bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Alpha-Klotho is a novel predictor of treatment responsiveness in patients with heart failure
Authors: Taneike Manabu , Nishida Makoto , Nakanishi Kaori , Sera Fusako , Kioka Hidetaka , Yamamoto Ryohei , Ohtani Tomohito , Hikoso Shungo , Moriyama Toshiki , Sakata Yasushi , Yamauchi-Takihara Keiko 
Published: January 2021

AbstractHeart failure is a major cause of death with an increasing population of elderly individuals. Several studies have demonstrated the involvement of soluble alpha-Klotho (sαKl) in various diseases. However, the correlation between sαKl and heart failure remains to be understood. The aim of this study is to investigate the levels and role of sαKl in patients with heart failure. Twenty-eight consecutive patients with acute heart failure (19 male, 9 female), admitted to the Osaka University Hospital from 2010 to 2018, were enrolled in this study. Mean NYHA score, left ventricular ejection fraction and BNP were 3.3, 17.0% and 588 pg/mL, respectively. SαKl significantly increased in heart failure patients. SαKl on admission were significantly higher in patients with heart failure who showed improvement after intensive treatment than that in patients who did not show improvement after the treatment. SαKl levels decreased significantly in patients who showed improvement. Interestingly, sαKl levels increased in male patients with heart failure, but not in female patients. Our data suggest that soluble αKl may be a novel biomarker for the responsiveness against treatment in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. Our findings may help developing a personalized therapy for different patients with heart failure.
On the robustness of an eastern boundary upwelling ecosystem exposed to multiple stressors
Authors: Diogoul Ndague , Brehmer Patrice , Demarcq Hervé , El Ayoubi Salaheddine , Thiam Abou , Sarre Abdoulaye , Mouget Anne , Perrot Yannick 
Published: January 2021

AbstractThe resistance of an east border upwelling system was investigated using relative index of marine pelagic biomass estimates under a changing environment spanning 20-years in the strongly exploited southern Canary Current Large marine Ecosystem (sCCLME). We divided the sCCLME in two parts (north and south of Cap Blanc), based on oceanographic regimes. We delineated two size-based groups (“plankton” and “pelagic fish”) corresponding to lower and higher trophic levels, respectively. Over the 20-year period, all spatial remote sensing environmental variables increased significantly, except in the area south of Cap Blanc where sea surface Chlorophyll-a concentrations declined and the upwelling favorable wind was stable. Relative index of marine pelagic abundance was higher in the south area compared to the north area of Cap Blanc. No significant latitudinal shift to the mass center was detected, regardless of trophic level. Relative pelagic abundance did not change, suggesting sCCLME pelagic organisms were able to adapt to changing environmental conditions. Despite strong annual variability and the presence of major stressors (overfishing, climate change), the marine pelagic ressources, mainly fish and plankton remained relatively stable over the two decades, advancing our understanding on the resistance of this east border upwelling system.
Dynamic swimming pattern of Pseudomonas aeruginosa near a vertical wall during initial attachment stages of biofilm formation
Authors: Khong Nicole Zi-Jia , Zeng Yukai , Lai Soak-Kuan , Koh Cheng-Gee , Liang Zhao-Xun , Chiam Keng-Hwee , Li Hoi-Yeung 
Published: January 2021

AbstractStudying the swimming behaviour of bacteria in 3 dimensions (3D) allows us to understand critical biological processes, such as biofilm formation. It is still unclear how near wall swimming behaviour may regulate the initial attachment and biofilm formation. It is challenging to address this as visualizing the movement of bacteria with reasonable spatial and temporal resolution in a high-throughput manner is technically difficult. Here, we compared the near wall (vertical) swimming behaviour of P. aeruginosa (PAO1) and its mutants ΔdipA (reduced in swarming motility and increased in biofilm formation) and ΔfimX (deficient in twitching motility and reduced in biofilm formation) using our new imaging technique based on light sheet microscopy. We found that P. aeruginosa (PAO1) increases its speed and changes its swimming angle drastically when it gets closer to a wall. In contrast, ΔdipA mutant moves toward the wall with steady speed without changing of swimming angle. The near wall behavior of ΔdipA allows it to be more effective to interact with the wall or wall-attached cells, thus leading to more adhesion events and a larger biofilm volume during initial attachment when compared with PAO1. Furthermore, we found that ΔfimX has a similar near wall swimming behavior as PAO1. However, it has a higher dispersal frequency and smaller biofilm formation when compared with PAO1 which can be explained by its poor twitching motility. Together, we propose that near wall swimming behavior of P. aeruginosa plays an important role in the regulation of initial attachment and biofilm formation.
Leprosy incidence and risk estimates in a 33-year contact cohort of leprosy patients
Authors: Hacker Mariana Andrea , Sales Anna Maria , Duppre Nádia Cristina , Sarno Euzenir Nunes , Moraes Milton Ozório 
Published: January 2021

