bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Lowest nocturnal systolic blood pressure is related to heavy proteinuria and outcomes in elderly patients with chronic kidney disease
Authors: Guo Xinru , Liang Shuang , Wang Wenling , Zheng Ying , Zhang Chun , Chen Xiangmei , Cai Guangyan 
Published: March 2021

AbstractAmbulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) can produce many variables, of which the lowest nocturnal systolic blood pressure (LNSBP) currently used in calculating morning surge is occasionally overlooked in recent kidney studies compared with other ABPM parameters. We explored the clinical effects of LNSBP in elderly patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) in a multicenter, observational cohort study. A total of 356 elderly patients with CKD from 19 clinics were included in this analysis. We used multiple logistic regression and survival analyses to assess the associations between the lowest nocturnal systolic blood pressure and heavy proteinuria and kidney disease outcomes, respectively. The median age was 66 years, and 66.6% were men. The median eGFR was 49.2 ml/min/1.73 m2. Multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that LNSBP (OR 1.24; 95% CI 1.10–1.39; P < 0.001; per 10 mmHg) was associated with heavy proteinuria. During the median follow-up of 23 months, 70 patients (19.7%) had a composite outcome; of these, 25 initiated dialysis, 25 had 40% eGFR loss, and 20 died. Cox analysis showed that the renal risk of LNSBP for CKD outcomes remained significant even after adjusting for background factors, including age, sex, medical history of hypertension and diabetes, smoking status, eGFR, 24-h proteinuria, and etiology of CKD (HR 1.18; 95% CI 1.06–1.32; P = 0.002; per 10 mmHg). Concentrating on LNSBP could be valuable in guiding antihypertensive treatment to control heavy proteinuria and improve renal prognosis in elderly CKD patients.
Photooxidation-induced fluorescence amplification system for an ultra-sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)
Authors: Heo Youhee , Shin Kwanwoo , Park Min Cheol , Kang Ji Yoon 
Published: March 2021

AbstractThis report suggests a method of enhancing the sensitivity of chemifluorescence-based ELISA, using photooxidation-induced fluorescence amplification (PIFA). The PIFA utilized autocatalytic photooxidation of the chemifluorescent substrate, 10-acetyl 3,7-dihydroxyphenoxazine (ADHP, Amplex Red) to amplify the fluorescent product resorufin, initially oxidized by horse radish peroxidase (HRP). As the amplification rate is proportional to the initial level of resorufin, the level of antigen labeled by HRP is quantified by analyzing the profile of fluorescence intensity. The normalized profile was interpolated into an autocatalysis model, and the rate of increase at half-maximum time was quantified by the use of an amplification index (AI). The lower limit of detection, for resorufin or HRP, was less than one-tenth that of the plate reader. It requires only slight modification of the fluorescence reader and is fully compatible with conventional or commercial ELISA. When it is applied to a commercial ELISA kit for the detection of amyloid beta, it is verified that the PIFA assay enhanced the detection sensitivity by more than a factor of 10 and was compatible with a conventional 96-well ELISA assay kit. We anticipate this PIFA assay to be used in research for the detection of low levels of proteins and for the early diagnosis of various diseases with rare protein biomarkers, at ultra-low (pg/mL) concentrations.
Antibody design using LSTM based deep generative model from phage display library for affinity maturation
Authors: Saka Koichiro , Kakuzaki Taro , Metsugi Shoichi , Kashiwagi Daiki , Yoshida Kenji , Wada Manabu , Tsunoda Hiroyuki , Teramoto Reiji 
Published: March 2021

