bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
A Suite of Pathogens Detected in Ticks Sampled From Wildlife Hosts in Central Kenya
Authors: McFarland Derek , Fredericks L. Page , Hedlund Tyler , Jones Sharon , Keesing Felicia , Mutinda Mathew , Allan Brian F. 
Published: September 2024

ABSTRACTOpportunistic sampling of ticks from animals during veterinary treatment offers important insights about wildlife exposure to pathogens. Here, we report pathogens and other tick‐borne organisms detected in ticks sampled from 10 animal species in and near Laikipia County, Kenya, in 2014–2016. Pathogen analysis was performed using a combination of Fluidigm PCR and Illumina sequencing. We detected a suite of important pathogens affecting human and domestic and wild animal health, including Anaplasma marginale, Rickettsia africae and Theileria parva. These findings expand our limited understanding of wildlife exposure to tick‐borne pathogens and potential ramifications for animal health and conservation.
An attempt at exhausting a place in Shetland: (field)notes from a (very) small island
Authors: Armstrong Justin 
Published: September 2024

AbstractIn what follows, I outline the possibility of directly applying Georges Perec's An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris (2010) to the practice of ethnography. Based on 2 weeks of anthropological fieldwork on the remote Shetland Island of Foula, I attempt a translation of Perec's careful observations of an urban square in Paris in the 1970s into the context of an ethnography in this remote, rural location. After outlining the connections between Perec's book and my work as an anthropologist, I provide readers with my “raw” field notes so that they might then draw out their own analysis in the same way that I believe Perec intended his work to be understood.
The uncanny COVID‐19 pandemic: The traumatic impact on our sense of the familiar
Authors: Zhang Yanxiu 
Published: September 2024

AbstractIn the shadow of the COVID‐19 pandemic, familiar life may be said to have become unequivocally altered as a result of the diffuse death threat posed by the virus and the unprecedented experience of a global lockdown. The unexpected superposition of familiarity and unfamiliarity can be linked to the psychoanalytic notion of the uncanny. For Freud, the uncanny was considered a derivative of the reappearance of the repressed, whose context is dominated by the alien nature of the repression. I suggest that a further perspective can be implied—that the sudden disruption of what is familiar is traumatic and engenders a sense of the uncanny. Reflecting on the COVID‐19 pandemic, this dynamic can be identified in the following aspects: (i) an overwhelming intrusion of an unfamiliar virus upon familiar life, encouraging paranoid denial and projection of the threat and increasing the tendency to stigmatise; (ii) a continuous re‐manifestation of hidden familiarities, both repressed individual conflicts and collective inequalities, illustrating the fragility of the ‘norm’; and (iii) the sudden disruption of an adopted belief (that the virus is beatable), and re‐confrontation with the threat of death following lockdown failure.
A Generative Adversarial Network for Upsampling of Direct Volume Rendering Images
Authors: Jin Ge , Jung Younhyun , Fulham Michael , Feng Dagan , Kim Jinman 
Published: September 2024

AbstractDirect volume rendering (DVR) is an important tool for scientific and medical imaging visualization. Modern GPU acceleration has made DVR more accessible; however, the production of high‐quality rendered images with high frame rates is computationally expensive. We propose a deep learning method with a reduced computational demand. We leveraged a conditional generative adversarial network (cGAN) to upsample DVR images (a rendered scene), with a reduced sampling rate to obtain similar visual quality to that of a fully sampled method. Our dvrGAN is combined with a colour‐based loss function that is optimized for DVR images where different structures such as skin, bone, etc. are distinguished by assigning them distinct colours. The loss function highlights the structural differences between images, by examining pixel‐level colour, and thus helps identify, for instance, small bones in the limbs that may not be evident with reduced sampling rates. We evaluated our method in DVR of human computed tomography (CT) and CT angiography (CTA) volumes. Our method retained image quality and reduced computation time when compared to fully sampled methods and outperformed existing state‐of‐the‐art upsampling methods.
Generalized Lipschitz Tracing of Implicit Surfaces
Authors: Bán Róbert , Valasek Gábor 
Published: September 2024

