bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Using the WHO safe childbirth checklist to improve essential care delivery as part of the district-wide maternal and newborn health quality improvement initiative, a time series study
Authors: Bitewulign Befikadu , Abdissa Dereje , Mulissa Zewdie , Kiflie Abiyou , Abate Mehiret , Biadgo Abera , Alemu Haregeweyni , Zelalem Meseret , Kassa Munir , Parry Gareth , Magge Hema 
Published: August 2021

AbstractBackgroundCare bundles are a set of three to five evidence-informed practices which, when performed collectively and reliably, may improve health system performance and patient care. To date, many studies conducted to improve the quality of essential birth care practices (EBPs) have focused primarily on provider- level and have fallen short of the predicted impact on care quality, indicating that a systems approach is needed to improve the delivery of reliable quality care.This study evaluates the effect of integrating the use of the World Health Organization Safe Childbirth Checklist (WHO-SCC) into a district-wide system improvement collaborative program designed to improve and sustain the delivery of EBPs as measured by “clinical bundle” adherence over-time.MethodsThe WHO-SCC was introduced in the context of a district-wide Maternal and Newborn Health (MNH) collaborative quality of care improvement program in four agrarian Ethiopia regions. Three “clinical bundles” were created from the WHO-SCC: On Admission, Before Pushing, and Soon After Birth bundles. The outcome of each bundle was measured using all- or- none adherence. Adherence was assessed monthly by reviewing charts of live births.A time-series analysis was employed to assess the effectiveness of system-level interventions on clinical bundle adherence. STATA version 13.1 was used to analyze the trend of each bundle adherence overtime.Autocorrelation was checked to assess if the assumption of independence in observations collected overtime was valid. Prais-Winsten was used to minimize the effect of autocorrelation.FindingsQuality improvement interventions targeting the three clinical bundles resulted in improved adherence over time across the four MNH collaborative. In Tankua Abergele collaborative (Tigray Region), the overall mean adherence to “On Admission” bundle was 86% with β = 1.39 (95% CI; 0.47–2.32;P <  0.005) on average monthly.Similarly, the overall mean adherence to the “Before Pushing” bundle in Dugna Fango collaborative; Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s (SNNP) region was 80% with β = 2.3 (95% CI; 0.89–3.74;P <  0.005) on average monthly.ConclusionUsing WHO-SCC paired with a system-wide quality improvement approach improved and sustained quality of EBPs delivery. Further studies should be conducted to evaluate the impact on patient-level outcomes.
The extent and barriers in providing pharmaceutical care services by community pharmacists in Malaysia: a cross-sectional study
Authors: Loh Pengyeow , Chua Siew Siang , Karuppannan Mahmathi 
Published: August 2021

AbstractBackgroundSince the introduction of pharmaceutical care concept by Hepler and Strand in 1990, community pharmacists worldwide have been realigning their roles from being product-focused to patient-orientated to improve patient's quality of life. The objectives of this study were to determine the type of services, with emphasis on the extent of pharmaceutical care services provided by community pharmacists and the barriers in providing such services in Malaysia.MethodsA cross-sectional observational study was conducted using an online questionnaire. Community pharmacists in Malaysia were invited to participate in the study via emails. The questionnaire was structured based on the Malaysian Community Pharmacy Benchmarking Guidelines, the five practice principles of pharmaceutical care by the American Pharmacists Association and other studies. The online questionnaire was opened for 6 months, from April to September 2018. A reminder to participate was sent via email to the community pharmacists every fortnight.ResultsA total of 420 community pharmacists responded to the online questionnaire. Besides essential services such as treatment for minor illness, medicine dispensing and counselling, most of the respondents were providing health screening and monitoring (99.5%), selection and recommendation of health supplements (90.5%), patient medication review (68.8%), weight management (52.4%) and counselling on smoking cessation (51.0%). More than half (53.3%) of the respondents reported that they were providing pharmaceutical care services to patients with chronic diseases. Based on the practice principles of pharmaceutical care, the respondents were involved in patients' data collection (23.3%), medical information evaluation (18.6%), formulating a drug therapy plan (9.3%), implementing a drug therapy plan (4.5%), and monitoring and modifying the plan (18.3%). Lack of separation between prescribing and dispensing was perceived as the main barrier to the implementation of pharmaceutical care services by a majority of the respondents (84.0%).ConclusionsThe present study found that pharmaceutical care services provided by community pharmacists in Malaysia were inadequate compared to international practice principles. Areas that need improvement included collaboration with patients' other health care providers; more proactive management of patient's medicine regimen; having proper patient monitoring and follow-up mechanisms, and documentation.
LncRNA CTD-3252C9.4 modulates pancreatic cancer cell survival and apoptosis through regulating IFI6 transcription
Authors: Yin Xin , Yang Jingyan , Chen Jintian , Ni Ruiqi , Zhou Yanhao , Song Hao , Jin Liang , Tang Tingting , Pan Yi 
Published: August 2021

Abstract
Background
Pancreatic cancer (PC) is one of the most lethal cancer types with high degree of malignancy and poor prognosis. Recent studies have shown that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) were associated with the initiation and progression of pancreatic cancer. In the current study, we have investigated the expression, biological function and mechanism of a lncRNA CTD-3252C9.4 in pancreatic cancer.

