bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Defining neutralization and allostery by antibodies against COVID-19 variants
Authors: Tulsian Nikhil , Raghuvamsi Palur , Qian Xinlei , Gu Yue , Shunmuganathan Bhuvaneshwari D/O , Samsudin Firdaus , Wong Yee Hwa , Lin Jianqing , Purushotorman Kiren , Kozma Mary , WANG BEI , Lescar Julien , Wang Cheng-I , Gupta Ravindra , Bond Peter , MacAry Paul
Published: January 2023

The changing landscape of mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein is linked to the emergence of variants, immune-escape and reduced efficacy of the existing repertoire of anti-viral antibodies. A major factor that contributes to the functional activity of the neutralizing antibodies are the intrinsic quaternary changes that occur as a result of antibody-Spike trimer interactions. In this study, we reveal the conformational dynamics and allosteric perturbations linked to binding of human monoclonal antibodies and the viral Spike protein. We identify epitope hotspots of known and novel antibodies, and associated changes in Spike dynamics that define weak, moderate and strong neutralizing antibodies. We show the impact of mutations in Wuhan, Delta, and Omicron variants of concern (VoCs) and differences observed in the antibody-induced conformational changes and illustrate how these render certain antibodies ineffective. Our comparative analyses of the antibody-footprints on Spike variants reveal how antibodies with similar binding affinities may induce destabilizing and stabilizing allosteric effects. These differences have important implications for neutralization efficacy and for developing new antibodies targeting emerging variants. Our results provide mechanistic insights into the functional modes and synergistic behavior of human antibodies against COVID-19, and provide a rationale to design effective antiviral strategies.
Sinusitis Detection Using Neural Network Fusion of Different Classifiers on Thermal Images.
Authors: Katual Jayaprakash , Kaul Amit
Published: January 2023

Inflammation or swelling of the tissue lining on the sinuses is known as sinusitis, due to an inflammatory response, or an infection brought on by a virus, bacteria, or fungus. An unchecked sinus infection can spread to the eyes and brain, causing blindness and brain abscess respectively. In this work, a non-invasive technique developed for the detection of sinusitis from thermal images has been presented. CNN, KNN, and SVM have been used as classifiers. For KNN and SVM features were extracted from cropped thermal face images by taking the output of the first fully connected layer of Alexnet and VGGNet. The fusion of these classifiers has been done to improve the detection performance of the individual classifiers. The algorithm has been tested on a publicly available dataset. The performance evaluation has been carried out on the basis of five indices. Based on the results, fusion with neural network illustrates the highest accuracy of 99.59% irrespective of the feature extraction method, followed by the majority voting technique with an accuracy of 99.18% for features extracted by Alexnet and 98.78% for features extracted by VGGNet.
Spatial Analysis of Socioeconomic Factors at Found Locations of Orphaned Mammals in Champaign County
Authors: Elzinga Colleen , Heniff Stephanie , Sander William , Brown William Marshall , Varga Csaba , Sander Samantha
Published: January 2023

Young mammals make up a significant portion of animals brought into wildlife rehabilitation centers. Unfortunately, some of these “orphaned” individuals are inappropriately removed from their native habitat. As such, there is a need for educational community outreach centered on the proper identification of orphaned wildlife that benefit from human intervention, while maximizing limited resources of rehabilitation facilities. This study evaluated found locations of common mammalian orphans presenting from Champaign County to the University of Illinois Wildlife Medical Clinic (WMC) between 2015-2020. The found locations of the orphans (99 Virginia opossums, 80 common raccoons, 441 eastern gray squirrels, 602 eastern cottontails) were mapped using Geographic Information System (GIS) and overlaid with maps of human population density, income, and education level for analysis. The four species were most commonly found in areas with high population density (p < 0.001) and middle family income (p < 0.001). Opossums, squirrels, and cottontails were found more frequently in areas of high education levels (p < 0.001), while there was no significant difference in education level for found raccoons.
Different response of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities in soil and Elymus nutans roots to long-term warming in alpine meadow
Authors: Han Bing , Zhang Wantong , Yu Lu , Wei Xiaoting , Zhou Huakun , Geng Yiyi , Lu Xinmin , Shao Xinqing
Published: January 2023

Background and aims
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are symbiotic with most terrestrial plants and are important microorganisms that sustain the activity of alpine meadow ecosystems, while warming affects plant and microbial activity and soil nutrient cycling. However, the response of AMF to long-term warming is still poorly understood, especially in alpine meadows.
Methods
We conducted a 7-year field warming experiment to examine the effects of warming (+ 2°C) on the composition of AMF communities in soil and plant roots.
Results
The results showed that warming significantly affected AMF communities, increasing the α-diversity of soil AMF communities and the relative abundance of Glomeraceae and decreasing the relative abundance of Paralomeraceae, while the relative abundance and diversity of AMF communities within plant roots decreased. Warming increased soil organic carbon and effective phosphorus content and promoted mycorrhizal colonization. In addition, soil AMF communities were strongly influenced by SOC, and intraradical AMF communities were correlated with NH4+-N.
Conclusions
In conclusion, our results suggest that warming mainly changed the composition of soil AMF communities in alpine meadows and enhanced plant-AMF interactions.
Evolutionarily recent retrotransposons contribute to schizophrenia
Authors: Modenini Giorgia , Abondio Paolo , Guffanti Guia , Boattini Alessio , Macciardi Fabio
Published: January 2023

