bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Effect of Influent pH and Hydraulic Retention Time on Bioelectricity Generation in an Integrated Acidogenic Reactor and Microbial Fuel Cell Treating Rice Mill Wastewater
Authors: Raychaudhuri Aryama , Behera Manaswini 
Published: August 2021

Abstract
An innovative design approach was employed in the present study to enhance the electricity generation and wastewater treatment in a microbial fuel cell (MFC). A dual-chambered MFC with a ceramic separator was coupled with an acidogenic chamber. Acidogenic bioconversion of rice mill wastewater into volatile fatty acid (VFA) represents an interesting approach for wastewater valorization. The VFA containing effluent could be used as an effective substrate for bioelectricity generation in MFCs. A short hydraulic retention time (HRT) can be used for the two-stage anaerobic process (acidogenesis and electrogenesis), thus preventing the proliferation of methanogens. The effect of pH (5.5–7.5) and HRT (0.5 d–0.75 d) were investigated to understand the influence of operational parameters on the performance of the integrated system. The maximum VFA concentration of 1065.15 ± 5.08 mg COD/L was achieved at pH 7.5 and HRT 0.5 d. Under these operating conditions, the general activity of acid-forming microorganisms and exoelectrogens improved remarkably, and the power density obtained from the system was 4.72 ± 0.10 W/m3. The current research indicates excellent potential for simultaneous treatment and electricity production from rice mill wastewater. The use of low-cost, locally manufactured, and customized membranes and the two-stage treatment can pave the way for the practical application of this technology.
The challenge of designing accelerated indoor tests to predict the outdoor lifetime of perovskite solar cells
Authors: Köbler Hans , Khenkin Mark V. , Roy Rajarshi , Phung Nga , Emery Quiterie , Remec Marko , Schlatmann Rutger , Ulbrich Carolin , Abate Antonio 
Published: August 2021

Abstract
Over the past decade, perovskite solar cells have travelled an amazing way towards high efficiency. However, a major roadblock remaining is the operational stability, while achieving technological maturity and proving real-world stability is crucial to gain trust among investors. In that sense, it is of high interest to be able to predict the operational lifetime, which needs to be in the range of years or decades, within an experimentally reasonable timeframe. Yet, peculiarities of perovskite solar cells’ ageing behaviour lead to severe difficulties in translating the results of indoor tests to their outdoor counterpart. In particular, transient processes cause diverse results among different ageing tests.Here, for the first time, we show a complete set of constant illumination indoor testing, cycled illumination indoor testing and real-world outdoor testing on equal in-house devices. Exemplarily, we compare two different types of perovskite solar cells, in which only the hole-transport layer is varied. Despite this small change, the devices show distinctly different transient behaviour. In either case, the commonly used constant illumination experiments fail to predict the outdoor behaviour of the cell. Yet, we observe a good correlation between the cycled illumination test and the outdoor behaviour of one of the two solar cells, while this is not the case for the other system. This result highlights the urge for further research on how to perform meaningful accelerated indoor tests to predict the outdoor lifetime of perovskite solar cells.
Coverage, Equity and Predictors of Hepatitis B Birth Vaccination in Myanmar from 2011-2016: Results from a National Survey
Authors: Anderson August C , Richards Adam , Delucchi Kevin , Khalili Mandana 
Published: August 2021

