bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Optical Visualization of Red-GQDs’ Organelles Distribution and Localization in Living Cells
Authors: Hu Haifeng , Li Peng , Qiu Jie , Zhao Meiji , Kuang Mingjie , Zhang Zhaoyan , Wang Dachuan
Published: July 2022

Recently, there has been a rapidly expanding interest in a new nanomaterial, graphene quantum dots (GQDs), owing to its profound potential in various advanced applications. At present, the study of GQDs mainly focuses on the new synthesis methods and surface modification. However, revealing the intracellular distribution of GQDs is currently not available, limiting in-depth understanding of its biological regulatory mechanism. To fill up this gap, the visualization study of red fluorescent graphene quantum dots (Red-GQDs) is helpful to clarify their subcellular distribution and metabolism in living cells system. Here, in this study, two-photon laser confocal microscopy was used to deeply analyze the uptake and subcellular distribution of Red-GQDs by HeLa cells at different concentrations and times through visual observation and discussed the effect of Red-GQDs on the metabolic of HeLa cells. The results indicated that Red-GQDs could be well-absorbed by HeLa cells and further revealed the differential distribution of Red-GQDs in different organelles (lysosomes and mitochondria) in a time-dependent manner. In addition, we confirmed that Red-GQDs significantly affect cell biological functions. Low concentrations of Red-GQDs are related to the autophagy pathway of cells, and high concentrations of Red-GQDs can induce ferroptosis in cells and promote the secretion of cellular exosomes. In the present study, the distribution and metabolic pathways of Red-GQDs in the subcellular structure of cells were characterized in detail through visual analysis, which can bring positive reference for the application of Red-GQDs in the future.
The Morphological Analysis of the Collagen Fiber Straightness in the Healthy Uninvolved Human Colon Mucosa Away From the Cancer
Authors: Despotović Sanja Z. , Ćosić M.
Published: July 2022

The morphological method—based on the topology and singularity theory and originally developed for the analysis of the scattering experiments—was extended to be applicable for the analysis of biological data. The usefulness of the topological viewpoint was demonstrated by quantification of the changes in collagen fiber straightness in the human colon mucosa (healthy mucosa, colorectal cancer, and uninvolved mucosa far from cancer). This has been done by modeling the distribution of collagen segment angles by the polymorphic beta-distribution. Its shapes were classified according to the number and type of critical points. We found that biologically relevant shapes could be classified as shapes without any preferable orientation (i.e. shapes without local extrema), transitional forms (i.e. forms with one broad local maximum), and highly oriented forms (i.e. forms with two minima at both ends and one very narrow maximum between them). Thus, changes in the fiber organization were linked to the metamorphoses of the beta-distribution forms. The obtained classification was used to define a new, shape-aware/based, measure of the collagen straightness, which revealed a slight and moderate increase of the straightness in mucosa samples taken 20 and 10 cm away from the tumor. The largest increase of collagen straightness was found in samples of cancer tissue. Samples of healthy individuals have a uniform distribution of beta-distribution forms. We found that this distribution has the maximal information entropy. At 20 cm and 10 cm away from cancer, the transition forms redistribute into unoriented and highly oriented forms. Closer to cancer the number of unoriented forms decreases rapidly leaving only highly oriented forms present in the samples of the cancer tissue, whose distribution has minimal information entropy. The polarization of the distribution was followed by a significant increase in the number of quasi-symmetrical forms in samples 20 cm away from cancer which decreases closer to cancer. This work shows that the evolution of the distribution of the beta-distribution forms—an abstract construction of the mind—follows the familiar laws of statistical mechanics. Additionally, the polarization of the beta-distribution forms together with the described change in the number of quasi-symmetrical forms, clearly visible in the parametric space of the beta-distribution and very difficult to notice in the observable space, can be a useful indicator of the early stages in the development of colorectal cancer.
Ifi30 Is Required for Sprouting Angiogenesis During Caudal Vein Plexus Formation in Zebrafish
Authors: Wang Xiaoning , Ge Xiaojuan , Qin Yinyin , Liu Dong , Chen Changsheng
Published: July 2022

Interferon-gamma-inducible protein 30 (IFI30) is a critical enzyme that mainly exists in immune cells and functions in reducing protein disulfide bonds in endocytosis-mediated protein degradation. Regardless of this, it is also found to be expressed in vascular system. However, the functions of IFI30 in vascular development remains unknown. Vascular network formation is a tightly controlled process coordinating a series of cell behaviors, including endothelial cell (EC) sprouting, proliferation, and anastomosis. In this work, we analyzed the function of zebrafish Ifi30, orthologous to the human IFI30, in vascular development during embryogenesis. Theifi30gene was found to be highly expressed in the caudal vein plexus (CVP) region of zebrafish embryos. Morpholino-mediated Ifi30 knockdown in zebrafish resulted in incomplete CVP formation with reduced loop numbers, area, and width. Further analyses implied that Ifi30 deficiency impaired cell behaviors of both ECs and macrophages, including cell proliferation and migration. Here, we demonstrate a novel role of IFI30, which was originally identified as a lysosomal thiol reductase involved in immune responses, in CVP development during embryogenesis. Our results suggest that Ifi30 is required for sprouting angiogenesis during CVP formation, which may offer an insight into the function of human IFI30 in angiogenesis under physiological or pathological conditions.
Integration of Transcriptomic and Proteomic Profiles Reveals Multiple Levels of Genetic Regulation of Taproot Growth in Sugar Beet (Beta vulgaris L.)
Authors: Li Ningning , Zhang Yongfeng , Wang Xuefeng , Ma Huailong , Sun Yaqing , Li Guolong , Zhang Shaoying
Published: July 2022

