bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
COVID-19 Disease Severity and Associated Factors among Ethiopian Patients: A study of the Millennium COVID-19 Care Center
Authors: Leulseged Tigist W. , Abebe Kindalem G. , Hassen Ishmael S. , Maru Endalkachew H. , Zewde Wuletaw C. , Chamiso Negat W. , Yegele Kalkidan T. , Bayisa Abdi B. , siyoum Dagne F. , Edo Mesay G. , Mesfin Edmialem G. , Derejie Meskerem N. , Shiferaw Helina K. 
Published: October 2020

AbstractBackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic started a little later in Ethiopia than Europe and most of the initial cases were reported to have a milder disease course and a favorable outcome. This changed as the disease spread into the population and the more vulnerable began to develop severe disease. Understanding the risk factors for severe disease in Ethiopia was needed to provide optimal health care services in a resource limited setting.ObjectiveThe study assessed COVID-19 patients admitted to Millennium COVID-19 Care Center in Ethiopia for characteristics associated with COVID-19 disease severity.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted from June to August 2020 among 686 randomly selected 686 patients. Chi-square test was used to detect the presence of a statistically significant difference in the characteristics of the patients based on disease severity (Mild vs Moderate vs Severe). A multinomial logistic regression model was used to identify risk factors of COVID-19 disease severity where Adjusted Odds ratio (AOR), 95% CIs for AOR and P-values were used for significance testing.ResultsHaving moderate as compared with mild disease was significantly associated with having hypertension (AOR=2.30, 95%CI=1.27,4.18, p-value=0.006), diabetes mellitus (AOR=2.61, 95%CI=1.31,5.19, p-value=0.007 for diabetes mellitus), fever (AOR=6.12, 95%CI=2.94,12.72, p-value=0.0001) and headache (AOR=2.69, 95%CI=1.39,5.22, p-value=0.003). Similarly, having severe disease as compared with mild disease was associated with age group (AOR=4.43, 95%CI=2.49,7.85, p-value=0.0001 for 40-59 years and AOR=18.07, 95%CI=9.29,35.14, p-value=0.0001 for ≥ 60 years), sex (AOR=1.84, 95%CI=1.12,3.03, p-value=0.016), hypertension (AOR=1.97, 95%CI=1.08,3.59, p-value=0.028), diabetes mellitus (AOR=3.93, 95%CI=1.96,7.85, p-value=0.0001), fever (AOR=13.22, 95%CI=6.11, 28.60, p-value=0.0001) and headache (AOR=4.82, 95%CI=2.32, 9.98, p-value=0.0001). In addition, risk factors of severe disease as compared with moderate disease were found to be significantly associated with age group (AOR=4.87, 95%CI=2.85, 8.32, p-value=0.0001 for 40-59 years and AOR=18.91, 95%CI=9.84,36.33, p-value=0.0001 for ≥ 60 years), fever (AOR=2.16, 95%CI=1.29,3.63, p-value=0.004) and headache (AOR=1.79, 95%CI=1.03, 3.11, p-value=0.039).ConclusionsRisk factors associated with severe COVID-19 in Ethiopia are being greater than 60 years old, male, a diagnosis of hypertension, and diabetes mellitus, and the presence of fever and headache. This is consistent with severity indicators identified by WHO and suggests the initial finding of milder disease in Ethiopia may have been because the first people to get COVID-19 in Ethiopia were less than 60 years of age with fewer health problems.
Maternal health care services utilization in the amid of COVID-19 pandemic in West Shoa Zone, Central Ethiopia
Authors: Temesgen Kababa , Wakgari Negash , Tefera Bikila , Tafa Belay , Alemu Getu , Wandimu Fekadu , Gudisa Tolera , Gishile Tolosa , Daba Gurmessa , Abdissa Gizachew , Soboka Bikila 
Published: October 2020

