bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Comparative end-of-life communication and support in hospitalised decedents before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a retrospective regional cohort study in Ottawa, Canada
Authors: Lawlor Peter , Parsons Henrique , Adeli Samantha Rose , Besserer Ella , Cohen Leila , Gratton Valérie , Murphy Rebekah , Warmels Grace , Bruni Adrianna , Kabir Monisha , Noel Chelsea , Heidinger Brandon , Anderson Koby , Arsenault-Mehta Kyle , Wooller Krista , Lapenskie Julie , Webber Colleen , Bedard Daniel , Enright Paula , Desjardins Isabelle , Bhimji Khadija , Dyason Claire , Iyengar Akshai , Bush Shirley H , Isenberg Sarina , Tanuseputro Peter , Vanderspank-Wright Brandi , Downar James
Published: June 2022

Objective

To compare end-of-life in-person family presence, patient–family communication and healthcare team–family communication encounters in hospitalised decedents before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design

In a regional multicentre retrospective cohort study, electronic health record data were abstracted for a prepandemic group (pre-COVID) and two intrapandemic (March–August 2020, wave 1) groups, one COVID-19 free (COVID-ve) and one with COVID-19 infection (COVID+ve). Pre-COVID and COVID-ve groups were matched 2:1 (age, sex and care service) with the COVID+ve group.

Setting

One quaternary and two tertiary adult, acute care hospitals in Ottawa, Canada.

Participants

Decedents (n=425): COVID+ve (n=85), COVID-ve (n=170) and pre-COVID (n=170).

Main outcome measures

End-of-life (last 48 hours) in-person family presence and virtual (video) patient–family communication, and end-of-life (last 5 days) virtual team–family communication encounter occurrences were examined using logistic regression with ORs and 95% CIs. End-of-life (last 5 days) rates of in-person and telephone team–family communication encounters were examined using mixed-effects negative binomial models with incidence rate ratios (IRRs) and 95% CIs.

Results

End-of-life in-person family presence decreased progressively across pre-COVID (90.6%), COVID-ve (79.4%) and COVID+ve (47.1%) groups: adjusted ORs=0.38 (0.2–0.73) and 0.09 (0.04–0.17) for COVID-ve and COVID+ve groups, respectively. COVID-ve and COVID+ve groups had reduced in-person but increased telephone team–family communication encounters: IRRs=0.76 (0.64–0.9) and 0.61 (0.47–0.79) for in-person, and IRRs=2.6 (2.1–3.3) and 4.8 (3.7–6.1) for telephone communications, respectively. Virtual team–family communication encounters occurred in 17/85 (20%) and 10/170 (5.9%) of the COVID+ve and COVID-ve groups, respectively: adjusted OR=3.68 (1.51–8.95).

Conclusions

In hospitalised COVID-19 pandemic wave 1 decedents, in-person family presence and in-person team–family communication encounters decreased at end of life, particularly in the COVID+ve group; virtual modalities were adopted for communication, and telephone use increased in team–family communication encounters. The implications of these communication changes for the patient, family and healthcare team warrant further study.
Virtual respiratory therapy delivered through a smartphone app: a mixed-methods randomised usability study
Authors: Baxter Clarence Anthony , Carroll Julie-Anne , Keogh Brendan , Vandelanotte Corneel
Published: June 2022

Introduction

A new smartphone app (QUT Inspire) has been developed to detect inspiratory sound and deliver virtual incentive spirometry (ISy), a respiratory therapy technique used in postoperative recuperation, management of some chronic conditions and with potential applications in SARS-CoV-2 rehabilitation. The aim of this study was to compare the usability of this new app with a clinical ISy device as measured by effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction.

Methods

In this mixed-methods randomised usability study, healthy volunteers (aged 39.2±12.2 years, n=24) compared inspirations using the QUT Inspire app and a Triflo II clinical ISy device. A post-test questionnaire and a semi-structured interview explored dimensions of usability regarding the new app.

Results

The duration of inspirations performed using the QUT Inspire app (7.3±2.0 s) were comparable with use of the Triflo II ISy device (7.5±2.3 s). No artefacts arising from the order of device testing were identified. App users held their phones adjacent but not proximal to their mouths (13.6±6.4 cm), notwithstanding instructions to keep the phone less than 5 cm away for optimal breath sound detection. The use of onscreen text or video instructional materials did not result in a significant reduction in this distance. Participants reported clear preferences for the app (100%, n=24) to motivate persistence with repeated inspirations. App gamification features such as a timer (75%, n=18) and breath counter (83.3%, n=20) were well regarded. Analysis of semi-structured interviews identified four main themes arising from this study: visual reward from responsive app animations, clinical look and feel influencing credibility, perceived effort affecting engagement and selective adoption of gamification features.

