bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Does Blockchain Technology Promote the Quality of Enterprise Accounting Information?
Authors:   IAGBT, Wu Chun , Jin Shanyue
Published: October 2022

Purpose - A crucial technology of the information society, blockchain technology has been introduced to more and more companies because blockchain technology can improve operation efficiency. This study aims to find how to apply blockchain technology to improve the quality of accounting information, so as to help investors better understand the company.
Design/Methodology/Approach - This study conducts a fixed-effect regression analysis on the data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2019 to examine whether blockchain technology impacts the quality of accounting information.
Findings - The empirical results show that investment in blockchain technology indeed positively affects the quality of enterprise accounting information. Furthermore, we found that the greater the attention of analysts, the higher the degree to which blockchain technology improves the quality of accounting information. Also, when the company has a stronger innovation ability, there is a higher degree to which blockchain technology improves the quality of accounting information.
Research Implications - This study enriches the relevant research of the impact of blockchain technology on enterprise accounting information quality. It suggests that companies devoted to blockchain technology can promote trust between all parties and improve information transparency. Meanwhile, companies should increase R&D investment so that blockchain can effectively improve the quality of accounting information.
Antiperiodic boundary value problem for an implicit ordinary differential equation
Authors: Arutyunov Aram V. , Zhukovskaya Zukhra T. , Zhukovskiy Sergey E.
Published: October 2022

The paper is devoted to the investigation of the antiperiodic boundary value problem for an implicit nonlinear ordinary differential equation
$$f(t,x,\dot x)=0, \quad x(0)+x(\tau)=0.$$
We assume that the mapping $f:\mathbb{R}\times \mathbb{R}^n \times \mathbb{R}^n \to \mathbb{R}^k$ defining the equation under consideration is smooth and satisfies the condition of uniform nondegeneracy of the first derivative
$$
\inf \bigl\{ {\rm cov} f'_v (t,x,v):\,
(t,x,v)\in \mathbb{R}\times \mathbb{R}^n \times \mathbb{R}^n \bigr\}>0.
$$
Here ${\rm cov} A$ is the Banach constant of the linear operator $A.$
The assumption of uniform non-degeneracy holds, in particular, for the mapping $f$ defining an explicit ordinary differential equation.
For implicit equations, sufficient conditions for the existence of a solution to an antiperiodic boundary value problem are obtained, and estimates for solutions are found.
Co\-ro\-l\-la\-ries for normal ordinary differential equations are formulated.
To prove the main result, the original implicit equation is reduced to an explicit differential equation by applying a nonlocal implicit function theorem.
Then we prove an auxiliary assertion on the solvability of the equation $x+\psi(x)=0,$ which is an analog of Brouwer's fixed point theorem.
It is shown that the mapping $\psi,$ that assigns the value of the solution of the Cauchy problem at the point $\tau$ to an arbitrary initial point $x_0,$ is well defined and satisfies the assumptions of the auxiliary statement. This reasoning completes the proof of the existence of a solution to the boundary value problem.
Il tiranno e la legge nella Politica di Aristotele
Authors: Gastaldi Silvia
Published: October 2022

En la Política, Aristóteles define la tiranía como la peor de las constituciones desviadas. Lo que motiva este juicio es ante todo la ausencia de leyes, sustituida por la arbitrariedad del tirano. La primera parte del artículo está dedicada al trasfondo histórico y teórico del análisis aristotélico, es decir, al debate sobre la figura del tirano en la Atenas de los siglos V y IV, en el que a este personaje se le ve constantemente como un peligro para la ciudad y sus leyes; al mismo tiempo, se destaca la ambigüedad del sistema democrático de Atenas, definido por sus propios políticos como un πόλις τύραννος hacia los aliados. Posteriormente, el artículo analiza los pasajes de la Política en los que la tiranía, debido precisamente a la ausencia de leyes, se califica como un régimen despótico. En este sentido, también se presentan sus afinidades con otras constituciones desviadas, en especial la democracia extrema, además de indagar su compleja relación con la monarquía absoluta.
Proportion of Extrapulmonary MDR-TB Confirmed by GeneXpert® in Dr. Hasan Sadikin General Hospital, West Java, Indonesia Year 2012–2021
Authors: Dhestina Winnery , Santoso Prayudi , Sahiratmadja Edhyana
Published: October 2022

As the third-highest country with tuberculosis (TB) incidence worldwide in 2020, Indonesia has increasing TB cases resistant to various anti-TB therapy or multidrug-resistant (MDR)-TB, and ranked fifth for its high incidence reported in Global Tuberculosis Report 2020. Moreover, extrapulmonary TB (EPTB) is rising, and data studies on EPTB with MDR-TB in Indonesia are scarce. This study aimed to explore the proportion of extrapulmonary MDR-TB among TB cases in Dr. Hasan Sadikin General Hospital Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. A descriptive retrospective and cross-sectional study design were conducted, retrieving medical records from all suspect MDR-TB adult patients examined by GeneXpert®, at Dr. Hasan Sadikin General Hospital Bandung, West Java period 2012–2021. Those with EPTB were further analyzed, and the demographic data was collected as well as clinical history, behavioral history, sites of extrapulmonary MDR-TB, and drug resistance. Of a total 7,013 TB cases, 1,900 (27.1%) were MDR-TB cases, of whom 0.08% (n6) were extrapulmonary MDR-TB cases and 0.16% (n11) were combined with PTB. The main characteristics of cases with extrapulmonary MDR-TB were median age 27-year-old (range 25–34), male gender (64.7%), underweight BMI (84.6%), and predominantly were primary cases (35.3%). The anti-TB drug resistance in MDR-TB were pre-XDR-TB (11.7%), XDR-TB (5.6%), MDR-TB (42%), and RR-TB (40.7%). Although the proportion of extrapulmonary MDR-TB among all TB cases is small (0.2%), this disease can’t be ignored and has a great potential to be explored. Most of them are rifampicin-resistant. Further studies need to include a larger population to have more overview of MDR-TB with EPTB.
Analisis Faktor-faktor yang Memengaruhi Integrated Reporting
Authors: Akbar Kurnianto  , Unggul Purwohedi  , Rida Prihatni
Published: October 2022

