bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Cryptostegia Madagascariensis Alters the Litterfall and Nutrient Cycling of Litter Inputs in An Invaded Tropical Cambisol From North-Eastern Brazil
Authors: de Lucena Edjane Oliveira , Souza Tancredo , de Andrade Leonaldo Alves , Silva Lucas Jónatan Rodrigues da , Laurindo Lídia Klestadt , Nascimento Gislaine dos Santos 
Published: August 2021

Abstract
The invasive Cryptostegia madagascariensis occupies riparian areas covered by tropical Cambisols throughout the North-eastern Brazil however litter is known regarding its ability to impact litter inputs, and ecosystem processes. This study aimed to characterize the effects of the invader on the litter deposition, soil physical-chemical properties, litter nutrient content, and the litter decay rate in a Tropical Cambisol. Comparisons of native and invaded environments showed that C. madagascariensis alters the quantity of litter deposition during both dry and rainy seasons. In contrast to native species, C. madagascariensis litterfall displayed litter seasonal variation (rainy vs. dry season), however invaded sites had higher litter biomass compared to native sites. C. madagascariensis litter was enriched in soil organic matter, N, P, and K contents as compared to the native litter. Compared to native environments, invaded ones had significantly decreased soil temperature and soil water content. Results suggest that C. madagascariensis enhances litter and N, P, and K availability in ways that have potential to impact soil ecosystem in the Tropical Cambisols from Caatinga ecoregion, Brazil.
Micro-Calcification Classification Analysis in Mammogram Images With aid of Hybrid Technique Analysis
Authors: Shanker M.C. , Vadivel M. 
Published: August 2021

Abstract
The main cause of death in women is breast cancer. Early identification can contribute significantly to improving the survival rate. For diagnosis and accurate therapy automatic detection of micro-calcification is therefore essential. In the paper, an automated technique is utilized in the mammogram images according to their micro-calcification classification. The automated technique is working with the combination of Deep Belief Neural Network (DBNN) and Chimp Optimization Algorithm (COA). The proposed method is working with three phases such as pre-processing phase, feature extraction, and classification phase. In the pre-processing phase, a median filter is utilized to remove unwanted information from the images. In the feature extraction phase, Gray Level Co-Occurrence Matrix (GLCM), Scale-Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT), and Hu moments are utilized to extract essential features from the mammogram images. After that, the detection and classification are performed on the mammogram images according to their micro-calcifications with the utilization of the proposed advanced deep learning method. From the classification stage, the normal and abnormal images are identified from the images. The proposed method is implemented in the MATLAB platform and analyzed their statistical performances like accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, precision, recall, and F-measure. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method this is compared with the existing method such as Support Vector Machine (SVM), Random Forest (RF), and Artificial Neural Network (ANN).
Morphology And Status Transition Monitoring For Mouse Embryonic Stem Cell Colonies In Virto By LSTM Networks With Progressive Training Using Fluorescence Microscopy Images
Authors: Chu Slo-Li , Abe Kuniya , Yokota Hideo , Tsai Ming-Dar 
Published: August 2021

Abstract
Purpose Embryonic stem (ES) cells represent as a cellular resource for basic biological studies and for their uses as medically relevant cells in in vitro studies. Fluorescence microscopy images taken during cell culture are frequently used to manually monitor time-series morphology changes and status transitions of ES cell (ESC) colonies, and to study dynamical pattern formation and heterogeneity distribution within ESC colonies, intrinsic fluctuation and cell-cell cooperativity. Therefore, tracking and furthermore predicting morphology changes and status transitions of ESC colonies is an effective method to monitor culture medium for maintaining ES cells in undifferentiated or early differentiated stage. Methods A P-LSTM (Progressive Long Short-Term Memory) structure is proposed to incorporate some new time-lapse images real-time taken from incubators for a new RNN (Recurrent Neural Networks) training. The P-LSTM can achieve adaptive long- and short- term memories to generate accurate predicted images. On the time-lapse images, entropy and bi-lateral filtering are used to extract the range of every colony to calculate colony morphology. Colony status transitions between consecutive images are calculated by mapping the calculated colony centers and ranges. Results Accuracies for the colony status transition, area and roundness for the 15 predicted (five-hour) future frames calculated from 1500-2500 colonies for respective frames show the effectiveness of the proposed method.Conclusion We proposed an efficient and automatic method to predict and monitor status transitions and morphology changes of mouse ESC colonies in culture using time-lapse fluorescence microscopy images.
Thermo-Sensitive Electroactive Hydrogel Combined With Electrical Stimulation For Repair of Spinal Cord Injury
Authors: Liu Wei , Luo Yiqian , Ning Cong , Zhang Wenjing , Zhang Qingzheng , Zou Haifeng , Fu Changfeng 
Published: August 2021