Conclusion

This study demonstrates that a virtual ISy app can be effective, efficient and have high satisfaction. Improvements informed by this research include use of additional phone sensors to optimise sound detection and minimising the distance that phones are held from the user’s mouth. Further research in randomised controlled trials are needed to evaluate performance of this app in clinical contexts where ISy is currently employed.
Non-redundant high-integrity position estimation robust to sensor bias jumps using MGLR
Authors: Öman Lundin Gustav , Mouyon Philippe , Manecy Augustin , Hendeby Gustaf
Published: June 2022

This paper presents and experimentally evaluates an algorithm named Multiple Generalized Likelihood Ratio (MGLR) for detecting and estimating multiple consecutive measurement biases appearing frequently, in the case of non-redundant sensors; typically the case for a small drone or remotely piloted aerial vehicle. The algorithm itself is based on the Generalized Likelihood Ratio (GLR) algorithm by Willsky for bias detection and estimation, and introduces additional steps for continuously estimating, compensating, and eliminating measurement biases after detection. An experimental campaign using a car-mounted IMU and GNSS receiver in an urban environment shows the effectiveness of the approach to increase accuracy, consistency, and integrity of the estimate in non-redundant estimation with position measurements subject to time-varying bias.
Electronic structure and optical properties of Fe-doped TiO2 by ab initio calculations
Authors: Nawaf Sameer , Ibrahim Ahmed K. , Al-Jobory Alaa A.
Published: June 2022

We investigate the electronic structure and the optical characterizations of iron incorporating titanium dioxide by ab initio method by employing the density functional theory. We show that Fe atoms can be incorporated into TiO2 by replacing Ti atoms in the crystal structure of [Formula: see text] according to the ratio [Formula: see text], 0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 1.00. The partial density of state and the energy band structure of the optimized structure have been calculated. Adding Fe atoms to the TiO2 causes shrinkage of the bands in the band structure that leads to a decrease in the energy gap of the pure titanium dioxide crystal structure. The results of the optical properties showed that the titanium dioxide has no absorption in the range of the visible light and detect only in the ultraviolet light (UV). The optical constant absorption coefficient, reflectivity and real and imaginary parts of the dielectric constant have been calculated. It exhibits that the properties of pure TiO2 will change by adding the Fe atoms to the structure, which leads to a significant enhancement in the optical characteristics.
Interfacial interaction of parallel carbon nanotubes under external electric field: A first-principles study
Authors: Xu Chi , Li Yang , Wang Linfeng , Tao Jing , Dai Zhendong
Published: June 2022

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are widely used in high-quality and high-performance nanoscale devices. Using first-principles calculations, we studied the interaction at the interface between parallel CNTs with different electrical properties under applied transverse electric fields. Typical metallic armchairs (6,6) and semiconducting zigzag (10,0) CNTs were considered. The effect of axial moving of one of the CNTs on the interface electronic structure and interaction energy for different interface types was analyzed. Our calculations revealed that interfacial adhesion of CNTs increased with the increase of the external electric field. At this, the interface charge redistribution for (6,6) and (10,0) CNTs showed different polarization responses. By analyzing the density of states (DOS), a correlation between the semiconductor-to-metal transition in parallel (10,0) CNTs and interface interaction under applied external electric field was demonstrated. Obtained results provide a theoretical background for the application of the adhesion properties of CNTs in future nanoscale devices.
Symmetric extreme multistability and memristor initial-offset boosting in a new 5D four-wing hyperchaotic system based on dual memristors
Authors: Li Xiaoxia , Liu Dongjie , Zheng Chi , Xue Xiaopeng , Xu Guizhi
Published: June 2022

Based on a 5D two-wing hyperchaotic system with dual memristors, a new unified 5D four-wing hyperchaotic system based on dual memristors is proposed, which has four cases and can exhibit three different structures of four-wing attractors. This paper studies the dynamic behaviors of one of these cases by the phase diagrams, bifurcation diagrams, Lyapunov exponents, etc. Of particular surprise, this system has a space equilibrium and can exhibit the two groups of extreme multistability phenomenon of symmetric distribution about the origin. In addition, the striking and complex memristor initial boosting behaviors are investigated in this paper, which shows that the interesting phenomenon is nonlinear and different attractor structures with four-wing and two-wing. When a single parameter is changed, the initial boosting behavior has obvious changes, indicating the memristive initial conditions and parameters have an important influence on the position shift of the attractors. Finally, the new four-wing system is realized by Multisim circuit simulation, which verifies the feasibility of the new system.
Sensitivity of entanglement measures in bipartite pure quantum states
Authors: Georgiev Danko D. , Gudder Stanley P.
Published: June 2022

Entanglement measures quantify the amount of quantum entanglement that is contained in quantum states. Typically, different entanglement measures do not have to be partially ordered. The presence of a definite partial order between two entanglement measures for all quantum states, however, allows for meaningful conceptualization of sensitivity to entanglement, which will be greater for the entanglement measure that produces the larger numerical values. Here, we have investigated the partial order between the normalized versions of four entanglement measures based on Schmidt decomposition of bipartite pure quantum states, namely, concurrence, tangle, entanglement robustness and Schmidt number. We have shown that among those four measures, the concurrence and the Schmidt number have the highest and the lowest sensitivity to quantum entanglement, respectively. Further, we have demonstrated how these measures could be used to track the dynamics of quantum entanglement in a simple quantum toy model composed of two qutrits. Lastly, we have employed state-dependent entanglement statistics to compute measurable correlations between the outcomes of quantum observables in agreement with the uncertainty principle. The presented results could be helpful in quantum applications that require monitoring of the available quantum resources for sharp identification of temporal points of maximal entanglement or system separability.
Painlevé analysis, dark and singular structures for pseudo-parabolic type equations
Authors: Arshed Saima , Raza Nauman , Kaplan Melike
Published: June 2022

