bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Neutrophil : lymphocyte ratio is associated with disease severity and mortality in patients with Stevens–Johnson syndrome/toxic epidermal necrolysis
Authors: Wang Qian , Lan Yun‐Ping , Qi Bo , Yin Lin , Zhang Li‐Xia , Liu Wei 
Published: June 2021

ABSTRACTThe neutrophil : lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet : lymphocyte ratio (PLR), C‐reactive protein : albumin ratio (CAR), and albumin : fibrinogen ratio (AFR) have been considered as useful inflammatory biomarkers. However, their roles in Stevens–Johnson Syndrome (SJS)/toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) still remain unclear. This study aimed to test whether NLR, PLR, CAR, and AFR serve as predictive markers of disease severity and systemic inflammation in patients with SJS/TEN. This retrospective study included 40 patients with SJS/TEN and 60 healthy controls. The correlation between these markers and severity‐of‐illness score for toxic epidermal necrolysis (SCORTEN), ABCD‐10, procalcitonin (PCT), C‐reactive protein (CRP) were analyzed and compared. Univariable and multivariable analysis were used to assess associations of variables with mortality. The receiver–operator curves (ROC) were used to evaluate the predictive value of variables for mortality in SJS/TEN patients. The results demonstrated that the NLR and PLR of SJS/TEN patients were significantly higher and the AFR was significantly lower when compared with healthy controls (p < 0.05). The NLR and CAR were positively correlated with SCORTEN, ABCD‐10, PCT, and CRP. The NLR in SCORTEN of ≥3 group was significantly higher than that in SCORTEN <3 group (p < 0.05) and there were no significant differences between PLR, CAR, and AFR between the two groups. The univariate analysis suggested that NLR of >5.79 was a risk factor for mortality (odds ratio, 10.5; p < 0.05), but the association was no longer statistically significant in multivariable analysis. The ROC showed that NLR had a sensitivity of 85.7% and specificity of 63.6% for predicting death with a cut‐off value of 5.79 (p < 0.05) in SJS/TEN patients. In conclusion, among the four markers, NLR and CAR can partially reflect severity and inflammatory status in patients with SJS/TEN. NLR was also a predictor of death.
Domestic chicken diversity: Origin, distribution, and adaptation
Authors: Lawal R. A. , Hanotte O. 
Published: June 2021

SummaryChicken is the most numerous among the domesticated livestock species. Across cultures, religions, and societies, chicken is widely accepted with little or no taboo compared to other domestic animals. Its adaptability to diverse environmental conditions and demonstrated potential for breeding improvement provide a unique genetic resource for addressing the challenges of food security in a world impacted by climatic change and human population growth. Recent studies, shedding new knowledge on the chicken genomes, have helped reconstruct its past evolutionary history. Here, we review the literature concerning the origin, dispersion, and adaptation of domestic chicken. We highlight the role of human and natural selection in shaping the diversity of the species and provide a few examples of knowledge gaps that may be the focus of future research.
European Society of Coloproctology guidance on the use of mesh in the pelvis in colorectal surgery
Authors: Maeda Yasuko , Espin‐Basany Eloy , Gorissen Kim , Kim Mia , Lehur Paul‐Antoine , Lundby Lilli , Negoi Ionut , Norcic Gregor , O’Connell P. Ronan , Rautio Tero , van Geluwe Bart , van Ramshorst Gabrielle H. , Warwick Andrea , Vaizey Carolynne J. 
Published: June 2021

AbstractThis is a comprehensive and rigorous review of currently available data on the use of mesh in the pelvis in colorectal surgery. This guideline outlines the limitations of available data and the challenges of interpretation, followed by best possible recommendations.
Alcohol intoxication incidence differences at companies in Lithuania
Authors: Stumbrys Daumantas , Tamutienė Ilona 
Published: June 2021

