bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Identification of A Novel circRNA, hsa_circ_0065898, That Regulates Tumor Growth in Cervical Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Authors: Li Ni , Liu Jie , Deng Xiaohui 
Published: July 2020

Abstract
Background: Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been reported to play an important role in regulating tumor pathogenesis and progression. The molecular mechanism of circRNAs in cervical squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) remains poorly understood. We aimed to identify the circRNAs differentially expressed, and to investigate the role of a novel circRNA, hsa_circ_0065898, in regulating proliferation, migration, and invasion in CSCC.Methods: The online Kaplan-Meier Plotter was used to analyze the relationship between miRNA expression and overall survival. Bioinformatics tools, such as R, Cytoscape, and Perl, were used to analyze the Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway, protein-protein interaction (PPI) network, and regulatory network. The expression level of hsa_circ_0065898 in CSCC cell lines was evaluated using quantitative polymerase chain reaction in vitro. The cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) and transwell assays were used to assess cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. Results: circRNA expression data (GSE102686) was downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus database, and this included data from 5 CSCC patients and 5 normal tissues. Thirteen differentially expressed circRNAs were identified, which included 9 upregulated circRNAs and 4 downregulated circRNAs. GO enrichment analysis showed that the target genes of miRNAs associated with hsa_circ_0065898 were enriched in ubiquitin-protein transferase activity, ubiquitin-like protein transferase activity, core promoter sequence-specific DNA binding, mRNA 3′-UTR AU-rich region binding, core promoter binding, AU-rich element binding, ubiquitin-like protein ligase activity, and transcription corepressor activity. KEGG results showed that the Hippo and p53 signaling pathways played significant role in the pathway network. Hsa_circ_0065898 was significantly overexpressed in the CSCC cell lines. Hsa_circ_0065898 facilitated cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in CSCC.Conclusions: This study identified differentially expressed circRNAs and constructed the regulatory network of hsa_circ_0065898 targeting microRNAs and mRNAs. We demonstrated that hsa_circ_0065898 promoted CSCC cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. Hence, hsa_circ_0065898 might be useful as a biomarker for CSCC diagnosis and targeted therapy.
Knowledge of Vasectomy and its Associated Factors Among Married Men in Debre Tabor Town, Northwest Ethiopia: A community Based Cross-sectional Study.
Authors: Ayele Alemu Degu , Beyene Fentahun Yenealem , Kassa Bekalu Getnet , Mihretie Gedefaye Nibret 
Published: July 2020

Abstract
Background: - Even though vasectomy is one of the safest, simple and most effective family planning methods available for men, it is one of the least used contraceptive methods in developing world including Ethiopia. The main reason for low level use may be low knowledge about vasectomy among men. This study was therefore designed to assess knowledge of vasectomy and its associated factors among married men in Debre Tabor Town.Methods: - A community based cross-sectional study was conducted among 418 married men from December 05 - 25, 2019. Simple random sampling technique was employed. Data was collected by face to face interview using structured and pre-tested questionnaire. Data was entered using Epi- Data version 4.2 and analyzed by SPSS version 23. The association between variables was analyzed using bivariable and multivariable logistic regression model. Finally variables having p-value < 0.05 at 95% CI were considered as statistically significant. Results: A total of 418 participants were included with response rate of 98.8%. The mean age of participant was 38.06 (SD± 6.873) years. About 60.5% of men had ever heard about vasectomy. Men mentioned health care providers as main source of information. Among those who had ever heard, only 58.8% defined vasectomy correctly. About 25.6% equated vasectomy with castration and about 15.6% described as “it is making the man impotent. In this study, only 38.5% of men were knowledgeable about vasectomy. Multivariable logistic regression showed that completing secondary education (AOR= 4.70, 95% CI: 1.26--17.55), attending college and above (AOR=8.36, 95% CI: 2.41-28.97)), having 4 or more alive children (AOR=0.51, 95% CI: 0.29-0.89) and positive attitude (AOR= 2.47, 95% CI: 1.58-3.86) were significantly associated with knowledge of vasectomy. Conclusions: In this study level of knowledge of married men about vasectomy was low. Educational status, number of children and attitude were statistically significant with men knowledge about vasectomy. Emphasis should be given on improving the educational status of men to improve their knowledge, and positively changing the men upbringing culture right from their childhood which will also improve their attitude towards vasectomy in the future.
Serum Levels of Bone Formation and Resorption Markers in Relation to Vitamin D Status in Professional Athletes and Physically Active Men During Upper and Lower Body High-intensity Exercise
Authors: Mieszkowski Jan , Kochanowicz Andrzej , Piskorska Elżbieta , Niespodziński Bartłomiej , Siódmiak Joanna , Buśko Krzysztof , Olszewska-Słonina Dorota , Antosiewicz Jedrzej 
Published: July 2020

