bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Distinct transcriptional signatures in purified circulating immune cells drive heterogeneity in disease location in IBD
Authors: Verstockt Bram , Verstockt Sare , Cremer Jonathan , Sabino João , Ferrante Marc , Vermeire Severine , Sudhakar Padhmanand
Published: February 2023

Objective

To infer potential mechanisms driving disease subtypes among patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), we profiled the transcriptome of purified circulating monocytes and CD4 T-cells.

Design

RNA extracted from purified monocytes and CD4 T-cells derived from the peripheral blood of 125 endoscopically active patients with IBD was sequenced using Illumina HiSeq 4000NGS. We used complementary supervised and unsupervised analytical methods to infer gene expression signatures associated with demographic/clinical features. Expression differences and specificity were validated by comparison with publicly available single cell datasets, tissue-specific expression and meta-analyses. Drug target information, druggability and adverse reaction records were used to prioritise disease subtype-specific therapeutic targets.

Results

Unsupervised/supervised methods identified significant differences in the expression profiles of CD4 T-cells between patients with ileal Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). Following a pathway-based classification (Area Under Receiver Operating Characteristic - AUROC=86%) between ileal-CD and UC patients, we identified MAPK and FOXO pathways to be downregulated in UC. Coexpression module/regulatory network analysis using systems-biology approaches revealed mediatory core transcription factors. We independently confirmed that a subset of the disease location-associated signature is characterised by T-cell-specific and location-specific expression. Integration of drug-target information resulted in the discovery of several new (BCL6,GPR183,TNFAIP3) and repurposable drug targets (TUBB2A,PRKCQ) for ileal CD as well as novel targets (NAPEPLD,SLC35A1) for UC.

Conclusions

Transcriptomic profiling of circulating CD4 T-cells in patients with IBD demonstrated marked molecular differences between the IBD-spectrum extremities (UC and predominantly ileal CD, sandwiching colonic CD), which could help in prioritising particular drug targets for IBD subtypes.
Efficacy and safety of pharmacological interventions for managing sickle cell disease in children and adolescents: protocol for a systematic review with network meta-analysis
Authors: Tonin Fernanda S , Ginete Catarina , Fernandez-Llimos Fernando , Ferreira Joana , Delgadinho Mariana , Brito Miguel
Published: February 2023

Introduction

Sickle cell disease (SCD), an inherited haemoglobinopathy, has important impact on morbidity and mortality, especially in paediatrics. Previous systematic reviews are limited to adult patients or focused only on few therapies. We aim to synthesise the evidence on efficacy and safety of pharmacological interventions for managing SCD in children and adolescents.

Methods and analysis

This systematic review protocol is available at Open Science Framework (doi:10.17605/OSF.IO/CWAE9). We will follow international recommendations on conduction and report of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Searches will be conducted in PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science (no language nor time restrictions) (first pilot searches performed in May 2022). We will include randomised controlled trials comparing the effects of disease-modifying agents in patients with SCD under 18 years old. Outcomes of interest will include: vaso-occlusive crisis, haemoglobin levels, chest syndrome, stroke, overall survival and adverse events. We will provide a narrative synthesis of the findings, and whenever possible, results will be pooled by means of pairwise or Bayesian network meta-analyses with surface under the cumulative ranking curve analyses. Different statistical methods and models will be tested. Dichotomous outcomes will be reported as OR, risk ratio or HR, while continuous data will be reported as standard mean differences, both with 95% CI/credibility interval. The methodological quality of the trials will be evaluated using the Risk of Bias 2.0 tool, and the certainty of the evidence will be assessed with the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach.

Ethics and dissemination

This study refers to a systematic review, so no ethics approval is necessary. We intent to publish our findings in international, peer-reviewed journal. Data will also be presented to peers in scientific events. Additionally, the results obtained in this study may contribute towards the update of therapeutic guidelines and for the development of health policies for SCD.

PROSPERO registration number

CRD42022328471.
Improving outpatient care in adult inflammatory bowel disease: effect of implementation of a reminder checklist in the electronic health records (IBD-ERS)—a pilot study
Authors: Bernasko Nana , Venkateswaran Niranjani , Coates Matthew , Dalessio Shannon , Williams Emmanuelle , Clarke Kofi
Published: February 2023

Studies have shown that patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) do not receive age appropriate preventive care services at the same rate as the general population. Providers extract information on preventive measures compliance by chart review, discussion with patients or deferment to primary care providers to ensure and document compliance. The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate the effectiveness of our standardised template which was incorporated in the electronic health records in order to provide the highest quality of clinical care and improve efficiency. We compared the outcomes before and after implementation of the template. In our preimplementation phase, we performed retrospective single-centre chart review of all patients diagnosed with IBD and treated with an immune modulator therapy between years January 2015–December 2016 and December 2019–July 2020. Preventive care measures included influenza and pneumonia, smoking cessation, checking thiopurine methyltransferase (TPMT) enzyme activity prior to starting thiopurines, screening for hepatitis B status, and tuberculosis (TB) testing prior to starting anti-TNF therapy. A total of 200 patients were included. Prior to the template implementation, manual extraction of data showed about 43% and 31% of the patients with IBD received influenza vaccination in 2015 and 2016, respectively. There were 40.9% who received pneumococcal vaccination, 57.5% with TPMT activity prior to thiopurine use, 60% had hepatitis B testing and only 12.5% had documented TB test. Post intervention, there was a significant increase in vaccination rates with 93.1% and 87.6% received influenza and pneumococcal vaccination, respectively (p<0.0005). About 94.7% had TPMT activity, 96.8% had hepatitis B and 98.9% had TB test completed (p<0.0005). The average time (minutes) to obtain information for each patient decreased from 12.27 to 4.62. Our study demonstrated a significant improvement in documented immunisation rates and quality of preventive care after implementation of standardised template.
Disease control and psychiatric comorbidity among adolescents with chronic medical conditions: a single-centre retrospective study
Authors: Kallio Mira , Tornivuori Anna , Miettinen Päivi , Kolho Kaija-Leena , Culnane Evelyn , Sawyer Susan , Kosola Silja
Published: February 2023

