bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Metabolic Evaluation in Children aged 3 months to 2 years with Global Developmental Delay
Authors: Gomes Rochelle Natasha , Bhat Y Ramesh , Kini Sandesh , Kini Pushpa G , Shrikiran A , Suneel CM 
Published: December 2023

Abstract

Objectives
To study the clinical profile and role of metabolic evaluation in children aged 3 mo to 2 y with global developmental delay (GDD) of unclear etiology.

Methods
In this prospective study, demographic and clinical data along with first line metabolic test results [blood glucose, arterial blood sample analysis, renal function tests, uric acid, serum electrolytes, liver function tests (LFTs), plasma ammonia, arterial blood lactate and pyruvate, urine ketone/ reducing substances] were documented and analyzed. Tandem Mass Spectroscopy (TMS) and Gas Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) data were also analysed.

Results
Of 101 eligible children, 48 were excluded. Among 53 children included in the study, 32 (60.3%) were less than 1 y and 21 (39.7%) were more than 1 y. Four major developmental domains were almost equally affected in 16 (30.1%), three domains in 4 (7.5%) and two domains in 33 (62.4%) children. Fourteen (26.4%) children were found to have a probable metabolic disorder based on initial tests- 10 mitochondrial disorders, 3 organic-acidemias and 1 fatty-acid-oxidation defect. Further, on TMS and GC-MS tests, 11 (20.7%) had a metabolic disorder- 7 mitochondriopathies, 2 methylmalonic-aciduria, 1 each with glutaric-acidemia and ethylmalonic-aciduria.

Conclusions
Among children with GDD of unclear etiology, metabolic errors constitute a small proportion of etiology. In this group early metabolic tests could identify potentially treatable conditions.
Negotiating Social Protection and Care: A Study of First-Generation Older Turkish Community in London
Authors: Yazdanpanahi Melisa 
Published: December 2023

AbstractAccess to social protection in old age is crucial and yet contingent upon negotiations between the social structures of the welfare states and the personal networks within which individuals are embedded. International migration, changing family dynamics, and the transformation of care and other welfare policies in the global North make it challenging for older migrants to negotiate social protection. Drawing on 45 semi-structured interviews with first-generation older Turkish migrants in London and 13 semi-structured interviews with professional service providers for the community, the paper aims to investigate the assemblages of formal and informal social protection in the lives of older migrants. Findings indicate the complexity in accessing informal social protection and the navigation of formal care support in the UK for first generation older Turkish migrants and the contingency of access to formal care services on informal support networks for participants. It has been demonstrated that built infrastructure and policies aimed at older adults have great influence on assemblages of care, highlighting the need for more age-friendly and integrated policies to facilitate access to social protection for diverse groups of older adults.
A transdiagnostic approach to sexual distress and pleasure: The role of worry, rumination, and emotional regulation
Authors: Guerreiro Patrícia P. , Raposo Catarina F. , Salvador Ágata , Manão Andreia A. , Pascoal Patrícia M. 
Published: December 2023

AbstractSexual distress, as well as sexual pleasure, are essential components of sexual health. Recently, associations between transdiagnostic factors such as worry and rumination and sexual distress and pleasure have been found. However, considering the adequacy of the transdiagnostic approach to explain and intervene in psychopathology and well-being, there is a need to address further sexual distress and pleasure and their relation to specific transdiagnostic factors. This paper aimed to explore a theory-driven model of sexual distress and sexual pleasure using multiple regression analysis with specific dimensions of repetitive negative thinking such as worry, rumination (brooding and reflection), and emotional regulation (emotion suppression and cognitive reappraisal) as predictors while controlling for emotional factors (anxiety and depression). The sample comprised 412 individuals in a monogamous relationship for at least a year. Results showed significant, positive, and moderate correlations between sexual distress and all emotional and transdiagnostic factors. For sexual pleasure, negative associations were found with depression and anxiety, worry, and brooding. Reflection was a significant predictor of sexual distress when emotional factors were controlled in the regression model. Depression was a significant predictor for both sexual distress and sexual pleasure. This study significantly contributes to our understanding of the complex relationship between transdiagnostic factors and sexual distress and pleasure, offering valuable insights that expand upon previous studies in this field and further advance our knowledge about sexual well-being.
Physicochemical characterization of açaí seeds (Euterpe oleracea) from Colombian pacific and their potential of mannan-oligosaccharides and sugar production via enzymatic hydrolysis
Authors: Murillo-Franco Sarha Lucia , Galvis-Nieto Juan D. , Orrego Carlos E. 
Published: December 2023