AbstractMolecular evolution is an important step in the development of therapeutic antibodies. However, the current method of affinity maturation is overly costly and labor-intensive because of the repetitive mutation experiments needed to adequately explore sequence space. Here, we employed a long short term memory network (LSTM)—a widely used deep generative model—based sequence generation and prioritization procedure to efficiently discover antibody sequences with higher affinity. We applied our method to the affinity maturation of antibodies against kynurenine, which is a metabolite related to the niacin synthesis pathway. Kynurenine binding sequences were enriched through phage display panning using a kynurenine-binding oriented human synthetic Fab library. We defined binding antibodies using a sequence repertoire from the NGS data to train the LSTM model. We confirmed that likelihood of generated sequences from a trained LSTM correlated well with binding affinity. The affinity of generated sequences are over 1800-fold higher than that of the parental clone. Moreover, compared to frequency based screening using the same dataset, our machine learning approach generated sequences with greater affinity.
Nutrient-driven genome evolution revealed by comparative genomics of chrysomonad flagellates
Authors: Majda Stephan , Beisser Daniela , Boenigk Jens 
Published: March 2021

AbstractPhototrophic eukaryotes have evolved mainly by the primary or secondary uptake of photosynthetic organisms. A return to heterotrophy occurred multiple times in various protistan groups such as Chrysophyceae, despite the expected advantage of autotrophy. It is assumed that the evolutionary shift to mixotrophy and further to heterotrophy is triggered by a differential importance of nutrient and carbon limitation. We sequenced the genomes of 16 chrysophyte strains and compared them in terms of size, function, and sequence characteristics in relation to photo-, mixo- and heterotrophic nutrition. All strains were sequenced with Illumina and partly with PacBio. Heterotrophic taxa have reduced genomes and a higher GC content of up to 59% as compared to phototrophic taxa. Heterotrophs have a large pan genome, but a small core genome, indicating a differential specialization of the distinct lineages. The pan genome of mixotrophs and heterotrophs taken together but not the pan genome of the mixotrophs alone covers the complete functionality of the phototrophic strains indicating a random reduction of genes. The observed ploidy ranges from di- to tetraploidy and was found to be independent of taxonomy or trophic mode. Our results substantiate an evolution driven by nutrient and carbon limitation.
Population genomic and historical analysis suggests a global invasion by bridgehead processes in Mimulus guttatus
Authors: Vallejo-Marín Mario , Friedman Jannice , Twyford Alex D. , Lepais Olivier , Ickert-Bond Stefanie M. , Streisfeld Matthew A. , Yant Levi , van Kleunen Mark , Rotter Michael C. , Puzey Joshua R. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractImperfect historical records and complex demographic histories present challenges for reconstructing the history of biological invasions. Here, we combine historical records, extensive worldwide and genome-wide sampling, and demographic analyses to investigate the global invasion of Mimulus guttatus from North America to Europe and the Southwest Pacific. By sampling 521 plants from 158 native and introduced populations genotyped at >44,000 loci, we determined that invasive M. guttatus was first likely introduced to the British Isles from the Aleutian Islands (Alaska), followed by admixture from multiple parts of the native range. We hypothesise that populations in the British Isles then served as a bridgehead for vanguard invasions worldwide. Our results emphasise the highly admixed nature of introduced M. guttatus and demonstrate the potential of introduced populations to serve as sources of secondary admixture, producing novel hybrids. Unravelling the history of biological invasions provides a starting point to understand how invasive populations adapt to novel environments.
Autonomous adaptive Q(U) control for distributed generation in weak medium‐voltage distribution grids
Authors: Ampofo Desmond Okwabi , Myrzik Johanna M. A. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractThis study seeks to exploit the reactive power capability of inverter‐based distributed generation (DG) to solve the voltageregulation challenges associated with weak medium‐voltage distribution networks in developing countries. Voltage‐dependent reactive power control, also known as the Q(U) control method, is widely used for voltage regulation. The challenge with this control mode, however, is determining its control parameters, which must be unique for each bus for optimal performance compared with implementing standardised or general parameters. This paper proposes an innovative approach to incorporate an adaptive functionality into the typical Q(U) control to enhance its performance in medium‐voltage grids. This concept, when implemented, achieved better performance than that of the Q(U) control with fixed parameters, which was unsatisfactory under certain conditions, and performance comparable to that of the centralised voltage scheme, which relies on communication facilities.
Design of a snubber circuit for low voltage DC solid‐state circuit breakers
Authors: Wang Zhongying , Sankara Narayanan Ekkanath Madathil 
Published: March 2021

