bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Universal hepatitis B screening and management in patients with cancer who received immunosuppressive chemotherapy
Authors: Thompson Lisa A , Heath Lauren J , Freml Heather , Delate Thomas 
Published: December 2019

Background Clinical data to guide management of patients with cancer and hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection who are treated with immunosuppressive chemotherapy are lacking. The purpose of this study was to describe HBV+ rates in a population of patients with cancer and evaluate a risk-stratified management protocol for the prevention of HBV reactivation (HBVr). Methods This was a descriptive study conducted in an integrated healthcare delivery system. Patients with cancer and hepatitis B virus infection who received immunosuppressive chemotherapy between 1 January 2014 and 31 January 2016 were included. A risk-stratified management protocol that continued for six months after chemotherapy completion or 12 months after completion of B-cell targeted chemotherapy was assessed. Outcomes included the proportion of patients who were HBV+ and amongst patients who initiated immunosuppressive therapy, proportions who received hepatitis B virus monitoring or anti-hepatitis B virus prophylaxis, or experienced HBVr or hepatitis B virus-related complications. Results There were 2463 patients with cancer screened for hepatitis B virus with 114 (4.6%) HBV+ of whom 59 (51.8%) initiated chemotherapy. Included patients were primarily older, male, and white with gastrointestinal or hematologic cancers and initiated intermediate/low-risk cytotoxic chemotherapy. During follow-up, 41 (69.5%) received hepatitis B virus DNA monitoring and 17 (28.8%) initiated anti-hepatitis B virus prophylaxis. No HBVr was observed. ALT and AST abnormalities were common but mostly Grade 1 and primarily related to the patient’s malignancy or medications. Conclusions Universal hepatitis B virus screening coupled with a risk-stratified management strategy utilizing HBVr monitoring and anti-hepatitis B virus prophylaxis in HBV+ patients receiving immunosuppressive chemotherapy for cancer may prevent HBVr.
Land Rights of Women: A Study of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana States, India
Authors: Reddy Tada Prabhakar 
Published: December 2019

Empowerment of women takes place through structural changes in women’s lives such as provision of land rights, promotion of non-farm employment, self-employment and support to unleash their potential of entrepreneurial qualities and their participation in decision making at various levels. The initiatives undertaken by the Government such as promotion of rural livelihoods (NRLM) and wage employment (MGNREGS) resulted in enhancement of livelihoods and economic freedom to women. The need for the study arises from the fact that ensuring effective and independent land rights for women is critical as it can serve multiple functions in rural women’s lives and empower them to challenge the socio-economic and political inequalities prevalent in rural semi-feudal society. The present study while looking at the situation of land rights of women covered five districts from two states, examined the efficacy of ‘Bhoomi’ initiative and studied the processes of securing land rights by eliciting the perceptions of stakeholders in a non-survey method supported by secondary data. The data from Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty of state governments established that the para-legal assistance strategy and Bhoomi Nyaya Sahaya Kendram initiative helped poor women to secure land rights and improve their status significantly. The study found that the initiative of land purchase by the government helped poor women to access land while gender mainstreaming in government departments was a felt need. It is a classic example of ensuring land rights of poor women and thus improving their status and livelihoods among others.
Procalcitonin in respiratory disease: use as a biomarker for diagnosis and guiding antibiotic therapy
Authors: Creamer Andrew W. , Kent Alice E. , Albur Maha 
Published: December 2019