Methods
The expression of CTD-3252C9.4 in pancreatic cancer cells and tissues was measured by qRT-PCR. In vitro and in vivo functional experiments assays were implemented for identifying CTD-3252C9.4 function in pancreatic cancer. Molecular relationships among CTD-3252C9.4, IRF1 and IFI6 were investigated via luciferase reporter assay, pulldown assay and ChIP assays.

Results
CTD-3252C9.4 was found remarkably decreased in pancreatic cancer cells and tissues. Overexpression of CTD-3252C9.4 suppressed migration, invasion and proliferation, yet facilitated apoptosis of pancreatic cancer cells both in vitro and in vivo. Then, IFI6 was identified as a downstream target that could be down-regulated by CTD-3252C9.4 and IFI6 overexpression could counteract the effects of CTD-3252C9.4 upregulation on the survival and apoptosis of pancreatic cancer cells. Furthermore, mechanism experiments revealed that IRF1 was a transcriptional factor of IFI6 that can be blocked by CTD-3252C9.4 to inhibit IFI6 transcription.

Conclusion
Our data indicated that CTD-3252C9.4 could promote pancreatic cancer cell apoptosis and restrain cell growth via binding IRF1 and preventing the transcription of IFI6, which may become a potential therapeutic target for pancreatic cancer.
Investment case for malaria elimination in South Africa: a financing model for resource mobilization to accelerate regional malaria elimination
Authors: Njau Joseph , Silal Sheetal P. , Kollipara Aparna , Fox Katie , Balawanth Ryleen , Yuen Anthony , White Lisa J. , Moya Mandisi , Pillay Yogan , Moonasar Devanand 
Published: August 2021

AbstractBackgroundMalaria continues to be a public health problem in South Africa. While the disease is mainly confined to three of the nine provinces, most local transmissions occur because of importation of cases from neighbouring countries. The government of South Africa has reiterated its commitment to eliminate malaria within its borders. To support the achievement of this goal, this study presents a cost–benefit analysis of malaria elimination in South Africa through simulating different scenarios aimed at achieving malaria elimination within a 10-year period.MethodsA dynamic mathematical transmission model was developed to estimate the costs and benefits of malaria elimination in South Africa between 2018 and 2030. The model simulated a range of malaria interventions and estimated their impact on the transmission ofPlasmodium falciparummalaria between 2018 and 2030 in the three endemic provinces of Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal. Local financial, economic, and epidemiological data were used to calibrate the transmission model.ResultsBased on the three primary simulated scenarios: Business as Usual, Accelerate and Source Reduction, the total economic burden was estimated as follows: for the Business as Usual scenario, the total economic burden of malaria in South Africa was R 3.69 billion (USD 223.3 million) over an 11-year period (2018–2029). The economic burden of malaria was estimated at R4.88 billion (USD 295.5 million) and R6.34 billion (~ USD 384 million) for the Accelerate and Source Reduction scenarios, respectively. Costs and benefits are presented in midyear 2020 values. Malaria elimination was predicted to occur in all three provinces if the Source Reduction strategy was adopted to help reduce malaria rates in southern Mozambique. This could be achieved by limiting annual local incidence in South Africa to less than 1 indigenous case with a prediction of this goal being achieved by the year 2026.ConclusionsMalaria elimination in South Africa is feasible and economically worthwhile with a guaranteed positive return on investment (ROI). Findings of this study show that through securing funding for the proposed malaria interventions in the endemic areas of South Africa and neighbouring Mozambique, national elimination could be within reach in an 8-year period.
Application of compressed sensing for image compression based on optimized Toeplitz sensing matrices
Authors: Parkale Yuvraj V. , Nalbalwar Sanjay L. 
Published: August 2021

