bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Epidermal complexity in the theropod dinosaur Juravenator from the Upper Jurassic of Germany
Authors: Bell Phil R. , Hendrickx Christophe 
Published: December 2020

AbstractEpidermal scales among modern reptiles are morphologically diverse and serve a variety of functions ranging from moisture balance to chemoreception. Despite being predominantly squamous‐skinned (scaly), the functional implications of this type of integument have never before been explored for a dinosaur. Re‐examination of the holotype of the theropod Juravenator starki (Kimmeridgian, Late Jurassic) reveals previously unseen diversity in its epidermal covering. In addition to the presence of short monofilaments on the dorsal and ventral parts of the tail, we identify distinctive scale patterns corresponding to discrete longitudinal bands of scutate, tuberculate and ornamented scales along the length of the tail. In modern squamous‐skinned amniotes, variation in scale architecture can be linked to functional differences between scale types. In Juravenator, distinctive circular nodes associated with the ornamented scales have recently been interpreted as integumentary sense organs. We also suggest that it is likely that the snake‐like scutate scales on the underside of the tail fulfilled a role related to mechanical protection rather than locomotory function. Whereas the literature on theropod epidermal structures has been dominated by discussions on the evolution and diversity of feathers, this study highlights the complexity of squamous integument in Juravenator, which is revealed as one of the most complex among known theropods. An exploration of the epidermal structures found in Juravenator and other non‐avian theropods reveals great complexity in the type and distribution of these structures across the clade, suggesting potential for the future inquiry into their taxonomic and biological importance.
Inflammatory bowel disease in sub-Saharan Africa: a protocol of a prospective registry with a nested case–control study
Authors: Katsidzira Leolin , Mudombi Wisdom F , Makunike-Mutasa Rudo , Yilmaz Bahtiyar , Blank Annika , Rogler Gerhard , Macpherson Andrew , Vavricka Stephan , Gangaidzo Innocent , Misselwitz Benjamin 
Published: December 2020

IntroductionThe epidemiology of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in sub-Saharan Africa is poorly documented. We have started a registry to determine the burden, phenotype, risk factors, disease course and outcomes of IBD in Zimbabwe.Methods and analysisA prospective observational registry with a nested case–control study has been established at a tertiary hospital in Harare, Zimbabwe. The registry is recruiting confirmed IBD cases from the hospital, and other facilities throughout Zimbabwe. Demographic and clinical data are obtained at baseline, 6 months and annually. Two age and sex-matched non-IBD controls per case are recruited—a sibling or second-degree relative, and a randomly selected individual from the same neighbourhood. Cases and controls are interviewed for potential risk factors of IBD, and dietary intake using a food frequency questionnaire. Stool is collected for 16S rRNA-based microbiota profiling, and along with germline DNA from peripheral blood, is being biobanked. The estimated sample size is 86 cases and 172 controls, and the overall registry is anticipated to run for at least 5 years. Descriptive statistics will be used to describe the demographic and phenotypic characteristics of IBD, and incidence and prevalence will be estimated for Harare. Risk factors for IBD will be analysed using conditional logistic regression. For microbial analysis, alpha diversity and beta diversity will be compared between cases and controls, and between IBD phenotypes. Mann-Whitney U tests for alpha diversity and Adonis (Permutational Multivariate Analysis of Variance) for beta diversity will be computed.Ethics and disseminationEthical approval has been obtained from the Parirenyatwa Hospital’s and University of Zimbabwe’s research ethics committee and the Medical Research Council of Zimbabwe. Findings will be discussed with patients, and the Zimbabwean Ministry of Health. Results will be presented at scientific meetings, published in peer reviewed journals, and on social media.Trial registration numberNCT04178408.
Multimodal prehabilitation as strategy for reduction of postoperative complications after cardiac surgery: a randomised controlled trial protocol
Authors: Coca-Martinez Miquel , Lopez-Hernandez Antonio , Montane-Muntane Mar , Arguis Maria Jose , Gimeno-Santos Elena , Navarro-Ripoll Ricard , Perdomo Juan , Lopez-Baamonde Manuel , Rios Jose , Moises Jorge , Sanz de la Garza Maria , Sandoval Elena , Romano Barbara , Sebio Raquel , Dana Fernando , Martinez-Palli Graciela 
Published: December 2020