Abstract

Financial information which has been the main analytical as well as the main accountability tool to investors apparently unable to meet the demands of investors, especially in terms of non-financial information disclosure. Integrated reporting (IR) exist to respond this issue. This study analyzes the effect of the size of the public accounting firm (KAP), stakeholder pressure, audit committee meetings, and audit committee authority on IR. Property, real estate and construction companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) were selected as the object of this study because they were considered to have complex information in their operations. Through a purposive sampling technique, 116 samples were selected during the 2016-2017 observation year that were processed with multiple linear regression analysis on the Eviews 8 analysis tool. Based on the results and conclusions of the study, audit committee meetings and the audit committee authority have a positive and significant influence on (IR). This shows the company will maximize IR practices if the audit committee has a high frequency of meetings and expanded authority of the audit committee. Meanwhile, KAP size and stakeholder pressure have not been proven to have  an influence on IR.

 

Abstrak

 Informasi keuangan yang selama ini menjadi alat analisis sekaligus pertanggungjawaban utama kepada investor dirasa tidak mampu memenuhi tuntutan investor, terutama akan informasi non-finansial. Integrated reporting (IR) hadir sebagai suatu laporan terintegrasi yang menggabungkan informasi finansial dan non-finansial ke dalam suatu laporan yang mampu menyajikan informasi secara komprehensif bagi penggunanya. Penelitian ini menganalisis pengaruh ukuran kantor akuntan publik (KAP), tekanan pemangku kepentingan, rapat komite audit, dan otoritas komite audit terhadap IR. Perusahaan sektor properti, real estat, dan konstruksi yang terdaftar di Bursa Efek Indonesia (BEI) dipilih sebagai objek penelitian ini karena dinilai memiliki informasi yang kompleks dalam operasinya. Melalui teknik purposive sampling, terpilih 116 sampel selama tahun amatan 2016-2017 yang diolah dengan analisis regresi linier berganda pada alat analisis Eviews 8.

Berdasarkan hasil dan simpulan penelitian, rapat komite audit dan otoritas komite audit memiliki pengaruh positif dan signifikan terhadap (IR). Hal ini menunjukkan perusahaan akan memaksimalkan praktik IR apabila komite audit memiliki frekuensi rapat yang tinggi serta diperluasnya otoritas dari komite audit. Sementara, ukuran KAP dan tekanan pemangku kepentingan tidak terbukti memiliki pengaruh terhadap IR.
PENGARUH E-COMMERCE, SOSIAL MEDIA, DAN KEPERCAYAAN KONSUMEN TERHADAP MINAT BELI PADA APLIKASI BELANJA SHOPEE
Authors: Andhiyani Rahmasari Putri  , Ari Susanti
Published: October 2022

Penelitian dilakukan dengan maksud melihat pengaruh variabel Kepercayaan Konsumen pengguna aplikasi E-commerce Shopee terhadap minat pembelian. Teknik yang dipakai untuk menentukan sampel penelitian dengan teknik purposive sampling. Subjek penelitian ini yang digunakan adalah responden yang sudah melakukan pembelian di E-commerce Shopee yang berjumlah 100 responden. Alat analisis penelitian yang dipakai yaitu analisis regresi linear berganda. Uji analisis menggunakan uji normalitas, uji heteroskedastisitas, dan uji multikolineritas, serta uji hipotesis. Variabel E-commerce, Sosial Media, dan Kepercayaan Konsumen memiliki pengaruh positif terhadap variabel Minat Beli. Hasil dari variable E-commerce, Sosial Media, dan Kepercayaan Konsumen mempengaruhi minat beli sebanyak 62,2%, variabel lainnya mempengaruhi sebanyak 37,8%.
Анализ динамики эпидемического процесса COVID-19 в мире за неделю с 15.10.2022 г. по 21.10.2022 г.
Authors: Зимирова Анастасия , Поспелов Михаил , Иванова Александра , Дмитриева Людмила , Чумачкова Елена , Карнаухов Игорь , Щербакова Светлана , Кутырев Владимир
Published: October 2022

В обзоре представлен анализ эпидемиологической ситуации в странах мира по COVID-19, за неделю с 15.10.2022 г. по 21.10.2022 г.
Распространение вариантов вируса SARS-COV-2, вызывающих озабоченность (VOC) на основе количества их геномов, депонированных в базу данных GISAID за неделю с 15.10.2022 г. по 21.10.2022 г.
Authors: Дмитриева Людмила , Краснов Ярослав , Чумачкова Елена , Осина Наталья , Зимирова Анастасия , Иванова Александра , Карнаухов Игорь , Караваева Татьяна , Щербакова Светлана , Кутырев Владимир
Published: October 2022

