bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Ominous feedback loop may be accelerating methane emissions
Authors: Voosen Paul
Published: July 2022

Tropical wetlands, getting wetter with global warming, emerge as hot spots for heat-trapping gas
Position-Specific Secondary Acylation Determines Detection of Lipid A by Murine TLR4 and Caspase-11
Authors: Harberts Erin M. , Grubaugh Daniel , Akuma Daniel C. , Shin Sunny , Ernst Robert K. , Brodsky Igor E.
Published: July 2022

Immune sensing of the Gram-negative bacterial membrane glycolipid lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is both a critical component of host defense against bacterial infection and a contributor to the hyperinflammatory response, potentially leading to sepsis and death. Innate immune activation by LPS is due to the lipid A moiety, an acylated di-glucosamine molecule that can activate inflammatory responses via the extracellular sensor Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4)/myeloid differentiation 2 (MD2) or the cytosolic sensor caspase-11 (Casp11).
Analysis of Intestinal Mycobiota of Patients with Clostridioides difficile Infection among a Prospective Inpatient Cohort
Authors: Cao Yangchun , Wang Lamei , Ke Shanlin , Kelly Ciarán P. , Pollock Nira R. , Villafuerte Gálvez Javier A. , Daugherty Kaitlyn , Xu Hua , Yao Junhu , Chen Yulin , Liu Yang-Yu , Chen Xinhua
Published: July 2022

Clostridioides difficileis an opportunistic bacterial pathogen that causes a serious and potentially life-threatening infection of the human gut. It remains an existing challenge to distinguish active infection of CDI from diarrhea with non-CDI causes.
Macrostratigraphy of the Ediacaran System in North America
Authors: Segessenman Daniel C. , Peters Shanan E.
Published: July 2022

Ediacaran sediments record the termination of Cryogenian “snowball Earth” glaciations, preserve the first occurrences of macroscopic metazoans, and contain one of the largest known negative δ13C excursions (the Shuram-Wonoka). The rock record for the transition between the Proterozoic and Phanerozoic in North America is also physically distinct, with much of the continent characterized by a wide variety of mostly crystalline Proterozoic and Archean rocks overlain by Lower Paleozoic shallow-marine sediments. Here, we present quantitative macrostratigraphic summaries of rock quantity and type using a new comprehensive compilation of Ediacaran geological successions in North America. In keeping with previous results that have identified early Paleozoic burial of the “Great Unconformity” as a major transition in the rock record, we find that the Ediacaran System has greatly reduced areal extent and volume in comparison to the Cambrian and most younger Phanerozoic systems. The closest quantitative analogue to the Ediacaran System in North America is the Permian–Triassic interval, deposited during the culminating assembly and early rifting phases of the supercontinent Pangea. The Shuram-Wonoka carbon isotope excursion occurs against the backdrop of the largest increase in carbonate and total rock volume observed in the Ediacaran. The putatively global Gaskiers glaciation (ca. 580–579 Ma), by contrast, has little quantitative expression in these data. Although the importance of Ediacaran time is often framed in the context of glaciation, biological evolution, and geochemical perturbations, the quantitative expressions of rock area, volume, and lithology in the geologic record clearly demark the late Ediacaran to early Cambrian as the most dramatic transition in at least the past 635 m.y. The extent to which the timing and nature of this transition are reflected globally remains to be determined, but we hypothesize that the large expansion in the extent and volume of sedimentation within the Ediacaran, particularly among carbonates, and again from the Ediacaran to the Cambrian, documented here over ~17% of Earth’s present-day continental area, provides important insights into the drivers of biogeochemical and biological evolution at the dawn of animal life.
Benign metastasising leiomyoma: a rare disease and a diagnostic challenge
Authors: Li Mingyue , Lee Ai Xin , Wong Wai Loong , Tan Kim Teng
Published: July 2022

Benign metastasising leiomyoma (BML) is a rare tumour characterised by extrauterine metastasis of histologically benign leiomyomas. We present a case of BML with pulmonary involvement. A 49-year-old woman presented with large pelviabdominal masses complicated by gross abdominal and lower limb swelling 6 years following open myomectomy. Preoperative CT imaging showed pelviabdominal masses and multiple bilateral pulmonary nodules. Initial impression was that of a stage 4 gynaecological malignancy. Palliative total hysterectomy bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy was performed. Histopathology confirmed benign uterine leiomyomas. Biopsy of pulmonary nodules showed benign leiomyomas, strongly positive for oestrogen and progesterone receptors. Definitive diagnosis of BML was made on histopathology and immunohistochemistry. The patient declined letrozole treatment as she had just undergone bilateral oophorectomy. She opted for conservative monitoring of her lung nodules. CT imaging 7 months postsurgery showed disease regression. She will require long-term surveillance scans to detect disease progression.
Disseminated strongyloidiasis after prolonged treatment with corticosteroids
Authors: Mahoney Caitlin , Brown Carina Murphy , McIntyre Brittany , Neal Sara
Published: July 2022

