bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Balance training benefits chronic ankle instability with generalized joint hypermobility: a prospective cohort study
Authors: Hou Zongchen , Ao Yingfang , Hu Yuelin , Jiao Chen , Guo Qinwei , Li Nan , Jiang Yanfang , Jiang Dong
Published: October 2022

Background: Balance training is the first choice of treatment for chronic ankle instability (CAI). However, there is a lack of research on the effects of balance training in CAI with GJH. This study is to compare the outcomes of balance training in CAI patients with and without generalized joint hypermobility (GJH).
Methods: Forty CAI patients were assigned into the GJH group (Beighton≥4, 20) and non-GJH group (Beighton<4, 20). Repeated measure ANOVA was used to analyze self-reported questionnaires (Foot and ankle ability measure, FAAM), the number of patients experiencing ankle sprain, isokinetic muscle strength and functional postural control tests (Star excursion balance test, SEBT and Balance errors system, BES) before training, post-training immediately, and 3 months post-training, respectively.
Results: No differences were found between groups at baseline except for worse postural stability in the GJH group. After the balance training, GJH group had greater improvements in the FAAM-S score, re-sprain ratio, dorsiflexion strength and plantarflexion strength at post-training immediately and 3 months than non-GJH group, and both groups had similarly increase in the FAAM-A score, muscle strength and balance control (SEBT in the posterior-lateral and posterior-medial direction, and BES scores) compared with baseline.
Conclusions: CAI patients with GJH achieved equally even better postural stability and muscle strength after the balance training than the non-GJH patients. Balance training could still be the preferred treatment for CAI patients with GJH before considering surgery.
Trial registration: ChiCTR1900023999, June 21st, 2019.
Trends and Determinants of the Use of Episiotomy in a Prospective Population-Based Registry from Central India
Authors: Austad Kirsten , Rao Sowmya , Hibberd Patricia , Patel Archana
Published: October 2022

Background: Findings from research and recommendations from the World Health Organization favors restrictive use of episiotomy, but whether this guidance is being followed in India and factors associated with its use are not known.
Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of data collected by the Maternal Newborn Health Registry, a prospective population-based pregnancy registry established in Central India (Nagpur, Eastern Maharashtra). We examined mode of delivery and use of episiotomy in vaginal deliveries from 2014 to 2018, as well as maternal and birth characteristics, health systems factors, and concurrent obstetric interventions associations with its use with multivariable Poisson regression models.
Results: During the five-year interval, the rate of episiotomy in vaginal birth rose from 13% to 31% despite a decline in assisted vaginal delivery. In the adjusted analysis prior birth, multiple gestations, seven or more years of maternal education, higher gestational age, higher birthweight, delivery by an obstetrician (as compared to midwife or general physician), and birth in hospital (as compared to clinic or health center) were associated with episiotomy. After adjusting for these factors, year over year rise in episiotomy was significant with an adjusted incidence rate ratio (AIRR) of 1.10 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.08-1.13; p=0.018]. We found an association between episiotomy and several other obstetrics interventions, with the strongest relationship for maternal treatment with antibiotics (AIRR 4.31, 95% CI 3.17 – 5.87; p=0.003).
Conclusions: Episiotomy in this population-based sample from central India steadily rose from 2014 to 2018. This increase over time was observed even after adjusting for patient characteristics, obstetric risk factors, and health system features, such as specialty of the delivery provider. Our findings have important implications for maternal-child health and respectful maternity care given that most women prefer to avoid episiotomy; they also highlight a potential target for antibiotic stewardship as part of global efforts to combat antimicrobial resistance.
Trial Registration: The trial was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov under reference number NCT01073475.
Forensic application of epidermal expression of HSP27 and HSP70 for the determination of wound vitality in human compressed neck skin
Authors: Zhang Siying , Ishida Yuko , Ishigami Akiko , Nosaka Mizuho , Kuninaka Yumi , Yasuda Haruki , Kofuna Ayumi , Matsuki Jumpei , Osako Miyu , Zhang Wei , Kimura Akihiko , Furukawa Fukumi , Kondo Toshikazu
Published: October 2022

Estimating the age and vitality of human skin wounds is essential for forensic practice, and the use of immunohistochemical parameters for the same remains a challenge. Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are evolutionarily conserved, universal systems that protect the biological system from various types of stress. However, its importance in forensic pathology in determining wound activation of neck compression skin remains unclear. To understand the forensic applicability in determining wound vitality, the expression of HSP27 and HSP70 in neck skin samples was examined immunohistochemically. Skin samples were obtained from 45 cases of neck compression (hanging, 32 cases; strangulation, 10 cases; manual strangulation, two cases; other, one case) during forensic autopsies; intact skin from the same individual was used as a control. HSP27 expression was detected in 17.4% of keratinocytes in intact skin samples. In the compressed region, the frequency of HSP27 expression in keratinocytes was 75.8%, which was significantly higher than that in intact skin. Similarly, the frequency of HSP70 expression was 24.8% in intact skin and 81.9% in compressed skin, which was significantly higher in compressed skin than in intact skin. This increase in case compression cases may be due to the cell defense role of HSPs. From a forensic pathology perspective, immunohistochemical examination of HSP27 and HSP70 expression in neck skin can be seen as a valuable marker for diagnosing traces of prenatal compression.
Hippocampal theta oscillations represent collective dynamics of multineuronal membrane potentials
Authors: Noguchi Asako , Yamashiro Kotaro , Matsumoto Nobuyoshi , Ikegaya Yuji
Published: October 2022

