bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Discrimination and Hypertension among a Diverse Sample of
Racial and Sexual Minority Men Living with HIV:
Baseline Findings of a Longitudinal Cohort Study
Authors: Gillespie Avrum , Song Rui , Barile John , Okada Lorie , Brown Shari , Traub Kerry , Trout Julia , Simoncini Gina , Hall Casey Xavier , Tan Yin , Gadegbeku Crystal , Ma Grace , Wong Frankie 
Published: January 2024

Abstract

Racial and sexual orientation discrimination may exacerbate the double epidemic of hypertension and HIV that affects men of color who have sex with men (MSM). This was a cross-sectional analysis of African American, Asian American, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander (NHPI) MSM living with HIV (PLWH) cohort in Honolulu and Philadelphia. Racial and sexual orientation discrimination, stress, anxiety, and depression was measured with computer assisted self-interview questionnaires (CASI). We examined the associations between racial and sexual orientation discrimination with hypertension measured both in the office and by 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) using multivariable logistic regression. Sixty participants (60% African American, 18% Asian, and 22% NHPI) completed CASIs and 24-hour ABPM. African American participants (80%) reported more daily racial discrimination than Asian American (36%) and NHPI participants (17%, p < 0.001). Many participants (51%) reported daily sexual orientation discrimination. Sixty-six percent of participants had hypertension by office measurement and 59% had hypertension by 24-hour ABPM measurement. Participants who experienced racial discrimination had greater odds of having office-measured hypertension than those who did not, even after adjustment (Odds Ratio 5.1 (95% Confidence Interval [1.2–20.1], p = 0.01). This association was not seen with 24-hour ABPM. Hypertension was not associated with sexual orientation discrimination. In this cohort, MSM of color PLWH experience significant amounts of discrimination and hypertension. Those who experienced racial discrimination had higher in-office blood pressure. This difference was not observed in 24-hour APBM and future research is necessary to examine the long term cardiovascular effects.
Cathodic protection of carbon steel using zinc and magnesium as sacrificial anodes in different conductivity solutions
Authors: Beden Amal Abd Al-Hussein , Hasan Basim , Sabti Hamza K. 
Published: January 2024

Abstract
This work investigated the cathodic protection of carbon steel in different conductivity solutions using sacrificial anodes of zinc and magnesium. The effect of salt concentration (0.5–3.5% NaCl), the distance between structure and anode, and the area ratio of anode to cathodic on the protection efficiency was investigated and discussed. The consumption rate of sacrificial zinc and magnesium was evaluated for a range of operating conditions. High cathodic protection efficiency was obtained by Zn with low consumption rate compared to Mg. The Mg showed short lifespan and high potential shift to more positive and high protection current decrease after short time of applying the protection. Therefore, zinc is a successful sacrificial anode while magnesium is not recommended for long term protection for the range of salt concentrations investigated.
Timing is everything in selection on life-history driven by extrinsic mortality
Authors: Barker Christopher R , Senior Alistair M 
Published: January 2024

Abstract

The central crux of modern life history theory is that extrinsic mortality compounds across life to drive reduced investment in longevity. This hypothesis has been subject to extensive laboratory and ecological testing. However, such studies often fail to support this hypothesis, and the range and inconsistency of the results has proven difficult to explain. The effect of extrinsic mortality on longevity is not as straightforward as increased hazard drives increased senescence. The shape of extrinsic mortality conditions over life shapes selection as significantly as the strength, and altering the age-structure of extrinsic mortality conditions can produce a wide range of life history phenotypes. We construct a theoretical model that shows that under typical laboratory extrinsic mortality interventions (ie a single application of mortality at a specified life stage) optimum phenotype is highly sensitive to the exact timing of the condition used. This framework provides an explanation for experimental results that do not accord with the predictions of modern life history theory and presents an opportunity to further investigate how more ecologically relevant age-structured mortality conditions could be used to solve perennial problems in ageing biology.
The Era of DAAs: Assessing the Clinical Impact and Emergence of Comorbidities in HIV/HCV-Coinfected versus HIV-Infected Individuals
Authors: Álvarez-Álvarez Beatriz , Prieto-Pérez Laura , Cuadra-Grande Alberto de la , Casado Miguel Ángel , Úbeda Alfonso Cabello , Al-Hayani Aws W. , Acosta Irene Carrillo , Mahillo-Fernández Ignacio , Hernández-Mora Miguel Górgolas , Rallón Norma , Benito Jose M. 
Published: January 2024