Strongyloides stercoralisis a helminth found in the soil and transmitted to humans through larval penetration of the skin. It is endemic across most of the tropical regions of the world. Infection withS. stercoraliscommonly causes minimal or mild symptoms. This case report describes an interesting final diagnosis for a woman presenting with persistent nausea, vomiting and epigastric pain. Her evaluation included imaging and oesophagogastroduodenoscopy with biopsy. Her biopsy results revealed oesophageal candidiasis and disseminated strongyloidiasis. Important historical clues in this case included previous prolonged treatment with steroids, recent diagnosis of gram-negative bacteraemia, prior residence in Rwanda, and unknown predeparture treatment forS. stercoralis. She was ultimately treated with fluconazole and ivermectin with marked improvement in her symptoms.
Shortening of leucocyte telomere length is independently correlated with high body mass index and subcutaneous obesity (predominantly truncal), in Asian Indian women with abnormal fasting glycemia
Authors: Bhatt Surya Prakash , Misra Anoop , Pandey Ravindra Mohan , Upadhyay Ashish Datt
Published: July 2022

Introduction

Leucocyte telomere length (LTL) is linked to accelerate aging and premature mortality. In this research, we aimed to explore the relations between biochemical and anthropometry markers and LTL in Asian Indian women with abnormal fasting glycemia (impaired fasting glucose).

Research design and methods

In this study, 797 pre-diabetic women (obese, 492; non-obese, 305) were recruited. Demographic and clinical profiles, anthropometry, and fasting blood glucose were evaluated. LTL was quantified by a quantitative PCR. LTL was expressed as the relative telomere length or telomere repeat:single copy gene (T:S) ratio. The subjects were separated into quartiles according to the LTL.

Results

The average LTL was significantly decreased with increasing age. The average LTL was significantly shorter in obese women with abnormal fasting glycemia (p<0.05). R-squared (R2) statistic for multivariable linear model after adjusted for age, family income, education and hypertension showed that LTL was inversely correlated with body mass index (BMI), waist and hip circumference, waist-hip and waist-to-height ratio, truncal skinfolds (subscapular, and subscapular/triceps ratio, central and total skinfolds), fat mass (kg) and % body fat. The relationship between obesity measures and LTL (using the LTL quartile 1 as reference) identified central skinfolds (R2=0.92, p<0.0001), Σ4SF (R2=0.90, p<0.0001), BMI (R2=0.93, p<0.0001) and % body fat (R2=0.91, p<0.0001) as independent predictors of LTL.

Conclusions

Besides age, obesity and subcutaneous adiposity (predominantly truncal) are major contributors to telomere shortening in Asian Indian women with abnormal fasting glycemia (impaired fasting glucose).
Can digitally enabling community health and nutrition workers improve services delivery to pregnant women and mothers of infants? Quasi-experimental evidence from a national-scale nutrition programme in India
Authors: Patil Sumeet R , Nimmagadda Sneha , Gopalakrishnan Lakshmi , Avula Rasmi , Bajaj Sumati , Diamond-Smith Nadia , Paul Anshuman , Fernald Lia , Menon Purnima , Walker Dilys
Published: July 2022

Background

India’s 1.4 million community health and nutrition workers (CHNWs) serve 158 million beneficiaries under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme. We assessed the impact of a data capture, decision support, and job-aid mobile app for the CHNWs on two primary outcomes—(1) timeliness of home visits and (2) appropriate counselling specific to the needs of pregnant women and mothers of children <12 months.

Methods

We used a quasi-experimental pair-matched controlled trial using repeated cross-sectional surveys to evaluate the intervention in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh (MP) separately using an intention-to-treat analysis. The study was powered to detect difference of 5–9 percentage points (pp) with type I error of 0.05 and type II error of 0.20 with endline sample of 6635 mothers of children <12 months and 2398 pregnant women from a panel of 841 villages.

Results

Among pregnant women and mothers of children <12 months, recall of counselling specific to the trimester of pregnancy or age of the child as per ICDS guidelines was higher in both MP (11.5pp (95% CI 7.0pp to 16.0pp)) and Bihar (8.0pp (95% CI 5.3pp to 10.7pp)). Significant differences were observed in the proportion of mothers of children <12 months receiving adequate number of home visits as per ICDS guidelines (MP 8.3pp (95% CI 4.1pp to 12.5pp), Bihar: 7.9pp (95% CI 4.1pp to 11.6pp)). Coverage of children receiving growth monitoring increased in Bihar (22pp (95% CI 0.18 to 0.25)), but not in MP. No effects were observed on infant and young child feeding practices.

Conclusion

The at-scale app integrated with ICDS improved provision of services under the purview of CHNWs but not those that depended on systemic factors, and was relatively more effective when baseline levels of services were low. Overall, digitally enabling CHNWs can complement but not substitute efforts for strengthening health systems and addressing structural barriers.

Trial registration number

ISRCTN83902145.
Management model of the COVID-19 pandemic in socially vulnerable communities
Authors: Marin Gustavo H , Fonseca Jenny , Etchegoyen Graciela , Marin Lupe , Aramburu Itziar Kain , Rodriguez Rocio , Vetere Pablo , Mateo Graciela , Bourgeois Marcelo , Campuzano-Castro Federico , Babbini Ignacio , Marin Gina , Canevari Tomas , Bozzano Horacio
Published: July 2022

Introduction

Several public policies were proposed to reduce the negative impact of COVID-19 pandemic. This work aimed to determine how a management model is capable of strengthening the community network, providing support, healthcare and channelling public government’s aid during COVID-19 pandemic situation.

