bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Whey protein supplementation reducing fasting levels of anandamide and 2-AG without weight loss in pre-menopausal women with obesity on a weight-loss diet
Authors: Haidari Fatemeh , Aghamohammadi Vahideh , Mohammadshahi Majid , Ahmadi-Angali Kambiz , Asghari-Jafarabadi Mohammad 
Published: July 2020

Abstract
Background
Despite the importance of dairy proteins in modifying of metabolic abnormalities, no attention has been given to their effects on endocannabinoids.

Methods
A total number of 60 obese women were recruited in a 2-month randomized clinical trial. Following random allocation, they were assigned to one of the two groups: control (n = 30) and intervention (n = 30). Then, all the subjects followed a hypocaloric diet of 800 kcal below estimated energy needs. The intervention group received isocaloric weight-loss diet and whey protein powders (30 g/day). Baseline and 2-month fasting anthropometric, blood glucose, serum insulin, insulin resistance, lipid profile, AEA, and 2-AG were measured.

Results
The study groups were homogenous in terms of baseline characteristics (p > 0.05) except for MUFA intake (p = 0.021). There were no significant differences in energy and macronutrient intakes in the intervention group compared to the control group at the end of the study (p > 0.05). The results of the ANCOVA did not show significant reductions in body weight and BMI of the intervention group compared to the control group (p > 0.05); however, WC, body fat, FBS, AEA, 2-AG, total cholesterol, and triglyceride decreased and HDL-c significantly increased in the intervention group compared to the control group (p < 0.05).

Conclusions
In this study, the effects of simultaneous weight-loss diet and whey protein supplementation on the reduction of endocannabinoids were determined.

Trial registration
Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials IRCT2017021410181N8. Registered on March 2017.
Nocebo effects and participant information leaflets: evaluating information provided on adverse effects in UK clinical trials
Authors: Kirby Nigel , Shepherd Victoria , Howick Jeremey , Betteridge Sophie , Hood Kerenza 
Published: July 2020

Abstract
Background
Nocebo effects (‘negative placebo’ effects) experienced by clinical trial participants can arise from an underlying condition or through communication about side effects in the participant information leaflets (or elsewhere). Misattributing nocebo effects to the medicinal intervention can lead to participants experiencing harmful nocebo effects and may result in distortion of adverse effect reporting. However, little is known about how information on potential side effects is provided to trial participants. There is increasing concern that the way in which potential side effects in clinical trials are described to patients in participant information leaflets (PIL) can in itself cause harm by either increased anxiety, poor adherence or inducing the side effect itself. In this study, we aimed to explore these concerns and identify the way in which potential side effects from investigational medicinal products used in trials are presented in written information to potential participants.

Methods
Trials were identified from the International Standard Randomised Controlled Trials Number (ISRCTN) clinical trial registry (a primary registry of the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP)). Eligible studies were placebo-controlled clinical trials of investigational medicinal products (IMP) in adults conducted in the UK. We assessed readability using the Flesch Reading Ease scale, Gunning-Fog Index and Flesch-Kincaid Grade. Data extracted from the PILs were divided into 8 predefined qualitative themes for analysis in NVivo11.

Results
Most of the patient information leaflets were ranked as ‘fairly difficult to read’ or ‘difficult to read’ according to the Flesch Reading Ease scale. All studies presented information about adverse events, whereas only a third presented information about intervention benefits. Where intervention or study benefits were presented, they were usually after adverse events (21/33, 64%).

Discussion
Participant information leaflets scored poorly on ease of readability and had more content relating to adverse effects than any potential beneficial effects. The way in which adverse events were presented was heterogeneous in terms of their likelihood and severity and the amount and level of detail provided. By comparison, potential benefits from the intervention and/or study were described less often, by shorter text, and only after information about harms.
A new protocol for absolute quantification of haemosporidian parasites in raptors and comparison with current assays
Authors: Huang Xi , Huang Di , Liang Yuge , Zhang Linlin , Yang Guocheng , Liu Boye , Peng Yangyang , Deng Wenhong , Dong Lu 
Published: July 2020

Abstract
Background
Accurate quantification of infection intensity is essential to estimate infection patterns of avian haemosporidian parasites in order to understand the evolution of host-parasite associations. Traditional microscopy is cost-effective but requires high-quality blood smears and considerable experience, while the widely used semi-quantitative qPCR methods are mostly employed with ideal, laboratory-based golden samples and standard curves, which may limit the comparison of parasitemia from different laboratories.