Theta (θ) oscillations are one of the characteristic local field potentials (LFPs) in the hippocampus and emerge during spatial navigation, exploratory sniffing, and rapid eye movement sleep. LFPs are thought to summarize multineuronal events, including synaptic currents and action potentials. However, no in vivo study to date has directly interrelated θ oscillations with the membrane potentials (Vm) of multiple neurons, and it remains unclear whether LFPs can be predicted from multineuronal Vms. Here, we simultaneously patch-clamped up to three CA1 pyramidal neurons in awake or anesthetized mice and found that the temporal evolution of the power and frequency of θ oscillations in Vms (θVms) were weakly but significantly correlated with LFP θ oscillations (θLFP) such that a deep neural network could predict the θLFP waveforms based on the θVm traces of three neurons. Therefore, individual neurons are loosely interdependent to ensure freedom of activity, but they partially share information to collectively produce θLFP.
Maize (Zea mays L.) responses to salt stress in terms of root anatomy, respiration and antioxidative enzyme activity
Authors: Hu Dandan , Li Rongfa , Dong Shuting , Zhang Jiwang , Zhao Bin , Ren Baizhao , Ren Hao , Yao Haiyan , Wang Ziqiang , Liu Peng
Published: October 2022

Background:Salinity is a major abiotic stress factor that affects crop yields. Roots play an important role in salt stress in plants. There are few studies, however, that analyse the response of maize to salt stress in terms of the development of root anatomy and respiration.Results:We found that salt stress treatments exhibited a significantly lower leaf relative water content (RWC), net photosynthetic rate (Pn), intercellular CO2concentration (Ci), stomatal conductance (Gs), transpiration rate (Tr), and catalase (CAT) activity. Our results also showed that salt-induced phytotoxicity introduced by the stress treatment caused the superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, peroxidase (POD) activity, malondialdehyde (MDA) content, Na+uptake and root-to-shoot Na+translocation rate to be higher than those in plants from the control groups. It should be noted that the detrimental effects of exposure to salt stress were more pronounced in plants of the YY7 variety than in those of the JNY658. Salt-tolerant JNY658 plants, which feature a relatively low metabolic cost for root formation, responded to salt stress by developing a much higher number of root cortical aerenchyma (RCA) than plants from the respective control group, as well as a larger cortical cell size (CCS) and a lower root cortical cell file number (CCFN), all of which help to maintain the formation of biomass when exposed to salt stress. The total respiration rate (RTotal) of plants of both varieties exposed to salt stress was lower than that of plants from the respective control groups, while the alternate oxidative respiration rate (RAOX) and RAOX/RTotalwere higher, where the response in the roots of JNY658 plants was significant. The net Na+and K+efﬂux rates from the roots of plants of both varieties were all higher than those from the roots of plants from the control group, where the strength of the response with respect to the net Na+efflux rate from the roots of JNY658 plants and the net K+efﬂux rate from roots of YY7 plants was remarkable. The increase in efflux rates reduced the Na+toxicity of the root and helped to maintain its ion balance.Conclusion:These results demonstrated that salt-tolerant maize varieties incur a relatively low metabolic cost required to establish a higher RCA, larger CCS and lower CCFN significantly reduced their RTotaland, that it also increased their RAOXand RAOX/RTotal, thereby counteracting the detrimental effect of oxidative damage on root respiration of root growth. In addition, when subjected to salt stress they exhibit a lower Na+ion uptake at the surface of their roots, which constrains the translocation of Na+to the rest of the plant and significantly reduces the level of Na+accumulation in leaves, thus preempting salt-stress induced impediments to the formation of shoot biomass.
Structure and Dynamics of a Protein Inside Endosomal Vesicles in Intact Human Cells
Authors: Kodama Takashi S. , Furuita Kyoko , Sugiki Toshihiko , Akagi Ken-ichi , Monobe Yoko , Enokizono Yoshiaki , Monden Noriko , Nakamura Misaki , Hattori Yoshikazu , Inomata Kohsuke , Shirakawa Masahiro , Tochio Hidehito , Fujiwara Toshimichi , Kojima Chojiro
Published: October 2022

With in-cell NMR, the structural and dynamic features of proteins can be analyzed directly in living cells at atomic resolution. However, in mammalian cells, such as human cells, the structural/dynamic features and physiological functions are not fully understood at atomic resolution. In this study, we developed a method for the highly viable and efficient introduction of stable isotope-labeled proteins into human cells by electrotransfection. Thus, it was possible to perform in-cell NMR to study the structural/dynamic features of intracellular proteins with a time resolution of a minute. The transfected proteins were localized in intracellular vesicles and gradually degraded as the vesicles acidified, which could be controlled by adding EDTA, a membrane-impermeable low molecular weight compound, during electrotransfection. With this method, we could then determine the precise structure and dynamics of proteins in endosomal vesicles. Our approach demonstrates that the combination of electrotransfection and in-cell NMR provides an opportunity to study the structural/dynamic features and physiological functions of molecules taken into intact cells.
Prediction of Post COVID-19 Impact on Indian people using Machine Learning Techniques
Authors: Pathak Peeyush Kumar , Tripathi Manish Madhava
Published: October 2022

