bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Clinical and molecular characterization of adult patients with late‐onset MTHFR deficiency
Authors: Marelli Cecilia , Lavigne Christian , Stepien Karolina M. , Janssen Mirian C. H. , Feillet Francois , Kožich Viktor , Jesina Pavel , Schule Rebecca , Kessler Christoph , Redonnet‐Vernhet Isabelle , Regnier Adeline , Burda Patricie , Baumgartner Matthias , Benoist Jean‐Francois , Huemer Martina , Mochel Fanny ,   the E‐HOD Consortium
Published: October 2020

Abstract5,10‐Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) deficiency usually presents as a severe neonatal disease. This study aimed to characterize natural history, biological and molecular data, and response to treatment of patients with late‐onset MTHFR deficiency. The patients were identified through the European Network and Registry for Homocystinuria and Methylation Defects and the Adult group of the French Society for Inherited Metabolic Diseases; data were retrospectively colleted. To identify juvenile to adult‐onset forms of the disease, we included patients with a diagnosis established after the age of 10 years. We included 14 patients (median age at diagnosis: 32 years; range: 11‐54). At onset (median age: 20 years; range 9‐38), they presented with walking difficulties (n = 8), cognitive decline (n = 3) and/or seizures (n = 3), sometimes associated with mild mental retardation (n = 6). During the disease course, symptoms were almost exclusively neurological with cognitive dysfunction (93%), gait disorders (86%), epilepsy (71%), psychiatric symptoms (57%), polyneuropathy (43%), and visual deficit (43%). Mean diagnostic delay was 14 years. Vascular events were observed in 28% and obesity in 36% of the patients. One patient remained asymptomatic at the age of 55 years. Upon treatment, median total homocysteine decreased (from 183 μmol/L, range 69‐266, to 90 μmol/L, range 20‐142) and symptoms improved (n = 9) or stabilized (n = 4). Missense pathogenic variants in the C‐terminal regulatory domain of the protein were over‐represented compared to early‐onset cases. Residual MTHFR enzymatic activity in skin fibroblasts (n = 4) was rather high (17%‐58%). This series of patients with late‐onset MTHFR deficiency underlines the still unmet need of a prompt diagnosis of this treatable disease.
The functional morphology of lingual prey capture in a scincid lizard, Tiliqua scincoides (Reptilia: Squamata)
Authors: Hewes Amanda E. , Schwenk Kurt 
Published: October 2020

AbstractWe investigated the functional morphology of lingual prey capture in the blue‐tongued skink, Tiliqua scincoides, a lingual‐feeding lizard nested deep within the family Scincidae, which is presumed to be dominated by jaw‐feeding. We used kinematic analysis of high‐speed video to characterize jaw and tongue movements during prey capture. Phylogenetically informed principal components analysis of tongue morphology showed that, compared to jaw‐feeding scincids and lacertids, T. scincoides and another tongue‐feeding scincid, Corucia zebrata, are distinct in ways suggesting an enhanced ability for hydrostatic shape change. Lingual feeding kinematics show substantial quantitative and qualitative variation among T. scincoides individuals. High‐speed video analysis showed that T. scincoides uses significant hydrostatic elongation and deformation during protrusion, tongue‐prey contact, and retraction. A key feature of lingual prey capture in T. scincoides is extensive hydrostatic deformation to increase the area of tongue‐prey contact, presumably to maximize wet adhesion of the prey item. Adhesion is mechanically reinforced during tongue retraction through formation of a distinctive “saddle” in the foretongue that supports the prey item, reducing the risk of prey loss during retraction.
Dengue RNA detection and seroprevalence in blood donors during an outbreak in the São Paulo State, Brazil, 2016
Authors: Slavov Svetoslav N. , Santos Elaine V. , Hespanhol Marta R. , Rodrigues Evandra S. , Haddad Rodrigo , Ubiali Eugênia M. A. , Covas Dimas T. , Kashima Simone 
Published: October 2020

