bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Transcriptome Analysis Provides Insights into the Root Response of Chinese Fir to Phosphorus Deficiency
Authors: Chen Wanting , Zhou Mengyan , Zhao Mingzhen , Chen Ranhong , Tigabu Mulualem , Wu Pengfei , Li Ming , Ma Xiangqing 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
Background: Phosphorus is one of the essential elements for plant growth and development, but the content of plant available phosphorus (Pi) in many soil types is low. As a fast-growing timber species, Chinese fir is in great demand of Pi, and the lack of Pi in soil restricts the increase of productivity of Chinese fir plantation. Root morphology and the synthesis and secretion of organic acids play an important role in the uptake of phosphorus, but the molecular mechanisms of Chinese fir in response to Pi deficiency are largely unexplored. Results: In this study, seedlings of Yang 061 clone were grown under three Pi supply levels (0, 5 and 10 mg·L-1 P) and morphological attributes, organic acid content and enzyme activity were measured, the transcriptome data of Chinese fir root system were obtained and the expression levels of phosphorus responsive genes and organic acid synthesis related genes on citric acid and glyoxylate cycle pathway were determined. The results showed that there were 50,808 Unigenes annotated from the transcriptome of Chinese fir roots. Among differentially expressed genes, seven genes of phosphate transporter family and seventeen genes of purple acid phosphatase family were up-regulated by Pi deficiency, two proteins of SPX domain were up-regulated and one was down-regulated. The metabolic pathways of the citric acid and glyoxylate cycle pathway were mapped, and the expression characteristics of the related Unigenes under different phosphorus treatments were analyzed. The genes involved in malic acid and citric acid synthesis were up-regulated, and the activities of the related enzymes were significantly enhanced under long-term stress. The contents of citric acid and malic acid in the roots of Chinese fir increased after 30days of Pi deficiency. Conclusion: The Chinese fir roots showed increased expression of citrate and malate synthesis genes, increased content of organic acids and enhanced activities of related enzymes under Pi deficiency. The results provide a new insight for revealing the molecular mechanism of Pi deficiency and the pathway of organic acid synthesis in Chinese fir roots.
Socioecological factors' effect on the subjective experience of COVID-19 quarantine policy in Korea: Consensual qualitative research
Authors: Ro Gee Yeon , Shin Yun-Jeong , Mah Sunghyuck , Min Yeseul , Park Hyunjung , Jeong Sodam 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
Background: In face of the COVID-19, South Korea has provided the ‘Global Golden Standard’ of containment effort. Mandatory quarantine, one of the core policies in place, has proven its efficacy in ensuring public health. Nonetheless, no previous study has examined the policy’s comprehensive impact on its subjects. In addition to providing an account of holistic subjective experience of quarantine, this study also examines the socioecological factors’ influence on the subjective experience by applying the Bronfenbrenner’s model. In order to gather unconstrained information in relation to the contextual background, Consensual Qualitative Research method was used. 17 adults of Korean nationality were interviewed about their experience.Results: 10 categories within four domains of Subjective experience were found: (a) changed life style because of quarantine, continued pre-quarantine life, lasting effect of quarantine in Lifestyle domain; (b) Physical health domain with no subcategory; (c) discomfort, infection anxiety, accepting, satisfying, and gratitude within Psychological Experience domain; and (d) suggestion and change of perspective within Reflection domain. Next, 13 categories of socioecological factors belonged to four different levels of domain: (a) personality and belief in Within-individual domain; (b) quarantine space, personal relationship, coresident, student status, and employment status in Microsystem; (c) Korea’s quarantine policy, maintenance, resources, and abroad’s preventive measure against COVID in Exosystem; and (d) stigma and social responsibility in Macrosystem.Conclusions: The reported subjective experiences of self-quarantine were not uniformly negative or positive, which is unlike previous research findings that were dominantly negative. Identifying socioecological factors that shape an individual’s quarantine experience shed light onto how the government can protect its people from the potential threats of quarantine. The examples include promoting sense of safety through clear and coherent communication about the disease and the measures that are being placed, maximizing opportunities for the subjects to exert control over their lives during quarantine, devising ways to make virtual social connection accessible, and etc.
Quantitative breast density in Contrast-Enhanced Mammography
Authors: Gennaro Gisella , Hill Melissa L. , Bezzon Elisabetta , Caumo Francesca 
Published: April 2021

