bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
An Ensemble Learning Method Based on One-Class and Binary Classification for Credit Scoring
Authors: Zhang Zaimei , Yuan Yujie , Liu Yan
Published: March 2023

It is crucial to correctly assess whether a potential borrower can repay the loan in the credit scoring model. The credit loan data has a serious data imbalance because the number of defaulters is far less than the nondefaulters. However, most current methods for dealing with data imbalance are designed to improve the classification performance of minority data, which will reduce the performance of majority data. For a financial institution, the economic loss caused by the decrease in the classification performance of nondefaulters (majority data) cannot be ignored. This paper proposes an ensemble learning method based on one-class and binary classification (EMOBC) for credit scoring. The purpose is to improve the classification accuracy of the minority class while mitigating the loss of classification accuracy of the majority class as much as possible. EMOBC uses undersampling for the majority class (nondefault samples in credit scoring) and perform binary-class learning on the balanced data to improve the classification accuracy of the minority. To alleviate the decline in classification performance of the majority class, EMOBC uses one-class and binary collaborative classification to train classifiers. The classification result is determined by the average of one-class and binary-class classifiers. The experimental results show that EMOBC has good comprehensive performance compared with the existing methods.
Border Collision Bifurcations and Coexisting Attractors in an Economic Bimodal Map
Authors: Foroni Ilaria
Published: March 2023

In this paper, we enhance the study of the tâtonnement model with cautious price adjustment introduced by Weddepohl in 1995. Specifically, we investigate the discrete time dynamics of the model when the original assumption of equal values for the maximum rate of increase and decrease of the price is relaxed. As a result, its analytic definition is expressed by a bimodal one-dimensional continuous piecewise smooth map which depends on three parameters. As it happens in general for bimodal maps, it is possible to describe the bifurcation structure in some regions of the parameter space of the model using the skew tent map scenario as a normal form. Nonetheless, we show that some border collision bifurcations which play a fundamental role for the asymptotic behavior of the map essentially pertain to its bimodal shape. Among them we highlight the ones that lead, for some specific parameter values, to the coexistence of two chaotic attractors. Moreover, we identify degenerate border collision bifurcations responsible for the peculiar shapes of the chaotic attractors that distinguish the model.
Second-harmonic generation in polycrystalline ZnSe in the absence of phase matching
Authors: Shahin R. , Savikin A. P. , Martynova O. V. , Kurashkin S. V. , Savin D. V.
Published: March 2023

The work is devoted to the study of the second-harmonic generation (SHG) process as a result of random quasi-phase-matching of thulium laser radiation in ZnSe polycrystals. A linear dependence of the SHG efficiency on the nonlinear medium length has been observed in the experiment. The efficiencies of SHG in ZnSe polycrystals with average grain sizes from 35[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m to 380[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m were compared. The obtained results are in good agreement with the theory in the case of a Gaussian grain size distribution.
ThermalProGAN: A sequence-based thermally stable protein generator trained using unpaired data
Authors: Huang Hui-Ling , Weng Chong-Heng , Nordling Torbjörn E. M. , Liou Yi-Fan
Published: March 2023

Motivation: The synthesis of proteins with novel desired properties is challenging but sought after by the industry and academia. The dominating approach is based on trial-and-error inducing point mutations, assisted by structural information or predictive models built with paired data that are difficult to collect. This study proposes a sequence-based unpaired-sample of novel protein inventor (SUNI) to build ThermalProGAN for generating thermally stable proteins based on sequence information. Results: The ThermalProGAN can strongly mutate the input sequence with a median number of 32 residues. A known normal protein, 1RG0, was used to generate a thermally stable form by mutating 51 residues. After superimposing the two structures, high similarity is shown, indicating that the basic function would be conserved. Eighty four molecular dynamics simulation results of 1RG0 and the COVID-19 vaccine candidates with a total simulation time of 840[Formula: see text]ns indicate that the thermal stability increased. Conclusion: This proof of concept demonstrated that transfer of a desired protein property from one set of proteins is feasible.

Availability and implementation: The source code of ThermalProGAN can be freely accessed at https://github.com/markliou/ThermalProGAN/ with an MIT license.

The website is https://thermalprogan.markliou.tw:433 .

Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available on Github.
Generalized black hole entropy in two dimensions
Authors: Nojiri Shin’ichi , Odintsov Sergei D. , Faraoni Valerio
Published: March 2023

The Bekenstein–Hawking entropy of a black hole is proportional to its horizon area, hence in [Formula: see text] spacetime dimensions it is constant because the horizon degenerates into two points. This fact is consistent with Einstein’s gravity becoming topological in two dimensions. In [Formula: see text] gravity, which is non-trivial even in [Formula: see text], we find that the entropy is constant, as for Bekenstein–Hawking. As shown in Europhys. Lett. 139(6) (2022) 69001, arXiv: 2208.10146, two-dimensional [Formula: see text] gravity is equivalent to Jackiw–Teitelboim gravity, in turn, equivalent to the Sachdev–Ye–Kitaev model where the entropy becomes constant in the large [Formula: see text] limit. Several recently proposed entropies are functions of the Bekenstein–Hawking entropy and become constant in [Formula: see text], but in two-dimensional dilaton gravity entropies are not always constant. We study general dilaton gravity and obtain arbitrary static black hole solutions for which the non-constant entropies depend on the mass, horizon radius, or Hawking temperature, and constitute new proposals for a generalized entropy.
Effect of neural mobilisation in Bell’s palsy: A randomised controlled trial
Authors: Alharbi Raed , Kashoo Faizan Zaffar , Ahmed Mehrunnisha , Alqahtani Mazen , Aloyuni Saleh , Alzhrani Msaad , Alanazi Ahmad Dhahawi , Sidiq Mohammad , Alharbi Bander Hamud , Nambi Gopal
Published: March 2023

Background: Neural mobilisation technique is effective in spinal nerve rehabilitation. However, no study has reported the effect of facial nerve mobilisation in acute Bell’s palsy.

