bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Prediction of worsening heart failure in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy using plasma proteomics
Authors: Lumish Heidi S , Liang Lusha W , Hasegawa Kohei , Maurer Mathew S , Fifer Michael A , Reilly Muredach P , Shimada Yuichi J
Published: July 2023

Objective

Heart failure (HF) is one of the most common and lifestyle-limiting complications of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). Prediction of worsening HF using clinical measures alone remains limited. Moreover, the mechanisms by which patients with HCM develop worsening HF have not been elucidated. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a plasma proteomics-based model to predict worsening HF among patients with HCM and to identify signalling pathways that are differentially regulated in those who subsequently develop worsening HF.

Methods

In this multi-centre, prospective cohort study of 389 patients with HCM, plasma proteomics profiling of 4986 proteins was performed at enrolment. A proteomics-based random forest model was developed to predict worsening HF using data from one institution (training set, n=268). This model was externally validated in patients from a different institution (test set, n=121). Pathway analysis of proteins significantly dysregulated in patients who subsequently developed worsening HF compared with those who did not was executed, using a false discovery rate (FDR) threshold of <0.001.

Results

Using the 11-protein proteomics-based model derived from the training set, the area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve to predict worsening HF was 0.87 (95% CI: 0.76 to 0.98) in the test set. Pathway analysis revealed that the Ras-MAPK pathway (FDR<0.00001) and related pathways were dysregulated in patients who subsequently developed worsening HF.

Conclusions

The present study with comprehensive plasma proteomics profiling demonstrated a high accuracy to predict worsening HF in patients with HCM and identified the Ras-MAPK and related signalling pathways as potential underlying mechanisms.
NTRK gene alterations were enriched in hepatoid or enteroblastic differentiation type of gastric cancer
Authors: Pu Xiaohong , Fu Yao , Sun Qi , Li Lin , Kwasi Attigah , Ma Ziyan , Fan Xiangshan , Sun Beicheng
Published: July 2023

Aims

Currently, the clinicopathological characteristics of gastric cancer (GC) with oncogenic NTRK alterations are not well known. Although NTRK fusion has been identified as prevalent in DNA mismatch repair protein deficient (dMMR) colorectal cancer (CRC), the relationship between NTRK alterations and dMMR protein expression in GC has not been previously explored.

Methods

Our study comprised 51 cases of EBV(Epstein-barr virus)-associated gastric carcinomas, 94 cases of dMMR GC, 90 cases of gastric adenocarcinoma with hepatoid or enteroblastic differentiation (GAHED) and 256 cases of conventional GC. Furthermore, to investigate the connection between NTRK fusion and dMMR proteins, we collected dMMR tumours of various types, including 21 cases of duodenal adenocarcinomas, 46 endometrioid carcinomas and 82 CRCs. NTRK fusion and amplification were screened in GC and various types of dMMR tumours using fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH), while cases positive for FISH translocation underwent next-generation sequencing testing.

Results

Our findings revealed the existence of two cases each of NTRK fusions and NTRK amplifications, which were all enriched in case of GAHED. Additionally, following an analysis of several types of cancers, we discovered that NTRK gene alterations were only present in dMMR CRC.

Conclusions

Our results indicate that NTRK gene alterations are not enriched in GC with dMMR but are specifically enriched in cases of GAHED.
Trends in social inequality in mortality in Denmark 1995–2019: the contribution of smoking- and alcohol-related deaths
Authors: Jensen Heidi Amalie Rosendahl , Møller Sofie Rossen , Christensen Anne Illemann , Davidsen Michael , Juel Knud , Petersen Christina Bjørk
Published: July 2023

Background

During the past decades, social inequality in mortality has increased in several countries, including Denmark. Modifiable risk factors, such as smoking and harmful alcohol consumption, have been suggested to moderate the association between socioeconomic position and health-related outcomes. The present study aims to investigate the contribution of smoking- and alcohol-related deaths to the trends in educational inequality in mortality in Denmark 1995–2019 among individuals aged 30–74 years.

Methods

Nationwide data on mortality and highest attained educational level divided into quartiles were derived from administrative registers. Alcohol-related mortality was directly estimated using information on alcohol-related deaths from death certificates. Smoking-related mortality was indirectly estimated using the Peto-Lopez method. The contribution of smoking- and alcohol-related deaths to the social inequality gap in mortality 1995–2019 was calculated.

Results

Alongside a decrease in all-cause mortality in Denmark 1995–2019, absolute differences in the mortality rate (per 100 000 person-year) between the lowest and the highest educational quartile increased from 494 to 607 among men and from 268 to 376 among women. Among both men and women, smoking- and alcohol-related deaths explained around 60% of the social inequality in mortality and around 50% of the increase in mortality inequality.

Conclusion

Smoking and harmful alcohol consumption continue to be important risk factors and causes of social inequality in mortality, with around half of the increase in Denmark 1995–2019 being attributable to smoking- and alcohol-related deaths. Future healthcare planning and policy development should aim at reducing social inequality in modifiable health risk behaviours and their negative consequences.
Prognostic significance of peripheral neutrophils and lymphocytes in early untreated Parkinson’s disease: an 8-year follow-up study
Authors: Kim Ryul , Kang Nyeonju , Byun Kyeongho , Park Kiwon , Jun Jin-Sun
Published: July 2023

Background

To explore whether peripheral blood neutrophils and lymphocytes are associated with longitudinal motor and cognitive decline in patients with early Parkinson’s disease (PD) and, to uncover the disease-specific mechanisms underlying these associations.