AbstractThe novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. Despite strong efforts that have been taking place to control the pandemic globally, the virus is on the rise in many countries. Hence, this study assessed the maternal health care services utilization in the amid of the COVID-19 pandemic in West Shoa Zone, Central Ethiopia. Community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 844 pregnant women or those gave birth in the last 6 months before the study. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select the study participants. The data were collected through face-to-face interview using a semi-structured questionnaire. Logistic regressions were performed to identify the presence of significant associations, and adjusted odds ratio with 95%CI was employed for the strength and directions of association between the independent and outcome variables. A P-value of <0.05 was used to declare statistical significance. The prevalence of maternal health service utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic was 64.8%. The odds of maternal health service utilization was higher among mothers who had primary (AOR=2.16, 95%CI: 1.29-3.60), secondary (AOR=1.97, 95%CI: 1.13-3.44), and college and above education (AOR=2.89, 95%CI: 1.34-6.22) than those who could not read and write. In addition, mothers who did travel 25-74 km (AOR= 0.37, 95%CI: 0.23-0.59) and 75-99 km (AOR= 0.10, 95%CI: 0.05-0.19) to reach health facility had a lower odds of maternal health service utilization than those who did travel < 24 km. Moreover, mothers who earn 1000-2000 (AOR= 3.10, 95%CI: 1.73-5.55) and > 2000 birr (AOR=2.66 95%CI: 1.52-4.64) had higher odds of maternal health service utilization than those who earn <500 birr. Similarly, the odds of utilizing maternal health service were higher among mothers who did not fear COVID-19 infection (AOR= 2.79, 95%CI: 1.85-4.20), who had not had to request permission from husband to visit the health facility (AOR= 7.24, 95%CI: 2.65-19.75), who had practiced COVID-19 prevention measure (AOR=5.82, 95%CI: 3.87-8.75), and used face mask (AOR= 2.06, 95% CI: 1.28-3.31) than their counterpart. Empowering mothers and creating awareness on the COVID-19 prevention is recommended to improve maternal health service utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19 trends in Colombian regions with the highest disease burden
Authors: Chaparro Pablo , Zapata Helmer , Hurtado Isabel , Alzate Alberto , Lesmes Maria Cristina , Herrera Sócrates 
Published: October 2020

AbstractIntroductionCOVID-19 pandemic is currently the most significant global public health challenge, with more than 31 million cases reported to date. Colombia first reported COVID-19 cases in the country by early March 2020, and six months later it has reached ∼750,471 clinical cases, with significant regional differences in morbidity, mortality, and hospitalization rates.AimsIdentify population characteristics and hospital capacity in the 13 municipalities with the highest disease notification and examine differences in cumulative reported cases, hospitalization, and mortality rates that may explain the regional differences.Materials and methodsA multi-group ecological study was performed based on the information available from public databases. Notification of cases, hospitalization, and crude mortality and age-adjusted rates were calculated.ResultsThe municipalities with the highest COVID-1 burden at different times during the study period displayed significant differences in population density and the proportion of elderly inhabitants, indigenous and afro descendants minorities; indices of unsatisfied basic needs and multidimensional poverty index, as well as the number of hospital beds. Likewise, essential variations in notification rates, hospitalization, and mortality were observed. The highest age-adjusted of reported cases (4,219 cases) and mortality (230.4 cases) rates were found in Leticia, the lowest general hospitalization rates in Buenaventura (37.5 cases) and the lowest ICU hospitalization rates (0) in Leticia and Tumaco due to a lack of these units in these municipalities.ConclusionThe probability of getting sick, hospitalized, and dying from COVID-19 appeared closely related to socio-economic, ethnic, and cultural characteristics, and also to hospital bed capacity.
Strain inheritance and neonatal gut microbiota development: a meta-analysis
Authors: Podlesny Daniel , Fricke W. Florian 
Published: October 2020