AbstractSolid‐state circuit breakers (SSCBs) are designed to interrupt fault currents typically several orders faster than its electromechanical counterparts. However, such an ultrafast switching operation would produce a dangerous overvoltage which might cause damages to SSCBs and other circuit elements in the system. This paper proposes a novel snubber circuit for suppressing the overvoltage. It takes the advantages of both resistor‐capacitor‐diode (RCD) snubbers and metal oxide varistors (MOVs). Its operating process is analysed before the proposed snubber circuit for 400V DC SSCBs is designed. Pspice simulator is employed for simulating the operating process and a prototype SSCB with the proposed snubber is built and tested in a lab‐scale DC system. The results of simulation and experiment validate the effectiveness of the proposed snubber.
Connection between the long secondary period and red giant evolution
Authors: Pawlak Michał 
Published: March 2021

Aims.The mechanism behind the long secondary period (LSP) observed in pulsating red giants remains unknown. In this work, I investigate the connection between the red giant branch and the asymptotic giant branch evolution and the appearance of the LSP – a phenomenon that has been observed in a significant proportion of red giants.Methods.For the purposes of this work, I used the OGLE-III sample of the OSARG variables in the Large Magellanic Cloud. I constructed density maps in the period-luminosity as well as color-magnitude planes for the stars showing an LSP and compared them to the remaining giants. I also fit the spectral energy distribution to test whether an additional source of reddening is present in the LSP stars.Results.Here, I posit the hypothesis that the LSP phenomenon may be related to a transition between the different pulsation period-luminosity sequences. I also show that an overabundance of the stars showing LSP can be observed around the tip of the red giant branch, and much more prominently, at the upper part of the asymptotic giant branch. The main over-density region appears to be slightly fainter and redder than the bulk of the asymptotic giant branch. It also seems to correspond to the area of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram where stable winds and high mass loss are present.Conclusions.The LSP can possibly be shown to be a recurring phenomenon that appears and disappears at various points of the red giant evolution. The LSP stars appear to be more reddened than other giants, which suggests the intrinsic nature of the reddening is likely to be related to large dust emission. The analysis appears to confirm the hypothesis that there is a relation between the mass loss due to the presence of strong stellar wind and the appearance of an LSP.
Conservative Neck Rejuvenation
Authors: Gasperoni Carlo , Gasperoni Paolo , Pino Valentina 
Published: March 2021

AbstractIn the field of facial rejuvenation, among the recurrent topics, one of the most discussed is the return to less invasive techniques. Lower face rejuvenation is best achieved acting on the platysma muscle. Many techniques are used and usually include platysma section, redundancy reduction, and redraping. Platysma plication is also used especially in secondary cases because of the increased risk of nerve injury due to possible anatomical damage caused by previous operations. A technique that preserves the deep planes based on a new plication method is proposed (conservative neck rejuvenation). In this technique, the dissection plane is only subcutaneous to reduce the risk of nerve injuries. An effective neck contouring is possible using a simpler technique with very good results and a lower rate of morbidity.
Factors Associated with a Recommendation for Operative Treatment for Fracture of the Distal Radius
Authors: Langerhuizen David W.G. , Janssen Stein J. , Kortlever Joost T.P. , Ring David , Kerkhoffs Gino M.M.J. , Jaarsma Ruurd L. , Doornberg Job N. 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
Background Evidence suggests that there is substantial and unexplained surgeon-to-surgeon variation in recommendation of operative treatment for fractures of the distal radius. We studied (1) what factors are associated with recommendation for operative treatment of a fracture of the distal radius and (2) which factors are rated as the most influential on recommendation of operative treatment.
Methods One-hundred thirty-one upper extremity and fracture surgeons evaluated 20 fictitious patient scenarios with randomly assigned factors (e.g., personal, clinical, and radiologic factors) for patients with a fracture of the distal radius. They addressed the following questions: (1) Do you recommend operative treatment for this patient (yes/no)? We determined the influence of each factor on this recommendation using random forest algorithms. Also, participants rated the influence of each factor—excluding age and sex— on a scale from 0 (not at all important) to 10 (extremely important).
Results Random forest algorithms determined that age and angulation were having the most influence on recommendation for operative treatment of a fracture of the distal radius. Angulation on the lateral radiograph and presence or absence of lunate subluxation were rated as having the greatest influence and smoking status and stress levels the lowest influence on advice to patients.
Conclusions The observation that—other than age—personal factors have limited influence on surgeon recommendations for surgery may reflect how surgeon cognitive biases, personal preferences, different perspectives, and incentives may contribute to variations in care. Future research can determine whether decision aids—those that use patient-specific probabilities based on predictive analytics in particular—might help match patient treatment choices to what matters most to them, in part by helping to neutralize the influence of common misconceptions as well as surgeon bias and incentives.
Level of Evidence There is no level of evidence for the study.
Alcohol Sales during COVID-19 Social Restrictions: Initial Evidence from Alcoholic Beverage Control States
Authors: Morton Cory M. 
Published: March 2021

