bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
COVID‐19 encephalopathy: Clinical and neurobiological features
Authors: Uginet Marjolaine , Breville Gautier , Assal Frédéric , Lövblad Karl‐Olof , Vargas Maria Isabel , Pugin Jérôme , Serratrice Jacques , Herrmann Francois R. , Lalive Patrice H. , Allali Gilles 
Published: March 2021

AbstractSevere acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) has been associated with neurological complications, including acute encephalopathy. To better understand the neuropathogenesis of this acute encephalopathy, we describe a series of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) encephalopathy, highlighting its phenomenology and its neurobiological features. On May 10, 2020, 707 patients infected by SARS‐CoV‐2 were hospitalized at the Geneva University Hospitals; 31 (4.4%) consecutive patients with an acute encephalopathy (64.6 ± 12.1 years; 6.5% female) were included in this series, after exclusion of comorbid neurological conditions, such as stroke or meningitis. The severity of the COVID‐19 encephalopathy was divided into severe and mild based on the Richmond Agitation Sedation Scale (RASS): severe cases (n = 14, 45.2%) were defined on a RASS < −3 at worst presentation. The severe form of this so‐called COVID‐19 encephalopathy presented more often a headache. The severity of the pneumonia was not associated with the severity of the COVID‐19 encephalopathy: 28 of 31 (90%) patients did develop an acute respiratory distress syndrome, without any difference between groups (p = .665). Magnetic resonance imaging abnormalities were found in 92.0% (23 of 25 patients) with an intracranial vessel gadolinium enhancement in 85.0% (17 of 20 patients), while an increased cerebrospinal fluid/serum quotient of albumin suggestive of blood‐brain barrier disruption was reported in 85.7% (6 of 7 patients). Reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction for SARS‐CoV‐2 was negative for all patients in the cerebrospinal fluid. Although different pathophysiological mechanisms may contribute to this acute encephalopathy, our findings suggest the hypothesis of disturbed brain homeostasis and vascular dysfunction consistent with a SARS‐CoV‐2‐induced endotheliitis.
Comprehensive comparative genomic and microsatellite analysis of SARS, MERS, BAT‐SARS, and COVID‐19 coronaviruses
Authors: Rehman Hafiz Abdul , Ramzan Farheen , Basharat Zarrin , Shakeel Muhammad , Khan Muhammad Usman Ghani , Khan Ishtiaq Ahmad 
Published: March 2021

AbstractThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic has spread around the globe very rapidly. Previously, the evolution pattern and similarity among the COVID‐19 causative organism severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) and causative organisms of other similar infections have been determined using a single type of genetic marker in different studies. Herein, the SARS‐CoV‐2 and related β coronaviruses Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS‐CoV), SARS‐CoV, bat coronavirus (BAT‐CoV) were comprehensively analyzed using a custom‐built pipeline that employed phylogenetic approaches based on multiple types of genetic markers including the whole genome sequences, mutations in nucleotide sequences, mutations in protein sequences, and microsatellites. The whole‐genome sequence‐based phylogeny revealed that the strains of SARS‐CoV‐2 are more similar to the BAT‐CoV strains. The mutational analysis showed that on average MERS‐CoV and BAT‐CoV genomes differed at 134.21 and 136.72 sites, respectively, whereas the SARS‐CoV genome differed at 26.64 sites from the reference genome of SARS‐CoV‐2. Furthermore, the microsatellite analysis highlighted a relatively higher number of average microsatellites for MERS‐CoV and SARS‐CoV‐2 (106.8 and 107, respectively), and a lower number for SARS‐CoV and BAT‐CoV (95.8 and 98.5, respectively). Collectively, the analysis of multiple genetic markers of selected β viral genomes revealed that the newly born SARS‐COV‐2 is closely related to BAT‐CoV, whereas, MERS‐CoV is more distinct from the SARS‐CoV‐2 than BAT‐CoV and SARS‐CoV.
Fabrication and characterization of fast dissolving glycerol monolaurate microemulsion encapsulated gelatin nanofibers with antimicrobial activity
Authors: Zhang Xinyan , Tan Linzhi , Taxipalati Maierhaba , Deng Lingli 
Published: March 2021

