bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Diagnostic value of amyloid-PET and tau-PET: a head-to-head comparison
Authors: Altomare Daniele , Caprioglio Camilla , Assal Frédéric , Allali Gilles , Mendes Aline , Ribaldi Federica , Ceyzeriat Kelly , Martins Marta , Tomczyk Szymon , Stampacchia Sara , Dodich Alessandra , Boccardi Marina , Chicherio Christian , Frisoni Giovanni B. , Garibotto Valentina
Published: February 2021

Purpose

Assess the individual and combined diagnostic value of amyloid-PET and tau-PET in a memory clinic population.

Methods

Clinical reports of 136 patients were randomly assigned to two diagnostic pathways: AMY-TAU, amyloid-PET is presented before tau-PET; and TAU-AMY, tau-PET is presented before amyloid-PET. Two neurologists independently assessed all reports with a balanced randomized design, and expressed etiological diagnosis and diagnostic confidence (50–100%) three times: (i) at baseline based on the routine diagnostic workup, (ii) after the first exam (amyloid-PET for the AMY-TAU pathway, and tau-PET for the TAU-AMY pathway), and (iii) after the remaining exam. The main outcomes were changes in diagnosis (from AD to non-AD or vice versa) and in diagnostic confidence.

Results

Amyloid-PET and tau-PET, when presented as the first exam, resulted in a change of etiological diagnosis in 28% (p = 0.006) and 28% (p < 0.001) of cases, and diagnostic confidence increased by 18% (p < 0.001) and 19% (p < 0.001) respectively, with no differences between exams (p > 0.05). We observed a stronger impact of a negative amyloid-PET versus a negative tau-PET (p = 0.014). When added as the second exam, amyloid-PET and tau-PET resulted in a further change in etiological diagnosis in 6% (p = 0.077) and 9% (p = 0.149) of cases, and diagnostic confidence increased by 4% (p < 0.001) and 5% (p < 0.001) respectively, with no differences between exams (p > 0.05).

Conclusion

Amyloid-PET and tau-PET significantly impacted diagnosis and diagnostic confidence in a similar way, although a negative amyloid-PET has a stronger impact on diagnosis than a negative tau-PET. Adding either of the two as second exam further improved diagnostic confidence.

Trial number

PB 2016-01346.
Identification of Immunodominant Outer Membrane Proteins of Fusobacterium necrophorum from Severe Ovine Footrot By MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry
Authors: Farooq S. , Wani S. A. , Qureshi S. , Bhat M. A. , Kashoo Z. A. , Hussain I.
Published: February 2021

The aim of this study was to identify the immunodominant outer membrane proteins (OMPs) of Fusobacterium necrophorum from sheep affected with severe foot-rot. The OMP profile of ovine strains of F. necrophorum has not been well studied. We analyzed the OMP profile of the most frequent lktA variant JKS-F3 of F. necrophorum associated with severe ovine foot-rot with lesion score 4 in order to identify its major immunodominant OMPs. Electrophoretic separations of extracted OMPs showed a number of spots in two-dimensional electrophoretic gels. Two immunoreactive proteins of size around 43 kDa were identified through western blotting using hyperimmune sera raised in rabbits. These two immunogenic OMPs were analyzed by Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-ToF/MS) which revealed that these two OMPs of lktA variant JKS-F3 of F. necrophorum showed 46 and 42 percent protein sequence coverage and scores of 125 and 114, respectively, with the reported 43 kDa outer membrane protein of F. necrophorum strain H05, a putative porin having properties similar to pore-forming proteins of anaerobic Gram-negative bacteria. These identified immunogenic OMPs will contribute to our understanding of the pathogenic role played by this organism in ovine foot-rot and could be exploited to devise an effective control strategy through development of an OMP-based recombinant vaccine to mitigate foot-rot in sheep and goats.
Design of experiment (DOE) applied to artificial neural network architecture enables rapid bioprocess improvement
Authors: Rodriguez-Granrose Daniel , Jones Amanda , Loftus Hannah , Tandeski Terry , Heaton Will , Foley Kevin T. , Silverman Lara
Published: February 2021

Modern bioprocess development employs statistically optimized design of experiments (DOE) and regression modeling to find optimal bioprocess set points. Using modeling software, such as JMP Pro, it is possible to leverage artificial neural networks (ANNs) to improve model accuracy beyond the capabilities of regression models. Herein, we bridge the gap between a DOE skill set and a machine learning skill set by demonstrating a novel use of DOE to systematically create and evaluate ANN architecture using JMP Pro software. Additionally, we run a mammalian cell culture process at historical, one factor at a time, standard least squares regression, and ANN-derived set points. This case study demonstrates the significant differences between one factor at a time bioprocess development, DOE bioprocess development and the relative power of linear regression versus an ANN-DOE hybrid modeling approach.
From parametric trace slicing to rule systems
Authors: Reger Giles , Rydeheard David
Published: February 2021