Procalcitonin (PCT) is a peptide measurable in serum which becomes elevated in response to bacterial infection. Multiple trials have explored the safety and efficacy of using PCT as a biomarker to guide decisions about starting or stopping antibiotic therapy in a wide variety of situations, and PCT assays have recently been approved by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) in the US for use in both sepsis and respiratory tract infections. While there have been a number of promising results particularly in acute respiratory tract infections and intensive care unit settings, problems including adherence to protocol, cost of the assay and improved antimicrobial stewardship more generally, have limited more widespread adoption.This educational article summarises the evidence for the use of procalcitonin as a biomarker of bacterial infection across the spectrum of respiratory disease and reviews how the use of procalcitonin-guided antibiotic therapy is reflected in current major international guidelines.Key pointsProcalcitonin has been widely investigated as a biomarker of bacterial infection to aid diagnosis and decisions to start or stop antibiotics in a range of conditions, including in diseases of the lower respiratory tract.Meta-analysis suggests that the use of procalcitonin to guide antibiotic therapy in acute respiratory tract infections can reduce duration of antibiotic therapy and hospital admission without adversely affecting outcomes – however, there was significant heterogeneity in methodology and population in the included studies, and more recent studies have failed to show such significant benefits.The use of procalcitonin to guide stopping or shortening antibiotic therapy in sepsis/septic shock is suggested in the international guidelines for the management of sepsis (2016), but this is a “weak” recommendation, with a low quality of evidence recognised. Major international guidelines do not support a role for procalcitonin in the management of acute exacerbations of COPD, bronchiectasis, interstitial lung disease or pleural infection.Regardless of situation, decisions on initiating, altering, or discontinuing antimicrobial therapy should never be made solely on the basis of changes in any biomarker – while biomarkers such as procalcitonin may provide supportive information, they should only be used alongside regular and robust clinical assessment.Educational aimsTo understand the principles of using procalcitonin to guide decisions regarding antibiotic use (procalcitonin-guided antibiotic therapy).To review important research studies into the use of procalcitonin as a biomarker of bacterial infection across the spectrum of diseases of the lower respiratory tract.To understand the current international guidelines regarding procalcitonin use in disease of the lower respiratory tract.
Sex differences in health services and medication use among older adults with asthma
Authors: To Teresa , Gray Natasha , Ryckman Kandace , Zhu Jingqin , Fong Ivy , Gershon Andrea 
Published: December 2019

Sex differences are well documented in chronic disease populations with cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Although recent research has suggested that asthma is more severe in older women compared to men, the extent of this difference remains poorly understood. The objective of this study was to compare rates of asthma-specific health services use (HSU) and medication use, between older women and men with asthma.This population-based cohort study included 209 054 individuals aged ≥66 years with asthma from health administrative data in Ontario, Canada. The primary exposure was sex. Outcomes included asthma-specific HSU (spirometry, emergency department (ED), hospitalisation, physician office and specialist visits) and medication use (asthma controller and reliever prescriptions). Negative binomial regression models adjusted for age, socioeconomic status and comorbidities were used to ascertain outcomes by sex from 2010 to 2016.Compared to men, women had lower rates of spirometry (adjusted relative rate (ARR) 0.87, 95% CI 0.85–0.89) and specialist visits for asthma (ARR 0.93, 95% CI 0.90–0.96), but higher rates of asthma-specific ED (ARR 1.43, 95% CI 1.33–1.53) and physician office visits (ARR 1.03, 95% CI 1.01–1.05). Women also had lower asthma controller (ARR 0.98, 95% CI 0.97–0.99) but higher asthma reliever (ARR 1.03, 95% CI 1.02–1.05) prescription fill rates, compared to men.These findings may indicate poorer disease control, greater asthma severity and poorer access to specialist asthma care in women.
Snus in pregnancy and infant birth size: a mother–child birth cohort study
Authors: Kreyberg Ina , Hilde Katarina , Bains Karen Eline S. , Carlsen Kai-Håkon , Granum Berit , Haugen Guttorm , Hedlin Gunilla , Jonassen Christine M. , Nordhagen Live S. , Nordlund Björn , Rueegg Corina S. , Sjøborg Katrine D. , Skjerven Håvard O. , Staff Anne C. , Vettukattil Riyas , Lødrup Carlsen Karin C. ,   the PreventADALL Study Group
Published: December 2019

