bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Face Grinding Surface Quality of High Volume Fraction SiCp/Al Composite Materials
Authors: Zhao Xu , Gong Yadong , Liang Guiqiang , Cai Ming , Han Bing 
Published: January 2021

AbstractThe existing research on SiCp/Al composite machining mainly focuses on the machining parameters or surface morphology. However, the surface quality of SiCp/Al composites with a high volume fraction has not been extensively studied. In this study, 32 SiCp/Al specimens with a high volume fraction were prepared and their machining parameters measured. The surface quality of the specimens was then tested and the effect of the grinding parameters on the surface quality was analyzed. The grinding quality of the composite specimens was comprehensively analyzed taking the grinding force, friction coefficient, and roughness parameters as the evaluation standards. The best grinding parameters were obtained by analyzing the surface morphology. The results show that, a higher spindle speed should be chosen to obtain a better surface quality. The final surface quality is related to the friction coefficient, surface roughness, and fragmentation degree as well as the quantity and distribution of the defects. Lower feeding amount, lower grinding depth and appropriately higher spindle speed should be chosen to obtain better surface quality. Lower feeding amount, higher grinding depth and spindle speed should be chosen to balance grind efficiently and surface quality. This study proposes a systematic evaluation method, which can be used to guide the machining of SiCp/Al composites with a high volume fraction.
Behavioural and neural markers of tactile sensory processing in infants at elevated likelihood of autism spectrum disorder and/or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
Authors: Piccardi Elena Serena , Begum Ali Jannath , Jones Emily J. H. , Mason Luke , Charman Tony , Johnson Mark H. , Gliga Teodora ,   BASIS/STAARS Team, Agyapong Mary , Bazelmans Tessel , Dafner Leila , Ersoy Mutluhan , Goodwin Amy , Haartsen Rianne , Hendry Alexandra , Holman Rebecca , Kalwarowsky Sarah , Kolesnik Anna , Lloyd-Fox Sarah , Pasco Greg , Pickles Andrew , Pirazzoli Laura , Taylor Chloë 
Published: January 2021

Abstract
Backgrounds
Atypicalities in tactile processing are reported in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) but it remains unknown if they precede and associate with the traits of these disorders emerging in childhood. We investigated behavioural and neural markers of tactile sensory processing in infants at elevated likelihood of ASD and/or ADHD compared to infants at typical likelihood of the disorders. Further, we assessed the specificity of associations between infant markers and later ASD or ADHD traits.

Methods
Ninety-one 10-month-old infants participated in the study (n = 44 infants at elevated likelihood of ASD; n = 20 infants at elevated likelihood of ADHD; n = 9 infants at elevated likelihood of ASD and ADHD; n = 18 infants at typical likelihood of the disorders). Behavioural and EEG responses to pairs of tactile stimuli were experimentally recorded and concurrent parental reports of tactile responsiveness were collected. ASD and ADHD traits were measured at 24 months through standardized assessment (ADOS-2) and parental report (ECBQ), respectively.

Results
There was no effect of infants’ likelihood status on behavioural markers of tactile sensory processing. Conversely, increased ASD likelihood associated with reduced neural repetition suppression to tactile input. Reduced neural repetition suppression at 10 months significantly predicted ASD (but not ADHD) traits at 24 months across the entire sample. Elevated tactile sensory seeking at 10 months moderated the relationship between early reduced neural repetition suppression and later ASD traits.

