bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Increasing fire and logging disturbances in Siberian boreal forests: a case study of the Angara region
Authors: Shvetsov Evgeny G , Kukavskaya Elena A , Shestakova Tatiana A , Laflamme Jocelyne , Rogers Brendan M
Published: October 2021

Forest disturbances are a critical environmental issue globally and within the boreal biome, yet detailed attribution and trends in disturbances are lacking for many Siberian regions. The Angara region located in the southern taiga of Central Siberia has experienced significant disturbances during the past several decades and is a hotspot of change in Eurasia. Here we estimated fire and logging disturbances using MODIS and Landsat data for the period 2002–2020 across the Angara region and analyzed the resulting trends. Average annual burned and logged area was about 220 and 31 thousand ha or 2 and 0.3% of the study area, respectively. In total, about 4.1 million ha (38% of the region) and 0.6 million ha (6% of the region) were disturbed by fires and logging, respectively. Spatial analysis showed that almost 50% of fires were ignited within 2 km of anthropogenic features such as settlements, roads and logged areas. Almost 5% of the Angara region was burned two or more times during the 19 years of observations. Improved and strictly-enforced conservation and management policies are required to halt continued forest degradation in the Angara region and similarly-affected boreal forests in Siberia.
Growth optimization of TaN for superconducting spintronics
Authors: Müller M , Hoepfl R , Liensberger L , Geprägs S , Huebl H , Weiler M , Gross R , Althammer M
Published: October 2021

We have optimized the growth of superconducting TaN thin films on SiO2 substrates via dc magnetron sputtering and extract a maximum superconducting transition temperature of T
c = 5 K as well as a maximum critical field μ
0
H
c2 = (13.8 ± 0.1) T. This material is of interest for both different fields of quantum technology and superconducting spintronics as it represents a magnetic field-robust superconductor with strong spin–orbit interaction (SOI). After presenting the results of the growth optimization, we investigate in the second part the impact of the strong SOI in TaN on superconductor/ferromagnet heterostructures. To this end, we analyze the magnetization dynamics of both normal state and superconducting TaN/Ni80Fe20 (permalloy, Py)-bilayers as a function of temperature using broadband ferromagnetic resonance spectroscopy. In particular, we quantify the inverse current-induced torques of the bilayers and compare these results to NbN/Py-bilayers. In the normal state of TaN, we detect a positive damping-like current-induced torque σ
d from the inverse spin Hall effect and a small field-like torque σ
f attributed to the inverse Rashba–Edelstein effect at the TaN/Py-interface. In the superconducting state of TaN, we detect a negative σ
d attributed to the quasiparticle mediated inverse spin Hall effect (QMiSHE) and the unexpected manifestation of a large positive field-like σ
f of unknown origin matching our previous results for NbN/Py-bilayers. The QMiSHE can be used to probe spin currents in emergent quantum materials.
Integrative COVID-19 biological network inference with probabilistic core decomposition
Authors: Guo Yang , Esfahani Fatemeh , Shao Xiaojian , Srinivasan Venkatesh , Thomo Alex , Xing Li , Zhang Xuekui
Published: October 2021

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is responsible for millions of deaths around the world. To help contribute to the understanding of crucial knowledge and to further generate new hypotheses relevant to SARS-CoV-2 and human protein interactions, we make use of the information abundant Biomine probabilistic database and extend the experimentally identified SARS-CoV-2-human protein–protein interaction (PPI) network in silico. We generate an extended network by integrating information from the Biomine database, the PPI network and other experimentally validated results. To generate novel hypotheses, we focus on the high-connectivity sub-communities that overlap most with the integrated experimentally validated results in the extended network. Therefore, we propose a new data analysis pipeline that can efficiently compute core decomposition on the extended network and identify dense subgraphs. We then evaluate the identified dense subgraph and the generated hypotheses in three contexts: literature validation for uncovered virus targeting genes and proteins, gene function enrichment analysis on subgraphs and literature support on drug repurposing for identified tissues and diseases related to COVID-19. The major types of the generated hypotheses are proteins with their encoding genes and we rank them by sorting their connections to the integrated experimentally validated nodes. In addition, we compile a comprehensive list of novel genes, and proteins potentially related to COVID-19, as well as novel diseases which might be comorbidities. Together with the generated hypotheses, our results provide novel knowledge relevant to COVID-19 for further validation.
A network-based method for brain disease gene prediction by integrating brain connectome and molecular network
Authors: Wang Wei , Han Ruijiang , Zhang Menghan , Wang Yuxian , Wang Tao , Wang Yongtian , Shang Xuequn , Peng Jiajie
Published: October 2021