Methods
Here we present a digital droplet PCR (ddPCR) protocol for absolute quantification of avian haemosporidians in raptors. Novel primers were designed that target a conserved fragment of a rRNA region of the mitochondrial genome of the parasites. Sensitivity and repeatability were evaluated compared to qPCR and other assays.

Results
This ddPCR assay enables accurate quantification of haemosporidian parasites belonging to Plasmodium, Haemoproteus and Leucocytozoon with minimum infection quantities of 10−5 (i.e. one parasite copy in 105 host genomes) without the use of standard curves. Quantities assessed by ddPCR were more accurate than qPCR using the same primers through reduction of non-specific amplification in low-intensity samples. The ddPCR technique was more consistent among technical duplicates and reactions, especially when infection intensities were low, and this technique demonstrated equal sensitivity with high correspondence (R2 = 0.97) compared to the widely used qPCR assay. Both ddPCR and qPCR identified more positive samples than the standard nested PCR protocol for the cytb gene used for barcoding avian haemosporidians.

Conclusions
We developed a novel ddPCR assay enabling accurate quantification of avian haemosporidians without golden samples or standard curves. This assay can be used as a robust method for investigating infection patterns in different host-parasite assemblages and can facilitate the comparison of results from different laboratories.
Impact of 3D genome organization, guided by cohesin and CTCF looping, on sex-biased chromatin interactions and gene expression in mouse liver
Authors: Matthews Bryan J. , Waxman David J. 
Published: July 2020

AbstractSeveral thousand sex-differential distal enhancers have been identified in mouse liver; however, their links to sex-biased genes and the impact of any sex-differences in nuclear organization and chromatin interactions are unknown. To address these issues, we first characterized 1847 mouse liver genomic regions showing significant sex differential occupancy by cohesin and CTCF, two key 3D nuclear organizing factors. These sex-differential binding sites were primarily distal to sex-biased genes but rarely generated sex-differential TAD (topologically associating domain) or intra-TAD loop anchors, and were sometimes found in TADs without sex-biased genes. A substantial subset of sex-biased cohesin-non-CTCF binding sites, but not sex-biased cohesin-and-CTCF binding sites, overlapped sex-biased enhancers. Cohesin depletion reduced the expression of male-biased genes with distal, but not proximal, sex-biased enhancers by >10-fold, implicating cohesin in long-range enhancer interactions regulating sex-biased genes. Using circularized chromosome conformation capture-based sequencing (4C-seq), we showed that sex differences in distal sex-biased enhancer–promoter interactions are common. Intra-TAD loops with sex-independent cohesin-and-CTCF anchors conferred sex specificity to chromatin interactions indirectly, by insulating sex-biased enhancer–promoter contacts and by bringing sex-biased genes into closer proximity to sex-biased enhancers. Furthermore, sex-differential chromatin interactions involving sex-biased gene promoters, enhancers, and lncRNAs were associated with sex-biased binding of cohesin and/or CTCF. These studies elucidate how 3D genome organization impacts sex-biased gene expression in a non-reproductive tissue through both direct and indirect effects of cohesin and CTCF looping on distal enhancer interactions with sex-differentially expressed genes.
SARS-CoV-2 induced thrombocytopenia as an important biomarker significantly correlated with abnormal coagulation function, increased intravascular blood clot risk and mortality in COVID-19 patients
Authors: Bao Changqian , Tao Xiandong , Cui Wei , Yi Bin , Pan Tiewen , Young Ken H. , Qian Wenbin 
Published: July 2020

Abstract
Background
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a novel infectious viral disease, which lacks well-established diagnostic laboratory parameters that could be used to evaluate disease severity, thromboembolism or cardiovascular events and to predict clinical prognosis. Coagulation cascade and platelet functions have not been well studied in the COVID-19 patients.

