bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Variability in Coronavirus Disease-2019 Case, Death, and Testing Rates in the United States and Worldwide
Authors: Schaefer Ernst J. , Geller Andrew S. , Dulipsingh Latha , Diffenderfer Margaret R. , Wisotzkey Jeffrey , Kleiboeker Steven B. 
Published: October 2020

ABSTRACTSevere acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has been associated with a worldwide pandemic. We assessed data as of November 25, 2020 from our combined laboratories and as reported for states in the United States (US) and countries for case, death, and testing rates per million to determine causes of rate differences. SARS-CoV-2 naso-pharyngeal (NP) RNA testing in 1,179,912 subjects in 47 states (39 of which with >100 cases) are reported, with a mean 9.3% positive rate, comparable to the 7.0% rate reported nationwide. In 91 previously positive (2-4 weeks) subjects, NP swab testing was twice as likely to be positive (58.6%) as saliva samples (21.5%). We also documented that NP swabs could remain positive for 6 weeks or longer. Our positive rates per state agreed reasonably well with reported national data (r=0.609, P<0.0001). The highest US case rates per million were in the mid-west; the highest death and testing rates were in the northeast. Of 47 countries, the highest case, death, and testing rates per million were mainly in Europe and the Americas, with the lowest rates in Asia. Correlations between case and death rates and case and testing rates were very different between states (0.076 and -0.093, respectively) and countries (0.763 and 0.600, respectively). In conclusion, outpatient saliva testing was not as sensitive as NP testing for detection, and the marked variability in case and death rates was most likely due to differences in public health measures, viral and human genetic differences and age of cases, rather than due to differences in testing rates.
Preliminary evidence for upward elevational range shifts by Eastern Himalayan birds
Authors: Girish Krishna S. , Srinivasan Umesh 
Published: October 2020

ABSTRACTThe ongoing climate crisis is one of the most significant threats to biodiversity globally. As the Earth warms, species have adapted by shifting their geographical ranges either polewards, or in mountainous regions, upslope towards higher elevations, presumably to continue to inhabit a suitable thermal environment. Upslope range shifts are of particular concern in tropical mountain ranges because: (a) tropical species are particularly thermally sensitive, (b) as species move upwards, they can run out of habitable space, leading to local extirpations, and (c) tropical mountains harbour a disproportionately high fraction of the planet’s terrestrial biodiversity – rapid upslope range shifts can therefore result in significant biodiversity losses. We used citizen science data over a 13-year period to evaluate whether 39 eastern Himalayan bird species might be shifting to higher elevations over time, by analyzing changes in the frequency of reporting of these species at birdwatching hotspots. For these species, we find evidence consistent with upslope range shifts, with species with the bulk of their elevational ranges below the hotspot elevation showing increases in their reporting frequency over time, and those with most of their elevational ranges above the hotspot elevation declining in reporting frequency. Our findings are suggestive of rapid responses to climate change by eastern Himalayan birds. We caution that eastern Himalayan bird species might be at special risk from increasing global temperatures because of their heightened thermal sensitivity coupled with particularly high rates of warming in the region. Eastern Himalayan birds are likely to require large tracts of undisturbed natural habitat across entire elevational gradients to be able to track changing temperatures by moving to higher elevations to remain resilient to climate change.SUMMARYOne of the most fundamental responses of species to changing temperatures is to change their geographic ranges, possibly to track the range of temperatures that is ideal for their survival.With increasing climate warming, this shift could happen by moving towards the poles or in mountainous areas, towards the summit.Due to the high thermal sensitivity of tropical species and the decrease in space as species move up mountains, the extremely biodiverse bird communities of tropical mountains are particularly vulnerable.Using citizen science data from birding hotspots along an elevational gradient in the Eastern Himalayas over a 13-year period, we measured the change in reporting frequency of 39 common bird species.Changes in reporting frequency are generally consistent with the fact that upslope shifts are taking place in the Eastern Himalayas, similar to results for birds from other tropical mountains.
Structural impact on SARS-CoV-2 spike protein by D614G substitution
Authors: Zhang Jun , Cai Yongfei , Xiao Tianshu , Lu Jianming , Peng Hanqin , Sterling Sarah M. , Walsh Richard M. , Rits-Volloch Sophia , Sliz Piotr , Chen Bing 
Published: October 2020