Conclusions
Reduced tactile neural repetition suppression is an early marker of later ASD traits in infants at elevated likelihood of ASD or ADHD, suggesting that a common pathway to later ASD traits exists despite different familial backgrounds. Elevated tactile sensory seeking may act as a protective factor, mitigating the relationship between early tactile neural repetition suppression and later ASD traits.
Controlling litter effects to enhance rigor and reproducibility with rodent models of neurodevelopmental disorders
Authors: Jiménez Jessica A. , Zylka Mark J. 
Published: January 2021

AbstractResearch with rodents is crucial for expanding our understanding of genetic and environmental risk factors for neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD). However, there is growing concern about the number of animal studies that are difficult to replicate, potentially undermining the validity of results. These concerns have prompted funding agencies and academic journals to implement more rigorous standards in an effort to increase reproducibility in research. However, these standards fail to address a major source of variability in rodent research brought on by the “litter effect,” the fact that rodents from the same litter are phenotypically more similar to one other than rodents from different litters of the same strain. We show that the litter effect accounts for 30–60% of the variability associated with commonly studied phenotypes, including brain, placenta, and body weight. Moreover, we show how failure to control for litter-to-litter variation can mask a phenotype in Chd8V986*/+ mice that model haploinsufficiency of CHD8, a high-confidence autism gene. Thus, if not properly controlled, the litter effect has the potential to negatively influence rigor and reproducibility of NDD research. While efforts have been made to educate scientists on the importance of controlling for litter effects in previous publications, our analysis of the recent literature (2015–2020) shows that the vast majority of NDD studies focused on genetic risks, including mutant mouse studies, and environmental risks, such as air pollution and valproic acid exposure, do not correct for litter effects or report information on the number of litters used. We outline best practices to help scientists minimize the impact of litter-to-litter variability and to enhance rigor and reproducibility in future NDD studies using rodent models.
Biomass-fuelled improved cookstove intervention to prevent household air pollution in Northwest Ethiopia: a cluster randomized controlled trial
Authors: Adane Mesafint Molla , Alene Getu Degu , Mereta Seid Tiku 
Published: January 2021

Abstract
Background
Household air pollution from biomass fuels burning in traditional cookstoves currently appeared as one of the most serious threats to public health with a recent burden estimate of 2.6 million premature deaths every year worldwide, ranking highest among environmental risk factors and one of the major risk factors of any type globally. Improved cookstove interventions have been widely practiced as potential solutions. However, studies on the effect of improved cookstove interventions are limited and heterogeneous which suggested the need for further research.

Methods
A cluster randomized controlled trial study was conducted to assess the effect of biomass-fuelled improved cookstove intervention on the concentration of household air pollution compared with the continuation of an open burning traditional cookstove. A total of 36 clusters were randomly allocated to both arms at a 1:1 ratio, and improved cookstove intervention was delivered to all households allocated into the treatment arm. All households in the included clusters were biomass fuel users and relatively homogenous in terms of basic socio-demographic and cooking-related characteristics. Household air pollution was determined by measuring the concentration of indoor fine particulate, and the effect of the intervention was estimated using the Generalized Estimating Equation.

Results
A total of 2031 household was enrolled in the study across 36 randomly selected clusters in both arms, among which data were obtained from a total of 1977 households for at least one follow-up visit which establishes the intention-to-treat population dataset for analysis. The improved cookstove intervention significantly reduces the concentration of household air pollution by about 343 μg/m3 (Ḃ = − 343, 95% CI − 350, − 336) compared to the traditional cookstove method. The overall reduction was found to be about 46% from the baseline value of 859 (95% CI 837–881) to 465 (95% CI 458–472) in the intervention arm compared to only about 5% reduction from 850 (95% CI 828–872) to 805 (95% CI 794–817) in the control arm.

Conclusions
The biomass-fuelled improved cookstove intervention significantly reduces the concentration of household air pollution compared to the traditional method. This suggests that the implementation of these cookstove technologies may be necessary to achieve household air pollution exposure reductions.

Trial registration
The trial project was retrospectively registered on August 2, 2018, at the clinical trials.gov registry database (https://clinicaltrials.gov/) with the NCT03612362 registration identifier number.
Rapid photocatalytic degradation of phenol from water using composite nanofibers under UV
Authors: Mohamed Alaa , Yousef Samy , Nasser Walaa S. , Osman T. A. , Knebel Alexander , Sánchez Elvia P. Valadez , Hashem Tawheed 
Published: January 2021

Abstract
Background
The removal of phenol from aqueous solution via photocatalytic degradation has been recognized as an environmentally friendly technique for generating clean water. The composite nanofibers containing PAN polymer, CNT, and TiO2 NPs were successfully prepared via electrospinning method. The prepared photocatalyst is characterized by SEM, XRD, and Raman spectroscopy. Different parameters are studied such as catalyst amount, the effect of pH, phenol concentration, photodegradation mechanism, flow rate, and stability of the composite nanofiber to evaluate the highest efficiency of the photocatalyst.