Background

To investigate disease control, psychiatric comorbidity, substance use and their possible associations in adolescents with chronic medical conditions before transfer to adult healthcare.

Methods

We collected clinical data from the year preceding transfer of care and psychiatric data from the records of the paediatric hospital in Helsinki, Finland (population base 1.7 million). Participants were grouped into three disease and/or adherence control categories (good, some evidence of concern, poor) based on clinical data from the medical records of the year preceding the transfer of care. Participants completed the Adolescent’s Substance Use Measurement Questionnaire before transfer of care and were divided into four risk subgroups accordingly.

Results

In total, 253 adolescents (mean age 17.3 years, SD 1.2) from six paediatric subspecialties participated in this study. Disease control and/or adherence were rated as good in 28% (n=70), moderate in 42% (n=105) and poor in 30% (n=76) in the year before participants transferred to adult health services. A quarter of participants had at least one psychiatric diagnosis during adolescence. Adolescents with concomitant psychiatric diagnoses more often had poor disease control of their chronic medical condition than adolescents with only a medical condition (44% vs 26%; n=25 of 59 vs 51 of 194, respectively). More than half of adolescents (56%) were abstinent or used substances infrequently; 10% (n=26) reported hazardous substance use.

Conclusions

Psychiatric comorbidity in adolescents with chronic medical conditions is common. Its negative association with disease control and possible substance use should be considered in the transition process to adult health services.
One-person versus two-person mask ventilation in preterm infants at birth: a pilot randomised controlled trial
Authors: Shah Dharmesh , Tracy Mark B , Hinder Murray Kenneth , Badawi Nadia
Published: February 2023

Background

Mask leak and airway obstruction are common with mask ventilation in newborn infants, leading to suboptimal ventilation. We aimed to perform a pilot study measuring respiratory mechanics during one-person and two-person mask ventilation in preterm infants at birth.

Methods

Infants less than 30 weeks’ gestation were eligible for the study. In the two-person method, one person holds the mask in place and the other provides positive pressure ventilation compared with the standard one-person mask hold. A respiratory function monitor was used in line with a T-piece resuscitator to measure mask leak and airway obstruction. Deferred consent was obtained.

Results

Twenty-five infants were recruited. The mean (SD) birth weight was 920.4 g (188.3), and mean (SD) gestational age was 27.3 weeks (3.0). Percentage mask leak was higher in the one-person mask method (26.4±18.5) compared with the two-person mask method (17.6±9.3) (p=0.018). The mean (SD) expired tidal volume (VTe, mL) in breaths with leak was 3.9 (1.57) in the one-person method compared with 3.05 (1.0) the two-person method (p=0.31). A significantly lower mean (SD) end-tidal carbon dioxide (EtCO2,mm Hg) was measured at 25.3 (9.9) in breaths with mask leak, compared with 30.8 (12.1) in breaths without leak. The breaths with airway obstruction had lower mean EtCO2(25.9 vs 30.8, p=0.003) and lower mean VTe(1.71 vs 6.95, p<0.001).

Conclusion

Mask leak and airway obstruction are common in resuscitation of preterm infants at birth. The use of the two-person mask technique is effective and it could be a useful option if mask ventilation with the one-person method is not effective.

Trial registration number

ACTRN12614000245695.
Tuned activation of MSLN-CAR T cells induces superior antitumor responses in ovarian cancer models
Authors: Schoutrop Esther , Poiret Thomas , El-Serafi Ibrahim , Zhao Ying , He Rui , Moter Alina , Henriksson Johan , Hassan Moustapha , Magalhaes Isabelle , Mattsson Jonas
Published: February 2023

Background

Limited persistence of functional CAR T cells in the immunosuppressive solid tumor microenvironment remains a major hurdle in the successful translation of CAR T cell therapy to treat solid tumors. Fine-tuning of CAR T cell activation by mutating CD3ζ chain immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motifs (ITAMs) in CD19-CAR T cells (containing the CD28 costimulatory domain) has proven to extend functional CAR T cell persistence in preclinical models of B cell malignancies.

Methods

In this study, two conventional second-generation MSLN-CAR T cell constructs encoding for either a CD28 co-stimulatory (M28z) or 4-1BB costimulatory (MBBz) domain and a novel mesothelin (MSLN)-directed CAR T cell construct encoding for the CD28 costimulatory domain and CD3ζ chain containing a single ITAM (M1xx) were evaluated using in vitro and in vivo preclinical models of ovarian cancer. Two ovarian cancer cell lines and two orthotopic models of ovarian cancer in NSG mice were used: SKOV-3 cells inoculated through microsurgery in the ovary and to mimic a disseminated model of advanced ovarian cancer, OVCAR-4 cells injected intraperitoneally. MSLN-CAR T cell treatment efficacy was evaluated by survival analysis and the characterization and quantification of the different MSLN-CAR T cells were performed by flow cytometry, quantitative PCR and gene expression analysis.

