bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The added value of geriatric screening and assessment for predicting overall survival in older patients with cancer
Authors: Kenis Cindy , Baitar Abdelbari , Decoster Lore , De Grève Jacques , Lobelle Jean‐Pierre , Flamaing Johan , Milisen Koen , Wildiers Hans 
Published: October 2018

BACKGROUNDThe aim of this study was to determine and compare the added prognostic value of screening tools, geriatric assessment (GA) components, and GA summaries to clinical information for overall survival (OS) in older patients with cancer.METHODSA screening and a 10‐item GA were systematically performed in patients ≥70 years old with cancer. Cox regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the added prognostic value for OS of screening tools, GA, and GA summaries to clinical information (age, stage, and tumor type) in 2 cohorts (A and B). Cox models were compared on the basis of the Akaike information criterion and the concordance probability estimate. The 2 cohorts for the analyses were similar but independent.RESULTSA complete case analysis was available for 763 patients (median age, 76 years) in cohort A and for 402 patients (median age, 77 years) in cohort B. In both cohorts, most individual GA components were independent prognostic factors for OS. Nutritional status (assessed with the Mini Nutritional Assessment Short Form) and functional status (assessed with the Instrumental Activities of Daily Living) consistently displayed a strong capacity to predict OS. Less consistent results were found for screening tools. GA summaries performed the best in comparison with the screening tools and the individual GA components.CONCLUSIONSMost individual GA components, especially nutritional status and functional status, are prognostic factors for OS in older patients with cancer. GA summaries provide more prognostic information than individual GA components but only moderately improve the prognostic baseline model with clinical information.
Research on the integration of photographic images and photography art based on 3D virtual reality technology
Authors: Bochen Zhang 
Published: October 2018

SummaryNowadays, with the continuous development of online media technologies, there has also been qualitative breakthroughs and innovations in the photographic art. A new type of virtual reality technology was born. Virtual reality technology is a three‐dimensional space model, the basis of using computer network media, and provides users with various aspects and multi‐view sensory experiences. First, it analyzes the photographic imagery and technology fundamentally. Then, it analyzes the basic elements of the photographic art form and analyzes several measures of the creative form of the photographic art. Finally, it focuses on the in‐depth research on the cooperation between technology and art in the innovation form. The photography art it has also absorbed the essence of all kinds of art in the practice. It has become a popular appreciation culture, but also, it brought new life to the life of people. 3D virtual technology can be able to create a “virtual world.” It has the sense of reality and imagination of the three‐dimensional graphics. Photography imaging and 3D image the fusion of art and technology embodies the diversity of art forms.
Detection and application of breaking of automobile mechanical transmission rod based on ant colony algorithm
Authors: Yu Chensi , Zha Wei 
Published: October 2018

SummaryThe automobile transmission is the core component of the automobile transmission system. Extracting effective fault feature information from a complex mechanical device like a car transmission is the key to fault diagnosis. In this paper, the vibration signals of the normal transmission and different faulty transmissions are collected through experiments, and the weak fault feature extraction of automobile transmission gears is based on the combination of Teager energy operator demodulation method and empirical mode decomposition method. Finally, the theory of SVM and its application in fault diagnosis are introduced. Based on the cross‐validation method, the grid search method and particle swarm optimization algorithm are used to search and optimize the important parameters in the SVM model to improve the performance of the SVM classifier.
Context‐dependent interactions between pathogens and a mutualist affect pathogen fitness and mutualist benefits to hosts
Authors: Marchetto Katherine M. , Power Alison G. 
Published: October 2018

