bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Liver transplantation in patient with Berardinelli–Seip syndrome: A literature review and case report
Authors: Aliyev Altay , Samadov Elgun , Ibrahimli Arturan , Hajiyev Akbar , Allahverdiyeva Gunay , Ahmadov Eldar 
Published: December 2023

AbstractBackgroundBerardinelli–Seip syndrome is an infrequently seen and potentially fatal genetic disorder characterized by the absence of adipose tissue. Herein, we report a first‐in‐literature liver transplant done on a 7‐year‐old girl because of liver cirrhosis caused by the Berardinelli–Seip syndrome.Case ReportPhysical examination showed prominent subdermal fat tissue loss and mild muscle hypertrophy, giving her a slim appearance, hirsutism, thick hair, a large head in contrast to the body, low anterior hairline, icterus, prominent facial contours, prominent mandibula, loss of buccal fat, low set ears, and large limbs. After the diagnosis, she admitted to our clinic because of variceal esophageal bleeding and increasing liver enzymes. Transplantation decision was made and orthothopic liver transplantation done by the surgery team.DiscussionCommon causes of death in Berardinelli–Seip syndrome patients are infections and liver cirrhosis. The mean age of the patients was 27.1 at the time of death. There is no any established cure for congenital lipodystrophies so far. However, some symptomatic treatment methods are found to be helpful. The main point of the case report to be discussed is the liver transplantation done by our surgical team. There are no examples of any transplantation in Berardinelli–Seip syndrome patients, but several reports can be found of patients with kidney or liver failure.ConclusionBerardinelli–Seip syndrome is a rare disorder with no cure but a chance of improving lifestyle and life expectancy. The transplantation option should be considered in young patients after a multidisciplinary review.
Heart disease symptoms and health‐related quality of life in pediatric heart transplant recipients: A serial multiple mediator analysis
Authors: Varni James W. , Uzark Karen 
Published: December 2023

AbstractBackgroundA serial multiple mediator analysis was conducted to test the predictive effects of heart disease symptoms on pediatric heart transplant recipients health‐related quality of life (HRQOL) from their perspective with patient‐perceived cognitive problems, patient health communication, and treatment anxiety as hypothesized mediators.MethodsOne hundred and nineteen pediatric heart transplant recipients aged 8–18 completed the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) 4.0 Generic Core Scales and the PedsQL Cardiac Module Heart Disease Symptoms Scale, Cognitive Problems Scale, Communication Scale and Treatment Anxiety Scale. The serial multiple mediator analysis tested the hypothesized sequential mediation of the cross‐sectional association between patient‐perceived heart disease symptoms and their perceived HRQOL.ResultsHeart disease symptoms indirect effects on HRQOL were sequentially mediated through cognitive problems, with cognitive problems' indirect effects mediated through patient health communication and treatment anxiety. A predictive analytics analysis consisting of age, gender, and time since transplant demographic covariates, demonstrated that heart disease symptoms, cognitive problems, patient health communication, and treatment anxiety accounted for 66 percent of the variance in patient‐perceived HRQOL (p < .001), representing a large effect size.ConclusionsPatient‐perceived heart disease symptoms indirect effects on HRQOL in pediatric heart transplant recipients was explained by patient‐perceived cognitive problems, patient health communication, and treatment anxiety. Delineating heart disease symptoms indirect effects on HRQOL from the perspective of pediatric patients may inform targeted clinical interventions to improve daily functioning in pediatric heart transplant recipients.
A short staff training system for behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia in care facilities, based on functional analysis and positive behaviour support: a single‐arm pre‐ and post‐comparative study
Authors: Noguchi Dai , Kazui Hiroaki , Yamanaka Katsuo 
Published: December 2023

AbstractBackgroundWork schedules can make it challenging for professional care workers to participate in long‐term training programs on managing behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD). Simultaneously, it is necessary to prevent caregivers' negative responses to BPSD, provide a positive environment for people with dementia, and create a system for new management plans, since the initial one is often unsuccessful. Therefore, we developed a short manual‐based training system for functional analysis including positive behaviour support and strategies when management plans do not function well. This study aimed to preliminarily examine the usefulness of this system.MethodsThirty‐five staff members from 12 care facilities participated in the training. For each facility, off‐the‐job training was performed in two 120‐min sessions held over 2 days. Then, care plans were implemented by staff members for a month, during which on‐the‐job training was provided. The study included 14 people with dementia and BPSD. This was a single‐arm study without a control group. Pre‐ and post‐tests were conducted to examine the effects of the training system using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory–Nursing Home Version.ResultsThe results of the pre‐ and post‐tests for the total scores on severity and occupational disruptiveness significantly improved, with large effect sizes. Regarding symptom domains, delusions, agitation/aggression, and aberrant motor behaviour significantly improved in both severity and occupational disruptiveness. Depression/dysphoria and anxiety significantly improved in severity; however, there were trends of improvement in occupational disruptiveness. In addition, the effect sizes for severity and occupational disruptiveness of delusions and agitation/aggression were large.ConclusionsThis preliminary study suggests that the training system is promising. A randomised controlled trial with a larger sample size is necessary to confirm the findings.
Log‐density gradient covariance and automatic metric tensors for Riemann manifold Monte Carlo methods
Authors: Kleppe Tore Selland 
Published: December 2023