Results

M1xx CAR T cells elicited superior antitumor potency and persistence, as compared with the conventional second generation M28z and MBBz CAR T cells. Ex vivo M28z and MBBz CAR T cells displayed a more exhausted phenotype than M1xx CAR T cells as determined by co-expression of PD-1, LAG-3 and TIM-3. Furthermore, M1xx CAR T cells showed superior ex vivo IFNy, TNF and GzB production and were characterized by a self-renewal gene signature.

Conclusions

Altogether, our study demonstrates the enhanced therapeutic potential of MSLN-CAR T cells expressing a mutated CD3ζ chain containing a single ITAM for the treatment of ovarian cancer. CAR T cells armored with calibrated activation potential may improve the clinical responses in solid tumors.
Roles of light transmission aggregometry and CYP2C19 genotype in predicting ischaemic complications during interventional therapy for intracranial aneurysms
Authors: Zhou Yangyang , Li Wenqiang , Wang Chao , Xie Ruhang , Zhu Yongnan , Peng Qichen , Zhang Limin , Zhang Hongqi , Gu Yuxiang , Mu Shiqing , Liu Jian , Yang Xinjian
Published: February 2023

Background and purpose

Light transmission aggregometry (LTA) and CYP2C19 genotype analysis are commonly used to evaluate the antiplatelet effects of clopidogrel during the interventional treatment of intracranial aneurysms. The aim of this study was to determine which test can predict ischaemic events during these treatments.

Methods

Patient demographic information, imaging data, laboratory data and ischaemic complications were recorded. LTA and CYP2C19 genotype results were compared, and multiple linear regression was performed to examine factors related to platelet reactivity. Multivariate regression analysis was performed to determine whether LTA and CYP2C19 could predict ischaemic complications and to identify other clinical risk factors. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was conducted to calculate the cut-off value for predicting ischaemic complications. A subgroup analysis was also performed for different CYP2C19 genotype metabolisers, as well as for patients with flow diverters and traditional stents.

Results

A total of 379 patients were included, of which 22 developed ischaemic events. Maximum platelet aggregation induced by ADP (ADP-MPA) could predict ischaemic events (p<0.001; area under the curve, 0.752 (95% CI 0.663 to 0.842)), and its cut-off value was 41.5%. ADP-MPA (p=0.001) and hypertension duration >10 years (p=0.022) were independent risk factors for ischaemic events, while the CYP2C19 genotype was not associated with ischaemic events. In the subgroup analysis, ADP-MPA could predict ischaemic events in fast metabolisers (p=0.004) and intermediate metabolisers (p=0.003). The cut-off value for ischaemic events was lower in patients with flow diverters (ADP-MPA=36.4%) than in patients with traditional stents (ADP-MPA=42.9%).

Conclusions

ADP-MPA can predict ischaemic complications during endovascular treatment of intracranial aneurysms. Patients with flow diverters require stronger antiplatelet medication than patients with traditional stents.
Cervical spine flexion-extension radiography versus magnetic resonance imaging in pediatric patients following blunt traumatic injury
Authors: Zhang Jeff F , Umenta Janet , Ali Adil , Reynolds Renee , Ham Phillip Benson , Thomas Richard D , Piryani Ravi , Izhar Muhammad , Wrotniak Brian , Swayampakula Anil K
Published: February 2023

Background

In pediatric trauma patients, 60–80% of spinal cord injuries involve the cervical vertebrae. While the American College of Radiology offers guidelines for best imaging practices in the setting of acute pediatric trauma, there is a lack of uniformity in imaging-decision protocols across institutions. MRI has been shown to demonstrate high sensitivity for both bony and ligamentous injuries while also avoiding unnecessary radiation exposure in the pediatric patient population. However, the efficacy of flexion-extension (FE) radiography following initial MRI has not been evaluated in children. Our hypothesis is that FE radiography conducted following an initial MRI does not contribute significant diagnostic information or reduce time to cervical collar removal and thus can be removed from institutional protocols in order to avoid unnecessary testing and reduce pediatric radiation exposure.

Methods

Trauma data were collected for pediatric patients presenting with suspected acute cervical spine injury from 2014 to 2021. A total of 108 patients were subdivided into 41 patients who received “MRI Only” and 67 patients who received both “MRI and FE” diagnostic cervical spine imaging. Chi-square testing and t-tests were performed to determine differences between MRI and FE radiographic detection rates of bony and ligamentous injuries in the subgroups.

Results

In patients for whom FE did not find any injury, MRI detected bony and ligamentous injuries in 9/63 and 12/65 cases, respectively. In 3/21 (14.3%) cases in which MRI detected a bony and/or ligamentous injury and FE did not, patients eventually required surgical intervention for c-spine stabilization. No patients required surgical fixation when FE radiography showed an abnormality and MRI was normal. Addition of follow-up FE radiography after initial MRI did not have a significant effect on overall hospital length of stay (MRI Only vs MRI+FE: 9.2±12.0 days vs 8.6±13.5 days, p=0.816) or on rates of collar removal at discharge or greater than 48 hours after imaging (MRI Only vs MRI+FE: 41.5% vs 56.7%, p=0.124).