AbstractWe present a versatile and robust framework to render implicit surfaces defined by black‐box functions that only provide function value queries. We assume that the input function is locally Lipschitz continuous; however, we presume no prior knowledge of its Lipschitz constants. Our pre‐processing step generates a discrete acceleration structure, a Lipschitz field, that provides data to infer local and directional Lipschitz upper bounds. These bounds are used to compute safe step sizes along rays during rendering. The Lipschitz field is constructed by generating local polynomial approximations to the input function, then bounding the derivatives of the approximating polynomials. The accuracy of the approximation is controlled by the polynomial degree and the granularity of the spatial resolution used during fitting, which is independent from the resolution of the Lipschitz field. We demonstrate that our process can be implemented in a massively parallel way, enabling straightforward integration into interactive and real‐time modelling workflows. Since the construction only requires function value evaluations, the input surface may be represented either procedurally or as an arbitrarily filtered grid of function samples. We query the original implicit representation upon ray trace, as such, we preserve the geometric and topological details of the input as long as the Lipschitz field supplies conservative estimates. We demonstrate our method on both procedural and discrete implicit surfaces and compare its exact and approximate variants.
Comparative analysis of readmission rates and outcomes: Sleeve gastrectomy with versus without Nissen fundoplication using a National Database
Authors: Afifi Ahmed M. , Qadir Daniyal , Ren Gang , Hsu Justin , Sferra Joseph , Pannell Stephanie , Nazzal Munier 
Published: September 2024

SummaryLaparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) is the most frequently performed bariatric procedure. To study the safety of LSG done with Nissen Fundoplication (NF) in patients affected by obesity and GERD and assess the complication rate. A retrospective cohort study using the Nationwide Readmissions Database from 2016 to 2019. A total of 236111 patients underwent LSG with and without NF. A matched cohort of 1096 without NF and 548 with NF was obtained. The median age of patients was 47 years old. Median length of hospital stay was higher in the LSG with NF group. Median total charge was higher in the LSG with NF group. There was no statistically significant difference in 30‐day readmission rates in patients with obesity and GERD who received LSG with NF compared to those who received LSG alone. Complications after both procedures were low, which highlights the safety of both procedures.
PET/MRI in paediatric inflammatory bowel disease – a prospective accuracy study
Authors: Dalby Sina , Piri Reza , Graumann Ole , Gerke Oke , Andersen Thomas Lund , Walsted Anne‐Mette , Risby Kirsten , Nielsen Rasmus Gaardskær , Linnemann Anders , Høilund‐Carlsen Poul Flemming , Husby Steffen 
Published: September 2024

AbstractCross‐sectional imaging supplements endoscopy in detecting disease manifestations in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of PET/MRI in a paediatric population suspected of IBD. This prospective study consecutively included patients aged 8–17 years under diagnostic evaluation for IBD. Forty‐three patients underwent a PET/MRI scan and subsequent ileocolonoscopy, of whom 26 patients diagnosed with IBD participated in a follow‐up scan, hereof 19 with Crohn's disease (CD), five with Ulcerative colitis and two with unclassified IBD. The results of PET alone, MRI alone, and PET/MRI combined were compared to a reference standard of endoscopy and histopathology. Of the 208 intestinal segments analysed, 109 showed inflammation, and 99 had no inflammation. In the per‐segment analysis PET had a sensitivity of 0.83 (95% CI 0.73–0.93), specificity of 0.59 (95% CI 0.47–0.71), and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of 0.73 (95% CI 0.67–0.80). MRI had a sensitivity of 0.52 (95% CI 0.41–0.64), specificity 0.89 (95% CI 0.82–0.96), and AUROC of 0.72 (95% CI 0.66–0.77). PET/MRI had a sensitivity of 0.83 (95% CI 0.74–0.94), specificity of 0.57 (95% CI 0.44–0.69), and AUROC of 0.77 (95% CI 0.71–0.84). At follow‐up, PET and MRI scores decreased, and the change in MRI was able to identify patients with a clinical response. The accuracy of the PET/MRI scan in detecting inflammation in the terminal ileum and colon was moderate and not superior to either modality alone. With technological advances and combined reading, PET/MRI may still be valuable in selected cases.
Personality may modulate learning and memory differences in two taxa of the African striped mouse genus Rhabdomys
Authors: Neves Candice N. , Pillay Neville 
Published: September 2024

