bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of molecular inclusion of azole antifungals by β-cyclodextrin using computational molecular approach
Authors: Shikha Riya , Kar Sidhartha Sankar 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
Azole antifungals are frequently used to treat fungal infections in humans. The two biggest problems with these azoles are the development of antifungal drug resistance and their poor water solubility, which makes them challenging to administer. One method to get around the limitations of azole delivery is inclusion complex development. Using molecular docking and Density Functional Theory (DFT) with PM3 calculations, we evaluated the chemical stability and reactivity of azole antifungals, including fluconazole, ketoconazole, miconazole, clotrimazole, and propiconazole, with β-cyclodextrin. Molecular docking was used to describe many medicinal molecule binding positions in beta cyclodextrin. Our findings indicate that the most stable inclusion complex is the fluconazole-β-cyclodextrin complex.
Doubled haploidy methodology for three forage grasses [crested wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum (L.) Gaertn.), hybrid bromegrass (Bromus riparius x B. inermis), and meadow bromegrass (Bromus riparius Rehm.)]
Authors: Ferrie Alison M.R. , Nelson Kim , Biligetu Bill 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
Doubled haploidy (DH) methodology is used in many plant species to accelerate crop improvement and cultivar development; however not all species are amenable to the tissue culture technique. Experiments were undertaken to develop DH protocols for three perennial grasses [crested wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum (L.) Gaertn.), hybrid bromegrass (Bromus riparius x B. inermis), and meadow bromegrass (Bromus riparius Rehm.)]. The initial experiment screened these forage grass species to established wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) microspore culture protocols. Following the initial screen, several factors influencing microspore embryogenesis were evaluated. These included genotype, donor plant conditions, developmental stage of the microspore, pretreatments, media composition, and culture conditions. For regeneration of the embryos to plants, media composition and culture conditions were assessed. Microspore-derived embryos/calli as well as green haploid/doubled haploid plants were regenerated from all three forage grasses. Differences were observed between species and genotypes within species in terms of embryogenic response. Modifications to the initial wheat DH protocol included the donor plant conditions, developmental stage of the microspore to late uninucleate to early binucleate and media composition. Regenerated plants were grown in the greenhouse.
Clinical course and peculiarities of Parechovirus and Enterovirus central nervous system infections in newborns
Authors: Brisca Giacomo , Bellini Tommaso , Pasquinucci Mattia , Mariani Marcello , Romanengo Marta , Buffoni Isabella , Tortora Domenico , Parodi Alessandro , Fueri Elena , Mesini Alessio , Tibaldi Jessica , Piccotti Emanuela , Ramenghi Luca Antonio , Moscatelli Andrea 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
Purpose
Parechoviruses (HpEV) and Enteroviruses (EV) infections in children mostly have a mild course but are particularly fearsome in newborns in whom they may cause aseptic meningitis, encephalitis, and myocarditis. Our study aimed to describe the clinical presentations and peculiarities of CNS infection by HpEV and EV in neonates.
Methods
Single-center retrospective study at Istituto Gaslini, Genoa, Italy. Infants aged ≤30 days with a CSF RTq-PCR positive for EV or HpEV from January 1, 2022, to December 1, 2023, were enrolled. Each patient's record included demographic data, blood and CSF tests, brain MRI, therapies, length of stay, ICU admission, complications, and mortality. The two groups were compared to identify any differences and similarities.
Results
