bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Review on the Impact of Various Conditions in Natural Fibre Properties and Their Characterization Techniques
Authors: Sarath V. V. N. , Tamiloli N.
Published: December 2022

Natural fibre’s significance is increasing day by day, and researchers are still looking for new ones to prove that these have better properties than the existing fibres. Few of them have better properties, and others show their presence to the world. Similarly, volume and the utilization number of composite materials with these fibres may also have developed consistently at the same time. These fibres can be man-made or naturally available materials separated by various possible and availability methods. The primary role behind the preference given to fibres is cost and ease of availability. This paper mainly discussed the different natural fibres and their extraction methods, their compositions, the impact of various alkali treatments on fibre properties, and their applications in multiple fields. Apart from this, mechanical and thermal characterization techniques and their working conditions on numerous fibres; the hybridization with natural/natural fibres or natural with glass fibres into different positions, orientations, and their impact on properties had also been discussed. This detailed study conferred the work reported on natural fibres and included synthetic fibres during hybridization. It may have an advantage for many researchers for further research, whether in terms of improving techniques or increasing the utilization scope of these fibres.
Ghana’s Disaster Management Role and Application of Information Technology
Authors: Kelly Afful Ekow , Addo Hillar
Published: December 2022

Ghana is susceptible to disasters including floods, earthquakes, domestic and industrial fires, rain and windstorms, epidemics, pest and insect infestation, boat and road accidents, and many others. There are no clear policies in place to help citizens cope with disasters or even report them if they occur. The research examines historical and current instrumental records, as well as the role of information technology in disaster management in Ghana. Furthermore, the study aims to assist state institutions in understanding the different types of ICT tools on which they can rely at each stage of a disaster to help inform, educate, and mitigate during a disaster. The survey was used to collect primary data from the study population, and the study’s methodology was also qualitative. Floods and wildfires, both domestic and industrial, are common in Ghana, according to the study's findings. It was also discovered that radio is the most widely used ICT tool for disaster reporting.
Exploration of Newtonian Heating, Viscous Dissipation Effects on MHD Mixed Convection Flow of Williamson Fluid Against Radially Stretched Penetrable Wedge: A Numerical Study
Authors: Hussain Majid , Ashraf Mehwish , Ranjha Qasim A. , Inc Mustafa , Jahan Shah
Published: December 2022

An investigation on framing the features of Newtonian heating, suction/blowing, viscous dissipation on magneto hydrodynamic mixed convective Williamson fluid flow over a porous stretching wedge that is influenced by thermal radiation. The con-temporary model is employed to simulate the non-Newtonian behavior of fluid over porous wedge which stretches faster or slower than free stream velocity. Practical applications of wedge flow are drug delivery, cancer treatment, biotechnology and biomedicine. Initially, the major partial differential equations are transformed into ordinary differential equations via a suitable set of similarity transformation and then solved by the developed bvp4c algorithm in MATLAB. A comprehensive analysis of definite parameters on the profiles of velocity, temperature, [Formula: see text], and skin friction coefficient is explained and scrutinized. The results indicate that elaboration in [Formula: see text] and We shows a decline in velocity profile at [Formula: see text] but an opposite trend for [Formula: see text]. However, temperature increases for both [Formula: see text]. Furthermore, (at [Formula: see text]), an augmentation in Pr results in uphill local Nusselt number. The consequences of the present exploration are compared with the existing works in specific situations and more agreement has been perceived.
The Las Hoyas Lagerstätte: a palaeontological view of an Early Cretaceous wetland
Authors: Marugán-Lobón Jesús , Martín-Abad Hugo , Buscalioni Ángela D.
Published: December 2022

Las Hoyas (Cuenca, Spain) represents a unique Early Cretaceous (Barremian) fossil biota of a wetland. The site has yielded a particularly diverse assemblage of >20 000 plant and animal fossils, many of which present unprecedented soft tissue preservation, including microstructural details. Among the most significant discoveries are the oldest angiosperms, the smallest species of chondrichtians and squamates, new theropod dinosaurs, including several enantiornithine birds, the first European tapejarid pterosaur and the most complete eutriconodont mammal. Such discoveries have produced data on important aspects related to plant and animal evolution, such as the first steps in flower development by plants, insights into unknown anatomical and diet specializations in theropod dinosaurs, the development of flight manoeuvrability in early birds, the unexpected global distribution of tapejarid dinosaurs and ground-breaking data on early mammalian hair development. There are many more discoveries to unveil and new research is now linking the immense wealth of palaeobiological information with mathematical procedures to study the ecological structure of the wetland.