Abstract
Background: Hepatitis B virus birth dose (HepB-BD) vaccination is recommended to reduce mother to infant transmission. We evaluated the HepB-BD status of women who gave birth between 2011 and 2016 (N = 3,583) using the 2015-2016 Myanmar Demographic and Health Survey. Methods: Frequency distributions of HepB-BD vaccination across maternal and health system factors, concentration indices, and logistic regression models were used to estimate coverage, equity, and factors associated with vaccination. Results: The majority of participants were younger than 30 years of age, lived in rural areas, and were multiparous. Almost all received antenatal care (ANC), but only 43% received recommended ANC services, and 60% gave birth at home. The overall HepB-BD coverage rate was 26%. Vaccination coverage was higher in urban areas and was inequitably concentrated among children of more educated and wealthier women. HepB-BD coverage was also positively associated with receipt of ANC at non-governmental facilities, and delivery at a facility, skilled provider at birth and Cesarean delivery. After adjusting for sociodemographic and health system factors, receipt of the HepB-BD was positively associated with weekly media exposure, receipt of recommended ANC, and Cesarean delivery, and inversely associated with home delivery. Conclusions: Both socioeconomic and health systems factors influenced suboptimal and inequitable vaccination coverage. Improved access to quality ANC and delivery services may increase HepB-BD coverage although targeted approaches to reach home births are likely required to achieve national goals.
Research of Ear Endoscopic Type I Tympanoplasty——Single-institution Experiences in China
Authors: Ji Di , Yang Jun Jie , Zhu Xian Bai , Zhou Xue Qin , Liang Xiao Jun , Deng An Chun 
Published: August 2021

Abstract
Purpose: To assess outcomes of one-handed ear endoscopic Type I Tympanoplasty and summarize the experience. Methods: This study retrospectively analyzed 34 cases (23 females and 11 males) of one-handed ear Endoscopic Type I Tympanoplasty. Result: The mean values of air conduction threshold before and after surgery were 48.22+18.36dB HL and 34.34+19.83dB HL, respectively. The mean values of the air-bone gap before and after surgery were 23.60+12.18 dB HL and 11.05+6.62 dB HL, respectively. The results showed statistically significant differences in hearing improvement(P<0.05). Among 34 ears, 30 ears had effective hearing improvement. No vertigo, intracranial infection, suppuration, and any other postoperative complications occurred. Although 1 ear occurred tympanic membrane perforation again, all ears achieved dry. Conclusion: Ear endoscopic Type I Tympanoplasty with fewer complications and shorter surgery time were suitable for the chronic suppurative otitis media. Healing of the tympanic membrane and recovery of hearing level was ensured. However, the experience is still insufficient in China, so a large number of clinical workers need to exchange experience to promote the development of ear minimally invasive surgery.
A Clinical Decision Support System for Diabetes Patients with Deep Learning: Experience of a Taiwan Medical Center
Authors: Chien Ting-Ying , Ting Hsien-Wei , Chen Chih-Fang , Yang Cheng-Zen , Chen Chong-Yi 
Published: August 2021

Abstract
Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a major public health problem worldwide. It involves dysfunction of blood sugar regulation resulting from insulin resistance, inadequate insulin secretion, or excessive glucagon secretion.Methods: This study collated 971,401 drug usage records of 51,009 DM patients. These data included patient identification code, age, gender, outpatient visit dates, visit codes, medication features (including items, doses, and frequencies of drugs), HbA1c results, and time of testing. We applied a random forest (RF) model for feature selection and implemented a regression model with a bidirectional long short-term memory (Bi-LSTM) deep learning architecture. Finally, we used the root mean square error (RMSE) as the evaluation index for the prediction model.Results: After data cleaning, the data included 8,729 male and 9,115 female cases. Metformin was suggested to be the most important feature by the RF model, followed by glimepiride, acarbose, pioglitazone, glibenclamide, gliclazide, repaglinide, nateglinide, sitagliptin, and vildagliptin. The model performed better when using the past two seasons in the training data than with additional seasons. Further, the Bi-LSTM model performed better than the support vector machine (SVM) model.Conclusion: This study found that the Bi-LSTM model is a well processing architecture in a clinical decision support system (CDSS), which assists physicians in decision-making, and increasing the number of seasons had a negative impact on the model performance. In addition, this study showed that the most important drug was metformin, which is recommended as the first-line oral hypoglycemic agent (OHA) in DM patients.
Junctionless FETs On Silicon-On-Insulator With Buried Metal Fin For Multi Threshold Operation
Authors: Singh Dipak Kumar , Nagar Bal Chand , Akram M.W. 
Published: August 2021

