bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Adults with current asthma but not former asthma have higher all-cause and cardiovascular mortality: a population-based prospective cohort study
Authors: He Xumei , Cheng GeSheng , He Lu , Liao Bing , Du YaJuan , Xie Xuegang , Zhang Songlin , Li Gang , Wang Yafeng , Zhang YuShun 
Published: January 2021

AbstractHigher mortality in asthmatics has been shown previously. However, evidence on different asthma phenotypes on long-term mortality risk is limited. The aim was to evaluate the impact of asthma phenotypes on mortality in general population. Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2001–2002 to 2013–2014 linked mortality files through December 31, 2015, were used (N = 37,015). Cox proportional hazards regression was used to estimate the risk of all-cause and cause-specific mortality adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, smoking, body mass index, and chronic conditions. During the mean follow-up time of 7.5 years, 4326 participants died from a variety of causes. Current asthma, but not former asthma was associated with increased all-cause mortality (current asthma: HR = 1.37; 95% CI 1.20–1.58; Former asthma: HR = 0.93; 95% CI 0.73–1.18); as well as mortality from cardiovascular disease (HRCurrent = 1.41; 95% CI 1.08–1.85) and chronic lower respiratory diseases (HRCurrent = 3.17; 95% CI 1.96–5.14). In addition, we found that the HR for cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality was slightly greater in people with childhood-onset asthma than those with adult-onset asthma. The HR for chronic lower respiratory diseases (CLRD) mortality was greater in people with adult-onset asthma than those with childhood-onset asthma. However, the differences were not statistically significant. Our study suggested that current asthma but not former asthma was associated with increased all-cause, CLRD and CVD mortality. Future well-designed studies with larger sample are required to demonstrate the association and clarify the potential mechanisms involved.
Mortality prediction using a novel combination of biomarkers in the first day of sepsis in intensive care units
Authors: Liu Junkun , Bai Chengwen , Li Binbin , Shan Aijun , Shi Fei , Yao Can , Zhang Yu , Wang Jin , Chen Weibu , Xie Manying , Deng Dehui 
Published: January 2021

AbstractEarly identification of infection severity and organ dysfunction is crucial in improving outcomes of patients with sepsis. We aimed to develop a new combination of blood-based biomarkers that can early predict 28-day mortality in patients with sepsis or septic shock. We enrolled 66 patients with sepsis or septic shock and compared 14 blood-based biomarkers in the first 24 h after ICU admission. The serum levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) (median 217.6 vs. 4809.0 pg/ml, P = 0.001), lactate (median 2.4 vs. 6.3 mmol/L, P = 0.014), N-terminal prohormone of brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) (median 1596.5 vs. 32,905.3 ng/ml, P < 0.001), prothrombin time (PT) (median 15.6 vs. 20.1 s, P = 0.030), activated partial thrombin time (APTT) (median 45.1 vs. 59.0 s, P = 0.026), and international normalized ratio (INR) (median 1.3 vs. 1.8, P < 0.001) were significantly lower in the survivor group. IL-6, NT-proBNP, and INR provided the best individual performance in predicting 28-day mortality of patients with sepsis or septic shock. Furthermore, the combination of these three biomarkers achieved better predictive performance (AUC 0.890, P < 0.001) than conventional scoring systems. In summary, the combination of IL-6, NT-proBNP, and INR may serve as a potential predictor of 28-day mortality in critically ill patients with sepsis or septic shock.
Formulation and in vitro evaluation of self-nanoemulsifying liquisolid tablets of furosemide
Authors: Dalal Lena , Allaf Abdul Wahab , El-Zein Hind 
Published: January 2021

AbstractSelf-nanoemulsifying drug delivery systems (SNEDDS) were used to enhance the dissolution rate of furosemide as a model for class IV drugs and the system was solidified into liquisolid tablets. SNEDDS of furosemide contained 10% Castor oil, 60% Cremophor EL, and 30% PEG 400. The mean droplets size was 17.9 ± 4.5 nm. The theoretical model was used to calculate the amounts of the carrier (Avicel PH101) and coating materials (Aerosil 200) to prepare liquisolid powder. Carrier/coating materials ratio of 5/1 was used and Ludipress was added to the solid system, thus tablets with hardness of 45 ± 2 N were obtained. Liquisolid tablets showed 2-folds increase in drug release as compared to the generic tablets after 60 min in HCl 0.1 N using USP apparatus-II. Furosemide loaded SNEDDS tablets have great prospects for further in vivo studies, and the theoretical model is useful for calculating the adequate amounts of adsorbents required to solidify these systems.
A pre-ablative thyroid-stimulating hormone with 30–70 mIU/L achieves better response to initial radioiodine remnant ablation in differentiated thyroid carcinoma patients
Authors: Xiao Juan , Yun Canhua , Cao Jingjia , Ding Shouluan , Shao Chunchun , Wang Lina , Huang Fengyan , Jia Hongying 
Published: January 2021