ABSTRACTAs many inflammatory and metabolic disorders have been associated with structural deficits of the human gut microbiota, the principles and mechanisms that govern its initialization and development are of considerable scientific interest and clinical relevance. However, our current understanding of the developing gut microbiota dynamics remains incomplete. We carried out a large-scale, comprehensive meta-analysis of over 1900 available metagenomic shotgun samples from neonates, infants, adolescents, and their families, using our recently introduced SameStr program for strain-level microbiota profiling and the detection of microbial strain transfer and persistence. We found robust associations between gut microbiota composition and age, as well as delivery mode which was measurable for up to two years of life. C-section was associated with increased relative abundances of non-gut species and delayed transition from a predominantly oxygen-tolerant to intolerant microbial community. Unsupervised networks based on shared strain profiles generated family-specific clusters connecting infants, their siblings, parents and grandparents and, in one case, suggested strain transfer between neonates from the same hospital ward, but could also be used to identify potentially mislabeled metagenome samples. Following birth, larger quantities of strains were shared between vaginally born infants and their mothers compared to C-section infants, which further persisted throughout the first year of life and belonged to the same bacterial species as strains that were shared between adults and their parents. Irrespective of delivery type, older children shared strains with their mothers and fathers and, into adulthood, could be accurately distinguished from unrelated sample pairs. Prominent gut commensal bacteria were both among frequently transferred (e.g. Bacteroides and Sutterella) and newly acquired taxa (e.g. Blautia, Faecalibacterium, and Ruminococcus). Our meta-analysis presents a more detailed and comprehensive picture of the highly dynamic neonatal and infant gut microbiota development than previous studies and presents evidence for taxonomic and functional compositional differences early in life between infants born naturally or by C-section, which persist well into adolescence.
Unsupervised explainable AI for simultaneous molecular evolutionary study of forty thousand SARS-CoV-2 genomes
Authors: Ikemura Toshimichi , Wada Kennosuke , Wada Yoshiko , Iwasaki Yuki , Abe Takashi 
Published: October 2020

AbstractUnsupervised AI (artificial intelligence) can obtain novel knowledge from big data without particular models or prior knowledge and is highly desirable for unveiling hidden features in big data. SARS-CoV-2 poses a serious threat to public health and one important issue in characterizing this fast-evolving virus is to elucidate various aspects of their genome sequence changes. We previously established unsupervised AI, a BLSOM (batch-learning SOM), which can analyze five million genomic sequences simultaneously. The present study applied the BLSOM to the oligonucleotide compositions of forty thousand SARS-CoV-2 genomes. While only the oligonucleotide composition was given, the obtained clusters of genomes corresponded primarily to known main clades and internal divisions in the main clades. Since the BLSOM is explainable AI, it reveals which features of the oligonucleotide composition are responsible for clade clustering. The BLSOM has powerful image display capabilities and enables efficient knowledge discovery about viral evolutionary processes.
Deciphering the role ofLeptospirasurface protein LigA in modulating the host innate immune response
Authors: Kumar Ajay , Varma Vivek P. , Sridhar Kavela , Abdullah Mohd , Vyas Pallavi , Muhammed Ashiq T , Chang Yung-Fu , Faisal Syed M. 
Published: October 2020

AbstractLeptospira, a zoonotic pathogen, is known to infect various hosts and can establish persistent infection. This remarkable ability of bacteria is attributed to its potential to modulate the host immune response by exploiting its surface proteins. We have identified and characterized the domain of the variable region ofLeptospiraimmunoglobulin-like protein A (LAV) involved in immune modulation. The 11thdomain (A11) of the variable region of LigA (LAV) induces a strong TLR4 dependent innate response leading to subsequent induction of humoral and cellular immune responses in mice. A11is also involved in acquiring complement regulator FH and binds to host protease Plasminogen (PLG), there by mediating functional activity to escape from complement-mediated killing. The deletion of A11domain significantly impaired TLR4 signaling and subsequent reduction in the innate and adaptive immune response. It also inhibited the binding of FH and PLG thereby mediating killing of bacteria. Our study discovered an unprecedented role of LAV as a nuclease capable of degrading Neutrophil Extracellular Traps (NETs). This nuclease activity was primarily mediated by A11. These results highlighted the moonlighting function of LigA and demonstrated that a single domain of a surface protein is involved in evading a myriad of host innate immune defenses, which might allow the persistence ofLeptospirain different hosts for a long term without clearance.
Vulnerability of ARID1A deficient cancer cells to pyrimidine synthesis blockade
Authors: Li Zhigui , Mi Shijun , Osagie Oloruntoba I. , Ji Jing , Yang Chia-Ping H. , Schwartz Melissa , Hui Pei , Huang Gloria S. 
Published: October 2020

