bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Beijing Xiangshan Forum and Asian Regional Security Landscape
Authors: Chaturvedy Rajeev Ranjan
Published: June 2022

The Beijing Xiangshan Forum (BXF), earlier known as “Xiangshan Forum” is emerging as an important element in China’s diplomatic toolbox. At a time when Asian states, to varying degrees, are receptive to various Chinese initiatives, and Beijing considers itself better resourced to implement its own regional initiatives, the forum is expected to play a larger role in regional military diplomacy and security dialogue. The evolution of the Xiangshan Forum has been a measure of China’s changing self-perception and expanding strategic role in the shifting regional security landscape. As a newly created security forum, the forum can and should coexist with existing regional institutions and complement other stakeholders’ efforts to build an inclusive, robust, and resilient security architecture in the Asia-Pacific.
China’s Party Diplomacy in Southeast Asia
Authors: Zhou Shixin
Published: June 2022

Of the many ways of interaction between states, party diplomacy plays a unique role in shaping international relations. The Communist Party of China (CPC) has been distinctively characterized by its international background since the day of its founding and has always taken a strong initiative toward internationalization in the process of ensuing growth and rise. Its passion for external exchanges and communication has become an outward expression of its inbuilt international nature. The CPC shares a long history of interaction with its counterparts in Southeast Asia, which can be roughly divided into four stages: the hostile stage, the probing stage, the breakthrough stage, and the stage of deepening coordination. It fully shows the dynamics underlying inter-party relations and the clues for evolution in the regional landscape. A careful investigation into this history reveals that China’s party diplomacy in the region is marked by the diverse format of exchanges, the adoption of inclusiveness, the constructiveness of cooperation agenda, and the progressiveness of outcomes. Looking into the future, China’s party diplomacy in the region is ushering in new opportunities. Party-to-party interaction is becoming more desirable for both China and Southeast Asian countries. The agenda has been expanded to cover a broader scope and the interacting process between the two sides is now smoother than ever. Nonetheless, challenges still abound. China’s party diplomatic efforts are susceptible to the volatility of domestic politics in Southeast Asian countries as well as emerging hotspot issues. The agenda and participants of party-to-party interaction often change fast. Consensus reached through party diplomacy is often hard to translate into actions. To achieve success in party diplomacy, parties involved should aim for policy goals that are common and universal, engage with each other as equals, collaborate to make forward-looking plans and catalyze constructive actions, thus laying a solid foundation of enduring peace and prosperity for the region and the world.
Egocentric Early Action Prediction via Adversarial Knowledge Distillation
Authors: Zheng Na , Song Xuemeng , Su Tianyu , Liu Weifeng , Yan Yan , Nie Liqiang
Published: June 2022

Egocentric early action prediction aims to recognize actions from the first-person view by only observing a partial video segment, which is challenging due to the limited context information of the partial video. In this article, to tackle the egocentric early action prediction problem, we propose a novel multi-modal adversarial knowledge distillation framework. In particular, our approach involves a teacher network to learn the enhanced representation of the partial video by considering the future unobserved video segment, and a student network to mimic the teacher network to produce the powerful representation of the partial video and based on that predicting the action label. To promote the knowledge distillation between the teacher and the student network, we seamlessly integrate adversarial learning with latent and discriminative knowledge regularizations encouraging the learned representations of the partial video to be more informative and discriminative toward the action prediction. Finally, we devise a multi-modal fusion module toward comprehensively predicting the action label. Extensive experiments on two public egocentric datasets validate the superiority of our method over the state-of-the-art methods. We have released the codes and involved parameters to benefit other researchers.

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The effect of exercise intensity and cardiorespiratory fitness on the kinetic response of middle cerebral artery blood velocity during exercise in healthy adults
Authors: Weston Max E. , Barker Alan R. , Tomlinson Owen W. , Coombes Jeff S. , Bailey Tom G. , Bond Bert
Published: June 2022

This is the first study to model the MCAv kinetic response to moderate- and heavy-intensity cycling in healthy adults. This study found that the amplitude of the exponential rise in MCAv at exercise onset was greater during heavy-intensity exercise (∼34%) compared with moderate-intensity exercise (∼19%), but the time-based characteristics of the responses were similar between intensities. Higher cardiorespiratory fitness was not associated with a greater or faster MCAv response to moderate- or heavy-intensity exercise.
Performance Evaluation of Financial Support for Transformation of Military Scientific and Technological Achievements Based on Machine Learning and PCA
Authors: Xu Ming
Published: June 2022

The first motive force of development is innovation. If we want to enhance the driving force of industrial development, we must transform the achievements of scientific and technological innovation effectively. Developing strategic emerging industries is one of the most important tasks of our country now. The combination of machine learning and PCA financial support is very important for the transformation of military scientific and technological achievements (STA) in China. Based on PCA, this paper selects some representative input-output indicators. According to the survey, China’s strategic resource allocation has an impact on emerging industries, and there is room for optimization. The form of ownership of a company, whether it holds two positions concurrently, the financial results, and the rights and interests of some shareholders have obvious bad effects on comprehensive efficiency, while the time of establishment and the location of the company have obvious good effects on comprehensive efficiency.
Mechanical Investigation of Carbon Steel under Strong Corrosion Effected by Corrosion Pits
Authors: Yang Fan , Yuan Miao M. , Qiao Wen J. , Li Na N. , Du Bin
Published: June 2022