Methods

It is an intervention study that tested the effectiveness of a management model for both healthcare and essential goods access in a socially vulnerable neighbourhood called ‘Puente de Fierro’ in La Plata the capital of Buenos Aires State, Argentina, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Altos de San Lorenzo suburb area was considered as control group. Variables studied were: level of contagion and death due to the SARS-CoV-2 virus; access to food, medicine and other goods; strengthening of community networks; performance of government programmes in territory.

Results

A new management paradigm was tested by moving essential goods towards the people, instead of making the people move to obtain those benefits. Accessibility to ‘Food Bag’ and ‘Food Bank’ were significantly increased, a reduction of contagion level and mortality rate for COVID-19 was achieved (2.3/100 000 vs 3.6/100 000 inhabitants in control area; and ‘fatality rate’ was 2.8% vs 3.6%, respectively). Support was also provided to installed in local stores virtual payment devices for food cards acceptance.

Conclusion

The management model based in healthcare and goods and service supplies during COVID-19 pandemic reduced the negative impact of disease and its measures of isolation in socially vulnerable neighbourhoods.
Predictive value of the New Zealand Early Warning Score for early mortality in low-acuity patients discharged at scene by paramedics: an observational study
Authors: Todd Verity Frances , Moylan Melanie , Howie Graham , Swain Andy , Brett Aroha , Smith Tony , Dicker Bridget
Published: July 2022

Objectives

The utility of New Zealand Early Warning Score (NZEWS) for prediction of adversity in low-acuity patients discharged at scene by paramedics has not been investigated. The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between the NZEWS risk-assessment tool and adverse outcomes of early mortality or ambulance reattendance within 48 hours in low-acuity, prehospital patients not transported by ambulance.

Design

A retrospective cohort study.

Setting

Prehospital emergency medical service provided by St John New Zealand over a 2-year period (1 July 2016 through 30 June 2018).

Participants

83 171 low-acuity, adult patients who were attended by an ambulance and discharged at scene. Of these, 41 406 had sufficient recorded data to calculate an NZEWS.

Primary and secondary outcome(s) and measure(s)

Binary logistic regression modelling was used to investigate the association between the NZEWS and adverse outcomes of reattendance within 48 hours, mortality within 2 days, mortality within 7 days and mortality within 30 days.

Results

An NZEWS greater than 0 was significantly associated with all adverse outcomes studied (p<0.01), compared with the reference group (NZEWS=0). There was a startling correlation between 2-day, 7-day and 30-day mortality and higher early warning scores; the odds of 2-day mortality in patients with an early warning score>10 was 70 times that of those scoring 0 (adjusted OR 70.64, 95% CI: 30.73 to 162.36). The best predictability for adverse outcome was observed for 2-day and 7-day mortality, with moderate area under the receiver operating characteristic curve scores of 0.78 (95% CI: 0.73 to 0.82) and 0.74 (95% CI: 0.71 to 0.77), respectively.

Conclusions

Adverse outcomes in low-acuity non-transported patients show a significant association with risk prediction by the NZEWS. There was a very high association between large early warning scores and 2-day mortality in this patient group. These findings suggest that NZEWS has significant utility for decision support and improving safety when determining the appropriateness of discharging low-acuity patients at the scene.
Women’s experiences and expectations of intimate partner abuse identification in healthcare settings: a qualitative evidence synthesis
Authors: Korab-Chandler Evangelica , Kyei-Onanjiri Minerva , Cameron Jacqueline , Hegarty Kelsey , Tarzia Laura
Published: July 2022

Objectives

To explore women’s experiences and expectations of intimate partner abuse (IPA) disclosure and identification in healthcare settings, focusing on the process of disclosure/identification rather than the healthcare responses that come afterwards.

Design

Systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative studies

Data sources

Relevant studies were sourced by using keywords to search the databases MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsychINFO, SocINDEX and ASSIA in September 2021.

Eligibility criteria

Studies needed to focus on women’s views about IPA disclosure and identification in healthcare settings, use qualitative methods and have been published in the last 5 years.

Data extraction and synthesis

Relevant data were extracted into a customised template. The Critical Appraisal Skills Programme checklist for qualitative research was used to assess the methodological quality of included studies. A thematic synthesis approach was applied to the data, and confidence in the findings was appraised using The Confidence in the Evidence from Reviews of Qualitative research methods.

Results

Thirty-four studies were included from a range of healthcare settings and countries. Three key themes were generated through analysing their data: (1)Provide universal education,(2)Create a safe and supportive environment for disclosureand (3)It is about how you ask. Included papers were rated overall as being of moderate quality, and moderate-high confidence was placed in the review findings.

Conclusions

Women in the included studies articulated a desire to routinely receive information about IPA, lending support to a universal education approach that equips all women with an understanding of IPA and options for assistance, regardless of disclosure. Women’s suggestions for how to promote an environment conducive to disclosure and how to enquire about IPA have clear implications for clinical practice.

