bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Pediatric Septal Perforation Repair With the Endoscopic Anterior Ethmoid Artery Flap
Authors: Nassif Samih J. , Scott Andrew R. 
Published: July 2020

Pediatric nasal septal perforations can lead to crusting, obstruction, whistling, and recurrent epistaxis. Current approaches for pediatric nasal septal repair center on combination endonasal and external approaches. Herein we describe the successful utilization of a purely endoscopic anterior ethmoid artery flap, an established technique in adults, for nasal septal perforation repair in 3 children aged 12 to 13 years who presented with septal perforations ranging in size from 6 to 12 mm. Successful closure was achieved with an endoscopic anterior ethmoid artery flap, with all patients achieving complete closure and symptom resolution. Children with nasal septal defects are typically treated with temporizing measures until early adulthood, when definitive open repair may be performed. Our initial experience with the anterior ethmoid artery flap technique suggests that this surgery may be easily performed in children as young as 12 years, without the use of previously described adjunctive procedures such as turbinate translocation.
Federalism in a Time of Plague: How Federal Systems Cope With Pandemic
Authors: Rozell Mark J. , Wilcox Clyde 
Published: July 2020

This article compares and contrasts the responses of Australia, Canada, Germany, and the United States to the COVID-19 outbreak and spread. The pandemic has posed special challenges to these federal systems. Although federal systems typically have many advantages—they can adapt policies to local conditions, for example, and experiment with different solutions to problems—pandemics and people cross regional borders, and controlling contagion requires a great deal of national coordination and intergovernmental cooperation. The four federal systems vary in their relative distribution of powers between regional and national governments, in the way that health care is administered, and in the variation in policies across regions. We focus on the early responses to COVID-19, from January through early May 2020. Three of these countries—Australia, Canada, and Germany—have done well in the crisis. They have acted quickly, done extensive testing and contact tracing, and had a relatively uniform set of policies across the country. The United States, in contrast, has had a disastrous response, wasting months at the start of the virus outbreak, with limited testing, poor intergovernmental cooperation, and widely divergent policies across the states and even within some states. The article seeks to explain both the relative uniform responses of these three very different federal systems, and the sharply divergent response of the United States.
The Relative Role of Sovereign CDS and Bond Markets in Efficiently Pricing Emerging Market Sovereign Credit Risk
Authors: Raja Zubair Ali , Procasky William J. , Oyotode-Adebile Renee 
Published: July 2020

Extant literature reports mixed findings on the relative efficiency of credit default swaps (CDS) and bond markets in pricing emerging market sovereign credit risk. Using a more comprehensive data set than analyzed earlier, we reexamine this issue and find that CDS dominate bonds in the price discovery of this risk, an advantage we attribute to the greater relative liquidity of that market. One exception is during the financial crisis, suggesting that when panic hits, sovereign markets price credit risk differently. However, even then, the CDS market has a greater impact on price discovery than the bond market, indicating greater overall efficiency. JEL Classification: G11, G12, G13, G14, G23
Retrospective analysis of risk factors for deep infection in lower limb Gustilo–Anderson type III fractures
Authors: Ukai Taku , Hamahashi Kosuke , Uchiyama Yoshiyasu , Kobayashi Yuka , Watanabe Masahiko 
Published: July 2020

Abstract
Background
Open fractures are among the most severe injuries observed in orthopedic patients. Treating open fractures is difficult because such patients with infections may require multiple operations and amputations. Furthermore, only a few studies have focused on antibiotic prophylaxis in open fractures and evaluated how to cover lost soft tissue to increase the success rate of reconstruction. We evaluated the risk factors for deep infection in lower limb Gustilo–Anderson (G–A) type III fractures.

