bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Disruption of β-Catenin–Dependent Wnt Signaling in Colon Cancer Cells Remodels the Microenvironment to Promote Tumor Invasion
Authors: Chen George T. , Tifrea Delia F. , Murad Rabi , Habowski Amber N. , Lyou Yung , Duong Madeleine R. , Hosohama Linzi , Mortazavi Ali , Edwards Robert A. , Waterman Marian L. 
Published: November 2021

Abstract

The recent classification of colon cancer into molecular subtypes revealed that patients with the poorest prognosis harbor tumors with the lowest levels of Wnt signaling. This is contrary to the general understanding that overactive Wnt signaling promotes tumor progression from early initiation stages through to the later stages including invasion and metastasis. Here, we directly test this assumption by reducing the activity of ß-catenin–dependent Wnt signaling in colon cancer cell lines at either an upstream or downstream step in the pathway. We determine that Wnt-reduced cancer cells exhibit a more aggressive disease phenotype, including increased mobility in vitro and disruptive invasion into mucosa and smooth muscle in an orthotopic mouse model. RNA sequencing reveals that interference with Wnt signaling leads to an upregulation of gene programs that favor cell migration and invasion and a downregulation of inflammation signatures in the tumor microenvironment. We identify a set of upregulated genes common among the Wnt perturbations that are predictive of poor patient outcomes in early-invasive colon cancer. Our findings suggest that while targeting Wnt signaling may reduce tumor burden, an inadvertent side effect is the emergence of invasive cancer.

Implications:
Decreased Wnt signaling in colon tumors leads to a more aggressive disease phenotype due to an upregulation of gene programs favoring cell migration in the tumor and downregulation of inflammation programs in the tumor microenvironment; these impacts must be carefully considered in developing Wnt-targeting therapies.
Watch the interview with Marian L. Waterman, PhD, recipient of the 2023 MCR Michael B. Kastan Award for Research Excellence: https://vimeo.com/847435577
Causal Effect of Obstructive Sleep Apnea on Atrial Fibrillation: A Mendelian Randomization Study
Authors: Chen Weiqi , Cai Xueli , Yan Hongyi , Pan Yuesong 
Published: November 2021

Background
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) has shown to be associated with an increased risk of atrial fibrillation in observational studies. Whether this association reflect causal effect is still unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the causal effect of OSA on atrial fibrillation.

Methods and Results

We used a 2‐sample Mendelian randomization (MR) method to evaluate the causal effect of OSA on atrial fibrillation. Summary data on genetic variant‐OSA association were obtained from a recently published genome‐wide association studies with up to 217 955 individuals and data on variant‐atrial fibrillation association from another genome‐wide association study with up to 1 030 836 individuals. Effect estimates were evaluated using inverse‐variance weighted method. Other MR analyses, including penalized inverse‐variance weighted, penalized robust inverse‐variance weighted, MR‐Egger, simple median, weighted median, weighted mode‐based estimate and Mendelian Randomization Pleiotropy Residual Sum and Outlier methods were performed in sensitivity analyses. The MR analyses in both the fixed‐effect and random‐effect inverse‐variance weighted models showed that genetically predicted OSA was associated with an increased risk of atrial fibrillation (odds ratio [OR], 1.21; 95% CI, 1.12–1.31,
P
<0.001; OR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.11–1.32,
P
<0.001) using 5 single nucleotide polymorphisms as the instruments. MR‐Egger indicated no evidence of genetic pleiotropy (intercept, −0.014; 95% CI, −0.033 to 0.005,
P
=0.14). Results were robust using other MR methods in sensitivity analyses.

Conclusions
This MR analysis found that genetically predicted OSA had causal effect on an increased risk of atrial fibrillation.
Natural Language Processing Enhances Prediction of Functional Outcome After Acute Ischemic Stroke
Authors: Sung Sheng‐Feng , Chen Chih‐Hao , Pan Ru‐Chiou , Hu Ya‐Han , Jeng Jiann‐Shing 
Published: November 2021

Background
Conventional prognostic scores usually require predefined clinical variables to predict outcome. The advancement of natural language processing has made it feasible to derive meaning from unstructured data. We aimed to test whether using unstructured text in electronic health records can improve the prediction of functional outcome after acute ischemic stroke.

Methods and Results

Patients hospitalized for acute ischemic stroke were identified from 2 hospital stroke registries (3847 and 2668 patients, respectively). Prediction models developed using the first cohort were externally validated using the second cohort, and vice versa. Free text in the history of present illness and computed tomography reports was used to build machine learning models using natural language processing to predict poor functional outcome at 90 days poststroke. Four conventional prognostic models were used as baseline models. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curves of the model using history of present illness in the internal and external validation sets were 0.820 and 0.792, respectively, which were comparable to the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score (0.811 and 0.807). The model using computed tomography reports achieved area under the receiver operating characteristic curves of 0.758 and 0.658. Adding information from clinical text significantly improved the predictive performance of each baseline model in terms of area under the receiver operating characteristic curves, net reclassification improvement, and integrated discrimination improvement indices (all
P
<0.001). Swapping the study cohorts led to similar results.

