bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Investigating the Feasibility of Cerebellar Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation to facilitate Post-Stroke Overground Gait Performance in Chronic Stroke: a partial least-squares regression approach
Authors: Solanki Dhaval , Rezaee Zeynab , Dutta Anirban , Lahiri Uttama 
Published: November 2020

Abstract
Background: Investigation of lobule-specific electric field effects of cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation (ctDCS) on overground gait performance has not been performed, so this study aimed to investigate the feasibility of two lobule-specific bilateral ctDCS montages to facilitate overground walking in chronic stroke. Methods: Ten chronic post-stroke male subjects participated in this repeated-measure single-blind crossover study, where we evaluated the single-session effects of two bilateral ctDCS montages that applied 2mA via 3.14cm2 disc electrodes for 15 minutes targeting a) dentate nuclei (also, anterior and posterior lobes), and b) lower-limb representations (lobules VIIb-IX). A two-sided Wilcoxon rank-sum test was performed at a 5% significance level on the percent normalized change measures in the overground gait performance. Partial least squares regression (PLSR) analysis was performed on the quantitative gait parameters as response variables to the mean lobular electric field strength as the predictors. Clinical assessments were performed with the Ten-Meter walk test (TMWT), Timed Up & Go (TUG), and the Berg Balance Scale based on minimal clinically important differences (MCID).Results: The ctDCS montage specific effect was found significant using a two-sided Wilcoxon rank-sum test at a 5% significance level for 'Step Time Affected Leg' (p=0.0257) and '%Stance Time Unaffected Leg' (p=0.0376). The changes in the quantitative gait parameters were found to be correlated to the mean electric field strength in the lobules based on PLSR analysis (R2 statistic = 0.6574). Here, the mean electric field strength at the cerebellar lobules, Vermis VIIIb, Ipsi-lesional IX, Vermis IX, Ipsi-lesional X, had the most loading and were positively related to the 'Step Time Affected Leg' and '%Stance Time Unaffected Leg,' and negatively related to the '%Swing Time Unaffected Leg,' '%Single Support Time Affected Leg.' Clinical assessments found similar improvement in the TMWT (MCID: 0.10m/sec), TUG (MCID: 8sec), and BBS score (MCID: 12.5 points) for both the ctDCS montages. Conclusion: Our feasibility study found an association between the lobular mean electric field strength and the changes in the quantitative gait parameters following a single ctDCS session in chronic stroke. Both the ctDCS montages improved the clinical outcome measures that should be investigated with a larger sample size for clinical validation.
Clinical application of pedicled thoracoacromial artery perforator flaps for tracheal reconstruction
Authors: Deng Di , Xu Feng , Liu Jifeng , Li Bo , Li Linke , Liu Jun , Chen Fei 
Published: November 2020

Abstract
Background: Large or complex trachea defects often require some tissue to reconstruct,various flaps have been reported for reconstructing this defect.However, pedicled thoracoacromial artery perforator flap have not been reported in tracheal reconstruction.Therefore,this study is to assess the efficacy and clinical application of pedicled thoracoacromial artery perforator flaps for tracheal reconstruction.Methods: Eight patients who underwent tracheal reconstructions with pedicled TAAP flaps between December 2017 and October 2019 were retrospectively reviewed.Results: All of the pedicled TAAP flaps in our study survived. The flap size ranged from 2 cm x 5 cm to 4 cm x 10 cm, and the size of each island of one double-island flap was 2 cm x 2.5 cm. The mean thickness was 0.6 cm, and the pedicle length varied between 6 cm and 9 cm (mean 7.9 cm). The mean time of flap harvest was 17 min. The mean age of the patients was 62.4 years and five elderly patients had comorbidities,such as diabetes,hypertension and asthma. One patient received a double-island flap for tracheal and esophageal reconstruction, and the other patient received simple tracheal reconstruction. One patient died due to cancer metastasis.Six patients obtained functional recovery of breathing, except one patients who did not experience closure of the tracheostomy opening due to uncompleted I131 treatment.Conclusion: Pedicled TAAP flaps provide a short harvesting time, thin thickness and stable blood supply, and they do not require microsurgical skills. This flap is a good choice for the reconstruction of tracheal defects,especially in the aged or patients with comorbidities who are not able to tolerate prolonged surgery.
Long-term Experience with Triheptanoin in 12 Austrian Patients with Long-chain Fatty Acid Oxidation Disorders
Authors: Zöggeler Thomas , Stock Katharina , Jörg-Streller Monika , Spenger Johannes , Konstantopoulou Vassiliki , Hufgard-Leitner Miriam , Scholl-Bürgi Sabine , Karall Daniela 
Published: November 2020