Brain disease gene identification is critical for revealing the biological mechanism and developing drugs for brain diseases. To enhance the identification of brain disease genes, similarity-based computational methods, especially network-based methods, have been adopted for narrowing down the searching space. However, these network-based methods only use molecular networks, ignoring brain connectome data, which have been widely used in many brain-related studies. In our study, we propose a novel framework, named brainMI, for integrating brain connectome data and molecular-based gene association networks to predict brain disease genes. For the consistent representation of molecular-based network data and brain connectome data, brainMI first constructs a novel gene network, called brain functional connectivity (BFC)-based gene network, based on resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data and brain region-specific gene expression data. Then, a multiple network integration method is proposed to learn low-dimensional features of genes by integrating the BFC-based gene network and existing protein–protein interaction networks. Finally, these features are utilized to predict brain disease genes based on a support vector machine-based model. We evaluate brainMI on four brain diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, major depressive disorder and autism. brainMI achieves of 0.761, 0.729, 0.728 and 0.744 using the BFC-based gene network alone and enhances the molecular network-based performance by 6.3% on average. In addition, the results show that brainMI achieves higher performance in predicting brain disease genes compared to the existing three state-of-the-art methods.
Positive-unlabeled learning in bioinformatics and computational biology: a brief review
Authors: Li Fuyi , Dong Shuangyu , Leier André , Han Meiya , Guo Xudong , Xu Jing , Wang Xiaoyu , Pan Shirui , Jia Cangzhi , Zhang Yang , Webb Geoffrey I , Coin Lachlan J M , Li Chen , Song Jiangning
Published: October 2021

Conventional supervised binary classification algorithms have been widely applied to address significant research questions using biological and biomedical data. This classification scheme requires two fully labeled classes of data (e.g. positive and negative samples) to train a classification model. However, in many bioinformatics applications, labeling data is laborious, and the negative samples might be potentially mislabeled due to the limited sensitivity of the experimental equipment. The positive unlabeled (PU) learning scheme was therefore proposed to enable the classifier to learn directly from limited positive samples and a large number of unlabeled samples (i.e. a mixture of positive or negative samples). To date, several PU learning algorithms have been developed to address various biological questions, such as sequence identification, functional site characterization and interaction prediction. In this paper, we revisit a collection of 29 state-of-the-art PU learning bioinformatic applications to address various biological questions. Various important aspects are extensively discussed, including PU learning methodology, biological application, classifier design and evaluation strategy. We also comment on the existing issues of PU learning and offer our perspectives for the future development of PU learning applications. We anticipate that our work serves as an instrumental guideline for a better understanding of the PU learning framework in bioinformatics and further developing next-generation PU learning frameworks for critical biological applications.
ImmuCellAI-mouse: a tool for comprehensive prediction of mouse immune cell abundance and immune microenvironment depiction
Authors: Miao Ya-Ru , Xia Mengxuan , Luo Mei , Luo Tao , Yang Mei , Guo An-Yuan
Published: October 2021

Motivation

Immune cells are important components of the immune system and are crucial for disease initiation, progression, prognosis and survival. Although several computational methods have been designed for predicting the abundance of immune cells, very few tools are applicable to mouse. Given that, mouse is the most widely used animal model in biomedical research, there is an urgent need to develop a precise algorithm for predicting mouse immune cells.

Results

We developed a tool named Immune Cell Abundance Identifier for mouse (ImmuCellAI-mouse), for estimating the abundance of 36 immune cell (sub)types from gene expression data in a hierarchical strategy of three layers. Reference expression profiles and robust marker gene sets of immune cell types were curated. The abundance of cells in three layers was predicted separately by calculating the ssGSEA enrichment score of the expression deviation profile per cell type. Benchmark results showed high accuracy of ImmuCellAI-mouse in predicting most immune cell types, with correlation coefficients between predicted value and real cell proportion of most cell types being larger than 0.8. We applied ImmuCellAI-mouse to a mouse breast tumor dataset and revealed the dynamic change of immune cell infiltration during treatment, which is consistent with the findings of the original study but with more details. We also constructed an online server for ImmuCellAI-mouse, on which users can upload expression matrices for analysis. ImmuCellAI-mouse will be a useful tool for studying the immune microenvironment, cancer immunology and immunotherapy in mouse models, providing an indispensable supplement for human disease studies.

Availability and implementation

Software is available at http://bioinfo.life.hust.edu.cn/ImmuCellAI-mouse/.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Biogeography and ecological drivers of evolution in the Andes: resolving the phylogenetic backbone forCalceolaria(Calceolariaceae)
Authors: Frankel Lauren , Murúa Maureen , Espíndola Anahí
Published: October 2021

Calceolaria (Calceolariaceae) is an emblematic and diverse genus in the Americas. Despite being one of the most easily recognized genera in the region and a system with great potential to improve our understanding of different drivers of species diversification in the Andes, its intrageneric evolutionary relationships are still poorly understood. Responding to the need for additional molecular markers to resolve the phylogenetic relationships of the group, we perform plastome analyses and resolve the backbone of the genus. Specifically, using low-coverage genomes for 14 species, we assembled plastomes, estimated and dated phylogenetic hypotheses and evaluated evolutionary trends in the group. Our approach allowed us to resolve the backbone of the genus, identify two main clades and estimate a timing of diversification contemporaneous to major climatic and orogenic events. Our biogeographic reconstructions suggest an independent colonization of the whole range of the genus by both clades. Finally, our evaluations of floral morphology reveal future avenues for investigating the relationship between the pollination biology and diversification of the group.
Patchily distributed but not necessarily isolated populations ofDeuterocohnia meziana: a threatened bromeliad from rock outcrops
Authors: Vicente-Silva Luciana , De Russo Godoy Fernanda Maria , Faggioni Gabriel Paganini , Lorenz Aline Pedroso , Paggi Gecele Matos
Published: October 2021