Sugar beet taproot growth and development is a complex biological process involving morphogenesis and dry matter accumulation. However, the molecular regulatory mechanisms underlying taproot growth and development remain elusive. We performed a correlation analysis of the proteome and transcriptome in two cultivars (SD13829 and BS02) at the start and the highest points of the taproot growth rate. The corresponding correlation coefficients were 0.6189, 0.7714, 0.6803, and 0.7056 in four comparison groups. A total of 621 genes were regulated at both transcriptional and translational levels, including 190, 71, 140, and 220 in the BS59-VS-BS82, BS59-VS-SD59, BS82-VS-SD82, and SD59-VS-SD82 groups, respectively. Ten, 32, and 68 correlated-DEGs-DEPs (cor-DEGs-DEPs) were significantly enrdiched in the proteome and transcriptome of the BS59-VS-BS82, SD59-VS-SD82, and BS82-VS-SD82 groups, respectively, which included ribonuclease 1-like protein, DEAD-box ATP-dependent RNA helicase, TolB protein, heat shock protein 83, 20 kDa chaperonin, polygalacturonase, endochitinase, brassinolide and gibberellin receptors (BRI1 and GID1), and xyloglucan endotransglucosylase/hydrolase (XTH). In addition, Beta vulgaris XTH could enhance the growth and development of Arabidopsis primary roots by improving cell growth in the root tip elongation zone. These findings suggested that taproot growth and expansion might be regulated at transcriptional and posttranscriptional levels and also may be attributed to cell wall metabolism to improve cell wall loosening and elongation.
Coapplication of Effective Microorganisms and Nanomagnesium Boosts the Agronomic, Physio-Biochemical, Osmolytes, and Antioxidants Defenses Against Salt Stress in Ipomoea batatas
Authors: Abd El-Mageed Taia A. , Gyushi Mohammed A. H. , Hemida Khaulood A. , El-Saadony Mohamed T. , Abd El-Mageed Shimaa A. , Abdalla Hanan , AbuQamar Synan F. , El-Tarabily Khaled A. , Abdelkhalik Abdelsattar
Published: July 2022

The application of bio- and nanofertilizers are undoubtedly opening new sustainable approaches toward enhancing abiotic stress tolerance in crops. In this study, we evaluated the application of effective microorganisms (EMs) of five groups belonging to photosynthetic bacteria, lactic acid bacteria, yeast, actinobacteria, and fermenting fungi combined with magnesium oxide (MgO) nanoparticles (MgO-NP) on the growth and productivity of sweet potato plants grown in salt-affected soils. In two field experiments carried out in 2020 and 2021, we tested the impacts of EMs using two treatments (with vs. without EMs as soil drench) coupled with three foliar applications of MgO-NP (0, 50, and 100 μg ml–1 of MgO, representing MgO-NP0, MgO-NP50, and MgO-NP100, respectively). In our efforts to investigate the EMs:MgO-NP effects, the performance (growth and yield), nutrient acquisition, and physio-biochemical attributes of sweet potatoes grown in salt-affected soil (7.56 dS m–1) were assessed. Our results revealed that salinity stress significantly reduced the growth parameters, yield traits, photosynthetic pigment content (chlorophylls a and b, and carotenoids), cell membrane stability, relative water content, and nutrient acquisition of sweet potatoes. However, the EMs+ and/or MgO-NP-treated plants showed high tolerance to salt stress, specifically with a relatively superior increase when any of the biostimulants were combined. The application of EMs and/or MgO-NP improved osmotic stress tolerance by increasing the relative water content and membrane integrity. These positive responses owed to increase the osmolytes level (proline, free amino acids, and soluble sugars) and antioxidative compounds (non-enzymatic concentration, enzymatic activities, phenolic acid, and carotenoids). We also noticed that soil salinity significantly increased the Na+ content, whereas EMS+ and/or MgO-NP-treated plants exhibited lower Na+ concentration and increased K+ concentration and K+/Na+ ratio. These improvements contributed to increasing the photosynthetic pigments, growth, and yield under salinity stress. The integrative application of EMs and MgO-NP showed higher efficacy bypassing all single treatments. Our findings indicated the potential of coapplying EMs and MgO-NP for future use in attenuating salt-induced damage beneficially promoting crop performance.
Comparative Physiological and Transcriptome Analysis Reveal the Molecular Mechanism of Melatonin in Regulating Salt Tolerance in Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.)
Authors: Li Shuxia , Wang Yuan , Gao Xueqin , Lan Jian , Fu Bingzhe
Published: July 2022