Parametric runtime verification is the process of verifying properties of execution traces of (data carrying) events produced by a running system. This paper continues our work exploring the relationship between specification techniques for parametric runtime verification. Here we consider the correspondence between trace-slicing automata-based approaches and rule systems. The main contribution is a translation from quantified automata to rule systems, which has been implemented inScala. This then allows us to highlight the key differences in how the two formalisms handle data, an important step in our wider effort to understand the correspondence between different specification languages for parametric runtime verification. This paper extends a previous conference version of this paper with further examples, a proof of correctness, and an optimisation based on a notion of redundancy observed during the development of the translation.
The impact of social health insurance on rural populations
Authors: Green Colin , Hollingsworth Bruce , Yang Miaoqing
Published: February 2021

Improving health outcomes of rural populations in low- and middle-income countries represents a significant challenge. A key part of this is ensuring access to health services and protecting households from financial risk caused by unaffordable medical care. In 2003, China introduced a heavily subsidised voluntary social health insurance programme that aimed to provide 800 million rural residents with access to health services and curb medical impoverishment. This paper provides new evidence on the impact of the scheme on health care utilisation and medical expenditure. Given the voluntary nature of the insurance enrolment, we exploit the uneven roll-out of the programme across rural counties as a natural experiment to explore causal inference. We find little effect of the insurance on the use of formal medical care and out-of-pocket health payments. However, there is evidence that it directed people away from informal health care towards village clinics, especially among patients with lower income. The insurance has also led to a reduction in the use of city hospitals among the rich. The shift to village clinics from informal care and higher-level hospitals suggests that the NRCMS has the potential to improve efficiency within the health care system and help patients to obtain less costly primary care. However, the poor quality of primary care and insufficient insurance coverage for outpatient services remains a concern.
3D MRI of explanted sheep hearts with submillimeter isotropic spatial resolution: comparison between diffusion tensor and structure tensor imaging
Authors: Magat Julie , Ozenne Valéry , Cedilnik Nicolas , Naulin Jérôme , Haliot Kylian , Sermesant Maxime , Gilbert Stephen H. , Trew Mark , Haissaguerre Michel , Quesson Bruno , Bernus Olivier
Published: February 2021

Objective

The aim of the study is to compare structure tensor imaging (STI) with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) of the sheep heart (approximately the same size as the human heart).

Materials and methods

MRI acquisition on three sheep ex vivo hearts was performed at 9.4 T/30 cm with a seven-element RF coil. 3D FLASH with an isotropic resolution of 150 µm and 3D spin-echo DTI at 600 µm were performed. Tensor analysis, angles extraction and segments divisions were performed on both volumes.

Results

A 3D FLASH allows for visualization of the detailed structure of the left and right ventricles. The helix angle determined using DTI and STI exhibited a smooth transmural change from the endocardium to the epicardium. Both the helix and transverse angles were similar between techniques. Sheetlet organization exhibited the same pattern in both acquisitions, but local angle differences were seen and identified in 17 segments representation.

Discussion

This study demonstrated the feasibility of high-resolution MRI for studying the myocyte and myolaminar architecture of sheep hearts. We presented the results of STI on three whole sheep ex vivo hearts and demonstrated a good correspondence between DTI and STI.
Multilevel Twin Models: Geographical Region as a Third Level Variable
Authors: Tamimy Z. , Kevenaar S. T. , Hottenga J. J. , Hunter M. D. , de Zeeuw E. L. , Neale M. C. , van Beijsterveldt C. E. M. , Dolan C. V. , van Bergen Elsje , Boomsma D. I.
Published: February 2021

The classical twin model can be reparametrized as an equivalent multilevel model. The multilevel parameterization has underexplored advantages, such as the possibility to include higher-level clustering variables in which lower levels are nested. When this higher-level clustering is not modeled, its variance is captured by the common environmental variance component. In this paper we illustrate the application of a 3-level multilevel model to twin data by analyzing the regional clustering of 7-year-old children’s height in the Netherlands. Our findings show that 1.8%, of the phenotypic variance in children’s height is attributable to regional clustering, which is 7% of the variance explained by between-family or common environmental components. Since regional clustering may represent ancestry, we also investigate the effect of region after correcting for genetic principal components, in a subsample of participants with genome-wide SNP data. After correction, region no longer explained variation in height. Our results suggest that the phenotypic variance explained by region might represent ancestry effects on height.
Mining communities and their descriptions on attributed graphs: a survey
Authors: Atzmueller Martin , Günnemann Stephan , Zimmermann Albrecht
Published: February 2021

Finding communities that are not only relatively densely connected in a graph but that also show similar characteristics based on attribute information has drawn strong attention in the last years. There exists already a remarkable body of work that attempts to find communities in vertex-attributed graphs that are relatively homogeneous with respect to attribute values. Yet, it is scattered through different research fields and most of those publications fail to make the connection. In this paper, we identify important characteristics of the different approaches and place them into three broad categories: those that selectdescriptive attributes, related to clustering approaches, those that enumerateattribute-value combinations, related to pattern mining techniques, and those that identify conditional attribute weights, allowing for post-processing. We point out that the large majority of these techniques treat the same problem in terms of attribute representation, and are therefore interchangeable to a certain degree. In addition, different authors have found very similar algorithmic solutions to their respective problem.
Lightweight, semi-automatic variability extraction: a case study on scientific computing
Authors: Grebhahn Alexander , Kaltenecker Christian , Engwer Christian , Siegmund Norbert , Apel Sven
Published: February 2021

