bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Aqueous humour concentrations after topical apPlication of combinEd levofloxacin-dexamethasone eye dRops and of its single components: a randoMised, assEssor-blinded, parallel-group study in patients undergoing cataract surgery: the iPERME study
Authors: Figus Michele , Posarelli Chiara , Romano Dario , Nardi Marco , Rossetti Luca 
Published: April 2020

Abstract
Purpose
To evaluate the penetration of levofloxacin and dexamethasone sodium phosphate into the aqueous humour (AH) after administration in combination and as single molecules. Evaluation of the penetration of those agents in the site of action and their pharmacodynamic potential activity in view of the intended clinical use after cataract surgery.

Methods
Randomised, assessor-blinded, parallel-group. Patients scheduled for cataract surgery were assigned in a 1:1:1 ratio to: levofloxacin + dexamethasone sodium phosphate (L-DSP), Levofloxacin (L) or Dexamethasone sodium phosphate (DSP) eye drops. Either test or reference drugs were instilled in the cul-de-sac twice, 90 and 60 min before paracentesis.

Results
A total of 125 patients completed the study. Fraction of dose absorbed in the anterior chamber was 3.8–4.2 · 10−4 for levofloxacin and 0.3–0.4 · 10−4 for dexamethasone, respectively. No notable differences in concentration of levofloxacin were found between L-DSP arm (1.970 nmol/ml) and L arm (2.151 nmol/ml). The concentrations of levofloxacin were well above the MICs for the most frequent Gram-positive and Gram-negative eye pathogens. Dexamethasone concentrations were slightly lower in L-DSP arm (0.030 nmol/ml) than in DSP arm (0.042 nmol/ml), but still in the pharmacodynamically active range in the site of action. The difference was not clinically relevant. DSP was not detected in any HA sample, suggesting its full hydrolysis to free dexamethasone.

Conclusion
Our results confirm that no interaction is evident on the corneal penetration of levofloxacin and dexamethasone which reach pharmacologically active concentrations when instilled as fixed combination eye drops to patients undergoing cataract surgery.

Trial registration
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03740659
Evaluating severity of white matter lesions from computed tomography images with convolutional neural network
Authors: Pitkänen Johanna , Koikkalainen Juha , Nieminen Tuomas , Marinkovic Ivan , Curtze Sami , Sibolt Gerli , Jokinen Hanna , Rueckert Daniel , Barkhof Frederik , Schmidt Reinhold , Pantoni Leonardo , Scheltens Philip , Wahlund Lars-Olof , Korvenoja Antti , Lötjönen Jyrki , Erkinjuntti Timo , Melkas Susanna 
Published: April 2020

Abstract
Purpose
Severity of white matter lesion (WML) is typically evaluated on magnetic resonance images (MRI), yet the more accessible, faster, and less expensive method is computed tomography (CT). Our objective was to study whether WML can be automatically segmented from CT images using a convolutional neural network (CNN). The second aim was to compare CT segmentation with MRI segmentation.

Methods
The brain images from the Helsinki University Hospital clinical image archive were systematically screened to make CT-MRI image pairs. Selection criteria for the study were that both CT and MRI images were acquired within 6 weeks. In total, 147 image pairs were included. We used CNN to segment WML from CT images. Training and testing of CNN for CT was performed using 10-fold cross-validation, and the segmentation results were compared with the corresponding segmentations from MRI.

Results
A Pearson correlation of 0.94 was obtained between the automatic WML volumes of MRI and CT segmentations. The average Dice similarity index validating the overlap between CT and FLAIR segmentations was 0.68 for the Fazekas 3 group.

Conclusion
CNN-based segmentation of CT images may provide a means to evaluate the severity of WML and establish a link between CT WML patterns and the current standard MRI-based visual rating scale.
A branch-and-bound procedure for the resource-constrained project scheduling problem with partially renewable resources and general temporal constraints
Authors: Watermeyer Kai , Zimmermann Jürgen 
Published: April 2020