AbstractPlants and animals host many microbial symbionts, including both pathogens and mutualists. However, most experimental studies include only one symbiont, and few examine interactions of more than two microbes with their host. Here, we examined whether coinfection with two pathogens causes a synergistic reduction in the benefits that hosts receive from a microbial mutualist. We also measured the effects of a microbial mutualist on the within‐ and between‐host competition between coinfecting pathogens. We manipulated the presence of Clover yellow vein virus (ClYVV), Bean common mosaic virus (BCMV), rhizobia bacteria, and nitrogen fertilizer in common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris). We found asymmetric, context‐dependent interactions among the three microbial symbionts and their host. Coinfection with both viruses led to greater than additive negative effects on the amount of nitrogen that plants received from rhizobia. Rhizobia colonization decreased immune signaling in singly infected plants, but not in coinfected plants. Compared to single ClYVV infection, ClYVV reached higher concentrations within hosts coinfected with BCMV, but only in the presence of rhizobia. Coinfection increased BCMV vertical transmission rates for plants without supplemental nitrogen, but overall vertical transmission opportunities were not affected due to reduced seed production. Examining interactions between multiple microbes sharing a host can reveal important insights about nutrient cycling, disease severity, and pathogen epidemiology.
Phase‐Controlled Cobalt Phosphide Nanoparticles Coupled with N, P, S Co‐Doped Hollow Carbon Polyhedrons as Efficient Catalysts for Both Alkaline and Acidic Hydrogen Evolution
Authors: Li Shuolin , Li Hongmei , Huang Shaowei , He Qian , Hou Linxi 
Published: October 2018

Tailoring cobalt phosphide electrocatalysts with a tunable phase and morphology is of great importance for the advancement of hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The synthesis of phase‐ and morphology‐modulated hollow cobalt phosphide nanoparticles coupled with N, P, S co‐doped carbon (Co‐P@NPS‐C) polyhedrons through a facile three‐step method is reported. Benefiting from the cooperation of structural features, heteroatoms doping, and catalytic components (CoxP, a mixture of CoP and Co2P), the hollow CoxP@NPS‐C polyhedrons exhibit superior HER performance and long‐term stability in 1.0 m KOH solution, with a low onset potential value (18 mV), an overpotential of 80 mV at 10 mA cm−2, and a small Tafel slope of 57.6 mV dec−1. In addition, the CoxP@NPS‐C electrodes exhibit good electrochemical properties and stability in 0.5 m H2SO4 solution. These results suggest a novel and promising coating approach with poly(cyclotriphosphazene‐co‐4,4′‐sulfonyldiphenol (PZS) to fabricate other heterogeneous catalysts for various applications.
Is it justifiable to pool Chironomus species in trace element contamination studies?
Authors: Proulx Isabelle , Hare Landis , Dupré Bruno 
Published: October 2018

Abstract

Larvae of the insect Chironomus (Chironomidae: Diptera) have great potential for estimating the bioavailability of sedimentary trace elements because they are common in fine sediments and tolerate high concentrations of these contaminants. Their use as biomonitors is limited by the fact that they are difficult to identify as to species, and the species can differ in their trace element concentrations. To determine whether pooling species would compromise their use as trace element biomonitors, we identified species of Chironomus larvae collected from 22 lakes and measured their concentrations of 9 trace elements. We found that the concentrations of arsenic, barium, cobalt, copper, manganese, and nickel did not generally differ between sympatric Chironomus species, which indicates that they could be pooled for analyses of these trace elements. In contrast, we found that cadmium (Cd), selenium (Se), and zinc (Zn) concentrations differed between species living at the same site according to their feeding behavior, that is, Chironomus species feeding on oxic sediments tended to have higher Cd and Zn concentrations, whereas those feeding on deeper anoxic sediments had higher Se concentrations. Because Se and Zn concentrations in sympatric Chironomus species usually differed by only a factor of 2, separating species based on their feeding behavior might not be as crucial as for Cd if larval Se and Zn concentrations vary greatly from site to site. Environ Toxicol Chem 2019;38:145–159. © 2018 SETAC
Adaptive Neuro‐Fuzzy Inference System integrated with solar zenith angle for forecasting sub‐tropical Photosynthetically Active Radiation
Authors: Deo Ravinesh C. , Downs Nathan J. , Adamowski Jan F. , Parisi Alfio V. 
Published: October 2018

