bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
BRAIN WHITE MATTER ALTERATIONS IN STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY AND CONNECTIVITY FOLLOWING A SPORTS-RELATED CONCUSSION: EVALUATION OF THE POTENTIAL AMELIORATING EFFECT OF A JUGULAR VEIN COMPRESSION COLLAR DEVICE
Authors: Diekfuss Jed A. , Yuan Weihong , Foss Kim D. Barber , Dudley Jonathan A. , DiCesare Christopher A. , Logan Kelsey , Leach James L. , Myer Gregory D. 
Published: April 2020

Background: Sports-related concussion is a significant public health problem which may result in exacerbated or prolonged neurologic deficits. A neck collar device has been developed to apply mild jugular vein compression, increasing intracranial blood volume, with the intent of reducing brain slosh and preventing damage to brain microstructure from head impact exposure. Hypothesis/Purpose: We aimed to quantify the alterations in white matter (WM) diffusion properties and network structural connectivity in high school athletes after sports-related concussion and to test the effect of a jugular vein compression collar device worn during the concussive event. Methods: 379 athletes (male American football and female Soccer) were included in this report. Of the 16693 total athlete exposures, 40 resulted in a diagnosed concussion and were included in these analyses. Prospective longitudinal MRI data were collected at pre-season and post-concussion: 20 athletes were in the non-collar group (12M, age =15.93±1.27yrs) and 20 athletes were in the non-collar group (16M, age=16.37±1.06yrs). DTI parameters, including fractional anisotropy (FA), and mean, axial and radial diffusivity (MD/AD/RD), were calculated to determine post-concussion alterations in WM diffusion properties. Graph analysis was utilized to quantify post-concussion changes in WM structural connectivity. Results: Diffusion property results revealed significant pre-season to post-concussion increases in MD, AD and RD within the non-collar group (p<0.05), but no change was found in the collar group (p>0.05). The pre-season to post-concussion MD, AD, or RD increase was significantly greater (p<0.05, Figure 1) in the non-collar group than the collar group. Graph analysis revealed a pre-season to post-concussion decrease in mean local efficiency in the non-collar group (p=0.036) and a significant increase in mean local efficiency in the collar group (p=0.017). The pre-season to post-concussion change in the mean local efficiency was significantly different in the non-collar group, when compared to the collar group (p=0.0024, Figure 2). Discussion & Conclusion: Results indicate that sports related concussion is associated with alterations in WM diffusion properties. The mean local efficiency of the network, a structural connectivity index reflecting network wiring redundancy and tolerance to brain injury, was also found to decrease after the concussion. Results indicate that wearing a neck collar device has the potential to limit these WM changes following a concussive event. Further studies are warranted to investigate the temporal progression of these changes for preventing long-term, neurologic squeala. [Figure: see text][Figure: see text]
PEDIATRIC REFERENCE ANATOMY FOR ANTEROLATERAL LIGAMENT RECONSTRUCTION– A CADAVERIC STUDY
Authors: Randhawa Sahej D , Trivedi Sunny , Stavinoha Tyler J. , Ganley Theodore J. , Tompkins Marc , Shea Kevin G. 
Published: April 2020