Abstract
Purpose/Introduction: To compare serum levels of bone turnover markers in athletes and non-athletes, and to evaluate the relationship between serum levels of vitamin D metabolites and exercise-induced changes in biomarker levels. Methods: Sixteen elite male artistic gymnasts (EG; 21.4 ± 0.8 years-old) and 16 physically active men (the control group, PAM; 20.9 ± 1.2 years-old) performed lower and upper body 30-s Wingate anaerobic tests (LBWT and UBWT, respectively). For biomarker analysis, blood samples were collected before, and 5 and 30 min after exercise. Samples for vitamin D levels were collected before exercise. N-terminal propeptide of type I collagen (PINP) was analysed as a marker of bone formation. C-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen (CTX) was analysed as a marker of bone resorption.Results: UBWT fitness readings were better in the EG group than in the PAM group, with no difference in LBWT readings between the groups. UBWT mean power was 8.8% higher in subjects with 25(OH)D3 levels over 22.50 ng/ml and in those with 24,25(OH)2D3 levels over 1.27 ng/ml. Serum CTX levels increased after both tests in the PAM group, with no change in the EG group. PINP levels did not change in either group; however, in PAM subjects with 25(OH)D3 levels above the median, they were higher than those in EG subjects. Conclusion: Vitamin D metabolites affect the anaerobic performance and bone turnover markers at rest and after exercise. Further, adaptation to physical activity modulates the effect of anaerobic exercise on bone metabolism markers.
Screening of Significant Biomarkers Related to Prognosis of Cervical Cancer and Functional Study Based on lncRNA-associated ceRNA Regulatory Network
Authors: Ding Haiyan , Zhang Li , Zhang Chunmiao , Song Jie , Jiang Ying 
Published: July 2020

Background:Cervical cancer (CESC), which threatens the health of women, has a very high recurrence rate.Purposes:This study aimed to identify the signature long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) associated with the prognosis of CESC and predict the prognostic survival rate with the clinical risk factors.Methods:The CESC gene expression profiling data were downloaded from TCGA database and NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus. Afterwards, the differentially expressed RNAs (DERs) were screened using limma package of R software. R package “survival” was then used to screen the signature lncRNAs associated with independently recurrence prognosis, and a nomogram recurrence rate model based on these signature lncRNAs was constructed to predict the 3-year and 5-year survival probability of CESC. Finally, a competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNA) regulatory network was proposed to study the functions of these genes.Results:We obtained 305 DERs significantly associated with prognosis. Afterwards, a risk score (RS) prediction model was established using the screened 5 signature lncRNAs associated with independently recurrence prognosis (DLEU1, LINC01119, RBPMS-AS1, RAD21-AS1 and LINC00323). Subsequently, a nomogram recurrence rate model, proposed with Pathologic N and RS model status, was found to have a good prediction ability for CESC. In ceRNA regulatory network, LINC00323 and DLEU1 were hub nodes which targeted more miRNAs and mRNAs. After that, 15 GO terms and 3 KEGG pathways were associated with recurrence prognosis and showed that the targeted genes PTK2, NRP1, PRKAA1 and HMGCS1 might influence the prognosis of CESC.Conclusion:The signature lncRNAs can help improve our understanding of the development and recurrence of CESC and the nomogram recurrence rate model can be applied to predict the survival rate of CESC patients in clinical practice.
Inhibitory as well as Disaggregation Potential of Selected Hydroxy Benzoic Phytochemicals on Hen Egg-White Lysozyme Amyloidogenesis
Authors: Mandal Hitesh , Basak Arbin , Prabhu Taraka , Kolli Vidyalatha , Sarkar Nandini 
Published: July 2020

Background:
Amyloids are a class of ordered protein aggregates which have been implicated
in the onset of several degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease,
Type II diabetes, and so on. Despite extensive research, the exact mechanism and the driving
factors for the amyloidogenesis process remain elusive. Identifying molecules which can effectively
inhibit and/or disaggregate the fibrils may be one effective therapeutic strategy against amyloidosis.