Abstract
BackgroundLong-chain fatty acid oxidation disorders (LC-FAOD) are a group of rare inborn errors of metabolism with autosomal recessive inheritance that may cause life-threatening events. Treatment with triheptanoin, a synthetic seven-carbon fatty acid triglyceride compound with an anaplerotic effect, seems beneficial, but clinical experience is limited. We report our long-term experience in an Austrian cohort of LC-FAOD patients.MethodsWe retrospectively assessed clinical outcome and total hospitalization days per year before and after start with triheptanoin by reviewing medical records of 12 Austrian LC-FAOD patientsResultsFor 12 Austrian LC-FAOD patients at three metabolic centers, triheptanoin was started shortly after birth in 3/12, and between 7.34 and 353.3 (median 44.5; mean 81.1) months of age in 9/12 patients. For 11 pediatric patients, mean duration of triheptanoin intake was 5.3 (median 3.9, range 1.2 to 15.7) years, 10/11 pediatric patients have an ongoing intake of triheptanoin. One patient quit therapy due to reported side effects. Total hospitalization days per year compared to before triheptanoin treatment decreased by 82.3% from 27.1 (range 11-65) days per year to 4.8 (range 0-13) days per year, and hospitalization days in the one year pre- compared to the one year post-triheptanoin decreased by 69.8% from 27.1 (range 4-75) days to 8.2 (range 0-25) days. All patients are in good clinical condition, show normal psychomotor development and no impairment in daily life activities.ConclusionIn this retrospective observational study in an Austrian LC-FAOD cohort, triheptanoin data show improvement in disease course. Triheptanoin appears to be a safe and beneficial treatment option in LC-FAOD. For further clarification, additional prospective randomized controlled trials are needed.
Research of insomnia on traditional Chinese medicine diagnosis and treatment based on machine learning
Authors: Tang Yuqi , Li Zechen , Yang Dongdong , Fang Yu , Gao Shanshan , Liang Shan , Liu Tao 
Published: November 2020

Abstract
Background: Insomnia as one of the dominant diseases of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been extensively studied in recent years. To explore the novel approaches of research on TCM diagnosis and treatment, this paper presents a strategy for the research of insomnia based on machine learning. Methods: First of all, 654 insomnia cases have been collected from an experienced doctor of TCM as sample data. Secondly, in the light of the characteristics of TCM diagnosis and treatment, the contents of research samples have been divided into four parts: the basic information, the four diagnostic methods, the treatment based on syndrome differentiation and the main prescription. And then, these four parts have been analyzed by three analysis methods, including frequency analysis, association rules and hierarchical cluster analysis. Finally, a comprehensive study of the whole four parts has been conducted by random forest. Results: Researches of the above four parts revealed some essential connections. Simultaneously, based on the algorithm model established by the random forest, the accuracy of predicting the main prescription by the combinations of the four diagnostic methods and the treatment based on syndrome differentiation was 0.85. Furthermore, having been extracted features through applying the random forest, the syndrome differentiation of five zang-organs was proven to be the most significant parameter of the TCM diagnosis and treatment.Conclusions: The results indicate that the machine learning methods are worthy of being adopted to study the dominant diseases of TCM for exploring the crucial rules of the diagnosis and treatment.
Genetic Diversity of Landraces and Improved Varieties of Rice (Oryza sativa L.) in Taiwan
Authors: Hour Ai-ling , Hsieh Wei-hsun , Chang Su-huang , Wu Yong-pei , Chin Han-shiuan , Lin Yann-rong 
Published: November 2020