AbstractMost dengue virus (DENV) infections remain asymptomatic. This increases the risk of DENV transfusion transmission (TT‐DENV) during outbreaks. We evaluated DENV viremia in 8475 blood donations assembled in minipools for the presence of DENV RNA. The tested samples were obtained between February and May, 2016, during a large DENV outbreak in Ribeirão Preto city, northeast region of the São Paulo State, Brazil. The DENV RNA + samples were serotyped and screened for DENV NS1. We also tested a significant number of plasma samples (n = 372) to estimate the DENV seroprevalence among blood donors in the region. We detected three DENV RNA + samples in the tested blood donations (n = 3/8475, 0.04%). From these, two samples were further serotyped as DENV‐1 and one sample as DENV‐2. All DENV RNA positive samples were negative for anti‐DENV IgG, indicating the presence of primary acute infection. Moreover, two of the DENV RNA + samples were also NS1 antigen positive (antigenemia). The anti‐DENV IgG seroprevalence among blood donor population was 50.8% (n = 189/372). Our results are in accordance with the presence of DENV primary infection in blood donors which can lead to transfusion transmission of the infection to recipients. Measures to exclude such donors should be adopted to prevent TT‐DENV.
Statistical associations of teleconnection indices and space weather with spring weather pattern in the Eastern Baltic region
Authors: Vencloviene Jone , Kaciene Giedre , Kiznys Deivydas , Juknys Romualdas 
Published: October 2020

AbstractThe studies of associations between solar inputs and climate are mostly designed for winter or cold period; whereas the knowledge about these associations during spring on a day‐to‐day time scale are very scarce. Therefore, the aim of this study is to detect the response of spring air temperature (T), relative humidity (RH), and atmospheric pressure (ATP) to variation in teleconnection indices and space weather variables on the day‐to‐day timescale during the period of 1998–2017 in six cities of Eastern part of the Baltic region. We created a multivariate linear regression model for weather variables including month, the linear and seasonal trend, different teleconnection patterns, El Niño–Southern Oscillation, the Quasi‐biennial Oscillation phase, the presence of Sudden Stratospheric Warming (SSW) and space weather variables. The multivariate models for the mean daily weather variables showed a positive association between T and the daily Arctic oscillation, monthly Scandinavian pattern (SCA) indices, solar proton events (SPEs) with a lag of 1–9 days, and solar wind dynamic pressure (P) with a lag of 1–2 days and negative association between T and East Atlantic/West Russia (EA/WR) index. The mean RH positively correlated with a long‐term and short‐term variation in galactic cosmic rays (GCR) and solar wind speed (SWS) with a lag of 0–6 days and negatively correlated with EAWR and NINO3.4 indices. The mean ATP was negatively associated with both long‐term and short‐term changes in GCR and positively associated with the North Atlantic oscillation, EA/WR and SCA indices, By component of interplanetary magnetic field with a lag of 2 days, P, days of Stream Interaction Regions (SIRs) and SWS with a lag of 4–6 days. These results show the significant short‐term effects of SSW, SPEs, SIRs and solar wind variables on spring weather pattern in the Eastern part of the Baltic region.
How do Mainland Chinese tourists perceive Hong Kong in turbulence? A deep learning approach to sentiment analytics
Authors: Hao Jin‐Xing , Wang Rui , Law Rob , Yu Yan 
Published: October 2020

AbstractDeep learning has garnered increasing attention in many research fields. However, prior research seldom focused on tourists' perception prediction and prescription towards tourism destinations in turbulence. This study attempts to fill the gap by investigating Mainland Chinese tourists' perception of a turbulent Hong Kong society through deep learning‐based sentiment analytics. This incorporates a convolutional neural network (CNN) model for sentiment prediction and feature frequency analysis for sentiment prescription for 52,950 Chinese travel microblogs about Hong Kong. Results show that the CNN‐based deep learning approach can obtain improved sentiment predictive performance with minimal domain knowledge and human effort. The trend of Mainland Chinese tourists' (MCTs') sentiments about Hong Kong and the unique sentiment features revealed by our approach can provide practitioners with new insights into design customised tourism marketing and development strategies. The MCTs' shared mentalities emerged from sentiment features may help to enhance our theoretical knowledge about tourists' perception in turbulent tourism markets.
Evaluation of predictive value of olfactory dysfunction, as a screening tool for COVID‐19
Authors: Romero‐Gameros Carlos Alfonso , Waizel‐Haiat Salomón , Mendoza‐Zubieta Victoria , Anaya‐Dyck Alfredo , López‐Moreno Mayra Alejandra , Colin‐Martinez Tania , Martínez‐Ordaz José Luis , Ferat‐Osorio Eduardo , Vivar‐Acevedo Eulalio , Vargas‐Ortega Guadalupe , Wacher Rodarte Niels H. , González‐Virla Baldomero 
Published: October 2020