In this paper, two important pseudo-parabolic type equations are studied for extracting soliton solutions via the generalized projective riccati equations method. These equations are Oskolkov equation and Oskolkov–Benjamin–Bona–Mahony–Burgers equation. The proposed method extracts dark soliton and singular soliton. Furthermore, the Painlevé test (P-test) has also been employed on pseudo-parabolic type equations for investigating integrability. The proposed equations are proved to be integrable by P-test. The numerical simulations have also been carried out by 3D and 2D graphs of some of the obtained solutions.
A Novel Morphological Feature Extraction Approach for ECG Signal Analysis Based on Generalized Synchrosqueezing Transform, Correntropy Function and Adaptive Heuristic Framework in FPGA
Authors: Ganatra Miloni M. , Vithalani Chandresh H.
Published: June 2022

Nowadays, a computer-aided diagnosis system is required to monitor the cardiac patients continuously and detecting the heart diseases automatically. In this paper, a new field programmable gate array-based morphological feature extraction approach is proposed for electrocardiogram signal analysis. The proposed architecture is mainly based on the Generalized Synchrosqueezing transform but a detrended fluctuation analyzer is applied in the reconstruction stage for capturing the maximum information of QRS complexes and P-waves by eliminating a set of noisy intrinsic modes. Then, a correntropy envelope is determined from the QRS enhanced signal for localizing the QRS region accurately. Also, an adaptive heuristic framework is introduced to detect the true P-wave from the P-wave enhanced reconstructed signal by analyzing both the positive and negative amplitudes. In addition, a root mean square Error estimation-based adaptive thresholding approach is used to estimate the T-wave after removing the P-QRS complexes. The proposed architecture has been implemented on field programmable gate array using the Xilinx Vertex 7 platform. The performance of the proposed architecture is validated by performing a comparative study between the resultant performances and those attained with state-of-the-art feature descriptors, in terms of Sensitivity, accuracy, positive prediction, error rate and field programmable gate array resources estimation. The proposed sensitivity, accuracy and positive prediction are 99.84%, 99.85% and 99.86% for QRS detection approach. The proposed sensitivity, accuracy and positive prediction are 99.45%, 99.23% and 99.78% for P-wave detection approach. The proposed sensitivity, accuracy and positive prediction are 99.58%, 99.65% and 100% for T-wave detection approach. The simulation results show that the proposed architecture overtakes existing designs and minimizes hardware complexity, which proves the suitability of this approach on real-time applications of electrocardiogram signals.
SaARSP: An Architecture for Systolic-Array Acceleration of Recurrent Spiking Neural Networks
Authors: Lee Jeong-Jun , Zhang Wenrui , Xie Yuan , Li Peng
Published: June 2022

Spiking neural networks (SNNs) are brain-inspired event-driven models of computation with promising ultra-low energy dissipation. Rich network dynamics emergent in recurrent spiking neural networks (R-SNNs) can form temporally based memory, offering great potential in processing complex spatiotemporal data. However, recurrence in network connectivity produces tightly coupled data dependency in both space and time, rendering hardware acceleration of R-SNNs challenging. We present the first work to exploit spatiotemporal parallelisms to accelerate the R-SNN-based inference on systolic arrays using an architecture called SaARSP. We decouple the processing of feedforward synaptic connections from that of recurrent connections to allow for the exploitation of parallelisms across multiple time points. We propose a novel time window size optimization (TWSO) technique, to further explore the temporal granularity of the proposed decoupling in terms of optimal time window size and reconfiguration of the systolic array considering layer-dependent connectivity to boost performance. Stationary dataflow and time window size are jointly optimized to trade off between weight data reuse and movements of partial sums, the two bottlenecks in latency and energy dissipation of the accelerator. The proposed systolic-array architecture offers a unifying solution to an acceleration of both feedforward and recurrent SNNs, and delivers 4,000X EDP improvement on average for different R-SNN benchmarks over a conventional baseline.
Good Law to Fight Bad Bugs: Legal Responses to Epidemics
Authors: Heimer Carol A. , Davis Clay
Published: June 2022

Although epidemics are generally understood as lying within the domain of biomedicine, legal and social arrangements play crucial roles in determining whether or not infectious disease outbreaks grow into epidemics and even pandemics. Yet epidemics are challenging terrain for legal regulation. Because epidemics cross political borders and span jurisdictional boundaries, funding for epidemic prevention, preparedness, and response is always inadequate and coordination is difficult. Because epidemics require rapid and nimble responses, governments and international organizations often declare states of emergency, thereby evading some of the usual strictures of law. And because they involve massive uncertainty and rapidly evolving health crises, they require legal actors to work more quickly and with lower standards of proof than is common in law and to intrude on the turf of medical and scientific professionals. Legal contributions to pandemic management could be improved if legal measures such as global treaties and domestic public health law took account of these special features of epidemics.
Emerging Concepts in Cholera Vaccine Design
Authors: Sit Brandon , Fakoya Bolutife , Waldor Matthew K.
Published: June 2022