Methods
A total of 178 patients enrolled in Wuhan Huoshenshan Hospital were included for the study. Blood platelets and coagulation functions were analyzed in COVID-19 patients with non-severe and severe subgroups. Other biochemical laboratory parameters were also analyzed.

Results
Forty-nine (27.5%) out of 178 patients were diagnosed with severe disease in this study, and 129 patients with non-severe disease. Severe disease group had significant lower platelet count 186.00 (103.50–249.00) ×109/L than 251.00 (202.00–317.00) ×109/L of non-severe group, p = 0.000. Severe group also had significantly abnormal coagulation parameters than non-severe group: prothrombin time (PT) 14.55 (13.40–16.53) s vs. 12.70 (12.15–13.59) s, p = 0.000; international normalized ratio (INR) 1.21 (1.13–1.36) vs. 1.06 (1.01–1.13), p = 0.000; thrombin time (TT) 16.35 (15.69–17.47) s vs. 15.68 (14.79–16.69) s, p = 0.011; D-Dimer 1.05 (0.68–5.90) mg/L vs. 0.42 (0.28–0.79) mg/L, p = 0.000; While the liver function parameter alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) didn’t show significance between two groups, ALT 30.80 (19.00–58.30) IU/L vs. 28.80 (15.75–50.15) IU/L, p = 0.487; AST 27.80 (19.30–40.55) IU/L vs. 22.6 (16.7–32.03) IU/L, p = 0.102. Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) rate was 6.1% in severe group while 0% in non-severe group. Survival rate of severe disease group was worse than non-severe group, 85.7% vs. 100%, p = 0.000. Thrombocytopenia correlated with coagulation function, DIC rate and survival. Six out of 7 death case had thrombocytopenia during hospitalization, and platelet count decreased subsequently until death. Thrombocytopenia occurred within 1 week after admission in 6 recovered patients. And increased platelet levels followed by positive SARS-CoV-2 IgM/IgG and negative coronavirus nucleic acid tested in 8 recovered patients.

Conclusions
Low platelet count is associated with abnormal coagulation function and increased risk of DIC, severe disease manifestation and increased mortality in patients with COVID-19.
Global activation of oncogenic pathways underlies therapy resistance in diffuse midline glioma
Authors: Georgescu M.-M. , Islam M. Z. , Li Y. , Circu M. L. , Traylor J. , Notarianni C. M. , Kline C. N. , Burns D. K. 
Published: July 2020

AbstractDiffuse midline gliomas (DMGs) are aggressive pediatric brain tumors with dismal prognosis due to therapy-resistant tumor growth and invasion. We performed the first integrated histologic/genomic/proteomic analysis of 21 foci from three pontine DMG cases with supratentorial dissemination. Histone H3.3-K27M was the driver mutation, usually at high variant allele fraction due to recurrent chromosome 1q copy number gain, in combination with germline variants inATM, FANCMandMYCNgenes. Both previously reported and novel recurrent copy number variations and somatic pathogenic mutations in chromatin remodeling, DNA damage response and PI3K/MAPK growth pathways were variably detected, either in multiple or isolated foci. Proteomic analysis showed global upregulation of histone H3, lack of H3-K27 trimethylation, and further impairment of polycomb repressive complex 2 by ASXL1 downregulation. Activation of oncogenic pathways resulted from combined upregulation of N-MYC, SOX2, p65/p50 NF-κB and STAT3 transcription factors, EGFR, FGFR2, PDGFRα/β receptor tyrosine kinases, and downregulation of PHLPP1/2, PTEN and p16/INK4A tumor suppressors. Upregulation of SMAD4, PAI-1, CD44, and c-SRC in multiple foci most likely contributed to invasiveness. This integrated comprehensive analysis revealed a complex spatiotemporal evolution in diffuse intrisic pontine glioma, recommending pontine and cerebellar biopsies for accurate populational genetic characterization, and delineated common signaling pathways and potential therapeutic targets. It also revealed an unsuspected activation of a multitude of oncogenic pathways, including cancer cell reprogramming, explaining the resistance of DMG to current therapies.
Effect of oxygenation modalities among patients with postoperative respiratory failure: a pairwise and network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
Authors: Zayed Yazan , Kheiri Babikir , Barbarawi Mahmoud , Rashdan Laith , Gakhal Inderdeep , Ismail Esra’a , Kerbage Josiane , Rizk Fatima , Shafi Saadia , Bala Areeg , Sidahmed Shima , Bachuwa Ghassan , Seedahmed Elfateh 
Published: July 2020