Conclusions

FE radiography following initial MRI did not have a significant effect on reducing time to cervical collar removal or overall hospital length of stay. In addition, in 3 of 6 cases (50.0%) in which surgical fixation was required, MRI detected ligamentous and/or bony injury while FE radiography was normal.

Level of Evidence

This study contributes Level 2b scientific evidence consistent with a well-designed cohort or case-control analytic study.
Emerging roles for heterogeneous ribonuclear proteins in normal and malignant B cells
Authors: Qureshi Qurat Ul Ain , Audas Timothy E. , Morin Ryan D. , Coyle Krysta M.
Published: February 2023

Heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins (hnRNPs) are among the most abundantly expressed RNA binding proteins in the cell and play major roles in all facets of RNA metabolism. hnRNPs are increasingly appreciated as essential for mammalian B cell development by regulating the carefully ordered expression of specific genes. Due to this tight regulation of the hnRNP-RNA network, it is no surprise that a growing number of genes encoding hnRNPs have been causally associated with the onset or progression of many cancers, including B cell neoplasms. Here we discuss our current understanding of hnRNP-driven regulation in normal, perturbed, and malignant B cells, and the most recent and emerging therapeutic innovations aimed at targeting the hnRNP–RNA network in lymphoma.
Quantum coherence versus quantum correlations in a double cavity magnomechanical system
Authors: Hidki Abdelkader , Lakhfif Abderrahim , El Qars Jamal , Nassik Mostafa
Published: February 2023

In this paper, we investigate a system composed of two spatially separated cavities, each with a magnon mode of a yttrium iron garnet (YIG) sphere coupled to a microwave (MW) cavity and phonon modes, respectively, via linear beam splitter and magnetostrictive interactions. In addition, two-mode squeezed vacuum fields drive the two cavities. We investigate and compare the behavior of three nonclassicality indicators in two subsystems (i.e., magnon–magnon and phonon–phonon) under the influences of the temperature, the cavity–magnon damping rate, and the magnomechanical coupling rate. We use the entanglement of formation (EoF) to measure the degree of entanglement, the Gaussian quantum discord (GQD) to characterize the quantum correlations beyond entanglement and Gaussian quantum coherence (GQC) to quantify coherence. Considering that the quantifiers share the same entropic definition, we compare the three quantifiers and test the validity of the hypothesis that quantum states with nonzero discord are inherently entangled. We find, on the one hand, that both GQC and GQD exhibit freezing behavior and that they are more robust to the decoherence effect than the EoF. On the other hand, the EoF and the GQD are always upper bounded by GQC, and there is no simple dominance relationship between EoF and GQD; hence these two quantifiers should not be compared. The effect of other parameters is also discussed in detail.
Efficient Multimodal Biometric Recognition for Secure Authentication Based on Deep Learning Approach
Authors: Rajasekar Vani , Saracevic Muzafer , Hassaballah Mahmoud , Karabasevic Darjan , Stanujkic Dragisa , Zajmovic Mahir , Tariq Usman , Jayapaul Premalatha
Published: February 2023

Biometric identification technology has become increasingly common in our daily lives as the requirement for information protection and control legislation has grown around the world. The unimodal biometric systems use only biometric traits to authenticate the user which is trustworthy but it possesses various limitations such as susceptibility to attacks, noise occurring in a dataset, non-universality challenges, etc. Multimodal biometrics technology has the potential to avoid the various fundamental constraints of unimodal biometric systems and also it has garnered interest and popularity in this respect. In this research, an efficient multimodal biometric recognition system based on a deep learning approach is proposed. The structure is implemented around convolutional neural networks (CNN) in which feature extraction and Softmax classifier are used to identify images. This method employs three CNN models for iris, face, and fingerprint were integrated to create the system. The two levels of fusion strategy such as feature level fusion and score level fusion were employed. The efficiency of the proposed model is evaluated based on the two most popular multimodal datasets as SDUMLA-HMT and BiosecureID biometric dataset. The result analysis demonstrates that the proposed multimodal biometric recognition provides the enhanced result with higher accuracy of 99.92%, a lower equal error rate of 0.10% on feature level, and 0.08% on score level fusion. Similarly, the average FAR is 0.09% and the average FRR is 0.06%. Because of this enhanced result, the proposed approach is computationally efficient.
Double Nanoperovskite Heterojunctions Based on SI-Porous
Authors: Khalaph Kawther A. , Shanan Zainab J. , Jafar Aqel Mashot , Al-Attar Falah Mustafa
Published: February 2023

Solar energy is one of the main resources in our modern life. Photovoltaic panels are one of the most important technologies that make use of solar energy good because the photovoltaic cells harvest light from the sun and turn sunlight into electrical energy. This paper presents the manufacture of the solar cell from (Al/ZnO/perovskite/CuO/[Formula: see text]-Psi/Al) nanostructures using the drop-casting method at a 70°C process temperature. Perovskite (Cs4CuSb2[Formula: see text] nanostructures‘ structural, optical and morphological characteristics were identified by X-ray diffraction (XRD), SEM, UV–Vis spectrophotometer and AFM. This work generated a solar cell device with the highest energy conversion efficiency (12.49%) and filling factor of 33.7%, promising to create a high-quality polycrystalline crystal. In the current study, effective hybrid Pb-free Perovskite solar cells are explained and investigated.
A Meshfree Approach Based on Moving Kriging Interpolation for Numerical Solution of Coupled Reaction-Diffusion Problems
Authors: Hidayat Mas Irfan P.
Published: February 2023