AbstractDifferent environments place different cognitive demands on constituent taxa. Learning and memory involve cognitive processes with associated costs, and it is expected that different levels of learning will occur in taxa from different environments. Greater memory loads linked to increased environmental complexity require greater learning and memory capacities. We investigated the variation in learning and memory in sister taxa of striped mice (genus Rhabdomys). We studied two populations each of the mesic grassland‐occurring R. d. chakae and the mostly arid‐occurring R. pumilio. We conducted two sets of experiments. (1) In a novel object recognition (NOR) test, we assessed memory by recording the duration of exploration of similar and novel objects by test mice. (2) In an associative learning task, we assessed whether mice could associate specific scents with or without a food incentive or with different quantities of the food incentive in previous training phases. We measured the latency of mice to contact scents in a two‐sample choice in the test phase. In the NOR test, R. pumilio spent less time investigating similar objects in a training trial than R. d. chakae but increased absolute exploration of the novel object when presented with a novel and a familiar object in the retention trial, suggesting a sensitization to the novel object by R. pumilio. In the associative learning experiments, R. pumilio approached the stimuli faster than R. d. chakae, whereas mice from both taxa preferred scents associated with a seed versus no seed and scents associated with 5 seeds versus 1 seed. The data provide evidence of taxon‐level differences in learning and memory, likely related to environmentally modulated personality differences between the taxa.
Morphological and Microbial Diversity of Hydromagnesite Microbialites in Lake Salda: A Mars Analog Alkaline Lake
Authors: Gunes Yagmur , Sekerci Fatih , Avcı Burak , Ettema Thijs J. G. , Balci Nurgul 
Published: September 2024

ABSTRACTLake Salda, a terrestrial analog for the paleolake in Jezero Crater on Mars, hosts active, subfossil, and fossil hydromagnesite microbialites, making it an ideal location to study microbialite formation and subsequent processes. Our understanding of this record is still limited by an incomplete knowledge of the macro‐ and mesoscale morphotypes of microbialites, along with their spatial distribution and correlation with microbial and geochemical processes that influence microbialite formation. In this study, we investigated the spatial distribution, morphotypes, mineralogy, geochemistry, and microbial diversity of the microbialites and identified six distinct zones (Zone I to Zone VI) with major microbialite build‐ups in Lake Salda. Newly identified microbialites were classified based on the macro‐ and mesostructures. Our work shows that the lake contains stromatolites, thrombolites, stromatolitic thrombolites, dendrolites, and microbially induced sedimentary structures. At macroscale, Lake Salda microbialites exhibit hemispheres, stacked domes, and laterally linked columnar structures while minicolumns, knobs, mesoclots, laminae, and botryoidal structures are common at mesoscale. The macro‐ and mesoscale distribution of different microbialite types spatially correlates with microbial community composition and water depth. Deep‐growing microbialites with a low abundance of Cyanobacteria (∼1%–4%) and high abundance of Firmicutes (28%–93%) exhibit steeply convex lamination, producing finger‐like minicolumnar mesostructures. In contrast, shallow‐growing microbialites with a low abundance of Firmicutes (0%–5%) and high abundance of Cyanobacteria (11%–37%) have well‐preserved gently convex millimeter‐scale lamination, resulting in cauliflower mesostructures. Palygorskite ((Mg, Al)2Si4O10(OH)) is identified in the diatom‐rich microbial layer of the deep‐growing microbialites. Regardless of the microbialite types, hydromagnesite and aragonite are present in the extracellular polymeric substance (EPS)‐rich zone of the shallow and deep‐growing microbialites. Overall, environmental changes (e.g., water depth and, accommodation space) play a major role in the formation and spatial distribution of different microbialite morphologies at the macro‐ and mesoscale. Differences in the relative abundance of dominant microorganisms between mesostructured types suggest that mesomorphology may be influenced by changes in microbial diversity. Spatial variations in the microbialite morphotypes, along with the abundant presence of entombed biomass (e.g., mineralized filaments), may indicate areas that have a high potential for the preservation of biosignatures.
Microwave‐assisted treatment for the improvement of rice flour properties and rice flour bread quality
Authors: Md Yunos Noor Seribainun Hidayah , Hafid Halimatun Saadiah , Omar Farah Nadia , P. Mohammed Mohd Afandi , Wakisaka Minato , Mustapha Nor Afizah , Samsu Baharuddin Azhari 
Published: September 2024

