bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Risk of reactivation of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and tuberculosis (TB) and complications of hepatitis C virus (HCV) following Tocilizumab therapy: A systematic review to inform risk assessment in the COVID era
Authors: Campbell Cori , Andersson Monique , Ansari M Azim , Moswela Olivia , Misbah Siraj A , Klenerman Paul , Matthews Philippa C 
Published: March 2021

ABSTRACTTocilizumab (TCZ), an IL-6 receptor antagonist, is used in the treatment of COVID. However, this agent carries a ‘black box’ warning for infection complications, which may include reactivation of tuberculosis (TB) or hepatitis B virus (HBV), or worsening of hepatitis C virus (HCV). Due to the pace of clinical research during the COVID pandemic, prospective evaluation of these risks has not been possible. We undertook a systematic review, generating mean cumulative incidence estimates for reactivation of HBV and TB at 3.3% and 4.3%. We could not generate estimates for HCV. These data derive from heterogeneous studies pre-dating the COVID outbreak, with differing epidemiology and varied approaches to screening and prophylaxis. We underline the need for careful individual risk assessment prior to TCZ prescription, and present an algorithm for clinical stratification. There is an urgent need for ongoing collation of safety data as TCZ therapy is used in COVID.KEY POINTSUse of tocilizumab treatment in COVID-19 may risk infective complications. We have undertaken a systematic literature review to assess the risks of reactivation of HBV and TB, generating mean estimates of 3.3% and 4.3% incidence, respectively.
Disease and Social Media in Post-Natural Disaster Recovery Philippines
Authors: Charles Lauren E. , Corley Courtney D. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractIntroductionThe Philippines is plagued with natural disasters and resulting precipitating factors for disease outbreaks. The developing country has a strong disease surveillance program during and post-disaster phases; however, latent disease contracted during these emergency situations emerges once the Filipinos return to their homes. Coined the social media capital of the world, the Philippines provides an opportunity to evaluate the potential of social media use in disease surveillance during the post-recovery period. By developing and defining a non-traditional method for enhancing detection of infectious diseases post-natural disaster recovery in the Philippines, this research aims to increase the resilience of affected developing countries through advanced passive disease surveillance with minimal cost and high impact.MethodsWe collected 50 million geo-tagged tweets, weekly case counts for six diseases, and all natural disasters from the Philippines between 2012 and 2013. We compared the predictive capability of various disease lexicon-based time series models (e.g., Twitter’s BreakoutDetection, Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average with Explanatory Variable [ARIMAX], Multilinear regression, and Logistic regression) and document embeddings (Gensim’s Doc2Vec).ResultsThe analyses show that the use of only tweets to predict disease outbreaks in the Philippines has varying results depending on which technique is applied, the disease type, and location. Overall, the most consistent predictive results were from the ARIMAX model which showed the significance in tweet value for prediction and a role of disaster in specific instances.DiscussionOverall, the use of disease/sick lexicon-filtered tweets as a predictor of disease in the Philippines appears promising. Due to the consistent and large increase use of Twitter within the country, it would be informative to repeat analysis on more recent years to confirm the top method for prediction. In addition, we suggest that a combination disease-specific model would produce the best results. The model would be one where the case counts of a disease are updated periodically along with the continuous monitoring of lexicon-based tweets plus or minus the time from disaster.
Tocilizumab in hospitalized patients with COVID-19: A meta analysis of randomized controlled trials
Authors: Selvaraj Vijairam , Khan Mohammad Saud , Dapaah-Afriyie Kwame , Finn Arkadiy , Bavishi Chirag , Lal Amos , Mylonakis Eleftarios 
Published: March 2021