In this paper, a meshfree approach based on moving kriging interpolation is presented for numerical solution of coupled reaction-diffusion problems. The proposed approach is developed based upon local collocation using moving Kriging shape function. It is truly meshless and having the Kronecker delta property for accurate imposition of boundary conditions. In the proposed model, the weight function is used with correlation parameter treated as the model internal length factor. This produces a local moving kriging method with improved accuracy together with an ease to choose the weight function factor. The method can hence be used in an efficient manner without cumbersome effort for choosing its parameter. The meshless approach is presented for the first time for numerical solution of reaction-diffusion systems. Problems of Turing system and pattern formation in several 2D domains are solved in this study. The efficacy and accuracy of the proposed method for the reaction-diffusion systems in different problem domains are presented in comparison to available exact solution and other numerical methods. It is found that the present method is accurate and effective as a computational procedure for solving reaction-diffusion problems.
Effect of pyrrole substitution on the optical limiting properties of 3,5-distyrylBODIPYdyes
Authors: May Aviwe K. , Mack John , Nyokong Tebello
Published: February 2023

The optical limiting properties of three meso-pyridyl-distyrylBODIPY dyes with differing alkyl substitution patterns at the 2,6- and 1,7-positions on the pyrrole moieties are investigated. Styryl groups are introduced at the 3,5-positions to form dyes with strong donor-[Formula: see text]-acceptor (D-[Formula: see text]-A) properties. Favorable optical limiting properties are obtained for all three dyes, with the highest second-order hyperpolarizability obtained for a dye that is unsubstituted at both the 2,6- and 1,7-positions suggesting that the optical limiting properties are enhanced when the meso-aryl ring can freely rotate into the plane of the BODIPY core.
Synthesis and functionalization of electron-deficient perfluoroalkyl porphyrin building blocks for supermolecular systems
Authors: Liu Rui , Zhu Jiaqi , Rawson Jeff , Pederson Lindsay R. , Cinnater Victoria L. , Mansergh Jarrett P. , Therien Michael J.
Published: February 2023

Synthetic strategies for electron-deficient meso-perfluoroalkylporphyrins bearing diverse functional groups are described. Scalable and efficient syntheses for 5-triisopropylsilylethynyl-10,15,20-tris(heptafluoropropyl)porphyrin and 5-triisopropylsilylethynyl-10,20-bis(heptafluoropropyl)porphyrin that equip meso-ethynyl functional groups via the bilane route have been established, along with a refined route to [5,15-bis(heptafluoropropyl)porphinato]zinc(II). meso-Position halogenation of [5,15-bis(heptafluoropropyl)porphinato]zinc(II) was achieved by selective meso-nitration and subsequent reduction, diazonium salt formation, and iodination reactions. Computational data describe the low energy excited states of these chromophores and the electronic structural factors that control reactivity of these meso-perfluoroalkyl substituted porphyrin complexes. meso-Functionalized [5-triisopropylsilylethynyl-10,20-bis(heptafluoropropyl)porphinato]zinc(II) and [5-iodo-10,20-bis(heptafluoropropyl)porphinato]zinc(II) building blocks lay the foundation for the construction of highly conjugated multiporphyrin arrays that feature electronic structural properties important for the development of n-type materials and high potential photooxidants.
Hydrogenobinamide and nibinamide - Metal-free ligand and Ni(II)-analogue of the vitamin B12 precursor cobinamide
Authors: Kieninger Christoph , Deery Evelyne , Lawrence Andrew D. , Warren Martin J. , Kräutler Bernhard
Published: February 2023

The replacement of cobalt in vitamin B[Formula: see text] derivatives by other transition metals is a formal path to non-natural corrins. Here, we describe nibinamide (Nibi), the novel Ni(II)-analogue of the natural B[Formula: see text]-derivative cobinamide (Cbi), and its synthesis from the metal-free ligand of Cbi, hydrogenobinamide (Hbi), both isolated as tetrafluoroborate salts. Aqueous solutions of the metal-free corrin Hbi are strongly fluorescent, whereas its Ni(II)-complex Nibi is non-luminescent. The solution structures of Hbi and of Nibi were characterized by hetero-nuclear NMR-spectroscopy. The Ni(II)-corrin Nibi was deduced to be roughly iso-structural to cob(I)inamide (Cbi[Formula: see text] and to house a diamagnetic d8-metal-ioniso-electronic to Co[Formula: see text] in Cbi[Formula: see text]. The chemically robust Nibi is, thus, a structural mimic of enzyme-activated and reduced biosynthetic precursors of vitamin B[Formula: see text] and a B[Formula: see text]-antimetabolite potentially functioning as a specific inhibitor of B[Formula: see text]-biosynthesis.
Aesthetic Attribute Assessment of Images Numerically on Mixed Multi-attribute Datasets
Authors: Jin Xin , Li Xinning , Lou Hao , Fan Chenyu , Deng Qiang , Xiao Chaoen , Cui Shuai , Singh Amit Kumar
Published: February 2023