Materials and methods
This retrospective study investigated patients who underwent surgical procedures for lower limb G–A type III fractures between January 2007 and January 2017 at our institution. We enrolled 110 patients with 114 lower limb G–A type III fractures (77 G–A type IIIA fractures and 37 G–A type IIIB fractures) who were followed up for at least 2 years. We compared patients presenting infections with those without infections by assessing the following factors: severe contamination, diabetes, smoking, Injury Severity Scale, segmental fracture, location of fracture, G–A classification, damage control surgery, methods of surgery, timing of fixation, combination of antibiotics used, duration of antibiotic prophylaxis, timing of wound closure, and soft-tissue reconstruction failure.

Results
Eighteen fractures presented deep infections. Compared with patients without infections, patients developing infections differed significantly in terms of severe contamination (P < 0.01), G–A classification (P < 0.01), duration of antibiotic prophylaxis (P < 0.01), timing of wound closure (P < 0.01), and incidence of soft-tissue reconstruction failure (P < 0.01). Skin grafting was associated with significantly higher failure rates than muscle and free flap reconstructions (P = 0.04). Treatment with antibiotics was significantly longer in patients with drug-resistant bacterial infections than in those without infections (P < 0.01).

Conclusion
Early flaps rather than skin grafting should be used to cover G–A type IIIB fractures, because skin grafting resulted in the highest failure rate among soft-tissue reconstructions in open fractures. Longer duration of antibiotic use had a significant impact not only on deep infection rates but also on the presence of drug-resistant bacteria. These findings suggest that prolonged use of antibiotics should be avoided in cases of open fractures.

Level of evidence
Level IV retrospective observational study.
Graph-based prediction of Protein-protein interactions with attributed signed graph embedding
Authors: Yang Fang , Fan Kunjie , Song Dandan , Lin Huakang 
Published: July 2020

Abstract
Background
Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) are central to many biological processes. Considering that the experimental methods for identifying PPIs are time-consuming and expensive, it is important to develop automated computational methods to better predict PPIs. Various machine learning methods have been proposed, including a deep learning technique which is sequence-based that has achieved promising results. However, it only focuses on sequence information while ignoring the structural information of PPI networks. Structural information of PPI networks such as their degree, position, and neighboring nodes in a graph has been proved to be informative in PPI prediction.

Results
Facing the challenge of representing graph information, we introduce an improved graph representation learning method. Our model can study PPI prediction based on both sequence information and graph structure. Moreover, our study takes advantage of a representation learning model and employs a graph-based deep learning method for PPI prediction, which shows superiority over existing sequence-based methods. Statistically, Our method achieves state-of-the-art accuracy of 99.15% on Human protein reference database (HPRD) dataset and also obtains best results on Database of Interacting Protein (DIP) Human, Drosophila, Escherichia coli (E. coli), and Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegan) datasets.

Conclusion
Here, we introduce signed variational graph auto-encoder (S-VGAE), an improved graph representation learning method, to automatically learn to encode graph structure into low-dimensional embeddings. Experimental results demonstrate that our method outperforms other existing sequence-based methods on several datasets. We also prove the robustness of our model for very sparse networks and the generalization for a new dataset that consists of four datasets: HPRD, E.coli, C.elegan, and Drosophila.
Genetic diversity among early provitamin A quality protein maize inbred lines and the performance of derived hybrids under contrasting nitrogen environments
Authors: Obeng-Bio Ebenezer , Badu-Apraku Baffour , Ifie Beatrice Elohor , Danquah Agyemang , Blay Essie Takyiwaa , Dadzie Mustapha Abu , Noudifoulè Gilbert Tchala , Talabi Abidemi Olutayo 
Published: July 2020

Abstract
Background
Information on population structure and genetic diversity of germplasm in a breeding programme is useful because it enhances judicious utilisation of genetic resources to achieve breeding objectives. Seventy early maturing provitamin A (PVA) quality protein maize (QPM) inbreds developed by the IITA- maize improvement programme were genotyped using 8171 DArTseq markers. Furthermore, 96 hybrids derived from 24 selected inbreds plus four checks were evaluated under low-N and optimal environments in Nigeria during 2016 and 2017. Genotypic and phenotypic data of inbreds and hybrids respectively, were analysed to (i) assess the level of genetic dissimilarities and population structure of the inbreds, and (ii) investigate the grain yield performance of derived hybrids under low-N, optimal and across environments.