As a high-quality legume forage, alfalfa is restricted by various abiotic stresses during its growth and development. Melatonin is a multifunctional signaling molecule that involves in plant defense against multiple stresses. However, little is known about its downstream signaling pathway and regulatory mechanisms in salt stress of alfalfa. In this study, we investigated the protective effects and key regulatory pathways of melatonin on alfalfa under salt tolerance. The results showed that melatonin promoted the growth of alfalfa seedlings under salt stress, as demonstrated by higher plant height, leaf area, and fresh weight. Melatonin treatment resulted in an increase in the photosynthetic capacity and starch content of alfalfa. Moreover, melatonin decreased cell membrane damage and reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation by enhancing antioxidant defense activity under salt stress conditions. Transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis revealed that melatonin mainly induced the transcription of genes involved in Ca2+ signaling (cyclic nucleotide gated channel, CNGCs; cam modulin/calmodulin-like protein, CAM/CMLs and calcium-dependent protein kinase, CDPKs), starch and sucrose metabolism (α-amylase, AMYs; β-amylase, BAMs; starch synthase, SSs and sucrose synthase, SUSs), plant hormone signal transduction (auxin/indole acetic acid protein, AUX/IAAs; ABA receptor, PYL4; protein phosphatase 2C, PP2Cs; scarecrow-like protein, SCLs and ethylene-responsive transcription factor 1B, ERF1B), and key transcription factors (C3Hs, MYBs, ERFs, and WRKYs). Specifically, we focused on starch and sucrose metabolism and plant hormone signal transduction pathways. The interactions between melatonin and other phytohormones occurred via regulation of the expression of genes involved in hormone signaling pathways. In addition, melatonin increased the contents of endogenous melatonin, auxin, gibberellic acid (GA3), salicylic acid, brassinosteroids, and ethylene, while decreasing the abscisic acid content under salt stress. In summary, this study established a regulatory network for melatonin-induced key signaling pathways and functional genes under salt stress and provided a theoretical basis for salt tolerance breeding in alfalfa.
Estimation Model of Potassium Content in Cotton Leaves Based on Wavelet Decomposition Spectra and Image Combination Features
Authors: Yao Qiushuang , Zhang Ze , Lv Xin , Chen Xiangyu , Ma Lulu , Sun Cong
Published: July 2022

Potassium (K) is one of the most important elements influencing cotton metabolism, quality, and yield. Due to the characteristics of strong fluidity and fast redistribution of the K in plants, it leads to rapid transformation of the K lack or abundance in plant leaves; therefore, rapid and accurate estimation of potassium content in leaves (LKC, %) is a necessary prerequisite to solve the regulation of plant potassium. In this study, we concentrated on the LKC of cotton in different growth stages, an estimation model based on the combined characteristics of wavelet decomposition spectra and image was proposed, and discussed the potential of different combined features in accurate estimation of the LKC. We collected hyperspectral imaging data of 60 main-stem leaves at the budding, flowering, and boll setting stages of cotton, respectively. The original spectrum (R) is decomposed by continuous wavelet transform (CWT). The competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS) and random frog (RF) algorithms combined with partial least squares regression (PLSR) model were used to determine the optimal decomposition scale and characteristic wavelengths at three growth stages. Based on the best “CWT spectra” model, the grayscale image databases were constructed, and the image features were extracted by using color moment and gray level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM). The results showed that the best decomposition scales of the three growth stages were CWT-1, 3, and 9. The best growth stage for estimating LKC in cotton was the boll setting stage, with the feature combination of “CWT-9 spectra + texture,” and its determination coefficients (R2val) and root mean squared error (RMSEval) values were 0.90 and 0.20. Compared with the single R model (R2val = 0.66, RMSEval = 0.34), the R2val increased by 0.24. Different from our hypothesis, the combined feature based on “CWT spectra + color + texture” cannot significantly improve the estimation accuracy of the model, it means that the performance of the estimation model established with more feature information is not correspondingly better. Moreover, the texture features contributed more to the improvement of model performance than color features did. These results provide a reference for rapid and non-destructive monitoring of the LKC in cotton.
Comparative Genetic Analysis of Durum Wheat Landraces and Cultivars Widespread in Tunisia
Authors: Miazzi Monica Marilena , Babay Elyes , De Vita Pasquale , Montemurro Cinzia , Chaabane Ramzi , Taranto Francesca , Mangini Giacomo
Published: July 2022

The durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. ssp. durum Desf.) landraces constitute a useful natural germplasm to increase the genetic diversity in the modern durum cultivars. The Tunisian durum germplasm constitutes 28 accessions conserved in Genebank of Tunisia, which are still unexplored. In this study, a comparative genetic analysis was performed to investigate the relationships between the Tunisian durum lines and the modern cultivars and detect divergent loci involved in breeding history. The genetic diversity analyses carried out using nine morphological descriptors and the 25K single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array allowed us to distinguish two groups of Tunisian landraces and one of durum cultivars. The analysis of molecular variance and diversity indices confirmed the genetic variability among the groups. A total of 529 SNP loci were divergent between Tunisian durum landraces and modern cultivars. Candidate genes related to plant and spike architecture, including FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT-B1), zinc finger CONSTANS, and AP2/EREBPs transcription factors, were identified. In addition, divergent genes involved in grain composition and biotic stress nucleotide-binding site and leucine-reach repeats proteins and disease resistance proteins (NBS-LRR and RPM) were found, suggesting that the Tunisian durum germplasm may represent an important source of favorable alleles to be used in future durum breeding programs for developing well-adapted and resilient cultivars.
“The High Mass of Democracy” —Why Germany Remains Aloof to the Idea of Electronic Voting
Authors: Fitzpatrick Jasmin , Jöst Paula
Published: July 2022

Despite the increase in citizens' use of absentee voting and examples from other countries, so far Germany remains aloof to the idea of introducing electronic voting as another form of convenience voting to its political elections. Apart from intra-party elections, no changes in the direction of electronic voting are considered in the current debate about an electoral reform. What are the reasons for the German aloofness toward electronic voting? In this article, we focus on party positions and institutional, as well as legal considerations, to provide a comprehensive answer to this question. From a normative point of view, the question of electronic voting is inextricably linked to the concept of electoral integrity, as the latter is pivotal to determine a democratic mode to select trusted representatives. Therefore, this paper first discusses the opportunities and risks for electoral integrity associated with electronic voting. Based on these considerations, we then explore reasons for the hesitancy of German legislators. To this end, we conducted expert interviews with German MPs and considered open-source documents related to the German debate about electronic voting. Our paper contributes to research on party positions on electronic voting, by relating the topic to questions about electoral integrity and considering political parties' reasoning, as well as legal and institutional constraints in the German context. We find that the main reasons provided by party representatives circle around concerns about transparency, security, accuracy, and the value of the voting act itself.
Promoting the Brand Inside: The Conceptualization of Nonprofit Internal Branding and Its Relationship With Employees’ Brand Performance
Authors: Zhang Ran , Wu Yunqiao , Ye Chao
Published: July 2022

As a value-led entity, the nonprofit depends on its staff for the delivery of the brand value outsides and thus promoting the brand inside is crucial to the development of the nonprofits. Using a sample of 290 full-time staff working in 270 nonprofits in China, two related studies were conducted. Study 1 aimed to develop and validate a new scale for internal branding in the nonprofit context, while Study 2 aimed to investigate the linking mechanism between internal branding and brand performance with the mediating roles (including chain mediation) of the person–organization fit (POF) and intent to stay with the brand (IntSB). As predicted, the results revealed that: (1) the nonprofit internal branding (NIB) scale is a three-dimensional construct that is composed of brand-centered training, internal brand communication, and brand-oriented leadership, (2) internal branding positively predicts POF, IntSB, and brand performance, and (3) POF and IntSB sequentially mediate the internal branding–brand performance relationship. The implications of our findings for internal branding in the nonprofit context are discussed.
Can Physical Exercise Help Deal With the COVID-19 Stressors? Comparing Somatic and Psychological Responses
Authors: Qian Junwei , Tong Jiajin , Xu Ruiheng
Published: July 2022

This research aims to explore whether physical exercise can buffer the impact of the COVID-19 stressors. Based on the cross-stressor adaptation hypothesis, we proposed a moderated mediation model relating the COVID-19 stressors to sleep disorder via somatic and worry complaints, depending on the amount of physical exercise. A sample of working adults in Beijing (N = 207) filled surveys in two waves during the COVID-19 pandemic. Structural regression analysis showed that physical exercise moderates the impact of the COVID-19 stressors on sleep disorder via somatic complaints (index = −0.11, 95% CI [−0.22, −0.01]), rather than psychological worry complaints (index = −0.01, 95% CI [−0.07, 0.04]). Specifically, the COVID-19 stressors increase somatic complaints for people with a low amount of physical exercise (b = 0.17, p = 0.01]), while the COVID-19 stressors are not significantly related to somatic complaints for people with a high amount of physical exercise (b = −0.06, p = 0.33). This research extends the cross-stressor adaptation hypothesis and provides evidence on an individual intervention of physical exercise to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Moderating Effect of Organizational Identification on the Relationship Between Organizational Role Stress and Job Satisfaction
Authors: Eriş Abdullah , Kökalan Özgür
Published: July 2022