AbstractBackgroundPostoperative respiratory failure is associated with increased perioperative complications. Our aim is to compare outcomes between non-invasive ventilation (NIV), high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC), and standard oxygen in patients at high-risk for or with established postoperative respiratory failure.MethodsElectronic databases including PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library were reviewed from inception to September 2019. We included only randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that compared NIV, HFNC, and standard oxygen in patients at high risk for or with established postoperative respiratory failure. We performed a Bayesian network meta-analysis to calculate the odds ratio (OR) and Bayesian 95% credible intervals (CrIs).ResultsNine RCTs representing 1865 patients were included (the mean age was 61.6 ± 10.2 and 64.4% were males). In comparison with standard oxygen, NIV was associated with a significant reduction in intubation rate (OR 0.23; 95% Cr.I. 0.10–0.46), mortality (OR 0.45; 95% Cr.I. 0.27–0.71), and intensive care unit (ICU)-acquired infections (OR 0.43, 95% Cr.I. 0.25–0.70). Compared to standard oxygen, HFNC was associated with a significant reduction in intubation rate (OR 0.28, 95% Cr.I. 0.08–0.76) and ICU-acquired infections (OR 0.41; 95% Cr.I. 0.20–0.80), but not mortality (OR 0.58; 95% Cr.I. 0.26–1.22). There were no significant differences between HFNC and NIV regarding different outcomes. In a subgroup analysis, we observed a mortality benefit with NIV over standard oxygen in patients undergoing cardiothoracic surgeries but not in abdominal surgeries. Furthermore, in comparison with standard oxygen, NIV and HFNC were associated with lower intubation rates following cardiothoracic surgeries while only NIV reduced the intubation rates following abdominal surgeries.ConclusionsAmong patients with post-operative respiratory failure, HFNC and NIV were associated with significantly reduced rates of intubation and ICU-acquired infections compared with standard oxygen. Moreover, NIV was associated with reduced mortality in comparison with standard oxygen.
The Influence, Barriers to and Facilitators of Anterior Cruciate Ligament Rehabilitation Adherence and Participation: a Scoping Review
Authors: Walker Adam , Hing Wayne , Lorimer Anna 
Published: July 2020

AbstractBackgroundOutcomes following anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction are considered poor. There are many factors which may influence patient outcomes. As such, the purpose of this review was to report on the influence, barriers to and facilitators of rehabilitation adherence and participation after ACL reconstruction, providing information to help clinicians and patients make quality decisions to facilitate successful rehabilitation.MethodsA systematic search of five electronic databases was undertaken in identifying studies from inception to 18 July 2019. The search included English language articles reporting on the influence, barriers to and facilitators of adherence and participation in rehabilitation of patients who have undergone ACL reconstruction. Data extraction and synthesis of included studies were undertaken.ResultsFull text articles (n= 180) were assessed for eligibility following screening of titles and abstracts (n= 1967), yielding 71 studies for inclusion. Forty-four articles investigated ‘rehabilitation prescription and participation’ and 36 articles investigated ‘rehabilitation barriers and facilitators’. The results indicate that a moderately or minimally supervised rehabilitation program is at least as effective as a fully supervised high-frequency rehabilitation program, although a longer duration of supervised rehabilitation is associated with improvement in a multitude of functional outcomes. A number of psychological factors associated with rehabilitation adherence were also identified. The most commonly investigated concepts were self-motivation, athletic identity and social support. Patients perceived the therapeutic relationship, interaction with family and friends, self-motivation, fear of reinjury, organisation/lack of time and interpersonal comparison as the most common barriers to and facilitators of rehabilitation.ConclusionsA longer duration of supervised rehabilitation is associated with an increased chance of meeting functional and return to sport criteria; however, the optimal supervised rehabilitation frequency is yet to be determined. Identification of the barriers to and facilitators of adherence and participation in ACL rehabilitation provides an opportunity for further research to be conducted to address personal, environmental and treatment-related factors, with the aim to improve rehabilitation outcomes.
Supporting knowledge monitoring ability: open learner modeling vs. open social learner modeling
Authors: Somyürek Sibel , Brusilovsky Peter , Guerra Julio 
Published: July 2020