AbstractIn compressed sensing, the Toeplitz sensing matrices are generated by randomly drawn entries and further optimizes them with suitable optimization methods. However, during an optimization process, state-of-the-art optimization methods tend to lose control over the structure of measurement matrices. In this paper, we proposed the novel approach for optimization of Toeplitz sensing matrices based on evolutionary algorithms such as Genetic Algorithm (GA), Simulated Annealing (SA), and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) for compression of an image signal. Furthermore, we investigated the performance of Basis Pursuit (BP) and Orthogonal Matching Pursuit (OMP) algorithms for the reconstruction of the images. The proposed optimized Toeplitz sensing matrices based on evolutionary algorithms such as GA, SA, and PSO exhibit a significant reduction in the mutual coherence (μ) and thus improved the recovery performance of 2D images compared to state-of-the-art non-optimized Toeplitz sensing matrices. The result reveals that the optimized Toeplitz sensing matrices with Basis Pursuit (BP) achieved more accurate results with a robust and uniform reconstruction guarantee compared to the OMP algorithm. However, BP shows the slow reconstruction performance of the image signal. On the other hand, an optimized Toeplitz sensing matrix with OMP shows a fast reconstruction guarantee, but at the cost of a reduction in the PSNR. Furthermore, the proposed approach retains the structure of Toeplitz sensing matrices and improves the image recovery performance of compressed sensing. Finally, the experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed method based on evolutionary algorithms for image compression.
A cross-sectional study on the impact of the prevention and control response of the COVID-19 pandemic on minor’s orthopedic trauma in Shanghai
Authors: Qian Chuang , Zheng Yiming , Meng Junrong , Li Hao , Wang Dahui 
Published: August 2021

Abstract
Background
The Chinese government has taken strong prevention and control measures against the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the pandemic is far from over, it has been effectively controlled in China. The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic provides an opportunity to study the influence of governmental prevention and control response on orthopedic trauma in minors.

Methods
We collected and reviewed data and information on minor’s orthopedic trauma from 1 January to 30 June of the past three year (2018, 2019 and 2020). The data were divided according to the time of prevention and control response level in 2020 (the first level response is from January 24 to March 22, the second level response is from March 23 to May 7, and the third level response is May 8 to now). By comparing the relevant data from orthopedic emergency and operating rooms from the past three years, the influence of governmental pandemic prevention measures on orthopedic trauma in minors was analyzed.

Results
A total of 36,301 minors were included in the study cohort. Before the prevention and control response, the data of the orthopedic emergency department of National Children Medical Center (Shanghai) in 2020 was the same as the previous two years. The condition of children undergoing surgery at the time of injury is significantly different under different levels of prevention and control response. Under the first-level response, the number of fractures, open injuries, radial head subluxation, and surgery were significantly reduced, and the severity of patients with surgery was also significantly reduced. Under the second-level response, the number of operations began to increase, and the severity of the disease also began to rise. Under the third-level response control, the number of fractures, open injuries, and operations have returned to the levels of the previous two years. The severity of the operation has also returned to its previous level. The number of subluxations of the radial head is still different from before.

Conclusion
The prevention and control response for the pandemic of COVID-19 can reduce the incidence of orthopedic trauma in minors by strengthening the guardian’s care and restricting children’s outdoor activities. With the control of the pandemic, the amount of orthopedic trauma in minors will not be affected by low-level prevention and control.
Effect of a dietary and exercise intervention in women with overweight and obesity undergoing fertility treatments: protocol for a randomized controlled trial
Authors: Fawcett Kindann , Martinez Audrey , Crimmins Meghan , Sims Clark , Børsheim Elisabet , Andres Aline 
Published: August 2021

Abstract
Background
Distinct molecular, inflammatory, and metabolic signatures are present in oocytes and follicular fluid derived from women with obesity when compared to those derived from normal weight women, which suggest existing signals that may program future offspring for metabolic diseases. This study aims to assess the feasibility and efficacy of a peri-conception nutrition and exercise intervention on mitigating obesity-associated changes in oocyte gene expression profiles and follicular fluid metabolites.

Methods
This single blinded randomized control trial will include 120 women with a BMI of 25–45 kg/m2, ≥21 years of age, and undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments. Participants will be randomized to standard of care (N = 60) or an intervention group (N = 60) in a block design by polycystic ovary syndrome status. The intervention will combine a dietary component (Mediterranean meal plan) with exercise prescription following the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. Participants will be assessed pre- and post-intervention. The standard of care group will be offered to join the intervention group if the IVF treatments are unsuccessful as a cross over design. Recruitment is anticipated to start in July of 2021. Primary outcomes will include single oocyte gene expression profiles and follicular fluid metabolites. Mann-Whitney U nonparametric tests will be used to assess potential differences for each stratum. Follicular fluid and serum metabolites will be analyzed using a one-factor Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) at four levels, pair-wise comparisons using Tukey-Kramer post-hoc tests will be used to identify groups whose means differ significantly while retaining the family-wise error rate at 5%. When the design is balanced, two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), or non-parametric Friedman test will be used in data analysis. Additionally, general linear models and ANCOVA may be used to control for covariates. Significance will be set at p < 0.05. Findings will be disseminated via peer-reviewed manuscripts and presentations at scientific conferences.

