bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Isolation, identification and selection of bacteria with the proof-of-concept for bioaugmentation of whitewater from woodfree paper mills
Authors: Verdel Nada , Rijavec Tomaž , Rybkin Iaroslav , Erzin Anja , Velišček Žiga , Pintar Albin , Lapanje Aleš
Published: December 2020

When whitewater circuits in the paper industry are closed, organic compounds accumulate and cause adverse production problems, such as the formation of slime and pitch. Since wood-free whitewater is usually a mixture of additives for paper production and an efficient cost-effective purification technology for their removal is lacking, the aim of our study was to find an effective bio-based strategy for whitewater treatment using a selection of indigenous bacterial isolates. We first obtained a large collection of bacterial isolates and then tested them individually for their ability to degrade the organic additives used in papermaking, i.e. carbohydrates, resin acids, alkyl ketene dimers, polyvinyl alcohol, latex, and azo and fluorescent dyes. Out of the 355 bacterial isolates, we selected a combination of four strains (Xanthomonadales bacteriumsp. CST37-CF,Sphingomonas sp.BLA14-CF,Cellulosimicrobiumsp. AKD4-BF andAeromonassp. RES19-BTP), which cover the entire spectrum of the tested organic additives. A proof-of-concept study in pilot scale was then performed by immobilizing the cells of our artificial bacterial consortium in a 33-liter tubular flow-through reactor with a retention time of <15 h. The combination of the four native strains enabled an 88% reduction in COD of whitewater even after 21 days. Additionally, we show that the bio-based whitewater treatment surpasses photolysis and photocatalysis.

Graphical abstract

Highlights

A strategy for selecting a consortium of indigenous bacteria with a high potential for bioaugmentation of wood-free whitewater is presented.

Study of bacterial degradation of eight chemically diverse substances used in paper production is presented. Methods for the selection of bacteria suitable for industrial application were developed.

The constructed artificial bacterial consortium consisted of strains belonging to generaXanthomonadales bacterium,Sphingomonas,AeromonasandCellulosimicrobium.

The proof of concept of the industrial application, consisting of a 33-L-column filled with the immobilized artificial consortium, was an 88% decrease in COD of the whitewater effluent.
DeepADEMiner: A Deep Learning Pharmacovigilance Pipeline for Extraction and Normalization of Adverse Drug Effect Mentions on Twitter
Authors: Magge Arjun , Tutubalina Elena , Miftahutdinov Zulfat , Alimova Ilseyar , Dirkson Anne , Verberne Suzan , Weissenbacher Davy , Gonzalez-Hernandez Graciela
Published: December 2020

Objective: Research on pharmacovigilance from social media data has focused on mining adverse drug effects (ADEs) using annotated datasets, with publications generally focusing on one of three tasks: (i) ADE classification, (ii) named entity recognition (NER) for identifying the span of an ADE mentions, and (iii) ADE mention normalization to standardized vocabularies. While the common goal of such systems is to detect ADE signals that can be used to inform public policy, it has been impeded largely by limited end-to-end solutions to the three tasks for large-scale analysis of social media reports for different drugs.

Materials and Methods: We present a dataset for training and evaluation of ADE pipelines where the ADE distribution is closer to the average `natural balance' with ADEs present in about 7% of the Tweets. The deep learning architecture involves an ADE extraction pipeline with individual components for all three tasks.

Results: The system presented achieved a classification performance of F1 = 0.63, span detection performance of F1 = 0.44 and an end-to-end entity resolution performance of F1 = 0.34 on the presented dataset.

Discussion: The performance of the models continue to highlight multiple challenges when deploying pharmacovigilance systems that use social media data. We discuss the implications of such models in the downstream tasks of signal detection and suggest future enhancements.

Conclusion: Mining ADEs from Twitter posts using a pipeline architecture requires the different components to be trained and tuned based on input data imbalance in order to ensure optimal performance on the end-to-end resolution task.
Transcriptomic and epigenomic profiling of young and aged spermatogonial stem cells reveals molecular targets regulating differentiation
Authors: Liao Jinyue , Suen Hoi Ching , Luk Alfred Chun Shui , Lee Tin-Lap
Published: December 2020

Spermatogonial stem cells (SSC), the foundation of spermatogenesis and male fertility, possess lifelong self-renewal activity. Aging leads to the decline in stem cell function and increased risk of paternal age-related genetic diseases. In the present study, we performed a comparative genomic analysis of mouse SSC (Oct4-GFP+/KIT-) and differentiating progenitors (Oct4-GFP+/KIT+) isolated from young and aged testes. Our transcriptome data revealed enormous complexity of expressed coding and non-coding RNAs and alternative splicing regulation during SSC differentiation. Further comparison between young and aged SSCs suggested these differentiation programs were affected by aging. We identified aberrant expression of genes associated with meiosis and TGF-β signaling, alteration in alternative splicing regulation and differential expression of specific lncRNAs such as Fendrr. Epigenetic profiling revealed reduced H3K27me3 deposition at numerous pro-differentiation genes during SSC differentiation as well as aberrant H3K27me3 distribution at genes in Wnt and TGF-β signaling upon aging. Finally, aged SSCs exhibited gene body hypomethylation, which is accompanied by an elevated 5hmC level. We believe this in-depth molecular analysis will serve as a reference for future analysis of SSC aging.
FOXO1 mitigates the SMAD3/FOXL2C134WTranscriptomic Effect in a Model of Human Adult Granulosa Cell Tumor
Authors: Secchi Christian , Benaglio Paola , Mulas Francesca , Belli Martina , Stupack Dwayne , Shimasaki Shunichi
Published: December 2020

