bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Effect of Atorvastatin on Serum Levels of Periostin in Asthma - A Placebo Controlled Randomized Clinical Trial
Authors: Mehrabi Samrad , Torkan Jalal , Hosseinzadeh Massood 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
Background: Asthma is a common pulmonary disease with a high morbidity rate. Considering the role of inflammation in the disease induction and severity, and the anti–inflammatory effect of atorvastatin, we aimed to investigate the effect of atorvastatin on serum level of periostin and eosinophil in patients with asthma, in order to introduce the usefulness of this drug on reducing the inflammation in patients with asthma.Methods: In a blinded randomized control trial, 80 patients with definite diagnosis of asthma were enrolled into the intervention or placebo group, who received 40 mg/day atorvastatin and similar placebo every day for 8 weeks. Spirometric measurements were performed and asthma control test was completed by the patients at baseline, after 4 weeks, and at the end of study (after 8 weeks). The primary outcomes of the study were serum eosinophil count and periostin levels. Results: 40 patients were analyzed in each group and their data were analyzed. Mean asthma control scores in the intervention and placebo groups were similar at baseline (17.95±3.75 vs. 17.98±3.77; P>0.05) and improved in the intervention group (19.88±3.28; P<0.001), but remained unchanged in the placebo group (18.6±3.26; P=0.09). Neither the spirometric changes, nor the serum levels of eosinophil count and periostin were significantly different between the groups (P>0.05).Conclusions: Although the intervention group had improved asthma control score after the intervention, this effect could be because of the indirect effect of atorvastatin, as the spirometric measurements and inflammatory markers did not change significantly and were not different between the placebo and intervention groups. Further studies with longer follow-ups may show changes in spirometric parameters by atorvastatin or its effect on other inflammatory markers.
Comparison in optoelectronic properties of triphenylamine-imidazole or imidazole as donor for dye–sensitized solar cell: Theoretical approach
Authors: Bourouina Assia , Rekis Mâammar 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
In the present work, the structural and electronic properties of the D-D'-π-A organic dye with two donors have been calculated theoretically by DFT/TD-DFT method. In order to prove their efficiency as sensitizers, a comparative study was performed with a serie of D-π-A architecture with one donor. The results of light harvesting efficiency (LHE), open circuit voltage (Voc), free energy injection (∆Ginj), free energy dye regeneration (∆Greg,) excited-state lifetimes for the two series reveal that the D-D'-π-A dyes are promising for the design of new sensitive dyes in solar cells.
Predictive Value of Platelet-to-Lymphocyte Ratio and Systemic Immune‐Inflammation Index in Adverse Pathology at Radical Prostatectomy in Patients with Low-Grade Prostate Cancer
Authors: zhou jiatong , liu ranlu 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
Purpose: To determine the potential role of several biochemical and clinical markers in predicting adverse pathology (AP) and ISUP GG upgrading at radical prostatectomy (RP) with low-grade (ISUP Gleason Group (ISUP GG) 1 and 2) prostate cancer (PCa). Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the patients who underwent radical prostatectomy following criteria: clinical stage T2a or less,and were identified low-grade PCa (ISUP GG 1−2, prostate-specifific antigen (PSA) <20 ng/ml) through prostate biopsy, univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to evaluate the association of patient and tumor characteristics with reclassification, AP was defined as stage ≥T3 and/or ISUP GG ≥3.Results: A total of 155 patients were eligible for this study. AP at RP occurred in 20 of 97 (20.62%) patients with ISUP GG 1, and 28 of 58 (48.28%) with ISUP GG 2. At univariate analysis, bioptic ISUP GG emerged as significant factors of AP(p＜0.001). Platelets to lymphocyte ratio(PLR) might be the risk factor of the incidence of AP(p=0.059). At multivariate analysis, we found PLR and bioptic ISUP were independent significantly factors in predicting AP. The area under the curve for PLR was 0.592. And also, we showed that systemic immune inflammation index(SII) and bioptic ISUP GG were significantly associated with ISUP GG upgrading after RP in multivariate analysis. Conclusions: We found that SII could not be a significant risk factor of AP at low-grade prostate cancer (PCa) after RP.While SII might be a predict factor for ISUP GG upgrading. PLR might be used as an independent predictor which was inversely correlated with presence of AP in low-grade PCa after RP.
Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy using Indocyanine Green and Blue Dye in Male Breast Cancer: A Case Report of 5 Patients
Authors: Yang Jun , Meng Xu-Li , Yu Yong , Pan Lei , Wu Jun , Liu Chang-Feng 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
Background: Male breast cancer is extremely rare and optimal treatments remain unclear. Most of research findings about breast cancer are derived from female patients and has not been rigorously investigated in male patients. The aim of article is to introduce the utility of indocyanine green (ICG) and blue dye mapping for sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy and to determine its clinical usefulness in male breast cancer. Case presentation: A total of 5 consecutive male breast cancer patients with clinical stage ranging from I to IIA in the Tongde Hospital of Zhejiang Province during March 2013 to May 2016 were included in the present study. All patients underwent SLN biopsy with ICG and blue dye. Planed surgical resection with axillary lymph node dissection was performed. Surgically excised sentinel nodes were subjected to conventional histopathology. All of 5 cases with male breast cancer were successfully identified SLNs. Among them, 4 cases were detected by blue dye and all cases were detected by indocyanine green. A total of 10 SLNs were retrieved with an average nodal count of 2 per patient. Metastases were present in 2 nodes within 1 patients. Conclusions: These results provide evidence that the SLN biopsy mapping with ICG and blue dye is accurate in predicting axillary lymph nodes metastases and has the potential to be a reliable criteria for staging of the axilla in patients with male breast cancer.
Biochemical, molecular and in silico characterization of arsenate reductase from pH, salt and arsenic tolerant Bacillus thuringiensis KPWP1
Authors: Banerjee Paromita , Chatterjee Ananya , Jha Sushmita , Bhadani Nirbhay , Datta Partha , Sengupta Tapas Kumar 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
The objective of the present study was to characterize aresenate reductase of pH, salt and arsenate tolerant Bacillus thuringiensis KPWP1, isolated from contaminated surface water. Interestingly, it was found that the arsC, arsB and arsR genes involved in arsenate tolerance are distributed in the genome of KPWP1. The inducible arsC gene was cloned, expressed and the purified ArsC protein showed profound enzyme activity with the KM and Kcat values as 25 µM and 0.00119 s− 1, respectively. In silico studies of KPWP1 ArsC revealed that in spite of 19–26% differences in gene sequences, the ArsC proteins of Bacillus thuringiensis, Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus cereus are structurally conserved and KPWP1 ArsC structure is close to nature. Docking and analysis of binding site showed that arsenate ion interacts with three cysteine residues of ArsC of KPWP1and predicts that the ArsC from B. thuringiensis reduces arsenate by using the triple Cys redox relay mechanism.
Characterization of intermediate-sized insertions using whole genome sequencing data and analysis of their functional impacts on gene expression
Authors: Ashouri Saeideh , Wong Jing Hao , Nakagawa Hidewaki , Shimada Mihoko , Tokunaga Katsushi , Fujimoto Akihiro 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
Intermediate-sized insertions are one of the structural variants contributing to genome diversity. However, due to technical difficulties in identifying them, their importance in disease pathogenicity and gene expression regulation remains unclear. We used whole-genome sequencing data of 174 Japanese samples to characterize intermediate-sized insertions using a highly-accurate insertion calling method (IMSindel software and joint-call recovery) and obtained a catalogue of 4,254 insertions. We constructed an imputation panel comprising of insertions and SNVs from all samples, and conducted imputation of intermediate-sized insertions for 82 publicly-available Japanese samples. Imputation accuracy, evaluated using Nanopore long-read sequencing data, was 97%. Subsequent eQTL analysis predicted 128 (~ 3.0%) insertions as causative for gene expression level changes. Enrichment analysis of causal insertions for genome regulatory elements showed significant associations with CTCF-binding sites, super-enhancers, and promoters. Among 17 causal insertions found in the same causal set with GWAS hits, there were insertions associated with changes in expression of cancer-related genes such as BRCA1, ZNF222, and ABCB10. Analysis of insertions sequences revealed that 461 insertions were short tandem duplications frequently found in early replicating regions of genome. Furthermore, comparison of functional importance of intermediate-sized insertions with that of intermediate-sized deletions detected in the same sample set in our previous study showed that insertions were more frequent in genic regions, and proportion of functional candidates was smaller in insertions. Here, we characterize a high-confidence set of intermediate-sized insertions and indicate their importance in gene expression regulation. Our results emphasize the importance of considering intermediate-sized insertions in trait association studies.