Objectives:
In the current study, few hydroxy-benzoic phytochemicals were selected to study their
effects on the formation as well as disaggregation of Hen Egg-White Lysozyme (HEWL) amyloids,
namely gallic acid, syringic acid, vanillic acid, and iso-vanillic acid.

Method:
Amyloidogenesis was monitored using methods like the thioflavin T assay, Field Emission
Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), and dynamic light scattering (DLS) studies. Further
protein conformational changes were monitored using methods like 8-Anilino-Naphthalene-1-Sulfonate
(ANS) fluorescence, Circular Dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, and guanidine hydrochloride
mediated stability studies. Computational approach was also employed to get an insight on the interaction(
s) between the selected compounds and HEWL using docking studies.

Result:
The selected compounds exhibited significant inhibitory as well as disaggregation effects on HEWL amyloids. In-teraction with the phytochemicals was also associated with considerable conformational changes in HEWL. Docking studies show role of hydrogen bonding between HEWL and the phytochemicals.

Conclusion:
Thus the current study throws light on the key factors that drive amyloid formation and hence will be helpful for development of effective therapeutics against amyloidosis.
Correlation of Waist to Calf Circumference Ratio and Carotid Intima-Media Thickness in Diabetes Mellitus
Authors: Rao Harish A. , Harischandra Prakash , Yadav Srikanth 
Published: July 2020

Introduction:
Diabetes mellitus is a well-known risk factor for cardiovascular disease because
of the accelerated process of atherosclerosis. Obesity is an established risk factor and has gained
immense importance in recent studies as an important risk factor for clinical cardiovascular disease, yet
the fundamental component stays unclear. Calf circumference is another form for lean mass and peripheral
subcutaneous fat and is inversely associated with the occurrence of carotid plaques (CP). Multiplicative
and opposite effects of both Calf Circumference (CC) and Waist Circumference (WC) in the
event of CP suggest that the two measures should be taken into account commonly while assessing vascular
risk profile.

Aim & Objective:
To ascertain if waist to calf circumference ratio (WCR) is a marker of carotid atherosclerosis
in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, and the correlation between waist to calf circumference
ratio and carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT ) in patients with Type 2 diabetes.

Materials and Methods:
A cross-sectional study at Hospital affiliated to Kasturba Medical college
Mangalore from Sept 2016 to Sept 2018.
Patients with type 2 DM as per ADA criteria, age >18years, are recruited for the study.

Results and Discussion:
In our study, with 150 population, 25 patients had carotid atherosclerosis and 20
patients had CIMT>1.1. The waist circumference in patients with CA is in the range of 93.07, and 99.85 &
the CC in patients with CA is in the range of 29.49 to 31.25. The WCR in patients with CA is in the
range of 3.12 to 3.26. The difference was statistically significant with a p-value of <0.05. In our study,
it was found that WC and WCR correlated well with carotid atherosclerosis, and surprisingly, calf
circumference also correlated with carotid atherosclerosis but not as significant as both WC and WCR.

Conclusion:
To conclude, in our population-based study of 150 subjects, we found that carotid atherosclerosis
is significantly more in people with increased waist calf circumference ratio. WCR may be a
new, useful, and practical anthropometric index that facilitates the early identification of diabetic subjects
with high risk for cardiovascular disease. Validation of this finding in individual populations is required.
Future studies should test the association of calf circumference with carotid intima-media thickness
and carotid plaques using better measures than ultrasound, such as magnetic resonance imaging.
Further research focusing on underlying mechanisms in the role of lean mass and peripheral fat mass is
required.
The Influence of Gender and Menopausal Status on Hba1c Variation in a Big Data Study of a Saudi Population
Authors: Alghamdi Abdullah S. , Alqadi Abdulaziz , Jenkins Richard O. , Haris Parvez I. 
Published: July 2020

Background:
Glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) is the gold standard measurement in the
screening, diagnosis and monitoring of diabetes mellitus. Saudi Arabia has a high prevalence of
diabetes mellitus that is expected to rise, and the HbA1c test is commonly used in the screening,
diagnosis and monitoring of diabetes.