В обзоре представлена информация по циркулирующим в настоящее время вариантам вируса SARS-COV-2 вызывающих озабоченность (VOC), геномные последовательности которых размещены в международной базе данных GISAID с 15.10.2022 г. по 21.10.2022 г.
Configuring Load Balancing and Failover Using a Mikrotik Router on RT RW NET (Case Study: Dusun Klatakan Dayurejo)
Authors: Muzayyin Muhammad , Fitrani Arif Senja
Published: October 2022

The internet is something that is absolutely needed by every human being, as a result network administrators will implement various alternatives to meet user needs. The administrator will add an ISP line to be able to use the internet smoothly and easily. In fact, administrators often use an ISP's gateway line. This causes traffic inequality on the network when the number of users connected to the ISP line is much more. In the implementation of this final project, a load balancing and connection was made using 2 ISPs. The method used is the load balancing and failover method which is implemented using a mikrotik routerboard on the RT RW NET Dusun Klatakan network. With these two methods, all requests are based on the client that will enter the router that has been configured using the previous load balancing and failover method, so that the router will set the path based on the client through ISP 1 or ISP 2 in order to be able to back up each other's internet connections. The test results show the occurrence of equal access to access in a balanced way, so that there is no overload at one ISP.
Query Response Time Comparison SQL and No SQL for Contact Tracing Application
Authors: Setyawan Arik Bagus , Kautsar Irwan Alnarus , Azizah Nuril Lutvi
Published: October 2022

During the current Covid-19 pandemic, it is necessary to have facilities to track community activities to make it easier to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic situation which is still a threat to the community. Contact tracing application (Contact Tracing) is one solution that can be used in this regard. By utilizing Contact Tracing, people's activities can be recorded when traveling to meet other people so that they can generate a history that can be used to track someone if one of them is infected with Covid-19. With this application, data storage (database) is very important because the application will generate and consume a lot of data. In this study, the researcher attempted to compare the query speed of the common data storage (database) that is usually used, namely Relational Database (MySQL) with Non-Relational Database (MongoDB). The results of the experiments conducted by the researchers resulted in the Non-Relational Database (MongoDB) suitable for use when the data has reached large amounts because the query speed is quite fast and stable. Meanwhile, Relational Database performance is still reliable when the data query needs are only on a small scale.
ESTADO FÍSICO-EMOCIONAL Y ACTIVIDAD FÍSICA: INFLUENCIA SOBRE LA CALIDAD DE VIDA RELACIONADA CON LA SALUD DURANTE LA PANDEMIA.
Authors: Sanchís-Soler Gema , Parra-Rizo María Antonia
Published: October 2022

Son escasos los estudios que han evaluado en periodos post-confinamiento la percepción de calidad de vida relacionada con la salud (CVRS) de adultos jóvenes y mayores. El objetivo del estudio fue evaluar si el contacto que los mayores tuvieron con el virus, la frecuencia de práctica de actividad física y algunos indicadores del estado físico-emocional (estrés, dolor, felicidad y gratitud) influyeron sobre su percepción de CVRS. Además se pretendió determinar que variables fueron más predictivas de esta percepción de salud. Se aplicaron las escalas de felicidad subjetiva (SHS), gratitud (CG-6), percepción subjetiva de salud (SF-12), estrés percibido (PSS), escala visual analógica del dolor (VAS) y cuestionario de actividad física en tiempo libre (VREM) a una muestra de 71 mayores, edad media 63.07±5.49 años. Los resultados mostraron que los participantes con menor grado de dolor y estrés y mayor percepción de felicidad indicaron mejor percepción subjetiva de CVRS. Seguidamente como principales factores predictores de tener alto nivel de percepción CVRS se postularon las altas puntuaciones en felicidad (OR=3.244; p<.017) y bajas puntuaciones en intensidad del dolor (OR=12.083; p<.001). En conclusión, las sensaciones físico-emocionales que experimentaron los mayores durante la pandemia son factores que influyeron sobre su percepción CVRS.
Design of ET-MPC-based Parameters Self-tuning Controller for Mobile Robot Based on Machine Learning
Authors: Liu Yuesheng , He Ning , Du Jiawei , Fan Zhao , He Lile , Gao Feng
Published: October 2022

In this paper, a model predictive control (MPC) algorithm framework based on machine learning (ML) is proposed for mobile robot system, which integrates event-triggered mechanism (ETM) and parameters self-tuning mechanism (PSM). Firstly, the kinematic model of the mobile robot is established, and the MPC-based path tracking controller is designed. Secondly, the PSM for MPC is designed based on the kernel extreme learning machine optimized by sparrow search algorithm (SSA-KELM). Then, two event-triggered mechanisms are designed to determine whether to perform optimization solution and parameters tuning, respectively. In addition, a state deviation compensation mechanism (SDCM) based on event-triggered MPC (ET-MPC) is designed. Finally, the theoretical result is applied to the actual mobile robot system. Compared to the basic MPC-based trajectory tracking controller, the controller designed in this study can obtain better control performance with less computing resources.
The Effect Of Strategy Retention On Cooperation Based On Multi-Game In Complex Environment
Authors: You Tao , Kong Xuebao , Zhang Peng , Zhang Ying , Chen Jinchao , Li Qing
Published: October 2022