Methods

Data were obtained from the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative cohort. We included 376 patients with recently diagnosed, drug-naïve PD and 178 matched healthy controls. The patients underwent annual assessments, including the Movement Disorder Society Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) part 3 test to measure motor function and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) to measure cognitive function, for up to 8 years of follow-up. Dopamine transporter (DAT) imaging was performed at baseline and the 1-year, 2-year and 4-year follow-up visits.

Results

At baseline, patients with PD showed higher neutrophil and lower lymphocyte counts, resulting in a higher neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) than that in healthy controls. Higher neutrophil counts were associated with a greater increase in MDS-UPDRS part 3 scores in patients with PD (estimate: 0.25, 95% CI: 0.12 to 0.37, p<0.001). Correspondingly, higher neutrophil levels were related to a greater reduction in DAT activity in the caudate (estimate: −0.007, 95% CI: −0.014 to −0.001, p=0.046) and putamen (estimate: −0.0039, 95% CI: −0.0077 to −0.0002, p=0.042). However, there were no significant effects of lymphocyte count and NLR on changes in the MDS-UPDRS part 3 and MoCA scores and striatal DAT uptake over time.

Conclusion

Among the blood biomarkers, only a higher neutrophil count was associated with faster motor progression along with accelerated nigrostriatal dopaminergic degeneration in patients with PD. The impact of neutrophils and lymphocytes on longitudinal cognitive changes remains unclear.

Trial registration number

NCT01141023.
Centrally acting ACE inhibitor (cACEi) and angiotensin receptor blocker (cARB) use and cognitive dysfunction in patients with SLE
Authors: Dobrowolski Chrisanna , Barraclough Michelle , Su Jiandong , Tanic Milica , Bingham Kathleen , Ruttan Lesley , Beaton Dorcas , Wither Joan , Tartaglia Maria Carmela , Sano Mary , Kakvan Mahta , Bonilla Dennisse , Green Robin , Touma Zahi
Published: July 2023

Objective

Cognitive dysfunction (CD) is detectable in approximately 40% of patients with SLE. Despite this high prevalence, there are no approved pharmacological treatment options for this detrimental condition. Preliminary murine studies show potential for targeting microglial activation as a treatment of SLE-CD, which may be ameliorated with centrally acting ACE inhibitor (cACEi) and angiotensin receptor blocker (cARB) use. The aim of this study is to determine if there is an association of cACEi/cARB use with cognitive function in a human SLE cohort.

Methods

The American College of Rheumatology neuropsychological battery was administered to patients with consecutive SLE at a single academic health centre at baseline, 6 and 12 months. Scores were compared with sex-matched and age-matched control subjects. Clinical and demographic data were gathered at each visit. The primary outcome was CD defined as dysfunction in two or more cognitive domains. The primary predictor was a total cumulative dose of cACEi/cARB in milligrams per kilogram, recorded as an equivalent ramipril dose. Odds of CD with respect to cACEi/cARB use were determined through generalised linear mixed modelling.

Results

A total of 300 patients, representing 676 visits, completed this study. One hundred sixteen (39%) met the criteria for CD. Fifty-three participants (18%) were treated with a cACEi or cARB. Mean cumulative dose was 236 mg/kg (calculated as equivalent ramipril dose). Cumulative cACEi/cARB dose was not protective against SLE-CD. Caucasian ethnicity, current employment status and azathioprine cumulative dose were each associated with reduced odds of SLE-CD. Increasing Fatigue Severity Scale score was associated with increased odds of CD.

Conclusions

In a single-centre SLE cohort, cACEi/cARB use was not associated with absence of CD. Many important confounders may have influenced the results of this retrospective study. A randomised trial is required to accurately determine if cACEi/cARB is a potential treatment for SLE-CD.
‘I’m not hep C free’: afterlives of hepatitis C in the era of cure
Authors: Kagan Dion , Seear Kate , Lenton Emily , Farrugia Adrian , valentine kylie , Mulcahy Sean
Published: July 2023

Since the advent of more effective, new-generation treatment for hepatitis C, immense resources have been devoted to delivering cure to as many people with the virus as possible. The scale-up of treatment aims to prevent liver disease, liver cancer and onward transmission of hepatitis C, but social research shows that people also approach treatment with its social promises in mind, including the hope that it might reduce or eradicate stigma from their lives. Such hopes reflect broader ideas about medical cure, which is seen as an end point to illness and its effects, and capable of restoring the self to a (previous) state of health and well-being. But what does cure mean among people for whom treatment does not produce an end to the social effects of a heavily stigmatised disease? While new treatments promise to eliminate hepatitis C, accounts of post-cure life suggest that hepatitis C can linger in various ways. This article draws on interviews with people who have undergone treatment with direct-acting antivirals (n=30) in Australia to explore the meanings they attach to cure and their experiences of post-cure life. We argue that dominant biomedical understandings of cure as an ‘ending’ and a ‘restoration’ can foreclose insight into the social and other effects of illness that linger after medical cure, and how individuals grapple with those afterlives. Drawing on recent conceptual re-framings of cure from medical anthropology and disability studies, we suggest that thinking at the limits of ‘curative reason’ helps to better address the afterlives of chronic illness. In the case of hepatitis C, reconceptualising cure could inform improved and less stigmatising ways of addressing people’s post-cure needs. And in the era of hepatitis C elimination, such reconceptualisation is increasingly important as the cohort of people undergoing treatment and cure expands worldwide.
Evaluation of the NHS England ‘Op COURAGE’ High Intensity Service for military veterans with significant mental health problems
Authors: Finnegan Alan , Salem K , Green N , Ainsworth-Moore L , Ghomi M
Published: July 2023

