bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Investigation of the antigenicity and protective efficacy of Leishmania promastigote membrane antigens in search of potential diagnostic and vaccine candidates against visceral leishmaniasis
Authors: Ejazi Sarfaraz Ahmad , Ghosh Smriti , Bhattacharyya Anirban , Kamran Mohd , Das Sonali , Bhowmick Sudipta , Rahaman Mehebubar , Goswami Rama Prosad , Ali Nahid 
Published: March 2020

Abstract
Background
Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), a parasitic disease causes serious medical consequences if treatment is delayed. Despite a decline in the number of VL cases in the Indian Subcontinent, commencement of the disease in newer areas continues to be a major concern. Although serological diagnosis mainly by immunochromatographic tests has been found to be effective, test for cure in different phases of treatment is still desired. Even though good prophylactic response has been obtained in murine models by a number of vaccine candidates, few have been proposed for human use.
Methods
In this study, nine antigenic components (31, 34, 36, 45, 51, 63, 72, 91 and 97 kDa) of Leishmania promastigote membrane antigens, LAg, were electroeluted and evaluated through ELISA to diagnose and distinguish active VL from one month cured and six month past infection. Further, to investigate the immunogenicity of electroeluted proteins, humans PBMCs of cured VL patients were stimulated with 31, 34, 51, 63, 72, and 91 kDa proteins.
Results
We found that 34 and 51 kDa fractions show 100% sensitivity and specificity with healthy controls and other diseases. After six months post treatment antibodies to 72 and 91 kDa antigens show a significant decline to almost normal levels. This suggests that 34 and 51 kDa are efficient in diagnosis whereas 72 and 91 kDa may be used to monitor treatment outcome. In another study, 51 and 63 kDa proteins demonstrated maximum ability for up-regulate IFN-g and IL-12 with minimum induction of IL-10 and TGF-β. The results indicating that 51 and 63 kDa proteins could be strong candidates for human immunization against VL. In contrast, 34 and 91 kDa demonstrated a reverse profile and may not be a good vaccine candidate.
Conclusions
The preliminary data obtained in this study proposes the potential of some of the antigens in Leishmania diagnosis and for test of cure. Additionally, some antigens demonstrated good immunoprophylactic cytokine production through T cell mediated immune response suggesting future vaccine candidates for VL. However, further studies are necessary to explore these antigens in diagnosis and to access long-term immune response.
Sentiment Analysis of Online Product Reviews Using DLMNN and Future Prediction of Online Product Using IANFIS
Authors: p Sasikala , Sheela Mary Immaculate 
Published: March 2020

Abstract
A major task that the NLP (Natural Language Processing) has to follow is Sentiments analysis (SA) or opinions mining (OM). For finding whether the user's attitude is positive, neutral or negative, it captures each user's opinion, belief, and feelings about the corresponding product. Through this, needed changes can well be done on the product for better customer contentment by the companies. Most of the existing techniques on SA for these online products encompass very low accuracy and also consumed more time during training. By utilizing a Deep learning modified neural network (DLMNN), a method is proposed for SA of online product review and by means of Improved Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (IANFIS), a method is proposed for future prediction of online products to trounce the above-stated issues. Initially, the data values are partitioned into Grade-based (GB), Content-based (CB), and Collaboration based (CLB) scenarios from the dataset. After that, each scenario goes through review analysis (RA) by utilizing DLMNN, which brings about the results as positive, negative, as well as neutral reviews. IANFIS performs a weighting factor and classification on the product for future prediction. In the experimental evaluation, the proposed system gave a better performance compared to the existing methods.
Mixture toxicity of zinc oxide nanoparticle and chemicals with different mode of action upon Vibrio fischeri
Authors: Chen Fen , Wu Ligui , Xiao Xiaoyu , Rong Lingling , Li Mi , zou xiaoming 
Published: March 2020