AbstractBACKGROUNDElectrospun fibers are a good candidate for the delivery of bioactive compounds in the food industry because of their advantages that include a tunable diameter, high porosity and a high specific surface area. In the present study, we fabricated gelatin/glycerol monolaurate (GML) microemulsion nanofibers by solubilizing GML in Tween‐80 followed by mixing with gelatin solution for electrospinning. We hypothesized that the addition of GML microemulsions affects the properties of the gelatin solution and modifies the physical and antimicrobial properties of the resulting nanofibers.RESULTSBoth pure gelatin solution and gelatin/GML microemulsions showed shear‐thinning behavior. However, electrospinnability was not affected by the addition of GML microemulsions. A significantly higher average diameter of nanofibers (1147 nm) with 5% GML was observed compared to the gelatin fiber diameter of 560 nm. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy showed hydrogen bonding between gelatin molecules and GML microemulsions. Thermal analysis and X‐ray diffraction indicated an amorphous structure of gelatin/GML microemulsion nanofibers, although a small amount of crystalline GML existed in the nanofibers with high GML content. Gelatin/GML microemulsion nanofibers showed high thermal stability and improved hydrophilicity. Nanofibers with 5% GML (weight with respect to nanofiber) (D64 nanofibers) showed effective antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus.CONCLUSIONGelatin/GML microemulsion nanofibrous films demonstrate superhydrophilicity and fast dissolution properties as a result of the high surface‐to‐volume ratio, amorphous structure and improved hydrophilicity of the nanofiber surface. The results indicate the potential application of gelatin/GML microemulsion nanofibrous films as edible antimicrobial food packaging. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry.
The biological underpinnings of radiation therapy for vestibular schwannomas: Review of the literature
Authors: Dougherty Mark C. , Shibata Seiji B. , Hansen Marlan R. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractObjectiveRadiation therapy is a mainstay in the treatment of numerous neoplasms. Numerous publications have reported good clinical outcomes for primary radiation therapy for Vestibular Schwannomas (VS). However, there are relatively few pathologic specimens of VSs available to evaluate post‐radiation, which has led to a relative dearth in research on the cellular mechanisms underlying the effects of radiation therapy on VSs.MethodsHere we review the latest literature on the complex biological effects of radiation therapy on these benign tumors—including resistance to oxidative stress, mechanisms of DNA damage repair, alterations in normal growth factor pathways, changes in surrounding vasculature, and alterations in immune responses following radiation.ResultsAlthough VSs are highly radioresistant, radiotherapy is often successful in arresting their growth.ConclusionBy better understanding the mechanisms underlying these effects, we could potentially harness such mechanisms in the future to potentiate the clinical effects of radiotherapy on VSs.Level of EvidenceN/A.
Three‐port circularly polarized MIMO antenna for WLAN application with pattern and polarization diversity
Authors: Jaiswal Rahul Kumar , Kumari Kahani , Sim Chow‐Yen‐Desmond , Srivastava Kumar Vaibhav 
Published: March 2021

AbstractIn this article, a three‐port circularly polarized (CP) multiple‐input multiple‐output (MIMO) antenna for wireless local area network (WLAN) application with pattern and polarization diversity is proposed. The proposed MIMO antenna system comprises of a broadside CP antenna element with a T‐shaped slot and two endfire CP antenna elements. Good impedance bandwidth of 16.9% and 5.5% are achieved by the broadside CP antenna and endfire CP antenna, respectively, and their corresponding axial ratio (AR) bandwidth is 7% and 10.47%. The isolation between the different antenna elements is better than 20 dB, and the polarization purity for all CP antenna is more than 25 dB along with the maximum radiation.
The protein phosphatase with EF‐hand domain 1 is a calmodulin‐binding protein that interacts with proteins involved in sperm capacitation, binding to the zona pellucida, and motility
Authors: Lavoie‐Ouellet Camille , Clark Marie‐Ève , Ruiz Juliana , Saindon Andrée‐Anne , Leclerc Pierre 
Published: March 2021