Objectives: The objective of our study was to evaluate the effect of facial neural mobilisation over conventional therapy in improving facial symmetry in patients with acute Bell’s palsy.

Methods: A randomised controlled trial was conducted in the physical therapy department for 62 patients with acute Bell’s palsy. The intervention included 10 days of drug therapy including 3 weeks of conventional therapy to the experimental and the control group. However, the experimental group received additional nerve mobilisation technique aimed at mobilising the facial nerve at the origin of external auditory meatus. All participants were assessed at baseline and after three weeks using the Sunnybrook facial grading system (SBS) and Kinovea Movement Analysis Software (KMAS).

Results: For primary outcome, analysis of covariance with baseline data as covariate showed a significant difference between groups for the post-test mean scores of SBS after 3 weeks (between-group difference, 9.2 [95% CI, 5.1–13.3], [Formula: see text]. Importantly, the effect size calculated by partial [Formula: see text] for neural mobilisation was 0.258 (small effect size). For secondary outcomes, independent sample t-test showed a significant difference between groups for the scores on KMAS after 3 weeks for zygomatic muscle (between-group difference, [Formula: see text] [95% CI, [Formula: see text] to [Formula: see text]], [Formula: see text]), frontalis muscle [Formula: see text] [95% CI, [Formula: see text] to [Formula: see text]], [Formula: see text], and orbicularis oris muscle [Formula: see text] [95% CI, [Formula: see text] to [Formula: see text]], [Formula: see text].

Conclusion: Facial neural mobilisation is likely to be an effective adjunctive intervention in addition to conventional therapy in improving facial symmetry in acute Bell’s palsy.
On neighborhood b-pseudo chromatic number of graphs
Authors: Jayalakshmi M. , Divya R.
Published: March 2023

A proper coloring on [Formula: see text] is called a [Formula: see text]-coloring if every color class has a vertex [Formula: see text] such that [Formula: see text] has at least one neighbor from all other color classes. The maximum integer [Formula: see text] for which [Formula: see text] admits a [Formula: see text]-coloring with [Formula: see text] colors is called the [Formula: see text]-chromatic number of [Formula: see text]. Another interesting coloring parameter is the neighborhood pseudo chromatic number, denoted by [Formula: see text]. It is the maximum number of colors used for a pseudo coloring of [Formula: see text] such that each vertex [Formula: see text] has at least two vertices in [Formula: see text] which receive the same color. Motivated by the extensive research and applications in the area of [Formula: see text]-coloring and pseudo coloring, we introduce a new parameter called the neighborhood [Formula: see text]-pseudo chromatic number and obtain an interesting characterization to find the neighborhood [Formula: see text]-pseudo chromatic number of an arbitrary graph.
Natural Language Processing and Sentiment Analysis on Bangla Social Media Comments on Russia–Ukraine War Using Transformers
Authors: Hasan Mahmud , Islam Labiba , Jahan Ismat , Meem Sabrina Mannan , Rahman Rashedur M.
Published: March 2023

The Bangla Language ranks seventh in the list of most spoken languages with 265 native and non-native speakers around the world and the second Indo-Aryan language after Hindi. However, the growth of research for tasks such as sentiment analysis (SA) in Bangla is relatively low compared to SA in the English language. It is because there are not enough high-quality publically available datasets for training language models for text classification tasks in Bangla. In this paper, we propose a Bangla annotated dataset for sentiment analysis on the ongoing Ukraine–Russia war. The dataset was developed by collecting Bangla comments from various videos of three prominent YouTube TV news channels of Bangladesh covering their report on the ongoing conflict. A total of 10,861 Bangla comments were collected and labeled with three polarity sentiments, namely Neutral, Pro-Ukraine (Positive), and Pro-Russia (Negative). A benchmark classifier was developed by experimenting with several transformer-based language models all pre-trained on unlabeled Bangla corpus. The models were fine-tuned using our procured dataset. Hyperparameter optimization was performed on all 5 transformer language models which include: BanglaBERT, XLM-RoBERTa-base, XLM-RoBERTa-large, Distil-mBERT and mBERT. Each model was evaluated and analyzed using several evaluation metrics which include: F1 score, accuracy, and AIC (Akaike Information Criterion). The best-performing model achieved the highest accuracy of 86% with 0.82 F1 score. Based on accuracy, F1 score and AIC, BanglaBERT outperforms baseline and all the other transformer-based classifiers.
The Evolution and Evolvability of Photosystem II
Authors: Oliver Thomas , Kim Tom D. , Trinugroho Joko P. , Cordón-Preciado Violeta , Wijayatilake Nitara , Bhatia Aaryan , Rutherford A. William , Cardona Tanai
Published: March 2023

