bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Slackwater sediments refine the timing of Late Holocene Icelandic canyon-carving floods and confirm they were smaller than reported
Authors: Bilt Willem van der , Barr Iestyn , Berben Sarah , Hennekam Rick , Lane Timothy , Adamson Kathryn , Bakke Jostein 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
Catastrophic floods have formed deep bedrock canyons on Earth, but the relationship between discharge and erosion remains contested. This hinders efforts to use geological evidence of these cataclysmic events to constrain their magnitude – a prerequisite for impact assessments. This study combines evidence from slackwater sediments with topographic models and hydraulic simulations to constrain the Late Holocene flood history of the Jökulsá á Fjöllum river in northern Iceland. We date floods to 3.5, 1.5 and 1.35 cal. ka BP and confirm that discharge peaks during these events were much smaller than previously reported. In light of recent cosmogenic evidence that nearby knickpoints retreated over 2 km during these floods, our results strengthen simulations and observations indicating that the extent of bedrock erosion is not necessarily controlled by discharge. These findings support a growing consensus that the magnitude of canyon-carving floods is much smaller than typically assumed.
Description of Longidorella (Saevadorella) caspica n. sp. (Dorylaimida: Nordiidae) from north Iran
Authors: Heydari Fariba , Atighi Mohammad Reza , Pourjam Ebrahim , Pedram Majid 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
This contribution provides the morphological and molecular identification of a new species of the genus Longidorella (Saevadorella). L. (S.) caspica n. sp., was recovered from the rhizospheric soil of grasses in Mazandaran province in the seashore of the Caspian Sea. It is characterized by females with a length of 788 to 874 μm and a cephalic region with prominent papillae; and separated from the rest of the body by a remarkable constriction, an odontostyle of 32 to 33 μm, vulva at 52.5 to 59.0%, and a tail of 33 to 38 μm with a rounded tip. Males have 32 to 35 μm long spicules of dorylaimoid form and five to seven ventral supplements ending at 48 to 55 μm distance from cloacal pair. The new species was morphologically compared with seven nominal species viz. L. (S.) arenicola, L. (S.) cuspidata, L. (S.) magna, L. (S.) perplexa, L. (S.) saadi, L. (S.) saevae, and L. (S.) tharensis. It was further compared with similar species under the subgenus Longidorella (Enchodorella) viz. L. (E.) deliblatica and L. (E.) murithi. Besides morphological studies, molecular phylogenetic studies using partial sequences of D2 to D3 expansion fragments of 28S rDNA were performed for the new species and its phylogenetic relationships with other species and genera were discussed.
First report and new molecular and morphological characterizations of root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne javanica, infecting ginger and long coriander in Vietnam
Authors: Phan Ke Long , LE Thi Mai Linh , Nguyen Huu Tien , Nguyen Thi Duyen , Trinh Quang Phap 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) and long coriander (Eryngium foetidum L.) are commonly grown and used as important spices and medicinal plants in Vietnam. Our study recovered for the first time one of the most damaging tropical root-knot nematodes, Meloidogyne javanica, associated with these plants in the Western Highlands of Vietnam. In this study, M. javanica was characterized based on morphology and molecular characterization of D2-D3 fragment of 28S rRNA, ITS, and Nad5 mtDNA regions. The identification of this species was done based on a combination of morphology, multiplex-PCR with specific primer, network haplotype analysis, and PPNID program.
Smart pH-responsive Co-polymeric Hydrogels for Controlled Delivery of Capecitabine: Fabrication, Optimization and In Vivo Toxicology Screening
Authors: Rehman Umaira , Sarfraz Rai Muhammad , Mahmood Asif , Hussain Zahid , Thu Hnin Ei , Zafar Nadiah , Ashraf Muhammad Umar , Batool Nighat 
Published: February 2021

Background:
Despite exhibiting promising anticancer potential, the clinical significance
of capecitabine (a potent prodrug of 5-fluorouracil used for the treatment of colorectal cancer) is
limited owing to its acidic and enzymatic hydrolysis, lower absorption following the oral administration,
poor bioavailability, short plasma half-life, and poor patient compliance.