Background The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has disrupted life around the globe and has the potential to seriously impact alcohol consumption for individuals experiencing social isolation and pandemic-related stress. Evidence from prior epidemics suggests increased alcohol consumption during quarantine and times of high stress are associated with a greater chance of developing an alcohol use disorder (AUD). This study examines alcohol sales data to ascertain how individuals are interacting with alcohol during the pandemic. Materials and method Monthly off premises alcohol sales data for select US alcoholic beverage control states were used to construct monthly sales patterns from 2015 to 2020. An independent samples t-test was used to determine if COVID-19 era alcohol sales were higher than those that occurred from 2015 to 2019. Results Alcohol sales from March to August 2020 were significantly higher than sales from the same span of months from 2015 to 2019 ( t=–2.47, p<.05). The associated monthly percentage increase in sales ranged from 14 to 44% with the overall trend indicating a move toward pre-pandemic sales totals. Conclusions As COVID-19 continues to disrupt typical ways of being across the globe, the implications of increased sales of alcohol should not be overlooked. Taken together, the evidence on increased use during isolation and later AUD diagnosis coupled with the ABC state sales figures here, point to a potential increase in the development of AUD and an increase in alcohol-related harms.
Article Commentary: “One Size does not Fit All” and other Lessons Learned from Grants for Implementation of the Ahrq Medication Assisted Treatment for Opioid use Disorder in Rural Primary Care
Authors: Nourjah Parivash , Kato Elizabeth 
Published: March 2021

Purpose This article summarizes lessons learned from five AHRQ grants to implement Medication for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) in rural primary care practices. Methods Lessons learned were extracted from quarterly and annual grantee progress reports, minutes from quarterly virtual meetings, and minutes and notes from annual grantee in-person meetings. The lessons learned were drafted by the authors and reviewed by the grantees for accuracy. Results The experience of these projects suggest that recruiting providers in rural areas and engaging them to initiate and sustain provision of MOUD is very difficult. Innovative approaches and providing supports are required for supporting providers to overcome barriers. Implications Implementation of MOUD in rural primary care is challenging but success is more likely if implementers are attentive to the needs of individual providers, are flexible and tailor implementation to the local situation, and provide on-going support.
Self-testing maximally-dimensional genuinely entangled subspaces within the stabilizer formalism
Authors: Makuta Owidiusz , Augusiak Remigiusz 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
Self-testing was originally introduced as a device-independent method of certification of entangled quantum states and local measurements performed on them. Recently, in (Baccari et al 2020 Phys. Rev. Lett.
125 260507) the notion of state self-testing has been generalized to entangled subspaces and the first self-testing strategies for exemplary genuinely entangled subspaces have been given. The main aim of our work is to pursue this line of research and to address the question how ‘large’ (in terms of dimension) are genuinely entangled subspaces that can be self-tested, concentrating on the multiqubit stabilizer formalism. To this end, we first introduce a framework allowing to efficiently check whether a given stabilizer subspace is genuinely entangled. Building on it, we then determine the maximal dimension of genuinely entangled subspaces that can be constructed within the stabilizer subspaces and provide an exemplary construction of such maximally-dimensional subspaces for any number of qubits. Third, we construct Bell inequalities that are maximally violated by any entangled state from those subspaces and thus also any mixed states supported on them, and we show these inequalities to be useful for self-testing. Interestingly, our Bell inequalities allow for identification of higher-dimensional face structures in the boundaries of the sets of quantum correlations in the simplest multipartite Bell scenarios in which every observer performs two dichotomic measurements.
Analysis of the tetraquark and hexaquark molecular states with the QCD sum rules
Authors: Wang Zhi-Gang 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
In this article, we construct the color-singlet-color-singlet type currents and the color-singlet-color-singlet-color-singlet type currents to study the scalar