Background: The anatomy of the anterolateral ligament (ALL) has been controversial, with modern studies varying in their description of the precise origin and insertion, as well as relation to surrounding structures on the lateral femur and anterolateral tibia Regardless of such controversy, principles of reconstruction, even non-anatomic, require a clear understanding of the referenced anatomy and surrounding structures. Due to high rates of primary and recurrent ACL tears in pediatric/adolescent patients, the use of ALL reconstruction is increasing in these groups. No pediatric cadaveric study to date has clearly identified the locations of the known surrounding structures of the anterolateral ligamentous complex. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to quantitatively assess the anatomy of the pediatric lateral collateral ligament (LCL) origin, the popliteus origin, and in the tibial insertion of the iliotibioband (ITB). Methods: Nine pediatric cadaveric knee specimens were dissected to identify the ligamentous femoral origin of the LCL, popliteus, and tibial insertion of the ITB.. Marking pins were used to localize the central footprint of these structures, followed by CT Scans. Results: LCL & Popliteus: On the femur, the popliteus was consistently found deep to the LCL and inserted both distally and anteriorly to the LCL a mean distance of 4.6 mm (range 1.9 to 7.6 mm; std dev 2.0). The LCL measured a mean of 12.5 mm to the joint line while the popliteus measured a mean of 8.2 mm from the joint line. Both the LCL and popliteus were consistently distal to the physis. The LCL was a mean distance of 4.4 mm (range 1.0 - 9.5 ) and the popliteus was a mean distance of 8.2 (range 1.7 – 12.5), respectively. ITB insertion: The ITB insertion at Gerdy’s tubercle had an average footprint measuring 28.2 mm2 (range 10.3-58.4), and the ITB center was found proximal to the physis in 6 specimens and distal in 3 specimens. Mean distance from the footprint center to the physis was 1.6 mm proximal (range 7.1 mm proximal to 2.2 mm distal). Conclusion: This study provides quantitative anatomy to structures on the lateral femur and anterolateral tibia, commonly referenced in descriptions of the ALL and lateral extraarticular reconstruction techniques. Knowledge of these structures will define the anterolateral complex and guide extra-articular procedures that provide extraarticular anterolateral rotatory stabilization in the pediatric patients. [Figure: see text][Figure: see text]
The use Of Pupillary Light Reflex in Concussed Athletes
Authors: Podolak Olivia E. , Arbogast Kristy B. , Nabin Joshi B. , Ciuffreda Kenneth , Grady Matthew , Master Christina L. 
Published: April 2020

Background: Despite advancements, concussion diagnosis remains reliant on subjective symptom report and clinical assessments. Visual deficits and autonomic dysfunction have been described following concussion. Testing of the pupillary light reflex (PLR) is a simple, portable, non-invasive, and objective means of quantifying pupillary function. Purpose: The aim of this study was to objectively evaluate pupillary responses to a light stimulus in concussed adolescent athletes and to determine whether clinical assessments correlated with PLR responses after a diagnosed concussion when compared to pre-injury responses. Methods: In this prospective cohort study, PLR and clinical measures [PCSI and/or SCAT symptom scales, near point of convergence (NPC) and accommodation amplitude (AA) of both eyes] were assessed in 93 (45 female), non-concussed adolescent athletes (ages 14-18) during their pre-season. PLR was obtained in response to a brief white light stimulus using a hand-held pupillometer. During each assessment, three monocular trials were performed in each eye alternatively, with subsequent averaged responses for each eye. Seven athletes (ages 14-17) sustained a concussion and had post-injury assessments of PLR and clinical measures completed longitudinally through recovery. Results: All seven concussed athletes completed PLR and clinical assessments at least once post-injury (mean initial day of evaluation = 6 days post injury). Six out of the seven concussed athletes demonstrated an increase in steady state diameter of 24% (median 18%), minimum pupil diameter of 17% (median 11%) and a maximum constriction velocity of 28% (median 33%) following concussion which decreased over the course of recovery, returning to pre-injury or below pre-injury measurements. Six of seven of the concussed athletes completed NPC and AA assessments at both pre-season and post-injury timepoints. In contrast to the PLR findings, both NPC and AA measures were normal at post-injury assessments. Reported symptom scores improved throughout recovery, correlating with PLR response recovery, with both returning to pre-injury measurements. Conclusion: Pupil responsivity was found to be significantly enhanced after concussion compared to pre-injury measurements, waning over time during recovery, following a similar trajectory as symptom burden. NPC and AA, which have autonomic contributions and are clinical measures, were normal pre- and post-injury and did not differentiate the concussed state from the uninjured state in our series. Our preliminary results demonstrate that dynamic PLR responses may detect acute autonomic deficits that are not evident via clinical assessments. Further investigation of its potential utility as sensitive and objective biomarker in concussion diagnosis, management and sports clearance is warranted.
The Contributing Factors to Nurses’ Behavioral Intention to Use Hospital Information Technologies in Ghana
Authors: Lulin Zhou , Owusu-Marfo Joseph , Antwi Henry Asante , Xu Xinglong 
Published: April 2020