Background

Adult granulosa cell tumor (aGCT) is a rare type of stromal cell malignant cancer of the ovary characterized by elevated estrogen levels. aGCTs ubiquitously harbor a somatic mutation inFOXL2gene, Cys134Trp (c.402C<G); however, the general molecular effect of this mutation and its putative pathogenic role in aGCT tumorigenesis is not completely understood. We previously studied the role of FOXL2C134W, its partner SMAD3 and its antagonist FOXO1 in cellular models of aGCT.

Methods

In this work, seeking more comprehensive profiling of FOXL2C134Wtranscriptomic effects, we performed an RNA-seq analysis comparing the effect of FOXL2WT/SMAD3 and FOXL2C143W/SMAD3 overexpression in an established human GC line (HGrC1), which is not luteinized, and bears normal alleles of FOXL2.

Results

Our data shows that FOXL2C143W/SMAD3 overexpression alters the expression of 717 genes. These genes include known and novel FOXL2 targets (TGFB2, SMARCA4, HSPG2, MKI67, NFKBIA) and are enriched for neoplastic pathways (Proteoglycans in Cancer, Chromatin remodeling, Apoptosis, Tissue Morphogenesis, Tyrosine Kinase Receptors). We additionally expressed the FOXL2 antagonistic Forkhead protein, FOXO1. Surprisingly, overexpression of FOXO1 mitigated 40% of the altered genome-wide effects specifically related to FOXL2C134W, suggesting it can be a new target for aGCT treatment.

Conclusions

our transcriptomic data provide novel insights into potential genes (FOXO1 regulated) that could be used as biomarkers of efficacy in aGCT patients.
SUMO-specific protease 2 (SENP2) suppresses browning of white adipose tissue through C/EBPβ modulation
Authors: Lee Ji Seon , Chae Sehyun , Nan Jinyan , Koo Young Do , Lee Seung-Ah , Park Young Joo , Hwang Daehee , Han Weiping , Kim Young-Bum , Chung Sung Soo , Park Kyong Soo
Published: December 2020

SUMO-specific protease 2 (SENP2) is highly expressed in white adipose tissue (WAT) and plays an important role in the early stages of adipogenesis. To investigate the function of SENP2 in adipocytes, we generated adipocyte-specificSenp2knock-out (Senp2-aKO) mice. Compared to wild-type mice,Senp2-aKO mice had reduced adipose tissue mass and smaller multi-locular adipocytes in inguinal WAT (iWAT). Body temperatures ofSenp2-aKO mice were effectively regulated during cold exposure. Additionally,Senp2-aKO mice were resistant to high–fat–diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance and exhibited an increase in energy expenditure rates. Expression of thermogenic genes, includingUcp1, was significantly increased in iWAT (and less efficiently in epidydimal WAT [eWAT]) ofSenp2-aKO mice, suggesting that SENP2 depletion accelerates browning of WAT. Further, suppression of HOXC10 was essential for beige adipocyte formation in SENP2-deficient cells of iWAT, andHoxc10transcriptional suppression was mediated by C/EBPβ, a direct target of SENP2. Sumoylated C/EBPβ efficiently inhibitedHoxc10transcription through recruitment of the transcriptional co-repressor DAXX. Similarly,Senp2knockdown using siRNAs during adipogenesis promoted thermogenic adipocyte differentiation of precursor cells in both iWAT and eWAT, and C/EBPβ was a common mediator. Together these results suggest that SENP2 plays critical role in white adipocyte differentiation by suppressing differentiation toward thermogenic adipocytes through modulation of C/EBPβ in both iWAT and eWAT.
Panoramic transcriptome analysis and functional screening of long noncoding RNAs in mouse spermatogenesis
Authors: Li Kai , Xu Jiayue , Luo Yanyun , Zou Dingfeng , Han Ruiqin , Zhong Shunshun , Zhao Qing , Mang Xinyu , Li Mengzhen , Si Yanmin , Lu Yan , Li Pengyu , Jin Cheng , Wang Zhipeng , Wang Fang , Miao Shiying , Wen Bo , Wang Linfang , Ma Yanni , Yu Jia , Song Wei
Published: December 2020

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have emerged as diverse functional regulators involved in mammalian development; however, large-scale functional investigation of lncRNAs in mammalian spermatogenesis in vivo is lacking. Here, we delineated the global lncRNA expression landscape in mouse spermatogenesis and identified 968 germ cell signature lncRNAs. By combining bioinformatics and functional screening, we identified three functional lncRNAs (Gm4665, 1700027A15Rik, and 1700052I22Rik) that directly influence spermatogenesis in vivo. Knocking down Gm4665 hampered the development of round spermatids into elongating spermatids and disrupted key spermatogenic gene expression. Mechanistically, lncRNA Gm4665 localized in the nucleus of round spermatids and occupied the genomic regulatory region of important spermatogenic genes including Ip6k1 and Akap3. These findings provide a valuable resource and framework for future functional analysis of lncRNAs in spermatogenesis and their potential roles in other biological processes.
Selective enhancement of fear learning and resistance to extinction in a mouse model of acute early life trauma
Authors: Sneddon Elizabeth A. , Riddle Collin A. , Schuh Kristen M. , Quinn Jennifer J. , Radke Anna K.
Published: December 2020