AbstractOur aim was to clarify the optimum pre-ablative thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) level for initial radioiodine remnant ablation (RRA) in patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC). From December 2015 to May 2019, 689 patients undergone RRA at Nuclear Medicine Department, Second Hospital of Shandong University were included in the study. Patients were categorized by their pre-ablative TSH level grouping of < 30, 30–70 and ≥ 70 mIU/L. Response to RRA were evaluated as complete response (including excellent and indeterminate response) and incomplete response (including biochemical and structural incomplete response) after a follow-up of 6–8 months. Multivariable binary logistic regression model was used to explore the optimum pre-ablative TSH level range and independent factors associated with response to RRA. Rates of complete response to RRA were 63.04%, 74.59% and 66.41% in TSH level groups of < 30, 30–70 and ≥ 70 mIU/L, separately. With multivariate analysis, the study found that pre-ablative TSH levels, gender and lymph node dissection were independent predictors of response to RRA. TSH between 30 and 70 mIU/L had a higher rate of complete response compared with TSH < 30 mIU/L, OR 0.451 (95% CI 0.215–0.958, P = 0.036). A pre-ablative TSH level of 30–70 mIU/L was appropriate for patients with DTC to achieve a better response to RRA.
A functional spiking neuronal network for tactile sensing pathway to process edge orientation
Authors: Parvizi-Fard Adel , Amiri Mahmood , Kumar Deepesh , Iskarous Mark M. , Thakor Nitish V. 
Published: January 2021

AbstractTo obtain deeper insights into the tactile processing pathway from a population-level point of view, we have modeled three stages of the tactile pathway from the periphery to the cortex in response to indentation and scanned edge stimuli at different orientations. Three stages in the tactile pathway are, (1) the first-order neurons which innervate the cutaneous mechanoreceptors, (2) the cuneate nucleus in the midbrain and (3) the cortical neurons of the somatosensory area. In the proposed network, the first layer mimics the spiking patterns generated by the primary afferents. These afferents have complex skin receptive fields. In the second layer, the role of lateral inhibition on projection neurons in the cuneate nucleus is investigated. The third layer acts as a biomimetic decoder consisting of pyramidal and cortical interneurons that correspond to heterogeneous receptive fields with excitatory and inhibitory sub-regions on the skin. In this way, the activity of pyramidal neurons is tuned to the specific edge orientations. By modifying afferent receptive field size, it is observed that the larger receptive fields convey more information about edge orientation in the first spikes of cortical neurons when edge orientation stimuli move across the patch of skin. In addition, the proposed spiking neural model can detect edge orientation at any location on the simulated mechanoreceptor grid with high accuracy. The results of this research advance our knowledge about tactile information processing and can be employed in prosthetic and bio-robotic applications.
Quantifying computational advantage of Grover’s algorithm with the trace speed
Authors: Gebhart Valentin , Pezzè Luca , Smerzi Augusto 
Published: January 2021

AbstractDespite intensive research, the physical origin of the speed-up offered by quantum algorithms remains mysterious. No general physical quantity, like, for instance, entanglement, can be singled out as the essential useful resource. Here we report a close connection between the trace speed and the quantum speed-up in Grover’s search algorithm implemented with pure and pseudo-pure states. For a noiseless algorithm, we find a one-to-one correspondence between the quantum speed-up and the polarization of the pseudo-pure state, which can be connected to a wide class of quantum statistical speeds. For time-dependent partial depolarization and for interrupted Grover searches, the speed-up is specifically bounded by the maximal trace speed that occurs during the algorithm operations. Our results quantify the quantum speed-up with a physical resource that is experimentally measurable and related to multipartite entanglement and quantum coherence.
Tunable broadband polarization converters based on coded graphene metasurfaces
Authors: Khajeh Ali , Hamzavi-Zarghani Zahra , Yahaghi Alireza , Farmani Ali 
Published: January 2021

