bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Combined femoral and axillary perfusion strategy for Stanford type a aortic dissection repair
Authors: Huang Ling-chen , Xu Qi-chen , Chen Dao-zhong , Dai Xiao-fu , Chen Liang-wan 
Published: November 2020

Abstract

Background
The optimal cannulation strategy in surgery for Stanford type A aortic dissection is critical to patient survival but remains controversial. Different cannulation strategies have their own advantages and drawbacks during cardiopulmonary bypass. Our centre used a combined femoral and axillary perfusion strategy for the surgical treatment of type A aortic dissection. The purpose of this study was to review and clarify the clinical outcome of femoral artery cannulation combined with axillary artery cannulation for the treatment of Stanford type A aortic dissection.

Methods
We performed a retrospective study that included 327 patients who were surgically treated for type A aortic dissection in our institution from January 2017 to June 2019. Femoral and axillary artery cannulation was used to establish cardiopulmonary bypass in patients with type A aortic dissection. The demographic data, surgical data, and clinical results of the patients were calculated.

Results
Femoral artery combined with axillary artery cannulation was technically successful in 327 patients. The cardiopulmonary bypass time was 141.60 ± 34.89 min, and the selective antegrade cerebral perfusion time was 14.94 ± 2.76 min. The early mortality rate was 3.06%. The incidence of permanent neurologic dysfunction was 0.92%. Sixteen patients had postoperative renal insufficiency, and five patients had liver failure.

Conclusion
Femoral artery combined with axillary artery cannulation for type A aortic dissection can significantly improve the prognosis of patients, especially in terms of cerebral protection, and can reduce the occurrence of adverse malperfusion syndrome and neurological complications.
An automated workflow to screen alkene reductases using high-throughput thin layer chromatography
Authors: Garabedian Brett M. , Meadows Corey W. , Mingardon Florence , Guenther Joel M. , de Rond Tristan , Abourjeily Raya , Lee Taek Soon 
Published: November 2020

Abstract

Background
Synthetic biology efforts often require high-throughput screening tools for enzyme engineering campaigns. While innovations in chromatographic and mass spectrometry-based techniques provide relevant structural information associated with enzyme activity, these approaches can require cost-intensive instrumentation and technical expertise not broadly available. Moreover, complex workflows and analysis time can significantly impact throughput. To this end, we develop an automated, 96-well screening platform based on thin layer chromatography (TLC) and use it to monitor in vitro activity of a geranylgeranyl reductase isolated from Sulfolobus acidocaldarius (SaGGR).

Results
Unreduced SaGGR products are oxidized to their corresponding epoxide and applied to thin layer silica plates by acoustic printing. These derivatives are chromatographically separated based on the extent of epoxidation and are covalently ligated to a chromophore, allowing detection of enzyme variants with unique product distributions or enhanced reductase activity. Herein, we employ this workflow to examine farnesol reduction using a codon-saturation mutagenesis library at the Leu377 site of SaGGR. We show this TLC-based screen can distinguish between fourfold differences in enzyme activity for select mutants and validated those results by GC–MS.

Conclusions
With appropriate quantitation methods, this workflow can be used to screen polyprenyl reductase activity and can be readily adapted to analyze broader catalyst libraries whose products are amenable to TLC analysis.
Wolbachia in mosquitoes from the Central Valley of California, USA
Authors: Torres Ryan , Hernandez Eunis , Flores Valeria , Ramirez Jose Luis , Joyce Andrea L. 
Published: November 2020

