bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Community access to palliative care medicines – patient and professional experience: systematic review and narrative synthesis
Authors: Ogi Mizue , Campling Natasha , Birtwistle Jakki , Richardson Alison , Bennett Michael I , Santer Miriam , Latter Susan
Published: March 2021

Background

Providing palliative care patients living at home with timely access to medicines is critical to enable effective symptom management, minimise burden and reduce unplanned use of healthcare services. Little is known about how diverse community-based palliative care models influence medicine access.

Objective

To produce a critical overview of research on experiences and outcomes of medicine access in community-based palliative care models of service delivery through a systematic review and narrative synthesis.

Methods

MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library databases and grey literature were systematically searched for all types of studies. Study quality was assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool; a narrative synthesis was used to integrate and summarise findings.

Results

3331 articles were screened; 10 studies were included in the final sample. Studies included a focus on community pharmacy (n=4), hospice emergency medication kits (HEMKs) in the home (n=3), specialist community nurse prescribers (n=1), general practice (n=1) and one study included multiple service delivery components. Community pharmacy was characterised by access delays due to lack of availability of medicine stock and communication difficulties between the pharmacy and other healthcare professionals. HEMKs were perceived to reduce medicine access time out of hours and speed symptom control. However, the majority of studies comprised small, local samples, largely limited to self-reports of health professionals. There was a lack of data on outcomes, and no comparisons between service delivery models.

Conclusions

Further research is required to understand which models facilitate rapid and efficient access to medicines for community-based palliative care patients.
Intracranial aneurysm treatment with WEB and adjunctive stent: preliminary evaluation in a single-center series
Authors: Sahnoun Maher , Soize Sébastien , Manceau Pierre-François , Gelmini Christophe , Pierot Laurent
Published: March 2021

Background

Intrasaccular flow disruption with WEB is a safe and efficacious technique that has significantly changed endovascular management of wide-neck bifurcation aneurysms (WNBAs). Use of stent in combination with WEB is occasionally required. We analyzed the frequency of use, indications, safety, and efficacy of the WEB–stent combination.

Methods

All aneurysms treated with WEB and stent were extracted from a prospectively maintained database. Patient and aneurysm characteristics, complications, and anatomical results were independently analyzed by a physician independent of the procedures.

Results

From June 2011 to January 2020, 152 patients with 157 aneurysms were treated with WEB. Of these, 17/152 patients (11.2%) with 19/157 aneurysms (12.1%) were treated with WEB device and stent. Indications were very wide neck with a branch emerging from the neck in 1/19 (5.2%) aneurysms and WEB protrusion in 18/19 (94.7%). At 1 month, no morbimortality was reported. At 6 months, anatomical results were complete aneurysm occlusion in 15/17 aneurysms (88.2%), neck remnant in 1/17 (5.9%), and aneurysm remnant in 1/17 (5.9%). At 12 months, there was complete aneurysm occlusion in 13/14 aneurysms (92.9%) and neck remnant in 1/14 (7.1%).

Conclusions

Combining WEB and stent is a therapeutic strategy to manage WNBA. In our series, this combination was used in 11.2% of patients treated with WEB, resulting in no morbidity or mortality with a high efficacy at 6 and 12 months (complete aneurysm occlusion in 88.2% and 92.9%, respectively).
COVID-19 AND SMEs IN KOSOVO: ASSESSING EFFECT AND POLICY PREFERENCES
Authors: KRASNIQI BESNİK A. , KRYEZIU LİRİDON , BAĞIŞ MEHMET , KURUTKAN MEHMET NURULLAH , IDRIZI SARA
Published: March 2021

The enforced lockdown and closure of businesses in response to the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in economic crises across the globe, bringing the attention to entrepreneurship and its importance to economic recovery. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on SME’s and the entrepreneurs’ policy preferences based on firm size and industry type. To achieve this, evidence from a Business Support Centre Kosovo’s (BSCK) survey involving 236 SME owners interviewed online is reported. Findings from SME survey suggest the problems with cash flow and reduction of customer demand, among others, are major problems faced by SME’s across all firm size groups and industry types. Findings from factor analysis clustered SME policy preferences into three groups: policy preferences related to financing and liquidity constraints, market related and tax preferences. This study discusses some policy and managerial implications urging the need for more nuanced and variegated understanding of the effect of coronavirus pandemic on SMEs.
EVALUATING THE DETERMINANTS OF FORMAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP: AN INSTITUTIONAL ASYMMETRY PERSPECTIVE
Authors: MAKHDOOM HABIB UR REHMAN , LI CAI , ASIM SHOAIB , MURAD MAJID
Published: March 2021

Our study explores the effect of institutions in determining the prevalence of formal entrepreneurship and investigates the entrepreneurial choice in response to these institutions. To pursue the objectives of the study, we utilized eleven years of data from 23 countries of the Asian region. As explanatory variables, entry regulations were taken as a proxy measure of formal institutions; whereas, social capital was considered a proxy measure of informal institutions. Based on the nature of data, we applied a pooled OLS regression model to examine the influence of explanatory variables on the entrepreneurial choice. The findings proclaimed that at an individual level, both formal and informal institutions have a negative effect on entry into formal entrepreneurship. Further, the estimations of the interaction terms revealed the existence of asymmetry between formal and informal institutions regarding that negative influence on entry into formal entrepreneurship.
Unsupervised Human Activity Representation Learning with Multi-task Deep Clustering
Authors: Ma Haojie , Zhang Zhijie , Li Wenzhong , Lu Sanglu
Published: March 2021

