bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Modified commando procedure in complicated infective endocarditis ─ a case series
Authors: Chen Posung , Chang Chungyi , Chuang Yicheng , Chen Ichen , Lin Tingchao 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
Background
Complicated infective endocarditis (IE) with perivalvular abscess and destruction of intervalvular fibrous body (IFB) has high mortality risk and requires emergent or urgent surgery mostly.

Case presentation
We presented four patients with complicated infective endocarditis combined with perivalvular abscess and IFB destruction. Three patients had prosthetic valve endocarditis and one patient had native valve endocarditis. They all received modified Commando procedure successfully. No surgical mortality or re-exploration for bleeding.

Conclusions
We suggest that modified Commando procedure may have some benefit in improving survival rate of patients with complicated IE and reducing complications.
Cost-of-illness studies in rare diseases: a scoping review
Authors: García-Pérez Lidia , Linertová Renata , Valcárcel-Nazco Cristina , Posada Manuel , Gorostiza Inigo , Serrano-Aguilar Pedro 
Published: April 2021

AbstractObjectiveThe aim of this scoping review was to overview the cost-of-illness studies conducted in rare diseases.MethodsWe searched papers published in English in PubMed from January 2007 to December 2018. We selected cost-of-illness studies on rare diseases defined as those with prevalence lower than 5 per 10,000 cases. Studies were selected by one researcher and verified by a second researcher. Methodological characteristics were extracted to develop a narrative synthesis.ResultsWe included 63 cost-of-illness studies on 42 rare diseases conducted in 25 countries, and 9 systematic reviews. Most studies (94%) adopted a prevalence-based estimation, where the predominant design was cross-sectional with a bottom-up approach. Only four studies adopted an incidence-based estimation. Most studies used questionnaires to patients or caregivers to collect resource utilisation data (67%) although an important number of studies used databases or registries as a source of data (48%). Costs of lost productivity, non-medical costs and informal care costs were included in 68%, 60% and 43% of studies, respectively.ConclusionThis review found a paucity of cost-of-illness studies in rare diseases. However, the analysis shows that the cost-of-illness studies of rare diseases are feasible, although the main issue is the lack of primary and/or aggregated data that often prevents a reliable estimation of the economic burden.
Negative drift of sedation depth in critically ill patients receiving constant minimum alveolar concentration of isoflurane, sevoflurane, or desflurane: a randomized controlled trial
Authors: Georgevici Adrian-Iustin , Kyprianou Theodoros , Herzog-Niescery Jennifer , Procopiuc Livia , Loganathan Sivakkanan , Weber Thomas Peter , Bellgardt Martin 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
Background
Intensive care unit (ICU) physicians have extended the minimum alveolar concentration (MAC) to deliver and monitor long-term volatile sedation in critically ill patients. There is limited evidence of MAC’s reliability in controlling sedation depth in this setting. We hypothesized that sedation depth, measured by the electroencephalography (EEG)-derived Narcotrend-Index (burst-suppression N_Index 0—awake N_Index 100), might drift downward over time despite constant MAC values.

Methods
This prospective single-centre randomized clinical study was conducted at a University Hospital Surgical Intensive Care Unit and included consecutive, postoperative ICU patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria. Patients were randomly assigned to receive uninterrupted inhalational sedation with isoflurane, sevoflurane, or desflurane. The end-expiratory concentration of the anaesthetics and the EEG-derived index were measured continuously in time-stamped pairs. Sedation depth was also monitored using Richmond-Agitation-Sedation-Scale (RASS). The paired t-test and linear models (bootstrapped or multilevel) have been employed to analyze MAC,
N_Index and RASS across the three groups.