AbstractBackgroundWolbachiabacteria are widely distributed throughout terrestrial arthropod species. These bacteria can manipulate reproduction and influence the vector competence of their hosts. Recently,Wolbachiahave been integrated into vector control programmes for mosquito management. A number of supergroups and strains exist forWolbachia, and they have yet to be characterized for many mosquito species. In this study, we examinedWolbachiaprevalence and their phylogenetic relationship to otherWolbachia, using mosquitoes collected in Merced County in the Central Valley of California.MethodsAdult mosquitoes were collected from 85 sites in Merced County, California in 2017 and 2018. Traditional and quantitative PCR were used to investigate the presence or absence and the density ofWolbachia, usingWolbachia-specific16SrRNA andWolbachia-surface protein (wsp) genes. The supergroup ofWolbachiawas determined, and Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST) by sequencing five housekeeping genes (coxA,gatB,ftsZ,hcpA andfbpA) was also used to determineWolbachiasupergroup as well as strain.ResultsOver 7100 mosquitoes of 12 species were collected:Aedesmelanimon,Ae.nigromaculis,Ae.vexans,Ae.aegypti,Culex pipiens,Cx.stigmatosoma,Cx.tarsalis,Anopheles franciscanus,An.freeborni,An.punctipennis,Culiseta incidensandCs.inornata. Eight showed evidence ofWolbachia. To our knowledge, this study is the first to report detection ofWolbachiain five of these species (Ae.melanimon,Cx.stigmatosoma,Cx.tarsalis,Cs.incidensandCs.inornata).Culex pipiensandCx.stigmatosomahad a high frequency and density ofWolbachiainfection, which grouped into supergroup B;Cs.inornataclustered with supergroup A. MLST comparisons identifiedCx.pipiensandCx.stigmatosomaaswPip strain type 9 supergroup B. Six species had moderate to low (< 14%) frequencies ofWolbachia. Four species were negative,Ae.nigromaculis,An.franciscanus,An.freeborniandAe.aegypti.ConclusionsNew records ofWolbachiadetection were found in mosquitoes from Merced County, California.Culex stigmatosomaandCs.inornatawere new records forWolbachiasupergroup B and A, respectively. Other species withWolbachiaoccurred with low frequency and low density. Detection ofWolbachiain mosquitoes can be used to inform potential vector control applications. Future study ofWolbachiawithinCx.stigmatosomaandCs.inornatain California and through the range of these species could further exploreWolbachiainfection in these two species.
Combination of snapshot hyperspectral retinal imaging and optical coherence tomography to identify Alzheimer’s disease patients
Authors: Lemmens Sophie , Van Craenendonck Toon , Van Eijgen Jan , De Groef Lies , Bruffaerts Rose , de Jesus Danilo Andrade , Charle Wouter , Jayapala Murali , Sunaric-Mégevand Gordana , Standaert Arnout , Theunis Jan , Van Keer Karel , Vandenbulcke Mathieu , Moons Lieve , Vandenberghe Rik , De Boever Patrick , Stalmans Ingeborg 
Published: November 2020

Abstract

Introduction
The eye offers potential for the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) with retinal imaging techniques being explored to quantify amyloid accumulation and aspects of neurodegeneration. To assess these changes, this proof-of-concept study combined hyperspectral imaging and optical coherence tomography to build a classification model to differentiate between AD patients and controls.

Methods
In a memory clinic setting, patients with a diagnosis of clinically probable AD (n = 10) or biomarker-proven AD (n = 7) and controls (n = 22) underwent non-invasive retinal imaging with an easy-to-use hyperspectral snapshot camera that collects information from 16 spectral bands (460–620 nm, 10-nm bandwidth) in one capture. The individuals were also imaged using optical coherence tomography for assessing retinal nerve fiber layer thickness (RNFL). Dedicated image preprocessing analysis was followed by machine learning to discriminate between both groups.

Results
Hyperspectral data and retinal nerve fiber layer thickness data were used in a linear discriminant classification model to discriminate between AD patients and controls. Nested leave-one-out cross-validation resulted in a fair accuracy, providing an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.74 (95% confidence interval [0.60–0.89]). Inner loop results showed that the inclusion of the RNFL features resulted in an improvement of the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve: for the most informative region assessed, the average area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.70 (95% confidence interval [0.55, 0.86]) and 0.79 (95% confidence interval [0.65, 0.93]), respectively. The robust statistics used in this study reduces the risk of overfitting and partly compensates for the limited sample size.

Conclusions
This study in a memory-clinic-based cohort supports the potential of hyperspectral imaging and suggests an added value of combining retinal imaging modalities. Standardization and longitudinal data on fully amyloid-phenotyped cohorts are required to elucidate the relationship between retinal structure and cognitive function and to evaluate the robustness of the classification model.
Prognosis prediction model for conversion from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer’s disease created by integrative analysis of multi-omics data
Authors: Shigemizu Daichi , Akiyama Shintaro , Higaki Sayuri , Sugimoto Taiki , Sakurai Takashi , Boroevich Keith A. , Sharma Alok , Tsunoda Tatsuhiko , Ochiya Takahiro , Niida Shumpei , Ozaki Kouichi 
Published: November 2020

Abstract

Background
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a precursor to Alzheimer’s disease (AD), but not all MCI patients develop AD. Biomarkers for early detection of individuals at high risk for MCI-to-AD conversion are urgently required.

