bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Emergent catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation in a patient with acute decompensated heart failure on a mechanical haemodynamic support: a case report
Authors: Tobushi Tomoyuki , Sakemi Takuya , Honda Nobuhiro , Mukai Yasushi 
Published: September 2021

Abstract

Background
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is associated with the exacerbation of heart failure (HF). Although AF ablation has become an established treatment for patients with HF, it is usually an elective procedure. Here, we present a case of acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) exacerbated by refractory AF, which was successfully treated with emergent AF ablation.

Case summary
A 53-year-old, obese man with a history of myocardial infarction presented to our hospital. Heart function deteriorated with an ejection fraction of 9.8%, and he was repeatedly hospitalized due to worsening HF. This time, the patient was emergently admitted due to ADHF associated with persistent AF. Atrial fibrillation was refractory to electrical cardioversion. Despite optimized medical support, the patient developed haemodynamic collapse and multiple organ failure. Intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP) and mechanical ventilation were initiated in addition to intravenous catecholamines. Emergent AF ablation was performed. Following pulmonary vein isolation, sinus rhythm was restored and the patient's haemodynamic status dramatically improved. The IABP and mechanical ventilation were withdrawn within a few days, and the catecholamine dose was reduced. After cardiac rehabilitation, the patient was discharged.

Discussion
Our case suggests that an emergent AF ablation is feasible and effective even in a patient with severe ADHF. An emergent AF ablation could be a therapeutic option to treat a critically unwell patient who has deteriorated due to a vicious cycle of AF and HF.
Genetic Variation and the Effect of Herbicide and Fertilization Treatments on Wood Quality Traits in Loblolly Pine
Authors: Gräns Daniel , Isik Fikret , Purnell Robert C , Peszlen Ilona M , McKeand Steven E 
Published: September 2021

Abstract
The effect of silvicultural treatments (herbicide, fertilization, herbicide + fertilization) and the interactions with genetic effects were investigated for wood quality traits in a 16-year-old loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) genetic test established in southwest Georgia, USA. Fertilizer and herbicide treatment combinations were applied multiple times to main plots containing 25 open-pollinated families as sub plots. Significant differences among treatments were found for all traits. Squared acoustic velocity, used as a surrogate for wood stiffness, was higher in herbicide-only plots compared with other treatments. Wood density was considerably lower in fertilization plots. A large proportion of variance observed for wood quality traits was explained by additive genetic effects, with individual-tree heritabilities ranging from 0.78 (ring 7–16 section wood density) to 0.28 (ring 2–6 section wood density). Corresponding family-mean heritability values were well over 0.86. Genotype-by-treatment interactions were nonsignificant for all traits, indicating no need to match families to silvicultural treatments. Wood quality traits had weak genetic correlations with growth and stem quality traits (stem slenderness, sweep, and branch angle) with a range of −0.33 to 0.43, suggesting that recurrent selection on growth or stem quality traits would not adversely affect wood quality in loblolly pine.
Optimization of Unit Operations for Microencapsulating Ferrous Fumarate During Scale-Up of Double Fortification of Salt with Iron and Iodine
Authors: Modupe Oluwasegun , Krishnaswamy Kiruba , Li Yao Olive , Diosady Levente L 
Published: September 2021

Abstract

Objectives
This study evaluates factors responsible for the floating of iron premix in double fortified salt (DFS), which initially affected the large-scale implementation of the salt fortification program in India, and provides solutions to the scale-up of the technology.

Materials and Methods
To mitigate this time-sensitive scale-up challenge. First, the iron premix samples were obtained from the industrial scale-up pilot studies in India, evaluated for the impact of the amount of coating material (5 per cent, 7.5 per cent, and 10 per cent (in weight)), type of formulation (soy stearin, SEPIFILM and hydroxypropyl methylcellulose), amount of titanium dioxide (25-35 per cent (in weight)) used for color masking; Second, we studied the effect of change in the composition of the coating, from 10 per cent (in weight) soy stearin to a double coat with 5 per cent (in weight) hydroxypropyl methylcellulose and 5 per cent soy stearin or 10 per cent soy stearin and 1 per cent (in weight) lecithin mixture, on particle density, floating or sinking property of the iron premix, and on the stability of iodine in the DFS.

