bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Specialized Deep Residual Policy Safe Reinforcement Learning-Based Controller for Complex and Continuous State-Action Spaces
Authors: Abbas Ammar N. , Chasparis Georgios C. , Kelleher John D. 
Published: February 2024

Abstract

Traditional controllers have limitations as they rely on prior knowledge about the physics of the problem, require modeling of dynamics, and struggle to adapt to abnormal situations. Deep reinforcement learning has the potential to address these problems by learning optimal control policies through exploration in an environment. For safety-critical environments, it is impractical to explore randomly, and replacing conventional controllers with black-box models is also undesirable. Also, it is expensive in continuous state and action spaces, unless the search space is constrained. To address these challenges we propose a specialized deep residual policy safe reinforcement learning with a cycle of learning approach adapted for complex and continuous state-action spaces. Residual policy learning allows learning a hybrid control architecture where the reinforcement learning agent acts in synchronous collaboration with the conventional controller. The cycle of learning initiates the policy through the expert trajectory and guides the exploration around it. Further, the specialization through the input-output hidden Markov model helps to optimize policy that lies within the region of interest (such as abnormality), where the reinforcement learning agent is required and is activated. The proposed solution is validated on the Tennessee Eastman process control.
Photoelectrochemical CO2 Reduction Devices Employing A Boundary Layer Flow for Direct Ocean Carbon Capture and Conversion
Authors: Hu Shu , Liu Bin , Qian Zheng , Shi Xiang , Su Haoqing , Zheng Yuze , He Chengxing , Yanagi Rito , Zhang Wentao , Kludze Atsu 
Published: February 2024

Abstract

The capture and utilization of the dissolved inorganic carbon in seawater, e.g., bicarbonates, is a promising strategy for accessing fuels on demand and anywhere. We report unbiased photoelectrochemical (PEC) CO2 reduction (CO2R) devices, which can facilitate sustainable sunlight-to-syngas conversion. However, there have been very few reports on the use of dissolved inorganic carbon for direct light-driven CO2 conversion to produce solar fuels. In this work, we design and implement 3D-printed PEC devices that employ a boundary layer flow. The flow over photoanode-photocathode pairs facilitates the efficient transport of in-situ generated CO2(aq), which is produced upstream at BiVO4 photoanodes, to downstream CO2R Si photocathodes. In flowing seawater, the solar-to-fuels (STF) efficiency improved from 0.4–0.71%, a record for PEC CO2R devices compared with BiVO4-Si systems operating in static bicarbonate electrolytes with continuous CO2 purging. Even in 2.3-mM HCO3− seawater, CO selectivity significantly increased from 3–21% with flow. The boundary layer flow confines the in-situ generated CO2(aq) to the surface of BiVO4 and Si photocathodes. Thus, an optimized flow field can increase the CO2(aq) and proton transport flux and simultaneously reduce the CO2(aq) residence time for its efficient utilization at Si photocathodes. Our process also features a high carbon efficiency: ~ 1 mmol CO2 is additionally released per 4 mmol CO produced.
Identification of TAT, PIC, tPAIC, and TM complex as biomarkers for prognosis and early evaluation of non-severe pneumonia and severe pneumonia diagnosis
Authors: Fan Yanru , Ma Rufei , Zhang Yuan , Hu Biao , Li Gang , Zhang Yujing , Gao Lan 
Published: February 2024