AbstractIntroductionEmployee alcohol consumption is a major challenge to both the health of the employee and productivity of the company. Our study investigates the overall alcohol intoxication rates of employees at companies in Lithuania, alcohol intoxication incidence rates during the work week and associations between company variables and employee alcohol intoxication at work.MethodsData for our study were collected at 153 different companies in Lithuania during the year 2018. Overall 2 455 997 alcohol breath tests were analysed. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and Poisson regression analysis.ResultsDescriptive statistics showed that the alcohol intoxication (blood alcohol concentration ≥ 0.01%) incidence rate was 0.31% (n = 7535). Average alcohol intoxication was 0.04%. Furthermore, higher alcohol intoxication incidence rates were found on Mondays and in the morning than at any other day or time. The results of Poisson regression analysis showed that the alcohol intoxication incidence rate ratios were highest among small companies, companies from the farming sector and companies from rural areas.Discussion and ConclusionsWe found a relationship between company variables, testing time and incidence rates of alcohol intoxication. The increased alcohol intoxication at work throughout the weekend and on Monday is consistent with the alcohol consumption patterns in the Lithuanian population. Relatively low alcohol intoxication rate for the majority of the positively tested cases may indicate consumption of small amounts of alcohol just before starting work or excessive alcohol consumption the day before. Our findings could be an indicator of an underlying problem and have implications for alcohol prevention strategies.
Low‐temperature tolerance in coprophagic beetle species (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae): implications for ecological services
Authors: Gotcha Nonofo , Machekano Honest , Cuthbert Ross N. , Nyamukondiwa Casper 
Published: June 2021

1. Low temperatures affect insect functioning and population dynamics. Although temperate species cope with low temperatures better than their tropical counterparts, increasing temperature variability due to climate change exposes tropical species to frequent cold stress. For keystone insect species providing important ecosystem services, low‐temperature tolerances, and behavioural responses remain unknown, hampering predictions under climate change.2. The present study examined low‐temperature physiology [critical thermal minima (CTmin) and chill coma recovery time (CCRT)] of six dung beetle species across three activity times: diurnal Allogymnopleurus indigaceous (Reiche) and Euoniticellus intermedius (Reiche); crepuscular Onthophagus alexis (Klug) and Onthophagus gazella (Fabricius), and; nocturnal Copris elephenor (Klug) and Scarabaeus zambezianus (Peringuey). Further, ecological service delivery (dung removal) was examined between diurnal and nocturnal species across the temperature regimes.3. Nocturnal species had significantly greater cold tolerance than both crepuscular and diurnal species, while CCRT was significantly shortest in diurnal than both crepuscular and nocturnal species. Dung ball production between diurnal and nocturnal species interacted with temperature, with diurnal species producing significantly fewer balls at low temperatures, while nocturnal beetles were not significantly affected. In turn, nocturnal species produced significantly larger balls than the diurnal species across temperatures. Effects of temperature regime shifts were intertwined with the foraging ecology of individual species.4. Future research should quantify species' functional responses toward different amounts of dung masses as stressful temperatures increase.5. Results are significant for determination of species thermal ranges and predicting costs of low‐temperature stress through reduced ecological services under shifting thermal environments.
Does non‐native pumpkinseed Lepomis gibbosus affect endemic algae‐scraping Capoeta aydinensis in case of introduction to a small stream? An ex situ growth experiment
Authors: Top‐Karakuş Nildeniz , Tarkan Ali Serhan 
Published: June 2021

