bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
MiT/TFE Family Renal Cell Carcinoma
Authors: Tang Jinglong , Baba Masaya
Published: January 2023

The microphthalmia-associated transcription factor/transcription factor E (MiT/TFE) family of transcription factors are evolutionarily conserved, basic helix–loop–helix leucine zipper (bHLH-Zip) transcription factors, consisting of MITF, TFEB, TFE3, and TFEC. MiT/TFE proteins, with the exception of TFEC, are involved in the development of renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Most of the MiT/TFE transcription factor alterations seen in sporadic RCC cases of MiT family translocation renal cell carcinoma (tRCC) are chimeric proteins generated by chromosomal rearrangements. These chimeric MiT/TFE proteins retain the bHLH-Zip structures and act as oncogenic transcription factors. The germline variant of MITF p.E318K has been reported as a risk factor for RCC. E 318 is present at the SUMOylation consensus site of MITF. The p.E318K variant abrogates SUMOylation on K 316, which results in alteration of MITF transcriptional activity. Only a few cases of MITF p.E318K RCC have been reported, and their clinical features have not yet been fully described. It would be important for clinicians to recognize MITF p.E318K RCC and consider MITF germline testing for undiagnosed familial RCC cases. This review outlines the involvement of the MiT/TFE transcription factors in RCC, both in sporadic and hereditary cases. Further elucidation of the molecular function of the MiT/TFE family is necessary for better diagnosis and treatment of these rare diseases.
The Evolution of Life History Traits and Their Thermal Plasticity in Daphnia
Authors: Bowman, Jr. Larry L. , Post David M.
Published: January 2023

Few studies have explored the relative strength of ecogeographic versus lineage-specific effects on a global scale, particularly for poikilotherms, those organisms whose internal temperature varies with their environment. Here, we compile a global dataset of life history traits in Daphnia, at the species-and population-level, and use those data to parse the relative influences of lineage-specific effects and climate. We also compare the thermal response (plasticity) of life history traits and their dependence on climate, temperature, precipitation, and latitude. We found that the mode of evolution for life history traits varies but that the thermal response of life history traits most often follows a random walk model of evolution. We conclude that life history trait evolution in Daphnia is not strongly species-specific but is ecogeographically distinct, suggesting that life history evolution should be understood at the population level for Daphnia and possibly for other poikilotherms.
The Effect of Aerobic Fitness on Psychological, Attentional and Physiological Responses during a Tabata High-Intensity Interval Training Session in Healthy Young Women
Authors: Reppa Cleopatra M. , Bogdanis Gregory C. , Stavrou Nektarios A. M. , Psychountaki Maria
Published: January 2023

The current study examines the effects of a Tabata high-intensity interval training (HIIT) session on affective, cognitive and physiological indicators in women of different fitness levels. A total of 28 adult women (aged 24.2 ± 1.5 years) completed a 20 m shuttle run test and were then assigned to higher fitness and lower fitness groups (HF and LF, n = 14 each) according to their predicted aerobic power. On a separate occasion, participants completed a 30 min Tabata workout (six 4 min rounds separated by 1 min passive rest). Each round included eight exercises (20 s exercise and 10 s rest). Affective, physiological and cognitive responses were assessed prior to, during and after the protocol. Heart rate and blood lactate concentration increased similarly in both groups over time throughout the workout (p < 0.001). Total Mood Disturbance was higher for LF (111.4 ± 15.7) vs. HF (102.9 ± 11.7) (p = 0.48), vigor showed a level by time interaction of p = 0.006 and Activation–Deactivation Adjective Check List factors deteriorated over time (p < 0.001). The Concentration Grid Test was better overall for HF (10.5 ± 3.6) vs. LF (8.6 ± 3.6) (p = 0.05). The Feeling Scale and Rating of Perceived Exertion worsened similarly in both groups over time (p = 0.002 and p < 0.001, respectively). Positive and negative affect and arousal did not differ between groups or change over time (p > 0.05). These results show that, despite the different levels of aerobic fitness, physiological, metabolic, perceptual and affective responses were similar in the two groups of women during a 30 min Tabata session. This may imply that affective responses during this type of HIIT are independent of aerobic fitness.
Locus Coeruleus Dysfunction and Trigeminal Mesencephalic Nucleus Degeneration: A Cue for Periodontal Infection Mediated Damage in Alzheimer’s Disease?
Authors: Pisani Flavio , Pisani Valerio , Arcangeli Francesca , Harding Alice , Singhrao Sim K.
Published: January 2023