Discussion
This study will provide novel data and key information on the impact of a dietary and exercise intervention on oocyte gene expression and follicular fluid content. Results will demonstrate the potential of such intervention in mitigating obesity-induced changes in oocyte gene expression and follicular fluid metabolites.

Trial registration
ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04273048): submitted November 13, 2019; posted February 17, 2020.
Price distortions and municipal bonds premiums: evidence from Switzerland
Authors: Vukovic Darko B. , Rincon Carlos J. , Maiti Moinak 
Published: August 2021

AbstractThis study examines the pricing of municipal bonds before and after a currency shock in Switzerland. Two approaches are used to decompose the municipal to treasuries bond spreads into liquidity, maturity, and default risk premiums. The first approach is the model of the cross-sectional instrumental variables, and the second approach is the model of the instrumental variables with panel data. This study examines the composition of spreads for both approaches, in three scenarios: before, throughout, and after the currency shock. The study performed Durbin-Wu-Hausman tests for each decisive model to verify endogeneity issues, including the Lagrangian Multiplier test, the Cragg-Donald Wald F statistic to confirm the relationship of instrumental and endogenous variables, and the structural break test (Bai-Perron test) to determine the existence of structural breaks in bond distortions. This study finds that the currency price distortions of the Swiss franc in January 2015 made long-run changes in the composition of the municipal bond spreads. This research contributes to the understanding of municipal bond pricing by showing that default risk accounts for a large portion of the municipal bond spread, while maturity risk plays a lesser role. According to our empirical findings, unexpected large currency price shocks may have long-term implications on the municipal bond spreads.
Coronavirus disease and male fertility: a systematic review
Authors: Fathi Mobina , Vakili Kimia , Aliaghaei Abbas , Nematollahi Shahrzad , Peirouvi Tahmineh , Shalizar-Jalali Ali 
Published: August 2021

Abstract
Background
Based on the information from other SARS-CoV infections in the patients recovered from COVID-19, particularly cases in the reproductive age, gonadal function evaluation and andrological consultation comprising semen analysis are recommended.

Main body
Based on the COVID-19 infected patients’ seminal fluid analyses, SARS-CoV-2 may employ the male reproductive system as a transmission pathway. It has been also demonstrated that angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) can be strongly expressed at the protein levels in the testicular cells. The high expression of ACE2 in testes suggests that testes in the COVID-19 infected males can have an important role in the viral persistence and this subject needs further investigations. Several researchers have examined males recovered from COVID-19, but still, large-scale experiments are needed to determine the effects of SARS-CoV-2 on the male reproductive system as well as viral transmission risk.

Conclusion
Comprehensive researches are required to figure out the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in seminal fluid as well as its sexual transmissibility and impact on sperm characteristics.
The phenomenology and impact of hallucinations concerning the deceased
Authors: Elsaesser Evelyn , Roe Chris A. , Cooper Callum E. , Lorimer David 
Published: August 2021

BackgroundPeople who have suffered the loss of a loved one may subsequently report sensory experiences of the deceased (termed ‘after-death communications’, or ADCs). Such encounters are common and can be a source of comfort to the bereaved. Nevertheless, there has been limited empirical investigation of this phenomenon, and consequently mental health professionals feel ill-equipped to support those who disclose them.AimsTo map the phenomenology of ADCs, and identify covariates and effects upon the recipient.MethodWe conducted an online mixed-methods survey comprising 194 items about all aspects of ADCs. A purposive sample of 1004 respondents across three language groups (English, French and Spanish) completed the survey.ResultsThe most common form of ADC was during sleep, but large numbers of cases involved sensory modalities of touch, sight, hearing, smell and sense of presence that externalised the phenomenon for the recipient. Variations in incidence with participant gender and language group suggest a psychosocial component. ADCs were typically regarded by the participant as deeply meaningful and comforting. Respondents reported significant increases in their sense of spirituality, but not religiosity.ConclusionsADCs are a common feature of bereavement that occur unexpectedly, and are independent of any underlying pathology or psychological need. For the person experiencing the hallucination, they are important and meaningful events that they interpret in terms of continuing bonds with the deceased. This adaptive outcome may be stymied where mental health professionals trivialise or pathologise disclosures about ADCs.