Human activity recognition (HAR) based on sensing data from wearable and mobile devices has become an active research area in ubiquitous computing, and it envisions a wide range of application scenarios in mobile social networking, environmental context sensing, health and well-being monitoring, etc. However, activity recognition based on manually annotated sensing data is manpower-expensive, time-consuming, and privacy-sensitive, which prevents HAR systems from being really deployed in scale. In this paper, we address the problem of unsupervised human activity recognition, which infers activities from unlabeled datasets without the need of domain knowledge. We propose an end-to-end multi-task deep clustering framework to solve the problem. Taking the unlabeled multi-dimensional sensing signals as input, we firstly apply a CNN-BiLSTM autoencoder to form a compressed latent feature representation. Then we apply a K-means clustering algorithm based on the extracted features to partition the dataset into different groups, which produces pseudo labels for the instances. We further train a deep neural network (DNN) with the latent features and pseudo labels for activity recognition. The tasks of feature representation, clustering, and classification are integrated into a uniform multi-task learning framework and optimized jointly to achieve unsupervised activity classification. We conduct extensive experiments based on three public datasets. It is shown that the proposed approach outperforms shallow unsupervised learning approaches, and it performs close to the state-of-the-art supervised approaches by fine-tuning with a small number of labeled data. The proposed approach significantly reduces the cost of human-based data annotation and narrows down the gap between unsupervised and supervised human activity recognition.
Ride Substitution Using Electric Bike Sharing
Authors: Wamburu John , Lee Stephen , Hajiesmaili Mohammad H. , Irwin David , Shenoy Prashant
Published: March 2021

While ride-sharing has emerged as a popular form of transportation in urban areas due to its on-demand convenience, it has become a major contributor to carbon emissions, with recent studies suggesting it is 47% more carbon-intensive than personal car trips. In this paper, we examine the feasibility, costs, and carbon benefits of using electric bike-sharing---a low carbon form of ride-sharing---as a potential substitute for shorter ride-sharing trips, with the overall goal of greening the ride-sharing ecosystem. Using public datasets from New York City, our analysis shows that nearly half of the taxi and rideshare trips in New York are shorts trips of less than 3.5km, and that biking is actually faster than using a car for ultra-short trips of 2km or less. We analyze the cost and carbon benefits of different levels of ride substitution under various scenarios. We find that the additional bikes required to satisfy increased demand from ride substitution increases sub-linearly and results in 6.6% carbon emission reduction for 10% taxi ride substitution. Moreover, this reduction can be achieved through a hybrid mix that requires only a quarter of the bikes to be electric bikes, which reduces system costs. We also find that expanding bike-share systems to new areas that lack bike-share coverage requires additional investments due to the need for new bike stations and bike capacity to satisfy demand but also provides substantial carbon emission reductions. Finally, frequent station repositioning can reduce the number of bikes needed in the system by up to a third for a minimal increase in carbon emissions of 2% from the trucks required to perform repositioning, providing an interesting tradeoff between capital costs and carbon emissions.
TagFi
Authors: Soltanaghaei Elahe , Dongare Adwait , Prabhakara Akarsh , Kumar Swarun , Rowe Anthony , Whitehouse Kamin
Published: March 2021

Tag localization is crucial for many context-aware and automation applications in smart homes, retail stores, or warehouses. While custom localization technologies (e.g RFID) have the potential to support low-cost battery-free tag tracking, the cost and complexity of commissioning a space with beacons or readers has stifled adoption. In this paper, we explore how WiFi backscatter localization can be realized using the existing WiFi infrastructure already deployed for data applications. We present a new approach that leverages existing WiFi infrastructure to enable extremely low-power and accurate tag localization relative to a single scanning device. First, we adopt an ultra-low power tag design in which the tag blindly modulates ongoing WiFi packets using On-Off Keying (OOK). Then, we utilize the underlying physical properties of multipath propagation to detect the passive wireless reflection from the tag in the presence of rich multipath propagations. Finally, we localize the tag from a single receiver by forming a triangle between the tag reflection and the LoS path between the two WiFi transceivers. We implement TagFi using a customized backscatter tag and off-the-shelf WiFi chipsets. Our empirical results in a cluttered office building demonstrate that TagFi achieves a median localization accuracy of 0.2m up to 8 meters range.
When Do Drivers Interact with In-Vehicle Well-being Interventions?
Authors: Koch Kevin , Mishra Varun , Liu Shu , Berger Thomas , Fleisch Elgar , Kotz David , Wortmann Felix
Published: March 2021

Recent developments of novel in-vehicle interventions show the potential to transform the otherwise routine and mundane task of commuting into opportunities to improve the drivers' health and well-being. Prior research has explored the effectiveness of various in-vehicle interventions and has identified moments in which drivers could be interruptible to interventions. All the previous studies, however, were conducted in either simulated or constrained real-world driving scenarios on a pre-determined route. In this paper, we take a step forward and evaluate when drivers interact with in-vehicle interventions in unconstrained free-living conditions.

