bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Opportunities and challenges of entomopathogenic nematodes as biocontrol agents in their tripartite interactions
Authors: Askary Tarique H. , Abd-Elgawad Mahfouz M. M. 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
Background
The complex including entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) of the genera Steinernema and Heterorhabditis and their mutualistic partner, i.e., Xenorhabdus and Photorhabdus bacteria, respectively possesses many attributes of ideal biological control agents against numerous insect pests as a third partner. Despite authenic opportunities for their practical use as biocontrol agents globally, they are challenged by major impediments especially their cost and reliability.

Main body
This review article presents major attributes of EPNs to familiarize growers and stakeholders with their careful application. As relatively high EPN costs and frequently low efficacy are still hindering them from reaching broader biopesticide markets, this is to review the latest findings on EPN strain/species enhancement, improvement of production, formulation and application technology, and achieving biological control of insects from the standpoint of facing these challenges. The conditions and practices that affected the use of EPNs for integrated pest management (IPM) are identified. Besides, efforts have been made to address such practices in various ways that grasp their effective approaches, identify research priority areas, and allow refined techniques. Additionally, sampling factors responsible for obtaining more EPN isolates with differential pathogenicity and better adaptation to control specific pest(s) are discussed.

Conclusion
Specific improvements of EPN production, formulation, and application technology are reviewed which may help in their broader use. Other diverse factors that optimize EPNs to constitute a cost-effective, value-added approach to IPM are also demonstrated.
Dysnatremia is a Predictor for Morbidity and Mortality in Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19
Authors: Tzoulis Ploutarchos , Waung Julian A , Bagkeris Emmanouil , Hussein Ziad , Biddanda Aiyappa , Cousins John , Dewsnip Alice , Falayi Kanoyin , McCaughran Will , Mullins Chloe , Naeem Ammara , Nwokolo Muna , Quah Helen , Bitat Syed , Deyab Eithar , Ponnampalam Swarupini , Bouloux Pierre-Marc , Montgomery Hugh , Baldeweg Stephanie E 
Published: February 2021

Abstract

Context
Dysnatremia is an independent predictor of mortality in patients with bacterial pneumonia. There is paucity of data about the incidence and prognostic impact of abnormal sodium concentration in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Objective
This work aimed to examine the association of serum sodium during hospitalization with key clinical outcomes, including mortality, need for advanced respiratory support and acute kidney injury (AKI), and to explore the role of serum sodium as a marker of inflammatory response in COVID-19.

Methods
This retrospective longitudinal cohort study, including all adult patients who presented with COVID-19 to 2 hospitals in London over an 8-week period, evaluated the association of dysnatremia (serum sodium &lt; 135 or &gt; 145 mmol/L, hyponatremia, and hypernatremia, respectively) at several time points with inpatient mortality, need for advanced ventilatory support, and AKI.

Results
The study included 488 patients (median age, 68 years). At presentation, 24.6% of patients were hyponatremic, mainly due to hypovolemia, and 5.3% hypernatremic. Hypernatremia 2 days after admission and exposure to hypernatremia at any time point during hospitalization were associated with a 2.34-fold (95% CI, 1.08-5.05; P = .0014) and 3.05-fold (95% CI, 1.69-5.49; P &lt; .0001) increased risk of death, respectively, compared to normonatremia. Hyponatremia at admission was linked with a 2.18-fold increase in the likelihood of needing ventilatory support (95% CI, 1.34-3.45, P = .0011). Hyponatremia was not a risk factor for in-hospital mortality, except for the subgroup of patients with hypovolemic hyponatremia. Sodium values were not associated with the risk for AKI and length of hospital stay.

Conclusion
Abnormal sodium levels during hospitalization are risk factors for poor prognosis, with hypernatremia and hyponatremia being associated with a greater risk of death and respiratory failure, respectively. Serum sodium values could be used for risk stratification in patients with COVID-19.
Subclinical Hypothyroidism Represents Visceral Adipose Indices, Especially in Women With Cardiovascular Risk
Authors: Tsou Meng-Ting 
Published: February 2021

Abstract

Context
From previous studies, decreased thermogenesis and metabolic rate in the patients with overt and subclinical hypothyroidism lead to an increase in visceral adipose tissue (VAT) incidence, and which was associated with cardiovascular diseases. In this paper, we want to explore the relationship between various forms of VAT [pericardial (PCF), and thoracic periaortic adipose tissue (TAT)] and obesity indices [body shape index (ABSI), and body roundness index (BRI), Chinese visceral adiposity index (CVAI)] with subclinical hypothyroidism by gender.