Background Medical care facilities in both developed and developing countries around the world continue to invest in hospital information technologies (HITs). Nevertheless, it has been discovered that user acceptance of these technologies is one of the imperative issues during their implementation and management in developing countries such as Ghana. Purpose Notably, the technology acceptance assessment of nurses is a timely one since they play a very important role in the medical sector. Based on the model of “Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology,” this study explored the factors that affect Ghanaian nurses’ acceptance of HIT. Design/Method/Approach: A descriptive nonexperimental research design was employed in this study to recruit 660 nurses (404 females and 256 males) from 3 teaching and 2 regional hospitals in Ghana. A standardized electronic platform questionnaire (based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model) was designed on smartphones and was self-administered, while the data collected were analyzed via the SmartPLS Structural Equation Modeling path analysis. The “Social Influence” ( t  = 3.656, p < .001), “Attitude towards the Use of Technology” ( t = 5.861, p < .001), and “Facilitating Conditions” ( t = 2.616, p < .001) were the main predictors of the nurses’ behavioral intention to use HIT. The effects of the aforementioned constructs explained 60.7% ( R2 = 0.607) of the variance in the nurses’ intentions to use the HIT systems. Conclusions Precisely, HIT systems are essential in the quality and the enhancement of nursing services provision and in the effectiveness of the performance of nursing staff. This study, therefore, offers a piece of empirical evidence for hospital administrators in developing countries especially Ghana, to assess the success probability of new HITs before and after their implementation.
Attitudes and experiences of health care professionals when caring for transgender men undergoing fertility preservation by egg freezing: a qualitative study
Authors: Armuand Gabriela , Dhejne Cecilia , Olofsson Jan I. , Stefenson Margareta , Rodriguez-Wallberg Kenny A. 
Published: April 2020

Background: As gender-affirming treatment may have a negative impact on fertility, reproductive health counseling to patients seeking medical or surgical gender-affirming treatment should be provided, including the option to undergo fertility preservation (FP). Experiences of transgender men undergoing FP treatments aimed at oocyte freezing have reported a negative impact of the treatments on gender dysphoria. No previous studies have investigated the experiences of health care professionals’ (HCP) when caring for transgender men undergoing such treatments. Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate HCP’s attitudes and experiences when meeting transgender men undergoing FP through oocyte freezing. Methods: Individual interviews were conducted in 2016 with 13 HCPs working at a Reproductive Medicine clinic in Sweden. Data were analyzed by thematic content analysis. Results: The main theme found, How to maintain professionalism, showed that HCPs experienced important challenges to their professionalism when their preconceived opinions and values about gender and transgender were confronted. Discussion: Our findings demonstrate the need of continuous efforts on assessing learning needs as well as addressing preconceived opinions and values of HCP. By gaining knowledge and self-confidence in the care of transgender individuals undergoing FP, a professional care for transgender people can be achieved and a safe environment can be established for the patients. This in turn may alleviate some of the distress that may arise when transgender men undergo FP.
The self-regulation of teleological thinking in natural selection learning
Authors: González Galli Leonardo , Peréz Gastón , Gómez Galindo Alma Adrianna 
Published: April 2020

AbstractBackgroundTeleology is one of the critical aspects of students’ intuitive concepts about living beings and, specifically, their evolution. This cognitive bias imposes a substantial restriction on the process of learning such content. In this work, we rely on epistemological, psychological and pedagogical analyses to substantiate an educational proposal centered on the concepts of epistemological obstacles and metacognitive vigilance.ResultsBased on Michael Ruse’s epistemological analysis, according to which teleology in biology persists because the scientific explanation of adaptation necessarily involves appeal to the metaphor of design, and on research in cognitive psychology, especially in relation to metacognition and self-regulated learning, we argue that the primary educational aim must be to encourage students to develop metacognitive skills to regulate the use of teleological reasoning. We develop our instructional proposal based on the didactic concepts of epistemological obstacles and metacognitive vigilance (consistent with epistemological and psychological analyses).ConclusionWe briefly discuss the instructional implications of our analysis and some possible relationships between our proposal and other lines of research in psychology and science education.
Membrane current evoked by mitochondrial Na+–Ca2+ exchange in mouse heart
Authors: Islam Mohammed M. , Takeuchi Ayako , Matsuoka Satoshi 
Published: April 2020

