bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Trimodal prediction of speaking and listening willingness to help improve turn-changing modeling
Authors: Ishii Ryo , Ren Xutong , Muszynski Michal , Morency Louis-Philippe
Published: October 2022

Participants in a conversation must carefully monitor the turn-management (speaking and listening) willingness of other conversational partners and adjust their turn-changing behaviors accordingly to have smooth conversation. Many studies have focused on developing actual turn-changing (i.e., next speaker or end-of-turn) models that can predict whether turn-keeping or turn-changing will occur. Participants' verbal and non-verbal behaviors have been used as input features for predictive models. To the best of our knowledge, these studies only model the relationship between participant behavior and turn-changing. Thus, there is no model that takes into account participants' willingness to acquire a turn (turn-management willingness). In this paper, we address the challenge of building such models to predict the willingness of both speakers and listeners. Firstly, we find that dissonance exists between willingness and actual turn-changing. Secondly, we propose predictive models that are based on trimodal inputs, including acoustic, linguistic, and visual cues distilled from conversations. Additionally, we study the impact of modeling willingness to help improve the task of turn-changing prediction. To do so, we introduce a dyadic conversation corpus with annotated scores of speaker/listener turn-management willingness. Our results show that using all three modalities (i.e., acoustic, linguistic, and visual cues) of the speaker and listener is critically important for predicting turn-management willingness. Furthermore, explicitly adding willingness as a prediction task improves the performance of turn-changing prediction. Moreover, turn-management willingness prediction becomes more accurate when this joint prediction of turn-management willingness and turn-changing is performed by using multi-task learning techniques.
Reducing consumer materialism and compulsive buying through emotional intelligence training amongst Lithuanian students
Authors: Lekavičienė Rosita , Antinienė Dalia , Nikou Shahrokh , Rūtelionė Aušra , Šeinauskienė Beata , Vaičiukynaitė Eglė
Published: October 2022

Consumers’ inclinations towards materialism and compulsive buying are influenced by a variety of factors. Materialistic consumers face maladies that cause stress and lower subjective well-being and are unable to control their buying behaviour that in turn leads to social and financial issues. This paper aims to investigate the effect of emotional intelligence training on consumers’ materialism and compulsive buying. The experimental design involves 36 respondents across both groups. Findings confirm the hypothesis that ability-based training programmes can help consumers improve their emotional intelligence whilst also lowering their levels of materialism and compulsive buying. In sum, the results extend the existing literature on consumer materialism by providing an explanation on how specific emotional ability-based training can diminish materialistic and excessive buying inclinations. The development of emotional intelligence skills-based training programmes contributes to more sustainable consumer behaviour, mitigating the vulnerability to materialism and related addictive behavioural consequences.
Research on the correlation of immunity in patients with chronic insomnia
Authors: Nie Li , Pan Xian-li , Zhang Xiao-bao , Zhang Shan , Rao Ji-Xian , Su Zeng-feng
Published: October 2022

Purpose

To investigate the changes in immunity and clinical infection events among patients with chronic insomnia.

Materials and methods

Forty-two patients with chronic insomnia (age = 64.44 ± 10.53) and 47 normal controls (age = 67.08 ± 7.822) were selected to determine differences in data, such as complete blood counts (CBCs), biochemical indices, lymphocyte subsets, immunoglobulin (Ig), complement C3 and C4 and interleukin-6 (IL-6), as well as to compare the incidence of clinical infection between the two groups.

Results

There were significant differences in erythrocyte, hemoglobin, hematocrit, albumin, globulin, creatinine, IgG, IgG/IgM ratio, CD4+ T-lymphocytes, CD19-lymphocytes, CD4+/CD8+ ratio, platelet/lymphocyte ratio, CD19/CD3 ratio, and clinical infection events between the chronic insomnia group and the control group (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference in neutrophil, lymphocyte, monocyte, and platelet counts; lymphocyte subsets CD8+ T and CD56+; platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR); neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR); complement C3; complement C4; IgM; IgA; and IL-6 between the experimental group and their controls (p > 0.05). The systolic and diastolic blood pressures of the chronic insomnia group did not vary widely from those of the controls (p > 0.05).

Conclusion

Patients with chronic insomnia have immunological abnormalities, characterized by a higher incidence of clinical infection.
Internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy in children and adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder: A randomized controlled trial
Authors: Hollmann Karsten , Hohnecker Carolin S. , Haigis Anna , Alt Annika K. , Kühnhausen Jan , Pascher Anja , Wörz Ursula , App Rehan , Lautenbacher Heinrich , Renner Tobias J. , Conzelmann Annette
Published: October 2022

Objectives

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in childhood and adolescence often leads to significant impairment in various areas of life and has a high risk of becoming chronic. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the recommended first-line treatment, but it is too rarely implemented in accordance with guidelines and is often not available close to the patient’s home. Importantly, internet-based CBT could help to reduce this gap in care. Having previously successfully demonstrated the feasibility of an internet-based CBT approach, we aimed to assess its effectiveness in a waiting list controlled randomized trial.