Abstract

Background: Breast density is an independent risk factor for breast cancer, and cancer detection in mammography is reduced in dense breasts. Quantitative tools are available to measure breast density from digital mammography (DM) or tomosynthesis (DBT). Contrast-enhanced mammography (CEM) is an emerging breast imaging technique, consisting of the acquisition of an image pair (low-energy, LE, and high-energy, HE) for each mammography view. LE-CEM images have been demonstrated to be visually equivalent to a standard mammogram, thereby, CEM examinations do not require additional mammography to complete the clinical information. In this study, volumetric breast density (VBD) measured in LE-CEM was compared with VBD obtained from DM/DBT images.Methods: Between Mar 2019 and Dec 2020 222 women were enrolled in a prospective clinical trial aiming to compare clinical performance of CEM with breast MRI in a population of women at intermediate and high risk for breast cancer. In this observational cohort study, 150 women enrolled in this trial having at least a DM/DBT study performed before/after CEM were selected. CEM and previous/subsequent DM/DBT images were processed by an automatic algorithm to calculate VBD for each view. VBD from LE-CEM and DM/DBT views were compared using a paired Wilcoxon test. P < 0.05 was considered indicative of a statistically significant difference. A multivariate regression model was applied to analyze the relationship between paired VBD differences and multiple independent variables certainly or potentially affecting VBD.Results: Mean age of women included in this study was 51.0±8.4 years. Median VBD was comparable for LE-CEM and previous/subsequent DM/DBT (12.73% vs. 12.39%), not evidencing any statistically significant difference (P = 0.5855). VBD differences between LE-CEM and DM were associated to significant differences of glandular volume, breast thickness, compression force and pressure, contact area, and nipple-to-posterior-edge distance i.e. variables reflecting differences in breast positioning (coefficient of determination 0.6023; multiple correlation coefficient 0.7761).Conclusions: Volumetric breast density can be obtained from low-energy contrast-enhanced spectral mammography and is not significantly different from volumetric breast density measured from standard mammograms.
Magnitude And Associated Factors of Intraoperative Nausea And Vomiting Among parturients who gave birth with Cesarean Section under Spinal Anesthesia At Hospitals in South Gondar Zone, Ethiopia
Authors: Demilew Basazinew Chekol , Zewudu Fentaye , Eshetie Dinberu Dinberu , Ayenew Netsanet Temesgen , Molla Eshetie 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
Background

Intraoperative nausea and vomiting is common intraoperative conditions by which parturient feel discomfort and disturbed after spinal anesthesia.
Methods

Hospital based cross-sectional study was conducted on mothers underwent cesarean section with spinal anesthesia. Descriptive analysis and chi square test were employed. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regression were used to measure the association of factors with the outcome variable intraoperative nausea and vomiting. A p-value of ≤ 0.05 was used to decide statistical significance for multivariable logistic regression.
Result

A total of 246 parturients were participated in this study. The incidence of intraoperative nausea and vomiting was 40.2%. According to multivariable logistic regression, age greater than 30 years (AOR, 6.26; 95%CI, 2.2-17.78; p-value 0.001), primiparous ( AOR, 3.72; 95%CI, 1.35–10.24; p-value, 0.011), having motion sickness (AOR, 7.1; 95%CI, 2.75–18.33; p-value 0.001), emergency cesarean sectin (AOR, 9.85; 95%CI, 3.19–30.38; p-value 0.001), oxygen suplimentation (AOR, 0.021; 95%CI, 0.005–0.08; p-value 0.0001) and uterotonic agent (AOR, 2.99; 95%CI 1.24–7.22; p-value 0.015) had statistically significant association with intraoperative nausea and vomiting.
Conclusion