In scientific computing, researchers often use feature-rich software frameworks to simulate physical, chemical, and biological processes. Commonly, researchers follow a clone-and-own approach: Copying the code of an existing, similar simulation and adapting it to the new simulation scenario. In this process, a user has to select suitable artifacts (e.g., classes) from the given framework and replaces the existing artifacts from the cloned simulation. This manual process incurs substantial effort and cost as scientific frameworks are complex and provide large numbers of artifacts. To support researchers in this area, we propose a lightweight API-based analysis approach, called VORM, that recommends appropriate artifacts as possible alternatives for replacing given artifacts. Such alternative artifacts can speed up performance of the simulation or make it amenable to other use cases, without modifying the overall structure of the simulation. We evaluate the practicality of VORM—especially, as it is very lightweight but possibly imprecise—by means of a case study on the DUNE numerics framework and two simulations from the realm of physical simulations. Specifically, we compare the recommendations by VORM with recommendations by a domain expert (a developer of DUNE). VORM recommended 34 out of the 37 artifacts proposed by the expert. In addition, it recommended 2 artifacts that are applicable but have been missed by the expert and 32 artifacts not recommended by the expert, which however are still applicable in the simulation scenario with slight modifications. Diving deeper into the results, we identified an undiscovered bug and an inconsistency in DUNE, which corroborates the usefulness of VORM.
Stable Facts, Relative Facts
Authors: Di Biagio Andrea , Rovelli Carlo
Published: February 2021

Facts happen at every interaction, but they are not absolute: they are relative to the systems involved in the interaction. Stable facts are those whose relativity can effectively be ignored. In this work, we describe how stable facts emerge in a world of relative facts and discuss their respective roles in connecting quantum theory and the world. The distinction between relative and stable facts resolves the difficulties pointed out by the no-go theorem of Frauchiger and Renner, and is consistent with the experimental violation of the Local Friendliness inequalities of Bong et al.. Basing the ontology of the theory on relative facts clarifies the role of decoherence in bringing about the classical world and solves the apparent incompatibility between the ‘linear evolution’ and ‘projection’ postulates.
Nothing But Gold. Complexities in Terms of Non-difference and Identity
Authors: Anrò Alberto
Published: February 2021

Beginning from some passages by Vācaspati Miśra and Bhāskararāya Makhin discussing the relationship between a crown and the gold of which it is made, this paper investigates the complex underlying connections among difference, non-difference, coreferentiality, and qualification qua relations. Methodologically, philological care is paired with formal logical analysis on the basis of ‘Navya-Nyāya Formal Language’ premises and an axiomatic set theory-based approach. This study is intended as the first step of a broader investigation dedicated to analysing causation and transformation in non-difference.
Defensive over Climate Change? Climate Shame as a Method of Moral Cultivation
Authors: Aaltola Elisa
Published: February 2021

The climate crisis is an enormous challenge for contemporary societies. Yet, public discussions on it often lead to anger, mocking, denial and other defensive behaviours, one prominent example of which is the reception met by the climate advocate Greta Thunberg. The paper approaches this curious phenomenon via shame. It argues that the very idea of anthropogenic climate change invites feelings of human failure and thereby may also entice shame. The notion of “climate shame” is introduced and distinguished from “climate guilt”. Whereas climate guilt prioritises the flourishing of the environment and is focused on actions and morality, climate shame is concerned with human identity and selfhood. The paper then explores whether shame is a morally destructive or constructive emotion. Making use of both psychological and philosophical literature on shame, it argues that although shame faces many challenges that question its usefulness in moral pedagogy, these challenges can be met with “moral maturity”—moreover, following a utilitarian approach, the overall benefits of climate shame can justify its costs to individuals. My argument is that climate shame holds the potential of being a highly effective moral psychological method of persuasion, capable of inviting wholesale critical reflection on current, environmentally damaging practices and cultivation of more virtuous ways of co-existing with the rest of the natural world and other species.
Ante-mortem characterization of sudden deaths as first-manifestation in Italy
Authors: Frontera Antonio , Anselmino Matteo , Matta Mario , Baccelli Andrea , Vlachos Konstantinos , Bonsignore Alessandro , Camaioni Claudia , Notarstefano Pasquale , Mahida Saagar , Nesti Martina , Sacher Frederic , Tunzi Roberto , Landoni Giovanni , Aschieri Daniela , Castelli Vincenzo , Hocini Meleze , Jaïs Pierre , Gaita Fiorenzo , Derval Nicolas , Haïssaguerre Michel
Published: February 2021

Purpose

There is a relative paucity of data on ante-mortem clinical characteristics of young (age 1 to 35 years) sudden death (SD) victims. The aim of the study was to characterize ante-mortem characteristics of SD victims, in a selected national cohort identified by a web search.