AbstractSubstitution for aspartic acid by glycine at position 614 in the spike (S) protein of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of the ongoing pandemic, appears to facilitate rapid viral spread. The G614 variant has now replaced the D614-carrying virus as the dominant circulating strain. We report here cryo-EM structures of a full-length S trimer carrying G614, which adopts three distinct prefusion conformations differing primarily by the position of one receptor-binding domain (RBD). A loop disordered in the D614 S trimer wedges between domains within a protomer in the G614 spike. This added interaction appears to prevent premature dissociation of the G614 trimer, effectively increasing the number of functional spikes and enhancing infectivity. The loop transition may also modulate structural rearrangements of S protein required for membrane fusion. These findings extend our understanding of viral entry and suggest an improved immunogen for vaccine development.
Establishment and characterization of fibroblast cultures derived from a female common hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) skin biopsy
Authors: Wang Tao , Li Zelong , Wei Jinpu , Zheng Dongmin , Wang Chen , Xu Chang , Chen Wu , Wang Bo 
Published: October 2020

AbstractThe population decline in the common hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) has necessitated the preservation of their genetic resources for species conservation and research. Of all actions, cryopreservation of fibroblast cell cultures derived from animal biopsy is considered a simple but efficient means. Nevertheless, preserving viable cell cultures of the common hippopotamus has not been achieved to our knowledge. To this end, we detailed a method to establish fibroblast cell cultures from a female common hippopotamus fetus in this study. By combining the classic tissue explant direct culture and enzymatic digestion methods, we isolated a great number of cells with typical fibroblastic morphology and high viability. Characterization of the fibroblast cultures was carried out using different techniques. In short, neither bacteria/fungi nor mycoplasma was detectable in the cell cultures throughout the study. The population doubling time was 23.9 h according to the growth curve. Karyotyping based on Giemsa staining showed that cultured cells were diploid with 36 chromosomes in all, one pair of which was sex chromosomes. Mitochondrial cytochrome C oxidase subunit I gene sequence of the cultured cells was 99.26% identical with theHippopotamus amphibiuscomplete mitochondrial DNA sequence registered in GenBank, confirming the cells were derived from a common hippopotamus. Flow cytometry and immunofluorescence staining results revealed that the detected cells were positive for fibroblast markers, S100A4 and Vimentin. In conclusion, we isolated and characterized a new fibroblast cell culture from a common hippopotamus skin sample and the cryopreserved cells could be useful genetic materials for the future research.
Financial development and economic growth in SADC countries: a panel study
Authors: Moyo Clement , Le Roux Pierre 
Published: October 2020

PurposeThe impact of financial development on economic growth has received considerable attention since the 2008/2009 global financial crisis. High levels of credit to the private sector were partly to blame for the crisis, and this has re-ignited the debate on whether the growth-enhancing effects of financial development outweigh the retarding effects associated with financial crises. This paper therefore examines the financial development–growth nexus in SADC countries during the period 1990–2015.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical analysis is conducted using the pooled mean group estimator. Furthermore, financial development indices are created due to the strong correlations between the individual financial development indicators using principal component analysis.FindingsThe results show that financial development, captured by the indices or the individual financial development indicators, has a negative impact on economic growth in the long term.Research limitations/implicationsDue to the unavailability of data, the study only focussed on banking sector development. The researcher would have preferred to incorporate stock market development.Practical implicationsDue to financial vulnerabilities emanating from an inadequate monitoring and supervisory framework, further enhancement of financial development should be undertaken with caution in SADC countries. Therefore, institutional quality should be enhanced in order for SADC countries to benefit from the development of the financial sector.Originality/valueMost studies investigating the financial development–growth nexus in SADC countries utilise the individual measures of financial development which often produce contradicting results. This study constructs financial development indices to capture the impact of various banking sector development indicators on growth.
Does size of construction firms matter? Impact of project-factors and organization-factors on project performance
Authors: Sekar Gopal , Sambasivan Murali , Viswanathan Kuperan 
Published: October 2020

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to analyze and compare the impact of project-factors and organization-factors on five indicators of project performance for small and medium enterprise (SME) and large construction contracting firms that are fully responsible for the successful completion of the projects. The five performance indicators are time, cost, safety, quality and financial.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire survey was conducted to solicit responses from project managers/directors from 342 construction firms in Malaysia. The construction firms included in this study came from various sectors: civil, building and infrastructure; oil and gas; marine and multidiscipline. Hierarchical multiple-regression was used to analyze the data.FindingsThe salient findings are as follows: (1) impacts of project-factors and organization-factors on performance indicators are different for SMEs and large construction firms and (2) relative impact of organization-factors on performance is much higher than the project-factors.Originality/valueAnalyzing the relative impact of project- and organization-factors on the performance of SMEs and large construction firms can significantly enhance the body of knowledge about performance levels and boost best practices in this respect related to construction industry.
How to achieve greater comparability-suggested ways to improve the determination of treatment gap and treatment lag
Authors: Schaub Michael Patrick 
Published: October 2020

Purpose
The aim of this paper is to reveal these problems and to derive recommendations for improvement. In the field of alcohol use disorders (AUDs), two common complaints are the large treatment gap that exists because only a small percentage of people with an AUD are in treatment; and the prolonged lag that typically exists between the emergence of problematic symptoms and actual on set of treatment. However, there also are no clear definitions for these terms – “treatment gap” and “treatment lag” – and, therefore, no consensus regarding how to quantify them. For this reason, it is difficult to compare the results of studies assessing either of these measures.