This study investigated the effect of corrosion pits on the mechanical degradation of steel Q345 under strong acid corrosion. The experiment on a total of 27 steel Q345 specimens corroded by 36% industrial hydrochloric acid for 0 h, 1 h, 2 h, 4 h, 8 h, 12 h, 24 h, 48 h, and 72 h, respectively, is conducted to study failure mode and stress-strain curves. After that, a noncontact topography scanner (DSX500) scanned geometric parameters of corrosion pits in steel Q345 to establish its mechanical degradation. The surface morphology and the corresponding degradation law of corroded steel are also revealed. In addition, the steel plastic fracture criterion taking into account equivalent plastic fracture strain and average stress triaxiality T is adopted to propose the uniform pit model. The analysis results show that the failure mode gradually changes from ductile to brittle. It is noted that the depth and relative size of the corrosion pit are the main factors affecting the increase of the maximum pit coefficient. Further, FEM based on uniform corrosion pits is found by the flexible damage evolution criterion. Its calculation results are entirely consistent with experimental results, indicating that this model can mirror the surface morphology of steel suffering strong corrosion, and simulated accurately stress flow law and necking failure of strong corrosion steel. The proposed criterion is validated with verification results and can provide good references for the design of steel bridges under strong corrosion.
Simulation of Vulnerability to Geological Disaster in Coal Mine Based on System Dynamics
Authors: Li Lei , Zhi Mei , Li Ruihan , Wang Siwei , Cao Lirong
Published: June 2022

The irrational mining of coal mines can cause damage to the geological environment, resulting in the frequent occurrence of geological disasters and high risk. In order to deeply explore the influence mechanism of coal mine geological disaster vulnerability, the three characteristic indicators of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptability proposed by the VSD vulnerability framework were taken as the starting point, and the indicator weights were determined by using the order graph method. The system dynamic model of coal mine geological disaster vulnerability was established and simulated. The results show that the exposure and sensitivity decrease gradually, and adaptability shows a gradual upward trend within one simulation period. When the parameter values of each subsystem were increased by 50%, the management subsystem was the key subsystem that affected the exposure and adaptability, and the exposure and adaptability variation decreased by 11.704% and 17.900%, respectively. The key subsystem affecting sensitivity was the equipment subsystem, and the sensitivity variation decreased by 18.958%.In order to reduce the vulnerability risk of geological disaster in coal mines and improve the safety management of the project.
Physicochemical Properties of Bottom Sediments in Maruba Dam Reservoir, Machakos, Kenya
Authors: Luvai Allois , Obiero John , Omuto Christian
Published: June 2022

Bottom sediments form an integral part of the aquatic ecosystem, where they serve as important sinks for contaminants. However, management options for bottom sediments require an analysis of the physical and chemical properties. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the physicochemical properties of bottom sediments in the Maruba dam reservoir in order to inform their potential use. The bottom sediments were obtained from three sampling points using a vibe-coring device. The samples were analyzed for grain size, sediment bulk density, pH, electrical conductivity, organic matter content, and nutrient content (nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium) using standard laboratory procedures. The results of the study revealed that the bottom sediments were predominantly clay (56%). The mean pH value of the sediments was 6.63, which was found to be slightly acidic. The concentration of cations and anions in the bottom sediments was found to be quite high, with a mean value of 0.225 dS⋅m−1. The bottom sediments in the reservoir were found to be quite rich in the organic matter content (2.10%) and had a mean bulk density of 0.620 g·cm−3. The macronutrients (nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous) had mean values of 0.12%, 0.46%, and 12.81 mg·kg−1, respectively. The study established that finely grained particles together with organic matter had a potential effect on the availability of macronutrients in bottom sediments. The concentration of the macronutrients of the bottom sediments evaluated in this study points to their potential use in agricultural activities or even in land reclamation.
English Language Features in Linguistics by High-Performance Computing
Authors: Chen Dongyan , Awang Suryani , Kadir Zaemah Abdul
Published: June 2022

High-performance computing clusters are mainly used to deal with complex computing problems and are widely used in the fields of meteorology, ocean, environment, life science, and computer-aided engineering. Language is the way humans communicate and communicate. Linguistic features are the stylistic features that distinguish all languages from other languages. This paper aims to study how to analyze English language features based on high-performance computing. This paper addresses the problem of linguistic feature analysis, which is built on high-performance computing. Therefore, this paper expounds the related concepts and algorithms, and designs and analyzes the characteristics of English language. The experimental results show that among the 160 English sentences in two different journals, complex sentences are the most used, with a total of 55 sentences, accounting for 34.38%. The second is mixed sentence types, 47 of which are mixed sentence structures, accounting for 29.38%. Among them, the combination of simple sentences + coordinating complex sentences + complex sentences constitutes the most mixed sentences, which appear 12 times and 8 times in ELT Journal and SSCI, respectively, accounting for 15.00% and 10.00% of their respective corpora.
Study on Failure Characteristics and Reasonable Mining Parameters of Upward Mining of Integrated Coal Mine
Authors: Wu Fengfeng , Lv Bo , Zhang Jian , Gao Zhiqiang , Liu Shibao , Zhou Qingcong
Published: June 2022

