bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Treatment for Lumbar Disc Herniation With Spinal Stenosisto Using Unilateral Biportal Endoscopy Technique: a Retrospective Study
Authors: Shen Baojie , Pan Xuwei , Ruan Di , Dai Danfeng , Qian Xiaoliang , Zhang Miaolin , Zhu Yipeng , Gao Zhichao 
Published: January 2021

Abstract
Background: This paper is to describe Unilateral biportal endoscopy (UBE) in the treatment of lumbar disc herniation with spinal stenosis and to investigate the efficacy and safety of unilateral biportal endoscopy in the treatment of this kind of lumbar disc herniation with spinal stenosis in elderly patients. Method: Retrospective analysis of clinical and radiological data of patients receiving UBE or PEID treatment at the First People's Hospital of Yuhang District, Hangzhou, China, from July 2018 to June 2020 was performed. Result: The operation time of the UBE group was better than that of the PEID group (P<0.05). Based on the comparative analysis between the two groups, both the ODI score and the pain index were not statistically significant (P>0.05) but the intra-group comparison before and after the treatment was statistically significant (P<0.05). No marked intraoperative and postoperative complications occurred in the UBE group. In the PEID group, one patient developed transient pain in the lower extremities 3 days after surgery, while another patient developed numbness and discomfort in the lower extremities. Both groups were treated conservatively and recovered. During the follow-up, there were no serious adverse events that required another operation. Conclusion: UBE technology can achieve the same clinical effects as percutaneous endoscopic technology in the treatment of LDH with spinal stenosis. UBE technology is easy to apply during operation. For surgical instruments, UBE can not only use special instruments for endoscopes but also relaxes the conditions for application and use of open surgical instruments. During the operation, the operation is more effective and safe, and the learning curve is milder than that of the percutaneous endoscopic technique, which can be used as one of the options for surgical treatment of LDH and spinal stenosis in the future.
Phylogenetic Comparison and Splicing Analysis of U1 snRNP-specific Protein U1C in Eukaryotes
Authors: Chen Mo-Xian , Zhang Kai-Lu , Zhou Jian-Li , Yang Jing-Fang , Zhao Yu-Zhen , Debatosh Das , Hao Ge-Fei , Wu Caie , Zhang Jianhua , Zhu Fu-Yuan , Zhou Shao-Ming 
Published: January 2021

Abstract
As a pivotal regulator of 5’ splice site recognition, the U1 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein (U1 snRNP)-specific protein C (U1C) regulates pre-mRNA splicing by interacting with other components of U1 snRNP complex. Previous studies have shown that U1 snRNP and its components are linked to variety of diseases including cancer. However, phylogenetic relationship and expression profiles of U1C have not been studied systematically. To this end, we identified a total of 110 animal U1C genes and compared to the homologs from yeast and plants. Bioinformatics analysis shows that the structure and function of U1C proteins is relatively conserved, and is found in multiple copies in few members of U1C genes family. Furthermore, expression pattern showed that U1Cs have potential role in cancer progression and human development. In summary, our study presents a comprehensive overview of animal U1C gene family, which can provide fundamental data and potential cues for further research in deciphering the molecular function of this splicing regulator.
Disparity in Health-Related Quality of Life Between Kidney Transplant Recipients and Hemodialysis Patients, and Related Implications for Physical Rehabilitation: A Cross-Sectional Study
Authors: Sarhan Adnan L , Jarareh Raya H , Shraim Mujahed 
Published: January 2021