Photosystem II is the water-oxidizing and O2-evolving enzyme of photosynthesis. How and when this remarkable enzyme arose are fundamental questions in the history of life that have remained difficult to answer. Here, recent advances in our understanding of the origin and evolution of photosystem II are reviewed and discussed in detail. The evolution of photosystem II indicates that water oxidation originated early in the history of life, long before the diversification of cyanobacteria and other major groups of prokaryotes, challenging and transforming current paradigms on the evolution of photosynthesis. We show that photosystem II has remained virtually unchanged for billions of years, and yet the nonstop duplication process of the D1 subunit of photosystem II, which controls photochemistry and catalysis, has enabled the enzyme to become adaptable to variable environmental conditions and even to innovate enzymatic functions beyond water oxidation. We suggest that this evolvability can be harnessed to develop novel light-powered enzymes with the capacity to carry out complex multistep oxidative transformations for sustainable biocatalysis.
The Role and Activity of SWI/SNF Chromatin Remodelers
Authors: Bieluszewski Tomasz , Prakash Sandhan , Roulé Thomas , Wagner Doris
Published: March 2023

SWITCH deficient SUCROSE NONFERMENTING (SWI/SNF) class chromatin remodeling complexes (CRCs) use the energy derived from ATP hydrolysis to facilitate access of proteins to the genomic DNA for transcription, replication, and DNA repair. Uniquely, SWI/SNF CRCs can both slide the histone octamer along the DNA or eject it from the DNA. Given their ability to change the chromatin status quo, SWI/SNF remodelers are critical for cell fate reprogramming with pioneer and other transcription factors, for responses to environmental challenges, and for disease prevention. Recent cryo-electron microscopy and mass spectrometry approaches have uncovered different subtypes of SWI/SNF complexes with unique properties and functions. At the same time, tethering or rapid depletion and inactivation of SWI/SNF have provided novel insight into SWI/SNF requirements for enhancer activity and into balancing chromatin compaction and accessibility in concert with Polycomb complexes. Given their importance, SWI/SNF recruitment to genomic locations by transcription factors and their biochemical activity is tightly controlled. This review focuses on recent advances in our understanding of SWI/SNF CRCs in animals and plants and discusses the multiple nuclear and biological roles of SWI/SNF CRCs and how SWI/SNF activity is altered by complex subunit composition, posttranslational modifications, and the chromatin context to support proper development and response to extrinsic cues.
Racism and Social Determinants of Psychosis
Authors: Anglin Deidre M.
Published: March 2023

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified racism as a serious threat to public health. Structural racism is a fundamental cause of inequity within interconnected institutions and the social environments in which we live and develop. This review illustrates how these ethnoracial inequities impact risk for the extended psychosis phenotype. Black and Latinx populations are more likely than White populations to report psychotic experiences in the United States due to social determining factors such as racial discrimination, food insecurity, and police violence. Unless we dismantle these discriminatory structures, the chronic stress and biological consequences of this race-based stress and trauma will impact the next generation's risk for psychosis directly, and indirectly through Black and Latina pregnant mothers. Multidisciplinary early psychosis interventions show promise in improving prognosis, but coordinated care and other treatments still need to be more accessible and address the racism-specific adversities many Black and Latinx people face in their neighborhoods and social environments.
Learning Without Neurons in Physical Systems
Authors: Stern Menachem , Murugan Arvind
Published: March 2023

Learning is traditionally studied in biological or computational systems. The power of learning frameworks in solving hard inverse problems provides an appealing case for the development of physical learning in which physical systems adopt desirable properties on their own without computational design. It was recently realized that large classes of physical systems can physically learn through local learning rules, autonomously adapting their parameters in response to observed examples of use. We review recent work in the emerging field of physical learning, describing theoretical and experimental advances in areas ranging from molecular self-assembly to flow networks and mechanical materials. Physical learning machines provide multiple practical advantages over computer designed ones, in particular by not requiring an accurate model of the system, and their ability to autonomously adapt to changing needs over time. As theoretical constructs, physical learning machines afford a novel perspective on how physical constraints modify abstract learning theory.
Nanosecond Laser Annealing of NMC 811 Cathodes for Enhanced Performance
Authors: Khosla Nayna , Narayan Jagdish , Narayan Roger , Sun Xiao-Guang , Paranthaman M. Parans
Published: March 2023

Improved performance of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) plays a critical role in the future of next- generation battery applications. Nickel-rich layered oxides such as LiNi0.8Mn0.1Co0.1O2 (NMC 811), are popular cathodes due to their high energy densities. However, they suffer from high surface reactivity, which results in the formation of Li2CO3 passive layer. Herein, we show the role of nanosecond pulsed laser annealing (PLA) in improving the current capacity and cycling stability of LIBs by reducing the carbonate layer, in addition to forming a protective LiF layer and manipulating the NMC 811 microstructures. We use high-power nanosecond laser pulses in a controlled way to create nanostructured surface topography which has a positive impact on the capacity retention and current capacity by providing an increased active surface area, which influences the diffusion kinetics of lithium-ions in the electrode materials during the battery cycling process. Advanced characterizations show that the PLA treatment results in the thinning of the passive Li2CO3 layer, which is formed on as-received NMC811 samples, along with the decomposition of excess polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) binder. The high-power laser interacts with the decomposed binder and surface Li+ to form LiF phase, which acts as a protective layer to prevent surface reactive sites from initiating parasitic reactions. As a result, the laser treated cathodes show relative increase of the current capacity of up to 50%, which is consistent with electrochemical measurements of LiB cells.
A Conductive Metal−Organic Framework Based on Triptycene Ligand: An Effective Electrochemical Sensor for Glucose and H2O2 Detection in Food and Human Serum
Authors: Hu Qin , Wu Jiaying , Ling Chengshuang , Xing Yun , Tang Xin , Zhang Yu , Huang Ke , Ye Jun , Xiong Xiaoli
Published: March 2023