Twenty-five patients (15 EV and 10 HpEV) with a median age of 15 days were included. EV patients had more comorbidities (p=0.021), more respiratory symptoms (p=0.012), and higher C-reactive protein (CRP) levels on admission (p=0.027), whereas ferritin values were significantly increased in HpEV patients (p=0.001). Eight patients had a pathological brain MRI, equally distributed between the two groups. Three EV patients developed myocarditis and one HpEV necrotizing enterocolitis with HLH-like. No deaths occurred.
Conclusions
EV and HpEV CNS infections are not easily distinguishable by clinical features. In both cases, brain MRI abnormalities are not uncommon and a severe course of the disease is possible. Hyper-ferritinemia may represent an additional diagnostic clue for HpEV infection and its monitoring is recommended to intercept HLH early and initiate immunomodulatory treatment. Larger studies are needed to confirm our findings.
S-RBD-modified and miR-486-5p-engineered exosomes derived from mesenchymal stem cells alleviate radiation-induced lung injury and long-term pulmonary fibrosis via suppression of ferroptosis
Authors: Zhang Weiyuan , Wen Li , Du Li , Liu Tingting , Sun Yang , Lu Yuxin , Cheng Xiaochen , Xiao Fengjun , Wang Lisheng 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
Background
Radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis (RIPF) is a late-stage complication of therapeutic radiation, associated with poor prognosis and limited therapeutic options. Radiation-induced lung injury (RILI) is an early manifestation of RIPF, and intervention of RILI is an effective method for preventing long-term RIPF. Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-derived exosomes exhibit regenerative activity in injured lungs and are effective drug-delivery nanoparticles. SARS-CoV-2-S-RBD enables ACE2+ cell targeting of MSC extracellular vesicles. miR-486-5p is a multifunctional miRNA with angiogenic and anti-fibrotic activities and is enriched in MSC-derived exosomes. In this study, we investigated the therapeutic effects of miR-486-5p and SARS-COV-2-S-RBD-engineered MSC exosomes on RIPF in vitro and in vivo.
Results
Adenovirus-mediated gene modification led to the overexpression of miR-486-5p in umbilical cord MSCs (UC-MSCs), which further enriched miR-486-5p in UC-MSCs-derived exosomes. MiR-486-5p-engineered MSC exosomes (miR-486-MSC-Exo) promoted the proliferation and migration of irradiated MLE-12 cells in vitro and inhibited RILI in vivo. An in vitro assay revealed the occurrence of ferroptosis, a major form of cell death during radiation injury, indicated by the upregulated expression of fibrosis-related genes. miR-486-MSC-Exo effectively reversed these changes. MiR-486-MSC-Exo strongly reversed the upregulated expression of MLE-12 fibrosis-related genes induced by TGF in vitro and improved pathological fibrosis in the RIPF model in vivo. The distribution of RBD-VSVG-MSC exosomes labeled with DiR dye in hACE2CKI/CKI Sftpc-Cre+ mice demonstrated that the fluorescence of RBD-VSVG exosomes remained in the lungs for a long time. miR-486-RBD-MSC-exosomes significantly improved the survival rate and pathological changes in hACE2CKI/CKI Sftpc-Cre+ RIPF mice. Furthermore, miR-486-MSC-Exo exerted anti-fibrotic effects through targeted inhibition of SMAD2 and activation of Akt phosphorylation.
Conclusions
Here, miR-486-MSC-Exo inhibited lung injury and alleviated fibrosis in vivo and in vitro. Surface modification with COVID-S-RBD conferred engineered exosomes with the ability to target the lungs of animal models. The therapeutic effects of miR-486-5p and COVID-S-RBD-engineered MSC exosomes on RIPF were significantly enhanced. MSC-derived exosomes modified with recombinant COVID-S-RBD enabled targeted delivery of miR-486-5p, which is an effective approach for the treatment of RIPF.
Perspectives of University Educators Regarding ChatGPT: A Validation Study Based on the Technology Acceptance Model
Authors: Barakat Muna , Salim Nesreen A. , Sallam Malik 
Published: February 2024