Methods

Children and adolescents aged 6–18 years with a principal diagnosis of OCD received 14 sessions of therapist-delivered CBT via videoconference distributed over 16 weeks. After inclusion, participants were randomly assigned to either the treatment or waiting list group. Participants in the treatment group began treatment immediately after baseline diagnostics, and participants in the waiting list group began treatment after a 16-week waiting period. The primary outcome was a pre-post comparison of OCD symptoms as measured with the Children’s Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (CY-BOCS). Additionally, remission was an important outcome measure. Follow-up assessments were conducted for all measures 16 and 32 weeks after completion of treatment.

Results

A total of 60 children and adolescents were included into the analyses. Over the course of the treatment, OCD symptoms according to the CY-BOCS significantly decreased in the treatment group compared to the waiting-list control group. Cohen’s d between groups was 1.63. After the patients in the waiting list group also received the treatment, the OCD symptoms decreased significantly in this group as well. This improvement of symptoms increased over the course of the follow-up assessments. Remission rate peaked at the 32-week follow-up, with 68% in the treatment group and 79% in the waiting list group. Importantly, patient satisfaction with treatment was high to very high.

Conclusion

In our study, OCD symptoms decreased significantly and remission rate was high after internet-based CBT. Those effects were comparable to those found in studies of face-to-face treatment. Although further evidence is needed, these are early indications that our approach may be a viable way to provide access to adequate treatment for children and adolescents affected by OCD.

Clinical trial registration

[www.ClinicalTrials.gov], identifier [NCT05037344].
Profiles in conspiracism: Associations with two psychiatric syndromes, religiosity and pandemic-related health behaviors
Authors: Minzenberg Michael J. , Yoon Jong H.
Published: October 2022

Introduction

Conspiratorial beliefs are often maladaptive for individuals and dangerous for societies. Other prevalent belief systems such as (normative) religious belief and (pathological) delusional belief show parallels to conspiratorial beliefs, which may also be linked to excessive social media exposure. We conducted an online survey to characterize heterogeneous profiles of conspiracy-mindedness, with respect to these other phenomena.

Methods

Eight hundred and thirty six American adults from online panels completed validated questionnaires including the Conspiracy Mindedness Questionnaire (CMQ), Centrality of Religion Scale (CRS), Peters Delusion Inventory (PDI; 21-item version), and Facebook Addiction Scale (FAS). Additionally, they completed 4 questions addressing categorical belief in the origin of SARS-CoV-2, and pandemic-related health behaviors. Total scores on each questionnaire wereZ-transformed and entered into K-means cluster analysis. Cluster membership was used inpost-hocanalyses to compare pandemic-related items.

Results

An optimal solution included 3 clusters with above-mean (high) CMQ and 3 below-mean (low) CMQ scores. The 3 high-CMQ clusters included: (1) high-religion, low-social media addiction; (2) high religion, social media addiction and delusion; (3) low religion and delusion. High-CMQ clusters 1 and 2 each had rates of zoonotic and malevolent viral origin beliefs that were relatively lower and higher than the grand sample rates, respectively. Significant differences in intended pandemic health-related behaviors among the high-CMQ clusters (compared to the rest of the sample) included Cluster 1—high on Precautions and low on Vaccination; Cluster 2—high on Testing. Respondents who endorsed SARS-CoV-2 origin beliefs (across clusters) that were least plausible and most malevolent were least inclined to engage in pandemic health behaviors.

Conclusions

Distinct subpopulations of persons with high conspiracy-mindedness exist, which are highly heterogeneous in their other coexisting beliefs and behaviors. Some of these may be pathological, such as delusional belief and social media addiction-like behavior, and they have varied associations with pandemic-related belief and behavior. These results, while cross-sectional, suggest that the psychological origins and consequences of conspiratorial beliefs may not be unitary. Instead, conspiratorial belief may be a common expression of diverse psychological and social/experiential factors, and in turn exert varied influence on decisions and overt behavior.
Planetary sleep medicine: Studying sleep at the individual, population, and planetary level
Authors: Bragazzi Nicola Luigi , Garbarino Sergio , Puce Luca , Trompetto Carlo , Marinelli Lucio , Currà Antonio , Jahrami Haitham , Trabelsi Khaled , Mellado Bruce , Asgary Ali , Wu Jianhong , Kong Jude Dzevela
Published: October 2022

