bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Urban Signatures in the Spatial Clustering of Precipitation Extremes over Mainland China
Authors: Wang Dashan , Wang Xianwei , Liu Lin , Wang Dagang , Zeng Zhenzhong 
Published: December 2020

AbstractUrban areas demonstrate great influence on precipitation, yet the spatial clustering features of precipitation are still unclear over urban areas. This study quantitatively examines the spatial clustering of precipitation intensity in 130 urban-affected regions over mainland China during 2008–15 using a high-resolution merged precipitation product. Results show that the spatial heterogeneity patterns display diverse distribution and vary with precipitation intensity and urban sizes. Extreme and heavy precipitation has higher spatial heterogeneity than light precipitation over the urban-affected regions of grade 1 cities, and their mean Moran’s I are 0.49, 0.47, and 0.37 for the intensity percentiles of ≥95%, 75%–95%, and <75%, respectively. The urban signatures in the spatial clustering of precipitation extremes are observed in 37 cities (28%), mainly occurring in the Haihe River basin, the Yangtze River basin, and the Pearl River basin. The spatial clustering patterns of precipitation extremes are affected by the local dominant synoptic conditions, such as the heavy storms of convective precipitation in Beijing (Moran’s I = 0.47) and the cold frontal system in the Pearl River delta (Moran’s I = 0.78), resulting in large regional variability. The role of urban environments for the spatial clustering is more evident in wetter conditions [e.g., relative humidity (RH) > 75% over Beijing and RH > 85% over the Pearl River delta] and warmer conditions (T > 25°C over Beijing and T > 28°C over the Pearl River delta). This study highlights the urban modification on the spatial clustering of some precipitation extremes, and calls for precautions and adaptation strategies to mitigate the adverse effect of the highly clustered extreme rainfall events.
The Sloshing and Diapycnal Meridional Overturning Circulations in the Indian Ocean
Authors: Han Lei 
Published: December 2020

AbstractThe meridional overturning circulation (MOC) seasonality in the Indian Ocean is investigated with the ocean state estimate product ECCO v4r3. The vertical movements of water parcels are predominantly due to the heaving of the isopycnals all over the basin except off the western coast. Aided by the linear propagation equation of long baroclinic Rossby waves, the driving factor determining the strength of the seasonal MOC in the Indian Ocean is identified as the zonally integrated Ekman pumping anomaly, rather than the Ekman transport concluded in earlier studies. A new concept of sloshing MOC is proposed, and its difference with the classic Eulerian MOC leads to the so-called diapycnal MOC. The striking resemblance of the Eulerian and sloshing MOCs implies the seasonal variation of the Eulerian MOC in the Indian Ocean is a sloshing mode. The shallow overturning cells manifest themselves in the diapycnal MOC as the most remarkable structure. New perspectives on the upwelling branch of the shallow overturn in the Indian Ocean are offered based on diapycnal vertical velocity. The discrepancy among the observation-based estimates on the bottom inflow across 32°S of the basin is interpreted with the seasonal sloshing mode. Consequently, the “missing mixing” in the deep Indian Ocean is attributed to the overestimated diapycnal volume fluxes. Decomposition of meridional heat transport (MHT) into sloshing and diapycnal components clearly shows the dominant mechanism of MHT in the Indian Ocean in various seasons.
Detection of SST Fronts from a High-Resolution Model and Its Preliminary Results in the South China Sea
Authors: Ren Shihe , Zhu Xueming , Drevillon Marie , Wang Hui , Zhang Yunfei , Zu Ziqing , Li Ang 
Published: December 2020

AbstractA frontal detection algorithm is developed with the capability of detecting significant frontal segments of sea surface temperature (SST) in the high-resolution South China Sea Operational Forecasting System (SCSOFS). To effectively obtain frontal information, a gradient-based Canny edge detection algorithm is improved with postprocessing designed for high-resolution numerical models, aiming at extracting primary ocean fronts while ensuring the balance of frontal continuity and positioning accuracy. Metrics of frontal probability and strength are used to measure the robustness of the results in terms of mean state and seasonal variability of frontal activities in the South China Sea (SCS). Most fronts are found in the nearshore and form a strip shape extending from the Taiwan Strait to the coast of Vietnam. The SCSOFS is found to reproduce strong seasonal signals dominating the variability of the frontal strength and occurrence probability in the SCS. We implement the algorithm on the daily averaged SST derived from two other SST analyses for intercomparison in the SCS.
Multiscale Shear Impacts during the Genesis of Hagupit (2008)
Authors: Nam Chaehyeon C. , Bell Michael M. 
Published: December 2020