Introduction

In November 2020, The NHS for England launched a pilot High Intensity Service (HIS) programme for treating military veterans complex mental health problems. Seven regional grants were awarded to manage the HIS, including NHS Solent, in South East England. This paper details an evaluation of the HIS, which was conducted from February 2021 to August 2022.

Methods

This mixed-methods study gained quantitative data from a specifically designed questionnaire that included a number of validated psychometric questionnaires. These were completed by either HIS staff or beneficiaries at entry and exit from the HIS, and qualitative data were gained from semi-structured interviews with the HIS staff.

Results

Data were sourced from 45 pre-questionnaires, 25 post programme questionnaires and 11 interviews. This evaluation identified reductions in situational stressors, symptoms and reported illnesses for veterans in crisis. There were reductions in depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder following programme exit. Staff reported that there was no notable changes in stress levels which appeared to remain high at programme exit. Staff interviews highlighted the importance of simultaneously understanding the social and psychological needs of veterans in mental health crisis. The benefits of integrating veteran staff members into military veteran health services were identified, demonstrating improvements in education around military culture in civilian services.

Conclusions

The importance of collaboration between clinical and veteran staff members in veteran health services was noted, demonstrating the positive impact social care provision has on veteran’s overall health and well-being. Veteran engagement with the service was advocated as a result of veterans accessing the service feeling understood. This first independent evaluation of the HIS provides a positive reflection, and adds to the limited empirical evidence exploring veteran engagement in health services.
Incident cardiovascular, renal, metabolic diseases and death in individuals identified for risk-guided atrial fibrillation screening: a nationwide cohort study
Authors: Wu Jianhua , Nadarajah Ramesh , Nakao Yoko M , Nakao Kazuhiro , Hogg David , Raveendra Keerthenan , Arbel Ronen , Haim Moti , Zahger Doron , Cowan Campbel , Gale Chris P
Published: July 2023

Objective

Risk-guided atrial fibrillation (AF) screening may be an opportunity to prevent adverse events in addition to stroke. We compared events rates for new diagnoses of cardio-renal-metabolic diseases and death in individuals identified at higher versus lower-predicted AF risk.

Methods

From the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink-GOLD dataset, 2 January 1998–30 November 2018, we identified individuals aged ≥30 years without known AF. The risk of AF was estimated using the FIND-AF (Future Innovations in Novel Detection of Atrial Fibrillation) risk score. We calculated cumulative incidence rates and fit Fine and Gray’s models at 1, 5 and 10 years for nine diseases and death adjusting for competing risks.

Results

Of 416 228 individuals in the cohort, 82 942 were identified as higher risk for AF. Higher-predicted risk, compared with lower-predicted risk, was associated with incident chronic kidney disease (cumulative incidence per 1000 persons at 10 years 245.2; HR 6.85, 95% CI 6.70 to 7.00; median time to event 5.44 years), heart failure (124.7; 12.54, 12.08 to 13.01; 4.06), diabetes mellitus (123.3; 2.05, 2.00 to 2.10; 3.45), stroke/transient ischaemic attack (118.9; 8.07, 7.80 to 8.34; 4.27), myocardial infarction (69.6; 5.02, 4.82 to 5.22; 4.32), peripheral vascular disease (44.6; 6.62, 6.28 to 6.98; 4.28), valvular heart disease (37.8; 6.49, 6.14 to 6.85; 4.54), aortic stenosis (18.7; 9.98, 9.16 to 10.87; 4.41) and death from any cause (273.9; 10.45, 10.23 to 10.68; 4.75). The higher-risk group constituted 74% of deaths from cardiovascular or cerebrovascular causes (8582 of 11 676).

Conclusions

Individuals identified for risk-guided AF screening are at risk of new diseases across the cardio-renal-metabolic spectrum and death, and may benefit from interventions beyond ECG monitoring.
Emulated trial investigating effects of multiple treatments: estimating combined effects of mucoactive nebulisers in cystic fibrosis using registry data
Authors: Granger Emily , Davies Gwyneth , Keogh Ruth H
Published: July 2023

Introduction

People with cystic fibrosis (CF) are often on multiple long-term treatments, including mucoactive nebulisers. In the UK, the most common mucoactive nebuliser is dornase alfa (DNase). A common therapeutic approach for people already on DNase is to add hypertonic saline (HS). The effects of DNase and HS used alone have been studied in randomised trials, but their effects in combination have not. This study investigates whether, for people already prescribed DNase, adding HS has additional benefit for lung function or use of intravenous antibiotics.