AbstractAdvocacy for climate mitigation aims to minimize the use of fossil fuel and to support clean energy adaptation. While alternative energies (e.g., biofuels) extracted from feedstock (e.g., micro‐algae) represent a promising role, their production requires reliably modeled photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). PAR models predict energy parameters (e.g., algal carbon fixation) to aid in decision‐making at PAR sites. Here, we model very short‐term (5‐min scale), sub‐tropical region's PAR with an Adaptive Neuro‐Fuzzy Inference System model with a Centroid‐Mean (ANFIS‐CM) trained with a non‐climate input (i.e., only the solar angle, θZ). Accuracy is benchmarked against genetic programming (GP), M5Tree, Random Forest (RF), and multiple linear regression (MLR). ANFIS‐CM integrates fuzzy and neural network algorithms, whereas GP adopts an evolutionary approach, M5Tree employs binary decision, RF employs a bootstrapped ensemble, and MLR uses statistical tools to link PAR with θZ. To design the ANFIS‐CM model, 5‐min θZ (01–31 December 2012; 0500H–1900H) for sub‐tropical, Toowoomba are utilized to extract predictive features, and the testing accuracy (i.e., differences between measurements and forecasts) is evaluated with correlation (r), root‐mean‐square error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE), Willmott (WI), Nash–Sutcliffe (ENS), and Legates & McCabes (ELM) Index. ANFIS‐CM and GP are equivalent for 5‐min forecasts, yielding the lowest RMSE (233.45 and 233.01μ mol m−2s−1) and MAE (186.59 and 186.23 μmol m−2s−1). In contrast, MLR, M5Tree, and RF yields higher RMSE and MAE [(RMSE = 322.25 μmol m−2s−1, MAE = 275.32 μmol m−2s−1), (RMSE = 287.70 μmol m−2s−1, MAE = 234.78 μmol m−2s−1), and (RMSE = 359.91 μmol m−2s−1, MAE = 324.52 μmol m−2s−1)]. Based on normalized error, ANFIS‐CM is considerably superior (MAE = 17.18% versus 19.78%, 34.37%, 26.39%, and 30.60% for GP, MLR, M5Tree, and RF models, respectively). For hourly forecasts, ANFIS‐CM outperforms all other methods (WI = 0.964 vs. 0.942, 0.955, 0.933 & 0.893, and ELM = 0.741 versus 0.701, 0.728, 0.619 & 0.490 for GP, MLR, M5Tree, and RF, respectively). Descriptive errors support the versatile predictive skills of the ANFIS‐CM model and its role in real‐time prediction of the photosynthetic‐active energy to explore biofuel generation from micro‐algae, studying food chains, and supporting agricultural precision.
Fisher’s influence on me
Authors: Elston Robert C. 
Published: October 2018

AbstractThis is the 100th year anniversary of Fisher’s 1918 paper “The correlation between relatives on the supposition of Mendelian inheritance” (Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1918, 52 pp 899‐438). Fisher's work has had a strong influence on today's genetic epidemiology and this brief autobiographical note highlights a few of the ways his influence on me has affected the field. Although I once took a course of lectures from Fisher, it was mainly his writings that influenced my statistical thinking. Not only did the concept of maximum likelihood appeal to me, but also the concepts of interclass and intraclass correlations, discriminant analysis, and transforming semiquantitative scores to minimize interactions—all topics I first learned about from the 11th edition of his book on Statistical Methods for Research Workers. This, together with a few serendipitous events that shaped my career, had a large influence on me and hence also on the field of genetic epidemiology.
Practical advice for selecting or determining trophic magnification factors for application under the European Union Water Framework Directive
Authors: Kidd Karen A , Burkhard Lawrence P , Babut Marc , Borgå Katrine , Muir Derek CG , Perceval Olivier , Ruedel Heinz , Woodburn Kent , Embry Michelle R 
Published: October 2018

