bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Sex differences in insulin resistance, but not peripheral neuropathy, in a diet-induced prediabetes mouse model
Authors: Elzinga Sarah E. , Savelieff Masha G. , O'Brien Phillipe D. , Mendelson Faye E. , Hayes John M. , Feldman Eva L. 
Published: March 2021

ABSTRACT
Peripheral neuropathy (PN) is a common complication of prediabetes and diabetes and is an increasing problem worldwide. Existing PN treatments rely solely on glycemic control, which is effective in type 1 but not type 2 diabetes. Sex differences in response to anti-diabetic drugs further complicate the identification of effective PN therapies. Preclinical research has been primarily carried out in males, highlighting the need for increased sex consideration in PN models. We previously reported PN sex dimorphism in obese leptin-deficient ob/ob mice. This genetic model is inherently limited, however, owing to leptin's role in metabolism. Therefore, the current study goal was to examine PN and insulin resistance in male and female C57BL6/J mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD), an established murine model of human prediabetes lacking genetic mutations. HFD mice of both sexes underwent longitudinal phenotyping and exhibited expected metabolic and PN dysfunction compared to standard diet (SD)-fed animals. Hindpaw thermal latencies to heat were shorter in HFD females versus HFD males, as well as SD females versus males. Compared to HFD males, female HFD mice exhibited delayed insulin resistance, yet still developed the same trajectory of nerve conduction deficits and intraepidermal nerve fiber density loss. Subtle differences in adipokine levels were also noted by sex and obesity status. Collectively, our results indicate that although females retain early insulin sensitivity upon HFD challenge, this does not protect them from developing the same degree of PN as their male counterparts.
This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper.
Evolved changes in maternal care in high-altitude native deer mice
Authors: Robertson Cayleih E. , McClelland Grant B. 
Published: March 2021

ABSTRACT
At high altitude (HA), unremitting low oxygen and persistent cold push small mammals close to their metabolic ceilings, leaving limited scope for aerobically demanding activities. However, HA breeding seasons are relatively short and endemic rodents compensate with larger litters than low altitude (LA) conspecifics. Rodent mothers are the sole source of heat and nutrition for altricial offspring and lactation is energetically costly. Thus, it is unclear how HA females balance energy allocation during the nursing period. We hypothesized that HA female rodents invest heavily in each litter to ensure postnatal survival. We measured maternal energetic output and behaviour in nursing deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) native to LA (400 m a.s.l.) and HA (4350 m a.s.l.) under control (24°C, 760 mmHg) and cold hypoxia conditions, simulating HA (5°C, 430 mmHg). Strikingly, resting metabolic rates of lactating HA and LA females under cold hypoxia were 70–85% of their maximum aerobic capacity. In cold hypoxia, LA mothers increased both nursing time and milk fat content, however their pups were leaner and severely growth restricted at weaning. HA mothers also increased nursing in cold hypoxia but for far less time than LA mothers. Despite receiving less care, HA pups in cold hypoxia only experienced small growth restrictions at weaning and maintained body composition. As adults, HA mice raised in cold hypoxia had increased aerobic capacity compared to controls. These data suggest that HA mothers prioritize their own maintenance costs over investing heavily in their offspring. Pups compensate for this lack of care, likely by reducing their own metabolic costs during development.
When it's hot and dry: life-history strategy influences the effects of heat waves and water limitation
Authors: Padda Sugjit S. , Glass Jordan R. , Stahlschmidt Zachary R. 
Published: March 2021