D

*

D

¯

*

,

D

*

D

*

tetraquark molecular states and the vector

D

*

D

*

D

¯

*

,

D

*

D

*

D

*

hexaquark molecular states with the QCD sum rules in details. In calculations, we choose the pertinent energy scales of the QCD spectral densities with the energy scale formula

μ
=

M

T

2

−

(
2

M

c

)

2

and

M

H

2

−

(
3

M

c

)

2

for the tetraquark and hexaquark molecular states respectively in a consistent way. We obtain stable QCD sum rules for the scalar

D

*

D

¯

*

,

D

*

D

*

tetraquark molecular states and the vector

D

*

D

*

D

¯

*

hexaquark molecular state, but cannot obtain stable QCD sum rules for the vector

D

*

D

*

D

*

hexaquark molecular state. The connected (nonfactorizable) Feynman diagrams at the tree level (or the lowest order) and their induced diagrams via substituting the quark lines make positive contributions for the scalar

D

*

D

*

tetraquark molecular state, but make negative or destructive contributions for the vector

D

*

D

*

D

*

hexaquark molecular state. It is of no use or meaningless to distinguish the factorizable and nonfactorizable properties of the Feynman diagrams in the color space in the operator product expansion so as to interpret them in terms of the hadronic observables, we can only obtain information about the short-distance and long-distance contributions.
Cortical network effects of subthalamic deep brain stimulation in a thalamo-cortical microcircuit model
Authors: Farokhniaee AmirAli , Lowery Madeleine M 
Published: March 2021

Abstract

Objective. High frequency deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) suppresses excessive beta band (∼13–30 Hz) activity of the motor cortex in Parkinson’s disease (PD). While the mechanisms of action of STN DBS are not well-understood, strong evidence supports a role for cortical network modulating effects elicited by antidromic activation of cortical axons via the hyperdirect pathway. Approach. A spiking model of the thalamo-cortical microcircuit was developed to examine modulation of cortical network activity by antidromic STN DBS, mediated by direct activation of deep pyramidal neurons (PNs) and subsequent indirect activation of other thalamo-cortical structures. Main results. Increasing synaptic coupling strength from cortical granular to superficial layers, from inhibitory neurons to deep PNs, and from thalamus reticular to relay cells, along with thalamocortical connection strength, accompanied by reduced coupling from cortical superficial to granular layers, from thalamus relay cells to reticular neurons, and corticothalamic connection strength, led to increased beta activity and neural synchrony, as observed in PD. High frequency DBS desynchronized correlated neural activity, resulting in clusters of both excited and inhibited deep cortical PNs. The emergence of additional frequency components in the local field potential (LFP), and increased power at subharmonics of the DBS frequency as observed in patients with dyskinesia during DBS, occurred under different stimulus amplitudes and frequencies. While high-frequency (>100 Hz) DBS suppressed the LFP beta power, low-frequency (<40 Hz) DBS increased beta power when more than 10% of PNs were activated, but reduced the total beta power at lower levels of neural activation. Significance. The results suggest a potential mechanism for experimentally observed alterations in cortical neural activity during DBS via the propagation of DBS stimuli throughout the cortical network, modulated by short-term synaptic plasticity, and the emergence of resonance due to interaction of DBS with existing M1 rhythms by engaging feedforward-feedback loops.