bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Individual Efficacy and Community Impact of Ivermectin, Diethylcarbamazine, and Albendazole Mass Drug Administration for Lymphatic Filariasis Control in Fiji: A Cluster Randomized Trial
Authors: Hardy Myra , Samuela Josaia , Kama Mike , Tuicakau Meciusela , Romani Lucia , Whitfeld Margot J , King Christopher L , Weil Gary J , Grobler Anneke C , Robinson Leanne J , Kaldor John M , Steer Andrew C 
Published: March 2021

Abstract

Background
Bancroftian filariasis remains endemic in Fiji despite &gt;10 years of mass drug administration (MDA) using diethylcarbamazine and albendazole (DA). The addition of ivermectin to this combination (IDA) has improved efficacy of microfilarial clearance at 12 months in individually randomized trials in nocturnal transmission settings, but impact in a setting of diurnally subperiodic filarial transmission has not been evaluated.

Methods
This cluster randomized study compared the individual efficacy and community impact of IDA vs DA as MDA for lymphatic filariasis in 35 villages on 2 islands of Fiji. Participants were tested at enrollment for circulating filarial antigen and, if positive, for microfilariae. Weight-dosed treatment was offered according to village randomization. Communities were visited at 12 months and retested for lymphatic filariasis. Infected individuals from Rotuma were retested at 24 months.

Results
A total of 3816 participants were enrolled and 3616 were treated. At 12 months, microfilariae clearance was achieved in 72 of 111 participants detected with infection at baseline, with no difference in efficacy between treatment groups: DA, 69.2% (95% confidence interval [CI], 57.2%–79.1%) vs IDA, 62.5% (95% CI, 43.6%–78.2%); risk difference, 11.3 % (95% CI, –10% to 32.7%); P = .30. There was no difference between treatment groups in community prevalence of microfilariae at 12 months or individual clearance at 24 months.

Conclusions
We found no difference between IDA and DA in individual clearance or community prevalence of lymphatic filariasis at 12 months, and no improved efficacy following a second annual round of IDA. Possible explanations for the apparent lack of benefit of IDA compared to DA include drug and parasite factors affecting clearance, and higher than expected reinfection rates.
Clinical Trials Registration: NCT03177993 and Australian New Zealand Clinical Trial Registry: N12617000738325.
Development of intra-oral automated landmark recognition (ALR) for dental and occlusal outcome measurements
Authors: Woodsend Brénainn , Koufoudaki Eirini , Lin Ping , McIntyre Grant , El-Angbawi Ahmed , Aziz Azad , Shaw William , Semb Gunvor , Reesu Gowri Vijay , Mossey Peter A 
Published: March 2021

Summary

Background
Previous studies embracing digital technology and automated methods of scoring dental arch relationships have shown that such technology is valid and accurate. To date, however there is no published literature on artificial intelligence and machine learning to completely automate the process of dental landmark recognition.

Objectives
This study aimed to develop and evaluate a fully automated system and software tool for the identification of landmarks on human teeth using geometric computing, image segmenting, and machine learning technology.

Methods
Two hundred and thirty-nine digital models were used in the automated landmark recognition (ALR) validation phase, 161 of which were digital models from cleft palate subjects aged 5 years. These were manually annotated to facilitate qualitative validation. Additionally, landmarks were placed on 20 adult digital models manually by 3 independent observers. The same models were subjected to scoring using the ALR software and the differences (in mm) were calculated. All the teeth from the 239 models were evaluated for correct recognition by the ALR with a breakdown to find which stages of the process caused the errors.

Results
The results revealed that 1526 out of 1915 teeth (79.7%) were correctly identified, and the accuracy validation gave 95% confidence intervals for the geometric mean error of [0.285, 0.317] for the humans and [0.269, 0.325] for ALR—a negligible difference.

