then the highly correlated covariates were analyzed to select a significant covariate by the ML method. The performance of the calibrated model developed by the above process was compared with the performance of two other predictive models: the SCM model and the COSSAC model. Relative error was used to evaluate the different models. The non-compartment analysis (NCA) was used to calculate individual reference AUC. The AUC obtained by population pharmacokinetic models was compared with the reference AUC to evaluate these models’ predictive performance.
Result The performance of the calibrated model is similar to the SCM and COSSAC models known from the relative error, the R2of all models is more than 97%. However, the performance predicting the AUC of the calibrated model is better than the SCM and COSSAC models.
Conclusion The power analysis can reduce the redundancy of covariate information, and the ML method can provide a criterion to select a covariate from these highly correlated covariates. There combining the two methods may be beneficial for improving individual prediction.
Machine learning approaches demonstrate that protein structures carry information about their genetic coding
Authors: Ackerman-Schraier Linor , Rosenberg Aviv A. , Marx Ailie , Bronstein Alex M.
Published: September 2022

Synonymous codons translate into the same amino acid. Although the identity of synonymous codons is often considered inconsequential to the final protein structure there is mounting evidence for an association between the two. Our study examined this association using regression and classification models, finding that codon sequences predict protein backbone dihedral angles with a lower error than amino acid sequences, and that models trained with true dihedral angles have better classification of synonymous codons given structural information than models trained with random dihedral angles. Using this classification approach, we investigated local codon-codon dependencies and tested whether synonymous codon identity can be predicted more accurately from codon context than amino acid context alone, and most specifically which codon context position carries the most predictive power.
Nano-satellites uphold Boserup’s theory of smallholder agricultural intensification
Authors: Tong Xiaoye , Brandt Martin , Rasmussen Laura Vang , Hiernaux Pierre , Bruun Thilde Bech , Reiner Florian , Abdi Abdulhakim M. , Herrmann Stefanie M. , Li Sizhuo , Fensholt Rasmus
Published: September 2022

Transitioning from the expansion of croplands to sustainable agricultural intensification is key to ensuring food and nutrition security. This is particularly the case for small-scale subsistence farmers in drylands, where our current understanding on the sustainability of this transition is however mostly derived from theories based on local observations. Here we demonstrate that a new generation of satellite data and computer science technology can be used to set a new baseline to understand the interplay between population pressure and agricultural intensification. By characterizing cropping systems across the African Sahel, we evidence that agroforestry areas of high land use intensity are associated with both high rural population density and crop growth rate, upholding Boserup’s theory of agricultural intensification. Our approach provides the foundation for sustainable agricultural intensification in drylands and represents a pathway towards the integration of multidimensional cropland maps into context-specific policymaking for low- and middle- income countries.
Incidence and risk factors for necessitating shunting following medulloblastoma surgery in Children: a monocenter, retrospective, observational cohort study
Authors: Zhang Zaiyu , Wu Yuxin , Zhai Xuan , Liang Ping
Published: September 2022

Purpose: There have been insufficient data for pediatric patients with medulloblastoma who necessitate shunting following resection. This study aims to determine which characters are associated with the incidence in this patient subset.
Methods: We surveyed this monocenter, retrospective, observational cohort of patients (aged 18 years or younger) who underwent medulloblastoma resection at our department between July 1, 2010, to August 1, 2021. The primary outcome was the incidence of necessitating permanent shunt censored after medulloblastoma surgery. Subject demographic, tumor biology, and interventions were analyzed using univariate and multivariable adjusted models.
Results: 183 patients were admitted to our department. Of these, 131 (71·6%) patients participated. The incidence of necessitating permanent shunt was 25.6% (95% CI: 18.7-34.3). Factors that were independently associated with the incidence were medulloblastoma volume > 46381.5mm3 (OR: 2.919, 95% CI: 1.191-7.156) and ventricular infiltration (OR: 2.849, 95% CI: 1.142-7.102). Manifestations duration could be a covariate of tumor volume and increased risk of shunt need (OR: 1.006, 95% CI: 1.000-1.013). Besides, tumor volume was a probable predictor in patients with subtotal resection (OR: 4.900, 95% CI: 0.992-24.208, P=0.051). Lastly, there was no significant difference between the distribution of molecular subgroups for necessitating permanent shunt patients.
Conclusion: Increased incidence was associated with medulloblastoma invasion. Our study implies that the presence of postresection hydrocephalus in patients with medulloblastoma was not high enough to entail a prophylactic permanent shunt in all patients.
Using a speed-gated spatiotemporal graph convolution network to forecast traffic flow
Authors: Shen Z.
Published: September 2022