AbstractReduction in incidence has been associated with the introduction of novel approaches, like chemo/immune-prophylaxis. Incidence determined through follow-up cohort studies can evaluate the implementation of these innovative policies towards control and prevention. We have assessed the incidence in our contacts cohort over past 33 years, considering the effect of demographic and clinical variables. Survival analysis was used to estimate the risk of leprosy. A total of 9024 contacts were evaluated, of which 192 developed leprosy, resulting in an overall incidence of 1.4/1000 person-years. The multivariate analysis showed that the major risk factors were (i) contact from MB index cases and (ii) consanguinity (iii) intra household contact. Lower risk was detected for contacts with BCG scar who were revaccinated. There was a significant decrease in accumulated risk between the 2011–2019 period compared with 1987, probably linked to the improvement in laboratory tools to monitor contacts, thereby providing early diagnosis of contacts at intake and reduction of transmission. Our findings suggest that a combination of contact surveillance and tracing, adequate neurodermatological examination, and availability of molecular tools is highly effective in supporting early diagnosis, while a second dose of the BCG vaccination can exert extra protection.
Positive lymph node ratio is an index in predicting prognosis for remnant gastric cancer with insufficient retrieved lymph node in R0 resection
Authors: Wang Honghu , Qi Hao , Liu Xiaofang , Gao Ziming , Hidasa Iko , Aikebaier Ailixier , Li Kai 
Published: January 2021

AbstractThe staging system of remnant gastric cancer (RGC) has not yet been established, with the current staging being based on the guidelines for primary gastric cancer. Often, surgeries for RGC fail to achieve the > 15 lymph nodes needed for TNM staging. Compared with the pN staging system, lymph node ratio (NR) may be more accurate for RGC staging and prognosis prediction. We retrospectively analyzed the data of 208 patients who underwent R0 gastrectomy with curative intent and who have ≤ 15 retrieved lymph nodes (RLNs) for RGC between 2000 and 2014. The patients were divided into four groups on the basis of the NR cutoffs: rN0: 0; rN1: > 0 and ≤ 1/6; rN2: > 1/6 and ≤ 1/2; and rN3: > 1/2. The 5-year overall survival (OS) rates for rN0, rN1, rN2, and rN3 were 84.3%, 64.7%, 31.5%, and 12.7%, respectively. Multivariable analyses revealed that tumor size (p = 0.005), lymphovascular invasion (p = 0.023), and NR (p < 0.001), but not pN stage (p = 0.682), were independent factors for OS. When the RLN count is ≤ 15, the NR is superior to pN as an important and independent prognostic index of RGC, thus predicting the prognosis of RGC patients more accurately.
Evaluation of the correlation between porphyrin accumulation in cancer cells and functional positions for application as a drug carrier
Authors: Nishida Koshi , Tojo Toshifumi , Kondo Takeshi , Yuasa Makoto 
Published: January 2021

AbstractPorphyrin derivatives accumulate selectively in cancer cells and are can be used as carriers of drugs. Until now, the substituents that bind to porphyrins (mainly at the meso-position) have been actively investigated, but the effect of the functional porphyrin positions (β-, meso-position) on tumor accumulation has not been investigated. Therefore, we investigated the correlation between the functional position of substituents and the accumulation of porphyrins in cancer cells using cancer cells. We found that the meso-derivative showed higher accumulation in cancer cells than the β-derivative, and porphyrins with less bulky substituent actively accumulate in cancer cells. When evaluating the intracellular distribution of porphyrin, we found that porphyrin was internalized by endocytosis and direct membrane permeation. As factors involved in these two permeation mechanisms, we evaluated the affinity between porphyrin-protein (endocytosis) and the permeability to the phospholipid bilayer membrane (direct membrane permeation). We found that the binding position of porphyrin affects the factors involved in the transmembrane permeation mechanisms and impacts the accumulation in cancer cells.
The relationships between LncRNA NNT-AS1, CRP, PCT and their interactions and the refractory mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia in children
Authors: Chen Ping , Huang Zheng , Chen Lumin , Zhuang Shihao , Lin Hongli , Xie Jianfeng , Zheng Kuicheng 
Published: January 2021

