bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Combined Double-breasted Full-thickness Abdominal Flap Plication and Acellular Dermal Matrix in Prune-belly Syndrome Reconstruction
Authors: Baccarani Alessio , Pappalardo Marco , Ceccarelli Pier Luca , Starnoni Marta , De Santis Giorgio 
Published: April 2024

Background:
Reconstruction of the abdominal wall in patients with prune-belly syndrome (PBS) following previous intra-abdominal procedures is a challenging problem with a high incidence of revision due to persistent bulging or herniation. The abdominal wall flaccidity not only produces a severe psychological and aesthetic discomfort for the patient but often determines functional disabilities, including inability to cough properly, impaired bowel and bladder function, and delay in posture and balance.

Methods:
The authors describe three cases of reconstruction of abdominal wall using a modified double-breasted abdominoplasty fascial plication with additional acellular dermal matrix interposition and review the literature for innovations in the use of abdominal repair for reconstruction of these difficult cases.

Results:
Three children with PBS at a mean age of 7.3 years achieved successful reconstruction of the abdominal wall, using the modified double-breasted abdominoplasty fascial plication with acellular dermal matrix interposition. Patients underwent previous procedures, including orchiopexy in two patients and bilateral nephrectomy in one patient. No postoperative complications have been found, apart from superficial skin dehiscence along the abdominal incision treated conservatively in one child. At mean follow-up of 42 months (range 28–56 months), no patient presented incisional hernia, persistent or recurrent fascial laxity with abdominal bulging. All patients achieved significant aesthetic and functional improvements, including children’s ability to cough, spontaneous gain of abdominal tonus, balance, and ambulation.

Conclusion:
Modification of the original vertical, two-layer plications of the deficient abdominal interposing biological mesh has the purpose of improving strength, aesthetics, and function of the abdominal wall in pediatric patients with PBS.
Connecting human behaviour, meaning and nature
Authors: Anderies J. M. , Folke C. 
Published: April 2024

Much of the discourse around climate change and the situation of diverse human societies and cultures in the Anthropocene focuses on responding to scientific understanding of the dynamics of the biosphere by adjusting existing institutional and organizational structures. Our emerging scientific understanding of human behaviour and the mechanisms that enable groups to achieve large-scale coordination and cooperation suggests that incrementally adjusting existing institutions and organizations will not be sufficient to confront current global-scale challenges. Specifically, the transaction costs of operating institutions to induce selfish rational actors to consider social welfare in their decision-making are too high. Rather, we highlight the importance of networks of shared stories that become real—imagined orders—that create context, meaning and shared purpose for framing decisions and guiding action. We explore imagined orders that have contributed to bringing global societies to where they are and propose elements of a science-informed imagined order essential to enabling societies to flourish in the Anthropocene biosphere.
This article is part of the theme issue ‘Bringing nature into decision-making’.
Nurturing future leaders for nature: the example of the UK's National Education Nature Park
Authors: Hazell Jonny , Clarke Edward 
Published: April 2024

This piece reviews the evidence on the effect that engaging with nature has on school-age children's future attitudes and behaviour towards nature. It also looks into the impact engaging with nature has on children and young people's physical, mental and personal development and the evidence on how much time children in England are spending in natural environments. It then presents a UK Government project, the National Education Nature Park (NENP), intended to increase children in England's access to nature by developing nature spaces within the grounds of educational institutions. It concludes with suggestions for how the implementation of the NENP could be used to learn more about the effect that engaging with nature has on children alongside understanding how school-based nature projects could benefit the local environment.
This article is part of the theme issue ‘Bringing nature into decision-making’.
Clinician Insights into Effective Components, Delivery Characteristics, and Implementation Strategies of Ambulatory Palliative Care for People with Heart Failure: A Qualitative Analysis
Authors: Feder Shelli , Iannone Lynne , Lendvai Dora , Zhan Yan , Akgün Kathleen , Ersek Mary , Luhrs Carol , Allen Larry A. , Bekelman David B. , Goldstein Nathan , Kavalieratos Dio 
Published: April 2024