Results
Thirty patients were recruited (female/male: 10/20, age 64 ± 11, Simplified Acute Physiology Score II 30 ± 10). In the first 24 h, 21.208 pairs of data points (N_Index and MAC) were recorded. The median MAC of 0.58 ± 0.06 remained stable over the sedation time in all three groups. The t-test indicated in the isoflurane and sevoflurane groups a significant drop in RASS and EEG-derived N_Index in the first versus last two sedation hours. We applied a multilevel linear model on the entire longitudinal data, nested per patient, which produced the formula N_Index = 43 − 0.7·h (R2 = 0.76), showing a strong negative correlation between sedation’s duration and the N_Index. Bootstrapped linear models applied for each sedation group produced: N_Index of 43–0.9, 45–0.8, and 43–0.4·h for isoflurane, sevoflurane, and desflurane, respectively. The regression coefficient for desflurane was almost half of those for isoflurane and sevoflurane, indicating a less pronounced time-effect in this group.

Conclusions
Maintaining constant MAC does not guarantee stable sedation depth. Thus, the patients necessitate frequent clinical assessments or, when unfeasible, continuous EEG monitoring. The differences across different volatile anaesthetics regarding their time-dependent negative drift requires further exploration.
Trial registration: NCT03860129.
PD-L1 lncRNA splice isoform promotes lung adenocarcinoma progression via enhancing c-Myc activity
Authors: Qu Shuang , Jiao Zichen , Lu Geng , Yao Bing , Wang Ting , Rong Weiwei , Xu Jiahan , Fan Ting , Sun Xinlei , Yang Rong , Wang Jun , Yao Yongzhong , Xu Guifang , Yan Xin , Wang Tao , Liang Hongwei , Zen Ke 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
Background
Although using a blockade of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) to enhance T cell immune responses shows great promise in tumor immunotherapy, the immune-checkpoint inhibition strategy is limited for patients with solid tumors. The mechanism and efficacy of such immune-checkpoint inhibition strategies in solid tumors remains unclear.

Results
Employing qRT-PCR, Sanger sequencing, and RNA BaseScope analysis, we show that human lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) all produce a long non-coding RNA isoform of PD-L1 (PD-L1-lnc) by alternative splicing, regardless if the tumor is positive or negative for the protein PD-L1. Similar to PD-L1 mRNA, PD-L1-lnc in various lung adenocarcinoma cells is significantly upregulated by IFNγ. Both in vitro and in vivo studies demonstrate that PD-L1-lnc increases proliferation and invasion but decreases apoptosis of lung adenocarcinoma cells. Mechanistically, PD-L1-lnc promotes lung adenocarcinoma progression through directly binding to c-Myc and enhancing c-Myc transcriptional activity.

Conclusions
In summary, the PD-L1 gene can generate a long non-coding RNA through alternative splicing to promote lung adenocarcinoma progression by enhancing c-Myc activity. Our results argue in favor of investigating PD-L1-lnc depletion in combination with PD-L1 blockade in lung cancer therapy.
Hdac1 and Hdac2 are essential for physiological maturation of a Cx3cr1 expressing subset of T-lymphocytes
Authors: Datta Moumita , Staszewski Ori 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
Objective
Histone acetylation is an important mechanism in the regulation of gene expression and plays a crucial role in both cellular development and cellular response to external or internal stimuli. One key aspect of this form of regulation is that acetylation marks can be added and removed from sites of regulation very quickly through the activity of histone acetyltransferases (HATs) and histone deacetylases (HDACs). The activity of both HATs and HDACs has been shown to be important for both physiological hematopoiesis as well as during development of hematological neoplasia, such as lymphomas. In the present study we analyzed the effect of knockout of the two HDACs, Hdac1 and Hdac2 in cells expressing the fractalkine receptor (Cx3cr1) on lymphocyte development.