Transposable Elements (TEs) are mobile genetic elements that constitute half of the human genome. Recent studies suggest that polymorphic non-reference TEs (nrTEs) may contribute to cognitive diseases, such as schizophrenia, through a cis-regulatory effect. The aim of this work is to identify sets of nrTEs putatively linked to an increased risk of developing schizophrenia. To do so, we inspected the nrTE content of genomes from the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex of schizophrenic and control individuals, and identified 38 nrTEs which possibly contribute to the emergence of this psychiatric disorder. Furthermore, we performed in silico functional inferences and found, for instance, that 9 of the 38 nrTEs act as expression/alternative splicing quantitative trait loci (eQTLs/sQTLs) in the brain, suggesting a possible role in shaping the human cognitive genome structure. Therefore, to our knowledge, this is the first attempt at identifying polymorphic nrTEs that can contribute to the functionality of the brain. Finally, we suggest that a neurodevelopmental genetic mechanism, which involves evolutionarily young nrTEs, can be the key to understanding the ethiopathogenesis of this complex disorder.
Measures of social connectedness in adult populations: A systematic review
Authors: Plackett Ruth , Hulin Joe , Mukuria Clara , Clowes Mark , Ramsey Sheena E. , Spencer Liam , Adams Emma A. , Dykxhoorn Jennifer , Walters Kate , Osborn David P.J. , Zamperoni Victoria , Jones Oliver , Weich Scott
Published: January 2023

Background: Poor social connectedness has been identified as a risk factor for poor mental health but there is a lack of standardisation in how it is measured. This systematic review aimed to identify suitable measures of social connectedness for use in UK adult general populations.
Methods: Searches were undertaken in two stages to identify: (1) measures of social connectedness from review articles and grey literature and (2) studies reporting on the psychometric properties of the identified measures. Grey literature and five databases were searched: MEDLINE, Embase and PsycINFO; CINAHL and Web of Science. Studies based on UK adult general populations (16-65 years) or other English language speaking countries with similar cultures (US, Canada, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand) were included. Psychometric evidence was extracted relating to six general domains: conceptual model, content validity, reliability, construct validity, scoring and interpretability, and respondent burden and presentation. A narrative synthesis summarised these psychometric properties.
Results: Stage (1) 2,396 studies were retrieved and, 24 possible measures of social connectedness were identified; stage (2) 6,218 studies were identified reporting on psychometrics of identified measures and 22 studies were included. These studies provided psychometric evidence for 10 measures, and we did not find psychometric studies for the other identified measures. Six measures (6/10, 60%) reported assessing loneliness and four (4/10, 40%) reported assessing social support but there was a degree of overlap between the assessments of each concept. There was good evidence of reliability across measures, 90% (9/10) had adequate internal consistency, but evidence of content validity was only available for one scale. Five measures (5/10, 50%) reported on at least half of the psychometric criteria, and these were: UCLA-3 (for loneliness), and MSPSS, F-SozU K-6, SPS-10 and SPS-5 (for social support).
Conclusions: Some support was found for the use of social connectedness measures in public mental health research, as the measures were largely reliable. Further testing is required to establish content validity, and to clarify the definition and conceptualisation of social connectedness, to enable standardisation in the approach to measuring social connectedness.
Wavelet thresholding and F-NLM filtering based denoising algorithms applied to high resolution SAR ship detection
Authors: Tong Liang , Liu Dan , Peng Zhongbo , Zou Han
Published: January 2023

High resolution (HR) SAR ship images have distinctive features of multi-scale, multi-scene and densely arranged distribution of targets, while it is still challenging to have fast and accurate detection. To address the above problem, a SAR ship target detection framework using wavelet thresholding and Fast NLM (F-NLM) joint filtering is proposed. Firstly, wavelet thresholding and F-NLM are used to filter and de-noise the high-resolution SAR images to reduce background clutter noise, while enhancing the detection target detail features and edge information, solving the problem of high false alarm rate in multi-scale, inshore and offshore scenes of ships in SAR images of high resolutions.Then, the YOLOv5 detection network combined with the bi-directional feature fusion module (Bi-FPN) is selected to enable the model to better balance feature information. It can strengthen the aggregation of low and high semantic information and further improve the accuracy of the model. Experimental results show that the SAR ship detection framework has better robustness and target detection accuracy than other deep-learning based algorithms. Compared with SSDD and YOLOv5 network model, the Average Precision (AP) is improved by 1.33% and 2.25% respectively.
Intestinal Helminths Infections as Infrequent Cause of Emergency Abdominal Surgery: A Retrospective Study in a University Hospital Over 20 Years
Authors: Barquín-Yagüez José , Juez Luz divina , Hernández Patricia I. , Ballestero Araceli , Martín Oihane , Campo Rosa , Vaello Victor , García-Pérez Juan Carlos
Published: January 2023