Objectives:
The present study was aimed to fabricate the capecitabine as a smart pH-responsive hydrogel
network to efficiently facilitate its oral delivery while shielding its stability in the gastric media.

Methods:
The smart pH-sensitive HP-β-CD/agarose-g-poly(MAA) hydrogel network was developed
using an aqueous free radical polymerization technique. The developed hydrogels were characterized
for drug-loading efficiency, structural and compositional features, thermal stability,
swelling behaviour, morphology, physical form, and release kinetics. The pH-responsive behaviour
of developed hydrogels was established by conducting the swelling and release behaviour at different
pH values (1.2 and 7.4), demonstrating significantly higher swelling and release at pH 7.4 as
compared with pH 1.2. The capecitabine-loaded hydrogels were also screened for acute oral toxicity
in animals by analysing the body weight, water and food intake, dermal toxicity, ocular toxicity,
biochemical analysis, and histological examination.

Results:
The characteristic evaluations revealed that capecitabine (anticancer agent) was successfully
loaded into the hydrogel network. The range of capecitabine loading was from 71.22% to
90.12%. An interesting feature of hydrogel was its pH-responsive behaviour which triggers release
at basic pH (94.25%). Optimum swelling (95%)was seen at pH 7.4. Based upon regression coefficient
R2(0.96 – 0.99) the best-fit model was zero-order. The extensive toxicity evaluations evidenced
a good safety profile with no signs of oral, dermal, or ocular toxicities, as well as no variations
in blood parameters and histology of vital organs.

Conclusion:
Our findings conclusively evinced that the developed hydrogel exhibited excellent
pharmaceutical and therapeutic potential and thus can be employed as a pH-responsive system for
the controlled delivery of anticancer agents.
Trimetazidine Dihydrochloride Pulsatile–Release Tablets for the Treatment of Morning Anginal Symptoms: Dual Optimization, Characterization and Pharmacokinetic Evaluation
Authors: Othman Abdelrahman I. , Amin Maha M. , Abu-Elyazid Sherif K. , Abdelbary Ghada A. 
Published: February 2021

Objective:
This research work aimed to target the early morning peak symptoms of chronic stable angina through formulating antianginal drug, Trimetazidine (TMZ) in a pulsatile-release tablet.

Methods:
The core formulae were optimized using 22.31 factorial design to minimize disintegration time (DT) and maximize drug release after 5 minutes (Q5min). Different ratios of Eudragit S100 and Eudragit L100 were used as a coating mixture for the selected core with or without a second coating layer of hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose (HPMC E50). The different formulation variables were statistically optimized for their effect on lag time and drug release after 7 hours (Q7h) using Box-Behnken design. The optimized formula (PO) was subjected to stability study and pharmacokinetic assessment on New Zealand rabbits.

Results:
The optimal core (F8) was found to have 1.76 min disintegration time and 61.45% Q5min PO showed a lag time of 6.17 h with 94.80% Q7h and retained good stability over three months. The pharmacokinetic study confirmed the pulsatile–release pattern with Cmax of 206.19 ng/ml at 5.33 h (Tmax), as well as 95.85% relative bioavailability compared to TMZ solution.

Conclusion:
Overall pulsatile-release tablets of TMZ succeeded in releasing the drug rapidly after a desirable lag time, providing a promising approach for early morning anginal symptoms relief.
Diagnosis of Mild Cognitive Impairment Using Cognitive Tasks: A Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study
Authors: Yoo So-Hyeon , Woo Seong-Woo , Shin Myung-Jun , Yoon Jin A. , Shin Yong-Il , Hong Keum-Shik 
Published: February 2021

Background:
Early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is essential in preventing its
progression to dementia. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) can be indicative of early-stage AD. In this
study, we propose a channel-wise feature extraction method of functional near-infrared spectroscopy
(fNIRS) data to diagnose MCI when performing cognitive tasks, including two-back, Stroop, and
semantic verbal fluency tasks (SVFT).