This study aims to investigate the moderating effect of the organizational identification level of the employees on the relationship between their organizational role stress level and job satisfaction. Data were gathered from 460 white-collar employees with snowball sampling. Covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) was used in data analysis. According to the research results, it was found that there is a significant negative relationship between the organizational role stress level of the employees and their job satisfaction (r = −0.486; p < 0.01). This research also shows that organizational identification has a moderating effect on the negative relationship between organizational role stress and job satisfaction. An employee who has a high level of organizational identification has more job satisfaction than an employee who has less organizational identification.
Variability in L2 Vowel Production: Different Elicitation Methods Affect Individual Speakers Differently
Authors: Munro Murray J.
Published: July 2022

Elicitation methods are known to influence second language speech production. For teachers and language assessors, awareness of such effects is essential to accurate interpretations of testing outcomes. For speech researchers, understanding why one method gives better performance than another may yield insights into how second-language phonological knowledge is acquired, stored, and retrieved. Given these concerns, this investigation compared L2 vowel intelligibility on two elicitation tasks and determined the degree to which differences generalized across vowels, vowels in context, lexical items, and individual speakers. The dependent variable was the intelligibility of Cantonese speakers' productions of English /i I u ℧/ in varying phonetic environments. In a picture-naming task, the speakers produced responses without an auditory prompt. In a second task–interrupted repetition–they heard exemplars of the same targets without pictures, and repeated each one after counting aloud to 10, a step intended to disrupt their short-term auditory store and therefore prevent simple mimicry. For target words with scores below 80% on picture naming, mean intelligibility was more than 10 points higher on interrupted repetition. However, that difference did not generalize across conditions or across speakers. Thus, although it is technically accurate to say that, on average, interrupted repetition yielded better vowel intelligibility than did picture naming, that observation requires a great deal of qualification, particularly because of individual speaker differences. The outcomes are interpreted in terms of their relevance to language assessment and phonetic learning.
Training of Motion Control May Not Improve Tool-Manipulation Ability in Rats (Rattus norvegicus)
Authors: Nagano Akane
Published: July 2022

In recent times, previous studies have reported the manipulation of tools by rats and degus in controlled experimental settings. However, a previous study reported that only one out of eight experimentally naïve rats could manipulate a rake-shaped tool according to the position of a food reward without prior experience of obtaining the reward with the tool before the test. The present study aimed to improve the training of rats and investigate rodents’ ability to manipulate tools according to food position. Stricter criteria were employed when training the rats to promote the rats’ monitoring of their own tool manipulation. Additional training was introduced to give them the opportunity to learn that the reward moved closer to them by pulling an object connected to the reward. The present study showed that only one of eight rats could manipulate a tool according to the position of the reward without prior experience of obtaining the reward with the tool or perceiving that part of the tool came in contact with the reward, as the previous study showed. The change in training did not enhance the rats’ tool-manipulation ability according to the food position. These procedures should be conducted in a wider variety of animals to investigate whether the training in motion control can promote the subjects’ effective tool-use behavior.
Prediction of Facial Emotion Recognition Ability in Patients With First-Episode Schizophrenia Using Amplitude of Low-Frequency Fluctuation-Based Support Vector Regression Model
Authors: Kuang Qi-Jie , Zhou Su-Miao , Liu Yi , Wu Hua-Wang , Bi Tai-Yong , She Sheng-Lin , Zheng Ying-Jun
Published: July 2022

Objective

There were few studies that had attempted to predict facial emotion recognition (FER) ability at the individual level in schizophrenia patients. In this study, we developed a model for the prediction of FER ability in Chinese Han patients with the first-episode schizophrenia (FSZ).

Materials and Methods

A total of 28 patients with FSZ and 33 healthy controls (HCs) were recruited. All subjects underwent resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI). The amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) method was selected to analyze voxel-level spontaneous neuronal activity. The visual search experiments were selected to evaluate the FER, while the support vector regression (SVR) model was selected to develop a model based on individual rs-fMRI brain scan.

Results

Group difference in FER ability showed statistical significance (P < 0.05). In FSZ patients, increased mALFF value were observed in the limbic lobe and frontal lobe, while decreased mALFF value were observed in the frontal lobe, parietal lobe, and occipital lobe (P < 0.05, AlphaSim correction). SVR analysis showed that abnormal spontaneous activity in multiple brain regions, especially in the right posterior cingulate, right precuneus, and left calcarine could effectively predict fearful FER accuracy (r = 0.64, P = 0.011) in patients.