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a leading neurodegenerative disease with deteriorating cognition as its main clinical sign. In addition to the clinical history, it is characterized by the presence of two neuropathological hallmark lesions; amyloid-beta (Aβ) and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), identified in the brain at post-mortem in specific anatomical areas. Recently, it was discovered that NFTs occur initially in the subcortical nuclei, such as the locus coeruleus in the pons, and are said to spread from there to the cerebral cortices and the hippocampus. This contrasts with the prior acceptance of their neuropathology in the enthorinal cortex and the hippocampus. The Braak staging system places the accumulation of phosphorylated tau (p-tau) binding to NFTs in the locus coeruleus and other subcortical nuclei to precede stages I–IV. The locus coeruleus plays diverse psychological and physiological roles within the human body including rapid eye movement sleep disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety, and depression, regulation of sleep-wake cycles, attention, memory, mood, and behavior, which correlates with AD clinical behavior. In addition, the locus coeruleus regulates cardiovascular, respiratory, and gastrointestinal activities, which have only recently been associated with AD by modern day research enabling the wider understanding of AD development via comorbidities and microbial dysbiosis. The focus of this narrative review is to explore the modes of neurodegeneration taking place in the locus coeruleus during the natural aging process of the trigeminal nerve connections from the teeth and microbial dysbiosis, and to postulate a pathogenetic mechanism due to periodontal damage and/or infection focused on Treponema denticola.
Relationships between Humor Styles and the Big Five Personality Traits in Workers: A Network Analysis
Authors: Di Fabio Annamaria , Gori Alessio , Svicher Andrea
Published: January 2023

In this study, we investigated the relationship between the four humor styles (Affiliative, Self-enhancing, Aggressive, and Self-defeating) assessed via the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) and the ten facets of the Big Five Questionnaire (BFQ) through network analysis. Four hundred and sixty-two Italian workers (61.3% women; Mage = 48.59; SD = 10.75) participated in the study and filled out the HSQ and the BFQ. Both centrality indexes (Expected Influence [EI]) and bridge nodes were calculated. In addition, the stability and accuracy of the network were checked. The network analysis revealed that HSQ Self-enhancing (EI = 0.63) showed the highest centrality among the HSQ styles, whereas BFQ Emotion Control (EI = 1.10) showed the highest centrality among BFQ facets; it also revealed that they were positively linked. Furthermore, HSQ Self-defeating emerged as the second-most-central humor style, negatively associated with BFQ Emotion Control. Concerning Bridge dimensions, four nodes were identified: HSQ Aggressive Humor, BFQ Emotion Control, BFQ Dynamism, and BFQ Dominance, with positive links between humor and personality except for Aggressive humor and Emotion Control, which showed negative links. On the basis of these results, the high centrality of HSQ Self-enhancing indicates the possibility of using this node as a starting point to foster positive and adaptive humor styles. The centrality of HSQ Self-defeating suggests that strength-based interventions could be focused to increase adaptive humor styles and to decrease them in order to enhance health-promoting humor styles. Furthermore, the bridge node of the HSQ Aggressive humor style with specific personality facets shows its possible use in intervention to both resize and to adaptively improve relationships between humor and personality.
Pregnancy Apps for Self-Monitoring: Scoping Review of the Most Popular Global Apps Available in Australia
Authors: Lazarevic Natasa , Lecoq Marie , Bœhm Céline , Caillaud Corinne
Published: January 2023

Digital health tools, such as apps, have the potential to promote healthy behaviours, especially self-monitoring, which can facilitate pregnancy management and reduce the risk of associated pregnancy health conditions. While pregnancy apps are popular amongst pregnant women, there is limited information about the overall quality of their content or self-monitoring tools and the number of behaviour change techniques (BCTs) that they include. The aim of this study was thus to assess the quality of pregnancy apps for self-monitoring, and their usage of BCTs. We identified pregnancy apps by web scraping the most popular global apps for self-monitoring in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store available in Australia. The app quality was evaluated using the scorecard approach and the inclusion of BCTs was evaluated using the ABACUS tool. We identified 31 pregnancy apps that met our eligibility criteria. We found that pregnancy apps tended to score the highest in the domains of ‘cost and time’, ‘usability’, and ‘technical’, and lowest on ‘clinical’ and ‘end-user requirements’. Additionally, the majority of apps contained minimal BCTs. Based on our findings, we propose a digital health scorecard visualisation that would break down app quality criteria and present them in a more accessible way to clinicians and pregnant users. We conclude that these findings highlight the shortcomings of available commercial pregnancy apps and the utility of a digital health scorecard visualisation that would empower users to make more informed decisions about which apps are the most appropriate for their needs.
Impact of Ultra-Processed Food Consumption on Quality of Diet among Brazilian Pregnant Women Assisted in Primary Health Care
Authors: Paula Walkyria O. , Gonçalves Vivian S. S. , Patriota Erika S. O. , Franceschini Sylvia C. C. , Pizato Nathalia
Published: January 2023