Cholera is a severe diarrheal disease caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae and constitutes a significant public health threat in many areas of the world. V. cholerae infection elicits potent and long-lasting immunity, and efforts to develop cholera vaccines have been ongoing for more than a century. Currently available inactivated two-dose oral cholera vaccines are increasingly deployed to both prevent and actively curb cholera outbreaks, and they are key components of the global effort to eradicate cholera. However, these killed whole-cell vaccines have several limitations, and a variety of new oral and nonoral cholera vaccine platforms have recently been developed. Here, we review emerging concepts in cholera vaccine design and implementation that have been driven by insights from human and animal studies. As a prototypical vaccine-preventable disease, cholera continues to be an excellent target for the development and application of cutting-edge technologies and platforms that may transform vaccinology.
Exotic Higgs Decays
Authors: Cepeda María , Gori Stefania , Martinez Outschoorn Verena Ingrid , Shelton Jessie
Published: June 2022

Exotic decays of the Standard Model (SM)-like Higgs boson into beyond-the-SM particles are predicted in a wide range of well-motivated theories. The enormous samples of Higgs bosons that have been and will be produced at the Large Hadron Collider thus constitute one of the key discovery opportunities at that facility, particularly in the upcoming high-statistics, high-luminosity run. Here we review recent theoretical work on models that predict or accommodate exotic Higgs decays, survey the status of current experimental searches, and look forward to future capabilities at dedicated Higgs factories and beyond.
War, Conflict, and Food Insecurity
Authors: Shemyakina Olga
Published: June 2022

This article reviews the literature at the intersection of war, armed conflict, and food security, focusing on intergroup violent conflicts such as interstate conflict, civil war, insurgencies, state violence toward civilians, riots, and nonstate conflict. We briefly discuss recent trends in conflict and food security and note the channels through which conflict may impact food security in developing countries. Next, we review the quantitative literature, studying the pathways between conflict and food security and their effects on child health and household coping strategies, displacement, changes in factors of production, market and travel restrictions, and insurgent predation. The effect of food insecurity on conflict, related to limited access to land and shocks to commodity prices, is discussed. We briefly survey the effects of aid and assistance programs and then discuss the connection between climate change, conflict, and food security. The review concludes by identifying topics in this field that are ripe for future research.
METTL3-mediated m6A modification promotes processing and maturation of pri-miRNA-19a to facilitate nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell proliferation and invasion
Authors: Gong Yongqian , Jiang Qingshan , Liu Lijun , Liao Qingyun , Yu Jing , Xiang Zheng , Luo Xinggu
Published: June 2022

The interplay between N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification and microRNAs (miRs) participates in cancer progression. This study is conducted to explore the role of miR-19a-3p in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) cell proliferation and invasion. Reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction and Western blot showed that miR-19a-3p was upregulated in NPC tissues and cells and related to poor prognosis, methyltransferase-like 3 (METTL3) was highly expressed, whereas BMP and activin membrane-bound inhibitor ( BAMBI) was weakly expressed in NPC tissues and cells. miR-19a-3p downregulation inhibited cell proliferation and invasion, whereas miR-19a-3p overexpression played the opposite role. m6A quantification and m6A RNA immunoprecipitation assays showed that METTL3-mediated m6A modification promoted the processing and maturation of pri-miR-19a via DiGeorge syndrome critical region gene 8 (DGCR8). Dual-luciferase assay showed that BAMBI was a target of miR-19a-3p. The rescue experiments showed that BAMBI downregulation reversed the role of miR-19a-3p inhibition in NPC cells. A xenograft tumor model showed that METTL3 downregulation inhibited tumor growth via the miR-19a-3p/BAMBI in vivo. Overall, our findings elicited that METTL3-mediated m6A modification facilitated the processing and maturation of pri-miR-19a via DGCR8 to upregulate miR-19a-3p, and miR-19a-3p inhibited BAMBI expression to promote NPC cell proliferation and invasion, thus driving NPC progression.
MicroRNA cargo of extracellular vesicles released by skeletal muscle fibro-adipogenic progenitor cells is significantly altered with disuse atrophy and IL-1β deficiency
Authors: Parker Emily , Mendhe Bharati , Ruan Ling , Marshall Brendan , Zhi Wenbo , Liu Yutao , Fulzele Sadanand , Tang Yao Liang , McGee-Lawrence Meghan , Lee Tae Jin , Sharma Ashok , Johnson Maribeth , Chen Jie , Hamrick Mark W.
Published: June 2022