Conclusion

Our study provides an evidence that abnormal spontaneous activity in specific brain regions may serve as a predictive biomarker for fearful FER ability in schizophrenia.
Rationale, Design, and Methods for Nen Unkumbi/Edahiyedo (“We Are Here Now”): A Multi-Level Randomized Controlled Trial to Improve Sexual and Reproductive Health Outcomes in a Northern Plains American Indian Reservation Community
Authors: Rink Elizabeth , Firemoon Paula , Anastario Michael , Johnson Olivia , GrowingThunder Ramey , Ricker Adriann , Peterson Malory , Baldwin Julie
Published: July 2022

American Indian (AI) youth in the United States experience disproportionate sexual and reproductive health (SRH) disparities relative to their non-Indigenous, white counterparts, including increased rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), earlier sexual debut, increased rates of teen birth, and reduced access to SRH services. Past research shows that to improve SRH outcomes for AI youth in reservation communities, interventions must address complex factors and multiple levels of community that influence sexual risk behaviors. Here, we describe development of a multi-level, multi-component randomized controlled trial (RCT) to intervene upon SRH outcomes in a Northern Plains American Indian reservation community. Our intervention is rooted in a community based participatory research framework and is evaluated with a stepped wedge design that integrates 5 reservation high schools into a 5-year, cluster-randomized RCT. Ecological Systems Theory was used to design the intervention that includes (1) an individual level component of culturally specific SRH curriculum in school, (2) a parental component of education to improve parent-child communication about SRH and healthy relationships, (3) a community component of cultural mentorship, and (4) a systems-level component to improve delivery of SRH services from reservation healthcare agencies. In this article we present the rationale and details of our research design, instrumentation, data collection protocol, analytical methods, and community participation in the intervention. Our intervention builds upon existing community strengths and integrates traditional Indigenous knowledge and values with current public health knowledge to reduce SRH disparities.
Health-Related Physical Fitness as a Risk Factor for Falls in Elderly People Living in the Community: A Prospective Study in China
Authors: Duan Hongxia , Wang Hao , Bai Yiwen , Lu Yan , Xu Xueping , Wu Jing , Wu Xubo
Published: July 2022

Objectives

Health-related physical-fitness (HRPF) involves multi-components of physical functional tests and is reported to be associated with the risk of fall. The study sought to determine whether specific physical fitness components were stronger predictors of falls among elderly people.

Methods

This prospective cohort study involved 299 community residents age ≥60 years from Shanghai, China. The baseline data included comprehensive assessment of sociodemographic, clinical, and HRPF test. Subjects were followed for 1 year and were contacted by telephone to report falls. LASSO regression and Multivariate regression analysis were used to identify risk predictors of fall. In addition, we used receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses to determine whether the predictors have diagnostic.

Results

During the 1-year prospective fall assessment, 11.7% of these subjects experienced one or frequent falls. LASSO models revealed that age (=0.01) and 8-ft up-and-go test score (=0.06) were positively associated with falls, while activity-specific balance confidence (ABC; = −0.007) and 2-min step test score (= −0.005) were inversely related. The Area Under roc Curve (AUC) for a linear combination of age, ABC scale score, 2-min step test and 8-ft up-and-go test was 0.778 (95% confidence interval: 0. 700–0.857), which was superior to any of the variables taken alone.

Conclusion

Age, activity-specific balance confidence and fitness abnormalities were determined to contribute to the incident of falls. The value of 2-min step test score, and 8-ft up-and-go test score were the key HRPF components in predicting falls among elderly people.
Preconception Mental Health, Socioeconomic Status, and Pregnancy Outcomes in Primiparous Women
Authors: Björkstedt Satu-Maarit , Koponen Hannu , Kautiainen Hannu , Gissler Mika , Pennanen Pirjo , Eriksson Johan G. , Laine Merja K.
Published: July 2022

Background:

One in four women of childbearing age has some degree of mental disorders and are, therefore, prone to both pregnancy complications and adverse health outcomes in their offspring. We aimed to evaluate the impact of preconception severe mental disorders on pregnancy outcomes in primiparous women.

Methods

The study cohort was composed of 6,189 Finnish primiparous women without previously diagnosed diabetes, who delivered between 2009 and 2015, living in the city of Vantaa, Finland. Women were classified to have a preconception severe mental disorder if they had one or more outpatient visits to a psychiatrist or hospitalization with a psychiatric diagnosis 1 year before conception. Data on pregnancies, diagnoses, and pregnancy outcomes were obtained from national registers at an individual level.

Results

Primiparous women with preconception severe psychiatric diagnosis were younger, more often living alone, smokers, and had lower educational attainment and lower taxable income than women without psychiatric diagnosis (for all p < 0.001). Of all women, 3.4% had at least one psychiatric diagnosis. The most common psychiatric diagnoses were depression and anxiety disorders. The most common comorbidity was the combination of depression and anxiety disorders. There were no differences in the need for respiratory treatments, admissions to the neonatal intensive care unit, or antibiotic treatments between the offspring's groups.

Conclusion

Although primiparous women had severe mental disorders, the well-being of newborns was good. The most common severe mental health disorders were depression and anxiety disorders, and psychiatric comorbidity was common. Women with severe mental disorders more often belonged to lower socioeconomic groups.
How Does Shyness Affect Chinese College Students' Tendency to Mobile Phone Addiction? Testing the Mediating Roles of Social Anxiety and Self-Control
Authors: Li Xinwei , Li Weijian , Liu Mengxian , Xiao Weilong , Zhou Hui
Published: July 2022

Background and Aims

Mobile phone addiction among college students has gained considerable research attention because of its adverse effects on their health and academic performance. However, little is known about the mechanisms underlying the relationship between shyness and mobile phone addiction among college students.