Abstract
Background: Health related quality of life (HRQOL) is an important indicator of medical treatment and is a strong predictor of disability and mortality. The literature has shown mixed evidence about whether kidney transplantation improves HRQOL compared with other renal replacement modalities. The aim of this study was to compare the HRQOL in kidney transplant recipients (KTRs) and hemodialysis (HD) patients. Methods: A cross-sectional study of 100 KTRs and 272 HD patients from two central kidney units in West Bank, Palestine. The HRQOL was assessed using the Short Form-36 Health Survey. Multivariable linear regression was used to estimate differences in mean HRQOL scores between KTRs and HD patients.Results: After accounting for sociodemographic variables, KTRs had higher clinically important differences than HD patients in HRQOL mean scores in role-physical, bodily pain, general health, vitality, social functioning, role-emotional, mental health, physical and mental component summaries ranging from 15.5 points for social functioning (95% CI 10.1, 20.7) to 34.3 points for general health (95% CI 28.7, 39.9). However, unexpectedly, KTRs had significantly lower HRQOL physical functioning than HD patients by 24.5 points (95% CI 18.7, 29.9). Conclusions: Kidney transplantation is associated with important improvements in most aspects of HRQOL but also with noticeably poor physical functioning. HRQOL among KTRs should be routinely measured and closely monitored in clinical settings. KTRs should be encouraged to participate in individually tailored physical exercise programs. Identification and elimination of barriers to physical functioning may improve HRQOL and prevent premature mortality among KTRs.
Prediction of Needle Chlorophyll Model with Different Leaf Ages Based on BP Neural Network and PLSR
Authors: wang yiheng , Wen Zhe , Sun Kun , Xu Yanhong , Wei Jinhua 
Published: January 2021

Abstract
BackgroundTo explore the changes of chlorophyll content in needles of different leaf ages of Picea koraiensis Nakai of different specifications, the study compared the prediction accuracy changes of chlorophyll in needles of Picea koraiensis Nakai by two modeling methods: the BP neural network and partial least squares regression (PLSR) methods. The effects of different spectral pre-processing and characteristic band selection methods on the performance accuracy of the model were tested, and the optimal combination model was selected to predict forest growth status and community structure productivity through the physiological and biochemical characteristics of needles at different leaf ages. Results1) the spectral pre-processing method could avoid systematic errors and eliminate background values; 2) the accuracy of the needle chlorophyll fitting model with different leaf ages was much higher than that of mixed needle chlorophyll model, verifying that needle chlorophyll with different leaf ages could better estimate the annual growth and examine the growth status of Picea koraiensis Nakai; 3) the accuracy of the BP neural network model was significantly higher than that of the PLSR model, with its R 2 above 0.95, and the validation set’s R 2 above 0.86; and 4) the fitting accuracy of different leaf age needle chlorophyll models of the spectral pre-processing model, variable selection model, PLSR model and BP neural network: triennial needles > annual and biennial needles. ConclusionsThe BP neural network method was more accurate than the PLSR method in predicting pigment content model. In the process of model fitting, it was found that the pigment model fitted by fine classification of needles improves the accuracy of the model, which provides the basis and theoretical support for the establishment of the model by combining remote sensing technology with stoichiometry methods in the future.
Economic incentives and survival probabilities for chronic and multimorbidity patients - Do the relationships depend on patient pathways?
Authors: Islam M. Kamrul , Kjerstad Egil , Askildsen Jan Erik 
Published: January 2021

Abstract
Background: The Norwegian Coordination Reform (CR) in 2012 introduced new economic incentives aimed at weaknesses in interaction between primary care, social care and specialist care. This paper studies the association of a new co-payment scheme on the 30-day and 90-day survival probabilities for chronic and multimorbidity patients. We also analyse whether admission types ⸺planned or emergency⸺ matters for survival rates, and the importance of patient pathways. Several different pathways are possible, depending on where patients came from before being admitted to hospital and their destination after discharge from hospital. Methods: The study uses data from three different registers for the period 2010 to 2013. We consider 30 common chronic conditions for which administrative data are available (n=563,096 in-patient episodes). We look at three mutually exclusive pathways. They are relevant and important in terms of the number of patients depending on co-operation and co-ordination between health care providers. Using a quasi-experimental design—the difference-in-differences approach—we estimate the associations between the co-payment scheme and survival probability by admission type and by patient pathway.Results: Overall, the changes in survival probabilities are found positively and significantly associated with the co-payment scheme. For emergency admissions such a significant positive association is observed for the 30-day survival only, whereas, for planned admissions a significant positive relationship is evident for the 90-day survival only. Pathway-specific results indicate positive and significant associations with survival probabilities (both the 30-and 90-day) for all admissions and emergency admissions for two specific pathways. Multimorbidity subgroup analysis generally shows no significant relationship with survival probabilities, but pathway-specific analyses show significant positive associations between emergency admissions and the 90-day survival for patients following two specific pathways. However, for planned admissions we find a significant negative association with the 30-day survival for multimorbidity patients following one specific pathway.Conclusion: We conclude that the survival probabilities are positively associated with the new economic incentives but the result depends on admission type, patient pathway and multimorbidity status. Without modelling admission type, pathway and multimorbidity explicitly, one may overlook important relationships associated with the economic incentives. Future policy evaluations in any pertinent context should envisage these aspects.
Study protocol for a multicentre, randomised controlled trial of the external use of mirabilite to prevent pancreatitis in children after endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography.
Authors: Deng Zhaohui , Gong Biao , Yang Kaihua , Zeng Jingqing , Lv Chan , Ji Jianmei , Li Xingjia , Gu Zhijian , Zhang Weituo 
Published: January 2021

