bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Contrast-enhanced paravertebrogram to confirm paravertebral catheter position in elective thoracic surgery: a proof of concept study
Authors: Klevebro Fredrik , Kuppusamy Madhan Kumar , Han Shiwei , Nikravan Sara , Neal Joseph M. , Strodtbeck Wyndam , Coy David L. , Warren Daniel , Hubka Michal , Hanson Neil , Low Donald E. 
Published: October 2020

Abstract
Background
Paravertebral pain catheters have been shown to be equally effective as epidural pain catheters for postoperative analgesia after thoracic surgery with the possible additional benefit of less hemodynamic effect. However, a methodology for verifying correct paravertebral catheter placement has not been tested or objectively confirmed in previous studies. The aim of the current study was to describe a technique to confirm the correct position of a paravertebral pain catheter using a contrast-enhanced paravertebrogram.

Methods
A retrospective cohort proof of concept study was performed including 10 consecutive patients undergoing elective thoracic surgery with radiographic contrast-enhanced confirmation of intraoperative paravertebral catheter placement (paravertebrogram).

Results
The results of the paravertebrograms, which were done in the operating room at the end of the procedure, verified correct paravertebral catheter placement in 10 of 10 patients. The radiographs documented dissemination of local anesthetic within the paravertebral space.

Conclusion
This proof of concept study demonstrated that a contrast-enhanced paravertebrogram could be used in conjunction with standard postoperative chest radiography to add valuable information for the assessment of paravertebral catheter placement. This technique has the potential to increase the accuracy and efficiency of postoperative analgesia, and to set a quality standard for future studies of paravertebral pain catheters.
Evaluating the reliability of time series land cover maps by exploiting the hidden Markov model
Authors: Yang Guang , Fang Shenghui , Gong Wenbing , Zhao Yaolong , Ge Mengyu 
Published: October 2020

AbstractTime series land cover maps are important materials for the work related to land use and land cover change. Satellite remote sensing images prove advantageous in fast mapping with low cost. In most time series land cover products yielded by the satellite remote sensing images, a number of illogical transitions exist between different time phases. The time series land cover products cannot exactly reflect the real land cover types and land cover changes for each pixel. The accuracy evaluation based on the limited ground truth cannot well guide the users because the reliability of different pixels of the land cover products is unknown. A generic model for the reliability evaluation of time series land cover products should be developed based on a strong theoretical frame. In order to better guide the use of the land cover products, this paper proposed an approach to evaluate the reliability of time series land cover products by exploiting the joint probability of hidden Markov model (HMM), in which the classification performance and the spatio-temporal relationships were taken into account. We applied the proposed evaluation method on the time series land cover maps of Poyang Lake Eco-economic Region in China. The reliability of the land cover products was presented by the grading of the joint probability of HMM. The results effectively reflected the classification performance, the spatio-temporal relationships and even the quality of the data source.
Modelling human active search in optimizing black-box functions
Authors: Candelieri Antonio , Perego Riccardo , Giordani Ilaria , Ponti Andrea , Archetti Francesco 
Published: October 2020

AbstractModelling human function learning has been the subject of intense research in cognitive sciences. The topic is relevant in black-box optimization where information about the objective and/or constraints is not available and must be learned through function evaluations. In this paper, we focus on the relation between the behaviour of humans searching for the maximum and the probabilistic model used in Bayesian optimization. As surrogate models of the unknown function, both Gaussian processes and random forest have been considered: the Bayesian learning paradigm is central in the development of active learning approaches balancing exploration/exploitation in uncertain conditions towards effective generalization in large decision spaces. In this paper, we analyse experimentally how Bayesian optimization compares to humans searching for the maximum of an unknown 2D function. A set of controlled experiments with 60 subjects, using both surrogate models, confirm that Bayesian optimization provides a general model to represent individual patterns of active learning in humans.
Effects of anesthetic agents on contractions of the pregnant rat myometrium in vivo and in vitro
Authors: Kimizuka Motonobu , Tokinaga Yasuyuki , Azumaguchi Ryu , Hamada Kosuke , Kazuma Satoshi , Yamakage Michiaki 
Published: October 2020