Triptycenes (TT) scaffolds have emerged as attractive organic ligands for the synthesis of MOF electrocatalytic materials because their characteristic rigid trigonal topology interferes with close molecular packing, thus favoring the formation of open structures with significant volume available for the inclusion of guests. In this work, a novel conductive metal-organic framework based on 2, 3, 6, 7, 14, 15-hexahydroxytriptycene (Cu-HHTT) is synthesized in situ by a simple hydrothermal method. As an bifunctional electrocatalyst for efficient glucose electrooxidation and H2O2 electroreduction in alkaline and neutral electrolytes, the non-enzymatic electrochemical sensor has a sensitivity of 47200 mA μM−1 cm−2 and 5170 mA μM−1 cm−2 to glucose and H2O2 with detection limits of 0.16 μM and 0.54 μM (S/N = 3) respectively, and successfully used in the detection of actual serum, orange juice and milk samples. The method provides a new idea for the preparation and application of MOF materials based on triptycene scaffolds.
Review—Functionalized Graphene Oxide Membranes as Electrolytes
Authors: Chowdury Md Shahjahan Kabir , Cho Young Jin , Park Sung Bum , Park Yong-il
Published: March 2023

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) typically use Nafion®, which has many drawbacks, such as high cost, fuel crossover, and strenuous synthesis processes. As such, an alternative Nafion®-ionomer free proton conductor has drawn significant interest. Graphene oxide membrane (GOM) is a promising alternative due to its hydrophilic nature and attractive proton conductivity under humidified conditions. However, pristine GOMs have drawbacks, including fuel crossover, a high reduction rate of negatively oxygenated functional groups during fuel cell operation, and proton conductivity showing excessive orientation dependence. We focused on nanocomposite-GOM (N-GOM) based on PFSAs, hydrocarbon polymers, synthetic polymers, inorganic-organic polymers, biopolymers, metal-organic frameworks, and micro- and nano-engineered surfaces. GO nanosheets have outstanding dispersion rate and compatibility with ionomer matrices that can be functionalized by sulfonation, polymerization, phosphorylation, cross-linking, incorporated inorganic nanoparticles, and blending with matrix, microscale-nanoscale fabrication. The N-GOM exhibits high-performance fuel cells with improved proton conductivity, physicochemical properties, and low fuel crossover compared to Nafion®. For instance, SCSP/SF membranes with 3% functionalized GO (FGO) content displayed the highest conductivity of 26.90 mS cm−1and the best selectivity (methanol) of 4.10 × 105S cm−3at room temperature. Moreover, a new scalable, efficient chitosan (CA)-based composite membrane (CA/GO) was fabricated. In addition, surface-patterned nanostructures in thin films increased the PEMFC output power to 950 mW cm−2, higher than 590 mW cm−2for non-patterned Nafion®. Finally, we report on the optimal composition ratio for each material of the N-GOM-based membrane. This review discusses the most crucial developments in proton conductivity and outlines the current progress for the N-GOM as a revolutionary form of PEM. The general objective of this research is to review all possible modifications of N-GOM from the perspective of their practical application as electrolytes in fuel cells.
Electrochemical Zn2+-Li+ Substitution Method for Li+ Extraction from Brine with a High Mg2+/Li+ Ratio by the LiFePO4-Zn Cell System
Authors: Han Yuan , Wei Yanan , Wu Qiong , Li Siqi , Xia Junjie , Lu Caiyou , Han Yanling , Liu Rongmei , Yang Chao
Published: March 2023

Electrochemical Li+ extraction technology applied to salt lake brine has received considerable attention in recent years for its low energy consumption and low emissions. However, the current electrochemical Li+ extraction method often requires the use of anion trapping electrodes or anion exchange membranes, which reduce their working lives and adaptabilities. To solve these problems, this study proposes a high Mg2+/Li+ ratio brine electrochemical Li+ extraction method based on the LiFePO4-Zn battery system. By discharging in the brine and charging in a ZnCl2 solution, the Li+ in the brine was successfully transferred to the ZnCl2 solution.
Design of Green Polypyrrole-based Solid-contact Ion-selective Sensors for Determination of Antihypertensive Drugs in Combined Dosage Forms and Spiked Human Plasma
Authors: El-Hanboushy Sara , Mahmoud Amr M. , Fayez Yasmin M. , Lotfy Hayam M. , Abdelkawy Mohamed , Marzouk Hoda M.
Published: March 2023