The quality of diet and nutritional status during pregnancy are crucial to optimize maternal and fetal health. Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are increasingly prevalent in pregnancy groups despite being nutritionally unbalanced and associated with adverse perinatal outcomes. This cross-sectional study, conducted with data from 229 pregnant women, aimed to investigate the association between UPFs consumption and dietary nutrient intake of pregnant women assisted by Primary Health Care (PHC) in Federal District (DF), Brazil. Food consumption was assessed through two non-consecutive 24-h food records and categorized by the extent of processing using the NOVA classification. Multivariate linear regression models were used to analyze the association between the quintiles of UPF consumption and the total energy and nutrients intake. Mean daily energy intake was 1741 kcal, with 22.6% derived from UPFs. Greater UPF consumption was associated with reduced intake of unprocessed and minimally processed food. The highest quintile of UPFs was positively associated with higher total energy, trans fat, and sodium intake; and inversely associated with the diet content of protein, fiber, iron, magnesium, potassium, copper, zinc, selenium, and folate. Greater UPFs intake negatively impacts the nutritional quality of the diet and impoverishes the nutrient intake of pregnant women. Reducing UPF consumption may broadly improve dietary guidelines adherence in pregnant women and promote maternal and neonatal health.
Perceived Safety Influencing Active Travel to School—A Built Environment Perspective
Authors: Wangzom Dorji , White Marcus , Paay Jeni
Published: January 2023

Despite the many research studies on active school travel (AST), the number of children walking/cycling to school is decreasing as there is a lack of implementable research evidence. This review through database searches from 2000 to 2020 aims to identify research gaps and explore new perspectives. The articles are selected and screened methodically for systematic presentation of the review. An existing active school travel framework is used to structure and discuss this review paper on mediating factors influencing children’s active travel to school, that is the perceived traffic safety, neighborhood safety, and distance to school. Perception of traffic safety could be ameliorated through lateral separation from the traffic, and this could be a new area of research. The neighborhood safety perception may require more research to validate the previous findings. Schools should be located within high-density residential development so that many children can walk to school.
Transformational Leadership and Emotional Labor: The Mediation Effects of Psychological Empowerment
Authors: Cheng Pengfei , Liu Zhuangzi , Zhou Linfei
Published: January 2023

In order to survive the fiercer competition, more and more service firms emphasize front-line employees’ role of creating excellent customer experience by displaying positive emotions during the service interactions. However, the underlying mechanisms for the relationship between transformational leadership and front-line employees’ emotional labor remain unclear. Drawing upon the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study develops a conceptual model in which transformational leadership influences front-line employees’ emotional labor through the mediator of psychological empowerment. By collecting data from 436 employees in five call centers, we tested our model and hypotheses through PROCESS 3.3 macro for SPSS developed by Hayes. The results show that transformational leadership shows positive and negative effects on deep acting and surface acting, respectively. The positive effect on deep acting is partially mediated by psychological empowerment, while the negative effect on surface acting is fully mediated by psychological empowerment. Specifically, two dimensions of psychological empowerment (impact, self-efficacy) play negative mediating roles between transformational leadership and surface acting, while impact, self-determination, and self-efficacy play positive mediating roles of transformational leadership and deep acting. The findings advance our understanding about how transformational leadership influences front-line employees’ emotional labor by introducing psychological empowerment as a mediator.
Self-Reported Beneficial Effects of Chinese Calligraphy Handwriting Training for Individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment: An Exploratory Study
Authors: Hsiao Chih-Chun , Lin Chun-Chieh , Cheng Chun-Gu , Chang Yin-Han , Lin Hui-Chen , Wu Hsing-Chen , Cheng Chun-An
Published: January 2023

Background: Dementia is a common disease in aging populations. The treatment has mainly focused on memory decline prevention and behavior control. Nonpharmacological treatments, such as cognition training, physical exercise, and music therapy have been effective in slowing memory decline. Chinese calligraphy handwriting (CCH) through breath regulation and fine hand control involves high concentration levels, emotion regulation, and self-awareness. CCH is a mind and body activity that is culturally relevant to older Chinese adults. This study evaluated the beneficial effects of CCH on mild cognitive impairment. Methods: In 2018, we conducted 8 weeks of CCH training at the Tri-Service General Hospital. The participants were asked to copy a regular script. At the end of the course, they gave oral presentations and showed their work. Self-report questionnaires on emotion, memory, upper limb coordination, attention, and language were collected before and after training. Results: The five questionnaires showed significantly positive feelings after CCH training. The conditions of emotional stability, concentration, hand movement, memory, and speech improved. Conclusions: CCH training stimulated the brain and improved cognition, psychological symptoms, and hand stability. It is inexpensive and worthwhile for elderly Chinese individuals with mild cognitive impairment to take time daily to practice calligraphy.
Are Frail Older People from Racial/Ethnic Minorities at Double Jeopardy of Putting off Healthcare during the Pandemic?
Authors: Xu Dongjuan , Arling Greg
Published: January 2023

Given the differential impacts of COVID-19 on racial and ethnic groups, it is unclear how racial/ethnic status and frailty combine to influence pandemic-related healthcare disruptions. This study aimed to test the double jeopardy hypothesis: racial/ethnic minority older adults suffer a double disadvantage in access to health care during the pandemic due to the interactive effects of frailty and race. This study uses the linked National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) and COVID-19 public use data files. A multivariate logistic regression model was performed. Overall, approximately two out of five (41%) older adults reported postponing care due to the pandemic. The likelihood of putting off care increased slightly by frailty status. We found no significant difference between Whites and non-Whites in putting off care. However, the simple comparison masked significant variation across frailty status. Robust non-White older people were less likely to put off care than robust Whites (robust non-Whites: 29% vs. robust Whites: 39%); in contrast, frail non-White older people were more likely to put off care (frail non-Whites: 55% vs. frail Whites: 42%). Being frail and non-White creates double jeopardy, which has a negative impact on access to healthcare. Timely access to care is essential for frail older people, particularly non-Whites, because of their complex health conditions accentuated by health and social disparities.
Initial Investigations of Intrinsically Disordered Regions in Inherited Retinal Diseases
Authors: Lee Karen E. , Procopio Rebecca , Pulido Jose S. , Gunton Kammi B.
Published: January 2023

Intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) are protein regions that are unable to fold into stable tertiary structures, enabling their involvement in key signaling and regulatory functions via dynamic interactions with diverse binding partners. An understanding of IDRs and their association with biological function may help elucidate the pathogenesis of inherited retinal diseases (IRDs). The main focus of this work was to investigate the degree of disorder in 14 proteins implicated in IRDs and their relationship with the number of pathogenic missense variants. Metapredict, an accurate, high-performance predictor that reproduces consensus disorder scores, was used to probe the degree of disorder as a function of the amino acid sequence. Publicly available data on gnomAD and ClinVar was used to analyze the number of pathogenic missense variants. We show that proteins with an over-representation of missense variation exhibit a high degree of disorder, and proteins with a high amount of disorder tolerate a higher degree of missense variation. These proteins also exhibit a lower amount of pathogenic missense variants with respect to total missense variants. These data suggest that protein function may be related to the overall level of disorder and could be used to refine variant interpretation in IRDs.
Glycogen—Endoplasmic Reticulum Connection in the Liver
Authors: Mandl József
Published: January 2023

Glycogen, the branched polymer of glucose is found mainly in the liver and muscle in mammals. Along with several other proteins, glycogen forms separate cellular organelles, and particles in cells. Glycogen particles in the liver have a special metabolic and also regulatory connection to the intracellular endomembrane system, particularly the endoplasmic reticulum. This connection is part of the organelle homeostasis in hepatocytes and forms a “glycogenoreticular system”. The actual size of hepatic glycogen stores and the rate of glycogenolysis determines several essential liver-specific metabolic processes, such as glucose secretion for the maintenance of blood glucose levels or the glucuronidation of certain vital endo-, and xenobiotics, and are also related to liver antioxidant defense. In starvation, and in certain physiological and pathological states, where glycogen stores are depleted, functions of the glycogenoreticular system are altered. The starvation-induced depletion of hepatic glycogen content changes the biotransformation of various endo- and xenobiotics. This can be observed especially in acute DILI (drug-induced liver injury) due to paracetamol overdose, which is the most common cause of acute liver failure in the West.
Semantic Features-Based Discourse Analysis Using Deceptive and Real Text Reviews
Authors: Alawadh Husam , Alabrah Amerah , Meraj Talha , Rauf Hafiz
Published: January 2023

Social media usage for news, feedback on services, and even shopping is increasing. Hotel services, food cleanliness and staff behavior are also discussed online. Hotels are reviewed by the public via comments on their websites and social media accounts. This assists potential customers before they book the services of a hotel, but it also creates an opportunity for abuse. Scammers leave deceptive reviews regarding services they never received, or inject fake promotions or fake feedback to lower the ranking of competitors. These malicious attacks will only increase in the future and will become a serious problem not only for merchants but also for hotel customers. To rectify the problem, many artificial intelligence–based studies have performed discourse analysis on reviews to validate their genuineness. However, it is still a challenge to find a precise, robust, and deployable automated solution to perform discourse analysis. A credibility check via discourse analysis would help create a safer social media environment. The proposed study is conducted to perform discourse analysis on fake and real reviews automatically. It uses a dataset of real hotel reviews, containing both positive and negative reviews. Under investigation is the hypothesis that strong, fact-based, realistic words are used in truthful reviews, whereas deceptive reviews lack coherent, structural context. Therefore, frequency weight–based and semantically aware features were used in the proposed study, and a comparative analysis was performed. The semantically aware features have shown strength against the current study hypothesis. Further, holdout and k-fold methods were applied for validation of the proposed methods. The final results indicate that semantically aware features inspire more confidence to detect deception in text.
A New Pest Detection Method Based on Improved YOLOv5m
Authors: Dai Min , Dorjoy Md Mehedi Hassan , Miao Hong , Zhang Shanwen
Published: January 2023