Conclusions
By using natural language processing, unstructured text in electronic health records can provide an alternative tool for stroke prognostication, and even enhance the performance of existing prognostic scores.
Using Earnings Calls to Understand the Political Behavior of Major Polluters
Authors: Mahdavi Paasha , Green Jessica , Hadden Jennifer , Hale Thomas 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
The role that private actors play in accelerating or preventing progressive climate policy and true decarbonization is a core research interest of global environmental politics. Yet scholars have struggled to measure the political behavior of multinational firms due to lack of transparency about their activities and inconsistency in reporting requirements across jurisdictions. In this research note, we present a new data source—firms’ earnings calls—that scholars might use to better understand the political behavior of major multinational polluters. To illustrate the value of earnings calls as a data source, we construct an original data set of all earnings calls made between 2005 and 2019 by major oil and gas firms. We then code these transcripts, demonstrating that although firms can be classified as more or less pro-climate, there is little evidence of the industry’s public acceptance of decarbonization. These unique data could permit researchers to explore important questions about climate politics, the evolution of private governance, and the relationship between policy and firms’ political behavior. Moreover, we suggest extensions of our approach, including other multinational industries that are amenable to this type of analysis.
Memory-Based Semantic Parsing
Authors: Jain Parag , Lapata Mirella 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
We present a memory-based model for context- dependent semantic parsing. Previous approaches focus on enabling the decoder to copy or modify the parse from the previous utterance, assuming there is a dependency between the current and previous parses. In this work, we propose to represent contextual information using an external memory. We learn a context memory controller that manages the memory by maintaining the cumulative meaning of sequential user utterances. We evaluate our approach on three semantic parsing benchmarks. Experimental results show that our model can better process context-dependent information and demonstrates improved performance without using task-specific decoders.
How the Milk Tea Alliance Inspired Singapore, and Why We Need to Let Youths Take the Lead
Authors: Ngerng Roy 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
I am a Singaporean activist currently living in Taiwan. In 2014, I was sued by the Singapore prime minister Lee Hsien Loong over a blog post I wrote revealing how the Singapore government was investing the retirement funds of Singaporeans without being completely transparent to them. I was fired from my job on this pretext, and was later charged by the government for protesting over the same advocacy issue. In 2016, after supporting an opposition politician during a by-election, the police searched my home and took away my laptops and storage devices.
Falling between the Cracks of the Governing Systems: Risk and Uncertainty in Pastoralism in Northern Norway
Authors: Risvoll Camilla , Hovelsrud Grete K. , Riseth Jan Åge 
Published: November 2021

Abstract
Rapid and interacting change poses an increasing threat to livelihoods and food production, and pastoralists in Nordland, northern Norway, are at a crossroads both economically and culturally. Some of these changes are localized and pertain to changing weather and grazing conditions caused by climate change and land fragmentation. Others, driven by national management policies and governance specifically related to predators, are poorly adjusted for the different and localized contexts. The pastoralists are inherently adaptive and have a long history of responding well to variable changing conditions. This is now changing with the continued increasing pressures from many directions. The central government systematically ignores pastoralists’ traditional knowledge and enforces narrow sector policies to be implemented at regional and local levels. We address the effect of how institutional, physical, and societal constraints challenge pastoralists’ prospects for sustainable adaptation. Our results show how pastoralists’ livelihoods become compromised and potentially threatened because they are forced to respond in ways that they know are counterproductive in the long run. Adaptation outcomes are affected by different approaches and epistemologies that are situated across scale and context in terms of regional and national regulations versus local empirical reality among the pastoral communities. This study concludes that radical change is needed toward a more holistic governance in which multiple knowledge systems are integrated to ensure sustainable adaptation at all levels. This study is based on extensive and long-term fieldwork among reindeer herders and sheep farmers in Nordland, through a collaborative process of knowledge coproduction.
Clinical Application of Vacuum Sealing Drainage for the Treatment of Deep Burn Wounds
Authors: Sun Tao , Ying Wenjie , Wang Shuangshuang , Chen Caiqiang , Sun Pengyu , Tan Jinglei 
Published: November 2021

