bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Tests of reproductive skew theory: a review and prospectus
Authors: Olivier Laure A. , Higginson Andrew D. 
Published: October 2023

AbstractReproductive skew refers to the unequal partitioning of reproduction by same-sex members of a social group. The concession, restraint and tug-of-war skew models attempt to predict which social and ecological factors influence skew, whilst assuming different power dynamics and making contrasting predictions. The factors underpinning within-species variation in skew remain unclear, despite decades of research. Individuals vary in both the benefit of leaving the group to breed (outside option) and in the contribution they make to group productivity if they stay. Variation is likely among several aspects of individual quality, so that individuals and species may show different associations between the subordinate's outside option and group productivity. Yet, no existing skew models allow for variation in this association, here named the quality-productivity coefficient (QPC). If high subordinate quality is associated with being a good helper, for instance if both help and quality improve with age, the QPC would be positive. If, instead, there is a trade-off or other contrast between breeding ability and helping effect, then the QPC will be negative. Here, we incorporate the QPC and derive new predictions for the concession, restraint and tug-of-war models, that sometimes changed their predictions. We review the empirical tests of the association of skew with relatedness, dominant’s competitive advantage, group productivity and subordinate’s outside option. From 16 studies available to calculate an effect size, relatedness correlated positively with skew; yet overall most of 45 studies reported no association. The association of skew with the outside option was negative or null, fitting the restraint and tug-of-war models. The mostly non-significant effect of group productivity supported the three models. Our review highlights future fruitful avenues for the study of cooperative breeding, especially more work to assess the association between subordinate’s outside option and subordinate’s effect on group productivity.
Intra-articular delivery of geraniol encapsulated by pH/redox-responsive nanogel ameliorates osteoarthritis by regulating oxidative stress and inflammation
Authors: Pan Jun , Cai Youzhi , Zhang Chi , Xu Sanzhong 
Published: October 2023

AbstractOsteoarthritis (OA) remains a challenging condition due to limited drug bioavailability within the avascular and dense cartilage matrix. This study introduces a pH/redox-responsive nanogel for enhanced delivery of geraniol in OA therapy. We investigated geraniol's role in preventing chondrocyte matrix degradation and designed a pH/redox-responsive nanogel as a delivery platform. Our methods included Western blot, histological staining, and immunohistochemistry. Geraniol treatment reduced Keap1 expression while elevating Nrf2 and HO-1 levels, effectively inhibiting cartilage matrix degradation. The pH/redox-responsive nanogel further enhanced geraniol’s therapeutic impact. Our study demonstrates that geraniol encapsulated within a pH/redox-responsive nanogel mitigates OA by regulating oxidative stress and inflammation. This innovative approach holds potential as an effective OA therapeutic strategy.
Open up to Curiosity
Authors: Heisser Ronald 
Published: October 2023

AbstractCuriosity is a fundamental impulse which propels human beings to seek, and discover satisfying answers to life’s deep questions. Capturing small but memorable moments of personal discovery, I highlight an element of curiosity within everyone’s control: one’s choices to be open. I provide a series of personal anecdotes and analogies, to illustrate real examples of how choice, experience, and resultant curiosity are interrelated. Often, the most revealing discoveries are those which can be made during one’s routine, daily life. Here, I place emphasis on observations of the moon, previously demonstrated to help develop curiosity in students (Duckworth, 1986). With an understanding that personal experience impacts curiosity as much, if not more, than one’s natural inclinations, individuals can wield their curiosity to find interest in and appreciation for subjects that would otherwise miss their attention. Often, this perspective is best gained when shared by another curious person.
Artificial intelligence for prediction of biological activities and generation of molecular hits using stereochemical information
Authors: Pereira Tiago O. , Abbasi Maryam , Oliveira Rita I. , Guedes Romina A. , Salvador Jorge A. R. , Arrais Joel P. 
Published: October 2023

AbstractIn this work, we develop a method for generating targeted hit compounds by applying deep reinforcement learning and attention mechanisms to predict binding affinity against a biological target while considering stereochemical information. The novelty of this work is a deep model Predictor that can establish the relationship between chemical structures and their corresponding $$pIC_{50}$$