Results
The composite nanofibers showed the highest photodegradation performance for the removal of phenol using UV light within 7 min. The pH has a major effect on the photodegradation of phenol with its maximum performance being at pH 5.

Conclusions
Given the stability and flexibility of the composite nanofibers, their use in a dynamic filtration is possible and can be even reused after several cycles.
Development of a Novel Orthotopic Gastric Cancer Mouse Model
Authors: Kang Wonyoung , Maher Leigh , Michaud Michael , Bae Seong-Woo , Kim Seongyeong , Lee Hye Seung , Im Seock-Ah , Yang Han-Kwang , Lee Charles 
Published: January 2021

Abstract
Background
Gastric cancer metastasis is a highly fatal disease with a five-year survival rate of less than 5%. One major obstacle in studying gastric cancer metastasis is the lack of faithful models available. The cancer xenograft mouse models are widely used to elucidate the mechanisms of cancer development and progression. Current procedures for creating cancer xenografts include both heterotopic (i.e., subcutaneous) and orthotopic transplantation methods. Compared to the heterotopic model, the orthotopic model has been shown to be the more clinically relevant design as it enables the development of cancer metastasis. Although there are several methods in use to develop the orthotopic gastric cancer model, there is not a model which uses various types of tumor materials, such as soft tissues, semi-liquid tissues, or culture derivatives, due to the technical challenges. Thus, developing the applicable orthotopic model which can utilize various tumor materials is essential.

Results
To overcome the known limitations of the current orthotopic gastric cancer models, such as exposure of tumor fragments to the neighboring organs or only using firm tissues for the orthotopic implantation, we have developed a new method allowing for the complete insertion of soft tissue fragments or homogeneously minced tissues into the stomach submucosa layer of the immunodeficient NOD.Cg-Prkdcscid Il2rgtm1Wjl/SzJ (NSG) mouse. With this completely-closed transplantation method, tumors with various types of tissue may be used to establish orthotopic gastric cancer models without the risks of exposure to nearby organs or cell leakage. This surgical procedure was highly reproducible in generating forty-eight mouse models with a surgery success rate of 96% and tumor formation of 93%. Among four orthotopic patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models that we generated in this study, we verified that the occurrence of organotropic metastasis in either the liver or peritoneal cavity was the same as that of the donor patients.

Conclusion
Here we describe a new protocol, step by step, for the establishment of orthotopic xenograft of gastric cancer. This novel technique will be able to increase the use of orthotopic models in broader applications for not only gastric cancer research but also any research related to the stomach microenvironment.
Exploring protocol bias in airway microbiome studies: one versus two PCR steps and 16S rRNA gene region V3 V4 versus V4
Authors: Drengenes Christine , Eagan Tomas M. L. , Haaland Ingvild , Wiker Harald G. , Nielsen Rune 
Published: January 2021

Abstract
Background
Studies on the airway microbiome have been performed using a wide range of laboratory protocols for high-throughput sequencing of the bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA (16S rRNA) gene. We sought to determine the impact of number of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) steps (1- or 2- steps) and choice of target marker gene region (V3 V4 and V4) on the presentation of the upper and lower airway microbiome. Our analyses included lllumina MiSeq sequencing following three setups: Setup 1 (2-step PCR; V3 V4 region), Setup 2 (2-step PCR; V4 region), Setup 3 (1-step PCR; V4 region). Samples included oral wash, protected specimen brushes and protected bronchoalveolar lavage (healthy and obstructive lung disease), and negative controls.