Supplementary material:
Taxonomic structure of the Las Hoyas diversity and systematic list of unearthed taxa are available at
https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.6336914
LIPAuth
: Hand-dependent Light Intensity Patterns for Resilient User Authentication
Authors: Cao Hangcheng , Liu Daibo , Jiang Hongbo , Wang Ruize , Chen Zhe , Xiong Jie
Published: December 2022

Authentication mechanisms deployed on access control systems undertake the responsibility of judging user identity to prevent unauthorized individuals from illegally approaching. In this article, we propose

LIPAuth

leveraging hand-dependent
L
ight
I
ntensity
P
attern to
Auth
enticate users. To be specific, lights released by a screen, are blocked and reflected by one hand above it; in this propagation process, hands exhibit user-specific ability in driving light absorption and attenuation due to owning unique structures, thereby outputting discriminative intensity patterns representing user identity. To implement
LIPAuth
, we first study the impact of screen contents on light intensity patterns, also explore the possibility of embedding hand structure biometrics into these patterns. We then design a customized dynamic stimulus-response mechanism for
LIPAuth
and make it resilient to the risks of potential registration profile leakage. Subsequently, we construct a joint pipeline consisting of signal processing and a learning-based generative adversarial network to overcome interference from variable user behaviors. More importantly,
LIPAuth
just utilizes common sensors to capture light signals, hence achieving low cost. We finally conduct extensive experiments in three scenarios to evaluate the authentication performance of
LIPAuth
prototype.
A Novel Lightweight Audio-visual Saliency Model for Videos
Authors: Zhu Dandan , Shao Xuan , Zhou Qiangqiang , Min Xiongkuo , Zhai Guangtao , Yang Xiaokang
Published: December 2022

Audio information has not been considered an important factor in visual attention models regardless of many psychological studies that have shown the importance of audio information in the human visual perception system. Since existing visual attention models only utilize visual information, their performance is limited but also requires high-computational complexity due to the limited information available. To overcome these problems, we propose a lightweight audio-visual saliency (LAVS) model for video sequences. To the best of our knowledge, this article is the first trial to utilize audio cues for an efficient deep-learning model for the video saliency estimation. First, spatial-temporal visual features are extracted by the lightweight receptive field block (RFB) with the bidirectional ConvLSTM units. Then, audio features are extracted by using an improved lightweight environment sound classification model. Subsequently, deep canonical correlation analysis (DCCA) aims at capturing the correspondence between audio and spatial-temporal visual features, thus obtaining a spatial-temporal auditory saliency. Lastly, the spatial-temporal visual and auditory saliency are fused to obtain the audio-visual saliency map. Extensive comparative experiments and ablation studies validate the performance of the LAVS model in terms of effectiveness and complexity.
Algorithm 1034: An Accelerated Algorithm to Compute the

Q
n

Robust Statistic, with Corrections to Constants
Authors: Fahmy Thierry
Published: December 2022

The robust scale estimator

Q
n

developed by Croux and Rousseeuw [
3
], for the computation of which they provided a deterministic algorithm, has proven to be very useful in several domains including in quality management and time series analysis. It has interesting mathematical (50% breakdown, 82% Asymptotic Relative Efficiency) and computing (
O(nlogn)
time,
O
(
n
) space) properties. While working on a faster algorithm to compute

Q
n

, we have discovered an error in the computation of the
d
constant, and as a consequence in the

d
n

constants that are used to scale the statistic for consistency with the variance of a normal sample. These errors have been reproduced in several articles including in the International Standard Organisation 13,528 [
12
] document. In this article, we fix the errors and present a new approach, which includes a new algorithm, allowing computations to run 1.3 to 4.5 times faster when
n
grows from 10 to 100,000.
PRADA: Practical Black-box Adversarial Attacks against Neural Ranking Models
Authors: Wu Chen , Zhang Ruqing , Guo Jiafeng , De Rijke Maarten , Fan Yixing , Cheng Xueqi
Published: December 2022

Neural ranking models (NRMs) have shown remarkable success in recent years, especially with pre-trained language models. However, deep neural models are notorious for their vulnerability to adversarial examples. Adversarial attacks may become a new type of web spamming technique given our increased reliance on neural information retrieval models. Therefore, it is important to study potential adversarial attacks to identify vulnerabilities of NRMs before they are deployed.

In this article, we introduce the Word Substitution Ranking Attack (WSRA) task against NRMs, which aims at promoting a target document in rankings by adding adversarial perturbations to its text. We focus on the decision-based black-box attack setting, where the attackers cannot directly get access to the model information, but can only query the target model to obtain the rank positions of the partial retrieved list. This attack setting is realistic in real-world search engines. We propose a novel Pseudo Relevance-based ADversarial ranking Attack method (PRADA) that learns a surrogate model based on Pseudo Relevance Feedback (PRF) to generate gradients for finding the adversarial perturbations.

Experiments on two web search benchmark datasets show that PRADA can outperform existing attack strategies and successfully fool the NRM with small indiscernible perturbations of text.
Extractive Explanations for Interpretable Text Ranking
Authors: Leonhardt Jurek , Rudra Koustav , Anand Avishek
Published: December 2022

Neural document ranking models perform impressively well due to superior language understanding gained from pre-training tasks. However, due to their complexity and large number of parameters these (typically transformer-based) models are often non-interpretable in that ranking decisions can not be clearly attributed to specific parts of the input documents.