To this end, we conducted a two-month longitudinal study with 10 participants, in which each participant was provided with a study car for their daily driving needs. We delivered two in-vehicle interventions - each aimed at improving affective well-being - and simultaneously recorded the participants' driving behavior. In our analysis, we found that several pre-trip characteristics (like trip length, traffic flow, and vehicle occupancy) and the pre-trip affective state of the participants had significant associations with whether the participants started an intervention or canceled a started intervention. Next, we found that several in-the-moment driving characteristics (like current road type, past average speed, and future brake behavior) showed significant associations with drivers' responsiveness to the intervention. Further, we identified several driving behaviors that "negated" the effectiveness of interventions and highlight the potential of using such "negative" driving characteristics to better inform intervention delivery. Finally, we compared trips with and without intervention and found that both interventions employed in our study did not have a negative effect on driving behavior. Based on our analyses, we provide solid recommendations on how to deliver interventions to maximize responsiveness and effectiveness and minimize the burden on the drivers.
One More Bite? Inferring Food Consumption Level of College Students Using Smartphone Sensing and Self-Reports
Authors: Meegahapola Lakmal , Ruiz-Correa Salvador , Robledo-Valero Viridiana del Carmen , Hernandez-Huerfano Emilio Ernesto , Alvarez-Rivera Leonardo , Chenu-Abente Ronald , Gatica-Perez Daniel
Published: March 2021

While the characterization of food consumption level has been extensively studied in nutrition and psychology research, advancements in passive smartphone sensing have not been fully utilized to complement mobile food diaries in characterizing food consumption levels. In this study, a new dataset regarding the holistic food consumption behavior of 84 college students in Mexico was collected using a mobile application combining passive smartphone sensing and self-reports. We show that factors such as sociability and activity types and levels have an association to food consumption levels. Finally, we define and assess a novel ubicomp task, by using machine learning techniques to infer self-perceived food consumption level (eating as usual, overeating, undereating) with an accuracy of 87.81% in a 3-class classification task by using passive smartphone sensing and self-report data. Furthermore, we show that an accuracy of 83.49% can be achieved for the same classification task by using only smartphone sensing data and time of eating, which is an encouraging step towards building context-aware mobile food diaries and making food diary based apps less tedious for users.
Dynamic Control of Metabolism
Authors: Ni Cynthia , Dinh Christina V. , Prather Kristala L.J.
Published: March 2021

Metabolic engineering reprograms cells to synthesize value-added products. In doing so, endogenous genes are altered and heterologous genes can be introduced to achieve the necessary enzymatic reactions. Dynamic regulation of metabolic flux is a powerful control scheme to alleviate and overcome the competing cellular objectives that arise from the introduction of these production pathways. This review explores dynamic regulation strategies that have demonstrated significant production benefits by targeting the metabolic node corresponding to a specific challenge. We summarize the stimulus-responsive control circuits employed in these strategies that determine the criterion for actuating a dynamic response and then examine the points of control that couple the stimulus-responsive circuit to a shift in metabolic flux.
Autophagy in the HTR‐8/SVneo Cell Oxidative Stress Model Is Associated with the NLRP1 Inflammasome
Authors: Li Meihe , Sun Tao , Wu Xiaoling , An Peng , Wu Xili , Dang Huimin
Published: March 2021

We investigated whether there was activation of NLRP1 inflammasomes and excessive autophagy in oxidative stress damage. And we further demonstrate whether there is a cascade relationship between the activation of NLRP1 inflammasomes and the phenomenon of excessive autophagy. To observe the expression level of the NLRP1 inflammasome group in the pathological process of trophoblast cell oxidative stress, western blot, immunofluorescence, and qRT‐PCR were performed. Autophagy in trophoblast cells after the action of H2O2 was detected by using normal trophoblast cells’ NLRP1‐specific activator (MDP) as a positive control. The presence of excessive autophagy was determined by comparing it with the autophagy‐related proteins in normal trophoblast cells. Through siRNA‐NLRP1, we investigated the role of oxidative stress and the NLRP1 inflammasome in autophagy in cells. 100 μmol MDP for 24 hours can be used as the optimal concentration of the NLRP1 activator. In human placental trophoblast oxidative stress, the model group significantly increased the expression level of inflammasome IL‐1β, CASP1, and NLRP1, compared with the control group NLRP3, and LC3‐II, Beclin‐1, ATG5, ATG7, and p62 overactivated the autophagy ability of cells. After the activation of NLRP1, the expression of these inflammasomes increased, accompanied by the decrease in autophagy. After the expression of NLRP1 was silenced by RNAi, the expression of inflammasome IL‐1β, CASP1, and NLRP3 was also decreased. Still, the autophagy level was increased, which was manifested by the high expression of LC3‐II, Beclin‐1, ATG5, and ATG7 and the decrease in p62. Trophoblast cells showed the expression of NLRP1 protein and excessive autophagy under oxidative stress. Simultaneously, the NLRP1 inflammasome of trophoblast cells in the state of oxidative stress was correlated with autophagy. Inflammasome activation and autophagy were shown to be linked and to influence each other mutually. These may also provide new therapeutic targets in a pathological pregnancy.
Prevalence and Determinants of Exclusive Breastfeeding Practice among Mothers of Children Aged 6–24 Months in Hail, Saudi Arabia
Authors: Alshammari Mashail Basheir , Haridi Hassan Kasim
Published: March 2021

