bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Improving the therapeutic profile of MSCs: Cytokine priming reduces donor-dependent heterogeneity and enhances their immunomodulatory capacity
Authors: Valencia Jaris , Yáñez Rosa M. , Muntión Sandra , Fernández-García María , Martín-Rufino Jorge Diego , Zapata Agustín G. , Bueren Juan A. , Vicente Ángeles , Sánchez-Guijo Fermín 
Published: February 2025

IntroductionMSCs exhibit regenerative, anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties due to the large amount of cytokines, chemokines and growth factors they secrete. MSCs have been extensively evaluated in clinical trials, however, in some cases their therapeutic effects are variable. Therefore, strategies to improve their therapeutic potential, such as preconditioning with proinflammatory factors, have been proposed. Several priming approaches have provided non-conclusive results, and the duration of priming effects on MSC properties or their response to a second inflammatory stimulus have not been fully addressed.MethodsWe have investigated the impact of triple cytokine priming in MSCs on their characterization and viability, their transcriptomic profile, the functionality of innate and acquired immune cells, as well as the maintenance of the response to priming over time, their subsequent responsiveness to a second inflammatory stimulus.ResultsPriming MSCs with proinflammatory cytokines (CK-MSCs) do not modify the differentiation capacity of MSCs, nor their immunophenotype and viability. Moreover, cytokine priming enhances the anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties of MSCs against NK and dendritic cells, while maintaining the same T cell immunomodulatory capacity as unstimulated MSCs. Thus, they decrease T-lymphocytes and NK cell proliferation, inhibit the differentiation and allostimulatory capacity of dendritic cells and promote the differentiation of monocytes with an immunosuppressive profile. In addition, we have shown for the first time that proinflammatory priming reduces the variability between different donors and MSC origins. Finally, the effect on CK-MSC is maintained over time and even after a secondary inflammatory stimulus.ConclusionsCytokine-priming improves the therapeutic potential of MSCs and reduces inter-donor variability.
Multi-omics analysis identifies UBA family as potential pan-cancer biomarkers for tumor prognosis and immune microenvironment infiltration
Authors: Wang Haibin , Liu XinLi , Huang Hesen , Tang Meng , Li Jiwei , Huang Tingting , Wang Shengjie 
Published: February 2025

BackgroundUBA1 and UBA6 are classic ubiquitin-activating E1 enzymes, which participate in the ubiquitination degradation of intracellular proteins and are closely related to the occurrence and development of various diseases and tumors. However, at present, comprehensive analysis has not been used to study the role of UBA family in cancers.MethodsWe extracted the relevant data of cancer patients from the TCGA database and studied the relationship between the expression patterns of UBA family and the survival rate, and stage of patients in pan-cancer, especially breast cancer (BRCA), colorectal cancer (COAD), renal cancer (KIRC) and lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). In addition, we also evaluated their impact on immune infiltration using TISIDB database and R packages.ResultsUBA1 and UBA6 are highly expressed in most cancer types, which may be associated with poor prognosis of patients. This study also investigated their expression had a closely tie with clinical stages in some specific tumors. Furthermore, this study also demonstrated that these genes were closely related to immune score, immune subtypes and tumor infiltrating immune cells.ConclusionsOur study demonstrated that the differential expression of the UBA family, along with their associated survival landscape and immune infiltration across various cancer types, holds potential as biomarkers linked to cancer immune infiltration. This finding offers a novel perspective for informing the direction of cancer treatment strategies.
Global research on NK cells in miscarriage: a bibliometric study
Authors: Wang Yinan , He Xiaoqin , Yang Chaogang , Ding Jinli 
Published: February 2025