Objective
This study aims to evaluate region-specific cardiovascular (CV) fat tissue (pericardial fat [PCF] and thoracic periaortic fat [TAT) and noninvasive visceral adipose indices (a body shape index [ABSI], body roundness index [BRI]), and Chinese visceral adiposity index [CVAI]) in patients with subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) as compared to a control population and relative to variations in CV risk.

Methods
A total of 125 Taiwanese patients recently diagnosed with SCH (age: 52.9 ± 10.16 years, 41.6% female) and 1519 healthy volunteers (age: 49.54 ± 9.77 years, 29.0% female) were evaluated for this study. All participants underwent PCF and TAT assessment using a multidetector computed tomography scanner, ABSI, BRI, and CVAI evaluation using a mathematical formula. CV risk was classified by Framingham risk score (FRS).

Results
Multivariable logistic regression models showed that the independent association of TAT and BRI with SCH were stronger in women than men. The adjusted model associations (odds ratio [OR]; 95% CI) with SCH for TAT and BRI in women were 2.61 (95% CI, 1.03-6.97) and 2.04 (95% CI, 1.07-3.92). The incidences of TAT and BRI third tertile were also higher in women with SCH (SCH vs euthyroid, TAT third tertile, 9 [17.3%] vs 35 [7.9%], P = .04; BRI third tertile, 22 [42.3%] vs 111 [25.2%], P = .01). In addition to BRI and TAT, there were higher risks of CVAI in SCH with intermediate/high FRS, especially in women (OR; 95% CI, TAT: 4.01; 95% CI, 1.01-6.640; BRI: 6.91; 95% CI, 1.03-10.23; CVAI: 7.81 95% CI, 1.01-12.03).

Conclusion
Our findings show that patients with SCH have significantly greater TAT, BRI, and CVAI values than control groups, especially in women (with different FRS).
Otherwise than Blackness
Authors: Palmer Tyrone S. 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
This essay thinks through the centrality of the concept of “the World” to theorizations of affect and the presumed correlation between feeling and world—that is, the notion that affective experience is necessarily generative of world(s)—that operates as an uninterrogated maxim in both contemporary and classical theories of affect. Focusing on the figure and question of the World and its grammars of relation(ality) and becoming, this essay considers the implications of an insistence on worlding in the context of anti-Blackness. It argues that the sustenance of the very concept of the World necessitates a foreclosure of Black affect’s destructive drive. Black affect is therefore an impossibility within the World, as that unbearable negativity which drives us toward its necessary destruction. In light of this, the essay argues further that the tendency toward an uncritical embrace of affect as a mode of world-forming within strains of Black critical theory—represented by turns to “the otherwise”—performs a sublimation of Black affect’s radical negativity, as encapsulated in the desire for the End of the World.
A Living Community
Authors: Ben Shimon Ohad 
Published: February 2021

AbstractThis article proposes a theorization of immunity from an embodied autoimmune perspective. Arguing through what it identifies as the limitations in current clinical immunology explanations and politico-philosophical theories of immunity, the article seeks to embody, rather than metaphorize, the theoretical stakes of current immune theory. As a counterargument to dominant theorizations of immunity that pathologize or metaphorize the autoimmune bodily experience, the article forwards a more spacious, material, and affirmative theorization of the body. As the author supplements existing immune theory with their own emergent and embodied theory, they develop an autoimmune methodology based on their experience of living with an autoimmune disease. Part personal narrative, part speculative autoimmune theory, the article ultimately calls for a practice of self-care aimed at coming to tolerate the disagreeing community of the autoimmune body as it challenges normalized notions of what self and other, immunity and community, ease and disease mean.
Shifts in the relative fitness contributions of fecundity and survival in variable and changing environments
Authors: Buckley Lauren B. , Schoville Sean D. , Williams Caroline M. 
Published: February 2021

ABSTRACT
Organisms respond to shifts in climate means and variability via distinct mechanisms. Accounting for these differential responses and appropriately aggregating them is central to understanding and predicting responses to climate variability and change. Separately considering fitness components can clarify organismal responses: fecundity is primarily an integrated, additive response to chronic environmental conditions over time via mechanisms such as energy use and acquisition, whereas survival can be strongly influenced by short-term, extreme environmental conditions. In many systems, the relative importance of fecundity and survival constraints changes systematically along climate gradients, with fecundity constraints dominating at high latitudes or altitudes (i.e. leading range edges as climate warms), and survival constraints dominating at trailing range edges. Incorporating these systematic differences in models may improve predictions of responses to recent climate change over models that assume similar processes along environmental gradients. We explore how detecting and predicting shifts in fitness constraints can improve our ability to forecast responses to climate gradients and change.
Physiological consequences of Arctic sea ice loss on large marine carnivores: unique responses by polar bears and narwhals
Authors: Pagano Anthony M. , Williams Terrie M. 
Published: February 2021