In our study, the overall incidence of intraoperative nausea and vomiting after spinal anesthesia was 40.2%. Parturients with age greater than 30 years, having motion sickness, didn’t got intraoperative supplemental oxygen, oxytocin used for uterotonic purpose, emergency surgery and primiparous were at increased risk intraoperative nausea and vomiting.
Vibration Mechanism and Compensation Strategy of Magnetic Suspension Rotor System under Unbalanced Magnetic Pull
Authors: JI LI , Ma Xue-qing , Chen Zhen-min 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
The existing imbalance compensation strategies for magnetic suspension motors mainly focus on the mass unbalance force, ignoring the effects of the unbalanced magnet pull (UMP). This paper studied the vibration mechanism and compensation strategy of magnetic suspended permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) under the influence of UMP. Firstly, an analytical model of the flux density was established based on equivalent magnetic circuit method, then the analytical expressions of UMP was deduced by Maxwell stress tensor method. Furthermore, an unbalanced compensation method based on hypothetical reference frame (HRF) transformation was proposed. The stability of the closed-loop system with compensation was analyzed based on the complex-coefficients theory. The proposed model and compensation strategy were verified by the simulations and experiments. The results indicate that the proposed compensation strategy can achieve effective suppression of the magnetic rotor vibration.
Predicting Sex from Retinal Fundus Photographs Using Automated Deep Learning
Authors: Korot Edward , Pontikos Nikolas , Liu Xiaoxuan , Wagner Siegfried K , Faes Livia , Huemer Josef , Balaskas Konstantinos , Denniston Alastair K. , Khawaja Anthony , Keane Pearse A 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
Deep learning may transform health care, but model development has largely been dependent on availability of advanced technical expertise. Herein we present the development of a deep learning model by clinicians without coding, which predicts reported sex from retinal fundus photographs. A model was trained on 84,743 retinal fundus photos from the UK Biobank dataset. External validation was performed on 252 fundus photos from a tertiary ophthalmic referral center. For internal validation, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of the code free deep learning (CFDL) model was 0.93. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and accuracy (ACC) were 88.8%, 83.6%, 87.3% and 86.5%, and for external validation were 83.9%, 72.2%, 78.2% and 78.6% respectively. Clinicians are currently unaware of distinct retinal feature variations between males and females, highlighting the importance of model explainability for this task. The model performed significantly worse when foveal pathology was present in the external validation dataset, ACC: 69.4%, compared to 85.4% in healthy eyes, suggesting the fovea is a salient region for model performance OR (95% CI): 0.36 (0.19, 0.70) p = 0.0022. Automated machine learning (AutoML) may enable clinician-driven automated discovery of novel insights and disease biomarkers.
Study of toxicities of Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT) in post-operative patients of carcinoma cervix and endometrium
Authors: Ali Mohammad , Sahni Kamal , Sapru Shantanu , Rastogi Madhup , Khurana Rohini , Hadi Rahat , Gandhi Ajeet Kumar , Nanda Sambit Swarup , Tiwari Ramakant , Singh Narayan Pratap , Bhatt Madan Lal Brahma 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
Background

Various studies have shown a clinical benefit of pelvic IMRT but included a significant number of patients with intact cervix and uterus. Therefore we proposed a prospective study to evaluate the toxicity, feasibility, and tolerance of IMRT in post-operative patients with carcinoma cervix and endometrium.
Methods and Material:

This was a prospective, single-arm study, conducted from August 2015 to October 2018 including a total of 30 patients (23 cervical and 7 endometrial cancer) who had undergone a total hysterectomy and required adjuvant pelvic irradiation. These patients were treated with pelvic IMRT using a dose of 45-50.4 Gray (Gy) at 1.8-2 Gy per fraction given as 5 fractions per week with/without concurrent chemotherapy (using injection cisplatin 35–40 mg/m2 per week) as per indications. Acute toxicities were recorded at weekly intervals during the treatment followed by the assessment of late toxicities at the time of each follow-up visits using RTOG radiation morbidity criteria.
Results