AbstractSpermatozoa are highly specialized cells whose fertilizing and motility functions highly depend on intracellular Ca2+‐mediated events and protein posttranslational modifications like phosphorylation. Our group previously identified PPEF1, the Ser/Thr phosphatase with EF‐hand domain 1, among calmodulin‐affinity pulled down sperm proteins. As the mammalian ortholog of the Drosophila phosphatase rdgC that dephosphorylates rhodopsin, PPEF1 has been studied mostly in the retina. The presence and importance of this Ca2+/calmodulin‐binding protein phosphatase has not been studied in sperm or testicular functions despite its high expression level. In this study, we show that PPEF1 is present in testicular germ cells, and in mouse, human and bull spermatozoa where it is localized predominantly in the neck and acrosome areas. Different transcript variants encoding four predicted isoforms were detected by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction in bull testis, spermatocytes and spermatids. Phosphatase activity of immunoprecipitated sperm PPEF1 was detected using the substrate pNPP and analysis of the coimmunoprecipitated proteins reveal an enrichment in the biological processes of sperm capacitation, binding to the zona pellucida and motility. Although this is the first demonstration of the presence of PPEF1 in sperm and testicular germ cells, its involvement in sperm fertilizing ability and motility, and the mechanisms regulating its activity remain to be further investigated.
Two novel critical shock models based on Markov renewal processes
Authors: Wu Bei , Cui Lirong , Qiu Qingan 
Published: March 2021

AbstractIn this paper, we investigate systems subject to random shocks that are classified into critical and noncritical categories, and develop two novel critical shock models. Classical extreme shock models and run shock models are special cases of our developed models. The system fails when the total number of critical shocks reaches a predetermined threshold, or when the system stays in an environment that induces critical shocks for a preset threshold time, corresponding to failure mechanisms of the developed two critical shock models respectively. Markov renewal processes are employed to capture the magnitude and interarrival time dependency of environment‐induced shocks. Explicit formulas for systems under the two critical shock models are derived, including the reliability function, the mean time to failure and so on. Furthermore, the two critical shock models are extended to the random threshold case and the integrated case where formulas of the reliability indexes of the systems are provided. Finally, a case study of a lithium‐ion battery system is conducted to illustrate the proposed models and the obtained results.
Clinical teaching behaviour effects professional identity and transition shock in new nurses in western china: A cross‐sectional study
Authors: Su Qian , YUN Bei , Yuet Foon Chung Loretta , Chen Lian , Zuo Yamei , Liu Jia , Han Lin 
Published: March 2021

AbstractAimTo examine the interrelationship between professional identity, clinical teaching behaviour and transition shock for new nurses in Western China.DesignA cross‐sectional design.MethodsA total of 779 new nurses were recruited in Gansu province and Lanzhou city from June to July 2019. Each patient was given three questionnaires to complete, and structural equation modelling was used to identify the relationships.ResultsThe overall mean scores for the transition shock, professional identity and clinical teaching behaviour were 92.53(SD = 22.17), 89.74(SD = 16.57) 80.12(SD = 12.38), respectively. The most important aspects identified were the Physical aspect, the Sense of Mastery and Committing to Teaching. Professional identity and clinical teaching behaviour were negatively related to transition shock, a better sense of identity coupled with supportive clinical teaching were keys to a smoother journey from new to experienced nurses.
Deciphering the Association Between Hypothalamus‐Pituitary‐Adrenal Axis Activity and Obesity: A Meta‐Analysis
Authors: Ostinelli Giada , Scovronec Anaïs , Iceta Sylvain , Ouellette Anne-Sophie , Lemieux Simone , Biertho Laurent , Bégin Catherine , Michaud Andréanne , Tchernof André 
Published: March 2021