Abstract

Background Pneumonia is a major health problem and the most important causes of mortality in all age groups worldwide. We investigated new automation technology to detect plasma biomarkers, including thrombinantithrombin complex (TAT), α2-plasmininhibitor- plasmin complex (PIC), soluble thrombomodulin (sTM), and tissue plasminogen activator-inhibitor complex (tPAIC), and evaluated their diagnostic performance and prognostic value for severe pneumonia patients. Methods We collected 414 patients date with pneumonia. sTM, t-PAI·C, TAT, PIC were measured by qualitative chemiluminescence immunoassay performed on HISCL analyzers. Other laboratory tests were evaluated on the day of non-severe pneumonia and severe pneumonia diagnosis. Results There were significant differences in sTM, t-PAI·C, TAT, PIC (P < 0.0001), WBC (P = 0.023), PCT (P = 0.007) and IL-6 (P = 0.002) between the severe pneumonia and non-severe pneumonia groups, Logistic regression analysis showed that sTM (P = 0.001), t-PAI·C(P = 0.001), TAT(P = 0.022), PIC(P = 0.000) and APTT (P = 0.013) were independent risk factors for severe pneumonia. Logistic regression analysis showed that t-PAI·C(P = 0.006)was an independent risk factor for hospital mortality in severe pneumonia.The AUC of sTM combined with t-PAI·C, TAT and PIC on diagnosis of patients with severe pneumonia was 0.868 (95%CI: 0.837,0.899).Kaplan-Meier survival analysis with a log-rank test showed the in-hospital death rate of severe pneumonia was higher in the high TAT(≥ 5.58 ng/ mL) level than in group with low TAT(< 5.58 ng/ mL)level (log rank < 0.029). The same trend with high t-PAI·C was also found in severe pneumonia patients(log rank < 0.021). Conclusions Novel coagulation markers might be potential molecular markers for diagnosing and evaluating prognosis of severe pneumonia.
Electrophysiological Findings in Patients Undergoing Surgical Cryo-ablation for Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation
Authors: Bulava Alan , Mokráček Aleš , Němec Petr , Wichterle Dan , Osmančík Pavel , Budera Petr , Kačer Petr , Vetešková Linda , Skála Tomáš , Šantavý Petr , Chovančík Jan , Branny Piotr , Rizov Vitalii , Kolesár Miroslav , Šafaříková Iva , Rybář Marian 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
Objectives
Current recommendations support surgical treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF) in patients indicated for cardiac surgery. These procedures are referred to as concomitant and may be carried out using radiofrequency energy or cryo-ablation. This study aimed to assess the electrophysiological findings in patients undergoing concomitant cryo-ablation.
Methods
Patients with non-paroxysmal AF undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting and/or valve repair/replacement were included in the trial if concomitant cryo-ablation was part of the treatment plan according to current guidelines. The patients were assigned to undergo radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA), i.e., hybrid treatment, as a part of the multicenter trial.
Results