Methods:
A new channel-wise feature extraction method is proposed as follows: A region-of-interest
(ROI) channel is defined as such channel having a statistical difference (p <0.05) in t-values between
two groups. For each ROI channel, features (the mean, slope, skewness, kurtosis, and peak value of
oxy- and deoxy-hemoglobin) are extracted. The extracted features for the two classes (MCI, HC) are
classified using the linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and support vector machine (SVM). Finally, the
classifiers are validated using the area under curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristics.
Furthermore, the suggested feature extraction method is compared with the conventional approach.
Fifteen MCI patients and fifteen healthy controls (HCs) participated in the study.

Results:
In the two-back and Stroop tasks, HCs showed activation in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex
(VLPFC). However, in the case of MCI, the VLPFC was not activated. Instead, Ch. 30 was activated.
In the SVFT task, the PFC was activated in both groups, but the t-values of HCs were higher than those
of MCI. For the SVFT, the classification accuracies using the proposed feature extraction method were
80.77% (LDA) and 83.33% (SVM), showing the highest among the three tasks; for the Stroop task,
79.49% (LDA) and 73.08% (SVM); and for the two-back task, 73.08% (LDA) and 69.23% (SVM).

Conclusion:
The cognitive disparities between the MCI and HC groups were detected in the ventrolateral
prefrontal cortex using fNIRS. The proposed feature extraction method has shown an improvement in the
classification accuracies, see Subsection 3.3. Most of all, the suggested method contains a groupdistinction
information per cognitive task. The obtained results successfully discriminated MCI patients
from HCs, which reflects that the proposed method is an efficient tool to extract features in fNIRS signals.
Characterization of Proteins from Putative Human DNA and RNA
Viruses
Authors: Polanco Carlos , Uversky Vladimir N. , Vargas-Alarcón Gilberto , Buhse Thomas , Huberman Alberto , Márquez Manlio F. , Andrés Leire 
Published: February 2021

Background:
In the vast variety of viruses known, there is a particular interest in those transmitted to humans and whose ability to disseminate represents a significant public health issue.

Objective:
The present study’s objective is to bioinformatically characterize the proteins of the two main divisions of viruses, RNA-viruses and DNA-viruses.

Methods:
In this work, a set of in-house computational programs was used to calculate the polarity/charge profiles and intrinsic disorder predisposition profiles of the proteins of several groups of viruses representing both types extracted from UniProt database. The efficiency of these computational programs was statistically verified.

Results:
It was found that the polarity/charge profile of the proteins is, in most cases, an efficient discriminant that allows the re-creation of the taxonomy known for both viral groups. Additionally, the entire set of "reviewed" proteins in UniProt database was analyzed to find proteins with the polarity/charge profiles similar to those obtained for each viral group. This search revealed a substantial number of proteins with such polarity-charge profiles.

Conclusion:
Polarity/charge profile represents a physicochemical metric, which is easy to calculate, and which can be used to effectively identify viral groups from their protein sequences.
Withdrawal Notice: Applying Peer Mentoring to Improve Learning Human Anatomy
Authors: Nikolenko Vladimir N. , Rizaeva Negoriya A. , Oganesyan Marine V. , Kudryashova Valentina A. , Dubrovina Polina I. , Dubovets Alexandra A. , Bolotskaya Anastasia A. , Bulygin Kirill V. , Muresanu Cristian , Somasundaram Siva G. , Kirkland Cecil E. , Aliev Gjumrakch 
Published: February 2021

The article has been withdrawn at the request of the co-authors due to the death of the corresponding author (Dr. Aliev).

Bentham Science apologizes to the readers of the journal for any inconvenience this may have caused.