Abstract

European Union Directive 2013/39/EU, which amended and updated the Water Framework Directive (WFD; 2000/60/EC) and its daughter directive (2008/105/EC), sets Environmental Quality Standards for biota (EQSbiota) for a number of bioaccumulative chemicals. These chemicals pose a threat to both aquatic wildlife and human health via the consumption of contaminated prey or the intake of contaminated food originating from the aquatic environment. EU member states will need to establish programs to monitor the concentration of 11 priority substances in biota and assess compliance against these new standards for the classification of surface water bodies. An EU-wide guidance effectively addresses the implementation of EQSbiota. Flexibility is allowed in the choice of target species used for monitoring to account for both diversity of habitats and aquatic community composition across Europe. According to that guidance, the consistency and comparability of monitoring data across member states should be enhanced by adjusting the data on biota contaminant concentrations to a standard trophic level by use of the appropriate trophic magnification factor (TMF), a metric of contaminant biomagnification through the food web. In this context, the selection of a TMF value for a given substance is a critical issue, because this field-derived measure of trophic magnification can show variability related to the characteristics of ecosystems, the biology and ecology of organisms, the experimental design, and the statistical methods used for TMF calculation. This paper provides general practical advice and guidance for the selection or determination of TMFs for reliable application within the context of the WFD (i.e., adjustment of monitoring data and EQS derivation). Based on a series of quality attributes for TMFs, a decision tree is presented to help end users select a reasonable and relevant TMF. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2019;15:266–277. © 2018 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC)
Faculty Assessment Fellows: Shifting from a Culture of Compliance to a Culture of Assessment Advocacy
Authors: Hong Rebecca 
Published: October 2018

AbstractThis chapter examines the current pressures and realities in higher education assessment and highlights one campus’ effort toward equipping faculty to move toward a learner‐centered approach in teaching, learning, and assessment. It proposes a model of faculty development that integrates best practices of professional development with cultivating faculty self reflexivity as practitioner and advocate for equity in student learning. The chapter ends with lessons learned in preparing faculty as assessment fellows and recommendations for campuses seeking to engage their faculty in a similar opportunity.
Virtual screening of naphthoquinone analogs for potent inhibitors against the cancer‐signaling PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway
Authors: Rehan Mohd , Bajouh Osama S. 
Published: October 2018

AbstractThe PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway is one of the most commonly disrupted signaling pathways that plays a role in the development and pathogenicity of multiple cancers. Therefore, the critical proteins of this pathway have been targeted for anticancer therapy. The scientific community has increasingly been realizing the anti‐cancer therapeutic potential of naphthoquinone analogs. These compounds constitute a major class of diverse sets of plant metabolites, which include various natural products and synthetic compounds with proven anticancer activity. The current study involved structural computational biology approaches to explore compounds from a diverse pool of naphthoquinone analogs that can inhibit key cancer‐signaling proteins phosphoinositide 3‐kinase (PI3K), protein kinase B, PKB (AKT), and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR). The novel compound identified commonly among the top 10 dock score lists of PI3K, AKT, and mTOR was selected for further study and proposed as a potential inhibitor of the 3 cancer‐signaling proteins and an anticancer agent. Further, to check the docking accuracy and potential of the compound, post docking analyses, namely, binding comparison with the native ligand, the role of the interacting residue role in binding, predicted binding energy and dissociation constant calculations, etc., were performed. All these measures showed good‐quality binding, and thus provide weight to our prediction of the novel compound as a pan PI3K/AKT/mTOR inhibitor and an anticancer agent. Finally, to compare the binding and similarity in the active sites of the 3 protein kinases, a ligand‐based active site alignment was performed and analyzed. Thus, the study proposed a novel naphthoquinone analog as a potential anticancer drug, and provided comparative structural insight into its binding to the 3 protein kinases.
Humic substances reduce ruminal methane production and increase the efficiency of microbial protein synthesisin vitro
Authors: Sheng Ping , Ribeiro Gabriel O , Wang Yuxi , McAllister Tim A 
Published: October 2018

AbstractBACKGROUNDIn ruminants, enteric CH4represents a major energy loss for the host and is a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. Previous studies have shown that humic substances (HS) may have beneficial effects on livestock nutrition. The present study investigated the effects of HS onin vitroCH4production and rumen fermentation.RESULTSTotal gas production was linearly increased with increasing HS after 12 h of incubation, although it was unaffected after 24 and 48 h. Increasing HS linearly decreased CH4at all time points. Increasing HS linearly decreased NH3‐N concentration and the molar proportion of acetate at 12 h, whereas the efficiency of microbial protein (MP) production and total dry matter digestibility (TDMD) linearly increased, with starch digestion (SD) responding quadratically. After 48 h, HS linearly increased MP and TDMD, with neutral detergent fibre digestibility responding quadratically.CONCLUSIONInclusion of HS effectively reduced CH4production and increased substrate disappearance and the efficiency of microbial protein synthesisin vitro. However, its effect onin vivoCH4production, rumen fermentation and ruminant production requires further investigation. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry
Preparation of mesoporous silica nanoparticles molecularly imprinted polymer for efficient separation and enrichment of perfluorooctane sulfonate
Authors: Du Lingling , Cheng Zhen , Zhu Panpan , Chen Qian , Wu Yongqiong , Tan Kejun 
Published: October 2018