Circadian rhythms are a series of endogenous autonomous oscillators that are generated by the molecular circadian clock which coordinates and synchronizes internal time with the external environment in a 24-h daily cycle (that can also be shorter or longer than 24 h). Besides daily rhythms, there exist as well other biological rhythms that have different time scales, including seasonal and annual rhythms. Circadian and other biological rhythms deeply permeate human life, at any level, spanning from the molecular, subcellular, cellular, tissue, and organismal level to environmental exposures, and behavioral lifestyles. Humans are immersed in what has been called the “circadian landscape,“ with circadian rhythms being highly pervasive and ubiquitous, and affecting every ecosystem on the planet, from plants to insects, fishes, birds, mammals, and other animals. Anthropogenic behaviors have been producing a cascading and compounding series of effects, including detrimental impacts on human health. However, the effects of climate change on sleep have been relatively overlooked. In the present narrative review paper, we wanted to offer a way to re-read/re-think sleep medicine from a planetary health perspective. Climate change, through a complex series of either direct or indirect mechanisms, including (i) pollution- and poor air quality-induced oxygen saturation variability/hypoxia, (ii) changes in light conditions and increases in the nighttime, (iii) fluctuating temperatures, warmer values, and heat due to extreme weather, and (iv) psychological distress imposed by disasters (like floods, wildfires, droughts, hurricanes, and infectious outbreaks by emerging and reemerging pathogens) may contribute to inducing mismatches between internal time and external environment, and disrupting sleep, causing poor sleep quantity and quality and sleep disorders, such as insomnia, and sleep-related breathing issues, among others. Climate change will generate relevant costs and impact more vulnerable populations in underserved areas, thus widening already existing global geographic, age-, sex-, and gender-related inequalities.
Sustainable development goals and ending ECC as a public health crisis
Authors: Saikia Ankita , Aarthi Jagadeesan , Muthu MS , Patil Sneha S. , Anthonappa Robert Prashanth , Walia Tarun , Shahwan Moayad , Mossey Peter , Dominguez Monica
Published: October 2022

Early Childhood Caries (ECC) remains a global issue despite numerous advancements in research and interventional approaches. Nearly, 530 million children suffer from untreated dental caries of primary teeth. The consequences of such untreated dental caries not only limit the child's chewing and eating abilities but also, significantly impact the child's overall growth. Research has demonstrated that ECC is associated with nearly 123 risk factors. ECC has also been associated with local pain, infections, abscesses, and sleep pattern. Furthermore, it can affect the child's emotional status and decrease their ability to learn or perform their usual activities. In high-income countries, dental care continues to endorse a “current treatment-based approach” that involves high-technology, interventionist, and specialized approaches. While such approaches provide immediate benefit at an individual level, it fails to intercept the underlying causes of the disease at large. In low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), the “current treatment approach” often remains limited, unaffordable, and unsuitable for the majority of the population. Rather, dentistry needs to focus on “sustainable goals” and integrate dental care with the mainstream healthcare system and primary care services. Dental care systems should promote “early first dental visits,” when the child is 1 year of age or when the first tooth arrives. The serious shortages of appropriately trained oral healthcare personnel in certain regions of the world, lack of appropriate technologies and isolation of oral health services from the health system, and limited adoption of prevention and oral health promotion can pose as critical barriers. The oral health care systems must focus on three major keystones to combat the burden of ECC−1. Essential oral health services are integrated into healthcare in every country ensuring the availability of appropriate healthcare accessible and available globally, 2. Integrating oral and general healthcare to effectively prevent and manage oral disease and improve oral health, 3. Collaborating with a wide range of health workers to deliver sustainable oral health care tailored to cater to the oral health care needs of local communities.
Characteristics of a pre-monsoon dryline atmospheric boundary layer over the rain shadow region: A case study
Authors: Solanki Raman , Malap Neelam , Gayatri K. , Rao Y. Jaya , Prabhakaran Thara
Published: October 2022

A dryline is the zone of distinct moisture gradient separating warm, moist, and hot, dry air masses. It is usually associated with mesoscale phenomena and plays a significant role in atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) dynamics including initiation of convection/thunderstorms. In the tropical Indian region, these dryline conditions are normally associated with the pre-monsoon season. In the present study, dryline characteristics over a rain shadow region in the Indian subcontinent were investigated utilizing observations and Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model from 28 to 30 May 2019. Based upon Wind Profiler Radar and MicroWave Radiometer Profiler measurements, the ABL characteristics were investigated. Interestingly, the ABL height was found to evolve up to 5 km with the horizontal wind vectors oscillating between north-westerly and north-easterly flow. During the intense ABL deepening, stronger downdraft cores were observed in comparison with the updraft cores. The stronger downdrafts entrained free-tropospheric dry air thereby further deepening the ABL. Based upon the entrainment velocity estimates at the ABL top and the variations in potential temperature, the dynamic entrainment fluxes were estimated and further implemented for evaluating two slab models to recreate the ABL growth. With this analysis, we demonstrate the significant contribution of entrainment fluxes on ABL growth during dryline conditions.
Effects of COVID-19 on dietary behavior of urban consumers in Nairobi, Kenya
Authors: Chege Christine G. K. , Onyango Kevin , Kabach Joram , Lundy Mark
Published: October 2022

The disruptions wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic on food systems worldwide have endangered food and nutrition security for many consumers. The resource-poor, especially those in urban areas, are more susceptible to pandemic-related disturbances. This study uses primary data collected from 2,465 households located in and outside of informal settlements (slums) in Nairobi, Kenya to assess how COVID-19 and related public-health measures have influenced diets of urban consumers, their purchasing patterns and overall food security. Questions about food security and consumption behavior, including household dietary diversity scores, were used to capture the pre- and mid-pandemic situation. The data show that low-income households in the informal settlements were more affected than middle-income households. About 90% of slum households reported dire food insecurity situations, including being unable to eat preferred kinds of food, eating a limited variety of foods, consuming smaller portions than they felt they needed, and eating fewer meals in a day. With a score of four food groups out of nine, household in the informal settlements have lower dietary diversity than middle-income households, whose score is five out of nine. The consumption of nutritious foods, including fruits, vegetables, and animal products, fell among people living in slums during the pandemic. In addition to assessing dietary changes, this study highlights the factors associated with quality food consumption during the pandemic period such as household income levels and male-vs-female headed households. Our research demonstrates the need to attend to slums and vulnerable, poor consumers when enacting mitigation measures or designing and implementing policy.
The establishment and development of wound repair discipline in China
Authors: Huang Yuesheng , Fu Xiaobing
Published: October 2022