AbstractA metric tensor for Riemann manifold Monte Carlo particularly suited for nonlinear Bayesian hierarchical models is proposed. The metric tensor is built from symmetric positive semidefinite log‐density gradient covariance (LGC) matrices, which are also proposed and further explored here. The LGCs generalize the Fisher information matrix by measuring the joint information content and dependence structure of both a random variable and the parameters of said variable. Consequently, positive definite Fisher/LGC‐based metric tensors may be constructed not only from the observation likelihoods as is current practice, but also from arbitrarily complicated nonlinear prior/latent variable structures, provided the LGC may be derived for each conditional distribution used to construct said structures. The proposed methodology is highly automatic and allows for exploitation of any sparsity associated with the model in question. When implemented in conjunction with a Riemann manifold variant of the recently proposed numerical generalized randomized Hamiltonian Monte Carlo processes, the proposed methodology is highly competitive, in particular for the more challenging target distributions associated with Bayesian hierarchical models.
Making Representative Politics Work: Cross‐Segmental Parties in Consociations
Authors: Agarin Timofey , Jarrett Henry 
Published: December 2023

AbstractCross‐segmental parties are outliers in consociations dominated by ethnic parties. While they often receive comparatively limited electoral support, they have the ability to make representative politics work. Cross‐segmental parties can successfully represent cross‐communal interests and encourage governments to focus on non‐segmental issues by bringing their ‘second policy dimension’ to the attention of segmental parties and encouraging ‘issue seepage’. To demonstrate this, we draw on evidence from these parties in cases including Northern Ireland, Belgium, Bosnia‐Herzegovina, Lebanon and South Tyrol, and argue that we need to look beyond election results to gauge their ‘success’. We identify three key areas – electoral dynamics, interactions in legislatures and contribution to government – where cross‐segmental, not segmental, parties can make representation work in consociations. This is true not only in liberal consociations that (can) explicitly accommodate cross‐segmental interests in legislative and executive arrangements but also in corporate consociations where formal accommodation does not exist.
Elevated expression of miR‐301a and its functional roles in canine oral melanoma
Authors: Hasan MD Nazmul , Rahman Md. Mahfuzur , Husna Al Asmaul , Arif Mohammad , Iwanaga Tomoko , Tsukiyama‐Kohara Kyoko , Jasineviciute Indre , Kato Daiki , Nakagawa Takayuki , Miura Naoki 
Published: December 2023

AbstractmiR‐301a is one of numerous dysregulated microRNAs (miRNAs) in canine oral melanoma (COM), one of which is miR‐301a (upregulated). Its biological role has been described in various human cancer types, including malignant melanoma, but not in COM. Accordingly, in this study, we investigated miR‐301a expression in COM in greater detail to ascertain whether it could serve as a diagnostic biomarker, elucidate its functional roles in this cancer, and predict the possible pathways by which it exerts its effects. Relative expression of miR‐301a was investigated in clinical oral tissue and plasma samples and COM cell (KMeC and LMeC) lines using qRT‐PCR. Knockdown of miR‐301a was also validated for KMeC and LMeC cells using qRT‐PCR. We performed CCK‐8 assays to assess cell proliferation, monolayer wound‐healing, and transwell migration assays to assess cell migration, a colony‐formation assay to assess clonogenicity, a TUNEL assay and flow cytometry to assess apoptosis‐related effects, and gene enrichment analyses to predict possible related pathways. miR‐301a was markedly upregulated in COM oral tissue and plasma clinically, suggesting its potential as a diagnostic biomarker for COM diagnosis. In vitro assays demonstrated that miR‐301 significantly inhibited apoptosis in COM cells while promoting cell migration, proliferation, and clonogenicity. We also predicted that miR‐301 exerts cancer‐promoting effects through the Wnt signalling pathway for COM. Our findings suggest that miR‐301a is a COM oncomiR that regulates several oncogenic phenotypes with the potential to be a diagnostic biomarker.
Design and Modeling of a Non-Flat Foldable Tubular Kirigami With Compliant Joints
Authors: Ye Siyuan , Zhao Pengyuan , Li Shiyao , Kavousi Fatemeh , Hao Guangbo 
Published: December 2023