ABSTRACTRapid environmental changes in the Arctic are threatening the survival of marine species that rely on the predictable presence of the sea ice. Two Arctic marine mammal specialists, the polar bear (Ursus maritimus) and narwhal (Monodon monoceros), appear especially vulnerable to the speed and capriciousness of sea ice deterioration as a consequence of their unique hunting behaviors and diet, as well as their physiological adaptations for slow-aerobic exercise. These intrinsic characteristics limit the ability of these species to respond to extrinsic threats associated with environmental change and increased industrial activity in a warming Arctic. In assessing how sea ice loss may differentially affect polar bears that hunt on the ice surface and narwhals that hunt at extreme depths below, we found that major ice loss translated into elevated locomotor costs that range from 3- to 4-fold greater than expected for both species. For polar bears this instigates an energy imbalance from the combined effects of reduced caloric intake and increased energy expenditure. For narwhals, high locomotor costs during diving increase the risk of ice entrapment due to the unreliability of breathing holes. These species-specific physiological constraints and extreme reliance on the polar sea ice conspire to make these two marine mammal specialists sentinels of climate change within the Arctic marine ecosystem that may foreshadow rapid changes to the marine ecosystem.
Outcome of patients with acute severe necrotizing pancreatitisin a dedicated hepato-biliary unit of Pakistan
Authors: Alam Laima , Khan Rao Saad Ali , Kazmi Syed Kumail Hasan , Din Rafi ud 
Published: February 2021

Objective: To analyze the management of severe necrotizing pancreatitis in a specialized center of a lower middle-income country, Pakistan using multiple outcome measures.
Methods: All the patients in this prospective observational study with severe necrotizing pancreatitis being referred to Pak Emirates Military Hospital from January 2017 to December 2019 were followed over the course of their admission. Demographic data and disease outcomes were duly noted. Cox regression analysis was used to predict fatality outcome.
Results: A total of 57 patients with 48 (84.6%) infected necrotizing pancreatitis were managed in our set up. The most common etiology reported was gall-stones (37%) with male preponderance (72%) and a mean age of 50±11.3 years. The most common complications were acute-kidney-injury (63%), splenic-vein-thrombosis (21%) and ascites (21%). Fourteen patients required mechanical-ventilation with a mean duration of 7±1.4 days on respiratory support. Eight (14%) patients required Endoscopic-Ultra-Sound guided drainage and six (10.5%) underwent surgical-necrosectomy depending upon the patients’ condition and collections characteristics. Mortality, as one of the main outcome measures, was reported to be 12.3% and was statistically related to mechanical-ventilation, organ failure and surgical-necrosectomy while 22 (38.6%) patients were discharged on pancreatic enzymes supplements and 7% required insulin.
Conclusion: Survival outcomes with acute severe necrotizing pancreatitis are improving in a dedicated hepato-biliary unit internationally in lieu with a multidisciplinary team approach. Percutaneous and EUS guided drainage of pancreatic collections have turned out to be an important procedure to manage infected pancreatic necrosis that helps to avoid a morbid procedure in the form of necrosectomy.
doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.3.3440
How to cite this:Alam L, Khan RSA, Kazmi SKH, Rafi ud Din. Outcome of patients with acute severe necrotizing pancreatitis in a dedicated hepato-biliary unit of Pakistan. Pak J Med Sci. 2021;37(3):639-645. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.3.3440
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Standing at the edge of mortality; Five-year audit of an emergency department of a tertiary care hospital in a low resource setup
Authors: Mukhtar Sama , Saleem Syed Ghazanfar , Ali Saima , Khatri Sarfraz Ahmed , Yaffee Anna Q 
Published: February 2021

Background & Objective: Understanding the demographics of mortality and its burden in the emergency department of a tertiary care setup can lead to better planning and allocation of resources to streamline process flow. This can be achieved systematically through mortality audit that can identify the loopholes and areas of improvement. Our objective was to characterize the epidemiology of ED mortality in a tertiary care hospital of Karachi, Pakistan.
Methods: A five-year retrospective chart review of 322 adult mortalities presenting between January l, 2014 – December 31, 2018 was conducted in the emergency department (ED) of The Indus Hospital (TIH), Karachi. All expiries in ED were included while those brought dead and with do not resuscitate order (DNAR) were excluded.
Results: Mortality incidence of 0.076% (7.6/10,000 ED visits in five years) was reported. Amongst 507,759 adult ED visits, 322 mortalities were documented. Mean time lapse before presentation was 44±147 hours and mean length of stay before death was 3.4±2.8 hours. Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) was the predominant cause of death with 109 (33.8%) expiries. Significant association was reported between no history of prior care and high priority (P1) cases (p=0.013).
Conclusions: This study identified the contributing factors to adverse outcome such as delayed presentation with systemic gaps in management and unknown disposition. The need to improve these factors at local and national level can lead to improvement in Pakistani healthcare sector.
doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.3.3680
How to cite this:Mukhtar S, Saleem SG, Ali S, Khatri SA, Yaffee AQ. Standing at the edge of mortality; Five-year audit of an emergency department of a tertiary care hospital in a low resource setup. Pak J Med Sci. 2021;37(3):633-638. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.3.3680
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
National ownership of family planning: What do FP2020 commitments have to do with it?
Authors: Appleford Gabrielle , Emmart Priya 
Published: February 2021