Objective:
This study aims to assess the impact of age and gender on HbA1c levels, and the influence
of menopausal status on HbA1c variation in a large group of Saudis.

Method:
Age, gender, and HbA1c results of 168,614 Saudi adult individuals were obtained from
their medical records. Patients’ records were extracted irrespective of their status regarding the
presence of diabetes and the status of glycaemic control. Linear regression models were used for
predicting HbA1c from age and gender, and their interaction term. HbA1c levels were compared
between genders in different age groups and different HbA1c categories.

Results:
There was a statistically significant positive correlation between age and HbA1c levels,
where for each ten years increase in age, HbA1c increased by 0.35%. Although the overall mean
HbA1c in women was significantly lower than in men (P < 0.001), women showed a significant
increase in HbA1c with older age compared to men (B = 0.014, P < 0.001). Furthermore, the mean
HbA1c levels in the age group > 50 years was significantly higher than before that age (P < 0.001).
Thus, HbA1c increased by 1.118% in age > 50 years group compared to age ≤ 50 years, and this
increase in HbA1c was significantly higher in women compared to men (B = 0.495, P < 0.001).

Conclusion:
HbA1c levels are lower in women before the estimated menopausal age, which should
be taken into consideration when using HbA1c for screening, diagnosis, and monitoring of diabetes
in Saudi adult women. The short lifespan of red blood cells, due to loss of blood through menstruation,
in women before menopause age, is a possible reason for these variations.
Insight into the Mechanism of 17β-Hydroxysteroid Dehydrogenase Type 3 Inhibition by the Androsterone Derivative RM-532-105
Authors: Stephen Preyesh , Roy Jenny , Maltais René , Poirier Donald 
Published: July 2020

Background:
The last step in the production of androgen testosterone from 4-androstene-
3,17-dione (4-dione) in testis involves the 17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 3 (17β-HSD3).
Blocking this microsomal enzyme with an inhibitor would lower the level of testosterone and, consequently,
could be an approach for the treatment of androgen-dependent diseases. RM-532-105 was
developed as a steroidal inhibitor of 17β-HSD3, but its mechanism of action is not yet known.

Objective:
To identify potential binding sites of the 17β-HSD3 substrate 4-dione, cofactor NADPH,
as well as inhibitor RM-532-105.

Methods:
Since there is no crystal structure of 17β-HSD3 available, complexed or not with a ligand,
a homology model was prepared followed by molecular docking, and enzymatic assay experiments
were performed.

Results:
Transfected LNCaP prostate cancer cells were used as a source of 17β-HSD3 activity for the
transformation of 4-dione into testosterone in the presence of varying concentrations of a substrate, a
cofactor or an inhibitor. Molecular modeling experiments and enzymatic assays with these cells suggest
a competitive action of RM-532-105 with the cofactor and a non-competitive action with the
substrate 4-dione.

Conclusion:
These results allow the selection of one inhibitor orientation in the enzyme binding site,
from the two possibilities predicted by the docking experiments, and appear to be in agreement with
previous structure-activity relationships.
Electrochemical Analysis for Pharmaceuticals by the Advantages of Metal Oxide Nanomaterials
Authors: Bozal-Palabiyik Burcin , Erkmen Cem , Kurbanoglu Sevinc , Ozkan Sibel A. , Uslu Bengi 
Published: July 2020

Background:
Electrochemical methods in drug analysis have a lot of advantages, including
simplicity, speed, low-cost instrumentation, informing about the drug mechanism, and nonaffection
by excipients in dosage forms. Electrochemical techniques utilize the advantages of nanomaterials
to increase sensitivity and, in some cases, selectivity. Among these nanomaterials, metal
oxide nanoparticles are also preferred by researchers because of their unique properties such as biocompatibility,
stability, non-toxicity, and catalytic characteristic.