Abstract

Background
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection causes sustained chronic immune activation which is associated with earlier and more frequent onset of comorbidities. Coinfections, such as those caused by hepatitis C virus (HCV), amplify this immune status. However, direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) transformed HIV/HCV management by eradicating HCV quickly and effectively, bypassing the systemic proinflammatory and immunomodulatory effects of interferon regimens. HCV infection significantly impacts the immunopathogenesis of HIV, and eradication of HCV with DAAs improves, but does not entirely normalize, the levels of markers of systemic inflammation, endothelial dysfunction or T-cell activation and exhaustion. This study aimed to determine whether HIV-infected individuals versus individuals with HIV/HCV coinfection, in the era of interferon-free therapies, exhibit an increased incidence of comorbidities and non-AIDS-related events.
Methods
A retrospective analysis was conducted at a Spanish tertiary hospital, involving 229 HIV/HCV-coinfected patients and 229 HIV-infected patients, all with effectively controlled HIV. Coinfected patients underwent HCV clearance using DAAs and had no history interferon treatment. The incidences of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, liver disease, non-AIDS cancer and death were compared between the groups. Univariate logistic regression models and subsequent multivariate adjustment for all factors potentially impacting outcomes were used to assess the risk of clinical event onset. Propensity score (PS) analyses were also conducted to support the multivariate model results.
Results
Univariate logistic regression analyses revealed that, compared to HIV/HCV coinfected patients, HIV monoinfected patients presented a greater risk for hypertension (Odds Ratio [OR] = 1.93; 95% Confidence Interval [CI] = 1.03–3.74; p = 0.040), dyslipidemia (OR = 1.83; 95%CI = 1.13–3.01; p = 0.014) and kidney disease (OR = 3.14; 95%CI = 1.19–9.80; p = 0.019) onset. Monoinfection was also associated with a lower risk for developing liver disease (OR = 0.12; 95%CI = 0.01–0.67; p = 0.012) and death (OR = 0.29; 95%CI = 0.06–0.96; p = 0.043). Multivariate models and PS showed that previous exposure to HCV was not associated with the onset of any clinical events studied.
Conclusions
Successful HCV elimination using DAAs improved the outlook regarding comorbidities and survival across both patient cohorts. Early HCV detection and DAA therapy could enhance clinical results. These findings provide an optimistic perspective for those living with HIV/HCV coinfection and underscore the importance of continuing efforts toward early detection and DAA treatment initiation.
Development, reliability and validity of the second-modified nutrition risk screening 2002
Authors: Lou Jiaqi , Fan Youfen , Li Jiliang , Huang Neng , Jin Guoying , Cui Shengyong 
Published: January 2024

Abstract
Objective To develop the second-modified nutrition risk screening 2002 and evaluate its reliability and validity.
Design The electronic medical records of burn patients admitted to the Burn Department, Ningbo No. 2 Hospital from August 2019 to August 2022 were retrospectively reviewed. Using Kappa consistency test, Cramer's V test, Cronbach's α test and analysis of the reliability and validity of nutrition risk screening 2002.
Main Outcome Measures The correlation between nutrition risk screening 2002 and the second-modified nutrition risk screening 2002, the internal consistency, the reliability and validity of the second-modified nutrition risk screening 2002.
Results The two screening tables had a high consistency. The disease-related scores in second-modified nutrition risk screening 2002 were highly correlated with the nutritional risk of burn patients. The score of nutritional impairment in the second-modified nutrition risk screening 2002 was highly correlated with the nutritional risk of burn patients. The second-modified nutrition risk screening 2002 has good internal consistency reliability, content validity, construct validity, convergence validity, discriminant validity.
Conclusions The second-modified nutrition risk screening 2002 can more comprehensively evaluate the nutritional risk of burn patients in screening the nutritional risk, and has a good consistency with the results of nutrition risk screening.
Implications for Clinical Practice Based on good content validity, construct validity, convergent validity and discriminant validity, the second-modified nutrition risk screening 2002 is worthy of promotion and application in the preliminary nutritional screening of burn patients, so as to assess their nutritional status more accurately and guide the subsequent nutritional treatment and nursing procedures.
Development and Validation of a Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Questionnaire regarding Exercise and Exergames for Obese Patients with Gout
Authors: Cao Manting , Yusof Hazwani Ahmad , Chen Jianer , Zhou Liping 
Published: January 2024