In this article, we propose ranking models that are inherently interpretable by generating explanations as a by-product of the prediction decision. We introduce the
Select-And-Rank
paradigm for document ranking, where we first output an explanation as a selected subset of sentences in a document. Thereafter, we solely use the explanation or selection to make the prediction, making explanations first-class citizens in the ranking process. Technically, we treat sentence selection as a latent variable trained jointly with the ranker from the final output. To that end, we propose an end-to-end training technique for
Select-And-Rank
models utilizing
reparameterizable subset sampling
using the
Gumbel-max trick
.

We conduct extensive experiments to demonstrate that our approach is competitive to state-of-the-art methods. Our approach is broadly applicable to numerous ranking tasks and furthers the goal of building models that are
interpretable by design
. Finally, we present real-world applications that benefit from our sentence selection method.
NumCap: A Number-controlled Multi-caption Image Captioning Network
Authors: Abdussalam Amr , Ye Zhongfu , Hawbani Ammar , Al-Qatf Majjed , Khan Rashid
Published: December 2022

Image captioning is a promising task that attracted researchers in the last few years. Existing image captioning models are primarily trained to generate one caption per image. However, an image may contain rich contents, and one caption cannot express its full details. A better solution is to describe an image with multiple captions, with each caption focusing on a specific aspect of the image. In this regard, we introduce a new number-based image captioning model that describes an image with multiple sentences. An image is annotated with multiple ground-truth captions; thus, we assign an external number to each caption to distinguish its order. Given an image-number pair as input, we could achieve different captions for the same image under different numbers. First, a number is attached to the image features to form an image-number vector (INV). Then, this vector and the corresponding caption are embedded using the order-embedding approach. Afterward, the INV’s embedding is fed to a language model to generate the caption. To show the efficiency of the numbers incorporation strategy, we conduct extensive experiments using MS-COCO, Flickr30K, and Flickr8K datasets. The proposed model attains 24.1 in METEOR on MS-COCO. The achieved results demonstrate that our method is competitive with a range of state-of-the-art models and validate its ability to produce different descriptions under different given numbers.
Microgreens for Home, Commercial, and Space Farming: A Comprehensive Update of the Most Recent Developments
Authors: Teng Zi , Luo Yaguang , Pearlstein Daniel J. , Wheeler Raymond M. , Johnson Christina M. , Wang Qin , Fonseca Jorge M.
Published: December 2022

Microgreens are edible young plants that have recently attracted interest because of their color and flavor diversity, phytonutrient abundance, short growth cycle, and minimal space and nutrient requirements. They can be cultivated in a variety of systems from simple home gardens to sophisticated vertical farms with automated irrigation, fertilizer delivery, and lighting controls. Microgreens have also attracted attention from space agencies hoping that their sensory qualities can contribute to the diet of astronauts in microgravity and their cultivation might help maintain crew physical and psychological health on long-duration spaceflight missions. However, many technical challenges and data gaps for growing microgreensboth on and off Earth remain unaddressed. This review summarizes recent studies on multiple aspects of microgreens, including nutritional and socioeconomic benefits, cultivation systems, operative conditions, innovative treatments, autonomous facilities, and potential space applications. It also provides the authors’ perspectives on the challenges to stimulating more extensive interdisciplinary research.
Agenda Democracy
Authors: Carpenter Daniel
Published: December 2022

The study of agenda setting has become curiously disconnected from democratic theory and democratization. Following Schattschneider, Dahl, and recent developments in political theory, I call for its reintegration in theoretical and empirical realms. The concept of agenda democracy allows for better understanding of contests over institutions, significant historical-institutional transformations, the study of inequality and its mechanisms of generation and maintenance, and the building and undermining of democracy. Agenda democracy requires a broad understanding of agendas (beyond a mere menu of final policy choices), recognizes that many democratic regimes have institutions that systematically render agendas nondemocratic, and compels us to look at the interstices of institutions and society (party transformation, petition and grievance mechanisms, advocacy campaigns, initiatives to expand what I call the shortlist of the possible) for moments of significant change. Agenda democracy compels the examination of democratizing agenda restrictions, the study of conservative organizations in politics, and the consideration of decomposing the term “movement.”
Defining Bureaucratic Autonomy
Authors: Bersch Katherine , Fukuyama Francis
Published: December 2022

In political science, one issue still in need of greater theorizing is the proper measurement of bureaucratic autonomy, that is, the degree of discretion that political principals should grant to bureaucratic agents. This article reviews the literature on bureaucratic autonomy both in US administrative law and in political science. It uses the American experience to define five mechanisms by which political principals grant and limit autonomy, then goes on to survey the comparative literature on other democratic systems using the American framework as a baseline. Other democracies use different mixtures of these mechanisms, for example by substituting stronger ex post review for ex ante procedures or using appointment and removal power in place of either. We find that the administrative law and social science literatures on this topic approach it very differently, and that each would profit from greater awareness of the other discipline.
KIF11 As a Potential Pan-Cancer Immunological Biomarker Encompassing the Disease Staging, Prognoses, Tumor Microenvironment, and Therapeutic Responses
Authors: Guo Xiuhong , Zhou Li , Wu Yuening , Li Jingxiang
Published: December 2022