Objective:
This review provided brief information about metal oxide nanoparticles used in electrochemical
sensors and summarized applications for drug analysis with these sensors in tables showing
the studies in the literature during the last decade.

Results:
In the last decade, metal oxides are frequently used in electrochemical drug analysis as electrode
modifier individually and with other nanomaterials especially carbon-based ones. All these
studies showed that metal oxide nanoparticles increase the active surface area of the electrode and the
catalytic activity.

Conclusion:
When metal oxide nanoparticles and carbon-based nanomaterials are used together, they
create a synergistic effect that further increases catalytic activity and thus lowers detection limits to
be obtained in nM even pM levels.
The Current Status and Constraints of Drought-Tolerant Maize Adoption in Uganda
Authors: Lee Hyejin 
Published: July 2020

Agriculture is an economic backbone of many sub-Saharan African countries, including Uganda. However, the country is grappling with slow agricultural development and food insecurity. Concurrently, Uganda faces climatic challenges that likely become further constraints for agricultural production. Maize is one of its major crops and serves as a food and cash crop for smallholders. However, its productivity remains low. To improve maize productivity under increasing temperatures and droughts, drought-tolerant maize (DTM) has been released, but it is not widely adopted.
The objective of this study is, therefore, to review the current situation of DTM adoption in Uganda and identify characteristic differences between adopters and non-adopters and possible constraints for wider adoption. In doing so, available literature, policy documents and relevant reports on the subject were reviewed. The systemic approach was not feasible due to limited availability of reliable sources.
Drought-tolerant maize adopters in Uganda appeared to be better endowed with production resources such as larger farmland, be more informed, educated and experienced, have a larger household, use more inputs more efficiently, earn higher income and harvest better yield. Major constraints to DTM adoption included lack of awareness, limited seed availability and accessibility, complementary input requirement, existing DTM attributes and dubious market quality of seed and fertilizer. These constraints and adoption characteristics seemed intertwined as a virtuous or vicious cycle for DTM adoption.
Although a broad range of DTM adoption constraints is identified at a household, market and national level, DTM can be an effective means to improve maize productivity under climatic challenges in Uganda. To promote its adoption, the government should take more supportive measures and effective strategies for sustainable DTM uptake.
Identifying and Predicting Intentional Self-Harm in Electronic Health Record Clinical Notes: Deep Learning Approach
Authors: Obeid Jihad S , Dahne Jennifer , Christensen Sean , Howard Samuel , Crawford Tami , Frey Lewis J , Stecker Tracy , Bunnell Brian E 
Published: July 2020

Background
Suicide is an important public health concern in the United States and around the world. There has been significant work examining machine learning approaches to identify and predict intentional self-harm and suicide using existing data sets. With recent advances in computing, deep learning applications in health care are gaining momentum.

Objective
This study aimed to leverage the information in clinical notes using deep neural networks (DNNs) to (1) improve the identification of patients treated for intentional self-harm and (2) predict future self-harm events.

Methods
We extracted clinical text notes from electronic health records (EHRs) of 835 patients with International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes for intentional self-harm and 1670 matched controls who never had any intentional self-harm ICD codes. The data were divided into training and holdout test sets. We tested a number of algorithms on clinical notes associated with the intentional self-harm codes using the training set, including several traditional bag-of-words–based models and 2 DNN models: a convolutional neural network (CNN) and a long short-term memory model. We also evaluated the predictive performance of the DNNs on a subset of patients who had clinical notes 1 to 6 months before the first intentional self-harm event. Finally, we evaluated the impact of a pretrained model using Word2vec (W2V) on performance.

Results
The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for the CNN on the phenotyping task, that is, the detection of intentional self-harm in clinical notes concurrent with the events was 0.999, with an F1 score of 0.985. In the predictive task, the CNN achieved the highest performance with an AUC of 0.882 and an F1 score of 0.769. Although pretraining with W2V shortened the DNN training time, it did not improve performance.

Conclusions
The strong performance on the first task, namely, phenotyping based on clinical notes, suggests that such models could be used effectively for surveillance of intentional self-harm in clinical text in an EHR. The modest performance on the predictive task notwithstanding, the results using DNN models on clinical text alone are competitive with other reports in the literature using risk factors from structured EHR data.