Conclusions/implications
It is anticipated that ALR software tool will have applications throughout clinical dentistry and anthropology, and in research will constitute an accurate and objective tool for handling large datasets without the need for time intensive employment of experts to place landmarks manually.
Importance of environmental factors over habitat connectivity in shaping bacterial communities in microbial mats and bacterioplankton in an Antarctic freshwater system
Authors: Ramoneda Josep , Hawes Ian , Pascual-García Alberto , J. Mackey Tyler , Y. Sumner Dawn , D. Jungblut Anne 
Published: March 2021

ABSTRACT
Freshwater ecosystems are considered hotspots of biodiversity in Antarctic polar deserts. Anticipated warming is expected to change the hydrology of these systems due to increased meltwater and reduction of ice cover, with implications for environmental conditions and physical connectivity between habitats. Using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, we evaluated microbial mat and planktonic communities within a connected freshwater system in the McMurdo Wright Valley, Antarctica, to determine the roles of connectivity and habitat conditions in controlling microbial assemblage composition. We examined communities from glacial Lake Brownworth, the perennially ice-covered Lake Vanda and the Onyx River, which connects the two. In Lake Vanda, we found distinct microbial assemblages occupying sub-habitats at different lake depths, while the communities from Lake Brownworth and Onyx River were structurally similar. Despite the higher physical connectivity and dispersal opportunities between bacterial communities in the shallow parts of the system, environmental abiotic conditions dominated over dispersal in driving community structure. Functional metabolic pathway predictions suggested differences in the functional gene potential between the microbial mat communities located in shallower and deeper water depths. The findings suggest that increasing temperatures and meltwater due to future climate change will affect bacterial diversity and functioning in Antarctic freshwater ecosystems.
Gender intersections identified whilst transitioning mass vitamin A supplementation into an integrated reproductive and child health programme in Sierra Leone
Authors: Bauck Aubrey , Jalloh Umu H , Kargbo Anita , Hodges Mary H , Doledec David 
Published: March 2021

