bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
A Sediment Magnetic Record in the North Pacific Across the Mid-Pleistocene Transition and its Implication on Asian Dust Evolution
Authors: Shin Ji Young , Hyeong Kiseong , Kim Wonnyon 
Published: November 2021

Eolian dust deposited in the North Pacific is an important archive of the evolutionary history of Asian interior source regions and climate system. Here, we present a ∼1 Myr sediment magnetic record from the central North Pacific to characterize eolian dust properties since the middle Pleistocene. For the studied sediments, magnetic components are mainly identified as biogenic magnetite and detrital magnetic minerals (dust and volcanic origins) based on coercivity analysis, microscopic observations, and sedimentological information. The detrital magnetic component is characterized by high coercivity (&gt;100 mT) and shows a long-term increase in concentration since ∼1 Ma. In particular, the concentration shows a considerable increase at ∼0.8–0.7 Ma compared to the inorganic silicate fraction, indicative of magnetic mineral enrichment in detrital sediment fraction. At the same time, the coercivity distribution of the detrital component also decreases, which can be attributed to an increase in the ferrimagnetic mineral contribution. As the detrital sediments are primarily wind-blown particles, such ferrimagnetic enrichment implies a change in dust source materials after ∼0.8 Ma, which could be explained by the reorganization of atmospheric circulation and/or regional aridification in source regions across the mid-Pleistocene transition. The dust property change in source areas is likely to be synchronized across the North Pacific based on the similarity of the long-term trend of magnetic signals.
24-Hour Profiles of 11-Oxygenated C19 Steroids and Δ5-Steroid Sulfates during Oral and Continuous Subcutaneous Glucocorticoids in 21-Hydroxylase Deficiency
Authors: Turcu Adina F. , Mallappa Ashwini , Nella Aikaterini A. , Chen Xuan , Zhao Lili , Nanba Aya T. , Byrd James Brian , Auchus Richard J. , Merke Deborah P. 
Published: November 2021

BackgroundOptimal management of androgen excess in 21-hydroxylase deficiency (21OHD) remains challenging. 11-oxygenated-C19 steroids (11-oxyandrogens) have emerged as promising biomarkers of disease control, but data regarding their response to treatment are lacking.ObjectiveTo compare the dynamic response of a broad set of steroids to both conventional oral glucocorticoids (OG) and circadian cortisol replacement via continuous subcutaneous hydrocortisone infusion (CSHI) in patients with 21OHD based on 24-hour serial sampling.Participants and MethodsWe studied 8 adults (5 women), ages 19-43 years, with poorly controlled classic 21OHD who participated in a single-center open-label phase I–II study comparing OG with CSHI. We used mass spectrometry to measure 15 steroids (including 11-oxyandrogens and Δ5 steroid sulfates) in serum samples obtained every 2 h for 24 h after 3 months of stable OG, and 6 months into ongoing CSHI.ResultsIn response to OG therapy, androstenedione, testosterone (T), and their four 11-oxyandrogen metabolites:11β-hydroxyandrostenedione, 11-ketoandrostenedione, 11β-hydroxytestosterone and 11-ketotestosterone (11KT) demonstrated a delayed decline in serum concentrations, and they achieved a nadir between 0100-0300. Unlike DHEAS, which had little diurnal variation, pregnenolone sulfate (PregS) and 17-hydoxypregnenolone sulfate peaked in early morning and declined progressively throughout the day. CSHI dampened the early ACTH and androgen rise, allowing the ACTH-driven adrenal steroids to return closer to baseline before mid-day. 11KT concentrations displayed the most consistent difference between OG and CSHI across all time segments. While T was lowered by CSHI as compared with OG in women, T increased in men, suggesting an improvement of the testicular function in parallel with 21OHD control in men.Conclusion11-oxyandrogens and PregS could serve as biomarkers of disease control in 21OHD. The development of normative data for these promising novel biomarkers must consider their diurnal variability.
Utility of Three Adiposity Indices for Identifying Left Ventricular Hypertrophy and Geometric Remodeling in Chinese Children
Authors: Wang Huan , Zhao Min , Magnussen Costan G. , Xi Bo 
Published: November 2021

