bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Comparison of vaginal self‐sampling and cervical sampling by medical professionals for the detection of HPV and CIN2+: A randomized study
Authors: Aarnio Riina , Isacson Isabella , Sanner Karin , Gustavsson Inger , Gyllensten Ulf , Olovsson Matts 
Published: January 2021

AbstractPrimary screening with human papillomavirus (HPV) test is more effective in reducing cervical cancer incidence than cytology and it also offers the opportunity to self‐sample. We conducted a randomized study to compare vaginal self‐sampling with cervical sampling by medical professionals for HPV testing concerning prevalence of HPV and detection of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) of grade 2 or worse (CIN2+) or grade 3 or worse (CIN3+) in primary screening. In total, 11 951 women aged 30‐60 years were randomized into two groups, 5961 for self‐sampling (SS arm) and 5990 for sampling by medical professionals (SMP arm). Sampling was performed with a RoversViba‐brush in the SS arm and a cytobrush in the SMP arm. All samples were applied to an indicating FTA elute card and analyzed for HPV using a clinically validated real‐time PCR test (hpVIR). All HPV‐positive women performed repeated sampling about 6 months later using the same procedure as used initially. All HPV‐positive women in the second sampling were referred to colposcopy. The prevalence of HPV in the first test did not differ between the SS arm (6.8%, 167/2466) and the SMP arm (7.8%, 118/1519) (P = .255). The prevalence of CIN2+ per 1000 screened women was 17 (43/2466 × 1000) (95%CI 13‐24) in the SS arm and 21 (32/1519 × 1000) (95%CI 15‐30) in the SMP arm. For CIN3+, the prevalence per 1000 screened women was 14 (35/2466 × 1000) (95%CI 10‐20) in the SS arm and 15 (23/1519 × 1000) (95%CI 10‐23) in the SMP arm. In conclusion, self‐sampling and sampling by medical professionals showed the same prevalence of HPV and detection rate of CIN2+ and CIN3+ in histology.
Investor sentiment and volatility of exchange‐traded funds: Evidence from China
Authors: Yang Chunpeng , Chi Jun 
Published: January 2021

AbstractThis study examines the relationship between fund‐level investor sentiment and return volatility of exchange‐traded funds (ETFs). We use the first principle component to form a composite fund‐level investor sentiment index that is based on the common variation in four underlying proxies for individual fund sentiment for each ETF: relative strengthen index, psychological line index, Bull and Bear Index and trading volume. And we employ the GARCH model and the EGARCH model to estimate daily ETFs' return volatility, respectively. In our tests, the panel data regressive analysis reveals that investor sentiment reliably predicts ETFs' return volatility in different periods of sentiment state. Specifically, return volatility increases with investor sentiment in the periods of high‐sentiment state, and decreases with investor sentiment in the periods of low‐sentiment state. Furthermore, the panel quantile regression results exhibit nonlinear patterns across the quantiles obviously: weaker effects for lower quantiles and stronger effects for higher quantiles in general. More importantly, the empirical results are stable across different conditional variance models.
The morphology and histology of the female reproductive system of Pseudochorthippus parallelus parallelus (Zetterstedt, 1821) (Orthoptera, Acrididae) and the histochemical features of the yolk granules
Authors: Amutkan Mutlu Damla 
Published: January 2021

AbstractSince insects belonging to the Acrididae family have different nutritional preferences, and their physical characteristics differ, they pose a problem in classification for taxonomists. In order to remove this confusion, the biology of the species belonging to this family should be well known. Therefore, the morphology and histology of the female reproductive system of Pseudochorthippus parallelus parallelus (Zetterstedt, 1821) (Orthoptera, Acrididae) and histochemical content of the yolk granules accumulating in oocyte cytoplasm have been studied by using light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy in this paper. The reproductive system of females of this species has five or six ovarioles in each ovary. The histological data revealed that the ovary of P. parallelus parallelus is of panoistic type, with each ovariole divided into a terminal filament, a germarium, a vitellarium, and a pedicel. The histochemical features of the yolk granules which accumulate in the oocyte cytoplasm have been also identified. During the oocyte developmental stage, the accumulation of progressively larger yolk granules has been observed in the ooplasm. Histochemical staining has revealed that these yolk granules are in protein and carbohydrate structures.
A novel cause of DKC1‐related bone marrow failure: Partial deletion of the 3′ untranslated region
Authors: Arthur Jonathan W. , Pickett Hilda A. , Barbaro Pasquale M. , Kilo Tatjana , Vasireddy Raja S. , Beilharz Traude H. , Powell David R. , Hackett Emma L. , Bennetts Bruce , Curtin Julie A. , Jones Kristi , Christodoulou John , Reddel Roger R. , Teo Juliana , Bryan Tracy M. 
Published: January 2021