In current years of Covid-19 impact, COVID-19 is causing an unprecedented difficulty around the world, affecting people's lifestyle choices. The worldwide economy, vocation, and physical and mental prosperity have all been moved by the Covid disease (COVID-19) pandemic. On behalf of students, learning losses outside of the classroom could lead to even more long-term difficulties. Or on the basis of other working areas COVID-19 impact depends on the pandemic situation in area. The AI learning is another algorithm that assumes the most awesome aspect in varying backgrounds. AI (ML) - based forecast strategies have demonstrated helpful in foreseeing perioperative results and further developing dynamic about future exercises. The reason for this paper is to cover the effect of the COVID-19 scourge on the way of life decisions of the Indian public. The application of machine learning using ANN calculation on given data set is studied in detail on what Indian society endure due to Covid-19 and what future impact on their individual personality, that will help our society to learn more about pandemic like covid − 19 and we will prepare ourselves to fight against. An Machine Learning model has been developed to predict future impact on Indian population based on their physical, mental condition due to COVID-19 Pandemic.
Comparison of the Sediment Yield Estimation Using Bathymetric Survey and Modified Universal Soil Loss Equation at Shumburit Reservoir, East Gojjam Zone Amhara Region, Ethiopia
Authors: Endalew Lake , Mulu Arega
Published: October 2022

Sediment accumulation is a major factor in reducing irrigation reservoir useful life as well as reducing the reservoir capacity. Therefore, the goal of this study was to estimate the volume of sediment accumulated in the reservoir using a bathymetric survey and to assess the watershed sediment yield to reservoirs using the Modified Universal Soil Loss Equation (MUSLE) model. The bathymetric survey method involves subtracting the two-period capacities, one before dam construction and one after dam construction. On the other hand, the sediment deposition calculated by the MUSLE model over the last six years is estimated after determining the physical parameters (K, LS, C, and P factors) and runoff index (VQ and QP) from the watershed using ArcGIS 10.8 and Excel software. The bathymetric survey showed that 297,000m3 (362,340 tons) of sediment had accumulated in the reservoir over six years of operation, whereas the Modified Universal Soil Loss Equation estimated 256,262.86 tons of sediment yield at the outlet of the watershed (inflow to the reservoir). This means the reservoir's total capacity has been reduced by 7.52 percent and 5.4 percent, respectively, over the last six years of operation, using a bathymetric survey and the Modified Universal Soil Loss Equation. According to the bathymetric survey results, the reservoir will not be functional for more than 15 years if the sediment rate remains the same as in the previous six years. Using the bathymetry method, the sedimentation rates of the dead storage and live storage zones were 31,666.67 m3/year and 48,333.33 m3/year, respectively. The watershed's sediment yield and specific sediment yield were determined using bathymetry survey results to be 61,371.95 tons/year and 45.46 tons/ha/year, respectively; whereas the sediment yield using the MUSLE model was 31.64 tons/ha/year.
The Diagnostic Value of Medical Thoracoscopy Pleural Biopsy, Ultrasound-guided Pleural Biopsy, and Closed Pleural Biopsy in Tuberculous Pleurisy: A propensity score matching analysis
Authors: Tao Tao , Bao Xiaoli , Wang Yangzhong , Tang Nan
Published: October 2022

Background and objective

For diagnosis of exudative pleural effusion in tuberculous pleurisy, medical thoracoscopic pleural biopsy (MTPB) enables direct vision and is most widely applied, although ultrasound-guided pleural biopsy (USPB) and closed pleural biopsy (CPB) are also viable. This retrospective study compared the diagnostic efficiencies and safety of USPB, CPB, and MTPB.

Methods

Patients enrolled from 2014 through 2020 underwent USPB, CPB, or MTPB (n = 69, 69, and 110, respectively). Propensity score matching (PSM) analysis was used to compare the diagnostic sensitivities of CPB, MTPB, and USPB. The secondary outcomes were postoperative complications and hospitalization stay.

Results

PSM analysis resulted in 40 (USPB vs. CPB), 47 (USPB vs. MTPB), and 52 (CPB vs. MTPB) matched pairs. The diagnostic sensitivities of the USPB and CPB groups were 72.5% and 55.0% (P = 0.162); that of USPB and MTPB were 70.2% and 80.9% (P = 0.337); the CPB and MTPB groups were comparable(P = 0.152). The rates of associated pain and subcutaneous emphysema of the MTPB group were higher than that of the USPB or CPB (P = 0.000, both).Hospitalization time of the MTPB group was longest, and significantly longer than that of the USPB (P = 0.029).

Conclusions

While the three techniques were similarly effective in diagnosing tuberculous pleurisy, USPB and CPB showed fewer associated complications and shorter hospital stays compared with MTPB. The image guidance offered by USPB benefited reduction in postoperative complications.
CDCA5 is a potent therapeutic target of clear cell renal cell carcinoma
Authors: Wang Xun , Liu Jie , Liu Qiang , Zhou Jiale , Kong Wen , Huang Yiran , Xue Wei , Yang Fan , Huang Jiwei
Published: October 2022

Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is the most common type of kidney cancer in adult, and patients with advanced ccRCC are facing limited treatment options. Cell division cycle associated 5 (CDCA5), a key regulator for segregating sister chromatids in cell cycle, has been increasingly reported for a potential therapeutic target in multiple human cancers. However, the functional roles of CDCA5 in ccRCC remain uncertain. Here we identified that CDCA5 expression was frequently upregulated in ccRCC tumors and significantly associated with poor prognosis of ccRCC patients. To investigate the role of CDCA5 in ccRCC progression, loss function cell models were established. Knockdown of CDCA5 remarkably suppressed ccRCC cell proliferation and migration ability, and also induced cell apoptosis in vitro. In addition, the significance of CDCA5 in ccRCC was further demonstrated in a mouse xenograft model. Silencing of CDCA5 drastically inhibited in vivo tumorigenicity of ccRCC cells. Mechanically, we identified CDCA5 may cooperate with EEF1A1 to promote the tumorigenic phenotype of ccRCC. Overall, our results revealed the significant functional role of CDCA5 in ccRCC progression, which may pave a way for the development of new treatment strategies for ccRCC treatment.
The evaluation of learning platforms for experimental teaching of regional anatomy after the COVID-19 pandemic
Authors: Huang Jinyu , Xiong Liang , Li Hongwei , Zhang Lanfeng , Xu Nengquan
Published: October 2022

Purpose
Based on the dominance of learner-centered active learning after the COVID-19 pandemic, finding suitable platforms is critical for experimental teaching of regional anatomy.
Methods
We investigated the satisfaction and preference of medical students about selective platforms through a questionnaire. The students were divided into three groups for this teaching experiments. At the end of the semester, their satisfaction and preference about the platforms was investigated through a questionnaire.
Results
In the satisfaction survey on the Virtual simulation teaching platform of EVDO and Digital Human platforms, differences had been observed between groups and gender. In terms of students’ preference for auxiliary teaching, 96/112 (85.71%) of subjects chose station B, Xuexitong (95/112 (84.82%)), Chinese University MOOCs (61/112 (54.46%)) as the after-school learning platform. Moreover, 32/112 (28.57%) of them chose both of Station B and Xuexitong, and 48/112 (42.86%) of them chose three platforms at the same time.
Conclusion
Students prefer more than one platforms to assist their learning. The interactive teaching of virtual simulated anatomy teaching platform and cadaveric dissection can improve students’ interest in learning anatomy.
Image-assisted Collision Detection for Calculation of Assembly Interference Matrix
Authors: JIA KANG , Liu Hao , Ma Tao , Guo Junkang , Zhang Lei , Hong Jun
Published: October 2022

Assembly interference matrix is one of foundation information model for assembly process planning like assembly sequence planning and assembly path planning, which supports the digital assembly simulation, intelligent assembly, digital twins based assembly etc. Assemble interference matrix represents each two parts are collision or not when they moving along specific directions. Traditional assembly interference matrix construction adopts geometric collision detections on approximate swept volume of part which composed by moving part step by step. This manner not only leads to heavy computational loading since small moving step but also easy to misjudging contact as collide as well as missing collide due to discrete spatial moving of part. To overcome the drawbacks, this work equivalent the collision detection of parts during assembly interference matrix establishing as visibility judgement, and develop an image-assisted calculation method to process the collision between part’s swept volume as occlusion of images via computer graphic rendering. This method is implemented on OpenGL to ensure its generality, and the implicit calculating is finished in computer graphic rendering process by arranging proper rendering conditions with adopting depth testing and stencil testing. Furthermore, the erosion operation of image process is employed to distinguish whether contact or collide. At last, an examples for gear box assembly validates the effectiveness of this method.
A study of Uropathogenic Escherichia coli from men in regional NSW (Australia) with special emphasis on antibiotic resistance
Authors: Kudinha Timothy , Kong Fanrong
Published: October 2022

Background
Escherichia coli is an important uropathogen, responsible for most urinary tract infections (UTIs). Most studies on E. coli UTI pathogenesis have been in females, with limited studies on urinary isolates from men. Understanding UTI epidemiology in men is important in UTI management in this gender, including formulation of empirical treatment guidelines.
Methods
We studied the distribution of 310 uropathogenic E. coli isolates from men by uro-clinical syndrome, hospitalisation status, age group, and antibiotic susceptibility.
Results
Most of the E. coli isolates were from the outpatient setting (189, 61%), with the various age groups generally evenly distributed. In the inpatient setting, the 0-10 years age group was not represented, and the remaining 3 age groups were evenly represented (22-27%). Most of the isolates (74%) were from cystitis cases. For pyelonephritis isolates, the majority (65%) were confined to the 21-40 years age group, and the least in the 11-20 years age group (12%). Antibiotic (and multidrug) resistance was higher in pyelonephritis vs. cystitis isolates (73% vs. 58% ; P = 0.023, for multidrug resistance).
Overall, antibiotic resistance differed significantly by age; highest in the 21-40 years age range (69%), and lowest in the 0-10 years group (39%). Likewise, ESBL production was highest in the 21-40 years age range (10%), and lowest in the 0-10 years age (0%).
Conclusion
We documented a significant difference in the distribution of antibiotic resistance by age group amongst UPEC isolates from men in regional NSW, Australia, in the 0-60 years age group.
β-glucan alleviates goal-directed behavior in mice infected with Toxoplasma gondii
Authors: Cui Zeyu , Gong Yuying , Luo Xiaotong , Zheng Niuyi , Tan Shimin , Liu Shuxi , Li Youwei , Wang Qingling , Sun Fenfen , Hu Minmin , Pan Wei , Yang Xiaoying Yang
Published: October 2022