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50

values. We thoroughly study the effect of different molecular descriptors such as ECFP4, ECFP6, SMILES and RDKFingerprint. Also, we demonstrated the importance of attention mechanisms to capture long-range dependencies in molecular sequences. Due to the importance of stereochemical information for the binding mechanism, this information was employed both in the prediction and generation processes. To identify the most promising hits, we apply the self-adaptive multi-objective optimization strategy. Moreover, to ensure the existence of stereochemical information, we consider all the possible enumerated stereoisomers to provide the most appropriate 3D structures. We evaluated this approach against the Ubiquitin-Specific Protease 7 (USP7) by generating putative inhibitors for this target. The predictor with SMILES notations as descriptor plus bidirectional recurrent neural network using attention mechanism has the best performance. Additionally, our methodology identify the regions of the generated molecules that are important for the interaction with the receptor’s active site. Also, the obtained results demonstrate that it is possible to discover synthesizable molecules with high biological affinity for the target, containing the indication of their optimal stereochemical conformation.
When Biobanks Meet Religion: Association Between Religiosity and Attitudes of Polish Medical Students Toward Biobanking of Human Biological Material for Research Purposes
Authors: Domaradzki Jan , Walkowiak Dariusz 
Published: October 2023

AbstractWhile biobanking is expanding globally, the empirical evidence concerning the impact of religion on future healthcare professionals’ awareness and willingness to donate biospecimens for biobank research is lacking. To understand how medical students’ religious beliefs can fuel their questions regarding how biospecimens would be stored, cared for, and used, we conducted a survey among 1500 medical students at Poznań University of Medical Sciences. Our findings suggest that, while both religious and nonreligious students supported the idea of biobanking of human biological material and were willing to donate for research purposes, nonreligious students felt more positive toward biobanking, supported the idea of establishing biobanks in Poland more often, and were more eager to donate most types of tissues and to participate in biobank research. Religious beliefs were also associated with medical students’ perception of benefits and risks resulting from biobanking, perceived trust toward various biobank institutions, and preferred type of consent.
Cataphryxus zapoteca sp. nov. (Isopoda, Bopyridae) and new hosts and records of bopyrid isopods from the Mexican Eastern Pacific
Authors: Romero-Rodríguez Jesús , Álvarez Fernando 
Published: October 2023

AbstractBased on the examination of diverse crustacean taxa collected along the Mexican Pacific and deposited in the Colección Nacional de Crustáceos of the Instituto de Biología, UNAM, six species of bopyrid isopods were detected. New hosts and localities are reported for Munidion pleuroncodis Markham, 1975, Probopyrus pacificensis Román-Contreras, 1993, Probopyrus markhami Román-Contreras, 1996, Progebiophilus bruscai Salazar-Vallejo & Leija-Tristán, 1990 and Schizobopyrina striata (Nierstrasz & Brender à Brandis, 1929). Cataphryxus zapotecasp. nov., is described as abdominal parasite of the shrimp Lysmata galapagensis Schmitt; this bopyrid is the second species described in the genus Cataphryxus Shiino, 1936 and the first registered on the American continent. Taxonomic characters, distribution and some reproductive data for five of the six species examined are provided in order to update the knowledge of this parasite group in this Eastern Pacific region.
Genome-wide association study for growth traits in Blanco Orejinegro and Romosinuano cattle
Authors: Bejarano Diego H. , Martínez Rodrigo A. , Rocha Juan F. 
Published: October 2023