AbstractTelomere biology disorders (TBDs), including dyskeratosis congenita (DC), are a group of rare inherited diseases characterized by very short telomeres. Mutations in the components of the enzyme telomerase can lead to insufficient telomere maintenance in hematopoietic stem cells, resulting in the bone marrow failure that is characteristic of these disorders. While an increasing number of genes are being linked to TBDs, the causative mutation remains unidentified in 30‐40% of patients with DC. There is therefore a need for whole genome sequencing (WGS) in these families to identify novel genes, or mutations in regulatory regions of known disease‐causing genes. Here we describe a family in which a partial deletion of the 3′ untranslated region (3′ UTR) of DKC1, encoding the protein dyskerin, was identified by WGS, despite being missed by whole exome sequencing. The deletion segregated with disease across the family and resulted in reduced levels of DKC1 mRNA in the proband. We demonstrate that the DKC1 3′ UTR contains two polyadenylation signals, both of which were removed by this deletion, likely causing mRNA instability. Consistent with the major function of dyskerin in stabilization of the RNA subunit of telomerase, hTR, the level of hTR was also reduced in the proband, providing a molecular basis for his very short telomeres. This study demonstrates that the terminal region of the 3′ UTR of the DKC1 gene is essential for gene function and illustrates the importance of analyzing regulatory regions of the genome for molecular diagnosis of inherited disease.
The living will: Patients should be informed of the risks
Authors: Kurin Michael , Mirarchi Ferdinando 
Published: January 2021

AbstractLiving wills are designed to ensure that patients’ preferences will be respected at the end of life should they lose capacity to make decisions. However, data on living will use suggest there are barriers to achieving this objective. Moreover, there is evidence that completion of a living will creates a risk of an unwanted outcome: the potential for premature withdrawal of interventions. We suggest a multifaceted approach to improve the ability of living wills to achieve their goals. However, acknowledgment of the current reality should oblige providers offering a living will to their patients to present a balanced view of living wills that includes enumeration of the risk, barriers to achieving the purported benefits, and alternatives to completing a living will, in addition to discussion of the potential benefits. This requires a change in current practice that would encourage shared decision making regarding whether completing a living will or other type of advance directive is desired by the patient and discourage the proliferation of living wills completed without providing these important advantages and disadvantages to the patient.
The use of personal protective equipment during the COVID‐19 pandemic in a tertiary pediatric hospital
Authors: Dibbs Rami P. , Ferry Andrew M. , Enochs Joyce , Ward Amanda , Glover Chris D. , Archer Nakeisha , Taylor Kimberly D. , Almaguer‐Bravo Judy , Hollier Larry H. 
Published: January 2021

AbstractThe provision of health care in the perioperative setting has undergone significant changes due to severe respiratory distress syndrome coronavirus‐2 (SARS‐CoV‐2). Hospital facilities have been tasked with developing and implementing personal protective equipment (PPE) protocols to protect both medical providers and patients. Texas Children's Hospital has created a set of protocols for donning and doffing PPE while managing surgical pediatric patients. These requirements have undergone numerous modifications as a result of our internal infrastructural recommendations and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, which has led to more lenient regulations. While these perioperative PPE protocols were less stringent compared to the original guidelines, we were able to create a safe surgical environment without further exposing patients and health care providers to SARS‐CoV‐2. In this article, we detail the design, distribution, implementation, and modification of our institutional surgical PPE protocols.
Ligand fishing based on bioaffinity ultrafiltration for screening xanthine oxidase inhibitors from citrus plants
Authors: Dong Xin , Wang Bin , Cao Jun , Zheng Hui , Ye Li‐Hong 
Published: January 2021