In order to avoid the problem of repeated repair of roadways in the upper mining area of upward mining in the integrated mine, taking the roadways in the 302 mining area of Shancheng Coal Mine as the research object, the failure characteristics of overlying strata and the evolution characteristics of roadway plastic zone in the mining process of underlying coal seam were studied by combining theoretical analysis, numerical simulation, and engineering measurement. The influence law of underlying coal seam mining on the integrity of 3# coal seam and the stability of roadways in the 302 mining area was revealed, and the repair opportunity of roadways in the upper coal seam and the reasonable position of open-off cut in the lower coal seam working face were determined. The research shows that due to the influence of the mining of the working face in the underlying coal seam, the plastic failure of the overlying strata is serious during the upward mining of Shancheng Coal Mine, but there is no step dislocation, but the overall subsidence is presented. The plastic zone range of roadway in 302 mining area first increases and then tends to be stable with the mining of 97308 working face in underlying coal seam, and the roadway repair should be carried out after 280 m advance of 97308 working face. Based on the coordination between the influence of the cutting position of the underlying coal seam on the variation characteristics of the plastic zone of the upper roadway and the saving of coal resources, it is determined that the cutting position of the underlying 153308 working face is advanced to 340 m. The field engineering application shows that the deformation of roadway surrounding rock meets the production requirements by implementing the above mining parameters, and the rerepair of roadway surrounding rock deformation in 302 mining area of 3# coal seam is avoided.
Sports-Assisted Education Based on a Support Vector Machine and Genetic Algorithm
Authors: Li ChengZhao
Published: June 2022

A sports-assisted education method based on a support vector machine (SVM) is proposed to address the problem of complex and variable sports actions leading to easy ghosting of target detection and high dimensionality of feature extraction, which reduces the low accuracy of sports action recognition. The ViBe target detection algorithm is improved by using Wronskian function and the “4-linked algorithm” seed filling algorithm, which effectively solves the ghosting problem and obtains clearer human sports targets. By using the genetic algorithm to fuse the eight-star model with sports action features extracted by the Zernike moment, redundant features are reduced and differentiability between different classes is ensured. Sports action classification was achieved by using a one-to-one construction of an SVM classifier. The results show that the proposed method can effectively recognize sports movements with an average recognition accuracy of more than 96%, which can assist physical education and has a certain practical application value.
Piano Teaching Knowledge Graph Construction Based on Cross-Media Data Analysis and Semantic Network
Authors: Li Han
Published: June 2022

With the rapid development of information technology and mobile Internet, digital image, text, audio, video, and other cross-media data are growing explosively, which has changed people’s way of life and work. In view of the issues of negative studying effectivity and challenging attention of college students in the modern-day piano instructing process, this paper puts forward the application of knowledge Atlas technology in piano teaching and constructs a multimodal knowledge Atlas of piano teaching based on deep neural network, so as to make piano teaching more intelligent and improve students’ learning efficiency and learning interest. How to realize the semantic association understanding of cross-media data is the core problem of cross-media semantic analysis. First, this paper introduces the basic rules of ontology construction and the basic method of establishing general knowledge graph are introduced. Then, taking the piano teaching content as an example, natural language sentences can be expressed and stored with cross-media data using semantic network. The mathematical understanding is extracted in accordance to the herbal language processing technology, and the entities are fused in accordance to the frequent semantic similarity detection between extraordinary entities, so as to decrease the redundancy and repetition fee of entities and the complexity of the graph. The fused new knowledge is processed according to the quality evaluation rules, the qualified part is added to the knowledge base, and then the above steps are iterated to update the database. The great overall performance of piano instructing understanding graph mannequin primarily based on semantic network is validated through experiments.
Improving the Genetics of Tuber Yield and Resistance to Mite to Avoid Mite Incident and to Increase the Productivity of Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz)
Authors: Sholihin  , Indiati Sri W. , Noerwijati Kartika , Wahyuni Tinuk S. , Kuswantoro Heru , Suhartina  , Soehendi Rudy , Bayu Marida S. Y. I. , Sutanto Gatut W. A. , Mejaya Made J. , Budiono Rohmad
Published: June 2022

Mite (Tetranychus urticae) that attacks the cassava plants during dry season can reduce the yield up to 53%, depending on plant age and duration of attacks. The objective of the trial was to evaluate the cassava promising clones for tuber root yield and mite resistance. The field trial was done in Malang, East Java, Indonesia, in 2018 with fifteen clones using a randomized complete block design, with three replications. The glass house experiment for mite evaluation was done in Malang in 2018. A total of fifteen clones were used in this glass house trial. Infestation of mite (imago) was done 1 month after plating with 15 mites/pot on the lower part of the fourth or fifth leaf. Results of the field experiment showed that there was a genetic variability in the clones tested. The fresh tuber yield in 10 months ranged 30.33–55.67 t/ha with mean 41.34 t/ha. The fresh tuber yield of clone OMM 0915-11 was the highest of 55.67 t/ha. The tuber result of clone UJ5d50-207-3 similar to OMM 0915-11 and significantly higher than check variety UJ5. Response of clones to mite attack were as follows: two clones were resistant, ten clones were moderately resistant, and the other clones were susceptible. Based on the green house trial, the response of clones to mite attack was as follows: one clone was highly resistant, two clones were resistant, ten clones were moderately resistant, and the other clones were susceptible. Clone OMM 0915-11 was resistant variety or high resistant variety based on the green house and field experiments, while clone UJ5d50-207-3 was moderately resistant based on both glass house and field experiments.
Identification of Prognostic and Tumor Microenvironment by Shelterin Complex-Related Signatures in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Authors: Zhang Suwei , Yu Hanhui , Li Jiazhen , Zhao Liang , Tan Lei , Song Qiang , Sun Cong
Published: June 2022