AbstractBackgroundSeveral anesthetic agents are used in cesarean sections for both regional and general anesthesia purposes. However, there are no data comparing the in vivo effects of propofol, sevoflurane, and dexmedetomidine on the contraction of the myometrium in pregnant rats. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of these anesthetic agents on myometrial contraction and elucidate the underlying mechanisms.MethodsContraction force and frequency changes in response to propofol, dexmedetomidine, or sevoflurane were evaluated in vivo and in vitro. To test the effect of arachidonic acid on myometrial contraction enhanced by dexmedetomidine, changes in myometrial contraction with dexmedetomidine after administration of indomethacin were evaluated. The amount of phosphorylated myosin phosphatase target subunit 1 (MYPT1) in the membrane fraction was expressed as a percentage of the total fraction by Western blot analysis.ResultsThis study demonstrated that dexmedetomidine enhances oxytocin-induced contraction in the myometrium of pregnant rats, whereas propofol and sevoflurane attenuate these contractions. The dexmedetomidine-induced enhancement of myometrial contraction force was abolished by the administration of indomethacin. Propofol did not affect oxytocin-induced MYPT1 phosphorylation, whereas sevoflurane attenuated oxytocin-induced MYPT1 phosphorylation.ConclusionsInhibition of myofilament calcium sensitivity may underlie the inhibition of myometrial contraction induced by sevoflurane. Arachidonic acid may play an important role in the enhancement of myometrial contraction induced by dexmedetomidine by increasing myofilament calcium sensitivity. Dexmedetomidine may be used as a sedative agent to promote uterine muscle contraction and suppress bleeding after fetal delivery.
Object manufacture based on a memorized template: Goffin’s cockatoos attend to different model features
Authors: Laumer I. B. , Jelbert S. A. , Taylor A. H. , Rössler T. , Auersperg A. M. I. 
Published: October 2020

AbstractAlthough several nonhuman animals have the ability to recognize and match templates in computerized tasks, we know little about their ability to recall and then physically manufacture specific features of mental templates. Across three experiments, Goffin cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana), a species that can use tools in captivity, were exposed to two pre-made template objects, varying in either colour, size (long or short) or shape (I or L-shaped), where only one template was rewarded. Birds were then given the opportunity to manufacture versions of these objects themselves. We found that all birds carved paper strips from the same colour material as the rewarded template, and half were also able to match the size of a template (long and short). This occurred despite the template being absent at test and birds being rewarded at random. However, we found no evidence that cockatoos could carve L-shaped pieces after learning that L-shaped templates were rewarded, though their manufactured strips were wider than in previous tests. Overall, our results show that Goffin cockatoos possess the ability to physically adjust at least the size dimension of manufactured objects relative to a mental template. This ability has previously only been shown in New Caledonian crows, where template matching was suggested as a potential mechanism allowing for the cumulative cultural transmission of tool designs. Our results show that within avian tool users, the ability to recreate a physical template from memory does not seem to be restricted to species that have cumulative tool cultures.
Predicting in-hospital mortality for sepsis: a comparison between qSOFA and modified qSOFA in a 2-year single-centre retrospective analysis
Authors: Guarino Matteo , Gambuti Edoardo , Alfano Franco , De Giorgi Alfredo , Maietti Elisa , Strada Andrea , Ursini Francesco , Volpato Stefano , Caio Giacomo , Contini Carlo , De Giorgio Roberto 
Published: October 2020

AbstractSepsis is a life-threating organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection. This study proposed a new tool, i.e. modified qSOFA, for the early prognostic assessment of septic patients. All cases of sepsis/septic shock consecutively observed in 2 years (January 2017–December 2018), at St. Anna University Hospital of Ferrara, Italy, were included. Each patient was evaluated with qSOFA and a modified qSOFA (MqSOFA), i.e. adding a SpO2/FiO2 ratio to qSOFA. Logistic regression and survival analyses were applied to compare the two scores. A total number of 1137 consecutive cases of sepsis and septic shock were considered. Among them 136 were excluded for incomplete report of vital parameters. A total number of 668 patients (66.7%) were discharged, whereas 333 (33.3%) died because of sepsis-related complications. Data analysis showed that MqSOFA (AUC 0.805, 95% C.I. 0.776–0.833) had a greater ability to detect in-hospital mortality than qSOFA (AUC 0.712, 95% C.I. 0.678–0.746) (p < 0.001). Eighty-five patients (8.5%) were reclassified as high-risk (qSOFA< 2 and MqSOFA≥ 2) resulting in an improvement of sensitivity with a minor reduction in specificity. A significant difference of in-hospital mortality was observed between low-risk and reclassified high-risk (p < 0.001) and low-risk vs. high-risk groups (p < 0.001). We demonstrated that MqSOFA provided a better predictive score than qSOFA regarding patient’s outcome. Since sepsis is an underhanded and time-dependent disease, physicians may rely upon the herein proposed simple score, i.e. MqSOFA, to establish patients’ severity and outcome.
Genomic and Transcriptomic Analyses of Bioluminescence Genes in the Enope Squid Watasenia scintillans
Authors: Yoshida Masa-aki , Imoto Junichi , Kawai Yuri , Funahashi Satomi , Minei Ryuhei , Akizuki Yuki , Ogura Atsushi , Nakabayashi Kazuhiko , Yura Kei , Ikeo Kazuho 
Published: October 2020