RationaleWhile recent studies show that maternal use of snus during pregnancy is increasing, the potential effects on infant birth size is less investigated, with conflicting results.ObjectivesWe aimed to determine if maternal use of snus during pregnancy influences the infant anthropometric and proportional size measures at birth.MethodsIn 2313 mother–child pairs from the population-based, mother–child birth cohort PreventADALL (Preventing Atopic Dermatitis and ALLergies) in Norway and Sweden, we assessed nicotine exposure by electronic questionnaire(s) at 18 and 34 weeks of pregnancy, and anthropometric measurements at birth. Associations between snus exposure and birth size outcomes were analysed by general linear regression.ResultsBirthweight was not significantly different in infants exposed to snus in general, and up to 18 weeks of pregnancy in particular, when adjusting for relevant confounders including maternal age, gestational age at birth, pre-pregnancy body mass index, parity, fetal sex and maternal gestational weight gain up to 18 weeks. We found no significant effect of snus use on the other anthropometric or proportional size measures in multivariable linear regression models. Most women stopped snus use in early pregnancy.ConclusionExposure to snus use in early pregnancy, with most women stopping when knowing about their pregnancy, was not associated with birth size. We were unable to conclude on effects of continued snus use during pregnancy because of lack of exposure in our cohort.
Physical and mechanical properties of rubberwood (Hevea brasiliensis) dyed with Lasiodiplodia theobromae
Authors: Zhao Boshi , Yu Zhiming , Zhang Yang , Qi Chusheng 
Published: December 2019

AbstractBlue staining on rubberwood (Hevea brasiliensis) is a common kind of defect. There currently exists much research focused on the prevention and control of blue staining. However, little research has been concentrated on the utilization of blue staining for green dyeing. The research conveyed in this paper primarily usedLasiodiplodia theobromaeto dye rubberwood, and used scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy-dispersive spectrometer (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR) to analyze the commission internationale eclairage (CIE)L*a*b*value of color, the contact angle, the pH value, 24-h water absorption, mass loss ratio, and compressive strength in increments between 5 and 40 days. The results found that the color of rubberwood became darker and more uniform, and that the surface dyed with fungi can reach a super-hydrophobic state. With the increase of time, the pH value of rubberwood changed from acidic to alkaline. Furthermore, hyphae entered the wood mainly through vessels for their large pore diameter, and reduced water absorption. Mass loss ratio increased gradually between 5 and 40 days. The research in this paper concludes that the microorganism was an effective method of wood dyeing, and lays a foundation for further research.
Transparent Polyurethane Nanofiber Air Filter for High-Efficiency PM2.5 Capture
Authors: Liang Wen , Xu Yuan , Li Xiao , Wang Xiao-Xiong , Zhang Hong-Di , Yu Miao , Ramakrishna Seeram , Long Yun-Ze 
Published: December 2019

AbstractFine particulate matter (PM) has seriously affected human life, such as affecting human health, climate, and ecological environment. Recently, many researchers use electrospinning to prepare nanofiber air filters for effective removal of fine particle matter. However, electrospinning of the polymer fibers onto the window screen uniformly is only achieved in the laboratory, and the realization of industrialization is still very challenging. Here, we report an electrospinning method using a rotating bead spinneret for large-scale electrospinning of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) onto conductive mesh with high productivity of 1000 m2/day. By changing the concentration of TPU in the polymer solution, PM2.5 removal efficiency of nanofiber-based air filter can be up to 99.654% with good optical transparency of 60%, and the contact angle and the ventilation rate of the nanofiber-based air filter is 128.5° and 3480 mm/s, respectively. After 10 times of filtration, the removal efficiency is only reduced by 1.6%. This transparent air filter based on TPU nanofibers has excellent filtration efficiency and ventilation rate, which can effectively ensure indoor air quality of the residential buildings.
Public health risks related to food safety issues in the food market: a systematic literature review
Authors: Gizaw Zemichael 
Published: December 2019

Abstract
Background
Food safety in the food market is one of the key areas of focus in public health, because it affects people of every age, race, gender, and income level around the world. The local and international food marketing continues to have significant impacts on food safety and health of the public. Food supply chains now cross multiple national borders which increase the internationalization of health risks. This systematic review of literature was, therefore, conducted to identify common public health risks related to food safety issues in the food market.