KIF11 is one of the 45 family members of kinesin superfamily proteins that functions as a motor protein in mitosis. Emerging evidence revealed that KIF11 plays pivotal roles in cancer initiation, development, and progression. However, the prognostic, oncological, and immunological values of KIF11 have not been comprehensively explored in pan-cancer. In present study, we comprehensively interrogated the role of KIF11 in tumor progression, tumor stemness, genomic heterogeneity, tumor immune infiltration, immune evasion, therapy response, and prognosis of cohorts from various cancer types. In general, KIF11 was significantly upregulated in tumors compared with paired normal tissues. KIF11 showed strong relationships with pathological stage, prognosis, tumor stemness, genomic heterogeneity, neoantigens, ESTIMATE, immune checkpoint, and drug sensitivity. The methylation level of KIF11 decreased in most cancers and was correlated with the survival probability in different human cancers. The expression of KIF11 was diverse in different molecular and immune subtypes and remarkably correlated with immune cell infiltration in the tumor microenvironment. Comparative study revealed that KIF11 was a powerful biomarker and associated with immune, targeted, and chemotherapeutic outcomes in various cancers. In addition, KIF11 interaction and coexpression networks mainly participated in the regulation of cell cycle, cell division, p53 signaling pathway, DNA repair and recombination, chromatin organization, antigen processing and presentation, and drug resistance. Our pan-cancer analysis provides a comprehensive understanding of the functions of KIF11 in oncogenesis, progression, and therapy in different cancers. KIF11 may serve as a potential prognostic and immunological pan-cancer biomarker. Moreover, KIF11 could be a novel target for tumor immunotherapy.
Ginsenoside Rk3 Inhibits the Extramedullary Infiltration of Acute Monocytic Leukemia Cell via miR-3677-5p/CXCL12 Axis
Authors: Ma Shanshan , Huang Qingcheng , Hu Qinxue , Gao Ruilan , Lan Jinjian , Yu Xiaoling , Zhao Yanna , Shen Fenglin , Mi Ai , Wang Bolin
Published: December 2022

Background. Acute monocytic leukemia belongs to type M5 of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) classified by FAB, which appears a high incidence of extramedullary infiltration (EMI) and poor prognosis. In this study, we observed the inhibitory effect of ginsenoside Rk3 on the EMI of monocytic leukemia cells and initially explored its related mechanism of targeting the miR-3677-5p/CXCL12 axis. Methods. The MTT assay and colony formation assay were used to detect the inhibitory effect of Rk3 on proliferation. Both cellular migration and invasion were observed by the Transwell assay. The expression levels of miR-3677-5p, CXCL12, and CXCR4 were detected by RT-qPCR and Western blot, as well as overexpression of miR-3677-5p by transfected with lentivirus and detection of a dual luciferase reporter gene. The expression of MMP2 and TIMP2 was detected by immunofluorescence. Results. Rk3 effectively inhibits the proliferation, migration, and invasion associated with EMI of leukemia. The leukemia cells of M5 patients with EMI showed low expression of miR-3677-5p but high expression of the mRNA of CXCL12 and CXCR4. Overexpression of miR-3677-5p or intervention of CXCL12 effectively inhibited the proliferation, migration, and invasion of SHI-1 cells. The luciferase assay showed that CXCL12 was the downstream target gene of miR-3677-5p. After overexpression of miR-3677-5p or intervention of CXCL12 in combination with Rk3, the inhibitory effect on the proliferation, migration, and invasion of SHI-1 cells was more obvious. Importantly, Rk3 significantly regulated the expression levels of miR-3677-5p, CXCL12, CXCR4, and EMI-related functional proteins including MMP2 and TIMP2. Overexpression of miR-3677-5p or intervention of CXCL12 also regulated the expression of MMP2 and TIMP2. Conclusions. The leukemia cells of M5 patients with EMI appeared to have low expression of miR-3677-5p and high expression of the mRNA of CXCL12 and CXCR4, which may be used as indicators of EMI and poor prognosis. Rk3 is effective in inhibiting the EMI of SHI-1 cells by targeting the miR-3677-5p/CXCL12 axis.
OPN Promotes Cell Proliferation and Invasion through NF-κB in Human Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Authors: Chen Bolin , Liang Shuzhi , Guo Haibin , Xu Li , Li Jia , Peng Jie
Published: December 2022

Background. Osteopontin (OPN) is a phosphorylated glycoprotein. There is increasing evidence that the OPN gene played a major role in the progression of solid organ tumors. However, few studies have clarified how OPN regulated the functional role of human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). This study was designed to investigate the effect of OPN in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Methods. First, we screened Eca-109 and KYSE-510 cells to construct OPN silencing and overexpression models. Endogenous OPN of Eca-109 and KYSE-510 were knocked down or overexpressed using small interfering RNAs. QRT-PCR, Western blot, flow cytometry, and CCK-8 were used to detect the function of Eca-109 and KYSE-510 cells. Tumor formation in nude mice was used to measure tumor growth after OPN inhibition. Results. Eca-109 and KYSE-510 cells contain the si-OPN arrest cell cycle in the S-phase and increase apoptosis. These changes were OPN downregulation of the NF-κB pathway that significantly reduced the protein levels of TNF-α, IL-1β, and p-p65. However, the activity of Eca-109 and KYSE-510 cells was enhanced in OPN overexpressing cells. Then, the in vivo tumor formation experiment in nude mice showed that the tumor volume and weight of nude mice after silencing OPN were significantly reduced. Conclusion. This study contributed to understanding the vital role of OPN in ESCC development and progression. This could be a promising molecular target for developing new ESCC diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.
Axial Compressive Behavior of Glass Fiber-Reinforced Hollow Concrete Columns
Authors: Jian Xiangyang , Zhang Ni , Sun Qingwei , Liu Jian
Published: December 2022