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is a common malignant tumor of the oral cavity. Shelterin complex gene (SG) has an important role in regulating telomere structure and length. SG is considered promising as a novel prognostic marker for cancer and a potential target for tumor therapy. However, SGs have not been systematically studied in OSCC. We analyzed SGs based on public data from OSCC patients and showed that SGs are closely associated with the prognosis of OSCC patients. Two different subtypes of SGs were identified in the TCGA and GEO cohorts, and LASSO regression analysis was used to further construct an SGs-related prognostic model. Randomized cohorts and different clinical subgroups validated the model’s accuracy. The assessment of clinical characteristics, tumor mutational burden (TMB), and tumor microenvironment (TME) between high- and low-risk scores groups showed lower TMB, more abundant immune cell infiltration, and better prognosis in the low-risk group. According to the IPS analysis, patients in the low-risk group were more responsive to immunotherapy. This study establishes a foundation for research on SG and confirms that risk scores can predict prognosis and guide clinical treatment in OSCC patients.
Research on the Model of Balanced Development of Compulsory Education and Difficult Problems of Rural Education Based on a Deep Learning Algorithm
Authors: Xiao Bin , Zhou Jun , Zhang Xiaokun , chao Gexin
Published: June 2022

The equity of CE is an important issue in the whole educational cause. Its level has a significant impact on China’s overall quality and economic and social progress. The BDCE is the basic realization of educational equity in China. It also promotes the sustained and healthy growth of economy and society and provides a strong guarantee for building a well-off society in an all-round way. In this paper, the PageRank algorithm of deep learning is used to collect data related to rural education and deeply analyze the problems existing in rural education, providing data support for the development of rural education. Firstly, this paper introduces the BDCE, expounds the problems and reasons in the progress of rural education, and studies the application of data analysis. Then, this paper uses the method of questionnaire to investigate and analyze the difficult problems and current situation of rural education. Finally, the result is that the quality balance of students needs to be further improved. Although the resources of rural education are unbalanced, more than 70% of teachers have bachelor’s degree or above, and there is no significant difference among schools. It can be seen that highly educated teachers have become the norm in the stage of CE. Teachers are generally satisfied and recognized with the teaching process. In rural school education, the degree of dissatisfaction with the school curriculum and course selection system is greater than the degree of satisfaction. This shows that there is a lack of diverse and rich teaching courses in rural CE.
Adipose Mesenchymal Stromal Cell-Derived Exosomes Prevent Testicular Torsion Injury via Activating PI3K/AKT and MAPK/ERK1/2 Pathways
Authors: Liu Hengchen , Shi Manyu , Li Xiangqi , Lu Wenjun , Zhang Mingzhao , Zhang Tingting , Wu Yang , Zhang Zenan , Cui Qingbo , Yang Shulong , Li Zhaozhu
Published: June 2022

Adipose mesenchymal stromal cell-derived exosomes (ADSC-Exos) have shown great potential in the treatment of oxidative stress induced by ischemia-reperfusion injury. However, alleviation of testicular torsion injury by ADSC-Exos has not been reported. Therefore, we investigated the protective effect of ADSC-Exos against testicular torsion-detorsion injury. ADSC-Exos were isolated by ultracentrifugation and injected into torsion-detorsion-affected testes of rats. H&E staining and sperm quality were used to evaluate the therapeutic effects of ADSC-Exos, and tissue oxidative stress was measured by determining MDA and SOD levels. In addition, TUNEL staining and immunohistological analysis (Ki67, Cleaved Caspase-3, IL-6, IL-10, CCR7, and CD163) were used to clarify the effects of ADSC-Exos on spermatogenic cell proliferation, apoptosis, and the inflammatory microenvironment in vivo. Possible signaling pathways were predicted using sequencing technology and bioinformatics analysis. The predicted signaling pathways were validated in vitro by assessing the proliferation (EdU assay), migration (transwell assay and scratch test), and apoptosis (flow cytometry, TUNEL staining, and western blotting) of spermatogenic cells. The results showed that ADSC-Exos alleviated testicular torsion-detorsion injury by attenuating oxidative stress and the inflammatory response. In addition, ADSC-Exos promoted the proliferation and migration of spermatogenic cells and inhibited their apoptosis by activating the PI3K/AKT and MAPK/ERK1/2 signaling pathways.
Visibility Detection of 3D Objects and Visual K-Nearest Neighbor Query Based on Convex Hull Model
Authors: Hao Tianbao , Liu Yongshan , Gong Xiang , Kong Dehan , Wang Jianjun
Published: June 2022