Early life stress (ELS) experiences can cause changes in cognitive and affective functioning. This study examined the persistent effects of a single traumatic event in infancy on several adult behavioral outcomes in male and female C57BL/6J mice. Mice received 15 footshocks in infancy and were tested for stress-enhanced fear learning, extinction learning, discrimination and reversal learning, and novel object recognition. Infant trauma potentiated fear learning in adulthood and produced resistance to extinction but did not influence other behaviors, suggesting restricted effects of infant trauma on behaviors reliant on cortico-amygdala circuitry.
External shocks and output composition: evidence from Nigeria
Authors: Ojeyinka Titus Ayobami , Yinusa Dauda Olalekan
Published: December 2020

Purpose

The study investigates the impact of external shocks on output composition (consumption and investment) in Nigeria for the period 1981:Q1– 2018:Q4. Trade-weighted variables from the country's five major trading partners are constructed to capture the impact.

Design/methodology/approach

The study employs a block exogeneity open economy structural vector autoregressive (SVAR) analysis in studying the stated relationship.

Findings

The study reveals that external shocks significantly affect consumption and investment in Nigeria. Results from the structural impulse response function suggest that foreign output, real effective exchange rate and foreign interest rate have significant negative effects on consumption and investment. Specifically, results from error variance decomposition show that foreign inflation and real effective exchange rate shocks are major drivers of fluctuations in consumption and investment in Nigeria. Interestingly, the study finds that oil price shock accounts for minor variations in consumption and investment in Nigeria.

Research limitations/implications

The findings suggest that consumption and investment in Nigeria are substantially and largely driven by external shocks.

Practical implications

There is need for the monetary authority and the Nigerian government to design appropriate policies to stabilise the naira and salvage the country's exchange rate from unexpected large swings so as to reduce the vulnerability of the economy to external shocks.

Originality/value

Previous studies on external shocks have concentrated on the impact of external shocks on aggregate variables such as output and inflation, while few studies on external shocks in Nigeria capture external shocks through single-country data. This study differs from previous similar studies in Nigeria in two ways. First, the study examines the impact of external shocks on output composition such as consumption and investment. Second, the study captures the impact of external shocks on the two components of gross domestic product (GDP) by constructing trade-weighted variables from Nigeria's five major trading partners.
Distribution of CD1a‐positive cells is not different between pseudolymphomatous folliculitis and primary cutaneous marginal zone lymphoma
Authors: Shojiguchi Naoko , Arai Eiichi , Anan Takashi , Ansai Shin‐ichi , Tsuchida Tetsuya , Yasuda Masanori
Published: December 2020

Pseudolymphomatous folliculitis (PLF) is a subtype of cutaneous pseudolymphoma that is recognized as an independent disease. PLF is characterized by dermal lymphocytic infiltration surrounding an irregular hyperplastic pilosebaceous unit (i.e., activated pilosebaceous unit). An interstitial distribution of CD1a‐positive cells is regarded as an important feature of PLF, especially in distinguishing it from primary cutaneous marginal zone lymphoma (PCMZL), which is associated with a peripheral concentration of CD1a‐positive cells. We undertook a clinicopathological investigation of PLF, with a reassessment of CD1a immunohistochemistry. We defined diagnostic criteria for PLF based on past studies and consequently identified 79 cases. In addition, we collected 32 cases of PCMZL and performed detailed clinical, pathological, and immunohistochemical investigations using antibodies to CD3, CD20, and CD1a. We found an interstitial concentration of CD1a‐positive cells in 90.2% of PLF and 34.5% of PCMZL cases. The peripheral concentration of CD1a‐positive cells was seen in 9.8% of PLF and 34.5% of PCMZL cases. In both diseases, CD1a‐positive cells appeared in T‐cell nests (88.5% in PLF and 92.9% in PCMZL) but were absent in B‐cell nests (0% in both groups). All 79 cases of PLF showed activated pilosebaceous units while 22 of the 32 PCMZL cases displayed pilosebaceous units, although none of these were activated. In summary, regarding the distribution patterns of CD1a‐positive cells as a diagnostic feature in distinguishing between PLF and PCMZL is somewhat inconclusive. To differentiate PLF and PCMZL, determining the presence or absence of activated pilosebaceous units is essential.
The changing face of genome assemblies: Guidance on achieving high‐quality reference genomes
Authors: Whibley Annabel , Kelley Joanna L. , Narum Shawn R.
Published: December 2020