ABSTRACTBackgroundTo date, only dexamethasone has been shown to reduce mortality in COVID-19 patients. Tocilizumab has been recently added to the treatment guidelines for hospitalized COVID-19 patients, but data remains conflicting.MethodsElectronic databases such as MEDLINE, EMBASE and Cochrane central were searched from March 1, 2020, until February 28th, 2021, for randomized controlled trials evaluating the efficacy of tocilizumab in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. The outcomes assessed were all-cause mortality at 28 days, mechanical ventilation, and time to discharge.ResultsEight studies (with 6,311 patients) were included in the analysis. In total, 3,267 patients received tocilizumab, and 3,044 received standard care/placebo. Pooled analysis showed a significantly decreased risk of all-cause mortality at 28 days (RR 0.90, 95% CI 0.83-0.97, p=0.009) and progression to mechanical ventilation (RR 0.79, 95% CI 0.70-0.90, p=0.0002) in the tocilizumab arm compared to standard therapy or placebo. In addition, there was a trend towards improved median time to hospital discharge (RR 1.18, 95% CI 1.05-1.34, p=0.007).ConclusionsTocilizumab therapy improves outcomes of mortality and need for mechanical ventilation, in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 infection compared with standard therapy or placebo. Our findings suggest the efficacy of tocilizumab therapy in hospitalized COVID-19 patients and strengthen the concept that tocilizumab is a promising therapeutic intervention to improve mortality and morbidity in COVID-19 patients.
Covid-19 High Attack Rate Can Lead to High Case Fatality Rate
Authors: Raham Tareef Fdahil 
Published: March 2021

AbstractBackgroundDuring the current Covid-19 pandemic case fatality rate (CFR) estimates were subjected to a lot of debates regarding the accuracy of its estimations, predictions, and the reason of across countries variances. In this context, we conduct this study to see the relationship between attack rate (AR) and CFR.The study hypothesis is based on two: 1-evidence suggests that the mortality rate (MR) has a positive influence on case fatality ratio (CFR), 2- and increase number of Covid-19 cases leads to increased mortality rate (MR).Material and methodsThirty countries and territories were chosen. Inclusion criterion was > 500 Covid-19 reported cases per 10,000 population inhabitants. Data on covid-19 cases and deaths was selected as it was on March 10, 2021. Statistical methods used are descriptive and one-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S), the one-way ANOVA, Levene, least significant different (LSD), and matched paired-samples T-tests.ResultsANOVA test showed a significant difference at P<0.01 among all studied groups concerning AR and CFR mean values. Group of countries with MR ≥ 15 death / 104 inhabitants recorded the highest level of crude mean CFR and AR values, and recorded the highest gap with leftover groups, especially with countries reported MR of <10 death/ 104 inhabitants. There were independence 95% confidence intervals of mean CFR and AR values between countries with ≥ 15 death / 104 MR and countries with MR of <10 death /104. There was a significant difference between countries with MR ≥ 15 death / 104 inhabitants and countries with MR of <10 death / 10 4 inhabitants groups through least significant difference (LSD) test for CFR%(0.042 p-value) and Games Howell (GH) test for AR/104 (p-value 0.000).ConclusionsTotal and mean AR and CFR are higher in high MR countries compared to low MR countries.
The impact of customized head molds on motion and motion-related artifacts from structural and functional MRI scans in children
Authors: Weng Timothy B. , Vela Ruben D. , Weber Wade , Dodla Manwitha , Heinsfeld Anibal S. , Parker Samuel D. , Simon Blake , Demeter Damion V. , Nugiel Tehila , Whitmore Lucy , Mills Kathryn L. , Church Jessica A. , Haberman Michael R. , Craddock R. Cameron 
Published: March 2021