Methods

Using UK CF Registry data from 2007 to 2018, we emulated a target trial. We included people aged 6 years and over who were prescribed DNase without HS for 2 years. We investigated the effects of combinations of DNase and HS over 5 years of follow-up. Inverse-probability-of-treatment weighting was used to control confounding. The period predated triple combination CF transmembrane conductance regulator modulators in routine care.

Results

4498 individuals were included. At baseline, average age and forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1%) predicted were 21.1 years and 69.7 respectively. During first year of follow-up, 3799 individuals were prescribed DNase alone; 426 added HS; 57 switched to HS alone and 216 were prescribed neither. We found no evidence that adding HS improved FEV1% at 1–5 years, or use of intravenous antibiotics at 1–4 years, compared with DNase alone.

Conclusion

For individuals with CF prescribed DNase, we found no evidence that adding HS had an effect on FEV1% or prescription of intravenous antibiotics. Our study illustrates the emulated target trial approach using CF Registry data.
Pulmonary telerehabilitation vs. conventional pulmonary rehabilitation – a secondary responder analysis
Authors: Hansen Henrik , Torre Andre , Kallemose Thomas , Ulrik Charlotte Suppli , Godtfredsen Nina Skavlan
Published: July 2023

Home-based pulmonary telerehabilitation (PTR) has been proposed to be equivalent to supervised outpatient pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) but available randomised trials have failed to reach the minimal important changes (MIC). The purpose of this study was to analyse the proportion of MIC responders and non-responders on short-term (10 weeks from baseline) and long-term (62 weeks from baseline) in total and between groups in 134 patients with COPD randomised (1:1) to either home-based PTR or traditional hospital-based outpatient PR. Difference between PTR and PR on 6MWD response proportion could not be shown at 10 (OR=0.72, CI=0.34 to 1.51, p=0.381) or 62 weeks (OR=1.12, CI=0.40 to 3.14, p=0.834). While the evidence and knowledge of PTR accumulate, outpatient supervised PR for now remains the standard of care, with home-based PTR as a strong secondary option for those unable to attend out-patient programmes.
Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on emergency department attendances for pediatric injuries in Mozambique’s central hospitals: an interrupted time series and a comparison within the restriction periods between 2019 and 2020
Authors: Amado Vanda , Moller Jette , Couto Maria Tereza , Wallis Lee , Laflamme Lucie
Published: July 2023

Objectives

Hospital-based studies indicate that restriction measures imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic have affected the number and characteristics of pediatric injuries. However, few studies have been conducted in resource-poor countries. This study aimed to determine whether injury-related emergency department (ED) attendances in Mozambique were affected during the restriction periods in 2020 and how the pattern of injury changed.

Methods

Mozambique faced two restriction periods in 2020. An interrupted time series was applied to weekly data of pediatric injuries from the ED records of four central hospitals in Mozambique in 2019 and 2020. Weekly numbers of injuries were modeled using a Poisson regression model to estimate the effect of COVID-19 restrictions on trends over calendar time. Then, for each restriction period, differences in injury mechanisms, severity, need for surgery, and intensive care unit (ICU) attendances were compared between 2019 and 2020.

Results

During the 76 weeks preceding the restrictions, there was a stable trend in ED attendances. The weekly number dropped by 48.7% after implementation of the first restrictions. By the end of 2020, the weekly numbers were back to the levels observed before the restrictions. Road traffic injuries (RTIs) and falls dropped during the first restriction period and RTIs and burns during the second. There was an increase of 80% in ICU attendances in all periods of 2020 at three hospitals during the first and second restriction periods.

Conclusion

The COVID-19 restrictions yielded a reduction in the weekly number of pediatric injuries seen at Mozambique’s central hospitals, above all RTIs and falls. The drop reflects reductions in visits most importantly for RTIs, falls, and burns, but was accompanied by an increase in the proportion of ICU cases. This effect was not maintained when the restrictions were relaxed. Whether this reflects reduced exposure to injury or hesitancy to seek care remains to be determined.

Level of evidence

Level III, retrospective study with up to two negative criteria.
Spatiotemporal evolution of biomineralization in heterogeneous pore structure
Authors: Ma Guoliang , He Xiang , Xiao Yang , Chu Jian , Liu Hanlong , Stuedlein Armin W. , Evans T. Matthew
Published: July 2023

A fundamental understanding of the CaCO3 precipitation process in the pore network of geomaterials is important to uncover the mechanism behind the evolution of the engineering properties of geomaterials during the microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) treatment. However, the details about the CaCO3 precipitation process and its interaction with the flow field at the pore scale are not well understood. In the current work, the CaCO3 precipitation process and flow field in a heterogeneous chip composed of two pore bodies, four pore throats of different sizes, and two dead-end pores are presented. The test results show that solutions can percolate through all four pore throats and diffuse into the dead-end pores at the beginning of the tests. As a result, CaCO3 can be precipitated across the chip with some difference in the number, shape, and size of crystals. Fine pore throats are more likely to be clogged, leading to solution percolating through coarse channels, thereby increasing the amount of CaCO3 in coarse channels. Precipitation in coarse channels is also ceased after a certain duration despite the continued injection of the solution. Our work provides insight into the CaCO3 precipitation process in a representative pore element, which can help to understand the mechanism behind the evolution of engineering properties and establish simulation models to predict the engineering properties of geomaterials treated by the MICP method.
Spatiotemporal trends in temperature and precipitation for Prince Edward Island over 1971–2020
Authors: Nawaz Rana Ali , Wang Xiuquan , Basheer Sana , Sonier Katie , Pang Tianze , Adekanmbi Toyin
Published: July 2023