Maximum on treatment skin, lower gastrointestinal (LGI), genitourinary (GU), and hematological toxicities were grade 1, 2, 2, and 2, occurring in 38%, 31%, 14%, and 3.4% of the cases, respectively. No late skin and GU toxicities were observed. Maximum late LGI toxicity was grade 1, occurring in 6.67% of the cases. Five (out of 30) patients developed treatment failures (2 distant and 3 local). At a median follow-up of 35 months, the 3 year progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were 83.3% (all stages included).
Conclusion

Considering acute and late adverse events in the form of skin, LGI, GU, and hematological toxicities, IMRT is well tolerated and has an acceptable toxicity profile even in the setting of an aggressive tri-modality approach.
Quantification of spatial metal accumulation patterns in Noccaea caerulescens by X-ray fluorescence image processing for genetic studies
Authors: Zee Lucas van der , Remigio Amelia Corzo , Casey Lachlan W. , Purwadi Imam , Yamjabok Jitpanu , Ent Antony van der , Kootstra Gert , Aarts Mark G.M. 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
Background Hyperaccumulation of trace elements is a rare trait among plants which is being investigated to advance our understanding of the regulation of metal accumulation and applications in phytotechnologies. Noccaea caerulescens (Brassicaceae) is an intensively studied hyperaccumulator model plant capable of attaining extremely high tissue concentrations of zinc, and nickel with substantial genetic variation at the population-level. X-ray Fluorescence microscopy (µXRF) is a sensitive high-resolution technique to obtain information of the spatial distribution of the plant metallome in hydrated samples We used laboratory-based µXRF to characterize a collection of 86 genetically diverse Noccaea caerulescens accessions from across Europe. We developed an image-processing method to segment different plant substructures in the µXRF images. We introduced the concentration quotient (CQ) to quantify spatial patterns of metal accumulation and linked that to genetic variation.Results Image processing resulted in automated segmentation of µXRF plant images into petiole, leaf margin, leaf interveinal and leaf vasculature substructures. The harmonic means of recall and precision (F1 score) were 0.79, 0.80, 0.67, and 0.68, respectively. Spatial metal accumulation as determined by CQ is highly heritable in Noccaea caerulescens for all substructures, with broad sense heritabilities (H2) ranging from 76–92% correlates only weakly with other heritable traits. Insertion of noise into the image segmentation algorithm barely decreases heritability scores of CQ for the segmented substructures, illustrating the robustness of the trait and the quantification method. Very low heritability was found for CQ if randomly generated substructures were compared, validating the approach.Conclusions A strategy for segmenting µXRF images of Noccaea caerulescens is proposed and the concentration quotient is developed to provide a quantitative measure of metal accumulation pattern, which can be used to determine genetic variation for such pattern. The metric is robust to segmentation error and provides reliable H2 estimates. This strategy provides an avenue for quantifying XRF data for analysis of the genetics of metal distribution patterns in plants and the subsequent discovery of new genes that regulate metal homeostasis and sequestration in plants.
Chemotherapy-associated steatohepatitis was concomitant with epicardial adipose tissue volume increasing in breast cancer patients received neoadjuvant chemotherapy
Authors: Wang Xiaoxia , Tan Yuchuan , Qi Jun , Liu Daihong , Shen Hesong , Tan Yong , Wang Lei , Zhang Yipeng , Ma Xin , Wang Jiazheng , Zhang Jiuquan 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
Background

The hepatotoxicity and cardiotoxicity caused by neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) are of increasing concern to clinicians in breast cancer (BC) patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of chemotherapy-associated steatohepatitis (CASH), quantitate the epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) volume in BC patients, and explore the correlations of these parameters with blood lipid levels in BC patients who received NAC.
Methods

From October 2018 to April 2020, BC patients were retrospectively reviewed. Clinical and laboratory data were collected. The patients were divided into BC-non-NAC group and BC-NAC group (BC-NAC subgroups 1 ~ 4 according to the number of NAC cycles). The prevalence of CASH was evaluated using quantitative MRI mDIXON-Quant examinations, from which the proton density fat fraction (PDFF) was assessed. The EAT volume was quantified on chest CT by semi-automatic volume analysis software. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated for the associations among PDFF values, EAT volumes and blood lipid levels.
Results