BackgroundPrevious studies have shown that waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) performed similarly well when compared to body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) for identifying cardiovascular risk factors. However, to our knowledge, the performance of these three adiposity indices for identifying left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and left ventricular geometric (LVG) remodeling in youth has not been assessed. We aimed to determine the utility of BMI, WC and WHtR for identifying LVH and LVG in Chinese children.MethodsThis study included 1,492 Chinese children aged 6-11 years. Adiposity indices assessed were BMI, WC and WHtR. LVH and high relative wall thickness (RWT) were defined using sex- and age-specific 90th percentile values of left ventricular mass index and RWT, respectively, based on the current population. LVG remodeling included concentric remodeling (CR), eccentric hypertrophy (EH) and concentric hypertrophy (CH), which was defined based on the combination of LVH and high RWT.ResultsThe magnitude of association of central obesity defined by WHtR with LVH [odds ratio (OR) =10.09, 95% confidence interval (CI) =6.66-15.29] was similar with general obesity defined by BMI (OR=10.49, 95% CI=6.97-15.80), and both were higher than central obesity defined by WC (OR=6.87, 95% CI=4.57-10.33). Compared with BMI, WHtR had better or similar predictive utility for identifying LVH, EH, and CH [the area under the curve (AUC): 0.84 vs. 0.79; 0.84 vs. 0.77; 0.87 vs. 0.88, respectively]; WC had worse or similar discriminatory utility with AUCs of 0.73, 0.70, 0.83, respectively.ConclusionWHtR performed similarly or better than BMI or WC for identifying LVH and LVG remodeling among Chinese children. WHtR provides a simple and convenient measure of central obesity that might improve the discrimination of children with cardiac structural damage.
Epstein–Barr Virus+ B Cells in Breast Cancer Immune Response: A Case Report
Authors: Aran Andrea , Peg Vicente , Rabanal Rosa Maria , Bernadó Cristina , Zamora Esther , Molina Elisa , Arribas Yago A. , Arribas Joaquín , Pérez José , Roura-Mir Carme , Carrascal Montserrat , Cortés Javier , Martí Mercè 
Published: November 2021

EBV-specific T cells have been recently described to be involved in fatal encephalitis and myocarditis in cancer patients after immune checkpoint therapies. Here, we report the study of a human triple-negative breast cancer tumor (TNBC) and EBV-transformed B cells obtained from a patient-derived xenograft (PDX) that progressed into a lymphocytic neoplasm named xenograft-associated B-cell lymphoma (XABCL). T-cell receptor (TCR) high-throughput sequencing was performed to monitor the T-cell clonotypes present in the different samples. Forty-three T-cell clonotypes were found infiltrating the XABCL tissue after three passes in mice along 6 months. Eighteen of these (42%) were also found in the TNBC biopsy. TCR infiltrating the XABCL tissue showed a very restricted T-cell repertoire as compared with the biopsy-infiltrating T cells. Consequently, T cells derived from the TNBC biopsy were expanded in the presence of the B-cell line obtained from the XABCL (XABCL-LCL), after which the TCR repertoire obtained was again very restricted, i.e., only certain clonotypes were selected by the B cells. A number of these TCRs had previously been reported as sequences involved in infection, cancer, and/or autoimmunity. We then analyzed the immunopeptidome from the XABCL-LCL, to identify putative B-cell-associated peptides that might have been expanding these T cells. The HLA class I and class II-associated peptides from XABCL-LCL were then compared with published repertoires from LCL of different HLA typing. Proteins from the antigen processing and presentation pathway remained significantly enriched in the XABCL-LCL repertoire. Interestingly, some class II-presented peptides were derived from cancer-related proteins. These results suggest that bystander tumor-infiltrating EBV+ B cells acting as APC may be able to interact with tumor-infiltrating T cells and influence the TCR repertoire in the tumor site.
Fabrication and Mechanical Performance of Graphene Nanoplatelet/Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer Hybrid Composites
Authors: Yao Xudan , Kinloch Ian A. , Bissett Mark A. 
Published: November 2021

Glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) composites are promising alternatives for the traditional carbon steel pipes used in the oil and gas industry due to their corrosion and chemical resistance. However, the out-of-plane mechanical properties of GFRPs still need further improvement to achieve this goal. Hence, in this work, two methods combining either vacuum mixing or spray coating with vacuum-assisted resin infusion were studied to fabricate graphene nanoplatelet (GNP)/GFRP hybrid composites. The former method resulted in a severe filtering effect, where the GNPs were not evenly distributed throughout the final composite, whereas the latter process resulted in a uniform GNP distribution on the glass fabrics. The addition of GNPs showed no modest contribution to the tensile performance of the GFRP composites due to the relatively high volume and in-plane alignment of the glass fibers. However, the GNPs did improve the flexural properties of GFRP with an optimal loading of 0.15 wt% GNPs, resulting in flexural strength and modulus increases of 6.8 and 1.6%, respectively. This work indicates how GNPs can be advantageous for out-of-plane mechanical reinforcement in fiber-reinforced composites.
Comparison of Cricothyroid Membrane Puncture Anesthesia and Topical Anesthesia for Awake Fiberoptic Intubation: A Double-Blinded Randomized Controlled Trial
Authors: Wang Shaocheng , Hu Chaoli , Zhang Tingting , Zhao Xuan , Li Cheng 
Published: November 2021

Background: Awake fiberoptic intubation (AFOI) is commonly used for patients with a difficult airway. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of cricothyroid membrane puncture anesthesia and topical anesthesia during AFOI.Methods: A total of 70 patients (the American Society of Anesthesiologists score I-III) with anticipated difficult airways scheduled for nonemergency surgery with AFOI were randomly slated to receive cricothyroid membrane puncture anesthesia (n = 35) or topical anesthesia (n = 35). Each group received dexmedetomidine at a dose of 1.0 μg/kg and sufentanil at a dose of 0.2 μg/kg over 10 min for conscious sedation before intubation. The endoscopy intubation, post-intubation condition, and endoscopy tolerance as scored by the anesthetists were observed. The satisfaction of the operator regarding the procedure and the satisfaction of the patient 24 h after the surgery were also recorded. We recorded the success rate of the first intubation, intubation time, and hemodynamic changes during the procedure and also the adverse events.Results: Better intubation scores, operator satisfaction, and satisfaction of the patient were observed in the cricothyroid membrane puncture anesthesia group than in the topical anesthesia group (p &lt; 0.05). The intubation time in the cricothyroid membrane puncture anesthesia group was less than that in the topical anesthesia group (p &lt; 0.05). There were no significant differences in the patient tolerance scores, the success rate of the first intubation, hemodynamic changes, and adverse events between both the groups.Conclusion: Compared with topical anesthesia, cricothyroid membrane puncture anesthesia provided better intubation conditions and less intubation time with greater satisfaction of the patient and operator during endoscopic intubation.Clinical Trial Registration: URL: http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=42636, Identifier: ChiCTR 1900025820.
Metabolic Risk Factors Associated With Chronic Kidney Disease in a Middle-Aged and Elderly Taiwanese Population: A Cross-Sectional Study
Authors: Lu Mei-Chun , Chen I-Ju , Hsu Le-Tien , Chen Ying-Jen , Tsou Meng-Ting , Tung Tao-Hsin , Chen Jau-Yuan 
Published: November 2021

Background: This study aimed to quantify the proportion of participants with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and associated metabolic risk factors in a middle-aged and elderly population in Guishan District, Taoyuan City, Taiwan.Methods: This cross-sectional study enrolled residents aged 50–90 years living in one community. All participants received a standardized personal interview, including a structured questionnaire, anthropometric measurements, and blood samples collected for laboratory testing. CKD was defined as the presence of kidney damage (urine albumin-creatinine ratio ≥30 mg/g) or estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) &lt; 60 mL/min/1.73 m2. Multiple logistic regression models were used to evaluate the risk factors associated with CKD.Results: A total of 400 participants were enrolled. The overall proportion of participants with CKD was 20.5% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 16.54–24.46%). The proportions of participants with CKD among those aged 50–64, 65–74, and 75 years and over were 17.7, 18.8, and 35.7%, respectively (p = 0.01). Multiple logistic regression model revealed that elevated blood pressure (odds ratio [OR] = 2.23, 95% CI: 1.16–4.30), hyperglycemia (OR = 2.87, 95% CI: 1.64–5.00), hyperuricemia (OR = 1.38, 95% CI: 1.14–1.69), and metabolic syndrome (OR = 2.30, 95% CI: 1.31–4.06) were significantly associated with CKD.Conclusions: The prevalence of CKD in the study population was high. Hypertension, hyperglycemia, hyperuricemia, and metabolic syndrome are significantly associated with CKD in a middle-aged and elderly population in Taiwan.
Early Fresh Frozen Plasma Transfusion: Is It Associated With Improved Outcomes of Patients With Sepsis?
Authors: Qin Xiaoyi , Zhang Wei , Zhu Xiaodan , Hu Xiang , Zhou Wei 
Published: November 2021