AbstractAs a persistent organic pollutant, perfluorooctane sulfonate has drawn a worldwide attention. In this contribution, a novel molecularly imprinted polymer based on mesoporous silica nanoparticles was prepared for efficient separation and enrichment of perfluorooctane sulfonate in water samples. The polymer was characterized by transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X‐ray diffraction, and N2 adsorption/desorption experiments. The static adsorption experiments and the adsorption kinetic tests were conducted. The results showed that the adsorbents had high adsorption capacity (21.10 mg/g) and short adsorption equilibration time (25 min). Meanwhile, the effect of mesoporous silica nanoparticles on the adsorption capacity was investigated. The results indicated that the mesoporous structure helped to increase the adsorption capacity of adsorbent to adsorbate. Besides, the adsorbents show good specificity and good reusability with the adsorption capacity of adsorbent toward perfluorooctane sulfonate decreasing <5% after five adsorption–desorption cycles. The mesoporous silica nanoparticles molecularly imprinted polymer has been used successfully for the removal of perfluorooctane sulfonate in environmental water samples with relative standard deviation ≤4.64%.
Rapid ultrasound‐assisted dispersive solid‐phase extraction of nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs in urine using oleic acid functionalized magnetic graphene oxide
Authors: Seidi Shahram , Moosavi Negar Sabahi , Shanehsaz Maryam , Abdolhosseini Marzieh , Sadeghi Seyed Jamal 
Published: October 2018

AbstractWe describe an ultrasound‐assisted magnetic dispersive solid‐phase extraction based on oleic acid functionalized magnetic graphene oxide followed by high‐performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection. The method was applied for the simultaneous determination of ibuprofen, diclofenac, naproxen, and mefenamic acid in urine. The application of sonication led to the good dispersion of the sorbent, and consequently, significant shortened the extraction time. The sorbent was successfully characterized by different techniques. The influence of the adsorption parameters was optimized using a rotational central composite design. In order to improve desorption efficiency, parameters such as type and volume of the eluent and sonication time were investigated and optimized through a one variable at a time method. Under the optimum conditions, limits of detection and precision were between 3.0–25 ng/mL (n = 5) and 3.2–7.1%, respectively. The preconcentration factors were found to be 74 for naproxen, 76 for diclofenac, 80 for ibuprofen, and 66 for mefenamic acid corresponding to the absolute recovery within the range of 82.5–100%. Finally, the proposed method was successfully applied for simultaneous determination of target analytes in human urine samples. The relative recovery was within the range of 91.4–113.3%, indicating the good reliability and accuracy of the method.
Dielectric resonator‐based wide band circularly polarized MIMO antenna with pattern diversity for WLAN applications
Authors: Sahu Nikesh Kumar , Das Gourab , Gangwar Ravi Kumar 
Published: October 2018

AbstractA novel dielectric resonator (DR)‐based wideband circularly polarized multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antenna with pattern diversity is proposed in this article for wireless local area network applications. In this proposed MIMO antenna, 2 rectangular DRs and a single square DR are stepped together to generate circular polarization characteristics as well as pattern diversity. Along with this, an orthogonal probe feeding network is deployed in the design to limit the inter‐port coupling. Experimentally tested outcomes revealed that the proposed radiator has a 10‐dB impedance bandwidth of 21.51% and a 3‐dB axial ratio bandwidth of 13.23%. Besides, results of MIMO diversity performance parameters demonstrate that the proposed antenna is well suitable for MIMO applications.