With the acceleration of population aging and the changes of disease spectrum, the number of wound patients has increased annually in the past 20 years, which has become a major problem in terms of China's medical and health work. To address this challenge, the National Health Commission of China issued a notice in November 2019, requiring qualified medical and health institutions to establish wound repair departments to strengthen the standardized diagnosis and treatment management of various wound patients. This article introduces the establishment process of the wound repair discipline in China, as well as the practice and experience of building a high-level wound repair department in Chinese hospitals, hoping that it can be used for reference by peers.
A retrospective study of ultrasound-guided intervention for frozen shoulder in the frozen stage
Authors: Guan Haitao , Wu Qinfeng , Zhou Yuan , Fan Xing , Zheng Kun , Si Tong , Zhao Jinli
Published: October 2022

Background

To investigate the clinical value of ultrasound (US)-guided intervention for frozen shoulder (FS) in the frozen stage.

Methods

This study included 40 patients who had primary FS in the frozen stage and were evaluated by US. These 40 patients have all received conservative treatment elsewhere, and no satisfactory results have been achieved, with no improvement in active and passive movement angles, and no improvement in scores within 3 months. Therefore, their previous treatment was set as comparison. All patients underwent US-guided shoulder joint capsule distension by injection of sterilized water. Of these participants, 22 patients with scapulohumeral periarthritis received a compound betamethasone injection, and 14 patients with thickened coracohumeral ligaments (CHLs) underwent acupotomy lysis, and the remaining 4 patients had no extra treatments. The Constant-Murley score (CMS) was evaluated before and after the operation and analysed for each patient.

Results

Before treatment, the indices for the thickening of the subaxillary joint capsule, subacromial bursa (with or without effusion), long head of the biceps brachii tendon (LHBBT) and CHL were 40, 22, 16 and 14, respectively. After treatment, all the indices were significantly decreased (all P < 0.010) except for that of the LHBBT (P = 0.123). The patients' CMSs improved, with the median total CMS increasing from 59 points (interquartile range: 53–64 points) to 86 points (interquartile range: 78–90 points) (P < 0.010). While the internal rotation (Ir) of the shoulder joint did not improve (FDRs < 0.50), abduction, forward flexion (Ff) and external rotation (Er) improved significantly (all FDRs = 1.00).

Conclusion

Compared with conservative treatment, US-guided intervention for FS in the frozen stage is highly effective and of great clinical value.
Assessment of risk factors in dogs with presumptive advanced canine cognitive dysfunction
Authors: MacQuiddy Brittany , Moreno Julie A. , Kusick Breonna , McGrath Stephanie
Published: October 2022

Objectives

The aim of this study was to investigate the potential risk factors involved in the development of presumptive advanced canine cognitive dysfunction (pACCD).

Materials and methods

A questionnaire was developed to identify dogs with presumptive canine cognitive dysfunction (CCD) based on an adapted Canine Dementia Scale and to evaluate for potential risk factors among the presumptive advanced cognitive dysfunction group. The questionnaire was distributed to 7,574 owners of dogs (≥8 years of age) who presented to the CSU VTH between 2017 and 2020. Dogs were classified into four groups based on the Canine Dementia Scale score (normal, mild, moderate, and severe cognitive impairment) and two subgroups for the cognitively impaired groups based on the presence or absence of underlying medical conditions. Comparisons between normal and presumptive advanced cognitively impaired groups, with and without underlying medical conditions, were made against various risk factors. Chi-square tests and logistic regression analysis were used to determine associations between categorical variables and a p-value of <0.05 was considered indicative of evidence of association.

Results

The completed response rate for the questionnaire was 14.2% (1,079/7,574). Among those, 231 dogs were classified as having presumptive advanced cognitive dysfunction. The prevalence of presumptive advanced cognitive dysfunction in the included age groups was 8.1% in ages 8 to <11 years, 18.8% in ages 11 to <13 years, 45.3% in ages 13 to <15 years, 67.3% in ages 15 to <17 years, and 80% in ages >17 years. Dogs with a thin body condition score had the largest contribution to the chi-square statistic. Based on the logistic regression model, both age (p < 0.001) and BCS (p = 0.0057) are associated with presumptive ACCD.