ABSTRACTHere we report the discovery and preclinical validation of a novel precision medicine strategy forARID1A-mutated cancer. Unbiased proteomics reveals for the first time that ARID1A protein (BAF250a) binds aspartate transcarbamoylase (ATCase), a key regulatory enzyme of thede novopyrimidine synthesis pathway. Using isogenic paired ARID1A proficient/deficient cancer cell lines, we show that ARID1A protein deficiency (as occurs inARID1Amutant cancers) leads to metabolic reprogramming and pyrimidine synthesis dependency. Pyrimidine synthesis blockade using the FDA-approved drug teriflunomide (a DHODH inhibitor) suppresses tumor growth and selectively induces DNA damage in ARID1A-deficient tumor models. Combining pyrimidine synthesis inhibition with DNA damage repair blockade, using teriflunomide and AZD6738 (an ATR inhibitor), achieves potent synergy and induces sustained tumor regression inARID1A-mutant ovarian cancer patient-derived xenografts (PDX). These compelling preclinical data support the evaluation of this novel combination treatment in patients withARID1A-mutated cancers.SIGNIFICANCEWe identified that ARID1A-deficient cells are selectively vulnerable to pyrimidine synthesis blockade. Preclinical studies demonstrate thein vivoefficacy of a synergistic drug combination that concurrently inhibits the de novo pyrimidine synthesis pathway and DNA damage repair to induce regression in patient-derived xenograft models of ARID1A-mutated cancer.
SARS-CoV-2 spike protein-mediated cell signaling in lung vascular cells
Authors: Suzuki Yuichiro J. , Nikolaienko Sofia I. , Dibrova Vyacheslav A. , Dibrova Yulia V. , Vasylyk Volodymyr M. , Novikov Mykhailo Y. , Shults Nataliia V. , Gychka Sergiy G. 
Published: October 2020

AbstractCurrently, the world is suffering from the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that uses angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) as a receptor to enter the host cells. So far, 30 million people have been infected with SARS-CoV-2, and nearly 1 million people have died because of COVID-19 worldwide, causing serious health, economical, and sociological problems. However, the mechanism of the effect of SARS-CoV-2 on human host cells has not been defined. The present study reports that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein alone without the rest of the viral components is sufficient to elicit cell signaling in lung vascular cells. The treatment of human pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells or human pulmonary artery endothelial cells with recombinant SARS-CoV-2 spike protein S1 subunit (Val16 – Gln690) at 10 ng/ml (0.13 nM) caused an activation of MEK phosphorylation. The activation kinetics was transient with a peak at 10 min. The recombinant protein that contains only the ACE2 receptor-binding domain of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein S1 subunit (Arg319 – Phe541), on the other hand, did not cause this activation. Consistent with the activation of cell growth signaling in lung vascular cells by SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, pulmonary vascular walls were found to be thickened in COVID-19 patients. Thus, SARS-CoV-2 spike protein-mediated cell growth signaling may participate in adverse cardiovascular/pulmonary outcomes, and this mechanism may provide new therapeutic targets to combat COVID-19.
Evidence integration and decision-confidence are modulated by stimulus consistency
Authors: Glickman Moshe , Moran Rani , Usher Marius 
Published: October 2020

AbstractEvidence-integration is a normative algorithm for choosing between alternatives with noisy evidence, which has been successful in accounting for a vast amount of behavioral and neural data. However, this mechanism has been challenged as tracking integration boundaries sub-serving choice has proven elusive. Here we first show that the decision boundary can be monitored using a novel, model-free behavioral method, termedDecision-Classification Boundary. This method allowed us to both provide direct support for evidence-integration contributions and to identify a novel integration-bias, whereby incoming evidence is modulated based on its consistency with evidence from preceding time-frames. This consistency bias was supported in three cross-domain experiments, involving decisions with perceptual and numerical evidence, which showed that choice-accuracy and decision confidence are modulated by stimulus consistency. Strikingly, despite its seeming sub-optimality, this bias fosters performance by enhancing robustness to integration noise. We argue this bias constitutes a new form of micro-level, within-trial, confirmation bias and discuss implications to broad aspects of decision making.
Replication intermediate architecture reveals the chronology of DNA damage tolerance pathways at UV-stalled replication forks in human cells
Authors: Benureau Yann , Pouvelle Caroline , Tavares Eliana Moreira , Dupaigne Pauline , Despras Emmanuelle , Cam Eric Le , Kannouche Patricia 
Published: October 2020

