bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Development and validation of Nomograms for predicting overall survival and Cancer-specific survival in patients with ovarian clear cell carcinoma
Authors: Chen Qian , Wang Shu , Lang Jing-He 
Published: October 2020

Abstract
Background
Ovarian clear cell carcinoma (OCCC) is a rare histologic type of ovarian cancer. There is a lack of an efficient prognostic predictive tool for OCCC in clinical work. This study aimed to construct and validate nomograms for predicting the overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) in patients with OCCC.

Methods
Data of patients with primary diagnosed OCCC in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database between 2010 and 2016 was extracted. Prognostic factors were evaluated with LASSO Cox regression and multivariate Cox regression analysis, which were applied to construct nomograms. The performance of the nomogram models was assessed by the concordance index (C-index), calibration plots, decision curve analysis (DCA) and risk subgroup classification. The Kaplan-Meier curves were plotted to compare survival outcomes between subgroups.

Results
A total of 1541 patients from SEER registries were randomly divided into a training cohort (n = 1079) and a validation cohort (n = 462). Age, laterality, stage, lymph node (LN) dissected, organ metastasis and chemotherapy were independently and significantly associated with OS, while laterality, stage, LN dissected, organ metastasis and chemotherapy were independent risk factors for CSS. Nomograms were developed for the prediction of 3- and 5-year OS and CSS. The C-indexes for OS and CSS were 0.802[95% confidence interval (CI) 0.773–0.831] and 0.802 (0.769–0.835), respectively, in the training cohort, while 0.746 (0.691–0.801) and 0.770 (0.721–0.819), respectively, in the validation cohort. Calibration plots illustrated favorable consistency between the nomogram predicted and actual survival. C-index and DCA curves also indicated better performance of nomogram than the AJCC staging system. Significant differences were observed in the survival curves of different risk subgroups.

Conclusions
We have constructed predictive nomograms and a risk classification system to evaluate the OS and CSS of OCCC patients. They were validated to be of satisfactory predictive value, and could aid in future clinical practice.
Efficacy of orally and topically administered fluralaner (Bravecto®) for treatment of client-owned dogs with sarcoptic mange under field conditions
Authors: Chiummo Rafael , Petersen Ivo , Plehn Claudia , Zschiesche Eva , Roepke Rainer , Thomas Emmanuel 
Published: October 2020

Abstract
Background
Successful canine sarcoptic mange treatment requires immediate efficacy to eliminate active mites, and sustained activity to prevent re-infestation from in-contact animals and fomites. With extended acaricidal activity, fluralaner has been shown to be effective for treating this disease. To confirm this potential under field conditions, two fluralaner formulations were administered to mite-infested, client-owned dogs.

Methods
Households qualified for inclusion if they had at least one dog positive for Sarcoptes scabiei mites, confirmed by skin scraping, and at least one dog with clinical signs evocative of sarcoptic mange. Households were allocated to groups of dogs to receive a single treatment with either oral (Bravecto® chewable tablets, MSD Animal Health) or topical (Bravecto® Spot-on, MSD Animal Health), fluralaner at a dose of ≥ 25 mg/kg (range 25–56 mg/kg) on Day 0, or two treatments with oral sarolaner (Simparica® tablets, Zoetis) (Days 0 and 28) at ≥ 2 mg/kg (2–4 mg/kg). All dogs in each household were treated with the same product. On the enrolment day and subsequently on Days 28, 56 and 84, deep skin scrapings were taken from at least five different body areas judged to be most likely to have active mite infestation. At each visit, the dog’s mange-associated skin lesions were recorded, and pruritus level was assessed.

Results
There were 98 participating households and 135 dogs enrolled across Albania, France, Italy and Portugal. On Day 28, more than 90% of dogs in each group were negative for mites. On Days 56 and 84, all study dogs were free of mites and most dermatological signs of sarcoptic mange had resolved. There were no treatment-related adverse events in any group.