AbstractAlthough neuroimaging provides powerful tools for assessing brain structure and function, their utility for elucidating mechanisms underlying neuropsychiatric disorders is limited by their sensitivity to head motion. Several publications have shown that standard retrospective motion correction and arduous quality assessment are insufficient to fully remove the deleterious impacts of motion on functional (fMRI) and structural (sMRI) neuroimaging data. These residual errors tend to be correlated with age and clinical diagnosis, resulting in artifactual findings in studies of clinical, developmental, and aging populations. As such there is a continued need to explore and evaluate novel methods for reducing head motion, and their applicability in these populations. Recently, a custom-fitted styrofoam head mold was reported to reduce motion across a range of ages, mostly adolescents, during a resting state fMRI scan.In the present study, we tested the efficacy of these head molds in a sample exclusively of young children (N = 19; mean age = 7.9 years) including those with ADHD (N = 6). We evaluated the head mold’s impact on head motion, data quality, and analysis results derived from the data. Importantly, we also evaluated whether the head molds were tolerated by our population. We also assessed the extent to which the head mold’s efficacy was related to anxiety levels and ADHD symptoms. In addition to fMRI, we examined the head mold’s impact on sMRI by using a specialized sequence with embedded volumetric navigators (vNAV) to determine head motion during sMRI. We evaluated the head mold’s impact on head motion, data quality, and analysis results derived from the data. Additionally, we conducted acoustic measurements and analyses to determine the extent to which the head mold reduced the noise dosage from the scanner. We found that some individuals benefited while others did not improve significantly. One individual’s sMRI motion was made worse by the head mold. We were unable to identify predictors of the head mold response due to the smaller sample size. The head molds were tolerated well by young children, including those with ADHD, and they provided ample hearing protection. Although the head mold was not a universal solution for reducing head motion and improving data quality, we believe the time and cost required for using the head mold may outweigh the potential loss of data from excessive head motion for developmental studies.
Understanding the Paradox of Primary Health Care Use: Empirical Evidence from India
Authors: Sur Pramod Kumar 
Published: March 2021

AbstractI study households’ primary health care usage in India, which presents a paradox. I examine why most households use fee-charging private health care services even though (1) most providers have no formal medical qualifications and (2) in markets where qualified doctors offer free care through public hospitals. I present evidence that this puzzling practice has deep historical routes. I examine India’s coercive forced sterilization policy implemented between 1976 and 1977. Utilizing the unexpected timing of the policy, multiple measures of forced sterilization, including at a granular level, and an instrumental variable approach, I document that places heavily affected by the policy have lower public health care usage today. I also show that the instrument I use is unrelated to a battery of demographic, economic, or political aspects before the forced sterilization period. Finally, I explore the mechanism and document that supply-side factors do not explain these differences. Instead, I demonstrate that places with greater exposure to forced sterilization have higher confidence in private hospitals and doctors to provide good treatment.
Sysrev: A FAIR platform for Data Curation and Systematic Evidence Review
Authors: Bozada Thomas , Borden James , Workman Jeffrey , Del Cid Mardo , Malinowski Jennifer , Luechtefeld Thomas 
Published: March 2021