Abstract
In this paper, an n-channel junctionless FET (JLFET) based on SOI with a buried metal fin (BMF) is presented. We show that the BMF of suitable workfunction of the proposed device BMF-SOI-JLFET can control the channel electrostatic field by employing Schottky junction effectively. The enhanced association of potential between BMF and the channel combined with gate electric field makes it worthy for multi-threshold and dynamic threshold (DT) operation. Additionally, the biasing of BMF projects the broad range of threshold voltage (VTH­) regulation with a high value of body factor (γ). The proposed device demonstrates γ enhancement compared to fin body (FB)-JLFET and conventional SOI-JL FET under identical conditions due to constant potential coupling. The DT mode of operation shows a 73% improvement in ON-state current in addition to reduced subthreshold swing contrast to BMF-SOI-JLFET without DT. This paper imparts a viable option for low power applications with multi-threshold operation and high switching speed applications with DT operation.
Altered Circulating GDF-15 Level Predicts Sex Hormone Imbalance in Major Depressive Disorder
Authors: Peng Rui , Li Di , Li Yan 
Published: August 2021

Abstract
Background: It has been hypothesized that higher growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15) level and lower testosterone/ estradiol (T/E) ratio are associated with major depressive disorder (MDD), yet the underlying effect of serum GDF15 on hinting the T/E ratio imbalance are not fully understood. We observed the correlations between serum T/E ratio and circulating GDF15 in depressed cohort. Methods: The sample consisted of participants (aged 18~65 years) from the Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University with MDD (n=412) defined according to a Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID), and healthy controls (n=137). Serum levels of testosterone, estradiol, and depression risk indicators (thyroid hormone, lipids, hs-CRP, Tenascin-C [TNC], GDF15, KLF4, Gas6, and sgp130) were measured. The associations among loge-transformed T/E ratio and these indicators were analyzed using univariate correlation analysis, category analyses, and linear regression adjusting for standard risk factors. Results: Of the sample, 36.89% had lower T/E ratio (<10:1) and 10.20% had higher T/E ratio (>20:1). After multivariable adjustment, T/E ratios were negatively associated with GDF15 (-0.095 [95% CI -0.170~-0.023] standard deviation [SD] change per SD increase in lg[T/E], P=0.015) and inversely related to TNC (-0.085 [95% CI -0.167~0.003] standard deviation [SD] change per SD increase in lg[T/E], P=0.048). Serum T/E ratio was negatively associated with GDF15 level in both FT3, TSH and HDL strata, whereas this association was not observed in TNC. In T/E ratio strata analyses, there is a significant and negative correlation among T/E ratio and GDF15 in depressive patients with sex hormone imbalance, yet this relationship was not investigated in patients with sex hormone balance. Conclusion: In our community-based observation, circulating GDF-15 level was greatly and inversely associated with serum T/E ratio, indicating that higher GDF-15 alerts sex hormone imbalance in patients with MDD.Trial registration: All subjects did not provide written informed consent due to the using the remaining specimens.
Geochemical Characterization of Nyamyumba Hot Spring, Northwest Rwanda
Authors: Hategekimana Francois , Mugerwa Theophile , Nsengiyumva Cedrick , Rwabuhungu Digne , Kabatesi Juliet Confiance 
Published: August 2021

Abstract
Hot spring is a hot water that is naturally occurring on the surface from the underground and typically heated by subterranean volcanic activity and local underground geothermal gradient. There are four main hot springs in Rwanda such as: Kalisimbi, Bugarama, Kinigi and Nyamyumba former name Gisenyi hot springs. This research focused on the geochemical analysis of Nyamyumba hot springs located near the fresh water of Lake Kivu. Nyamyumba hot springs are located in the western branch of the East African Rift System and they are located near Virunga volcanic complex, explaining the rising and heating of water. The concentrations of Sulfate, Iron, Ammonia, Alkalinity, Silica, Phosphate, Salinity, Alkalinity, and Conductivity using standard procedures were measured. The results showed that hot spring water has higher concentrations of chemicals compared to Lake Kivu water and the geochemistry of these hot springs maybe associated with rock dissolution by hot water. The measured parameters were compared with World Health Organization (WHO) standards for recreational waters and it has been identified that Nyamyumba hot spring are safe to use in therapeutic activities (Swimming).
Assessment of Genetic Diversity and Marker-Trait Associations Using Selected Early Maize Inbreds Derived From Local Landraces of Eastern Himalayan Regions
Authors: Devi E. Lamalakshmi , Ngangkham Umakanta , Singh Akoijam Ratankumar , S Bhuvaneswari , Sarika Konsam , Meetei Chongtham Chinglen , Singh Thokchom Nepolian , Chongtham Sunil Kumar , Devi Ch Premabati , Singh Irengbam Meghachandra , Avasthe Ravikant 
Published: August 2021