AbstractThe study aimed to characterize açaí seeds and explore their potential for producing mannooligosaccharides (MOS) through enzymatic hydrolysis. According to characterization tests by XRD, FTIR, and chemical analysis, acai seeds, a waste material from acai fruit processing, contain significant hemicellulose content, with a main content based on mannan. The study utilized Rohalase®GMP enzyme for hydrolysis and monitored reducing sugars and MOS production (8–10 g MOS/L) hydrolysate with varying lengths, including di-, tri-, tetra-, and pentasaccharide over time. Results showed a concentration plateau of reducing sugars at 13 h and increased MOS until hour nineteen. Mannobiose (M2) was the predominant MOS produced. Comparative analysis with prior research indicated that the açaí seed hydrolysate’s MOS content aligns with that from other sources. Importantly, the study achieved % hydrolysis and MOS yield of 10.79 ± 0.05% and 51.39 ± 0.11 g M2-M5/g mannan, respectively. Açaí seed is a promising source to produce enzymes, biofuels, or thermal energy, as well as highly valued chemical compounds in the industry. This work additionally demonstrates its potential as a sustainable source of valuable MOS, suggesting applications as prebiotics and functional food additives, with implications for various industries seeking eco-friendly alternatives.
Establishment of gestational diabetes risk prediction model and clinical verification
Authors: Niu Z.-R. , Bai L.-W. , Lu Q. 
Published: December 2023

Abstract
Objective
The present study aimed to evaluate the risk factors for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and build and validate an early risk prediction model of GDM by comparing the differences in the indicators of the first trimester of pregnancy between pregnant women with GDM and non-gestational diabetes mellitus (NGDM). Thus, this study provided a theoretical basis for early intervention of GDM.

Methods
A total of 6000 pregnant women who underwent a routine prenatal examination in Qinhuangdao Maternal and Child Health Hospital (Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province, China) from January 2016–2022 were retrospectively selected and randomly divided into a modeling cohort (4200 cases) and validation cohort (1800 cases) at a ratio of 3:7. According to the results of oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), they were divided into NGDM and GDM groups. The modeling cohort consisted of 2975 NGDM and 1225 GDM cases, while the validation cohort consisted of 1281 NGDM and 519 GDM cases. The differences in general conditions and laboratory indicators between different groups were compared, and logistic regression analysis was further used to establish a risk prediction model for GDM in the first trimester. The receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) and Hosmer–Lemeshow (HL) tests were used to evaluate the prediction of the model efficacy.

Results
Age, pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI), glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), blood uric acid (UA), triglyceride (TG), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) in the first trimester were independent risk factors for GDM (P < 0.05). The model equation was Y = 1/{1 + exp[− (− 18.373 + age × 0.065 + BMI × 0.030 + first-trimester HbA1c × 2.519 + UA × 0.014 + TG × 0.224-HDL-C × 0.635)]}. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) of the model cohort was 0.803 (0.788–0.817), the sensitivity was 72.0%, and the specificity was 73.5%. The AUC of the validation cohort was 0.782 (0.759–0.806), the sensitivity was 68.6%, and the specificity was 73.8%. The P values of the HL test in both the training and validation sets were > 0.05, indicating a satisfactory model fit.