Results
It was observed that the hydrophobic nature and the amount of soy stearin used for coating caused the floating issue. The double coating with 5 per cent hydroxypropyl methylcellulose and 5 per cent soy stearin was preferred because lecithin in soy stearin enhanced the moisture-aided adverse interaction between iron and iodine. Shelf-life storage studies proved over 80 per cent iodine retention after 12 months of storage in the DFS formulated with iron premix double-coated with hydroxypropyl methylcellulose and soy stearin.

Conclusion
This proffered solution enabled the full implementation of the double fortification program in India.
Do Audiences Judge the Morality of Characters Relativistically? How Interdependence Affects Perceptions of Characters’ Temporal Moral Descent
Authors: Grizzard Matthew , Matthews Nicholas L , Francemone C Joseph , Fitzgerald Kaitlin 
Published: September 2021

Abstract
In two pre-registered studies, we leveraged recent advances to disposition theory to examine whether character judgments are relative. We used a Pilot Study to develop a moral continuum of behaviors for a hypothetical television series. We referenced our established moral continuum to create behavioral sequences that represented two characters descending into immorality. We manipulated whether one or both characters were present in the narrative. The simultaneous presence of both characters polarized participants’ moral evaluations of character behavior, categorization of the characters as heroic/villainous, and character liking. Our findings substantiate the systematic effects that character interdependence has on disposition formation. An improved understanding of narrative context can specify when between- and within-character comparisons occur and what effects character interdependence has on disposition theory’s processes. We discuss how narrative schemas, character schemas, and character networks can serve as the elements for explicating the role of narrative context in disposition theory.
Hybrid minimally invasive treatment of intralobar pulmonary sequestration: a single-centre experience
Authors: Grossi William , Londero Francesco , Vit Alessandro , De Franceschi Elisa , Masullo Gianluca , Sponza Massimo , Morelli Angelo 
Published: September 2021

Abstract
Pulmonary sequestrations are rare congenital malformations. They are often located in the lower lobes, and they are supplied by an aberrant systemic vessel arising from the thoracic aorta or abdominal arteries. These pulmonary malformations are divided into intra- and extralobar sequestrations, depending on the respective lack or presence of an independent pleural covering. Pulmonary sequestration can be asymptomatic or lead to recurrent pulmonary infections. The goal of this study was to analyse the feasibility and safety of a hybrid sequential approach. We report a small series of intralobar pulmonary sequestrations, from November 2017 to December 2018, successfully treated with a hybrid minimally invasive approach consisting of endovascular embolization of the aberrant arterial branch followed by video-assisted thoracoscopic lobectomy the day after. Thoracic pain following endovascular embolization was noted in all cases. Patients were discharged early in the absence of major postoperative complications. Prolonged air leak was observed in only 1 case. Despite the presence of sequestration-related pulmonary inflammation, in our experience, hybrid treatment for intralobar pulmonary sequestration is a safe and reproducible approach in terms of postoperative complications and hospital stay.
Physical activity and sedentary behaviour over adulthood in relation to all-cause and cause-specific mortality: a systematic review of analytic strategies and study findings
Authors: Yang Yi , Dixon-Suen Suzanne C , Dugué Pierre-Antoine , Hodge Allison M , Lynch Brigid M , English Dallas R 
Published: September 2021

Abstract

Background
Questions remain about the effect on mortality of physical activity and sedentary behaviour over time. We summarized the evidence from studies that assessed exposure from multiple time points and critiqued the analytic approaches used.

Methods
A search was performed on MEDLINE, Embase, Emcare, Scopus and Web of Science up to January 2021 for studies of repeatedly assessed physical activity or sedentary behaviour in relation to all-cause or cause-specific mortality. Relative risks from individual studies were extracted. Each study was assessed for risk of bias from multiple domains.