Results
Genetic diversity among the seventy inbreds was high varying from 0.042 to 0.500 with an average of 0.357. Sixty-six inbred lines with probabilities ≥0.70 were assigned to a single group. The population structure analysis, the UPGMA phylogeny, and the principal Coordinate Analysis (PCoA) of the DArTseq markers revealed a clear separation of five groups and each followed pedigree records. Clustered inbreds displayed common characteristics including high PVA levels, and drought and low-N tolerance. The top performing hybrid, TZEIORQ 40 × TZEIORQ 26 out-yielded the best hybrid control, TZEIOR 127 × TZEIOR 57 by 8, 3, and 9% under low-N, optimal, and across environments, respectively. High repeatability estimates were detected for grain yield under each and across environments. Similarly, high breeding efficiency of 71, 70 and 72% were computed under low-N, optimal, and across environments, respectively.

Conclusions
The UPGMA clustering, the structure analysis, and the PCoA consistently revealed five groups which largely followed pedigree information indicating the existence of genetically distinct groups in the inbred lines. High repeatability and breeding efficiency values estimated for grain yield of hybrids under low-N, optimal and across environments demonstrated that high productive hybrids could be developed using inbreds from the opposing clusters identified by the DArTseq markers. The 15 top performing hybrids identified, particularly TZEIORQ 40 × TZEIORQ 26 and TZEIORQ 29 × TZEIORQ 43 should be further evaluated for release and commercialization in SSA.
Identification of resistance loci in Chinese and Canadian canola/rapeseed varieties against Leptosphaeria maculans based on genome-wide association studies
Authors: Fu Fuyou , Zhang Xuehua , Liu Fei , Peng Gary , Yu Fengqun , Fernando Dilantha 
Published: July 2020

Abstract
Background
The fungal pathogen Leptosphaeria maculans (Lm). causes blackleg disease on canola/rapeseed in many parts of the world. It is important to use resistant cultivars to manage the disease and minimize yield losses. In this study, twenty-two Lm isolates were used to identify resistance genes in a collection of 243 canola/rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) accessions from Canada and China. These Lm isolates carry different compliments of avirulence genes, and the investigation was based on a genome-wide association study (GWAS) and genotype-by-sequencing (GBS).

Results
Using the CROP-SNP pipeline, a total of 81,471 variants, including 78,632 SNPs and 2839 InDels, were identified. The GWAS was performed using TASSEL 5.0 with GLM + Q model. Thirty-two and 13 SNPs were identified from the Canadian and Chinese accessions, respectively, tightly associated with blackleg resistance with P values < 1 × 10− 4. These SNP loci were distributed on chromosomes A03, A05, A08, A09, C01, C04, C05, and C07, with the majority of them on A08 followed by A09 and A03. The significant SNPs identified on A08 were all located in a 2010-kb region and associated with resistance to 12 of the 22 Lm isolates. Furthermore, 25 resistance gene analogues (RGAs) were identified in these regions, including two nucleotide binding site (NBS) domain proteins, fourteen RLKs, three RLPs and six TM-CCs. These RGAs can be the potential candidate genes for blackleg resistance.

Conclusion
This study provides insights into potentially new genomic regions for discovery of additional blackleg resistance genes. The identified regions associated with blackleg resistance in the germplasm collection may also contribute directly to the development of canola varieties with novel resistance genes against blackleg of canola.
Heritability and genome-wide association analyses of fasting plasma glucose in Chinese adult twins
Authors: Wang Weijing , Zhang Caixia , Liu Hui , Xu Chunsheng , Duan Haiping , Tian Xiaocao , Zhang Dongfeng 
Published: July 2020

Abstract
Background
Currently, diabetes has become one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Fasting plasma glucose (FPG) levels that are higher than optimal, even if below the diagnostic threshold of diabetes, can also lead to increased morbidity and mortality. Here we intend to study the magnitude of the genetic influence on FPG variation by conducting structural equation modelling analysis and to further identify specific genetic variants potentially related to FPG levels by performing a genome-wide association study (GWAS) in Chinese twins.