A total of 662 women (BC-non-NAC group: 445 patients; BC-NAC group: 217 patients) were included. The prevalence of CASH in BC-NAC group was significantly higher than the prevalence of hepatic steatosis in the BC-non-NAC group (42.8% vs. 33.3%, p < 0.001). As the number of NAC cycles increased, the prevalence of CASH increased in the BC-NAC subgroups (p = 0.034). EAT volume was measured in 561 of 662 BC patients, and was significantly higher in the BC-NAC group than in the BC-non-NAC group (137.26 ± 53.48 ml vs. 125.14 ± 58.77 ml, p = 0.020). A moderate positive correlation was observed between the hepatic PDFF value and EAT volume (r = 0.411, p < 0.001), and these parameters were also positively correlated with triglycerides in the BC-NAC group (r = 0.386, p = 0.004; r = 0.338, p < 0.001, respectively).
Conclusions

NAC significantly increased the prevalence of CASH and EAT volume and there was significant positive correlation among the hepatic PDFF value, EAT volume and triglycerides, which indicate the abnormal lipid metabolism caused by NAC may be another pathway to induce cardiovascular disease in BC patients.
Model assisted identification of N2O mitigation strategies for full-scale reject water treatment plants
Authors: Beier M. , Feldkämper I. , Freyschmidt A. 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
In a 3-year research project, a new approach to forecast biological N2O formation and emission at high-strength reject water treatment has been developed (ASM3/1_N2OISAH). It was calibrated by extensive batch-tests and finally evaluated by long-term measurement campaigns realized at three wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) with different process configurations for nitrogen removal of reject water. To enable a model application with common full-scale data, the nitritation-connected supplementary processes that are responsible for N2O formation are not depicted in the model. Instead, within the new model approach the N2O formation is linked to the NH4-N oxidation rate by defining specific formation factors [N2O-Nform/NH4-Nox], depending on the concentrations of NO2 and O2 as well as the NH4 load. A comparison between the measured and the modeled N2O concentrations in the liquid and gas phase at the full-scale treatment plants prove the ability of the proposed modelling approach to represent the observed trends of N2O formation, emission and reduction using the standard parameter set of kinetics and formation factors. Thus, enabling a reliable estimation of the N2O emissions for different operational conditions. The measurements indicate that a formation of N2O by AOB cannot completely be avoided. However, a considerable reduction of the formed N2O was observed in an anoxic environment. Applying the model, operational settings and mitigation strategies can now be identified without extensive measurement campaigns. For further enhancement of the model, first results for kinetics of N2O reduction kinetics by denitrification processes were determined in laboratory-scale batch tests.
Computational fluid dynamics modelling of quasi-collimated beam apparatus – a typical bench scale UV apparatus for water treatment
Authors: Lian Junfeng , Sun Liangmin , Jiang Chong , Li Wentao , Zhu Yichun , Qin Xinxin , Liu Zuwen 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
Quasi-collimated beam apparatus (QCBA), a typical bench scale UV apparatus, is crucial for the biodosimetry determination of UV dose in target reactors. However, the key parameters for the QCBA construction are usually estimated via rule-of-thumb calculations. Computational fluid dynamics models are applied in this study to simulate the UV fluence rate (FR) distributions in QCBAs. QCBAs with either a cylindrical tube or successive apertures irradiate quasi parallel light into selected dishes. The simulated Petri factors (PF) in the target QCBAs with a single aperture were all &gt;0.84, and increased with the extended distance (L1) from the UV lamp to the upper aperture. QCBAs with two successive apertures are recommended compared with those with three apertures or cylindrical tube. A trend of FR distribution from dispersed to concentrated is observed when L1 or the interval distance between each aperture increases in a dual-aperture QCBA. QCBAs with multiple lamps were favorable to increase the UV output power, while having a nearly negligible loss of parallelism. An actual QCBA was constructed, and the maximal and average FR and PF values in a 60-mm dish were 0.159 and 0.164 W/m2, and 0.967, respectively, in accordance with the simulated results.