Abstract
Background

Acute pancreatitis is the most common complication of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) in children. To date, there is no suitable medicine for post-ERCP pancreatitis prophylaxis in children and few study has prospectively evaluated an intervention to prevent post-ERCP pancreatitis in children. Mirabilite, a well-known traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) has good therapeutic effects on acute pancreatitis and no side effect for children by basic research and clinical studies. Our protocol is designed to assess the efficacy and safety of the external use of mirabilite to prevent post-ERCP pancreatitis in children.
Methods/design:

520 patients planned for diagnostic and therapeutic ERCP will be enrolled according to the eligibility criteria‎. The patients will be randomly divided into two equal groups (Mirabilite and control, the external use of mirabilite in a bag on the projected abdominal area over the pancreas within 30 min before ERCP). The primary end point is incidence of post-ERCP pancreatitis. Secondary end points include abdominal pain scores, the levels of inflammatory markers [tissue necrosis factor (TNF)-α, IL-6, and IL-8] and intestinal barrier function markers (diamine oxidase, D-lactic acid, and endotoxin). Additionally, the side effects of topical mirabilite is investigated.
Conclusion

This trial would be the first experiment to determine mirabilite to prevent post-ERCP pancreatitis in children. Mirabilite maybe provide potential clinical benefits and a new avenue with tremendous potential for the future preventing of post-ERCP pancreatitis.
Trial registration number:

ChiCTR1900022642. Registered on 19 April 2019- Retrospectively registered, http://www.chictr.org.cn.
Clinical characteristics and outcomes of hepatitis B virus carriers infected with COVID-19 at the Jinyintan hospital in WuHan, China
Authors: Lu Jingjing , Hu Mu , Zhou Xia , Zhu Hui , Wang Feilong , Huang Jianhao , Guo Zhongliang , Li Qiang , Yin Qi , Yang Zhifeng 
Published: January 2021

Abstract
Background: Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) is a novel infectious disease that was earliest reported in Wuhan, China, but has been later discovered everywhere in the world. On the other hand, Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is ubiquitous in China; having millions of HBV carriers, HBV infection has become a major problem of public health in China. In this study, we aim to describe the clinical features of HBV carriers infected with COVID-19 and to assess factors that may affect the progression and outcome of the disease.Methods: 72 patients diagnosed as infected with both COVID-19 and HBV at the Jinyintan Hospital of Wuhan have been involved in this study. Epidemiological characteristics, demographic features, clinical manifestations, laboratory test, treatment, management and final outcomes of these patients were collected and analyzed.Results: Among all 72 patients (40 male and 32 female, with a median age of 58.5 years old), 22 (30.56%) were diagnosed as severe cases and 50 (69.44%) non-severe cases. Fever is the most common symptom, followed by cough, chest tightness and sputum. Significant differences have been observed in the outcomes of laboratory tests including hematologic, biochemical, infection and coagulation parameters, and in indicators like Aspartate Aminotransferase (AST), Alanine Aminotransferase (ALT), Total Bilirubin (TBil), Direct Bilirubin (DBil), Indirect Bilirubin (IBil) and γ-glutamyl Transferase (GGT) at the admission and discharge of these patients. Especially, levels of Prealbumin (PA) and Serum Amyloid A (SAA) showed an obvious trend of decreasing, which is statistically significant.Conclusions: The clinical features of HBV carriers infected with COVID-19 have obvious systemic symptoms, such as fever, cough, and chest tightness. By comparing their liver functions tested on the dates of admission and discharge, we found that the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, does not directly activate the Hepatitis B virus, so that the risk of liver cell damage for HBV carriers infected with COVID-19 does not increase. Both PA and SAA seem to work as sensitive indicators and can be used to evaluate the prognosis and outcome of these patients.
Genome-wide identification of AP2/EREBP in Fragaria vesca and expression pattern analysis of the FvDREB subfamily under drought stress
Authors: Dong Chao , Xi Yue , Chen Xinlu , Cheng Zong-Ming (Max) 
Published: January 2021