Background
Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is a neuroinvasive parasite causing neuroinflammation, which is associated with a higher risk for several psycho-behavioral disorders. There is an urgent need to identify drugs capable of improving cognitive deficits induced by T. gondii infection. (1, 3)/(1, 6)-β-glucan, an active ingredient in mushrooms, could significantly enhance immunity. However, the effects of β-glucan against neuroinflammation and cognitive decline induced by T. gondiiinfection remain unknown. The present study aimed to investigate the neuroprotective effect of β-glucan on goal-directed behavior of mice chronically infected by T. gondii Wh6 strain.
Methods
A mice model of chronic T. gondii Wh6 infection was established by gavage of 10 cysts. Intraperitoneal injection of β-glucan was manipulated two weeks before T. gondiiinfection. Y-maze test and temporal order memory (TOM) test were performed to assess the goal-directed behavior. Golgi-Cox staining, transmission electron microscopy, immunofluorescence, Real-Time PCR and western blot assays were used to detect prefrontal cortex-associated pathological change and neuroinflammation.
Results
We reported that administration of β-glucan significantly prevented T. gondii Wh6-induced goal-directed behavioral impairment assessed behaviorally by Y-maze test and TOM test. In the prefrontal cortex, β-glucan could counter T. gondii Wh6 -induced degeneration of neurites, impairment of synaptic ultrastructure, and decrease of pre- and postsynaptic protein levels. Also, β-glucan significantly prevented the hyperactivation of pro-inflammatory microglia and astrocytes, as well as the upregulation of proinflammatory cytokines caused by chronic T. gondii Wh6 infection.
Conclusion
This study revealed that β-glucan prevents goal-directed behavioral impairment induced by chronic T. gondii infection in mice. These findings suggested that β-glucan may be an effective drug candidate to prevent T. gondii-associated psycho-behavioral disorders including goal-directed behavioral injury.
An image-processing-based technique for detecting quantitative fluorescence in plant cells
Authors: Feng Jun , Zhang Zhenshi , Bao Chun , Li Zhenting , Chen Bolei , Wang Bing , Zheng Yu
Published: October 2022

Biologists can now solve complex environmental problems by fabricate practical plant organisms, difficulties related to characterisation of cellular architectures of plant cells are often encountered which constrained the application of plant cells in synthetic biology. The objective of this study was to develop a automated, accurate and high-throughput quantitative analysis method ACFVA for single plant cell identification. ACFVA can address a variety of biological questions quantitatively of large number of plant cells automatically including standard assays (for example, cell localiztion, count and size) and complex morphological assays (for example, different fluorescence in cells). These assays can be used in a wide range of synthetic biology directions.
Tinaspora cordifolia acted as green corrosion inhibitor on mild steel in presence of 1M HCl solution
Authors: Gayakwad Netravati
Published: October 2022

Corrosion is a natural process which mainly occurs in metals. There are so many methods which inhibit the rate of corrosion. Inhibitors are organic compounds which added in a small concentration that retards the either anodic or cathodic, sometimes both. Synthetic inhibitors are non biodegradable, not easily available and toxic in nature. Considered to this point selection, some naturally available plant leaves extract that inhibit the rate of corrosion. Plant leaves extract mainly contains aromatic, aliphatic and cyclic chain compounds in their phytochemical constituents. These are abundantly easily available in nature, biodegradable, non toxic. Tinaspora cordilicia plant is rich in medicinal property as well acted as good inhibitor on mild steel in presence of 1M HCl solution. Present study investigates weight loss method at 303K.
Iterative Dual Regression Network for Blind Image Super-resolution
Authors: Lei Chunting , Yang Sihan , Yang Xiaomin , Yan Binyu , Jeon Gwanggil
Published: October 2022

Previous single-image super-resolution (SISR) methods assume that the blur kernel is known (e.g.,bicubic) when degrading from high-resolution (HR) images to low-resolution (LR) images. They usea single degradation to train a model to restore HR images. However, the actual degradation inreal-world is often unknown. It is difficult to deal with LR images caused by different degradations.To cope with the above situation, previous methods attempt to restore SR images using a blurkernel estimation structure that combines with a non-blind SR network. There are two problemsthat should be earnestly considered: (1) For accurate blur kernel estimation, insufficient correlation of consecutive kernels lead to an unsatisfied reconstruction result. (2) For ill-posed issue ofimage rebuild, a more efficient constraint condition is worth trying. To solve the two problems, wepropose an iterative dual regression network for an adaptive and precision blur kernel estimation, which improves the speed of kernel estimation by learning a dual mapping. Specifically, we design aPredictor-Generator structure: the Predictor, through several iterations, searching for accurate kernelsthrough intermediate kernels and generated SR images; the Generator, generating final SR images with the help of the predicted kernels. More importantly, the elaborately designed dual learningstrategy can not only provide additional constraints for accurate kernel estimation but also reducethe domain gap between SR images and HR images. Experiments on synthetic degraded imagesand real-world images, our network is competitive in performance and superior in visual results.
Selinexor for the treatment of recurrent or metastatic salivary gland tumors: results from the GEMS-001 clinical trial.
Authors: Hernando-Calvo Alberto , Malone Eoghan , Day Daphne , Prawira Amy , Weinreb Ilan , Wong Horace , Rodriguez Angela , Jennings Sarah , Eliason Anneli , Wang Lisa , Spreafico Anna , Siu Lillian L. , Hansen Aaron
Published: October 2022