AbstractThe impact of vertical wind shear (VWS) on tropical cyclogenesis is examined from the synoptic to mesoscales using airborne Doppler radar observations of predepression Hagupit during the Tropical Cyclone Structure 2008 (TCS08)/THORPEX Pacific Area Regional Campaign (T-PARC) field campaigns. The high temporal and spatial resolution observations reveal complex localized convective and vortical characteristics of a predepression in a sheared environment. Predepression Hagupit interacted with an upper-tropospheric trough during the observation period. The strong deep-layer VWS (>20 m s−1) had a negative impact on the development through misalignment of the low- and midlevel circulations and dry air intrusion. However, the low-level circulation persisted, and the system ultimately formed into a tropical cyclone after it left the high-shear zone. Here we propose that a key process that enabled the predepression to survive through the upper-tropospheric trough interaction was persistent vorticity amplification on the meso-γ scale that was aggregated on the meso-α scale within the wave pouch. Multi-Doppler wind analysis indicates that cumulus congestus tilted the low-level horizontal vorticity into the vertical in the early stage of convective life cycle, followed by stretching from maturing deep convection. Variations in low-level VWS on the meso-β scale affect convective organization and horizontal vorticity generation. The results provide new insights into multiscale processes during TC genesis and the interactions of a predepression with VWS at various spatial scales.
Near-Ground Effects of Wind Turbines: Observations and Physical Mechanisms
Authors: Wu Sicheng , Archer Cristina L. 
Published: December 2020

AbstractWind turbines generate wakes, which can potentially influence the local microclimate near the ground. To verify and quantify such effects, the Vertical Enhanced Mixing (VERTEX) field campaign was conducted in late summer 2016 to measure near-surface turbulent fluxes, wind speed, temperature, and moisture under and outside of the wake of an operational wind turbine in Lewes, Delaware. We found that, in the presence of turbine wakes from a single wind turbine, friction velocity, turbulent kinetic energy, and wind speed were reduced near the ground under the wake, while turbulent heat flux was not significantly affected by the wake. The observed near-ground temperature changes were <0.4°C in magnitude. Near-ground temperature changes due to the wake correlated well with the temperature lapse rate between hub height and the ground, with warming observed during stable and neutral conditions and cooling during unstable conditions. Of the two properties that define a wake (i.e., wind speed deficit and turbulence), the wind speed deficit dominates the surface response, while the wake turbulence remains aloft and hardly ever reaches the ground. We propose that the mechanism that drives changes in near-ground temperature in the presence of turbine wakes is the vertical convergence of turbulent heat flux below hub height. Above hub height, turbulence and turbulent heat flux are enhanced; near the ground, turbulence is reduced and turbulent heat flux is unchanged. These conditions cause an increase (during stable/neutral stability) or decrease (during unstable stability) in heat flux convergence, ultimately resulting in warming or cooling near the ground, respectively.
External validation of Leipzig-Halifax scores for aortic dissection in Armenia
Authors: Poghosyan Kristine , Sahakyan Yeva , Thompson Michael E , Hovaguimian Hagop , Minasyan Hasmik , Abrahamyan Lusine 
Published: December 2020