In game theory, it is an important topic to study the emergence and maintenance of group cooperative behavior based on the theories of evolutionary game and complex network. However, in-depth analysis of cooperative behavior persistence becomes a significant challenge due to the betrayal induced by the temptation of high payoff and the difficulty of cooperation under high social dilemmas. Recent studies show that mixed strategy games and multi-game mechanics can greatly improve the ability of individuals with interactive diversity to resist temptation. Meanwhile, inspired by the fact that the games played by the agents are not strictly constant and may change according to the environment, we propose the Memory Step to explore the evolution of cooperation between the Prisoner’s Dilemma Model and the Snowdrift Model with interactive diversity in the network. Besides, we introduce the concept of Side-Game where two players can play different types of games against each other. The most advantage of this model is that it improves the intelligent decision-making ability of group behavior. With the simulation of game evolution, the effect of individual strategy maintenance and Side-Game on cooperative behavior are discussed. It is verified that in social dilemmas, through effective guiding individual strategies to remain unchanged and individuals adopt different game types, players can obviously improve their resistance to betrayal temptation and conduct cooperative behavior well.
Multivariate indicators of disease severity in COVID-19
Authors: Hassan Wail , Bean Joe , Kuri-Cervantes Leticia , Pennella Michael , Betts Michael R , Meyer Nuala
Published: October 2022

The novel coronavirus pandemic continues to cause significant morbidity and mortality around the world. Diverse clinical presentations prompted numerous attempts to predict disease severity to improve care and patient outcomes. Equally important is understanding the mechanisms underlying such divergent disease outcome. Multivariate modeling was used here to define the most distinctive features that separate COVID-19 from healthy controls and those that separate severe from moderate disease. Using discriminant analysis and binary logistic regression models we could distinguish between COVID-19 patients with severe disease, those with moderate disease, and controls with rates of correct classifications ranging from 71-100%. The distinction of severe and moderate disease was most reliant on the depletion of natural killer cells and activated, class-switched memory B cells, increased frequency of neutrophils, and decreased expression of the activation marker HLA-DR on monocytes in patients suffering from severe disease. In patients with moderate disease compared to those with severe disease and controls, we see increased frequency of activated class-switched memory B cells and activated neutrophils. Our results suggest that natural killer cells, activated class-switched memory B cells, and activated neutrophils are important for protection against severe disease. We show that binary logistic regression was superior to discriminant analysis by attaining higher rates of correct classification based on immune profiles. We discuss the utility of these multivariate techniques in biomedical sciences, contrast their mathematical basis and limitations, and propose strategies to overcome such limitations.
ECG Denoising based on Transformation Matrix for Non-Decimated Wavelet Transform and Wavelet/Total Variation (WATV) Denoising
Authors: Rezgui Abdallah , Nasraoui Brahim , Talbi Mourad
Published: October 2022

In this paper, a new technique of Electrocardiogram (ECG) denoising, is introduced and is based on Transformation Matrix for Non-Decimated Wavelet Transform (WT) and Wavelet/Total Variation (WATV) Denoising. It firstly consists of applying twice the Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) to the noisy ECG in order to obtain three wavelet coefficients which are the approximation coefficient, cA1 (at level 2) and two details coefficients, cD (at level 1) and cD1 (at level 2). Then, the two coefficients, cD and cD1 are denoised by applying the Transformation Matrix for Non-Decimated WT and we obtain two denoised coefficients, cDd and cDd1. The coefficient, cA1, is also denoised by applying the WATV Denoising and we obtain a third denoised coefficient, cAd1. Finally, the inverse of DWT is twice applied to the three denoised coefficients, cDd, cDd1and cAd1 in order to obtain the denoised ECG signal. The results obtained from the computations of SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio), PSNR (Peak SNR), MSE (Mean Square Error), MAE (Mean Absolute Error) and Cross-Correlation (CC), show the performance of this ECG denoising approach, proposed in this work.
Comparison between conservative and prophylactically concurrent meniscoplasty on the asymptomatic knee in children with unilaterally symptomatic bilateral discoid lateral meniscus operated on the symptomatic side: a retrospective study and literature review
Authors: You Mingke , Li Pengcheng , Zhang Kaibo , Zhou Kai , Chen Gang , Li Jian
Published: October 2022