PROSPERO registration number

CRD42018091523.
Effects of competition and bundled payment on the performance of hip replacement surgery in Stockholm, Sweden: results from a quasi-experimental study
Authors: Goude Fanny , Garellick Göran , Kittelsen Sverre , Malchau Henrik , Peltola Mikko , Rehnberg Clas
Published: July 2022

Objective

To evaluate the effects of competition and a bundled payment model on the performance of hip replacement surgery.

Design

A quasi-experimental study where a difference-in-differences analytical framework is applied to analyse routinely collected patient-level data from multiple registers.

Setting

Hospitals providing hip replacement surgery in Sweden.

Participants

The study included patients who underwent elective primary total hip replacement due to osteoarthritis from 2005 to 2012. The final study sample consisted of 85 275 hip replacement surgeries, where the exposure group consisted of 14 570 surgeries (n=6380 prereform and n=8190 postreform) and the control group consisted of 70 705 surgeries (n=32 799 prereform and n=37 906 postreform).

Intervention

A reform involving patient choice, free entry of new providers and a bundled payment model for hip replacement surgery, which came into force in 2009 in Region Stockholm, Sweden.

Outcome measures

Performance is measured as length of stay of the surgical admission, adverse event rate within 90 days following surgery and patient satisfaction 1 year postsurgery.

Results

The reform successfully improved the adverse event rate (1.6 percentage reduction, p<0.05). Length of stay decreased less in the more competitive market than in the control group (0.7 days lower, p<0.01). These effects were mainly driven by university and central hospitals. No effects of the reform on patient satisfaction were found (no significance).

Conclusions

The study concludes that the incentives of the reform focusing on avoidance of adverse events have a predictable impact. Since the payment for providers is fixed per case, the impact on resource use is limited. Our findings contribute to the general knowledge about the effects of financial incentives and market-oriented reforms.
Has the share of the working life expectancy that is spent receiving a partial or full disability pension changed in Finland over the period 2005–2018? A longitudinal register-based study
Authors: Leinonen Taina , Viikari-Juntura Eira , Solovieva Svetlana
Published: July 2022

Objectives

The share of the overall working careers that is spent receiving disability benefits is unclear. We examined trends in full-time equivalent working life expectancy (FTE-WLE) among those with and without receiving a permanent full or partial disability pension in Finland, where certain amounts of work are allowed while receiving these pensions.

Design

Longitudinal register-based study.

Setting

Finnish population.

Participants

Nationally representative 70% samples of the working-age population.

Outcome

Using the Sullivan method, we examined annual FTE-WLE at age 45, truncated at age 63, in 2005–2018 by disability pension status. Full-time equivalent work participation was based on combined information on annual employment days and work income.

Results

Compared with those with no disability pension, disability pensioners had a larger relative (full and partial pensioners of both genders) and absolute (male partial pensioners) increase in the FTE-WLE between 2005 and 2018. In 2018, the FTE-WLE of both male and female full disability pensioners was around 3.5 months, being 6 months at its highest in musculoskeletal diseases. The FTE-WLE of partial disability pensioners was around 6.5 and 8 years among men and women, respectively, being around half of the corresponding expectancies of non-pensioners. The FTE-WLE of partial disability pensioners was considerable in musculoskeletal diseases and mental disorders and even higher in other diseases. Full disability pensioners spent a disproportionately large time in manual work, increasingly in the private sector, and partial pensioners in the public sector with lower non-manual and manual work, increasingly with the former. At the population level, the share of the FTE-WLE that is spent receiving a disability pension remained relatively small.

Conclusions

Increased work participation while receiving a disability pension is likely to have had important implications for prolonging individual working careers but only minor contribution to the length of working lives at the population level.
Protocol for a living systematic review for the management of concussion in adults
Authors: Lithopoulos Alexander , Bayley Mark , Curran Dorothyann , Fischer Lisa , Knee Christopher , Lauzon Julia , Nevison Margaret , Velikonja Diana , Marshall Shawn
Published: July 2022

Introduction

Concussion/mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) often presents initially with disabling symptoms that resolve, but for an unfortunate minority some of these symptoms may become prolonged. Although research into diagnosis and interventions for concussion is increasing, study quality overall remains low. A living systematic review that is updated as evidence becomes available is the ideal research activity to inform a living guideline targeting clinicians and patients. The purpose of this paper is to present the protocol of an ongoing living systematic review for the management of adult concussion that will inform living guidelines building off the Guideline for Concussion/Mild Traumatic Brain Injury and Persistent Symptoms: third Edition.

Methods and analysis

The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocol guidelines were followed in the reporting of this systematic review protocol. We are including English peer-reviewed observational studies, trials, qualitative studies, systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines related to diagnosis/assessment or treatment of adult concussion. Future searches will be conducted at minimum every 6 months using the following databases: MEDLINE ALL, EMBASE, Cochrane, PsycInfo and CINAHL. The data are managed in the Covidence website. Screening, data extraction and risk-of-bias assessments are being done through multiple raters working independently. Multiple validated tools are being used to assess risk of bias, and the tool applied matches the document or study design (eg, Downs and Black Scale for healthcare interventions). Many concussion experts in various clinical disciplines from across North America have volunteered to examine the evidence in order to make recommendations for the living guidelines.

Ethics and dissemination

No ethical approval is necessary because primary data are not collected. The results will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and on the living guidelines website once built.