Fibro-adipogenic progenitor cells (FAPs) are a population of stem cells in skeletal muscle that play multiple roles in muscle repair and regeneration through their complex secretome; however, it is not well understood how the FAP secretome is altered with muscle disuse atrophy. Previous work suggests that the inflammatory cytokine IL-1β is increased in FAPs with disuse and denervation. Inflammasome activation and IL-1β secretion are also known to stimulate the release of extracellular vesicles (EVs). Here, we examined the microRNA (miRNA) cargo of FAP-derived, platelet-derived growth factor receptor A (PDGFRα+) EVs from hindlimb muscles of wild-type and IL-1β KO mice after 14 days of single-hindlimb immobilization. Hindlimb muscles were isolated from mice following the immobilization period, and PDGFRα+ extracellular vesicles were isolated using size-exclusion chromatography and immunoprecipitation. Microarrays were performed to detect changes in miRNAs with unloading and IL-1β deficiency. Results indicate that the PDGFRα+, FAP-derived EVs show a significant increase in miRNAs, such as miR-let-7c, miR-let-7b, miR-181a, and miR-124. These miRNAs have previously been demonstrated to play important roles in cellular senescence and muscle atrophy. Furthermore, the expression of these same miRNAs was not significantly altered in FAP-derived EVs isolated from the immobilized IL-1β KO. These data suggest that disuse-related activation of IL-1β can mediate the miRNA cargo of FAP-derived EVs, contributing directly to the release of senescence- and atrophy-related miRNAs. Therapies targeting FAPs in settings associated with muscle disuse atrophy may therefore have the potential to preserve muscle function and enhance muscle recovery.
Diffraction Wave Attributes to Identify Small-Scale Geological Bodies
Authors: Shu Mengcheng
Published: June 2022

Aiming at the difficulties in the fine description of small- and medium-scale geological bodies in storage, this paper develops a method for describing geological bodies using diffracted wave data and systematically explains the effectiveness of the method through model calculations. Finally, this method is applied to fractures. In the fine description of the type of reservoir and the intrusive rock mass of the reservoir, two diffraction wave attribute analysis methods are used to achieve the fine description of the distribution law of the above small-scale geological bodies. The principal component analysis method is proposed to extract the diffraction from the seismic wave field. Information, the wave field is separated through the kinematics and dynamics of the diffraction wave, and the obtained diffraction wave field better reflects the distribution law of small-scale geological bodies. Verified by examples, the diffraction wave analysis method can be more refined and a comprehensive description of the distribution of small-scale geological bodies.
Diffusion‐Weighted Imaging Combined with Perfusion‐Weighted Imaging under Segmentation Algorithm in the Diagnosis of Melanoma
Authors: Shi Chuankui , Ge Peng , Zhao Yuping , Huang Guobao
Published: June 2022

This study is aimed at exploring the value of magnetic resonance diffusion‐weighted imaging (DWI) combined with perfusion‐weighted imaging (PWI) for diagnosing melanoma under a three‐dimensional (3D) hybrid segmentation algorithm. 40 patients with melanoma were collected as research objects and subjected to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examination. A segmentation model was constructed and the original images were input. The noise contained in the images was preprocessed and normalized, and the mixed level set segmentation was performed after linear fusion of the images. Imaging findings were analyzed to find that the combined diagnosis of DWI and PWI with a 3D hybrid segmentation algorithm had the advantage of being clear and accurate. 10 primary cases were detected, which occurred in the cerebral meninges; 30 cases of metastases occurred inside the skull, mostly adjacent to the surface of the brain. The typical T1‐weighted imaging (T1WI) and T2‐weighted imaging (T2WI) of melanoma showed high signal and low signal, respectively, and the enhanced scan showed obvious enhancement. Atypical melanoma was manifested variously in MRI; a few had cystic necrosis, and an enhanced scan of the solid area revealed significant enhancement. Patients with multiple metastatic melanomas mainly showed low signal on DWI, and patients with primary or single metastatic melanoma mainly showed high signal or mixed high signal. Patients with perfusion imaging showed high perfusion on PWI. The 3D hybrid segmentation algorithm helped to improve the accuracy of DWI combined with PWI in the diagnosis of melanoma. This work provided a certain reference for the clinical diagnosis of melanoma.
Isoschaftoside Reverses Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease via Activating Autophagy In Vivo and In Vitro
Authors: Su Yanze , Kang Yixing , Yi Jing , Lin Qirui , Zhang Chaochuang , Lin Zewei , Yan Zilong , Qu Jianhua , Liu Jikui
Published: June 2022

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common metabolic liver disease globally, and the incidence of NAFLD has been increasing rapidly year by year. Currently, there is no effective pharmacotherapy for NAFLD. Therefore, studies are urgently needed to explore therapeutic drugs for NAFLD. In this study, we show that isoschaftoside (ISO) dramatically reduces lipid deposition in cells. Meanwhile, ISO treatment reverses the NAFLD and reduces hepatic steatosis in mice. Importantly, we reveal that ISO suppresses the expression of light-chain 3-II (LC3-II) and SQSTM1/p62 in palmitic acid (PA) induced autophagy inhibition in the cell model and the NAFLD mouse model, which suggests that ISO might reverse NAFLD through regulating autophagy flux. We propose that ISO might alleviate hepatic steatosis in NAFLD via regulating autophagy machinery. Consequently, our study suggests that ISO might be of potential clinical value in the field of NAFLD therapy. ISO might have the potential for future therapeutic application.
Enriched Environment-Induced Neuroprotection against Cerebral Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury Might Be Mediated via Enhancing Autophagy Flux and Mitophagy Flux
Authors: Zhang Qi-Qi , Luo Lu , Liu Mei-Xi , Wang Chuan-Jie , Wu Yi , Yu Ke-Wei
Published: June 2022