AbstractTo investigate the relationships between LncRNA NNT-AS1, CRP, PCT and their interactions and the refractory mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia (RMPP) in children. Serum levels of LncRNA NNT-AS1 of RMPP and non-RMPP (NRMPP) patients were detected by real-time PCR, and were analyzed together with serum c-reactive protein (CRP) and procalcitonin (PCT). Correlations between LncRNA NNT-AS1 and CRP and PCT were analyzed by Pearson correlation test. The ROC curve was used to analyze the potential of LncRNA NNT-AS1, CRP and PCT as biomarkers for predicting RMPP. Logistic regression crossover model and the Excel compiled by Andersson et al. were used to analyze the interactions among the biomarkers. We found that LncRNA NNT-AS1, CRP and PCT were all highly expressed in patients with RMPP. LncRNA NNT-AS1 could positively correlate with the expressions of CRP and PCT, and jointly promote the occurrence of RMPP. The combined diagnosis of LncRNA NNT-AS1, CRP and PCT could predict the occurrence of RMPP.
Stress testing reveals gaps in clinic readiness of image-based diagnostic artificial intelligence models
Authors: Young Albert T. , Fernandez Kristen , Pfau Jacob , Reddy Rasika , Cao Nhat Anh , von Franque Max Y. , Johal Arjun , Wu Benjamin V. , Wu Rachel R. , Chen Jennifer Y. , Fadadu Raj P. , Vasquez Juan A. , Tam Andrew , Keiser Michael J. , Wei Maria L. 
Published: January 2021

AbstractArtificial intelligence models match or exceed dermatologists in melanoma image classification. Less is known about their robustness against real-world variations, and clinicians may incorrectly assume that a model with an acceptable area under the receiver operating characteristic curve or related performance metric is ready for clinical use. Here, we systematically assessed the performance of dermatologist-level convolutional neural networks (CNNs) on real-world non-curated images by applying computational “stress tests”. Our goal was to create a proxy environment in which to comprehensively test the generalizability of off-the-shelf CNNs developed without training or evaluation protocols specific to individual clinics. We found inconsistent predictions on images captured repeatedly in the same setting or subjected to simple transformations (e.g., rotation). Such transformations resulted in false positive or negative predictions for 6.5–22% of skin lesions across test datasets. Our findings indicate that models meeting conventionally reported metrics need further validation with computational stress tests to assess clinic readiness.
New sparse array for non‐circular sources with increased degrees of freedom
Authors: Shaikh Abdul Hayee , Dang Xiaoyu , Khoso Imran. A. , Huang Daqing 
Published: January 2021

AbstractRecently, sparse arrays have received considerable attention as they provide larger array aperture and increased degrees‐of‐freedom (DOFs) compared to uniform linear arrays. These features are essential to enhance the direction‐of‐arrival estimation performance. However, most of the existing sparse arrays are mainly designed for circular sources and realize limited increment in DOFs for non‐circular sources. In this letter, a new sparse array configuration for non‐circular sources is presented, which significantly increases the achievable DOFs and improves the direction‐of‐arrival estimation performance. The proposed geometry comprises two effectively configured uniform linear arrays that exploit the characteristics of non‐circular sources and extend the array aperture. For a given number of sensors, its virtual array is advantageously a hole‐free uniform linear array. Moreover, the precise sensor locations, achievable DOFs, and optimal distribution of physical sensors are determined analytically by closed‐form expressions. Owing to these benefits, the proposed array efficiently resolve multiple sources in under‐determined conditions and achieves better direction‐of‐arrival estimation performance than its counterpart structures. Simulation results validate the superiority of the proposed configuration.
Effect of dual‐wavelength (visible and near‐infrared) light sources on non‐contact heart rate detection
Authors: Jung H. , Pham T. T. A. , Park S. 
Published: January 2021