The Bentham Editorial Policy on Article Withdrawal can be found at https://benthamscience.com/editorial-policies-main.php

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Effect of Direct-Acting Antiviral Drugs on Erectile Functions among Hepatitis
C Patients: A Prospective Interventional Study
Authors: Alhefnawy Mohamed , Mohey Ahmed , Fathi Ahmed , Mansour Ahmed , Abd-Elsalam Sherief , Eissa Ahmed , Hagras Ayman , Puliatti Stefano , Almekaty Khaled 
Published: February 2021

Background & Objective:
Erectile dysfunction (ED) is one of the extrahepatic manifestations
of hepatitis C virus infection that greatly affects patients’ quality of life. Unfortunately,
some of the drugs used for HCV treatment may have a negative impact on the patient’s erectile
function, such as the pegylated interferon. Currently, with the introduction of direct-acting antiviral
drugs, there is scarce data in the literature about its potential impact on erectile function. In these
settings, we aimed to assess the impact of sofosbuvir-based therapy on male erectile function.

Methods:
This prospective interventional study was carried out in Benha University hospitals between
January 2019 and May 2020. The study included all consecutive HCV patients with simultaneous
ED coming to the hepatology outpatient clinic. Patients were divided into a study group who
received sofosbuvir-based therapy (group A) or a control group who received silymarin therapy
(group B). The International Index of Erectile Function-5 (IIEF-5) was used for the assessment of
erectile function at different time points (pretreatment, 6 months, and 12 months after treatment).
Different variables in both groups have been statistically analyzed.

Results:
Overall, 75 patients who received sofosbuvir-based therapy and a control group (n = 35)
matched for age and pretreatment variables (Child–Turcotte–Pugh score and Fibrosis‐4 score).
There was no significant difference between both groups in the pretreatment data. On the other
hand, the posttreatment IIEF-5 was significantly higher in the sofosbuvir arm compared to the silymarin
arm both at six months (p<0.001) and at 12 months (p<0.001). Furthermore, the age and the
stage of liver fibrosis were negatively correlated with IIEF-5 at all-time points.

Conclusion:
The age and the stage of liver fibrosis are significantly correlated with the degree of
ED. Furthermore, sofosbuvir-based therapy may be associated with significant improvement in patients
with erectile function.
Antibiotic Resistance of Bacteria Isolated from Water Supplies Used in Poultry Production in Ashanti Region of Ghana
Authors: Osei Frank B. , Boamah Vivian E. , Boakye Yaw D. , Agyare Christian , Abaidoo Robert C. 
Published: February 2021

Objective:
Water plays an important role in both domestic and commercial settings. Pathogenic microbial contaminants, however, render water unsafe for use. There are several reports on the quality of water used for drinking purposes in humans but few studies have been conducted on the microbial quality of water used in animal farming.

Methods:
In this study, the resistance pattern of bacterial isolates from drinking water used in poultry production in the Ashanti region of Ghana from our previously published report was determined. The presence of Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi, Staphylococcus aureus and coagulase-negative Staphylococci was determined using selective culture media (pour plate method) and confirmed through Gram staining and biochemical reactions. Antibiotic sensitivity of isolates was determined followed by detection of Extended-Spectrum Beta-Lactamase (ESBL) producing Gram-negative isolates.

Results:
The study revealed that water used in poultry farms contains sources of multi-drug resistant strains of E. coli, S. typhi, S. aureus and coagulase-negative staphylococci. E. coli, S. typhi, S. aureus and coagulase-negative staphylococci were recovered from 31%, 36%, 64% and 19% of samples, respectively. Majority of these isolates were resistant to cephalosporins and penicillins. Almost 95% of the bacterial isolates were multi-drug resistant. None of E. coli and S. typhi isolates produced ESBL.

Conclusion:
There is a need for stringent regulations and stringent measures should be taken to make these various sources of water safe for use in animal husbandry as these waters are a potential source of pathogenic and resistant bacterial strains which can cause infections to the animals and farm workers.
Determinants of the Discriminatory Behavior Experienced by People Living with HIV in Indonesia: A Cross-sectional Study of the Demographic Health Survey
Authors: Nursalam Nursalam , Sukartini Tintin , Arifin Hidayat , Pradipta Rifky Octavia , Mafula Dluha , Ubudiyah Masunatul 
Published: February 2021

Introduction:
The discriminatory behavior experienced by People Living With HIV (PLWH) remains an unresolved problem in Indonesia. The aims of this research were to determine the factors associated with the discriminatory behavior experienced by PLWH in Indonesia.