Abstract

Background
ChatGPT is a generative artificial intelligence (AI) model that has a promising potential in higher education. Nevertheless, the integration of ChatGPT into higher education requires the assessment of university educators’ perspectives regarding this novel technology. This study aimed to develop and validate a survey instrument specifically tailored to assess ChatGPT usability and acceptability among university educators.
Methods
Development of the survey items was based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) followed by expert content validity assessment and pilot testing to improve phrasing of the items. The survey instrument involved assessment of the demographic variables in addition to a total of 40 TAM-based items. The survey was distributed among educators in Jordan in two phases: February 2023–April 2023 and October 2023. The self-administered survey was distributed via a convenience approach among the contacts of the authors. Assessment of the construct validity was done through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) based on principal component analysis (PCA), while the internal consistency of the inferred constructs was checked using the Cronbach’s α.
Results
The final sample comprised 236 university educators, with 72% who heard of ChatGPT before the study (n = 169), of whom 76 have already used ChatGPT (45%). The EFA showed a significant Bartlett’s test of sphericity (P < .001) and adequate Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure (KMO = .698). The six constructs inferred through EFA explained a cumulative 64% of the variance in the educators’ attitude to ChatGPT. These constructs comprised 31 items classified into: (1) “Effectiveness” (α = .845), (2) “Anxiety” (α = .862), (3) “Technology readiness (α = .885), (4) Perceived usefulness (α = .848), (5) Social influence (α = .803), and (6) Perceived risk (α = .796).
Conclusions
This study identified six key constructs that could be exploited for comprehensive understanding of the university educators' attitude toward ChatGPT. The novel survey instrument herein termed “Ed-TAME-ChatGPT” involved positive influencing factors such as perceived usefulness and effectiveness, positive attitude to technology, and social influence in addition to negative factors including anxiety and perceived risk. The developed survey instrument can provide a robust framework for further investigation into the usability and acceptability of ChatGPT among university educators, given the nearly inevitable integration of generative AI into higher education.
Livestock keeping, mosquitoes and community viewpoints: a mixed methods assessment of relationships between livestock management, malaria vector biting risk and community perspectives in rural Tanzania
Authors: Mwalugelo Yohana A. , Mponzi Winifrida P. , Muyaga Letus L. , Mahenge Herieth H. , Katusi Godfrey C. , Muhonja Faith , Omondi Dickens , Ochieng Alfred O. , Kaindoa Emmanuel W. , Amimo Fred A. 
Published: February 2024

Abstract

Background
Livestock keeping is one of the potential factors related to malaria transmission. To date, the impact of livestock keeping on malaria transmission remains inconclusive, as some studies suggest a zooprophylactic effect while others indicate a zoopotentiation effect. This study assessed the impact of livestock management on malaria transmission risks in rural Tanzania. Additionally, the study explored the knowledge and perceptions of residents about the relationships between livestock keeping and malaria transmission risks in a selected village.
Methods
In a longitudinal entomological study in Minepa village, South Eastern Tanzania, 40 households were randomly selected (20 with livestock, 20 without). Weekly mosquito collection was performed from January to April 2023. Indoor and outdoor collections used CDC-Light traps, Prokopack aspirators, human-baited double-net traps, and resting buckets. A subsample of mosquitoes was analysed using PCR and ELISA for mosquito species identification and blood meal detection. Livestock's impact on mosquito density was assessed using negative binomial GLMMs. Additionally, in-depth interviews explored community knowledge and perceptions of the relationship between livestock keeping and malaria transmission risks.
Results
A total of 48,677 female Anopheles mosquitoes were collected. Out of these, 89% were An. gambiae s.l. while other species were An. funestus, An. pharoensis, An. coustani, and An. squamosus. The findings revealed a statistically significant increase in the overall number of An. gambiae s.,l. outdoors (RR = 1.181, 95%CI: 1.050–1.862, p = 0.043). Also, there was an increase of the mean number of An. funestus mosquitoes collected in households with livestock indoors (RR = 2.866, 95%CI: 1.471–5.582, p = 0.002) and outdoors (RR = 1.579,95%CI: 1.080–2.865, p = 0.023). The human blood index in An. gambiae s.l. mosquitoes from houses with livestock was less than those without livestock (OR = 0.149, 95%CI: 0.110–0.178, p < 0.001). The majority of participants in the in-depth interviews reported a perceived high density of mosquitoes in houses with livestock compared to houses without livestock.
Conclusion
Despite the potential for zooprophylaxis, this study indicates a higher malaria transmission risk in livestock-keeping communities. It is crucial to prioritise and implement targeted interventions to control vector populations within these communities. Furthermore, it is important to enhance community education and awareness regarding covariates such as livestock that influence malaria transmission.
Learn from Restoration: Exploiting Oriented Knowledge Distillation in Self-Supervised Learning for Person Re-Identification
Authors: Yang Enze , Liu Yuxin , Zhao Shitao , Liu Yiran , Liu Shuoyan 
Published: February 2024