The quality of genome assemblies has improved rapidly in recent years due to continual advances in sequencing technology, assembly approaches, and quality control. In the field of molecular ecology, this has led to the development of exceptional quality genome assemblies that will be important long‐term resources for broader studies into ecological, conservation, evolutionary, and population genomics of naturally occurring species. Moreover, the extent to which a single reference genome represents the diversity within a species varies: pan‐genomes will become increasingly important ecological genomics resources, particularly in systems found to have considerable presence‐absence variation in their functional content. Here, we highlight advances in technology that have raised the bar for genome assembly and provide guidance on standards to achieve exceptional quality reference genomes. Key recommendations include the following: (a) Genome assemblies should include long‐read sequencing except in rare cases where it is effectively impossible to acquire adequately preserved samples needed for high molecular weight DNA standards. (b) At least one scaffolding approach should be included with genome assembly such as Hi‐C or optical mapping. (c) Genome assemblies should be carefully evaluated, this may involve utilising short read data for genome polishing, error correction, k‐mer analyses, and estimating the percent of reads that map back to an assembly. Finally, a genome assembly is most valuable if all data and methods are made publicly available and the utility of a genome for further studies is verified through examples. While these recommendations are based on current technology, we anticipate that future advances will push the field further and the molecular ecology community should continue to adopt new approaches that attain the highest quality genome assemblies.
Mitomycin C for the prevention of corneal haze in photorefractive keratectomy: a meta‐analysis and trial sequential analysis
Authors: Chang Yu‐Min , Liang Chang‐Min , Weng Tzu‐Heng , Chien Ke‐Hung , Lee Cho‐Hao
Published: December 2020

Purpose

To evaluate the anti‐haze effect and visual outcome after intraoperative mitomycin C (MMC) use during photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) in myopia or myopic astigmatism patients.

Methods

We searched in PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library and Google Scholar comprehensively to obtain studies comparing the clinical effects after PRK with and without MMC published until February 2020. Meta‐analysis of primary outcome (corneal haze rate) and secondary outcomes [predictability, efficacy, safety and corneal endothelial cell density (ECD)] were conducted. We used trial sequential analysis (TSA) in an effort to collect firm evidence supporting our conclusion.

Results

Of the included 11 randomized controlled trials, five cohort and one case–control studies, 3536 eyes (2232 and 1304 in the MMC and control groups, respectively) were enrolled for meta‐analysis. The TSA disclosed strong evidence of decline in corneal haze rate in the MMC group compared with that of the control group. In the subgroup analysis of duration, MMC seemed to reduce corneal haze rate in early‐onset and late‐onset haze. Predictability of refraction and visual acuity were greater in the MMC groups, not significantly though. The proportion of patients losing at least two lines of best corrected visual acuity postoperatively in the MMC groups was lower than that in the control groups. The corneal postoperative ECD showed no significant difference between the MMC and control groups.

Conclusion

Our meta‐analysis revealed that MMC is an important anti‐haze agent in PRK for reducing both early‐ and late‐onset haze and can also help improving predictability of refraction and subjective postoperative visual acuity.
Surgical aortic valve replacement and infective endocarditis
Authors: Malmberg Markus , Ahtela Elina , Sipilä Jussi O. T. , Gunn Jarmo , Rautava Päivi , Kytö Ville
Published: December 2020

Background

We wanted to investigate the influence of native‐valve infective endocarditis (IE) on long‐term outcomes of surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR).

Methods

Native‐valve patients with IE (n = 191) were compared to propensity score‐matched patients without IE (n = 191), all treated with SAVR, in a multicentre, population‐based cohort register study in Finland. The median follow‐up was 6.2 years.

Results

Infective endocarditis as the indication for SAVR was associated with an increased hazard of 10‐year mortality (37.1% vs 24.2%; HR 1.83; CI 1.03‐3.26; P = .039). Ischaemic stroke was also more frequent in IE patients during 10‐year follow‐up (15.8% vs 7.5%; HR 3.80; CI 1.42‐10.18; P = .008). Major bleeding within first year after SAVR was more frequent in patients with IE (7.0% vs 2.9%; P = .038). Ten‐year major bleeding rate was 32.4% in IE vs 24.5% in non‐IE groups (P = .174). Aortic valve re‐operation rate was 4.3% in IE vs 8.4% in non‐IE groups (P = .975). Admission duration after SAVR was longer in IE (median 29 vs 9 days; P < .0001). There was no difference in 30‐day mortality after SAVR.

Conclusions

Patients with native‐valve IE have a higher risk of death, ischaemic stroke, and early major bleeding after SAVR than matched patients without IE. Results confirm the high risk for complications of IE patients after SAVR and highlight the importance of vigorous prevention of both stroke and bleeding after SAVR in these patients.
Trajectories of Familísmo, Respéto, Traditional Gender Attitudes, and Parenting Practices Among Mexican‐Origin Families
Authors: Chen Chia‐Feng , Robins Richard W. , Schofield Thomas J. , Russell Daniel W.
Published: December 2020

Objective

To investigate the trajectories of culturally specific predictors of parenting practices in Latinx families: familism (familísmo), respect (respéto), traditional gender role attitudes (machísmo and marianísmo), and the degree to which these parental cultural values predict changes in parenting practices.

Background

Cultural values have been suggested to predict Latinx parenting practices, but there is a paucity of direct evidence. The current study fills the gap by testing such associations using corresponding measures.

Method

We followed 549 Mexican‐origin families from when the adolescents (52% female) were in the fifth to eleventh grade. Parental authoritativeness, monitoring, and hostility were reported by multiple informants. Growth curve modeling was used.