PROSPERO registration number

CRD42022301786.
Exploring the epidemiology of disseminated intravascular coagulation: protocol for the DANish Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation (DANDIC) Cohort Study
Authors: Flæng Simon , Nygaard Søren , Granfeldt Asger , Hvas Anne-Mette , Sørensen Henrik Toft , Thachil Jecko , Adelborg Kasper
Published: July 2022

Introduction

Since disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) was first described, it has been considered a serious disease of the coagulation system and a major challenge to clinicians. Currently, several important knowledge gaps remain. The DANish Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation (DANDIC) Cohort Study will aim to answer questions regarding the incidence and mortality of patients with DIC including time trends. The study will also identify prognostic factors that may guide personalised prevention and treatment. Furthermore, the study will describe treatment patterns and the safety and effectiveness of various treatment modalities.

Methods and analysis

We will establish the DANDIC Cohort using data collected in daily clinical practice from the Central Denmark Region, which covers approximately 1.3 million residents. The study period will encompass 1 January 2011 through 1 July 2021. Potential DIC cases will be identified from the hospital laboratory database, based on coagulation biomarkers, and diagnoses will be adjudicated by medical experts. The dataset will be enriched with detailed clinical data from electronic medical charts on aetiologies, bleeding, microthrombus formation, organ failure, thrombosis, treatments and comorbidities. The dataset will also take advantage of in-hospital data with longitudinal information on laboratory records, transfusions, microbiology and treatments. It will be possible to merge this dataset with other unique Danish health registries with more than 10 years of virtually complete follow-up. The project will use state-of-the-art epidemiological and biostatistical methods.

Ethics and dissemination

The project has been approved by the Danish Patient Safety Authority (31-1521-452), the Central Denmark Region (1-45-70-83-21), the Danish Data Protection Agency (1-16-02-258-21) and all the hospital chairs. Register-based studies require no ethical approval in Denmark. The results will be disseminated in international peer-reviewed journals.
Principles, techniques and applications of high resolution cone beam CT angiography in the neuroangio suite
Authors: Raz Eytan , Nossek Erez , Sahlein Daniel H , Sharashidze Vera , Narayan Vinayak , Ali Aryan , Esparza Rogelio , Peschillo Simone , Chung Charlotte , Diana Francesco , Syed Safia , Nelson Peter Kim , Shapiro Maksim
Published: July 2022

The aim of this review is to describe the acquisition and reformatting of state of the art high resolution cone beam CT (HR-CBCT) and demonstrate its role in multiple neurovascular conditions as a tool to improve the understanding of disease and guide therapeutic decisions. First, we will review the basic principle of CBCT acquisition, followed by the injection protocols and the reformatting paradigms. Next, multiple applications in different pathological conditions such as aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations, dural arteriovenous fistulas, and stroke will be described. HR-CBCT angiography, widely available, is uniquely useful in certain clinical scenarios to improve the understanding of disease and guide therapeutic decisions. It rapidly is becoming an essential tool for the contemporary neurointerventionalist.AChoAho
A reproductive resilience index for pelagic fish in the southern Humboldt Current Large Marine Ecosystem
Authors: Ospina-Alvarez Andrés , Vásquez Sebastián I. , Catalán Ignacio A. , Lowerre-Barbieri Susan , Arteaga Marcos , de Juan Silvia
Published: July 2022

Efforts to manage small and medium-sized pelagic fishes (SMPF) using traditional stock assessment methods are hampered by the elusive relationship between spawning stock biomass and recruitment. We propose to compute a reproductive resilience index (RRI) in three steps: ( i) we selected 16 biological traits related to distinct aspects of SMPF reproductive biology and characterized by a continuous (e.g., growth rate) or ordinal variable (e.g., spawning site fidelity) scored from 1 to 5 (1 representing a low contribution of the trait to reproductive resilience); ( ii) an expert panel assigned the traits’ scores to five exploited species in the southern Humboldt Current Large Marine Ecosystem; ( iii) a Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) model was used to estimate an RRI based on the combination of the traits’ scores. The BBN was used to explore environmental effects on the species’ RRI, as some reproductive traits can show intraspecies variability under external forces (e.g., fishing pressure). Through proving the RRI application to detect variability in species’ resilience at local time series, we show how the resulting RRI can be interpreted by fishery managers to improve the current management of SMPF.
Endurance training-induced cardiac remodeling in a guinea pig athlete's heart model
Authors: Topal L. , Polyák A. , Tóth N. , Ágoston G. , Bencsik P. , Kohajda Zs. , Prorok J. , Déri Sz. , Nagy N. , Jost N. , Virág L. , Farkas A.S. , Varró A. , Baczkó I.
Published: July 2022