ObjectiveBoth the cortisol awakening response (CAR; corresponding to the state measurement) and hair cortisol concentration (HCC; corresponding to the trait measurement) are considered reliable markers of hypothalamus‐pituitary‐adrenal axis activity. Because cortisol has long been associated with adiposity, this systematic review and meta‐analysis aims to summarize and compare the literature around CAR and HCC and their association with obesity or fat distribution indices.MethodsThe PubMed, Web of Science (Web of Science Core Collection and Medline), EBSCO Information Services, Embase, and PsycNET databases were searched, and full‐text articles investigating the association between CAR or HCC and markers of adiposity in humans were included. Meta‐analyses were then performed to compare studies associating CAR or HCC with BMI (a marker of general adiposity) and waist circumference (a marker of fat distribution).ResultsThe results of this review highlight inconsistencies in cortisol sampling and CAR computation, which makes comparisons between studies difficult. It was found that adiposity indices are not associated with CAR but that they correlate significantly and positively with HCC. The subgroup analysis hinted to possible age differences in the magnitude of the association between HCC and BMI.ConclusionsTrait rather than state measurement of the hypothalamus‐pituitary‐adrenal axis activity is associated with increased general and abdominal adiposity in humans.
Network analysis of executive function, emotion, and social anhedonia
Authors: Jiang Shu‐Yao , Shan Hai‐Di , Zhang Rui‐Ting , Lui Simon S. Y. , Yang Han‐Xue , Cheung Eric F. C. , Chan Raymond C. K. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractThis study constructed the network structure of social anhedonia, emotion processing, and executive function in college students using network analysis. We calculated the strength of each node in the network. The results suggest that social anhedonia had negative effects on executive function, emotion experience, and emotion expression.
Performance of conventional cytogenetic analysis on chorionic villi when only one cell layer, cytotrophoblast or mesenchyme alone, is analyzed
Authors: Grati Francesca Romana , Malvestiti Francesca , Gallazzi Gloria , Saragozza Silvia , Grimi Beatrice , Agrati Cristina , Branca Lara , Palumbo Federica , Trotta Anna , Chinetti Sara , Simoni Giuseppe , Ferreira Jose , Benn Peter 
Published: March 2021

AbstractObjectiveTo provide an estimation of the probability of error when chorionic villi (CV) cytogenetic analysis is limited to a single placental layer; either a direct preparation (Dir) or long‐term culture (LTC).MethodsWe retrospectively reviewed cytogenetic studies on 81,593 consecutive CV samples in which both Dir and LTC were analyzed. All mosaic cases received amniocentesis. The false omission and false discovery rates were calculated by assessing the results that would have been reported when analysis was limited to either Dir or LTC.ResultsFor all abnormalities combined, the proportion of normal Dir or LTC only reports that would have been inconsistent with a subsequent amniocentesis was 0.09% and 0.03%, respectively (false omissions). Among abnormal reports based on Dir or LTC alone, 8.01% and 3.17%, respectively, would be inconsistent with a subsequent amniocentesis result (false discoveries). Differences are present for individual abnormalities.ConclusionsFrom the perspective of identifying all abnormalities of potential clinical significance, the analysis of both placental layers is optimal. LTC alone is the preferred approach if only one layer of placenta is to be analyzed. Although rare, it is important to acknowledge that one cell layer analysis alone can cause misdiagnosis due to undetected mosaicism.
The effectiveness of interconversion methods based on the distributed nature of polymeric structure
Authors: Katsourinis Stelios , Kontou Evagelia 
Published: March 2021

AbstractIn the present work, a comparative study on the capability of two approaches to successfully interconvert linear viscoelastic functions is performed. The main concept arises from our previous works, where a polymeric material is treated as a collection of meso‐regions, each one of them with a specific energy barrier. The linking between meso‐regions and their rearrangements leads to a time‐dependent constitutive equation. A crucial issue is the distribution of the energy barriers of the meso‐regions, revealing the importance of the distributed nature of the polymeric structure. In this work, the effect of the distribution type was examined by assuming either a Gaussian distribution function or a normalized loss modulus distribution, which can be evaluated from the loss modulus experimental data. Four different polymers were examined and it was proved that both treatments can satisfactorily predict the creep and relaxation function, once the model parameters are evaluated on the basis of dynamic moduli experimental data.
Effectiveness of cell adhesive additives in different supramolecular polymers
Authors: van Gaal Ronald C. , Ippel Bastiaan D. , Spaans Sergio , Komil Muhabbat I. , Dankers Patricia Y. W. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractSupramolecular motifs in elastomeric biomaterials facilitate the modular incorporation of additives with corresponding motifs. The influence of the elastomeric supramolecular base polymer on the presentation of additives has been sparsely examined, limiting the knowledge of transferability of effective functionalization between polymers. Here it was investigated if the polymer backbone and the additive influence biomaterial modification in two different types of hydrogen bonding supramolecular systems, that is, based on ureido‐pyrimidinone or bis‐urea units. Two different cell‐adhesive additives, that is, catechol or cyclic RGD, were incorporated into different elastomeric polymers, that is, polycaprolactone, priplast or polycarbonate. The additive effectiveness was evaluated with three different cell types. AFM measurements showed modest alterations on nano‐scale assembly in ureido‐pyrimidinone materials modified with additives. On the contrary, additive addition was highly intrusive in bis‐urea materials. Detailed cell adhesive studies revealed additive effectiveness varied between base polymers and the supramolecular platform, with bis‐urea materials more potently affecting cell behavior. This research highlights that additive transposition might not always be as evident. Therefore, additive effectiveness requires re‐evaluation in supramolecular biomaterials when altering the polymer backbone to suit the biomaterial application.
Periodic and sequential inspection policies with mission failure probabilities
Authors: Zhao Xufeng , Zheng Qiwang , Jia Xujie , Qian Cunhua , Mizutani Satoshi , Chen Mingchih 
Published: March 2021