AbstractObjectivesTo elicit perspectives from specialist palliative care (SPC) and cardiology clinicians on the necessary components, delivery characteristics, and implementation strategies of successful ambulatory SPC for people with heart failure (HF).BackgroundPalliative care is a recommended component of guideline-directed care for people with HF. However, optimal strategies to implement SPC within ambulatory settings are unknown.MethodsFollowing a positive deviance frame, we conducted a qualitative study comprising interviews with SPC and cardiology clinicians at Veterans Affairs Medical Centers (VAMCs) with the highest number of ambulatory SPC consultations within the VA system among people with HF from 2021-2022. Clinicians were asked how they provided ambulatory SPC and what they felt were the necessary components, delivery characteristics, and implementation strategies of care delivery. Interviews were analyzed using content analysis.ResultsWe interviewed 14 SPC clinicians and 9 cardiology clinicians at seven national VAMCs; 43% were physicians 48% were advanced practice registered nurses/physician associates, and 10% were psychologists or social workers. Discussion of goals of care (e.g., prognosis, advance directives) and connecting patients/caregivers to resources (e.g., homecare) were essential components of ambulatory SPC provided at participating facilities. Clinicians preferred and used integrated (i.e., embedded) approaches to SPC delivery, employed standardized patient selection and referral procedures, and formalized procedures for handoffs to and from SPC. Necessary strategies to address barriers to ambulatory SPC implementation included deploying palliative champions, educating non-SPC clinicians on the value of ambulatory SPC for people with HF, and developing ambulatory models through leadership support.Conclusions/ImplicationsFacilitating the broader adoption of ambulatory SPC may be achieved by prioritizing these mutually valued and necessary features of delivery.
Exploring Barriers to Parent-Adolescent Sexual-Risk Communication among Adolescents in Port Harcourt Nigeria: Adolescents’ and Parents’ Perspective
Authors: Chidinma Okpalaku Joycelyn , Ogubuike Chigozirim 
Published: April 2024

ABSTRACTBackgroundAdolescent risky sexual behaviour is a public health problem with its deleterious outcomes. Parents are the most influential source of sexuality education to adolescent, yet adolescents lack sexuality education. The study explored barriers in parent-adolescent sexual-risk communication from both perspectives in Port-Harcourt LGA, Rivers State, Nigeria.Materials and MethodA cross-sectional study design using explanatory sequential mixed methods approach was implemented. Three hundred and twenty nine in-school adolescents participated in the quantitative study and recruited using multi-stage sampling technique while 9 parents of adolescents and 16 adolescents participated in the qualitative study. A semi-structured administered questionnaire was used to elicit information from the adolescents while an FGD and IDI guide was used to elicit information from in-school adolescents and parents respectively. The qualitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics and chi-square while the qualitative data was subjected to thematic analysis.ResultsThe mean age of the adolescents was 16.0±1.1 years and 55% were males. A quarter (21%) of the parents had never discussed sex with their adolescents. The barriers identified from the adolescents’ perspective were parental factors (parents being too busy, judgmental, low knowledge), individual factors (discomfort to initiate communication, lack of trust), religious and cultural factors. The barriers from the parents’ perspective were shame to initiate communication, fear of outcome, feeling children are too young and lack of accurate information.ConclusionThe barriers to parent-adolescent communication featured interplay of parental, individual, cultural and religious factors. Parents should be trained to initiate timely and accurate sexuality education to the adolescent to curb adolescent risky sexual exploitations.
Fibre tracing in biomedical images: An objective comparison between seven algorithms
Authors: Arafat Youssef , Cuesta-Apausa Cristina , Castellano Esther , Reyes-Aldasoro Constantino Carlos 
Published: April 2024