Conclusion and relevance

The chi-square test and logistic regression analysis both suggested an association between a thin body condition and an increased chance of cognitive decline. However, it is difficult to determine if the thin BCS in this group could be secondary to another confounding factor. The prevalence of cognitive dysfunction rapidly increased with age in this study. These findings warrant continued studies including veterinary evaluations to explore risk factors of canine dementia.
A Novel Adaptive FCM with Cooperative Multi-Population Differential Evolution Optimization
Authors: Banerjee Amit , Abu-Mahfouz Issam
Published: October 2022

Fuzzy c-means (FCM), the fuzzy variant of the popular k-means, has been used for data clustering when cluster boundaries are not well defined. The choice of initial cluster prototypes (or the initialization of cluster memberships), and the fact that the number of clusters needs to be defined a priori are two major factors that can affect the performance of FCM. In this paper, we review algorithms and methods used to overcome these two specific drawbacks. We propose a new cooperative multi-population differential evolution method with elitism to identify near-optimal initial cluster prototypes and also determine the most optimal number of clusters in the data. The differential evolution populations use a smaller subset of the dataset, one that captures the same structure of the dataset. We compare the proposed methodology to newer methods proposed in the literature, with simulations performed on standard benchmark data from the UCI machine learning repository. Finally, we present a case study for clustering time-series patterns from sensor data related to real-time machine health monitoring using the proposed method. Simulation results are promising and show that the proposed methodology can be effective in clustering a wide range of datasets.
An Investigation into the Effect of Knowledge Management on Employee Retention in the Telecom Sector
Authors: Zayed Nurul Mohammad , Edeh Friday Ogbu , Islam Khan Mohammad Anwarul , Nitsenko Vitalii , Dubovyk Tetiana , Doroshuk Hanna
Published: October 2022

Employees in the telecom sector are knowledge workers and, thus, managers, HR professionals, and policymakers in the industry need to retain them through knowledge management policies. It is against this premise that this study investigated the effect of knowledge management on employee retention in the telecom sector. Research design employed in this study is a cross-sectional survey with an accessible population of thirty telecom companies in the southeastern region of Nigeria using a simple random sampling technique. The sample size was determined with the Krejcie and Morgan sample size determination table. A questionnaire was used as an instrument for data collection. Respondents’ profiles were analysed with frequency distribution while the formulated hypotheses were analysed with linear regression. The study found that knowledge management dimensions have a significant effect on the measures of employee retention. The study concludes that knowledge management measured in terms of knowledge acquisition, knowledge storage, and knowledge sharing predicted employee retention that is measured by supervisor support, coworkers support, and flexible working arrangements. One of the implications of this study is that managers of telecom companies should liaise with their board of directors to make funds available that would be used to train employees to acquire relevant knowledge that is needed in the telecom industry.
Dwarf Interstocks Improve Aroma Quality of ‘Huahong’ Apple (Malus × domestica)
Authors: Lu Xiang , Gao Yuan , Wang Kun , Sun Simiao , Liu Zhao , Yan Peng , Feng Jianrong , Li Qingshan , Li Lianwen , Wang Dajiang
Published: October 2022

‘Huahong’ is a popular apple cultivar because of its anti-browning properties and appealing aroma and flavor. It is mainly planted by grafting on dwarf interstocks in Northeast China. We investigated the different aroma profiles of apple fruits grown from six dwarf interstocks (‘CG24’, ‘SH38’, ‘SH3’, ‘MD001’, ‘Mac9’, and ‘CX5’) and from no interstocks (CK). A total of 55 VOCs were detected, including esters (25), aldehydes (14), alcohols (8), ketones (3), alkane hydroxyls (3), and acids (2). Among the VOCs, 48 were detected in the skin and 21 in the pulp. The skin of ‘Huahong’ apples had a strong sweet aroma, and the pulp was green with a subtle aroma. The dominant compounds (>5% of total content) in the skin were 2-methyl butyl acetate, hexyl 2-methyl butyrate, caproic acid butyl ester, hexanal, (Z)-2-heptene aldehyde, and 6-methyl-5-heptene-2-ketone, while in the pulp, they were 2-methyl butyl acetate, methanol, 2-methyl-1-butanol, hexanol, and hexane. Compared with CK, ‘SH38’, ‘MD001’, and ‘SH3’ interstocks had increased total aroma content, and ‘CX5’ and ‘CG24’ had suppressed aroma. The effects of interstocks on aroma were mainly reflected in skin. The VOC content ranged from 3297.52 to 9895.75 µg·kg−1 in skin, and from 748.62 to 1369.21 µg·kg−1 in pulp. PCA revealed that use of interstock ‘SH38’ mainly affected esters. ‘MD001’ affected hexane and 4-pentene-1-acetate; ‘Mac9’ and ‘SH3’ affected octanoic acid-2-methyl butyl ester, hexyl butyrate, and 2-methyl-1-butanol; and ‘CX5’ and ‘CG24’ had a greater impact on isoamyl propionate and 1-pentene-3-ol. Finally, ‘SH38’ had the highest principal comprehensive score. ‘SH38’ and ‘SH3’ interstocks resulted in significantly increased apple VOC content.
Identification of Genomic Variants Causing Variation in Quantitative Traits: A Review
Authors: Meuwissen Theo , Hayes Ben , MacLeod Iona , Goddard Michael
Published: October 2022