Introduction
All organs of any organism can be affected by helminths. They can be seen in a broad spectrum, from simple infestations to extensive, life-threatening involvement. Symptomatology is usually of chronic latent course. However, sometimes the presentation is acute and requires urgent surgical intervention.
Material and methods
We conducted a retrospective observational prospective recruitment study of patients undergoing emergency surgery for helminth infection from January 2000 to December 2019 at a university hospital. Sociodemographic and analytical variables, variables related to the clinical process, and the diagnostic test were analysed. Variables related to the surgical procedure and postoperative complications were also analysed.
Results
A total of 36 patients required emergency surgery for their helminth infection, which represented 0.26% of emergency abdominal surgeries. The mean age was 34.91 ± 21.5 years, with a predominance of men (69.4%). Most patients presented with pain in the right iliac fossa (69.4%), followed by symptoms compatible with intestinal obstruction (19.4%). The most frequent surgical interventions were appendectomy (38,9%) followed bowel resection (33,3%) and ileocecal resection (11,1%). Enterobious vermicularis and Anisakis simplex both together accounted for 75% of the sample. Statistically significant differences were identified in age (p<0.001), diagnostic test performed (p=0.032), intraoperative clinical diagnosis (p=0.005) and surgical treatment received (p<0.001).
Conclusion
The prevalence of emergency surgeries for intestinal helminth parasitism is decreasing. However, the majority of these are E. vermicularis and Anisakis simplex, which have distinctly different clinical presentations. Identification and recognition by surgeons continue to be necessary for further postoperative management and possible complications.
Breaking down the fences among registries on Autoinflammatory diseases: the E-Merge project
Authors: Vyzhga Yulia , Hentgen Veronique , Caorsi Roberta , Wittkowski Helmut , Hofer Michael , Ruperto Nicolino , Lainka Elke , Theodoropoulou Katerina , Foell Dirk , Mosci Eugenia , Gattorno Marco
Published: January 2023

Background. Between the various number of different AIDs, the absolute majority remains to be rare, with a single representative among big populations. Project, endorsed by PRES and supported by the EMERGE fellowship program, performed in line with the Metadata registry for the ERN RITA (MeRITA), had an objective to perform data harmonization attempt of the most relevant research questions regarding clinical features, diagnostic strategy, and optimal management of the autoinflammatory diseases. Results. Analysis of 3 large European registries: Eurofever, JIR-cohort, and AID-Net with total coverage of 7825 patients from 278 participating centers all over the world was performed in the context of the epidemiological and clinical data merging. Information summarized in the registries covers not only pediatric patients, but as well adults, with newly diagnosed AID. General aspects of the existing epidemiological data were discussed in the context of patient distribution around the world, potential diagnostic delay, access to genetic testing, and availability of the treatment. Conclusions. Overall work results indicate great potential for upcoming collaborative work using existing data in cohorts, which will definitely benefit the quality of medical care performed for patients with autoinflammatory diseases.
Influence of Gingival Display on Smile Attractiveness Assessed by Saudi Arabian Laypersons and Dental Professionals
Authors: Alaqeely Razan , AlShehri Fahad , AlRowis Raed , AlSeddiq Amal
Published: January 2023

Objective:To evaluate the influence of changes in the gingival display of the maxillary teeth on smile attractiveness assessed by Saudi Arabian dental professionals and laypeople.Materials and methods:A total of 138 dental professional and 182 laypeople rated the attractiveness of male and female smiles in a computerized survey. Each smile was digitally altered to achieve different levels of gingival exposure. Each photo was accompanied by a visual analog scale (VAS) for rating.Results:Among dental professionals, 61% rated the female photo with a 1-mm low lip line as the most attractive smile (VAS score±SE, 7.3±3.18), while 52.7% of laypeople considered the smile with a 2-mm low lip line as the most attractive (6.7±3.4). Regarding male smile photos, 61.6% of dental professionals found the 1-mm low lip line the most attractive (7.3±3.18). The same rating was given by 48.3% of laypeople (6.1±3.6) (p≤0.009). The least attractive smile photo was the smile showing 4 mm of gingiva for male and female smiles. More than half of the laypeople believed that an attractive smile highly affects social life and communication.Conclusion:TheSaudi Arabian population appears to be sensitive to the amount of gingival display. The difference in female smile assessment between dental professionals and laypeople highlights the importance of dentist-patient consensus regarding decisions for esthetic treatments.Clinical Relevance:Esthetic treatment is of a major concern for both dentist and patient. The careful assessment of smile pillars including gingival display must be tailored to each patient.
Garcidepsidon B from Garcinia parvifolia: Antimicrobial Activities of The Medicinal Plants from North Kalimantan against Dental Caries and Periodontal Disease Pathogen
Authors: egra saat , Kuspradini Harlinda , Kusuma Irawan Wijaya , Batubara Irmanida , Yamauchi Kosei , Mitsunaga Tohru
Published: January 2023