AbstractObtaining the traces and the characteristics of elongated structures is an important task in computer vision pipelines. In biomedical applications, the analysis of traces of vasculature, nerves or fibres of the extracellular matrix can help characterise processes like angiogenesis or the effect of a certain treatment. This paper presents an objective comparison of six existing methodologies (Edge detection, CT Fire, Scale Space, Twombli, U-Net and Graph Based) and one new approach calledTrace Ridgesto trace biomedical images with fibre-like structures. Trace Ridges is a fully automatic and fast algorithm that combines a series of image-processing algorithms including filtering, watershed transform and edge detection to obtain an accurate delineation of the fibre-like structures in a rapid time. To compare the algorithms, four biomedical data sets with very different characteristics were selected. Ground truth was obtained by manual delineation of the fibre-like structures. Three pre-processing filtering options were used as a first step: no filtering, Gaussian low-pass and DnCnn, a deep-learning filtering. Three distance error metrics (total, average and maximum distance from the obtained traces to the ground truth) and processing time were calculated. It was observed that no single algorithm outperformed the others in all metrics. For the total distance error, which was considered the most significative, Trace Ridges ranked first, followed by Graph Based, U-Net, Twombli, Scale Space, CT Fire and Edge Detection. In terms of speed, Trace Ridges ranked second only slightly slower than Edge Detection. Code is freely available atgithub.com/youssefarafat/Trace Ridges.
Swimming kinematics of rainbow trout behind cylinder arrays: the effect of vortex street periodicity and turbulence kinetic energy
Authors: Sparks David M. , Rajeev Edwin , Canestrelli Alberto , Liao James C. 
Published: April 2024

ABSTRACTFish in the wild often contend with complex flows that are produced by natural and artificial structures. Research into fish interactions with turbulence often investigates metrics such as turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) or fish positional location, with less attention paid to the specific interactions between vortex organization and body swimming kinematics. Here we compare the swimming kinematics of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) holding station in flows produced by two different 3 x 5 cylinder arrays. We systematically utilized computational fluid dynamics to generate one array that produced a Kármán vortex street with high vortex periodicity and TKE (KVS array), and another that produced low periodicity and TKE, similar to a parallel vortex street (PVS array). The only difference in swimming kinematics between cylinder arrays was an increased tail beat amplitude in the KVS array. In both cylinder arrays, the tail beat frequency decreased and snout amplitude increased compared with the freestream.The center of mass amplitude was greater in the PVS array than in only the freestream, however, suggesting some buffeting of the body by the fluid. Notably, we did not observe Kármán gaiting in the KVS array as in previous studies. We hypothesize that this is because (1) vorticity was dissipated in the region where fish held station in this study and (2) cylinder arrays produced vortices that were in-line rather than staggered. These results are the first to quantify the kinematics and behavior of fishes swimming in the wake of multiple cylinder arrays, which has important implications for biomechanics, fluid dynamics, and fisheries management.SUMMARY STATEMENTThe swimming kinematics of rainbow trout are largely preserved across two, 3 x 5 cylinder array treatments that differed in vortex periodicity and turbulence kinetic energy.
The ERK1/2-Elk1, JNK-cJun, and JAK-STAT Transcriptional Axes as Potential Bortezomib Resistance Mediators in Prostate Cancer
Authors: Kalampounias Georgios , Zafeiropoulou Kalliopi , Androutsopoulou Theodosia , Alexis Spyridon , Symeonidis Argiris , Katsoris Panagiotis 
Published: April 2024

AbstractThe effectiveness of proteasome inhibitors against solid tumors is limited as the emergence of resistance is rapid. Although many mechanisms have been proposed and verified, no definite answer has been given, highlighting the complexity of the resistant phenotype. In this study, a Bortezomib-resistant prostate cancer cell line is created, and a broad-spectrum signaling pathway analysis is performed to identify differences and adaptations the resistant cells exhibit. Our findings highlight the upregulation and activation of Nf-κB, STAT3, cJun, and Elk1 transcription factors in the resistant cells and the subsequent evasion of apoptosis and induction of autophagy, which is constantly activated and substitutes the role of the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS). Additionally, assessment of the intracellular reactive oxygen species in resistant cells confirms their downregulation, which is theorized to be a consequence of metabolic changes, increased autophagic flux, and antioxidative enzyme action. The results of this study highlight the potential therapeutic targeting of key kinases and transcription factors, participating in the main signaling pathways and gene regulation of Bortezomib-resistant cells, that could re-sensitize the cells to proteasome inhibitors, thus surpassing the current limitations.
Overcoming Limitations to Deep Learning in Domesticated Animals with TrioTrain
Authors: Kalleberg Jenna , Rissman Jacob , Schnabel Robert D. 
Published: April 2024