AbstractThe survival and establishment of alien fishes in novel environments can result in resource partitioning with native fishes. This can cause ecological impact and suppression of native populations. However, quantifying the impact of novel interactions between alien and native species remains highly challenging in the wild. Consequently, to determine the ecological risk of Lepomis gibbosus in case of introduction to a small stream, experimental approach was used to predict its competitive interaction with a poorly studied endemic fish, Capoeta aydinensis. The aim was to test whether L. gibbosus has an adverse effect on native species using an experimental design under allopatric and sympatric context with temperature regimes of 15 and 24ºC. The results indicated that temperature and fish proportion had effects on the growth of C. aydinensis while these factors were not important for L. gibbosus. These results provided little evidence of L. gibbosus presence being detrimental for endemic C. aydinensis, but nevertheless steps should be taken to avoid their further co‐habitation in the wild.
Tinnitus development is associated with synaptopathy of inner hair cells in Mongolian gerbils
Authors: Tziridis Konstantin , Forster Jan , Buchheidt‐Dörfler Isabelle , Krauss Patrick , Schilling Achim , Wendler Olaf , Sterna Elisabeth , Schulze Holger 
Published: June 2021

AbstractHuman hearing loss (HL) is often accompanied by comorbidities like tinnitus, which is affecting up to 15% of the adult population. Rodent animal studies could show that tinnitus may not only be a result of apparent HL due to cochlear hair cell damage but can also be a consequence of synaptopathy at the inner hair cells (IHCs) already induced by moderate sound traumata. Here, we investigate synaptopathy previously shown in mice in our animal model, the Mongolian gerbil, and relate it to behavioral signs of tinnitus. Tinnitus was induced by a mild monaural acoustic trauma leading to monaural noise induced HL in the animals, quantified by auditory brainstem response (ABR) audiometry. Behavioral signs of tinnitus percepts were detected by measurement of prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle response in a gap‐noise paradigm. Fourteen days after trauma, the cochleae of both ears were isolated, and IHC synapses were counted within several spectral regions of the cochlea. Behavioral signs of tinnitus were only found in animals with IHC synaptopathy, independent of type of HL. On the other hand, animals with apparent HL but without behavioral signs of tinnitus showed a reduction in amplitudes of ABR waves I&II but no significant changes in the number of synapses at the IHC. We conclude—in line with the literature—that HL is caused by damage to the IHC or by other reasons but that the development of tinnitus, at least in our animal model, is closely linked to synaptopathy at the IHC.
Seasonal shifts in the soil microbial community responded differently to in situ experimental warming in a natural forest and a plantation
Authors: Zhao Chunzhang , Wang Yanjie , Zhang Nannan , Liang Jin , Li Dandan , Yin Chunying , Liu Qing 
Published: June 2021

AbstractClimate warming will shift the seasonal variation of the soil microbial community and thereby regulate the soil process dynamics of forest ecosystems. To evaluate the effects of warming on soil microbial community seasonal dynamics, an in situ experiment was conducted in a natural forest and a dragon spruce plantation in the subalpine region of the eastern Tibetan Plateau. Open‐top chambers (OTCs) were used to increase the mean soil temperature by 0.54 and 0.58°C for the natural forest and plantation, respectively. Our results showed that the initial levels of soil carbon and nitrogen were much higher in the natural forest than in the plantation. Compared to no‐warming, the annual average soil carbon and nitrogen contents increased by 14% and 16% in the natural forest, but decreased by 7 and 6% in the plantation after 4 years of OTC warming, respectively. Conversely, warming caused a significant reduction in the annual average microbial biomass by approximately 50% in the natural forest but enhanced this parameter by approximately 30% in the plantation. Warming further enlarged the differences in seasonal variation in microbial community composition between the two forests. The seasonal variation in microbial community‐level substrate utilization also responded differently to warming in the two forest types. These opposite responses of the soil microbial community and soil properties to warming will further magnify the differences in soil conditions between the two forest types under future climate warming.Highlights
Soil microbial biomass is reduced by warming in the natural forest but increased in the plantation.
Seasonal shifts of microbial community respond differently to warming in the two forests.
Soil initial properties likely affect responses of microbial community to warming.
Warming will enlarge the differences between the two forests.
A deep learning semantic segmentation architecture for COVID‐19 lesions discovery in limited chest CT datasets
Authors: Khalifa Nour Eldeen M. , Manogaran Gunasekaran , Taha Mohamed Hamed N. , Loey Mohamed 
Published: June 2021