Besides the health benefits of regular exercise, high-level training—above an optimal level—may have adverse effects. In this study, we investigated the effects of long-term vigorous training and its potentially detrimental structural–functional changes in a small animal athlete's heart model. Thirty-eight 4-month-old male guinea pigs were randomized into sedentary and exercised groups. The latter underwent a 15-week-long endurance-training program. To investigate the effects of the intense long-term exercise, in vivo (echocardiography, electrocardiography), ex vivo, and in vitro (histopathology, patch-clamp) measurements were performed. Following the training protocol, the exercised animals exhibited structural left ventricular enlargement and a significantly higher degree of myocardial fibrosis. Furthermore, resting bradycardia accompanied by elevated heart rate variability occurred, representing increased parasympathetic activity in the exercised hearts. The observed prolonged QTc intervals and increased repolarization variability parameters may raise the risk of electrical instability in exercised animals. Complex arrhythmias did not occur in either group, and there were no differences between the groups in ex vivo or cellular electrophysiological experiments. Accordingly, the high parasympathetic activity may promote impaired repolarization in conscious exercised animals. The detected structural–functional changes share similarities with the human athlete's heart; therefore, this model might be useful for investigations on cardiac remodeling.
COMPOSITE NEURAL NETWORK LEARNING FROM FRACTIONAL BACKSTEPPING
Authors: LIU HENG , QIU HONGLING , ZHANG XIAOYAN , LI SHENGGANG , CAO JINDE
Published: July 2022

This paper focuses on parameter convergence and precise modeling for fractional-order nonlinear systems with functional uncertainties via using adaptive backstepping neural network control (ABNNC) and composite learning adaptive backstepping neural network control (CLABNNC). In the ABNNC design, a command filter is proposed, and the neural network approximation system is considered to deal with the unknown function, where an adaptation law is designed to ensure tracking errors converge to an arbitrarily small region near the origin under a strict persistent excitation condition that is too strict for the convergence of adaptive parameters. In order to relax this condition, a composite learning adaptation law is established by taking advantage of the tracking error and the prediction error to update the free parameter of the neural network system. The proposed CLABNNC method can not only ensure the convergence of tracking errors, but also achieve the accurate approximation of functional uncertainties under a weaker interval excitation condition. Finally, a numerical simulation example is put forward to demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.
INTERLAYER AND INTRALAYER SYNCHRONIZATION IN MULTIPLEX FRACTIONAL-ORDER NEURONAL NETWORKS
Authors: YAN BO , PARASTESH FATEMEH , HE SHAOBO , RAJAGOPAL KARTHIKEYAN , JAFARI SAJAD , PERC MATJAŽ
Published: July 2022

Fractional-order models describing neuronal dynamics often exhibit better compatibility with diverse neuronal firing patterns that can be observed experimentally. Due to the overarching significance of synchronization in neuronal dynamics, we here study synchronization in multiplex neuronal networks that are composed of fractional-order Hindmarsh–Rose neurons. We compute the average synchronization error numerically for different derivative orders in dependence on the strength of the links within and between network layers. We find that, in general, fractional-order models synchronize better than integer-order models. In particular, we show that the required interlayer and intralayer coupling strengths for interlayer or intralayer synchronization can be weaker if we reduce the derivative order of the model describing the neuronal dynamics. Furthermore, the dependence of the interlayer or intralayer synchronization on the intralayer or interlayer coupling strength vanishes with decreasing derivative order. To support these results analytically, we use the master stability function approach for the considered multiplex fractional-order neuronal networks, by means of which we obtain sufficient conditions for the interlayer and intralayer synchronizations that are in agreement with numerical results.
SOME MATRIX FAMILIES OF THE HURWITZ–LERCH ζ-FUNCTIONS AND ASSOCIATED FRACTIONAL KINETIC EQUATIONS
Authors: HIDAN MUAJEBAH , AKEL MOHAMED , ABD-ELMAGEED HALA , ABDALLA MOHAMED
Published: July 2022

This research paper aims to introduce an extension of the [Formula: see text]-Hurwitz–Lerch [Formula: see text]-function of matrix arguments and interpret its several properties, like generating matrix relations, derivative formulae, Mellin transforms and integral representations. Further, we discuss the solution of the fractional kinetic equations (FKEs) involving an extended [Formula: see text]-Hurwitz–Lerch [Formula: see text]-function of matrix arguments. In addition, the results investigated in view of an extended [Formula: see text]-Hurwitz–Lerch [Formula: see text]-matrix function are rather general in nature and can easily give various known and novel FKEs.
EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH OF PARAMETRIC OPTIMIZATION ON WIRE ELECTRICAL DISCHARGE MACHINING OF AA7075/ZRB2 IN SITU COMPOSITES
Authors: NALLUSAMY M. , KARTHIKEYAN A. G. , KIRAN K.
Published: July 2022

The AA7075 composites reinforced with 3, 6, and 9 volume fractions (vol.%) of ZrB2 particles have been successfully fabricated using in situ fabrication method. In this technique, the inorganic salts K2ZrF6 and KBF4 were added to the molten aluminum and retained the melting at 900∘C to form the required vol.% of ZrB2 particles. The aluminum-reinforced metal matrix composites (MMCs) are commonly known as aluminum matrix composites (AMCs). This work carries the effects of various wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM) input process parameters like pulse-on-time ([Formula: see text]), pulse-off-time ([Formula: see text]), wire feed rate (WFR), and gap voltage (GV) on the output responses such as material removal rate (MRR), surface roughness (SR), and Kerf-width ([Formula: see text]) of the fabricated AA7075/(3, 6, and 9) vol.% ZrB2 in situ AMCs. Based on Taguchi’s L9 orthogonal array method, the design of experiments (DoE) was used to carry out the operations on the fabricated AMCs. The optimal level of process parameters was found by the main effects plot for signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio, contour plots, and the analysis of variance (ANOVA). The effect of these process parameters on MRR and SR was analyzed and it is found that the maximum MRR was attained in the optimal parametric combination of GV [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]V; [Formula: see text][Formula: see text][Formula: see text]s; [Formula: see text][Formula: see text][Formula: see text]s; WFR [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]mm/s; Reinforcement [Formula: see text] vol.%, and the minimum SR was attained in the optimal parametric combination of GV [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]V; [Formula: see text][Formula: see text][Formula: see text]s; [Formula: see text][Formula: see text][Formula: see text]s; WFR [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]mm/s; Reinforcement [Formula: see text] vol.%.
EFFECT OF LATTICE MISMATCH ON THE MICROSTRUCTURE AND ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES OF LaNiO3 CONDUCTIVE FILMS
Authors: ZHU M. W. , YOU B. D. , SHI D. C. , LU T. N. , WANG J. N. , JIA N. , LIU C. Z.
Published: July 2022