Abstract
Background: Rice, the most important crop in Asia, has been cultivated in Taiwan for more than 5,000 years. The landraces preserved by indigenous peoples and brought by immigrants from China hundreds of years ago exhibit large variation in morphology, implying that they comprise rich genetic resources. Breeding goals according to the preferences of farmers, consumers and government policies also alter gene pools and genetic diversity of improved varieties. To unveil how genetic diversity is affected by natural, farmers’, and breeders’ selections is crucial for germplasm conservation and crop improvement.Results: A diversity panel of 148 rice accessions, including 47 cultivars and 59 landraces from Taiwan and 42 accessions from other countries, were genotyped by using 75 molecular markers that revealed an average of 12.7 alleles per locus with mean polymorphism information content of 0.72. These accessions could be grouped into five subpopulations corresponding to wild rice, japonica landraces, indica landraces, indica cultivars and japonica cultivars. The genetic diversity within subpopulations was: wild rices > landraces > cultivars; and indica rice > japonica rice. Despite having less variation among cultivars, japonica landraces had greater genetic variation than indica landraces because the majority of Taiwanese japonica landraces preserved by indigenous peoples were classified as tropical japonica. Two major clusters of indica landraces were formed by phylogenetic analysis, in accordance with immigration from two origins. Genetic erosion had occurred in later japonica varieties due to a narrow selection of germplasm being incorporated into breeding programs for premium grain quality. Genetic differentiation between early and late cultivars was significant in japonica (FST = 0.3751) but not in indica (FST = 0.0045), indicating effects of different breeding goals on modern germplasm. Indigenous landraces with unique intermediate and admixed genetic backgrounds were untapped, representing valuable resources for rice breeding.Conclusions: The genetic diversity of improved rice varieties has been substantially shaped by breeding goals, leading to differentiation between indica and japonica cultivars. Taiwanese landraces with different origins possess various and unique genetic backgrounds. Taiwanese rice germplasm provides diverse genetic variation for association mapping to unveil useful genes and is a precious genetic reservoir for rice improvement.
Platelet proteome changes in dogs with congestive heart failure
Authors: LEVENT Pinar , KOCATÜRK Meriç , AKGÜN Emel , SARIL Ahmet , ÇEVİK Ozge , BAYKAL Ahmet Tarik , TANAKA Ryou , CERON Jose Joaquin , YILMAZ Zeki 
Published: November 2020

Abstract
Background: Platelets play a central role in the development of cardiovascular diseases and changes in their proteins are involved in the pathophysiology of heart diseases in humans. There is lack of knowledge about the possible role of platelets in congestive heart failure (CHF) in dogs. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the changes in global platelet proteomes in dogs with CHF, to clarify the possible role of platelets in the physiopathology of this disease. Healthy-dogs (n=10) and dogs with acute CHF due to myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD, n=10) were used. Acute CHF was defined based on the clinical (increased respiratory rate or difficulty breathing) and radiographic findings of pulmonary edema. Dogs Blood samples were collected into tubes with acid-citrate-dextrose, and platelet-pellets were obtained by centrifuge and washing steps. Platelet-proteomes were identified using LC-MS based label-free differential proteome expression analysis method and matched according to protein database for Canis lupus familiaris. Results: Totally 107 different proteins were identified in the platelets of the dogs being 4 out of them were significantly up-regulated and 6 down-regulated in acute CHF dogs. Guanine-nucleotide-binding protein, apolipoproteins (A-II and C-III) and clusterin levels increased, but CXC-motif-chemokine-10, cytochrome-C-oxidase-subunit-2, cathepsin-D, serine/threonine-protein-phosphatase-PP1-gamma-catalytic-subunit, creatine-kinase-B-type and myotrophin levels decreased in acute CHF dogs. These proteins are associated with several molecular functions, biological processes, signaling systems and immune-inflammatory responses.Conclusion: This study describes by first time the changes in the protein composition in platelets of dogs with acute CHF due to MMVD. Our findings provide a resource for increase the knowledge about the proteome of canine platelets and their roles in CHF caused by MMVD and could be a tool for further investigations about the prevention and treatment of this disease.
Ixekizumab, With Or Without Concomitant Methotrexate, Improves Signs And Symptoms Of Psa: Week 52 Results From Spirit-P1 And Spirit-P2 Studies
Authors: Combe Bernard , Tsai Tsen-Fang , Huffstutter J. Eugene , Sprabery Aubrey Trevelin , Lin Chen-Yen , Park So Young , Kronbergs Andris , Hufford Matthew M. , Nash Peter 
Published: November 2020