Methods
We used blood-based microRNA expression profiles and genomic data of 197 Japanese MCI patients to construct a prognosis prediction model based on a Cox proportional hazard model. We examined the biological significance of our findings with single nucleotide polymorphism-microRNA pairs (miR-eQTLs) by focusing on the target genes of the miRNAs. We investigated functional modules from the target genes with the occurrence of hub genes though a large-scale protein-protein interaction network analysis. We further examined the expression of the genes in 610 blood samples (271 ADs, 248 MCIs, and 91 cognitively normal elderly subjects [CNs]).

Results
The final prediction model, composed of 24 miR-eQTLs and three clinical factors (age, sex, and APOE4 alleles), successfully classified MCI patients into low and high risk of MCI-to-AD conversion (log-rank test P = 3.44 × 10−4 and achieved a concordance index of 0.702 on an independent test set. Four important hub genes associated with AD pathogenesis (SHC1, FOXO1, GSK3B, and PTEN) were identified in a network-based meta-analysis of miR-eQTL target genes. RNA-seq data from 610 blood samples showed statistically significant differences in PTEN expression between MCI and AD and in SHC1 expression between CN and AD (PTEN, P = 0.023; SHC1, P = 0.049).

Conclusions
Our proposed model was demonstrated to be effective in MCI-to-AD conversion prediction. A network-based meta-analysis of miR-eQTL target genes identified important hub genes associated with AD pathogenesis. Accurate prediction of MCI-to-AD conversion would enable earlier intervention for MCI patients at high risk, potentially reducing conversion to AD.
Practical guide for evaluation and management of beta-lactam allergy: position statement from the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
Authors: Jeimy Samira , Ben-Shoshan Moshe , Abrams Elissa M. , Ellis Anne K. , Connors Lori , Wong Tiffany 
Published: November 2020

Abstract
The vast majority of individuals labelled as allergic are not deemed truly allergic upon appropriate assessment by an allergist. A label of beta-lactam allergy carries important risks for individual and public health. This article provides an overview of beta-lactam allergy, implications of erroneous beta-lactam allergy labels and the impact that can be provided by structured allergy assessment. We provide recommendations on how to stratify risk of beta-lactam allergy, beta lactam challenge protocols as well as management of patients at high risk of beta-lactam allergy.
Further evidence that mechanisms of host/symbiont integration are dissimilar in the maternal versus embryonic Acyrthosiphon pisum bacteriome
Authors: Banfill Celeste R. , Wilson Alex C. C. , Lu Hsiao-ling 
Published: November 2020

AbstractBackgroundHost/symbiont integration is a signature of evolutionarily ancient, obligate endosymbioses. However, little is known about the cellular and developmental mechanisms of host/symbiont integration at the molecular level. Many insects possess obligate bacterial endosymbionts that provide essential nutrients. To advance understanding of the developmental and metabolic integration of hosts and endosymbionts, we track the localization of a non-essential amino acid transporter, ApNEAAT1, across asexual embryogenesis in the aphid,Acyrthosiphon pisum. Previous work in adult bacteriomes revealed that ApNEAAT1 functions to exchange non-essential amino acids at theA. pisum/Buchnera aphidicolasymbiotic interface. Driven by amino acid concentration gradients, ApNEAAT1 moves proline, serine, and alanine fromA. pisumtoBuchneraand cysteine fromBuchneratoA. pisum. Here, we test the hypothesis that ApNEAAT1 is localized to the symbiotic interface during asexual embryogenesis.ResultsDuringA. pisumasexual embryogenesis, ApNEAAT1 does not localize to the symbiotic interface. We observed ApNEAAT1 localization to the maternal follicular epithelium, the germline, and, in late-stage embryos, to anterior neural structures and insect immune cells (hemocytes). We predict that ApNEAAT1 provisions non-essential amino acids to developing oocytes and embryos, as well as to the brain and related neural structures. Additionally, ApNEAAT1 may perform roles related to host immunity.ConclusionsOur work provides further evidence that the embryonic and adult bacteriomes of asexualA. pisumare not equivalent. Future research is needed to elucidate the developmental time point at which the bacteriome reaches maturity.
Activation of mesenchymal stem cells promotes new bone formation within dentigerous cyst
Authors: Yu Yejia , Li Mengyu , Zhou Yuqiong , Shi Yueqi , Zhang Wenjie , Son Geehun , Ge Jing , Zhao Jun , Zhang Zhiyuan , Ye Dongxia , Yang Chi , Wang Shaoyi 
Published: November 2020