AbstractCitrus plants are valuable medicinal plants with abundant flavonoids content in the parts of fruits and peels, which exhibit potential hypouricemic effect. In the present study, a ligand fishing assay was performed based on bio‐affinity ultrafiltration for rapidly screening and identifying xanthine oxidase inhibitors from citrus plants. Under the optimal experimental conditions, five potential ligands were fished out when xanthine oxidase acted as the targeted protein. Subsequently, the chemical structures of all five compounds were identified by quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry. Among them, hesperidin and naringin were confirmed as high‐efficiency xanthine oxidase inhibitors. The half maximal inhibitory concentration values of hesperidin and naringin were 0.15 and 1.82 μM, respectively. Compared with the clinical antigout drug, allopurinol (half maximal inhibitory concentration = 8.03 μM), lower half maximal inhibitory concentration values indicated higher enzyme inhibitory activity. The Lineweaver–Burk plots indicated that the two compounds inhibited xanthine oxidase in a noncompetitive manner. The results demonstrate that the bioaffinity ultrafiltration method is a powerful tool for screening out xanthine oxidase inhibitors from natural products.
Modern reactivations of a thick colluvial landslide reconstructed from dendrochronology: the example of the Xiakou landslide, China
Authors: Bai Shibiao , Lu Ping 
Published: January 2021

AbstractIn this study, we investigated two types of growth disturbance (GD) in tree‐ring sequences, namely, the abrupt growth reduction in annual tree‐ring width, and the formation of reaction wood, in tree stems growing on the thick colluvial Xiakou landslide in China. In total, 96 GDs were identified in 183 core samples that were acquired from the 81 trees on the Xiakou landslide, revealing nine reactivation phases of the landslide body over the past 30 years. These reactivations were found to have occurred in the years of 1987, 1988, 1989, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1997, 2006, and 2007. Further hazard analysis indicated that the probability of landslide reactivation in 20 years was highest in the upper body of the landslide and on the boundaries where the new and old landslides meet. In contrast, the most stable region was the lower landslide body. Under the circumstances of an extreme lack of historical data, this work demonstrated the usefulness of dendrochronology in reconstructing modern reactivations over the past 30 years for a giant, deep‐seated, colluvial landslide with a volume exceeding approximately 10 million m3. This study has broader impacts because landslides in colluvium are a globally common types of land degradation.
In Situ AFM Observation of Folded‐Chain Crystallization of a Low‐Molecular‐Weight Isotactic Poly(methyl methacrylate) in a Langmuir Monolayer at the Molecular Level
Authors: Ono Yuki , Kumaki Jiro 
Published: January 2021

AbstractThe formation of folded‐chain crystals (FCC) of a low‐molecular‐weight isotactic poly(methyl methacrylate) (it‐PMMA) in a Langmuir monolayer on mica is observed under high humidity by in situ atomic force microscopy at the molecular level. The size of the smallest FCC formed corresponds to the size of a crystal composed of a single chain (single‐chain crystal), and the crystals grow in a stepwise manner with steps comparable to a single chain. The crystal of it‐PMMA is composed of a double‐stranded helix, and taking into account the molecular weight dependence of the crystal growth, it is concluded that a single chain intramolecularly intertwines to form a double‐stranded helix quantitatively that further intramolecularly folds to form the single‐chain crystal, and the crystal grows with the unit of the single‐chain crystal. The crystallization process is also successfully observed in detail at the molecular level: an amorphous single chain is deposited and spread on a crystal growth plane as new stems to grow the crystal.
Predicting Polyethylene Molecular Weight and Composition Distributions Obtained Using a Multi‐Site Catalyst in a Gas‐Phase Lab‐Scale Reactor
Authors: Aiello Jennifer P. , Jiang Yan , Moebus Joseph A. , Greenhalgh Brian R. , McAuley Kimberley B. 
Published: January 2021