Abstract

The Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice (KAP) Questionnaire could help investigate whether there are misconceptions, positive attitudes, and adequate practice in people with gout about exercise and exergames. The study aims to develop and validate the KAP questionnaire regarding exercise and exergames for obese patients with gout to understand gout 'patients' awareness level of exercise and perception of exergames. The development and validation of the questionnaire involved two phases: (1) development of the instrument and (2) judgment of the instrument through calculating the content validity by the expert panel and using SPSS version 28 to examine the test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and structural validity of the instrument. After the first phase of instrument development, an initial questionnaire consisting of six parts with 35 items was identified. After the content validation of the second phase, 11 items with a CVR value below 0.99 were eliminated, 3 items were rephrased, 2 items that mixed two statements were divided, and 15 items were added based on the original instrument. In addition, in the factor analysis, five items within the knowledge domain with factor loadings below 0.4 were removed. The final questionnaire was examined and demonstrated acceptable content validity, test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and construct validity.
An improved corner dealiasing and recognition algorithm for 2D Wadell roundness computation
Authors: Chen Jianhuang , Zhang Zhongjian , Lin Daming , Li Lihui , Xu Wenjie 
Published: January 2024

Abstract

This paper optimizes the 2D Wadell roundness calculation of particles based on digital image processing methods. An algorithm of corner key points grouping is proposed to distinguish each independent corner. The cyclic midpoint filtering method is proposed for corner dealiasing. The relationships between the number of corner pixels (m), the central angle of the corner (α) and the parameter of the dealiasing degree (n) are established. The Krumbein chart and a sandstone thin section image were used as examples to calculate roundness. A set of regular shapes is calculated, and the error of this method is discussed. When α ≥ 30°, the maximum error in the Wadell roundness for regular shapes is 5.21%; when 12°≤α ≤ 30°, the minimum number of corner pixels required can be obtained according to the formula m0=15213α-1.628 to alleviate the increase in error. The results showed that the larger m is, the wider the optimal range interval for n; the larger α is, the lower the dependence on m.
Factors Influencing Health-Seeking Behavior Among Sudanese Expatriates in Saudi Arabia, 2023. A Cross-Sectional Study
Authors: Elfaki Noor Salaheldin Humaida , Abdelgyoum Hafeia Abdelrazig Elhussien 
Published: January 2024

Abstract
Background
Immigrant groups face prejudice and have limited access to healthcare. In Saudi Arabia, expatriates are particularly socially disadvantaged. Saudi Arabia has taken the lead in drawing enormous numbers of Sudanese professionals and technical labor throughout the years and is becoming an increasingly preferred destination after the Sudanese War of April 15, 2023. This study aimed to identify the factors influencing health-seeking behavior among Sudanese immigrants in Saudi Arabia, as understanding these factors is important for improving healthcare access and health outcomes.
Method
A cross-sectional study was conducted targeting Sudanese residents of KSA via convenient sampling. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed electronically and 494 participants were recruited for the study.
Results
This study showed that the majority of the participants (66.6%) visited a primary healthcare center when faced with a medical problem. However, the prevalence of self-medication in the past three months was 45.7%. Only age (OR [95% CI]: 1.032 [1.000-1.066]) and not having health insurance were found to significantly influence health-seeking behavior.
Conclusions
This study emphasizes the importance of understanding healthcare-seeking behavior among immigrant groups, particularly Sudanese expats in Saudi Arabia. It highlights the significance of insurance as a determinant of healthcare-seeking behavior and calls for reforming current policies to reduce disparities in accessing healthcare services.
Multi-trait body shape phenotypes and breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women: a causal mediation analysis in the UK Biobank cohort
Authors: Amadou Amina , Freisling Heinz , Sedlmeier Anja M. , Bohmann Patricia , Fontvieille Emma , Weber Andrea , Konzok Julian , Stein Michael J , Peruchet-Noray Laia , Jansana Anna , Noh Hwayoung , His Mathilde , Gan Quan , Baurecht Hansjörg , Fervers Béatrice 
Published: January 2024