Climate change has been attracting significant attention in Canada lately. This study investigates spatiotemporal air temperature and precipitation changes by developing high-resolution (i.e., 1 m × 1 km grid) climate maps from 1971 to 2020. The climate monitoring data are collected and synthesized from various sources, and then used to develop high-resolution climate maps with state-of-the-art spatial interpolation methods. The error metrics results show that the inverse distance weighting method performs the best for air temperature and precipitation and thus is used in this study. Significant temporal trends show that the annual mean temperature increased by 0.03 °C/year in western and eastern Prince Edward Island (PEI), covering 62.75% of PEI area. Similarly, the annual precipitation has decreased by around 4.8 mm/year in Prince County and eastern parts of Queens and Kings Counties, covering 62.81% of PEI area. In growing season, temperature has increased by 0.05 °C/year and precipitation is decreased by 2.1 mm/year in Prince County. This information illustrates the dynamics of temperature and precipitation toward the changing climate.
Persistence of native riverine fishes downstream from two hydropower dams with contrasting operations
Authors: Freeman Mary C. , Albanese Brett , Bumpers Phillip M. , Hagler Megan M. , Nagy Andrew J. , Freeman Byron J. , Wenger Seth J.
Published: July 2023

Identifying hydropower dam operations that lessen detrimental effects on downstream fauna could inform conservation strategies for native fishes. We compared occurrence of native fishes in 20 shoal habitats downstream from two differently operated hydropower dams in the Coosa River system, Georgia, USA. Species richness averaged 7 and 11, respectively, in surveys downstream from (1) a hydropeaking dam and (2) a dam with a re-regulation structure that stabilized downstream flows. In contrast, surveys in two nearby reference communities averaged 19 and 24 species. Species persisting downstream from the dams tended toward water-column orientation, larger body size, longer life span, and greater prevalence in tributary stream collections, compared with missing or rarely captured species. We observed no evidence of recovery toward reference conditions when operations were paused for 28 months at the hydropeaking dam. Our observations suggest that (1) strongly contrasting dam operations can result in similar alterations to native fish assemblages, potentially reflecting effects of thermal alteration by hypolimnetic water release, and (2) periodic dispersal from tributary streams may enhance fish persistence in flow-altered rivers.
Spin-wave analysis of the ferromagnetic-ferromagnetic Heisenberg spin bilayer with intralayer single-ion anisotropy and interlayer antiferromagnetic interaction
Authors: Chen Yuan , Ou Wanyan , Li Wenan , Chen Jipei
Published: July 2023

In this paper, the spin wave theory is applied to the Heisenberg spin bilayer with intralayer ferromagnetic interaction [Formula: see text], intralayer single-ion anisotropy D and interlayer antiferromagnetic interaction [Formula: see text]. It is found that the effects of both D and [Formula: see text] on the thermodynamic quantities give rise to the two different low-temperature asymptotic behaviors with and without exponential law. For [Formula: see text], the interlayer antiferromagnetic interaction can induce the appearance of the maximum of the layer magnetization at finite temperatures. At the location of the layer magnetization maximum, the approximate behaviors (such as the power, linear, rational, exponential and logarithmic laws) which are driven by the temperature or the anisotropy, are obtained for the low-temperature thermodynamic properties. It is shown that the presence of antiferromagnetic interlayer interaction [Formula: see text] clearly induces more quantum fluctuations than the case where the interlayer interaction [Formula: see text] is ferromagnetic. Our results of the layer magnetization agree with the experimental data of the layered van der Waals crystal FeCl2 at low temperatures. In the monolayer case of [Formula: see text], our results are in agreement with the findings obtained by the existing theories and the quantum Monte Carlo data.
RDN-NET: A Deep Learning Framework for Asthma Prediction and Classification Using Recurrent Deep Neural Network
Authors: Iqbal Md. Asim , Devarajan K. , Ahmed Syed Musthak
Published: July 2023

Asthma is the one of the crucial types of disease, which causes the huge deaths of all age groups around the world. So, early detection and prevention of asthma disease can save numerous lives and are also helpful to the medical field. But the conventional machine learning methods have failed to detect the asthma from the speech signals and resulted in low accuracy. Thus, this paper presented the advanced deep learning-based asthma prediction and classification using recurrent deep neural network (RDN-Net). Initially, speech signals are preprocessed by using minimum mean-square-error short-time spectral amplitude (MMSE-STSA) method, which is used to remove the noises and enhances the speech properties. Then, improved Ripplet-II Transform (IR2T) is used to extract disease-dependent and disease-specific features. Then, modified gray wolf optimization (MGWO)-based bio-optimization approach is used to select the optimal features by hunting process. Finally, RDN-Net is used to predict the asthma disease present from speech signal and classifies the type as either wheeze, crackle or normal. The simulations are carried out on real-time COSWARA dataset and the proposed method resulted in better performance for all metrics as compared to the state-of-the-art approaches.
Vertical Cities: Emergent Patterns of Movement and Space Use in Dense Vertically Integrated Urban Built Environments
Authors: Gopalakrishnan Srilalitha , Wong Daniel , Chin Benny , Srikanth Anjanaa Devi , Manivannan Ajaykumar , Bouffanais Roland , Schroepfer Thomas
Published: July 2023