AbstractImage sensors can achieve non‐contact detection of heart rate to predict the physiological status of the driver in an automotive driver monitoring system. However, the performance of such methods depends on the intensity of the light source. In this study, the effects of visible (VIS) and near‐infrared (NIR) light sources on heart rate measurement are investigated. The custom‐built setup employs Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors for visible and dual visible and near‐infrared spectra, in addition to the controllable light sources with visible and near‐infrared wavelengths. As a reference heart rate, a photoplethysmogram signal from an heart rate sensor is employed. Upon image acquisition, heart rate is estimated based on the facial images with varying intensities of visible and near‐infrared light sources under dim light conditions (10–50 lx). Compared to the values obtained using the visible light source alone, the signal‐to‐noise of the extracted signal increases and the root mean square error of the estimated heart rate decreases when the dual visible and near‐infrared light is applied. This study demonstrates that the use of dual visible and near‐infrared light sources can enhance the performance of non‐contact heart rate measurements, which could be applied to monitor the driver's status under dim light conditions.
E‐band broadband digital controlled phase‐inverting variable gain amplifier in 65‐nm CMOS
Authors: Feng Yikun , Zhao Dixian 
Published: January 2021

AbstractThis letter reports an E‐band phase‐inverting variable gain amplifier in 65‐nm complementary metal‐oxide‐semiconductor (CMOS) technology. A fractional bit based structure with replica cells is proposed to minimise the phase error and ensure the tuning accuracy between different gain modes. This structure has 9‐bits digital‐controlled amplifiers and allows 180° phase shifting. The implemented phase‐inverting variable gain amplifier achieves 16 dB tuning range and 0.5 dB tuning step at 80 GHz. The root mean square (RMS) gain and phase errors across −3 dB bandwidth (i.e. 72–87 GHz) are less than 0.3 dB and 2.7°, respectively. The phase‐inverting variable gain amplifier consumes 8 mW at 1 V supply voltage.
Local bi‐directional funnel network for salient object detection
Authors: Pan Zefeng , Li Junxia , Wang Ziyang 
Published: January 2021

AbstractExisting deep‐learning–based saliency detection methods mainly design a sophisticated architecture to integrate multi‐level convolutional features, for example, recurrent network or bi‐directional message passing model, and achieve gratifying performance. However, the direct transmission of information with large span, for example, the information from the deepest layer and the shallowest layer, may lead to antagonistic problems. To address this problem, we propose a local bi‐directional funnel network (LBDFN) to effectively integrate multi‐level features for salient object detection. In the proposed local bi‐directional funnel network, a local bi‐directional feature integration (LBDFI) module is designed to fuse the features with similar properties from adjacent convolution layers, which can solve the problem of mismatch between fusion features well. The extensive experiments on five saliency detection datasets clearly demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms the state‐of‐the‐art approaches.
Energy efficient neural stimulator with dynamic supply modulation
Authors: Samiei Aria , Hashemi Hossein 
Published: January 2021

AbstractThis paper reports an automatically reconfigurable series–parallel switched‐capacitor step‐down DC–DC converter for neural stimulation applications, fabricated with a 0.13 μm standard complementary metal oxide semiconductor process. The stimulator chip can generate pre‐programmed biphasic or dynamically programmed arbitrary current waveforms, up to ±127 μA peak with 7‐bit resolution. To improve the power efficiency, the supply voltages of the stimulating current sources are dynamically modulated following the output voltage. The functionality of the stimulator is verified in vitro using parylene‐based microelectrode arrays in phosphate‐buffered saline.
Hydrogen‐assisted nitrogen incorporation in zinc oxynitride films grown by rf sputtering
Authors: Choi Jaewon , Jeon Wonjin , Mun Jiyoon , Jo Jungyol 
Published: January 2021

AbstractZinc oxynitride has good electrical characteristics applicable for thin‐film transistors in display devices. Since nitrogen has lower reactivity compared to oxygen, tiny amount of background oxygen can prohibit nitrogen incorporation into the films. In order to minimise the effects of oxygen, hydrogen gas was introduced during sputtering growth. The main hypothesis was that the hydrogen gas would react with oxygen to lower the oxygen density in the vacuum chamber. The films were grown by rf sputtering using zinc metal target and nitrogen gas. Energy dispersive spectroscopy results showed that nitrogen incorporation in the grown films was increased by the additional hydrogen. It was also shown that nitrogen pulsing was an effective method to maintain a reliable target condition.
Fuzzy inference‐based control and decision system for precise aeration of sewage treatment process
Authors: Zeng Wenru , Guo Zhiwei , Zhang Huiyan , Wang Jianhui , Gao Xu , Shen Yu , Gadow Samir Ibrahim 
Published: January 2021