Background: So far, no study has investigated the effects of plasma transfusion in the patients with sepsis, especially in the terms of prognosis. Therefore, we aimed to explore the association of early fresh frozen plasma (FFP) transfusion with the outcomes of patients with sepsis.Methods: We performed a cohort study using data extracted from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care III database (v1.4). External validation was obtained from the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, China. We adopted the Sepsis-3 criteria to extract the patients with sepsis and septic shock. The occurrence of transfusion during the first 3-days of intensive care unit (ICU) stay was regarded as early FFP transfusion. The primary outcome was 28-day mortality. We assessed the association of early FFP transfusion with the patient outcomes using a Cox regression analysis. Furthermore, we performed the sensitivity analysis, subset analysis, and external validation to verify the true strength of the results.Results: After adjusting for the covariates in the three models, respectively, the significantly higher risk of death in the FFP transfusion group at 28-days [e.g., Model 2: hazard ratio (HR) = 1.361, P = 0.018, 95% CI = 1.054–1.756] and 90-days (e.g., Model 2: HR = 1.368, P = 0.005, 95% CI = 1.099–1.704) remained distinct. Contrarily, the mortality increased significantly with the increase of FFP transfusion volume. The outcomes of the patients with sepsis with hypocoagulable state after early FFP transfusion were not significantly improved. Similar results can also be found in the subset analysis of the septic shock cohort. The results of external validation exhibited good consistency.Conclusions: Our study provides a new understanding of the rationale and effectiveness of FFP transfusion for the patients with sepsis. After recognizing the evidence of risk-benefit and cost-benefit, it is important to reduce the inappropriate use of FFP and avoid unnecessary adverse transfusion reactions.
Spot Urine Protein Excretion in the First Year Following Kidney Transplantation Associates With Allograft Rejection Phenotype at 1-Year Surveillance Biopsies: An Observational National-Cohort Study
Authors: Oblak Manca , Mlinšek Gregor , Kojc Nika , Frelih Maja , Buturović-Ponikvar Jadranka , Arnol Miha 
Published: November 2021

Introduction: Urine protein excretion is routinely measured to assess kidney allograft injury, but the diagnostic value of this measurement for kidney transplant pathology remains unclear. Here we investigated whether spot urine protein excretion in the first year following transplantation associates with allograft rejection phenotype at 1-year surveillance biopsies and de-novo occurrence of donor-specific antibodies (DSA).Patients and Methods: This prospective, observational national-cohort study included 139 non-sensitized patients who received a deceased donor kidney transplant between December 2014 and 2018. All patients received basiliximab induction and tacrolimus-based immunosuppression. Estimated protein excretion rate (ePER) was calculated monthly from spot urine protein-to-creatinine ratios. At 1-year, all recipients underwent surveillance graft biopsy and were screened for de-novo DSA. Screening-positive sera were subjected to single antigen bead (SAB) testing. The occurrence of de-novo DSA was determined based on SAB reactivity patterns using a mean fluorescence intensity threshold &gt;1,000.Results: Among the 139 study patients, 27 patients (19%) had histologic evidence of T cell-mediated rejection (TCMR), and 9 patients (7%) had histologic evidence of antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) at 1-year surveillance biopsy. One year after transplant, 19 patients (14%) developed de-novo DSA. Compared with patients without rejection and no de-novo DSA, mixed-effects linear regression analysis showed a significant difference in slope of ePER during the first year in patients with AMR and de-novo DSA at 1-year (46, 95% CI 25–68 mg/day/1.73 m2 per month and 34, 95% CI 20–49 mg/day/1.73 m2 per month, respectively). Patients with vascular TCMR also showed a significant difference in ePER slope over time compared with patients with non-rejection findings (31, 95% CI 9–52 mg/day/1.73 m2 per month). The discriminatory power of ePER for intragraft rejection processes was better in patients with AMR (AUC 0.95, 95% CI 0.90–0.99; P &lt; 0.001) than in those with TCMR (AUC 0.68, 95% CI 0.59–0.79; P = 0.002), with 89% sensitivity and 93% specificity for proteinuria &gt;550 mg/day/1.73m2.Conclusions: An increase in ePER in the first year following kidney transplantation associates with AMR, vascular TCMR and de-novo DSA at 1-year and may be used as a non-invasive clinical marker of intragraft endothelial cell injury.
Methylation and Expression of the Exercise-Related TLR1 Gene Is Associated With Low Grade Glioma Prognosis and Outcome
Authors: Lu Lichun , Hu Yifang , Wang Chen , Jiang Feng , Wu Chuyan 
Published: November 2021