Abstract

Person Re-IDentification (person ReID) aims to identify such individuals across diverse surveillance scenarios, which plays a pivotal role in centralized monitoring. However very recent studies pre-trained their models on ImageNet and fine-tuned on specific downstream ReID dataset, which leads to restricted generalization capability of person centered tasks. Addressing this limitation, this paper introduces a Self-Supervised Learning (SSL) model with Oriented Token Prior guided Knowledge Distillation. The proposed approach adopts the teacher-student network and attempts to not only restore the masked or low-quality samples, but also to align the semantics of the patches in feature domain. Within this framework, our model is pre-trained on a person-specific dataset LUPerson, which indicates a larger data scale with person-centered samples. Extensive experiments carried out on ReID datasets Market1501, MSMT17 and Occluded-Duke shows that the proposed method yield the state-of-the-art performance among the supervised and SSL ReID methods. Moreover, the proposed method could obtain the remarkable performance of partial supervised and unsupervised learning, which further indicates the strong generalizability and the robustness of our method. The code is publicly available at \href{https://github.com/ICT-CVlab/Oriented-KD-SSL}{https://github.com/ICT-CVlab/Oriented-KD-SSL}
Polycystic ovary syndrome and risk of breast cancer in premenopausal and postmenopausal women: a nationwide population-based cohort study
Authors: Frandsen C. L. B. , Nøhr B. , Gottschau M. , Viuff J. H. , Maltesen T. , Kjær S. K. , Svendsen P. F. , Jensen A. 
Published: February 2024

Abstract

Purpose: Although some reproductive and metabolic characteristics of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are known risk factors for breast cancer, the evidence regarding a potential association between PCOS and breast cancer is scarce. In this population-based cohort study including all 1 719 452 women born in Denmark in between 1940 and 1993, we investigated the association between PCOS and breast cancer.
Methods: PCOS diagnoses, cancer diagnoses, covariates, migrations and vital status were all obtained from national population- and health registers. Hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for breast cancer overall and for histological subtypes separately were calculated based on adjusted cox proportional hazards models.
Results: During a median follow-up of 26 years, 63 078 women were diagnosed with breast cancer. We found an increased risk of breast cancer overall among women with PCOS compared with women without PCOS (HR: 1.21, 95% CI: 1.02–1.44). In analyses stratified for menopausal status, the increased risk was restricted to postmenopausal women (HR: 1.63, 95% CI: 1.23–2.15). The results for ductal and lobular histological subtypes analyses separately resembled those observed for breast cancer overall.
Conclusion: This is the first study to report an increased risk of breast cancer among women with a history of PCOS. The increased risk was seemingly confined to postmenopausal women. Our results therefore contribute to an increased knowledge of the etiology of breast cancer, but our findings should be further confirmed in other large cohort studies with an appropriately long follow-up period.
CXCL10 could be a prognostic and immunological biomarker in bladder cancer
Authors: 殷 涛 , mou shuanzhu , Zhang Haiyu , Dong Ying , Yan Bing , Huang Weisheng , Liu Yuhan , mei hongbing 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
Introduction
As proteins that promote immune cell differentiation, chemokines have attracted great interest regarding their role in anti-tumor immune responses within the cancer environment. However, the exact role of CXCL10, a chemokine, in bladder cancer (BLCA) is still not fully elucidated.
Method
In the present study, we employed bioinformatics approaches to examine the expression pattern,prognostic value, and immune infiltration of CXCL10 in BLCA. Furthermore, we focused on examining the impact of CXCL10 on immune therapy in BLCA. Additionally, we validated the expression of CXCL10 in various BLCA cell lines using PCR techniques.
Results
We observed an upregulation of CXCL10 in BLCA tissues as well as in different cell lines. Additionally,
upregulation of CXCL10 indicates a better prognosis for BLCA patients. ESTIMATE and CIBERSORT algorithms
suggest that CXCL10 is closely associated with the immune microenvironment of BLCA. Through multiple
immune therapy cohorts, we also identified that CXCL10 has shown promising predictive value for assessing theefficacy of immune therapy in in BLCA.
Conclusion
Our study indicates that CXCL10 has the potential to serve as a favorable prognostic factor and is strongly associated with immune infiltration in BLCA.
A high-throughput approach for quantifying turgor loss point in wine grapes
Authors: Martin Adam R. , Li Guangrui , Cui Boya , Mariani Rachel. O. , Vicario Kale , Cathline Kimberley A. , Findlay Allison , Robertson Gavin 
Published: February 2024