Background This study aimed to determine the effect of the clinical application of vacuum sealing drainage (VSD) on the treatment of deep burn wounds. Methods This single-blind, randomized, controlled study included patients who were admitted to our hospital with deep burns from January 2018 to December 2020; the patients were randomly divided into the VSD and control (CON) groups. The number of days from treatment to skin grafting; survival rate of the first skin graft; rate of positive bacterial culture; visual analog scale (VAS) pain score; and durations of wound healing, antibiotic drug use, and hospitalization were analyzed and compared between the groups. Results The application of VSD significantly shortened the number of days from treatment to skin grafting ( P < .05); improved the survival rate of the first skin graft in patients with severe burns ( P < .05); reduced the rate of positive bacterial culture ( P < .05); reduced the VAS pain score ( P < .05); and shortened the durations of wound healing ( P < .05), antibiotic drug use ( P < .05), and hospitalization ( P < .05). Conclusion Vacuum sealing drainage had a good clinical effect on the recovery of deep burn wounds.
The Outcomes of Performing Partial Fundoplication Based on Endoflip Versus Manometric Findings
Authors: Fanous Medhat , Wei Wei 
Published: November 2021

Background The surgical management of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) involves extensive diagnostic studies and sophisticated surgical techniques. The workup should be comprehensive and purposeful. High resolution impedance manometry (HRIM) provides valuable information regarding peristalsis and lower esophageal sphincter relaxation. The disadvantages of HRIM such as intolerance or inability to pass the catheter led to its selective use or even omission especially in laparoscopic hiatal hernia repair with partial fundoplication. This pragmatic approach risks missing motility disorders in patients with secondary reflux symptoms related to achalasia or scleroderma. Endolumenal functional lumen imaging probe (endoFLIP) can fill this void as it evaluates the dynamics of the esophagogastric junction under sedation. This study aims to compare the outcomes of preoperative use of HRIM vs endoFLIP for laparoscopic repair of hiatal hernia with partial fundoplication. Methods This is a retrospective cohort study for consecutive patients who underwent antireflux surgery with partial fundoplication between July 2018 and February 2021. Preoperative and postoperative outcomes were compared between two cohorts of patients: those with preoperative HRIM and those with preoperative endoFLIP. Results A total of 72 patients were evaluated, 41 had preoperative HRIM and 31 had endoFLIP. There was no statistically significant difference in their age, sex, BMI, duration of GERD symptoms, or proton pump inhibitors use. The endoscopic findings of esophagitis, hiatal hernia, and Hill’s grade were comparable. There was no difference in the American Society of Anesthesiology classification or the choice of antireflux surgery. The improvement of postoperative GERD scores and dysphagia subscore was similar between the two groups. Conclusion Performing partial fundoplication based on endoFLIP evaluation of the dynamics of the esophagogastric junction is safe and does not increase postoperative dysphagia compared to preoperative manometric use. Randomized prospective studies are needed to confirm the findings of this study.
Evaluation of Postoperative Pain Management Using an Opioid-Sparing Protocol in Pediatric Surgical Patients
Authors: Jung Jinhyun A. , Higgins Kristi , Lange Patricia , Noda Cady 
Published: November 2021

Background Since the 1990s, the U.S. has faced increasing rates of opioid overuse, misuse, and overdose deaths. To combat the opioid epidemic, there have been national initiatives to limit prescribing of opioids. At our institution, we implemented an opioid-sparing protocol in pediatric surgical patients and sought to evaluate its impact on postoperative opioid prescribing patterns. Methods A retrospective chart review of the electronic medical record was performed for 9- to 18-year-old patients who underwent a laparoscopic appendectomy or cholecystectomy before and after the implementation of an opioid-sparing protocol. Data on postoperative opioids administered during the hospitalization and prescribed at discharge, postoperative pain control, use of non-opioid analgesics, and safety were collected. Results A total of 81 patient charts were analyzed. The median amount of opioids administered during hospitalization was 8 MMEs and 15 MMEs in the pre-implementation and post-implementation, respectively ( P = 0.310). The median amount of opioids prescribed at discharge was 150 MMEs and 60 MMEs in the pre-implementation and post-implementation, respectively ( P = 0.006). Patients reported mild pain scores throughout the hospitalization in both groups. Discussion Among young patients who underwent laparoscopic appendectomy or cholecystectomy, the administration of opioids during hospitalization for postoperative pain was minimal. The opioid sparing protocol did not reduce the amount of inpatient postoperative opioids administered but found a decrease in the amount of opioids prescribed at discharge. The study findings identified further areas of intervention and education to optimize postoperative opioid prescribing after these common pediatric surgical procedures.
Intraperitoneal exposure of iron oxide nanoparticles causes dose-dependent toxicity in Wistar rats
Authors: Verma Gajraj S , Nirmal Naresh K , Gunpal Deepika , Gupta Hemant , Yadav Monika , Kumar Navneet , John Placheril J 
Published: November 2021