Background
The literature compared conservative treatment and concurrent meniscoplasty for children with asymptomatic discoid lateral meniscus. This study aimed to compare the clinical outcomes between concurrent meniscoplasty and conservative management on the asymptomatic side in children with unilaterally symptomatic bilateral discoid lateral meniscus (DLM) operated on the symptomatic side.
Methods
In the literature review, three databases were searched up to September 2021. In the retrospective study, patients under 14 with unilaterally symptomatic bilateral DLM who underwent arthroscopic meniscoplasty were eligible. Patients were divided into two groups: children in group 1 underwent meniscoplasty on the symptomatic side, with the asymptomatic side conservatively treated. Children in group 2 underwent meniscoplasty on both the symptomatic and asymptomatic sides concurrently. Functional outcomes were evaluated using the Lysholm score and Ikeuchi score. Survival analysis of the occurrence of symptoms was applied by the Kaplan‒Meier model.
Results
In the literature review, 3 studies suggested for no treatment, 3 for observation only, 7 for non-surgical treatment, 1 considered it debating, and 1 recommended for prophylactic surgery. In the retrospective study, a total of 44 patients (34 female and 10 male) were eligible. For the average Lysholm scores, groups 1 and 2 of the previously asymptomatic side were 90.86 ± 8.25 and 92.67 ± 9.10, respectively. For the symptomatic side, the Lysholm scores were 91.38 ± 8.90 and 95.33 ± 7.18, respectively. The mean survival time was 9 years in group 1 and 5 years in group 2. The Kaplan‒Meier survival analysis of the occurrence of symptoms showed no statistically significant difference between the two groups (p = 0.121), and the terminal survival rates in the two groups were 86.2% and 80.0%, respectively.
Conclusions
No significant difference was reported on the asymptomatic side of conservative and surgical group in functional scores, while conservative group showed lower occurrence of symptoms and longer survival time.
Trial registration
The trial had been registered on the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, with the number ChiCTR2000034577.
Bioberturk: Exploring Turkish Biomedical Language Model Development Strategies in Low Resource Setting
Authors: Turkmen Hazal , Dikenelli Oguz , Eraslan Cenk , Callı Mehmet Cem
Published: October 2022

Pretrained language models elevated with in-domain corpora show impressive results in biomedicine and clinical NLP tasks in English. However, there is minimal work in low resource languages. Although some pioneering works show promising results, many scenarios still need to be explored to engineer effective pretrained language models in biomedicine for low resource settings. This work introduces the BioBERTurk family, four pretrained models in Turkish for biomedicine. To evaluate models, we also introduce a labeled dataset to classify radiology reports of head CT exams. Two different parts of the reports, impressions, and findings, are evaluated separately to observe the performance of models on longer and less informative text. We compare models with the Turkish BERT-BERTurk pretained with general domain text, multilingual BERT, and an LSTM+attention-based baseline model. The first model initialized from BERTurk and then further pretrained with biomedical corpus performs statistically better than BERTurk, multilingual BERT, and baseline for both datasets. The second model continues to pretrain BERTurk model by using only radiology Ph.D. theses to test the effect of the task-related text. This model slightly outperforms all models on the impressions dataset and showed that using only radiology-related data for continual pretraining could be effective. The third model continues to pretrain by adding radiology theses to biomedical corpus but does not show a statistically meaningful difference. The final model combines radiology and biomedicine corpora with the corpus of BERTurk and pretrained a BERT model from scratch. This model is the worst performed model of the BioBERT family, even worse than BERTurk and multilingual BERT.
Simultaneous optimization of factors affecting native starch pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis using magnetic covalent immobilized α-amylase
Authors: Khazaei Shadi , Hejazi Parisa
Published: October 2022

In this study, for the first time the effects of different factors on hydrolysis of low concentration of corn starch were investigated in two steps. In the first step, thermal hydrolysis with pH variation and sonication treatment and finally enzymatic hydrolysis of starch were investigated by one factor at a time method. The best conditions of maximum reducing sugar production and maximum releasing of amylose were starch with pH = 4.5, sonication time 30 min and 24 hours solution storage in 4°C with enzymatic hydrolysis by 335 ppm immobilized enzyme for 15 min. In the second step, the effects of three variables on starch hydrolysis to determine the optimal conditions were investigated by 23 factorial design with multiple responses desirability method. Starch concentration 0.5% (w/v), initial starch pH of 4.5 and enzymatic hydrolysis temperature 50°C were determined as optimum conditions for achieving maximum changes in reducing sugar concentration 92.48 (mg/g starch) and ratio of final and initial soluble amylose content of hydrolysate solution 0.62 (by more than 75% separation of immobilized enzyme on MNPs after the process by external magnetic field. Also, experiment showed the possibility of immobilized enzyme reusing, which can retain 40% of its ability to produce reducing sugar and retain magnetic features of nanoparticles after 6 cycles.
Cost-effectiveness of sintilimab plus bevacizumab biosimilar versus sorafenib for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma
Authors: Jia Wang , Xin Wen , Jing Su , Qin Kan
Published: October 2022

Aims
Sintilimab plus bevacizumab biosimilar(IBI305) as a first-line therapy for patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma has been shown to improve overall and progression-free survival compared with standard sorafenib treatment. The aim of current economic evaluation is to investigate the cost-effectiveness of sintilimab in combination with IBI305 as a first-line therapy for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma.
Methods
A partitioned survival model consisting of 3 discrete health states to was constructed to evaluate the economic outcome of sintilimab plus bevacizumab biosimilar. Costs, life-years, quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), and incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of sintilimab plus bevacizumab biosimilar vs sorafenib was examined. One-way deterministic sensitivity, probabilistic sensitivity and subgroup analyses were used to examine model uncertainty.
Results
The base-case results found that sintilimab plus IBI305 treatment for unresectable HCC could bring an extra 0.49 QALYs and 1.269 overall life-years, with an incremental cost of $16487. The ICER for sintilimab plus IBI305 vs sorafenib was $28022.58/QALY. The probability of being cost-effective for sintilimab in combination with IBI305 increased from 28–62% as the willingness-to-pay (WTP) threshold value increased from $26000/ QALY to $29000/QALY.
Conclusion
The findings of this study suggested that that sintilimab plus IBI305 is a cost-effective strategy from the Chinese perspectives.
Unipolar Euler-Poisson equations with time-dependent damping: blow-up and global existence
Authors: Xu Jianing , Chen Shaohua , Mei Ming , Qin Yuming
Published: October 2022