Abstract
Background: Drought is a common phenomenon worldwide. It is also one of the main abiotic factors that affect the growth and quality of strawberry. The dehydration-responsive element binding protein (DREB) members that belong to the APETALA2/ethylene-responsive element binding protein (AP2/EREBP) superfamily are unique transcription factors in plants that play important roles in the abiotic stress response.Results: Here, a total of 119 AP2/EREBP genes were identified in Fragaria vesca, and the AP2/EREBP superfamily was divided into AP2, RAV, ERF, DREB, and soloist subfamilies, containing 18, 7, 61, 32, and one member(s), respectively. The DREB subfamily was further divided into six subgroups (A-1 to A-6) based on phylogenetic analysis. Gene structure, conserved motifs, chromosomal location, and synteny analysis were conducted to comprehensively investigate the characteristics of FvDREBs. Furthermore, transcriptome analysis revealed distinctive expression patterns among the FvDREB genes in strawberry plants exposed to drought stress. The expression of FvDREB6 of the A-2 subgroup was down-regulated in old leaves and up-regulated in young leaves in response to drought. Furthermore, qRT-PCR analysis found that FvDREB8 from the A-2 subgroup had the highest expression level under drought stress. Together, analyses with the expression pattern, phylogenetic relationship, motif, and promoter suggest that FvDREB18 may play a critical role in the regulation of FvDREB1 and FvDREB2 expression.Conclusions: Our findings provide new insights into the characteristics and potential functions of FvDREBs. These FvDREB genes should be further studied as they appear to be excellent candidates for drought tolerance improvement of strawberry.
Classroom Student Posture Recognition Based on an Improved High-Resolution Network
Authors: Zhang Yiwen , Zhu Tao , Ning Huansheng , Liu Zhenyu 
Published: January 2021

Abstract
Due to the large number of students in a university classroom and crowded seat-ing, most features of student posture are typically obscured, making it difficult to balance accuracy in identifying students' postures with computational speed. To solve these problems, a classroom student posture recognition method is pro-posed in this article. First, because we must recognize the poses of multiple peo-ple in the classroom, we use the you-only-look-once (YOLOv3) algorithm for object detection and retrain it to detect human objects that are hunching on a table, creating the pose estimation network. Then, to improve the accuracy of the pose estimation network, we use the squeeze-and-excitation network (SENet) structure that is embedded in the residual structure of high-resolution networks (HRNet). Finally, using the improved HRNet algorithm output of key human body points, we design a pose classification algorithm based on a support vector machine (SVM), which is used to classify human poses in the classroom. Experiments show that the improved HRNet multi-person pose estimation algorithm yields the best mean average precision (mAP) performance of 73.76 points in the common objects in context (COCO) validation dataset. We tested the proposed posture classification algorithm using a custom dataset collected in a classroom and were able to achieve a high recognition rate (90.1%) and robustness. Thus, the pro-posed method can effectively measure student postures.
Analysis SARS-CoV-2 Genomes of G20 Areas on Phylogeny Tree, t-SNE based on Machine Learning
Authors: Liu Renyang , Qiao Mu , Alima  , Zheng Jeffrey , Zhou Wei 
Published: January 2021