With the continuous development of social software and multimedia technology, images have become a kind of important carrier for spreading information and socializing. How to evaluate an image comprehensively has become the focus of recent researches. The traditional image aesthetic assessment methods often adopt single numerical overall assessment scores, which has certain subjectivity and can no longer meet the higher aesthetic requirements. In this article, we construct an new image attribute dataset called aesthetic mixed dataset with attributes (AMD-A) and design external attribute features for fusion. Besides, we propose an efficient method for image aesthetic attribute assessment on mixed multi-attribute dataset and construct a multitasking network architecture by using the EfficientNet-B0 as the backbone network. Our model can achieve aesthetic classification, overall scoring, and attribute scoring. In each sub-network, we improve the feature extraction through ECA channel attention module. As for the final overall scoring, we adopt the idea of the teacher-student network and use the classification sub-network to guide the aesthetic overall fine-grain regression. Experimental results, using the MindSpore, show that our proposed method can effectively improve the performance of the aesthetic overall and attribute assessment.
D
3
T-GAN: Data-Dependent Domain Transfer GANs for Image Generation with Limited Data
Authors: Wu Xintian , Wang Huanyu , Wu Yiming , Li Xi
Published: February 2023

As an important and challenging problem, image generation with limited data aims at generating realistic images through training a GAN model given few samples. A typical solution is to transfer a well-trained GAN model from a data-rich source domain to the data-deficient target domain. In this paper, we propose a novel self-supervised transfer scheme termed D
3
T-GAN, addressing the cross-domain GANs transfer in limited image generation. Specifically, we design two individual strategies to transfer knowledge between generators and discriminators, respectively. To transfer knowledge between generators, we conduct a data-dependent transformation, which projects target samples into the latent space of source generator and reconstructs them back. Then, we perform knowledge transfer from transformed samples to generated samples. To transfer knowledge between discriminators, we design a multi-level discriminant knowledge distillation from the source discriminator to the target discriminator on both the real and fake samples. Extensive experiments show that our method improves the quality of generated images and achieves the state-of-the-art FID scores on commonly used datasets.
2022 Alonzo Church Award Announcement
Authors: Kozen Dexter
Published: February 2023

The ACM Special Interest Group on Logic (SIGLOG), the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS), the European Association for Computer Science Logic (EACSL), and the Kurt Goedel Society (KGS) are pleased to announce that

has been selected as the winner of the

2022 Alonzo Church Award for Outstanding Contributions to Logic and Computation

for his fundamental work on developing the theory and applications of Kleene Algebra with Tests, an equational system for reasoning about iterative programs, published in:

Kleene Algebra with Tests. ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems 19(3): 427-443 (1997).
Stabilising Effects of Lumped Integration Schemes for the Simulation of Metal-Electrolyte Reactions
Authors: Hageman Tim , Martínez-Pañeda Emilio
Published: February 2023

Computational modelling of metal-electrolyte reactions is central to the understanding and prediction of a wide range of physical phenomena, yet this is often challenging owing to the presence of numerical oscillations that arise due to dissimilar reaction rates. The ingress of hydrogen into metals is a paradigmatic example of a technologically-relevant phenomenon whose simulation is compromised by the stiffness of the reaction terms, as reaction rates vary over orders of magnitude and this significantly limits the time increment size. In this work, we present a lumped integration scheme for electro-chemical interface reactions that does not suffer from numerical oscillations. The scheme integrates the reactions in a consistent manner, while it also decouples neighbouring nodes and allows for larger time increments to be used without oscillations or convergence issues. The stability and potential of our scheme is demonstrated by simulating hydrogen ingress over a wide range of reaction rate constants and environmental conditions. While previous hydrogen uptake predictions were limited to time scales of minutes, the present lumped integration scheme enables conducting simulations over tens of years, allowing us to reach steady state conditions and quantify hydrogen ingress for time scales relevant to practical applications.
The role of vasoactive peptides in skin homeostasis—focus on adiponectin and the kallikrein-kinin system
Authors: Souza-Silva Igor M. , Steckelings U. Muscha , Assersen Kasper Bostlund
Published: February 2023

Vasoactive peptides often serve a multitude of functions aside from their direct effects on vasodynamics. This article will review the existing literature on two vasoactive peptides and their involvement in skin homeostasis: adiponectin and—as the main representative of the kallikrein-kinin system—bradykinin. Adiponectin is the most abundantly expressed adipokine in the human organism, where it is mainly localized in fat depots including subcutaneous adipose tissue, from where adiponectin can exert paracrine effects. The involvement of adiponectin in skin homeostasis is supported by a number of studies reporting the effects of adiponectin in isolated human keratinocytes, sebocytes, fibroblasts, melanocytes, and immune cells. Regarding skin pathology, the potential involvement of adiponectin in psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, scleroderma, keloid, and melanogenesis is discussed in this article. The kallikrein-kinin system is composed of a variety of enzymes and peptides, most of which have been identified to be expressed in the skin. This also includes the expression of bradykinin receptors on most skin cells. Bradykinin is one of the very few hormones that is targeted by treatment in routine clinical use in dermatology—in this case for the treatment of hereditary angioedema. The potential involvement of bradykinin in wound healing, psoriasis, and melanoma is further discussed in this article. This review concludes with a call for additional preclinical and clinical studies to further explore the therapeutic potential of adiponectin supplementation (for psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, wound healing, scleroderma, and keloid) or pharmacological interference with the kallikrein-kinin system (for wound healing, psoriasis, and melanoma).
Changing Properties of Daily Precipitation Concentration in the Hai River Basin, China
Authors: Zheng Ren , Yong Zhao , Ling Chen , Jiaguo Gong , Li Wang
Published: February 2023