Solid contact ion-selective electrodes (SC-ISEs) have created a new, promising field in pharmaceutical and biological analysis, recognized as an energy-saving, straightforward, and environmentally friendly technique. Hence, in the present study, miniaturized solid-contact ion-selective sensors have been fabricated as well as designed for the simultaneous in-line quantification of cationic amlodipine (AML) and anionic valsartan (VAL) in binary and ternary mixtures with hydrochlorothiazide (HCT). A screen-printed carbon electrode and a PVC polymer ion sensing membrane are the essential core of the suggested sensors. A conductive polymer interlayer of polypyrrole (PPy) was utilized as an ion-to-electron transducer embedded between the carbon electrode and the polymer ion sensing membrane. The influence of PPy resulted in a reduction of potential drift to <500 μV/h and enhanced electrode stability. The performance of the suggested sensors was evaluated in accordance with IUPAC guidelines. The sensors proposed for both drugs presented stable, linear, as well as rapid responses over wide AML and VAL concentration ranges (3.0 × 10−6 to 1.0 × 10−3 M and 1.0 × 10−5 to 1.0 × 10−3 M, respectively). The fabricated potentiometric sensors were also implemented to determine the studied drugs in spiked human plasma without requiring any sample pre-treatment or derivatization. Additionally, the investigated method was also thoroughly evaluated for its greenness using a variety of green metrics.
Metabolic costs of walking and arm reaching in persons with mild multiple sclerosis
Authors: Courter Robert J. , Alvarez Enrique , Enoka Roger M. , Ahmed Alaa A.
Published: March 2023

Individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) often move more slowly than those without the disease. A possible cause is that movements in MS are more energetically expensive and slowing is an adaptation to conserve metabolic resources. Here, we find that while walking is more costly for persons with MS, arm-reaching movements are not. These results bring into question the driving force of movement slowness in MS and implicate other motor-related networks contributing to slowing.
An Effective and Novel Approach for Brain Tumor Classification Using AlexNet CNN Feature Extractor and Multiple Eminent Machine Learning Classifiers in MRIs
Authors: Sarkar Alok , Maniruzzaman Md. , Alahe Mohammad Ashik , Ahmad Mohiuddin
Published: March 2023

A brain tumor is an uncontrolled malignant cell growth in the brain, which is denoted as one of the deadliest types of cancer in people of all ages. Early detection of brain tumors is needed to get proper and accurate treatment. Recently, deep learning technology has attained much attraction to the physicians for the diagnosis and treatment of brain tumors. This research presents a novel and effective brain tumor classification approach from MRIs utilizing AlexNet CNN for separating the dataset into training and test data along with extracting the features. The extracted features are then fed to BayesNet, sequential minimal optimization (SMO), Naïve Bayes (NB), and random forest (RF) classifiers for classifying brain tumors as no‐tumor, glioma, meningioma, and pituitary tumors. To evaluate our model’s performance, we have utilized a publicly available Kaggle dataset. This paper demonstrates ROC, PRC, and cost curves for realizing classification performance of the models; also, performance evaluating parameters, such as accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, false positive rate, false negative rate, precision, f‐measure, kappa statistics, MCC, ROC area, and PRC area, have been calculated for four testing options: the test data itself, cross‐validation fold (CVF) 4, CVF 10, and percentage split (PS) 34% of the test data. We have achieved 88.75%, 98.15%, 86.25% and 100% of accuracy using the AlexNet CNN+BayesNet, AlexNet CNN+SMO, AlexNet CNN+NB, and AlexNet CNN+RF models, respectively, for the test data itself. The results imply that our approach is outstanding and very effective.
Is the Combination of Platelet-Rich Plasma and Hyaluronic Acid the Best Injective Treatment for Grade II-III Knee Osteoarthritis? A Prospective Study
Authors: Ciapini Gianluca , Simonettii Matteo , Giuntoli Michele , Varchetta Giorgio , De Franco Silvia , Ipponi Edoardo , Scaglione Michelangelo , Parchi Paolo Domenico
Published: March 2023

Background. Knee osteoarthritis is a common disease with increasing incidence and prevalence in western countries. It can cause severe pain and functional limitations, thereby representing a threat for patients’ quality of life and a burden for national health systems. Intra-articular injections with hyaluronic acid (HA) and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) have been used for decades in order to reduce the symptoms caused by osteoarthritis. In recent years, a combination of HA and PRP has been introduced in clinical practice with the aim to minimize the clinical presentation of osteoarthritis and potentially delay articular degeneration. Materials and Methods. Sixty cases with grade II-III knee osteoarthritis according to the Kellgren–Lawrence classification were included in a prospective study, focused on the evaluation of clinical and functional outcomes after intra-articular knee injections. Cases were randomly divided into three groups. Twenty cases (Group A) were injected with HA, 20 (Group B) had PRP, and the remaining 20 (Group C) received a combination of HA and PRP. Basal WOMAC score and VAS score were recorded before the treatment and repeated within 3 and 6 months after the treatment. Results. At 6-month follow-up, Group C (PRP + HA) was the one with the lowest WOMAC and VAS mean values. It was also the only group that reported a reduction in the two values both in the first three months and in the following three months. No major complication was recorded. Conclusion. The combination of platelet-rich plasma and hyaluronic acid can be effective in the treatment of grade II-III knee osteoarthritis in a short-to-mid-term scenario. It represents an innovative and valuable alternative to the administration of its two components alone.
The Association between Housing Stability and Perceived Quality of Life among Emerging Adults with a History of Homelessness
Authors: Palimaru Alina I. , McDonald Keisha , Garvey Rick , D’Amico Elizabeth J. , Tucker Joan S.
Published: March 2023