Results

Most trajectories of these parental cultural values showed small but significant declines during offspring adolescence, particularly when adolescent use of Spanish or parent–adolescent conflict was high. Parental cultural values predicted changes in parenting practices in four of 36 models, wherein initial paternal familísmo predicted decrease in paternal authoritativeness toward daughters, initial maternal traditional gender values predicted decrease in maternal hostility toward daughters, and initial parental traditional gender values predicted decrease in parental monitoring of sons.

Conclusion

Although parental cultural values do not consistently predict changes in parenting practices, parental cultural values decrease with specific groups during specific times (i.e., during adolescence, especially in families with high parent–adolescent conflict or wherein the adolescent uses Spanish frequently).

Implications

More attention to measured constructs in research on Latinx families and validity of parenting is required. Research on nuanced or lower order components of acculturation is needed.
Using documentary films to teach nurses about gender and the vulnerabilities facing older men with advanced dementia
Authors: Bartlett Ruth , Jøranson Nina , Breievne Grete
Published: December 2020

Aims and objectives

To review short documentary films about older men with advanced dementia to use in teaching, and therein address the gender imbalance in the dementia care curricula and create opportunities to learn about masculine vulnerability.

Background

There has been a growing recognition of the role of gender in respect of vulnerability, with emerging evidence suggesting a need to acknowledge and prioritise dementia as a global women's health issue. Whilst a focus on women is understandable—more women are affected by dementia than men—gender does not equal women. It is important for nursing students, nurses and allied health professionals to understand the vulnerabilities facing older men with dementia as well, including gay men, who may face additional challenges.

Design

Discursive paper outlining the limitations of using mainstream fiction films in dementia care education and reviewing three short documentary films about older men with advanced dementia to use in teaching.

Methods

We summarised the literature on using films in nurse education and review three short documentary films about older men with advanced dementia and their (male) caregivers in the context of international nursing standards and concept of vulnerability.

Conclusions

Education is key to understanding and improving the lived experience of dementia. Our article endorses the use of films in the classroom but highlights that mainstream fiction films about people (women) with dementia are not always appropriate for pedagogic purposes. Our review of three short documentary films on older men with advanced dementia uncovers an untapped teaching resource for care educators.

Relevance to clinical practice

Given the rising number of older men and women with advanced dementia, nurses are uniquely positioned to advocate for and mobilise support. The short documentary films reviewed in this article can engage nurses emotionally and generate discussion of ways that older men with dementia and their caregivers might be vulnerable.
Investigating how self‐esteem moderates grandiose narcissism's interpersonal orientation
Authors: Richardson Kyle , Hart William , Kinrade Charlotte
Published: December 2020

Objective

Most previous research has treated grandiose narcissism and self‐esteem as additive predictors of outcomes, but some theory and evidence suggests they may sometimes interact to predict outcomes. Unfortunately, the nature of this interaction is unclear; we suggest a framework to conceptualize the interaction and test it vis‐à‐vis the interpersonal circumplex framework.

Method

Participants (N = 598; Mage = 38.39; 327 females; 72.1% White) reported their levels of grandiose narcissism and self‐esteem and completed interpersonal circumplex measures of efficacies, values, problems, and sensitivities.

Results

As self‐esteem decreased, grandiose narcissism related (a) more negatively to communal efficacies and values and (b) more positively to sensitivity to others' communal behaviors. Also as self‐esteem decreased, unexpectedly, grandiose narcissism related (a) more positively to agentic efficacies and problems and (b) more negatively to sensitivity to others' agentic behaviors.

Conclusion

Overall, the present findings generally support using interaction models over additive models of grandiose narcissism and self‐esteem in interpersonal contexts, suggesting that grandiose narcissism becomes generally less communal, more agentic, and more interpersonally problematic as self‐esteem decreases.
Use of premedication with intravenous immune globulin in Kawasaki disease: A retrospective review
Authors: Liu Elaine , Gonzalez Jimmy , Siu Anita
Published: December 2020

Background

Kawasaki disease (KD) is a significant febrile illness in children and is the leading cause of acquired pediatric heart disease in developed countries. Its recommended treatment is high‐dose intravenous immune globulin (IVIG) plus aspirin. However, IVIG‐related adverse events are seen frequently in this population. Premedication is commonly used to reduce this risk, but evidence supporting this practice is conflicting. Ultimately, practices vary among institutions and no standard guidelines regarding IVIG premedication currently exist.

Methods

Electronic medical records for pediatric patients presenting to an academic, tertiary care medical center diagnosed with KD and who received at least one dose of IVIG were reviewed for: patient demographics, treatment characteristics, premedication use, adverse events, and coronary abnormalities at discharge. Descriptive statistics were used to evaluate study findings.

Results

Sixty‐six patients receiving a total of 81 distinct IVIG administrations were evaluated. Most patients (64/66, 97%) were premedicated prior to infusion with 26% of patients (17/66) experiencing an IVIG‐related adverse event, totaling 25 documented adverse events. The most common events included chills and vomiting. Overall, the average duration of hospitalization was 4.37 days. Despite appropriate medication management, five patients (7.6%) developed coronary abnormalities.