Background
Salivary gland tumors (SGT) are rare with limited systemic treatments. We aimed to evaluate the activity of selinexor, an oral selective inhibitor of nuclear export, in patients with recurrent unresectable or metastatic SGT.
Methods
GEMS-001 is an open-label phase 2 study for patients with recurrent or metastatic SGT with two parts. In part 1 of the protocol, patients had tumor samples profiled with targeted next generation sequencing as well as immunohistochemistry for androgen receptor, HER-2 and ALK. For part 2, patients with no targetable alterations identified or no matched agents available are eligible to receive selinexor 60 mg given twice weekly every 28 days. The primary endpoint was objective response rate. Secondary endpoints included progression-free survival (PFS) and prevalence of druggable alterations across SGT.
Results
Between July 2014 and September 2021, 100 patients were enrolled in GEMS-001 and underwent genomic and proteomic profiling. A total of 21 patients (12 female) with a median age of 61 years (range 36–79) who lacked actionable alterations or available matched therapies were treated with selinexor. Histological subtypes (World Health Organization classification) included adenoid cystic carcinoma (n = 10), salivary duct carcinoma (n = 3), acinic cell carcinoma (n = 2) and other (n = 6). Fourteen patients were treatment naïve and 7 patients had received 1 or more lines of treatment prior to enrollment. Of 18 evaluable patients, stable disease as best response was observed in 17 patients (94%) (stable disease ≥ 6 months in 7 patients (39%)). Tumor reduction of target lesions was observed in 11 patients (61%). However, no partial or complete responses were observed. The median PFS was 4.9 months (95% confidence interval, 3.4–10). The most common treatment-related grade 1–2 adverse events were nausea [17 patients (81%)], fatigue [16 patients (76%)] and dysgeusia [12 patients (57%)]. Most common treatment-related grade 3–4 adverse events were hyponatremia [3 patients (14%)], neutrophil count decrease [3 patients (14%)] and cataracts [2 patients (10%)]. No treatment-related deaths were observed.
Conclusions
Although tumor reduction was observed across participants single agent selinexor antitumor activity was limited.
Trial registration
This clinical trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02069730) first posted February 24 2014.
Hierarchical pores in degradable polymers-based aerogel for CO2 adsorption
Authors: Gan Lin , Zheng Shuyu , Huang Jin
Published: October 2022

Gas adsorption materials, such as active carbon and zeolite, usually cause second pollution after being used, due to their non-degradability. Here, we prepared a degradable aerogel material based on cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) and poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) with hierarchical pores and excellent CO2-adsorption performance. The micropores, whose specific area is 442 m2·g−1, are obtained via in-situ growing MIL-100(Fe) on CNCs and concurrently assembling those CNC particles. The obtained aggregation is further introduced into degradable PVA aerogels, who offer mesopores and macropores. Such a degradable material is as light as 0.216 g·cm−3 and can adsorb 0.357 mmol CO2 per gram, which can hopefully be used in preparing light-weight CO2 collectors.
Differential DNA methylation of steatosis and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in adolescence.
Authors: Melton Phillip E , Burton Mark A , Lillycrop Karen , Godfrey Keith M , Rauschert Sebastian , Anderson Denise , Burdge Graham C , Mori Trevor A , Beilin Lawrence J , Ayonrinde Oyekoya T , Craig Jeffery M , Olynyk John K , Holbrook Joanna D , Pennell Craig E , Oddy Wendy H , Moses Eric K , Adams Leon A , Huang Rae-Chi
Published: October 2022

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Epigenetic modifications are associated with hepatic fat accumulation and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, few epigenetic modifications directly implicated in such processes have been identified during adolescence, a critical developmental window where physiological changes could influence future disease trajectory. To investigate the association between DNA methylation and NAFLD in adolescence we undertook discovery and validation of novel methylation marks, alongside replication of previously reported marks.
APPROACH & RESULTS: We performed a DNA methylation epigenome-wide association study (EWAS) on DNA from whole blood from 707 Raine Study adolescents phenotyped for steatosis score and NAFLD by ultrasound at age 17. Next, we performed pyrosequencing validation of loci within the most 100 strongly associated differentially-methylated CpG sites (dmCpGs) for which ≥2 probes per gene remained significant across four statistical models with a nominal p-value <0.007. EWAS identified dmCpGs related to three genes (ANK1, MIR10a, PTPRN2) that met our criteria for pyrosequencing. Of the dmCpGs and surrounding loci that were pyrosequenced (ANK1 n=6, MIR10a n=7, PTPRN2 n=3), three dmCpGs in ANK1 and two in MIR10a were significantly associated with NAFLD in adolescence. After adjustment for waist circumference only dmCpGs in ANK1 remained significant. These ANK1 CpGs were also associated with γ-glutamyl transferase and alanine aminotransferase concentrations. Three of twenty-two differentially methylated dmCpGs previously associated with adult NAFLD were associated with NAFLD in adolescence (all adjusted p<2.3 x 10-3).
CONCLUSIONS: We identified novel DNA methylation loci associated with NAFLD and serum liver biochemistry markers during adolescence, implicating putative dmCpG/gene regulatory pathways and providing insights for future mechanistic studies.
Is transoral endoscopic thyroidectomy via vestibular approach safe for total thyroidectomy compared to open thyroidectomy? A propensity-score matched cohort study of 101 matched patient pairs with papillary thyroid carcinoma.
Authors: Li Yujun , Liu Zhaodi , Wang Yong , Yu Xing , Wang Tiantian , Xiang Cheng , Wang Ping
Published: October 2022