AbstractBackgroundDentigerous cyst (DC) is a bone destructive disease and remains a challenge for clinicians. Marsupialization enables the bone to regenerate with capsule maintaining, making it a preferred therapeutic means for DC adjacent to vital anatomical structures. Given that capsules of DC are derived from odontogenic epithelium remnants at the embryonic stage, we investigated whether there were mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) located in DC capsules and the role that they played in the bone regeneration after marsupialization.MethodsSamples obtained before and after marsupialization were used for histological detection and cell culture. The stemness of cells isolated from fresh tissues was analyzed by morphology, surface marker, and multi-differentiation assays. Comparison of proliferation ability between MSCs isolated from DC capsules before (Bm-DCSCs) and after (Am-DCSCs) marsupialization was evaluated by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), fibroblast colony-forming units (CFU-F), and 5′-ethynyl-2′-deoxyuridine (EdU) assay. Their osteogenic capacity in vitro was detected by alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and Alizarin Red staining (ARS), combined with real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and immunofluorescence (IF) staining. Subcutaneous ectopic osteogenesis as well as cranial bone defect model in nude mice was performed to detect their bone regeneration and bone defect repairability.ResultsBone tissue and strong ALP activity were detected in the capsule of DC after marsupialization. Two types of MSCs were isolated from fibrous capsules of DC both before (Bm-DCSCs) and after (Am-DCSCs) marsupialization. These fibroblast-like, colony-forming cells expressed MSC markers (CD44+, CD90+, CD31−, CD34−, CD45−), and they could differentiate into osteoblast-, adipocyte-, and chondrocyte-like cells under induction. Notably, Am-DCSCs performed better in cell proliferation and self-renewal. Moreover, Am-DCSCs showed a greater osteogenic capacity both in vitro and in vivo compared with Bm-DCSCs.ConclusionsThere are MSCs residing in capsules of DC, and the cell viability as well as the osteogenic capacity of them is largely enhanced after marsupialization. Our findings suggested that MSCs might play a crucial role in the healing process of DC after marsupialization, thus providing new insight into the treatment for DC by promoting the osteogenic differentiation of MSCs inside capsules.
A study on Copson operator and its associated sequence space II
Authors: Roopaei Hadi 
Published: November 2020

AbstractIn this paper, we investigate some properties of the domains $c(C^{n})$
c
(

C
n

)
, $c_{0}(C^{n})$

c
0

(

C
n

)
, and $\ell _{p}(C^{n})$

ℓ
p

(

C
n

)
$(0< p<1)$
(
0
<
p
<
1
)
of the Copson matrix of order n, where c, $c_{0}$

c
0

, and $\ell _{p}$

ℓ
p

are the spaces of all convergent, convergent to zero, and p-summable real sequences, respectively. Moreover, we compute the Köthe duals of these spaces and the lower bound of well-known operators on these sequence spaces. The domain $\ell _{p}(C^{n})$

ℓ
p

(

C
n

)
of Copson matrix $C^{n}$

C
n

of order n in the sequence space $\ell _{p}$

ℓ
p

, the norm of operators on this space, and the norm of Copson operator on several matrix domains have been investigated recently in (Roopaei in J. Inequal. Appl. 2020:120, 2020), and the present study is a complement of our previous research.
Medical image processing with contextual style transfer
Authors: Xu Yin , Li Yan , Shin Byeong-Seok 
Published: November 2020