Abstract
Background: The efficacy and safety of ixekizumab (IXE) with and without continuous concomitant methotrexate (MTX), for up to 52 weeks of treatment, was evaluated in patients with active psoriatic arthritis (PsA). Methods: Patients with active PsA who were biologic-naive (SPIRIT-P1) or had prior inadequate response to tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (SPIRIT-P2), were randomized to 80 mg IXE every 4 (IXE Q4W) or 2 weeks (IXE Q2W), after a 160-mg initial dose. In this post-hoc analysis, efficacy and safety were assessed up to Week 52 in the subgroups of patients who received: (i) IXE as monotherapy and (ii) IXE along with a stable dose of MTX (no dose tapering or increase). Efficacy outcomes included, but were not limited to, the percentage of patients achieving American College of Rheumatology (ACR) responses.Results: Out of 455 patients initially randomized to IXE, 177 (38.9%) received monotherapy, 230 (50.5%) had concomitant MTX use, and 48 (10.5%) had other concomitant medication. Overall, 183 (40.2%) received IXE with a stable dose of concomitant MTX for 1 year. At Week 52, the percentage of patients achieving ACR20/50/70 responses in IXE Q4W monotherapy versus concomitant MTX groups were 66.3% versus 55.3%, 48.4% versus 38.8%, and 35.8% versus 27.1%, respectively; these responses were generally similar with IXE Q2W. The safety profiles were similar between patients receiving IXE with or without concomitant MTX.Conclusions: In this post-hoc analysis, treatment with IXE demonstrated sustained efficacy in patients with PsA up to 1 year of treatment, with or without concomitant MTX therapy.Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01695239 and NCT02349295
Stable Bagging Feature Selection on Medical Data
Authors: Alelyani Salem 
Published: November 2020

Abstract
In the medical eld, distinguishing genes that are relevant to a specific disease, let's say colon cancer, is crucial to finding a cure and understanding its causes and subsequent complications. Usually, medical datasets are comprised of immensely complex dimensions with considerably small sample size. Thus, for domain experts, such as biologists, the task of identifying these genes have become a very challenging one, to say the least. Feature selection is a technique that aims to select these genes, or features in machine learning eld with respect to the disease. However, learning from a medical dataset to identify relevant features suers from the curse-of-dimensionality. Due to a large number of features with a small sample size, the selection usually returns a different subset each time a new sample is introduced into the dataset. This selection instability is intrinsically related to data variance. We assume that reducing data variance improves selection stability. In this paper, we propose an ensemble approach based on the bagging technique to improve feature selection stability in medical datasets via data variance reduction. We conducted an experiment using four microarray datasets each of which suers from high dimensionality and relatively small sample size. On each dataset, we applied five well-known feature selection algorithms to select varying number of features.The proposed technique shows a significant improvement in selection stability while at least maintaining the classification accuracy. The stability improvement ranges from 20 to 50 percent in all cases. This implies that the likelihood of selecting the same features increased 20 to 50 percent more. This is accompanied with the increase of classification accuracy in most cases, which signifies the stated results of stability.
A continuous data driven translational model to evaluate effectiveness of population-level health interventions: case study, smoking ban in public places on hospital admissions for acute coronary events.
Authors: Bonakdari Hossein , Pelletier Jean-Pierre , Martel-Pelletier Johanne 
Published: November 2020