Methods

A dataset of all SD (January 2010 and December 2015) was built from national forensic data and medical records, integrated with Google search model. Families were contacted to obtain consent for interviews. Data were obtained on ante-mortem symptoms. ECG characteristics and autopsy data were available.

Results

Out of 301 SD cases collected, medical and family history was available in 132 (43.9%). Twenty-eight (21.1%) had a positive family history for SD. SD occurred during sport/effort in 76 (57.6%). One hundred twelve (85%) SD cases had no prior reported symptoms. Autopsy data were available in 100/132 (75.8%) cases: an extra cardiac cause was identified in 20 (20%). Among the 61 cases with a cardiac diagnosis, 21 (34%) had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Among the 19 (19%) victims without structural abnormalities, molecular autopsy identified pathogenic variants for channelopathies in 9 cases. Ten (10%) victims had no identifiable cause.

Conclusions

Most SD were due to cardiac causes and occurred in previously asymptomatic patients. SD events mainly occurred during strenuous activity. In a minority of cases, no cause was identified. The web-based selection criteria, and incomplete data retrieval, need to be carefully taken into account for data interpretation and reproducibility.
Comparing the Minimum Celeration Line and the Beat Your Personal Best Goal-Setting Approaches During the Mathematical Practice of Students Diagnosed with Autism
Authors: Vostanis Athanasios , Padden Ciara , McTiernan Aoife , Langdon Peter E.
Published: February 2021

This study compared two goal-setting approaches found in the Precision Teaching literature, namely the minimum celeration line and the beat your personal best during the mathematical practice of three male students diagnosed with autism, aged 8–9. An adapted alternating treatments design with a control condition was embedded in a concurrent multiple baseline across participants design. Each approach was randomly allocated to either the multiplication/division (×÷) table of 18 or 19, while no approach was allocated to the ×÷14 table that acted as a control. Instruction utilized number families and consisted of (a) untimed practice, (b) frequency-building, (c) performance criteria, (d) graphing, and (e) a token economy. Upon practice completion, an assessment of maintenance, endurance, stability, and application (MESA) was conducted. Participants improved with both conditions and maintained their performance well, while improvements with the control condition were weak. The beat your personal best approach was highlighted as slightly more effective in terms of average performance and more efficient in terms of timings needed to achieve criterion. No differences were identified in terms of learning rate (i.e., celeration) or performance on the MESA. More research is warranted to identify which goal-setting procedure is more appropriate for students in special education.
Assessing the Readability of Covid-19 Testing Messages on the Internet
Authors: Garcia Philip , Fera Joseph , Mohlman Jan , Basch Corey H.
Published: February 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic first became evident at the end of 2019, and because of the many unknown aspects of this emerging infectious disease, the internet quickly became a source of information for consumers. It is important for any vital information to be written unambiguously, and at a level that can be understood by all people regardless of education levels. The purpose of this study was to assess the readability of 50 sources of COVID19 testing information online. Only 6 websites out of 50 received an appropriate readability score on more than one assessment. One-sample, one-tailed t-tests (α = 0.05, df = 49) were used to see if the websites with information on COVID-19 testing are being written at appropriate reading levels. The resulting p-values indicate that each p-value recorded is substantially below 0.05, it is very unlikely that websites on this topic are being written at the recommended levels. Even the optimal messages on COVID-19 reflect a confusing and rapidly changing public health crisis, however if messages are kept simple and clear, individuals will have the best possible chance of optimizing behavioral mitigation strategies. These are compelling reasons for informational hosts to take necessary steps to ensure that messages are written in as simple terms as possible. To this end, it is suggested that internet sites dispersing COVID-19 testing information build in text analysis methods for all published messages, particularly those meant to inform best health practices in the time of a pandemic.
The financialisation of housing production: exploring capital flows and value extraction among major housebuilders in the UK
Authors: Archer Tom , Cole Ian
Published: February 2021

This paper examines trends in the operation and financial performance of major UK housebuilders shortly before, during and after the global financial crisis (GFC) in 2008. It outlines two contrasting explanations of what has happened in the sector over this period. The first is described as an ‘institutional recovery’ perspective, in which a period of initial retrenchment after the crash was followed by steady reinvestment, and then a cautious move back to growth by the major housebuilding companies. This is set against what we describe as a ‘financialised recovery’ perspective. This explanation stems from our own analysis of the annual accounts of major UK housebuilders since 2005. It reveals the impact of the intensive financialisation of a sector initially weakened by the GFC, but where the strategic primacy of maximising shareholder value has been asserted more strongly than before. Our analysis of dividend payments post-GFC reveals this in the starkest of terms. We suggest that the sector has been in more robust financial health than implied by the ‘institutional recovery’ narrative, but that significant value is being extracted out of these companies, and indeed the sector overall, by institutional investors. The analysis provides unique insights into the financialisation of housing production, an issue which to date has received only limited attention. We reflect on the implications of identified trends for housing supply in the UK. We also sketch future research possibilities to examine the ongoing impact of intensive financialisation and the capital flows into, and out of, major housebuilders.
Compact Deep Color Features for Remote Sensing Scene Classification
Authors: Anwer Rao Muhammad , Khan Fahad Shahbaz , Laaksonen Jorma
Published: February 2021