Background. Enriched environment (EE) can protect the brain against damages caused by an ischemic stroke; however, the underlying mechanism remains elusive. Autophagy and mitochondria quality control are instrumental in the pathogenesis of ischemic stroke. In this study, we investigated whether and how autophagy and mitochondria quality control contribute to the protective effect of EE in the acute phase of cerebral ischemia–reperfusion injury. Methods. We exposed transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO) mice to EE or standard condition (SC) for 7 days and then studied them for neurological deficits, autophagy and inflammation-related proteins, and mitochondrial morphology and function. Results. Compared to tMCAO mice in the SC group, those in the EE group showed fewer neurological deficits, relatively downregulated inflammation, higher LC3 expression, higher mitochondrial Parkin levels, higher mitochondrial fission factor dynamin-related protein-1 (Drp1) levels, lower p62 expression, and lower autophagy inhibitor mTOR expression. Furthermore, we found that the EE group showed a higher number of mitophagosomes and normal mitochondria, fewer mitolysosomes, and relatively increased mitochondrial membrane potential. Conclusion. These results suggested that EE enhances autophagy flux by inhibiting mTOR and enhances mitophagy flux via recruiting Drp1 and Parkin to eliminate dysfunctional mitochondria, which in turn inhibits inflammation and alleviates neurological deficits. Limitations. The specific mechanisms through which EE promotes autophagy and mitophagy and the signaling pathways that link them with inflammation need further study.
A Review on Medicinal Plants Used in the Management of Respiratory Problems in Ethiopia over a Twenty-Year Period (2000–2021)
Authors: Haile Abebe Ayele , Tsegay Berhanu Abraha , Seid Ali , Adnew Wubet , Moges Admasu
Published: June 2022

This review is aimed at assessing and compiling the different ethnomedicinal studies in different parts of Ethiopia used to treat respiratory diseases. The data were collected from different published research papers through searching the web sources such as PubMed, Science Direct, Google Scholar, and other related websites. The important search terminologies included ethnobotany, respiratory diseases, medicinal plants, and Ethiopia. For this, a total of 65 articles of recent publications (from 2000 to May 2021 years) that provided full information about the use of medicinal plant species to treat respiratory disorder diseases in Ethiopia were consulted. Based on this, a total of 96 medicinal plants belonging to 57 families were reviewed. The commonly recorded families used to manage respiratory problems were Asteraceae, Lamiaceae, Solanaceae, and Fabaceae. Herbs and shrubs were the dominant plant growth forms. Due to the easiest form of their preparation for treating respiratory disorders, leaves are the most cited plant parts followed by roots. Crushing and pounding are useful methods of remedy preparation to treat respiratory diseases. This review concluded that different medicinal plants have a significant contribution in combating serious respiratory problems in Ethiopia. Hence, the complied review of medicinal plants on the treatment of respiratory problems would play a great role in further pharmacological and phytochemical investigations in developing new drugs used for the treatment of respiratory problems and in the conservation of these important medicinal plants.
A Dramatic Response of a Thyroid Lymphoma to R-CHOP Chemotherapy Reversing Mechanical Airway Obstruction and Respiratory Failure
Authors: Alnahas Zeinab , Horani Mohamad H.
Published: June 2022

Primary thyroid lymphoma is an extremely rare thyroid malignancy that usually occurs in patients with preexisting Hashimoto thyroiditis and commonly presents in older women. The most common type is non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma of B-cell origin, particularly diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), which is primarily treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy. We reported an 83-year-old woman with a past medical history of hypothyroidism who suffered dysphagia and dyspnea secondary to a large thyroid mass. Her CT neck scan showed an enlarged thyroid mass with pathological cervical lymphadenopathy and marked tracheal narrowing. The ultrasound-guided biopsy confirmed the diagnosis of DLBCL of the thyroid. A few days later, she experienced respiratory distress and failure that required endotracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation. She was not considered for tracheostomy or surgical interventions, and after discussion with her family, the decision was made to start R-CHOP therapy (rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone) which resulted in a marked reduction of the thyroid size and reversal of the mechanical airway obstruction, enabling her extubation. This case report demonstrated the dramatic response of a large thyroid lymphoma to R-CHOP therapy, reducing the thyroid size and its fatal obstructive complications, including mechanical airway obstruction, within a few days of the initiation of R-CHOP therapy.
Secure Two-Party Computation Based on Fast Cut-and-Choose Bilateral Oblivious Transfer
Authors: Wang Yongjun , Xiong Kun , Tian He , Zhang Jing , Yan Xixi
Published: June 2022