High-energy Orbit Sliding Mode Control for Nonlinear Energy Harvesting
Authors: Zhang Ying , Ding Changshun , Wang Jie , Cao Junyi 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
Vibration energy harvesting has extensive application prospects in many significant occasions, such as mechanical structure health monitoring, vehicle tire pressure monitoring, IoT devices and human health monitoring. The nonlinearity is an effective method to improve the energy harvesting efficiency where there are low- and high-energy orbits in the multi-solution region of the system. The harvested power will be increased significantly when the system is guided from the low-energy orbit to the high-energy orbit. However, previous research mainly focuses on the theoretical and numerical investigation of controlling strategy, but the feasibility of control methods has not been verified experimentally. This paper proposes a high-energy sliding mode control method through rotatable magnets actuated by micro-motor. The electromechanical model of mono-stable and bi-stable systems with the identified nonlinear restoring force is established to design a sliding mode control algorithm for enhancing the energy harvesting performance. Simulation and experiment results demonstrate that the rotatable magnets with sliding mode control have a positive influence on reaching the high-energy orbit for both mono-stable and bi-stable systems within the multi-solution region. Moreover, the rotatable magnets method with a sliding mode control actuates the small magnets in the system for a short time with little consumption of energy. This research has provided a practical application of high-energy orbit control for improvement of the energy harvesting.
Effect of Silicon fertilization on two major insect pests of tomato under greenhouse conditions
Authors: Alyousuf Aqeel , Hamid Dawood , Desher Mohsen A. , Nikpay Amin , Laane Henk-Marten 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L) is an important vegetable crop in Iraq. This horticultural crop is attacked by several insect pest species. Among them, the whitefly Bemisia tabaci Gennadius (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) and the tomato leaf miner Tuta absoluta Meyrick (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) are the major threat of greenhouse tomatoes in Basrah province in south Iraq. The management of these pests is heavily based on application of chemical pesticides. Vast application of pesticides caused harmful damage to the environment, human health and may increasing the risk of pest resistance on insect populations. One of the promising strategies which are compatible with organic farming is application of silicon for enhancing plant vigor and resistance to pest damage on various agricultural crops. Due to these facts, the experiments have been carried out at Basrah University to evaluate the effects of silicon (Si) fertilization on tomato plants for reducing damage of these two major pests. Treatments comprised two type of Si applications (Soil drench treatment and foliar spraying) with four Si concentrations (0, 0.5, 1 and 2%) of AB Yellow ® silicic acid formulation. The population density of B. tabaci and T. absoluta were studied weekly during the growth season. The results clearly demonstrated that Silicon applications significantly decreased the population of immature of both whiteflies and tomato leaf miner on tomato crop in the greenhouse; Si-Foliar spraying was more effective in reducing the population density of these key pests compared to Si- soil drench application.
Numerical Study on Catalytic Hydrodeoxygenation of Pyrolytic Bio-Oil Model Compound, Guaiacol, in Fluidized Bed Reactor
Authors: Fortunate Ogene , Kishore Nanda 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
The bio-oil obtained by thermochemical conversion of lignocellulosic biomass consist of large fractions of oxygenated compounds which deteriorate its quality leading to low calorific value, high viscosity, high density, high moisture content, etc. Therefore, the bio-oil should be deoxygenated using hydrogen in the presence of appropriate catalyst to improve its properties. Adequate literature on pyrolysis of biomass within the framework of computational fluid dynamics is available but only a couple of papers available on hydrodeoxygenation of bio-oil obtained by pyrolysis. Thus, in this study, guaiacol has been selected as a representative model compound of phenolic fraction of bio-oil for upgrading it by catalytic hydrodeoxygenation. The reaction process has been implemented in a fluidised bed reactor in the presence of palladium catalyst, Pd/Al 2 O 3 using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) based solver, ANSYS Fluent 14.5. The range of conditions considered herein are: weight-hourly space velocity (WHSV) = 1, 3 and 5 h -1 ; superficial H 2 -gas velocity, u = 0.075, 0.15 and 0.25 m/s; catalyst load = 0.06 kg and temperature, T = 548 K, 573 K, and 598 K. The solver has been thoroughly validated in terms of grid dependence study, time step size dependence study validating hydrodynamics and HDO results wherever possible with existing literature results. The HDO of guaiacol produces phenol as the most abundant compound along with significant amount of cyclopentanone and methanol. The formation of cyclopentanone from HDO of guaiacol is favourable at high temperature whereas low temperature conditions favour formation of methanol and phenol.