ABSTRACT
The frequency, duration and co-occurrence of several environmental stressors, such as heat waves and droughts, are increasing globally. Such multiple stressors may have compounding or interactive effects on animals, resulting in either additive or non-additive costs, but animals may mitigate these costs through various strategies of resource conservation or shifts in resource allocation. Through a factorial experiment, we investigated the independent and interactive effects of a simulated heat wave and water limitation on life-history, physiological and behavioral traits. We used the variable field cricket, Gryllus lineaticeps, which exhibits a wing dimorphism that mediates two distinct life-history strategies during early adulthood. Long-winged individuals invest in flight musculature and are typically flight capable, whereas short-winged individuals lack flight musculature and capacity. A comprehensive and integrative approach with G. lineaticeps allowed us to examine whether life-history strategy influenced the costs of multiple stressors as well as the resulting cost-limiting strategies. Concurrent heat wave and water limitation resulted in largely non-additive and single-stressor costs to important traits (e.g. survival and water balance), extensive shifts in resource allocation priorities (e.g. reduced prioritization of body mass) and a limited capacity to conserve resources (e.g. heat wave reduced energy use only when water was available). Life-history strategy influenced the emergency life-history stage because wing morphology and stressor(s) interacted to influence body mass, boldness behavior and immunocompetence. Our results demonstrate that water availability and life-history strategy should be incorporated into future studies integrating important conceptual frameworks of stress across a suite of traits – from survival and life history to behavior and physiology.
Learning a non-neutral conditioned stimulus: place preference in the crab Neohelice granulata
Authors: Klappenbach Martín , Medina Candela , Freudenthal Ramiro 
Published: March 2021

ABSTRACT
In the wild, being able to recognize and remember specific locations related to food sources and the associated attributes of landmarks is a cognitive trait important for survival. In the present work, we show that the crab Neohelice granulata can be trained to associate a specific environment with an appetitive reward in a conditioned place preference task. After a single training trial, when the crabs were presented with a food pellet in the target quadrant of the training arena, they were able to form a long-term memory related to the event. This memory was evident at least 24 h after training and was protein synthesis dependent. Importantly, the target area of the arena proved to be a non-neutral environment, given that animals initially avoided the target quadrant. In the present work, we introduce for the first time an associative one-trial memory paradigm including a conditioned stimulus with a clear valence performed in a crustacean.
Gastrointestinal complications in critically ill children: Experience from a resource-limited country
Authors: Ishaque Sidra , Shakir Marium , Ladak Asma , Haque Anwar Ul 
Published: March 2021

Objectives: To determine the frequency and predictors of outcome of gastrointestinal complications (GIC) in critically ill children.
Methods: This descriptive study was prospectively conducted in The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), The Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), Karachi, from September 2015 to January 2017. After obtaining approval from the Ethical Review Committee of AKUH and informed consent from the parents, all children (aged one month to 18 years), of either gender, admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) during the study period were included. The frequency of the defined GIC: vomiting, high gastric residue volume (GRV), diarrhea, constipation, and gastrointestinal bleed were recorded daily for the first week of the PICU stay. The data was collected by the primary investigator on a predesigned data collection form with inclusion of variables and predictors in light of existing literature and local expertise. The questionnaire was shared with the Pediatric Critical Care Medicine faculty and a consensus was sought on the elements to be incorporated.
Results: GIC developed within the first 48 hours of admission in 78 (41%) patients. Of the patients who developed GIC, 37 (47.4%) patients developed high GRV: 31 (39.7%) patients developed constipation, 18 (23.1%) patients developed vomiting, 14 (17.9%) patients developed abdominal distension. With regards to prevalence by occurrence, 32/78 (41%) of patients presented with two GI complications, followed by 21 patients (27%) who presented with a single GIC. Only 11 patients (14%) presented with more than three complications. Median length of stay was higher in patients with GIC (8 days) than with those who did not develop GIC (4 days). The frequency of gastrointestinal complications was significantly higher in children receiving mechanical ventilation, on sedatives and relaxants and those with multiorgan dysfunction syndrome (MODS) and inotropes
Conclusion: GI complications are a frequent occurrence in the PICU and are associated with worse clinical outcomes. The use of sedative drugs and the presence of shock with MODS were amongst the important contributing factors.
doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.3.3493
How to cite this:Ishaque S, Shakir M, Ladak A, Anwar-Ul-Haque. Gastrointestinal complications in critically ill children: Experience from a resource-limited country. Pak J Med Sci. 2021;37(3):657-662. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.3.3493
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Role of Concomitant Internal Limiting Membrane (ILM) Peeling during Rhegmatogenous Retinal Detachment (RRD) Surgery in Preventing Postoperative Epiretinal Membrane (ERM) Formation
Authors: Syed Asaad Mahmood , Syed Fawad Rizvi , Khan Burhan Abdul Majid , Khan Tanweer Hasan 
Published: March 2021