AbstractObjectivesAt the end of 2019, SARS‐CoV‐2 was identified, the one responsible for the COVID‐19 disease. Between a 5.1% and a 98% of COVID‐19 patients present some form of alteration in their sense of smell. The objective of this study is to determine the diagnostic yield of the smell dysfunction as screening tool for COVID‐19.MethodsCross‐sectional, observational, and pro‐elective study was performed in a tertiary care hospital from May 25th to June 30th, 2020. One hundred and thirty‐nine patients were included in the study. Demographic characteristics were collected from anamnesis. A Self‐Perception Questionnaire and psychophysical olfactory test (POT) were applied to all participants. The presence of SARS‐CoV2, was detected by RT‐PCR methods.Results51.7% of patients were SARS‐CoV‐2 positive. A sensitivity of 50% was obtained for the self‐perception questionnaire as a screening tool for SARS‐CoV2, with a specificity of 80.59%. The positive predictive value (PPV) was of 73.46%, the negative predictive value (NPV) was of 60%. The POT as a screening tool had a PPV of 82.35%, a NPV of 52.45%, a LR+ of 4.34, a LR‐ 0.84. The combination of anosmia (according to the POT) plus cough and asthenia got an OR of 8.25 for the SARS CoV‐2 infection.ConclusionThere is a strong association between olfactory dysfunction and COVID‐19. However, it is not really efficient in the screening of SARS‐CoV‐2 infection and thus, they should not be considered as a single diagnostic instrument.Level of Evidence4.
Inkjet Printing of Liquid Silicon
Authors: Masuda Takashi , Nakayama Maui , Saito Kimihiko , Katayama Hirotaka , Terakawa Akira 
Published: October 2020

AbstractA precursor solution for semiconducting Si called liquid Si (liq‐Si) is synthesized, and semiconducting Si is inkjet‐printed. Satisfactory inkjet discharge is achieved using liq‐Si consisting of liquid‐phase polysilane with an average molecular weight of 2500 g mol−1. The printed liq‐Si is converted into amorphous Si by heating at 400 °C. The resulting Si film has a flat surface with a root‐mean‐square roughness of 0.8 nm. These results are extended to n‐ and p‐type Si films by synthesizing liq‐Si chemically doped with P and B compounds, respectively. Liq‐Si inkjet printing produces Si patterns without using traditional photolithography processes, opening up the field of printed Si electronics.
High‐Performance Ternary Polymer Solar Cells Enabled by a New Narrow Bandgap Nonfullerene Small Molecule Acceptor with a Higher LUMO Level
Authors: Su Dan , Li Kun , Liu Wanru , Zhang Weichao , Li Xiaofang , Wu Yishi , Shen Fugang , Huo Shuying , Fu Hongbing , Zhan Chuanlang 
Published: October 2020

AbstractObtaining a large open‐circuit voltage (VOC) and high short‐circuit current density (JSC) simultaneously is important in improving power conversion efficiency (PCE) of organic photovoltaics. The ternary strategy with using a higher lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) level nonfullerene acceptor (NFA) guest can achieve increased VOC, yet JSC is decreased or maintained, so it's still a challenge to offer increased VOC and JSC values concurrently via the newly presented VOC‐increased ternary strategy. To overcome this issue, a new narrow bandgap NFA TT‐S‐4F is reported by introducing 3,6‐dimethoxylthieno[3,2‐b]thiophene (TT) as π‐spacers to connect electron‐rich core with terminal groups, so as to upshift the LUMO level and extend π‐system. When adding 10% TT‐S‐4F into binary system based on PTB7‐Th:IEICO‐4F, the higher‐LUMO‐level of TT‐S‐4F, the increased charge mobilities, the reduced trap‐assisted combination loss, and a finer nanofiber structure and increased phase separation size are obtained, which simultaneously promotes JSC, VOC, and fill factor (FF), thus obtaining an optimal PCE (12.5% vs 11.5%). This work illustrates that an extending conjugated backbone with large π‐spacers and inclusion of alkylthiophenyl side‐chains is a concept to synthesize NFA guests for use on the VOC‐increased ternary strategy that enables to realize simultaneously increased JSC, VOC, and FF.
Mechanochromic LLDPE Films Doped with NIR Reflective Paliogen Black
Authors: Micheletti Cosimo , Minei Pierpaolo , Carlotti Marco , Mattoli Virgilio , Muniz‐Miranda Francesco , Perfetto Anna , Ciofini Ilaria , Adamo Carlo , Ruggeri Giacomo , Pucci Andrea 
Published: October 2020