AbstractSince 2006, Sierra Leone has achieved high rates of vitamin A supplementation (VAS) coverage (&gt;88%) during mass campaigns. In 2017, campaigns started transitioning to routine VAS within a six-monthly contact point for integrated reproductive and child health (RCH) services. This contact point included improved counselling and provision of modern contraceptives; throughout this transition high VAS coverage (&gt;85%) has been maintained. VAS programmes have traditionally operated on the assumption that they are gender-neutral, but recent research suggests these programmes should re-examine how they interact with gender. This qualitative study examined intersections between gender and Sierra Leone’s integrated VAS programming by conducting 32 individual interviews with parents, district health management and national staff, and six focus group discussions with health workers and community health workers (CHWs) in three pilot program districts. The study found that most senior health positions are held by males, and the lower cadres of majority female health workers often felt unsupported/disrespected by their male superiors and male CHW supervisees, or that their years of experience were overlooked in favour of the academic qualifications of less experienced male colleagues. Gender was not included in program training, and most staff did not have a good understanding of gender intersections; however, health workers actively engaged in awareness raising with male stakeholders to increase male involvement in RCH. Routine delivery requires mothers to invest time and money to access health facilities, where most mothers felt that better qualified staff were able to offer better advice and more services. Health workers felt that outreach services utilizing CHWs could decrease this time/money burden; however, CHWs are unqualified to provide counselling and provision of modern contraception, and there are fewer female CHWs. Records kept in health facilities record VAS by sex, but monthly reports submitted to the district and onwards to the national Health Management Information System are not disaggregated by sex. Programme and policymakers should consider improving the representation by females in senior, decision-making positions, integrating gender information into all trainings, supporting female health workers, training and recruiting more female CHWs, and reporting VAS coverage by sex.
Athletes’ Freedom of Expression: The Relative Political Neutrality of Sport
Authors: Di Marco Antonio 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
Athletes are not just sports people; they are certainly among the most prominent figures of their present time, playing an important role in shaping opinions with their power to inspire. For this very reason, athletes’ freedom of expression is strongly limited by the sport authorities in light of the fundamental principle of sport neutrality. This study analyses and questions the traditional constraints to athletes’ free speech by taking into consideration the role of human rights in sports legal order and in sporting affairs. By assuming an emerging relativization of sport political neutrality, the essay investigates the case-law concerning athletes’ freedom of expression identifying limits and perspectives of the current evolutions on athletes’ public statements, establishing to what extent a reform of the present sporting regulation on freedom of expression is needed.
Numerical investigations into thermal performance of phase change emulsion in a fin-and-tube heat exchanger
Authors: Shao Jingjing , Darkwa Jo , Zhang Xinlu 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
Past investigations have identified phase change emulsions (PCMEs) as potential working fluids that could be used to reduce energy consumption in heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. But how PCME behaves in a fin-and-tube heat exchanger, which is commonly found in HVAC system, is still unclear. The paper focused on theoretical studies of thermal performance of a novel PCME PCE-10 in a fin-and-tube heat exchanger. The research analyzed heat transfer and flow behavior in fin-and-tube heat exchangers and the results showed that PCE-10 has several performance advantages as a cold storage medium, which provides a basic basis for the design of a new type of practical cold storage device.
Mathematical modelling of ageing acceleration of the human follicle due to oxidative stress and other factors
Authors: Portillo A M , Peláez C 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
There is a gradual telomere shortening due to the inability of the replication machinery to copy the very ends of chromosomes. Additionally, other factors such as high levels of oxidation (free radicals or reactive oxygen species (ROS)), e.g. due to cumulated stress, inflammation or tobacco smoke, accelerate telomere shortening. In humans, the average telomere length is about 10–15 kb at birth and telomeres shorten at a pace of 70 bp per year. However, when cells are exposed to ROS, telomere attrition happens at a faster pace, generating a wide variety of telomere size distribution in different length percentiles, which are different to what is expected just by age. In this work, the generational age of a cell is associated with its telomere length (TL), from certain maximum to the minimal TL that allows replication. In order to study the accumulation of aged granulosa cells in human follicles, from preantral to preovulatory size, a mathematical model is proposed, regarding different degrees of accelerated telomere shortening, which reflect the action of ROS in addition to the telomere shortening that happens after cell division. In cases of cells with TL shorter than cells with average TL, with low telomerase activity and accelerated telomere shortening, the mathematical model predicts an aged outcome in preovulatory follicles. The model provides a plausible explanation for what has been observed in oocytes from older women, which have been exposed to ROS for a longer period of time and have bad outcomes after in vitro fertilization.
Optimally convergent mixed finite element methods for the stochastic Stokes equations
Authors: Feng Xiaobing , Prohl Andreas , Vo Liet 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
We propose some new mixed finite element methods for the time-dependent stochastic Stokes equations with multiplicative noise, which use the Helmholtz decomposition of the driving multiplicative noise. It is known (Langa, J. A., Real, J. & Simon, J. (2003) Existence and regularity of the pressure for the stochastic Navier--Stokes equations. Appl. Math. Optim., 48, 195--210) that the pressure solution has low regularity, which manifests in suboptimal convergence rates for well-known inf-sup stable mixed finite element methods in numerical simulations; see Feng X., & Qiu, H. (Analysis of fully discrete mixed finite element methods for time-dependent stochastic Stokes equations with multiplicative noise. arXiv:1905.03289v2 [math.NA]). We show that eliminating this gradient part from the noise in the numerical scheme leads to optimally convergent mixed finite element methods and that this conceptual idea may be used to retool numerical methods that are well known in the deterministic setting, including pressure stabilization methods, so that their optimal convergence properties can still be maintained in the stochastic setting. Computational experiments are also provided to validate the theoretical results and to illustrate the conceptual usefulness of the proposed numerical approach.
Role of glyphosate in the emergence of antimicrobial resistance in bacteria?
Authors: Raoult Didier , Hadjadj Linda , Baron Sophie Alexandra , Rolain Jean-Marc 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
There is a discrepancy between antibiotic use in medicine and agriculture in the intertropical zone and frequency of antibiotic resistance in clinical bacteria in these countries. We provide evidence that glyphosate (a herbicide but also an antibiotic drug) could be a possible driver of antibiotic resistance in countries where this herbicide is widely used because of modification of the microbial environment. Emergence of resistance in bacteria and fungi is correlated with glyphosate use in the world over the last 40 years.
Validation of the Applied Food Diagnostics, Inc. Simultaneous Multiplex Real Time PCR (SIMUL-qPCR) Listeria Species and Monocytogenes Assay in Selected Foods and Environmental Surfaces: AOAC Performance Tested MethodSM 062001
Authors: Lonczynski Thomas , Cowin Laura 
Published: March 2021