Abstract

Body shape phenotypes combining multiple anthropometric traits have been linked to postmenopausal breast cancer (BC). However, underlying biological pathways remain poorly understood. This study investigated to what extent the associations of body shapes with postmenopausal BC risk is mediated by biochemical markers.
The study included 176,686 postmenopausal women from UK Biobank. Four body shape phenotypes were derived from principal component (PC) analysis of height, weight, body mass index, waist and hip circumferences, and waist-to-hip ratio. The four-way decomposition of the total effect was used to estimate mediation and interaction effects simultaneously as well as the mediated proportions.
After 10.9 years median follow-up, 6,396 incident postmenopausal BC were diagnosed. There was strong evidence of positive associations between PC1 (general obesity) and PC2 (tall, low WHR), and BC risk. The association of PC1 with BC risk was mediated positively by testosterone and negatively by insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), with the overall proportion mediated (sum of the mediated interaction and pure indirect effect (PIE)) accounting for 12.2% (95% confidence intervals: -20.5% to -4.0%) and 11.4%(5.1% to 17.8%) of the total effect, respectively. Small proportions of the association between PC2 and BC were mediated by IGF-1 (PIE: 2.8%(0.6% to 4.9%)), and sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) (PIE: -6.1%(-10.9% to -1.3%)).
Our findings are consistent with differential pathways linking different body shapes with BC risk, with a suggestive mediation through testosterone and IGF-1 in the relationship of generally obese body shape and BC risk, while IGF-1 and SHBG may mediate the tall/lean body shape-BC risk association.
Roles of gut microbiome in gastroesophageal reflux disease: A Mendelian randomization study
Authors: Zhang Jingyuan , Wang Anning , Ma Luping , Zhu Weikai , Zhuo Chengting , Liu Yusha , Dai Mengjun , Chen Yongxuan , Zhao Yanyan , Shen Hui 
Published: January 2024

Abstract

Increasing evidence has indicated that the gut microbiota is altered in patients diagnosed with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), the exact causal connection between them remains unknown. In this research, we conducted a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis using genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary data. The primary analysis employed the inverse-variance weighted (IVW) method. To assess the robustness of our findings, we also conducted additional analyses using the MR-Egger, weighted median, simple mode, and weighted mode methods. Heterogeneity and pleiotropy were examined through the Cochran's Q test, MR-Egger intercept test, and leave-one-out analysis. The present study evaluated the potential causality of gut microbiota in the risk of GERD and found that 10 bacterial taxa, namely class Bifidobacteriaceae, family Christensenellaceae, family ClostridialesvadinBB60group, genus Anaerostipes, genus ChristensenellaceaeR, genus Coprococcus2, genus LachnospiraceaeUCG004, genus Prevotella9, genus Bifidobacteriales, phylum Actinobacteria, may be suggestively causally associated with the risk of GERD.
HMMF: A Hybrid Multi-modal Fusion Framework for Predicting Drug Side Effect Frequencies
Authors: Li Yang , Liu Wuyong , Qiao Guanyu , Bian Jilong , Dong Benzhi , Zhang Jingyu 
Published: January 2024