AbstractGrowth traits are economically important characteristics for the genetic improvement of local cattle breeds. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) provide valuable information to enhance the understanding on the genetics of complex traits. The aim of this study was to perform a GWAS to identify genomic regions and genes associated to birth weight, weaning weight adjusted for 240 days, 16 months, and 24 months weight in Romosinuano (ROMO) and Blanco Orejinegro (BON) cattle. A single-step genomic-BLUP was implemented using 596 BON and 569 ROMO individuals that were genotyped with an Illumina BovineSNP50 BeadChip. There were 25 regions of interest identified on different chromosomes, with few of them simultaneously associated with two or more growth traits and some were common to both breeds. The gene mapping allowed to find 173 annotations on these regions, from which 49 represent potential candidate genes with known growth-related functions in cattle and other species. Among the regions that were associated with several growth traits, that at 24 – 27 MB of BTA14, has important candidate genes such as LYPLA1, XKR4, TMEM68 and PLAG1. Another region of interest at 0.40–0.77 Mb of BTA23 was identified in both breeds, containing KHDRBS2 as a potential candidate gene influencing body weight. Future studies targeting these regions could provide more knowledge to uncover the genetic architecture underlying growth traits in BON and ROMO cattle. The genomic regions and genes identified in this study could be used to improve the prediction of genetic merit for growth traits in these creole cattle breeds.
Lymphadenectomy before and after radical cystectomy: does this affect the radicality? A prospective randomized comparative study
Authors: Moeen Ahmed M. , Hameed Diaa A. , Mostafa Mohamed G. , Shaban Shimaa H. 
Published: October 2023

Abstract
Purpose
To compare the oncological outcome of performing ePLND before or after RC in 200 patients in a prospective randomized manner.

Materials and methods
From January 2014 to December 2019, 200 patients with T2-T3b N0M0 BCa were included in the current study after signing an informed consent. Patients were divided into two groups, 100 in each one. Group I underwent ePLND before RC, whereas group II underwent ePLND after RC. Postoperative evaluation included clinical, laboratory, and radiographic studies.

Results
Patients’ characteristics were comparable between both groups. The mean operative time excluding that of urinary diversion was significantly shorter in group II than in group I (p = 0.01). The mean number of LNs removed was 25 ± 6 in group I and 32 ± 8 in group II (p = 0.141). Intraoperative complications occurred in four patients in the form of external iliac artery and vein injury [two in each group (p = 0. 245)]. Postoperative complications were comparable between both groups with no statistically significant difference (p = 0.375). Oncological failure occurred in 28 patients [16 (17.6%) in group I and 12 (22%) in group II (p = 0.389)].

Conclusions
EPLND before and after RC has comparable oncological outcomes. The stage of the disease, the time since the first diagnosis till RC and the surgeon experience in performing meticulous ePLND are more important. In absence of oncological superiority, the timing of ePLND should be judged according to the patient-related factors to facilitate safe RC with minimal morbidity.
DeepFTSG: Multi-stream Asymmetric USE-Net Trellis Encoders with Shared Decoder Feature Fusion Architecture for Video Motion Segmentation
Authors: Rahmon Gani , Palaniappan Kannappan , Toubal Imad Eddine , Bunyak Filiz , Rao Raghuveer , Seetharaman Guna 
Published: October 2023

AbstractDiscriminating salient moving objects against complex, cluttered backgrounds, with occlusions and challenging environmental conditions like weather and illumination, is essential for stateful scene perception in autonomous systems. We propose a novel deep architecture, named DeepFTSG, for robust moving object detection that incorporates single and multi-stream multi-channel USE-Net trellis asymmetric encoders extending U-Net with squeeze and excitation (SE) blocks and a single shared decoder network for fusing multiple motion and appearance cues. DeepFTSG is a deep learning based approach that builds upon our previous hand-engineered flux tensor split Gaussian (FTSG) change detection video analysis algorithm which won the CDNet CVPR Change Detection Workshop challenge competition. DeepFTSG generalizes much better than top-performing motion detection deep networks, such as the scene-dependent ensemble-based FgSegNet_v2, while using an order of magnitude fewer weights. Short-term motion and longer-term change cues are estimated using general-purpose unsupervised methods—flux tensor and multi-modal background subtraction, respectively. DeepFTSG was evaluated using the CDnet-2014 change detection challenge dataset, the largest change detection video sequence benchmark with 12.3 billion labeled pixels, and had an overall F-measure of 97%. We also evaluated the cross-dataset generalization capability of DeepFTSG trained solely on CDnet-2014 short video segments and then evaluated on unseen SBI-2015, LASIESTA and LaSOT benchmark videos. On the unseen SBI-2015 dataset, DeepFTSG had an F-measure accuracy of 87%, more than 30% higher compared to the top-performing deep network FgSegNet_v2 and outperforms the recently proposed KimHa method by 17%. On the unseen LASIESTA, DeepFTSG had an F-measure of 88% and outperformed the best recent deep learning method BSUV-Net2.0 by 3%. On the unseen LaSOT with axis-aligned bounding box ground-truth, network segmentation masks were converted to bounding boxes for evaluation, DeepFTSG had an F-Measure of 55%, outperforming KimHa method by 14% and FgSegNet_v2 by almost 1.5%. When a customized single DeepFTSG model is trained in a scene-dependent manner for comparison with state-of-the-art approaches, then DeepFTSG performs significantly better, reaching an F-Measure of 97% on SBI-2015 (+ 10%) and 99% on LASIESTA (+ 11%). The source code, pre-trained weights, and video demo for DeepFTSG are available at https://github.com/CIVA-Lab/DeepFTSG.
Aquatic therapy improves self-reported sleep quality in fibromyalgia patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Bravo Cristina , Rubí-Carnacea Francesc , Colomo Iolanda , Sánchez-de-la-Torre Manuel , Fernández-Lago Helena , Climent-Sanz Carolina 
Published: October 2023