Abstract
The strategy of using a combination of scaffold-based physical and biochemical cues to repair spinal cord injury (SCI) has shown promising results. However, integrating conductivity and neurotrophins into a scaffold that recreates the electrophysiologic and nutritional microenvironment of the spinal cord (SC) remains challenging. In this study we investigated the therapeutic potential of a soft thermo-sensitive polymer electroactive hydrogel (TPEH) loaded with nerve growth factor (NGF) combined with functional electrical stimulation (ES) for the treatment of SCI. The developed hydrogel exhibits outstanding electrical conductance upon ES, with continuous release of NGF for at least 24 days. In cultured nerve cells, TPEH loaded with NGF promoted the neuronal differentiation of neural stem cells and axonal growth, an effect that was potentiated by ES. In a rat model of SCI, TPEH combined with NGF and ES stimulated endogenous neurogenesis and improved motor function. These results indicate that the TPEH scaffold that combines ES and biochemical cues can effectively promote SC tissue repair.
Scientometric Analysis and Identification of Research Trends in Microplastics Research for 2011-2019
Authors: Sharma Deepika , Jaiswal Shreya , Kaur Gurjot 
Published: August 2021

Abstract
Microplastics pollution of our environment has seen major data reporting in the last decade. Microplastics produce harmful effects on marine organisms and in humans. In this scientometric study, we have evaluated literature between years 2011-2019. Our data shows that publications counts are increasing with an important role for China and its funding agencies in the field. A majority of research articles were published by authors affiliated with Chinese Academy of Sciences. Journals ‘Marine Pollution Bulletin’ and ‘Environmental Pollution’ were identified as important Journals with 273 and 185 research publications, respectively. We have also identified the upcoming research trend and shift from microplastics presence in water to microplastics presence in air. A major shift is observed in year 2017 and United Kingdom is leading this field with 11 publications with top authors affiliated to University of Plymouth. Interestingly, the Journal Environmental Pollution has published the most research articles (~20%). Our co-authorship analysis demonstrated that China (and it’s institutions and authors) is the most collaborative country followed by the United States, together forming top cluster with a link strength of 42. Finally, our analysis provides information about prospective research and emerging trends that can be explored in the coming years.
Comparative Study of the Percutaneous Endoscopic Interlaminar Approach and Transforaminal Approach in the Treatment of Calcified Lumbar Disc Herniation
Authors: Cheng Yuanpei , Zhang Qianru , Cheng Xiaokang , Li Yongbo , Chen Xipeng , Wu Han 
Published: August 2021