BackgroundThis study aimed to assess the evolution, trends, and research hotspots of publications related to natural killer (NK) cells and miscarriage.MethodsThe literature on NK cells and miscarriage was retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection. VOSviewer and CiteSpace were used to analyze the publication years, countries, institutions, journals, highly cited authors, categories, and citation bursts of keywords.ResultsA total of 1,275 articles were analyzed. The annual publication outputs showed steady growth, with the majority of publications in 2020 and citations in 2022. The number of publications in this field fluctuated from 1981 to 2023, with a slight downward trend observed. However, the number of citations increased steadily until 2023, followed by a minor decline. The United States contributed the highest number of publications and had the highest h-index. The American Journal of Reproductive Immunology ranked first in terms of number of publications and h-index. Reproductive biology, immunology, and obstetrics and gynecology were the most representative disciplines. Kwak-kim J, Chaouat G, and Croy BA were the top three most productive authors in the field. Keyword burst analysis demonstrated that the immune system and cytotoxicity receptors were current research hotspots.ConclusionThis is the first bibliometric study to comprehensively summarize trends and advances in the study of NK cells in miscarriage. This information highlights the recent research frontiers and emerging directions and provides a reference for subsequent research in the future.
Prevalence of hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae strains in COVID-19 patients with bacterial co-infections
Authors: Zhang Jingfen , Li Qiaoyu , Liu Jingjing , Fan Fangfang , Shi Yiwei , Yu Xiao 
Published: February 2025

ObjectiveA recent alarming report from the World Health Organization highlighted the rapid global spread of a hypervirulent, carbapenem-resistant strain of Klebsiella pneumoniae. The COVID-19 pandemic frequently led to bacterial co-infections, with K. pneumoniae being a common and highly pathogenic agent. This study aimed to assess KP characteristics via whole-genome sequencing and clarify its molecular epidemiology to guide standardized clinical treatment.MethodsOur retrospective analysis of clinical data from COVID-19 patients admitted to our hospital between 7 December 2022, and 2 January 2023-following China’s policies changes, which led to a significant influx of patients-identified 17 K. pneumoniae isolates from sputum samples with bacterial co-infections. These isolates underwent whole-genome sequencing for ST typing, virulence gene annotation, plasmid profiling, and antimicrobial susceptibility testing.ResultsOf the 17 K. pneumoniae isolates, 52.9% were hypermucoviscous. Whole genome sequencing identified eight sequence types (STs), with ST23/KL1 being the most prevalent at 35.3%. Virulence genes were present in 94.1% of strains, including Yersiniabactin (70.6%), Aerobactin (82.3%), and Salmochelin (88.2%). Plasmid analysis revealed common IncHI1B/FIBk or IncFIBk types. All isolates were highly sensitive to antibiotics, except for blaSHV resistance. The 17 patients had a median age of 71 years and significant comorbidities, such as hypertension (64.7%) and diabetes (41.2%).ConclusionThe ST types and virulence gene profiles indicate that most K. pneumoniae strains co-infecting COVID-19 patients are common, high-virulence strains prevalent in the Asia-Pacific region. Our findings suggest that COVID-19 may contribute to the spread of hypervirulent K. pneumoniae strains, potentially informing the ongoing WHO epidemic alert.
Contrastive self-supervised learning for neurodegenerative disorder classification
Authors: Gryshchuk Vadym , Singh Devesh , Teipel Stefan , Dyrba Martin ,   the ADNI, AIBL, FTLDNI study groups
Published: February 2025

IntroductionNeurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) or frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) involve specific loss of brain volume, detectable in vivo using T1-weighted MRI scans. Supervised machine learning approaches classifying neurodegenerative diseases require diagnostic-labels for each sample. However, it can be difficult to obtain expert labels for a large amount of data. Self-supervised learning (SSL) offers an alternative for training machine learning models without data-labels.MethodsWe investigated if the SSL models can be applied to distinguish between different neurodegenerative disorders in an interpretable manner. Our method comprises a feature extractor and a downstream classification head. A deep convolutional neural network, trained with a contrastive loss, serves as the feature extractor that learns latent representations. The classification head is a single-layer perceptron that is trained to perform diagnostic group separation. We used N = 2,694 T1-weighted MRI scans from four data cohorts: two ADNI datasets, AIBL and FTLDNI, including cognitively normal controls (CN), cases with prodromal and clinical AD, as well as FTLD cases differentiated into its phenotypes.ResultsOur results showed that the feature extractor trained in a self-supervised way provides generalizable and robust representations for the downstream classification. For AD vs. CN, our model achieves 82% balanced accuracy on the test subset and 80% on an independent holdout dataset. Similarly, the Behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (BV) vs. CN model attains an 88% balanced accuracy on the test subset. The average feature attribution heatmaps obtained by the Integrated Gradient method highlighted hallmark regions, i.e., temporal gray matter atrophy for AD, and insular atrophy for BV.ConclusionOur models perform comparably to state-of-the-art supervised deep learning approaches. This suggests that the SSL methodology can successfully make use of unannotated neuroimaging datasets as training data while remaining robust and interpretable.
Clinical study on the optimal rotational stimulation for the unilateral centrifugation subjective visual vertical test
Authors: Zhang Xueqing , Deng Qiaomei , Huang Xiaobang , Wen Chao , Wang Wei , Chen Taisheng 
Published: February 2025