Abstract
Background. An important task in developing accurate public health intervention evaluation methods based on historical interrupted time series (ITS) records is to determine the exact lag time between pre- and post-intervention. We propose a novel continuous transitional data-driven hybrid methodology using a non-linear approach based on a combination of stochastic and artificial intelligence methods that facilitate the evaluation of ITS data without knowledge of lag time. Understanding the influence of implemented intervention on outcome(s) is imperative for decision makers in order to manage health systems accurately and in a timely manner. Methods. To validate a developed hybrid model, we used, as an example, a published dataset based on a real health problem on the effects of the Italian smoking ban in public spaces on hospital admissions for acute coronary events. We employed a continuous methodology based on data preprocessing to identify linear and nonlinear components in which autoregressive moving average and generalized structure group method of data handling were combined to model stochastic and nonlinear components of ITS. We analyzed the rate of admission for acute coronary events from January 2002 to November 2006 using this new data-driven hybrid methodology that allowed for long-term outcome prediction. Results. Our results showed the Pearson correlation coefficient of the proposed combined transitional data-driven model exhibited an average of 17.74% enhancement from the single stochastic model and 2.05% from the nonlinear model. In addition, data demonstrated that the developed model improved the mean absolute percentage error and correlation coefficient values for which 2.77% and 0.89 were found compared to 4.02% and 0.76, respectively. Importantly, this model does not use any predefined lag time between pre- and post-intervention.Conclusions. Most of the previous studies employed the linear regression and considered a lag time to interpret the impact of intervention on public health outcome. The proposed hybrid methodology improved ITS prediction from conventional methods and could be used as a reliable alternative in public health intervention evaluation.
Gastrointestinal Manifestations of Synthetic Cannabinoids: A retrospective cohort study
Authors: Hakimian David , Benson Ariel , Khoury Tawfik , Masarawa muhaamad , Israel Sara , Salameh Shaden , Gershinsky Yoni , Shapira Barak , Muszkat Mordechai 
Published: November 2020

Abstract
Introduction: Synthetic cannabinoids (SC) are chemical substances which activate cannabinoid receptors similarly to tetrahydrocannabinol, but with a higher efficacy. These substances are used as illicit recreational drugs, often smoked as herbal mixtures. The continuing availability and rapid evolution of SC is an ongoing health risk. The adverse effects of SC are wide ranging, and span from mild behavioral changes to death. Knowledge regarding gastrointestinal (GI) manifestations of SC use is sparse. Results: The medical records of patients presented to hospital emergency care due to SC use between January 2014 and February 2018 were retrieved from Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital’s computerized database. The records were reviewed for clinical outcomes and laboratory tests. Fifty-five (55) patients were identified with a hospital presentation due to SC use. Twenty-one (21) out of 55 patients (38%) reported gastrointestinal complaints. The most common complaints were abdominal pain and vomiting. Of those, 28% had recurrent emergency department presentations due to abdominal pain and 66% presented with leukocytosis. Serum lactate was elevated in 66% of patients with GI manifestations. One patient had an abnormal computerized tomography (CT) abdominal angiography scan, which was compatible with intestinal ischemia. Conclusions: The clinical spectrum of gastrointestinal manifestations in SC intoxication ranges from mild symptoms, such as abdominal pain and vomiting, to more severe ones such as intestinal ischemia. Clinicians should be aware that abdominal pain and other gastrointestinal complaints can be associated with SC use.