IntroductionPrehabilitation programmes that combine exercise training, nutritional support and emotional reinforcement (multimodal prehabilitation) have demonstrated efficacy reducing postoperative complications in the context of abdominal surgery. However, such programmes have seldom been studied in cardiac surgery, one of the surgeries associated with higher postoperative morbidity and mortality. This trial will assess the feasibility and efficacy in terms of reduction of postoperative complications and cost-effectiveness of a multimodal prehabilitation programme comparing to the standard of care in cardiac surgical patients.Methods and analysisThis is a single-centre, randomised, open-label, controlled trial with a 1:1 ratio. Consecutive 160 elective valve replacement and/or coronary revascularisation surgical patients will be randomised to either standard of care or 4–6 weeks of multimodal prehabilitation that will consist in (1) two times/week supervised endurance and strength exercise training sessions, (2) promotion of physical activity and healthy lifestyle, (3) respiratory physiotherapy, (4) nutrition counselling and supplementation if needed, and (5) weekly mindfulness sessions. Baseline, preoperative and 3-month postoperative data will be collected by an independent blinded evaluator. The primary outcome of this study will be the incidence of postoperative complications.Ethics and disseminationThis study has been approved by the Ethics Committee of Clinical investigation of Hospital Clinic de Barcelona (HCB/2017/0708). The results will be disseminated in a peer-reviewed journal.Trial registration numberNCT03466606.
The Irish dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) Health Informatics Prediction (HIP) for Osteoporosis Project
Authors: E Erjiang , Wang Tingyan , Yang Lan , Dempsey Mary , Brennan Attracta , Yu Ming , Chan Wing P. , Whelan Bryan , Silke Carmel , O'Sullivan Miriam , Rooney Bridie , McPartland Aoife , O’Malley Gráinne , Carey John J. 
Published: December 2020

PurposeThe purpose of the Irish dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) Health Informatics Prediction (HIP) for Osteoporosis Project is to create a large retrospective cohort of adults in Ireland to examine the validity of DXA diagnostic classification, risk assessment tools and management strategies for osteoporosis and osteoporotic fractures for our population.ParticipantsThe cohort includes 36 590 men and women aged 4–104 years who had a DXA scan between January 2000 and November 2018 at one of 3 centres in the West of Ireland.Findings to date36 590 patients had at least 1 DXA scan, 6868 (18.77%) had 2 scans and 3823 (10.45%) had 3 or more scans. There are 364 unique medical disorders, 186 unique medications and 46 DXA variables identified and available for analysis. The cohort includes 10 349 (28.3%) individuals who underwent a screening DXA scan without a clear fracture risk factor (other than age), and 9947 (27.2%) with prevalent fractures at 1 of 44 skeletal sites.Future plansThe Irish DXA HIP Project plans to assess current diagnostic classification and risk prediction algorithms for osteoporosis and fractures, identify the risk predictors for osteoporosis and develop novel, accurate and personalised risk prediction tools, by using the large multicentre longitudinal follow-up cohort. Furthermore, the dataset may be used to assess, and possibly support, multimorbidity management due to the large number of variables collected in this project.
Are the Danish stillbirth rates still record low? A nationwide ecological study
Authors: Lidegaard Øjvind , Krebs Lone , Petersen Olav Bennike Bjørn , Damm Nis Peter , Tabor A 
Published: December 2020

ObjectivesAfter introduction of a more proactive post-term induction practice, stillbirth rates have decreased substantially throughout the first decade of this century in Denmark. The aim was to follow up on induction and stillbirth rates in Denmark.DesignHistorical ecological study.ParticipantsWe included all delivering women in Denmark during the period 2007–2018.InterventionInduction rates from 41 weeks of gestation.Main outcome measureStillbirth rates from 41+0 weeks.ResultsOf 739 570 delivered children, 179 734 (24.3%) were born from 41+0 weeks. The proportion of deliveries after 41 weeks which were induced increased from 25.4% in 2007 to 44.4% in 2012. From 2012 to 2015, the induction rates decreased from 44.4% to 39.4%. After 2015 rates were stable.During the same period, stillbirth rates decreased from 1.30 in 2007/2008 to 0.38 per 1000 newborn in 2011/12; -54%. From 2012, however, the rates were doubled from 0.38 per 1000 in 2011/2012 to 0.74 per 1000 in 2015/2018; RR 1.97 (95% CI 1.02 to 3.81), p=0.033.Changes in the included potential confounders cannot explain neither the substantial fall in stillbirth rates from 2007/2008 to 2011/2012, nor the doubling in stillbirth rates after 41 weeks since 2012.During the whole study period, the cumulated risk of intrauterine foetal death increased from week 41+0 to 41+6 from 0.16 to 1.25 per 1000 ongoing pregnancies or 7.8 folds. Going beyond 42 weeks further increased the risk to 2.46 per 1000 ongoing pregnancies.ConclusionWe found a consistent inverse correlation between the proportion of women with induction of labour after 41 weeks of gestation and the stillbirth rates during the same period and same gestational ages. This Danish update on post-term inductions and corresponding stillbirth rates thus confirm previous findings suggesting a causal link between these two parameters.
Financial Incentives and Nurse Coaching to Enhance Diabetes Outcomes (FINANCE-DM): a trial protocol
Authors: Egede Leonard E , Walker Rebekah , Williams Joni S , Knapp Rebecca , Dismuke Clara Elizabeth , Davidson Tatiana , Campbell Jennifer A 
Published: December 2020