Background. The WHO recommends that infants should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life to achieve optimal growth, development, and health. Nonadherence to exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) depends largely on the individual, sociocultural context, and institutional factors. The aim of this study is to estimate coverage and factors associated with adherence to EBF among mothers in the urban Hail region, Saudi Arabia. Methods. A cross-sectional study was carried out during February–June 2019 among 450 mothers of children aged 6–24 months attending immunization and well-baby clinics in 6 primary healthcare centers in Hail city. A pretested structured questionnaire was used to interview the consented participants. Results. The majority of mothers (72.9%) were aware of EBF; 24% reported initiation of breastfeeding within one hour after delivery; however, 71.1% did during the first 24 hours. The majority (76.8%) fed colostrum to their newborn; nevertheless, 50.1% had given a prelacteal feeding. Mothers who reported EBF practice were 50.7% (CI 45.9–55.4). The adjusted logistic regression analysis revealed that mother’s awareness about EBF (aOR 3.03; 95% CI 1.78–5.18), antenatal care received at the governmental facility (aOR 2.63; 95% CI 1.28–5.41), breastfeeding a previous child (aOR 2.42; 95% CI 1.46–4.03), counseling received after delivery (aOR 2.47; 95% CI 1.34–4.53), and colostrum feeding given (aOR 4.24; 95% CI 2.31–7.77) were positively associated with EBF practice. On the other hand, mother’s education (OR 0.39; 95% CI 0.15–0.99), higher family income (aOR 0.04; 95% CI 0.00–0.31), and practice prelacteal feeding (aOR 0.61; 95% CI 0.38–0.97) were negatively associated with EBF practice. Conclusion. EBF rate in urban Hail is still far below WHO recommendations. Efforts to strengthen mothers’ counseling/support during antenatal care and immediately after delivery are needed to promote EBF practice, especially in the private sector.
The Total Antioxidant Capacity and the Total Phenolic Content of Rice Using Water as a Solvent
Authors: Priyanthi C. , Sivakanesan R.
Published: March 2021

Background. The present study evaluates the antioxidant properties of some Sri Lankan red rice varieties using water extracts. Methods. Water extracts of rice varieties Attakkari, Bg2907, and Bg407 were used in this study. The total antioxidant capacity was measured by ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging, and reducing power assays. The total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), monomeric anthocyanin, and condensed tannin contents were measured by Folin-Ciocalteu, aluminium chloride, pH differential, and vanillin assays, respectively. Results. It was observed that mean FRAP, DPPH, reducing power, TPC, TFC, monomeric anthocyanin content, and condensed tannin content were in the range of0.561±0.113to0.695±0.077 mmol/100 gfresh weight (FW),26.07±3.08to53.66±7.61 mg/mL FW,33.49±4.105.14to40.81±3.65 mg/mL,0.676±0.078to0.900±0.057 mgtannic acid equivalent (TAE)/g,5.36±0.75to6.38±0.82 mg TAE/g FW,0.0202±0.005to0.0292±0.009 mg/g FW, and0.078±0.015to0.104±0.017 mg TAE/g FW, respectively. Significant differences were observed in DPPH, reducing power, and TPC among rice varieties (p<0.05). Rice variety Attakkari had the highest total antioxidant capacity (TAC), scavenging activity, reducing power, TPC, TFC, monomeric anthocyanin content, and condensed tannin content followed by Bg2907 and Bg406. Conclusion. Total phenolic compounds, total flavonoid, and condensed tannin are the major antioxidants in all three varieties of rice while the monomeric anthocyanin is only a minor antioxidant.
Fruit Classification Model Based on Residual Filtering Network for Smart Community Robot
Authors: Chen Yulin , Sun Hailing , Zhou Guofu , Peng Bao
Published: March 2021

With the rapid development of computer vision and robot technology, smart community robots based on artificial intelligence technology have been widely used in smart cities. Considering the process of feature extraction in fruit classification is very complicated. And manual feature extraction has low reliability and high randomness. Therefore, a method of residual filtering network (RFN) and support vector machine (SVM) for fruit classification is proposed in this paper. The classification of fruits includes two stages. In the first stage, RFN is used to extract features. The network consists of Gabor filter and residual block. In the second stage, SVM is used to classify fruit features extracted by RFN. In addition, a performance estimate for the training process carried out by the K‐fold cross‐validation method. The performance of this method is assessed with the accuracy, recall, F1 score, and precision. The accuracy of this method on the Fruits‐360 dataset is 99.955%. The experimental results and comparative analyses with similar methods testify the efficacy of the proposed method over existing systems on fruit classification.
miR‐543 Inhibits the Occurrence and Development of Intrauterine Adhesion by Inhibiting the Proliferation, Migration, and Invasion of Endometrial Cells
Authors: Liu Xin , Xu Qian , Chen Chao , Duan Hua
Published: March 2021