In high-density, land-scarce cities like Singapore, the successful translation of ground-level urban qualities and benefits into vertical living is crucial for social, economic, environmental, and ecological sustainability. This research introduces a Network science-based spatial analysis framework to evaluate the connectivity and relationships of vertically integrated urban open spaces. Kampung Admiralty (KA), a unique development integrating housing for the elderly with various facilities, serves as a case study. The methodology combines static spatial network measures and real-world movement data to predict movement flows, accessibility, and connectivity. Lift lobbies and elevated garden connectors emerged as critical paths, effectively distributing pedestrian flows. Landscape spaces played a key role in visual and physical connectivity, offering high recreational and social value. Strategic placement of “social attractors” improved space utilization. The study highlights the importance of spatial design parameters in user-space interactions and provides insights into socio-spatial networks at both ground and elevated levels. It identifies key connectors that facilitate effective planning and design of vertically integrated public space networks, promoting social and spatial effectiveness.
Document-level Relation Extraction via Separate Relation Representation and Logical Reasoning
Authors: Huang Heyan , Yuan Changsen , Liu Qian , Cao Yixin
Published: July 2023

Document-level relation extraction (RE) extends the identification of entity/mentions’ relation from the single sentence to the long document. It is more realistic and poses new challenges to relation representation and reasoning skills. In this article, we propose a novel model,
SRLR
, using
S
eparate Relation
R
epresentation and
L
ogical
R
easoning considering the indirect relation representation and complex reasoning of evidence sentence problems. Specifically, we first expand the judgment of relational facts from the entity-level to the mention-level, highlighting fine-grained information to capture the relation representation for the entity pair. Second, we propose a logical reasoning module to identify evidence sentences and conduct relational reasoning. Extensive experiments on two publicly available benchmark datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed SRLR as compared to 19 baseline models. Further ablation study also verifies the effects of the key components.
A Game Theoretical Analysis of Non-linear Blockchain System
Authors: Chen Lin , Xu Lei , Gao Zhimin , Sunny Ahmed Imtiaz , Kasichainula Keshav , Shi Weidong
Published: July 2023

Recent advances in blockchain research have been made in two important directions. One is refined resilience analysis utilizing game theory to study the consequences of selfish behavior of users (miners), and the other is the extension from a linear (chain) structure to a non-linear (graphical) structure for performance improvements, such as IOTA and Graphcoin. The first question that comes to mind is what improvements a blockchain system would see by leveraging these new advances. In this article, we consider three major properties for a blockchain system: α-partial verification, scalability, and finality-duration. We establish a formal framework and prove that no blockchain system can achieve α-partial verification for any fixed constant α, high scalability, and low finality-duration simultaneously. We observe that classical blockchain systems like Bitcoin achieve full verification (α =1) and low finality-duration, Ethereum 2.0 Sharding achieves low finality-duration and high scalability. We are interested in whether it is possible to partially satisfy the three properties.
A Conversation with Francis Enyi: Bridging the healthcare deficit via IVR
Authors: Anjum Bushra
Published: July 2023

Ubiquity's
senior editor Dr. Bushra Anjum chats with Francis Enyi, a senior program analyst with the Information and Communication Technology Department at Delta State University Teaching Hospital in Nigeria. They discuss how Enyi and his team of computer software developers, medical personnel, and linguists are working toward bridging the deficit of healthcare personnel in remote and rural areas in Africa. The conversation also details the team's flagship service, interactive voice response (IVR) software, providing access to quality non-surgical medical care information to the populace, made available via the GSM telephone network.
Back and Forth—On Automatic Exposure of Origin and Dissemination of Files on Windows
Authors: Klier Samantha , Varenkamp Jan , Baier Harald
Published: July 2023

The number of
Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM)
cases has increased dramatically in recent years. This leads to the need to automate various steps in digital forensic processing, especially for CSAM investigations. For instance, if CSAM pictures are found on a device, the investigator aim at finding traces about the origin and possible further dissemination, respectively. In this article, we address this challenge with respect to the widespread Windows operating system. We model different common scenarios of system use by CSAM offenders in the scope of file inbound and outbound transfer channels. This gives us insights about digital traces in the Windows operating system and its applications to get knowledge about origin and possible destination of a file. We review available concepts and applications to support this issue. Furthermore, we develop a recursive-based approach and provide a prototype as plugin for the open source application Autopsy. We call our prototype
AutoTrack
. Our evaluation against the different models of Windows system usage reveals that Autotrack is superior to existing solutions and provides support for an investigator to find digital traces about the origin and possible further dissemination of files. We publish our AutoTrack plugin and thus provide full reproducibility of our approach.
Un-Paradoxing Privacy: Considering Hopeful Trust
Authors: Knowles Bran , Conchie Stacey
Published: July 2023