Abstract
Background: Percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy (PELD) is a relatively safe and effective minimally invasive surgery in the treatment of calcified lumbar disc herniation (CLDH). However, studies on percutaneous endoscopic interlaminar discectomy (PEID) and percutaneous endoscopic transforaminal discectomy (PETD) for CLDH have rarely been reported. This research aimed to compare the clinical efficacy of PEID and PETD for L5-S1 CLDH.Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 42 consecutive patients with L5-S1 CLDH treated with PELD at our institution from August 2016 to December 2019. Patients were divided into PEID group (n = 24) and PETD (n = 18) group according to the surgical methods. The demographic characteristics and surgical results of the two groups were compared. Clinical outcomes were estimated by the visual analog scale (VAS) for leg pain, Oswestry disability index (ODI) and modified MacNab criteria.Results: All patients were successfully operated on by PEID or PETD. No significant differences in the demographic characteristics, intraoperative blood loss, postoperative hospital stay and complication rate were noted between the PEID and PETD groups (P > 0.05). The excellent and good rates in the PEID group were similar to those in the PETD group (91.67% vs 88.89%, P > 0.05), whereas the PEID group exhibited superior results for operative time (m) (64.58 ± 5.88 vs 85.56 ± 9.06, P < 0.05) and fluoroscopy times (n) (2.96 ± 0.96 vs 13.33 ± 2.64, P < 0.05) compared with the PETD group.Conclusions: PEID had achieved good clinical efficacy as PETD for L5-S1 CLDH. Compared with PETD, PEID had the advantages of shorter operative time and a reduced number of fluoroscopy times in the treatment of CLDH.
Estimation of the Onset Rate and the Number of Asymptomatic Patients of COVID-19 From the Proportion of Untraceable Patients
Authors: Odagaki Takashi 
Published: August 2021

Abstract
A simple method is devised to estimate the onset rate of COVID-19 from the proportion of untraceable patients tested positive, which allows us to obtain the number of asymptomatic patients, the number of infectious patients and the effective reproduction number. The recent data in Tokyo indicate that there are about six times as many infectious patients in the city as the daily confirmed new cases. It is shown that a quarantine measure on non-symptomatic patients is critically important in controlling the pandemic.
Prevalence of Hepatopancreatic Injury and Clinical Outcomes in Patients with COVID-19 in United States
Authors: Rastogi Vaibhav , Banwait Ranjit , Singh Devina , Toklu Hale , Finer Lexie , Parajuli Dipendra , Ganti Latha 
Published: August 2021

Abstract
Background: 1) To determine the prevalence of hepatopancreatic injury in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. 2) To correlate hepatopancreatic injury in COVID-19 with mortality, disease severity and length of stay in this cohort.Results: 45,360 patients were included in the analysis, 62.82% of which had either hepatic or pancreatic injury. There was a significant upward trend in transaminases, alkaline phosphatase, prothrombin time, bilirubin, lactate dehydrogenase and lipase and a downward trend in albumin with increase in disease severity. COVID-19 positive patients with hepato-pancreatic injury have a significantly higher mortality (OR 3.39, 95%CI 3.15-3.65) after controlling for the differences in age, sex, race/ethnicity, liver cirrhosis and medication exposures. They also have increased disease severity (OR 2.7, 95%CI 2.5-2.9 critical vs mild/moderate; OR 1.4, 95% CI 1.3-1.5 severe vs mild/moderate) and longer hospital length of stay (2 days).Conclusion: COVID-19 can cause liver injury. Mortality, disease severity and hospital length of stay are increased in COVID-19 patients with hepatopancreatic injury.
Dynamic GAN for High-Quality Sign Language Video Generation from Skeletal poses using Generative Adversarial Networks
Authors: Natarajan B , R Elakkiya 
Published: August 2021

Abstract
The emergence of unsupervised generative models has resulted in greater performance in image and video generation tasks. However, existing generative models pose huge challenges in high-quality video generation process due to blurry and inconsistent results. In this paper, we introduce a novel generative framework named Dynamic Generative Adversarial Networks (Dynamic GAN) model for regulating the adversarial training and generating photorealistic high-quality sign language videos from skeletal poses. The proposed model comprises three stages of development such as generator network, classification and image quality enhancement and discriminator network. In the generator fold, the model generates samples similar to real images using random noise vectors, the classification of generated samples are carried out using the VGG-19 model and novel techniques are employed for improving the quality of generated samples in the second fold of the model and finally the discriminator networks fold identifies the real or fake samples. Unlike, existing approaches the proposed novel framework produces photo-realistic video quality results without using any animation or avatar approaches. To evaluate the model performance qualitatively and quantitatively, the proposed model has been evaluated using three benchmark datasets that yield plausible results. The datasets are RWTH-PHOENIX-Weather 2014T dataset, and our self-created dataset for Indian Sign Language (ISL-CSLTR), and the UCF-101 Action Recognition dataset. The output samples and performance metrics show the outstanding performance of our model.
Anemia Is a Predictive Factor for Overall Survival Rate in Patients With Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Treated With Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy
Authors: Tanaka Hidekazu , Ono Taiki , Manabe Yuki , Kajima Miki , Fujimoto Koya , Yuasa Yuki , Shiinoki Takehiro , Yamaji Yoshikazu , Matsunaga Kazuto 
Published: August 2021