The movement of organisms or genes among resource patches is fundamental to the persistence of natural populations over time. Species occurring in rock outcrops may have difficulty maintaining genetic connectivity due to the natural disjunct distribution of these formations, which may lead to genetic differentiation. In this study, we tested the hypothesis of genetic isolation among populations of Deuterocohnia meziana on rock outcrops in Brazil. We evaluated genetic diversity and structure, number of migrants, and the contribution of pollen and seed to dispersal. Additionally, we used niche modelling to estimate the potential distribution of D. meziana and combined this with genetic data to identify potential dispersal routes under different climatic scenarios from the Quaternary. Deuterocohnia meziana showed high diversity and moderate genetic structure, low number of migrants and more efficient dispersal by pollen. Only populations separated by > 70 km showed genetic differentiation. Dispersal routes varied mainly in the intensity of the environmental suitability and indicated the present scenario as the most favourable for gene flow in D. meziana. Our findings contribute to the understanding of processes related to the connectivity and isolation of naturally fragmented populations, highlighting the role of biotic and abiotic drivers for genetic differentiation.
The multidimensional nature of aphasia recovery post-stroke
Authors: Stefaniak James D , Geranmayeh Fatemeh , Lambon Ralph Matthew A
Published: October 2021

Language is not a single function, but instead results from interactions between neural representations and computations that can be damaged independently of each other. Although there is now clear evidence that the language profile in post-stroke aphasia reflects graded variations along multiple underlying dimensions (‘components’), it is still entirely unknown if these distinct language components have different recovery trajectories and rely on the same, or different, neural regions during aphasia recovery. Accordingly, this study examined whether language components in the subacute stage: (i) mirror those observed in the chronic stage; (ii) recover together in a homogeneous manner; and (iii) have recovery trajectories that relate to changing activation in distinct or overlapping underlying brain regions.

We analysed longitudinal data from 26 individuals with mild–moderate aphasia following left hemispheric infarct who underwent functional MRI and behavioural testing at ∼2 weeks and ∼4 months post-stroke. The language profiles in early post-stroke aphasia reflected three orthogonal principal components consisting of fluency, semantic/executive function and phonology. These components did not recover in a singular, homogeneous manner; rather, their longitudinal trajectories were uncorrelated, suggesting that aphasia recovery is heterogeneous and multidimensional. Mean regional brain activation during overt speech production in unlesioned areas was compared with patient scores on the three principal components of language at both the early and late time points. In addition, the change in brain activation over time was compared with the change on each of the principal component scores, both before and after controlling for baseline scores. We found that different language components were associated with changing activation in multiple, non-overlapping bilateral brain regions during aphasia recovery. Specifically, fluency recovery was associated with increasing activation in bilateral middle frontal gyri and right temporo-occipital middle temporal gyrus; semantic/executive recovery was associated with reducing activation in bilateral anterior temporal lobes; while phonology recovery was associated with reducing activation in bilateral precentral gyri, dorso-medial frontal poles and the precuneus. Overlapping clusters in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex were positively associated with fluency recovery but negatively associated with semantic/executive and phonology recovery.

This combination of detailed behavioural and functional MRI data provides novel insights into the neural basis of aphasia recovery. Because different aspects of language seem to rely on different neural regions for recovery, treatment strategies that target the same neural region in all stroke survivors with aphasia might be entirely ineffective or even impair recovery, depending on the specific language profile of each individual patient.
Heart Failure Challenge in T2DM
Authors: Elmaraghi Osama
Published: October 2021

Introduction

Heart failure is a clinical syndrome caused by a structural and/or functional cardiac abnormality, resulting in a reduced cardiac output and/or elevated intracardiac pressures at rest or during stress.1

There are 463 million patient with diabetes mellitus all over the world .2 People with diabetes have a 2- to 5-fold higher risk of developing HF3, On the other hand more than 30% of patients with heart failure also have diabetes. Patients with heart failure and diabetes have a worse prognosis than those without diabetes4.

UKPDs, Accord and advance trials showed that Intensive glycaemic control has not been shown to significantly impact the risk of HF.5,6

SGLT2 inhibitor is a new class of drugs to treat diabetes by inhibiting SGT2 decreases glucose reabsorption and increases urinary glucose excretion, improving glucose control in the diabetic patient.7

At 2015 EMPA-REG OUTCOME trial showed that Empagliflozin in addition to reduction of HBa1c, reduced the 3MAC by 14%, CV death by 38% and HHF by 35%.

Is these cardiovascular benefit were a chance? 8

Then DECLARE-TMI58, CNVAS and VIRTIS trials showed that Dapagliflizon, Canagliflozin and ertuglifozin respectively in addition to reduction of HBa1c, reduce HHFso it is a class effect. 9,10,11

Because in these trials starting treatment at the preclinical stage may prevent HF progression and improve outcomes.

Objective

We have 3 questions to be answered:

There are 4 trials to answer these Questions

DAPA HF, DELIVER, EMPEROR-Reduced and EMPEROR –Preserved.