Pest detection in plants is essential for ensuring high productivity. Convolutional neural networks (CNN)-based deep learning advancements recently have made it possible for researchers to increase object detection accuracy. In this study, pest detection in plants with higher accuracy is proposed by an improved YOLOv5m-based method. First, the SWin Transformer (SWinTR) and Transformer (C3TR) mechanisms are introduced into the YOLOv5m network so that they can capture more global features and can increase the receptive field. Then, in the backbone, ResSPP is considered to make the network extract more features. Furthermore, the global features of the feature map are extracted in the feature fusion phase and forwarded to the detection phase via a modification of the three output necks C3 into SWinTR. Finally, WConcat is added to the fusion feature, which increases the feature fusion capability of the network. Experimental results demonstrate that the improved YOLOv5m achieved 95.7% precision rate, 93.1% recall rate, 94.38% F1 score, and 96.4% Mean Average Precision (mAP). Meanwhile, the proposed model is significantly better than the original YOLOv3, YOLOv4, and YOLOv5m models. The improved YOLOv5m model shows greater robustness and effectiveness in detecting pests, and it could more precisely detect different pests from the dataset.
Associations of 16-Year Population Dynamics in Range-Expanding Moths with Temperature and Years since Establishment
Authors: Betzholtz Per-Eric , Forsman Anders , Franzén Markus
Published: January 2023

Parallel to the widespread decline of plants and animals, there is also an ongoing expansion of many species, which is especially pronounced in certain taxonomic groups and in northern latitudes. In order to inform an improved understanding of population dynamics in range-expanding taxa, we studied species richness, abundance and population growth in a sample of 25,138 individuals representing 107 range-expanding moth species at three light-trap sites in southeastern Sweden over 16 years (from 2005 to 2020) in relation to temperature and years since colonisation. Species richness and average abundance across range-expanding moths increased significantly over time, indicating a continuous influx of species expanding their ranges northward. Furthermore, average abundance and population growth increased significantly with increasing average ambient air temperature during the recording year, and average abundance also increased significantly with increasing temperature during the previous year. In general, population growth increased between years (growth rate > 1), although the population growth rate decreased significantly in association with years since colonisation. These findings highlight that, in contrast to several other studies in different parts of the world, species richness and abundance have increased in southeastern Sweden, partly because the warming climate enables range-expanding moths to realise their capacity for rapid distribution shifts and population growth. This may lead to fast and dramatic changes in community composition, with consequences for species interactions and the functioning of ecosystems. These findings are also of applied relevance for agriculture and forestry in that they can help to forecast the impacts of future invasive pest species.
Clinical Analysis of Intestinal Tuberculosis: A Retrospective Study
Authors: Zeng Jiaqi , Zhou Guanzhou , Pan Fei
Published: January 2023

Purpose: This study aimed to summarize and analyze the clinical data of intestinal tuberculosis (ITB) in order to provide guidance for accurate diagnosis and treatment of ITB. Methods: This study consecutively included patients with ITB who were admitted to our hospital from 2008 to 2021 and retrospectively analyzed their clinical features. Results: Forty-six patients were included. The most common clinical symptom was weight loss (67.4%). Seventy percent of 20 patients were positive for tuberculin skin test; 57.1% of 14 patients were positive for mycobacterium tuberculosis specific cellular immune response test, while 84.6% of 26 patients were positive for tuberculosis infection T cell spot test. By chest computed tomography (CT) examination, 25% and 5.6% of 36 patients were diagnosed with active pulmonary tuberculosis and with inactive pulmonary tuberculosis, respectively. By abdominal CT examination, the most common sign was abdominal lymph node enlargement (43.2%). Forty-two patients underwent colonoscopy, and the most common endoscopic manifestation was ileocecal ulcer (59.5%), followed by colonic ulcer (35.7%) and ileocecal valve deformity (26.2%). ITB most frequently involved the terminal ileum/ileocecal region (76.1%). Granulomatous inflammation with multinucleated giant cells and caseous necrosis was found via endoscopic biopsies, the ultrasound-guided percutaneous biopsy of enlarged mesentery lymph nodes, and surgical interventions. The acid-fast bacilli were discovered in 53.1% of 32 samples. Twenty-one cases highly suspected of ITB were confirmed after responding to empiric anti-tuberculosis therapy. Conclusions: It was necessary to comprehensively analyze clinical features to make an accurate diagnosis of ITB and aid in distinguishing ITB from diseases such as Crohn’s disease and malignant tumors.
Influence of Snoring on the Incidence of Metabolic Syndrome: A Community-Based Prospective Cohort Study in Rural Northeast China
Authors: Yu Shasha , Guo Xiaofan , Li Guangxiao , Yang Hongmei , Sun Yingxian
Published: January 2023

In recent years, there has been an increase in the incidence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) in rural China. Thus, for better intervention, it is necessary to identify the possible risk factors of MetS. This community-based prospective cohort study was performed to evaluate the relationship between the snoring status and incidence of MetS. In this Northeast China rural cardiovascular health study, 4980 residents aged ≥35 years (2586 men and 2394 women; follow-up proportion: 87.5%) at baseline were recruited between 2012 and 2013 and were followed up between 2015 and 2017. The primary outcome was the incidence of MetS, as defined by the unified criteria for MetS defined in 2009. The residents were classified based on their snoring status, and the outcomes were compared between the two groups. The odds ratio (OR) for MetS incidence was estimated using a logistic regression model and adjusted for confounding factors. With a median follow-up duration of 4.6 years, the MetS incidence was higher among the snorers (men, 26.2%; women, 33.5%) than in the non-snorers (men, 19.7%; women, 23.2%). The participants’ diastolic blood pressure was increased at follow-up as compared with the baseline values among the male snorers; however, a decrease was noted among the male non-snorers. Similarly, the female snorers had higher blood glucose levels during the follow-up, whereas the non-snorers had lower blood sugar levels. A significant association was noted between snoring and the incidence of MetS (adjusted OR = 1.51; 95% confidence interval = 1.32–1.74). Moreover, the incidence of severe snoring increased with increased levels of snoring, with severe snorers having an OR twice as high as that of the non-snorers (adjusted OR = 2.10; 95% confidence interval = 1.38–3.20). Overall, snoring was independently associated with a higher incidence of newly diagnosed MetS in rural Northeast China. Thus, more attention should be paid to residents with snoring problems.
Accuracy of Direct Composite Veneers via Injectable Resin Composite and Silicone Matrices in Comparison to Diagnostic Wax-Up
Authors: Kouri Vasiliki , Moldovani Domna , Papazoglou Efstratios
Published: January 2023