Methods
All published and unpublished quantitative, qualitative, and mixed method studies were searched from electronic databases using a three step searching. Analytical framework was developed using the PICo (population, phenomena of interest, and context) method. The methodological quality of the included studies was assessed using mixed methods appraisal tool (MMAT) version 2018. The included full-text articles were qualitatively analyzed using emergent thematic analysis approach to identify key concepts and coded them into related non-mutually exclusive themes. We then synthesized each theme by comparing the discussion and conclusion of the included articles. Emergent themes were identified based on meticulous and systematic reading. Coding and interpreting the data were refined during analysis.

Results
The analysis of 81 full-text articles resulted in seven common public health risks related with food safety in the food market. Microbial contamination of foods, chemical contamination of foods, food adulteration, misuse of food additives, mislabeling, genetically modified foods (GM foods), and outdated foods or foods past their use-by dates were the identified food safety–related public health risks in the food market.

Conclusion
This systematic literature review identified common food safety–related public health risks in the food market. The results imply that the local and international food marketing continues to have significant impacts on health of the public. The food market increases internationalization of health risks as the food supply chains cross multiple national borders. Therefore, effective national risk-based food control systems are essential to protect the health and safety of the public. Countries need also assure the safety and quality of their foods entering international trade and ensure that imported foods conform to national requirements.
Liver tumor segmentation in CT volumes using an adversarial densely connected network
Authors: Chen Lei , Song Hong , Wang Chi , Cui Yutao , Yang Jian , Hu Xiaohua , Zhang Le 
Published: December 2019

Abstract
Background
Malignant liver tumor is one of the main causes of human death. In order to help physician better diagnose and make personalized treatment schemes, in clinical practice, it is often necessary to segment and visualize the liver tumor from abdominal computed tomography images. Due to the large number of slices in computed tomography sequence, developing an automatic and reliable segmentation method is very favored by physicians. However, because of the noise existed in the scan sequence and the similar pixel intensity of liver tumors with their surrounding tissues, besides, the size, position and shape of tumors also vary from one patient to another, automatic liver tumor segmentation is still a difficult task.

Results
We perform the proposed algorithm to the Liver Tumor Segmentation Challenge dataset and evaluate the segmentation results. Experimental results reveal that the proposed method achieved an average Dice score of 68.4% for tumor segmentation by using the designed network, and ASD, MSD, VOE and RVD improved from 27.8 to 21, 147 to 124, 0.52 to 0.46 and 0.69 to 0.73, respectively after performing adversarial training strategy, which proved the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Conclusions
The testing results show that the proposed method achieves improved performance, which corroborated the adversarial training based strategy can achieve more accurate and robustness results on liver tumor segmentation task.
LncDisAP: a computation model for LncRNA-disease association prediction based on multiple biological datasets
Authors: Wang Yongtian , Juan Liran , Peng Jiajie , Zang Tianyi , Wang Yadong 
Published: December 2019

Abstract
Background
Over the past decades, a large number of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been identified. Growing evidence has indicated that the mutation and dysregulation of lncRNAs play a critical role in the development of many complex human diseases. Consequently, identifying potential disease-related lncRNAs is an effective means to improve the quality of disease diagnostics and treatment, which is the motivation of this work. Here, we propose a computational model (LncDisAP) for potential disease-related lncRNA identification based on multiple biological datasets. First, the associations between lncRNA and different data sources are collected from different databases. With these data sources as dimensions, we calculate the functional associations between lncRNAs by the recommendation strategy of collaborative filtering. Subsequently, a disease-associated lncRNA functional network is built with functional similarities between lncRNAs as the weight. Ultimately, potential disease-related lncRNAs can be identified based on ranked scores derived by random walking with restart (RWR). Then, training sets and testing sets are extracted from two different versions of a disease-lncRNA dataset to assess the performance of LncDisAP on 54 diseases.

Results
A lncRNA functional network is built based on the proposed computational model, and it contains 66,060 associations among 364 lncRNAs associated with 182 diseases in total. We extract 218 known disease-lncRNA pairs associated with 54 diseases to assess the network. As a result, the average AUC (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve) of LncDisAP is 78.08%.