DAPA-HF and EMPEROR –Reduced include patients with HF with reduced ejection fraction, diabetic and non-diabetic the result of both was reduce the risk of worsening HF or death from cardiovascular causes regardless of the presence or absence of DM. 10,11

Conclusion

The results of these trials FDA Approves Dapagliflozin for low EF-Heart Failure in diabetic and Non-diabetic. FDA had granted Fast Track status for empagliflozin. Waiting the result of other trials.12
Prospective Descriptive Study to Evaluate the Impact of Clinical Pharmacist in Antiplatelet Utilization and Safety in Coronary Heart Disease Patients
Authors: Nematalla Hisham Ah , Wafaie Rasha , Elaziz Enas Abd , Ghoneem Asser , Elaaty Ahmed Abd
Published: October 2021

Aim

To evaluate the interventions associated with integration of a clinical pharmacist for antiplatelets best utilization and safety as multidisciplinary team approach is recommended to improve patient outcomes.

Methods

prospective observational study on coronary heart diseases patients (stable angina, unstable angina, MI, post PCI or post CABG) on antiplatelets therapy (single antiplatelet; SAPT, or dual antiplatelet; DAPT) at governmental and private hospitals. Detailing pharmacist-initiated interventions targeting pharmacotherapy optimization (Dose, duplicate and interactions), also adverse effects detection, and hospital re-admission (re-event of coronary insufficiency). Collecting patients' data by interviews and hospital records using validated check list. Statistical software IBM SPSS software package version 20.0, The Kolmogorov-Smirnov was used to verify the normality of distribution of variables, Mann Whitney test was used to compare between two categories for not normally distributed quantitative variables. Kruskal Wallis test was used to compare different categories for abnormally distributed quantitative variables. Spearman coefficient was used to correlate between quantitative variables. Linear Regression was used to detect the most affecting factor for affecting DAPT score and Precise DAPT. Significance of the obtained results was judged at the 5% level, calculate sample size by G Power3.

Results

There is a significant correlation between cardiac related readmission and Precise DAPT score (P = 0.013).A statistically significant correlation is found between smoking and DAPT score (p = 0.015) but not with precise DAPT (P = 0.152). Also a significant linear association exists between DAPT type and DAPT score, for Aspirin + Clopidogrel (P = 0.010) (95%CI=-1.000 (-1.754 – -0.246), Aspirin + Ticagrilor (P = 0.012) (95%CI= 1.001 (0.228 – 1.774). The highly significant influencing variable in both scores, is the dose value, for DAPT score (P = 0.038), Precise DAPT (P = 0.001). The distribution of Myocardial infarction as cardiac related readmission and smoking are higher in males than females without statistically significant difference (P = 0.08), (P = 0.39), the absence of adverse effects and bleeding events is statistically significant in DAPT score (P = 0.041, 95%CI=1.706 (0.071 – 3.341) & precise DAPT score (P = 0.002, 95% CI= -15.95 (-25.832 – -6.074).

Conclusions

Impact of a clinical pharmacist within cardiology department generated substantial pharmacotherapy optimization which improve the medication adherence, safety and clinical outcomes. Our study suggests pre-calculating DAPT and precise DAPT for all patients before treatment and commitment on DAPT period administration may decrease re-admission rate of patients.
Study of Pulmonary Hypertension and Its Predictors in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Authors: Hamada Sally youssef , El Hoshy Mohamed Saeed , El Hoshy Mona Saeed , Eshmawey Heba Ahmed , Gharraf Heba Said
Published: October 2021

Background

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is one of the most common complications of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). PH in COPD is caused by many factors mainly hypoxia.

Aim

The aim was to assess prevalence and predictors of PH in COPD patients.

Patients and methods

A prospective, observational study was carried out on 100 patients diagnosed with COPD admitted at chest department of Alexandria university hospitals and Al. Mamoura chest hospital. All patients were subjected to complete medical history taking (Age, sex, smoking index, history of previous hospital admission for COPD exacerbation and history of previous ICU admission for the same reason), routine laboratory investigations including complete blood count (CBC), arterial blood gases (ABG), pulmonary function test (FEV1, FVC, FEV1/FVC ratio), Body mass index(BMI), six minute walk test, COPD assessment test (CAT) score, dyspnea assessment by modified Medical Research Council(m MRC) and Echocardiography relevant data (right atrial area, left atrial size, ejection fraction, valvular heart disease, PH, right ventricular function TAPSE (Tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion), systolic pulmonary artery pressure (SPAP) and tricuspid regurge velocity if present.

Results

A total of 100 COPD patients were included in the study 88 (88%) were males and 12 (12%) were females. Among patients with pulmonary hypertension 32 (94.1%) were males and 2 (5.9%) were females.

On the other hand, 84.8%(n = 56) of patients without PH were males and 15.2%(n = 10) were females. Mean ± SD age of the patients was 60.12 ± 8.59 years. Mean ±SD age of the patients with pulmonary hypertension was 61.26±7.97 years, and for patients without PH mean± SD was 59.53 ± 8.88 years. With no statistically significant difference between the two groups.