AbstractThe sewage treatment systems manage to reduce pollutants of wastewater to make it reach some requirement. The core of it is to effectively control and determine intermediate aeration amount, which is always challenging. Therefore, a multi‐objective planning mechanism (multi‐objective optimization design combining GRA and fuzzy logic inference) that combines grey relational analysis and fuzzy logic, to find the optimal dissolved oxygen solubility for achieving better outlet water quality, is proposed. First of all, grey correlation coefficient between each optimization target and the reference target is calculated, and are converted into fuzzy inference values through the four steps. After that, it is expected to analyse the average values of process variables to obtain the optimal parameter combinations. A real‐world dataset collected from a realistic sewage treatment plant is utilized as the simulation environment to evaluate the proposed multi‐objective optimization design combining GRA and fuzzy logic inference. Experimental results show that the multi‐objective optimization design combining GRA and fuzzy logic inference makes promotion of 47.34% for fitted outlet water quality compared with the original average annual water quality.
Network slimming for compressed‐sensing cardiac cine MRI
Authors: Park Seong Jae , Lim Chae Guk , Ahn Chang‐Beom 
Published: January 2021

AbstractThe Unet is attempted to be slimmed for compressed‐sensing cardiac cine magnetic resonance imaging. Despite the excellent performance of the U‐net, its heavy structure and long training time restrict its applications in an environment with limited computational resources. We slimmed the U‐net by changing the multiple convolutions to single convolution and the transpose convolution to upsampling and by adopting fewer layers, without performance degradation. The number of trainable weights and training time of the slimmed network was reduced by 87.9% and 48.1%, respectively. The proposed network showed improved performance with a 1.45% reduction in the normalised mean square error.
Performance of probabilistic amplitude shaping with BICM‐ID
Authors: Naka Akira 
Published: January 2021

AbstractIt is numerically shown that bit error rate (BER) performance of probabilistic amplitude shaping (PAS) applying a bit‐to‐symbol mapping of non‐Gray natural binary code assigned to 64‐quadrature amplitude modulation is significantly improved by bit‐interleaved coded modulation with iterative detection (BICM‐ID). The obtained BER performance outperforms the PAS using a standard Gray code mapping. Furthermore, it has been numerically verified that the non‐Gray natural binary code mapping is suitable for BICM‐ID by analysing the extrinsic information transfer chart. In addition, two degradation factors, the shaping and the coding gaps are estimated, from the Shannon limit by analysing mutual information characteristics. The obtained results quantitatively show that BICM‐ID can effectively suppress the coding gap of the PAS applying non‐Gray mapping in BER performance.
Research on suspension control strategy based on finite control set model predictive control with state feedback control‐PID for maglev yaw system of wind turbine
Authors: Wang Nannan , Cai Bin , Chu Xiaoguang , Su Baili 
Published: January 2021

AbstractThe maglev yaw system (MYS) of wind turbine adopts the maglev‐driving technique instead of the traditional gear‐driving technique, so it has the advantages of short downtime and low cost of operation and maintenance. However, it is vulnerable to the nonlinear time‐varying disturbance caused by the random change of wind speed and direction. This paper proposes a dual‐loop suspension control strategy based on the finite control set model predictive control (FCS–MPC) with state feedback control (SFC) to improve the dynamic response and anti‐disturbance ability of the MYS. First, the mathematical models of the MYS are built. Second, in order to realise the stable suspension control, the outer loop controller for suspension air gap tracking is designed by combining SFC with proportional integral differential, and the inner loop controller for maglev current tracking is designed by adopting FCS–MPC with delay compensation. Finally, the simulation and experimental results show that the proposed control strategy has better robustness and dynamic response property comparing with the existing control strategies, and the maglev system of MYS can realise smooth and reliable operation. The proposed suspension control strategy is substantiated to be effective and feasible.