Methods

Four questionnaires were used to examine whether mobile phone addiction tendency was predicted by shyness and the mediating roles of social anxiety and self-control among 3,189 Chinese college students. Correlation and mediation analyses were conducted using Hayes PROCESS.

Results

The results showed that (1) social anxiety (indirect effect = 0.22, 95% CI = 0.18–0.26) and self-control (indirect effect = 0.23, 95% CI = 0.21–0.25) played a partial mediating role in the relationship between shyness and mobile phone addiction tendency; (2) social anxiety and self-control also mediated the link between shyness and mobile phone addiction tendency sequentially (indirect effect = 0.10, 95% CI = 0.09 to 0.12).

Conclusion

These results suggest that mobile phone addiction among shy college students could be eliminated by alleviating social anxiety and strengthening self-control.
Does YouTube Provide Qualified Patient Education Videos About Atrial Fibrillation?
Authors: Luo Chong , Bian Longrong , Jiang Lijie , Liang Weitao , Wu Zhong
Published: July 2022

Objective

Patients utilize the internet as a pathway to acquire knowledge of specific diseases. However, there are limited oversight and review mechanisms to ensure the authenticity of online information. This study aimed to evaluate the quality of video-based resources used to obtain information about atrial fibrillation (AF).

Methods

Multiple AF-specific keywords were used to perform a systematic search of YouTube. Two independent reviewers reviewed the top 50 results of each keyword search. To record data, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) score, modified DISCERN score, AF-specific score (AFSS), and essential score (Escore) were used. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used for intergroup comparisons.

Results

A total of 74 videos that met the inclusion criteria were included in the analysis. In terms of video quality, 68% were poor, 19% were moderate, and 13% were exceptional. Videos submitted by publishers with a medical background were much less popular (p < 0.05) than those submitted by publishers without a medical background. The video quality did not differ among those included in this study.

Conclusions

Some videos on YouTube that are of real value are not as popular as those with low-quality content submitted by news agencies/media publishers. Furthermore, videos submitted by those with a medical background do not receive as much attention as others. It is important to acknowledge that video platforms should establish content and quality auditing mechanisms for videos. Furthermore, publishers should ensure that viewers receive accurate and complete knowledge and use more concise and accessible images or animations that are tailored to the audience.
Chinese and Global Burdens of Gastrointestinal Cancers From 1990 to 2019
Authors: Xie Wangcheng , Yang Tingsong , Zuo Jieliang , Ma Zhilong , Yu Weidi , Hu Zhengyu , Song Zhenshun
Published: July 2022

Background

Gastrointestinal (GI) cancers are an important component of the tumor. This study aimed to investigate the burden of six major GI cancers in China and globally from 1990 to 2019.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional study based on the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) 2019. Indicators on incidence, deaths, disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), and risk factors for esophageal, stomach, liver, pancreatic, colon and rectum, and gallbladder and biliary tract cancers were collected and analyzed for time trends. The contribution of each cancer and the proportion of cases in China among global cases were further reported.

Results

Global incidence cases, death cases, and DALYs of GI cancers showed an overall ascending trend over the past 30 years, but there was temporal and geographical variation across cancer types. By 2019, colon and rectum cancer had overtaken stomach cancer as the most burdensome GI cancer globally. However, stomach cancer narrowly continued to be the most burdensome GI in China. In addition, the proportion of incidence and death cases of stomach, pancreatic, colon and rectum, and gallbladder and biliary tract cancers among global cases had further increased. It was noteworthy that the burden of liver cancer in China has been alleviated significantly.

Conclusion

GI cancers remain a major public health problem in China and globally. Despite the temporal and geographic diversity of different cancers, targeted primary and secondary prevention are still necessary for the future to face these unknown challenges.
Analysis of the Quantitative Evaluation of the Public Medical and Health System Costs During Pandemic Governance: Investigation Based on COVID-19
Authors: Li Xintao , Zhang Zaisheng , Liu Li , Cheng Tongshun , Liu Gang
Published: July 2022

It is of great reference significance for broadening the research perspective of pandemic governance, improving the efficiency of pandemic governance and the credibility of the government, to scientifically measure and analyze the public medical and health system costs. This article takes the typical case “pandemic prevention and control event of S city, China” as the research background. First, the concept of public medical and health system costs during pandemic governance is defined. Then, the public medical and health system costs are embedded into the pandemic governance system, and the generation process of the public medical and health system costs in the actual situation are investigated. Furthermore, through in-depth interview, multi-case grounded theory and fuzzy subordinate function analysis, the scientific construction of the public medical and health system cost index system are completed. Finally, based on G1 method/entropy method combined with weighting and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method, the public medical and health system costs of the pandemic prevention and control events of S city is measured. The results show the following: (1) it is important that good single dimensions and reliable indicators are embodied in the public medical and health system costs scale. Among them, the behavioral public medical and health system costs of the masses is the largest proportion of all indicators; (2) after the pandemic prevention and control event is over, the public medical and health system cost are difficult to repair, and some lagging ideas and behaviors shown by local governments lead to a continuous expansion of the public medical and health system costs associated with pandemic governance; and (3) local governments should not conceal information asymmetry. Instead, local governments should give greater freedom to other actors to deal with pandemic governance, and governance entities should cooperate with each other. This will mitigate the effect of public medical and health system costs. Corresponding policy recommendations are proposed.
Benchmarking Perturbation-Based Saliency Maps for Explaining Atari Agents
Authors: Huber Tobias , Limmer Benedikt , André Elisabeth
Published: July 2022