Many cities across the United States are experiencing homelessness at crisis levels, including rises in the number of unhoused emerging adults (18–25). Emerging adults experiencing homelessness may be at higher risk of experiencing negative outcomes, given that being unhoused increases risk for a variety of behaviors. To better understand the current living circumstances of emerging adults with a history of homelessness, as well as their perceptions about associations between housing stability and quality of life (QOL), we conducted 30 semistructured in-depth interviews with individuals recruited from drop-in centers for youth experiencing homelessness. At the time of recruitment, n = 19 were stably housed and n = 11 were unstably housed. Two coders analyzed these data inductively and deductively, using preidentified domains and open coding. Coding reliability was assessed. Three main themes emerged, each with subthemes: (1) housing quality (neighborhood safety, convenience, and housing unit characteristics); (2) QOL before stable housing (physical and mental wellbeing, social wellbeing, and other determinants of QOL, such as encounters with law enforcement); and (3) changes in QOL after stable housing (same subthemes as for prehousing stability QOL). Findings indicated a pattern of perceived relationships between housing stability, housing quality, built and social environments, and QOL in the context of emerging adults who experienced or continued to experience homelessness. However, results were mixed with regard to the perceived effects of housing stability on alcohol and other drug use. Taken together, results indicate several areas of challenge but also highlight opportunities to facilitate improvements in QOL among vulnerable emerging adults who experience homelessness.
Deep Encrypted Traffic Detection: An Anomaly Detection Framework for Encryption Traffic Based on Parallel Automatic Feature Extraction
Authors: Long Gang , Zhang Zhaoxin
Published: March 2023

With an increasing number of network attacks using encrypted communication, the anomaly detection of encryption traffic is of great importance to ensure reliable network operation. However, the existing feature extraction methods for encrypted traffic anomaly detection have difficulties in extracting features, resulting in their low efficiency. In this paper, we propose a framework of encrypted traffic anomaly detection based on parallel automatic feature extraction, called deep encrypted traffic detection (DETD). The proposed DETD uses a parallel small‐scale multilayer stack autoencoder to extract local traffic features from encrypted traffic and then adopts an L1 regularization‐based feature selection algorithm to select the most representative feature set for the final encrypted traffic anomaly detection task. The experimental results show that DETD has promising robustness in feature extraction, i.e., the feature extraction efficiency of DETD is 66% higher than that of the conventional stacked autoencoder, and the anomaly detection performance is as high as 99.998%, and thus DETD outperforms the deep full‐range framework and other neural network anomaly detection algorithms.
Physician Review Websites: Understanding Patient Satisfaction with Ophthalmologists Using Natural Language Processing
Authors: Jo Jason J. , Cheng Christopher P. , Ying Stephanie , Chelnis James G.
Published: March 2023

Introduction. The presence and influence of physician review websites (PRW) have increased significantly in the field of medicine. This study aims to better understand determinants of patient satisfaction and the sentiment of ophthalmologists using natural language processing of Healthgrades reviews. Methods. Healthgrades is a PRW where patients submit verified reviews, containing a star rating and a narrative review, of US‐based ophthalmologists. This was a quantitative observational study conducted on May 23, 2022. We identified associations between physician demographics and both the sentiment analysis scores of narrative reviews and star ratings using the Student’s t‐tests and one‐way ANOVA tests. After natural language processing the reviews, a logistic regression explored the impacts of the most frequent words on the positivity of a given review. Results. This study examined a total of 16700 reviews of 1125 ophthalmologists. Ophthalmologists of younger age and male gender received statistically significantly higher star ratings and sentiment analysis scores; analysis of location of practice did not affect scores. Textual analysis revealed that words describing the physician’s personality, such as “friendly” and “caring,” increased the likelihood of reviews being positive more than descriptors of the visit’s effectiveness, such as “results” and “efficient.” Conclusion. Younger and male ophthalmologists received higher star ratings and sentiment analysis scores. Additionally, results indicated that words describing the ophthalmologist’s pleasant personality and the visit’s effectiveness most positively impacted a review, whereas descriptors of a wait or an unpleasant personality most negatively impacted a review.
Spatial and Temporal Monitoring of North African Turtle Doves Streptopelia turtur arenicola (Hartert, EJO, 1894): First Migrants Arrive Early and Select Nesting Trees next to Foraging Resources while Second Breeders’ Wave Breed around Earlier Nests
Authors: Mounir Mohamed , Mansouri Ismail , Squalli Wafae , Hammada Soumaya , Dakki Mohamed
Published: March 2023

This study aimed to evaluate the spatial microdistribution and temporal microdistribution of the North African subspecies of the globally threatened Turtle Doves in Morocco. From the end of February to early September, we monitored the migration dates, counting arrival and departure dates, and breeding chronology, to clarify if the breeding season is divided into sub-breeding phases or not. Equally, the spatial distribution of nests following potential breeding phases was surveyed weekly in Beni Mellal province following a map of a selected orange orchard. Doves arrived in Beni Mellal in the third week of March and left in mid-October, according to the results. The first nests occurred in the second week of April, followed by the first eggs in the third week of April and the first chicks in the first week of May. PCA analysis showed that the nesting and laying stages were achieved principally during the last two weeks of April and the first three weeks of May, the hatching stage between the fourth week of May and the second week of July, and fledging between the fourth week of July and the first week of September. Further, the breeding season was divided into two phases: the first breeding phase, from the first week of April to the first week of June, and the second phase, between the second week of June and the second week of August. The DCA analysis and orchard-created map indicated that the first wave of breeders colonized the marginal trees located on the orchard sides, surrounded by foraging cereals and legumes, and the second breeding-phase nests were constructed in flocks next to the nests of the first breeding phase. According to this strategy, the first breeders prospect the orchard and select nesting trees near foraging resources, while the second breeders’ wave colonizes trees near successfully used prospector sites. These findings are of great importance for comparative investigations and habitat-scale conservation management.
Performance Improvement of OTEC-ORC and Turbine Based on Binary Zeotropic Working Fluid
Authors: Ma Qingfen , Huang Jie , Gao Zezhou , Lu Hui , Luo Hongfeng , Li Jingru , Wu Zhongye , Feng Xin
Published: March 2023