Many of the important traits of livestock are complex or quantitative traits controlled by thousands of variants in the DNA sequence of individual animals and environmental factors. Identification of these causal variants would be advantageous for genomic prediction, to understand the physiology and evolution of important traits and for genome editing. However, it is difficult to identify these causal variants because their effects are small and they are in linkage disequilibrium with other DNA variants. Nevertheless, it should be possible to identify probable causal variants for complex traits just as we do for simple traits provided we compensate for the small effect size with larger sample size. In this review we consider eight types of evidence needed to identify causal variants. Large and diverse samples of animals, accurate genotypes, multiple phenotypes, annotation of genomic sites, comparisons across species, comparisons across the genome, the physiological role of candidate genes and experimental mutation of the candidate genomic site.
Effects of Long-Term Straw Return and Environmental Factors on the Spatiotemporal Variability of Soil Organic Matter in the Black Soil Region: A Case Study
Authors: Yan Yang , Ji Wenjun , Li Baoguo , Wang Guiman , Hu Bifeng , Zhang Chao , Mouazen Abdul Mounem
Published: October 2022

Exploring the effects of straw return and environmental factors on the spatiotemporal variation of soil organic matter (SOM) in black soil regions is essential for soil carbon sequestration research. However, studies seldom quantified the effects of long-term straw return on a long-term SOM variation at a regional scale in typical black soil areas. The case was conducted in one of the three major black soil regions in the Northern Hemisphere, where the straw return policy has been implemented for a long time. The study obtained the SOM spatial distribution in 2007, 2009, 2012, 2015, and 2018 with approximately 9000 samples and analyzed the effects of soil types, texture, elevation, and human management on the spatiotemporal variation. The results indicated that from the 1980s to 2007, before the straw return policy implementation, the mean SOM content decreased from 24.38 g kg−1 to 18.94 g kg−1. In contrast, the mean SOM content gradually increased from 2007 to 2018 after implementing straw return practices. In addition, the area of SOM within 20–30 g kg−1 increased gradually, with 32.2%, 40.5%, 50.2%, 49.4%, and 60.5% in 2007, 2009, 2012, 2015, and 2018, respectively. Surprisingly, the SOM within 30–40 g kg−1 emerged in 2018. The results indicated that returning straw to the field might promote SOM accumulation. However, the SOM contents in Phaezems (19.25–21.82 g kg−1) were lower than that in natural Phaezems (40–60 g kg−1), indicating severe degradation. The clay content positively correlated to SOM and was a major explanatory variable for the response of SOM to straw return. Straw return practices are promising measures in the black soil region and are worth exploring more effective approaches to allow straw return to play a better role.
Phosphorus Mobilization in Plant–Soil Environments and Inspired Strategies for Managing Phosphorus: A Review
Authors: Ibrahim Muhammad , Iqbal Muhammad , Tang Yu-Ting , Khan Sardar , Guan Dong-Xing , Li Gang
Published: October 2022

Crop productivity and yield are adversely affected by the deficiency of P in agricultural soil. Phosphate fertilizers are used at a large scale to improve crop yields globally. With the rapid increase in human population, food demands are also increasing. To see that crop yields meet demands, farmers have continuously added phosphate fertilizers to their arable fields. As the primary source of inorganic phosphorous, rock phosphate is finite and the risk of its being jeopardized in the foreseeable future is high. Therefore, there is a dire need to improve plant-available P in soil, using feasible, environmentally friendly technologies developed on the basis of further understanding of P dynamics between soil and plants. This study systemically reviews the mechanism of P uptake and P-use efficiency by plants under starvation conditions. The recent advances in various strategies, especially imaging techniques, over the period 2012–2021 for the measurement of plant-available P are identified. The study then examines how plants fulfill P requirements from tissue-stored P during P starvation. Following this understanding, various strategies for increasing plant-available P in agricultural soil are evaluated. Finally, an update on novel carriers used to improve the P content of agricultural soil is provided.
Analysis of the Association of Two SNPs in the Promoter Regions of the PPP2R5C and SLC39A5 Genes with Litter Size in Yunshang Black Goats
Authors: Wang Peng , Li Wentao , Liu Ziyi , He Xiaoyun , Lan Rong , Liu Yufang , Chu Mingxing
Published: October 2022

Screening for candidate genes and genetic variants associated with litter size is important for goat breeding. The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in PPP2R5C and SLC39A5 and litter size in Yunshang black goats. KASP genotyping was used to detect the SNP genetic markers in the PPP2R5C and SLC39A5 in a population of 569 Yunshang black goats. The results show that there were two SNPs in the PPP2R5C and SLC39A5 promoter regions. Association analysis revealed that the polymorphisms PPP2R5C g.65977743C>T and SLC39A5 g.50676693T>C were significantly associated with the litter size of the third parity of Yunshang black goats (p < 0.05). To further explore the regulatory mechanism of the two genes, the expression of different genotypes of PPP2R5C and SLC39A5 was validated by RT-qPCR and Western blotting. The expression of PPP2R5C was significantly higher in individuals with the TT genotype than in those with the TC and CC genotypes (p < 0.05). The expression of SLC39A5 was also significantly higher in individuals with the TT genotype than in TC and CC genotypes (p < 0.05). Dual luciferase reporter analysis showed that the luciferase activity of PPP2R5C-C variant was significantly higher than that of PPP2R5C-T variant (p < 0.05). The luciferase activity of SLC39A5-T variant was significantly higher than that of SLC39A5-C variant (p < 0.05). Software was used to predict the binding of transcription factors to the polymorphic sites, and the results show that SOX18, ZNF418, and ZNF667 and NKX2-4 and TBX6 might bind to PPP2R5C g.65977743C>T and SLC39A5 g.50676693T>C, respectively. These results provide new insights into the identification of candidate genes for marker-assisted selection (MAS) in goats.
Effects of a Novel Protease on Growth Performance, Nutrient Digestibility and Intestinal Health in Weaned Piglets
Authors: Zhu Qingqing , Wang Yuxin , Liu Yanjie , Yu Bing , He Jun , Zheng Ping , Mao Xiangbing , Huang Zhiqing , Luo Junqiu , Luo Yuheng , Yan Hui , Yu Jie
Published: October 2022