Abstract
The new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) broke out earlier in Wuhan, and the plague spread rapidly from multiple resources of different countries. COVID-19 has caused millions of diagnosed people worldwide, causing many deaths and posing a severe threat to public health in countries around the world. Facing this urgent situation, in-depth research on the emerging SARS-CoV-2 to understand the related pathogenic mechanism and epidemiological characteristics is urgent. This type of activity would be useful to determine its origin to formulate effective prevention and treatment strategies for affected patients.This paper adopts t-SNE based on machine learning to draw a phylogenetic tree from collected genomic sequences to analyze G20 countries’ samples. The phylogenetic tree of the generating mechanism was described, and intermediate results were illustrated. The results of this research showed that viruses in many countries have similar or similar relationships among the gene sequences.
Experimental study on the selection of common adsorption substrates for extensive green roofs (EGRs)
Authors: Xu Chen , Liu Zaohong , Cai Guanjun , Zhan Jian 
Published: January 2021

Abstract
Adsorption substrate in the substrate layer of an extensive green roof (EGR) is one of the most important factors affecting rainwater retention and pollution interception capacity. However, the contact time between runoff and adsorption substrate is extremely short in actual rainfall, and adsorption substrate cannot show fully rainwater retention and pollution interception capacity. So, selection of adsorption substrate based on its physical properties and theoretical adsorption capacity is unreliable. In this study, eight commonly-used adsorption substrate experimental devices are constructed with the same configuration. The delayed outflow time and runoff reduction rate of each device, along with event measurement concentration (EMC), average EMC, and cumulative pollutant quantity of SS, ammonium (NH4+), nitrate (NO3−), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) in each device outflow under nine simulated rainfall events are measured and evaluated. The results indicate that vermiculite has a significant interception effect on NH4+ and TP with the advantages of low bulk density, high porosity, low cost, and a good rainfall runoff retention capacity under torrential rain and downpour events. In future practical engineering and related studies of EGR, attention should be paid to ameliorating the deficiencies of the adsorption substrates and optimizing their synergistic effects when combined with nutrient substrates.
Review on Structural Trends and Chemotaxonomical Aspects of Pharmacologically Evaluated Flavonoids
Authors: Zouaoui Sana , Farman Muhammad , Semmar Nabil 
Published: January 2021

Introduction:
This work provides statistical analyses of bibliographic data on pharmacologically
evaluated flavonoids from different plant families. By opposition to structural elucidations
benefitting from full data aspects, pharmacological evaluations are concerned with partial investigations
resulting in sparse information.

Methods:
The limited data availability was overcome by extensive consideration of several small
sets of pharmacologically evaluated flavonoids in several plant taxa, alternatively to the traditional
intensive analysis of big dataset of a given metabolic family in a given plant taxon. Statistical analyses
were carried out using correspondence analysis, cluster analysis, box plots and fisher exact test
to highlight structure-structure, structure-plant and structure-activity trends.

Results:
Different aglycone types showed opposite trends between hydroxylation (flavonols, anthocyanidins,
flavanols), and methoxylation (isoflavones, isoflavanes, neoflavones). Moreover, different
carbons showed differential substitution levels in different aglycones: C3 in flavonols, C6, C8
in flavones, flavonols, C2’ in flavanones, C6’ in isoflavanes. Plant families were well differentiated
by different relative occurrences of aglycones: flavones in Lamiaceae, flavanones in Rutaceae,
neoflavones in Rubiaceae, flavonols in Asteraceae, isoflavones in Fabaceae. Relatively more hydroxylated
flavonoids occurred in Asteraceae, Lamiaceae and Fabaceae vs. more methoxylated
ones in Rutaceae and Rubiaceae. Concerning structure-activity trends, flavanols and isoflavones
were relatively more concerned with anti-diabetic and anti-inflammatory activities, respectively,
vs. balanced distribution of flavones. Anti-inflammatory activity showed significant association
with substitution position of same chemical groups (OH, OCH3), whereas anti-diabetic activity was
revealed to be mainly influenced by the type of chemical groups (positive effect of OH and glycosyls).

Conclusion:
These results call for regular updates and further investigations.