Background Few prognostic tools are currently available to predict hospital mortality in patients with acute type A aortic dissection. The aim of this study was to validate the performance of two existing risk-assessment tools, the original and the adjusted Leipzig-Halifax scorecards, to predict hospital mortality among Armenian patients with acute type A aortic dissection. Methods This retrospective cohort study included all consecutive patients with acute type A aortic dissection who were admitted to two tertiary cardiac centers in Armenia and underwent surgery from January 2008 to April 2018. We evaluated the predictive power of the original and adjusted Leipzig-Halifax scorecards using logistic regression analysis. Results Overall, 211 patients (76% males, mean age 57 ± 9 years) were included in the study, of whom 37 (17.5%) died during hospitalization. The adjusted Leipzig-Halifax score, but not the original Leipzig-Halifax score, was a significant predictor of hospital mortality. Patients with medium and high adjusted Leipzig-Halifax scores had a significantly higher odds of death compared to patients with low scores (odds ratio = 3.0 vs. 3.9, 95% confidence interval: 1.3–6.9 vs. 1.0–14.9, respectively). The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves were 0.58 and 0.63, respectively, p > 0.05. Conclusion The adjusted Leipzig-Halifax score performed slightly better than the original Leipzig-Halifax score in the Armenian acute type A aortic dissection population. The adjusted Leipzig-Halifax score should now be applied prospectively to generate more data for further validation and potential improvement.
Consumer Comprehension of the Nutrition Facts Label: A Comparison of the Original and Updated Labels
Authors: Kim Elizabeth Jiyoon , Ellison Brenna , Prescott Melissa Pflugh , Nayga Rodolfo M. 
Published: December 2020

Purpose: Compare consumers’ overall label comprehension of the original Nutrition Facts (NF) label with the updated label. Design: Online survey conducted in 2019. Participants randomly assigned to original label, updated-single column, or updated-dual column labeling condition and asked to complete a series of label comprehension questions. Setting: Online survey; participants recruited through Prolific. Sample: N = 992 U.S. adults. Sample similar to U.S. population in terms of sex (49.2% female), race (73.3% White/Caucasian), and household size (mean = 2.7 members). However, sample was younger (median age: 29.0), more educated (98.8% high school graduate or higher), and exhibited a lower rate of obesity (22.6% obese) than the U.S. population. Measures: Dependent variables: objective (% correct) NF label comprehension. Independent variables: label condition, nutrition knowledge, and socio-demographic variables. Analysis: Regression analysis assessed relationships between label condition and label comprehension. Significance level of 5% used for analyses. Results: Average score for objective comprehension was 81.4%. The updates did not significantly improve label comprehension. Participants in the updated NF label conditions had trouble answering questions related to total and added sugars. Conclusions: Results suggest consumers may struggle to correctly utilize information on the updated NF label, specifically total and added sugars. Consumers may benefit from educational opportunities on using the new label.
Real-World Outcomes of Treating Advanced Breast Cancer Patients With Palbociclib: A Multicenter Retrospective Cohort Study in Japan—The KBCOG-14 Study
Authors: Odan Nina , Kikawa Yuichiro , Matsumoto Hajime , Minohata Junya , Suwa Hirofumi , Hashimoto Takashi , Okuno Toshitaka , Miyashita Masaru , Saito Masaru , Yamagami Kazuhiko , Takao Shintaro 
Published: December 2020

Background: Clinical studies have shown that palbociclib improves progression-free survival in hormone receptor–positive (HR+), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2–negative (HER2−) patients with advanced breast cancer (ABC). However, there are insufficient data on its use in a real-world setting in Japan. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness, predictive factors, and safety of palbociclib among Japanese patients in routine clinical practice. Methods: Between December 1, 2017, and April 30, 2019, we recruited patients from 9 hospitals and retrospectively evaluated the data on HR+/HER2− patients with ABC who received palbociclib for at least 1 week. The correlation between time-to-treatment discontinuation (TTD) and clinical background was investigated via univariate and multivariate analyses using Cox hazards models. Results: A total of 177 women were available for analysis. Of these patients, 58 (33%) patients were treated with palbociclib with an aromatase inhibitor and 117 (66%) patients were treated with palbociclib and a selective estrogen receptor degrader. Approximately three-fourths of the patients (n = 130, 73%) received palbociclib as third- or later-line therapy. One-third of the patients had 3 or more metastatic sites (n = 59, 33%), and one-third of the patients had liver metastasis (n = 59, 33%). The median follow-up duration at the time of data cutoff was 8.9 months, the median TTD was 6.3 months, and the median overall survival was not reached. Liver metastasis (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.54 [95% confidence interval {CI}: 1.03-2.27]), high serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) level (>300 U/L) (HR: 2.58 [95% CI: 1.49-4.26]), and high neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) (⩾3.0) (HR: 1.76 [95% CI: 1.13-2.69]) were significantly associated with shorter TTD. The most common hematologic adverse event was neutropenia, which occurred in 93% of the patients. Conclusion: Based on the results of the pivotal phase 3 trials, the median TTD recorded in this study was shorter than expected. Our results suggest that liver metastasis, serum LDH level, and NLR may be predictive factors for HR+/HER2− ABC treatment outcomes.
EMDR treatment for anxiety in MS patients: A pilot study
Authors: Wallis Olga C , de Vries Jolanda 
Published: December 2020