AbstractDuring the epidemic of COVID‐19, Computed Tomography (CT) is used to help in the diagnosis of patients. Most current studies on this subject appear to be focused on broad and private annotated data which are impractical to access from an organization, particularly while radiologists are fighting the coronavirus disease. It is challenging to equate these techniques since they were built on separate datasets, educated on various training sets, and tested using different metrics. In this research, a deep learning semantic segmentation architecture for COVID‐19 lesions detection in limited chest CT datasets will be presented. The proposed model architecture consists of the encoder and the decoder components. The encoder component contains three layers of convolution and pooling, while the decoder contains three layers of deconvolutional and upsampling. The dataset consists of 20 CT scans of lungs belongs to 20 patients from two sources of data. The total number of images in the dataset is 3520 CT scans with its labelled images. The dataset is split into 70% for the training phase and 30% for the testing phase. Images of the dataset are passed through the pre‐processing phase to be resized and normalized. Five experimental trials are conducted through the research with different images selected for the training and the testing phases for every trial. The proposed model achieves 0.993 in the global accuracy, and 0.987, 0.799, 0.874 for weighted IoU, mean IoU and mean BF score accordingly. The performance metrics such as precision, sensitivity, specificity and F1 score strengthens the obtained results. The proposed model outperforms the related works which use the same dataset in terms of performance and IoU metrics.
Structural and biochemical properties of L‐asparaginase
Authors: Lubkowski Jacek , Wlodawer Alexander 
Published: June 2021

l‐Asparaginase (a hydrolase converting l‐asparagine to l‐aspartic acid) was the first enzyme to be used in clinical practice as an anticancer agent after its approval in 1978 as a component of a treatment protocol for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Structural and biochemical properties of l‐asparaginases have been extensively investigated during the last half‐century, providing an accurate structural description of the enzyme isolated from a variety of sources, as well as clarifying the mechanism of its activity. This review provides a critical assessment of the current state of knowledge of primarily structural, but also selected biochemical properties of ‘bacterial‐type’ l‐asparaginases from different organisms. The most extensively studied members of this enzyme family are l‐asparaginases highly homologous to one of the two enzymes from Escherichia coli (usually referred to as EcAI and EcAII). Members of this enzyme family, although often called bacterial‐type l‐asparaginases, have been also identified in such divergent organisms as archaea or eukarya. Over 100 structural models of l‐asparaginases have been deposited in the Protein Data Bank during the last 30 years. One of the prime achievements of structure‐centered approaches was the elucidation of the details of the mechanism of enzymatic action of this unique hydrolase that utilizes a side chain of threonine as the primary nucleophile. The molecular basis of other important properties of these enzymes, such as their substrate specificity, is still being evaluated. Results of structural and mechanistic studies of l‐asparaginases are being utilized in efforts to improve the clinical properties of this important anticancer drug.
The right thing to do or the smart thing to do? How communicating moral or business motives for diversity affects the employment image of Dutch public and private sector organizations
Authors: Jansen Wiebren S. , Kröger Charlotte , Van der Toorn Jojanneke , Ellemers Naomi 
Published: June 2021

AbstractMany organizations have diversity statements in place in which they publicly declare their appreciation of and commitment to workforce diversity. These statements can either contain moral motives (e.g., “diversity reduces social inequalities”), business motives (e.g., “diversity enhances innovation”), or a combination of moral and business motives. In a desk study involving 182 Dutch organizations, we found that (a) private sector organizations more often than public sector organizations communicate business motives, (b) that public and private sector organizations are equally likely to communicate moral motives, and (c) that public sector organizations more frequently than private sector organizations communicate a combination of moral and business motives. Next, we used an experimental design to examine the causal influence of communicating different diversity motives on organizations' employment image (i.e., perceptions of organizational morality, competence, and attractiveness) among prospective employees (n = 393). Here, we used a scenario in which a healthcare organization was portrayed as either a public or a private sector organization and communicated either only moral motives, only business motives or a combination of moral and business motives for diversity. We found that for a public sector organization communicating moral instead of business motives for valuing diversity induced a more favorable employment image. For a private sector organization, there were no differences in employment image depending on the motive communicated. Together, these two studies shed new light on the role of diversity motives in establishing a positive employment image.
Mandatory vaccination support and intentions to get vaccinated for COVID‐19: Results from a nationally representative general population survey in October 2020 in Greece
Authors: Giannouchos Theodoros V. , Steletou Evaggelia , Saridi Maria , Souliotis Kyriakos 
Published: June 2021