Abstract
With recent advances in deep learning research, generative models have achieved great achievements and play an increasingly important role in current industrial applications. At the same time, technologies derived from generative methods are also under a wide discussion with researches, such as style transfer, image synthesis and so on. In this work, we treat generative methods as a possible solution to medical image augmentation. We proposed a context-aware generative framework, which can successfully change the gray scale of CT scans but almost without any semantic loss. By producing target images that with specific style / distribution, we greatly increased the robustness of segmentation model after adding generations into training set. Besides, we improved 2– 4% pixel segmentation accuracy over original U-NET in terms of spine segmentation. Lastly, we compared generations produced by networks when using different feature extractors (Vgg, ResNet and DenseNet) and made a detailed analysis on their performances over style transfer.
Artemether–lumefantrin treatment adherence among uncomplicated plasmodium falciparum malaria patients, visiting public health facilities in AsgedeTsimbla district, Tigray, Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study
Authors: Gebrekidan Mekonnen Gebremichael , Gebremedhin Gebretsadik Berhe , Gebregiorgis Yosef Sibhatu , Gezehegn Alefech Addisu , Weldearegay Kissanet Tesfay 
Published: November 2020

AbstractBackgroundEthiopia has set a goal to eliminate malaria by 2030; Artemether–lumefantrine (AL) is put as one of the cornerstone strategies for uncomplicatedplasmodium falciparummalaria treatment. However, only focusing on prescribing of the treatment without assessing patients’ adherence could lead to the resistance of the drug. In Ethiopia, there is limited evidence about patients’ adherence to AL and its influencing factors. Therefore, this study aimed at addressing this information gap.MethodsA health facility based cross-sectional study was employed. Participants were selected using simple random sampling technique from registration books of the public health facilities in AsgedeTsimbla. Data were collected from March 24th to April 30th, 2018. We interviewed participants using a pre-tested structured questionnaire, and the blister pack was also inspected at their homes on day 4. Data were entered into Epi-Info and analyzed using SPSS 21. Odds ratios with 95% Confidence Intervals were estimated and the level of significance was declared at p-value ≤ 0.05.ResultsA total of 384 study participants were interviewed with a response rate of 95.5%. The overall AL adherence was 53.6% (95% CI 48.4–58.3%). Children aged < 5 years [AOR: 0.4, 95% CI (0.2–0.8)], and being treated in health post [AOR: 0.3, 95% CI (0.1–0.5)] were more likely to show AL adherence whereas illiteracy [AOR: 9.4, 95% CI (4.2–21.3)], didn’t know the consequence of discontinued AL [AOR: 4.0, 95% CI (2.1–7.6)], had concomitant drugs [AOR: 2.5, 95% CI (1.4–4.5)], and stopped/saved drug when improved before tablet got finished [AOR: 3.2, 95% CI (1.7–5.9)] were factors less likely to be associated with AL adherence.ConclusionAL adherence was low. Children aged < 5 years, and being treated in health post were determinants of AL adherence whereas illiteracy, didn’t know the consequence of discontinued the drug, had concomitant drugs, and stopped/saved drug when improved before tablet got finished were factors that hindered the AL adherence. Stakeholders should emphasize designing appropriate strategies including educational interventions to increase the AL adherence and prevent drug resistance. Further research should be conducted to evaluate AL resistance.
The Gender Violence - Implicit Association Test to measure attitudes toward intimate partner violence against women
Authors: Ferrer-Perez Victoria A. , Sánchez-Prada Andrés , Delgado-Álvarez Carmen , Bosch-Fiol Esperanza 
Published: November 2020

AbstractAttitudes play a central role in intimate partner violence against women and are related to its origin, to the responses of women who suffer violence, and to the settings where it occurs. In fact, these attitudes are recognized as one of the risk factors linked to violent perpetration and to public, professional, and victim responses to this type of violence. However, even though available research generally shows a broad rejection of this violence, it remains a serious social and health problem that has reached epidemic proportions. This suggests that the information available about these attitudes (obtained through explicit and direct measures, i.e., self-reports) may be distorted or influenced by factors such as social desirability. In this context, the overall objective of our research project is to provide multi-method measures (explicit and implicit) of attitudes toward intimate partner violence against women, and the main goal of this paper is to propose an instrument for the implicit measurement of these attitudes. In this regard, the Implicit Association Test (IAT) is the most common procedure used, providing a superior predictive validity compared to explicit measures for socially sensitive topics. We will present an exploratory study that describes its adaptation for our purposes, and the development of the Gender Violence - Implicit Association Test (GV-IAT) to use among Spanish-speaking populations, and discuss the strengths and limitations of this proposal.