Conclusion
Age, pre-pregnancy BMI, HbA1C in early pregnancy, blood UA, TG, and HDL-C are independent risk factors for GDM. The risk prediction model established by combining age, pre-pregnancy BMI, and laboratory indicators in the first trimester can provide a theoretical basis for early screening, monitoring, and intervention of GDM high-risk pregnant women.
Ssleepnet: a structured sleep network for sleep staging based on sleep apnea severity
Authors: Lv Xingfeng , Ma Jun , Li Jinbao , Ren Qianqian 
Published: December 2023

AbstractSleep stage classification is essential in evaluating sleep quality. Sleep disorders disrupt the periodicity of sleep stages, especially the common obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Many methods only consider how to effectively extract features from physiological signals to classify sleep stages, ignoring the impact of OSA on sleep staging. We propose a structured sleep staging network (SSleepNet) based on OSA to solve the above problem. This research focused on the effect of sleep apnea patients with different severity on sleep staging performance and how to reduce this effect. Considering that the transfer relationship between sleep stages of OSA subjects is different, SSleepNet learns comprehensive features and transfer relationships to improve the sleep staging performance. First, the network uses the multi-scale feature extraction (MSFE) module to learn rich features. Second, the network uses a structured learning module (SLM) to understand the transfer relationship between sleep stages, reducing the impact of OSA on sleep stages and making the network more universal. We validate the model on two datasets. The experimental results show that the detection accuracy can reach 84.6% on the Sleep-EDF-2013 dataset. The detection accuracy decreased slightly with the increase of OSA severity on the Sleep Heart Health Study (SHHS) dataset. The accuracy of healthy subjects to severe OSA subjects ranged from 79.8 to 78.4%, with a difference of only 1.4%. It shows that the SSleepNet can perform better sleep staging for healthy and OSA subjects.
Implantable Electrochemical Microsensors for In Vivo Monitoring of Animal Physiological Information
Authors: Zhou Jin , Zhou Shenghan , Fan Peidi , Li Xunjia , Ying Yibin , Ping Jianfeng , Pan Yuxiang 
Published: December 2023

AbstractIn vivo monitoring of animal physiological information plays a crucial role in promptly alerting humans to potential diseases in animals and aiding in the exploration of mechanisms underlying human diseases. Currently, implantable electrochemical microsensors have emerged as a prominent area of research. These microsensors not only fulfill the technical requirements for monitoring animal physiological information but also offer an ideal platform for integration. They have been extensively studied for their ability to monitor animal physiological information in a minimally invasive manner, characterized by their bloodless, painless features, and exceptional performance. The development of implantable electrochemical microsensors for in vivo monitoring of animal physiological information has witnessed significant scientific and technological advancements through dedicated efforts. This review commenced with a comprehensive discussion of the construction of microsensors, including the materials utilized and the methods employed for fabrication. Following this, we proceeded to explore the various implantation technologies employed for electrochemical microsensors. In addition, a comprehensive overview was provided of the various applications of implantable electrochemical microsensors, specifically in the monitoring of diseases and the investigation of disease mechanisms. Lastly, a concise conclusion was conducted on the recent advancements and significant obstacles pertaining to the practical implementation of implantable electrochemical microsensors.
Arithmetic and topology of classical structures associated with plane quartics
Authors: Bergvall Olof 
Published: December 2023

AbstractWe consider moduli spaces of plane quartics marked with various structures such as Cayley octads, Aronhold heptads, Steiner complexes and Göpel subsets and determine their cohomology. This answers a series of questions of Jesse Wolfson. We also count points of these moduli spaces over finite fields of odd characteristic.
Early detection of bacterial wilt in bananas caused by Ralstonia solanacearum using reflectance spectroscopy
Authors: Marín-Ortiz Juan Carlos , Botero-Fernández Verónica , Zapata-Henao Sebastián , Hoyos-Carvajal Lilliana María 
Published: December 2023