Objective. To explore the function of miR‐543 in endometrial cells and the possible mechanism of regulating the occurrence and development of intrauterine adhesion. Method. Endometrial epithelial cells and endometrial adenocarcinoma cells were transfected with miR‐543 mimics and miR‐543 inhibitor as the experimental group and were tested with the control group, using the CCK‐8 method, scratch test, and Transwell assay, and flow cytometry was used to detect the proliferation, migration, invasion, and apoptosis of cells. RT‐qPCR and Western blot were used to detect the expression of corresponding mRNA and protein. Results. After the overexpression of miR‐543, endometrial epithelial cells and endometrial adenocarcinoma cells have reduced migratory, proliferative, and invasive capabilities, while the apoptosis rate has increased significantly. The mRNA expression of CDH2, COL16A1, vimentin, α-SMA and fibronectin decreased, and the protein expression of CDH2, vimentin, and α‐SMA also decreased, while the mRNA and protein expression of CDH1 increased. The result after interfering with miR‐543 is opposite, and luciferase reporter gene confirms that CDH2 is the target gene of miR‐543. Conclusion. During the formation of intrauterine adhesions, the expression of CDH2, COL16A1, vimentin, and α-SMA may be inhibited by the high expression of miR‐543, which may affect the degree of fibrosis and collagen content in the intrauterine adhesions, thereby inhibiting the occurrence and development of intrauterine adhesions.
First and Second Law Evaluation of Multipass Flat-Plate Solar Air Collector and Optimization Using Preference Selection Index Method
Authors: Luan Nguyen Thanh , Phu Nguyen Minh
Published: March 2021

In this paper, different flow configurations of multipass flat-plate air collectors are explored. Multiple passes are formed from glass cover, absorber plate, and back plate. Five types of air collectors were analysed and optimized with respect to maximum efficiencies and minimum cost. The analytical prediction of the heat exchanger, pressure loss, and efficiencies was presented. The effects of mass flow rate from 0.01 to 0.02 kg/s, air channel depth from 15 to 30 mm, and collector length from 1.5 to 2.5 m on different configurations were examined and compared. The results of the parametric study show that the triple-pass type has the greatest efficiency, whereas the smallest efficiency is of the single-pass type. Among double-pass types, the type with two glass covers and natural convection heat transfer achieved the highest effective and exergy efficiencies due to a reduction in the top loss. Double-pass type with single glass cover is not recommended from both energy and exergy standpoints. As the collector length increases, the effective efficiency decreases, but the exergy efficiency increases. The exergy performance of the triple-pass type can reach up to 5% at the air flow rate of 0.005 kg/s. Finally, multiobjective optimization using the preference selection index method is conducted with three targets including effective efficiency, exergy efficiency, and number of plates. Optimal results show that the triple-pass type with the lowest air flow rate and the longest length is the best. The effective and exergy efficiencies for the best case were found to be about 52.1% and 4.7%, respectively. However, this type with the highest flow rate and the shortest length is the worst.
Microwave-Assisted Synthesis of CuO Nanoparticles Using Cordia africana Lam. Leaf Extract for 4-Nitrophenol Reduction
Authors: Bekru Aklilu Guale , Zelekew Osman Ahmed , Andoshe Dinsefa Mensur , Sabir Fedlu Kedir , Eswaramoorthy Rajalakshmanan
Published: March 2021

Copper-oxide-based nanomaterials play an important role as a low-cost alternative to nanoparticles of precious metals for the catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenols. In this study, CuO nanoparticles were synthesized by a microwave-assisted method using Cordia africana Lam. leaf extract for reduction or stabilization processes. The synthesized CuO nanoparticles (NPs) were characterized using X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The analysis indicated that nanocrystals of the monoclinic CuO phase having a cluster of agglomerated morphology with a crystallite size of about 9 nm were synthesized. We also evaluated the catalytic performance of CuO NPs against 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) reduction. The catalyst has shown excellent performance completing the reaction within 12 min. Furthermore, the performance of CuO NPs synthesized at different pH values was investigated, and results indicated that the one synthesized at pH 7 reduced 4-NP effectively in shorter minutes compared to those obtained at higher pH values. The CuO NPs synthesized using Cordia africana Lam. leaf extract exhibited a better reducing capacity with an activity parameter constant of 75.8 min−1·g−1. Thus, CuO synthesized using Cordia africana Lam. holds a potential application for the catalytic conversion of nitroarene compounds into aminoarene.
Quantitative Assessment of Gingival Inflammation in Patients Undergoing Nonsurgical Periodontal Therapy Using Photometric CIELab Analysis
Authors: Shrivastava Deepti , Srivastava Kumar Chandan , Ganji Kiran Kumar , Alam Mohammad Khursheed , Al Zoubi Ibrahim , Sghaireen Mohammed Ghazi
Published: March 2021