PH was diagnosed in 34 (34%) of patients, m PAP ≥25mmHg, of whom11 (32.4%) showed severe PH m PAP ≥40mmHg, 23 (67.6%) mild, moderate PH.

Conclusion

Although, the most important factors predicting PH in COPD patients were FEV1 and EF, respectively, but in COPD patients with severe PH was FEV1.
Transcatheter Closure of Residual and Iatrogenic Ventricular Septal Defects: Tertiary Center Experience and Outcome
Authors: Taha Fatma A , Alnozha Fareed , Amoudi Osama , Almutairi Mansour , Abuelatta Reda
Published: October 2021

Aim

This study aimed to review our center experience in transcatheter closure of post-surgical and post-intervention residual and iatrogenic VSDs and to report on their 12-month long-term outcome.

Methods

All patients who underwent transcatheter closure of residual ventricular septal defects (R-VSDs) and iatrogenic ventricular septal defects (I-VSDs) after either surgical corrections or transcatheter interventions for any congenital heart disease (CHD) between January 2015 and January 2020 were included in the study. Patients' medical records were reviewed and analyzed.

Results

Twenty-three patients with a mean age of 14.3 ± 8.8 years, a mean weight of 36.2 ± 20.4 Kg, and a mean body surface area of 1.18 ± 0.36 m2 were included. Thirteen (56.5%) patients were males. The VSD was residual in 18 (78.3%) patients and iatrogenic in 5 (21.7%) patients, post-operative in 19 (82.6%) patients and post-transcatheter in 4 (17.4%) patients. The remaining VSD site was peri-membranous in 9 (39.1%) patients, high-muscular in 6 (26.1%) patients, mid-muscular in 4 (17.4%) patients, and Gerbode shunt in 4 (17.4%) patients. The QP/QS ratio was 2.5 ± 0.7, and the VSD diameter was 6.1±2.1 mm with a VSD-aorta rim of 5.4 ± 2.0 mm. Most, 16 (71.43%) patients underwent antegrade device deployment, and 7 (28.57%) patients underwent retrograde transaortic device deployment, with only 3 (13.0%) patients required two devices/patient. Amplatzer™ Muscular VSD devices were used in 16 (69.6%) patients, Amplatzer™ Duct occlude-I devices were used in 4 (17.4%) patients, and Amplatzer™ Duct Occluder-II devices were used in 3 (13.0%) patients with a mean device size of 8.8 ± 2.8 mm. The mean procedural time was 55.1 ± 16.2 minutes, fluoroscopy time was 16.3 ± 4.0 minutes, and the contrast used was 33.8 ± 10.9 ml. Concomitant balloon pulmonary valvuloplasty was done at the same catheterization set in 2 (8.7%) patients. Acute procedural success, satisfactory immediate were achieved in all patients. During follow-up (23.3 ± 15.9 months), no patient required re-intervention or exhibited mortality.

Conclusions

Transcatheter closure of post-operative, and post-intervention residual and iatrogenic VSDs represents an attractive therapeutic approach. This approach is safe, feasible, effective, and less invasive alternative treatment option for such remaining VSDs.
Value of Copeptin Measurement as A Novel Biomarker for Prognosis in Acute Heart Failure
Authors: Hassanein Mahmoud M , Sadaka Mohammed A , Mokhtar Ahmed , Eldabbah Nermeen , Mubarak Eman
Published: October 2021

Background

Copeptin, C-terminal segment of pro-arginine vasopressin, is expected to be a strong novel biomarker for prognosis in acute heart failure (AHF).

Aim

Evaluate the prognostic role of copeptin in AHF either de novo or on top of chronic heart failure and its correlation with adverse cardiac events.

Methods

The study included 45 patients with acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) to assess the relationship of serum copeptin level on admission and 72 hours after admission with adverse cardiac events (death, re-hospitalization and arrhythmias) in patients hospitalized with ADHF between May 2019 and November 2019 with median follow up period 6 months.

Results

In this study, 15 patients died, re-admission for heart failure occurred in 22 patients and arrhythmias were documented in 14 patients with atrial fibrillation (n = 9) and ventricular arrhythmias (n = 5). Mortality rate was higher among the elderly, smokers and patients with higher heart rate, lower left ventricular ejection fraction, more frequent arrhythmias, impaired kidney function and higher copeptin level. Furthermore, copeptin level at day 1 with cutoff value of > 2.54 pmol/l predicted mortality with sensitivity of 86.67% and specificity of 53.33% while at day 3 copeptin level with cutoff value > 2.74 pmol/l predicted mortality with sensitivity of 93.33% and specificity of 83.33%. Finally, change in copeptin level between day 1 and day 3 was associated with increased mortality. (p<0.001)

Conclusion

Serum copeptin is suggested to be a strong biomarker to predict adverse clinical outcomes in patients with acute decompensated heart failure.
Surface motion of an arbitrary number of semi-circular viscoelastic alluvial valleys for incident planeSHwaves
Authors: Zhang Ning , Pan Jiasuo , Gao Yufeng , Chen Xin , Dai Denghui , Zhang Yu
Published: October 2021