With the rapid development of the technologies of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), the accurate visual query of 3D objects which are closer to real world has become a hotspot of study. There are a lot of redundancy problems in the existing axis-aligned bounding box model (AABB) and oriented bounding box model (OBB), which are used to represent 3D objects mostly at present, and cannot be used for the accurate visual query. For example, the results of the visual query must be accurate, and without any error in automatic driving technology in the automotive industry, otherwise, serious safety problems would be caused. The convex hull model could be used to solve those problems. However, there are few studies on visual query based on the convex hull model. A visual query method for 3D obstacle space based on the convex hull model is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the definitions of “query point-object visual body” and “combined obstacle” are proposed. Secondly, the visibility detection algorithm of the convex hull model is given in detail. The collision detection method of “query point-object visible body” combined with other obstacles and line-plane geometric calculation operations are used to detect the visibility of the convex hull model. Then, a 3D visual k-nearest neighbor algorithm based on the convex hull model is given in the paper. Finally, the algorithm is verified by experiments and compared with the traditional visibility detection algorithm, and the analysis of experimental results shows that the algorithm has a great performance and higher accuracy. The growth rate of the query time is smaller, and the speed is faster; especially, when there are fewer query points, the query speed can be increased by more than 50%.
Hybrid Cryptographic Scheme for Secure Communication in Mobile Ad Hoc Network-Based E-Healthcare System
Authors: Sirajuddin Mohammad , Rupa Ch. , Bhatia Surbhi , Thakur R. N. , Mashat Arwa
Published: June 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected people’s lives in all aspects. This pandemic has raised the usage of ubiquitous networks such as mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) for information exchange in various domains. MANET is a group of versatile nodes that communicates with each other without relying on a fixed physical framework. One of the prominent features of MANET is its versatile topology. Because of this striking feature, MANETs are employed in various domains like defense and combat operations, disaster management, healthcare, and environmental monitoring. In this paper, we enlighten the significance of MANET in the smart healthcare system. The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak demanded the reshaping of the healthcare systems to combat the pandemic and similar cataclysms. Existing healthcare systems are proved inefficient in dealing with pandemic situations, because they are not fully automated and also vulnerable to various security attacks. Therefore, it is vital to empower the healthcare sectors by integrating ubiquitous networks and other emerging technologies. In this paper, we proposed a MANET-based secure healthcare system to exchange medical data among portable nodes. Ensuring secure communication in the MANET-based healthcare system is one of the challenging issues. Healthcare system demands the sharing of confidential medical data among mobile nodes. So it is essential to provide secure information exchange in healthcare system by using strong cryptographic schemes. In this paper, we proposed a hybrid cryptographic algorithm for secure medical information exchange among mobile healthcare nodes. The proposed cryptographic scheme uses logistic map for key generation. Logistic map exhibits high security with less computational power. Our simulation results show that the proposed hybrid cryptographic scheme exhibits better security against various attacks in MANET-based healthcare systems.
SPR-Based Sensor for the Early Detection or Monitoring of Kidney Problems
Authors: Mulyanti Budi , Nugroho Harbi Setyo , Wulandari Chandra , Rahmawati Yuni , Hasanah Lilik , Hamidah Ida , Pawinanto Roer Eka , Majlis Burhanuddin Yeop
Published: June 2022

SPR-based technology has emerged as one of the most versatile optical tools for analyzing the binding mechanism of molecular interaction due to its inherent advantages in sensing applications, such as real-time, label-free, and high sensitivity characteristics. SPR is widely used in various fields, including healthcare, environmental management, and food-borne illness analysis. Meanwhile, kidney disease has grown to be one of the world’s most serious public health problems in recent decades, resulting in physical degeneration and even death. As a result, several studies have published their findings regarding developing of reliable sensor technology based on the SPR phenomenon. However, an integrated and comprehensive discussion regarding the application of SPR-based sensors for detecting of kidney disease has not yet been found. Therefore, this review will discuss the recent advancements in the development of SPR-based sensors for monitoring kidney-related diseases. Numerous SPR configurations will be discussed, including Kretschmann, Otto, optical fiber-based SPR, and LSPR, which are all used to detect analytes associated with kidney disease, including urea, creatinine, glucose, uric acid, and dopamine. This review aims to show the broad application of SPR sensors which encouraged the development of SPR sensors for kidney problems monitoring.
Improved Analysis of COVID-19 Influenced Pneumonia from the Chest X-Rays Using Fine-Tuned Residual Networks
Authors: Ksibi Amel , Zakariah Mohammed , Ayadi Manel , Elmannai Hela , Shukla Prashant Kumar , Awal Halifa , Hamdi Monia
Published: June 2022