Visual inspection and gingival indices have been traditionally used for diagnosis of gingival inflammation. These methods are prone for subjective variability. Thus, the study is aimed at evaluating gingival inflammation quantitatively by using CIELab colour space value obtained from digital photographs. An experimental study was conducted with 27 patients each in group A (gingivitis) and group B (chronic periodontitis, CP). Preoperative and postoperative (1 month) photographs of maxillary anterior sextant were recorded to evaluate CIELab coordinate values. Simultaneously, clinical parameters such as bleeding on probing (BOP) and periodontal probing depth (PPD) along with indices such as plaque index (PI), gingival index (GI), and sulcus bleeding index (SBI) were evaluated before and after the nonsurgical periodontal therapy. Data was presented as the mean ± SD, and a paired t‐test was used for the testing hypothesis with p < 0.05 considered as significant. Data analysis was carried out with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21. A significant reduction (p < 0.001) is seen in all the clinical parameters and indices before and after the intervention in chronic periodontitis patients. Similar results were seen in gingivitis patients (p < 0.001) except for PPD. A significant (p < 0.001) reduction in postoperative values of the a∗ and b∗ coordinates was seen in CP patients; whereas, only the a∗ coordinate value reported a significant (p < 0.001) reduction in the gingivitis group of patients. The ΔE of the gingivitis and chronic periodontitis groups was 2.25 and 2.96, respectively. Within the confinements of the study, estimating the gingival colour with the help of CIELab values taken via digital photographs can be an excellent valuable tool to assess the gingival colour as a sign of gingival inflammation.
Remarks on an Anomalous Triple Gauge Boson Couplings
Authors: Gaete Patricio , Helayël-Neto J. A. , Ospedal L. P. R.
Published: March 2021

We address the effect of an anomalous triple gauge boson couplings on a physical observable for the electroweak sector of the Standard Model, when the

S
U

2

L

⊗
U

1

Y

symmetry is spontaneously broken by the Higgs mechanism to

U

1

e
m

. Our calculation is done within the framework of the gauge-invariant, but path-dependent variable formalism is an alternative to the Wilson loop approach. Our result shows that the interaction energy is the sum of a Yukawa and a linear potential, leading to the confinement of static probe charges. The point we wish to emphasize, however, is that the anomalous triple gauge boson couplings (

Z
γ
γ

) contributes to the confinement for distances on the intranuclear scale.
[6]‐Gingerol Inhibits Chikungunya Virus Infection by Suppressing Viral Replication
Authors: Hayati Rahma F. , Better Cynthia D. , Denis Dionisius , Komarudin Amalina G. , Bowolaksono Anom , Yohan Benediktus , Sasmono R. Tedjo
Published: March 2021

Chikungunya (CHIK) is a reemerging arboviral disease caused by chikungunya virus (CHIKV) infection. The disease is clinically hallmarked by prolonged debilitating joint pain. Currently, there is no specific antiviral medication nor commercial vaccine available for treatment of the disease, which makes the discovery or development of specific anti‐CHIKV compounds a priority. Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) is widely known for its various health benefits. The compound [6]‐gingerol is the main active ingredient found in ginger. This study sought to determine the potential of [6]‐gingerol antiviral activity against CHIKV infection using in vitro human hepatocyte HepG2 cells. The antiviral activity mechanism was investigated using direct virucidal and four indirect (pre‐, post‐, full‐, and prevention) treatment assays. [6]‐Gingerol showed weak virucidal activity but significant indirect antiviral activity against CHIKV through post‐ and full treatment with IC50 of 0.038 mM and 0.031 mM, respectively, without showing cell cytotoxicity. The results indicated that [6]‐gingerol inhibits CHIKV infection through suppression of viral replication. Together, this study confirms the potential use of [6]‐gingerol for CHIK antiviral compound.
Coupled Dynamic Model of Resource Diffusion and Epidemic Spreading in Time‐Varying Multiplex Networks
Authors: Huang Ping , Chen Xiao-Long , Tang Ming , Cai Shi-Min
Published: March 2021

In the real world, individual resources are crucial for patients when epidemics outbreak. Thus, the coupled dynamics of resource diffusion and epidemic spreading have been widely investigated when the recovery of diseases significantly depends on the resources from neighbors in static social networks. However, the social relationships of individuals are time‐varying, which affects such coupled dynamics. For that, we propose a coupled resource‐epidemic (RNR‐SIS) dynamic model (coupled model for short) on a time‐varying multiplex network to synchronously simulate the resource diffusion and epidemic spreading in dynamic social networks. The equilibrium analysis of the coupled model is conducted in a general scenario where the resource generation varies between susceptible and infected states and the recovery rate changes between resourceful and noresource states. By using the microscopic Markov chain approach and Monte Carlo simulations, we determine a probabilistic framework of the intralayer and interlayer dynamic processes of the coupled model and obtain the outbreak threshold of epidemic spreading. Meanwhile, the experimental results show the trivially asymmetric interactions between resource diffusion and epidemic spreading. They also indicate that the stronger activity heterogeneity and the larger contact capacity of individuals in the resource layer can more greatly promote resource diffusion, effectively suppressing epidemic spreading. However, these two individual characters in the epidemic layer can cause more resource depletion, which greatly promotes epidemic spreading. Furthermore, we also find that the contact capacity finitely impacts the coupled dynamics of resource diffusion and epidemic spreading.
AmpC β-Lactamase Variable Expression in Common Multidrug-Resistant Nosocomial Bacterial Pathogens from a Tertiary Hospital in Cairo, Egypt
Authors: El Shamy Aliaa Ali , Zakaria Zainab , Tolba Mahmoud M. , Salah Eldin Nermeen , Rabea Al-Taher , Tawfick Mahmoud M. , Nasser Hebatallah A.
Published: March 2021