AbstractBacterial wilt is one of the most important vascular diseases that generate high worldwide losses. The main strategy to control it involves early detection of infected plants that mitigate its spread in the field. This research characterized the spectral response of healthy plants, infected with Ralstonia solanacearum E.F. Smith race 2 and subjected to water stress, in two banana cultivars by spectroscopy reflectance. The spectral data were used to detect vascular wilt during the incubation period of the disease in Gros Michel and Cavendish banana cultivars. The reflectance data were collected from the leaves using a portable spectrometer. Both varieties of healthy plants showed a typical low reflectance in the visible range, with a peak of green of around 12% in Williams and 5% in Gros Michel. In the measured infrared range, the two varieties presented values between 60 and 70% in the latest days post-infection measurements, decreasing to ~ 50% after 12 dpi. The results obtained indicate that plants infected with R. solanacearum have no initial increase in reflectance in the visible (Vis) range, whereas decrease rapidly after 6 dpi in the 700–1000 nm range. This methodology identifies three wavelengths (710, 770, and 965 nm) that allow differentiation between ill and healthy plants after 6 days post-inoculation, with a percentage of correct classification that ranges from 96 to 100%. The spectral response characterization in healthy plants and those subjected to various types of stress is a fundamental input for the development of early disease detection systems based on spectroscopy techniques.
Establishing counterpoints in the sonic framing of AI narratives
Authors: Chubb Jennifer , Beer David 
Published: December 2023

Abstract
In order to challenge dominant representations and conceptions of artificial intelligence (AI), this article explores how AI is sonically represented in documentaries. Using a corpus of documentaries alongside expert interviews with sound designers, we explore the ways in which music and sound may influence perception about AI. The notion of ‘counterpoint’ in music theory is developed as a concept to capture and explain how the integrated dynamics of human/machines are represented within these sonic framings. The concept of the counterpoint allows us to reflect on how the relations between AI and the human and how they are sonically framed in ways that separate and blend without recourse to reductive or binary futures, which potentially misrepresent AI capabilities and performance. The article identifies and develops four types of counterpoint in what we refer to as AI sonic narratives. This article provides a framework from which AI could be sonically framed responsibly, which is critical when misinformation and hype impede the public understanding of science.
Effects of temperature and water activity on 25 de novo strains of pathogenic plant fungi in Al-Baha and Baljurashi cities in Saudi Arabia
Authors: Almiman Bandar 
Published: December 2023

AbstractFungi inflict a great deal of damage to crops in fields and in storage facilities, causing issues such as leaf spot, wilt, rust, dieback and rot, as well as releasing mycotoxins that taint vegetation. In the current study, 25 de novo fungal isolates were taken from infected plant tissue (leaf, root and fruit), at pre- and post-harvest stages. Isolates were identified using molecular markers; 8 genera and 15 species were determined. The most common species was Penicillium spp. (40%), Aspergillus spp. (20%), Fusarium spp. (16%) and Alternaria alternata species (8%). The remaining 16% was comprised of various types of fungi, including Geotrichum candidum, Neofusicoccum parvum, Rhizopus stolonifera and Mucor fragilis. Many of these genera are known to cause significant crop damage and are notorious mycotoxin producers. An evaluation of the optimal growth temperature revealed the ideal temperatures were 30 °C for 56% of isolates, 25 °C for 28% of isolates and 20 °C for 16% of isolates. An assessment of water activity showed that 60% of isolates belonged to Penicillium and Aspergillus spp. and were mesophilic and xerophilic. Another 28% of isolates were Fusarium spp., Geotrichum candidum, Neofusicoccum parvum and Mucor fragilis, and hydrophilic. The remaining 12%, representing Alternaria alternata and Rhizopus stolonifera, were mesophilic. The current study provides accurate eco-physiological response data and molecular information for each isolate. The findings can assist the development of novel approaches to control the expansion of invasive fungal infections and minimise their deleterious consequences.
Role of signaling pathways in the interaction between microbial, inflammation and cancer
Authors: Nwabo Kamdje Armel Hervé , Tagne Simo Richard , Fogang Dongmo Hetvet Paulain , Bidias Amel Renaud , Masumbe Netongo Palmer 
Published: December 2023