AbstractA dynamic model is developed to predict detailed chain‐length and comonomer incorporation behavior during gas‐phase ethylene/hexene copolymerization using a supported hafnocene catalyst. The multi‐site catalyst results in a copolymer with a broad orthogonal composition distribution (BOCD) where the high molecular‐weight tail has high hexene incorporation. The model relies on gel permeation chromatography measurements obtained using multiple detectors (GPC‐4D), so that the composition of the copolymer is determined for different chain‐length fractions. Chain‐length distributions are discretized into bins so that comparisons can be made between GPC‐4D data and model predictions. Parameter estimation is aided by an estimability‐ranking procedure and a mean‐squared‐error selection criterion to determine that 22 of 36 model parameters can be estimated using product characterization and reactor operating data from 10 semi‐batch reactor runs. An additional 4 runs are used for model validation, confirming the predictive power of the model. The proposed model can aid the selection of reactor operating conditions to achieve targeted copolymer properties.
The Parkinson's Disease DNA Variant Browser
Authors: Kim Jonggeol J. , Makarious Mary B. , Bandres‐Ciga Sara , Gibbs Jesse Raphael , Ding Jinhui , Hernandez Dena G. , Brooks Janet , Grenn Francis P. , Iwaki Hirotaka , Singleton Andrew B. , Nalls Mike A. , Blauwendraat Cornelis ,   International Parkinson's Disease Genomics Consortium (IPDGC)
Published: January 2021

ABSTRACTBackgroundParkinson's disease (PD) is a genetically complex neurodegenerative disease with ~20 genes known to contain mutations that cause PD or atypical parkinsonism. Large‐scale next‐generation sequencing projects have revolutionized genomics research. Applying these data to PD, many genes have been reported to contain putative disease‐causing mutations. In most instances, however, the results remain quite limited and rather preliminary. Our aim was to assist researchers on their search for PD‐risk genes and variant candidates with an easily accessible and open summary‐level genomic data browser for the PD research community.MethodsSequencing and imputed genotype data were obtained from multiple sources and harmonized and aggregated.ResultsIn total we included a total of 102,127 participants, including 28,453 PD cases, 1650 proxy cases, and 72,024 controls.ConclusionsWe present here the Parkinson's Disease Sequencing Browser: a Shiny‐based web application that presents comprehensive summary‐level frequency data from multiple large‐scale genotyping and sequencing projects https://pdgenetics.shinyapps.io/VariantBrowser/. Published © 2021 This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA. Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.
Gene correction of the CLN3 c.175G>A variant in patient‐derived induced pluripotent stem cells prevents pathological changes in retinal organoids
Authors: Zhang Xiao , Zhang Dan , Thompson Jennifer A. , Chen Shang‐Chih , Huang Zhiqin , Jennings Luke , McLaren Terri L. , Lamey Tina M. , De Roach John N. , Chen Fred K. , McLenachan Samuel 
Published: January 2021

AbstractBackgroundMutations in CLN3 cause Batten disease, however non‐syndromic CLN3 disease, characterized by retinal‐specific degeneration, has been also described. Here, we characterized an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)‐derived disease model derived from a patient with non‐syndromic CLN3‐associated retinopathy.MethodsPatient‐iPSC, carrying the 1 kb‐deletion and c.175G>A variants in CLN3, coisogenic iPSC, in which the c.175G>A variant was corrected, and control iPSC were differentiated into neural retinal organoids (NRO) and cardiomyocytes. CLN3 transcripts were analyzed by Sanger sequencing. Gene expression was characterized by qPCR and western blotting. NRO were characterized by immunostaining and electron microscopy.ResultsNovel CLN3 transcripts were detected in adult human retina and control‐NRO. The major transcript detected in patient‐NRO displayed skipping of exons 2 and 4–9. Accumulation of subunit‐C of mitochondrial ATPase (SCMAS) protein was demonstrated in patient‐derived cells. Photoreceptor progenitor cells in patient‐NRO displayed accumulation of peroxisomes and vacuolization of inner segments. Correction of the c.175G>A variant restored CLN3 mRNA and protein expression and prevented SCMAS and inner segment vacuolization.ConclusionOur results demonstrate the expression of novel CLN3 transcripts in human retinal tissues. The c.175G>A variant alters splicing of the CLN3 pre‐mRNA, leading to features consistent with CLN3 deficiency, which were prevented by gene correction.
Automatic liver segmentation using 3D convolutional neural networks with a hybrid loss function
Authors: Tan Man , Wu Fa , Kong Dexing , Mao Xiongwei 
Published: January 2021