Extant literature has proposed an important role for trust in moderating people’s willingness to disclose personal information, but there is scant HCI literature that deeply explores the relationship between privacy and trust in apparent privacy paradox circumstances. Attending to this gap, this article reports a qualitative study examining how people account for continuing to use services that conflict with their stated privacy preferences, and how trust features in these accounts. Our findings undermine the notion that individuals engage in strategic thinking about privacy, raising important questions regarding the explanatory power of the well-known privacy calculus model and its proposed relationship between privacy and trust. Finding evidence of
hopeful
trust in participants’ accounts, we argue that trust allows people to morally account for their “paradoxical” information disclosure behavior. We propose that effecting greater alignment between people’s privacy attitudes and privacy behavior—or “un-paradoxing privacy”—will require greater regulatory assurances of privacy.
OLFF-Net: Robust Registration of 3D Point Cloud based on Overlapped Local Feature Fusion
Authors: Li Yanqi , Li Hui
Published: July 2023

Recent advance in high-accuracy sensors has made point cloud become the main data format to characterize the three-dimensional world. Since the sensor can only scan and capture the 3D data within a limited field of view, an alignment algorithm is needed to generate the complete 3D scene. Point cloud registration is the solution for alignment problem that aims to estimate the transformation matrix between two frames of different point cloud sets. In this paper, we propose a neural network called OLFF-Net to achieve robust registration of 3D point clouds based on overlapped local feature fusion, which focuses on extracting rotational-invariant local features while providing enough information to achieve accurate alignment. Extensive experiments on representative datasets indicate that the framework can largely outperform competing methods with an average improvement of 16.82% in the metrics over the compared methods. More importantly, it shows significant generalization capability and can be widely applied to point cloud data with multiple complex structures.
SensorGAN: A Novel Data Recovery Approach for Wearable Human Activity Recognition
Authors: Hussein Dina , Bhat Ganapati
Published: July 2023

Human activity recognition (HAR) and, more broadly, activities of daily life recognition using wearable devices have the potential to transform a number of applications, including mobile healthcare, smart homes, and fitness monitoring. Recent approaches for HAR use multiple sensors on various locations on the body to achieve higher accuracy for complex activities. While multiple sensors increase the accuracy, they are also susceptible to reliability issues when one or more sensors are unable to provide data to the application due to sensor malfunction, user error, or energy limitations. Training multiple activity classifiers that use a subset of sensors is not desirable, since it may lead to reduced accuracy for applications. To handle these limitations, we propose a novel generative approach that recovers the missing data of sensors using data available from other sensors. The recovered data are then used to seamlessly classify activities. Experiments using three publicly available activity datasets show that with data missing from one sensor, the proposed approach achieves accuracy that is within 10% of the accuracy with no missing data. Moreover, implementation on a wearable device prototype shows that the proposed approach takes about 1.5 ms for recovering data in the w-HAR dataset, which results in an energy consumption of 606 μJ. The low-energy consumption ensures that SensorGAN is suitable for effectively recovering data in tinyML applications on energy-constrained devices.
Ionic Liquid-Assisted Vacuum Deposition of Organic Ionic Plastic Crystal Thin Films
Authors: Matsuoka Yota , Maruyama Shingo , Kaminaga Kenichi , Matsumoto Yuji
Published: July 2023

We report the preparation of thin films of 1-ethyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide ([C2mpyr][TFSA]), which is among organic ionic plastic crystals, using an ionic liquid (IL) -assisted vacuum deposition method. 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide ([C2mim][TFSA]), a well-known IL, was used as a solvent to assist the crystal growth. The effect of the IL on the growth morphology and crystal orientation of the thin films was investigated. It was found that the IL-assisted growth resulted in the preferential growth of (100)-oriented [C2mpyr][TFSA] crystallites, whose morphology depended on the deposition temperature and the presence of IL. Growth models for [C2mpyr][TFSA] thin films under different growth conditions are proposed and discussed.
Intelligent Energy-Aware Thermal Exchange Optimization with Deep Learning Model for IoT-Enabled Smart Healthcare
Authors: Ragab Mahmoud , Binyamin Sami Saeed
Published: July 2023

In recent years, Internet of Things (IoT) and advanced sensor technologies have gained considerable interest in linking different medical devices, patients, and healthcare professionals to improve the quality of medical services in a cost-effective manner. The evolution of the smart healthcare sector has considerably enhanced patient safety, accessibility, and operational competence while minimizing the costs incurred in healthcare services. In this background, the current study develops intelligent energy-aware thermal exchange optimization with deep learning (IEA-TEODL) model for IoT-enabled smart healthcare. The aim of the proposed IEA-TOEDL technique is to group the IoT devices into clusters and make decisions in the smart healthcare sector. The proposed IEA-TEODL technique constructs clusters using the energy-aware chaotic thermal exchange optimization-based clustering (EACTEO-C) scheme. In addition, the disease diagnosis model also intends to classify the collected healthcare data as either presence or absence of the disease. To accomplish this, the proposed IEA-TODL technique involves several subprocesses such as preprocessing, K-medoid clustering-based outlier removal, multihead attention bidirectional long short-term memory (MHA-BLSTM), and weighted salp swarm algorithm (WSSA). The utilization of outlier removal and WSSA-based hyperparameter tuning process assist in achieving enhanced classification outcomes. In order to demonstrate the enhanced outcomes of the IEA-TEODL approach, a wide range of simulations was conducted against benchmark datasets. The simulation results inferred the enhanced outcomes of the IEA-TEODL technique over recent techniques under distinct evaluation metrics.
In Vivo Fluorine Imaging Using 1.5 Tesla MRI for Depiction of Experimental Myocarditis in a Rodent Animal Model
Authors: Dietrich Thore , Bujak Stephan Theodor , Keller Thorsten , Schnackenburg Bernhard , Bourayou Riad , Gebker Rolf , Graf Kristof , Fleck Eckart
Published: July 2023