The majority of the traffic flow prediction models in use today only use data related to actual traffic flow, however there is also a link between actual traffic speed and traffic flow data. In order to handle the traffic flow prediction problem from the perspectives of both traffic flow and traffic speed, a speed-gated spatio-temporal graph convolution network (SGSTGCN)-based traffic flow prediction model is presented. SGSTGCN employs gated expansion convolution and graph convolution, respectively, to model the temporal and spatial correlation of traffic data. The model is then used to predict traffic flow accurately by fusing the traffic speed features into the traffic flow features through the use of the gating mechanism. The SGSTGCN model has a greater prediction accuracy than other spatio-temporal graph network prediction models DCRNN, STGCN, according to experiments on real highway traffic flow datasets.
Computer Aided Brain Tumor Diagnosis Network Employing Structure-Aware CNNs
Authors: Singh Rahul , Goel Aditya , Raghuvanshi D. K.
Published: September 2022

Brain tumor is one of the deadliest cancers diagnosed in humans. Accurate and early detection of brain tumors play pivotal role in analysing and planning its treatment accordingly. Therefore, development of automated assisted framework for brain tumor detection and classification becomes very important. This paper presents structure aware CNN (SA-CNN) for binary brain tumor classification. The proposed SA-CNN extracts discriminant and significant image features from brain tumor images. We develop structure aware convolution (SAC) filters by generalizing the filters in traditional convolution to capture structure information which equips the network with the capability to deal with datasets having Euclidean and non-Euclidean structures. We explore classification capabilities of other pre-trained deep convolutional neural networks, namely Alex-Net, VGG 19, Inception V1, Res-Net 34 and Dense-Net 161 for comparative analysis. The proposed network is more generalized as it does not rely on hand-crafted features maps and achieves better performance. Extensive experiments on benchmark Kaggle dataset and comparative analysis suggests that the proffered framework outperforms state-of-the-art (SOTA) techniques. The proposed framework achieves accuracy of 99.54% and 98.04 % on training dataset and test dataset respectively.
TREM2 limits progression of deficits and spreading of tau pathology in mice
Authors: Feiten Astrid , Au Carol , Sabale Miheer , Hummel Annika van , Hoven Julia van der , Deng Yuanyuan , Przybyla Magdalena , Bright Fiona , Butler Troy , Delerue Fabien , Toutonji Amer , Guglietta Silvia , Wegmann Susanne , Hyman Bradley T , Krieg Carsten , Ke Yazi D , Ittner Lars
Published: September 2022

Background. Amyloid-β (Aβ) and tau form
pathogenic lesions in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) brains. As ΑD
clinically progresses, tau pathology propagates in a very distinct
pattern between connected brain areas. The molecular mechanisms
underlying this tau pathology spread remain largely unknown.
Genome-wide association studies have identified polymorphisms in
triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2
(TREM2) as genetic risk factors for AD and regulators of
Aβ pathology-dependent tau propagation. Whether TREM2 contributes
to neuron-to-neuron spreading of pathological tau remains
unknown.
Methods. Here, we crossed Trem2-deficient
mice with P301S tau transgenic TAU58 mice and subjected the mice to
behavioural testing and assessed neuropathology. Microglial
activation states were determined using cytometry by time of flight
(CyTOF) and quantitative PCR. Tau spreading was assessed in
vivo using tracing of focal tau expression.
Results. Trem2 depletion significantly
aggravated tau-induced early-onset motor and behavioural deficits.
Neuropathologically, Trem2 reduction increased the number
of hyperphosphorylated tau lesions in young TAU58 brains and
reduced disease-associated microglia. Direct assessment of
inter-neuronal spread of tau in vivo revealed
significantly enhanced propagation of tau in the absence of
Trem2, suggesting that microglial TREM2 limits the
progression of tau pathology in disease.
Conclusion. Taken together, our data suggests that
reduced TREM2 function accelerates the onset and progression of
functional deficits and tau neuropathology in tau transgenic mice,
which might –at least in part– be due to increased tau spreading.
Therefore, reduced TREM2 function may contribute to early AD by
augmenting tau toxicity and its inter-neuronal propagation.