Results
The final sample included 382 twin pairs: 139 dizygotic (DZ) pairs and 243 monozygotic (MZ) pairs. The DZ twin correlation for the FPG level (rDZ = 0.20, 95% CI: 0.04–0.36) was much lower than half that of the MZ twin correlation (rMZ = 0.68, 95% CI: 0.62–0.74). For the variation in FPG level, the AE model was the better fitting model, with additive genetic parameters (A) accounting for 67.66% (95% CI: 60.50–73.62%) and unique environmental or residual parameters (E) accounting for 32.34% (95% CI: 26.38–39.55%), respectively. In the GWAS, although no genetic variants reached the genome-wide significance level (P < 5 × 10− 8), 28 SNPs exceeded the level of a suggestive association (P < 1 × 10− 5). One promising genetic region (2q33.1) around rs10931893 (P = 1.53 × 10− 7) was found. After imputing untyped SNPs, we found that rs60106404 (P = 2.38 × 10− 8) located at SPATS2L reached the genome-wide significance level, and 216 SNPs exceeded the level of a suggestive association. We found 1007 genes nominally associated with the FPG level (P < 0.05), including SPATS2L, KCNK5, ADCY5, PCSK1, PTPRA, and SLC26A11. Moreover, C1orf74 (P = 0.014) and SLC26A11 (P = 0.021) were differentially expressed between patients with impaired fasting glucose and healthy controls. Some important enriched biological pathways, such as β-alanine metabolism, regulation of insulin secretion, glucagon signaling in metabolic regulation, IL-1 receptor pathway, signaling by platelet derived growth factor, cysteine and methionine metabolism pathway, were identified.

Conclusions
The FPG level is highly heritable in the Chinese population, and genetic variants are significantly involved in regulatory domains, functional genes and biological pathways that mediate FPG levels. This study provides important clues for further elucidating the molecular mechanism of glucose homeostasis and discovering new diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets for diabetes.
Integrated small RNA and Degradome sequencing provide insights into salt tolerance in sesame (Sesamum indicum L.)
Authors: Zhang Yujuan , Gong Huihui , Li Donghua , Zhou Rong , Zhao Fengtao , Zhang Xiurong , You Jun 
Published: July 2020

Abstract
Background
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) exhibit important regulatory roles in the response to abiotic stresses by post-transcriptionally regulating the target gene expression in plants. However, their functions in sesame response to salt stress are poorly known. To dissect the complex mechanisms underlying salt stress response in sesame, miRNAs and their targets were identified from two contrasting sesame genotypes by a combined analysis of small RNAs and degradome sequencing.

Results
A total of 351 previously known and 91 novel miRNAs were identified from 18 sesame libraries. Comparison of miRNA expressions between salt-treated and control groups revealed that 116 miRNAs were involved in salt stress response. Using degradome sequencing, potential target genes for some miRNAs were also identified. The combined analysis of all the differentially expressed miRNAs and their targets identified miRNA–mRNA regulatory networks and 21 miRNA–mRNA interaction pairs that exhibited contrasting expressions in sesame under salt stress.

Conclusions
This comprehensive integrated analysis may provide new insights into the genetic regulation mechanism of miRNAs underlying the adaptation of sesame to salt stress.
Lung ultrasound score to determine the effect of fraction inspired oxygen during alveolar recruitment on absorption atelectasis in laparoscopic surgery: a randomized controlled trial
Authors: Kim Bo Rim , Lee Seohee , Bae Hansu , Lee Minkyoo , Bahk Jae-Hyon , Yoon Susie 
Published: July 2020

Abstract
Background
Although the intraoperative alveolar recruitment maneuver (RM) efficiently treats atelectasis, the effect of Fio2 on atelectasis during RM is uncertain. We hypothesized that a high Fio2 (1.0) during RM would lead to a higher degree of postoperative atelectasis without benefiting oxygenation when compared to low Fio2 (0.4).