AbstractIn this paper, two optimization algorithms (randomly initialized hill climbing and genetic algorithms) are considered to design broadband polarization converters based on coded metasurfaces. A pixeled graphene patch with an elliptic structure is proposed for the initial solution. Each pixel can be 1 and 0 which represents the presence and absence of the graphene. The initial guess tends to the optimum configuration after several optimization processes. Four broadband polarization converters are designed utilizing the optimization algorithms. By changing the chemical potential of graphene, the operation frequency of the polarization converters can be adjusted. Furthermore, the effects of relaxation time of graphene and incident angle on the polarization conversion bandwidth of the four designed structures are investigated.
Introduction of Varroa destructor has not altered honey bee queen mating success in the Hawaiian archipelago
Authors: Rusert Lauren M. , Pettis Jeffrey S. , Tarpy David R. 
Published: January 2021

AbstractBeekeepers struggle to minimize the mortality of their colonies as a consequence of the parasitic mite Varroa destructor in order to maintain a sustainable managed pollinator population. However, little is known about how varroa mites might diminish local populations of honey bee males (drones) that might affect the mating success of queens. As one of the world’s last localities invaded by varroa mites, the Hawaiian Islands offer a unique opportunity to examine this question by comparing queens mated on mite-infested and mite-free islands. We raised queen bees on four Hawaiian Islands (Kaua‘i, O‘ahu, Maui, and Hawai‘i) and subsequently collected their offspring to determine queen mating frequency and insemination success. No significant difference for mating success was found between the islands with and without varroa mites, and relatively high levels of polyandry was detected overall. We also found a significant association between the number of sperm stored in the queens’ spermathecae and the number of managed colonies within the localities of the queens mated. Our findings suggest that varroa mites, as they currently occur in Hawai‘i, may not significantly reduce mating success of honey bee queens, which provides insight for both the reproductive biology of honey bees as well as the apiculture industry in Hawai‘i.
Evidence for diagnosis of early chronic pancreatitis after three episodes of acute pancreatitis: a cross-sectional multicentre international study with experimental animal model
Authors: Hegyi Péter J. , Soós Alexandra , Tóth Emese , Ébert Attila , Venglovecz Viktória , Márta Katalin , Mátrai Péter , Mikó Alexandra , Bajor Judit , Sarlós Patrícia , Vincze Áron , Halász Adrienn , Izbéki Ferenc , Szepes Zoltán , Czakó László , Kovács György , Papp Mária , Dubravcsik Zsolt , Varga Márta , Hamvas József , Németh Balázs C. , Macarie Melania , Ince Ali Tüzün , Bordin Dmitry S. , Dubtsova Elena A. , Kiryukova Mariya A. , Khatkov Igor E. , Bideeva Tanya , Mickevicius Artautas , Ramírez-Maldonado Elena , Sallinen Ville , Erőss Bálint , Pécsi Dániel , Szentesi Andrea , Párniczky Andrea , Tiszlavicz László , Hegyi Péter 
Published: January 2021

AbstractChronic pancreatitis (CP) is an end-stage disease with no specific therapy; therefore, an early diagnosis is of crucial importance. In this study, data from 1315 and 318 patients were analysed from acute pancreatitis (AP) and CP registries, respectively. The population from the AP registry was divided into AP (n = 983), recurrent AP (RAP, n = 270) and CP (n = 62) groups. The prevalence of CP in combination with AP, RAP2, RAP3, RAP4 and RAP5 + was 0%, 1%, 16%, 50% and 47%, respectively, suggesting that three or more episodes of AP is a strong risk factor for CP. Laboratory, imaging and clinical biomarkers highlighted that patients with RAP3 + do not show a significant difference between RAPs and CP. Data from CP registries showed 98% of patients had at least one AP and the average number of episodes was four. We mimicked the human RAPs in a mouse model and found that three or more episodes of AP cause early chronic-like morphological changes in the pancreas. We concluded that three or more attacks of AP with no morphological changes to the pancreas could be considered as early CP (ECP).The new diagnostic criteria for ECP allow the majority of CP patients to be diagnosed earlier. They can be used in hospitals with no additional costs in healthcare.
Variations in the origin, course and branching pattern of dorsalis pedis artery with clinical significance
Authors: Hemamalini  , Manjunatha H. N. 
Published: January 2021