AbstractThe electrogenicity of mitochondrial Na+–Ca2+ exchange (NCXm) had been controversial and no membrane current through it had been reported. We succeeded for the first time in recording NCXm-mediated currents using mitoplasts derived from mouse ventricle. Under conditions that K+, Cl−, and Ca2+ uniporter currents were inhibited, extra-mitochondrial Na+ induced inward currents with 1 μM Ca2+ in the pipette. The half-maximum concentration of Na+ was 35.6 mM. The inward current was diminished without Ca2+ in the pipette, and was augmented with 10 μM Ca2+. The Na+-induced inward currents were largely inhibited by CGP-37157, an NCXm blocker. However, the reverse mode of NCXm, which should be detected as an outward current, was hardly induced by extra-mitochondrial application of Ca2+ with Na+ in the pipette. It was concluded that NCXm is electrogenic. This property may be advantageous for facilitating Ca2+ extrusion from mitochondria, which has large negative membrane potential.
Comparison of predictive value of NT-proBNP, sST2 and MMPs in heart failure patients with different ejection fractions
Authors: Pan Wei , Yang Donghui , Yu Peng , Yu Huizhen 
Published: April 2020

Abstract
Background
This study sought to compare the predictive value of NT-proBNP, sST2 and MMPs in HF with different ejection fractions from a population in southern China.

Methods
A cross-sectional study was conducted on 113 HF patients admitted to Fujian Provincial Hospital from December 2016 to March 2018.The patients were divided into three subgroups: 60 cases in HFpEF group (LVEF≥50%), 28 cases in HFmrEF group (41% ≤ LVEF≤49%) and 25 cases in HFrEF group (LVEF≤40%). ELISA method was applied to detect the concentrations of sST2, MMP-2 and MMP-9. Electrochemical luminescence immunoassay was applied to detect the concentration of plasma NT-proBNP. Univariate and multivariate Cox and logistic regression models were used to analyze the diagnostic significance of these plasma biomarkers in HF patients. Kaplan–Meier survival curves were used to assess the prognostic value of sST2 in the incidence of long-term adverse events during study.

Results
This study showed that plasma sST2 levels in HFrEF or HFmrEF patients were significantly higher than in HFpEF patients. Plasma levels of MMP-2 and MMP-9 in HFrEF patients were apparently higher than in HFpEF or HFmrEF patients. For the diagnosis of HFpEF, the AUC of NT-proBNP was higher than that of sST2, MMP-2 and MMP-9, which were 0.881, 0.717, 0.705 and 0.597, respectively. For the diagnosis of HFmrEF, the AUC of plasma sST2 was higher than that of MMP-2, MMP-9 and NT-proBNP, which were 0.799, 0.678, 0.676 and 0.793, respectively. For the diagnosis of HFrEF, the AUC of plasma NT-proBNP, sST2, MMP-2, and MMP-9 were 0.945, 0.820, 0.814, and 0.774 respectively. Spearman correlation analysis showed that plasma sST2 levels were significantly correlated with plasma MMP-2, MMP-9 and NT-proBNP levels. Further logistic regression analysis showed that except MMP-9, the biomarkers sST2 (OR = 1.960), MMP-2 (OR = 0.805) and NT-proBNP (OR = 0.002) were all independent risk factors for patients with heart failure. Survival analysis results suggested that for patients with HFmrEF, a higher level of plasma sST2 (≥ 0.332 ng/ml at admission) may predict a higher risk of endpoint events and a lower survival rate (P < 0.025).

Conclusions
The circulating biomarkers sST2, MMP-2 and NT-proBNP were all independent risk factors for patients with heart failure. The sST2 can be a useful biomarker with both diagnostic and prognostic value in patients with HFmrEF. The higher sST2 level in patients with heart failure was related to a higher incidence of combined endpoint outcome.
Multiple sclerosis in a multi-ethnic population from Northern California: a retrospective analysis, 2010–2016
Authors: Romanelli Robert J. , Huang Qiwen , Lacy Joseph , Hashemi Lobat , Wong Alana , Smith Alden 
Published: April 2020

Abstract
Background
Research is needed to examine differences in multiple sclerosis (MS) prevalence by race-ethnicity. The goal of this study was to quantify MS prevalence in a health care system in Northern California and examine differences in prevalence and phenotype by race-ethnicity.

