bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Advances in statistical methods for cancer surveillance research: an age-period-cohort perspective
Authors: Rosenberg Philip S. , Miranda-Filho Adalberto 
Published: February 2024

BackgroundAnalysis of Lexis diagrams (population-based cancer incidence and mortality rates indexed by age group and calendar period) requires specialized statistical methods. However, existing methods have limitations that can now be overcome using new approaches.MethodsWe assembled a “toolbox” of novel methods to identify trends and patterns by age group, calendar period, and birth cohort. We evaluated operating characteristics across 152 cancer incidence Lexis diagrams compiled from United States (US) Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program data for 21 leading cancers in men and women in four race and ethnicity groups (the “cancer incidence panel”).ResultsNonparametric singular values adaptive kernel filtration (SIFT) decreased the estimated root mean squared error by 90% across the cancer incidence panel. A novel method for semi-parametric age-period-cohort analysis (SAGE) provided optimally smoothed estimates of age-period-cohort (APC) estimable functions and stabilized estimates of lack-of-fit (LOF). SAGE identified statistically significant birth cohort effects across the entire cancer panel; LOF had little impact. As illustrated for colon cancer, newly developed methods for comparative age-period-cohort analysis can elucidate cancer heterogeneity that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to discern using standard methods.ConclusionsCancer surveillance researchers can now identify fine-scale temporal signals with unprecedented accuracy and elucidate cancer heterogeneity with unprecedented specificity. Birth cohort effects are ubiquitous modulators of cancer incidence in the US. The novel methods described here can advance cancer surveillance research.
Evaluation of clinical and imaging features for differentiating rhabdomyosarcoma from neuroblastoma in pediatric soft tissue
Authors: Sheng Jing , Li Tingting , Xu Huafeng , Xu Rong , Cai Xuemei , Zhang Huanhuan , Ji Qiongqiong , Duan Xiuhua , Xia Weiwei , Yang Xiujun 
Published: February 2024

BackgroundIn this study, we developed a nomogram predictive model based on clinical, CT, and MRI parameters to differentiate soft tissue rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) from neuroblastoma (NB) in children preoperatively.Materials and methodsA total of 103 children with RMS (n=37) and NB (n=66) were enrolled in the study from December 2012 to July 2023. The clinical and imaging data (assessed by two experienced radiologists) were analyzed using univariate analysis, and significant factors were further analyzed by multivariable logistic regression using the forward LR method to develop the clinical model, radiological model, and integrated nomogram model, respectively. The diagnostic performances, goodness of fit, and clinical utility of the integrated nomogram model were assessed using the area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operator characteristics curve (ROC) with a 95% confidence interval (95% CI), calibration curve, and decision curve analysis (DCA) curves, respectively. Diagnostic efficacy between the model and radiologists’ interpretations was examined.ResultsThe median age at diagnosis in the RMS group was significantly older than the NB group (36.0 months vs. 14.5 months; P=0.003); the fever rates in RMS patients were significantly lower than in patients with NB (0.0% vs.16.7%; P=0.022), and the incidence of palpable mass was higher in patients with RMS compared with the NB patients (89.2% vs. 34.8%; P&lt;0.001). Compare NB on image features: RMS occurred more frequently in the head and neck and displayed homogeneous density on non-enhanced CT than NB (48.6% vs. 9.1%; 35.3% vs. 13.8%, respectively; all P&lt;0.05), and the occurrence of characteristics such as calcification, encasing vessels, and intraspinal tumor extension was significantly less frequent in RMS children compared to children with NB (18.9% vs. 84.8%; 13.5% vs. 34.8%; 2.7% vs. 50.0%, respectively; all P &lt;0.05). Two, three, and four features were identified as independent parameters by multivariate logistic regression analysis to develop the clinical, radiological, and integrated nomogram models, respectively. The AUC value (0.962), calibration curve, and DCA showed that the integrated nomogram model may provide better diagnostic performance, good agreement, and greater clinical net benefits than the clinical model, radiological model, and radiologists’ subjective diagnosis.ConclusionThe clinical and imaging features-based nomogram has potential for helping radiologists distinguish between pediatric soft tissue RMS and NB patients preoperatively, and reduce unnecessary interventions.
Case report: Rare oral manifestations in Cowden syndrome with PTEN mutation
Authors: Yuan Wei , Liu Yanbin , Sun Haibin , Su Ming , Qin Lizheng , Huang Xin 
Published: February 2024