AbstractThe perylene bisimide derivative Paliogen Black (P‐black) is proposed as a new chromogenic probe that shows visible (vis) and near‐infrared (NIR) responses after mechanical solicitations of host linear low‐density polyethylene (LLDPE) films. P‐black is reported to display strong absorption in the vis spectrum and unusual reflective and cooling features in the NIR region. Uniaxial deformation of the 2.5, 5, and 10 wt% P‐black/LLDPE films yields a dichroic absorption under polarized light with color variations attributed by the computational analysis to the distinct anisotropic behavior of the transition dipole moments of P‐black chromophores. When LLDPE films are deformed, P‐black aggregates reduce their size from ≈30–40 µm to ≈5–10 µm that, in turn, causes reflectivity losses of about 30–40% at the maximum elongation. This gives rise to warming of 5–6 °C of the locally oriented film placed in contact with a black substrate under the illumination with an IR lamp for 5 s. These features combined with the high sensitivity of the vis‐NIR response toward mechanical solicitations render P‐black as a new solution to detect uniaxial deformations of plastic films through both optical and thermal outputs.
Transparent Conductive Supramolecular Hydrogels with Stimuli‐Responsive Properties for On‐Demand Dissolvable Diabetic Foot Wound Dressings
Authors: Zhao Yue , Li Zuhao , Li Qiuju , Yang Longfei , Liu Hou , Yan Ruyue , Xiao Lizhi , Liu He , Wang Jingcheng , Yang Bai , Lin Quan 
Published: October 2020

AbstractDiabetic foot ulcers (DFU) remain a very considerable health care burden, and their treatment is difficult. Hydrogel‐based wound dressings are appealing to provide an optimal environment for wound repair. However, the currently available hydrogel dressings still need surgical or mechanical debridement from the wound, causing reinjury of the newly formed tissues, wound infection, delayed healing time, and personal suffering. Additionally, to meet people's increasing demand, hydrogel wound dressings with improved performance and multifunctionality are urgently required. Here, a new multifunctional supramolecular hydrogel for on‐demand dissolvable diabetic foot wound dressings is designed and constructed. Based on multihydrogen bonds between hydrophilic polymers, the resultant supramolecular hydrogels present controlled and excellent properties, such as good transparency, antibacterial ability, conductive, and self‐healing properties. Thus, the supramolecular hydrogels improve the new tissue formation and provide a significant therapeutic effect on DFU by inducing angiogenesis, enhancing collagen deposition, preventing bacterial infection, and controlling wound infection. Remarkably, the resultant hydrogels also exhibit stimuli‐responsive ability, which renders its capability to be dissolved on‐demand, allowing for a facile DFU dressing removal. This multifunctional supramolecular hydrogel may provide a novel concept in the design of on‐demand dissolvable wound dressings.
A comparative study on silicon nitride, titanium and polyether ether ketone on mouse pre‐osteoblast cells
Authors: Ahuja Neelam , Awad Kamal R. , Brotto Marco , Aswath Pranesh B , Varanasi Venu 
Published: October 2020

AbstractThe current study provides more insights about the surface bioactivity of the silicon nitride (Si3N4) as a potential candidate for bone regeneration in craniofacial and orthopaedic applications compared with conventional implantation materials. Current skeletal reconstructive materials such as titanium and polyether ether ketone (PEEK) are limited by poor long‐term stability, biocompatibility and prolonged healing. Si3N4 is an FDA‐approved material for an intervertebral spacer in spinal fusion applications. It is biocompatible and has antimicrobial properties. Here, we hypothesize that Si3N4 was found to be an osteoconductive material and conducts the growth, differentiation of MC3T3‐E1 cells for extracellular matrix deposition, mineralization and eventual bone regeneration for craniofacial and orthopaedic applications. MC3T3‐E1 cells were used to study the osteoblastic differentiation and mineralization on sterile samples of Si3N4, titanium alloy and PEEK. The samples were then analysed for extracellular matrix deposition and mineralization by FTIR, Raman spectroscopy, SEM, EDX, Alizarin Red, qRT‐PCR and ELISA. The in vitro study indicates the formation of collagen fibres and mineral deposition on all three sample surfaces. There was more profound and faster ECM deposition and mineralization on Si3N4 surface as compared to titanium and PEEK. The FTIR and Raman spectroscopy show formation of collagen and mineral deposition at 30 days for Si3N4 and titanium and not PEEK. The peaks shown by Raman for Si3N4 resemble closely to natural bone. Results also indicate the upregulation of osteogenic transcription factors such as RUNX2, SP7, collagen type I and osteocalcin. The authors concluded that Si3N4 rapidly conducts mineralized tissue formation via extracellular matrix deposition and biomarker expression in mouse calvarial pre‐osteoblast cells. Thus, this study confirms that the bioactive Si3N4 could be a potential material for craniofacial and orthopaedic applications leading to rapid bone regeneration that resemble the natural bone structure.
Extremely low‐profile wideband array antenna using TCDA with polarization convertor
Authors: Kim Seongjung , Nam Sangwook 
Published: October 2020