Conclusions
A single treatment of client-owned, sarcoptic mange-affected dogs with either fluralaner chewable tablets or fluralaner spot-on formulation proved a safe and effective treatment of infestations with S. scabiei var. canis, maintained through 84 days (12 weeks) after treatment.
Epigenome-wide association study of Alzheimer’s disease replicates 22 differentially methylated positions and 30 differentially methylated regions
Authors: Li Qingqin S. , Sun Yu , Wang Tania 
Published: October 2020

Abstract
Background
Growing evidence shows that epigenetic modifications play a role in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We performed an epigenome-wide association study (EWAS) to evaluate the DNA methylation differences using postmortem superior temporal gyrus (STG) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) samples.

Results
Samples from 72 AD patients and 62 age-matched cognitively normal controls were assayed using Illumina© Infinium MethylationEPIC BeadChip. Five and 14 differentially methylated positions (DMPs) associated with pathology (i.e., Braak stage) with p value less than Bonferroni correction threshold of 6.79 × 10–8 in the STG and IFG were identified, respectively. These cytosine–phosphate–guanine (CpG) sites included promoter associated cg26263477 annotated to ABCA7 in the STG (p = 1.21 × 10–11), and cg14058329 annotated to the HOXA5/HOXA3/HOXA-AS3 gene cluster (p = 1.62 × 10–9) and cg09448088 (p = 3.95 × 10–9) annotated to MCF2L in the IFG. These genes were previously reported to harbor DMPs and/or differentially methylated regions (DMRs). Previously reported DMPs annotated to RMGA, GNG7, HOXA3, GPR56, SPG7, PCNT, RP11-961A15.1, MCF2L, RHBDF2, ANK1, PCNT, TPRG1, and RASGEF1C were replicated (p < 0.0001). One hundred twenty-one and 173 DMRs associated with pathology in the STG and IFG, respectively, were additionally identified. Of these, DMRs annotated to 30 unique genes were also identified as significant DMRs in the same brain region in a recent meta-analysis, while additional DMRs annotated to 12 genes were reported as DMRs in a different brain region or in a cross-cortex meta-analysis. The significant DMRs were enriched in promoters, CpG islands, and exons in the genome. Gene set enrichment analysis of DMPs and DMRs showed that gene sets involved in neuroinflammation (e.g., microglia differentiation), neurogenesis, and cognition were enriched (false discovery rate (FDR) < 0.05).

Conclusions
Twenty-two DMPs and 30 DMRs associated with pathology were replicated, and novel DMPs and DMRs were discovered.
Serial blockface SEM suggests that stem cells may participate in adult notochord growth in an invertebrate chordate, the Bahamas lancelet
Authors: Holland Nicholas D. , Somorjai Ildiko M. L. 
Published: October 2020

Abstract
Background
The cellular basis of adult growth in cephalochordates (lancelets or amphioxus) has received little attention. Lancelets and their constituent organs grow slowly but continuously during adult life. Here, we consider whether this slow organ growth involves tissue-specific stem cells. Specifically, we focus on the cell populations in the notochord of an adult lancelet and use serial blockface scanning electron microscopy (SBSEM) to reconstruct the three-dimensional fine structure of all the cells in a tissue volume considerably larger than normally imaged with this technique.

Results
In the notochordal region studied, we identified 10 cells with stem cell-like morphology at the posterior tip of the organ, 160 progenitor (Müller) cells arranged along its surface, and 385 highly differentiated lamellar cells constituting its core. Each cell type could clearly be distinguished on the basis of cytoplasmic density and overall cell shape. Moreover, because of the large sample size, transitions between cell types were obvious.