Aerial scene classification is a challenging problem in understanding high-resolution remote sensing images. Most recent aerial scene classification approaches are based on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). These CNN models are trained on a large amount of labeled data and the de facto practice is to use RGB patches as input to the networks. However, the importance of color within the deep learning framework is yet to be investigated for aerial scene classification. In this work, we investigate the fusion of several deep color models, trained using color representations, for aerial scene classification. We show that combining several deep color models significantly improves the recognition performance compared to using the RGB network alone. This improvement in classification performance is, however, achieved at the cost of a high-dimensional final image representation. We propose to use an information theoretic compression approach to counter this issue, leading to a compact deep color feature set without any significant loss in accuracy. Comprehensive experiments are performed on five remote sensing scene classification benchmarks: UC-Merced with 21 scene classes, WHU-RS19 with 19 scene types, RSSCN7 with 7 categories, AID with 30 aerial scene classes, and NWPU-RESISC45 with 45 categories. Our results clearly demonstrate that the fusion of deep color features always improves the overall classification performance compared to the standard RGB deep features. On the large-scale NWPU-RESISC45 dataset, our deep color features provide a significant absolute gain of 4.3% over the standard RGB deep features.
Interrogating the Effects of Hydrogen on the Behavior of Planar Deformation Bands in Austenitic Stainless Steel
Authors: Sabisch J. E. C. , Sugar J. D. , Ronevich J. , San Marchi C. , Medlin D. L.
Published: February 2021

The effects of internal hydrogen on the deformation microstructures of 304L austenitic stainless steel have been characterized using electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD), transmission Kikuchi diffraction (TKD), high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy (HRSTEM), and nanoprobe diffraction. Samples, both thermally precharged with hydrogen and without thermal precharging, were subjected to tensile deformation of 5 and 20 pct true strain followed by multiple microscopic interrogations. Internal hydrogen produced widespread stacking faults within the as-forged initially unstrained material. While planar deformation bands developed with tensile strain in both the hydrogen-precharged and non-precharged material, the character of these bands changed with the presence of internal hydrogen. As shown by nanobeam diffraction and HRSTEM observations, in the absence of internal hydrogen, the bands were predominantly composed of twins, whereas for samples deformed in the presence of internal hydrogen,ε-martensite became more pronounced and the density of deformation bands increased. For the 20 pct strain condition,α′-martensite was observed at the intersection ofε-martensite bands in hydrogen-precharged samples, whereas in non-precharged samplesα′-martensite was only observed along grain boundaries. We hypothesize that the increased prevalence ofα′-martensite is a secondary effect of increasedε-martensite and deformation band density due to internal hydrogen and is not a signature of internal hydrogen itself.
Bariatric-Metabolic Surgery Utilisation in Patients With and Without Diabetes: Data from the IFSO Global Registry 2015–2018
Authors: Welbourn Richard , Hollyman Marianne , Kinsman Robin , Dixon John , Cohen Ricardo , Morton John , Ghaferi Amir , Higa Kelvin , Ottosson Johan , Pattou Francois , Al-Sabah Salman , Anvari Merhan , Himpens Jacques , Liem Ronald , Våge Villy , Walton Peter , Brown Wendy , Kow Lilian
Published: February 2021

Background

Comparative international practice of patients undergoing bariatric-metabolic surgery for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is unknown. We aimed to ascertain baseline age, sex, body mass index (BMI) and types of operations performed for patients with T2DM submitted to the IFSO Global Registry.

Materials and Methods

Cross-sectional analysis of patients having primary surgery in 2015–2018 for countries with ≥90% T2DM data completion and ≥ 1000 submitted records.

Results

Fifteen countries including 11 national registries met the inclusion criteria. The rate of T2DM was 24.2% (99,537 of 411,581 patients, country range 12.0–55.1%) and 77.1% of all patients were women. In every country, patients with T2DM were older than those without T2DM (overall mean age 49.2 [SD 11.4] years vs 41.8 [11.9] years, all p < 0.001). Men were more likely to have T2DM than women, odds ratio (OR) 1.68 (95% CI 1.65–1.71), p < 0.001. Men showed higher rates of T2DM for BMI <35 kg/m2 compared to BMI ≥35.0 kg/m2, OR 2.76 (2.52–3.03), p < 0.001. This was not seen in women, OR 0.78 (0.73–0.83), p < 0.001. Sleeve gastrectomy was the commonest operation overall, but less frequent for patients with T2DM, patients with T2DM 54.9% vs without T2DM 65.8%, OR 0.63 (0.63–0.64), p < 0.001. Twelve out of 15 countries had higher proportions of gastric bypass compared to non-bypass operations for T2DM, OR 1.70 (1.67–1.72), p < 0.001.