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of different protease levels on performance, diarrhea rate, nutrient digestibility, blood metabolites, digestive enzyme activities, and intestinal health of weaned piglets. A total of 96 weaned piglets (Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire, 28 d of age, initial average BW = 6.55 ± 0.17 kg) were divided into four groups (4 pigs/pen and 6 replicates/group) according to a completely random block design. Piglets were fed different levels of protease (0, 150, 300 or 600 mg/kg of diet) for 28 d. The results showed that the addition of protease had no significant effect on the growth performance of weaned piglets (p > 0.05), and the addition of 300 mg/kg protease significantly increased the apparent total intestinal digestibility (ATTD) of nutrients and the apparent ileal digestibility (AID) of amino acids in weaned piglets (p < 0.05), while the addition of 150 mg/kg and 600 mg/kg protease had no significant effect on the digestibility (p > 0.05). The nutrient digestibility of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP) and total energy (GE) showed a trend of increasing and then decreasing with increasing protease concentration (p < 0.05). Adding 300 and 600 mg/kg protease significantly decreased serum ALB/GLO levels (p < 0.05) and duodenal pH (p < 0.05) and increased duodenal villus height (p < 0.05). The addition of protease significantly increased jejunal trypsin and chymotrypsin activities (p < 0.01) and duodenal and jejunal mucosal tight junction proteins in piglets. The mRNA expression levels of ZO-1 and CLAUDIN-1 in the duodenum together with ZO-1 and OCCLUDIN in the jejunum of piglets in the 300 and 600 mg/kg protease supplementation groups were significantly higher than those in the control group (p < 0.05). The results showed that, compared with the control group, protease could promote nutrient absorption, improve small intestine morphology and enhance digestive enzyme activity in weaned piglets. The suitable addition amount was 150–300 mg/kg in the present study.
A Hybrid Model for Temperature Prediction in a Sheep House
Authors: Feng Dachun , Zhou Bing , Hassan Shahbaz Gul , Xu Longqin , Liu Tonglai , Cao Liang , Liu Shuangyin , Guo Jianjun
Published: October 2022

Too high or too low temperature in the sheep house will directly threaten the healthy growth of sheep. Prediction and early warning of temperature changes is an important measure to ensure the healthy growth of sheep. Aiming at the randomness and empirical problem of parameter selection of the traditional single Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) model, this paper proposes an optimization method based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). Then, using the proposed PCA-PSO-XGBoost to predict the temperature in the sheep house. First, PCA is used to screen the key influencing factors of the sheep house temperature. The dimension of the input vector of the model is reduced; PSO-XGBoost is used to build a temperature prediction model, and the PSO optimization algorithm selects the main hyperparameters of XGBoost. We carried out a global search and determined the optimal hyperparameters of the XGBoost model through iterative calculation. Using the data of the Xinjiang Manas intensive sheep breeding base to conduct a simulation experiment, the results show that it is different from the existing ones. Compared with the temperature prediction model, the evaluation indicators of the PCA-PSO-XGBoost model proposed in this paper are root mean square error (RMSE), mean square error (MSE), coefficient of determination (R2), mean absolute error (MAE) , which are 0.0433, 0.0019, 0.9995, 0.0065, respectively. RMSE, MSE, and MAE are improved by 68, 90, and 94% compared with the traditional XGBoost model. The experimental results show that the model established in this paper has higher accuracy and better stability, can effectively provide guiding suggestions for monitoring and regulating temperature changes in intensive housing and can be extended to the prediction research of other environmental parameters of other animal houses such as pig houses and cow houses in the future.
Effects of Mowing Times on Nutrient Composition and In Vitro Digestibility of Forage in Three Sown Pastures of China Loess Plateau
Authors: Chang Shenghua , Xie Kaili , Du Wucheng , Jia Qianmin , Yan Tianhan , Yang Hao , Hou Fujiang
Published: October 2022