In this paper, the composition of binary nonazeotropic working fluids is explored from the perspective of improving OTEC-ORC efficiency, and the turbine is designed to accommodate with the working fluid. It is found that the OTEC-ORC using a R152a/R32 mixture as the working fluid is significantly higher than the OTEC-ORC thermal efficiency and system efficiency of the pure NH3, and the optimal composition of the mixed working fluid R152a/R32 is determined to be 85 : 15 with the thermal efficiency and the system efficiency of 2.8% and 1.7%, respectively, improving by 35.7% and 151.2% compared to the NH3 ORC. According to the determined working fluid, a one-dimensional (1-D) design and CFD simulation analysis simulation are carried out on the turbine. The 1-D calculation results are in good agreement with the three-dimensional (3-D) results. At the design point, the turbine output is 83.84 kW, and the isentropic efficiency is 87.53%. At the off-design point, turbines have better off-design performance, indicating that the designed turbine also has good adaptability.
Effektivität von Antidepressiva bei der vollstationären Psychotherapie von Depression: eine naturalistische kontrollierte Studie
Authors: Maß Reinhard , Backhaus Kerstin , Szelies Michael , Unkelbach Bodo K.
Published: March 2023

Hintergrund: Zahlreiche Doppelblindstudien (randomized controlled trials, RCTs) und Metaanalysen verweisen auf die Wirksamkeit von Antidepressiva (AD), zumindest bei schweren Depressionen. Dementsprechend sind AD ein Standard bei der Behandlung von Depressionen und werden mit zunehmender Häufigkeit eingesetzt. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird die Wirksamkeit von AD unter naturalistischen Bedingungen geprüft. Patienten und Methoden: 600 konsekutiv aufgenommene depressive Patient*innen in vollstationärer Behandlung wurden untersucht. Alle Patient*innen wurden mit einem kognitiv-verhaltenstherapeutisch orientierten Konzept behandelt, ein Teil zusätzlich mit AD. Die Depressivität wurde in einem Vorgespräch, bei Aufnahme, bei Entlassung und bei einem 6-Monats-Follow-up mit dem revidierten Beck Depressions-Inventar (BDI-II) erfasst. Ergebnisse: Die vollstationäre Behandlung führte zu einem starken Rückgang der BDI-II-Scores, sowohl bei Entlassung als auch sechs Monate später. Die Ergänzung der Psychotherapie mit AD war nicht mit einem stärkeren Symptomrückgang assoziiert, auch unter Kontrolle einiger konfundierender Variablen (Schwere der Depression bei Behandlungsbeginn, Alter, Geschlecht, komorbide Angsterkrankungen, Suizidversuche, Arbeitslosigkeit). Je depressiver die Patient*innen waren, desto wahrscheinlicher war die Verordnung von AD, ohne dass dabei ein therapeutischer Effekt der AD nachweisbar war. Diskussion: In unseren Daten fand sich keine Evidenz für eine Verbesserung der Wirkung einer vollstatio­nären psychiatrisch-psychotherapeutischen Behandlung durch AD. Schlussfolgerungen: Der Nutzen von AD wird möglicherweise überschätzt. Die Effektivität von RCTs sollte durch die Kontrolle des Breaking-Blind-Effekts verbessert werden.
Population-Attributable Risk Fractions for Antiplatelets and Anticoagulants in Spontaneous Intracranial Hemorrhages
Authors: Choi Hyun Ho , Jang Doeun , Na Hyuntak , Hong Noah , Lee Sung Ho , Kim Kang Min , Kang Hyun-Seung , Kim Jeong Eun , Shin Aesun , Cho Won-Sang
Published: March 2023

Introduction: Concerns about spontaneous intracranial hemorrhages (sICHs) have increased over time with the increasing use of antithrombotic agents. Hence, we aimed to analyze the risk and risk fractions for antithrombotics in sICHs in South Korea. Methods: From the National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort including 1,108,369 citizens, 4,385 cases, aged 20 years or more and newly diagnosed as sICHs between 2003 and 2015, were included in this study. A total of 65,775 sICH-free controls were randomly selected at a ratio of 1:15 from individuals with the same birth year and sex according to a nested case-control study design. Results: Although the incidence rate of sICHs started to decrease from 2007 onward, the use of antiplatelets, anticoagulants, and statins continued to increase. Antiplatelets (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 3.59, 95% confidence interval [CI] 3.18–4.05), anticoagulants (adjusted OR 7.46, 95% CI 4.92–11.32), and statins (adjusted OR 1.98, 95% CI 1.79–2.18) were significant risk factors for sICHs even after adjusting for hypertension, alcohol intake, and cigarette smoking. From 2003–2008 to 2009–2015, the population-attributable fractions changed from 28.0% to 31.3% for hypertension, from 2.0% to 3.2% for antiplatelets, and from 0.5% to 0.9% for anticoagulants. Conclusion: Antithrombotic agents are significant risk factors for sICHs, and their contribution is increasing over time in Korea. These findings are expected to draw the attention of clinicians to precautions to be taken when prescribing antithrombotic agents.
Multiple Small Bowel Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors Associated with Neurofibromatosis Type 1 that Were Not Detected by Endoscopy: A Case Report
Authors: Saito Satomi , Omori Teppei , Murasugi Shun , Yonezawa Maria , Takayama Yukiko , Ohki Takeshi , Onizuka Hiromi , Nagashima Yoji , Tokushige Katsutoshi
Published: March 2023