Conclusion

Patients with T2DM had different characteristics to those without T2DM. Older men were more likely to have T2DM, with higher rates of BMI <35 kg/m2 and increased likelihood of food rerouting operations.
Thyroid cancer and COVID-19: experience at one single thyroid disease referral center
Authors: Prete Alessandro , Falcone Marco , Bottici Valeria , Giani Carlotta , Tiseo Giusy , Agate Laura , Matrone Antonio , Cappagli Virginia , Valerio Laura , Lorusso Loredana , Minaldi Elisa , Molinaro Eleonora , Elisei Rossella
Published: February 2021

Purpose

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2) is challenging health systems all over the world. Cancer patients have a higher risk of being infected by SARS-Cov-2 and higher coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) severity and mortality. Up to date, there were no data about COVID-19 in patients with thyroid cancer (TCs). The aim of the study was to describe the prevalence of COVID-19 in a well-characterized series of TC patients evaluated for the persistence of the neoplastic disease from March to September 2020; as secondary objective, we looked for the COVID-19 disease severity in a subgroup of multimetastatic TC patients.

Methods

We evaluated 1464 patients affected by persistent TC: 67 patients who were taking multikinase inhibitors (MKIs) and 1397 under active surveillance for a persistent but stable disease. During the clinical evaluation, all patients were specifically investigated about a positive history of Sars-Cov-2 infection.

Results

SARS-Cov-2 infection was identified in 4/1464 (0.3%) cases of patients affected by TC. We identified three cases among patients under active surveillance (0.2%), and one case among patients treated with MKI systemic therapy (1/67, 1.5%). This patient was taking vandetanib for metastatic medullary thyroid cancer (MTC), when he came to our attention referring severe fatigue, dyspnea for light physical activities. He presented a mild COVID-19 and he received exclusively supportive care. After a multidisciplinary consultation, we decided against the discontinuation of vandetanib. After 2 months from the infection, he did not present any signs of active infection, and the MTC metastatic disease was stable.

Conclusions

We showed that COVID-19 is not more frequent in TC patients than in general population, although a relatively higher prevalence in the group of TC patients treated with MKIs. A single patient with advanced TC and SARS-Cov-2 infection during MKIs treatment had a mild COVID-19 and did not require the discontinuation of MKI therapy. In cases of more severe COVID-19, an accurate evaluation from a multidisciplinary team would consider risks and benefits in taking the decision to continue or stop MKI treatment.
Molecular Pathology of Well-Differentiated Pulmonary and Thymic Neuroendocrine Tumors: What Do Pathologists Need to Know?
Authors: Volante Marco , Mete Ozgur , Pelosi Giuseppe , Roden Anja C. , Speel Ernst Jan M. , Uccella Silvia
Published: February 2021

Thoracic (pulmonary and thymic) neuroendocrine tumors are well-differentiated epithelial neuroendocrine neoplasms that are classified into typical and atypical carcinoid tumors based on mitotic index cut offs and presence or absence of necrosis. This classification scheme is of great prognostic value but designed for surgical specimens, only. Deep molecular characterization of thoracic neuroendocrine tumors highlighted their difference with neuroendocrine carcinomas. Neuroendocrine tumors of the lung are characterized by a low mutational burden, and a high prevalence of mutations in chromatin remodeling and histone modification-related genes, whereas mutations in genes frequently altered in neuroendocrine carcinomas are rare. Molecular profiling divided thymic neuroendocrine tumors into three clusters with distinct clinical outcomes and characterized by a different average of copy number instability. Moreover, integrated histopathological, molecular and clinical evidence supports the existence of a grey zone category between neuroendocrine tumors (carcinoid tumors) and neuroendocrine carcinomas. Indeed, cases with well differentiated morphology but mitotic/Ki-67 indexes close to neuroendocrine carcinomas have been increasingly recognized. These are characterized by specific molecular profiles and have an aggressive clinical behavior. Finally, thoracic neuroendocrine tumors may arise in the background of genetic susceptibility, being MEN1 syndrome the well-defined familial form. However, pathologists should be aware of rarer germline variants that are associated with the concurrence of neuroendocrine tumors of the lung or their precursors (such as DIPNECH) with other neoplasms, including but not limited to breast carcinomas. Therefore, genetic counseling for all young patients with thoracic neuroendocrine neoplasia and/or any patient with pathological evidence of neuroendocrine cell hyperplasia-to-neoplasia progression sequence or multifocal disease should be considered.
The importance of social financial support in reducing food insecurity among elderly people
Authors: Gajda Robert , Jeżewska-Zychowicz Marzena
Published: February 2021