In this study, to find the potential of antibacterial materials, we focused on the plant used for oral treatment by native people of North Kalimantan. We have selected 10 medicinal plants usually used in daily life by native people. We determine samples using antimicrobial assay and Gtase Inhibitory activity. We obtained the most effective sample, Garcinia parvifolia, as antimicrobial activity against the Streptococcus sobrinus and Porphyromonas gingivaliswith a MIC value of 0.5 mg/ml inhibition on both of bacteria and MBC value of 0.5 mg/ml and 1 mg/ml, respectively. The methanol extract of G. parvifolia leaf showed antimicrobial activity in a MIC, and MBC assay by activity-guide fractionation, garcidepsidone B (1) was isolated as an active com-pound. The MIC of (1) against S. sobrinus was 0.02 mg/mL and against P. gingivalis was 0.05 mg/mL. Based on these results, we validated that the leaf extract has been used by the traditional tribe of North Kalimantan.
Fast model-free standardization and integration of single-cell transcriptomics data
Authors: Xu Yang , Kramann Rafael , McCord Rachel , Hayat Sikander
Published: January 2023

Single-cell transcriptomics datasets from the same anatomical sites generated by different research labs are becoming increasingly common. However, fast and computationally inexpensive tools for standardization of cell-type annotation and data integration are still needed in order to increase research inclusivity. To standardize cell-type annotation and integrate single-cell transcriptomics datasets, we have built a fast model-free integration method, named MASI (Marker-Assisted Standardization and Integration). MASI first identifies putative cell-type markers from reference data through an ensemble approach. Then, it converts gene expression matrix to cell-type score matrix with the identified putative cell-type markers for the purpose of cell-type annotation and data integration. Because of integration through cell-type markers instead of model inference, MASI can annotate approximately one million cells on a personal laptop, which provides a cheap computational alternative for the single-cell community. We benchmark MASI with other well-established methods and demonstrate that MASI outperforms other methods based on speed. Its performance for both tasks of data integration and cell-type annotation are comparable or even superior to these existing methods. To harness knowledge from single-cell atlases, we demonstrate three case studies that cover integration across biological conditions, surveyed participants, and research groups, respectively.
Spatio-Temporal Analysis on the Optical Properties of Vembanad Lake, Kerala, India – A Remote Sensing Approach
Authors: S Parthasarathy K S , Kundapura Subrahmanya
Published: January 2023

Water quality is one of the most essential parts of environmental monitoring; even a little variation in its characteristics may have a large influence on the ecosystem. The water quality parameters such as diffuse attenuation (Kd(490)), turbidity, Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM) and Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) are considered in this study to evaluate the water quality of Vembanad Lake, Kerala, India. The lake is considered of ecological importance by the Ramsar Convention and has faced serious concerns over the recent years. This study aims to examine the change in the water quality using Sentinel-2 satellite data in the ACOLITE software from 2016 to 2021. The analysis showed 2.5% decrease in the values of Kd whereas SPM and turbidity show a decrease of about 4.3% from the year 2016 to 2021. The flood and the COVID lockdown had an impact on the improvement in the quality of water during this time. There is an anticipation of the increase in Chl-a content during the period but there is no substantial change in the Chl-a till the year 2020 whereas 2021 showed a 12% decrease in the Chl-a values. This may be due to the reduction in the Hydrological Residence Time (HRT) in the lake.
Air quality and cancer risk in the All of Us Research Program
Authors: Craver Andrew , Luo Jiajun , Kibriya Muhammad G. , Randorf Nina , Bahl Kendall , Connellan Elizabeth , Powell Johnny , Zakin Paul , Jones Rena R. , Argos Maria , Ho Joyce , Kim Karen , Daviglus Martha L. , Greenland Philip , Ahsan Habibul , Aschebrook-Kilfoy Briseis
Published: January 2023

Introduction

The NIH All of Us Research Program has enrolled over 544,000 participants across the US with unprecedented racial/ethnic diversity, offering opportunities to investigate myriad exposures and diseases. This paper aims to investigate the association between PM2.5 exposure and cancer risks.

Materials and Methods

This work was performed on data from 325,264 All of Us Research Program participants using the All of Us Researcher Workbench. Cancer case ascertainment was performed using data from electronic health records and the self-reported Personal Medical History questionnaire. PM2.5 exposure was retrieved from NASA’s Earth Observing System Data and Information Center and assigned using participants’ 3-digit zip code prefixes. Multivariate logistic regression was used to estimate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). Generalized additive models (GAMs) were used to investigate non-linear relationships.

Results

A total of 32,073 prevalent cancer cases were ascertained from participant EHR data, while 16,688 cases were ascertained from self-reported survey data; 7,692 cancer cases were captured in both the EHR and survey data. Average PM2.5 level from 2006 to 2016 was 9.4 µg/m3 (min 3.0, max 15.1). In analysis of cancer cases from both sources combined (n = 41,069), each unit increase in PM2.5 was associated with increased odds for blood cancer (OR = 1.02, 95% CI: 1.01–1.03), brain cancer (OR = 1.06, 95% CI: 1.03–1.09), breast cancer (OR = 1.03, 95% CI: 1.02–1.04), colon and rectum cancer (OR = 1.02, 95% CI: 1.00-1.04), and endometrial cancer (OR = 1.06, 95% CI: 1.03–1.10). In GAM, higher PM2.5 concentration was associated with increased odds for blood cancer, bone cancer, brain cancer, breast cancer, colon and rectum cancer, endocrine system cancer, lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, prostate cancer, and thyroid cancer.