Design/methodology/approach
A non-systematic literature search and logical-analytical investigation was performed of immanent problems related to definitions and measurements aiming to enhance understanding in this area and derive suggestions for improvement.

Findings
The following four fundamental questions were identified: How does one operationalise the need to change substance use behaviours? Which interventions can justifiably be called treatment? Is treatment always necessary? and How regularly do patients need to be in contact with a treatment system to be considered “in treatment”? Potential approaches to answering these questions are discussed and recommendations made for future studies to determine how the treatment gap and treatment lag should be derived.

Originality/value
The derived recommendations should make the calculation of treatment gap and treatment lag more transparent and comparable between studies. They also may serve as checklists for future studies on the treatment gap and lag in the AUD field.
A Monte Carlo evaluation of non-parametric estimators of expected shortfall
Authors: Mehlitz Julia S. , Auer Benjamin R. 
Published: October 2020

PurposeMotivated by the growing importance of the expected shortfall in banking and finance, this study aims to compare the performance of popular non-parametric estimators of the expected shortfall (i.e. different variants of historical, outlier-adjusted and kernel methods) to each other, selected parametric benchmarks and estimates based on the idea of forecast combination.Design/methodology/approachWithin a multidimensional simulation setup (spanned by different distributional settings, sample sizes and confidence levels), the authors rank the estimators based on classic error measures, as well as an innovative performance profile technique, which the authors adapt from the mathematical programming literature.FindingsThe rich set of results supports academics and practitioners in the search for an answer to the question of which estimators are preferable under which circumstances. This is because no estimator or combination of estimators ranks first in all considered settings.Originality/valueTo the best of their knowledge, the authors are the first to provide a structured simulation-based comparison of non-parametric expected shortfall estimators, study the effects of estimator averaging and apply the mentioned profiling technique in risk management.
Association of food security, body mass index, micronutrient adequacy and adherence to Alternative Healthy Eating Index 2010 among Iranian households
Authors: Moosavian Seyedeh Parisa , Feizi Awat , Esmaillzadeh Ahmad , Azadbakht Leila 
Published: October 2020

Purpose
There is limited knowledge about the association of food insecurity and dietary quality among the Iranian households. The purpose of this study is to determine diet quality among the Iranian households and to investigate whether dietary quality is associated with food security status in this population.

Design/methodology/approach
The 18-item household food security questionnaire was administered to 200 households from different parts of Isfahan, Iran. Households were selected by two-stage cluster randomized sampling. Households were categorized into four groups based on their score on the questionnaire; food secure (total score 0), mild food insecure (total score 1–2), moderate food insecure (total score 3–7) and severe food insecure (total score 8–18). In the second stage of the study, 25 households were selected from each food security status group to evaluate the micronutrient adequacy and assess the adherence to Alternative Healthy Eating Index 2010 (AHEI-2010).

Findings
Food-secure households had higher adherence to the AHEI-2010 than food-insecure households (p < 0.001). Food-secure households consistently achieved higher value of the nutrient adequacy ratio for most of the micronutrients than food-insecure households, with the greatest differences seen for zinc (p < 0.001) in households (father, mother and first child), vitamin D (p < 0.001), vitamin A (father: p = 0.05, mother: p = 0.04), calcium (p < 0.001) and iron (father: p = 0.02, mother: p < 0.001) in mother and father.

Originality/value
Low dietary quality was associated with food insecurity. Food-secure households had higher micronutrient adequacy ratio for most of the nutrients.
Parallels between retinal and brain pathology and response to immunotherapy in old, late‐stage Alzheimer's disease mouse models
Authors: Doustar Jonah , Rentsendorj Altan , Torbati Tania , Regis Giovanna C. , Fuchs Dieu‐Trang , Sheyn Julia , Mirzaei Nazanin , Graham Stuart L. , Shah Prediman K. , Mastali Mitra , Van Eyk Jennifer E. , Black Keith L. , Gupta Vivek K. , Mirzaei Mehdi , Koronyo Yosef , Koronyo‐Hamaoui Maya 
Published: October 2020