We analyzed 103 patients who underwent RFCA 105±35 days after surgery. Left and right pulmonary veins (PVs) were found isolated in 65 (63.1%) and 63 (61.2%) patients, respectively. The LA posterior wall isolation and mitral isthmus conduction block were found in 38 (36.9%) and 18 (20.0%) patients, respectively. Electrical reconnections (gaps) in the left PVs were more often localized superiorly than inferiorly (57.9% vs. 26.3%, P=0.005) and anteriorly than posteriorly (65.8% vs. 31.6%, P=0.003). Gaps in the right PVs were more equally distributed anteroposteriorly but dominated in superior segments (72.5% vs. 40.0%, P=0.003). There was a higher number of gaps on the roof line compared to the inferior line (131 (67.2%) vs. 67 (42.2%), P <0.001). Compared to epicardial cryo-ablation, endocardial was more effective in creating PVs and LA posterior wall isolation (P <0.05). Cryo-ablation using nitrous oxide (N20) or argon (Ar) gas as cooling agents was similarly effective (P=NS).
Conclusions
The effectiveness of surgical cryo-ablation in achieving transmural and durable lesions in the left atrium is surprisingly low. Gaps are located predominantly in the superior and anterior portions of the PVs and on the roof line. Endocardial cryo-ablation is more effective than epicardial ablation, irrespective of the cooling agent used.
Causal relationships between dietary habits and lung cancer: A two- sample Mendelian randomization study
Authors: Gu Pinchao , Zhu Zheng , Tan Xiaoyan , Deng Langlang , Ma Haitao 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
Background
Several studies have reported that dietary habits are associated with lung cancer (LUCA). However, the causal effects of dietary habits on LUCA incidence are still unclear because of uncontrolled confounding factors.
Methods
We obtained instrumental variables of associated with 5 genetically predicted dietary habits and applied two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) to explore the causal effects of these variables on LUCA. In this study, inverse-variance weighting (IVW) was the main analysis, which was supplemented by MR‒Egger and the weighted median method.
Results
The IVW method revealed a causal relationship between never eating wheat products and an increased risk of LUCA (odds ratio (OR):1.032, 95% confidence interval (CI):1.005 ~ 1.059, P = 0.002 < 0.05). Eating eggs, dairy, wheat, and sugar was associated with a reduced risk of LUCA (OR = 0.967, 95% CI = 0.967 ~ 0.996, P = 0.014 < 0.05). No causal relationship was found between never eating sugar or foods/drinks containing sugar and LUCA (OR = 1.008, 95% CI = 0.989 ~ 1.027, P = 0.425 > 0.05). In addition, we used IVW and MR‒Egger to assess potential horizontal heterogeneity and pleiotropy, and no heterogeneity or pleiotropy occurred between the dietary variables and LUCA.
Conclusion
We found a positive association between never eating wheat products and LUCA scores. In addition, we found an inverse association between eating eggs, dairy, wheat, and sugar and LUCA scores. However, we found no evidence of a link between never eating sugar or foods/drinks containing sugar and LUCA in our MR results.
Combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma and hepatocellular carcinoma: Differentiation using radiomics based on Multitemporal CT images
Authors: Xu Rong , Guo Le , Chen Guanjun , Qi Rong Rong , Zhang Ling 
Published: February 2024