COVID-19 has remained a threat to world life despite a recent reduction in cases. There is still a possibility that the virus will evolve and become more contagious. If such a situation occurs, the resulting calamity will be worse than in the past if we act irresponsibly. COVID-19 must be widely screened and recognized early to avert a global epidemic. Positive individuals should be quarantined immediately, as this is the only effective way to prevent a global tragedy that has occurred previously. No positive case should go unrecognized. However, current COVID-19 detection procedures require a significant amount of time during human examination based on genetic and imaging techniques. Apart from RT-PCR and antigen-based tests, CXR and CT imaging techniques aid in the rapid and cost-effective identification of COVID. However, discriminating between diseased and normal X-rays is a time-consuming and challenging task requiring an expert’s skill. In such a case, the only solution was an automatic diagnosis strategy for identifying COVID-19 instances from chest X-ray images. This article utilized a deep convolutional neural network, ResNet, which has been demonstrated to be the most effective for image classification. The present model is trained using pretrained ResNet on ImageNet weights. The versions of ResNet34, ResNet50, and ResNet101 were implemented and validated against the dataset. With a more extensive network, the accuracy appeared to improve. Nonetheless, our objective was to balance accuracy and training time on a larger dataset. By comparing the prediction outcomes of the three models, we concluded that ResNet34 is a more likely candidate for COVID-19 detection from chest X-rays. The highest accuracy level reached 98.34%, which was higher than the accuracy achieved by other state-of-the-art approaches examined in earlier studies. Subsequent analysis indicated that the incorrect predictions occurred with approximately 100% certainty. This uncovered a severe weakness in CNN, particularly in the medical area, where critical decisions are made. However, this can be addressed further in a future study by developing a modified model to incorporate uncertainty into the predictions, allowing medical personnel to manually review the incorrect predictions.
The Role of Virtual Clinics in Postoperative Total Knee Replacement Surgery Follow-Up during COVID-19 Pandemic
Authors: Sumargono Endrotomo , Anastasia Maria , Saleh Ifran , Kholinne Erica
Published: June 2022

Background. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of the virtual clinic for outpatient follow-up care after TKR surgery. Methods. A total of 546 TKR surgeries were performed from January 2017 to December 2019. 30 patients were not able to go the hospital for routine follow-up. The data collections were taken for age, gender, year of surgery, functional score (Oxford Knee Score (OKS)), and active range of motion (ROM). The virtual clinic was conducted with the physician assistant and the operating surgeon via WhatsApp video call (WhatsApp Inc., Mountain View, California, USA) or Zoom (Zoom Video Communications, Inc., San Jose, California, USA). Result. The average follow-up period was 39.1 months. The earliest follow-up was 20 months, while the longest follow-up was 97 months. The average OKS score was 45. The average consultation time for the virtual clinic is 9 minutes 21 seconds. Most of the patients were satisfied with the online consultation, with only two patients having a satisfaction score below 80%. Conclusion. The virtual clinic for TKR surgery showed a high satisfaction rate during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has the potential to extend to the postpandemic era.
Synergistic Effects of IL-12 and IL-18 in Skewing Tumor-Reactive T-Cell Responses Towards a Type 1 Pattern
Authors: Li Qiao , Carr Abbey L. , Donald Elizabeth J. , Skitzki Joseph J. , Okuyama Ryugi , Stoolman Lloyd M. , Chang Alfred E.
Published: June 2022

We have previously described the antitumor reactivity of tumor-draining lymph node (TDLN) cells after secondary activation with antibodies. In this report, we examined the effects of interleukin (IL)-12 and IL-18 on modulating the immune function of antibody-activated murine TDLN cells. TDLN cells were activated with anti-CD3/anti-CD28 monoclonal antibody followed by stimulation with IL-12 and/or IL-18. IL-18 in combination with IL-12 showed a synergistic effect in augmenting IFNγ and granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor secretion, whereas IL-18 alone had minimal effect. Concurrently, IL-18 prevented IL-12–stimulated TDLN cells from producing IL-10. The IL-12/IL-18–cultured TDLN cells therefore manifested cytokine responses skewed towards a Th1/Tc1 pattern. IL-12 and IL-18 stimulated CD4+ TDLN cells and enhanced IFNγ production by CD4+ cells to a greater extent than by CD8+ cells. Use of NF-κB p50−/− TDLN cells suggested the involvement of NF-κB in the IL-12/IL-18 polarization effect. Furthermore, a specific NF-κB inhibitor significantly suppressed IL-12/IL-18–induced IFNγ secretion, thus confirming the requirement for NF-κB activation in IL-12/IL-18 signaling. In adoptive immunotherapy, IL-12– and IL-18–cultured TDLN cells infiltrated pulmonary tumor nodules and eradicated established tumor metastases more efficiently than T cells generated with IL-12 or IL-18 alone. Antibody depletion revealed that both CD4+ and CD8+ cells were involved in the tumor rejection induced by IL-12/IL-18–cultured TDLN cells. These studies indicate that IL-12 and IL-18 can be used to generate potent CD4+ and CD8+ antitumor effector cells by synergistically polarizing antibody-activated TDLN cells towards a Th1 and Tc1 phenotype.
Inhibition of Mammary Carcinoma Development in HER-2/neu Transgenic Mice through Induction of Autoimmunity by Xenogeneic DNA Vaccination
Authors: Pupa Serenella M. , Iezzi Manuela , Di Carlo Emma , Invernizzi AnnaMaria , Cavallo Federica , Meazza Raffaella , Comes Alberto , Ferrini Silvano , Musiani Piero , Ménard Sylvie
Published: June 2022