Abstract
Purpose: Anemia has been associated with poor prognosis in patients with cancer across several cancer types. It has been identified as a prognostic factor in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have undergone surgery or chemoradiotherapy. However, there are only a few reports that have evaluated the prognostic significance of anemia in patients with NSCLC undergoing stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). Material and Methods: A total of 77 patients were enrolled this study. The pretreatment hemoglobin (Hb) levels, within 2 weeks before SBRT, were available for all patients. The median age of the participants (56 men, 21 women) was 80 (range, 50-90) years. The median Hb level was 12.8 (range, 7.8-18.3) g/dL. The median follow-up period was 24 (range, 1-87) months. Results: Local recurrence was observed in 8 (10.4%) cases during the follow-up period. The 1- and 2-year local control (LC) rates were 94.8 and 86.4%, respectively. Seventeen (22.1%) patients died during the follow-up period. The 1- and 2-year overall survival (OS) rates were 93.1 and 85.2%, respectively. Univariate analysis identified anemia and body mass index as significant prognostic factors for predicting OS. On multivariate analysis, anemia was confirmed to be the only significant factor (p = 0.02469). Conclusion: Our data suggest that anemia is a prognostic factor for predicting the OS rate in patients with early-stage NSCLC treated with SBRT.
Explainable Learning Based on Hyperparameters Optimization of Lightweight Spatiotemporal Models for Cellular Traffic Prediction
Authors: Chien Wei-Che , Cho Hsin-Hung , Tseng Fan-Hsun , Chen Shih-Yeh 
Published: August 2021

Abstract
The rapid development of the Internet of Things and multimedia applications has led to an exponential growth in mobile network traffic year by year. In order to meet the demand for large amounts of data transmission and solve the problem of insufficient spectrum resources, millimeter waves are adopted for 5G communication. For B5G/6G, effective use of spectrum resources is one of the key technologies for the development of mobile communications. Therefore, this study uses a lightweight neural network to predict cellular traffic based on regional data, considering the data types of temporal and spatial dependence at the same time. Furthermore, in order to optimize the prediction performance and reduce the number of parameters of the neural network, this study uses a meta-heuristic algorithm to adjust the hyperparameters and combines local and global explanations to interpret the improvement of traffic prediction. The local explanations show the adjustment results of a single hyperparameter, and global explanations show the correlation between different hyperparameters and their influence on the amount and accuracy of model parameters. The simulation results show that compared with adjustment strategies of the manual method and greedy algorithm, the proposed explainable learning method can effectively improve the accuracy of cellular traffic prediction, reduce the number of parameters and provide a reasonable explanation.
Defining the Learning Curve Is Necessary to Improve Oocyte Retrieval Skills: Lessons From a Single High-volume Reproductive Center
Authors: Cao Mingzhu , Liu Zhi , Li Sichen , Wu Yixuan , Liu Haiying , Huang Qing , Liu Jianqiao 
Published: August 2021