We treated a 39-year-old Japanese man who was admitted for an abdominal mass. He had had neurofibroma-like skin lesions since childhood. Computed tomography and endoscopic ultrasound results were consistent with a tumor in the small intestine. Although the tumor was undetectable by single-balloon endoscopy, the patient’s background and imaging results led us to suspect a gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST). He also met the diagnostic criteria for neurofibroma type 1 (NF1). We performed a surgical removal of the tumor, and the biopsy results led to a definitive diagnosis of GIST. Small bowel GISTs should be considered in cases of NF1.
DPAGT1-CDG: Report of Two New Pediatric Patients and Brief Review of the Literature
Authors: Özsoy Özlem , Cinleti Tayfun , Günay Çağatay , Sarıkaya Uzan Gamze , Yeşilmen Mehmet Can , Lochmüller Hanns , Horvath Rita , Yiş Uluç , Oktay Yavuz , Hiz Kurul Semra
Published: March 2023

Introduction: Congenital glycosylation disorders are multisystem diseases with heterogeneous clinical manifestations caused by defects in the synthesis of the glycan moiety of glycoproteins or glycolipids or the binding of glycans to proteins and lipids. DPAGT1 (UDP-GlcNAc: dolichol phosphate N-acetylglucosamine-1-phosphotransferase) is an initiating protein in the biosynthetic pathway of dolichol-linked oligosaccharides required for protein N-glycosylation. Pathogenic variants in DPAGT1 (UDP-GlcNAc: dolichol phosphate N-acetylglucosamine-1-phosphotransferase) gene cause a rare type of congenital glycosylation disorder called DPAGT1-CDG (formerly CDG-Ij) (OMIM #608093). It is a rare autosomal recessive disease or a milder version with congenital myasthenic syndrome known as DPAGT1-CMS. A severe disease course with hypotonia, cataracts, skeletal deformities, resistant epilepsy, intellectual disability, global developmental delay, premature death has been described in most patients with DPAGT1-CDG. Patient Presentation: We describe two patients with variants in the DPAGT1 gene: an 8-month-old boy with a homozygous, missense DPAGT1:c.339T>G (p.Phe113Leu) novel variant and a 13-year-old female patient with compound heterozygous variants, DPAGT1:c.466C>T (p.Arg156Cys, R156C) and DPAGT1:c.161+5G>A. While the 8-month-old patient was diagnosed with congenital cataract at the age of 1 month, had dysmorphic findings, and epilepsy, clinical symptoms in the other patient appeared later but with more prominent muscle weakness, behavioral disorder, dysmorphic findings, and no epilepsy. Discussion: Cholinesterase inhibitor therapy was found to be effective in patients against muscle weakness, supporting DPAGT1 deficiency as the underlying etiology. We started pyridostigmine treatment in our patient with more pronounced muscle weakness, and we saw its benefit. We aimed to present our patients diagnosed with DPAGT1-CDG due to different variants in the same gene and different clinical presentations, treatment and to compare them with other patients in the literature.
Choice of Implantable Pulse Generators for Deep Brain Stimulation: An Overview of Clinical Practice
Authors: Willems Yara Rosalie , van der Gaag Niels Anthony , Kho Kuan Hua , Tveiten Øystein Vesterli , Krüger Marie Therese , Jakobs Martin ,   ESSFN Young Functional Neurosurgeons taskforce
Published: March 2023

Introduction: The success of deep brain stimulation (DBS) treatment depends on several factors, including proper patient selection, accurate electrode placement, and adequate stimulation settings. Another factor that may impact long-term satisfaction and therapy outcomes is the type of implantable pulse generator (IPG) used: rechargeable or non-rechargeable. However, there are currently no guidelines on the choice of IPG type. The present study investigates the current practices, opinions, and factors DBS clinicians consider when choosing an IPG for their patients. Methods: Between December 2021 and June 2022, we sent a structured questionnaire with 42 questions to DBS experts of two international, functional neurosurgery societies. The questionnaire included a rating scale where participants could rate the factors influencing their choice of IPG type and their satisfaction with certain IPG aspects. Additionally, we presented four clinical case scenarios to assess preference of choice of IPG-type in each case. Results: Eighty-seven participants from 30 different countries completed the questionnaire. The three most relevant factors for IPG choice were “existing social support,” “cognitive status,” and “patient age.” Most participants believed that patients valued avoiding repetitive replacement surgeries more than the burden of regularly recharging the IPG. Participants reported that they implanted the same amount of rechargeable as non-rechargeable IPGs for primary DBS insertions and 20% converted non-rechargeable to rechargeable IPGs during IPG replacements. Most participants estimated that rechargeable was the more cost-effective option. Conclusion: This present study shows that the decision-making of the choice of IPG is very individualized. We identified the key factors influencing the physician’s choice of IPG. Compared to patient-centric studies, clinicians may value different aspects. Therefore, clinicians should rely not only on their opinion but also counsel patients on different types of IPGs and consider the patient’s preferences. Uniform global guidelines on IPG choice may not represent regional or national differences in the healthcare systems.