AbstractWatasenia scintillans, a sparkling enope squid, has bioluminescence organs to illuminate its body with its own luciferase activity. To clarify the molecular mechanism underlying its scintillation, we analysed high-throughput sequencing data acquired previously and obtained draft genome sequences accomplished with comparative genomic data among the cephalopods. The genome mapped by transcriptome data showed that (1) RNA editing contributed to transcriptome variation of lineage specific genes, such asW. scintillansluciferase, and (2) two types of luciferase enzymes were characterized with reasonable 3D models docked to a luciferin molecule. We report two different types of luciferase in one organism and possibly related to variety of colour types in theW. scintillansfluorescent organs.
Green, yellow, red, or out of the blue? An assessment of Traffic Light Schemes to mitigate the impact of hydraulic fracturing-induced seismicity
Authors: Verdon James P. , Bommer Julian J. 
Published: October 2020

AbstractMitigating hydraulic fracturing-induced seismicity (HF-IS) poses a challenge for shale gas companies and regulators alike. The use of Traffic Light Schemes (TLSs) is the most common way by which the hazards associated with HF-IS are mitigated. In this study, we discuss the implicit risk mitigation objectives of TLSs and explain the advantages of magnitude as the fundamental parameter to characterise induced seismic hazard. We go on to investigate some of the key assumptions on which TLSs are based, namely that magnitudes evolve relatively gradually from green to yellow to red thresholds (as opposed to larger events occurring “out-of-the-blue”), and that trailing event magnitudes do not increase substantially after injection stops. We compile HF-IS datasets from around the world, including the USA, Canada, the UK, and China, and track the temporal evolution of magnitudes in order to evaluate the extent to which magnitude jumps (i.e. sharp increases in magnitude from preceding events within a sequence) and trailing events occur. We find in the majority of cases magnitude jumps are less than 2 units. One quarter of cases experienced a post-injection magnitude increase, with the largest being 1.6. Trailing event increases generally occurred soon after injection, with most cases showing no increase in magnitude more than a few days after then end of injection. Hence, the effective operation of TLSs may require red-light thresholds to be set as much as two magnitude units below the threshold that the scheme is intended to avoid.
MIN3P-HPC: A High-Performance Unstructured Grid Code for Subsurface Flow and Reactive Transport Simulation
Authors: Su Danyang , Mayer K. Ulrich , MacQuarrie Kerry T. B. 
Published: October 2020

AbstractThe numerical simulation of flow and reactive transport in porous media with complex domains is nontrivial. This paper presents a method to implement fully unstructured grid capabilities into the well-established software ParMIN3P-THCm, a process-based numerical model designed for the investigation of subsurface fluid flow and multicomponent reactive transport in variably saturated porous media with parallelization capability. The enhanced code, MIN3P-HPC, is modularized to support different cell types, spatial discretization methods and gradient reconstruction methods. MIN3P-HPC uses a vertex-centered control volume method with consideration of both vertex-based and cell-based material properties (e.g., permeability). A flexible parallelization scheme based on domain decomposition and thread acceleration was implemented, which allows the use of OpenMP, MPI and hybrid MPI-OpenMP, making optimized use of computer resources ranging from desktop PCs to distributed memory supercomputers. The code was verified by comparing the results obtained with the unstructured grid version to those produced by the structured grid version. Numerical accuracy was also verified against analytical solutions for 2D and 3D solute transport, and by comparison with third-party software using different cell types. Parallel efficiency of OpenMP, MPI and hybrid MPI-OpenMP versions was examined through a series of solute transport and reactive transport test cases. The results demonstrate the versatility and enhanced performance of MIN3P-HPC for reactive transport simulation.
Elbow stability after simple elbow dislocation
Authors: Willin Jana , Schmalzl Jonas , Lehmann Lars , Gerhardt Christian 
Published: October 2020

AbstractAimWe aimed to compare the clinical results after ligamentous elbow dislocation between patients treated nonoperatively (group A) and patients who underwent ligamentous repair (group B).MethodsHospital records were investigated for cases of ligamentous elbow dislocation from January 2015 to December 2018. In total, 30 patients were identified: nine with nonoperative treatment and 21 with surgical ligamentous repair. The range of motion (ROM) including arc of extension/flexion and pronation/supination, valgus instability, and posterolateral rotatory instability were evaluated. The scores of several outcome measures assessing elbow injury were evaluated. Sonographic examination was performed on all patients to evaluate translation under valgus and posterolateral rotatory stress.ResultsOverall, 14 patients with simple elbow dislocation (group An = 5, 46.4 ± 19.3 years, follow-up [FU] 27 ± 12.4 months; group Bn = 9, 57.3 ± 21.0 years, FU 36 ± 11.1 months; 4 female patients in each group) were evaluated. No significant difference was seen in extension/flexion and ext/flex-arc although there was a tendency to limited extension (p = 0.07) in group A. A significantly reduced supination (84 ± 15° vs. 77 ± 21°,p = 0.02) was observed regarding the contralateral side in group B. There was no significant difference in the evaluated scores between the groups. A significantly increased medial angulation during ultrasound evaluation was found in group B compared with the contralateral side.ConclusionThere were no significant differences concerning ROM and functional scores between the nonoperative treatment and ligamentous repair groups. On clinical evaluation, a higher rate of sufficiently healed ligaments was found following surgical repair, although this was not reflected in the ultrasound evaluation.
Nearly Invariant Subspaces with Applications to Truncated Toeplitz Operators
Authors: O’Loughlin Ryan 
Published: October 2020