BackgroundCowden syndrome (CS) is a rare genetic disorder associated with PTEN gene mutations. It is characterized by macrocephaly, specific mucocutaneous features, and a predisposition to benign and malignant tumors. Cases of CS primarily presenting with oral clinical manifestations are relatively uncommon.Methods/ResultsWe report the case of a 41-year-old male proband who presented with bilateral commissural and lingual externally projecting symmetric lesions for over two years. The proband also exhibited other features, including macrocephaly, communication difficulties, and obesity. Similar oral clinical manifestations were observed in family members. Whole exome sequencing analysis revealed PTEN gene mutations associated with CS in both the proband and his younger brother. This case serves as a reminder to be aware of the diverse presentations of CS in oral clinical practice and highlights the importance of genetic testing for guiding diagnosis and treatment.ConclusionThere are few reported cases of CS primarily presenting with oral lesions. This finding contributes to further understanding of certain aspects of the pathogenesis of CS and enhances awareness of CS cases primarily exhibiting oral clinical manifestations.
Natural compounds target programmed cell death (PCD) signaling mechanism to treat ulcerative colitis: a review
Authors: Chen Bo , Dong Xinqian , Zhang Jin Long , Sun Xitong , Zhou Lin , Zhao Kangning , Deng Hualiang , Sun Zhen 
Published: February 2024

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a nonspecific inflammatory bowel disease characterized by abdominal pain, bloody diarrhea, weight loss, and colon shortening. However, UC is difficult to cure due to its high drug resistance rate and easy recurrence. Moreover, long-term inflammation and increased disease severity can lead to the development of colon cancer in some patients. Programmed cell death (PCD) is a gene-regulated cell death process that includes apoptosis, autophagy, necroptosis, ferroptosis, and pyroptosis. PCD plays a crucial role in maintaining body homeostasis and the development of organs and tissues. Abnormal PCD signaling is observed in the pathological process of UC, such as activating the apoptosis signaling pathway to promote the progression of UC. Targeting PCD may be a therapeutic strategy, and natural compounds have shown great potential in modulating key targets of PCD to treat UC. For instance, baicalin can regulate cell apoptosis to alleviate inflammatory infiltration and pathological damage. This review focuses on the specific expression of PCD and its interaction with multiple signaling pathways, such as NF-κB, Nrf2, MAPK, JAK/STAT, PI3K/AKT, NLRP3, GPX4, Bcl-2, etc., to elucidate the role of natural compounds in targeting PCD for the treatment of UC. This review used (ulcerative colitis) (programmed cell death) and (natural products) as keywords to search the related studies in PubMed and the Web of Science, and CNKI database of the past 10 years. This work retrieved 72 studies (65 from the past 5 years and 7 from the past 10 years), which aims to provide new treatment strategies for UC patients and serves as a foundation for the development of new drugs.
Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease increases hepatocellular carcinoma risk in chronic hepatitis B patients: a retrospective cohort study
Authors: Lin Ming , Gao Bowen , Peng Mengnan , Chen Xuefang , Xiao Huanming , Shi Meijie , Zhang Xiujuan , Zeng Folai , Chi Xiaoling 
Published: February 2024

Background: The combined effect of hepatitis B virus infection and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) risk remains unclear. The current study sought to elucidate the impact of MASLD on HCC progression in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients.Method: This retrospective cohort study included CHB patients who had undergone liver biopsy and abdominal imaging at the Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine between 2013 and 2019. We investigated the correlation between MASLD and HCC risk, and inverse probability treatment weighting (IPTW) was used to adjust for patient characteristics.Results: A total of 1,613 patients were included, and 483 (29.9%) were diagnosed with MASLD. Over a median follow-up period of 5.02 years, 36 (2.2%) developed HCC, comprising 4.8% (23/483) of those with MASLD and 1.2% (13/1,130) of those without. Those with MASLD had a significantly higher cumulative incidence of HCC than those without (p &lt; 0.001). The presence of MASLD was associated with a higher risk of HCC (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 3.996; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.007–7.959; p &lt; 0.001). After adjustment using IPTW, the patients with MASLD retained a higher cumulative incidence of HCC (p &lt; 0.001). Moreover, MASLD was found to be an independent risk factor for the development of HCC (adjusted HR, 10.191; 95% CI, 4.327–24.002; p &lt; 0.001). However, among patients with MASLD, there were no significant differences in the cumulative risk of HCC between patients with and without overweight, between those with &lt;2 and ≥2 cardiometabolic risk factors (CMRFs), between those with &lt;3 and ≥3 CMRFs, or between those with &lt;4 and ≥4 CMRFs (p = 0.110, p = 0.087, p = 0.066, and p = 0.490, respectively).Conclusion: The presence of MASLD is associated with a higher risk of HCC in patients with CHB. Notably, this higher risk is present in patients with MASLD, irrespective of the presence or absence of overweight or the number of CMRFs they have.
The effect of age and resilience on the dose–response function between the number of adversity factors and subjective well-being
Authors: Hsieh Shulan , Chang Yun-Hsuan , Yao Zai-Fu , Yang Meng-Heng , Yang Cheng-Ta 
Published: February 2024