Abstract
Background: Zinc oxide nanoparticle ( n ZnO) and chemicals with different mode of action (MOA, i.e., narcotic and reactive) were frequently detected in the Yangtze River. Organisms are typically exposed to mixtures of n ZnO and other chemicals rather than individual n ZnO. Toxicity of n ZnO is caused by the dissolution of Zn 2+ , which has been proved in the field of single toxicity. However, it is still unclear whether the released Zn 2+ plays a critical role in the n ZnO toxicity of n ZnO-chemicals mixtures. In the present study, the binary mixture toxicity of n ZnO/Zn 2+ and chemicals with different MOA was investigated in acute (15 min) and chronic (12 h) toxicity test upon Vibrio fischeri ( V. fischeri ). The joint effects of n ZnO and tested chemicals were explored. Moreover, two classic models, concentration addition (CA) and independent action (IA) were applied to predict the toxicity of mixtures.
Results: The difference of toxicity unit (TU) values between the mixtures of Zn 2+ -chemicals with those of n ZnO-chemicals was not significant ( P > 0.05), not only in acute toxicity test but also in chronic toxicity test. The antagonistic or additive effects for n ZnO-chemicals can be observed in most mixtures, with the TU values ranging from 0.75-1.77 and 0.47-2.45 in acute toxicity test and chronic test, respectively. We also observed that the prediction accuracy of CA and IA models was not very well in the mixtures where the difference between the toxicity ratios of the components was small (less than about 10), with the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) values ranging from 0.14-0.67 for CA model and 0.17-0.51 for IA model, respectively.
Conclusion: We found that the dissolved Zn 2+ mainly accounted for the n ZnO toxicity in the mixtures of n ZnO-chemicals, and the joint effects of these mixtures were mostly antagonism and additivity. CA and IA models were unsuitable for predicting the mixture toxicity of n ZnO-chemicals at their equitoxic ratios.
Dissection of the mutation accumulation process during bacterial range expansions
Authors: Bosshard Lars , Peischl Stephan , Ackermann Martin , Excoffier Laurent 
Published: March 2020

Abstract
Background

Recent experimental work has shown that the evolutionary dynamics of bacteria expanding across space can differ dramatically from what we expect under well-mixed conditions. During spatial expansion, deleterious mutations can accumulate due to inefficient selection on the expansion front, potentially interfering with and modifying adaptive evolutionary processes.

Results

We used whole genome sequencing to follow the genomic evolution of 10 mutator Escherichia coli lines during 39 days ( ~1650 generations) of a spatial expansion, which allowed us to gain a temporal perspective on the interaction of adaptive and non-adaptive evolutionary processes during range expansions. We used elastic net regression to infer the positive or negative effects of mutations on colony growth. The colony size, measured after three day of growth, decreased at the end of the experiment in all 10 lines, and mutations accumulated at a nearly constant rate over the whole experiment. We find evidence that beneficial mutations accumulate primarily at an early stage of the experiment, leading to a non-linear change of colony size over time. Indeed, the rate of colony size expansion remains almost constant at the beginning of the experiment and then decreases after ~12 days of evolution. We also find that beneficial mutations are enriched in genes encoding transport proteins, and genes coding for the membrane structure, whereas deleterious mutations show no enrichment for any biological process.

Conclusions

Our experiment shows that beneficial mutations target specific biological functions mostly involved in inter or extra membrane processes, whereas deleterious mutations are randomly distributed over the whole genome. It thus appears that the interaction between genetic drift and the availability or depletion of beneficial mutations determines the change in fitness of bacterial populations during range expansion.
Performance of TGSE BLADE DWI compared with RESOLVE DWI in the diagnosis of cholesteatoma
Authors: Author) Yaru Sheng(Former Corresponding , Hong Rujian , Author) Yan Sha(New Corresponding , Zhang Zhongshuai , Zhou Kun , Fu Caixia 
Published: March 2020