This paper is concerned with the Cauchy problem for one-dimensional unipolar Euler-Poisson equations with time-dependent damping, where the time-asymptotically degenerate damping in the form of − μ/(1+t)λ ρu for λ > 0 with μ > 0 plays a crucial role for the structure of solutions. The main issue of the paper is to investigate the critical case with λ = 1. We first prove that, for all cases with λ > 0 and μ > 0 (including the critical case of λ = 1), once the initial data is steep at a point, then the solutions are locally bounded but their derivatives will blow up in finite time, by means of the method of Riemann invariants and the technical convex analysis. Secondly, for the critical case of λ = 1 with μ > 7/3, we prove that there exists a unique global solution, once the initial perturbation around the constant steady-state is sufficiently small. In particular, we derive the algebraic convergence rates of the solution to the constant steady-state, which are piecewise, related to the parameter μ for 7/3 < μ ≤ 3, 3 < μ ≤ 4 and μ > 4. The adopted method of proof in this critical case is the technical time-weighted energy method and the time-weight depends on the parameter μ. Finally, we carry out some numerical simulations in two cases for blow-up and global existence, respectively, which numerically confirm our theoretical results.
Assessment of the honey purity by using imaging polarimetry technique
Authors: Tepeli Anthony , Sanzu Loema , Charles Philipo
Published: October 2022

The imaging polarimetry technique has wide range of application in modern science technologies however the adulteration of honey purity is a global challenge in honey industries so the research was carried out purposefully to assess the quality of honey by using different polarization parameters obtained from imaging polarimetry techniques which was applied on the honey samples mixed with different adulterants (glucose, fructose, sucrose). This was done specifically to make variation in the polarization parameters of the two honey sample. Method; The experiment was achieved by using optical device that were attached in optical bench were the laser light was passed through the beam expander and illuminated toward the sample. The image was then taken with angle variation of 22.5ᵒ and labeled as I0, taken at angle 45ᵒ labeled I1, image taken from angle 67.5ᵒ, 90ᵒ, 112.5ᵒ, 135ᵒ, 157.5ᵒ and 180ᵒ were labeled as I2, I3, I4, I5, I6 and I7 respectively and the eight images of each sample were captured. Using the captured images of the sample the polarization parameters (DOP, DOCP, DLP) of all samples were obtained and tabulated in the table with their mean and standard deviation. Results; The mean and standard deviation obtained from the (DOP, DOCP, DLP) histogram curve showed the good variation of pure sample and their relative adulterants and it was observed that the variation in impure sample was irregular due to adulterants and impurities already present in the sample. Conclusion; the degree of circular polarization was found to be more successful in quantifying the honey purity as the matter of fact that the intensity images of DOCP was much way greater than the others and the histogram of DOCP covered the large part of the histogram amount.
Groundwater management study through index construction and its reliability evaluation with discriminant analysis
Authors: Barranquero Rosario Soledad , Nicora Bethania , Etcheverría Silvina Graciela , Dipardo Bruno , Landa Roberto , Gonzalez Juliana , Tabera Anahí
Published: October 2022

Manuscript’s motivation was to contribute to the water resources integral management approach that implies joint consideration of variables related to the water quality, its use, and their interactions. To address this complexity two statistical tools, index number model and discriminant analysis, were combined. The objective was to construct several index for the water management analysis of rural schools in the Tandil district (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and evaluate its reliability through multivariate analysis. Different water quality index based on physicochemical and microbiological analysis in water samples was constructed. A handling water index from surveys made in rural schools was constructed. 69% of the schools have good result of the water quality index, while only 31% had a handling index high result. It was shown that in the rural territory the water potability conditions are compromised fundamentally due to the lack of stakeholder’s empowerment and the absence of an institutional policy. Methodology used resulted adequately and can be applied with low cost of obtaining information to other environmental problems that require the integration of qualitative and quantitative variables. It therefore represents an advance for applied statistics since it allows dealing with the complexity of the variables combination without losing mathematical reliability.
The impact of corporate governance on the performance of banking sector in GCC: does the political connection matter during crisis?
Authors: CHAARANI Hani EL
Published: October 2022

This research paper aims to explore whether the corporate governance structure and political connection played an efficient role in preventing the negative impact of crisis, namely the Covid-19 crisis in GCC banks. Based on a data of 326 banks observations from 6 countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia), the results of t-test, fixed-effect, 2SLS and GMM models provide new insights regarding the political connection and corporate governance design in GCC banking sector. The results of this study show that banks do not change their corporate governance structure during crisis. Furthermore, the results indicate that both independent members on board of directors and political ownership concentration mitigate the negative impact of crisis and enhance the financial performance of banks in GCC. Finally, the results show that large banks that sustain their operational activities have large capacity to resist during crisis. The findings will be useful for bankers, regulators, central banks and governments within GCC. The results will guide them to review the governance structure to mitigate the negative impact of any future crisis.
Radiosensitizing effect of MEK-inhibition in glioblastoma in vitro and in vivo
Authors: Houweling M. , Abdul U. K. , Brahm C. , Lagerweij T. , Heukelom S. , Koken P. W. , Honeywell R. , Wedekind L. E. , Peters G. J. , Verheul H. , Sminia P , Noske D. , Wurdinger T. , Westerman BART
Published: October 2022