Abstract
Background
This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of aquatic therapy on pain, sleep quality, psychological symptoms, quality of life, and health status in people diagnosed with fibromyalgia.

Methods
We searched PubMed, CINAHL, The Cochrane Library, PEDro and Scopus databases. Articles were eligible if they were randomised controlled trials (RCTs) analysing the effects of aquatic therapy in adult people diagnosed with fibromyalgia, and published by October of 2022 in English or Spanish. The Cochrane Risk of Bias tool was employed to conduct the methodological quality assessment of the encompassed studies, and the overall quality of evidence for each comparison was determined using the GRADE approach.

Results
Of 375 articles found, 22 met the inclusion criteria. Forest plot analysis of Pittsburgh sleep quality index at short- and mid-term follow-up showed a trend in favour of aquatic therapy, although not statistically significant, with weighted mean difference (WMD) = -1.71 (95% CI: -4.17 to -0.75, p = 0.17). Heterogeneity was substantial (χ2 = 8.74, df = 5 (p < 0.000001; I2 = 95%). Relating the pain outcome by fibromyalgia impact questionnaire (FIQ) short term showed a trend in favour of the aquatic therapy group with WMD = −5.04 (95% CI: − 9.26 to − 0.82, p = = 0.02) with heterogeneity χ2 = 11.07, df = 4 (p = 0.03; I2 = 64%). Great heterogeneity was found between trials in medium term.

Conclusion
This systematic review and meta-analysis demonstrated the effectiveness of aquatic therapy as an adjunct treatment to usual care in people suffering from fibromyalgia. Aquatic therapeutic exercise improves the symptomats of sleep quality, pain, and quality of life of adults with fibromyalgia. Further research on long-term outcomes may contribute to the currently available evidence.
Exploring the dynamic effect of economic growth on carbon dioxide emissions in Africa: evidence from panel PMG estimator
Authors: Espoir Delphin Kamanda , Sunge Regret , Bannor Frank 
Published: October 2023

AbstractThe relationship between economic growth and environmental pollution continues to attract significant research interest for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers all over the globe. Theoretically, the environmental benefit of economic growth should be greater than its negative externality with higher level of development. However, from the African perspective, countries with higher economic performances often face several environmental challenges, which raises the doubt whether economic growth helps or constrains environmental quality improvement. Under the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis, this study re-examined the effect of economic growth on CO2 emissions conditional on the dynamics of urbanization, renewable energy, and good governance across 47 African countries using panel data from 1996 to 2019. We employ panel cointegration tests to establish whether there is a long-run equilibrium relationship among our variables. We also apply pooled mean group ARDL (PMG-ARDL) techniques and the Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality test to determine the long- and short-run effects of economic growth, urbanization, renewable energy consumption, and good governance on CO2 emissions. The results from the PMG estimator validate the EKC hypothesis since a 1% surge in GDP per capita increases emissions by 0.61% in the long run, while a 1% increase in its square decreases emissions by 0.03%. In the short-run, economic growth does not exercise any significant effect on emissions. Furthermore, results indicate a significantly negative and positive long-run effect of renewable energy and governance, respectively. Finally, our causality test shows bidirectional relationship between CO2 emissions and all the explanatory variables. Henceforth, we provided policy implications based on the study’s results.
New model for the automatic detection of anthracnose in mango fruits based on Vis/NIR hyperspectral imaging and discriminant analysis
Authors: Velásquez Carlos , Prieto Flavio , Palou Lluís , Cubero Sergio , Blasco José , Aleixos Nuria 
Published: October 2023