Results
We report data showing a maturation defect in mice harboring a Cx3cr1 dependent knockout of Hdac1 and 2. Furthermore, we report that these mice develop a T-cell neoplasia at about 4–5 months of age, suggesting that a Cx3cr1 expressing subpopulation of immature T-cells gives rise to T-cell lymphomas in the combined absence of Hdac1 and Hdac2.
Disparities and interventions in the timeliness of endometrial cancer diagnosis and treatment in the United States: a scoping review protocol
Authors: Najor Anna J. , Dao Dyda , Bakkum-Gamez Jamie N. , Sherman Mark E. , Connor Avonne E. , Destephano Christopher C. 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
Background
Disparities in the stage at diagnosis of endometrial cancer (EC) account for a significant proportion of the disparities in morbidity and mortality experienced by vulnerable groups in the USA. Evidence suggests that disparities in timeliness of care and treatment play a significant role in stage at diagnosis. Despite an increase in literature on EC disparities, the issue remains largely unchanged. The objectives of this review will be to synthesize the evidence to identify important remaining research questions and inform future interventions to reduce the disparity in stage at diagnosis of EC in the USA.

Methods
This scoping review protocol will use the five-step framework developed by Arksey and O’Malley. A literature search will be conducted from January 2000 onwards in PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, and Cochrane CENTRAL databases. Studies on delays in care of EC will be included if they were published in English and reported findings for the US population. Two reviewers will independently screen all citations, full-text articles, and abstract data. The study methodological quality and bias will be appraised using appropriate tools. A narrative summary of findings will be conducted. Data analysis will involve quantitative (e.g., frequencies) and qualitative (e.g., content and thematic analysis) methods. The literature search, data extraction, and evidence synthesis will be informed by the Pathway to Treatment Model, which divides time to cancer care initiation into appraisal, help-seeking, diagnostic, and pre-treatment intervals. Results will be reported in accordance with the PRISMA statement.

Discussion
EC disparities research is currently benefitting form a growing expectation that studies have a real impact on disparities. Patient, healthcare, and disease factors impact the amount of time patients spend in different intervals of the Pathway to Treatment Model, so research and interventions aimed at reducing disparities in EC survival should be designed with cognizance to how these factors impact their target population. Reviews on disparities in stage at diagnosis of EC exist but do not provide a comprehensive picture of the pathway to treatment. This review will seek to provide an expanded bedrock of evidence for future studies to build on as they aim to more actively reduce EC disparities.

Trial registration
Open Science Framework (osf.io/v2zxy).
Certain new proportional and Hadamard proportional fractional integral inequalities
Authors: Rahman Gauhar , Nisar Kottakkaran Sooppy , Abdeljawad Thabet 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThe main goal of this paper is estimating certain new fractional integral inequalities for the extended Chebyshev functional in the sense of synchronous functions by employing proportional fractional integral (PFI) and Hadamard proportional fractional integral. We establish certain inequalities concerning one- and two-parameter proportional and Hadamard proportional fractional integrals. We also discuss certain particular cases.
A note on two-term exponential sum and the reciprocal of the quartic Gauss sums
Authors: Zhang Wenpeng , Lv Xingxing 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThe main purpose of this article is by using the properties of the fourth character modulo a prime p and the analytic methods to study the calculating problem of a certain hybrid power mean involving the two-term exponential sums and the reciprocal of quartic Gauss sums, and to give some interesting calculating formulae of them.
Sustainable forest biomass: a review of current residue harvesting guidelines
Authors: Titus Brian D. , Brown Kevin , Helmisaari Heljä-Sisko , Vanguelova Elena , Stupak Inge , Evans Alexander , Clarke Nicholas , Guidi Claudia , Bruckman Viktor J. , Varnagiryte-Kabasinskiene Iveta , Armolaitis Kęstutis , de Vries Wim , Hirai Keizo , Kaarakka Lilli , Hogg Karen , Reece Pam 
Published: April 2021