Conclusion

Practitioners demonstrated a widespread use of premedication for IVIG. However, 26% of patients still experienced an adverse event. While premedication was not shown to have an adverse impact on patient outcomes, it also did not demonstrate a notable reduction from a historic adverse event incidence.
Patterns and correlates of preserved humoral immunity to vaccines in children following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
Authors: Al‐Antary Eman , Henry Meret , Spruit Jessica , Yankelevich Maxim , Chu Roland , Ravindranath Yaddanapudi , Savaşan Süreyya
Published: December 2020

Data on preservation of vaccine immunity following allogeneic HSCT in children is limited. We investigated vaccine titers and sought correlations with patient characteristics in this study. Twenty‐eight cases were retrospectively analyzed. Antibody concentrations against hepatitis A, hepatitis B, 3 poliovirus serotypes, tetanus, diphtheria, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, and 13 pneumococcus serotypes were measured as part of planned monitoring following HSCT. Protective antibody levels were found for hepatitis A in 79% of the recipients, measles in 54%, all poliovirus serotypes in 50%, tetanus in 50%, rubella in 50%, varicella in 46%, hepatitis B in 46%, mumps in 43%, diphtheria in 29%, and ≥7/13 pneumococcus serotypes in 46%; lowest level observed for diphtheria and highest for hepatitis A prior to starting post‐HSCT immunizations. In univariate analysis, patients with non‐malignant diseases (P = .03) and without GvHD (P = .04) had more protective titers. A significant positive association was found among vaccine titers against the microorganisms or the serotypes of the same microorganism, which were administered together in the same product, including polio serotypes, diphtheria and tetanus, mumps, measles, and rubella. Higher degrees of sero‐positivity are likely to be due to lack of prior chemotherapy in non‐malignant disease cases and lesser immunosuppression in patients without GvHD. Monitoring long‐term vaccine titers and administering vaccines accordingly could be evaluated for post‐HSCT re‐immunization practice.
The extracorporeal circulation with transdiaphragmatic approach in living‐donor liver transplantation for HB with atrial extension of tumor thrombus: A case report
Authors: Shimizu Seiichi , Sakamoto Seisuke , Fukuda Akinari , Yanagi Yusuke , Uchida Hajime , Baba Chiaki , Suzuki Yasuyuki , Kondo Ryoichi , Kaneko Yukihiro , Nakano Noriyuki , Haga Chizuko , Yoshioka Takako , Matsumoto Kimikazu , Kasahara Mureo
Published: December 2020

Surgical intervention for HB with tumor thrombi extending into the IVC and the RA might requires careful planning of the surgical procedures, including vascular reconstruction and extracorporeal circulation. We herein report a successful case of LDLT for HB with atrial extension of a tumor thrombus by extracorporeal circulation with a transdiaphragmatic approach. The patient was a 5‐year‐old boy with PRETEXT IV HB with a tumor thrombus that extended into the IVC and the RA. After 4 cycles of chemotherapy and resection of bilateral lung metastases, the size of the primary HB tumor decreased. As the tumor extension from the LHV to the RA had decreased but was still present, we performed LDLT with tumor thrombectomy. The central part of the diaphragm was sagittally incised to expose the suprahepatic IVC and the RA. Venovenous bypass was achieved from the right femoral vein and IMV to the RA En bloc resection of the native liver with the tumor thrombus was then performed. HV anastomosis was made between the newly created orifice on the IVC and the graft LHV. The duration of LDLT was 10 hours and 44 minutes (extracorporeal circulation time: 78 minutes). Pediatric LT for HB with the extension of tumor thrombi into the RA under extracorporeal circulation is a feasible option and allows for the expansion of the indications for transplantation for children with unresectable liver tumors.
THE APPLICATIONS OF ZERO DIVISORS OF SOME FINITE RINGS OF MATRICES IN PROBABILITY AND GRAPH THEORY
Authors: Zaid Nurhidayah , Sarmin Nor Haniza , Khasraw Sanhan Muhammad Salih
Published: December 2020

Let R be a finite ring. The zero divisors of R are defined as two nonzero elements of R, say x and y where xy = 0. Meanwhile, the probability that two random elements in a group commute is called the commutativity degree of the group. Some generalizations of this concept have been done on various groups, but not in rings. In this study, a variant of probability in rings which is the probability that two elements of a finite ring have product zero is determined for some ring of matrices over integers modulo n. The results are then applied into graph theory, specifically the zero divisor graph. This graph is defined as a graph where its vertices are zero divisors of R and two distinct vertices x and y are adjacent if and only if xy = 0. It is found that the zero divisor graph of R is a directed graph.
Modeling atomic layer deposition process parameters to achieve dense nanocrystal-based nanocomposites
Authors: Cendejas Austin , Moher Dillon , Thimsen Elijah
Published: December 2020

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a technique capable of depositing conformal coatings in highly tortuous 3D nanostructures. One configuration that has attracted attention is nanocrystal (NC) based nanocomposite films, whereby a 3D network of randomly packed nanocrystals is infilled via ALD to yield a dense nanocomposite. In this work, we demonstrate criteria for predicting three important thermal ALD process parameters necessary to completely infill 3D NC networks: cycle number, precursor pulse time, and purge time. A description of representative pore geometry is developed using parameters of the film comprised of nanocrystals before infill, specifically NC diameter, NC volume fraction, and film thickness. This geometric description allowed for prediction of required precursor pulse times to saturate the NC film surface. A finite-difference model of water vapor transport during purging revealed that desorption kinetics can be used to predict purge times required to achieve complete infill. The model predictions show good agreement with experiments carried out by infilling films comprised of GaN NCs with ZnO by the diethylzinc/water process and films comprised of Al2O3 NCs with Al2O3 by the trimethylaluminum/water process.
Beam-time delay domain deconvolved scheme for high-resolution active localization of underwater targets
Authors: Jiang Jingning , Yang T. C. , Pan Xiang , Zhang Ting
Published: December 2020