AbstractObjectivesTo explore rates and factors associated with mandatory vaccination support overall and intentions to get vaccinated specifically for COVID‐19 among individuals in Greece.MethodsUsing data from a nationally representative cross‐sectional survey conducted in October 2020 among 855 adults (≥18 years) in Greece, we estimated support rates for mandatory vaccination and respondents' intention to get vaccinated for COVID‐19 as well as associations thereof with individual sociodemographic, clinical and contextual characteristics.ResultsAbout 74% of respondents supported mandatory vaccination and 62% intended to get vaccinated for COVID‐19. The most prevalent reasons against COVID‐19 vaccination were safety concerns related to the duration of clinical trials and potential side effects. Individuals who reported increased trust in healthcare authorities' recommendations, who revealed that their trust in the State increased due to the way the COVID‐19 pandemic was handled, who used preventive services more often, and those with higher income were more likely to both support mandatory vaccination and to indicate intention to get vaccinated for COVID‐19. Participants with worse or better self‐reported health status (compared to average), younger adults, and females were less likely to intend to get vaccinated for COVID‐19.ConclusionThe survey revealed that the majority of the Greek citizens favour mandatory vaccination overall and intend to get vaccinated for COVID‐19, driven mostly by utilization of preventive services and trust in healthcare authorities. However, intention to get vaccinated for COVID‐19 was lower relative to mandatory vaccination support. This suggests a need to intensify evidence‐based yet simplified messaging by esteemed healthcare providers to inform the public on the risks and benefits of vaccines.
Retrospective review of Kawasaki disease at the Women's and Children's Hospital, South Australia
Authors: Davidson Hannah , Kelly Andrew , Agrawal Rishi 
Published: June 2021

AimKawasaki disease (KD) is one of the most common causes of acquired cardiac disease in children in high‐income countries. The incidence of coronary artery disease (CAD), despite treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin, ranges from 5 to 20%. Determining risk factors for CAD may assist with management and reduce long‐term complications.MethodsRetrospective data were collected for all patients presenting to the Women's and Children's Hospital with a discharge diagnosis of KD over a 10.5‐year period, from 2007 to 2018.ResultsA total of 141 patients were included in the review; 101 patients fulfilled complete criteria for KD; 25 incomplete criteria and 15 did not meet criteria but were treated for KD. CAD was present in 27.7% of all patients, ranging from ectasia to giant aneurysms based on Z‐scores and echocardiogram descriptions. Medium to large aneurysms accounted for 8.5% of all patients with suspected KD. Patients with CAD were more likely to: fulfil incomplete criteria (odds ratio (OR) 4.3, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.7–10.8, P = 0.0027), be less than 12 months of age (OR 11.38, 95% CI 2.94–44.11, P = 0.0001), have CRP > 100 (OR 2.8, 95% CI 1.31–6.02, P = 0.0068) and have a delay in treatment (average day of illness prior to treatment 8.89 vs. 6.78 (OR 1.19, 95% CI 1.05–1.35, P = 0.0055)). Patients with a Kobayashi score ≥4 had a higher rate of re‐treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin (OR 3.16, 95% CI 1.27–7.83, P = 0.013).ConclusionOur data are consistent with previously reported risk factors, and high rates of CAD despite standard treatment.