In secure two-party computation, each party has its input and wants to jointly compute a function from which it obtains the output corresponding to its respective inputs. For achieving security against a malicious adversary, an effective approach is using cut-and-choose, which requires the circuit constructor P1 to construct S copies of the circuit C (C is used to compute the function F). The circuit evaluator P2 selects S∕2 circuits to open for the check. If these S∕2 circuits are correctly constructed, P2 assumes that the remaining S∕2 circuits are also correctly constructed and uses the remaining circuits to compute. However, this method introduces significant computational complexity and interactive rounds, mainly due to more circuits that must be used for security purposes and the need for multiple interactions to transmit the keys. In this paper, regarding the issue above, we present a novel secure two-party computation protocol, and it can achieve security against the malicious adversary. Concretely, we still use the idea of cut-and-choose but improve the cut-and-choose oblivious transfer (CCOT) of the usual secure two-party computation protocol into cut-and-choose bilateral oblivious transfer (CCBOT) and propose a variant of it that we call batch single-choice CCBOT, which makes our protocol only needs two rounds of interaction to complete the transmission of all keys and 28Sl of exponentiations. In addition, we use a check mechanism to prevent the case that p1 cheats, but P2 is powerless. Our proposed protocol with an error probability of 2–s of P1 significantly optimizes the communication rounds and computation overheads, solves the selective failure attack, and ensures the consistency of the input.
Protection and Restriction of Grain-Related Intellectual Property Rights in the Context of Food Security Based on Industrial Internet of Things
Authors: Zhang Zhenyu , Ge Zhuanzhuan
Published: June 2022

New technologies such as the internet of things and cloud computing are expected to leverage farming development and introduce more robots and artificial intelligence in farming. Food security is an important strategic issue for national economy and security. Intellectual property is a matter of food security. Its power not only plays a role of promoting food scientific and technological innovation, stimulating private and multinational seed industry investment, saving the cost of research and development, and improving agricultural management capacity but also may damage the biodiversity, increase farmers’ burden, block food technological innovation and diffusion, increase the farmers’ litigation risks, etc. Therefore, from legislation, on the one hand, we should rationally use the current intellectual property system to protect the source of grain-related intellectual property rights, set up the concept of “great protection” of grain-related intellectual property rights, and establish the protection system and operation mechanism with the participation of multiple-related institutions. On the other hand, we should restrict grain-related intellectual property rights according to law to prevent it from controlling the market, restricting competition, hindering innovation, and seeking illegitimate interests. We need to coordinate the relationship between intellectual property rights, food rights and farmers’ rights, and rationally control the genetic utilization restriction technology.
Design of Semiautomatic Digital Creation System for Electronic Music Based on Recurrent Neural Network
Authors: Duan Yonghui , Wang Jianping
Published: June 2022

Semiautomated digital creation is increasingly important in the manipulation of electronic music. How to realize the learning of local effective features of audio data is a difficult point in the current research field. Based on recurrent neural network theory, this paper designs a semiautomatic digital creation system for electronic music for digital manipulation and genre classification. The recurrent neural network improves the transmission of electronic music information between the input and output of the network by adopting dense connections consistent with DenseNet and adopts an inception-like structure for the autonomous selection of effective recursive nuclear electronic music categories. In the simulation process, the prediction method based on semiautomatic digital audio clips is also adopted, which pays more attention to the learning of local effective features of audio data, which gives the model the ability to create audio samples of different lengths and improves the model’s support for creative tasks in different scenarios. It includes the determination of the number of neurons, the selection of the function of neurons, the determination of the connection method, and the specific learning algorithm rules, and then the training samples are formed. The experimental results show that the recurrent neural network exhibits powerful feature extraction ability and classification ability of music information. The 10-fold cross-validation on GTZAN dataset and ISMIR2004 dataset has obtained 88.7% and 87.68%, surpassing similar ones. The model has reached a leading level. After further use of the MSD (Million Song Dataset) dataset for pre-semiautomatic training, the model effect has been further greatly improved. The accuracy rate on the dataset has been increased to 91.0% and 89.91%, respectively, which has improved the semiautomatic number and creative advancement.
Pressure Modification or Barrier Issues during Polymer Flooding Enhanced Oil Recovery
Authors: Dongmei Wang , Namie Shane , Seright Randall
Published: June 2022

Effective oil displacement from a reservoir requires adequate and properly directed pressure gradients in areas of high oil saturation. If the polymer bank is too large or too viscous during a polymer flood, the pressure drops from the injection well to the polymer front may act as a pressure modification or barrier by usurping most of the downstream driving force for oil displacement. Polymer injection pressures must be limited. The maximum allowable injection pressure is commonly constrained by caprock integrity, injection equipment, and/or regulations, even though fractures can be beneficial to polymer injectivity. This paper examines when the pressure-barrier concept limits the size and viscosity of the polymer bank during a polymer flood. Analytical and numerical methods are used to address this issue. We examine the relevance of the pressure modification concept for a wide variety of circumstances, including oil viscosities ranging from 10 cp to 1650 cp, vertical wells versus horizontal wells, single versus multiple layered reservoirs, permeability contrast, and crossflow between layers. We also examine the relation between the pressure-barrier concept and fractures and fracture extension during polymer injection. We demonstrate that in reservoirs with single layers, the pressure-barrier concept only limits the optimum viscosity of the injected polymer if the mobility of the polymer bank is less than the mobility of the displaced oil bank. The same is true for multizoned reservoirs with no crossflow between layers. Thus, for these cases, the optimum polymer viscosity is likely to be dictated by the mobility of the oil bank, unless other factors intervene. For multizoned reservoirs with free crossflow between layers, the situation is different. A compromise must be reached between injected polymer viscosity and the efficiency of oil recovery. This work is particularly relevant to viscous oil reservoirs where polymer viscosities are substantially lower than the oil viscosity.
Improved Graph Convolutional Neural Network for Dance Tracking and Pose Estimation
Authors: Zhang Liangliang
Published: June 2022