Abstract

Background
The Simultaneous Multiplex Real Time PCR (SIMUL-qPCR) Listeria species and monocytogenes Assay is a quick, reliable method for detecting Listeria species and monocytogenes in environmental and food samples. The assay multiplexes several targets in one run to properly identify Listeria species and monocytogenes. The assay uses proprietary medium, Listeria Recovery and Enrichment Broth (LREB), for enrichment purposes. LREB was specifically formulated to improve the recovery and growth of Listeria while inhibiting competing background flora.

Objective
This report details the method validation study to validate frankfurters, ready-to-eat (RTE) sliced turkey, soft fresh raw cheese, chicken salad, ice cream, cooked eggs, pasteurized milk, and frozen/cooked shrimp, as well as environmental surface sponges and swabs for stainless steel, plastic, rubber, ceramic tile, and sealed concrete.

Method
Matrix studies, inclusivity/exclusivity, product consistency/stability, and robustness testing were conducted to assess the method’s performance.

Results
There were no statistically significant differences found between the candidate and reference methods in the matrix studies. Inclusivity/exclusivity testing showed that the assay was able to detect both Listeria species and monocytogenes strains while excluding the non-Listeria isolates. Small variations in critical test parameters (enrichment time, extraction reagent volume, and extracted sample volume) did not adversely affect the assay’s performance, and stability testing indicated consistent results for at least 1 year.

Conclusions
The data presented in this report show that this a reliable method for detecting Listeria species and monocytogenes.

Highlights
This assay allows for one sample to be tested for both Listeria species and monocytogenes with one PCR test.
Submerged fermentation of Streptomyces uncialis providing a biotechnology platform for uncialamycin biosynthesis, engineering, and production
Authors: Hindra  , Yang Dong , Luo Jun , Huang Tingting , Yan Xiaohui , Adhikari Ajeeth , Teijaro Christiana N , Ge Huiming , Shen Ben 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
Uncialamycin (UCM) belongs to the anthraquinone-fused subfamily of 10-membered enediyne natural products that exhibits an extraordinary cytotoxicity against a wide spectrum of human cancer cell lines. Antibody-drug conjugates, utilizing synthetic analogues of UCM as payloads, are in preclinical development. UCM is exclusively produced by Streptomyces uncialis DCA2648 on solid agar medium with low titers (∼0.019 mg/l), limiting its supply by microbial fermentation and hampering its biosynthetic and engineering studies by in vivo pathway manipulation. Here, we report cultivation conditions that enable genetic manipulation of UCM biosynthesis in vivo and allow UCM production, with improved titers, by submerged fermentation of the engineered S. uncialis strains. Specifically, the titer of UCM was improved nearly 58-fold to ∼1.1 mg/l through the combination of deletion of biosynthetic gene clusters encoding unrelated metabolites from the S. uncialis wild-type, chemical mutagenesis and manipulation of pathway-specific regulators to generate the engineered S. uncialis strains, and finally medium optimization of the latter for UCM production. Genetic manipulation of UCM biosynthesis was demonstrated by inactivating selected genes in the engineered S. uncialis strains, one of which afforded a mutant strain accumulating tiancimycin B, a common biosynthetic intermediate known for the anthraquinone-fused subfamily of enediyne natural products. These findings highlight a biotechnology platform for UCM biosynthesis, engineering, and production that should facilitate both its fundamental studies and translational applications.
Post-operative small pelvic intensity-modulated radiation therapy for early-stage cervical cancer with intermediate-risk factors: efficacy and toxicity
Authors: Zhang Guangyu , He Fangfang , Miao Li , Wu Haijian , Zhang Youzhong , Fu Chunli 
Published: March 2021

Abstract

Objective
The aim of the present study was to retrospectively evaluate the toxicity and efficacy of post-operative small pelvic intensity-modulated radiotherapy in early-stage cervical cancer patients with intermediate-risk factors.