Matched filter (MF) and conventional beamforming (CBF) are widely used in active sonar; the performance of the former (temporal resolution) is limited by the signal bandwidth, and that of the latter (angular resolution) is limited by the array aperture. Previous work has shown that angular resolution can be significantly improved by deconvolving the CBF outputs. In this paper, deconvolution is extended to the time domain by deconvolving the MF outputs, and a high-resolution two-dimensional deconvolution method is proposed to simultaneously improve the temporal and angular resolution. Numerical simulations and experimental tank data show that angular resolutions are improved 26 times, and temporal resolutions are improved 10 times compared with the conventional MF and CBF methods. Reverberations are much suppressed to allow target echoes to be detected from the received time series data.
Clinical pathology resident education during the COVID-19 pandemic
Authors: Senzel Lisa , Ahmed Tahmeena , Batiste Rebecca
Published: December 2020

COVID-19 arrived at our medical centre in March 2020 with substantial force. Clinical pathology concepts began to have a new, direct relevance to our residents’ lives. As we wondered ‘Have I been exposed? Do I need to self-isolate? Are the tests reliable? Am I protecting myself adequately while handling specimens?’, these questions drew new interest in laboratory methods, test interpretation and limitations, supply chain issues, safety and quality. By incorporating SARS-CoV-2 teaching points into laboratory medicine lectures, we enlivened concepts of sensitivity, specificity, predictive value and methodologic issues in serologic, molecular and antigen testing for pathology residents. We drew from the emerging literature on SARS-CoV-2 to create lectures and added details from our own institutional experience with COVID-19. When the pandemic fades from memory, clinical pathology education can still benefit from mnemonics, analogies, anecdotes and creative efforts that capture the attention of the audience.
Clinical and molecular characteristics of Thai patients withELANE-related neutropaenia
Authors: Ittiwut Rungnapa , Sengpanich Kunlapat , Lauhasurayotin Supanun , Ittiwut Chupong , Shotelersuk Vorasuk , Sosothikul Darintr , Suphapeetiporn Kanya
Published: December 2020

Aims

Congenital neutropaenia is a rare inherited disorder that mainly affects neutrophils causing severe infection. Mutations in several genes have been implicated in the disease pathogenesis. The genetic defects may vary in different populations, influenced by ethnicity and geographical location. Here we describe the clinical and genotypic characteristics of seven unrelated Thai cases with congenital neutropaenia.

Methods

Seven unrelated patients with congenital neutropaenia were enrolled (5 female and 2 male) at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand. Clinical and laboratory data were collected. Whole exome sequencing (WES) analysis was performed in all cases.

Results

WES successfully identified disease-causing mutations in theELANEgene in all cases, including two novel ones: a heterozygous 12 base pair (bp) inframe insertion (c.289_300dupCAGGTGTTCGCC; p.Q97_A100dup) and a heterozygous 18 bp inframe deletion (c.698_715delCCCCGGTGGCACAGTTTG; p.A233_F238delAPVAQF). Five other previously describedELANEmutations (p.Arg103Pro, p.Gly214Arg, p.Trp241X, p.Ser126Leu and p.Leu47Arg) were also detected.

Conclusions

All Thai patients with congenital neutropaenia in this study harboured causative mutations in theELANEgene, suggesting it the most common associated with the disease. Two novel mutations were also identified, expanding the genotypic spectrum ofELANE.
Complement controls the immune synapse and tumors control complement
Authors: Herbert Alan
Published: December 2020

The synapses between immune cells and their targets are 150 Å wide. They regulate immune cell responses (IRs) to cognate antigens. Here, I outline a potential mechanism for self-nonself discrimination based on the C3d and iC3b proteolytic fragments of complement protein C3. The proposed C3 checkpoint works through complement receptor 3 (CR3), which binds both C3d and iC3b. The CR3 conformations involved differ; the bent, cis-acting CR3 engages C3d, activating the immune cell expressing CR3; the extended, transacting CR3 conformer binds iC3b on another cell, inhibiting IRs. The CR3 complexes formed with iC3b and C3d vary greatly in size. Only bound C3d is small enough to fit within the synapse. It stimulates IRs by countering the inhibitory signals that iC3b generates at the synapse edge. The competition between C3d and iC3b dynamically determines whether or not an immune cell activates. Host cells use regulators of complement activation (RCA) to coat themselves with iC3b, silencing IRs against self by preventing synapse formation. Tumors exploit this process by overexpressing C3 and RCA to masquerade as ‘super-self’, with iC3b masking neoantigens. Enhancing synapse formation by specifically labeling cancer cells as nonself with targeted C3d therapeutics offers a new strategy for boosting tumor-specific immunity.
Case of sexually transmitted recurrent pharyngotonsillitis caused by group A streptococcus
Authors: Watanabe Yusuke , Sato Akihiro , Nakamura Itaru , Watanabe Hidehiro
Published: December 2020

We report a five-time recurrent pharyngotonsillitis caused by group A streptococcus (GAS) after sexual contacts and had no recurrence after concurrent therapy to both partners. Although
Streptococcus pyogenes
(GAS) is a Gram-positive streptococcus capable of causing a recurrent pharyngotonsillitis, the recurrent GAS pharyngotonsillitis as STI has not been published.