BackgroundEncountering challenges and stress heightens the vulnerability to mental disorders and diminishes well-being. This study explores the impact of psychological resilience in the context of adverse events, considering age-related variations in its influence on well-being.MethodsA total of 442 participants (male vs. female =48% vs. 52%) with a mean age of 41.79 ± 16.99 years were collected and completed the following questionnaires Brief Betrayal Trauma Survey (BBTS), Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), Peace of Mind (PoM), The World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF), and Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ). They all underwent structural and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans.ResultsParticipants were categorized based on adversity levels: 34.39% faced one, 26.24% none, and 19.91, 9.50, and 8.14% encountered two, three, and four adversities, respectively. This categorization helps assess the impact on participants’ experiences. As adversity factors increased, PoM decreased. Controlling for age improved PoM model fit (ΔR2 = 0.123, p &lt; 0.001). Adversity factors and age explained 14.6% of PoM variance (df = 2, F = 37.638, p &lt; 0.001). PoM decreased with more adversity and increased with higher age.ConclusionThe study found most participants faced at least one adversity. Adversity negatively affected PoM scores, while resilience acted as a protective factor. Resilience plays a crucial role in buffering the impact of adversities on well-being. Among those with high adversity, higher resilience correlated with stronger DMN-right frontal pole connectivity. Brain volume showed no significant differences, but the quality of life and social support varied between subgroups, with no differences in personal demographic and biophysical features.
Table tennis players use superior saccadic eye movements to track moving visual targets
Authors: Nakazato Riku , Aoyama Chisa , Komiyama Takaaki , Himo Ryoto , Shimegi Satoshi 
Published: February 2024

IntroductionTable tennis players perform visually guided visuomotor responses countlessly. The exposure of the visual system to frequent and long-term motion stimulation has been known to improve perceptual motion detection and discrimination abilities as a learning effect specific to that stimulus, so may also improve visuo-oculomotor performance. We hypothesized and verified that table tennis players have good spatial accuracy of saccades to moving targets.MethodsUniversity table tennis players (TT group) and control participants with no striking-sports experience (Control group) wore a virtual reality headset and performed two ball-tracking tasks to track moving and stationary targets in virtual reality. The ball moved from a predetermined position on the opponent's court toward the participant's court. A total of 54 conditions were examined for the moving targets in combinations of three ball trajectories (familiar parabolic, unfamiliar descent, and unfamiliar horizontal), three courses (left, right, and center), and six speeds.Results and discussionAll participants primarily used catch-up saccades to track the moving ball. The TT group had lower mean and inter-trial variability in saccade endpoint error compared to the Control group, showing higher spatial accuracy and precision, respectively. It suggests their improvement of the ability to analyze the direction and speed of the ball's movement and predict its trajectory and future destination. The superiority of the spatial accuracy in the TT group was seen in both the right and the left courses for all trajectories but that of precision was for familiar parabolic only. The trajectory dependence of improved saccade precision in the TT group implies the possibility that the motion vision system is trained by the visual stimuli frequently encountered in table tennis. There was no difference between the two groups in the onset time or spatial accuracy of saccades for stationary targets appearing at various positions on the ping-pong table.ConclusionTable tennis players can obtain high performance (spatial accuracy and precision) of saccades to track moving targets as a result of motion vision ability improved through a vast amount of visual and visuo-ocular experience in their play.
Exploring actual and perceived levels of physical activity intensity during virtual reality active games
Authors: Naugle Keith E. , Cervantes Xzaliya A. , Boone Carolyn L. , Wind Brandon , Naugle Kelly M. 
Published: February 2024

BackgroundResearch suggests that engaging in active virtual reality (VR) video games can elicit light to moderate levels of physical activity (PA), making it a novel and fun mode of exercise. Further research is needed to understand the influence of VR on perceptions of exertion and enjoyment during PA.ObjectiveThe objectives of this study are (1) to compare actual and perceived exertion within and between active VR games with varying levels of difficulty and (2) to determine how playing active VR games influences PA enjoyment during gameplay.MethodsA total of 18 participants completed four separate study sessions, during which they engaged in either a 15-min bout of traditional exercise (stationary cycling) or played one VR game. Heart rate (HR) and ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) using the Borg CR10 scale were assessed during VR gameplay and cycling. Enjoyment was measured after gameplay. VR games included playing Holopoint at level 2 and level 3 and Hot Squat. Repeated measures ANOVAs were used to examine (1) changes in HR and RPE across time within games and (2) differences in actual and perceived levels of intensity and enjoyment between games. Bivariate correlations examined the relationship between the degree of change in actual intensity and the degree of change in perceived intensity during each VR game and cycling.ResultsThe analyses revealed that RPE and HR significantly increased from baseline during each condition and generally increased across the 15-min of gameplay. Hot Squat and cycling elicited a significantly higher percentage of heart rate reserve (%HRR) than Holopoint at levels 2 and 3. Holopoint level 3 elicited a higher %HRR than Holopoint level 2. The participants reported greater average and max RPE during Hot Squat and cycling compared with Holopoint at levels 2 and 3. The correlations revealed a significant positive correlation between the degree of change in HR and RPE for cycling, but no significant correlations were observed for any of the VR conditions. The physical activity during Holopoint at both levels was rated as more enjoyable than Hot Squat and cycling.ConclusionOur data support the notion that VR has the potential to alter individuals’ perceptions of exertion during PA and, in particular, may reduce their awareness of increases in actual exertion.
Deep Spectral Meshes: Multi-Frequency Facial Mesh Processing with Graph Neural Networks
Authors: Kosk Robert , Southern Richard , You Lihua , Bian Shaojun , Kokke Willem , Maguire Greg 
Published: February 2024