Conclusions
For the notochord of adult lancelets, a reasonable interpretation of our data indicates growth of the organ is based on stem cells that self-renew and also give rise to progenitor cells that, in turn, differentiate into lamellar cells. Our discussion compares the cellular basis of adult notochord growth among chordates in general. In the vertebrates, several studies implied that proliferating cells (chordoblasts) in the cortex of the organ might be stem cells. However, we think it is more likely that such cells actually constitute a progenitor population downstream from and maintained by inconspicuous stem cells. We venture to suggest that careful searches should find stem cells in the adult notochords of many vertebrates, although possibly not in the notochordal vestiges (nucleus pulposus regions) of mammals, where the presence of endogenous proliferating cells remains controversial.
An ovarian torsion in a 2-year-old girl: a case report
Authors: De Silva Mawanane Hewa Aruna Devapriya , Kolombage Padmini , Kasthuri Sembakutti 
Published: October 2020

Abstract
Background
Abdominal pain is one of the most common complaints by patients in the emergency department. Diarrhea, constipation, and urinary tract infection are the commonest etiologies among these patients, but there are surgical emergencies, such as appendicitis and volvulus of the intestine, which are less common. Torsion of the ovary is rarer than all of the above conditions. Ovarian torsion occurs following the twisting of the ovary on its ligamentous attachment, possibly with a cyst, leading to the impediment of blood flow. Prompt diagnosis with a high clinical suspicion is essential to salvage the ovaries and to prevent complications, including death.

Case presentation
Here, we present a case of ovarian torsion in a 2-year-old Sri Lankan girl who presented with nonspecific abdominal symptoms after being symptomatically treated twice by her general practitioners for 3 days. Following biochemical and radiological investigations, she was diagnosed with a twisted necrotic ovarian torsion and underwent laparoscopic right-sided oophorectomy.

Conclusions
Finding the etiology of a child with abdominal pain is challenging, especially because of the limited history, examination findings, the difficulty in carrying out radiological investigations, and the poor specificity of the results compared with adults. This is a case presentation and a brief discussion about the dilemmas and difficulties in the diagnosis and treatment of ovarian torsion in young children.
Analysis of the microRNA expression profiles of chicken dendritic cells in response to H9N2 avian influenza virus infection
Authors: Yang Jing , Huang Xinmei , Liu Yuzhuo , Zhao Dongmin , Han Kaikai , Zhang Lijiao , Li Yin , Liu Qingtao 
Published: October 2020

AbstractMicroRNA (miRNA) plays a key role in virus-host interactions. Here, we employed deep sequencing technology to determine cellular miRNA expression profiles in chicken dendritic cells infected with H9N2 avian influenza virus (AIV). A total of 66 known and 36 novel miRNAs were differently expressed upon H9N2 infection, including 72 up-regulated and 30 down-regulated miRNAs. Functional analysis showed that the predicted targets of these miRNAs were significantly enriched in several pathways including endocytosis, notch, lysosome, p53, RIG-I-like and NOD-like receptor signaling pathways. These data provide valuable information for further investigating the roles of miRNA in AIV pathogenesis and host defense response.
Robust widely linear beamforming using estimation of extended covariance matrix and steering vector
Authors: Meng Zhen , Zhou Weidong , Gazor Saeed 
Published: October 2020

AbstractThe distribution of the received signals in many array processing applications is noncircular. Although optimal widely linear beamformer (WLB) can provide the best performance for noncircular received signals, its performance degrades severely under model mismatches in practical applications. As a remedy, we propose a robust WLB by using precise reconstruction of extended interference-plus-noise covariance matrix (EINCM) and low-complexity estimation of extended desired signal steering vector (EDSSV). We propose to first determine the steering vectors, powers, and noncircularity coefficients of all signals and the noise power. In contrast to the previous reconstruction methods using the integration over a wide angular sector, we reconstruct the interference-plus-noise covariance matrix (INCM) and the pseudo INCM accurately according to their definitions. By using INCM and pseudo INCM, we can precisely reconstruct the EINCM. We propose to estimate the EDSSV by intersecting two extended subspaces, which are respectively formed by eigendecomposing the extended sample covariance matrix and the extended desired signal covariance matrix. Unlike the convex optimization methods, the proposed EDSSV estimation does not require any optimization programming and yields a solution with closed expression in low computational complexity. Simulation results show that the proposed robust WLB provides near optimal performance under several model mismatch cases.
Dynamic properties of a discrete population model with diffusion
Authors: Li Ming-Shan , Zhou Xiao-Liang , Xu Jiang-Ming 
Published: October 2020