Objective: To investigate the role of concomitant Internal Limiting Membrane (ILM) peeling during surgery for macula off Rhegmatogenous Retinal Detachment (RRD) in preventing postoperative Epiretinal Membrane (ERM) formation; and its effect on the visual acuity.
Methods: This was a prospective, quasi-experimental study conducted from August 2018 to July 2019 at LRBT Tertiary Eye Care hospital, Karachi. Fifty-six patients with macula off RRD were divided into groups A (with ILM peeling) and B (without ILM peeling) via non-probability convenience sampling. All patients underwent standard 3 ports pars plana vitrectomy with silicon oil tamponade. In Group-A, ILM was stained using 0.5% ICG. Patients were evaluated clinically and by spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT), pre- and post-operatively. Main outcomes recorded were best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and occurrence of ERM on SD-OCT.
Results: There were 26 patients in Group-A and 30 patients in Group-B. At six months’ follow-up, ERM had not developed in any case in Group-A compared to five patients (16.7%) in Group-B. There was no statistical difference in mean BCVA change from baseline.
Conclusion: ILM peeling during vitrectomy for RRD prevents the formation of macular ERM post-operatively. This may reduce the need of a second vitrectomy. However, visual outcomes were comparable to the non-ILM peeling vitrectomy.
doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.3.3576
How to cite this:Mahmood SA, Rizvi SF, Khan BAM, Khan TH. Role of Concomitant Internal Limiting Membrane (ILM) Peeling During Rhegmatogenous Retinal Detachment (RRD) Surgery in Preventing Postoperative Epiretinal Membrane (ERM) Formation. Pak J Med Sci. 2021;37(3):651-656. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.3.3576
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Performance of Aquatic Plant Species for Phytoremediation of Heavy Metals Contaminated Water
Authors: Pillai Priyadarshini 
Published: March 2021

Heavy metals and organic pollutants are ubiquitous environmental pollutants affecting the quality of soil, water and air. Over the past 5 decades, many strategies have been developed for the remediation of polluted water. Use of aquatic plants to extract, sequester and/or detoxify pollutants and is a new and powerful technique for environmental clean up. Plants are ideal agents for soil and water remediation because of their unique genetic, biochemical and physiological properties. The aim of this work is to evaluate the potential of free floating duck weed Spirodela polyrhiza to remove heavy metals from waste water and the biochemical effect of heavy metals on Spirodela polyrhiza. Approximately 93% of total heavy metal induced – toxicity appears resulting in the reduced activities of nitrate reductase, total chlorophyll and protein content of the plant. The results recommended the use of Spirodela polyrhiza to ameliorate the wastewater contaminated with heavy metals.
On the Combined Role of Strong and Electroweak Interactions in Understanding Nuclear Binding Energy Scheme
Authors: U V S Seshavatharam , S Lakshminarayana 
Published: March 2021