Conclusions

We found evidence of an association of PM2.5 with brain, breast, blood, colon and rectum, and endometrial cancers. There is little to no prior evidence in the literature on the impact of PM2.5 on risk of these cancers, warranting further investigation.
Early Detection and Control of Anthracnose Disease in Cashew Leaves to Improve Crop Yield using Image Processing and Machine Learning Techniques
Authors: P Sudha , P Kumaran
Published: January 2023

Agriculture is one of the primary pillars powering India's economy. It is alarming to note that India's agriculture rate is declining steeply. Climate change, environmental pollution, and soil erosion are well-known factors affecting crop productivity. The increasing prevalence of plant diseases is also a significant contributing factor affecting agriculture. Early disease detection and mitigation actions based on identified diseases in the plants are critical in increasing crop productivity. This study considers a machine-learning model for detecting disease in cashew leaves. This work concentrates on Anthracnose disease, which leads to severe yield loss when it affects the cashew plant. In this regard, cashew leaves are collected and used to train various machine learning classifiers to identify and classify the disease. This work focuses on the segmentation and classification of leaves using various Machine Learning models. For this, Basic segmentation approaches like Global threshold, Adaptive Gaussian, Adaptive Mean, Otsu, Canny, Sobel, and K-Means, and Machine Learning models like Random Forest, Decision Tree, KNN, Logistic Regression, Gaussian Naive Bayes Classifiers are employed. The final classification employs a Hard and Soft voting classifier in addition to the Decision Tree, KNN, Logistic Regression, and Gaussian Naive Bayes classifiers. Finally, we observe that K-Means segmentation with Random Forest outperforms other classifiers. The accuracy obtained from the Random Forest classifier is 96.7% for the CCDDB dataset, and the accuracy obtained from the Random Forest classifier is 99.7% for the PDDB dataset.
Action of the Capparis Spinoza leaves extract as a green corrosion inhibitor for high carbon steel in acidic solution
Authors: Jahdaly Badreah A. Al , Jahdaly Badriah A. Al
Published: January 2023

Capparis Spinozaleaves extract (CS) was studied in HCl (0.5 mol/ L) solution as a green corrosion inhibitor for the HCS using the electrochemical measurements, as potentiodynamic polarization (PdP), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (Eis). The PdP plots showed a mixed role of the (CS)extract, and the Eis diagrams pointed that the charge transfer resistance (Rct) increased as the concentration of (CS) increased. Inhibition efficiency reached a maximum of ~ 97%. The corrosion inhibition of HCS in acidic medium showed a good fit to the Langmuir adsorption model. The thermodynamic parameter, as ΔGadswas calculated and revealed that (CS) adsorbed onto HCS surface via both chemical and physical adsorption mode. HCS surface morphology was investigated using AFM technique, ultraviolet-visible spectrometry and confirmed that the formation of a protective thin film of (CS) on the metal surface. Quantum chemical calculations were determined and supported the experimental data.
An algebraic non-equilibrium turbulence model of the high Reynolds number transition region
Authors: Basse Nils
Published: January 2023

We present a mixing length based algebraic turbulence model calibrated to pipe flow; the main purpose of the model is to capture the increasing turbulence production-to-dissipation ratio observed in connection with the high Reynolds number transition region.
The model includes the mixing length description by Gersten and Herwig which takes the observed variation of the von Kármán number with Reynolds number into account. Pipe wall roughness effects are included in the model.
Results are presented for area-averaged (integral) quantities which can be used both as a self-contained model and as initial inlet boundary conditions for computational fluid dynamics simulations.
TET3 as a non-invasive screening tool for the detection of fibrosis in patients with chronic liver disease
Authors: feng linlin , Liu RanYang , An Kun , Tang Shuang , Wu Jun , Yang Qin
Published: January 2023

Background
Ten-eleven translocation protein 3 (TET3) is one of the key enzymes in DNA demethylation which can be expressed in liver tissues. However, the clinical value of TET3 for diagnosis and treatment have not been reported previously. We investigated the diagnostic accuracy of serum TET3 as a non-invasive screening tool for liver fibrosis.
Methods
212 patients with chronic liver disease from were enrolled in this study. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to measure the serum levels of TET3. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) were determined to examine the diagnostic accuracy of TET3 and combination model for diagnosis fibrosis.
Results
Serum TET3 level in fibrosis cases was significantly higher than that in non-fibrosis and controls, respectively. The areas under the ROC curve of the TET3 and fibrosis-4 index for liver fibrosis were 0.863 and 0.813, and 0.916 and 0.957 for liver cirrhosis. The combination of TET3 and fibrosis-4 index had a highly promising positive predictive value for detecting liver fibrosis and cirrhosis different stages of (93.5% and 100%) as compared with each diagnostic tool alone.
Conclusion
TET3 is related to the development of liver fibrosis and cirrhosis. The TET3-fibrosis-4 model enhances discriminatory power and represents a promising non-invasive tool for the diagnosis and screening of liver fibrosis.
The Druglike molecule pretraining strategy for drug discovery
Authors: Lee Jonghyun , Kim Yun
Published: January 2023