Abstract
Background :Based on its high resolution in soft tissue, MRI, especially diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), is increasingly important in the evaluation of cholesteatoma. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of the 2D turbo gradient- and spin-echo (TGSE) diffusion-weighted (DW) pulse sequence with the BLADE trajectory technique in the diagnosis of cholesteatoma at 3T and to qualitatively and quantitatively compare image quality between the TGSE BLADE and RESOLVE methods.Method:A total of 42 patients (23 males, 19 females; age range, 7-65 years; mean, 40.1 years) with surgically confirmed cholesteatoma in the middle ear were enrolled in this study. All patients underwent DWI (both a prototype TGSE BLADE DWI sequence and the RESOLVE DWI sequence) using a 3-T scanner with a 64-channel brain coil.Qualitative imaging parameters (imaging sharpness, geometric distortion, ghosting artifacts, and overall imaging quality) and quantitative imaging parameters (apparent diffusion coefficient [ADC], signal-to-noise ratio [SNR], contrast, and contrast-to-noise ratio [CNR]) were assessed for the two diffusion acquisition techniques by two independent radiologists.Result: A comparison of qualitative scores indicated that TGSE BLADE DWI produced less geometric distortion, fewer ghosting artifacts (P<0.001) and higher image quality (P<0.001) than were observed for RESOLVE DWI. A comparison of the evaluated quantitative image parameters between TGSE and RESOLVE showed that TGSE BLADE DWI produced a significantly lower SNR (P<0.001) and higher parameter values (both contrast and CNR (P < 0.001)) than were found for RESOLVE DWI.The ADC (P<0.001) was significantly lower for TGSE BLADE DWI (0.763×10-3 s/mm2) than RESOLVE DWI (0.928×10-3 s/mm2).Conclusion: Compared with RESOLVE DWI, TGSE BLADE DWI significantly improved the image quality of cholesteatoma by reducing magnetic sensitive artifacts, distortion, and blurring. TGSE BLADE DWI is more valuable than RESOLVE DWI for the diagnosis of small-sized (2 mm) cholesteatoma lesions. However, TGSE BLADE DWI also has some disadvantages: the whole image intensity is slightly low, so that the anatomical details of the air-bone interface are not shown well, and this shortcoming should be improved in the future.
Microaneurysms detection in color fundus images using machine learning based on directional local contrast
Authors: Long Shengchun , Chen Jiali , Hu Ante , Liu Haipeng , Chen Zhiqing , Zheng Dingchang 
Published: March 2020

Abstract
Background: As one of the major complications of diabetes, diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a leading cause of visual impairment and blindness due to delayed diagnosis and intervention. Microaneurysms appear as the earliest symptom of DR. Accurate and reliable detection of microaneurysms in color fundus images has great importance for DR screening.

Methods: A microaneurysms detection method using machine learning based on directional local contrast (DLC) is proposed for the early diagnosis of DR. First, blood vessels were enhanced and segmented using improved enhancement function based on analyzing eigenvalues of Hessian matrix. Next, with blood vessels excluded, microaneurysm candidate regions were obtained by using shape characteristics and connected components analysis. After image segmented to patches, the features of each microaneurysm candidate patch were extracted, and each candidate patch was classified into microaneurysm or non-microaneurysm. The main contributions of our study are: 1) Making use of directional local contrast in microaneurysms detection for the first time, which does make sense for better microaneurysms classification. 2) Applying three different machine learning techniques for classification and comparing their performance for microaneurysms detection. The proposed algorithm was trained and tested on e-ophtha MA database, and further tested on another independent DIARETDB1 database. Results of microaneurysms detection on the two databases were evaluated on lesion level and compared with existing algorithms.

Results: The proposed method has achieved better performance compared with existing algorithms on accuracy and computation time. On e-ophtha MA and DIARETDB1 databases, the area under curve (AUC) of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was 0.87 and 0.86, respectively. The free-response ROC (FROC) score on the two databases was 0.374 and 0.210, respectively. The computation time per image with resolution of 2544×1969, 1400×960 and 1500×1152 is 29 seconds, 3 seconds and 2.6 seconds respectively.

Conclusions: The proposed method using machine learning based on directional local contrast of image patches can effectively detect microaneurysms in color fundus images and provide an effective scientific basis for early clinical DR diagnosis.