An attempt is made toa model the atomic nucleus as a combination of bound and free or unbound nucleons. Due to strong interaction, bound nucleons help in increasing nuclear binding energy and due to electroweak interaction, free or unbound nucleons help in decreasing nuclear binding energy. In this context, with reference to proposed 4G model of final unification and strong interaction, recently we have developed a unified nuclear binding energy scheme with four simple terms, one energy coefficient of 10.1 MeV and two small numbers 0.0016 and 0.0019. In this paper, by eliminating the number 0.0019, we try to fine tune the estimation procedure of number of free or unbound nucleons pertaining to the second term with an energy coefficient of 11.9 MeV. Interesting observation is that, Z can be considered as a characteristic representation of range of number of bound isotopes of Z.
Radius of Robust Feasibility for Mixed-Integer Problems
Authors: Liers Frauke , Schewe Lars , Thürauf Johannes 
Published: March 2021

For a mixed-integer linear problem (MIP) with uncertain constraints, the radius of robust feasibility (RRF) determines a value for the maximal size of the uncertainty set such that robust feasibility of the MIP can be guaranteed. The approaches for the RRF in the literature are restricted to continuous optimization problems. We first analyze relations between the RRF of a MIP and its continuous linear (LP) relaxation. In particular, we derive conditions under which a MIP and its LP relaxation have the same RRF. Afterward, we extend the notion of the RRF such that it can be applied to a large variety of optimization problems and uncertainty sets. In contrast to the setting commonly used in the literature, we consider for every constraint a potentially different uncertainty set that is not necessarily full-dimensional. Thus, we generalize the RRF to MIPs and to include safe variables and constraints; that is, where uncertainties do not affect certain variables or constraints. In the extended setting, we again analyze relations between the RRF for a MIP and its LP relaxation. Afterward, we present methods for computing the RRF of LPs and of MIPs with safe variables and constraints. Finally, we show that the new methodologies can be successfully applied to the instances in the MIPLIB 2017 for computing the RRF. Summary of Contribution: Robust optimization is an important field of operations research due to its capability of protecting optimization problems from data uncertainties that are usually defined via so-called uncertainty sets. Intensive research has been conducted in developing algorithmically tractable reformulations of the usually semi-infinite robust optimization problems. However, in applications it also important to construct appropriate uncertainty sets (i.e., prohibiting too conservative, intractable, or even infeasible robust optimization problems due to the choice of the uncertainty set). In doing so, it is useful to know the maximal “size” of a given uncertainty set such that a robust feasible solution still exists. In this paper, we study one notion of “size”: the radius of robust feasibility (RRF). We contribute on the theoretical side by generalizing the RRF to MIPs as well as to include “safe” variables and constraints (i.e., where uncertainties do not affect certain variables or constraints). This allows to apply the RRF to many applications since safe variables and constraints exist in most applications. We also provide first methods for computing the RRF of LPs as well as of MIPs with safe variables and constraints. Finally, we show that the new methodologies can be successfully applied to the instances in the MIPLIB 2017 for computing the RRF.
Exact and Approximation Algorithms for the Expanding Search Problem
Authors: Hermans Ben , Leus Roel , Matuschke Jannik 
Published: March 2021

Suppose a target is hidden in one of the vertices of an edge-weighted graph according to a known probability distribution. Starting from a fixed root node, an expanding search visits the vertices sequentially until it finds the target, where the next vertex can be reached from any of the previously visited vertices. That is, the time to reach the next vertex equals the shortest-path distance from the set of all previously visited vertices. The expanding search problem then asks for a sequence of the nodes, so as to minimize the expected time to finding the target. This problem has numerous applications, such as searching for hidden explosives, mining coal, and disaster relief. In this paper, we develop exact algorithms and heuristics, including a branch-and-cut procedure, a greedy algorithm with a constant-factor approximation guarantee, and a local search procedure based on a spanning-tree neighborhood. Computational experiments show that our branch-and-cut procedure outperforms existing methods for instances with nonuniform probability distributions and that both our heuristics compute near-optimal solutions with little computational effort. Summary of Contribution: This paper studies new algorithms for the expanding search problem, which asks to search a graph for a target hidden in one of the nodes according to a known probability distribution. This problem has applications such as searching for hidden explosives, mining coal, and disaster relief. We propose several new algorithms, including a branch-and-cut procedure, a greedy algorithm, and a local search procedure; and we analyze their performance both experimentally and theoretically. Our analysis shows that the algorithms improve on the performance of existing methods and establishes the first constant-factor approximation guarantee for this problem.
Use of a superabsorbent dressing in the management of exudate in hard-to-heal wounds
Authors: Jones June , Hampton Sylvie 
Published: March 2021