With the rising popularity of virtual worlds, the importance of data-driven parametric models of 3D meshes has grown rapidly. Numerous applications, such as computer vision, procedural generation, and mesh editing, vastly rely on these models. However, current approaches do not allow for independent editing of deformations at different frequency levels. They also do not benefit from representing deformations at different frequencies with dedicated representations, which would better expose their properties and improve the generated meshes’ geometric and perceptual quality. In this work, spectral meshes are introduced as a method to decompose mesh deformations into low-frequency and high-frequency deformations. These features of low- and high-frequency deformations are used for representation learning with graph convolutional networks. A parametric model for 3D facial mesh synthesis is built upon the proposed framework, exposing user parameters that control disentangled high- and low-frequency deformations. Independent control of deformations at different frequencies and generation of plausible synthetic examples are mutually exclusive objectives. A Conditioning Factor is introduced to leverage these objectives. Our model takes further advantage of spectral partitioning by representing different frequency levels with disparate, more suitable representations. Low frequencies are represented with standardised Euclidean coordinates, and high frequencies with a normalised deformation representation (DR). This paper investigates applications of our proposed approach in mesh reconstruction, mesh interpolation, and multi-frequency editing. It is demonstrated that our method improves the overall quality of generated meshes on most datasets when considering both the L1 norm and perceptual Dihedral Angle Mesh Error (DAME) metrics.
Criteria for the Uniqueness of a Solution to a Differential-Operator Equation with Non-Degenerate Conditions
Authors: Kanguzhin Baltabek , Koshanov Bakytbek 
Published: February 2024

In this article, the symmetric operator L corresponding to the boundary value problem is represented as the difference of two commuting operators A and B. The uniqueness of the solution is guaranteed if the spectra of the operators A and B do not intersect and the domain of the operator B is given by non-degenerate boundary conditions. In contrast to the existing papers, the criterion for the uniqueness of the boundary value problem formulated in this paper is satisfied even when the system of root functions of the operator B does not form a basis in the corresponding space. At the same time, only the closedness of the linear operator A is required.
Preanesthesia carbohydrate loading in pediatric patients with acyanotic congenital heart disease: a case series
Authors: Kurnia Andri , Hidayat Jefferson 
Published: February 2024

Children with acyanotic congenital heart disease need cardiac catheterization for various indications, ranging from diagnostic procedures to innovative interventional therapy. Although preanesthesia fasting is widely accepted to minimize the risk of regurgitation and aspiration during induction, studies have shown that fasting also has a negative impact. Some studies have reported the incidence of anxiety in pediatric patients in the operating room to be 75.44% and 34–56% of it was caused by hunger.
We report 4 of our patients, who were allowed maltodextrin drinks as much as 5–10 ml/kg 2 h before anesthesia and the patient's anxiety level, vital signs, blood sugar before and during the procedure, and the incidence of complications were observed. The results showed a low level of anxiety, with good vital signs, and normal blood sugar. Carbohydrate drinks given up to 2 h before the procedure to the patients reduced hunger and thirst so that they were more comfortable, had reduced anxiety and stable blood sugar levels during the procedure. No complications were found due to the administration of carbohydrate drinks; therefore, routine administration of carbohydrate drinks can be considered in pediatric patients with acyanotic congenital heart disease who will undergo cardiac catheterization.
Key words: Pediatric; Congenital heart disease; Carbohydrate loading; Anxiety
Citation: Kurnia A, Hidayat J. Preanesthesia carbohydrate loading in pediatric patients with acyanotic congenital heart disease: a case series. Anaesth. pain intensive care 2023;27(4):585−589; DOI: 10.35975/apic.v27i4.2156
Received: February 17, 2023; Reviewed: March 05, 2023; Accepted: May 27, 2023