Keywords: color fundus image; microaneurysms detection; patch; features extraction; directional local contrast; machine learning
An Investigation of the Expression of 2019 Novel Coronavirus Cell Receptor Gene ACE2 in a Wide Variety of Human Tissues
Authors: Li Mengyuan , Li Lin , Zhang Yue , Wang Xiaosheng 
Published: March 2020

Abstract
Background: The 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) has affected more than 72,000 people worldwide and caused more than 1,800 deaths so far. 2019-nCoV uses the angiotensinconverting enzyme 2 (ACE2) as the cell receptor to invade the human host and primarily causes pneumonia. Thus, ACE2 is the key to understanding the mechanism of 2019-nCoV infection. Methods: We compared ACE2 expression levels across 31 human normal tissues, between males and females, and between younger (ages <= 49 years) and older (ages > 49 years) persons in these tissues. We also investigated the correlations between ACE2 expression and immune signatures in various tissues. Results: ACE2 expression levels were the highest in small intestine, testis, kidney, heart, thyroid, and adipose tissue, and were the lowest in blood, spleen, bone marrow, brain, blood vessel, and muscle. In lungs, colon, liver, bladder, and adrenal gland, ACE2 showed the medium expression levels. ACE2 was not differentially expressed between males and females and between younger and older persons in any tissue. In skin, digestive system, brain, and blood vessel, ACE2 expression levels were positively associated with immune signatures in both males and females. In thyroid and lungs, ACE2 expression levels were positively and negatively associated with immune signatures in males and females, respectively.Conclusions: Our data provide potential cues for the 2019-nCoV epidemic may infect other tissues outside lungs, affect males and females and young and old persons equally, and old age and male are associated with higher mortality risk for 2019-nCoV infection.
Relapse of undernutrition and food insecurity in a nutritional program in HIV care: mixed-methods study in Tigray region, Ethiopia.
Authors: Tesfay Fisaha , Ziersch Anna , Javanparast Sara , Mwanri Lillian 
Published: March 2020

Abstract
Background Food insecurity is one of the major contributors to poor attainment of nutritional recovery among people living with HIV who are enrolled in nutritional programs. Nevertheless, nutritional programs in HIV care settings implemented in many countries are not designed to address food insecurity. This study in Tigray region Ethiopia examined relapse of undernutrition, and in particular how food insecurity had an impact on effectiveness of the nutritional program, specifically relapse of undernutrition after nutritional recovery Methods This study employed mixed-methods approach involving quantitative and qualitative methods. In the quantitative part, hospital records were collected of 1757 adults and 236 children living with HIV who were enrolled in the nutritional program. Logistic and cox-regression analysis were used to analyse the data. In the qualitative study, data was collected through in-depth interviews with 20 adults, 15 caregivers of children living with HIV, and 13 health providers and program managers. Thematic framework analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data. Results Among those who graduated from the nutritional program, 18% of adults and 7% of children relapsed. Lower educational status (primary and secondary), no membership of a community HIV support group, ambulatory and bedridden functional status, longer periods on ART (more than 24 months), presence of an opportunistic infection and poor baseline nutritional status were associated with relapse. Furthermore, those from rural areas, who did not attend formal education, were employed and had bedridden functional status, anaemia and worst nutritional status were likely to have more frequent episodes of relapse than their counterparts. Findings of the qualitative study also highlighted that poverty, poor livelihood, and food insecurity were the fundamental challenges to the effectiveness of nutritional programs in HIV care including relapse. Household food insecurity contributed to the selling and sharing of the nutritional supports and negatively impacted program effectiveness by contributing to relapse of undernutrition. Conclusions Unless nutritional programs take into consideration the underlying determinants of food insecurity in the design, implementation, and funding of nutritional programs in HIV care, the success of the nutritional programs like those implemented in Ethiopia will be undermined.
Prevalence and Factors Associated with Malnutrition in Children Aged 6-59 Months in Jubek State, South Sudan.
Authors: Iyya Martin Adelino , Grace Ndeezi , Nicolette Nabukeera Barungi , Chollong Hassan 
Published: March 2020