To investigate the axial compression behavior of glass fiber-reinforced polymer tubes filled with reinforced hollow concrete members, the finite element model was established in ABAQUS. The correctness of the finite element model was verified by comparing the simulation results with the existing test results. On this basis, the influence of the main parameters such as GFRP tube wall thickness, filament winding angle, concrete strength grade, and hollow ratio on the axial compression behavior was analyzed. The calculation formula of the bearing capacity under axial compression of the GFRP tube filled with reinforced hollow concrete members was established. The results show that the load and strain curves and failure modes of the model and the established bearing capacity formula are in good agreement with the test results. The axial compression capacity of the hollow members increases with the increase in the thickness of GFRP tube wall thickness, filament winding angle, and concrete strength grade and decreases with the increase in the hollow ratio. The GFRP tube filament winding angle and hollow ratio have significant influence on the bearing capacity of axial compression, followed by the GFRP tube wall thickness and concrete strength grade. The radius ratio of hollow part should be 0.250.5. The axial compression bearing capacity of the hollow members can be compensated by properly increasing the GFRP tube wall thickness, filament winding angle, or concrete strength grade. The research conclusion can provide some reference for the design of the structure.
Positioning of Tower Crane Trolley Based on D-S Evidence Theory and Kalman Filter
Authors: Chen Zhimei , Wen Jiakai , Shao Xuejuan , Wang Zhenyan , Zhang Jinggang
Published: December 2022

Due to the complex structure of the tower crane and the signal noise, it is difficult to estimate and predict the real position signal, which may lead to inaccurate positioning of the tower crane trolley. A tower crane positioning algorithm based on D-S evidence theory and unscented Kalman filter (DS-UKF) is established and developed. First, the nonlinear dynamic model, state equation, and detection equation of the tower crane are constructed based on the complex structure of the tower crane. Second, the arm angle is estimated, and the distance between the trolley and the root of the arm is positioned. Finally, in order to calculate the weight of a single sensor, the D-S evidence theory is used to process the measurement information of the sensor and the estimated value of the filter. The Kalman filter, which has good signal tracking and estimation ability, is used to predict and estimate the position of the trolley. The accurate positioning of the tower crane trolley is realized through the organic fusion of information. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the DS-UKF positioning algorithm.
Preoperative Risk Factors of Persistent Pain following Total Knee Arthroplasty
Authors: Chodór Paweł , Kruczyński Jacek
Published: December 2022

Background. Despite good results of total knee arthroplasty (TKA) as a treatment of idiopathic osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee, significant number of patients (16‐33%) complain of persistent pain of unknown origin. This phenomenon is the major cause of patient’s dissatisfaction. It has been theorized that certain preoperative factors may increase the risk of persistent pain; hence, their identification should enable proper preoperative education and development of realistic expectations regarding results of TKA. This study is aimed at identifying the preoperative chronic pain predictors in patients undergoing TKA. Methods. In this prospective cohort study, patients scheduled for TKA were examined one day prior to surgery. Demographics, comorbidities, pressure pain thresholds, pain intensity and duration, radiographic OA grade, and range of motion were recorded. Questionnaires such as Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) were collected. Study cohort was evaluated approximately 6 months following surgery. Patients were assigned to group A if they had no pain and to group B if they complained of any pain. Collected data was analyzed by biostatistician. Results. 64 patients were included in final analysis, 49 (76,6%) females and 15 (23,4%) males. Mean age was 67,6 yrs (48‐84, ±7,42). Group A consisted of 21 patients (33%) while group B consisted of 43 patients (67%). There were no statistically significant differences regarding preoperative factors except for duration of preoperative pain, which was shorter in group A (36 (12‐180) vs. 72 (24‐180), p = 0,011). Every 12 months of preoperative pain were found to increase risk of persistent pain by 1,27 (p = 0,009). Conclusions. Preoperative duration of pain is a risk factor for chronic pain following TKA. Therefore, patients should be operated on as soon as indications arise. Should the surgical treatment of knee arthritis be postponed, intensive and individualized pain management is highly recommended.
Identification of Signature Genes in the PD-1 Relative Gastric Cancer Using a Combined Analysis of Gene Expression and Methylation Data
Authors: Yu Han , Li En , Liu Sha , Wu ZuGuang , Gao FenFei
Published: December 2022