Results
The number of sequences and amplicon sequence variants (ASV) decreased in order setup1 > setup2 > setup3. This trend appeared to be associated with an increased taxonomic resolution when sequencing the V3 V4 region (setup 1) and an increased number of small ASVs in setups 1 and 2. The latter was considered a result of contamination in the two-step PCR protocols as well as sequencing across multiple runs (setup 1). Although genera Streptococcus, Prevotella, Veillonella and Rothia dominated, differences in relative abundance were observed across all setups. Analyses of beta-diversity revealed that while oral wash samples (high biomass) clustered together regardless of number of PCR steps, samples from the lungs (low biomass) separated. The removal of contaminants identified using the Decontam package in R, did not resolve differences in results between sequencing setups.

Conclusions
Differences in number of PCR steps will have an impact of final bacterial community descriptions, and more so for samples of low bacterial load. Our findings could not be explained by differences in contamination levels alone, and more research is needed to understand how variations in PCR-setups and reagents may be contributing to the observed protocol bias.
Transcriptome profiling reveals the effects of drought tolerance in Giant Juncao
Authors: Zhou Jing , Chen Siqi , Shi Wenjiao , David-Schwartz Rakefet , Li Sutao , Yang Fulin , Lin Zhanxi 
Published: January 2021

AbstractBackgroundGiant Juncao is often used as feed for livestock because of its huge biomass. However, drought stress reduces forage production by affecting the normal growth and development of plants. Therefore, investigating the molecular mechanisms of drought tolerance will provide important information for the improvement of drought tolerance in this grass.ResultsA total of 144.96 Gb of clean data was generated and assembled into 144,806 transcripts and 93,907 unigenes. After 7 and 14 days of drought stress, a total of 16,726 and 46,492 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were observed, respectively. Compared with normal irrigation, 16,247, 23,503, and 11,598 DEGs were observed in 1, 5, and 9 days following rehydration, respectively. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analyses revealed abiotic stress-responsive genes and pathways related to catalytic activity, methyltransferase activity, transferase activity, and superoxide metabolic process. We also identified transcription factors belonging to several families, including basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH), WRKY, NAM (no apical meristem), ATAF1/2 and CUC2 (cup-shaped cotyledon) (NAC), fatty acyl-CoA reductase (FAR1), B3, myeloblastosis (MYB)-related, and basic leucine zipper (bZIP) families, which are important drought-rehydration-responsive proteins. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis was also used to analyze the RNA-seq data to predict the interrelationship between genes. Twenty modules were obtained, and four of these modules may be involved in photosynthesis and plant hormone signal transduction that respond to drought and rehydration conditions.ConclusionsOur research is the first to provide a more comprehensive understanding of DEGs involved in drought stress at the transcriptome level in Giant Juncao with different drought and recovery conditions. These results may reveal insights into the molecular mechanisms of drought tolerance in Giant Juncao and provide diverse genetic resources involved in drought tolerance research.
Influence of flow rate, fluid temperature, and extension line on Hotline and S-line heating capability: an in vitro study
Authors: Kim Hosu , Kim Tae Kyong , Yoo Sukha , Kim Jin-Tae 
Published: January 2021

Abstract
Background
A fluid warmer can prevent hypothermia during the perioperative period. This study evaluated the heating capabilities of Hotline and Barkey S-line under different flow rates and initial fluid temperatures, as well as after the extension line installation.

Methods
We measured the temperature of a 0.9% sodium chloride solution at the fluid warmer outlet (TProx) and the extension line end (TDistal) with three different initial fluid temperatures (room, warm, and cold) and two flow rates (250 ml/hr and 100 mL/hr).

Results
At a 250 ml/hr flow rate, the TProx and TDistal values were observed to be higher in Hotline than in S-line when using room-temperature or cold fluid. Administering of the warm fluid at the same flow rate significantly increased the TProx and TDistal values in S-line more than the cold and room-temperature fluids. At flow rates of 100 ml/hr, TDistal values were significantly lower than TProx values in both devices regardless of the initial fluid temperature.