SummaryModification of rice flour by microwave and its effect on bread making performance was evaluated. Rice flour having two different water content (20% and 30%) were exposed to different level of microwave power (600 W, 700 W and 800 W) with 8 min treatment time to assess its influence on amylose content, thermal properties, morphological structure, functional and crystalline structural that affect bread quality. Microwave‐treated rice flour at 600 W showed notable increment in amylose content of 1.03 folds (for both 20% and 30% water content) as compared to untreated rice flour. The microwave treatment destroyed the amorphous region of the rice flour starch, whereas starch crystal structure was slightly increased after treatment. Rice flour maintained its thermal stability even after exposure to high radiation of microwave. The treated rice flour exhibited starch granules with more voids on its surface, indicating the exudation of amylose at higher temperature. The major effect of microwave treatment was observed on the bread for rice flour treated at 800 W with higher specific volume, increase in gas cells pores, softer crumb, low hardness and delayed staling as compared to untreated rice flour. The microwave‐assisted treatment shows a significant potential in improving the rice flour quality led to increase the quality of bread.
The effects of hydrothermal treatment temperature and time on the textural characteristics of Lei bamboo shoots
Authors: Zhong Deirui , Song Jiyuan , Wang Hongyan , Yuan Shaofei , Guo Xiaolei , Zhang Wenfu , Zhang Jian , Zhou Zhaobing 
Published: September 2024

SummaryThis study investigated the effects of hydrothermal treatment temperature and time on the textural characteristics of Lei bamboo (Phyllostachys violascens) shoots. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were employed to analyse changes in chemical structure, crystallinity and microstructure. Mechanical properties, including modulus of rupture, modulus of elasticity, compressive strength and the bonding strength between bamboo shoot flesh and shell, were also measured. Results indicated that with increasing temperature and treatment duration, hemicellulose and cellulose components in both bamboo shoot shell and flesh degraded, primarily affecting the amorphous regions of cellulose, leading to increased relative crystallinity and alterations in the bamboo shoots' microstructure. The mechanical properties of the bamboo shoots generally decreased with increasing hydrothermal treatment intensity. Optimal softening and minimal mechanical properties were achieved at a hydrothermal treatment temperature of 100 °C for 30 min, with the bonding strength between bamboo shoot shell and flesh reaching a minimum of 3.21 N. These findings provide crucial data support for optimising bamboo shoot processing techniques and developing efficient peeling equipment.
Body structure processing and attentional patterns in infancy and adulthood
Authors: Jubran Rachel , White Hannah , Heck Alison , Chroust Alyson , Bhatt Ramesh S. 
Published: September 2024

AbstractInfants are sensitive to distortions to the global configurations of bodies by 3.5 months of age, suggesting an early onset of body knowledge. It is unclear, however, whether such sensitivity indicates knowledge of the location of specific body parts or solely reflects sensitivity to the overall gestalt of bodies. This study addressed this issue by examining whether, like adults, infants attend to specific locations where body parts have been reorganized. Results show that adults and 5‐month‐olds, but not 3.5‐month‐olds, allocated more attention to the body joint areas (e.g., where the arm connects to the shoulder) that were reorganized versus ones that were typical. To examine whether this kind of processing is driven by low‐level features, 5‐month‐olds were tested on images in which the head was removed. Infants no longer exhibited differential scanning of typical versus reorganized bodies. Results suggest that 5‐month‐olds are sensitive to the location of body parts, thereby demonstrating adult‐like response patterns consistent with early expertise in body processing. The contrasting failure of 3.5‐month‐olds to exhibit sensitivity to the reorganization suggests a developmental change between these ages.
A scoping review on parental/caregiver challenges in maintaining oral hygiene among children with autism spectrum disorder
Authors: Mahabala Karuna Yarmunja , Dutt Anuradha , Shenoy Ramya , Lee YingMin , Thimmaiah Charisma , Bhat Sham , Nayak Anupama , Rao Ashwin 
Published: September 2024