The usefulness of perfluorocarbon nanoemulsions for the imaging of experimental myocarditis has been demonstrated in a high-field 9.4 Tesla MRI scanner. Our proof-of-concept study investigated the imaging capacity of PFC-based 19F/1H MRI in an animal myocarditis model using a clinical field strength of 1.5 Tesla. To induce experimental myocarditis, five male rats (weight ~300 g, age ~50 days) were treated with one application per week of doxorubicin (2 mg/kg BW) over a period of six weeks. Three control animals received the identical volume of sodium chloride 0.9% instead. Following week six, all animals received a single 4 ml injection of an 20% oil-in-water perfluorooctylbromide nanoemulsion 24 hours prior to in vivo1H/19F imaging on a 1.5 Tesla MRI. After euthanasia, cardiac histology and immunohistochemistry using CD68/ED1 macrophage antibodies were performed, measuring the inflamed myocardium in μm2 for further statistical analysis to compare the extent of the inflammation with the 19F-MRI signal intensity. All animals treated with doxorubicin showed a specific signal in the myocardium, while no myocardial signal could be detected in the control group. Additionally, the doxorubicin group showed a significantly higher SNR for 19F and a stronger CD68/ED1 immunhistoreactivity compared to the control group. This proof-of-concept study demonstrates that perfluorocarbon nanoemulsions could be detected in an in vivo experimental myocarditis model at a currently clinically relevant field strength.
Investigation of Chemical Treatments to Enhance the Mechanical Properties of Natural Fiber Composites
Authors: Rauf Farooq , Umair Muhammad , Shaker Khubab , Nawab Yasir , Ullah Tehseen , Ahmad Sheraz
Published: July 2023

A sustainable approach to composites is leading to the use of natural fibers rather than synthetic materials, like carbon or glass, for reinforcement. However, the higher moisture absorption of natural fibers impairs the composite’s mechanical properties. Therefore, to improve the mechanical properties, some chemical treatments like silane and fluorocarbon can be performed to reduce the moisture absorption of natural fibers. In this study, flax was used as reinforcement, and epoxy was used as a matrix. In the first part of the study, flax reinforcement was treated with different concentrations of silane (20, 40, and 60 g/L) and fluorocarbons (80, 100, and 120 g/L). Moisture regains (MRs), absorbency, and tensile strength were measured at reinforcement levels. According to the results, reinforcements treated with 60 g/L silane (S3) and 120 g/L fluorocarbons (F3) exhibited the lowest MR values of 7.09% and 3.06%, respectively, whereas water absorbency was significantly reduced. The sample treated with 120 g/L fluorocarbons required 300 seconds extra time to absorb the water as compared with the untreated sample, whereas samples S3 and F3 showed an increase in tensile strength by 20.16% and 34.80% when compared with untreated reinforcement flax reinforcement. In the second part of the study, untreated and treated flax reinforcements were combined with an epoxy matrix for composite fabrication. MR and mechanical tests (tensile, flexural, and Charpy impact tests) were performed. Results revealed that treated flax-reinforced composites exhibited lower MR values 0.86% for F3 and 0.42% for S3, respectively. The tensile, flexural, and pendulum impact strengths of silane-treated reinforced composite sample C.S3 were increased by 15.07%, 117%, and 20.01%, respectively, compared with untreated reinforced composite samples. Consequently, both chemical treatments improve composite mechanical performance as well as service life.
Research on Crop 3D Model Reconstruction Based on RGB-D Binocular Vision
Authors: Ma Zhiyan , Wan Haidi , Gan Xiong
Published: July 2023

Taking maize seedlings as the object, the implementation of crops 3D reconstruction based on RGB-D binocular vision and the selection of some key parameters are investigated in this research. First, multiple images are taken from different angles around the target. By mapping the maize seedling region coordinate values after the Otsu algorithm and global threshold segmentation to the corresponding depth image, the depth data of the maize seedling region can be obtained accurately. An improved mean filter is proposed to adaptively fill the holes in the depth image. Then, the different point clouds with the fixed step angle of the maize seedling are registered and fuzed. Finally, after the fusion point cloud is simplified, the 3D model of crops can be reconstructed. Experimental results show that the simplification effect of the octree algorithm is better than that of the voxel grid filter. Among all the step angles, the reconstruction error of the step angle with 60° is the smallest. Under this condition, the height error between the model and the maize seedling is 2.22%, and the error in stem diameter is 11.67%.