Background Patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) often experience high levels of anxiety, specifically about the (unpredictable) future related to MS. Worries about physical and cognitive declines can cause frightening mental representations of future ‘worst-case scenarios’. Evidence of the applicability of eye movement desensitization reprocessing (EMDR) using flash-forward on anxiety is growing. Objective This pilot study examines the flash-forward EMDR procedure as a treatment option in MS patients suffering from anxiety specifically related to future MS problems. Methods Eight MSpatients suffering from anxiety were treated with one to three sessions of EMDR with a flash-forward target. Treatment effects were evaluated with the use of questionnaires on anxiety, depression, worry, cognitive avoidance, and quality of life at three time points: pre-treatment, direct post-treatment, and three-month follow-up. Results Significant improvement was shown post-treatment compared to pre-treatment on anxiety, depression, and worry. In a case series analysis, all but one participant showed a clinically important difference in anxiety. Conclusion Before implementation on a larger scale can be recommended, the value of EMDR with flash forward targets for anxiety in MS need to be further examined. However, the positive results on this pilot can be seen as promising and motivation for future studies.
International Index of Erectile Functioning-5: A Critical Appraisal
Authors: Bilal Ahmad , Abbasi Najam ul Hasan 
Published: December 2020

Background: Some studies have reported methodological flaws and shortcomings in the International Index of Erectile Functioning-5 (IIEF-5) which is a self-report measure for the assessment of erectile dysfunction (ED). Aim: The aim of this research is to point out methodological flaws and shortcomings in IIEF-5 when used with Pakistani men. Settings and Design: Two independent clinical trials were run to assess the efficacy of different forms of treatment for ED in young Pakistani men. Materials and Methods: The IIEF-5 in Urdu version was employed to diagnose and assess the severity of ED in young men at 3 time points. Results and Conclusions: Several flaws and shortcomings were noted including the unidimensionality of the scale, categorization of the scale into severity categories based on cutoff points, the inability of the scale to differentiate between organic and nonorganic ED, double barrel item statement, and lack of standardized translation in local or regional languages of Pakistan. The validity of IIEF-5 can be increased if the above-mentioned flaws and shortcomings are addressed.
In silico ranking of phenolics for therapeutic effectiveness on cancer stem cells
Authors: Mandal Monalisa , Sahoo Sanjeeb Kumar , Patra Priyadarsan , Mallik Saurav , Zhao Zhongming 
Published: December 2020