In this work, we prepared LaNiO3 (LNO) and Au-LaNiO3 (Au-LNO) films using sol–gel multilayer coating method. The effects of lattice mismatch on the microstructure and electrical properties of the films were investigated by choosing different single-crystal substrate. XRD, SEM, and AFM results showed the high quality of LNO and Au-LNO films, indicating the successful epitaxial growth of the films on the single-crystal substrates. The room temperature resistivity of LNO films increased with the increase of lattice mismatch while different tendency was observed in Au-LNO films, suggesting that different mechanisms prevailed in the LNO and Au-LNO films. Both the transport behavior and the residual resistivity ratio were checked to explore the relationship between the lattice mismatch and the electrical properties of the films. Strain and defect concentration were proposed as the predominating factors for the changes in the resistivity of LNO and Au-LNO films under the influence of lattice mismatch.
Boulder Transportation on the Flat Bed by Dam Break
Authors: Lin Jing-Hua , Chang Yi-Wei , Chen Guan-Yu
Published: July 2022

Large coral boulders are usually deposited in coastal regions due to high-energy inundation events, such as tsunamis or storms. The study on physical mechanisms is an important issue in hydrodynamics and sedimentology. In this study, the dam break induced the transportation, and the initial movements of a boulder are simulated on a flatbed in a laboratory experiment using a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) and image analysis. The scaled-down modeled boulder made the three-dimensional reconstruction rebuild the shape and surface texture of a realistic boulder. The MEMS integrated with the modeled boulder autonomously measures the signals and numerically calculates corresponding postures and transportation in three submerged conditions of the modeled boulder in the hydrodynamic experiment. Experimental results show that the boulder transportation process is a typical two-dimensional general planar motion, which includes sliding along the transported direction and swaying around the [Formula: see text]-axis. Rolling and saltation are not dominant modes in the experiment. The results show that a complete transportation includes a variable speed movement in the initial motion, acceleration–deceleration to the uniform motion, and boulder stopping in the destination. The transported velocities of the modeled boulder are smaller than wave celerities. The maximum/minimum velocities and displacements occur in the partially and fully submerged conditions, respectively. The adjustment of the boulder’s posture is completed in the initial motion, and then the boulder almost keeps the same posture to move forward to the end. Moreover, the boulder is not driven when the nondimensional water depth is close to the critical condition.
Stable large-area monodomain in as-grown bulk ferroelectric single crystal Sn2P2S6
Authors: Lun Yingzhuo , Kang Jiaqian , Zhu Wenfu , Deng Jianming , Jiang Xingan , Zhu Cheng , Ren Qi , Zi Xian , Gao Ziyan , Xia Tianlong , Yao Zishuo , Wang Xueyun , Hong Jiawang
Published: July 2022

Driven by the minimization of total energy, the multi-domain morphology is preferred in as-grown ferroelectrics to reduce the depolarization and strain energy during the paraelectric to ferroelectric phase transition. However, the complicated multi-domain is not desirable for certain high-performance ferroelectric electro-optic devices. In this work, we achieve a reproducible and stable large-area monodomain in as-grown bulk ferroelectric single crystal [Formula: see text]. The monodomain dominates the entire single crystal, which is attributed to the internal charge carriers from the photoexcited disproportionation reaction of Sn ions. The charge carriers effectively screen the depolarization field and therefore decrease the depolarization energy and facilitate the formation of monodomain. This work offers a potential approach for engineering bulk ferroelectrics with a stable monodomain, which is desirable for the high-performance ferroelectric electro-optic devices.
Syntactic Information and Multiple Semantic Segments for Aspect-Based Sentiment Classification
Authors: Jia Yuxiang , Wang Yadong , Zan Hongying , Xie Qi
Published: July 2022

Aspect-based sentiment classification (ASC) is a task to determine the sentiment polarities of specific aspects in a review. Syntactic information like dependency relation has been proven effective when extracting the sentiment features. On the other hand, multiple semantic segments in a review may influence the sentiment polarity. Thus, we propose a neural network based on dependency relation and structured attention (DRSAN) to fuse both dependency relation features and multiple semantic segments with different attention mechanisms. To verify the performance of DRSAN, we build a Chinese Mobile Phone Review (CMPR) dataset. To our knowledge, we are the first to explicitly integrate dependency relation and structured attention for the ASC task. The experimental results on SemEval 2014 Task 4, Twitter, CMPR, and several other cross-lingual and cross-domain datasets show that the proposed model outperforms all other benchmark models.
How to determine the optimal balance for geochemical pattern recognition and anomaly mapping based on compositional balance analysis
Authors: Liu Yue
Published: July 2022