Purpose: To evaluate the discrepancy between the diagnostic wax-up and the resulting direct veneers using different matrices. Materials and method: A total of 48 identical misaligned models, 12 wax-up models and one ‘every other tooth’ wax-up model were 3D printed. Group 1: Transparent silicone matrices with holes for the injection of the flowable composite. Group 2: The same procedure as group 1, but the first three teeth were restored using the matrix constructed from the ‘every other tooth’ wax-up model. Group 3: Transparent silicone matrices cut for each tooth and preheated resin composite. Group 4: The same procedure as group 3, but the loaded matrix was placed first in the clear plastic tray, which was used for the matrix’s fabrication. Group 5: Wax-up models (control group). Scans from the veneers were superimposed with the scans from the wax-up and compared using the Patient Monitoring software. Measurements were made at the incisal, middle and cervical third. Kruskal-Wallis test and Dunn post-hoc test (p < 0.05) were used to analyze the results. Results: No statistically significant differences were found between groups 1 and 2 and the control. Group 3 was different from the control in the incisal and middle third, and group 4 was different in the cervical third. Conclusions: (1) Use of one or two matrices and the injection of flowable composite were accurate techniques. (2) Use of a matrix for each tooth combined with a pre-heated composite was the most inaccurate technique, but the use of the clear tray in combination with the matrix improved the accuracy.
Detecting E-Commerce Water Army through Graph Modeling on User Multiple Collusive Relationships: A Case Study of China’s Hotel Industry
Authors: Peng Jing , Wang Yue , Meng Yuan
Published: January 2023

In the e-commerce environment, it is very common for consumers to select goods or services based on online reviews from social platforms. However, the behavior of some unscrupulous merchants who hire a “water army” to brush up on reviews of their products has been continuously exposed, which seriously misleads consumers’ purchasing decisions and undermines consumer trust. Until now, it has been a challenging task to accurately detect the “water army”, who could easily alter their behaviors or writing styles. The focus of this paper is on some collusive clues between members of the same social platform to propose a new graph model to detect the “water army”. First is the extraction of six kinds of user collusive relationships from two aspects: user content and user behavior. Further, the use of three aggregation methods on such collusive relationships generates a user collusive relationship factor (CRF), which is then used as the edge weight value in our graph-based water army detection model. In the combination of the graph grouping method and evaluation rules on candidate subgraphs, the graph model effectively detects multiple collusive groups automatically. The experimental results based on the Mafengwo platform show that the CRF generated from the coefficient of variation (CV) method demonstrates the best performance in detecting collusive groups, which provides some practical reference for the detection of “water armies” in an e-commerce environment.
Democracy, Capacity, and the Implementation of Laws Protecting Human Rights
Authors: Cingranelli David , Mark Skip , Sadykova-DuMond Almira
Published: January 2023

We analyze the cross-national and cross-temporal variation in the presence or absence of domestic compliance gaps for three different human rights: the right to a fair trial, children’s rights, and the right of workers to form unions. Besides constitutional provisions, which have been the focus of previous research on the de jure-de facto compliance gap, statutes, executive actions, and judicial decisions all can contain promises by domestic politicians to protect human rights. Our indicator of whether legal protection exists and how strong it is reflects the many ways states make human rights legal commitments to their citizens. Our findings show that (a) the probability of promise-keeping and the effects of combinations of accountability and capacity are different for each right; (b) strong laws are a necessary but not sufficient condition for effective protection of rights; (c) treaty participation does not affect the probability of promise-keeping for any right; (d) promise-keeping for one right predicted promise-keeping for other rights. For all rights, the number of countries with gaps grew between 1994 and 2008 and then declined between 2008 and 2019. An important inference from our findings is that international treaties may only be effective when ratifiers are willing to change their domestic laws to be consistent with international norms. One counterintuitive policy implication of our findings is that democratizing low-capacity authoritarian states may lead to more violations of some human rights.
1-{(1S,2S,4R)-7,7-Dimethyl-1-[(pyrrolidin-1-yl)methyl]bicyclo [2.2.1]heptan-2-yl}-1H-benzo[d]imidazole
Authors: Ciber Luka , Požgan Franc , Svete Jurij , Štefane Bogdan , Grošelj Uroš
Published: January 2023