AbstractWe study the dynamical properties of a discrete population model with diffusion. We survey the transcritical, pitchfork, and flip bifurcations of nonhyperbolic fixed points by using the center manifold theorem. For the degenerate fixed point with eigenvalues ±1 of the model, we obtain the normal form of the mapping by using the coordinate transformation. Then we give an approximating system of the normal form via an approximation by a flow. We give the local behavior near a degenerate equilibrium of the vector field by the blowup technique. By the conjugacy between the reflection of time-one mapping of a vector field and the model we obtain the stability and qualitative structures near the degenerate fixed point of the model. Finally, we carry out a numerical simulation to illustrate the analytical results of the model.
An efficient finite element method and error analysis for eigenvalue problem of Schrödinger equation with an inverse square potential on spherical domain
Authors: Sui Yubing , Zhang Donghao , Cao Junying , Zhang Jun 
Published: October 2020

AbstractWe provide an effective finite element method to solve the Schrödinger eigenvalue problem with an inverse potential on a spherical domain. To overcome the difficulties caused by the singularities of coefficients, we introduce spherical coordinate transformation and transfer the singularities from the interior of the domain to its boundary. Then by using orthogonal properties of spherical harmonic functions and variable separation technique we transform the original problem into a series of one-dimensional eigenvalue problems. We further introduce some suitable Sobolev spaces and derive the weak form and an efficient discrete scheme. Combining with the spectral theory of Babuška and Osborn for self-adjoint positive definite eigenvalue problems, we obtain error estimates of approximation eigenvalues and eigenvectors. Finally, we provide some numerical examples to show the efficiency and accuracy of the algorithm.
Positive solutions of a discrete second-order boundary value problems with fully nonlinear term
Authors: Jin Liyun , Luo Hua 
Published: October 2020

AbstractIn this paper, we mainly consider a kind of discrete second-order boundary value problem with fully nonlinear term. By using the fixed-point index theory, we obtain some existence results of positive solutions of this kind of problems. Instead of the upper and lower limits condition onf, we may only impose some weaker conditions onf.
A priori bounds of the solution of a one point IBVP for a singular fractional evolution equation
Authors: Mesloub Said , Gadain Hassan Eltayeb 
Published: October 2020

AbstractA priori bounds constitute a crucial and powerful tool in the investigation of initial boundary value problems for linear and nonlinear fractional and integer order differential equations in bounded domains. We present herein a collection of a priori estimates of the solution for an initial boundary value problem for a singular fractional evolution equation (generalized time-fractional wave equation) with mass absorption. The Riemann–Liouville derivative is employed. Results of uniqueness and dependence of the solution upon the data were obtained in two cases, the damped and the undamped case. The uniqueness and continuous dependence (stability of solution) of the solution follows from the obtained a priori estimates in fractional Sobolev spaces. These spaces give what are called weak solutions to our partial differential equations (they are based on the notion of the weak derivatives). The method of energy inequalities is used to obtain different a priori estimates.
TSME: a trust-based security scheme for message exchange in vehicular Ad hoc networks
Authors: Abassi Ryma , Ben Chehida Douss Aida , Sauveron Damien 
Published: October 2020

AbstractA Vehicular Ad hoc NETwork (VANET) is a self-organized network formed by connected vehicles, which allows the exchange of useful traffic information in a timely manner. In such a context, evaluating the reliability of transmissions is vital. Trust can be used to promote such healthy collaboration. In fact, trust enables collaborating vehicles to counter uncertainty and suspicion by establishing trustworthy relationships. The main contribution of this paper is the proposition of a trust-based security scheme for message exchange in a VANET called TSME. Because of VANET characteristics, including dynamicity and high speed, we first proposed a VANET Grouping Algorithm (VGA); a suitable clustering algorithm organizing the network into groups with elected Group-Heads. Second, built on the VGA, we defined our trust management scheme dealing with vehicles’ reputations. Finally, we proposed a formal specification of the scheme using an inference system, and conducted a formal validation to assess its completeness and soundness rather than conducting simulations where some potentially rare conflicting or malfunctioning situations might not be detected. Soundness was proven by showing that there were no conflicts in our scheme, and completeness was established by assessing that all potential situations could be handled. The results obtained showed that our scheme for evaluating the veracity of exchanged messages is formally sound and complete.
Assessment of HY-2A GM data by deriving the gravity field and bathymetry over the Gulf of Guinea
Authors: Wan Xiaoyun , Annan Richard Fiifi , Wang Wenbin 
Published: October 2020