With the shift in demographics towards an ageing population with multimorbidity, the number of hard-to-heal (chronic) wounds is increasing each year. This poses a challenge for both health professionals, for whom wound management is becoming more complex, and for patients, who have to cope with exudate production, malodour and pain. This article summarises understanding of healing in such wounds and how best to meet the challenge of exudate, which is a ubiquitous hallmark of hard-to-heal wounds. The role of superabsorbent dressings is considered, with particular reference to Kliniderm superabsorbent in the management of people with these challenging wounds.
Temporal of reef fish communities in the coastal water of Krueng Raya, Aceh Besar Regency, Indonesia
Authors: Ulfah Maria , Fajri Siti N. , Nasir Muhammad , Agustina Sri , Purnawan Syahrul 
Published: March 2021

Krueng Raya waters have a big potency on coral reef fish; However, there was no study was conducted to document this biodiversity. This data are crucial for the conservation plan. Therefore, the objective of the study was to examine the community structure of reef fish in the Krueng Raya coastal waters, Mesjid Raya Subdistrict, Aceh Besar, Indonesia. The sampling was conducted from January 2014 to December 2016. The data were collected at three stations by the Visual Census method with a depth of 3-4 meters. The research found the average amount of reef fish was 1743 individuals that were consisted of 93 species and comprised of 26 families. The Families dominating were Pomacentridae, Acanthuridae, Chaetodontidae, and Labridae. The distribution level of reef fish individually was influenced by the environmental conditions of the coral reef ecosystem. The severe condition of the coral ecosystem in the Krueng Raya coastal waters was caused by two factors. Firstly, fishing activities of the locals and tourists who deliberately stepping on the coral colonies and using unfriendly tools to catch the fish (speargun). Another factor was the occurrence of coral bleaching in 2016, of which almost 80% of the coral ecosystem in the Krueng Raya coastal waters was exposed to this phenomenon (bleaching).Keywords: Reef Fish, Acanthurida, Communities Structure, Krueng Raya
Temporal sex ratio, growth patterns and condition factor of the blue swimming crab (Portunus pelagicus) in Northern of Tiworo Strait waters, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia
Authors: Astuti Oce , Alimina Naslina , Safilu Safilu , Emiyarti Emiyarti , Sara La , Nurgayah Wa , Rahmadani Ani , Skel Ira 
Published: March 2021

Blue swimming crabs Portunus pelagicus occupied Tiworo Strait waters has been experiencing heavy pressure due to high exploitation and damaging its habitat caused by conversion to be a port or jetty particularly in the intertidal and subtidal zones closed to mangrove areas and river mouth. Those zones constitute main habitats of BSCs. The study aimed to analyze temporal sex ratio (SR), growth patterns and condition factor (CF) of BSCs in Tiworo Strait waters which was conducted in June–December 2018. The BSC samples were taken monthly using collapsible pot. Each sample taken was identified its sex, measured its CW and weighed its BW. Monthly SR of male and female was counted, while BW–CW relationship was analyzed using a simple linear regression. Growth patterns and CF were derived and analyzed from BW–CW regression. The results of study showed that monthly BSC SR of male and female showed females preponderated over males, except in November. The growth pattern of male and female was negative allometric (b 3). Data of BSCs CF were mostly influenced by growth coefficient (b), namely the higher b the lower CF. This condition is frequent happening in BSC population dominated by juvenile and mature stages. This study showed most BSCs found in this location were juvenile which indicated as their nursery ground in the intertidal zone dominated by sand substrate closed to mangrove forest.