A semi-analytical treatment of the seismic response of an arbitrary number of semi-circular viscoelastic alluvial valleys (including an infinite number of periodically distributed ones) in an elastic half-space under obliquely incident plane SH waves is presented. In terms of a radial wave function expansion and a region matching approach, a rigorous solution is derived for general computation for the anti-plane shear wave scattering problem. Upon confirmation of its accuracy with past solutions for single and twin elastic alluvial valleys, the proposed solution is used to present a comprehensive set of numerical examples to illustrate the sensitivity of the ground motion to the size, distribution, modulus, damping, and number of multiple alluvial valleys and frequency and direction of incident waves. It is found that the magnitudes of ground motions of a central alluvial valley are intensified and reduced by the surrounding valleys for vertical and grazing wave incidences, respectively. In addition, the duration of ground motions of the central alluvial valley tends to be prolonged due to the incoming secondary waves generated by surrounding valleys.
Passive-seismic image-domain elastic wavefield tomography
Authors: Oren Can , Shragge Jeffrey
Published: October 2021

Elastic time-reverse imaging offers a robust wavefield-based approach for locating microseismic events; however, event location accuracy greatly depends on the veracity of the elastic velocity models (i.e. VP and VS) used for wave propagation. In this study, we propose a methodology for microseismic image-domain wavefield tomography using the elastic wave equation and zero-lag and extended source images, the focusing of which is used as a quality control metric for velocity models. The objective function is designed to measure the focusing of time-reversed microseismic energy in zero-lag and extended event images. The function applies penalty operators to source images to highlight poorly focused residual energy caused by backpropagation through erroneous velocity models. Minimizing the objective function leads to a model optimization problem aimed at improving the image-focusing quality. P- and S-wave velocity model updates are computed using the adjoint-state method and build on the zero-lag and extended image residuals that satisfy the differential semblance optimization criterion. Synthetic experiments demonstrate that one can construct accurate elastic velocity models using the proposed method, which can significantly improve the focusing of imaged events leading to, for example, enhanced fluid-injection programs.
Comment on “Salmon lice-induced mortality of Atlantic salmon post-smolt during migration in Norway” by Johnsen et al. (2021)
Authors: Jansen Peder A , Gjerde Bjarne
Published: October 2021

Johnsen et al. (2021) present a model that predicts lice-induced mortality of virtual post-smolt (VPS) Atlantic salmon migrating from 401 Norwegian salmon rivers. An important feature of this model is that the source of lice is farmed salmon. The model predicts lice-induced mortalities exceeding 30% for VPS from 82 rivers, 10–30% for 140 rivers, and less than 10% for 179 rivers. These are high numbers and have contributed to mandatory reductions in the production of farmed salmon in two of the 13 management areas in Norway. In this comment, the model used by Johnsen et al. (2021) is evaluated. Mortality estimates from observed lice numbers on post-smolts caught by trawling in outer fjord areas are compared with the model predicted mortalities for VPS migrating from rivers draining into the corresponding fjords. It is found that Johnsen et al. (2021) systematically overestimates lice-induced mortality for VPS compared to estimates from trawled smolt from corresponding fjords. The present analysis thus contradicts the concluding remark in Johnsen et al. (2021), that: “The estimated lice level on modelled post-smolts is shown to coincide with the level observed on captured wild post-smolt”.
Electric vehicle manufacturers’ decisions on investing in carbon-reduction technology under government subsidy: a Cournot game model
Authors: Liu Jing , Nie Jiajia , Yuan Hongping
Published: October 2021

To reduce carbon emissions in the electric vehicle (EV) market, the Chinese government has issued a subsidy scheme involving a subsidy threshold that is quite different from the fixed subsidy. This study aims to investigate competing EV manufacturers’ decisions on carbon-reduction (CR) technology investment under the subsidy threshold. We construct a Cournot game model involving two competitive EV manufacturers. The results show that decisions of the two EV manufacturers on investing in CR technology vary under different subsidy thresholds. Particularly, they would make the same investment decisions when the subsidy threshold is low or large, but achieve the opposite investment decisions when the subsidy threshold is intermediate. In the benchmark model where there is only one EV manufacturer, an EV manufacturer could always increase its profit from investing in CR technology when the subsidy threshold is low. In the Cournot model where there are two competing manufacturers, however, they may get involved in the Prisoner’s Dilemma and both manufacturers could suffer economic losses from CR technology investment.
Contracting for Work in Tourism and Catering in Greece: Beyond a State/Market Dichotomy
Authors: Ioannou Gregoris
Published: October 2021

Drawing on a case study of contemporary employment relations in tourism and catering in Greece, this paper seeks to contribute to our empirical understanding of employment law. Which factors determine the ways in which the law is perceived by employers and workers and complied with, breached or avoided? The main argument of the paper is that not only market forces are relevant here; several other factors need to be taken into consideration, which when combined with market forces can re-regulate as well as deregulate the field of employment. These tend to be informal, locally embedded and influenced by wider social relations. By constructing a simple matrix of employment settings based on locale and seasonality on one axis, and size of enterprise and scope of services provided on the other, the paper demonstrates how organisational and spatial parameters and the social environment interact with market forces and legal forces to shape prevailing norms and to influence the behaviour of parties to the contract for work. It further demonstrates that the structuring of the sectoral labour market is a process determined by broader social power dynamics. Beyond serving as part of the context within which contracting for work takes place, legal rules are a resource to be mobilised by both employers and workers.
7 Behavioral Indicators of Post-weaning Stress Susceptibility in Cross-fostered Pigs
Authors: Sommer Dominique M , Young Jennifer M , Byrd Christopher J
Published: October 2021