Glioblastoma (GBM) is an incurable cancer type. New therapeutic options are investigated, including targeting the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway using MEK-inhibitors as radiosensitizers. In this study, we investigated whether MEK-inhibition via PD0325901 leads to radiosensitization in experimental in vitro and in vivo models of GBM. In vitro, GBM8 multicellular spheroids were irradiated with 3 fractions of 2 Gy, during 5 consecutive days of incubation with either PD0325901 or MEK-162. Regrowth and viability of spheroids monitored until day 18, showed that both MEK-inhibitors had an in vitro radiosensitizing effect. In vivo, PD0325901 concentrations were relatively constant throughout multiple brain areas. We combined PD0325901 with radiotherapy in the GBM8 orthotopic mouse model. Tumor growth was measured weekly by bioluminescence imaging and overall survival and toxicity were assessed, showing temporal PD0325901-related adverse events such as dermatitis in 4 out of 14 mice (29%). Mice that were treated with radiation alone or combined with PD0325901 had significantly better survival compared to vehicle (both P<0.005), however, no significant interaction between PD0325901 MEK-inhibition and irradiation was observed. The difference between the radiotherapy-enhancing effect of PD0325901 in vitro and in vivo urges further pharmacodynamic/pharmacokinetic investigation of PD0325901 and possibly other candidate MEK inhibitors.
“We want our therapist to talk with us about sexuality and gender diversity”: Qualitative perspectives of adolescents and professionals in youth mental health care.
Authors: Bungener Sara Lianne , Verveen Anouk , Steensma Thomas Dirk , de Vries Annelou , Popma Arne , de Kruif Anja
Published: October 2022

Introduction: For youth with psychiatric conditions, sexual and gender identity development can be challenging. Mental health care professionals (MHPs) often avoid communication about sexuality, sexual side effects, and gender diversity with youth. The aim of this study is to gain insight into the perspectives of youth in mental health care and professionals about sexuality and gender diversity communication.
Methods: In-depth interviews with 21 adolescent patients (aged 15–22 years) and focus groups were conducted with 20 MHPs (aged 26–55 years) at a mental health care institution in Amsterdam. During analysis, the experiences, needs, and underlying inhibiting and facilitating factors of both groups were derived and analyzed.
Results: Both youth patients and MHPs stated that sexuality and gender identity should be a part of mental health care. Youth described the impact and interplay between mental health, sexuality (e.g., sexual experiences, romantic relations, sexual orientation), and gender identity. Both groups want sexual side effects of psychotropic medication to be addressed when prescribing medication. Cultural and faith-based factors should be considered, especially for LGBT+ youth.
Conclusion: Youth patients and MHPs feel that sexuality and gender identity should be a standard part of youth mental health care. Confidential conversation with an MHP can provide a designated place to talk about these sensitive subjects. Mental health care institutions should implement sexuality and gender diversity communication in clinical practice.
Hyperparameter Optimization of Generative Adversarial Network Models for High-Energy Physics Simulations
Authors: Dumont Vincent , Ju Xiangyang , Mueller Juliane
Published: October 2022

The Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) is a powerful and flexible tool that can generate high-fidelity synthesized data by learning. It has seen many applications in simulating events in High Energy Physics (HEP), including simulating detector responses and physics events. However, training GANs is notoriously hard and optimizing their hyperparameters even more so. It normally requires many trial-and-error training attempts to force a stable training and reach a reasonable fidelity. Significant tuning work has to be done to achieve the accuracy required by physics analyses. This work uses the physics-agnostic and high-performance-computer-friendly hyperparameter optimization tool HYPPO to optimize and examine the sensitivities of the hyperparameters of a GAN for two independent HEP datasets. This work provides the first insights into efficiently tuning GANs for Large Hadron Collider data. We show that given proper hyperparameter tuning, we can find GANs that provide high-quality approximations of the desired quantities. We also provide guidelines for how to go about GAN architecture tuning using the analysis tools in HYPPO.
Study of Potassium inducing Iron toxicity tolerance in rice: morphology, biochemical estimation, interaction between NAS3 and FER protein
Authors: Singh Banhishikha , Banerjee Soma
Published: October 2022

Excessive iron absorption by rice plants often suffers from iron (Fe) toxicity and mineral nutrient deficiency which influences the rice yield. High amount of Fe, generates reactive oxygen species which is the major damage causing agent to the cellular components and induces membrane lipid peroxidation. Antioxidants like Catalase (CAT) and Ascorbate peroxidase (APX) give tolerance to the rice plants by reducing toxic free-radicals induced by Fe2+. Application of potassium (K) can improve plant the oxidation status and this study is based on the biological responses, protein and their respective gene expressions at the same time, to enlarge the ameliorative effect of K+. Seven days old Rice seedlings were exposed to 750 ppm of FeSO4.7H2O and treated with 100–200 ppm of KCl for futher 14 days. Estimation of shoot and root length, Chlorophyll pigments, reducing sugar content, starch content, lipid peroxidation, CAT and APX along with FTIR were carried out to analysis the ameliorative effect of potassium against Fe toxicity in the treated rice seedlings. The interaction between NAS 3 with FER was also found in the STRING database. The gene expression and protein bands were also showed the interaction of NAS 3 with FER was also induced with the exogenous application of potassium against Fe toxicity in the seedlings of the locally cultivable rice varieties of West Bengal.
Effects of different drugs and hormone treatment on Toxoplasma gondii glutathione S-Transferase 2
Authors: Li Shuang , Liu Jing , Ying Zhu , Xue Yangfei , Sun Zhepeng , Liu Qun
Published: October 2022