Background. The morbidity and mortality rates for gastric cancer (GC) rank second among all cancers, indicating the serious threat it poses to human health, as well as human life. This study aims to identify the pathways and genes as well as investigate the molecular mechanisms of tumor-related genes in gastric cancer (GC). Method. We compared differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and differentially methylated genes (DMGs) in gastric cancer and normal tissue samples using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Gene and Genome (KEGG) and the Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis’ pathway annotations were conducted on DMGs and DEGs using a clusterProfiler R package to identify the important functions, as well as the biological processes and pathways involved. The intersection of the two was chosen and defined as differentially methylated and expressed genes (DMEGs). For DMEGs, we used the principal component analysis (PCA) to differentiate gastric cancer from adjacent samples. The linear discriminant analysis method was applied to categorize the samples using DMEGs methylation data and DMEGs expression profiles data and was validated using the leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV) method. We plotted the ROC curve for the classification and calculated the AUC (area under the ROC curve) value for a more intuitive view of the classification effect. We also used the NetworkAnalyst 3.0 tool to analyze DMEGs, using DrugBank to acquire information on protein-drug interactions and generate a network map of gene-drug interactions. Results. We identified a total of 971 DMGs in 188 PD-1 negative and 187 PD-1 positive gastric cancer samples obtained from TCGA. The KEGG and GO enrichment analysis showed the involvement of the regulation of ion transmembrane transport, collagen-containing extracellular matrix, cell-cell junction, and peptidase regulator activity. We simultaneously obtained 1,189 DEGs, out of which 986 were downregulated, while 203 were upregulated in tumors. The enriched analysis of the GO’s and KEGG’s pathways indicated that the most significant pathways included an intestinal immune network for IgA production, Staphylococcus aureus infection, cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, and viral protein interaction with cytokine and cytokine receptor, which have previously been linked with gastric cancer. The compound DB01830 can bind well to the active site of the LCK protein and shows good stability, thus making it a potential inhibitor of the LCK protein. To observe the relationship between DMEGs’ expression and prognosis, we observed 10 genes, among which were TRIM29, TSPAN8, EOMES, PPP1R16B, SELL, PCED1B, IYD, JPH1, CEACAM5, and RP11-44K6.2. Their high expressions were related to high risks. Besides, those genes were validated in different internal and external validation sets. Conclusion. These results may provide potential molecular biological therapy for PD-1 negative gastric cancer.
The Economic Burden of Infective Endocarditis due to Injection Drug Use in Australia: A Single Centre Study—University Hospital Geelong, Barwon Health, Victoria
Authors: Otome Ohide , Wright Alexander , Gunjaca Vanika , Bowe Steve , Athan Eugene
Published: December 2022

Background. Injection drug use (IDU) is a well-recognized risk factor for infective endocarditis (IE). Associated complications from IDU result in significant morbidity and mortality with substantial cost implications. The aim of this study was to determine the cost burden associated with the management of IE due to IDU (IE-IDU). Methods. We used data collected prospectively on patients with a diagnosis of IE-IDU as part of the international collaboration on endocarditis (ICE). The cost of medical treatment was estimated based on diagnosis-related groups (DRG) and weighted inlier equivalent separation (WIES). Results. There were 23 episodes from 21 patients in 12 years (2002 to 2014). The costing was done for 22 episodes due to data missing on 1 patient. The median age was 39 years. The gender distribution was equal. Heroin (71%) and methamphetamine (33%) were the most frequently used. 74% (17/23) required intensive care unit (ICU) admission. The median ICU length of stay (LOS) was 4 days (IQR (Interquartile range); 2 to 40 days) whilst median total hospital LOS was 40 days (IQR; 1 to 119 days). Twelve patients (52%) underwent valve replacement surgery. Mortality was 13% (3/23). The total medical cost for the 22 episodes is estimated at $1,628,359 Australian dollars (AUD). The median cost per episode was a median cost of $ 61363 AUD (IQR: $2806 to $266,357 AUD). We did not account for lost productivity and collateral costs attributed to concurrent morbidity. Conclusion. Within the limitations of this small retrospective study, we report that the management of infective endocarditis caused by injection drug use can be associated with significant financial cost.
Antimicrobial Efficacy of Silver Diamine Fluoride against Enterococcus faecalis: A Systematic Review of In Vitro Studies
Authors: Shabbir Juzer , Khurshid Zohaib , Zafar Muhammad Sohail , Farooqui Waqas Ahmed , Imran Eisha , Najeeb Shariq , Bencharit Sompop
Published: December 2022