The emergence of AmpC (pAmpC) β-lactamases conferring resistance to the third-generation cephalosporins has become a major clinical concern worldwide. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the expression of AmpC β-lactamase encoding gene among the pathogenic Gram-positive and Gram-negative resistant bacteria screened from clinical samples of Egyptian patients enrolled into El-Qasr El-Ainy Tertiary Hospital in Cairo, Egypt. A total of 153 bacterial isolates of the species Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Enterococcus faecium were isolated from patients diagnosed with urinary tract infection (UTI), respiratory tract infection (RTI), and wound infections. The total number of E. faecium isolates was 53, comprising 29 urine isolates, 5 sputum isolates, and 19 wound swab isolates, whereas the total number of P. aeruginosa isolates was 49, comprising 27 urine isolates, 7 sputum isolates, and 15 wound swab isolates, and that of the K. pneumoniae isolates was 51, comprising 20 urine isolates, 25 sputum isolates, and 6 wound swab isolates. Our results indicated that there is no significant difference in the expression of AmpC β-lactamase gene among the tested bacterial species with respect to the type of infection and/or clinical specimen. However, the expression patterns of AmpC β-lactamase gene markedly differed according to the antibacterial resistance characteristics of the tested isolates.
Bifurcation Characteristics of Fundamental and Subharmonic Impact Motions of a Mechanical Vibration System with Motion Limiting Constraints on a Two‐Parameter Plane
Authors: Wang Shijun , Luo Guanwei
Published: March 2021

A two‐degree‐of‐freedom periodically forced system with multiple gaps and rigid constraints is studied. Multiple types of impact vibrations occur at each rigid constraint and interact with each other, which results in the emergence of some complex transitions in the system. Through the cosimulation of the key parameters gap value δ between the two masses and the excitation force frequency ω, the types, existence areas, and bifurcation regularities of the periodic and subharmonic motions can be obtained on the (ω, δ)‐parameter plane. In the corresponding three‐dimensional surface diagram of the maximum impact velocity, the distribution law of the maximum impact velocity at each constraint can be obtained. The transition laws of fundamental impact motions in the low‐frequency parameter domain are studied, and two types of transition regions in the transitions of adjacent fundamental impact motions are found: tongue‐like regions and hysteresis regions. Moreover, these two types of transition regions show some atypical partitioning and deformation due to the combined effects of impact vibrations at each constraint. By combining the two‐parameter plane diagram and the three‐dimensional surface diagram, the effect of changing the gap values between each mass and the fixed constraint and the damping coefficient ζ on the dynamic characteristics of the system is studied. Combining the existence areas of periodic motions and the distribution of maximum impact velocity can provide guidance for the reasonable selection of system parameters.
Chaihu plus Longgu Muli Decoction Alleviated Brain Injury in Pentylenetetrazole‐Kindled Epileptic Mice by Regulating Cyclooxygenase‐2/Prostaglandin E2/Multidrug Transporter Pathway
Authors: Shan Ping , Zhang Jilong , Gou Yulan , Luo Lijun , Zhu Suiqiang
Published: March 2021

Objective. To evaluate the effect of CLMD administration on epileptic seizures and brain injury in pentylenetetrazole‐ (PZT‐) kindled mice. Methods. The effect of pretreatment with CLMD (5, 10, and 20 ml/kg (mg/kg) by gavage) for seven days on PTZ‐induced kindling, duration and grade of kindling‐induced seizures, and pathological injury in the cortex and hippocampus was evaluated. Male BALB/c mice with adenosine A1 receptor knockout were subjected to intraperitoneal injection of PTZ (35 mg/kg) once every day until kindling was successfully induced. Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, immunofluorescence, and western blot were performed to assess the mRNA and protein levels of p‐glycoprotein (PGP), multidrug resistance‐associated protein 1 (MRP1), cyclooxygenase‐2 (COX‐2), prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), and adenylate kinase (ADK) in the cortex and hippocampus. Results. PTZ successfully induced kindling in mice after 21 days, wherein CLMD showed an obvious dose‐dependent antiepileptic effect. High‐dose CLMD significantly increased the latency of epileptic seizures, decreased the sustained time of epileptic seizures and the seizure grade, and ameliorated the histopathological changes in the cortex and hippocampus. Furthermore, PTZ kindling induced significantly higher levels of PGP, MRP1, COX‐2, PGE2, and ADK, but this effect was inhibited by pretreatment with CLMD in a dose‐dependent manner. Conclusion. Pretreatment with CLMD attenuates PTZ‐kindled convulsions and brain injury in mice. The mechanism may be related to the cyclooxygenase‐2/prostaglandin E2/multidrug transporter pathway.
Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation Compliance and Associated Factors among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Clinic in Shalla District, Southwest Ethiopia: A Cross-Sectional Study
Authors: Kedir Obsa Aman , Tegene Yadesse , Gebretsadik Achamyelesh
Published: March 2021