Background：Glutathione S-transferase (GST) in eukaryotic organisms has multiple functions such as detoxifying endogenous/exogenous harmful substances to protect cells from oxidative damage, participating in sterol synthesis and metabolism, and regulating signaling pathways. Our previous work identified an important GST protein in Toxoplasma that contributes to vesicle trafficking called TgGST2, the deletion of which significantly reduces the virulence of the parasite. Meanwhile, we also considered that TgGST2 may also play a role in other pathways of parasite life activities.
Methods:The tertiary structures of TgGST2 as well as estradiol (E2) and progesterone (P4) were predicted by trRosetta and Autodock Vina software, the binding sites were analyzed by PyMol's GetBox Plugin, and the binding capacity was evaluated using Discovery Studio plots software. We examined the influence of E2 and P4 on TgGST2 via glutathione S-transferase enzyme activity and indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) and through the localization observation of TgGST2 to evaluate its response-ability in different drugs.
Results: TgGST2 could bind to exogenous E2 and P4 and that enzymatic activity were inhibited by the hormones in a concentration-dependent manner. Upon P4 treatment, the localization of TgGST2 changed to hollow circles, leading to abnormal localization of the molecular transporter Sortilin (VPS10) and microneme proteins (M2AP and MIC2), which ultimately affect the parasite life activities, but E2 had no significant effect. Moreover, diverse types of drugs had divergent effects on TgGST2, among which treatment with antifungal agents (voriconazole and clarithromycin), anticarcinogens (KU-60019, WYE-132 and SH5-07) and coccidiostats (dinitolmide and diclazuril) made the localization of TgGST2 appear in different forms, including dots, circles and rod-shaped.
Conclusions:Our study shows that TgGST2 plays a role in sterol treatment and can be affected by P4, which leads to deficient parasite motility. TgGST2 exerts divergent effects in response to the different properties of the drugs themselves. Its responsiveness to diverse drugs implies a viable target for the development of drugs directed against Toxoplasma and related pathogenic parasites.
Understanding the Influence of Tree Size Distribution on the CTL Harvesting Productivity of Two Different Size Harvesting Machines
Authors: Ackerman Simon , Bekker James , Astrup Rasmus , Talbot Bruce
Published: October 2022

Tree size determines harvester productivity. Stand management determines tree size distributions. Understanding the effect of tree size distribution on harvesting productivity is central for optimizing management of operations. To investigate tree size distribution on harvester productivity, productivity functions for a medium and larger-sized harvesters were applied to harvester derived tree size distributions from 35 clearfelled pine stands. These functions were applied to a normal distribution of trees covering the same tree size ranges. Productivity differences were analysed on a stand-by-stand basis. Results showed that for the large harvester, productivity rates remained constant (67.1 vs 67.6 m3 PMH− 1) indicating relatively little sensitivity to variations in tree size distributions. Although the standard deviation (SD) halved from 11.6 to 5.6 in the case of the uniform tree distribution. The smaller harvesters, productivity decreased by 15% from 47.3 to 40.1 m3 PMH− 1 and the coefficient of variation (CV) by 6% in the same transition to a uniform distribution. Further investigation was done on more skewed tree size distributions, a family of nine Weibull distributions was generated, representing combinations of three mean DBH classes (25cm, 30 cm, and 35cm) and three levels of CV (15%, 20%, 25%), for each DBH class. Results clearly indicate that different distribution shapes have different effects on different machine sizes, and that a low CV correlates to a higher productivity in larger tree sizes. A more uniform tree size distribution also provides more predictable results (lower CV), which would promote machine scheduling and result in fewer discrepancies on production rates.
PDDS: A Software for the Early Diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease from MRI and DatScan Images using Detection and Segmentation Algorithms
Authors: TASSEW TEWODROS , Xuan Nie , Bosong Chai
Published: October 2022

Parkinson’s disease is the second most prevalent neurological disease, affecting millions of people globally. It is a condition that affects different regions of the brain in the basal ganglia, which is characterized by motor symptoms and postural instability. Currently, there is no cure available in order to completely eradicate the disease from the body. As a result, early diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is critical in combating the gradual loss of dopaminergic neurons in patients. Although much progress has been made in using medical images such as MRI and DaTScan for diagnosing the early stages of Parkinson’s Disease, the work remains difficult due to lack of properly labeled data, high error rates in clinical diagnosis and a lack of automatic detection and segmentation software. In this paper, we propose a software called PPDS (Parkinson’s Disease Diagnosis Software) for the detection and segmentation of deep brain structures from MRI and DaTScan images related to Parkinson’s disease. The proposed method utilizes state-of-the-art convolutional neural networks such as YOLO and UNET to correctly identify and segment regions of interest for Parkinson’s disease from both DatScan and MRI images, as well as deliver prediction results. The aim of this study is to evaluate the performance of deep convolutional networks in automating the task of identifying and segmenting the substantia nigra and striatum from T2-weighted MRI and DatScan images respectively, which are used to monitor the loss of dopaminergic neurons in these areas.