Plasmid DNA vectors encoding the full-length (VR1012/HER-2-FL) or only the extracellular and transmembrane domains (VR1012/HER-2-ECD-TM) of human (h) HER-2/neu proto-oncogene were used to vaccinate HER-2/neu transgenic mice (N202) engineered to overexpress the rat (r) neu proto-oncogene product (r-p185neu). Both the full-length and the deleted vaccines were significantly (P = 0.0001 and P = 0.06, respectively) more active than the empty vector (VR1012/EV) in preventing and delaying HER-2/neu-driven mammary carcinogenesis. A low-level intratumoral infiltrate of dendritic cells, macrophages, CD8 T cells and polymorphonuclear granulocytes in association with low-level cytokine production was observed, which was not detected in tumors from control mice. Morphologic analyses showed that vaccination with VR1012/HER-2-FL or ECD-TM also efficiently hampered the development of terminal ductal lobular units (TDLU). Analyses of sera from vaccinated mice revealed high titers of antihuman HER-2/neu antibodies, which correlated with the delayed time of tumor onset (P = 0.002). These antibodies did not cross-react with r-p185neu. Nontransgenic mice treated with the vaccines produced autoreactive antibodies targeting mouse (m)-p185neu and showed impaired function of the lactating mammary gland and accelerated involution of the gland after weaning. Together, these data indicate that xenogeneic DNA immunization breaks tolerance against the endogenous m-p185neu, impairing the development of mammary TDLU in which m-p185neu expression is concentrated. The reduction in the number of TDLU decreases the number of glandular structures available for r-p185neu-dependent mammary carcinogenesis, resulting in a significant inhibition of mammary carcinoma development.
Anastellin, a Fragment of the First Type III Repeat of Fibronectin, Inhibits Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase and Causes G1 Arrest in Human Microvessel Endothelial Cells
Authors: Ambesi Anthony , Klein R. Matthew , Pumiglia Kevin M. , McKeown-Longo Paula J.
Published: June 2022

The formation of a microvascular endothelium plays a critical role in the growth and metastasis of established tumors. The ability of a fragment from the first type III repeat of fibronectin (III1C), anastellin, to suppress tumor growth and metastasis in vivo has been reported to be related to its antiangiogenic properties, however, the mechanism of action of anastellin remains unknown. Utilizing cultures of human dermal microvascular endothelial cells, we provide evidence that anastellin inhibits signaling pathways which regulate the extracellular signal-regulated (ERK) mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway and subsequent expression of cell cycle regulatory proteins. Addition of anastellin to primary microvascular endothelial cells resulted in a complete inhibition of serum-dependent proliferation. Growth inhibition correlated with a decrease in serum-dependent expression of cyclin D1, cyclin A and the cyclin-dependent kinase, cdk4, key regulators of cell cycle progression through G1 phase. Consistent with a block in G1-S transition, anastellin inhibited serum-dependent incorporation of [3H]-thymidine into S-phase nuclei. Addition of anastellin to serum-starved microvessel cells resulted in a time-dependent and dose-dependent decrease in basal levels of phosphorylated MEK/ERK and blocked serum-dependent activation of ERK. Adenoviral infection with Ad.ΔB-Raf:ER, an inducible estrogen receptor-B-Raf fusion protein, restored levels of active ERK in anastellin-treated cells, rescued levels of cyclin D1, cyclin A, and cdk4, and rescued [3H]-thymidine incorporation. These data suggest that the antiangiogenic properties of anastellin observed in mouse models of human cancer may be due to its ability to block endothelial cell proliferation by modulating ERK signaling pathways and down-regulating cell cycle regulatory gene expression required for G1-S phase progression.
The Dual ErbB1/ErbB2 Inhibitor, Lapatinib (GW572016), Cooperates with Tamoxifen to Inhibit Both Cell Proliferation- and Estrogen-Dependent Gene Expression in Antiestrogen-Resistant Breast Cancer
Authors: Chu Isabel , Blackwell Kimberly , Chen Susie , Slingerland Joyce
Published: June 2022

Effective treatment of estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancers with tamoxifen is often curtailed by the development of drug resistance. Antiestrogen-resistant breast cancers often show increased expression of the epidermal growth factor receptor family members, ErbB1 and ErbB2. Tamoxifen activates the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor, p27 to mediate G1 arrest. ErbB2 or ErbB1 overexpression can abrogate tamoxifen sensitivity in breast cancer lines through both reduction in p27 levels and inhibition of its function. Here we show that the dual ErbB1/ErbB2 inhibitor, lapatinib (GW572016), can restore tamoxifen sensitivity in ER-positive, tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer models. Treatment of MCF-7pr, T-47D, and ZR-75 cells with lapatinib or tamoxifen alone caused an incomplete cell cycle arrest. Treatment with both drugs led to a more rapid and profound cell cycle arrest in all three lines. Mitogen-activated protein kinase and protein kinase B were inhibited by lapatinib. The two drugs together caused a greater reduction of cyclin D1 and a greater p27 increase and cyclin E-cdk2 inhibition than observed with either drug alone. In addition to inhibiting mitogenic signaling and cell cycle progression, lapatinib inhibited estrogen-stimulated ER transcriptional activity and cooperated with tamoxifen to further reduce ER-dependent transcription. Lapatinib in combination with tamoxifen effectively inhibited the growth of tamoxifen-resistant ErbB2 overexpressing MCF-7 mammary tumor xenografts. These data provide strong preclinical data to support clinical trials of ErbB1/ErbB2 inhibitors in combination with tamoxifen in the treatment of human breast cancer.
A Spliced Isoform of Interleukin 6 mRNA Produced by Renal Cell Carcinoma Encodes for an Interleukin 6 Inhibitor
Authors: Alberti Laurent , Bachelot Thoma , Duc Adeline , Biota Catherine , Blay Jean Yves
Published: June 2022