Cross-fostering is a common swine husbandry practice; however, little research has focused on the effects of foster stress on piglets post-weaning. This study evaluated the effect of cross-fostering on behavioral indicators of post-weaning stress susceptibility. Litters (n = 40) were allocated to 1 of 2 treatments: control (CON) and foster. Three piglets (FOS) from each CON litter were randomly selected and moved to a foster litter 12–24 h post-farrowing, where they were nursed along resident (RES) piglets until weaning (approximately 18 d of age). At 21- and 28-d post-weaning, a male and female piglet from each treatment (FOS, RES, CON) underwent 1 of 2 behavior tests: social isolation and social confrontation. Both tests were conducted in an isolated 1.22 × 1.22 m novel pen. For social isolation, escape attempts, movement between floor quadrants (i.e. locomotion), defecation, and urination events were counted. For social confrontation, the latency to first aggressive interaction and the number of aggressive interactions were quantified. All data were analyzed using the GLIMMIX procedure in SAS. The CON piglets moved between quadrants more frequently than RES piglets (P = 0.02), while FOS piglets moved between quadrants intermediate to (but not different from) CON and RES piglets (P = 0.44 and 0.12, respectively). Females moved between quadrants more frequently than males (P < 0.0001). The latency to first aggressive interaction was shorter in FOS piglets compared to CON piglets (P = 0.048). There was a treatment by sex interaction (P < 0.01) for number of aggressive interactions, with CON and RES females having more aggressive interactions than their male counterparts (P = 0.04 for both) while FOS females had fewer aggressive interactions than FOS males (P = 0.007). No additional differences were detected (all P > 0.05). Overall, these results provide little evidence that FOS piglets exhibit an increase in behavioral stress susceptibility post-weaning. However, future work should expand upon and clarify the social confrontation findings.
8 Effects of a Bovine Appeasing Substance Application at Weaning on Temperament and Growth of Bos Indicus Influenced Heifers
Authors: Viera Douglas G , Ranches Juliana , Vedovatto Marcelo , Pirota Giovana G , Cappellozza Bruno I , Canutoce Nelson , Pereira Thais G , Yshiayam Luís Fernando , Henrique Thomas , Fernandes Henrique J
Published: October 2021

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of a synthetic analogue of the bovine appeasing pheromone (i.e. bovine appeasing substance; BAS) on growth and temperament of heifers. At weaning (d 0), 30 heifers (Aberdeen Angus ′ Nelore; 8 ± 1 mo) were stratified by body weight (199.8 ± 16 kg) and randomly assigned to receive a single dose of BAS (n = 15; SecureCattle; Nutricorp, Araras, SP, Brazil) or saline (CON; n = 15; saline 0.9% NaCl). Treatments (5 ml) were topically applied to the nuchal skin area of each animal on d0. Body weight was collected on d 0, 6, 15, 45, and 150. Chute score (1 to 5; 1 = calm, no movement; 5 = violent and continuous struggling) and chute entrance and exit score (1 to 3; 1 = slow; 3 = fast) were collected on d 0, 2, 6, 15, 45 and 150. Scores were averaged across 4 trained technicians. Data were analyzed using the MIXED procedure of SAS. Heifers assigned to BAS had greater (P < 0.01) average daily gain (ADG) than heifers assigned to CON treatment from d 6 to 15 (2.35 and 1.88 kg/d ± 0.16) and from d 15 to 45 (1.79 vs. 1.56 kg/d ± 0.08). Heifers assigned to BAS had lower (P < 0.01) chute entrance score on d 6, 15, and 45, and chute exit score on d 2 to 45 (P = 0.05) when compared to heifers assigned to CON. Additionally, heifers assigned to BAS tended (P = 0.08) to have lower chute score, from d 1 to 150 than heifers assigned to CON. The application of BAS at weaning improved heifers ADG, likely due to an improvement in temperament, suggesting that BAS application has calming effects in the beef cattle herd.
2 Measuring the Impact of Heat Stress Abatement Strategies on Fecal Microbiome in Finishing Steers During the Summer Months in the Southeast United States
Authors: Hernandez Shane R , Stelzleni Alexander M , Sims Wil , Davis Dylan B , Lourenco Jeferson M , Stewart R Lawton
Published: October 2021