IntroductionGiven the burden of diabetes in ethnic minorities and emerging data on the efficacy of financial incentives in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), it is critical to examine the efficacy of financial incentives across and within racial/ethnic groups.Methods and analysisThis trial is an ongoing 5-year, randomised clinical trial designed to test the efficacy of a Financial Incentives And Nurse Coaching to Enhance Diabetes Outcomes (FINANCE-DM) intervention composed of (1) nurse education, (2) home telemonitoring and (3) structured financial incentives; compared with an active control group (nurse education and home telemonitoring alone). The study also will evaluate whether intervention effects are sustained 6 months after the financial incentives are withdrawn (ie, 18 months post-randomisation) and whether the intervention is differentially efficacious across racial/ethnic groups. Participants will include 450 adults with a clinical diagnosis of T2DM and HbA1c of 8% or higher who self-identify as White, African American or Hispanic. Participants will be randomised to one of two groups: the FINANCE intervention or Active Control. The location and setting of this study include primary care clinics at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) in Milwaukee, WI and community partner sites affiliated with the Center for Advancing Population Science at MCW.Ethics and disseminationThis trial was approved by IRB at MCW under PRO00033788.Trial registration numberRegistration for this trial on the United States National Institute of Health Clinical Trials Registry can be found under ID: NCT04203173 and online (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04203173?id=NCT04203173&draw=2&rank=1).
Acupuncture for menstrual migraine: a systematic review
Authors: Yang Mingxiao , Du Ting , Long Hulin , Sun Mingsheng , Liang Fanrong , Lao Lixing 
Published: December 2020

Background and objectiveIn clinical practice, the evidence of acupuncture used as a treatment for migraine without aura is employed interchangeably to guide treatment for menstrual migraine. However, its effect and safety are not substantiated. This study aimed to assess the efficacy of acupuncture on the frequency and pain intensity of menstrual migraine.MethodsWe searched PubMed, Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and other two Chinese databases from their inception to 1 May 2019. This study included randomised controlled trials of women with menstrual migraine receiving acupuncture or a valid control. Two reviewers independently completed study selection, data extraction and risk of bias assessment. We combined data with a fixed-effect model in RevMan. Clinical outcomes included migraine frequency and duration, headache intensity, and adverse events.ResultsThirteen studies with 826 subjects were included, 9 of which had data suitable for meta-analyses. Current evidence showed that acupuncture was not superior to sham acupuncture in reducing monthly migraine frequency and duration, average headache intensity, and analgesic use at completion of treatment or follow-up. Pooled data demonstrated a significant improvement in mean headache intensity in the acupuncture group compared with drugs. However, all studies were underpowered and associated with moderate to high risk of bias. No serious adverse event was related to acupuncture treatment.ConclusionsThere is no convincing evidence to support the use of acupuncture in treating menstrual migraine. Acupuncture cannot yet be recommended to patients with menstrual migraine until more solid evidence is produced.Trial registration numberCRD42019119337.
Palliative care pain control: inpatient consultation versus corounding models compared
Authors: Ng Chang Zhi , Cheung Yin Bun , Koh Audrey Rui Xuan , Teo Han Rou , Mok Natalie Kah Mun , Yang Grace Meijuan 
Published: December 2020

BackgroundCompared with the current inpatient consultation model, a novel corounding model of care whereby palliative specialists round with oncology teams, increases healthcare collaboration and may improve quality of care for inpatients. Whether this translates to better pain control for patients is unexplored.ObjectiveTo determine whether the corounding model provides better pain control compared with the consultation model for cancer inpatients.MethodsCancer patients with moderate or severe pain severity during the admission were included in this observational study. Pain severity was determined using electronic records. Improvement to mild or no pain by day 3 of identification of moderate or severe pain was defined as good pain control and proportion of admissions achieving this was compared between models.ResultsA total of 142 and 128 admissions admitted under the consult and corounding model, respectively, had moderate or severe pain. The proportion of patients that achieved good pain control was 77.3% (99/128) and 71.8% (102/142) in the corounding and consult model, respectively. The difference in proportion of admissions achieving good pain control was significantly higher in the corounding model after adjusting for differences in baseline characteristics (unadjusted OR, 1.34; 95% CI, 0.77 to 2.33; adjusted OR, 2.25; 95% CI, 1.19 to 4.26).DiscussionThe odds of achieving good pain control was significantly better in the corounding model. However, the mechanism behind this is unexplored. This study can serve as precedence for future studies evaluating the corounding model of care.
New understanding on the principle of earthquake
Authors: Lu Kunquan , Cao Zexian 
Published: December 2020