Movement recognition technology is widely used in various practical application scenarios, but there are few researches on dance movement recognition at present. Aiming at the problem of low accuracy of dance movement recognition due to complex pose changes in dance movements, this paper designed an improved graph convolutional neural network algorithm for dance tracking and pose estimation. In this method, the spatial and temporal characteristics of motion are extracted from the skeleton joint diagram of human body. Then, GCN (graph convolutional neural) is used to extract potential spatial information between skeleton nodes. Finally, LSTM (long short-term memory) extracts the time series features before and after human actions as a supplement and performs late fusion of the prediction outputs of the two networks, respectively, to improve the problem of insufficient generalization ability of single network. The experimental results show that this method can effectively improve the accuracy of dance movement recognition in general movement recognition data set and dance pose data set. It has certain application value in dance self-help teaching, professional dancer movement correction, and other application scenarios.
Salvianolic Acid B Attenuates Iopromide-Induced Renal Tubular Epithelial Cell Injury by Inhibiting the TLR4/NF-κB/NLRP3 Signaling Pathway
Authors: Pei Ming Xin , Dong Shu Jun , Gao Xin Yue , Luo Ting , Fan Dong , Jin Jun Feng , Zhao Xiao Duo , Chen Yan Ling
Published: June 2022

Postcontrast acute kidney injury (PC-AKI) is directly caused by the use of contrast, indicating a clear causal relationship between the contrast and the injury. Salvianolic acid B (Sal B), a water-soluble compound of Salvia miltiorrhiza, has a potent anti-inflammatory effect. We conducted a study to explore whether the protective effect of Sal B on iopromide-induced injury in human proximal tubular epithelial cells (HK-2 cells) is related to inhibition of the TLR4/NF-κB/NLRP3 signal pathway. The results showed that 100 μmol/L Sal B counteracted the decrease in cell viability, the increase of ROS and the number of apoptotic cells, and the decrease of mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm) induced by iopromide. Molecular docking analysis showed that Sal B binds TLR4 and NLRP3 proteins. Moreover, 100 μmol/L Sal B also decreased the expression of TLR4, NLRP3, ASC, Caspase-1, IL-18, IL-1β, TNF-α, p-NF-κB, cleaved caspase-3, and the ratio of Bax/Bcl-2 induced by iopromide. TAK-242, a TLR4 antagonist, was added to further explore the mechanism of Sal B. However, the cotreatment group with TAK-242 and Sal B had no significant difference in cell viability and apoptosis rate compared to the treatment group with TAK-242 or Sal B alone. These results indicated that Sal B can inhibit the TLR4/NF-κB/NLRP3 signal pathway, resulting in the alleviation of iopromide-induced HK-2 cell injury.
Cystathionine β-Synthase Regulates the Proliferation, Migration, and Invasion of Thyroid Carcinoma Cells
Authors: Jiang Qi-Ying , Li Jian-Mei , Jing Mi-Rong , Zhang Yan-Xia , Zhang Qian-Qian , Cai Chun-Bo , Wang Di , Qi Hui-Wen , Li Tao , Li Yan-Zhang , Ji Xin-Ying , Wu Dong-Dong
Published: June 2022

Thyroid cancer is considered to be one of the most common endocrine tumors worldwide. Cystathionine β-synthase (CBS) plays a crucial role in the occurrence of several types of malignancies. And yet, the mechanism of action of CBS in the growth of thyroid carcinoma cells is still unrevealed. We found that CBS level in thyroid carcinoma tissue was higher than that in adjacent normal tissue. The overexpression of CBS enhanced the proliferation, migration, and invasion of thyroid cancer cells, while the downregulation of CBS exerted reverse effects. CBS overexpression reduced the levels of cleaved caspase-3 and cleaved poly ADP-ribose polymerase in thyroid cancer cells, whereas CBS knockdown showed reverse trends. CBS overexpression decreased reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels but increased the levels of Wnt3a and phosphorylations of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), protein kinase B (PKB/AKT), mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), β-catenin, and glycogen synthase kinase-3 beta, while CBS knockdown exerted opposite effects. In addition, CBS overexpression promoted the growth of xenografted thyroid carcinoma, whereas CBS knockdown decreased the tumor growth by modulating angiogenesis, cell cycle, and apoptosis. Furthermore, aminooxyacetic acid (an inhibitor of CBS) dose-dependently inhibited thyroid carcinoma cell growth. CBS can regulate the proliferation, migration, and invasion of human thyroid cancer cells via ROS-mediated PI3K/AKT/mTOR and Wnt/β-catenin pathways. CBS can be a potential biomarker for diagnosing or prognosing thyroid carcinoma. Novel donors that inhibit the expression of CBS can be developed in the treatment of thyroid carcinoma.