Methods
Between 2012 and 2016, 151 patients who had cervical cancer (International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage I–IIA) with intermediate-risk factors were treated with post-operative small pelvic intensity-modulated radiotherapy. The median dose of 50.4 Gy in 28 fractions with small pelvic intensity-modulated radiotherapy was prescribed to the planning target volume. The intensity-modulated radiotherapy technique used was conventional fixed-field intensity-modulated radiotherapy or helical tomotherapy.

Results
The median follow-up was 37 months. The 3-year disease-free survival and overall survival rates were 89 and 96%, respectively. A total of 144 patients (95.3%) were alive at the last follow-up. In total, 6 patients (3.9%) had recurrence: locoregional recurrence in 3 patients (2%), distant metastasis in 2 (1.3%), and both in 1 (0.6%). Diarrhoea was the most common acute toxicity. There were no patients suffering from acute or late grade ≥ 3 toxicity. Only 4 patients (2.6%) had late grade 2 toxicities.

Conclusions
For early-stage cervical cancer patients with intermediate-risk factors, post-operative small pelvic intensity-modulated radiotherapy was safe and well tolerated. The rates of acute and late toxicities were quite satisfactory.
Between Ancestry and Belief: “Judaism” and “Hinduism” in the Nineteenth Century
Authors: Batnitzky Leora 
Published: March 2021

Abstract
This article argues that thinking about disputed conceptions of religious conversion helps us understand the emergence of both Jewish and Indian nationalism in the nineteenth century. In today’s world, Hindu nationalism and Zionism are most often understood to be in conflict with various forms of Islamism, yet the ideological formations of both developed in the context of Christian colonialism and, from the perspectives of Jewish and Indian reformers and nationalists, the remaking of Hinduism and Judaism in the image of Christianity. Even as they internalized some aspects of Protestant criticisms of “Judaism” and “Hinduism,” nineteenth century Jewish and Hindu reformers opposed definitions of “Judaism” and “Hinduism” based upon what they regarded as a one-sided emphasis on individual belief at the expense of ancestry and national identity. In making arguments about what constituted “Judaism” and “Hinduism” respectively, Jewish and Hindu reformers also rejected what they claimed was the false universalism of Christianity, as epitomized by Christian missionizing. For Jewish and Hindu reformers of the nineteenth century, “Jewish” and “Hindu” ties to ancestry marked not a parochial intolerance of others, as many Christians had long maintained, but a true universalism that, unlike Christian missionizing, allowed, promoted and embraced human difference. In these ways, contested characterizations of “Judaism” and “Hinduism” in the nineteenth century set in motion a series of arguments about conversion that became central to Jewish and Indian nationalism, some of which remain relevant for understanding conversion controversies in Israel and India today.
Effective N-body models of composite collisionless stellar systems
Authors: Nipoti Carlo , Cherchi Giacomo , Iorio Giuliano , Calura Francesco 
Published: March 2021

ABSTRACT
Gas-poor galaxies can be modelled as composite collisionless stellar systems, with a dark matter halo and one or more stellar components, representing different stellar populations. The dynamical evolution of such composite systems is often studied with numerical N-body simulations, whose initial conditions typically require realizations with particles of stationary galaxy models. We present a novel method to conceive these N-body realizations, which allows one to exploit at best a collisionless N-body simulation that follows their evolution. The method is based on the use of an effective N-body model of a composite system, which is in fact realized as a one-component system of particles that is interpreted a posteriori as a multicomponent system, by assigning in post-processing fractions of each particle’s mass to different components. Examples of astrophysical applications are N-body simulations that aim to reproduce the observed properties of interacting galaxies, satellite galaxies, and stellar streams. As a case study we apply our method to an N-body simulation of tidal stripping of a two-component (dark matter and stars) satellite dwarf galaxy orbiting in the gravitational potential of the Milky Way.