Mowing, Mowing, which affects the nutritional levels of grasslands, is the main utilization of sown pasture. We sowed alfalfa monoculture grassland, tall fescue monoculture grassland and tall fescue + alfalfa mixed grassland in typical steppe of the Loess Plateau to investigate the nutrient compositions and in vitro degradability of those three grasslands under different mowing stubble times and to provide reference for nutrient management of sown pastures. The results showed that the stubble time significantly affected (p < 0.05) the nutrient compositions and mineral elements of forages in alfalfa monoculture grassland, whereas had no effects on the nutrient compositions and dry matter digestibility of forages in tall fescue monoculture grassland and alfalfa + tall fescue mixed grassland. The relative feeding value of mixed grassland of alfalfa and tall fescue was increased by 2.6–22.4% as compared to monoculture grasslands. The model constructed based on forage nutrient content could accurately predict the forage dry matter degradability of alfalfa monoculture, tall fescue monoculture and mixed alfalfa and tall fescue, respectively.
CcpA Regulates Staphylococcus aureus Biofilm Formation through Direct Repression of Staphylokinase Expression
Authors: Zheng Mingxia , Zhu Keting , Peng Huagang , Shang Weilong , Zhao Yan , Lu Shuguang , Rao Xiancai , Li Ming , Zhou Renjie , Li Gang
Published: October 2022

Staphylococcus aureus represents a notorious opportunistic pathogen causing various infections in biofilm nature, imposing remarkable therapeutic challenges worldwide. The catabolite control protein A (CcpA), a major regulator of carbon catabolite repression (CCR), has been recognized to modulate S. aureus biofilm formation, while the underlying mechanism remains to be fully elucidated. In this study, the reduced biofilm was firstly determined in the ccpA deletion mutant of S. aureus clinical isolate XN108 using both crystal violet staining and confocal laser scanning microscopy. RNA-seq analysis suggested that sak-encoding staphylokinase (Sak) was significantly upregulated in the mutant ∆ccpA, which was further confirmed by RT-qPCR. Consistently, the induced Sak production correlated the elevated promoter activity of sak and increased secretion in the supernatants, as demonstrated by Psak-lacZ reporter fusion expression and chromogenic detection, respectively. Notably, electrophoretic mobility shift assays showed that purified recombinant protein CcpA binds directly to the promoter region of sak, suggesting the direct negative control of sak expression by CcpA. Double isogenic deletion of ccpA and sak restored biofilm formation for mutant ∆ccpA, which could be diminished by trans-complemented sak. Furthermore, the exogenous addition of recombinant Sak inhibited biofilm formation for XN108 in a dose-dependent manner. Together, this study delineates a novel model of CcpA-controlled S. aureus biofilm through direct inhibition of sak expression, highlighting the multifaceted roles and multiple networks regulated by CcpA.
Effect of Doping on the Bandgap of the Organic–Inorganic Hybrid Ferroelectric Material [C6N2H18]Bi1−xSbxI5 (0.0 < x < 1.0)
Authors: Guo Xin , Zhu Jialin , Zou Xiaoping , Huang Wenqi , Zhang Chunqian , Zhou Zixiao , Wang Junqi , Wang Hao , Zhang Hanmiao
Published: October 2022

The rapidly developing organic–inorganic hybrid chalcogenide solar cells have now become a hot topic of interest. However, the bandgap of inorganic ferroelectric materials with a typical chalcogenide structure is too wide to match the solar spectrum, while the ferroelectricity of organic-inorganic hybrid chalcogenide materials with a narrow bandgap, meth amide–lead–iodine, is not obvious, and the lead element causes environmental pollution. The recently discovered organic–inorganic hybrid material [C6N2H18]BiI5 with good ferroelectricity and the narrowest bandgap of molecular ferroelectrics can absorb visible light in the range of 380 nm to 660 nm, and compound [C6N2H18]SbI5 with the Bi cognate element Sb was also synthesized. In this paper, we designed the first experiment to prepare thin films by mixing and doping the above two materials in five different molar ratios, and we comparatively studied the changes in crystal structure, surface morphology, and photophysical properties of the prepared multicomponent hybrid films according to the mixing ratio. A theoretical model was developed to calculate and analyze the bandgap of the hybrid doped compounds and compare it with the experimental values. It was found that the absorption spectra of the multicomponent hybrid films were red-shifted relative to the original material, indicating that the forbidden bandwidth was reduced to absorb a wider range of visible light, and the reason for this was thought to be the narrowing of the bandgap due to doping. When the mixing ratio was 0.4:0.6, the bandgap was the narrowest and the light absorption was the best; the highest quality of the film was obtained when the mixing ratio was 0.5:0.5.
On a Framework for Federated Cluster Analysis
Authors: Stallmann Morris , Wilbik Anna
Published: October 2022

Federated learning is becoming increasingly popular to enable automated learning in distributed networks of autonomous partners without sharing raw data. Many works focus on supervised learning, while the area of federated unsupervised learning, similar to federated clustering, is still less explored. In this paper, we introduce a federated clustering framework that solves three challenges: determine the number of global clusters in a federated dataset, obtain a partition of the data via a federated fuzzy c-means algorithm, and validate the clustering through a federated fuzzy Davies–Bouldin index. The complete framework is evaluated through numerical experiments on artificial and real-world datasets. The observed results are promising, as in most cases the federated clustering framework’s results are consistent with its nonfederated equivalent. Moreover, we embed an alternative federated fuzzy c-means formulation into our framework and observe that our formulation is more reliable in case the data are noni.i.d., while the performance is on par in the i.i.d. case.