Interleukin 6 (IL-6) is a multifunctional and pleiotropic cytokine and in renal cell carinoma (RCC), this cytokine exerts proinflammatory, immunosuppressive and growth stimulating properties. A spliced isoform of IL-6 mRNA has been described in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and encodes for a potential protein lacking IL-6 activity. In the present study, a novel spliced form of IL-6 mRNA was found detectable in RCC cell lines, normal renal cells, but not in other tumor cells. This splicing resulted in a frameshift and the generation of multiple stop codon in the spliced IL-6 mRNA. However, two ATG of the third IL-6 exon were identified as translation initiation sites and two truncated IL-6 (tIL-6) with the expected molecular weight were recovered from transfected cell supernatant. The cDNA of a spliced form of IL-6 mRNA detected in RCC lines was cloned, and expressed in a baculovirus expression vector. The functional properties of the tIL-6 were investigated and this protein blocked IL-6 bioactivity, including mitogenic activity on tumor cells. In conclusion, this spliced form of IL-6 mRNA detected in RCC encodes for a truncated IL-6 with IL-6 antagonist properties.
Modification of Professional Antigen-Presenting Cells with Small Interfering RNAIn vivoto Enhance Cancer Vaccine Potency
Authors: Kim Tae Woo , Lee Jin-Hyup , He Liangmei , Boyd David A.K. , Hardwick J. Marie , Hung Chien-Fu , Wu T-C.
Published: June 2022

RNA interference using small interfering RNA (siRNA) is an effective means of silencing gene expression in cells. Intradermal administration of nucleic acids via gene gun represents an efficient method for delivering nucleic acids to professional antigen-presenting cells in vivo. In this study, we show that the coadministration of DNA vaccines encoding human papillomavirus type 16 E7 with siRNA targeting key proapoptotic proteins Bak and Bax prolongs the lives of antigen-expressing dendritic cells in the draining lymph nodes, enhances antigen-specific CD8+ T-cell responses, and elicits potent antitumor effects against an E7-expressing tumor model in vaccinated mice. Our data indicate that intradermal administration of siRNA to manipulate gene expression represents a plausible strategy for modification of the properties of professional antigen-presenting cells in vivo to enhance cancer vaccine potency.
Genome-Wide Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Analysis Reveals Frequent Partial Uniparental Disomy Due to Somatic Recombination in Acute Myeloid Leukemias
Authors: Raghavan Manoj , Lillington Debra M. , Skoulakis Spyros , Debernardi Silvana , Chaplin Tracy , Foot Nicola J. , Lister T. Andrew , Young Bryan D.
Published: June 2022

Genome-wide analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms in 64 acute myeloid leukemias has revealed that ∼20% exhibited large regions of homozygosity that could not be accounted for by visible chromosomal abnormalities in the karyotype. Further analysis confirmed that these patterns were due to partial uniparental disomy (UPD). Remission bone marrow was available from five patients showing UPD in their leukemias, and in all cases the homozygosity was found to be restricted to the leukemic clone. Two examples of UPD11p were shown to be of different parental origin as indicated by the methylation pattern of the H19 gene. Furthermore, a previously identified homozygous mutation in the CEBPA gene coincided with a large-scale UPD on chromosome 19. These cryptic chromosomal abnormalities, which seem to be nonrandom, have the characteristics of somatic recombination events and may define an important new subclass of leukemia.
Antisense Suppression of the Chloride Intracellular Channel Family Induces Apoptosis, Enhances Tumor Necrosis Factor α-Induced Apoptosis, and Inhibits Tumor Growth
Authors: Suh Kwang S. , Mutoh Michihiro , Gerdes Michael , Crutchley John M. , Mutoh Tomoko , Edwards Lindsay E. , Dumont Rebecca A. , Sodha Pooja , Cheng Christina , Glick, Adam , Yuspa Stuart H.
Published: June 2022

mtCLIC/CLIC4 is a p53 and tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) regulated intracellular chloride channel protein that localizes to cytoplasm and organelles and induces apoptosis when overexpressed in several cell types of mouse and human origin. CLIC4 is elevated during TNFα-induced apoptosis in human osteosarcoma cell lines. In contrast, inhibition of NFκB results in an increase in TNFα-mediated apoptosis with a decrease in CLIC4 protein levels. Cell lines expressing an inducible CLIC4-antisense construct that also reduces the expression of several other chloride intracellular channel (CLIC) family proteins were established in the human osteosarcoma lines SaOS and U2OS cells and a malignant derivative of the mouse squamous papilloma line SP1. Reduction of CLIC family proteins by antisense expression caused apoptosis in these cells. Moreover, CLIC4-antisense induction increased TNFα-mediated apoptosis in both the SaOS and U2OS derivative cell lines without altering TNFα-induced NFκB activity. Reducing CLIC proteins in tumor grafts of SP1 cells expressing a tetracycline-regulated CLIC4-antisense substantially inhibited tumor growth and induced tumor apoptosis. Administration of TNFα i.p. modestly enhanced the antitumor effect of CLIC reduction in vivo. These results suggest that CLIC proteins could serve as drug targets for cancer therapy, and reduction of CLIC proteins could enhance the activity of other anticancer drugs.