ABSTRACTVariant calling across diverse species remains challenging as most bioinformatics tools default to assumptions based on human genomes. DeepVariant (DV) excels without joint genotyping while offering fewer implementation barriers. However, the growing appeal of a “universal” algorithm has magnified the unknown impacts when used with non-human genomes. Here, we use bovine genomes to assess the limits of human-genome-trained models in other species. We introduce the first multi-species DV model that achieves a lower Mendelian Inheritance Error (MIE) rate during single-sample genotyping. Our novel approach, TrioTrain, automates extending DV for species without Genome In A Bottle (GIAB) resources and uses region shuffling to mitigate barriers for SLURM-based clusters. To offset imperfect truth labels for animal genomes, we remove Mendelian discordant variants before training, where models are tuned to genotype the offspring correctly. With TrioTrain, we use cattle, yak, and bison trios to build 30 model iterations across five phases. We observe remarkable performance across phases when testing the GIAB human trios with a mean SNP F1 score >0.990. In HG002, our phase 4 bovine model identifies more variants at a lower MIE rate than DeepTrio. In bovine F1-hybrid genomes, our model substantially reduces inheritance errors with a mean MIE rate of 0.03 percent. Although constrained by imperfect labels, we find that multi-species, trio-based training produces a robust variant calling model. Our research demonstrates that exclusively training with human genomes restricts the application of deep-learning approaches for comparative genomics.
Estimation of Species Abundance Based on the Number of Segregating Sites using Environmental DNA (eDNA)
Authors: Ai Qiaoyun , Yuan Hao , Wang Ying , Li Chenhong 
Published: April 2024

AbstractThe advance of environmental DNA (eDNA) has enabled rapid and non-invasive species detection in aquatic environments. Although most studies focus on species detections, some recent studies explored the potential of using eDNA concentration to quantify species abundance. However, the differential individual DNA contribution to eDNA samples could easily obscure the concentration-species abundance relationship. We propose using the number of segregating sites as a proxy for estimating species abundance. Since segregating sites reflects the genetic diversity of the population, which is less sensitive to differential individual DNA contribution than eDNA concentration. We examined the relationship between the number of segregating sites and species abundance in silico, in vitro, and in situ using two brackish goby species,Acanthogobius hastaandTridentiger bifasciatus. Analyses of the simulated data and in vitro data with DNA mixed from a known number of individuals showed a strong correlation between the number of segregating sites and species abundance (R2> 0.9; P < 0.01). Results from the in situ experiment further validated the correlation (R2= 0.70, P < 0.01), and such correlation was not affected by biotic factors, including body size and feeding behavior (P > 0.05). Results of the cross-validation test also showed that the number of segregating sites predicted species abundance with less bias and variability than the eDNA concentration. Overall, the number of segregating sites correlates stronger with species abundance and also provides a better estimate than eDNA concentration. This advancement can significantly enhance the quantitative capabilities of eDNA technology.
Functional cardiac consequences of β-adrenergic stress-induced injury in themdxmouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy
Authors: Earl Conner C. , Javier Areli J. , Richards Alyssa M. , Markham Larry W. , Goergen Craig J. , Welc Steven S. 
Published: April 2024

ABSTRACTCardiomyopathy is the leading cause of death in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), however, in themdxmouse model of DMD, the cardiac phenotype differs from that seen in DMD-associated cardiomyopathy. Although some have used pharmacologic stress to enhance the cardiac phenotype in themdxmodel, many methods lead to high mortality, variable cardiac outcomes, and do not recapitulate the structural and functional cardiac changes seen in human disease. Here, we describe a simple and effective method to enhance the cardiac phenotype model inmdxmice using advanced 2D and 4D high-frequency ultrasound to monitor cardiac dysfunction progressionin vivo. For our study,mdxand wild-type (WT) mice received daily low-dose (2 mg/kg/day) isoproterenol injections for 10 days. Histopathologic assessment showed that isoproterenol treatment increased myocyte injury, elevated serum cardiac troponin I levels, and enhanced fibrosis inmdxmice. Ultrasound revealed reduced ventricular function, decreased wall thickness, increased volumes, and diminished cardiac reserve in mdx mice compared to wild-type. Our findings highlight the utility of low-dose isoproterenol inmdxmice as a valuable model for exploring therapies targeting DMD-associated cardiac complications.SUMMARY STATEMENTThis work introduces an improved method to model heart failure in mouse models of Duchenne muscular dystrophy and comprehensively describes underlying cellular and physiologic mechanisms using advanced imaging techniques.
Loss of circulating CD8α+NK cells during humanMycobacterium tuberculosisinfection
Authors: Mehanna Nezar , Pradhan Atul , Kaur Rimanpreet , Kontopoulos Theodota , Rosati Barbara , Carlson David , Cheung Nai-Kong , Xu Hong , Bean James , Hsu Katherine , Luduec Jean-Benoit Le , Vorkas Charles Kyriakos 
Published: April 2024