A three-step synthesis of 1-{(1S,2S,4R)-7,7-dimethyl-1-[(pyrrolidin-1-yl)methyl]bicyclo[2.2.1]heptan-2-yl}-1H-benzo[d]imidazole, prepared from camphor derived diamine, is disclosed. The absolute configuration at the chiral center bearing benzo[d]imidazole moiety was confirmed by NOESY. The structure of a newly synthesized compound was confirmed by 1H- and 13C-NMR, 2D NMR, IR spectroscopy, and high resolution mass-spectrometry.
A Study of Strength Parameter Evolution and a Statistical Damage Constitutive Model of Cemented Sand and Gravel
Authors: Ren Honglei , Cai Xin , Wu Yingli , Jing Peiran , Guo Wanli
Published: January 2023

Cemented sand and gravel (CSG) has a wide range of applications in dam construction, and its properties are between rockfill and roller compacted concrete (RCC). A difference in gel content will result in a variance in CSG’s structure and mechanical properties. To investigate the intricate structural mechanical properties of CSG, this study conducted a series of laboratory tests and associated discrete element analyses. Accordingly, the evolution law of the strength parameters of CSG is explored and a statistical damage constitutive model suitable for CSG is established. The main contributions of this study are as follows: (1) The failure mechanism of the CSG was described from the microscopic level, and the evolution law of the strength parameter cohesion and friction angle of the CSG was analyzed and summarized. (2) Based on the particle flow model, the energy development law and the spatiotemporal distribution law of acoustic emission (AE) provide illustrations of the strain hardening–softening transition features and the interaction between cohesion and friction of CSG. (3) The evolution function between the strength parameter and the strain softening parameter was built, and the critical strain softening parameter was determined by the microcrack evolution law of the particle flow model. (4) The accuracy of the evolution curve was confirmed by comparing it to experimental results. (5) Based on the relationship between cohesion loss and material damage, a statistical damage constitutive model was developed using the improved Mohr–Coulomb strength criterion as the micro strength function. The constitutive model can accurately describe the stress–strain curves of CSG with different gel content. Furthermore, the model reflects the strain hardening–softening properties of CSG and reveals the relationship between the weakening of cohesion and material damage at the microscopic level. These findings provide valuable guidelines for investigating the damage laws and microcosmic failure features of CSG and other relevant materials.
Tensile Property of Irradiated LT21 Aluminum Alloy Sampled from Decommissioned Irradiation Channel of Heavy Water Research Reactor
Authors: Yang Wanhuan , Qian Jin , Zhong Weihua , Ning Guangsheng , Peng Shunmi , Yang Wen
Published: January 2023

LT21 a type of aluminum alloy used for the irradiation channel of the first heavy water research reactor (HWRR) in China. Studying the mechanical property of irradiated LT21 aluminum under actual service conditions is essential for evaluating its application property. In this paper, tensile specimens of irradiated LT21 were manufactured from the decommissioned irradiation channel of an HWRR; then, tensile tests were carried out, and then the fracture surfaces were observed. The effect of neutron irradiation on tensile behavior and the failure mechanism was analyzed by comparing the result of irradiated and unirradiated LT21 specimens. The results show that, with the thermal neutron flux increasing to 2.38 × 1022 n/cm2, the YS gradually increased from the initial 158 MPa to 251 MPa, the UTS increased from 262 MPa to 321 MPa, and the elongation decreased from 28.8% to about 14.3%; the brittle fracture of the LT21 specimen appeared after irradiation, and the proportion of brittle fracture increased as the neutron fluence increased; the nanophase structures, with a size of less than 50 nm, were precipitated in the LT21 aluminum alloy after neutron irradiation. Transmutation Si is presumed to be the main cause of the radiation effect mechanism of LT21.
Effect of Nematogen Doping in Bent-Core Molecular Systems with a Helical Nanofilament and Dark Conglomerate
Authors: Lee Jae-Jin , Choi Suk-Won
Published: January 2023

Two types of binary mixtures were prepared. One consisted of a calamitic nematogen and bent-core molecule with a helical nanofilament, whereas the other contained a calamitic nematogen and bent-core molecule with a dark conglomerate. The chiroptical features of these two mixtures were investigated using polarized optical microscopy and circular dichroism. In addition, X-ray diffraction analysis was performed on the two binary mixtures. The chiroptical features of the two mixtures were remarkably different. One mixture showed enhanced chiroptical features, whereas the other did not show chiroptical features. This method may help in distinguishing between helical nanofilaments and dark conglomerates which originate from bent-core molecular systems.
Fiber-Reinforced Asphalt Mixture Design on Anti-Skid Surfacing for Field Testing High-Speed Vehicles on Pavements
Authors: Liu Hao , Li Yunyu , Li Jixin , Wang Feng , Peng Longfan , Li Chao , Wang Tianlei , Lin Juntao
Published: January 2023