Understanding the spatiotemporal pattern of precipitation concentration is important for the assessment of flood and drought risk and utilization of water resources. In this study, the daily precipitation concentration index in the Hai River basin in China was calculated based on the Gini coefficient obtained from the observed data of 51 meteorological stations from 1951 to 2018 and spatiotemporal pattern variations were investigated. The trends and abrupt changes of DPCI were tested by the Mann–Kendall and the Pettitt methods, respectively. The relationships among DPCI, percentage of precipitation contributed by the rainiest days, and disaster losses were discussed by the linear correlation analysis. The results showed that the DPCI value ranges between 0.6471 and 0.7938, decreases westward and northward, which is negatively related to latitude and elevation, and is positively related to longitude. Negative trends of the DPCI were found at most stations, and the PCI trends of more than 80% stations were statistically significant. Abrupt changes of the DPCI have a postponement trend from west to east with time. Daily heterogeneity of the rainfall in a year is highly correlated with the heavy rainfall amount of the 25% rainiest days. For a year, higher DPCI coupled with more precipitation is easy to cause a flood disaster; conversely, higher DPCI along with less precipitation is easy to cause a drought disaster. In the future, the risk of flood disasters would be reduced, but the drought disasters would be increased in the Hai River basin.
Study of Antibacterial Properties of Cinnamaldehyde against Aeromonas hydrophila
Authors: Pei Jiaqiao , Sun Cunxin , Liu Bo , Zhou Qunlan , Zheng Xiaochuan , Liu Bo , Zhao Chuanjiang , Sun Chao
Published: February 2023

Antibacterial properties of cinnamaldehyde against Aeromonas hydrophila were assayed in this study. To investigate the action mechanisms of cinnamaldehyde against A. hydrophila, we examined the antibacterial activity, bacterial membrane permeability, and ultrastructure of A. hydrophila cells treated with cinnamaldehyde. The results showed that the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) value of cinnamaldehyde against A. hydrophila NJ-35 was found to be 0.039 mg/mL. The trends of the growth curve of A. hydrophila treated with different concentrations of cinnamaldehyde (from 1/4 MIC to 2 MIC) were different, and there was a significant difference in the growth curve of different groups of treatment. There were significant differences in the K+ concentration among all treatment groups from 1 h to 5 h after incubation compared with that of the control. The highest K+ concentration was observed in the 1 MIC group of cinnamaldehyde. The ultrastructure of A. hydrophila cells treated with cinnamaldehyde was destroyed, and the morphology changed. These results indicated that cinnamaldehyde could inhibit the growth of A. hydrophila, increase bacterial membrane permeability, and damage cell membrane integrity, resulting in leakage of the A. hydrophila cell contents.
Technoeconomic Assessment of Various Configurations Photovoltaic Systems for Energy and Hydrogen Production
Authors: Urs Rahul Rajeevkumar , Sadiq Muhammad , Mayyas Ahmad , Al Sumaiti Ameena
Published: February 2023

Photovoltaic (PV) system grid integration is becoming more global to minimize carbon emissions from traditional power systems. However, alternative solution investigation for maximum technical and economic benefits is often neglected when integrating PV systems. This study utilizes a methodology for evaluating the lifecycle energy generation and levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of PV systems with various configurations using a holistic approach that considers PV system expenditures from installation to the end-of-life PV system operation. In addition, this work focuses on finding a better configuration with different PV modules (monofacial or bifacial) and structure types (mounted or single-axis) for three different utility scale PV sizes (300 kW, 500 kW, and 1000 kW) in Abu Dhabi, UAE, with the maximum power generation and minimal energy losses. Furthermore, the best suitable configuration was identified to be the configuration with a single-axis tracking structure and bifacial PV modules based on their technical and economic performance for the location with two different surface albedo, 0.2 and 0.8. We also study the PV system’s connection in a standalone off-grid solar-electrolyzer combination to produce green hydrogen. Levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) and levelized cost of hydrogen production (LCOH) are calculated, and results show that such PV systems can be used to generate electricity and produce hydrogen at competitive costs that can reach as low as 2.1 cent/kWh and $2.53/kg-H2 for LCOE and LCOH, respectively. Such a low cost is very competitive and can be used to attract new investments in green hydrogen technology in the United Arab Emirates.
Ergodic Capacity for NOMA-Enabled ISATNs with Transmit Antenna Selection and Imperfect CSI and SIC
Authors: Shuai Haifeng , Guo Kefeng , Zhu Shibing
Published: February 2023