Results
We identified 64 eligible studies (57 on physical activity, 6 on sedentary behaviour, 1 on both). Cox regression with a time-fixed exposure history (n = 45) or time-varying covariates (n = 13) were the most frequently used methods. Only four studies used g-methods, which are designed to adjust for time-varying confounding. Risk of bias arose primarily from inadequate adjustment for time-varying confounders, participant selection, exposure classification and changes from measured exposure. Despite heterogeneity in methods, most studies found that being consistently or increasingly active over adulthood was associated with lower all-cause and cardiovascular-disease mortality compared with being always inactive. Few studies examined physical-activity changes and cancer mortality or effects of sedentary-behaviour changes on mortality outcomes.

Conclusions
Accumulating more evidence using longitudinal data while addressing the methodological challenges would provide greater insight into the health effects of initiating or maintaining a more active and less sedentary lifestyle.
Decolonizing Open Science: Southern Interventions
Authors: Dutta Mohan , Ramasubramanian Srividya , Barrett Mereana , Elers Christine , Sarwatay Devina , Raghunath Preeti , Kaur Satveer , Dutta Debalina , Jayan Pooja , Rahman Mahbubur , Tallam Edwin , Roy Sudeshna , Falnikar Ashwini , Johnson Gayle Moana , Mandal Indranil , Dutta Uttaran , Basnyat Iccha , Soriano Cheryll , Pavarala Vinod , Sreekumar T T , Ganesh Shiv , Pandi Asha Rathina , Zapata Dazzelyn 
Published: September 2021

AbstractHegemonic Open Science, emergent from the circuits of knowledge production in the Global North and serving the economic interests of platform capitalism, systematically erase the voices of the subaltern margins from the Global South and the Southern margins inhabiting the North. Framed within an overarching emancipatory narrative of creating access for and empowering the margins through data exchanged on the global free market, hegemonic Open Science processes co-opt and erase Southern epistemologies, working to create and reproduce new enclosures of extraction that serve data colonialism-capitalism. In this essay, drawing on our ongoing negotiations of community-led culture-centered advocacy and activist strategies that resist the racist, gendered, and classed structures of neocolonial knowledge production in the metropole in the North, we attend to Southern practices of Openness that radically disrupt the whiteness of hegemonic Open Science. These decolonizing practices foreground data sovereignty, community ownership, and public ownership of knowledge resources as the bases of resistance to the colonial-capitalist interests of hegemonic Open Science.
The Forest Ranger (and the Legislator): How Local Congressional Politics Shape Policy Implementation in Agency Field Offices
Authors: Struthers Cory L , Scott Tyler A , Fleischman Forrest , Arnold Gwen 
Published: September 2021

Abstract
Research on political control over government bureaucracy has primarily focused on direct exercises of power such as appointments, funding, agency design, and procedural rules. In this analysis, we extend this literature to consider politicians who leverage their institutional standing to influence the decisions of local field officials over whom they have no explicit authority. Using the case of the US Forest Service (USFS), we investigate whether field-level decisions are associated with the political preferences of individual congressional representatives. Our sample encompasses 7,681 resource extraction actions initiated and analyzed by 107 USFS field offices between 2005 and 2018. Using hierarchical Bayesian regression, we show that under periods of economic growth and stability, field offices situated in the districts of congressional representatives who oppose environmental regulation initiate more extractive actions (timber harvest, oil and gas drilling, grazing) and conduct less rigorous environmental reviews than field offices in the districts of representatives who favor environmental regulation. By extending existing theories about interactions between politicians and bureaucrats to consider informal means of influence, this work speaks to (1) the role of local political interests in shaping agency-wide policy outcomes and (2) the importance of considering informal and implicit means of influence that operate in concert with explicit control mechanisms to shape bureaucratic behavior.
Recombination Marks the Evolutionary Dynamics of a Recently Endogenized Retrovirus
Authors: Yang Lei , Malhotra Raunaq , Chikhi Rayan , Elleder Daniel , Kaiser Theodora , Rong Jesse , Medvedev Paul , Poss Mary 
Published: September 2021