Abstract
Background: A lack of formal and standard training program of assisted reproductive techniques, including oocyte retrieval procedure, is one common problem in China. It is obscure that how a novice trainee was trained to be qualified to perform oocyte retrieval procedure. The objective of this study was to determine the novice trainee’s learning curve for oocytes retrieval procedure through assessment of oocytes retrieval efficiency, operative time, and other operative characteristics. Methods: This retrospective cohort study included 200 consecutive patients undergoing transvaginal ultrasound guided oocytes retrieval procedure. Those patients underwent oocyte retrieval procedure by a single operator and one experienced supervisor. Their clinical data, including demographic data, ovarian stimulation cycle information, surgical procedure, and laboratory data were collected over 3 months. CUSUM analyses based on the operative time were performed to determine the learning curve. Results: The mean operative time was 10.10 min. Based on the CUSUM plot of operative time, the learning curve can be divided into three separated phases, phase 1 (case 1 to case 49) was learning phase, phase 2 (case 50 to case 130) was acquisition phase, and phase 3 (case 131 to case 200) was proficiency phase. The operative time was significantly shortened from phase 1 to phase 3 (phase 1, 13.37 ± 4.83min; phase 2, 10.21 ± 3.30 min; phase 3, 7.67 ± 3.24 min, P < 0.001). The oocyte retrieval efficiency was also notably improved from phase 1 to phase 3 (78.2% to 100% based on method 1 to determine oocyte retrieval efficiency, and 104.2% to 121.1% based on method 2 to determine oocyte retrieval efficiency). The retrieved oocytes number, the fertilization rate, clinical pregnancy rate among the three phases showed no significant differences. No patients had severe adverse events. As determined by multiple linear regression, learning phase is the only independent predictor of oocyte retrieval efficiency. Conclusion: Trainees practice transvaginal ultrasound guided oocytes retrieval are expected to achieve a stabilized procedure over consecutive training cases, with acquisition of the skills at 49 cases, and proficiency at 130 cases. Cumulative operative experience can improve the operative time and oocytes retrieval efficiency, but showed minimal influence on retrieved oocytes number and reproductive outcomes.
The Prevalence of Community Acquired Salmonellosis, Associated Factors and Antibiotic Susceptibility Among Out Patients Attending Kagando Hospital, Kasese District, Mid-western, Uganda.
Authors: Kabahinda Boaz , Musinguzi Benson , Zamarano Henry , Kabajulizi Immaculate , Bazira Joel , Itabangi Herbert , Kabanda Taseera 
Published: August 2021

Abstract
Background: Uganda has experienced a number of typhoid fever out breaks, the most recent being in Kampala city in which 1,038 (29%) patients were positive out of 3464 suspected cases. In 2011, typhoid cases (1042) were reported in Kasese and neighboring Bundibugyo District with many more intestinal perforations (566) and with emergence of multidrug resistant strains.Objective: The study was conducted at Kagando hospital in Kasese district to determine the prevalence of community acquired Salmonellosis, evaluate antimicrobial susceptibility and document factors associated with salmonellosis. Methods: A cross sectional study was used to enroll 165 participants at Kagando hospital suspected of having salmonellosis. Data on demographics and risk factors were explored by the questionnaire. Venous blood and stool samples were taken from each participant to run a rapid test for Salmonella Typhi/ Paratyphi immunoglobulin M and G (IgM/IgG) and culture respectively. Results: Prevalence of Salmonellosis by Salmonella Typhi/Paratyphi IgM/IgG serological testing was 22% and 15.8% by culture of blood and stool. NTS accounted for a prevalence of 10.3% followed by S. Typhi 4.9% and then S. Paratyphi 0.61%. Most isolates were susceptible to levofloxacin, Gentamycin, Imipenem, Tetracycline and Cotrimoxazole. Most isolates were resistant to ampicillin, ceftriaxone and amoxicillin-clavulanic acid. Salmonellosis was associated with consumption of locally packed water, primary level of education, non-hand washing, history of gastric surgery and Helicobacter pylori treatment. Conclusion: Confirmed Community acquired salmonellosis exists among out patients attending Kagando hospital in Kasese district at a prevalence of 15.8% and a sero prevalence of 22%. Salmonellosis is associated with consumption of locally packed water, history of gastric surgery, primary level of education, Helicobacter pylori treatment and the practice of non-hand washing. Routine Culture and sensitivity is recommended for proper diagnosis and appropriate treatment of patients with clinical diagnosis of salmonellosis. Also sensitization on community acquired salmonellosis through health education programs should be considered.