Background: Trnasformer-based AI models have shown outstanding performance in identifying druggable candidate molecules. In most cases, models are trained on a massive amount of database of molecular information to capture the latent meaning of a given molecule. However, the desirable properties of candidate molecules include the feasibility of synthesizing them, low toxicity, and high druggability. In this study, we injected prior knowledge on the desirable properties of molecules during the training process.
Methods: Using the PubChem database (100 M), we filtered druglike molecules based on the quantity of drug-likeliness (QED) score and the Pfizer rule. With this dataset of drug-like molecules, we trained both the molecular representation model (chemBERTa) and the molecular generation models (MolGPT). The molecular representation model was evaluated by fine-tuning the results on the MoleculeNet benchmark datasets, and the molecular generation model was evaluated based on the generated samples (10 K).
Results: Training with druglike molecules enabled the generation of molecules with desirable properties without any conditioning. Although the molecular representation learning model was not remarkable, however, its performance in predicting clinical toxicology exceeded that of conventional molecular representation models.
Conclusion: By training based on a dataset of druglike molecules, our approach enables molecular representation models to predict clinical toxicity more precisely. Furthermore, it enables the molecule generation model to generate molecules with desirable druglike properties without any conditional generation procedures.
The L-enantiomer of β- aminobutyric acid (L-BAIBA) as a potential marker of bone mineral density, body mass index, while D-BAIBA of physical performance and age.
Authors: Lyssikatos Charalampos , Wang Zhiying , Liu Ziyue , Warden Stuart , Brotto Marco , Bonewald Lynda
Published: January 2023

Background: As both L- and D-BAIBA are increased with exercise, we sought to determine if circulating levels would be associated with physical performance.
Method: Serum levels of L- and D-BAIBA were quantified in 120 individuals (50% female) aged 20-85 years and categorized as either a “low” (LP), “average“(AP) or “high“ performer (HP).
Association analysis was performed using Spearman (S) and Pearson (P) rank correlation.
Results: Using the Spearman (S) rank correlation, L-BAIBA positively associated with BMI (0.23) and total fat mass (0.19) in the 120 participants, with total fat mass in the 60 males (0.26) but with both BMI (0.26) and BMD (0.28) in the 60 females. In the HP females, L-BAIBA positively associated with BMD (0.50) and lean mass (0.47).
Using the Pearson (P) rank correlation D-BAIBA was positively associated with age (0.20) in the 120 participants and in the LP females (0.49). D-BAIBA associated with gait speed (S 0.20) in the 120 participants. In HP males, this enantiomer had a negative association with appendicular lean/height (S -0.52) and in the AP males with BMD (S -0.47). No associations were observed in HP or AP females, whereas, in LP females, in addition to a positive association with age, a positive association was observed with grip strength (S 0.45), but a negative with BMD (P -0.52, S -0.63) and chair stands (P -0.47, S -0.51).
Conclusions: L-BAIBA may play a role in BMI and BMD in females, not males, whereas D-BAIBA may be a marker for aging.
Influence of brushing motions on the shaping of oval canals by rotary and reciprocating instruments
Authors: Romeiro Kaline , Brasil Sabrina C. , Souza Thaís M. , Gominho Luciana F. , Pérez Alejandro R. , Pérez Renata , Alves Flávio R. F. , Rôças Isabela N. , Siqueira José F.
Published: January 2023

Objective

The effects of brushing on shaping with different instruments was assessed in oval canals.

Design

Mandibular incisors were assigned to 6 groups (n = 12/group) according to the system, each one with or without brushing: Reciproc Blue, VDW.Rotate, and Race EVO. Micro-computed tomography was performed before and after preparation.

Results

Brushing strokes caused no increase in canal volume, surface area, and structure model index independently of the system (p > 0.05), except RaCe in full canal surface area (p < 0.05). Brushing did not increase the prepared areas (p > 0.05), except for Reciproc in apical canal (p < 0.05). Reciproc with no brushing exhibited less pericervical dentin than with brushing (p < 0.05), while RaCe with brushing resulted in less remaining dentin (p < 0.05).

Conclusions

In conclusion, brushing motion had no effects on the overall shaping performance of the 3 instruments tested. An exception was the increase in prepared surface area in the apical canal segment when the Reciproc instrument was used with brushing strokes.
Treatment of late posttraumatic spinal kyphosis with no osteotomy or only posterior column osteotomy based on prone imaging parameters
Authors: Cui Xilong , Wang Kangkang , Yang Wanmei , Zhang Wei , Li Beibei , Liu Bin , Zhai Yunlei , Jiang Jishi , Haiyang Yu , Zikai Hua
Published: January 2023