Balance analysis of two groups of parts within a whole has become an important method for compositional data analysis. A compositional balance is a particular orthonormal coordinate that is depicted by the log-ratio between two groups of components. Two available approaches to compositional balance analysis (CoBA) can be adopted to generate targeted balances for geochemical pattern analysis and anomaly identification, so-called data-driven CoBA and knowledge-driven CoBA. For data-driven CoBA, the balance is produced strictly by the rules of sequential binary partition, while for knowledge-driven CoBA, the first group within a balance is composed of the interesting parts of the whole and the second group is defined by the remaining parts of the whole. Commonly, it is difficult to conceptualize balances, particularly for high-dimensional data, because this will produce a large number of orthonormal bases or balances based on CoBA. For a certain geochemical pattern, it might be represented by multiple compositional balances generated by data-driven and knowledge-driven CoBA. Thus, how to determine an optimal balance for geochemical pattern analysis and anomaly identification needs to be further explored. In the present study, this question was thoroughly investigated based on a case study from the Chinese Western Tianshan region. Fourteen compositional balances and three principal factors associated with different geochemical patterns including gold and copper mineralization, and particular lithological units, were selected for comparative studies to illustrate how to determine the optimal balances from the perspective of CoBA and multivariate statistical analysis.

Supplementary material:
Appendix 1 shows the sequential binary partition of 38 geochemical variables, while Appendix 2 shows the compositional balances of the 38 geochemical variables; available at
https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.6083724

Thematic collection:
This article is part of the Applications of Innovations in Geochemical Data Analysis collection available at:
https://www.lyellcollection.org/cc/applications-of-innovations-in-geochemical-data-analysis
A Bayesian Quality-of-Experience Model for Adaptive Streaming Videos
Authors: Duanmu Zhengfang , Liu Wentao , Chen Diqi , Li Zhuoran , Wang Zhou , Wang Yizhou , Gao Wen
Published: July 2022

The fundamental conflict between the enormous space of adaptive streaming videos and the limited capacity for subjective experiment casts significant challenges to objective Quality-of-Experience (QoE) prediction. Existing objective QoE models either employ pre-defined parametrization or exhibit complex functional form, achieving limited generalization capability in diverse streaming environments. In this study, we propose an objective QoE model, namely, the Bayesian streaming quality index (BSQI), to integrate prior knowledge on the human visual system and human annotated data in a principled way. By analyzing the subjective characteristics towards streaming videos from a corpus of subjective studies, we show that a family of QoE functions lies in a convex set. Using a variant of projected gradient descent, we optimize the objective QoE model over a database of training videos. The proposed BSQI demonstrates strong prediction accuracy in a broad range of streaming conditions, evident by state-of-the-art performance on four publicly available benchmark datasets and a novel analysis-by-synthesis visual experiment.
Synergy between Semantic Segmentation and Image Denoising via Alternate Boosting
Authors: Xu Shunxin , Sun Ke , Liu Dong , Xiong Zhiwei , Zha Zheng-Jun
Published: July 2022

The capability of image semantic segmentation may be deteriorated due to the noisy input image, where image denoising prior to segmentation may help. Both image denoising and semantic segmentation have been developed significantly with the advance of deep learning. In this work, we are interested in the synergy between these two tasks by using a holistic deep model. We observe that not only denoising helps combat the drop of segmentation accuracy due to the noisy input, but also pixel-wise semantic information boosts the capability of denoising. We then propose a boosting network to perform denoising and segmentation alternately. The proposed network is composed of multiple segmentation and denoising blocks (SDBs), each of which estimates a semantic map and then uses the map to regularize denoising. Experimental results show that the denoised image quality is improved substantially and the segmentation accuracy is improved to close to that on clean images, and segmentation and denoising are both boosted as the number of SDBs increases. On the Cityscapes dataset, using three SDBs improves the denoising quality to 34.42 dB in PSNR, and the segmentation accuracy to 66.5 in mIoU, when the additive white Gaussian noise level is 50.
The Future, Now: A Review of Social Discounting
Authors: Groom Ben , Drupp Moritz A. , Freeman Mark C. , Nesje Frikk
Published: July 2022

Governments across the world are coming under increasing pressure to invest heavily in projects that have maturities of decades or even centuries. Key areas of concern include climate change mitigation, environmental and biodiversity protection, nuclear decommissioning, enhancing infrastructure and coastal defenses, and long-term health care management. Whether such projects are evaluated as being economically justifiable depends on the social discount rate (SDR) that the government deploys. This variable converts the future costs and benefits of public policy into their value today, thereby facilitating the comparison of social investments with different maturities. Critically, the result of such analysis is extremely sensitive to small changes in the choice of the SDR, yet policy guidelines differ widely across countries and international institutions. In this article, we provide a review of the academic literature on long-term SDRs, with particular emphasis on how these insights have been integrated into governmental guidance.