AbstractWhen a unit should provide reliability at mission time, the mission success probability or failure probability becomes an important constraint to plan inspection policies. From this viewpoint, this paper considers the optimization problems of periodic and sequential inspection policies with mission failure probabilities. In this paper, a mission time is considered as a renewal point for inspection polices, but the failure cost occurred at mission time is higher than the total cost of inspection and failure detection. We give an upper limit of the failure probability at mission time, that is, mission failure probability, to minimize the total expected costs and the expected cost rates of inspection policies. In addition, the extended models of inspection policies for an interval mission, possible random times, and operating interval are discussed.
Sampled‐data cooperative output regulation of linear multi‐agent systems
Authors: Liu Wei , Huang Jie 
Published: March 2021

AbstractIn this article, we study the cooperative output regulation problem for heterogeneous linear multi‐agent systems by the distributed sampled‐data control approach. We consider two cases. The first case is that the state of the leader system is constant. For this case, we show that the cooperative output regulation problem is solvable exactly by a distributed aperiodic sampled‐data output feedback control law. The second case is that the state of the leader system is time‐varying with bounded derivative. For this case, we further show that the problem is solvable practically by a distributed aperiodic sampled‐data output feedback control law in the sense that the steady‐state regulated output can be made arbitrarily small. Finally, we give two examples to illustrate our results.
Adaptive fuzzy control for nonlinear uncertain pure‐feedback systems with full‐state and input constraints
Authors: Jia Fujin , Lu Junwei , Li Yongmin 
Published: March 2021

AbstractThis paper studies the full‐state and input constraints of uncertain nonlinear pure‐feedback systems. The radical constraint functions are proposed, which avoids the drawbacks of the barrier Lyapunov functions and the logarithmic constraint functions. At the same time, a control algorithm based on fuzzy control is proposed to avoid the "explosion of terms" problem of the backstepping method. In addition, this paper avoids an Assumption of nonaffine function, which reduces the conservatism and increases the applicability of the algorithm. This control algorithm is proposed so that all signals of the closed‐loop system are the semi‐globally uniformly ultimately bounded, and the tracking error converge to a small neighborhood of the origin, and all states and input of nonlinear pure‐feedback systems can be constrained. Finally, simulation results are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
On the value of filter feature selection techniques in homogeneous ensembles effort estimation
Authors: Hosni Mohamed , Idri Ali , Abran Alain 
Published: March 2021

AbstractSoftware development effort estimation (SDEE) remains as the principal activity in software project management planning. Over the past four decades, several methods have been proposed to estimate the effort required to develop a software system, including more recently machine learning (ML) techniques. Because ML performance accuracy depends on the features that feed the ML technique, selecting the appropriate features in the preprocessing data step is important. This paper investigates three filter feature selection techniques to check the predictive capability of four single ML techniques:K‐nearest neighbor, support vector regression, multilayer perceptron, and decision trees and their homogeneous ensembles over six well‐known datasets. Furthermore, the single and ensembles techniques were optimized using the grid search optimization method. The results suggest that the three filter feature selection techniques investigated improve the reasonability and the accuracy performance of the four single techniques. Moreover, the homogeneous ensembles are statistically more accurate than the single techniques. Finally, adopting a random process (i.e., random subspace method) to select the inputs feature for ML technique is not always effective to generate an accurate homogeneous ensemble.