Background
The current surgical options for late posttraumatic spinal kyphosis are primarily based on standing x-rays. The degree of deformity is reduced in the prone position. This self-correction of the deformity could be achieved without osteotomy or instruments, making large osteotomies no longer necessary. Osteotomy based on prone imaging data for the treatment of late posttraumatic kyphosis has not been reported. We, therefore, aimed to evaluate the clinical efficacy of simple posterior column osteotomy or non-osteotomy based on prone x-rays.
Methods
From April 2017 to November 2020, we collected preoperative standing, prone, postoperative, and final follow-up imaging data of 18 patients admitted to our hospital for late posttraumatic kyphosis using simple posterior column osteotomy or non-osteotomy. Preoperative prone data of thoracic kyphosis angle (TK), local kyphosis Cobb angle (LKCA), and lumbar lordosis angle (LL), was obtained. Preoperative, immediate postoperative, and final follow-up TK, LKCA, LL, sagittal vertebral axis (SVA), pelvic tilt (PT), and pelvic incidence minus lumbar lordosis angle (PI-LL) data was also obtained on standing x-ray imaging. The operative time, bleeding, and operative complication rate was collected and analyzed. We compared the preoperative, two month postoperative, and final follow-up Oswestry disability index (ODI) and visual analog score (VAS) scores to evaluate the surgical results.
Result
LKCA and TK significantly reduced from the standing to prone position before surgery. The LKCA, TK, and SVA of immediate postoperative and last follow-up data were statistically different compared with those before surgery; the differences in LL, PT, and PI-LL in the postoperative period and at the last follow-up were not statistically significant compared with those before surgery. All patients were operated upon successfully, with an operative time of 152.7 ± 34.2 min, a bleeding volume of 408.3 ± 135.3 ml, no complications of infection or nerve injury, and a decrease in ODI scores and VAS scores at two months and at the last follow-up (P < 0.05) after surgery.
Conclusion
Based on prone imaging, simple posterior column osteotomy or non-osteotomy surgery for traumatic kyphosis with good flexibility and no neurological symptoms is safe, with potential reduction in operative time, complications, and bleeding.
Social aspects of collision avoidance: A detailed analysis of groups and individual pedestrians
Authors: Gregorj Adrien , Yücel Zeynep , Zanlungo Francesco , Feliciani Claudio , Kanda Takayuki
Published: January 2023

Pedestrian groups are commonly found in crowds but research on their social aspects is comparatively lacking. To fill that void in literature, we study the dynamics of collision avoidance between pedestrian groups (in particular dyads) and individual pedestrians in an ecological environment, focusing in particular on (i) how such avoidance depends on the group's social relation (e.g. colleagues, couples, friends or families) and (ii) its intensity of social interaction (indicated by conversation, gaze exchange, gestures etc). By analyzing relative collision avoidance in the "center of mass" frame, we were able to quantify how much groups and individuals avoid each other with respect to the aforementioned properties of the group. A mathematical representation using a potential energy function is proposed to model avoidance and it is shown to provide a fair approximation to the empirical observations. We also studied the probability that the individuals disrupt the group by "passing through it" (termed as intrusion). We analyzed the dependence of the parameters of the avoidance model and of the probability of intrusion on groups' social relation and intensity of interaction. We confirmed that the stronger social bonding or interaction intensity is, the more prominent collision avoidance turns out. We also confirmed that the probability of intrusion is a decreasing function of interaction intensity and strength of social bonding. Our results suggest that such variability should be accounted for in models and crowd management in general. Namely, public spaces with strongly bonded groups (e.g. a family-oriented amusement park) require a different approach compared to public spaces with loosely bonded groups (e.g. a business-oriented trade fair).
Assessment of spatial-temporal balance of carbon sequestration ecosystem service supply and demand by landscape composition: A case study of Guiyang City, China
Authors: Mo Yaguo , Bao Yu , Wang Zhitai , Chen Xintong , Wei Wenfei
Published: January 2023

Rapid urbanization has resulted in an increase in urban carbon emissions, the degradation of the urban ecosystem, and the escalation of urban environmental issues. It was of utmost importance to define the equilibrium between the supply and demand of urban ecosystem services in light of the rising demand for these services. In karst multi-mountainous urban built-up areas, there were a large number of urban remnant mountains (URMs), which provided a variety of irreplaceable ecosystem services. In order to explore the effect of changes in landscape composition on carbon sequestration services, taking the built-up area of the Guiyang city center as the study area, the spatial-temporal evolution characteristics of the supply and demand of carbon sequestration services and differences in landscape composition within cells were analyzed through the CASA model, multi-source data fusion model, and Arc GIS spatial analysis. Results showed that: (1) From 2010 to 2020, the total carbon sequestration service supply and demand of the Guiyang built-up area showed a decreasing trend; (2) The overall supply and demand space of carbon sequestration services presented a transitional structure of “central city-periphery,” but some supply cells were embedded in the city in a scattered manner; (3) When the percentage of construction land in the cell reached 28.8%, the percentage of evergreen broadleaved forest and evergreen needle-leaved forest would be 30.9% and 4.6%, respectively, and the demand for carbon sequestration services would be generated in the cell. The results of this study could provide guidance for urban planners and policy makers to protect urban ecological security and promote sustainable urban development.
A Comparison of Continuous, Interval, and Accumulated Workouts with Equalized Exercise Volume: Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption in Women
Authors: Sun Yerin , Park Hun-Young , Jung Won-Sang , Kim Sung-Woo , Seo Jisoo , Choi Jaeho , Kim Jisu , Lim Kiwon
Published: January 2023