Methods:
This study used cross-sectional design data by processing secondary data from the Indonesian Demographic Health Survey (IDHS) conducted in 2017. The total sample in this study was 15,413 records obtained via the two-stage stratified cluster sampling technique. The variables in this study were knowledge, information, socioeconomic and demographic details and the discriminatory behavior experienced by PLWH. The instrument refers to IDHS 2017. The data were analyzed using a chi-squared test and multinomial logistic regression.

Results:
The results obtained show that approximately 78.87% of respondents exhibited discriminatory behavior against PLWH in Indonesia. Respondents who had more knowledge about HIV [RRR: 25.35; CI: 2.85, 225.18] and who had earnings [RRR: 2.15; CI: 1.18, 3.92] were more at risk of discriminatory behavior than others. Respondents who lived in a rural area were less likely to engage in discriminatory behavior against PLWH than those who lived in urban areas [RRR: 0.51; CI: 0.29, 0.91].

Conclusion:
An increased understanding of HIV-AIDS and Indonesian people's acceptance of PLWH can occur through the provision of accurate information that is designed to prevent discriminatory behavior against PLWH. The government can consider this problem and further related policies so that PLWH can coexist in society and enjoy the same rights as those living without discrimination.
Stone Tools in the High Molise Mountains (Italy): a first Report
Authors: Mironti Vittorio , Vilmercati Melissa , Lucci Enrico , Modesto Rachele 
Published: February 2021

In the last decades, several researches focused on the inland areas of Molise Region (Central-Southern Italy) to investigate the occupation and exploitation of this environment during Pleistocene and Holocene.
The “Molise Survey Project” started in 2015 with the aim to explore, through systematic surveys, an area of 60 square kilometres, chiefly characterized by a mountainous landscape and part of the Central-Southern Italy Apennines. The project seeks to investigate the patterns of human occupation in the mountainous landscape between the provinces of Campobasso and Isernia. The surveys, carried out during the last four years, allowed the identification of 19 prehistoric sites ranging from Palaeolithic to Bronze Age: the archaeological materials belonging to the latter period are being studied by the team of “Paletnologia” of Sapienza University of Rome. This work aims to show the preliminary results of the analysis of the lithic assemblage acquired during the summer of 2016 surveys, focusing on raw material procurement and the related chaîne opératoire, also considering post-depositional agents. The obtained data allowed to reassess the human presence over inland and high-altitude areas of Molise during prehistoric times, stressing a seasonal use of the territory, from Palaeolithic to Late Prehistory, with different patterns of occupation and exploitation.
Chert procurement in Corsica during the Neolithic: Inferring social territories in the Tyrrhenian islands
Authors: Leandri Céline , Fernandes Paul 
Published: February 2021

From the Neolithic, foreign siliceous materials were imported into Corsica as the island lacks local chert and obsidian. Such a context constitutes a real opportunity to investigate the relationship of the island with surrounding areas, in perspective with cultural evolutions. For 20 years, chert sourcing studies were carried out. We took into account 26 sites, dating from the Ancient Neolithic to the Final Neolithic. The work is based on non-destructive petro-archaeological observations of the artefacts. and on the survey and characterization of Sardinian sources (320 samples collected and 60 different lithotypes characterized).
The study aims to better understand the place of chert among the lithic assemblages throughout time and identify the provenance of most of the chert material introduced into Corsica. It reveals procurement evolution in terms of preferred facies and of stages of introduction, depending on the chronology and geographical situation of the sites. The results confirm connections with Sardinia, among which Perfugas basin constitutes a major source of raw material for Corsica. It also shows relations with the Italian Peninsula for some Middle Neolithic sites in Northern Corsica. Comparisons with data from Sardinia show the affinities and differences between the two islands and open further avenues for research.