Abstract
North- Eastern parts of India fall under Eastern Himalayan region and it is a diversity hotspot of many crops including maize. Evaluation of genetic diversity is required to tape the potentiality of genetic resources in any crop improvement programmes. In the present study, genetic diversity at fifty two microsatellite markers were conducted in 30 early maize inbreds developed from local landraces of NE India. Genetic diversity analysis revealed a total of 189 alleles with a mean of 3.63 alleles/ locus. The allele size ranged from 50 bp (phi 036) to 295 bp (p 101049) which revealed a high level of genetic diversity among the loci. The PIC among the 30 genotypes ranged from 0.17 (umc 1622) to 0.76 (umc 1153) with an average value of 0.49. The value of Expected Heterozygosity (HExp) ranged from 0.19 to 0.80 with an average of 0.57, whereas the Observed Heterozygosity (HObs) ranged from 0 to 0.89 with a mean of 0.14.The genetic dissimilarity between the genotype pairs ranged from 0.40 to 0.64 with a mean value of 0.57. Cluster analysis grouped the 30 inbreds into distinct three sub-clusters. Similarly, population structure and principal coordinate analysis) analysis also classified the 30 inbred lines into three-subpopulations. AMOVA revealed that 6% of total variance is due to differences among populations, while 94% of total molecular variance is accounted by within populations. Marker-trait associations showed a total of twelve SSR markers significantly associated with seven agronomic traits. From the present finding, these results show that the thirty maize inbreds have high genetic diversity which would be useful for choosing promising parents and for making cross combination based on genetic distance and clustering for genetic improvement programmes of maize.
Long-Term Oncologic Safety of Immediate Reconstructive Surgery in Patients with Invasive Breast Cancer: A Retrospective Matched-Cohort Study
Authors: Song Yanni , Sun Shanshan , Li Dalin , Han Jiguang , Niu Ming , Luo Sai , Xu Haiqian , Huang Rui , Zhang Sihang , Wu Yang , Wu Qiqi , Xiong Jing , Hao Lijun 
Published: August 2021

Abstract
Objective Immediate reconstruction (IR) is a safe and effective surgical treatment for patients with breast cancer. We aimed to assess the prognosis, aesthetic outcomes, and patient satisfaction of IR compared with breast conservation surgery (BCS) and total mastectomy (TM).Methods In this retrospective matched-cohort study, we established two cohorts according to the tumor (T) size of breast cancer. In the T≤3cm group, cases (IR) and controls (BCS or TM) were matched for age, pathological tumor size and pathologic nodal status in a 1:1:1 ratio. In the T>3cm group, cases (IR) and controls (TM) were matched with the same factors and ratio. The primary outcome was the 5-year disease-free survival (DFS). The secondary outcome was patient satisfaction and quality of life.Results Between May, 2005 and December, 2014, total 12,678 breast cancer patients were assessed, of which 587 were included (T≤3 cm group: 155 IR vs 155 BCS vs 155 TM; T>3cm group: 61 IR vs 61 TM). In the T≤3 cm cohort, patients underwent IR had no difference compared with those underwent BCS or TM regarding the 5-year DFS (P=0.539); however, an improved aesthetic satisfaction, psychosocial and sexual well-being were achieved in the IR group (P＜0.001). In the T>3 cm cohort, IR group had a worse median 5-year DFS (P=0.044), especially for Her2+ or triple-negative breast carcinoma (TNBC) subtypes compared with TM group. Conclusions IR improves aesthetic satisfaction, psychosocial and sexual well-being for breast cancer patients with T≤3 cm. However, Her2+ or TNBC predict a worse 5-year DFS in the T>3 cm group.
Research Capacity for Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases and Their Risk Factors in Nepal: Findings of a Needs Assessment Study
Authors: Oli Natalia , Pradhan Pranil MS , Sagtani Reshu A , Shrestha Archana , Jaacks Lindsay M. , Karmacharya Biraj , Danaei Goodarz , Vaidya Abhinav 
Published: August 2021