AbstractNatural Killer (NK) cells can recognize and killMtb-infected cells in vitro, however their role after natural human exposure has not been well-studied. To identifyMtb-responsive NK cell populations, we analyzed the peripheral blood of healthy household contacts of active Tuberculosis (TB) cases and source community donors in an endemic region of Port-au-Prince, Haiti by flow cytometry. We observed higher CD8α expression on NK cells in putative resistors (IGRA-contacts) with a progressive loss of these circulating cells during household-associated latent infection and disease. In vitro assays and CITE-seq analysis of CD8α+NK cells demonstrated enhanced maturity, cytotoxic gene expression, and response to cytokine stimulation relative to CD8α-NK cells. CD8α+NK cells also displayed dynamic surface expression dependent on MHC I in contrast to conventional CD8+T cells. Together, these results support a specialized role for CD8α+NK cell populations duringMtbinfection correlating with disease resistance.
Bridging the Gap: Multi-Omics Profiling of Brain Tissue in Alzheimer’s Disease and Older Controls in Multi-Ethnic Populations
Authors: Reddy Joseph S. , Heath Laura , Linden Abby Vander , Allen Mariet , de Paiva Lopes Katia , Seifar Fatemeh , Wang Erming , Ma Yiyi , Poehlman William L. , Quicksall Zachary S. , Runnels Alexi , Wang Yanling , Duong Duc M. , Yin Luming , Xu Kaiming , Modeste Erica S. , Shantaraman Anantharaman , Dammer Eric B. , Ping Lingyan , Oatman Stephanie R. , Scanlan Jo , Ho Charlotte , Carrasquillo Minerva M. , Atik Merve , Yepez Geovanna , Mitchell Adriana O. , Nguyen Thuy T. , Chen Xianfeng , Marquez David X. , Reddy Hasini , Xiao Harrison , Seshadri Sudha , Mayeux Richard , Prokop Stefan , Lee Edward B. , Serrano Geidy E. , Beach Thomas G. , Teich Andrew F. , Haroutunian Varham , Fox Edward J. , Gearing Marla , Wingo Aliza , Wingo Thomas , Lah James J. , Levey Allan I. , Dickson Dennis W. , Barnes Lisa L. , De Jager Philip , Zhang Bin , Bennett David , Seyfried Nicholas T. , Greenwood Anna K. , Ertekin-Taner Nilüfer 
Published: April 2024

AbstractINTRODUCTIONMulti-omics studies in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) revealed many potential disease pathways and therapeutic targets. Despite their promise of precision medicine, these studies lacked African Americans (AA) and Latin Americans (LA), who are disproportionately affected by AD.METHODSTo bridge this gap, Accelerating Medicines Partnership in AD (AMP-AD) expanded brain multi-omics profiling to multi-ethnic donors.RESULTSWe generated multi-omics data and curated and harmonized phenotypic data from AA (n=306), LA (n=326), or AAandLA (n=4) brain donors plus Non-Hispanic White (n=252) and other (n=20) ethnic groups, to establish a foundational dataset enriched for AA and LA participants. This study describes the data available to the research community, including transcriptome from three brain regions, whole genome sequence, and proteome measures.DISCUSSIONInclusion of traditionally underrepresented groups in multi-omics studies is essential to discover the full spectrum of precision medicine targets that will be pertinent to all populations affected with AD.