AbstractMicrobial-induced inflammation serves a dual role, safeguarding against pathogens but also posing a risk of secondary harm to host tissues, potentially leading to fibrosis and cancer. Beyond traditional pathogens, gut microbiota, the mutualistic microorganisms inhabiting the gastrointestinal tract, crucial for digestion, immunity, and cancer prevention, can incite inflammation-related cancer when their microenvironment undergoes changes. Recent research reveals that microbiota members like Escherichia coli and other genotoxic pathogens can induce DNA damage across various cell types. Chronic infections involving microbiota members like Helicobacter spp., linked to liver, colorectal, cervical cancers, and lymphoma, can activate carcinogenic processes. Inflammatory responses, driven by immune cells releasing inflammatory molecules like macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MMIF), superoxide peroxynitrite, pro-inflammatory cytokines, adhesion molecules, and growth factors, contribute to DNA damage and oncogenic mutations accumulation. This microenvironment further supports neoplastic cell survival and proliferation. This summary discusses the involvement of inflammatory pathways in microbial-triggered carcinogenesis and the potential role of microbiota modulation in cancer prevention.
Effect of conservation tillage on soil and water conservation, yield and yield components of Maize (Zea mays L.) in South Ari District, Southern Ethiopia
Authors: Handiso Mitiku Ayele , Hemacho Abebe Hegano , Bongido Belayneh Lemage , Anjulo Merdikios Malla 
Published: December 2023

AbstractReduced tillage is one of the options to combat land degradation problems. The study aims to examine the impacts of tillage practices on selected soil physicochemical properties, soil loss, and maize yield and yield components. Four treatments—zero, twice, and strip tillage—as well as farmers' practices, were set up in a randomized complete block design with five replications. Then, soil moisture, soil loss, and yield and yield components of maize data were collected. The findings show that, when compared to conventional tillage, conservation tillage improves soil moisture and decreases soil loss during and after crop development. The study found that implementing reduced, or zero tillage practices resulted in higher maize yields and long-term economic benefits for farmers compared to conventional and strip tillage practices. In addition, the current research demonstrated that, in comparison to strip tillage and conventional tillage, adopting reduced tillage and zero tillage increased maize yield and yield components with greater long-term economic benefits to farmers. The current findings also showed that adopting reduced tillage and zero tillage boosted maize yield and yield components, with higher economic benefits to farmers in the long run as compared to strip tillage and conventional tillage. Although zero tillage attributed to less grain yield, it resulted in higher economic benefits to farmers and saved 44.84% of soil loss relative to conventional tillage. The outcome of the economic evaluation unequivocally demonstrated that reduced tillage is the best approach, but zero tillage, strip tillage, and reduced tillage are all superior and advised for farmers. Hence, farmers can use either zero tillage or reduced tillage, depending on their investment capital. But to get considerable changes in soil and water balances, other soil physicochemical properties, and crop yield. Similar studies must be carried out on permanent field plots for longer than 2 years in the future.
Thermal proteome profiling unveils protein targets of deoxycholic acid in living neuronal cells
Authors: Luan Hemi , Li Xuan , Zhang Wenyong , Luan Tiangang 
Published: December 2023

AbstractBile acids, synthesized in the liver and modified by the gut microbiota, play vital roles in various physiological processes. The dysregulation of bile acids has been extensively documented in patients with neurodegenerative diseases. However, limited attention has been given to the protein targets associated with microbiota-derived bile acids in neurological diseases. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted comprehensive thermal proteomic analyses to elucidate and comprehend the protein targets affected by microbiota-derived bile acids. Our investigation identified sixty-five unique proteins in SH-SY5Y neuronal cells as potential targets of deoxycholic acid (DCA), a primary component of the bile acid pool originating from the gut microbiota. Notably, Nicastrin and Casein kinase 1 epsilon stood out among these proteins. We found that DCA, through its interaction with the Nicastrin subunit of γ-secretase, significantly contributed to the formation of amyloid beta, a key hallmark in the pathology of neurodegenerative diseases. In summary, our findings provide crucial insights into the intricate interplay between microbiota-derived bile acids and the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases, thereby shedding light on potential therapeutic targets for neurodegenerative diseases.