AbstractForest biomass harvesting guidelines help ensure the ecological sustainability of forest residue harvesting for bioenergy and bioproducts, and hence contribute to social license for a growing bioeconomy. Guidelines, typically voluntary, provide a means to achieve outcomes often required by legislation, and must address needs related to local or regional context, jurisdictional compatibility with regulations, issues of temporal and spatial scale, and incorporation of appropriate scientific information. Given this complexity, comprehensive reviews of existing guidelines can aid in development of new guidelines or revision of existing ones. We reviewed 32 guidelines covering 43 jurisdictions in the USA, Canada, Europe and East Asia to expand upon information evaluated and recommendations provided in previous guideline reviews, and compiled a searchable spreadsheet of direct quotations from documents as a foundation for our review. Guidelines were considered in the context of sustainable forest management (SFM), focusing on guideline scope and objectives, environmental sustainability concerns (soils, site productivity, biodiversity, water and carbon) and social concerns (visual aesthetics, recreation, and preservation of cultural, historical and archaeological sites). We discuss the role of guidelines within the context of other governance mechanisms such as SFM policies, trade regulations and non-state market-driven (NSMD) standards, including certification systems. The review provides a comprehensive resource for those developing guidelines, or defining sustainability standards for market access or compliance with public regulations, and/or concerned about the sustainability of forest biomass harvesting. We recommend that those developing or updating guidelines consider (i) the importance of well-defined and understood terminology, consistent where possible with guidelines in other jurisdictions or regions; (ii) guidance based on locally relevant research, and periodically updated to incorporate current knowledge and operational experience; (iii) use of indicators of sensitive soils, sites, and stands which are relevant to ecological processes and can be applied operationally; and (iv) incorporation of climate impacts, long-term soil carbon storage, and general carbon balance considerations when defining sustainable forest biomass availability. Successful implementation of guidelines depends both on the relevance of the information and on the process used to develop and communicate it; hence, appropriate stakeholders should be involved early in guideline development.
Modified PCR protocol to increase sensitivity for determination of bacterial community composition
Authors: Williamson Kayla M. , Wagner Brandie D. , Robertson Charles E. , Stevens Mark J. , Sontag Marci K. , Mourani Peter M. , Harris J. Kirk 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
Background
The objective of this project was to increase the sensitivity of sequence-based bacterial community determination without impacting community composition or interfering with cluster formation during sequencing. Two PCR protocols (standard and modified) were examined in airway samples where we observed a large range in bacterial load (3.1–6.2 log10 16S rRNA gene copies/reaction). Tracheal aspirate (TA) samples (n = 99) were collected from sixteen children requiring mechanical ventilation at a single center. DNA was extracted, and total bacterial load (TBL) was assessed using qPCR. Amplification of 16S rRNA was attempted with both protocols in all samples.

Results
PCR product was observed using both protocols in 52 samples and in 24 additional samples only with the modified protocol. TBL, diversity metrics, and prominent taxa were compared for samples in three groups based on success of the two protocols (successful with both, success with modified only, unsuccessful for both). TBL differed significantly across the three groups (p<0.001). Specifically, the modified protocol allowed amplification from samples with intermediate TBL. Shannon diversity was similar between the two protocols, and Morisita-Horn beta diversity index showed high agreement between the two protocols within samples (median value 0.9997, range 0.9947 to 1). We show that both protocols identify similar communities, and the technical variability of both protocols was very low. The use of limited PCR cycles was a key feature to limit impact of background by exclusion of 24% of samples with no evidence of bacterial DNA present in the sample.

Conclusion
The modified amplification protocol represents a viable approach that increased sensitivity of bacterial community analysis, which is important for study of the human airway microbiome where bacterial load is highly variable.
Microvascularized tumor organoids-on-chips: advancing preclinical drug screening with pathophysiological relevance
Authors: Lim Jungeun , Ching Hanna , Yoon Jeong-Kee , Jeon Noo Li , Kim YongTae 
Published: April 2021