PurposeAutomatic liver segmentation from abdominal computed tomography (CT) images is a fundamental task in computer‐assisted liver surgery programs. Many liver segmentation algorithms are very sensitive to fuzzy boundaries and heterogeneous pathologies, especially when the data are scarce. To solve these problems, we propose an automatic liver segmentation framework based on three‐dimensional (3D) convolutional neural networks with a hybrid loss function.MethodsTwo networks are incorporated in our method with the first being a liver shape autoencoder that is trained to obtain compressed codes of liver shapes, and the second being a liver segmentation network that is trained with a hybrid loss function. The design of the hybrid loss function is comprised of three parts. The first part is an adaptively weighted cross‐entropy loss, which pays more attention to misclassified pixels. The second part is an edge‐preserving smoothness loss, which guarantees that the adjacent pixels with the same label have similar outputs, while dissimilar for pixels with different labels. The third part of the loss is a shape constraint to model high‐level structural differences based on the learned shape codes. Both networks use 3D operations for data processing. In our experiments, data augmentation is performed at both the training and the test stage.ResultsWe extensively evaluated our method on two datasets: the Segmentation of the Liver Competition 2007 (Sliver07), and the Combined (CT‐MR) Healthy Abdominal Organ Segmentation (CHAOS) Challenge. Finally, with only 20 training scans, we achieved the best score of 82.55 on the Sliver07 challenge, and a score of 83.02 on the CHAOS challenge.ConclusionsIn this study, we proposed a novel hybrid loss to overcome the difficulties in liver segmentation. The quantitative and qualitative results demonstrate that our method is highly suited for pathological liver segmentation, even when trained with a small dataset.
Quantification of myocardial oxygen extraction fraction: A proof‐of‐concept study
Authors: Lu Lillian , Eldeniz Cihat , An Hongyu , Li Ran , Yang Yang , Schindler Thomas H. , Peterson Linda R. , Woodard Pamela K. , Zheng Jie 
Published: January 2021

PurposeTo demonstrate a proof of concept for the measurement of myocardial oxygen extraction fraction (mOEF) by a cardiovascular magnetic resonance technique.MethodsThe mOEF measurement was performed using an electrocardiogram‐triggered double‐echo asymmetric spin‐echo sequence with EPI readout. Seven healthy volunteers (22‐37 years old, 5 females) were recruited and underwent the same imaging scans at rest on 2 different days for reproducibility assessment. Another 5 subjects (23‐37 years old, 4 females) underwent cardiovascular magnetic resonance studies at rest and during a handgrip isometric exercise with a 25% of maximal voluntary contraction. Both mOEF and myocardial blood volume values were obtained in septal regions from respective maps.ResultsThe reproducibility was excellent for the measurements of mOEF in septal myocardium (coefficient of variation: 3.37%) and moderate for myocardial blood volume (coefficient of variation: 19.7%). The average mOEF and myocardial blood volume of 7 subjects at rest were 0.61 ± 0.05 and 11.0 ± 4.3%, respectively. The mOEF agreed well with literature values that were measured by PET in healthy volunteers. In the exercise study, there was no significant change in mOEF (0.61 ± 0.06 vs 0.62 ± 0.07) or myocardial blood volume (12 ± 6% vs 13 ± 4%) from rest to exercise, as expected.ConclusionThe implemented cardiovascular magnetic resonance method shows potential for the quantitative assessment of mOEF in vivo. Future technical work is needed to improve image quality and to further validate mOEF measurements.