ObjectiveTo investigate the optimal stimulation intensity and reference range of the unilateral centrifugation subjective visual vertical (UC-SVV) test and to fill the technical gap in otolithic function evaluation in patients with peripheral vestibular diseases.MethodForty healthy subjects (median age 28 years) underwent a UC-SVV test at rotation speeds of 60, 120, 180, and 240 deg./s using the Neuro Kinetics Inc. (NKI) I-Portal 6.0 NOTC rotating chair system. The deviation angles of the UC-SVV line in the centre and left/right positions at each rotation speed were recorded and analysed.ResultsForty healthy subjects completed the test. The deviation angle of the UC-SVV line differed according to the rotation speed (60, 120, 180, and 240 deg./s). At each rotation speed, the position of the rotation axis (left/centre/right position) affected the deviation angle and direction of the UC-SVV line. At each position of the rotation axis, the rotation speed also affected the deviation angle. When the rotation chair was translated to the left and right positions, the UC-SVV line deviated to the right and left sides, respectively, and the deviation angle increased with increasing rotation speed. The deviation angle at 60 deg./s was significantly less than that at 180 and 240 deg./s (p &lt; 0.001). When the rotation axis was in the centre position, the absolute value of the SVV deviation was less than 0.3, and there was no statistically significant difference at any rotation speed.ConclusionThis study preliminarily discussed the deviation direction and angle of the UC-SVV line under different stimulation intensities in a range of healthy middle-aged subjects. The optimal stimulation intensity for the UC-SVV test is suggested to be 180 or 240 deg./s. Specifically, the peak rotation speed could be 180 deg./s if the subject is unable to tolerate high-speed rotation. This study provides support for improving this technology for evaluation of otolith function and its diagnostic significance in peripheral vestibular diseases.
How does loneliness affect satisfaction with life? What is the role of the perception of God in this interaction?
Authors: Kaya Feridun , Yazıcı Çelebi Gülin 
Published: February 2025

IntroductionThis study examined the role of loneliness and the perception of God in affecting the satisfaction with life of Muslim individuals living alone in Turkey during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, the study explored the regulatory role of the perception of God in the relationship between individuals’ loneliness and satisfaction with life.MethodsThe research is a cross-sectional study that evaluates individuals’ loneliness, satisfaction with life, and perception of God. The study group consists of 378 individuals living alone in Turkey. Among the participants, 196 are women (51.9%) and 182 are men (48.1%). The UCLA loneliness scale, the satisfaction with life scale, the perception of God scale, and a personal information form were used as data collection tools in the study.ResultsThe examination of research findings indicated that the variables of loneliness, perception of God, and the interaction between loneliness and the perception of God explained 28% of the variance in individuals’ satisfaction with life. We determined that satisfaction with life was affected significantly and positively by the perception of God (β = 0.28, p &lt; 0.001) and significantly and negatively by loneliness (β = −0.38, p &lt; 0.001). The interactional effect of the variables of loneliness and perception of God on satisfaction with life was also found to be significant (β = −0.10, p = 0.023). When we examined the details of the regulatory effect, we found that the effect of loneliness on satisfaction with life decreased even more in cases where the perception of God was high.DiscussionThe research findings suggest that loneliness decreases life satisfaction, while positive self-image mitigates this effect. It can be stated that using belief-sensitive therapeutic approaches in the therapeutic process could contribute to alleviating the negative effects of loneliness.
Surviving the storm: exploring gender-based burnout in Lebanon during the COVID-19 pandemic
Authors: Abi-Gerges Aniella , Dimassi Hani , Boueri Myriam , Feghali Edwin , Malham Melissa Bou , Salem Marie Josee , Harb Ranime , Nassar Elma , Mourad Jana , Sfeir Myriam , Karaoui Lamis R. 
Published: February 2025