Outcome of unstable pertrochanteric fractures in high-risk geriatric treated with external fixators
Authors: Liang Yu , Liu Shaojiang , Zhong Fenglin 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
Background: To review the outcome of high-risk geriatrics with unstable pertrochanteric fractures treated with external fixator.Methods: Eighteen consecutive patients with pertrochanteric fractures were operated with external fixator by using closed reduction technique. AO type (A2.2, A2.3, A3.1, A.3.2 and A.3.3)) fractures were included in the study. Accompanying diseases, operating time, transfused blood units, duration of hospitalization, complications, healing time and mortality were recorded. Patients were followed clinically and radiologically for two years at least. The Harris Hip Score was used to document hip function at each regular follow-up.Results: Fifteen patients with average age of 71.5 years were available for final evaluation. The mean operating time was 41.1 min and union was achieved in all cases with an average time of 16 weeks. The mean Harris Hip Score at one, three, six, twelve and twenty-four month postoperatively was 42.07 ± 8.55; 55.07 ± 11.62; 70.07 ± 10.32; 86.27 ± 9.06 and 89.27 ± 8.81 respectively. Complications included fifteen of patients undergoing loss of some motion in the knee and four of them had to experience revision surgery because of knee stiffness, ten cases of pin-tract infections, seven cases of deep venous thrombosis, two cases of migration of the screws and two cases limb shorteningConclusions: It was of paramount importance that a comprehensive, multidisciplinary cooperation was consistently implemented and medical personnel provided detailed rehabilitation training plan and kept close contact with patients to make these high-risk geriatrics with unstable perotrochanteric fractures achieve satisfactory long-term effect owing to short-term functional results are quite unsatisfactory.
Development and application of a triplex TaqMan RT-PCR assay for simultaneous detection of Feline calicivirus, Feline Herpesvirus 1 and Feline parvovirus
Authors: Zhang Xiyu , Tang Zhihui , Niu Haoyan , Yan Liping , song suquan 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
The feline calicivirus (FCV), feline herspesvirus 1 (FHV-1) and feline panleukemia virus (FPV) are heavily threaten the health of cats. In this study, a triplex TaqMan real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay (triplex assay) was developed to detect these viruses. The optimized concentration of primers was 0.5 µM of each, probes concentration was 0.1 µM for FCV and FHV-1, 0.05 µM for FPV. The annealing temperature was set at 54 ℃. The triplex RT-PCR assay was carefully validated. The detection limit for FPV, FCV, and FHV-1 was 5×101 copies/µL, which showed a 10-100-fold increase in the sensitivity compared with the conventional PCR. The coefficients of variation (CV) of the intra-assay variability of the test were < 1.86%, and that of inter-assay was < 3.19%, indicating excellent repeatability and reproducibility of the triplex assay. Additionally, the assay has perfect specificity. In a pilot study, samples from 48 cats were analyzed using the triplex RT-PCR method and the commercial kits, and further confirmed by sequencing. The positive rates for the samples analyzed with these two methods were 70.83% and 62.5%, respectively, which demonstrated that the developed method was more accurate than the commercial kits in clinical diagnosis.