Nanoparticles of iron oxide, with diameters beteween 1 to 100 nm, have notable implications for human health and well being. In the current study, we have investigated the effects of iron oxide nanoparticles (IONP) exposure on general physiology and health of adult Wistar rats. IONP used in the study had spherical shape and average size in the range of 15–20 nm. A total of eight groups of rats were repeatedly injected with 0 (control), 20, 40, and 80 mg IONP per kg body weight intraperitoneally under two different exposure schemes (sub-acute and sub-chronic). IONP exposure caused significant changes in lungs, liver, and kidney indices in both exposure schemes. Sub-acute exposure did not affect body weight gain in treated rats, but longer duration exposure was responsible for significant reduction in body weight. Mesenteries, visceral fatty tissues, and visceral peritoneal membranes demonstrated apparent accumulations of IONP in a dose and time-dependent manner. Hematological analysis showed that total RBC count, hemoglobin content, hematocrit, mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) and mean platelet volume (MPV) were not affected by IONP exposure. Total lymphocyte count, however, was elevated in low- and mid-dose treated rats, but not in high-dose group. Serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) increased significantly in rats treated with mid and high doses as compared to control. Serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen levels were also significantly altered in treated rats. Histological study found significant hepatic damage and mild spleen toxicity. Our report suggests that IONP exhibit significant toxicity in rats.
Investigation on mechanical properties of hybrid aluminum/composite tubes manufactured by filament winding and hand lay-up
Authors: Yadegari Hani , Taherian Reza , Dariushi Soheil 
Published: November 2021

Nowadays, composite tubes have a wide range of applications in industries. Composite tubes are appropriate alternatives for metal energy absorbers. In this investigation, aluminum-composite tubes are made using Filament Winding (FW) and hand lay-up methods. Carbon Fiber (CF) and Glass Fiber (GF) are used in the FW method, and for the hand lay-up method, glass cloth is used. Five samples were fabricated with different stacking sequences, specimens with one, two, and three glass layers, one carbon layer, and hybrid carbon/glass layers. Characterization is performed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis and mechanical tests (bending, compressive, and fatigue). The maximum bending force in the triple-layer GF tube is higher than other samples, while the maximum compressive force is observed in the hybrid carbon and GF tube. On the other hand, the fatigue strength of single-layer CF tubes is higher than single-layer GF tubes, so that the fracture cycles of single-layer CF tubes (600597) is significantly more than that of single-layer GF tubes (470068) at the force of 35 N. In addition, the compressive and bending energies absorption of samples were calculated. The hybrid carbon and GF tube absorbed higher energy than other samples. In GF and CF hybrid tubes, failure did not occur suddenly but gradually. This appropriate failure mechanism in the hybrid tube resulted in higher energy absorption and made it a suitable choice for industrial applications.
The effect of chemotherapy type and timing among the other factors on patency of totally implantable vascular access devices in colorectal carcinoma
Authors: Aribas Bilgin Kadri , Yildiz Fatih , Uylar Tugba , Tiken Ramazan , Aydin Hale , Akdulum Ismail , Seber Turgut , Caglar Emrah , Savran Burcu , Aribas Ozge 
Published: November 2021

Purpose: Catheter-related complications are observed in infusion of chemotherapy, and these were encountered with targeted therapies. Our principle is to study non-mechanical effects of type and initiation time of chemotherapy among the other factors on patency of totally implantable vascular access devices (TIVAD) inserted in patients with colorectal carcinoma. Methods: This is a one-center retrospective cohort study. We analyzed TIVAD related complications in 624 patients with colorectal carcinoma. The patients were categorized by chemotherapy type (non-target-directed chemotherapy agents (Group A), bevacizumab (Group B), and cetuximab (Group C)). Additionally, we divided the patients into groups by the time interval between TIVAD insertion and chemotherapy initiation. According to our study, a 3-day period was optimal. Therefore, we named the groups as within 3 days and beyond 3 days, and called this process 3 days cut-off. Age, gender, jugular-subclavian access, platelet count, INR, the types of chemotherapy, and the initiation time of chemotherapy were investigated by survival tests. We compared chemotherapy type groups both one-by-one and combined into one group. Results: The TIVADs were removed due to the complications in 11 patients of Group A, 6 patients of Group B, and 3 patients of Group C. Only chemotherapy type was significant ( p = 0.011) in Cox regression test. A clear difference ( p = 0.010) was detected between the catheter patency of Group A and combination of Groups B and C, because of skin necrosis and thrombosis. Within 3 days of their first chemotherapy day, an important difference between Group A and Group C ( p = 0.013) was observed in the TIVAD patency. The same observation was made between Group A and Group B ( p = 0.007). Beyond this period, no major difference was detected ( p = 0.341). Conclusion: A major effect on catheter patency was detected by using the target-directed chemotherapy agent within 3 days, which should be considered in target-directed chemotherapy.