Conclusion
In this article, a computational model integrating multiple lncRNA-related biological datasets is proposed for identifying potential disease-related lncRNAs. The result shows that LncDisAP is successful in predicting novel disease-related lncRNA signatures. In addition, with several common cancers taken as case studies, we found some unknown lncRNAs that could be associated with these diseases through our network. These results suggest that this method can be helpful in improving the quality for disease diagnostics and treatment.
PhySpeTree: an automated pipeline for reconstructing phylogenetic species trees
Authors: Fang Yang , Liu Chengcheng , Lin Jiangyi , Li Xufeng , Alavian Kambiz N. , Yang Yi , Niu Yulong 
Published: December 2019

Abstract
Background
Phylogenetic species trees are widely used in inferring evolutionary relationships. Existing software and algorithms mainly focus on phylogenetic inference. However, less attention has been paid to intermediate steps, such as processing extremely large sequences and preparing configure files to connect multiple software. When the species number is large, the intermediate steps become a bottleneck that may seriously affect the efficiency of tree building.

Results
Here, we present an easy-to-use pipeline named PhySpeTree to facilitate the reconstruction of species trees across bacterial, archaeal, and eukaryotic organisms. Users need only to input the abbreviations of species names; PhySpeTree prepares complex configure files for different software, then automatically downloads genomic data, cleans sequences, and builds trees. PhySpeTree allows users to perform critical steps such as sequence alignment and tree construction by adjusting advanced options. PhySpeTree provides two parallel pipelines based on concatenated highly conserved proteins and small subunit ribosomal RNA sequences, respectively. Accessory modules, such as those for inserting new species, generating visualization configurations, and combining trees, are distributed along with PhySpeTree.

Conclusions
Together with accessory modules, PhySpeTree significantly simplifies tree reconstruction. PhySpeTree is implemented in Python running on modern operating systems (Linux, macOS, and Windows). The source code is freely available with detailed documentation (https://github.com/yangfangs/physpetools).
Analysis of substitution rates showed that TLR5 is evolving at different rates among mammalian groups
Authors: Pinheiro Ana , Águeda-Pinto Ana , Melo-Ferreira José , Neves Fabiana , Abrantes Joana , Esteves Pedro J. 
Published: December 2019

AbstractBackgroundToll-like receptors (TLRs) are the most widely studied innate immunity receptors responsible for recognition of invading pathogens. Among the TLR family, TLR5 is the only that senses and recognizes flagellin, the major protein of bacterial flagella. TLR5 has been reported to be under overall purifying selection in mammals, with a small proportion of codons under positive selection. However, the variation of substitution rates among major mammalian groups has been neglected. Here, we studied the evolution of TLR5 in mammals, comparing the substitution rates among groups.ResultsIn this study we analysed the TLR5 substitution rates in Euungulata, Carnivora, Chiroptera, Primata, Rodentia and Lagomorpha, groups. For that, Tajima’s relative rate test, Bayesian inference of evolutionary rates and genetic distances were estimated with CODEML’s branch model and RELAX. The combined results showed that in the Lagomorpha, Rodentia, Carnivora and Chiroptera lineages TLR5 is evolving at a higher substitution rate. The RELAX analysis further suggested a significant relaxation of selective pressures for the Lagomorpha (K = 0.22,p < 0.01), Rodentia (K = 0.58,p < 0.01) and Chiroptera (K = 0.65,p < 0.01) lineages and for the Carnivora ancestral branches (K = 0.13,p < 0.01).ConclusionsOur results show that the TLR5 substitution rate is not uniform among mammals. In fact, among the different mammal groups studied, the Lagomorpha, Rodentia, Carnivora and Chiroptera are evolving faster. This evolutionary pattern could be explained by 1) the acquisition of new functions of TLR5 in the groups with higher substitution rate, i.e. TLR5 neofunctionalization, 2) by the beginning of a TLR5 pseudogenization in these groups due to some redundancy between the TLRs genes, or 3) an arms race between TLR5 and species-specific parasites.