Abstract
Background: South Sudan is the world’s youngest nation which gained independence from Sudan on the 9th of July, 2011. Rates of acute malnutrition have been consistently higher in South Sudan than any other country in sub-Saharan Africa, more than twice the average reported for countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study sought to determine the prevalence and factors associated with malnutrition among children aged 6-59 months in Jubek State, South Sudan.Methods: This was a cross sectional analytical community based study to assess the prevalence and factors associated with malnutrition among children aged 6-59 months in Jubek State, South Sudan. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire from 396 children. Anthropometric measurements including weight, length/ height, mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) were taken and a blood sample by finger prick was removed for HIV test. The equipment which were used included: WHO recommended MUAC tape for 6months to 59 months old children, digital weighing scale (SECCA) and portable Stadiometers. Data were collected using a pretested semi- structured questionnaire. Results: The analysis of this study revealed that, 32.2%, 28.2% and 32.3% of children were stunted, wasted and underweight respectively. The main associated factors of stunting were age older than one year (p= 0.004), children from households who were renting their houses and children who defecate in open spaces with no latrine at their homes (p= 0.015). Underweight was associated with child’s age (p= 0.001), loss of appetite (p=<0.001), children who ate from own plate (p=0.001) and children who didn’t consume meat (p=0.007). Male genders (p=0.022), households with two or more children aged zero to five years (0.010) not consuming vitamin A rich vegetable (p=0.002), diarrheal disease within two weeks prior to interview (p=0.006) and those from households with water sources other than piped (<0.001) were also associated with wasting. Conclusion:The findings of this study indicate that malnutrition is still a serious public health problem among children below five years of age in Jubek state, South Sudan. Emergency intervention measures to address this critical levels of malnutrition are required.
Contextual factors of self-regulation in adolescent medical rehabilitation patients—a qualitative study
Authors: Höhn Cindy , Metzner Gloria , Waldeck Edith , Glattacker Manuela 
Published: March 2020

Abstract
Background:In recent decades, the prevalence of chronic diseases in children and adolescents has increased significantly. Contextual factors play a central role in the self-regulation of chronic diseases. They influence illness and treatment representations, disease management, and health outcomes. While previous studies have investigated the influence of contextual factors on children's beliefs about their illness, little is known about subjective contextual factors of treatment representations of children and adolescents with chronic diseases, especially in the context of rehabilitation. Therefore, the aim of this qualitative analysis was to examine the contextual factors reported by chronically ill adolescents in relation to their treatment representations. Furthermore, we aimed to assign the identified themes to classifications of environmental and personal contextual factors in the context of the ICF.Methods:Between July and September 2018, semi-structured interviews were conducted with N=13 adolescent rehabilitants to explore their rehab-related treatment representations and associated contextual factors. The interviews started with an open narrative question about expectations and beliefs about rehabilitation, followed by further detailed questions. The interviews were recorded on audio tape, transcribed, and analysed using thematic content analysis. Results:Participants raised six themes associated with their rehab-related treatment representations that were interpreted as contextual factors: the living situation before rehabilitation, characterised by school and family problems, few social contacts, and intensive media consumption; the idea of rehabilitation, which mostly came from various people in the adolescent’s social environment; previous solution attempts; rehab pre-experiences; information that the adolescents received from the clinic or sought themselves; and the assumed attitudes of their parents concerning the presumed necessity of rehabilitation and expectations regarding the process and its outcome. All the themes could be assigned to the classification of environmental and personal factors in the context of the ICF for children and youth.Conclusions:Although contextual factors have an important impact on self-regulation, little attention is paid to their investigation. Personal and environmental factors probably influence patients’ treatment representations in terms of expectations and concerns as well as emotions regarding the treatment. Considering contextual factors could lead to the more appropriate allocation of medical care and the better customisation of treatment.