Fiber can absorb asphalt binder and therefore reinforce and stabilize the asphalt mixture structure and also prevent the asphalt from the leaking, which occurs in the process of mixing and transport. In this study, three kinds of fiber (polyester fiber, polypropylene fiber, and lignin fiber) are used to evaluate the relationship between the fiber types and mechanic performance of SMA-13 fiber asphalt mixture, which is specially designed for field tests of high-speed vehicles on pavements. The micro-surface characteristics of fiber and aggregates were studied by SEM and image analysis. Marshall stability and splitting strength were used to measure the properties of the asphalt mixture. In addition, a field test, including measures for curve-section edge, curve-section center, straight-section edge, and straight-section center, was conducted to evaluate the skid resistance of the high-speed vehicles that test field pavement. The results show that the Marshall stabilities of asphalt mixture with three kinds of fibers have been improved, whereas the stability of asphalt mixture prepared by polypropylene fiber and polyester fiber particularly increased before immersion. Among the three kinds of fiber asphalt mixtures, the polyester fiber asphalt mixture has enhanced water susceptibility. Skid resistance in the field test indicated that high skid resistance and good surface-texture depth were achieved.
Mixing of Excitons in Nanostructures Based on a Perylene Dye with CdTe Quantum Dots
Authors: Piryatinski Yuri P. , Malynovskyi Markiian B. , Sevryukova Maryna M. , Verbitsky Anatoli B. , Kapush Olga A. , Rozhin Aleksey G. , Lutsyk Petro M.
Published: January 2023

Semiconductor quantum dots of the A2B6 group and organic semiconductors have been widely studied and applied in optoelectronics. This study aims to combine CdTe quantum dots and perylene-based dye molecules into advanced nanostructure system targeting to improve their functional properties. In such systems, new electronic states, a mixture of Wannier–Mott excitons with charge-transfer excitons, have appeared at the interface of CdTe quantum dots and the perylene dye. The nature of such new states has been analyzed by absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopy with picosecond time resolution. Furthermore, aggregation of perylene dye on the CdTe has been elucidated, and contribution of Förster resonant energy transfer has been observed between aggregated forms of the dye and CdTe quantum dots in the hybrid CdTe-perylene nanostructures. The studied nanostructures have strongly quenched emission of quantum dots enabling potential application of such systems in dissociative sensing.
FEM Numerical and Experimental Study on Dimensional Accuracy of Tubes Extruded from 6082 and 7021 Aluminium Alloys
Authors: Leśniak Dariusz , Zasadziński Józef , Libura Wojciech , Żaba Krzysztof , Puchlerska Sandra , Madura Jacek , Balcerzak Maciej , Płonka Bartłomiej , Jurczak Henryk
Published: January 2023

The extrusion of hollow profiles from hard-deformable AlZnMg alloys by using porthole dies encounters great technological difficulties in practice. High extrusion force accompanies the technological process, which is caused by high deformation resistance and high friction resistance in extrusion conditions. As a result of high thermo-mechanical loads affecting the die, a significant loss of dimensional accuracy of extruded profiles can be observed. The different projects of porthole dies for the extrusion of Ø50 × 2 mm tubes from the 7021 alloy were numerically calculated and then tested in industrial conditions by using a press of 25 MN capacity equipped with a container with a diameter of 7 inches (for 7021 alloy and 6082 alloy for comparison). New extrusion die 3 with modified bridge and mandrel geometry and a special radial–convex entry to the die opening was proposed. FEM was applied to analyse the metal flow during extrusion, geometrical stability of extruded tubes and the die deflection. The photogrammetric measuring method was used to evaluate dimensional accuracy of tubes extruded in different conditions and geometrical deviations in porthole dies elements, especially the bridges and the mandrels. Research revealed a high dimensional accuracy of tubes extruded from the 6082 alloy and from the 7021 alloy by using original extrusion die 3, while much higher dimensional deviations were noted for tubes extruded from the 7021 alloy by using extrusion dies 1 and 2, particularly in relation to the circularity, centricity and wall thickness.
Morphology-Dependent Optoelectronic Properties of Pentacene Nanoribbon and Nanosheet Crystallite
Authors: Wang Zhifeng , Gan Yuquan , Du Qianqian , Li Shuhong , Liu Yunlong , Wang Wenjun
Published: January 2023

Organic, single crystals have emerged as unique optoelectrical materials due to their highly ordered structure and low defects. In this work, pentacene nanoribbons and nanosheets were selectively fabricated by controlling their growth temperature. The results show that their photoluminescence (PL) activity and electrical properties were strongly dependent on their geometrical morphology and molecular stacking mode such as the degree of π-orbital overlap and intermolecular interaction. The pentacene nanoribbon crystal exhibited a higher PL intensity compared with the nanosheet configuration; conversely, its electrical conductivity was poor. The low-temperature PL measurement indicated that there are stronger π–π stacking interactions in the nanosheet crystal than in the nanoribbon crystal, leading to exciton quenching and higher conductivity. Our study demonstrated that a unique optoelectronic property of organic crystals can be obtained by controlling the crystal’s morphology, which offers potential guidance for the future design and development of organic crystal optoelectronics.