AbstractNine cycles of Haiyang-2A (HY-2A) IGDR (Interim Geophysical Data Record) data are used to derive gravity products over the Gulf of Guinea (15° W–5° E, 4° S–4° N). Firstly, the sea surface heights (SSH) and vertical deflections are derived and their precisions are evaluated. The comparison results show that the east component of vertical deflections has a poorer precision than the north component by 4.15 times. A theoretical proof was given to explain this point according to the error propagation rule. Gravity anomalies are then derived from vertical deflections using the remove–restore method. The precision of the derived HY-2A gravity anomalies is evaluated with SIO, DTU13, EGM2008, EIGEN-6C4 products. The results showed that the differences between HY-2A-derived gravity anomalies and these models have mean values larger than 0.5 mGal and std values around 7.0–7.3 mGal. In order to improve the precision, an improved new version of gravity anomalies was derived by assigning a small weight to the east component of vertical deflections, since the precision of which is poorer than the north component. Comparison with the initial model showed that the precision of the new gravity anomalies is an improvement of the initial model by approximately two times. When compared with EGM2008, EIGEN-6C4, SIOv28 and DTU13, the mean values of the differences are close to zero and standard deviation of the differences are around 2.7–3.0 mGal. The improved gravity anomalies were used to invert the bathymetry of the region using the gravity-geologic method. The modeled bathymetry compared well with a previous bathymetric study by the authors that used DTU13 gravity anomalies. It also performed well against ETOPO1 and SRTM15+V2; with difference means, standard deviations and correlation coefficients of 26.67 m, 183.09 m, 0.9562; and 12.26 m, 174.55 m, 0.9590, respectively. This implies that SSH data from HY-2A are geophysically reliable; and hence, can be incorporated with SSH data from other satellite altimeters.
Efficacy of Treatments for Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome Management in Adolescents
Authors: Al Khalifah Reem A , Florez Ivan D , Zoratti Michael J , Dennis Brittany , Thabane Lehana , Bassilious Ereny 
Published: October 2020

Abstract

Limited evidence on treatment options for polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) has led to considerable variation in health care practices. We aimed to compare the effects of metformin and/or oral contraceptive pills (OCP) in combination with pioglitazone, spironolactone, flutamide, and lifestyle interventions among adolescents aged 11 to 19 years with PCOS. Literature searches were performed in Medline, Embase, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials from database inception through December 2018, with no language restriction. Two reviewers screened titles and abstracts, assessed full text eligibility, and extracted information from eligible trials. Evidence was synthesized through network meta-analyses (NMA) using a Bayesian random-effects approach. We identified 37 randomized controlled trials, in which 2400 patients were randomized. NMA showed no statistically important difference among all interventions to improve menstrual regulation or body mass index. Moderate-quality evidence showed hirsutism scores were reduced by multiple interventions that included single and combination medications namely; lifestyle intervention, metformin, OCP, spironolactone, pioglitazone, metformin-OCP, metformin-spironolactone, and metformin-flutamide against placebo. Moderate-quality evidence showed OCP results in more dysglycemia compared to metformin (odds ratio, 2.98; 95% credible interval, 1.02-8.96), no intervention resulted in dysglycemia reduction. In conclusion, metformin and OCP as monotherapy or in combination with other interventions compared with placebo can reduce hirsutism scores, but none of these medications lead to effective menstrual cycle regulation or weight reduction. However, the use of OCP leads to worse cardiometabolic risk factors. Further research into new treatment options is urgently needed.

PROSPERO registration number
CRD42015016148.