Background: Despite the various benefits of exercise, women's participation in exercise is low. Therefore, we need to consider ways to maximize the effect of exercise. Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) can maximize energy consumption. We aimed to compare the EPOC during different exercise modalities including continuous exercise (CE), interval exercise (IE), and accumulated exercise (AE) that spent the homogenized energy expenditure during exercise in healthy women.
Methods: Study design: Randomized crossover trial.
Participants: Forty-four participants (age, 36.09 ± 11.73 years) were recruited and randomly allocated to three groups.
Trials: The intensity of each modality was set as follows: CE was performed for 30 min at 60% peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak). IE was performed once for 2 min at 80% VO2peak, followed by 3 min at 80% VO2peak, and 1 min at 40% VO2peak, for a total of six times over 26 min. AE was performed for 10 min with a 60% VO2peak and was measured three times a day.
Results: During exercise, carbohydrate oxidation (CHO) and fatty acid oxidation (FAO) were the largest in IE (p < 0.05) and CE (p < 0.001), respectively, and there was no difference in energy expenditure (EE) (p = 0.635) between exercise modalities. On the other hand, CHO, FAO, and EE were the largest in AE (all p < 0.001) during EPOC. As a result, the greatest energy metabolism was shown in AE (all p < 0.001) during exercise and EPOC.
Conclusions: We confirmed that more effective energy metabolism can occur due to the accumulation of EPOC when short-time exercise is repeated several times. In recommending regular exercise, AE can increase compliance with exercise participation through a short exercise time and can help improve health with an exercise modality that maximizes energy consumption through EPOC.
Trial registration: Clinical number (KCT0007298), Institutional Review Board of Konkuk University (7001355-202201-E-160).
AmhEn: Amharic-English Large Parallel Corpus for Machine Translation
Authors: Tonja Atnafu Lambebo , Belay Tadesse Destaw , Kolesnikova Olga , Yimam Seid Muhie , Ayele Abinew Ali , Sidorov Grigori , Gelbukh Alexander
Published: January 2023

Recently, using deep neural networks for machine translation (MT) tasks has received great attention. In order for these networks to learn abstract representations of the input and store them as continuous vectors, they need a lot of data. However, very few research studies have been conducted on low-resource languages like Amharic. The progress of an Amharic-English machine translation task in both directions is affected by the lack of clean, easy-to-find, and up-to-date parallel language corpora. This paper presents the first relatively large-scale Amharic-English parallel corpora (above 1.1 million) for machine translation tasks. We ran experiments with recurrent neural networks (RNN) and Transformer in various hyper-parameter settings to investigate the usability of our dataset. Additionally, we explore the effects of Amharic homophone character normalization on machine translation. We have released the dataset in both unnormalized and normalized forms. Our dataset is available in train, test, and validation split files.
Exploring the types of therapeutic and psychosocial interventions accessed by people with a diagnosis of alcohol related brain damage (ARBD): A qualitative study
Authors: BA MSc BSc (hons) Daniel Mushens
Published: January 2023

Aims
Research into psychosocial and therapeutic interventions that people with a diagnosis of alcohol related brain damage (ARBD) access to further their recovery is scarce. The aim of this research project was to explore the potential benefits or limitations that such interventions can have in relation to their quality of life (QOL) as well as advancing this field of knowledge.
Methods
A search of the literature was completed to ascertain what is known of this topic. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were carried out with six participants with a diagnosis of ARBD residing in a supported residential setting. A grounded theory methodology was utilised to identify emerging themes.
Results
The themes of family input, television and technology, choice, decision making and goal-setting were identified as being key themes of the participant responses with the multifaceted roles of television being of particular interest.
Conclusion
The role of family can be helpful in many ways as well as providing a source of hope and motivation and this should be promoted whenever possible. Offering people with ARBD therapeutic opportunities should be encouraged as low motivation and indecision may be a presenting symptom. However, the multi-functioning role that television can play in the recovery process was most surprising and should be explored further by researchers.
Severe pneumonia and risk factors among hospitalized children under five in Adama, Ethiopia
Authors: Debela Dejene Tolossa , Gemeda Esmael , Mubarik Mariya , Manyazewal Tsegahun
Published: January 2023

Background
Ethiopia stands fifth in pneumonia death rate among children under five worldwide but the severity and determinants of the disease are inconsistently reported, hindering policy and practice. This study aimed to assess the magnitude and determinants of severe pneumonia among hospitalized children under five in Adama town, Ethiopia.
Method
A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted among under five children admitted at Adama Hospital and Medical College (AHMC), Adama Town, East Shoa Zone of Oromia in Ethiopia. Using adapted, structured questionnaire and systematic random sampling, the patients’ parents or caregivers were interviewed to determine the magnitude of the disease and underlying determinants including sociodemographic, environmental, comorbidity, nutrition, and immunization characteristics. The bivariate logistic regression model was used to test the association between variables on SPSS version 21.
Result
The study enrolled 465 hospitalized children under five, with a mean (standard deviation) age of 22.4 (15.5) months, 236 (50.8%) males, and 285 (61.3%) living in urban areas. The magnitude of severe pneumonia among the children was 41.9%. Factors significantly associated with severity of the pneumonia episode were: persistent diarrhea lasting two or more weeks [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 4.31, 95% CI 2.14–8.66], non-exclusive breastfeeding [AOR 3.23, 95% CI 1.23–8.49], undernutrition [AOR 1.73, 95% CI 1.04–2.90], and smoking of a family member [AOR 8.33, 95% CI 4.10–17.00].
Conclusion
Severe pneumonia among hospitalized children under five was higher in Adama town, and more common among those with persistent diarrhea, non-inclusive breastfeeding, undernutrition, and living closely with smokers that require a coordinated intervention.