AbstractAnthracnose is one of the most relevant diseases of mango crops in producing regions, affecting 60% of production. Currently, its detection is carried out in late stages by human visual inspection. Hyperspectral imaging systems allow the development of non-destructive solutions to inspect and detect internal damage. This work aimed to develop a system for detecting anthracnose in mango fruits using Vis–NIR hyperspectral imaging and discriminant analysis. The usefulness of three-dimensionality reduction methods to minimise redundancy in the spectral data and to obtain a compact number of wavelengths that effectively allow the detection of anthracnose symptoms in mango fruits is also explored. As a result, a classification model based on discriminant analysis and Pearson correlation coefficient was obtained, showing the potential of hyperspectral data to robustly allow the detection of anthracnose symptoms with full or reduced spectra. The findings reported in this study can serve as the basis for developing an anthracnose detection system in mango fruits with multispectral cameras.
Indicators to evaluate quality of care in head and neck cancer in Spain
Authors: Hernández Juan Jesús Cruz , Arrula Virginia Arrazubi , Álvarez Yolanda Escobar , Castaño Almudena García , de Castro Juan José Grau , Docampo Lara Iglesias , Sorrosal Julio Lambea , Segura Pedro Pérez , Domínguez Antonio Rueda , Campos-Lucas Francisco J. , Rodríguez Irene Santamaría , Bessa Maria , Gratal Paula , Caballero-Martínez Fernando , Martín Diana Monge , Antón-Rodríguez Cristina , López Rafael 
Published: October 2023

Abstract
Purpose
This study aimed to develop a set of criteria and indicators to evaluate the quality of care of patients with head and neck cancer (HNC).

Methods
A systematic literature review was conducted to identify valuable criteria/indicators for the assessment of the quality of care in HNC. With the aid of a technical group, a scientific committee of oncologists specialised in HNC used selected criteria to propose indicators that were evaluated with a two-round Delphi method. Indicators on which consensus was achieved were then prioritised by the scientific committee to develop a final set of indicators.

Results
We proposed a list of 50 indicators used in the literature or developed by us to be evaluated with a Delphi method. There was consensus on the appropriateness of 47 indicators in the first round; the remaining 3 achieved consensus in the second round. The 50 indicators were scored to prioritise them, leading to a final selection of 29 indicators related to structure (3), process (22), or outcome (4) and covering diagnosis, treatment, follow-up, and health outcomes in patients with HNC. Easy-to-use index cards were developed for each indicator, with their criterion, definition, formula for use in real-world clinical practice, rationale, and acceptable level of attainment.

Conclusions
We have developed a set of 29 evidence-based and expert-supported indicators for evaluating the quality of care in HNC, covering diagnosis, treatment, follow-up, and health outcomes.
Quantile coherency of futures prices in palm and soybean oil markets
Authors: Fousekis Panos 
Published: October 2023

AbstractThe objective of the present work is to investigate the contemporaneous price co-movement in the futures markets of soybean and palm oil. This is pursued using quantile coherency (a statistical tool that allows for both frequency- and quantile-dependent linkages between stochastic processes) and daily futures prices from 2015 to 2023. The empirical findings suggest: (a) The co-movement between palm and soybean oil prices is not very high and, at the same time, it is asymmetric; prices in the two markets are more likely to crash than to boom together. (b) The intensity of co-movement tends to increase monotonically with the time-scale considered. However, the bulk of the adjustments to shocks tend to be completed within 1 month; the differences between coherency estimates in the medium- and in the long-run are rather small. (c) Price co-movement appears to be driven by both pure (short-run) contagion as well as by fundamental-based (long-run) contagion.