Abstract
This paper applies the kirigami technique to a non-rigid foldable tubular origami to make a rigid foldable tubular design, i.e., a radially closable kirigami (RC-kiri). The laminar emergent torsional (LET) compliant joint is applied to surrogate the crease, which makes the design applicable in practical engineering applications. By incorporating a non-flat folding design, the folding angles of each crease are minimized, leading to a reduction in the strain exerted on engineering materials. The kinetostatic theoretical model is constructed using the principle of virtual work, and its results are compared with those obtained from a simulation model in finite element analysis (FEA). A 3D printed physical model is tested to obtain the relationship between forces and displacements. FEA and experimental results match with theoretical findings. This study builds a bridge between origami and kirigami and expands the application of LET joints to the fabrication of tubular kirigami.
Randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blinded trial of fecal microbiota transplantation in severe obesity: a study protocol
Authors: Hanssen Hege Marie , Fjellstad Maria Serafia , Skjevling Linn , Johnsen Peter Holger , Kulseng Bård , Goll Rasmus , Almå Kristin Helen , Valle Per-Christian 
Published: December 2023

IntroductionObesity is one of the main threats to public health in western countries and increases the risk of several diseases, overall morbidity and mortality. Sustained weight loss will reduce risk factors and improve several obesity comorbidities. Options are conservative treatment such as lifestyle changes, bariatric surgery or medications. Conservative treatment has a low success rate, and bariatric surgery is typically not reversible, with the risk of complications and recurrences. Treatment of obesity with medications has in recent years shown great promise, but the side effects are many, and the long-term effect is unknown. There is also a need for an option for patients where surgery has contraindications and conservative follow-up does not succeed.The research on obesity and gut microbiota has yielded promising results regarding weight reduction and metabolic health, but more research is needed to better understand the relationship between gut microbiota and severe obesity. This study could show proof of concept that gut microbiota from a lean donor could, in addition to lifestyle intervention, contribute to weight reduction in people suffering from severe obesity.Method and analysisThis study aims to investigate if a fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) from a lean donor leads to weight reduction in participants suffering from severe obesity. The study is a single-centre, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, parallel-group study with 60 participants. Participants will be randomised 1:1 for FMT from a lean donor or placebo. FMT or placebo will be delivered once by enema.We will include participants from the outpatient clinic for severe obesity, at the Medical Department, University Hospital of North Norway, Harstad, by invitation only. The study has a follow-up period of 12 months, with study visits of 3, 6 and 12 months post FMT. The primary endpoint is a weight reduction of ≥10%, 12 months after intervention.The results of the study will be published in open access journals. At the end of the study, the participants will receive information on which treatment group they belong to.Ethics and disseminationThe Regional Ethical Committee in North Norway (REK) approved the study protocol (2017/1655/REK Nord). We plan to present the results from the study at (inter)national conferences and publish in open-access general peer-reviewed journals. The enema method for FMT administration used in this study was developed by our study team.Trial registration numberNCT03273855.
Multi-Objective Self-Adaptive Particle Swarm Optimization for Large-Scale Feature Selection in Classification
Authors: Zhang Chenyi , Xue Yu , Neri Ferrante , Cai Xu , Slowik Adam 
Published: December 2023

Feature selection (FS) is recognized for its role in enhancing the performance of learning algorithms, especially for high-dimensional datasets. In recent times, FS has been framed as a multi-objective optimization problem, leading to the application of various multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) to address it. However, the solution space expands exponentially with the dataset’s dimensionality. Simultaneously, the extensive search space often results in numerous local optimal solutions due to a large proportion of unrelated and redundant features [H. Adeli and H. S. Park, Fully automated design of super-high-rise building structures by a hybrid ai model on a massively parallel machine, AI Mag. 17 (1996) 87–93]. Consequently, existing MOEAs struggle with local optima stagnation, particularly in large-scale multi-objective FS problems (LSMOFSPs). Different LSMOFSPs generally exhibit unique characteristics, yet most existing MOEAs rely on a single candidate solution generation strategy (CSGS), which may be less efficient for diverse LSMOFSPs [H. S. Park and H. Adeli, Distributed neural dynamics algorithms for optimization of large steel structures, J. Struct. Eng. ASCE 123 (1997) 880–888; M. Aldwaik and H. Adeli, Advances in optimization of highrise building structures, Struct. Multidiscip. Optim. 50 (2014) 899–919; E. G. González, J. R. Villar, Q. Tan, J. Sedano and C. Chira, An efficient multi-robot path planning solution using a* and coevolutionary algorithms, Integr. Comput. Aided Eng. 30 (2022) 41–52]. Moreover, selecting an appropriate MOEA and determining its corresponding parameter values for a specified LSMOFSP is time-consuming. To address these challenges, a multi-objective self-adaptive particle swarm optimization (MOSaPSO) algorithm is proposed, combined with a rapid nondominated sorting approach. MOSaPSO employs a self-adaptive mechanism, along with five modified efficient CSGSs, to generate new solutions. Experiments were conducted on ten datasets, and the results demonstrate that the number of features is effectively reduced by MOSaPSO while lowering the classification error rate. Furthermore, superior performance is observed in comparison to its counterparts on both the training and test sets, with advantages becoming increasingly evident as the dimensionality increases.
Photodynamic antimicrobial activities of a series of meso-substituted 2,6-dibrominated 1,3,5,7-tetramethylBODIPY dyes
Authors: May Aviwe K. , Ngoy Bokolombe P. , Mack John , Nyokong Tebello 
Published: December 2023