BackgroundCOVID-19 has worsened burnout, marked by exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced professional efficacy. In Lebanon, economic collapse, political instability, the Beirut Port explosion, and social unrest have compounded this, with limited gender-specific data. This study evaluates burnout levels in Lebanese women and men during COVID-19, exploring gender differences and related factors, including burnout mitigation strategies.MethodsA cross-sectional survey included 423 adult participants aged 18 or older from Lebanon, recruited via online snowball sampling during July 2021 to August 2022. Utilizing the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBI-GS), participants reported exhaustion (≥ 12), cynicism (≥ 11), and low professional efficacy (≤ 21). Burnout was defined as exhaustion with either cynicism or low efficacy. The survey gathered demographic, family, and professional data, stressors, and burnout mitigation strategies. Analyses were gender-stratified, using descriptive statistics and Pearson’s chi-squared test. Bivariate associations between burnout indicators and sample characteristics were tested using Pearson’s chi-square. Odds ratios (OR) and adjusted ORs for burnout were estimated via logistic regressions.ResultsLebanese women experienced higher rates of burnout compared to men during the pandemic, with significant differences observed in emotional exhaustion (p = 0.006). Factors associated with burnout varied between genders, with women more likely to exhibit exhaustion when residing in the Beqaa, Mount or North Lebanon governorates, being single, having children aged 10–15 years, and most interestingly when lacking support from their boss/institution. Stressors such as the Lebanese economic crisis and the Beirut Port Explosion were significantly linked to burnout in both genders, with the economic crisis particularly associated with higher levels of exhaustion in men (p = 0.011) and cynicism in both genders (p = 0.001 for men, p = 0.039 for women). Coping strategies, including COVID-19 precautions, social activities, and religious practices, were effective in reducing burnout among both women and men who experienced burnout (p = 0.039 and 0.03, respectively).ConclusionThe study contributes to public health efforts, emphasizing the importance of recognizing gender dimensions in addressing burnout during the pandemic, designing targeted interventions and fostering supportive, inclusive environments for collective resilience namely for women at the workplace.
Associations between mobile phone involvement, BMI levels, and sleep quality among Chinese university students: evidence from a multi-regional large-scale survey
Authors: Lu Yukun , Tian Haodong , Shi Wentao , Liu Haowei , Wu Jinlong , Tao Yunfei , Peng Li 
Published: February 2025

ObjectiveThis study aims to explore the association between mobile phone involvement, body mass index (BMI) levels, and the sleep quality of Chinese university students.MethodsUsing a cluster sampling method, we selected 17,085 university students from three universities in eastern, central, and western China as the study subjects. Demographic information such as age and sex were collected. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the Mobile Phone Involvement Questionnaire (MPIQ) were utilized to measure their sleep quality scores and mobile phone involvement scores, respectively. Pearson correlation analysis, two-way ANOVA, and multiple linear regression were employed to examine the relationship between BMI levels, mobile phone involvement, and sleep quality.ResultsThe results show that 15.87% (2,712 participants) are classified as overweight, and 18.45% (3,151 participants) are classified as obese. Additionally, 35.87% (6,125 participants) exhibit mobile phone involvement, while 57.94% (9,899 participants) reported poor sleep quality. Pearson correlation analysis indicates a significant negative correlation (p &lt; 0.01) between sleep quality and both BMI levels and mobile phone involvement. Two-way ANOVA shows the significant effect of BMI levels (p &lt; 0.001) and mobile phone involvement (p &lt; 0.001) on sleep quality, and there is no interaction effect between the two. Additionally, the sleep quality of overweight and obese individuals is significantly poorer than that of those with normal weight (p &lt; 0.05), while the sleep quality of overweight individuals is significantly lower than that of obese individuals (p &lt; 0.05). Multiple linear regression analysis indicates that, after controlling for age and gender, both BMI (β = −2.69) levels and mobile phone involvement (β = −1.34) are significantly negatively associated with sleep quality (p &lt; 0.001), accounting for 19% of the variance in poor sleep quality.ConclusionThis study found that BMI levels and mobile phone involvement are both independently associated with sleep quality among Chinese university students. However, among individuals with excess BMI, although their sleep quality is worse than individuals with normal weight, overweight individuals may have poorer sleep quality than obese individuals. This study also revealed high rates of overweight and obesity, with over half of participants reporting poor sleep quality, highlighting the need for targeted interventions to address weight management and mobile phone usage to improve sleep health in this population.
Analisis Elemen Pariwisata Kawasan Wisata Danau Sebedang
Authors: Kharisma Antonius Hansen , Firmansyah Ade , Mukhlis Andi M. Ahsan 
Published: February 2025