AbstractDNA lesions in S phase threaten genome stability. The DNA damage tolerance (DDT) pathways overcome these obstacles and allow completion of DNA synthesis by the use of specialised translesion (TLS) DNA polymerases or through recombination-related processes. However, how these mechanisms coordinate with each other and with bulk replication remain elusive. To address these issues, we monitored the variation of replication intermediate architecture in response to ultraviolet irradiation using transmission electron microscopy. We show that the TLS polymeraseη, able to accurately bypass the major UV lesion and mutated in the skin cancer-prone xeroderma pigmentosum variant (XPV) syndrome, acts at the replication fork to resolve uncoupling and prevent post-replicative gap accumulation. Repriming occurs as a compensatory mechanism when this on-the-fly mechanism cannot operate, and is therefore predominant in XPV cells. Interestingly, our data support a recombination-independent function of RAD51 at the replication fork to sustain repriming. Finally, we provide evidence for the post-replicative commitment of recombination in gap repair and for pioneering observations ofin vivorecombination intermediates. Altogether, we propose a chronology of UV damage tolerance in human cells that highlights the key role of polηin shaping this response and ensuring the continuity of DNA synthesis.
Analysis of the duration of abstinence after treatment for alcohol dependence in a therapeutic community: differences between the sexes
Authors: Riera-Oliver Núria , Jiménez Carmen , Rey Joan , Calvo Ana Belén , Sanchez-Gutierrez Teresa 
Published: October 2020

PurposeThe use and abuse of alcohol is problematic for a person’s social and individual development. Maintenance of abstinence after detoxification programs is difficult for patients who experience a craving, and relapses during the course of the disorder are common. The purpose of this paper is to describe the socio-demographic and clinical features of alcohol-dependent patients by sex and alcohol use status and to analyze the percentage of patients who remained abstinent after 10 months of psychological treatment.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 50 alcohol-dependent patients were enrolled (34 men and 16 women). The patients attended a psychological treatment program at a therapeutic community, Projecte Home Balears, Spain. This paper used the European Addiction Severity Index to collect socio-demographic data and data on alcohol and other drugs and the Trait Meta-Mood Scale-24 to measure emotional management.FindingsSignificant differences were observed in occupation (χ²= 9.9; p = 0.007) and duration of alcohol use (U = 137.000; p = 0.005) by sex and hospitalizations during the previous months (χ²= 15.477; p = 0.009) and type of chronic disorder (χ²= 7.6; p = 0.022) and duration (in months) of the longest period of abstinence after treatment in facilities (U = 219.500; p = 0.097) by alcohol use status. The survival analysis showed that 25% of relapses happened after 4.5 months of treatment; at 7.3 months, 50% of the sample remained abstinent.Originality/valueWomen had used alcohol for longer since age at onset than men. Furthermore, after 7.3 months of intensive therapy, 50% of alcohol-dependent patients were abstinent.
Order‐controlled closed‐loop focal beams and resolution comparison of primary and multiple reflections for seismic acquisition geometries
Authors: Wei Wei , Blacquière Gerrit 
Published: October 2020

ABSTRACTFocal beam analysis has built a bridge between the acquisition parameters on the surface and the image quality of underground targets. However, as a practical matter, it is still difficult to answer how to choose a proper acquisition geometry according to the complexity of medium, especially considering the contradictory effects of multiple reflections on spatial resolution as they can be considered to be either potential signal or additional noise, depending on the envisioned imaging technology. We introduce an order‐controlled, closed‐loop focal beam method in which the migration operator and the resolution function can be analysed in the process of the closed‐loop migration with full control over the order of the surface and internal multiples considered. This method highlights the effects of primary and different‐order multiple wavefields on the imaging resolution for different acquisition geometries and various overburden strata. We apply the method to analyse the predicted resolution of seismic acquisition geometries considering multiples as either noise or signal. Results show, in the acquisition geometry design, that when the primaries cannot provide a complete spatial illumination for the subsurface target, e.g. because of the limited‐aperture acquisition geometries or the complicated overburden, we should use the closed‐loop focal beam analysis to assess the contradictory effects of multiples as both signal and noise, in which the maximum order of multiples ought to be chosen according to the core aim of the acquisition analysis. We can apply the second‐order closed‐loop focal beam analysis to quantify the effects of acquisition geometries on multiple‐wave suppression and can also perform the high‐order closed‐loop focal beam analysis to quantify the effects of acquisition geometries on high‐resolution imaging (migration). This method can also be used to choose the optimal order of multiples in the closed‐loop migration.