AbstractPulsations of the dorsalis pedis artery are commonly used to evaluate the peripheral arterial diseases like thromboangiitis obliterans (TAO) or Buerger’s disease, in lower limbs. Dorsalis pedis artery is a direct extension from the anterior tibial artery and major vascular supply for the dorsum of the foot. But arterial variations in lower limbs are common due to rich distal anastomoses around the ankle joint. Absence of dorsalis pedis arterial pulse does not indicate peripheral arterial disease always as it is sometimes replaced by the enlarged perforating branch of peroneal artery, it may be absent or very thin, deviate laterally on the dorsum of foot. Aim of the present study is to observe the variations in origin, course and branching pattern of dorsalis pedis artery because of its clinical significance. During routine dissection of lower limbs for undergraduates we came across rare variations in the dorsalis pedis artery in its origin, course and branching pattern. Normal anatomic description was found in 27 limbs. In 13 specimens we noted variations, includes bilateral anomalous origin of dorsalis pedis artery, bilateral lateral deviation of dorsalis pedis artery, double dorsalis pedis artery, trifurcation of dorsalis pedis artery and absence of arcuate artery. Knowledge about the arterial variations around the ankle is important to orthopaedic, vascular surgeons and radiologists to prevent complications during surgical interventions.
Stimulation of hepatocarcinogenesis by activated cholangiocytes via Il17a/f1 pathway in kras transgenic zebrafish model
Authors: Helal Mohamed , Yan Chuan , Gong Zhiyuan 
Published: January 2021

AbstractIt has been well known that tumor progression is dependent on secreted factors not only from tumor cells but also from other surrounding non-tumor cells. In the current study, we investigated the role of cholangiocytes during hepatocarcinogenesis following induction of oncogenic krasV12 expression in hepatocytes using an inducible transgenic zebrafish model. Upon induction of carcinogenesis in hepatocytes, a progressive cell proliferation in cholangiocytes was observed. The proliferative response in cholangiocytes was induced by enhanced lipogenesis and bile acids secretion from hepatocytes through activation of Sphingosine 1 phosphate receptor 2 (S1pr2), a known cholangiocyte receptor involving in cholangiocyte proliferation. Enhancement and inhibition of S1pr2 could accelerate or inhibit cholangiocyte proliferation and hepatocarcinogenesis respectively. Gene expression analysis of hepatocytes and cholangiocytes showed that cholangiocytes stimulated carcinogenesis in hepatocytes via an inflammatory cytokine, Il17a/f1, which activated its receptor (Il17ra1a) on hepatocytes and enhanced hepatocarcinogenesis via an ERK dependent pathway. Thus, the enhancing effect of cholangiocytes on hepatocarcinogenesis is likely via an inflammatory loop.
Response of Lactobacillus plantarum VAL6 to challenges of pH and sodium chloride stresses
Authors: Nguyen Phu-Tho , Nguyen Thi-Tho , Vo Thi-Ngoc-Tuyen , Nguyen Thi-Thanh-Xuan , Hoang Quoc-Khanh , Nguyen Huu-Thanh 
Published: January 2021

AbstractTo investigate the effect of environmental stresses on the exopolysaccharide biosynthesis, after 24 h of culture at 37 °C with pH 6.8 and without sodium chloride, Lactobacillus plantarum VAL6 was exposed to different stress conditions, including pH (pHs of 3 and 8) and high sodium chloride concentration treatments. The results found that Lactobacillus plantarum VAL6 exposed to stress at pH 3 for 3 h gives the highest exopolysaccharide yield (50.44 g/L) which is 6.4 fold higher than non-stress. Under pH and sodium chloride stresses, the mannose content in exopolysaccharides decreased while the glucose increased in comparison with non-stress condition. The galactose content was highest under stress condition of pH 8 meantime rhamnose content increased sharply when Lactobacillus plantarum VAL6 was stressed at pH 3. The arabinose content in exopolysaccharides was not detected under non-stress condition but it was recorded in great amounts after 3 h of stress at pH 3. In addition, stress of pH 8 triggered the mRNA expression of epsF gene resulting in galactose-rich EPS synthesis. According to our results, the stresses of pH and sodium chloride enhance the production and change the mRNA expression of epsF gene, leading to differences in the monosaccharide composition of exopolysaccharides.
Highly sensitive determination of heavy metals in water prior to and after remediation using Citrofortunella Microcarpa
Authors: Palisoc Shirley T. , Vitto Remuel Isaac M. , Noel Marissa G. , Palisoc Katja T. , Natividad Michelle T. 
Published: January 2021