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the value of radiomics in differentiating combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma (cHCC-CCA) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Materials and Methods: We retrospectively collected the clinical, serum biomarkers and imaging data of cHCC-CCA (n = 42) and HCC (n = 117) patients. The optimal radiomics features were extracted from CT plain scan, arterial phase, venous phase and delayed phase images for constructing radiomics models. The clinical model, radiomics model and fusion model were constructed by extreme gradient boosting (XGB), and the models were validated with an independent validation cohort. Area under curve (AUC), specificity, sensitivity and decision curve analysis (DCA) were used to evaluate the model efficacy.
Results: The fusion model based on CT radiomics performed the best, with an AUC of 0.969, which was superior to the clinical model (AUC=0.860) and the CT radiomics model (AUC=0.853). DCA showed that the fusion model had the highest clinical net yield compared to the other two models.
Conclusion: The fusion model based on CT radiomics has good performance in distinguishing cHCC-CCA from HCC, which can better assist in individualized clinical decision-making for patients with cHCC-CCA.
Single-cell transcriptomics reveals altered myeloid cell profiles associated with the early establishment of leishmania reservoirs
Authors: Estaquier Jerome , Picard Morgane , Boutrais Steven , Rodrigues Vasco , Fortier Yasmina , Borde Chloé , Soundaramourty Calaiselvy , Clain Julien , Beauparlant Charles Joly , Racine Gina , Zghidi-Abouzid Ouafa , Droit Arnaud , Pruvost Alain , Costi Maria , Silvestre Ricardo , Cordeiro-da-Silva Anabela , MacDougall Jane , André Sónia 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
Current drug regimens to treat visceral leishmaniasis (VL) are associated with a significant frequency of infection relapses, particularly in immunosuppressed patients. Understanding the cellular and tissue-specific persistence of Leishmania infantum post-treatment is crucial for improving therapeutic outcomes. Using a rhesus macaque model of VL, despite the administration of miltefosine (HePC) shortly after infection, L. infantum was detected in various tissues, including the spleen, bone marrow, and peripheral and mesenteric lymph nodes (LNs). Notably, lower HePC penetration in pLNs correlated with persistent parasites, culminating in mLNs relapse three months post-treatment. Our analysis of splenic neutrophils, monocytes/macrophages, and dendritic cells post-HePC treatment revealed parasite reservoirs. Single-cell transcriptomic analysis unveiled myeloid cell heterogeneity and indicated a correlation between the failure to eradicate parasites and incomplete immune cell restoration in the spleen. This study provides valuable insights for developing more effective treatments targeting parasite reservoirs that potentially may reduce relapses.
The Past and Present of Thought Experiments' Research at Glancy: Bibliometric Review and Analysis
Authors: Bancong Hartono 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
In the development of physical theories, thought experiments play a crucial role. This topic has been the subject of study since 1976, and its progress has continued until the present. This study aims to provide a more complete picture of the progress of thought experiments over the past two decades. This study employs bibliometric mapping methods. There were a total of 679 published papers analyzed, including articles (504), conference papers (92), and book Chaps. (83) from numerous sources. This data was retrieved from the Scopus database. The study's findings reveal that research and publications on thought experiments are of interest and have gotten a lot of attention during the last eight years. According to the findings, 85% of the top 20 publishers contributing to thought experiments are from journals in the first and second quartiles (Q1 and Q2). This level shows the quality and significant influence of a journal. The geographical distribution then reveals that the United States contributes the most to thought experiments research, with 213 documents, 2592 citations, and 47 links. We also discovered several prospective keywords that could be the focus of future academics based on our bibliometric study, including artificial intelligence, physics education, fiction, god, theology, productive imagination, technology, speculative design, and critical design. Therefore, this study contributes to providing a thorough picture of thought experiment research trends and future directions of potential topics that can be the focus of future researchers.
Intermodal Targeted Energy Transfer in Two Dimensions - Part I: Transient Response
Authors: Veltman Yuval , Gzal Majdi , Gendelman Oleg V. 
Published: February 2024