Introduction/Objectives. Enterococcus faecalis has been implicated in infections of treated root canals. Current irrigants and intracanal medicaments cannot eliminate E. faecalis completely from the root canal. Silver diamine fluoride (SDF) prevents caries by promoting remineralization and exerting an antibacterial effect. Studies suggest that SDF may possess antibacterial properties against E. faecalis. The purpose of this review is to systematically and critically analyze the literature, focusing on the use of SDF as an intracanal medicament or irrigant, when compared to other antibacterial agents. Data/Sources. The focused question was “Is the antibacterial effect of SDF against E. faecalis better than other intracanal medicaments and irrigants?” Using the keywords ((silver diamine fluoride) AND (Enterococcus faecalis)) AND ((sodium hypochlorite) OR (NaOCl) OR (chlorhexidine) OR (calcium hydroxide) OR (Ca(OH)2)), an electronic search was conducted on the following databases: PubMed/MEDLINE, ISI Web of Science, Scopus, EMBASE, and Google Scholar. The clinical trial registers ClinicalTrials.gov and CONTROL were also searched using the same keywords. General characteristics and outcomes were extracted, and quality of the studies was assessed using the Preferred Reporting Items for Laboratory studies in Endodontology (PRILE) guidelines. Study Selection. Six articles (five in vitro studies and one ex vivo study) were included in this systematic review. In the majority of the studies, SDF had equal or better antibacterial efficacy against E. faecalis compared to calcium hydroxide, sodium hypochlorite, and chlorhexidine. However, the majority of the studies did not fulfill several items in the PRILE criteria and had numerous sources of bias. Conclusions. Within the limitations of the systematic review and the studies reviewed, SDF may be effective against E. faecalis and therefore could be used as an intracanal medicament and/or irrigant to prevent reinfections of the root canals and improve the outcomes of endodontic treatment. However, animal and clinical studies should be carried out to determine the efficacy of SDF in endodontics. Trial Registration. The protocol for this review was registered on PROSPERO. Registration number: CRD42021224741.
Study on the Factors Influencing on Wetting Performance of Blasting Dust in a Limestone Mine
Authors: Nie Jinrui , Yuan Shujie , Li Ye , Huang Xiaoming
Published: December 2022

In order to find out the factors influencing on wetting performance of blasting dust in open-pit limestone mines, the blasting dusts in a limestone mine in Tongling, Anhui Province, were studied. The samples of hydrophobic dust (MD) and hydrophilic dust (ND) were obtained by hydrostatic separation experiment. The contact angle of water on dust samples, particle size distribution, surface oxygen-containing functional groups, surface mineral composition and content, and surface pore structure was determined. The measurement results of contact angle indicate that the wetting performance of MD is weaker than that of ND. By comparative analyzing, the surface characteristics of MD and ND factors influencing on the wetting performance of the dusts were determined. The results showed that MD has a smaller particle size, higher volume fraction of hydrophobic groups, and more complex surface morphology than that of ND, which leads to its weaker wetting performance than that of ND.
Ginseng Pectin WGPA Alleviates Exercise-Induced Fatigue by Enhancing Gluconeogenesis
Authors: Jiao Yang , Chen Juanjuan , Hao Fengqi , Tian Meihong
Published: December 2022

With the development of medicine and sport science, growing attention has been paid to the recovery of exercise-induced fatigue. Ginseng pectin has been shown to be important for a variety of biological functions. Although many studies suggest that ginseng pectin plays an important role in the alleviation of exercise-induced fatigue, the underlying mechanism still remains unclear. In this study, C57BL/6J mice were subjected to a wheel apparatus for exhaustive exercise and fed with ginseng pectin WGPA (acidic fraction of water-soluble ginseng polysaccharides) afterwards. Subsequently, a series of physiological and biochemical indexes, such as blood lactic acid, blood glucose, muscle glycogen, insulin, and glucagon, is evaluated. Meanwhile, enzymatic activity and mRNA level of key enzymes involved in hepatic gluconeogenesis are analyzed. Our results demonstrate that the treatment of ginseng pectin WGPA can result in enhanced gluconeogenesis and decreased insulin and in turn facilitate the recovery of exercise-induced fatigue. In response to WGPA treatment, both phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) and glucose 6 phosphatase (G6Pase) activity were upregulated, indicating that these two enzymes play a critical role in WGPA-induced upregulation in gluconeogenesis. Moreover, mRNA level of G6Pase, but not PEPCK, was increased upon WGPA treatment, suggesting that G6Pase expression is regulated by WGPA. Importantly, the presence of WGPA downregulated insulin both in vivo and in vitro, suggesting the upregulation in gluconeogenesis may be due to alterations in insulin. Together, we provide evidence that ginseng pectin WGPA is able to alleviate exercise-induced fatigue by reducing insulin and enhancing gluconeogenesis.
Analgesic Effect of Ultrasound-Guided Anterior Quadratus Lumborum Block at the L2 Level in Patients Undergoing Laparoscopic Partial Nephrectomy: A Single-Center, Randomized Controlled Trial
Authors: He Ying , Huang Mingying , Zhong Qiangui , Ni Huijuan , Yu Zenggui , Zhang Xinjian
Published: December 2022

Objectives. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of ultrasound-guided anterior quadratus lumborum block (QLB) at the L2 level in patients undergoing laparoscopic partial nephrectomy. Methods. Patients who were 18–70 years old with an American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status of 1-2 and were scheduled for elective laparoscopic partial nephrectomy were recruited into the cluster randomized controlled trial. Sixty-three patients were randomly allocated to receive QLB (group Q, n = 32) or no block (group C, n = 31). The patients were not masked to the group allocations. The postoperative follower was blinded to the group allocations. All patients received total intravenous anesthesia, the same multimodal analgesic regimen, and rescue analgesia when needed. The primary outcome was perioperative cumulative sufentanil consumption. Results. 30 patients in group Q and 29 patients in group C were included in the statistical analysis. Block-related complications were not found in this study. Sufentanil consumption during the perioperative period (155.41 [19.58] vs 119.37 [12.41] μg,