AbstractIn this paper we first study the structure of the scalar and vector-valued nearly invariant subspaces with a finite defect. We then subsequently produce some fruitful applications of our new results. We produce a decomposition theorem for the vector-valued nearly invariant subspaces with a finite defect. More specifically, we show every vector-valued nearly invariant subspace with a finite defect can be written as the isometric image of a backwards shift invariant subspace. We also show that there is a link between the vector-valued nearly invariant subspaces and the scalar-valued nearly invariant subspaces with a finite defect. This is a powerful result which allows us to gain insight in to the structure of scalar subspaces of the Hardy space using vector-valued Hardy space techniques. These results have far reaching applications, in particular they allow us to develop an all encompassing approach to the study of the kernels of: the Toeplitz operator, the truncated Toeplitz operator, the truncated Toeplitz operator on the multiband space and the dual truncated Toeplitz operator.
Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation Affects Mineral Status in Female Rats with a Deficiency of These Micronutrients
Authors: Suliburska Joanna , Skrypnik Katarzyna , Chmurzyńska Agata 
Published: October 2020

AbstractSupplementation with iron and folic acid is widely recommended in women of childbearing age and during pregnancy; however, the effect of such supplementation on mineral status is not well-known. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of oral iron and folic acid, administered together and separately, on copper, zinc, calcium, and magnesium concentrations in the tissues of rats with a deficiency of both these micronutrients. The experiment was performed on 8-week-old female Wistar rats. In the first stage of the experiment, the animals were randomly assigned to a control group of rats fed the standard diet (AIN-93 M), and to a study group of rats fed a diet deficient in iron and folate. The study group was then randomly divided to four groups: group D was fed a deficit diet, group FE was fed a deficit diet with iron gluconate, the FOL group was fed a deficit diet with folate acid, and the FEFOL group was fed a deficit diet with iron gluconate and folate acid. After 2, 10, and 21 days of the intervention, ten animals from each group were killed. Mineral concentrations were assayed in the liver, spleen, pancreas, heart, and kidneys using atomic absorption spectrometry. Statistical analysis was performed using Statistica 12.0 with the ANOVA test (p < 0.05). It was found that separate supplementation with iron and folic acid significantly decreased copper concentrations in tissues. The deficit in iron and folic acid decreased, and their simultaneous supplementation increased calcium content in the organs. Separate and simultaneous supplementation decreased magnesium status in deficient rats. In conclusion, iron and folic acid, supplemented separately or simultaneously, affect the copper, calcium, and magnesium level in tissues.
Influence of storage on the physical and chemical properties of Scots pine bark
Authors: Routa Johanna , Brännström Hanna , Hellström Jarkko , Laitila Juha 
Published: October 2020

AbstractBark is currently used mainly to produce energy, but the extraction of valuable compounds before combustion offers an interesting cascading use for debarking biomass. Buffer storage is an inevitable part of bark biomass logistics, but substantial dry matter and extractive losses can degrade the properties and reduce the economic value of the raw material during storage. In this study, moisture and ash content, calorific value, and extractives content and composition of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) sawmill bark were determined over 2 months of buffer storage, and the change in energy content during storage was calculated. The results showed that the energy content (MWh m−3) of the bark increased 3% during storage, while at the same time the moisture content decreased 16%. The content of acetone-soluble extractives decreased markedly, with only 56% of the original amount remaining after 8 weeks of storage. In particular, hydrophilic, phenolic extractive compounds were rapidly lost after debarking and piling of the bark. About 60% of condensed tannins (CT) and about 26% of the quantified lipophilic compounds were lost after 2 weeks of storage. The fastest rate of decrease and the most significant changes in extractives content and composition occurred within the first 2 weeks of storage. Utilization of these valuable compounds necessitates fast supply of material for further processing after debarking. The comprehensive utilization of bark requires efficiency at all levels of the supply chain to ensure that tree delivery times are kept short and loss of bark is avoided during harvest and transport.