One of the most prominent methods for explaining the behavior of Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) agents is the generation of saliency maps that show how much each pixel attributed to the agents' decision. However, there is no work that computationally evaluates and compares the fidelity of different perturbation-based saliency map approaches specifically for DRL agents. It is particularly challenging to computationally evaluate saliency maps for DRL agents since their decisions are part of an overarching policy, which includes long-term decision making. For instance, the output neurons of value-based DRL algorithms encode both the value of the current state as well as the expected future reward after doing each action in this state. This ambiguity should be considered when evaluating saliency maps for such agents. In this paper, we compare five popular perturbation-based approaches to create saliency maps for DRL agents trained on four different Atari 2,600 games. The approaches are compared using two computational metrics: dependence on the learned parameters of the underlying deep Q-network of the agents (sanity checks) and fidelity to the agents' reasoning (input degradation). During the sanity checks, we found that a popular noise-based saliency map approach for DRL agents shows little dependence on the parameters of the output layer. We demonstrate that this can be fixed by tweaking the algorithm such that it focuses on specific actions instead of the general entropy within the output values. For fidelity, we identify two main factors that influence which saliency map approach should be chosen in which situation. Particular to value-based DRL agents, we show that analyzing the agents' choice of action requires different saliency map approaches than analyzing the agents' state value estimation.
Altered Innate Immunity and Damaged Epithelial Integrity in Vaginal Microbial Dysbiosis
Authors: Cheu Ryan K. , Mohammadi Avid , Schifanella Luca , Broedlow Courtney , Driscoll Connor B. , Miller Charlene J. , Reeves R. Keith , Yudin Mark H. , Hensley-McBain Tiffany , Kaul Rupert , Klatt Nichole R.
Published: July 2022

The role of neutrophils relative to vaginal dysbiosis is unclear. We hypothesize that bacterial vaginosis (BV)-associated bacteria may induce the activation and accumulation of mucosal neutrophils within the female reproductive tract (FRT), resulting in epithelial barrier damage. We collected endocervical cytobrushes from women with and without BV and assessed bacteria community type and frequency/functional phenotypes of neutrophils. We performed in vitro whole blood co-cultures with BV-associated bacteria and healthy vaginal commensals and assessed their impact on epithelial integrity using transepithelial electrical resistance. We demonstrated increased neutrophil frequency (p < 0.0001), activation (p < 0.0001), and prolonged lifespan (p < 0.0001) in the cytobrushes from women with non-Lactobacillus dominant (nLD) communities. Our in vitro co-cultures confirmed these results and identified significant barrier damage in the presence of neutrophils and G. vaginalis. Here, we demonstrate that BV-associated bacteria induce neutrophil activation and increase lifespan, potentially causing accumulation in the FRT and epithelial barrier damage.
Change in Financial Firms and Avoiding Harm to People and Environment
Authors: Holland John
Published: July 2022

This paper explores issues of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Net Zero change in financial firms, with reference to top teams, employees, customers, citizens, and other stakeholders. It proposes a holistic approach to managing these problems of change, of reducing harm to people and environment, and contributing to social sustainability. Changes in financial firms and financial markets to become CSR and Net Zero oriented are being driven by major external change. There are increased demands to reduce harm to individuals, teams, and the environment, and to maintain social sustainability. The change pressures combine with problematic internal firm and external network predispositions. These exacerbate barriers to change and contribute to CSR and Net Zero problems. The paper uses a conceptual framework or “Behavioral theory of the financial firm” (BTTF) to think holistically about these problems and their impact on humans, their social systems, and physical systems. The BTFF is a basis for management and stakeholders to promote change based on credible organizational practices and prevention of exploitation of human capital and social conditions. These support social sustainability and occupational health and safety, or the ability of current and future generations to create healthy, living, and liveable communities in financial firms, and amongst external stakeholders. This holistic narrative and metaphor approach is a means for individuals and teams in the firm and externally to answer the question, “What is going on here?” when responding to uncertainty. The contribution of the paper focuses on firms, practitioners, and academics by closing knowledge and values gaps in fields of practice and academia. This has potential “to make a difference” in; researching, learning, thinking, and believing about desirable actions and responses to problems and harms, and to demands for Net Zero and CSR oriented change in financial firms and wider systems.