AbstractBackgroundCancer stem cells (CSCs) have features such as the ability to self-renew, differentiate into defined progenies and initiate the tumor growth. Treatments of cancer include drugs, chemotherapy and radiotherapy or a combination. However, treatment of cancer by various therapeutic strategies often fail. One possible reason is that the nature of CSCs, which has stem-like properties, make it more dynamic and complex and may cause the therapeutic resistance. Another limitation is the side effects associated with the treatment of chemotherapy or radiotherapy. To explore better or alternative treatment options the current study aims to investigate the natural drug-like molecules that can be used as CSC-targeted therapy. Among various natural products, anticancer potential of phenolics is well established. We collected the 21 phytochemicals from phenolic group and their interacting CSC genes from the publicly available databases. Then a bipartite graph is constructed from the collected CSC genes along with their interacting phytochemicals from phenolic group as other. The bipartite graph is then transformed into weighted bipartite graph by considering the interaction strength between the phenolics and the CSC genes. The CSC genes are also weighted by two scores, namely, DSI (Disease Specificity Index) and DPI (Disease Pleiotropy Index). For each gene, its DSI score reflects the specific relationship with the disease and DPI score reflects the association with multiple diseases. Finally, a ranking technique is developed based on PageRank (PR) algorithm for ranking the phenolics.ResultsWe collected 21 phytochemicals from phenolic group and 1118 CSC genes. The top ranked phenolics were evaluated by their molecular and pharmacokinetics properties and disease association networks. We selected top five ranked phenolics (Resveratrol, Curcumin, Quercetin, Epigallocatechin Gallate, and Genistein) for further examination of their oral bioavailability through molecular properties, drug likeness through pharmacokinetic properties, and associated network with CSC genes.ConclusionOur PR ranking based approach is useful to rank the phenolics that are associated with CSC genes. Our results suggested some phenolics are potential molecules for CSC-related cancer treatment.
Fingerprint restoration using cubic Bezier curve
Authors: Tu Yanglin , Yao Zengwei , Xu Jiao , Liu Yilin , Zhang Zhe 
Published: December 2020

Abstract
Background
Fingerprint biometrics play an essential role in authentication. It remains a challenge to match fingerprints with the minutiae or ridges missing. Many fingerprints failed to match their targets due to the incompleteness.

Result
In this work, we modeled the fingerprints with Bezier curves and proposed a novel algorithm to detect and restore fragmented ridges in incomplete fingerprints. In the proposed model, the Bezier curves’ control points represent the fingerprint fragments, reducing the data size by 89% compared to image representations. The representation is lossless as the restoration from the control points fully recovering the image. Our algorithm can effectively restore incomplete fingerprints. In the SFinGe synthetic dataset, the fingerprint image matching score increased by an average of 39.54%, the ERR (equal error rate) is 4.59%, and the FMR1000 (false match rate) is 2.83%, these are lower than 6.56% (ERR) and 5.93% (FMR1000) before restoration. In FVC2004 DB1 real fingerprint dataset, the average matching score increased by 13.22%. The ERR reduced from 8.46% before restoration to 7.23%, and the FMR1000 reduced from 20.58 to 18.01%. Moreover, We assessed the proposed algorithm against FDP-M-net and U-finger in SFinGe synthetic dataset, where FDP-M-net and U-finger are both convolutional neural network models. The results show that the average match score improvement ratio of FDP-M-net is 1.39%, U-finger is 14.62%, both of which are lower than 39.54%, yielded by our algorithm.

Conclusions
Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can successfully repair and reconstruct ridges in single or multiple damaged regions of incomplete fingerprint images, and hence improve the accuracy of fingerprint matching.
Effect of APOE ε4 on multimodal brain connectomic traits: a persistent homology study
Authors:   for the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, Li Jin , Bian Chenyuan , Chen Dandan , Meng Xianglian , Luo Haoran , Liang Hong , Shen Li 
Published: December 2020

Abstract
Background
Although genetic risk factors and network-level neuroimaging abnormalities have shown effects on cognitive performance and brain atrophy in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), little is understood about how apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 allele, the best-known genetic risk for AD, affect brain connectivity before the onset of symptomatic AD. This study aims to investigate APOE ε4 effects on brain connectivity from the perspective of multimodal connectome.

Results
Here, we propose a novel multimodal brain network modeling framework and a network quantification method based on persistent homology for identifying APOE ε4-related network differences. Specifically, we employ sparse representation to integrate multimodal brain network information derived from both the resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data and the diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (dw-MRI) data. Moreover, persistent homology is proposed to avoid the ad hoc selection of a specific regularization parameter and to capture valuable brain connectivity patterns from the topological perspective. The experimental results demonstrate that our method outperforms the competing methods, and reasonably yields connectomic patterns specific to APOE ε4 carriers and non-carriers.

Conclusions
We have proposed a multimodal framework that integrates structural and functional connectivity information for constructing a fused brain network with greater discriminative power. Using persistent homology to extract topological features from the fused brain network, our method can effectively identify APOE ε4-related brain connectomic biomarkers.