Background. Iron-folate supplementation for a pregnant mother is a cost-effective intervention to reduce iron deficiency anemia during pregnancy. The aim of this study was to assess the iron-folic acid supplements and associated factors among pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in the public health center of Shalla district, Southwest Ethiopia. Methods. Institutional-based cross-sectional study design was conducted among 402 randomly selected pregnant mothers between February and April 2019. Data were collected using an interviewer-administered structured questionnaire from pregnant mothers attending antenatal care and using iron-folate supplements. Descriptive and multivariate logistic regression analyses were employed. Results. Pill count compliance rate was found to be (154) 38.3%. Pregnant mothers who had anemia in their previous pregnancy [(AOR = 11.35, 95% CI: 4.76–27.03)], counseling on iron-folate supplements [(AOR = 11.39, 95% CI: 5.09–27.03)], awareness of the benefit of the iron-folate supplements [(AOR = 2.22, 95% CI: 1.18–3.92)], and being a member of the Health Development Army [(AOR = 2.11, 95% CI: (1.2, 3.9)] were significantly associated with compliance with iron-folate supplement. Conclusion. Compared to the World Health Organization cut-off point, the pill count compliance rate of iron-folate supplementation among pregnant women in the study area was very low. Previous history of anemia and lack of knowledge about its benefit were some of the factors associated with it. Therefore, the healthcare providers should give continuous awareness creation and counseling services focusing on the benefit of iron-folate supplementation for pregnant mothers and their neonates.
Sensor Fusion Basketball Shooting Posture Recognition System Based on CNN
Authors: Fan Jingjin , Bi Shuoben , Wang Guojie , Zhang Li , Sun Shilei
Published: March 2021

In recent years, with the development of wearable sensor devices, research on sports monitoring using inertial measurement units has received increasing attention; however, a specific system for identifying various basketball shooting postures does not exist thus far. In this study, we designed a sensor fusion basketball shooting posture recognition system based on convolutional neural networks. The system, using the sensor fusion framework, collected the basketball shooting posture data of the players’ main force hand and main force foot for sensor fusion and used a deep learning model based on convolutional neural networks for recognition. We collected 12,177 sensor fusion basketball shooting posture data entries of 13 Chinese adult male subjects aged 18–40 years and with at least 2 years of basketball experience without professional training. We then trained and tested the shooting posture data using the classic visual geometry group network 16 deep learning model. The intratest achieved a 98.6% average recall rate, 98.6% average precision rate, and 98.6% accuracy rate. The intertest achieved an average recall rate of 89.8%, an average precision rate of 91.1%, and an accuracy rate of 89.9%.
Effect of Spent Button Mushroom Substrate on Yield and Quality of Baby Spinach (Spinacia oleracea)
Authors: Muchena Forbes B. , Pisa Charity , Mutetwa Moses , Govera Chido , Ngezimana Wonder
Published: March 2021

Disposal of spent mushroom substrate (SMS) generated after mushroom cultivation is a subject of great concern. Unplanned disposal causes land, water, and air pollution together with the nuisance in the surroundings. During recent years, environmental legislation has forced mushroom growers to think about more amicable ways of SMS disposal. Hence, farmers in different corners of the country are using SMS as manure for various field crops and horticulture but without any support of the recommended rates from scientific data and therefore may not be getting the optimum benefits. This study sought to evaluate the effects of spent mushroom substrate on the yield and quality of baby spinach. The experiment was conducted in Mazowe, Zimbabwe, with 5 treatments (10 t ha−1, 20 t ha−1, 30 t ha−1 of SMS, and two controls) arranged in a CRBD and replicated 3 times. Biomass production (fresh mass, dry mass, root length, fresh root mass, and dry root mass) and sensory evaluation were determined 35 days after planting. Results showed that increasing rates of spent mushroom substrate significantly (

p

 < 0.05) increased the fresh yield and quality of baby spinach. Application of spent mushroom substrate beyond 30 t ha−1, however, increased the bitterness of baby spinach. The results of the study present the potential of the spent mushroom substrate as an organic fertilizer for the production of quality baby spinach.
TCDABCF: A Trust-Based Community Detection Using Artificial Bee Colony by Feature Fusion
Authors: Peng Zhihao , Rastgari Mohsen , Navaei Yahya Dorostkar , Daraei Raziyeh , Oskouei Rozita Jamili , Pirozmand Poria , Mirkamali Seyed Saeid
Published: March 2021

Social network aims to extend a widespread framework to communicate users and find alike people with common features, easier and faster. As people usually experience in everyday life, social communication can be formed from common groups with almost identical properties. Detecting such groups or communities is a challenging task in various fields of social network analysis. Many researchers intend to develop algorithms that work effectively and efficiently on social networks. It is believed that the most influential user in a community that had been followed by similar users could be a central point of a community or cluster, and the similar user would be members of the community. Research studies tend to increase intracommunity similarity and decrease intercommunity similarity to improve the performance of the community detection methods by finding such influential users accurately. In this paper, a hybrid metaheuristic method is proposed. In the proposed method called trust-based community detection using artificial bee colony by feature fusion (TCDABCF), we use a fusion approach combined with artificial bee colony (ABC) to improve the accuracy of the community detection task. In this approach, not only the social features of users are considered but also the relationship of trust between users in a community is also calculated. So, the proposed method can lead to finding more precise clusters of similar users with influential users in the center of each cluster. The proposed method uses the artificial bee colony (ABC) to find the influential users and the relation of their followers accurately. We compare this algorithm with nine state-of-the-art methods on the Facebook dataset. Experimental results show that the proposed method has obtained values of 0.9662 and 0.9533 for NMI and accuracy, respectively, which has improved in comparison with state-of-the-art community detection methods.