AbstractResearch has demonstrated that people generally think both their knowledge and performance levels are greater than they are. Although several studies have suggested that knowledge and progress visualization offered by open learner modeling (OLM) technology might influence students’ self-awareness in a positive way, insufficient evidence exists to show that this is the case. This paper examines the effects of open learner modeling and its extension with social comparison features, known as open social learner modeling (OSLM), on students’ knowledge monitoring abilities. We report the results of two semester-long classroom studies, using subjects who were undergraduate and graduate students in Java Programming and Database Management courses at the University of Pittsburgh. During their studies, the students were able to use different versions of an online practice system equipped with both OLM and OSLM. The students’ knowledge monitoring abilities were examined in two ways: through absolute and relative assessments. According to the results, although in both OLM and OSLM groups the students’ absolute knowledge monitoring ability increased during the semester-long study, relative self-assessment ability (i.e., their ability to compare their own knowledge levels with the knowledge levels of their peers) only increased in the OSLM group. The authors also traced relationships between the students’ academic achievement and their absolute and relative knowledge monitoring abilities.
Reading Agamben from Algiers
Authors: Ghabrial Sarah 
Published: July 2020

Abstract
This essay addresses the question of how colonial histories might be “written back” into genealogies of exception. Its central premise is that exception insinuates itself into and finally supplants the norm from margins (symbolic, racial, and cartographic) to centers, and so this path and its archival traces must be charted in this direction. In the first half of this essay, this question is directed through discussion of Giorgio Agamben's work on exception. The second half proposes colonial legal history, and more specifically the French-colonial period in Algeria, as terrain in which these questions could be fruitfully pursued. This discussion is primarily based on the example of the so-called Native Repressive Tribunals (1902–31), institutions of exception designed specifically for the swift trial and easy detention of Algerian Muslims. I argue that the creation of the TRIs is particularly emblematic of the racial logics through which exception is normalized and its lifespan extended in perpetuity.
Introduction
Authors: Kingsley Jeremy J. 
Published: July 2020

AbstractLex mercatoria (the law of merchants) has a mythical legal status, which, whether true or not, influences legal thinking to this day. It harks back to a time of Venetian traders and a complex amalgam of European principalities that, it was believed, required merchants to establish their own private “law”’ to facilitate commerce that applied within and beyond borders. In recent years, legal scholars and practitioners are reimagining lex mercatoria in order to facilitate globalization. This special section will consider how these discussions and activities are transforming the nature of the “translocal” (places where the global is made local). We want to understand how these political, economic, social, and technological transformations have affected and continue to affect traders, corporations, and lawyers engaged in transnational, and transsystemic, legal interactions. The special section will examine these issues primarily from historical perspectives, but this essay will also interrogate the contemporary status and reimagined notion of this idea.
Back to the FutureQasbah
Authors: Robb Megan Eaton 
Published: July 2020

AbstractSocial and cultural historians of South Asia have long called for additional research into the qasbah, or Islamic small town. This essay offers evidence that Bijnor qasbah, through the newspaper Madinah, hosted alternate geographies and temporalities to construct authentic protest to national trends in early twentieth-century British India. Affirming arguments that the qasbah derived significance from opposition to the large city, this essay adds nuance to existing scholarship by arguing that it was in a period of diminished distance between qasbah and city that statements of the character of alterity became more significant. Through discursive analysis of the expansion of the telegraph and railway into Bijnor qasbah, alongside newspaper conversations and state documents, this essay suggests that the timescape of Bijnor was characterized by a sewing together of past, present, and future rather than only a reverence for an idealized past. The alterity of this timescape was tied to differences in local infrastructure and institutional power, enabling distinctive social and political statements in qasbahs, that in turn could empower distinctive political, religious, and social movements. This timescape enabled one qasbah, Bijnor, to establish a claim to a future alternative to the national in South Asia through its engagement in an Urdu print public, a multivalenced literary and social space clustered around communications in the language of Urdu.