AbstractIn this paper, we consider the resource-constrained project scheduling problem with partially renewable resources and general temporal constraints. For the first time, the concept of partially renewable resources is embedded in the context of projects with general temporal constraints. While partially renewable resources have already broadened the area of applications for project scheduling, the extension by general temporal constraints allows to consider even more relevant aspects of real projects. We present a branch-and-bound procedure for the problem with the objective to minimize the project duration. To improve the performance of the solution procedure, new consistency tests, lower bounds, and dominance rules are developed. Furthermore, new temporal planning procedures, based on forbidden start times of activities, are presented which can be used for any project scheduling problem with general temporal constraints independent on the considered resource type. In a performance analysis, we compare our branch-and-bound procedure with the mixed-integer linear programming solver IBM CPLEX 12.8.0 on adaptations of benchmark instances from the literature. In addition, we compare our solution procedure with the only available branch-and-bound procedure for partially renewable resources. The results of the computational experiments prove the efficiency of our branch-and-bound procedure.
Radial nerve palsy associated with closed humeral shaft fractures: a systematic review of 1758 patients
Authors: Hendrickx Laurent A. M. , Hilgersom Nick F. J. , Alkaduhimi Hassanin , Doornberg Job N. , van den Bekerom Michel P. J. 
Published: April 2020

AbstractBackground and purposeHumeral shaft fractures are often associated with radial nerve palsy (RNP) (8–16%). The primary aim of this systematic review was to assess the incidence of primary and secondary RNP in closed humeral shaft fractures. The secondary aim was to compare the recovery rate of primary RNP and the incidence of secondary RNP between operative and non-operative treatment.MethodsA systematic literature search was performed in ‘Trip Database’, ‘Embase’ and ‘PubMed’ to identify original studies reporting on RNP in closed humeral shaft fractures. The Coleman Methodology Score was used to grade the quality of the studies. The incidence and recovery of RNP, fracture characteristics and treatment characteristics were extracted. Chi-square and Fisher exact tests were used to compare operative versus non-operative treatment.ResultsForty studies reporting on 1758 patients with closed humeral shaft fractures were included. The incidence of primary RNP was 10%. There was no difference in the recovery rate of primary RNP when comparing operative treatment with radial nerve exploration (98%) versus non-operative treatment (91%) (p = 0.29). The incidence of secondary RNP after operative and non-operative treatment was 4% and 0.4%, respectively (p < 0.01).InterpretationOne-in-ten patients with a closed humeral shaft fracture has an associated primary RNP, of which > 90% recovers without the need of (re-)intervention. No beneficial effect of early exploration on the recovery of primary RNP could be demonstrated when comparing patients managed non-operatively with those explored early. Patients managed operatively for closed humeral shaft fractures have a higher risk of developing secondary RNP.Level of evidenceLevel IV; Systematic Review.
Surgery for extraforaminal lumbar disc herniation: a single center comparative observational study
Authors: Polak Samuel B. , Madsbu Mattis A. , Vangen-Lønne Vetle , Salvesen Øyvind , Nygaard Øystein , Solberg Tore K. , Vleggeert-Lankamp Carmen L. A. M. , Gulati Sasha 
Published: April 2020

Abstract
Background
Surgery on extraforaminal lumbar disc herniation (ELDH) is a commonly performed procedure. Operating on this type of herniation is known to come with more difficulties than on the frequently seen paramedian lumbar disc herniation (PLDH). However, no comparative data are available on the effectiveness and safety of this operation. We sought out to compare clinical outcomes at 1 year following surgery for ELDH and PLDH.

Methods
Data were collected through the Norwegian Registry for Spine Surgery (NORspine). The primary outcome measure was change at 1 year in the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI). Secondary outcome measures were quality of life measured with EuroQol 5 dimensions (EQ-5D); and numeric rating scales (NRSs).

Results
Data of a total of 1750 patients were evaluated in this study, including 72 ELDH patients (4.1%). One year after surgery, there were no differences in any of the patient reported outcome measurements (PROMs) between the two groups. PLDH and ELDH patients experienced similar changes in ODI (− 30.92 vs. − 34.00, P = 0.325); EQ-5D (0.50 vs. 0.51, P = 0.859); NRS back (− 3.69 vs. − 3.83, P = 0.745); and NRS leg (− 4.69 vs. − 4.46, P = 0.607) after 1 year. The proportion of patients achieving a clinical success (defined as an ODI score of less than 20 points) at 1 year was similar in both groups (61.5% vs. 52.7%, P = 0.204).