Methods
In this randomized controlled trial, patients undergoing elective laparoscopic surgery in the Trendelenburg position were allocated to low- (Fio2 0.4, n = 44) and high-Fio2 (Fio2 1.0, n = 46) groups. RM was performed 1-min post tracheal intubation and post changes in supine and Trendelenburg positions during surgery. We set the intraoperative Fio2 at 0.4 for both groups and calculated the modified lung ultrasound score (LUSS) to assess lung aeration after anesthesia induction and at surgery completion. The primary outcome was modified LUSS at the end of the surgery. The secondary outcomes were the intra- and postoperative Pao2 to Fio2 ratio and postoperative pulmonary complications.

Results
The modified LUSS before capnoperitoneum and RM (P = 0.747) were similar in both groups. However, the postoperative modified LUSS was significantly lower in the low Fio2 group (median difference 5.0, 95% CI 3.0–7.0, P < 0.001). Postoperatively, substantial atelectasis was more common in the high-Fio2 group (relative risk 1.77, 95% CI 1.27–2.47, P < 0.001). Intra- and postoperative Pao2 to Fio2 were similar with no postoperative pulmonary complications. Atelectasis occurred more frequently when RM was performed with high than with low Fio2; oxygenation was not benefitted by a high-Fio2.

Conclusions
In patients undergoing laparoscopic surgery in the Trendelenburg position, absorption atelectasis occurred more frequently with high rather than low Fio2. No oxygenation benefit was observed in the high-Fio2 group.

Trial registration
ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03943433. Registered 7 May 2019,
Association of ESR1 (rs2234693 and rs9340799), CETP (rs708272), MTHFR (rs1801133 and rs2274976) and MS (rs185087) polymorphisms with Coronary Artery Disease (CAD)
Authors: Raina Jyotdeep Kour , Sharma Minakashee , Panjaliya Rakesh Kumar , Dogra Vikas , Bakaya Ashok , Kumar Parvinder 
Published: July 2020

Abstract
Background
Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a complex disease resulting from the cumulative and interactive effects of large number of genes along with environmental exposure. Therefore, the present study was envisaged as an effort to study the association of candidate genes ESR1 (rs2234693 and rs9340799), CETP (rs708272), MTHFR (rs1801133 and rs2274976) and MS (rs185087) polymorphisms with the risk of CAD, targeting the populations of Jammu (JandK).

Method
A total of 400 confirmed CAD patients and 400 healthy controls were enrolled for the present study. Genotyping was done by polymerase chain reaction- restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP).

Results
ESR1 gene (rs9340799) polymorphism was found to be associated with CAD in all the genetic models. The haplotype analysis of ESR1 (rs2234693 and rs9340799) gene revealed that C-G haplotype was conferring approximately 5-fold risk and T-A haplotype was adding 1.4-fold risk towards the disease. ‘T’ allele of MTHFR rs1801133 SNP was observed to be responsible for development of CAD in our study population (p < 0.0001). In case of MTHFR (rs1801133 and rs2274976) gene, the haplotype T-G was observed to confer 4.7-fold risk towards CAD whereas haplotype C-G provided nearly a 1.7 fold protection towards development of CAD. For MS gene, rs185087 was also found to be associated with CAD in a co-dominant (p = 0.003 and p = 0.03), dominant (p = 0.001) and allelic models (p = 0.001). The gene-gene interaction revealed strong epistasis between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), ESR1 rs9340799 and MTHFR rs2274976. Furthermore, the dendrogram for gene-environment dataset indicated moderately synergistic interaction between CETP rs708272 and physical inactivity.

Conclusion
In the study under reference, a significant association of ESR1-XbaI (rs9340799), MTHFR C677T (rs1801133) and MS A2756G (rs185087) gene polymorphisms with the susceptibility of CAD in the population of Jammu region (JandK) has been observed.