Methods
We conducted a retrospective, observational cohort study of adults (2010–2016). MS prevalence estimates were standardised to distributions of gender and race-ethnicity for the underlying geographic region and stratified by gender and race-ethnicity with age adjustment. We performed a chart review of a racial-ethnic stratified sample of patients to examine disease phenotypes.

Results
1,058,102 patients were identified, of which 3286 had MS. The overall direct-standardised prevalence was 288.0 cases per 100,000 population (95% confidence interval: 276.3–299.8). Age-adjusted prevalence ranged from 677.0 per 100,000 among non-Hispanic black women to 49.7 per 100,000 among non-Hispanic Asian men. Non-Hispanic blacks compared with other groups more often had primary-progressive (10.0% vs. 0.0–4.0%) or progressive-relapsing MS (6.0% vs. 0.0–2.0%).

Conclusions
In this Northern Californian Cohort, between 2010 and 2016 the direct-standardised MS prevalence was estimated at 288.0 per 100,000 population, and increased over time. Non-Hispanic blacks, especially women, were disproportionately affected and had less common, earlier progressive MS phenotypes.
Distributed representation and one-hot representation fusion with gated network for clinical semantic textual similarity
Authors: Xiong Ying , Chen Shuai , Qin Haoming , Cao He , Shen Yedan , Wang Xiaolong , Chen Qingcai , Yan Jun , Tang Buzhou 
Published: April 2020

AbstractBackgroundSemantic textual similarity (STS) is a fundamental natural language processing (NLP) task which can be widely used in many NLP applications such as Question Answer (QA), Information Retrieval (IR), etc. It is a typical regression problem, and almost all STS systems either use distributed representation or one-hot representation to model sentence pairs.MethodsIn this paper, we proposed a novel framework based on a gated network to fuse distributed representation and one-hot representation of sentence pairs. Some current state-of-the-art distributed representation methods, including Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), Bi-directional Long Short Term Memory networks (Bi-LSTM) and Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT), were used in our framework, and a system based on this framework was developed for a shared task regarding clinical STS organized by BioCreative/OHNLP in 2018.ResultsCompared with the systems only using distributed representation or one-hot representation, our method achieved much higher Pearson correlation. Among all distributed representations, BERT performed best. The highest Person correlation of our system was 0.8541, higher than the best official one of the BioCreative/OHNLP clinical STS shared task in 2018 (0.8328) by 0.0213.ConclusionsDistributed representation and one-hot representation are complementary to each other and can be fused by gated network.
Direct evidence for transport of RNA from the mouse brain to the germline and offspring
Authors: O’Brien Elizabeth A. , Ensbey Kathleen S. , Day Bryan W. , Baldock Paul A. , Barry Guy 
Published: April 2020

Abstract
Background
The traditional concept that heritability occurs exclusively from the transfer of germline-restricted genetics is being challenged by the increasing accumulation of evidence confirming the existence of experience-dependent transgenerational inheritance. However, questions remain unanswered as to how heritable information can be passed from somatic cells. Previous studies have implicated the critical involvement of RNA in heritable transgenerational effects, and the high degree of mobility and genomic impact of RNAs in all organisms is an attractive model for the efficient transfer of genetic information.

Results
We hypothesized that RNA may be transported from a somatic tissue, in this case the brain, of an adult male mouse to the germline, and subsequently to embryos. To investigate this, we injected one hemisphere of the male mouse striatum with an AAV1/9 virus expressing human pre-MIR941 (MIR941). After 2, 8 and 16 weeks following injection, we used an LNA-based qPCR system to detect the presence of virus and human MIR941 in brain, peripheral tissues and embryos, from injected male mice mated with uninjected females. Virus was never detected outside of the brain. Verification of single bands of the correct size for MIR941 was performed using Sanger sequencing while quantitation demonstrated that a small percentage (~ 1–8%) of MIR941 is transported to the germline and to embryos in about a third of the cases.

Conclusions
We show that somatic RNA can be transported to the germline and passed on to embryos, thereby providing additional evidence of a role for RNA in somatic cell-derived intergenerational effects.