AbstractDespite growing evidence for the characteristic signs of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in the neurosensory retina, our understanding of retina–brain relationships, especially at advanced disease stages and in response to therapy, is lacking. In transgenic models of AD (APPSWE/PS1∆E9; ADtg mice), glatiramer acetate (GA) immunomodulation alleviates disease progression in pre‐ and early‐symptomatic disease stages. Here, we explored the link between retinal and cerebral AD‐related biomarkers, including response to GA immunization, in cohorts of old, late‐stage ADtg mice. This aged model is considered more clinically relevant to the age‐dependent disease. Levels of synaptotoxic amyloid β‐protein (Aβ)1–42, angiopathic Aβ1–40, non‐amyloidogenic Aβ1–38, and Aβ42/Aβ40 ratios tightly correlated between paired retinas derived from oculus sinister (OS) and oculus dexter (OD) eyes, and between left and right posterior brain hemispheres. We identified lateralization of Aβ burden, with one‐side dominance within paired retinal and brain tissues. Importantly, OS and OD retinal Aβ levels correlated with their cerebral counterparts, with stronger contralateral correlations and following GA immunization. Moreover, immunomodulation in old ADtg mice brought about reductions in cerebral vascular and parenchymal Aβ deposits, especially of large, dense‐core plaques, and alleviation of microgliosis and astrocytosis. Immunization further enhanced cerebral recruitment of peripheral myeloid cells and synaptic preservation. Mass spectrometry analysis identified new parallels in retino‐cerebral AD‐related pathology and response to GA immunization, including restoration of homeostatic glutamine synthetase expression. Overall, our results illustrate the viability of immunomodulation‐guided CNS repair in old AD model mice, while shedding light onto similar retino‐cerebral responses to intervention, providing incentives to explore retinal AD biomarkers.
miRNAs and radiotherapy response in prostate cancer
Authors: Konoshenko Maria Yu , Bryzgunova Olga E. , Laktionov Pavel P. 
Published: October 2020

AbstractBackgroundGaining insight into microRNAs (miRNAs) and genes that regulate the therapeutic response of cancer diseases in general and prostate cancer (PCa) in particular is an important issue in current molecular biomedicine and allows the discovery of predictive miRNA targets.ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to analyze the available data on the influence of radiotherapy (RT) on miRNA expression and on miRNA involved in radiotherapy response in PCa.Materials and methodsThe data used in this review were extracted from research papers and the DIANA, STRING, and other databases with a special focus on the mechanisms of radiotherapy PCa response and the miRNA involved and associated genes.Results and DiscussionA search for miRNA prognostic and therapeutic effectiveness markers should rely on both the data of recent experimental studies on the influence of RT on miRNA expression and miRNAs involved in regulation of radiosensitivity in PCa and on bioinformatics resources. miRNA panels and genes targeted by them and involved in radioresponse regulation highlighted by meta‐analysis and cross‐analysis of the data in the present review have.ConclusionSelected miRNA and gene panel has good potential as prognostic and radiotherapy effectiveness markers for PCa and, moreover, as radiotherapy effectiveness markers in other types of cancer, as the proposed model is not specific to PCa, which opens up opportunities for the development of a universal diagnostic system (or several intersecting systems) for oncology radiotherapy in general.
Left ventricular assist device driveline infections in three contemporary devices
Authors: Schlöglhofer Thomas , Michalovics Peter , Riebandt Julia , Angleitner Philipp , Stoiber Martin , Laufer Günther , Schima Heinrich , Wiedemann Dominik , Zimpfer Daniel , Moscato Francesco 
Published: October 2020

AbstractDriveline infections (DLI) are common adverse events in left ventricular assist devices (LVADs), leading to severe complications and readmissions. The study aims to characterize risk factors for DLI readmission 2 years postimplant. This single‐center study included 183 LVAD patients (43 HeartMate II [HMII], 29 HeartMate 3 [HM3], 111 HVAD) following hospital discharge between 2013 and 2017. Demographics, clinical parameters, and outcomes were retrospectively analyzed and 12.6% of patients were readmitted for DLI, 14.8% experienced DLI but were treated in the outpatient setting, and 72.7% had no DLI. Mean C‐reactive protein (CRP), leukocytes and fibrinogen were higher in patients with DLI readmission (P < .02) than in outpatient DLI and patients without DLI, as early as 60 days before readmission. Freedom from DLI readmission was comparable for HMII and HVAD (98% vs. 87%; HR, 4.52; 95% CI, 0.58‐35.02; P = .15) but significantly lower for HM3 (72%; HR, 10.82; 95% CI, 1.26‐92.68; P = .03). DLI (HR, 1.001; 95% CI, 0.999‐1.002; P = .16) or device type had no effect on mortality. DLI readmission remains a serious problem following LVAD implantation, where CRP, leukocytes, and fibrinogen might serve as risk factors already 60 days before. HM3 patients had a higher risk for DLI readmissions compared to HVAD or HMII, possibly because of device‐specific driveline differences.
Letter: diabetes mellitus increases the risk of hepatic encephalopathy in patients with cirrhosis
Authors: Liu Rongqiang , Ye Linsen , Shao Yi 
Published: October 2020

LINKED CONTENTThis article is linked to Labenz et al and Labenz and Wörns papers. To view these articles, visit https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.15915 and https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.16018