AbstractRecent developments of organoids engineering and organ-on-a-chip microfluidic technologies have enabled the recapitulation of the major functions and architectures of microscale human tissue, including tumor pathophysiology. Nevertheless, there remain challenges in recapitulating the complexity and heterogeneity of tumor microenvironment. The integration of these engineering technologies suggests a potential strategy to overcome the limitations in reconstituting the perfusable microvascular system of large-scale tumors conserving their key functional features. Here, we review the recent progress of in vitro tumor-on-a-chip microfluidic technologies, focusing on the reconstruction of microvascularized organoid models to suggest a better platform for personalized cancer medicine.
Acute presentation of cocoon abdomen as septic peritonitis mimicking with strangulated internal herniation: a case report
Authors: Saqib Sabah Uddin , Farooq Rimsha , Saleem Omair , Moeen Sarosh , Chawla Tabish Umer 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
Background
Abdominal cocoon syndrome is a rare cause of intestinal obstruction in which loops of small bowel get entrapped inside a fibro-collagenous membrane. Condition is also known in the literature as sclerosing peritonitis and in the majority of cases, it has no known cause. Although the majority of patients exhibit long-standing signs and symptoms of partial bowel obstruction in an out-patient clinic, its acute presentation in the emergency room with features of sepsis is extremely rare. This case report aims to describe the emergency presentation of cocoon abdomen with septic peritonitis.

Case presentation
A 35-year-old male with no known co-morbidity and no prior history of prior laparotomy presented in emergency room first time with a 1-day history of generalized abdomen pain, vomiting, and absolute constipation. He was in grade III shock and had metabolic acidosis. The clinical impression was of the perforated appendix, but initial contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT) was suggestive of strangulated internal herniation of small bowel. Emergency laparotomy after resuscitation revealed hypoperfused, but viable loops of small bowel entrapped in the sclerosing membrane. Extensive adhesiolysis and removal of the membrane were performed and the entire bowel was straightened. Postoperatively he remained well and discharged as planned. Histopathology report confirms features of sclerosing peritonitis.

Discussion
Cocoon abdomen is a very rare cause of acute small bowel obstruction presenting in an emergency with features of septic peritonitis. Condition is mostly chronic and generally mimics abdominal TB in endemic areas like India and Pakistan. A high index of suspicion is required in an emergency setting and exploratory laparotomy is diagnostic and therapeutic as well and the condition mimics internal herniation in acute cases.

Conclusion
Cocoon abdomen as a cause of septic peritonitis is extremely rare and might be an unexpected finding at laparotomy. Removal of membrane and estimation of the viability of entrapped bowel loops is the treatment of choice, which may require resection in the extreme case of gangrene.
To supervise or to self-supervise: a machine learning based comparison on credit supervision
Authors: Antunes José Américo Pereira 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThis study investigates the need for credit supervision as conducted by on-site banking supervisors. It builds on a real bank on-site credit examination to compare the performance of a hypothetical self-supervision approach, in which banks themselves assess their loan portfolios without external intervention, with the on-site banking supervision approach of the Central Bank of Brazil. The experiment develops two machine learning classification models: the first model is based on good and bad ratings informed by banks, and the second model is based on past on-site credit portfolio examinations conducted by banking supervision. The findings show that the overall performance of the on-site supervision approach is consistently higher than the performance of the self-supervision approach, justifying the need for on-site credit portfolio examination as conducted by the Central Bank.
Two people, one graph: the effect of rotated viewpoints on accessibility of data visualizations
Authors: Müller Tjark , Hesse Friedrich W. , Meyerhoff Hauke S. 
Published: April 2021

AbstractIn co-located, multi-user settings such as multi-touch tables, user interfaces need to be accessible from multiple viewpoints. In this project, we investigated how this goal can be achieved for depictions of data in bar graphs. We designed a laboratory task in which participants answered simple questions based on information depicted in bar graphs presented from differently rotated points of view. As the dependent variable, we measured differences in response onsets relative to the standard viewpoint (i.e., upright graphs). In Experiment 1, we manipulated graph and label orientation independently of each other. We observed that rotations of the labels rather than rotations of the graph itself pose a challenge for accessing depicted information from rotated viewpoints. In Experiment 2, we studied whether replacing word labels with pictographs could overcome the detrimental effects of rotated labels. Rotated pictographs were less detrimental than rotated word labels, but performance was still worse than in the unrotated baseline condition. In Experiment 3, we studied whether color coding could overcome the detrimental effects of rotated labels. Indeed, for multicolored labels, the detrimental effect of label rotation was in the negligible range. We discuss the implications of our findings for the underlying psychological theory as well as for the design of depicted statistical information in multi-user settings.