Abstract

This paper is the first one in the series of two papers that explore the implementation of the intermodal targeted energy transfer (IMTET) mechanism for passive mitigation of a two-dimensional asymmetric linear oscillator subjected to the external excitation. The considered model contains a planar rigid body with clearance cast in the form of asymmetric rotated elliptical hole, and a fixed internal rigid core. The planar oscillator possesses three degrees of freedom, namely, two translations and rotation. Current paper deals with the case of blast mitigation. The latter is achieved by inducing extreme, fast time-scale energy transfers from low-frequency to high-frequency structural modes. These targeted (directed) energy transfers within the modal space are governed by a non-resonant nonlinear dynamical mechanism induced by vibro-impacts between the primary linear oscillator and the internal rigid barrier inside the tilted elliptical clearance. To improve the blast mitigation performance, the clearance parameters are optimized using a multi-objective genetic algorithm. The results demonstrate that redistributing the blast energy from low- to high-frequency structural modes significantly reduces the amplitude of the overall structural response within an extremely fast time-scale while efficiently utilizing the intrinsic dissipative modal capacity of the structure. Additional blast energy dissipation is achieved by considering inelastic and frictional vibro-impacts. The robustness of the proposed two-dimensional IMTET mechanism has been demonstrated for a wide set of bi-axial blast excitations.
Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and the Risk of Prostate Cancer: A Mendelian Randomization Study
Authors: Ning Shuangcheng , Zou Zhi , Liu Bang , Chen Xiangyu , Wang Jin 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to address the current uncertainty surrounding the causal relationship between type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and prostate cancer. By employing Mendelian randomization studies, we aim to eliminate the influence of confounding factors and clarify the relationship between T2DM and prostate cancer. Understanding the causal effect will contribute to the improvement of prevention and control strategies for both conditions in clinical practice.
Methods
European population-derived summary data from Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) was utilized to investigate the relationship between T2DM and prostate cancer. T2DM data from 148,726 patients with T2DM and 965,732 controls were included, as well as prostate cancer data from 30,945 prostate cancer patients and 368,725 controls, totaling 399,670 samples. T2DM was utilized as an exposure indicator, and significant and independent SNPs were screened as instrumental variables. A two-sample Mendelian Randomization (MR) approach was used to evaluate the link between T2DM and prostate cancer in the overall sample. Five different methods, including Inverse Variance Weighting (IVW) and MR-Egger, were implemented in the analysis process to establish causal associations. IVW was selected as the main analysis method, and gender heterogeneity was detected by the Cochran Q test.
Results
Our analysis revealed a positive correlation between T2DM and prostate cancer in the overall population (IVW, OR = 7.88; 95% CI: 6.95–8.93, P < 0.005), indicating a causal relationship.
Conclusion
Our findings suggest that T2DM does increase the risk of prostate cancer and that a causal relationship between the two does exist.
DC-Graph: A Chunk Optimization Model Based on Document Classification and Graph Learning
Authors: Zhang Guohao , Li Xuefeng , Zhang Hao 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
Existing machine reading comprehension methods use a fixed stride to chunk long texts, which leads to missing contextual information at the boundaries of the chunks and a lack of communication between the information within each chunk. This paper proposes DC-Graph model, addressing existing issues in terms of reconstructing and supplementing information in long texts. Knowledge graphs contain extensive knowledge, and the semantic relationships between entities exhibit strong logical characteristics, which can assist the model in semantic understanding and reasoning. By categorizing the questions, this paper filters the content of long texts based on categories and reconstructs the content that aligns with the question category, compressing and optimizing the long text to minimize the number of document chunks when inputted into BERT. Additionally, unstructured text is transformed into a structured knowledge graph, and features are extracted using graph convolutional networks. These features are then added as global information to each chunk, aiding answer prediction. Experimental results on the CoQA, QuAC, and TriviaQA datasets demonstrate that our method outperforms both BERT and Recurrent Chunking Mechanisms, which share the same improvement approach, in terms of F1 and EM score.
STAT6 blockade ameliorates thyroid function in Graves' disease via downregulation of the Sodium/Iodide Symporter
Authors: Yang Qian , zhang Qinnan , Pan Fanfan Pan , Zha Bingbing 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
Background Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 6 (STAT6) is an important nuclear transcription factor. Previous study demonstrated that blockading STAT6 can ameliorate thyroid function by reducing serum T3 and T4. Sodium/iodide symporter (NIS) is a key protein that mediates active iodine uptake and plays an important role in regulating thyroid function. This study explored the interaction between STAT6 and NIS.Methods Immunohistochemical staining was performed for detecting the expression of NIS in different tissues. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was performed for evaluating the mRNA level of NIS when Nthy-ori 3-1cells were incubated with IL4, TSH (Thyroid stimulating hormone) or monoclonal TSAb (thyroid-specific stimulatory autoantibody) for 24h. Quantitative RT-PCR,Western blot and immunofluorescence analysis were performed for detecting NIS expression after inhibiting STAT6 phosphorylation by AS1517499. Finally, we used Luciferase reporter assays to explore the ability of STAT6 to regulate the promoter activity of the NIS-coding gene.Results NIS was highly expressed in thyroid epithelial cells of EAGD mice or Graves' disease(GD) patients and TSAb increased the expression of NIS. We show that STAT6 phosphorylation inhibitor can attenuate the effect of TSAb on increasing NIS protein and mRNA levels. Finally, we confirm that transcription factor STAT6 can mediate NIS transcription and co-activator P100 protein can enhance STAT6-dependent transcriptional activation.Conclusion In Graves' disease, TSAb induces STAT6 signaling to upregulate NIS expression and STAT6 blockade ameliorates thyroid function via downregulation of the Sodium/Iodide Symporter. Our study furthers understanding of the effects of STAT6 on thyroid function and reveals new avenues for GD treatment.