AbstractAbstractWell-curated datasets are essential to evidence based decision making and to the integration of artificial intelligence with human reasoning across disciplines. However, many sources of data remain siloed, unstructured, and/or unavailable for complementary and secondary research. Sysrev was developed to address these issues. First, Sysrev was built to aid in systematic evidence reviews (SER), where digital documents are evaluated according to a well defined process, and where Sysrev provides an easy to access, publicly available and free platform for collaborating in SER projects. Secondly, Sysrev addresses the issue of unstructured, siloed, and inaccessible data in the context of generalized data extraction, where human and machine learning algorithms are combined to extract insights and evidence for better decision making across disciplines. Sysrev uses FAIR - Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reuse of digital assets - as primary principles in design. Sysrev was developed primarily because of an observed need to reduce redundancy, reduce inefficient use of human time and increase the impact of evidence based decision making. This publication is an introduction to Sysrev as a novel technology, with an overview of the features, motivations and use cases of the tool.MethodsSysrev.comis a FAIR motivated web platform for data curation and SER. Sysrev allows users to create data curation projects called “sysrevs” wherein users upload documents, define review tasks, recruit reviewers, perform review tasks, and automate review tasks.ConclusionSysrev is a web application designed to facilitate data curation and SERs. Thousands of publicly accessible Sysrev projects have been created, accommodating research in a wide variety of disciplines. Described use cases include data curation, managed reviews, and SERs.
Lack of sex differences in gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) neuron potassium currents and excitability
Authors: DeFazio R. Anthony , Moenter Suzanne M. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractGonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) drives pituitary secretion of luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone, which in turn regulate gonadal functions including steroidogenesis. The pattern of GnRH release and thus fertility depend on gonadal steroid feedback. Under homeostatic (negative) feedback conditions, removal of the gonads from either females or males increases the amplitude and frequency of GnRH release and alters the long-term firing pattern of these neurons in brain slices. The neurobiological mechanisms intrinsic to GnRH neurons that are altered by homeostatic feedback are not well studied and have not been compared between sexes. During estradiol positive feedback, which is unique to females, there are correlated changes in voltage-gated potassium currents and neuronal excitability. We thus hypothesized these same mechanisms would be engaged in homeostatic negative feedback. Voltage-gated potassium channels play a direct role in setting excitability and action potential properties. Whole-cell patch-clamp recordings of GFP-identified GnRH neurons in brain slices from sham-operated and castrated adult female and male mice were made to assess fast (IA) and slow (IK) inactivating potassium currents as well as action potential properties. Surprisingly, no changes were observed in most potassium current properties, input resistance or capacitance and this was reflected in a lack of differences in excitability and specific action potential properties. These results support the concept that, in contrast to positive feedback, steroid negative feedback regulation of GnRH neurons in both sexes is likely conveyed to GnRH neurons via mechanisms that do not induce major changes in the biophysical properties of these cells.Significance StatementThe pattern of activity of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons is crucial to reproductive success in both males and females. Direct comparison of GnRH neurons from mice of both sexes during negative feedback and after gonadectomy revealed few differences in potassium currents, excitability, and action potential properties. These results support the hypothesis that neurons presynaptic to GnRH neurons communicate negative feedback to these cells in a manner that does not alter their intrinsic biophysical properties.
Acis-RNA-mediated expression regulation of thetet(M) resistance gene inEnterococcus faecium
Authors: Le Neindre Killian , Dejoies Loren , Reissier Sophie , Felden Brice , Cattoir Vincent 
Published: March 2021

AbstractA set of putative novel small RNAs was recently identified as expressed inEnterococcus faecium, a major opportunistic pathogen involved in numerous healthcare-associated infections and hospital outbreaks. The aim of this study was to characterize the first functional analysis of one of them,srn0030, by phenotypic, genomic and transcriptomic approaches. By genomic analysis and RACE mapping, we revealed the presence of this RNA (previously designated as Ptet) within the 5’-untrasnlated region (UTR) oftet(M), a gene conferring tetracycline resistance through ribosomal protection. The regulatory mechanism has previously been described as transcriptional attenuation, but has actually been poorly characterized. Hence, we provide original additional data, especially the presence of three upstream transcripts of ~100, ~150 and ~230 nt within the 5’-UTR oftet(M), suggesting an alternative regulatory mechanism. The total deletion of these three transcripts causes an unexpected decreasing of tetracycline resistance inE. faecium. The attenuation mechanism was investigated, and we confirmed that the transcriptional read-through andtet(M) overexpression induced by tetracycline addition but the function of putative peptide leader on attenuation mechanism was not supported by our data. We report here new phenotypic and transcriptomic observations inE. faeciumdemonstrating an alternative regulatory mechanism oftet(M) gene expression.
From classic to rap: Airborne transmission of different singing styles, with respect to risk assessment of a SARS-CoV-2 infection
Authors: Richter Bernhard , Hipp Anna , Schubert Bernd , Axt Marcus Rudolf , Stratmann Markus , Schmölder Christian , Spahn Claudia 
Published: March 2021