The growing number of elderly people who are at increased risk of food insecurity for a variety of reasons, including financial ones, requires the current situation to be monitored. The purpose of this research was therefore to determine: (1) how older people perceive their situation in terms of food security; (2) whether older people use any form of external financial support; and (3) the relationship between people’s perception of their food security and the use of financial support from social services and their family. The survey was conducted on a group of 1150 people aged 65 years and above at the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019. In total, 762 questionnaires were analysed for the study. The study was conducted in the Świętokrzyskie and Śląskie voivodeships (provinces). Multivariate correspondence analysis (MCA) and the chi-square test were used to compare qualitative variables describing food security, financial assistance and socio-demographic features. Over two thirds of the respondents declared that they had no need of financial assistance from the social services or their family. Two categories of variables were selected using the MCA method: people who declared that their household had food security and that they had no need for financial assistance from social services or their family, and people who said they did not have food security and simultaneously used financial assistance or did not use such assistance but had financial problems. Place of residence and household composition were features that significantly distinguished the opinions about the lack of food security. Financial social programmes and the social education of families should be improved to minimize the risk of food insecurity in households of elderly people, especially those not benefiting from financial social support.
Intuition-Driven Navigation of the Hard Problem of Consciousness
Authors: Sękowski Krzysztof , Rorot Wiktor
Published: February 2021

The discussion of the nature of consciousness seems to have stalled, with the “hard problem of consciousness” in its center, well-defined camps of realists and eliminativists at two opposing poles, and little to none room for agreement between. Recent attempts to move this debate forward by shifting them to a meta-level have heavily relied on the notion of “intuition”, understood in a rather liberal way. Against this backdrop, the goal of this paper is twofold. First, we want to highlight how the ontological and epistemological status of intuitions restricts the arguments in the debate on consciousness that rely on them. Second, we want to demonstrate how the deadlock in those debates could be resolved through a study of a particular, “positive” kind of intuitions. We call this approach “The Canberrish Plan for Consciousness” as it adopts elements of the methodological “Canberra Plan”.
Effect of pyrolytic carbon interphase on mechanical properties of mini T800-C/SiC composites
Authors: Zhao Donglin , Guo Tong , Fan Xiaomeng , Chen Chao , Ma Yue
Published: February 2021

The effect of pyrolytic carbon (PyC) thickness on the tensile property of mini T800 carbon fiber reinforced SiC matrix composites (C/SiC) was studied. PyC interphase was prepared by chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) process using C3H6–Ar as gas source, the PyC thickness was adjusted from 0 to 400 nm, and then the SiC matrix was prepared by CVI process using methyltrichlorosilane (MTS)–H2–Ar as precursor and gas source. The results showed that the tensile strength of mini T800-C/SiC increased first and then decreased with the increase of the PyC thickness. When the thickness of PyC was 100 nm, the average strength reached the maximum value of 393 ± 70 MPa. The Weibull modulus increased from 2.0 to 8.06 with the increase of PyC thickness, and the larger the Weibull modulus, the smaller the dispersion, which indicated that the regulation of PyC thickness was conducive to improve tensile properties.
Novel three-body nano-abrasive wear mechanism
Authors: Chen Ruling , Li Shaoxian
Published: February 2021

Current three-body abrasive wear theories are based on a macroscale abrasive indentation process, and these theories claim that material wear cannot be achieved without damaging the hard mating surface. In this study, the process of three-body nano-abrasive wear of a system including a single crystalline silicon substrate, an amorphous silica cluster, and a polyurethane pad, based on a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process, is investigated via molecular dynamics simulations. The cluster slid in a suspended state in smooth regions and underwent rolling impact in the asperity regions of the silicon surface, realizing non-damaging monoatomic material removal. This proves that indentation-plowing is not necessary when performing CMP material removal. Therefore, a non-indentation rolling-sliding adhesion theory for three-body nano-abrasive wear between ultrasoft/hard mating surfaces is proposed. This wear theory not only unifies current mainstream CMP material removal theories, but also clarifies that monoatomic material wear without damage can be realized when the indentation depth is less than zero, thereby perfecting the relationship between material wear and surface damage. These results provide new understanding regarding the CMP microscopic material removal mechanism as well as new research avenues for three-body abrasive wear theory at the monoatomic scale.
Tree Vitality and Forest Health: Can Tree-Ring Stable Isotopes Be Used as Indicators?
Authors: Cherubini Paolo , Battipaglia Giovanna , Innes John L.
Published: February 2021

Purpose of Review

Society is concerned about the long-term condition of the forests. Although a clear definition of forest health is still missing, to evaluate forest health, monitoring efforts in the past 40 years have concentrated on the assessment of tree vitality, trying to estimate tree photosynthesis rates and productivity. Used in monitoring forest decline in Central Europe since the 1980s, crown foliage transparency has been commonly believed to be the best indicator of tree condition in relation to air pollution, although annual variations appear more closely related to water stress. Although crown transparency is not a good indicator of tree photosynthesis rates, defoliation is still one of the most used indicators of tree vitality. Tree rings have been often used as indicators of past productivity. However, long-term tree growth trends are difficult to interpret because of sampling bias, and ring width patterns do not provide any information about tree physiological processes.

Recent Findings

In the past two decades, tree-ring stable isotopes have been used not only to reconstruct the impact of past climatic events, such as drought, but also in the study of forest decline induced by air pollution episodes, and other natural disturbances and environmental stress, such as pest outbreaks and wildfires. They have proven to be useful tools for understanding physiological processes and tree response to such stress factors.