Pembangunan pariwisata pada umumnya diarahkan sebagai sektor andalan yang dapat mendorong pertumbuhan ekonomi, peningkatan pendapatan daerah dan memperluas lapangan pekerjaan. Salah satu bentuk pariwisata yang dikembangkan adalah pariwisata berbasis wisata alam yaitu danau. Danau Sebedang merupakan objek wisata alam yang masuk ke dalam Kawasan Strategis Pariwisata Nasional (KSPN) untuk Kabupaten Sambas dan sekitarnya. Danau Sebedang ini juga merupakan satu satunya Danau Alami di sepanjang garis pantai utara se-Kalimantan Barat. Dalam melakukan identifikasi kondisi eksisting Kawasan Danau Sebedang, terdapat beberapa kegiatan identifikasi antara lain atraksi, amenitas, aksesibilitas, akomodasi, serta stakeholder yang terlibat. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui analisis aspek-aspek pariwisata yang berada di Danau Sebedang. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah pendekatan kualitatif menggunakan analisis deskriptif dengan teknik pengumpulan data berupa observasi, wawancara, catatan lapangan, dokumentasi pribadi, analisis spasial dan dokumen resmi lainnya. Untuk analisis atraksi, dapat disimpulkan konsentrasi atraksi dan aktivitasnya hanya berdekatan dengan akses utama. Untuk analisis amenitas, dapat disimpulkan titik-titik amenitas Danau Sebedang masih belum sebanding dengan luas wilayahnya. Untuk analisis akomodasi, dapat disimpulkan bahwa akomodasi yang berada di Danau Sebedang berupa villa/homestay yang hanya tersedia 2 opsi saja. Untuk analisis aksesibilitas, dapat disimpulkan bahwa akses jalan utama menuju kawasan wisata Danau Sebedang memiliki kondisi yang baik, tingkat aksesibilitas yang tinggi tetapi penerangan jalan masih belum memadai. Selain itu kondisi jalan untuk menuju ke titik aktivitas perlu berjalan kaki dan masih belum beraspal. Untuk analisis stakeholder, dapat disimpulkan bahwa pihak yang bergabung dalam pengembangan Danau Sebedang adalah Dinas Pariwisata Kabupaten Sambas, Pokdarwis serta masyarakat lokal yang memiliki peran masing-masing.
Nonlinear thermo-acoustic phase modulator for physical reservoir computing
Authors: Ijima Taiki , Meffan Claude , Shimofuri Masaki , Banerjee Amit , Hirotani Jun , Tsuchiya Toshiyuki 
Published: February 2025

Abstract
This study proposes a nonlinear thermo-acoustic phase modulator for application in physical reservoir computing. We designed and fabricated the modulator, and then investigated the properties such as insertion loss and modulation effects. Finally, we constructed a physical reservoir system with the proposed modulator and demonstrated benchmark tasks. The modulator makes use of surface acoustic waves, which contributes to fast processing and low power consumption. The modulator has a waveguide which also acts as a microheater. The modulation principle is a wave-velocity reduction caused by heating the surface of the substrate with the microheater, which provides nonlinearity and short-term memory required for the reservoir system. We confirmed these characteristics in the measurements of the modulator, and we verified the effectiveness of the modulator in the reservoir system with 2.3 of memory capacity in STM task and 0.066 of NMSE in NARMA2 task.
Hydroxide and fluoride catalyzed bonding interface closure for low temperature wafer bonding
Authors: Noel Paul , Larrey Vincent , Tardif Samuel , Rieutord Francois , Landru Didier , Fournel Frank 
Published: February 2025

Abstract
Surface deposition of active chemicals prior to wafer bonding was recently shown to enhance the hydrophilic direct bonding energy. Here, we describe the catalytic effect of hydroxide and fluoride ions at the bonding interface, with further insights on the mechanisms at play.