Conclusions
Patients operated for ELDH reported similar improvement after 1 year compared with patients operated for PLDH.
Alterations in transcranial sonography among Huntington’s disease patients with psychiatric symptoms
Authors: Witkowski Grzegorz , Jachinska Katarzyna , Stepniak Iwona , Ziora-Jakutowicz Karolina , Sienkiewicz-Jarosz Halina 
Published: April 2020

AbstractTranscranial sonography (TCS) is a diagnostic tool in mood and movement disorders. Alterations within the raphe mesencephalic nucleus in the brain have been reported not only in patients with major depression but in patients with depressive symptoms accompanying several neurodegenerative disorders. The aim of the study was to assess the echogenicity of the nucleus raphe and other basal ganglia in patients with Huntington’s disease (HD). TCS was performed in 127 HD patients participating in observational studies (Registry/Enroll-HD) in the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology (Warsaw, Poland). Raphe hypoechogenicity was found in 78% of HD patients with current symptoms of depression (according to DSM-IV criteria), 57% of patients with a previous history of depression, and 56.8% patients who lacked signs or history of depression. Patients with hypoechogenic raphe reported significantly higher depression as measured on the BDI (15.6 ± 1.7) as compared to patients with normal echogenicity (9.5 ± 1.2), (p = 0.023). The diameter of the third ventricle was negatively correlated with Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) (rho − 0.37) and total functional capacity (TFC) scores (rho − 0.26). Hyperechogenic substantia nigra was visualized in 66,4% patients with HD and the degree of hyperechogenicity was correlated with the total motor score (TMS) (rho − 0.38). Changes in echogenicity of the basal ganglia are related to both depressive and motor symptoms among patients with HD.
Quantification and Analysis of Trace Levels of Phenicols in Feed by Liquid Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry
Authors: Patyra Ewelina , Kwiatek Krzysztof 
Published: April 2020

AbstractA sensitive and reliable method using liquid chromatography–negative electrospray ionization mass spectrometry was developed for the simultaneous determination of chloramphenicol, florfenicol, and thiamphenicol at trace levels in animal feed. The analytes were extracted from grinded feed with ethyl acetate. Further the ethyl acetate was evaporated, residue resuspended in Milli-Q water, defatted with n-hexane, and solid phase extracted using BondELUT C18 cartridges. Separation was carried out on a C6 phenyl column with a mobile phase consisting of 0.1% formic acid in Milli-Q water and acetonitrile. The detector response was linear over the tested concentration range from 100 to 1000 µg kg−1. The recovery values for all analytes in feed were higher than 79% with RSD for repeatability and reproducibility in the ranges of 4.5–10.9% and 8.4–13.5%, respectively. CCα and CCβ varied between 76.8 and 86.1 µg kg−1, and between 111.3 and 159.9 µg kg−1, respectively. The results showed that this method is effective for the quantification of phenicols in non-target feed.
Narrative Skills in Primary School Children with Autism in Relation to Language and Nonverbal Temporal Sequencing
Authors: Carlsson Emilia , Åsberg Johnels Jakob , Gillberg Christopher , Miniscalco Carmela 
Published: April 2020

AbstractRecent research has suggested that temporal sequencing of narrative events might be a domain-general ability that underlies oral narrative capacities. The current study investigated this issue in a group of children with known pragmatic and narrative difficulties, namely Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). We hypothesized (1) that children with ASD (n = 45) would retell narratives of poorer quality than both chronological age-matched (CAM) children and younger children matched on sentence-level language skills (LM), and (2) that nonverbal temporal sequencing skills would uniquely predict individual differences in oral narrative performance in children with ASD. The results show that children with ASD performed poorer on all measures of oral narrative quality compared with the CAM group, and on eight of ten measures compared with the LM group. Thus, our first hypothesis was confirmed, suggesting that narrative difficulties in ASD cannot be fully explained by impaired language. The second hypothesis was only partly confirmed: nonverbal temporal sequencing explained significant or marginally significant variance in some, but not all, aspects of oral narrative performance of children with ASD. These results are discussed from theoretical and clinical/educational perspectives, in relation to the heterogeneity of language skills in ASD and to domain-general features of narrative processing.
Understanding the Microfoundations of Government–Civil Society Relations
Authors: Waardenburg Maikel 
Published: April 2020