AbstractBackgroundDental practitioners must develop feasible and evidence‐based strategies to help parents/caregivers successfully implement daily oral hygiene measures among their children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).AimThis scoping review aimed to explore challenges faced by parents/caregivers while performing routine oral hygiene care among their children with ASD.DesignA methodological framework recommended by Arksey and O'Malley and reporting guidelines prescribed by PRISMA‐ScR were adopted. A database search was conducted across PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, EMBASE, and ClinicalKey, to identify articles that addressed challenges faced by parents/caregivers while performing routine oral hygiene care for their children with ASD.ResultsThe search yielded 4934 articles. Following the inclusion/exclusion criteria, nine articles were included in this scoping review. A qualitative analysis of included articles following the PICOS coding criteria revealed major themes. These consisted of various home oral hygiene practices followed by parents/caregivers, and challenges faced by them during home oral hygiene care owing to underlying sensory, behavioral, physical, and/or functional problems experienced by their children with ASD.ConclusionChallenges experienced by parents/caregivers of children with ASD were numerous, which resulted in deviations from routine oral hygiene practices from recommended guidelines for the prevention of dental caries.
Every problem is embedded in a greater whole
Authors: Sturmberg Joachim P. , Mercuri Mathew 
Published: September 2024

AbstractPeter Drucker pointed out an important distinction between ‘doing things right’ and ‘doing the right thing’, which recognised that all problems are embedded in a context and thus can only be understood within their unique contextual setting. Contemporary research practices in clinical medicine often regards contextual factors as potential confounders that will bias effect estimates and thus must be avoided. However rigorous, research devoid of context ultimately deprives users of understanding of the support factors that make research transferable to policy decisions or managing care of individual patients—it stands in the way of ‘doing the right thing’ in ‘real life’ settings. Appreciating that all problems are embedded in a greater context means that one should not ignore their interconnected and interdependent systemic nature, that is, every variable is simultaneously dependent and independent. This is the reason for the cascading effects and feedback loops witnessed in disease progression and policy efforts. We discuss the need for researchers to a‐priori consider the context of their research question as well as the structural relationships of the variables under investigation, which in turn provides the basis for choosing the most appropriate research design. We have a moral imperative to first ‘do the right thing’—ask questions that address the contextual needs of our patients, and then to ‘do it right’—choose the best research method to answer this contextually framed need. Only then will our research efforts have meaningful and lasting impacts on patient care.
Predicting malnutrition‐based anemia in geriatric patients using machine learning methods
Authors: Göl Mehmet , Aktürk Cemal , Talan Tarık , Vural Mehmet Sait , Türkbeyler İbrahim Halil 
Published: September 2024

AbstractBackgroundAnemia due to malnutrition may develop as a result of iron, folate and vitamin B12 deficiencies. This situation poses a higher risk of morbidity and mortality in the geriatric population than in other age groups. Therefore, early diagnosis of anemia and early initiation of treatment is very important. This study aims to predict the diagnosis of anemia with using machine learning (ML) methods in geriatric patients followed in an outpatient clinic.MethodsIn line with the purpose of the study, anemia classification was made by analysing patients' hemogram and biochemistry blood values and medical data such as malnutrition, physical and cognitive activity scores with ML methods.ResultsIn our data set consisting of 438 patient observations, the most successful ML algorithm was the J48 algorithm with 97.77% accuracy. In the continuation of the study, the predictive performance of anemia was investigated by excluding blood values and selecting only attributes consisting of malnutrition and physical activity scores. In this case, the most successful prediction was obtained with the Random Forest algorithm with 85.39% accuracy.ConclusionsThe study showed that anemia can be predicted with high accuracy in geriatric patients without hemogram data. Additionally, our geriatric data set was shared with researchers for future research. Thus, it has contributed to the literature by opening a new path for studies on subjects such as comparing classification performances with new methodologies or predicting different diseases in geriatric patients.