The photodynamic antimicrobial chemotherapy (PACT) activities of seven 1,3,5,7-tetramethyl-2,6-dibromoBODIPY dyes with 4-acetamidophenyl (2a), 2-iodophenyl (2b), 3-iodophenyl (2c), 4-iodophenyl (2d), 2-bromophenyl (2e), 5-bromothien-2-yl (2f), and methylphenyl ester (2g) meso-substituents were studied against Staphylococcus aureus through irradiation with a 530 nm Thorlabs M530L3 light emitting diode (LED) (110 mW.cm[Formula: see text] to identify structure-property relationships related to modifying the meso-substituent. Significant differences are observed in the log[Formula: see text] reduction values obtained with 1 [Formula: see text]M of 2a exhibiting the highest PACT activity with a value of 9.60 after 15 min of photoirradiation. In contrast, log[Formula: see text] reduction values < 1.20 were obtained after 60 min of photoirradiation for iodophenyl dyes 2b-2d. The data demonstrate that the singlet oxygen quantum yield of the dye is not the most important factor determining the PACT activity properties.
Numerical Study on the Precipitation Concentration over the Western Coast of Sumatra Island
Authors: Okugawa Ryosuke , Yasunaga Kazuaki , Hamada Atsushi , Yokoi Satoru 
Published: December 2023

Abstract
Large amounts of tropical precipitation have been observed as significantly concentrated over the western coast of Sumatra Island. In the present study, we used a cloud-resolving model to perform 14-day numerical simulations and reproduce the distinctive precipitation distributions over western Sumatra Island and adjacent areas. The control experiment, in which the warmer sea surface temperature (SST) near the coast was incorporated and the terminal velocity and effective radius of ice clouds were parameterized to be temperature dependent, adequately reproduced the precipitation concentration as well as the diurnal cycles of precipitation. We then used the column-integrated frozen moist static energy budget equation, which is virtually equivalent to the column-integrated moisture budget equation under the weak temperature gradient assumption, to formulate sensitivity experiments focusing on the effects of coastal SST and upper-level ice clouds. Analysis of the time-averaged fields revealed that the column-integrated moisture and precipitation in the coast were significantly reduced when a cooler coastal SST or larger ice cloud particle size was assumed. Based on the comparison of the sensitivity experiments and in situ observations, we speculate that ice clouds, which are exported from inland convection that is strictly regulated by solar radiation, promote the accumulation of moisture in the coastal region by mitigating radiative cooling. Together with the moisture and heat supplied by the warm ocean surface, they contribute to the large amounts of precipitation here.
No Drain, No Problem: Serum-Based Marker Prediction of Clinically Relevant Postoperative Pancreatic Fistula
Authors: Heard Jessica C. , Smith Glen H. , Tolman Alex , Karumuri Jashwanth S. , Osman Houssam G. , Jeyarajah Rohan D. 
Published: December 2023

Background Postoperative day (POD) 1 drain amylase concentration (DAC) is considered the most accurate predictor for the development of a clinically relevant postoperative pancreatic fistula (CR-POPF) after pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD). Recent studies have associated drain placement with negative postoperative outcomes. This study aims to evaluate multiple biochemical markers and their associations with CR-POPF development in order to identify a reliable, non-drain dependent alternative to DAC. Methods This is a review of 53 consecutive PD patients between 2021 and 2022. Albumin, C-reactive protein (CRP), C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratio (CAR), DAC, white blood cell count, and procalcitonin values were compared by CR-POPF status. The discriminatory abilities of CAR, CRP, and DAC for CR-POPF were compared using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Results Six of 51 included patients developed a CR-POPF. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis produced an area under the curve of .977 for POD 1 DAC (cut-off 5131.0 IU/L, sensitivity 100%, specificity 95.5%), .858 for POD 1 CRP (cut-off 52.5 mg/L, sensitivity 100%, specificity 72.7%), and 1.000 for POD 3 CAR (cut-off 99.2, sensitivity and specificity 100%). POD 3 CAR produced a positive and negative predictive value of 100%. Conclusion The CAR and CRP provide early and accurate identification of patients with post-PD CR-POPFs. These markers offer a method of safe CR-POPF detection, when the gold standard DAC is unavailable, ultimately allowing for early intervention and patient rescue.