Background: Exercise improves function, reduces disability, maintains independence, and improves quality of life for low-grade glioma (LGG) patients. Exercise can also improve the effectiveness of cancer treatment. The goal of this research was to find potential exercise related genes that may be used to predict exercise levels and may be used as a biomarker for cancer outcomes.Methods: The GSE111551 database was thoroughly examined in this research, and the resulting conclusion of exercise-related genes was reached. The protein interaction network (PPI) was used to examine the differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Then the exercise-related gene TLR1 was chosen. The expression, methylation degree, prognosis, and immune relevance of TLR1 were investigated using bioinformatics. In addition, we verified the role of TLR1 in Glioma cell lines.Results: LGG patients with reduced TLR1 expression and hypermethylation had a better overall survival (OS) and progression free survival (PFS), using the TCGA database. Low TLR1 expression and hypermethylation of TLR1 were found to be independent biomarkers for OS using Cox regression. Furthermore, the CGGA database was used to confirm the prognostic function of TLR1 in this cancer. Finally, most methylation sites of TLR1 were strongly correlated with immune infiltration and immune checkpoint. Then, reducing TLR1 expression substantially slowed the cell cycle and decreased LGG cell proliferation, emigration, and infiltration in vitro.Conclusions: Exercise-related gene TLR1 has the potential to be a useful prognostic biomarker, and it is thought to be involved in immune cell infiltration and immunotherapy in LGG.
Application of Machine Vision in Classifying Gait Frailty Among Older Adults
Authors: Liu Yixin , He Xiaohai , Wang Renjie , Teng Qizhi , Hu Rui , Qing Linbo , Wang Zhengyong , He Xuan , Yin Biao , Mou Yi , Du Yanping , Li Xinyi , Wang Hui , Liu Xiaolei , Zhou Lixing , Deng Linghui , Xu Ziqi , Xiao Chun , Ge Meiling , Sun Xuelian , Jiang Junshan , Chen Jiaoyang , Lin Xinyi , Xia Ling , Gong Haoran , Yu Haopeng , Dong Birong 
Published: November 2021

Background: Frail older adults have an increased risk of adverse health outcomes and premature death. They also exhibit altered gait characteristics in comparison with healthy individuals.Methods: In this study, we created a Fried’s frailty phenotype (FFP) labelled casual walking video set of older adults based on the West China Health and Aging Trend study. A series of hyperparameters in machine vision models were evaluated for body key point extraction (AlphaPose), silhouette segmentation (Pose2Seg, DPose2Seg, and Mask R-CNN), gait feature extraction (Gaitset, LGaitset, and DGaitset), and feature classification (AlexNet and VGG16), and were highly optimised during analysis of gait sequences of the current dataset.Results: The area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) at the physical frailty state identification task for AlexNet was 0.851 (0.827–0.8747) and 0.901 (0.878–0.920) in macro and micro, respectively, and was 0.855 (0.834–0.877) and 0.905 (0.886–0.925) for VGG16 in macro and micro, respectively. Furthermore, this study presents the machine vision method equipped with better predictive performance globally than age and grip strength, as well as than 4-m-walking-time in healthy and pre-frailty classifying.Conclusion: The gait analysis method in this article is unreported and provides promising original tool for frailty and pre-frailty screening with the characteristics of convenience, objectivity, rapidity, and non-contact. These methods can be extended to any gait-related disease identification processes, as well as in-home health monitoring.