Serum Proteomic Profiling in Patients with Advanced Schistosoma Japonicum-Induced Hepatic Fibrosis
Authors: Huang Jing , Yin Xinguang , Zhang Lifang , Yao Ming , Wei Dahai , Wu Yiming 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
Background: Schistosoma japonicum (S. japonicum) is a parasitic flatworm that is the aetiological agent of human schistosomiasis, an important cause of hepatic fibrosis. Schistosomiasis-induced hepatic fibrosis is a consequence of the highly fibrogenic nature of egg-induced granulomatuous lesions, the main pathogenic factor of schistosomiasis. Although global awareness of the association between schistosomiasis-indued hepatic fibrosis and s. japonicum infection is increasing, little is known about the mechanism mediating the rapid progression to schistosomiasis in cirrhotic patients.Methods: We systematically used data-independent acquisition (DIA)-based liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry to identify differentially expressed proteins in serum samples from patients with advanced S. japonicum-induced hepatic fibrosis.Results: On the basis of our analysis, we identified 1,144 proteins, among which 67 were differentially expressed between the healthy control and SHF-F2 groups and 214 were differentially expressed between the SHF-F2 and SHF-F4 groups (up- or downregulation of at least 1.5-fold in serum samples). Furthermore, our results indicated that two selected proteins (C1QA and CFD) are potential biomarkers for distinguishing patients with cirrhosis resulting from S. japonicum infection.Conclusions: This report is the first to provide a global proteomic profile of serum samples from patients with advanced S. japonicum-induced hepatic fibrosis. Our results shed new light on the molecular mechanisms that are dysregulated in and contribute to the pathogenesis of schistosomiasis-induced hepatic fibrosis. C1QA and CFD are promising diagnostic markers for patients with cirrhosis resulting from S. japonicum infection, although further large-scale studies are needed. Our DIA-based quantitative proteomic analysis revealed molecular differences among individuals with different stages of advanced S. japonicum-induced hepatic fibrosis and might provide fundamental information for further detailed investigations.
Stegarmory: Offensive Cyber Security Software for Embedding Shellcode in Images
Authors: Hedrick Mark R. , Holman Justin 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
The paper introduces StegArmory, a new open source software package with practical applications for offensive cyber security operators. StegArmory uses steganography techniques to embed machine code, or shellcode, in images. Shellcode is typically flagged as malicious by antivirus software due to the payloads they often contain, but detection becomes more difficult when shellcode is embedded in a common image file. Using steganography to embed shellcode within portable network graphic (PNG) images, StegArmory provides a new way to avoid detection of potentially malicious payloads while ensuring reliable transmission. In this paper, the StegArmory software development process is described, performance benchmarks are established and detection metrics are measured using sample cover images. Two image-based steganography techniques are utilized, least significant bit (LSB) and pixel value differencing (PVD). Test results indicate the software effectively produces PNG image files, using both LSBand PVD approaches, with embedded shellcode capable of avoiding malicious payload detection. The LSB method is faster but the PVD method handles larger payloads and image modifications are more difficult to detect.
Prediction of blood supply in vestibular schwannomas using radiomics machine-learning classifiers
Authors: Wei Xinting , Song Dixiang , Zhai Yixuan , Tao Xiaogang , Zhao Chao , Wang Minkai 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
Objective

This study attempts to explore the radiomics-based features of multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and construct a machine-learning model to predict the blood supply in vestibular schwannoma preoperatively.
Methods

By retrospectively collecting the preoperative MRI data of patients with vestibular schwannoma, patients were divided into poor and rich blood supply group according to the intraoperative recording. Patients were divided into training and test cohorts (2:1), randomly. Stable features were retained by intra-group correlation coefficients (ICCs). Four feature selection methods and four classification methods were evaluated to construct favorable radiomic classifiers. The mean area under the curve (AUC) obtained in the test set for different combinations of feature selecting methods and classifiers was calculated separately to compare the performance of the models. Obtain and compare the best combination result with the performance of differentiation through visual observation in clinical diagnosis.
Results

191 patients were included in this study, with 119 in the rich blood supply group and 72 in the poor blood supply group. A total of 5226 features were extracted each patient, of which 3918 features were stable. LASSO and logistic regression model was selected as the optimal combinations after comparing the AUC calculated by models, which predicted the blood supply of vestibular schwannoma by K-Fold cross-validation method with a mean AUC = 0.90 and F1-score = 0.89, and the model outperformed the neurosurgeons' visual observation with a mean F1-score = 0.64.
Conclusion

Radiomics machine-learning classifiers can accurately predict the blood supply of vestibular schwannoma by preoperative MRI data.