AbstractThis article adds a much needed microlevel perspective to the literature on interactions between civil society organizations and governments. I argue that a microlevel perspective assists in making connections between two dominant streams in the literature on government–CSO relations: an empirical–analytical stream and a critical stream. It aims to better understand the interactions and relations, by analysing the institutional work done by CSOs’ members. Adopting this approach puts CSO members in a more agentic position. Interactional processes are brought to the centre of analysis. The Dutch Community Sport Coach programme was used as a case to illustrate the usefulness of the approach. Through a one-year organizational ethnography, the article scrutinizes the way in which members of one CSO enact the organization’s service delivery relationship with a municipality. Through a multidimensional perspective on agency, the analysis shows how individual CSO members act as embedded agents that assimilate a public logic into the dominant community logic. It further shows the CSO’s members efforts and struggle to maintain their community logic. The article argues that an analysis of the microfoundations of government–civil society organization relations foregrounds the multivocality of the relationship as foundational.
Automatic detection algorithm for establishing standard to identify “surge blood pressure”
Authors: Kokubo Ayako , Kuwabara Mitsuo , Nakajima Hiroshi , Tomitani Naoko , Yamashita Shingo , Shiga Toshikazu , Kario Kazuomi 
Published: April 2020

AbstractBlood pressure (BP) variability is one of the important risk factors of cardiovascular disease (CVD). “Surge BP,” which represents short-term BP variability, is defined as pathological exaggerated BP increase capable of triggering cardiovascular events. Surge BP is effectively evaluated by our new BP monitoring device. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to develop an algorithm for the automatic detection of surge BP from continuous “beat-by-beat” (BbB) BP measurements. It enables clinicians to save significant time identifying surge BP in big data from their patients’ continuous BbB BP measurements. A total of 94 subjects (74 males and 20 females) participated in our study to develop the surge BP detection algorithm, resulting in a total of 3272 surges collected from the study subjects. The surge BP detection algorithm is a simple classification model based on supervised learning which formulates shape of surge BP as detection rules. Surge BP identified with our algorithm was evaluated against surge BP manually labeled by experts with 5-fold cross validation. The recall and precision of the algorithm were 0.90 and 0.64, respectively. Processing time on each subject was 11.0 ± 4.7 s. Our algorithm is adequate for use in clinical practice and will be helpful in efforts to better understand this unique aspect of the onset of CVD.
Deficient Chaperone-Mediated Autophagy Promotes Lipid Accumulation in Macrophage
Authors: Qiao Lei , Wang He-feng , Xiang Lei , Ma Jing , Zhu Qiang , Xu Dan , Zheng Hui , Peng Jie-qiong , Zhang Sen , Lu Hui-xia , Chen Wen-qiang , Zhang Yun 
Published: April 2020

AbstractChaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA) serves as a critical upstream regulator of lipophagy and lipid metabolism in hepatocyte. However, the role of CMA in lipid metabolism of macrophage, the typical component of atherosclerotic plaque, remains unclear. In our study, LAMP-2A (L2A, a CMA marker) was reduced in macrophages exposed to high dose of oleate, and lipophagy was impaired in advanced atherosclerosis in ApoE (−/−) mice. Primary peritoneal macrophages isolated from macrophage-specific L2A-deficient mice exhibited pronounced intracellular lipid accumulation. Lipid regulatory enzymes, including long-chain-fatty-acid-CoA ligase 1 (ACSL1) and lysosomal acid lipase (LAL), were increased and reduced in L2A-KO macrophage, respectively. Other lipid-related proteins, such as SR-A, SR-B (CD36), ABCA1, or PLIN2, were not associated with increased lipid content in L2A-KO macrophage. In conclusion, deficient CMA promotes lipid accumulation in macrophage probably by regulating enzymes involved in lipid metabolism. CMA may represent a novel therapeutic target to alleviate atherosclerosis by promoting lipid metabolism.
Water quality and impacting factors on heavy metals levels in Shatt Al-Arab River, Basra, Iraq
Authors: Al-Asadi Safaa A. R. , Al-Qurnawi Wasan Sabeh , Al Hawash Adnan B. , Ghalib Hussein Badr , Alkhlifa NoorAl-Huda A. 
Published: April 2020