AbstractHerein, an extremely low‐profile and wideband array antenna is proposed whose height is 0.03 λlow at the lowest operating frequency. The development of the proposed array antenna is described, and its performance is compared with those of conventional patch arrays, stacked patch arrays, planar ultrawideband modular antenna arrays, and tightly coupled dipole arrays (TCDAs). Furthermore, the impedance bandwidth is 98.2% at broadside radiation, and the overlapped bandwidth when scanning up to 30° is 95.9%. This high figure of merit is obtained by introducing a polarization convertor. Finally, the measured active VSWR and array gain of the fabricated 6 × 6 array antenna are discussed. The measured result is in good agreement with the simulated result.
Thyroid nodules risk stratification through deep learning based on ultrasound images
Authors: Bai Ziyu , Chang Luchen , Yu Ruiguo , Li Xuewei , Wei Xi , Yu Mei , Liu Zhiqiang , Gao Jie , Zhu Jialin , Zhang Yulin , Wang Shuaijie , Zhang Zhuo 
Published: October 2020

PurposeClinically, the risk stratification of thyroid nodules is usually used to formulate the next treatment plan. The American College of Radiology (ACR) thyroid imaging reporting and data system (TI‐RADS) is a type of medical standard widely used in classification diagnosis. It divides the nodule’s ACR TI‐RADS level into five levels by quantitative scoring, from benign to high suspicion of malignancy. However, such assessment often relies on the radiologists’ experience and is time consuming. So computer‐aided diagnosis is necessary. But many deep learning (DL) models are difficult for doctors to understand, limiting their applicability in clinical practice. In this work, we mainly focus on how to achieve automatic thyroid nodules risk stratification based on deep integration of deep learning and clinical experience.MethodsAn automatic hierarchical method of thyroid nodules risk based on deep learning is proposed, called risk stratification network (RS‐Net). It incorporates medical experience based on ACR TI‐RADS. The convolutional neural network (CNN) is used to classify the five categories in ACR TI‐RADS and assign their points respectively. According to the point totals, the level of risk can be obtained. In addition, a dataset involving 13 984 thyroid ultrasound images is established to develop and evaluate the proposed method.ResultsWe have extensively compared the results of this paper with the evaluation results of sonographers. The accuracy of the risk stratification (TR1 to TR5) of the proposed method is 65%, and the mean absolute error (MAE) is 0.54. The MAE of the point totals (0 to 13 points) is 1.67. The Pearson's correlation between our method evaluation and doctor evaluation reached 0.84. For the benign and malignant classification, the performance indices accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV were 88.0%, 98.1%, 79.1%, 80.5%, and 97.9%, respectively. Our method's level of thyroid nodules risk stratification is comparable to that of a senior doctor.ConclusionsThis work provides a way to automate the risk stratification of thyroid nodules. Our method can effectively avoid missed diagnosis and misdiagnosis caused by the difference of observers so as to assist doctors to improve efficiency and diagnosis rate. Compared with the previous benign and malignant classification, the proposed method incorporates clinical experience. So it can greatly increase the clinicians’ trust in the DL model, thereby improving the applicability of the model in clinical practice.
Event‐triggered distributed algorithm for searching general Nash equilibrium with general step‐size
Authors: Li Ran , Mu Xiaowu 
Published: October 2020

SummaryIn this article, searching the general Nash equilibrium in the noncooperation game is discussed under the general constraints of containing bounded constraint, coupled equality constraint, and private inequality constraint. Meanwhile, the continuous‐time event‐triggered distributed subgradient projective algorithm (C‐ETDSP algorithm), to greatly cut down the number of communication flows, is designed. In the C‐ETDSP algorithm, the demand for step‐size is weakened to a general step‐size of square nonsummable. Then it is proved that the Zeno behavior did not exist in the continuous‐time event‐triggered mechanism. In addition, the convergence of different types of step‐sizes is further compared. Finally, the effectiveness of the design algorithm and the correctness of the theoretical results are verified by a simulation example.