This study evaluated the effect of heat stress abatement strategies on the faecal microbiome of finishing beef steers in the Southeastern United States. The study was designed as a completely randomized block using 32 steers (BW 453k 4 kg) stratified by weight and randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups: covered with fans (CWF), covered no fans (CNF), outside with shade (SHADE), and outside without shade (OUT). All steers were housed outside from June to July and were brought up on a common feedlot ration. After-which steers were placed into treatments on d -10 and covered steers were given 10 days to acclimate Calan-gate system. During the acclimation phase, both covered and outside steers were brought up at a similar rate. Steers were weighed and faecal samples were collected on d 0, 50, and 85. Microbial DNA was extracted from the samples using a combination of mechanical and enzymatic processes, and the DNA sequences were analyzed using QIIME v2.0. There was a treatment x day interaction for Actinobacteriota, Bacteroidota, and Patescibacteria phyla. Additionally, there was a day effect for all three phyla (P < 0.001), but there was only a treatment effect (P < 0.001) for Patescibacteria. There was not an interaction for Fibrobacterota, Firmicutes, or Proteobacteria (P > 0.226), but there was a day effect (P < 0.019) for all three phyla. There was a treatment effect (P = 0.036) for Fibrobacterota, however there was not a treatment effect for Firmicutes and Proteobacteria (P > 0.394). Moreover, there was no interaction, treatment, or day effect (P > 0.39) for the Firmicutes to Bacteroidota ratio. These results suggest that stress abatement strategies may influence the fecal microbiome over time, and they might help better understand how stress affects the microbiome and nutrient digestibility in the lower gut.
17 Genome-wide Association Study for Heat Stress Tolerance in Swine Using Weighted Single-step GBLUP
Authors: Dodd Gabriella R , Fragomeni Breno O , Gray Kent A , Huang Yijian
Published: October 2021

The purpose of this study was to perform a genome-wide association study to determine the genomic regions associated with heat stress tolerance in swine as well as analyze the accuracy of prediction. Phenotypic information on carcass weight was available for 227,043 individuals from commercial farms in North Carolina and Missouri. Individuals were a commercial cross of a Duroc sire and a dam resulting from a Landrace and Large White cross. Genotypic information was available for 8,232 animals with 33,581 SNP. The pedigree file contained 553,448 animals. A 78 on the Temperature Humidity Index (THI) was used as a threshold for heat stress. A two-trait analysis was used with the phenotypes heat stress (trait one) and non-heat stress (trait two). Variance components were calculated via AIREML and breeding values were calculated using single step GBLUP (ssGBLUP). The heritability for trait one and two were calculated at 0.25 and 0.20, respectively, and the genetic correlation was calculated as 0.63. Validation was calculated for 163 genotyped sires with progeny in the last generation. The GEBV of complete data was used as the benchmark, and the accuracy was determined as the correlation between the GEBV of the reduced and complete data for the validation sires. Weighted ssGBLUP did not increase the accuracies, both methods showed a maximum accuracy of 0.32 for trait one and 0.54 for trait two. Manhattan Plots for trait one, trait two, and the difference between the two were created from the results of the two-trait analysis. Windows explaining around 1% of the genetic variance were identified. The only difference between the two traits was a peak at chromosome 14. The genetic correlation suggests different mechanisms for growth under heat stress. The GWAS results show that both traits are highly polygenic, with few genomic regions explaining more than 1% of variance.
18 Genetic and Phenotypic Parameters for Aleutian Disease Tests and Their Correlations with Pelt Quality, Reproductive Performance, Packed-cell Volume, and Harvest Length in Mink
Authors: Hu Guoyu , Ngoc Do Duy , Karimi Karim , Miar Younes
Published: October 2021

Aleutian disease (AD) is an untreatable immune complex disease in mink and brings tremendous economic losses to the mink industry globally. The ineffectiveness of culling, immunoprophylaxis, and medical treatment in controlling AD have urged mink farmers to select AD-resilient mink based on the AD tests. However, the genetic analysis of these tests and their correlations with AD-resilient traits have not been investigated. In this study, data on 5,824 mink were used to estimate the genetic and phenotypic parameters of four AD tests, including two systems of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), counterimmunoelectrophoresis (CIEP), and iodine agglutination test (IAT), and their genetic and phenotypic correlations with pelt quality, reproductive performance, packed-cell volume (PCV), and harvest length (HL). Significance (P < 0.05) of fixed effects (sex, year, color type, the number of mating, and dam age), covariates (age at blood sampling and age at harvest), and random effects (additive genetic, permanent environmental, and maternal effects) were determined using univariate models. The genetic and phenotypic parameters for all traits were estimated under bivariate models using ASReml 4.1. Estimated heritabilities (±SE) were 0.39±0.05, 0.61±0.07, 0.11±0.07, and 0.26±0.05 for antigen-based ELISA (ELISA-G), virus capsid protein-based ELISA, CIEP, and IAT, respectively. The ELISA-G showed moderate repeatability (0.58±0.04) and significant (P < 0.05) negative genetic correlations (±SE) with reproductive performance traits (from -0.41±0.16 to -0.49±0.12), PCV (-0.53±0.09), and HL (-0.45±0.16). These results indicated that the selection of mink with a lower ELISA-G score could not only decrease the anti-AMDV antibody level and the extent of anemia but also improve the female reproductive performance and the harvest length of mink without causing adverse influences on the pelt quality. Hence, ELISA-G could be applied as an indicator for genetic selection of AD-resilient mink and help mink farmers reduce the adverse effects of AD.