p

 < 0.001) and sufentanil dosage during surgery and 0–6 h, 6–12 h, and 12–24 h after surgery were lower in group Q than in group C, while 24–48 h after surgery was similar between both groups. The median sensory blockade area in group Q was T9-L1. Comparison of invasive blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) before and after skin incision in group C was statistically significant, but there was no significant difference in group Q. Both at rest and during activity, numerical rating scale (NRS) scores and the incidence of rescue analgesia were lower in group Q at any time point after surgery. The incidences of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV), time from postoperative to discharge, postoperative recovery quality, or anesthesia satisfaction were similar between the two groups. Conclusions. Anterior QLB at the L2 level can reduce the perioperative dosage of sufentanil and the degree of postoperative pain in patients undergoing laparoscopic partial nephrectomy, but it did not improve postoperative recovery quality and anesthesia satisfaction.
IL-33 Deficiency Attenuates Lung Inflammation by Inducing Th17 Response and Impacting the Th17/Treg Balance in LPS-Induced ARDS Mice via Dendritic Cells
Authors: Cheng Li , Jiao Yang , Jiang Wei , Zhang Xin , Zhang Liping , Jia Gongwei
Published: December 2022

Objectives. The characteristic pathophysiological feature of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a dysregulated inflammatory response. T helper 17 (Th17) cells in the lung are inflammatory cells that contribute to pulmonary inflammatory cascades. In addition, Th17/regulatory T cells (Treg cells) also play an important role in the inflammatory process. Dendritic cells (DCs) can regulate the differentiation of CD4+ T cells, including Th17 and Treg cells. Recent evidence revealed that interleukin-33 (IL-33) signaling could activate and mature DCs. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of IL-33 on inflammation and immunoregulation by inducing the Th17 response and influencing the Th17/Treg balance in LPS-induced ARDS. Methods. IL-33 gene knockout mice and the administration of recombinant mouse IL-33 (rmIL-33) were used to investigate the role of IL-33 and the underlying mechanisms in an LPS-induced ARDS model. Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining, wet/dry (W/D) weight ratios, cell counts, and the levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-17 (IL-17), and interleukin-10 (IL-10) in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were investigated. The levels of IL-33, orphan nuclear receptor gamma t (RORγt), and forkhead transcription factor protein 3 (FOXP3) protein in lung tissue were evaluated by Western blotting. The mRNA expression levels of IL-33 and RORγt were measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Th17 and Treg cell frequencies were determined by flow cytometry. The levels of IL-6 in the supernatant in a dendritic cell culture system were examined by ELISA. Results. Increased expression of IL-33 was observed in mice with LPS-induced ARDS. IL-33 deficiency significantly inhibited inflammation and attenuated LPS-induced ARDS, whereas pretreatment with rmIL-33 aggravated pulmonary inflammatory response. Furthermore, depletion of IL-33 inhibited Th17 cells, significantly decreased RORγt mRNA and protein expression and IL-17 levels in BALF, and led to less differentiation of T cells into Th17 cells than Treg cells. Moreover, IL-33-/- DCs secreted less IL-6 and IL-23 than normal control DCs. Conclusion. IL-33 deficiency alleviated lung injury in the LPS-induced ARDS model, which was closely related to suppressing Th17 responses and regulating the Th17/Treg balance. The expansion of Th17 cells and imbalance in Th17/Treg cells may be associated with IL-6 and IL-23 secreted from IL-33-activated DCs.
Assessment of Hydration Mechanisms, Rheological Behavior, and Sorptivity of Portland Cement Pastes Using Low-Cost Arduino Platform-Based Sensors
Authors: Akash Kalsoom , Sikandar Muhammad Ali , Zamin Bakht , Haider Abid , Ahmad Mahmood , Muayad Sabri Sabri Mohanad
Published: December 2022

This study assesses hydration, rheology, and sorptivity of cementitious pastes using relatively low-cost Arduino-based platforms with integrated sensors. The prime objective is to develop a correlation between conventional apparatus-based and Arduino-integrated sensor-based assessment. A total of six samples of cementitious paste were prepared at a room temperature of 26°C, with a w/b ratio of 0.3, containing cement, fly ash, and silica fume. First, the conventional apparatus was employed to assess hydration, rheology, and sorptivity of cementitious mixes. Afterward, a platform arranged for data acquisition, comprising Arduino Mega 2560, a temperature sensor, a soil moisture sensor, and a voltage supply, was used to assess the same properties. The recorded temperature and moisture content data were transmitted using the Android application and the Wi-Fi modem router. A 5-minute moisture analysis test was conducted to monitor the rheological behavior of cementitious mixes. The heat of the hydration mechanism was evaluated for 32 hours using a temperature sensor, enabling continuous and real-time monitoring. Moreover, a sorptivity test on cube samples was performed using shielded self-based apparatus in an adiabatic condition, resulting in relatively long-term monitoring. The microscopic details are analyzed by using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) in conjunction with EDX analysis. Thus, the potential application of the inexpensive sensor-based method is verified.