Background Transoral endoscopic thyroidectomy via vestibular approach (TOETVA) has become increasingly popular in the treatment of papillary thyroid cancer. This study aimed to describe the safety and feasibility of total thyroidectomy between the TOETVA and open thyroidectomy (OT) approaches for the treatment of patients with papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). Methods We retrospectively reviewed 780 consecutive patients suffering from PTC that had undergone total thyroidectomy using TOETVA (n = 107) and OT (n = 673) between April 2016 and October 2021 at our institute. Afterward, A total of 101 matched patients’ surgical outcomes were compared using propensity score matching (PSM) analysis. Results Before PSM, the patients in the TOETVA group were younger (p < 0.001), had a lower BMI (p < 0.001) and a greater female population (p < 0.001). After PSM, the TOETVA group was associated with significantly longer operative time (p < 0.001), greater blood loss (p < 0.001), total drainage amount (p < 0.001), higher WBC count (p < 0.001) and CRP (p < 0.001), better cosmetic satisfaction (p < 0.001) and quality of life (p < 0.001) and lower scar self-consciousness (p < 0.001). There was no statistical difference between the groups in the attenuation or disappearance of RLN signal, rate of parathyroid autotransplantation and bilateral lymph node dissection, the positivity of lymph node metastasis, number of dissected lymph nodes and positive lymph nodes, multifocality, postoperative level of blood calcium and PTH, rate of PTH < 15ng/mL, VAS score, duration of hospital stay, complications, mean TSH-stimulated Tg level before RAI, mean Tg level without TSH stimulation, and the proportion of serum Tg level of < 1. Conclusion TOETVA is a safe and feasible technique for better cosmetic effects and similar surgical outcomes compared to conventional open surgery for the studied patients that required total thyroidectomy.
MSCDP: Multi-Step Crowd Density Predictor in Indoor Environment
Authors: Wang Shuyu , Lyu Yan , Xu Yuhang , Wu Weiwei
Published: October 2022

Monitoring and predicting crowd movements in indoor environments are of great importance in crowd management to prevent crushing and trampling. Existing works mostly focused on individual trajectory forecasting in a less crowded scene, or crowd counting and density estimation. Only a very few works predict the crowd density distribution. However, this study is failing to realize multi-step prediction or exploiting only density heatmaps modality ignores the information complementation with corresponding video frames. Therefore, we are motivated to predict crowd density distribution in multiple time steps to facilitate long-term prediction. In this paper, a Multi-Step Crowd Density Predictor (MSCDP) to fuse video frame sequences and corresponding density heatmaps, is proposed to accurately forecast the future crowd density heatmaps. To capture long-term periodic movement features, the long-term optical flow context memory (LOFCM) module is designed to store learnable patterns. We conducted extensive experiments on two real-world datasets. Evaluation results show that our MSCDP outperforms the state-of-the-art baseline techniques and MSCDP variants in terms of various prediction errors, demonstrating the effectiveness of MSCDP and each of its key components in multi-step crowd density prediction.
Investigation of Denoising of Speech Signal using WaveShrink Method in Deaf Persons
Authors: J Nirmaladevi , S Poornachandra , RM Mahalakame , P Jayavardhini , V Ragsana R
Published: October 2022

Speech is vital parameter in human cognitive and socio-emotional development. Deaf speech is even more complex to understand unless the noise is removed and improved its fidelity. Denoising of speech signal is an important pre-processing stage in speech signal processing. Denoising of speech signal not only removes the redundant coefficients (leads to data compression) but also improve the quality of speech signal. Waveshrink is a technique used to in this paper to suppress the redundant wavelet coefficient through threshold concept. Denoising concept find application in both signal and image processing. Denoising of the signal will improve in processing the deaf signal speech with any assistive technologies. Digital devices can use this denoised speech to compare and reproduce the deaf speech signal for emotional analysis and comparison of various speech parameters in real time environment.
Medication Regimen Complexity and Medication Adherence among Patients with Multimorbidity Treated at University of Gondar Compressive Specialized Hospital
Authors: Kassaw Abebe Tarekegn , Minyihun Amare , Gebreslassie Begashaw Melaku
Published: October 2022

Background
Assessing the medication regimen complexity and treatment adherence of a patient is important to tailor medication related outcomes of patients with multimorbidity. Therefore, this study aimed to assess medication regimen complexity and level of medication adherence in patients with multimorbidity.
Methods
A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted from May to June, 2021. A systematic random sampling technique was used to enroll participants. Descriptive statistics such as mean, percent, and frequency were used to summarize patients' demographic and clinical characteristics. Ordinal logistic regression and Pearson chi-square tests were performed to identify associations between variables with the outcome variable. The Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) with 95% (CI) at P < 0.05 was reported for potential determinant factors of adherence level.
Results
A total of 416 subjects were participated in the study. The mean (SD) age was 56.12(± 13.75) years. The majority of the participants (57%) were classified under high medication regimen complexity index (MRCI) score. Nearly half of the patients (49%) were poor adherent to their medication regimens. In the multivariable ordinal regression analysis; number of medications (AOR = 0.63[0.41, 0.97]), income level (AOR = 4.59 [2.14, 9.83]), follow up duration (AOR = 2.31[1.09, 4.86]) and Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) (AOR = 0.36 [0.16, 0.83]) were significantly associated with low level of adherence.
Conclusion
Medication regimens for patients with multimorbidity were high and complex. Almost half of the study populations were classified as non-adherent. Hence, health care professionals and other stakeholders should seek interventions aimed at simplifying drug regimens complexity and improving adherence.
Span-based Joint Entity and Relation Extraction with Light Attention Encoder
Authors: Wang Yixuan , Wu Zhengyang
Published: October 2022