Earthquake is a natural disaster that causes enormous losses to human society and its prediction is a major scientific challenge widely concerned by the society. However, the mechanism of earthquake is far from clear, and the mainstream view in the international seismology community is that earthquakes are unpredictable. Based on some new concepts and new knowledge developed in physics, this study scrutinizes the incubation and occurrence of earthquake from a novel perspective, and introduces a new understanding of earthquake principle. It is found that the view of earthquake unpredictability originates from the incorrect understanding of both earthquake principle and the self-organized criticality (SOC). That is to say, earthquake is consistent with the laws of SOC, which means it would be impossible to make a medium- or long-term prediction, yet the short-term prediction should still be possible. The preconditions for successful prediction include understanding correctly of earthquake principle, obtaining sufficient characteristic precursory information, and gathering relevant geological data. Traditional seismology is based on the solid continuum mechanics which holds the view that earthquakes are caused by brittle fracture of crustal rocks through the so-called “elastic rebound” mechanism. This point of view is seriously inconsistent with many field observations, cannot account for many seismic phenomena. It therefore cannot obtain and understand the earthquake precursory information correctly, and naturally reach the false conclusion that earthquake is unpredictable. Based on the simple fact that the crust is composed of rock blocks with fault gouges filling in between them, we treat the crust as a discrete system and understand the earthquake incubation process by means of granular physics. The new understanding gained is that the tectonic force propagates through force chains formed by the rock blocks, and the rock blocks move in the manner of stick-slip. Furthermore, by carefully analyzing how the strength of crustal rocks and the distributions of tectonic force vary with depth, we propose that the physical mechanism of earthquake is plastic sliding of rock and a jamming — unjamming transition of rock motion. Our novel theory on the earthquake principle and the earthquake processes can explain many seismological phenomena that could not be understood in terms of traditional seismology, such as the heat-flow paradox and the cause of deep-focus earthquake, etc. Based on this new understanding of earthquake principle, we put forward suggestions on how to obtain the earthquake precursory information correctly, so as to realize the goal of short-term prediction of earthquake.
Corneal damage effects induced by infrared optical parametric oscillator radiation at 3743 nm
Authors: Jiao Luguang , Wang Chao , Zhang Kaizeng , Wang Jiarui , Yang Zaifu 
Published: December 2020

The main aim of this paper is to investigate the corneal damage effects induced by mid-infrared optical parametric oscillator (OPO) radiation. Experiments were performed to determine the corneal damage thresholds of New Zealand white rabbit at the wavelength of 3743[Formula: see text]nm for exposure durations of 0.1[Formula: see text]s, 1.0[Formula: see text]s and 10.0[Formula: see text]s. Through slit-lamp biomicroscope and histopathology, corneal injury characteristics were revealed. The damage thresholds were 3.73[Formula: see text]J/cm2, 7.91[Formula: see text]J/cm2 and 31.1[Formula: see text]J/cm2, respectively, for exposure durations of 0.1[Formula: see text]s, 1.0[Formula: see text]s and 10.0[Formula: see text]s. The damage data was correlated by an empirical equation: Radiant exposure at the [Formula: see text] duration,[Formula: see text] where the units of radiant exposure and exposure duration were J/cm2 and second. At near-threshold level, corneal injuries at 1 h post-exposure mainly involved the epithelium, and the epithelium damages repaired at 24-h post-exposure. There are sufficient safety margins between the damage thresholds and the maximum permitted exposures from current international laser safety standard IEC 60825-1.
How Light Passes Through Ordered Macroporous Photonic Crystals Immersed in Solvents
Authors: Lonergan Alex , Hu Changyu , O'Dwyer Colm 
Published: December 2020

Understanding light transmission through 3D macroporous photonic crystals is essential for linking their optical characteristics to any application, particularly when immersed in solvents. We examined TiO2 and SnO2 IOs in a series of common solvents to fix existing issues in Bragg-Snell theory and the definition of the photonic crystal unit cell and pore infilling. Using a comprehensive angle-resolved light transmission study coupled to microscopy examination of the IO structure, we demonstrate experimentally and theoretically that low fill factors are caused by porous material infilling all interstitial vacancies of the colloidal opal template, instead of complete filling of most interstitial voids. By also including an optical interference condition for inverse opals with a larger effective refractive index than their substrate, the optical data for macroporous photonic crystals are now consistent with microscopy measurements. This analysis provides an accurate correlation between the true response of a macroporous photonic crystal to tits primary properties including the index contrast with a solvent, infilled structure and the unit cell definition, and the directionality of the photonic band gap. As control in functional porous and ordered photonic materials has broadening to include biosensing and energy storage for example, a comprehensive and consistent description of how light passes through ordered macroporous photonic crystal structures is an important requirement.

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