A 30-year-old man had a high fever and sore throat. He had a repeated pharyngotonsillitis caused by GAS in spite of the sufficient antimicrobial therapy after having sex with his partner, including oral penile and oral vaginal sex. In contrast, a hug and kiss alone did not precede his episodes of pharyngotonsillitis. His partner had GAS carriage on her pharynx. He had no recurrence after concurrent therapy to both partners. The recurrent GAS pharyngotonsillitis as STI has not been published. In a patient with recurrent pharyngotonsillitis caused by GAS, the sexual history and pharyngeal carrier status of the partner should be checked.
Excessive use of technology
Authors: Turel Ofir , Ferguson Christopher
Published: December 2020

Seeking to assess the possible responsibility of tech providers for excessive use patterns.
Controlling Neural Learning Network with Multiple Scales for Image Splicing Forgery Detection
Authors: Wei Yang , Wang Zhuzhu , Xiao Bin , Liu Ximeng , Yan Zheng , Ma Jianfeng
Published: December 2020

The guarantee of social stability comes from many aspects of life, and image information security as one of them is being subjected to various malicious attacks. As a means of information attack, image splicing forgery refers to copying some areas of an image to another image to hide the traces of the original information and leads to grave consequences. Image splicing forgery is extremely complex since the attributes of the two images subjected to the pasting and copying operations are greatly different. In order to solve the issue mentioned above, we propose a method by applying a neural learning network controlled by multiple scales (MCNL-Net) based on U-Net to identify whether an image has been tampered and to locate the tampered regions. Firstly, the learning capacity of MCNL-Net is enhanced by the combination of a residual propagation module and a residual feedback module. An ingenious strategy is designed to control the size of local receptive field in each building block of MCNL-Net. The strategy makes MCNL-Net able to achieve properties and superiorities of multi-scale structure and learn specified features. For further improving the detection performance of MCNL-Net, a block attention mechanism is proposed to control the advanced degree of the input information in each building block. In addition, a MaxBlurPool method is applied into image splicing forgery detection for the first time, preserving the shift-equivariance of a convolutional neural network. Through experiments, we demonstrate that MCNL-Net can achieve more promising results and offer stronger robustness than the state-of-the-art splicing forgery detection methods.
Knowledge-driven Egocentric Multimodal Activity Recognition
Authors: Huang Yi , Yang Xiaoshan , Gao Junyu , Sang Jitao , Xu Changsheng
Published: December 2020

Recognizing activities from egocentric multimodal data collected by wearable cameras and sensors, is gaining interest, as multimodal methods always benefit from the complementarity of different modalities. However, since high-dimensional videos contain rich high-level semantic information while low-dimensional sensor signals describe simple motion patterns of the wearer, the large modality gap between the videos and the sensor signals raises a challenge for fusing the raw data. Moreover, the lack of large-scale egocentric multimodal datasets due to the cost of data collection and annotation processes makes another challenge for employing complex deep learning models. To jointly deal with the above two challenges, we propose a knowledge-driven multimodal activity recognition framework that exploits external knowledge to fuse multimodal data and reduce the dependence on large-scale training samples. Specifically, we design a dual-GCLSTM (Graph Convolutional LSTM) and a multi-layer GCN (Graph Convolutional Network) to collectively model the relations among activities and intermediate objects. The dual-GCLSTM is designed to fuse temporal multimodal features with top-down relation-aware guidance. In addition, we apply a co-attention mechanism to adaptively attend to the features of different modalities at different timesteps. The multi-layer GCN aims to learn relation-aware classifiers of activity categories. Experimental results on three publicly available egocentric multimodal datasets show the effectiveness of the proposed model.
H2Pack
Authors: Huang Hua , Xing Xin , Chow Edmond
Published: December 2020

Dense kernel matrices represented in
H
2
matrix format typically require less storage and have faster matrix-vector multiplications than when these matrices are represented in the standard dense format. In this article, we present H2Pack, a high-performance, shared-memory library for constructing and operating with
H
2
matrix representations for kernel matrices defined by non-oscillatory, translationally invariant kernel functions. Using a hybrid analytic-algebraic compression method called the proxy point method, H2Pack can efficiently construct an
H
2
matrix representation with linear computational complexity. Storage and matrix-vector multiplication also have linear complexity. H2Pack also introduces the concept of “partially admissible blocks” for
H
2
matrices to make
H
2
matrix-vector multiplication mathematically identical to the fast multipole method (FMM) if analytic expansions are used. We optimize H2Pack from both the algorithm and software perspectives. Compared to existing FMM libraries, H2Pack generally has much faster
H
2
matrix-vector multiplications, since the proxy point method is more effective at producing block low-rank approximations than the analytic methods used in FMM. As a tradeoff,
H
2
matrix construction in H2Pack is typically more expensive than the setup cost in FMM libraries. Thus, H2Pack is ideal for applications that need a large number of matrix-vector multiplications for a given configuration of data points.