AbstractThe aim of this study was to evaluate the water quality of Shatt Al-Arab River (SAR) and investigate the influences on the variations of heavy metals levels. The surface water and bed sediments samples at four stations have been collected (4 months) during 2017–2018, and seven heavy metals (Ni2+, Cr3+, Pb2+, As3+, Hg2+, U4+and Cd2+), as well as 11 parameters including total dissolved solids, the concentration of hydrogen ions, dissolved oxygen, nitrate, chlorides, turbidity, total hardness, electrical conductivity and alkalinity were investigated. The results indicated that the water quality in the SAR depend on the combined effects of natural and anthropogenic factors. The variation of water quality of SAR influenced by the chemical ions inflow from the Tigris River and the marine salt from Arabian Gulf. The highest value of TDS was in S4 it reached to 42,844 mg/l. The results showed that most of the ions increase their concentration by more than 200%, especially in summer season at Fao area due to the effect of the seawater intrusions. In comparison to the sediments, low concentrations and a uniform distribution of most metals were observed in the river water. The river sediments were polluted with heavy metals, while pollution levels in the water were still within permissible limits for drinking, irrigation and aquatic life. These findings indicated that the major sources of river contamination with heavy metals were the atmospheric deposit of gaseous emissions from oil production and electric generators and the surface runoff from agricultural areas after rainfall. Additionally, the tide greatly controls the distribution heavy metals in the river.
Just-In-Time Constraint-Based Inference for Qualitative Spatial and Temporal Reasoning
Authors: Sioutis Michael 
Published: April 2020

AbstractWe discuss a research roadmap for going beyond the state of the art in qualitative spatial and temporal reasoning (QSTR). Simply put, QSTR is a major field of study in Artificial Intelligence that abstracts from numerical quantities of space and time by using qualitative descriptions instead (e.g., precedes, contains, is left of); thus, it provides a concise framework that allows for rather inexpensive reasoning about entities located in space or time. Applications of QSTR can be found in a plethora of areas and domains such as smart environments, intelligent vehicles, and unmanned aircraft systems. Our discussion involves researching novel local consistencies in the aforementioned discipline, defining dynamic algorithms pertaining to these consistencies that can allow for efficient reasoning over changing spatio-temporal information, and leveraging the structures of the locally consistent related problems with regard to novel decomposability and theoretical tractability properties. Ultimately, we argue for pushing the envelope in QSTR via defining tools for tackling dynamic variants of the fundamental reasoning problems in this discipline, i.e., problems stated in terms of changing input data. Indeed, time is a continuous flow and spatial objects can change (e.g., in shape, size, or structure) as time passes; therefore, it is pertinent to be able to efficiently reason about dynamic spatio-temporal data. Finally, these tools are to be integrated into the larger context of highly active areas such as neuro-symbolic learning and reasoning, planning, data mining, and robotic applications. Our final goal is to inspire further discussion in the community about constraint-based QSTR in general, and the possible lines of future research that we outline here in particular.
Artificial Nanoscale Erythrocytes from Clinically Relevant Compounds for Enhancing Cancer Immunotherapy
Authors: Ou Wenquan , Nam Kang Sik , Park Dae Hoon , Hwang Jungho , Ku Sae Kwang , Yong Chul Soon , Kim Jong Oh , Byeon Jeong Hoon 
Published: April 2020

AbstractBecause of enhanced efficacy and lower side effects, cancer immunotherapies have recently been extensively investigated in clinical trials to overcome the limitations of conventional cancer monotherapies. Although engineering attempts have been made to build nanosystems even including stimulus nanomaterials for the efficient delivery of antigens, adjuvants, or anticancer drugs to improve immunogenic cancer cell death, this requires huge R&D efforts and investment for clinically relevant findings to be approved for translation of the nanosystems. To this end, in this study, an air–liquid two-phase electrospray was developed for stable bubble pressing under a balance between mechanical and electrical parameters of the spray to continuously produce biomimetic nanosystems consisting of only clinically relevant compounds [paclitaxel-loaded fake blood cell Eudragit particle (Eu-FBCP/PTX)] to provide a conceptual leap for the timely development of translatable chemo-immunotherapeutic nanosystems. This was pursued as the efficacy of systems for delivering anticancer agents that has been mainly influenced by nanosystem shape because of its relevance to transporting behavior to organs, blood circulation, and cell–membrane interactions. The resulting Eu-FBCP/PTX nanosystems exhibiting phagocytic and micropinocytic uptake behaviors can confer better efficacy in chemo-immunotherapeutics in the absence and presence of anti-PD-L1 antibodies than similar sized PTX-loaded spherical Eu particles (Eu-s/PTX).