1.AbstractSince the Covid-19 virus spreads through airborne transmission, questions concerning the risk of spreading infectious droplets during singing and music making has arisen.To contribute to this question and to help clarify the possible risks, we analyzed 15 singing scenarios (1) qualitatively – by making airflows visible, while singing – and (2) quantitatively – by measuring air velocities at three distances (1m, 1.5m and 2m). Air movements were considered positive when lying above 0.1 m/s, which is the usual room air velocity in venue, such as the concert hall of the Bamberg Symphony, where our measurements with three professional singers (female classical style, male classic style, female popular music style) took place.Our findings highlight that high measurements for respiratory air velocity while singing are comparable to measurements of speaking and – by far – less than coughing. All measurements for singing stayed within a reach of 1.5m, while only direct voiceless blowing achieved measurements at the 2m sensor. Singing styles that use plosive sounds, i.e. using consonants more often as in rap, produced the highest air velocities of 0.17 m/s at the 1m sensor. Also, singing while wearing a facemask produces no air movements over 0.1 m/s.On the basis of our recent studies on measurements of airflows and air velocities of professional singers and wind instrument players, as well as further studies on CO□ measurements in room settings of music activities, we publish our results – in consideration of further up-to-date research – in our frequently updated risk assessment (first published in April 2020). On this behalf, we suggest 2m radial distances for singers, especially in choirs.
Emergence of N antigen SARS-CoV-2 genetic variants escaping detection of antigenic tests
Authors: Del Vecchio Claudia , Brancaccio Giuseppina , Brazzale Alessandra Rosalba , Lavezzo Enrico , Onelia Francesco , Franchin Elisa , Manuto Laura , Bianca Federico , Cianci Vito , Cattelan Annamaria , Toppo Stefano , Crisanti Andrea 
Published: March 2021

ABSTRACTSARS-CoV-2 genetic variants are emerging as a major threat to vaccination efforts worldwide as they may increase virus transmission rate and/or confer the ability to escape vaccine induced immunity with knock on effects on the level of herd immunity and vaccine efficacy respectively. These variants concern the Spike protein, which is encoded by the S gene, involved in virus entry into host cells and the major target of vaccine development. We report here that genetic variants of the N gene can impair our ability to utilize antigenic tests for both diagnosis and mass testing efforts aimed at controlling virus transmission. While conducting a large validation study on the Abbott Panbio™ COVID-19 Ag test, we noticed that some swab samples failed to generate a positive result in spite of a high viral load in Rt-PCR assays. Sequencing analysis of viruses showing discordant results in the RT-PCR and antigen assays revealed the presence of multiple disruptive amino-acid substitutions in the N antigen (the viral protein detected in the antigen test) clustered from position 229 to 374 a region known to contain an immunodominant epitope. A relevant fraction of the variants, undetected by the antigen test, contained the mutations A376T coupled to M241I. Intriguingly we found that virus sequences with this mutation were over-represented in the antigen-test-negative and PCR-positive samples and progressively increased in frequency over time in Veneto, a region of Italy that has aggressively scaled up the utilization of antigen tests, which reached nearly 68% of all the SARS-CoV-2 swab assays performed there. We speculate that mass utilization of antigen assays could create a selection pressure on the target that may favor the spread of undetectable virus variants.
From loss to recovery: how to effectively assess chemosensory impairments during COVID-19 pandemic
Authors: Cecchetto Cinzia , Pizio Antonella Di , Genovese Federica , Calcinoni Orietta , Macchi Alberto , Dunkel Andreas , Ohla Kathrin , Spinelli Sara , Farruggia Michael C. , Joseph Paule V. , Menini Anna , Cantone Elena , Dinnella Caterina , Cecchini Maria Paola , D’Errico Anna , Mucignat-Caretta Carla , Parma Valentina , Dibattista Michele 
Published: March 2021

AbstractChemosensory impairments have been established as a specific indicator of COVID-19. They affect most patients and may persist long past the resolution of respiratory symptoms, representing an unprecedented medical challenge. Since the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic started, we now know much more about smell, taste, and chemesthesis loss associated with COVID-19. However, the temporal dynamics and characteristics of recovery are still unknown. Here, capitalizing on data from the Global Consortium for Chemosensory Research (GCCR) crowdsourced survey, we assessed chemosensory abilities after the resolution of respiratory symptoms in participants diagnosed with COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic in Italy. This analysis led to the identification of two patterns of chemosensory recovery, limited (partial) and substantial, which were found to be associated with differential age, degrees of chemosensory loss, and regional patterns. Uncovering the self-reported phenomenology of recovery from smell, taste, and chemesthetic disorders is the first, yet essential step, to provide healthcare professionals with the tools to take purposeful and targeted action to address chemosensory disorders and its severe discomfort.