Integrated satellite-aerial-terrestrial networks (ISATNs) expand the breadth and depth of seamless connections, which has been recognized as one of the key facilities of next-generation networks. This paper investigates the impact of transmit antenna selection, imperfect channel state information (CSI), and successive interference cancellation (SIC) on ergodic capacity (EC) of nonorthogonal multiple access- (NOMA-) enabled ISATNs, where a high altitude platform (HAP) assists the satellite transmission through decode-and-forward relaying protocol. Besides, two selection schemes are proposed to balance system complexity and transmission efficiency. Imperfect CSI and SIC are considered to impose detrimental effects on system performance. In addition, analytical expressions for EC of NOMA-enabled ISATNs in the presence of the above imperfections are derived. Finally, the Monte Carlo simulations corroborate analytical results and reveal the impacts of imperfections on integrated satellite-aerial-terrestrial networks.
A Novel Framework for Melanoma Lesion Segmentation Using Multiparallel Depthwise Separable and Dilated Convolutions with Swish Activations
Authors: Bukhari Maryam , Yasmin Sadaf , Habib Adnan , Cheng Xiaochun , Ullah Farhan , Yoo Jaeseok , Lee Daewon
Published: February 2023

Skin cancer remains one of the deadliest kinds of cancer, with a survival rate of about 18–20%. Early diagnosis and segmentation of the most lethal kind of cancer, melanoma, is a challenging and critical task. To diagnose medicinal conditions of melanoma lesions, different researchers proposed automatic and traditional approaches to accurately segment the lesions. However, visual similarity among lesions and intraclass differences are very high, which leads to low‐performance accuracy. Furthermore, traditional segmentation algorithms often require human inputs and cannot be utilized in automated systems. To address all of these issues, we provide an improved segmentation model based on depthwise separable convolutions that act on each spatial dimension of the image to segment the lesions. The fundamental idea behind these convolutions is to divide the feature learning steps into two simpler parts that are spatial learning of features and a step for channel combination. Besides this, we employ parallel multidilated filters to encode multiple parallel features and broaden the view of filters with dilations. Moreover, for performance evaluation, the proposed approach is evaluated on three different datasets including DermIS, DermQuest, and ISIC2016. The finding indicates that the suggested segmentation model has achieved the Dice score of 97% for DermIS and DermQuest and 94.7% for the ISBI2016 dataset, respectively.
Isolation and Characterization of Viscosity-Reducing and Biosurfactant-Producing Bacteria in Low-Permeability Reservoir
Authors: Ziwei Bian , Hanning Wu , Lusha Wei , Zena Zhi , Yifei Wu
Published: February 2023

Microbialenhanced oil recovery has gained more attention in recent years due to its low cost and eco-friendliness. However, studies on the application of this technique in the low-permeability reservoirs are few. In this study, eight strains from the Ordos Basin low-permeability reservoir that produce biosurfactant and reduce viscosity were identified. Strains could produce biosurfactants (lipopeptide and glycolipids) to emulsify the oil and had good tolerance on temperature (25°C-50°C), salinity (1 g/L-50g/L), and pH (5-10). After the actions of A-3, SC4534(2), SC4561, and JSC4535, the content of long-chain n-alkanes were decreased by 51.2%, 28.3%, 35.2%, and 28.9%, respectively. The naphthalene in aromatic hydrocarbons was also effectively degraded by the strains that were screened, and the degradation rate was higher than 84%. Additionally, all strains were able to reduce oil viscosity, which was reduced by 27-51% (in seven days). 16S rRNA gene sequencing analysis indicated that seven strains belong to the genus Bacillus and one belongs to the genus Rhodospirillaceae. The results revealed that the existence of high-efficiency strains that can significantly improve the properties of crude oil in low-permeability oil fields though biodegradation and use of biosurfactants, which is of great significance for the application of MEOR in low-permeability oil fields.
Investigation on the Heat-to-Power Generation Efficiency of Thermoelectric Generators (TEGs) by Harvesting Waste Heat from a Combustion Engine for Energy Storage
Authors: Ragupathi P. , Barik Debabrata
Published: February 2023

The present work explores a novel method of waste heat recovery (WHR) from the internal combustion (IC) engine and power generation using heat from hot exhaust gas (HEG) and thermoelectric generator (TEG). This system uses TEGs of aluminium oxide (Al2O3), bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3), lead telluride (PbTe3), and silicon germanium (SiGe) for the investigation of WHR and power generation. The experiments were conducted using a 5.9 kW diesel engine as a source of heat and a heat exchanger (HE) with fins. The parameters such as variation in temperature, rate of heat recovery, rate of power generation, and conversion efficiency of TEGs were analyzed by varying the load on the engine from 0% to 100% with steps of 25% and different zones of the heat exchanger, namely, zone 1, zone 2, zone 3, and zone 4. During the experiment, it was observed that zone 2 gives a high-temperature difference compared to zone 1, zone 3, and zone 4. TEG of bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) increases the heat recovery rate overall compared to Al2O3, PbTe3, and SiGe throughout the load spectrum and operating conditions concerning different zones. The maximum power generation by TEGs of Al2O3, Bi2Te3, PbTe3, and SiGe was found to be 6.35 W, 7.18 W, 6.41 W, and 5.93 W at zone 2 while the engine was operated at 75% of load, respectively. Bi2Te3 gives the highest conversion efficiency compared to other TEGs irrespective of the working zones. The thermal energy-to-electrical energy conversion efficiency was maximum of about 7.8% given by the TEG of Bi2Te3 at zone 2 while the engine was operated at 75% of the load.