Background: In 2020, we reached a family planning (FP) temporal milestone. This paper seeks to understand the political economy of commitments and normative best practice within FP national programs, contributing to “stock taking” of change objectives for national ownership and domestic financing of FP programs post FP2020. Stock taking is needed to understand, for example, do we expect our current approaches to deliver greater commitment or do we need to change our approach? Is time the limiting factor for FP2020 commitments or are other, contextual, mechanistic and implementation factors more critical? Methods: This paper uses mini-case studies to offer insights in response to these questions. It drew from country status updates of national FP program commitments published on the FP2020 website. These included country self-assessments, country action for acceleration plans and revitalised commitments using standard templates provided by FP2020. Results: Critical factors emerging from the case study analysis suggest the following. Context: Country programs that adapted best practices through thoughtful selection, regular monitoring, and course correction, were more responsive to context and better able to scale interventions. Mechanism: Programs that embedded commitments within national health reforms and transformative agendas were able to sustain commitment and mechanism more effectively over time. Implementation: Programs that were able to balance central coordination with devolved implementation, more effectively translated commitments to action. Monitoring: Programs that placed emphasis on monitoring progress and course correct were better able to steward national commitments and partner inputs. Conclusions: National FP programs included within the country comparative analysis benefitted from their engagement with FP2020. However, not all were able to convert FP2020 commitments into national ownership. In many FP2020 contexts, there is less need for a technical intervention and greater need for engaging politically on sensitive issues that constrain women’s and adolescent empowerment and rights and access to FP.
Eros Carvalho: diálogos interdisciplinares urgentes
Authors: Fernandes Christiane Costa de Matos , Guimarães Deborah Moreira , Da Silva Taciane Alves , Dos Santos Fábio Candido 
Published: February 2021

Entrevista com Eros Carvalho por Christiane Costa M. Fernandes, Deborah Moreira Guimarães, Taciane Alves da Silva e Fábio Candido dos Santos Esta entrevista foi elaborada por Christiane Costa de Matos Fernandes, Deborah Moreira Guimarães, Fábio Candido dos Santos e Taciane Alves da Silva. As perguntas foram enviadas por e-mail ao professor e pesquisador Dr. Eros Carvalho, que as respondeu por escrito. Agradecemos ao Prof. Eros Carvalho não apenas a disposição em realizar a entrevista como também a gentileza e a solicitude para com o corpo editorial da Revista Ekstasis.
Efficacy of treatment interventions for primary aneurysmal bone cysts: a systematic review
Authors: Bavan Luckshman , Wijendra Asanka , Kothari Alpesh 
Published: February 2021

AimsAneurysmal bone cysts (ABCs) are locally aggressive lesions typically found in the long bones of children and adolescents. A variety of management strategies have been reported to be effective in the treatment of these lesions. The purpose of this review was to assess the effectiveness of current strategies for the management of primary ABCs of the long bones.MethodsA systematic review of the published literature was performed to identify all articles relating to the management of primary ABCs. Studies required a minimum 12-month follow-up and case series reporting on under ten participants were not included.ResultsA total of 28 articles meeting the eligibility criteria were included in this review, and all but one were retrospective in design. Due to heterogeneity in study design, treatment, and outcome reporting, data synthesis and group comparison was not possible. The most common treatment option reported on was surgical curettage with or without a form of adjuvant therapy, followed by injection-based therapies. Of the 594 patients treated with curettage across 17 studies, 86 (14.4%) failed to heal or experienced a recurrence. Similar outcomes were reported for 57 (14.70%) of the 387 patients treated with injection therapy across 12 studies. Only one study directly compared curettage with injection therapy (polidocanol), randomizing 94 patients into both treatment groups. This study was at risk of bias and provided low-quality evidence of a lack of difference between the two interventions, reporting success rates of 93.3% and 84.8% for injection and surgical treatment groups, respectively.ConclusionWhile both surgery and sclerotherapy are widely implemented for treatment of ABCs, there is currently no good quality evidence to support the use of one option over the other. There is a need for prospective multicentre randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on interventions for the treatment of ABCs. Cite this article: Bone Jt Open 2021;2(2):125–133.