Abstract

Quantifying drought tolerance in crops is critical for agricultural management under environmental change, and drought response traits in wine grapes have long been the focus of viticultural research. Turgor loss point (πtlp) is gaining attention as an indicator of drought tolerance in plants, though estimating πtlp often requires the construction and analysis of pressure-volume (P-V) curves which is time consuming. While P-V curves remain a valuable tool for assessing πtlp and related traits, there is considerable interest in developing high-throughput methods for rapidly estimating πtlp, especially in the context of crop screening. We tested the ability of a dewpoint hygrometer to quantify variation in πtlp across and within 12 varieties of wine grapes (Vitis vinifera) and one wild relative (Vitis riparia) and compared these results to those derived from P-V curves. At the leaf-level, methodology explained only 4–5% of the variation in πtlp while variety/species identity accounted for 39% of the variation, indicating that both methods are sensitive to detecting intraspecific πtlp variation in wine grapes. Also at the leaf level, πtlp measured using a dewpoint hygrometer significantly approximated πtlp values (r2 = 0.254) and conserved πtlp rankings from P-V curves (Spearman’s ρ = 0.459). While the leaf-level datasets differed statistically from one another (paired t-test p = 0.01), average difference in πtlp for a given pair of leaves was small (0.1 ± 0.2 MPa (s.d.)). At the species/variety level, estimates of πtlp measured by the two methods were also statistically correlated (r2 = 0.304), did not deviate statistically from a 1:1 relationship, and conserved πtlp rankings across varieties (Spearman’s ρ = 0.692). The dewpoint hygrometer (taking ~ 10–15 minutes on average per measurement) captures fine-scale intraspecific variation in πtlp, with results that approximate those from P-V curves (taking 2–3 hours on average per measurement). The dewpoint hygrometer represents a viable method for rapidly estimating intraspecific variation in πtlp, and potentially greatly increasing replication when estimating this drought tolerance trait in wine grapes and other crops.
Theoretical investigation on phosphorescent platinum complexes based on two tetradentate bipyridine ligands
Authors: MEZOUAR Hadj , BRAHIM Houari , BOUMEDIENE Mostefa , CHERIF Fatima YAHIA , HADJI Djebar , GUENDOUZI Abdelkrim 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
In this work, the geometrical, optical, and phosphorescence properties of four complexes with general formula [dRpypy―C(OCH3)R′―dRpypy]Pt, with Pt-1 (R = F, R′=methyl), Pt-2 (R = F, R′=hexyl), Pt-3 (R = methoxy, R′=methyl) and Pt-4 (R = methoxy, R′=hexyl) were studied using the B3PW91 and TD-B3PW91 methods. The effect of the double substitution R and R′ on the electronic properties of the four complexes has been investigated. Replacing the two fluorine atoms with the two methoxy groups modifies the shape of the UV-vis spectra and red shift the phosphorescence spectra, while the substituents on the linker R′ do not induces changes in both spectra. Normal modes involved in the vibronic structure were identified and analyzed using adiabatic Hessian approaches according to the Franck-Condon approximation. The computed phosphorescence wavelengths agree with the observed ones and indicate that the fluorinated complexes exhibit a bright light blue color, while the methoxy complexes display a light spring green color.