Abstract
BackgroundDespite a high burden, there is limited training available in non-communicable disease research in Nepal. In order to understand research capacity gap in non-communicable diseases in the country, we conducted a needs assessment. We aimed to assess existing research training capacity in academic health institutions of Nepal for the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases, identify gaps in research training in these institutions, and explore the feasibility of developing research training program in Nepal targeting non-communicable diseases and their risk factors. MethodsWe did qualitative and quantitative research and reviewed academic institution curricula review and scientific literature. We conducted 14 Focus Group Discussions with bachelor and Masters level students of public health and community medicine; 25 In-depth Interviews with department heads and faculties, and government stakeholders. We surveyed medical and public health students on their research knowledge and skills development. Further, we reviewed university curricula of bachelors in medicine and public health Masters in community medicine and public health. We also reviewed non-communicable disease related scientific articles authored by Nepali researchers. ResultsWe found that the research methodology component was addressed differently across academic programs. One-third (33.7%) of students expressed lack of skills for analysis and interpretation of data. They felt that there is a wide scope and career-interest in non-communicable diseases research in Nepal. However, specific objectives in the curriculum and practical aspects regarding non-communicable diseases were lacking. Most of the non-communicable diseases research in Nepal are prevalence studies. Most of the studies did not have any financial support. Lack of funding, conflicting priorities with curative services, and inadequate training for advanced research tools were reported as major barriers. Likewise, availability of trained human resources and international funding for non-communicable diseases research were perceived facilitators.ConclusionsNepal must strengthen the whole spectrum of research capacity: epidemiological skills, research management, and fund generation. University curricula should match up with the disease burden and must emphasize on applied practical research projects. Generation of a critical mass of non-communicable disease researchers must go together with improved funding from the government, non-governmental organizations, and external funding organizations.
Genotyping USDA Rice Mini-Core Collection With Functional Markers for Important Agronomic Traits
Authors: Li Kehu , Ge Yongyi , Wang Lily Yan 
Published: August 2021

Abstract
The USDA rice mini-core collection was established to capture the diversity of an entire collection of over 18,700 accessions of global origins for efficient germplasm evaluation and exploration. Previous studies have investigated its genetic diversity and population structure using genome-wide SSR markers. Many important agronomic traits that are fundamental to rice breeding programs, however, remain to be explored. Functional markers can be developed based on polymorphic sites within genes affecting phenotypic variation in, e.g., starch physicochemical properties, nutritional qualities and biotic resistance. These markers can be used for genotyping and hence differentiating phenotypes among rice accessions. In this study, we employed 12 pairs of functional markers (SNP and Indel) to genotype all 217 accessions constituting the USDA rice mini-core. These markers are highly associated with starch physicochemical properties (intron 1 G/C SNP, 23bp duplication in exon 2, exon 6 C/A SNP, exon 10 C/T SNP of Waxy gene, GC/TT SNPs of SSIIa gene, G/C SNP of SBE3 gene), glutelin content (3.5 kb deletion in Lgc1 gene), grain length (C/A SNP in GS3 gene), brown planthopper resistance (InDel in Bph 14 gene) and rice blast resistance (InDel in Pi54 and Pit gene). Using these functional markers, all the 217 accessions of the mini-core are characterized for aforementioned agronomic traits associated alleles/genes. The results of this study will help breeders select parental materials with desirable allele/gene combinations and phenotypes among mini-core accessions for rice breeding programs.