Abstract
All vertebrate genomes have been colonized by retroviruses along their evolutionary trajectory. Although endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) can contribute important physiological functions to contemporary hosts, such benefits are attributed to long-term coevolution of ERV and host because germline infections are rare and expansion is slow, and because the host effectively silences them. The genomes of several outbred species including mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) are currently being colonized by ERVs, which provides an opportunity to study ERV dynamics at a time when few are fixed. We previously established the locus-specific distribution of cervid ERV (CrERV) in populations of mule deer. In this study, we determine the molecular evolutionary processes acting on CrERV at each locus in the context of phylogenetic origin, genome location, and population prevalence. A mule deer genome was de novo assembled from short- and long-insert mate pair reads and CrERV sequence generated at each locus. We report that CrERV composition and diversity have recently measurably increased by horizontal acquisition of a new retrovirus lineage. This new lineage has further expanded CrERV burden and CrERV genomic diversity by activating and recombining with existing CrERV. Resulting interlineage recombinants then endogenize and subsequently expand. CrERV loci are significantly closer to genes than expected if integration were random and gene proximity might explain the recent expansion of one recombinant CrERV lineage. Thus, in mule deer, retroviral colonization is a dynamic period in the molecular evolution of CrERV that also provides a burst of genomic diversity to the host population.
Evolution of Methyltransferase-Like (METTL) Proteins in Metazoa: A Complex Gene Family Involved in Epitranscriptomic Regulation and Other Epigenetic Processes
Authors: Wong Juliet M , Eirin-Lopez Jose M 
Published: September 2021

AbstractThe methyltransferase-like (METTL) proteins constitute a family of seven-beta-strand methyltransferases with S-adenosyl methionine-binding domains that modify DNA, RNA, and proteins. Methylation by METTL proteins contributes to the epigenetic, and in the case of RNA modifications, epitranscriptomic regulation of a variety of biological processes. Despite their functional importance, most investigations of the substrates and functions of METTLs within metazoans have been restricted to model vertebrate taxa. In the present work, we explore the evolutionary mechanisms driving the diversification and functional differentiation of 33 individual METTL proteins across Metazoa. Our results show that METTLs are nearly ubiquitous across the animal kingdom, with most having arisen early in metazoan evolution (i.e., occur in basal metazoan phyla). Individual METTL lineages each originated from single independent ancestors, constituting monophyletic clades, which suggests that each METTL was subject to strong selective constraints driving its structural and/or functional specialization. Interestingly, a similar process did not extend to the differentiation of nucleoside-modifying and protein-modifying METTLs (i.e., each METTL type did not form a unique monophyletic clade). The members of these two types of METTLs also exhibited differences in their rates of evolution. Overall, we provide evidence that the long-term evolution of METTL family members was driven by strong purifying selection, which in combination with adaptive selection episodes, led to the functional specialization of individual METTL lineages. This work contributes useful information regarding the evolution of a gene family that fulfills a variety of epigenetic functions, and can have profound influences on molecular processes and phenotypic traits.
UBA1 and DNMT3A mutations in VEXAS syndrome. A case report and literature review
Authors: Shaukat Farah , Hart Melissa , Burns Timothy , Bansal Pankaj 
Published: September 2021