Abstract
Background: The identification of drug side effects plays a critical role in drug repositioning and drug screening. While clinical experiments yield accurate and reliable information about drug-related side effects, they are costly and time-consuming. Computational models have emerged as a promising alternative to predict the frequency of drug-side effects. However, earlier research has primarily centered on extracting and utilizing representations of drugs, like molecular structure or interaction graphs, often neglecting the inherent biomedical semantics of drugs and side effects.
Results: To address the previously mentioned issue, we introduce a Hybrid Multi-modal Fusion Framework (HMMF) for predicting drug side effect frequencies. Considering the wealth of biological and chemical semantic information related to drugs and side effects, incorporating multi-modal information offers additional, complementary semantics. HMMF utilizes various encoders to understand molecular structures, biomedical textual representations, and attribute similarities of both drugs and side effects. It then models drug-side effect interactions using both coarse and fine-grained fusion strategies, effectively integrating these multi-modal features.
Conclusions: HMMF exhibits the ability to successfully detect previously unrecognized potential side effects, demonstrating superior performance over existing state-of-the-art methods across various evaluation metrics, including RMSE (Root Mean Squared Error) and AUROC (Area Under Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve), and shows remarkable performance in cold-start scenarios.
Effect of tensile deformation on the optoelectronic properties of black phosphine-doped lithium atoms
Authors: Huang Zenan , Wang Ying , Wang Congrui , Liu Guili , Zhang Guoying , Niu Jindong 
Published: January 2024

Abstract

First-principle calculations of intrinsic and lithium-doped black phosphazene systems based on the CASTEP block of Materials Studio software were performed to study the structural stability and changes in the optoelectronic properties of the systems under different uniaxial tensile deformations, which showed that lithium doping caused the black phosphazene system to show metallicity from a direct bandgap semiconductor, and the structural stability of the doped system decreased with the increase of the tensile deformation. It is found that the band gap of intrinsic black phosphorine increases from 0.841 eV to 1.086 eV when the tensile deformation is increased from 0–4%, and decreases from 1.086 eV to 0.660 eV when the tensile deformation is continued to increase to 10%.From the analysis of the density of states, the density of states of all the systems is basically contributed by the s and p orbitals, and the contribution of the d orbitals is very small, with the contribution of the p orbitals dominating. The contribution of the p-orbitals is dominant. In terms of light absorption and reflection, the absorption peaks of the intrinsic black phosphorine strained system show a red-shifted, then blue-shifted and then red-shifted trend, and the reflection peaks show a red-shifted trend, while the absorption and reflection peaks of the lithium-doped black phosphorine strained system show a red-shifted trend.
Uniform and radial Dirichlet copulas
Authors: Sundgren David 
Published: January 2024

Abstract

We give copula densities for all symmetric Dirichlet distributions. In fact, since the number of variables in a Dirichlet distribution can be viewed in two different ways, there are two copulas for every Dirichlet distribution of which one is singular. We pay particular attention to the copulas of the Dirichlet distribution whose density is the normalised product of its own one variable marginal densities. The singular copula of that Dirichlet distribution is uniform and spherical in the Lp space with p equal to the number of free variables while the non singular copula is radial in the Lp space.
A GRU-CNN Model for Auditory Attention Detection Using Microstate and Recurrence Quantification Analysis
Authors: EskandariNasab MohammadReza , Raeisi Zahra , Lashaki Reza Ahmadi , Najafi Hamidreza 
Published: January 2024

Abstract

Attention as a cognition ability plays a crucial role in perception which helps humans to concentrate on specific objects of the environment while discarding others. In this paper, auditory attention detection (AAD) is investigated using different dynamic features extracted from multichannel electroencephalography (EEG) signals when listeners attend to a target speaker in the presence of a competing talker. To this aim, microstate and recurrence quantification analysis are utilized to extract different types of features that reflect changes in the brain state during cognitive tasks. Then, an optimized feature set is determined by employing the processes of significant feature selection based on classification performance. The classifier model is developed by hybrid sequential learning that employs Gated Recurrent Units (GRU) and Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) into a unified framework for accurate attention detection. The proposed AAD method shows that the selected feature set achieves the most discriminative features for the classification process. Also, it yields the best performance as compared with state-of-the-art AAD approaches from the literature in terms of various measures. The current study is the first to validate the use of microstate and recurrence quantification parameters to differentiate auditory attention using reinforcement learning without access to stimuli.