Conclusions
Hotline outperformed S-line for warming fluids at a high flow rate with cold or room-temperature fluids. Administering warm fluid in S-line prevented a decrease in the fluid temperature at a high flow rate. However, at a low flow rate, the fluid temperature significantly decreased in both devices after passing through an extension line.
WASH infrastructure and practices in primary health care clinics in the rural Vhembe District municipality in South Africa
Authors: Potgieter N. , Banda N. T. , Becker P. J. , Traore-Hoffman A. N. 
Published: January 2021

Abstract
Background
South Africa has unique and diverse social and economic factors that have an impact on the provision of basic water, sanitation, hygiene and waste management infrastructure and practices at health care facilities in ensuring patient safety and prevent the spread of diseases.

Methods
The aim of this study was to evaluate water, sanitation and hygiene access and standards at 50 government owned public health care clinics in the rural region of the Vhembe district of South Africa during 2016/2017, using self-observation, an observation checklist, record reviews and interviews with clinic managers. Water quality from all available water sources on the clinic compound was analysed for Total coliform and E. coli counts using the Colilert Quanti-tray/2000 system. The prevalence of pathogenic diarrhea causing E. coli strains was established using multiplex-Polymerase Chain Reaction.

Results
The health care clinics in the Vhembe District generally complied with the basic WASH services guidelines according to the World Health Organisation. Although 80% of the clinics used borehole water which is classified as an improved water source, microbiological assessment showed that 38% inside taps and 64% outside taps from the clinic compounds had TC counts higher than guideline limits for safe drinking. Similarly, EC counts above the guideline limit for safe drinking water were detected in 17% inside taps and 32% outside taps from the clinic compounds. Pathogenic EAEC, EPEC, ETEC and EHEC strains were isolated in the collected water samples. Although improved sanitation infrastructures were present in most of the clinics, the sanitary conditions of these toilets were not up to standard. Waste systems were not adequately managed. A total of 90% of the clinics had hand washing basins, while only 61% of the clinics had soap present and only 64% of the clinics had adequate signs and posters reminding the staff, care givers and patients to wash their hands.

Conclusions
Various WASH aspects within the primary health care system in South Africa needs to be improved and corrected. A more rigorous system that is inclusive of all role players in the WASH sectors, with regular monitoring and training sessions, should be used.
Sedentary behaviour among general practitioners: a systematic review
Authors: Mayne Richard S. , Hart Nigel D. , Heron Neil 
Published: January 2021

Abstract
Background
Sedentary behaviour is when someone is awake, in a sitting, lying or reclining posture and is an independent risk factor for multiple causes of morbidity and mortality. A dose-response relationship has been demonstrated, whereby increasing sedentary time corresponds with increasing mortality rate. This study aimed to identify current levels of sedentary behaviour among General Practitioners (GPs), by examining and synthesising how sedentary behaviour has been measured in the primary care literature.

Methods
A systematic review was conducted to identify studies relating to levels of sedentary behaviour among GPs. Searches were performed using Medline®, Embase®, PscycINFO, Web of Science and the Cochrane Library, from inception of databases until January 2020, with a subsequent search of grey literature. Articles were assessed for quality and bias, with extraction of relevant data.

Results
The search criteria returned 1707 studies. Thirty four full texts were reviewed and 2 studies included in the final review. Both were cross-sectional surveys using self-reported estimation of sedentary time within the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). Keohane et al. examined GP trainees and GP trainers in Ireland. 60% reported spending in excess of 7 h sitting each day, 24% between 4 and 7 h, and 16% less than or equal to 4 h. Suija et al. examined female GPs in Estonia. The mean reported daily sitting time was 6 h and 36 min, with 56% sitting for over 6 h per day. Both studies were of satisfactory methodological quality but had a high risk of bias.

Conclusion
There is a paucity of research examining current levels of sedentary behaviour among GPs. Objective data is needed to determine GPs’ current levels of sedentary behaviour, particularly in light of the increase in remote consulting as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.