ABSTRACT
Vacuoles, E1 enzyme, X linked, autoinflammatory, somatic (VEXAS) syndrome is a recently described X-linked autoinflammatory condition associated with somatic mutation of the ubiquitin-like modifier activating enzyme 1 (UBA1) gene. It often coexists with myelodysplastic syndrome, which can occur due to DNA (cytosine-5)-methyltransferase 3A (DNMT3A) mutation. These patients, predominantly males, present after the fifth decade of life with unique systemic inflammatory clinical features and have haematological abnormalities and vacuolated precursor cells on bone marrow pathology. Here we describe a unique case of VEXAS syndrome in a patient harbouring DNMT3A gene mutation with coexisting UBA1 mutation with a review of literature.
Glioblastoma as an age-related neurological disorder in adults
Authors: Kim Miri , Ladomersky Erik , Mozny Andreas , Kocherginsky Masha , O’Shea Kaitlyn , Reinstein Zachary Z , Zhai Lijie , Bell April , Lauing Kristen L , Bollu Lakshmi , Rabin Erik , Dixit Karan , Kumthekar Priya , Platanias Leonidas C , Hou Lifang , Zheng Yinan , Wu Jennifer , Zhang Bin , Hrachova Maya , Merrill Sarah A , Mrugala Maciej M , Prabhu Vikram C , Horbinski Craig , James Charles David , Yamini Bakhtiar , Ostrom Quinn T , Johnson Margaret O , Reardon David A , Lukas Rimas V , Wainwright Derek A 
Published: September 2021

Abstract

Background
Advanced age is a major risk factor for the development of many diseases including those affecting the central nervous system. Wild-type isocitrate dehydrogenase glioblastoma (IDHwt GBM) is the most common primary malignant brain cancer and accounts for ≥90% of all adult GBM diagnoses. Patients with IDHwt GBM have a median age of diagnosis at 68–70 years of age, and increasing age is associated with an increasingly worse prognosis for patients with this type of GBM.

Methods
The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results, The Cancer Genome Atlas, and the Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas databases were analyzed for mortality indices. Meta-analysis of 80 clinical trials was evaluated for log hazard ratio for aging to tumor survivorship.

Results
Despite significant advances in the understanding of intratumoral genetic alterations, molecular characteristics of tumor microenvironments, and relationships between tumor molecular characteristics and the use of targeted therapeutics, life expectancy for older adults with GBM has yet to improve.

Conclusions
Based upon the results of our analysis, we propose that age-dependent factors that are yet to be fully elucidated, contribute to IDHwt GBM patient outcomes.
The Impact of Smoke-Free Air Laws and Conventional Cigarette Taxes on Cardiovascular Hospitalizations
Authors: Oliver Jon F 
Published: September 2021

Abstract

Introduction
Smoke-free air legislation and conventional cigarette taxes have long been used to reduce smoking initiation, prevalence, and conventional cigarette consumption. However, the extent to which these policies affect population health across a range of diagnoses and age groups remains less well understood.

Methods
Analyses use 2005–2014 hospital inpatient discharge data from up to 40 US states to estimate the effects of smoke-free air laws and conventional cigarette taxes on cardiovascular hospitalizations among working age and older adults.

Results
An increase in the percent of a county’s population covered by smoke-free air laws yielded a significant decline of 2.4% (Relative risk [RR]: 0.976, 95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 0.954, 0.997) in acute cerebrovascular disease hospitalizations among older adults. Moreover, significant declines of 2.0% (RR: 0.980, 95% CI: 0.967, 0.994) and 2.8% (RR: 0.972, 95% CI: 0.949, 0.996) in acute cerebrovascular disease were observed among older adults in the first year and subsequent years after smoke-free air legislation was implemented, respectively. Conventional cigarette taxes did not yield a significant change in acute cerebrovascular disease hospitalizations, nor did either tobacco control policy lead to a significant decline in acute myocardial infarction hospitalizations.

Conclusions
Smoke-free air laws play an important role in reducing adult cardiovascular hospitalizations. These findings confirm existing research on acute cerebrovascular disease outcomes, as well as the modest effects on acute myocardial infarction hospitalizations observed in state- and national-level analyses.

Implications
Current research at the local level finds smoke-free air laws yield 40% declines in acute myocardial infarction hospitalizations and 29% declines in acute cerebrovascular disease. State- and national-level analyses find smaller effects of smoke-free air laws, and largely omit analyses of working age adults. Existing research likely suffers from omitted variable bias, including state-level tobacco control funding and local-level conventional cigarette taxes. Using adult hospitalization data from up to 40 states, this study confirms existing evidence at the national and state level, and provides new evidence that smoke-free air laws significantly reduce acute cerebrovascular disease hospitalizations among older adults.