AbstractA highly sensitive bismuth/silver nanoparticles/Nafion-modified screen-printed graphene electrode was fabricated and was utilized for the detection of trace lead (Pb) concentrations in river water samples prior to and after remediation using calamansi (Citrofortunella Microcarpa) rinds in different forms viz., ground sun-dried, dry-ashed, food-grade pectin, fractionated pectin, and alcohol insoluble solids—extracted pectin. All these forms of pectin remediated Pb in the water samples. Hence, this novel method of using calamansi rinds in different forms is an effective method for the removal of lead in water. The electrode was characterized using scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive x-ray spectrometry which confirmed the presence of the modifiers on the electrode surface. The limit of detection of 267.6 ppt and the strong linear relationship between the Pb concentration and the anodic current response (R2 = 0.999) were obtained under optimized experimental conditions and parameters.
A convolutional recurrent neural network with attention framework for speech separation in monaural recordings
Authors: Sun Chao , Zhang Min , Wu Ruijuan , Lu Junhong , Xian Guo , Yu Qin , Gong Xiaofeng , Luo Ruisen 
Published: January 2021

AbstractMost speech separation studies in monaural channel use only a single type of network, and the separation effect is typically not satisfactory, posing difficulties for high quality speech separation. In this study, we propose a convolutional recurrent neural network with an attention (CRNN-A) framework for speech separation, fusing advantages of two networks together. The proposed separation framework uses a convolutional neural network (CNN) as the front-end of a recurrent neural network (RNN), alleviating the problem that a sole RNN cannot effectively learn the necessary features. This framework makes use of the translation invariance provided by CNN to extract information without modifying the original signals. Within the supplemented CNN, two different convolution kernels are designed to capture information in both the time and frequency domains of the input spectrogram. After concatenating the time-domain and the frequency-domain feature maps, the feature information of speech is exploited through consecutive convolutional layers. Finally, the feature map learned from the front-end CNN is combined with the original spectrogram and is sent to the back-end RNN. Further, the attention mechanism is further incorporated, focusing on the relationship among different feature maps. The effectiveness of the proposed method is evaluated on the standard dataset MIR-1K and the results prove that the proposed method outperforms the baseline RNN and other popular speech separation methods, in terms of GNSDR (gloabl normalised source-to-distortion ratio), GSIR (global source-to-interferences ratio), and GSAR (gloabl source-to-artifacts ratio). In summary, the proposed CRNN-A framework can effectively combine the advantages of CNN and RNN, and further optimise the separation performance via the attention mechanism. The proposed framework can shed a new light on speech separation, speech enhancement, and other related fields.
Generation and functional characterization of a single-chain variable fragment (scFv) of the anti-FGF2 3F12E7 monoclonal antibody
Authors: de Aguiar Rodrigo Barbosa , da Silva Tábata de Almeida , Costa Bruno Andrade , Machado Marcelo Ferreira Marcondes , Yamada Renata Yoshiko , Braggion Camila , Perez Kátia Regina , Mori Marcelo Alves Silva , Oliveira Vitor , de Moraes Jane Zveiter 
Published: January 2021

AbstractSingle-chain variable fragments (scFvs) are small-sized artificial constructs composed of the immunoglobulin heavy and light chain variable regions connected by a peptide linker. We have previously described an anti-fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) immunoglobulin G (IgG) monoclonal antibody (mAb), named 3F12E7, with notable antitumor potential revealed by preclinical assays. FGF2 is a known angiogenesis-associated molecule implicated in tumor progression. In this report, we describe a recombinant scFv format for the 3F12E7 mAb. The results demonstrate that the generated 3F12E7 scFv, although prone to aggregation, comprises an active anti-FGF2 product that contains monomers and small oligomers. Functionally, the 3F12E7 scFv preparations specifically recognize FGF2 and inhibit tumor growth similar to the corresponding full-length IgG counterpart in an experimental model. In silico molecular analysis provided insights into the aggregation propensity and the antigen-recognition by scFv units. Antigen-binding determinants were predicted outside the most aggregation-prone hotspots. Overall, our experimental and prediction dataset describes an scFv scaffold for the 3F12E7 mAb and also provides insights to further engineer non-aggregated anti-FGF2 scFv-based tools for therapeutic and research purposes.