Tree-ring stable isotopes integrate crown transpiration rates and photosynthesis rates and may enhance our understanding of tree vitality. They are promising indicators of tree vitality. We call for the use of tree-ring stable isotopes in future monitoring programmes.
Sex Differences in the Motivation for Viewing Sexually Arousing Images
Authors: Kobayashi Maiko , Nakamura Koyo , Watanabe Katsumi
Published: February 2021

Sexual motivation strongly influences mate choice and dating behavior and can be triggered by merely viewing sexually arousing visual images, such as erotic pictures and movies. Previous studies suggested that men, more than women, tend to search for sexual cues that signal promiscuity in short-term mates. However, it remains to be tested whether sex differences in the motivation to view sexual cues can be observed by using robust and well-controlled behavioral measures. To this end, we employed a pay-per-view key-pressing task. Japanese self-identified heterosexual male and female participants viewed images of men, women, or couples with two levels of sexual arousal (sexual vs. less sexual). Participants could alter the viewing time of a presented image according to their willingness to keep viewing it. Male participants were the most eager to view sexually arousing images of the opposite sex, whereas female participants were more strongly motivated to view less sexual images of couples. Such sex differences may reflect differentiated reproductive strategies between men and women in terms of men’s motivation toward promiscuity and women’s motivation toward long-term relationships.
Real-time per-pixel focusing method for light field rendering
Authors: Chlubna T. , Milet T. , Zemčík P.
Published: February 2021

Light field rendering is an image-based rendering method that does not use 3D models but only images of the scene as input to render new views. Light field approximation, represented as a set of images, suffers from so-called refocusing artifacts due to different depth values of the pixels in the scene. Without information about depths in the scene, proper focusing of the light field scene is limited to a single focusing distance. The correct focusing method is addressed in this work and a real-time solution is proposed for focusing of light field scenes, based on statistical analysis of the pixel values contributing to the final image. Unlike existing techniques, this method does not need precomputed or acquired depth information. Memory requirements and streaming bandwidth are reduced and real-time rendering is possible even for high resolution light field data, yielding visually satisfactory results. Experimental evaluation of the proposed method, implemented on a GPU, is presented in this paper.
Prime gradient noise
Authors: Taylor Sheldon , Sharpe Owen , Peethambaran Jiju
Published: February 2021

Procedural noise functions are fundamental tools in computer graphics used for synthesizing virtual geometry and texture patterns. Ideally, a procedural noise function should be compact, aperiodic, parameterized, and randomly accessible. Traditional lattice noise functions such as Perlin noise, however, exhibit periodicity due to the axial correlation induced while hashing the lattice vertices to the gradients. In this paper, we introduce a parameterized lattice noise called prime gradient noise (PGN) that minimizes discernible periodicity in the noise while enhancing the algorithmic efficiency. PGN utilizes prime gradients, a set of random unit vectors constructed from subsets of prime numbers plotted in polar coordinate system. To map axial indices of lattice vertices to prime gradients, PGN employs Szudzik pairing, a bijection F : ℕ2 → ℕ. Compositions of Szudzik pairing functions are used in higher dimensions. At the core of PGN is the ability to parameterize noise generation though prime sequence offsetting which facilitates the creation of fractal noise with varying levels of heterogeneity ranging from homogeneous to hybrid multifractals. A comparative spectral analysis of the proposed noise with other noises including lattice noises show that PGN significantly reduces axial correlation and hence, periodicity in the noise texture. We demonstrate the utility of the proposed noise function with several examples in procedural modeling, parameterized pattern synthesis, and solid texturing.
Speaker-Audience Interaction in Spoken Political Discourse : A Contrastive Parallel Corpus-Based Study of English-Persian Translation of Metadiscourse Features in TED Talks
Authors: Farahani Mehrdad Vasheghani , Kazemian Reza
Published: February 2021

Metadiscourse features refer to those elements by which interaction between writer-reader and/or speaker-audience is constructed. Taking this into account, the objective of this contrastive parallel corpus-based study was to explore the way metadiscourse features were used and distributed in the English discourse and their translation in the Persian language as well as analyzing the speaker-audience interaction in translation. For this purpose, 30 different TED talks in politics were randomly selected to ensure the issues of corpus representativeness and balance. The corpus consisted of 21681 tokens in English and 21164 tokens in Persian. For classifying the metadiscourse features, the model introduced by Hyland (Metadiscourse: exploring interaction in writing. Continuum, London, 2005), whose model is classified into two main subcategories of interactive and interactional, was employed. The quantitative analysis showed that overall the number of interactional metadiscourse features was used more than that of the interactive ones in both corpora. Moreover, the results of the Chi-square test revealed that there was statistically no significant difference between the distributional pattern of metadiscourse features in English corpus and their Persian translation. The qualitative analysis revealed that there were four kinds of changes in translation as (im) explicit change, (dis)information change, (in) visibility change, and (de)emphasis change. Besides, the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the corpus revealed that the interaction between the speakers of the TED talks and the audience did not change when metadiscourse features translated from English into Persian. The results of this research can be found useful for researchers in contrastive analysis, translation studies, and corpus-based translation studies.