The construction and updating of the knowledge graph need to obtain a lot of knowledge in time. Text data generated continuously on the Internet is an important source of this knowledge. Especially for the knowledge graph related to public opinion monitoring, it is necessary to quickly extract entities and relations from the text. Although the entity and relation extraction (ERE) method based on the pre-training model can obtain good performance, the training efficiency is low due to the complexity of the model, and it needs to perform better on large datasets. In order to reduce the model complexity and better apply related models to small datasets and apply the ERE task on the edge devices, this work proposes a novel span-based joint ERE model with a light attention encoder. The specific operation is to discard the Value transform matrix originally possessed by the self-attention mechanism, modify it to an identity map, and change the calculation method of dot product similarity to the cosine similarity calculation method. Through experiments on three public datasets, it is verified that the proposed approach can greatly reduce the training cost on the basis of ensuring the good performance of the model.
Gastric Carcinoma with low ROR alpha, low E- Cadherin and High LAPTM4B Immunohistochemical Profile; is associated with poor prognosis in Egyptian patients
Authors: Mashad Shereen Nagib El , Kandil Mona Abd El-Halem , Talab Taysseer Abd El-Hamid , Naby Abd El Naby Saied Abd El , Sultan Mervat Mahmoud , Sohaib Ahmed , Hemida Aiat Shaban
Published: October 2022

Background
Gastric carcinoma (GC) is the tenth most prevalent cancer in both sexes in Egypt. Many pathways have been investigated regarding pathogenesis of GC, including epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) pathway. In view of multiplicity of carcinogenic pathways, poor survival and chemotherapy resistance detected in GC patients, more analysis of these pathways is required for better molecular selection of patients, prediction of prognosis and developing new therapeutic targets. Down-regulation of E-Cadherin is an important EMT stage. RORα is a tumor suppressor gene, expressed in normal epithelial tissues and reduced in a variety of human cancers. Knocking down of RORα; increase cell proliferation, EMT, migration, and invasion. LAPTM4B is a protooncogene and it has been suggested to be strictly associated with EMT induction. Therefore, this work aims to investigate the role of RORα, LAPTM4B and E-Cadherin and its relationship to prognosis of GC.
Methods
This is a retrospective study where the standard immunohistochemical technique was done to assess the expression of RORα, LAPTM4B and E-Cadherin in 167 cases of chronic gastritis (control group) and 73 primary gastric carcinomas (51 of them have available adjacent non tumor tissue).
Results
Low RORα and high LAPTM4B expression in GC cases were associated with unfavorable prognostic factors such as positive lymph nodes, and high tumor budding. E-Cadherin Heterogeneous staining was associated with poor prognostic pathological criteria, such as diffuse type GC and high tumor budding. In GC, there was significant co parallel correlation between RORα and E-Cadherin expression while LAPTM4B showed inverse correlation with E-Cadherin expression. Low RORα, high LAPTM4B, and negative or heterogeneous E-Cadherin were the most common immunohistochemical profile in GC cases. Low RORα expression showed poor prognostic impact on overall patient survival.
Conclusions
Low RORα H-score and increased expression of LAPTM4B were significantly associated with unfavorable prognostic parameters of GC which may indicate their crucial role in tumor aggressiveness. The predominance of low RORα, high LAPTM4B and heterogeneous or negative E-Cadherin immunohistochemical profile in GC cases with unfavorable pathological parameters suggested that this profile may predict tumor behavior and this profile could be linked to EMT molecular subtype of GC
Engineering-Oriented Ground-Motion Model for Israel
Authors: Kamai Ronnie , Yagoda-Biran Gony
Published: October 2022

This study presents a response-spectral Ground Motion Model (GMM) for Israel, called KYB22 herein and derived with practical applications in mind. This model is based on the former work by Maiti et al. (2021), which derived a suite of nine Fourier amplitude spectra GMMs, based on both empirical data and calibrated point-source simulations. In this study, a weighted average of the Maiti et al. (2021) FAS models is computed and a synthetic database is created. Next, this database is converted to the Response spectral domain using the random vibration theory and a new GMM is regressed, constraining the magnitude and distance scaling on the synthetic response-spectral data. Site scaling is represented by VS30 and is a combination of empirical scaling with other considerations which are discussed in the text. Nonlinear site response is constrained from a global model, as are finite-fault effects, such as hanging-wall, mechanism and top of rupture – which cannot be constrained from the data because it does not contain enough large magnitude data. State-wide hazard is then computed using KYB22, comparing results with other GMM combinations. It is found that the hazard results obtained by using KYB22 as a backbone model are comparable to results obtained using other popular combinations of GMMs in the logic tree. Therefore, we recommend using the new GMM as one of the branches within the ground-motion logic tree when conducting seismic hazard calculations for Israel.