bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Bolus-Tracked Biphasic Contrast-Enhanced CT Imaging Following Microwave Liver Ablation Improves Ablation Zone Conspicuity and Semi-automatic Segmentation Quality
Authors: Giansante Louise , McDonagh Ed , Basso Jodie , Haris Arafat , KC Sajjan , Withey Samuel J. , Shur Joshua , Fotiadis Nicos , Goldberg S. Nahum , Johnston Edward W. 
Published: January 2025

Abstract
Purpose
Contrast-enhanced CT (CECT) may be performed immediately following microwave liver ablation for assessment of ablative margins. However, practices and protocols vary among institutions. Here, we compare a standardized bolus-tracked biphasic CECT protocol and compare this with a single venous phase fixed delay protocol for ablation zone (AZ) assessment.

Methods
An institutional review board approved study performed at a specialist cancer centre. A prospective cohort of patients undergoing bolus-tracked biphasic imaging was compared with a retrospective cohort of patients who underwent fixed delay venous phase imaging. AZ conspicuity and segmentation quality were semi-quantitatively scored using Five-point Likert scales. Time between ablation and image acquisition was recorded for each AZ and was correlated to AZ conspicuity and segmentation quality.

Results
Forty patients, median age 59 years (IQR 48–66 years), 24 men, underwent microwave ablation of 68 liver tumours. AZ conspicuity was higher in the bolus-tracked (n = 33) vs. fixed delay (n = 35) cohorts, 4.5 vs. 2.5, P < 0.0001. Commensurate segmentation quality was also higher, 5.0 vs. 3.0 respectively, P < 0.0001. Ordinal regression showed that image quality scores declined by 3–4% for each minute that passes after ablation, particularly for arterial phase images, where regression coefficients were − 0.04, P = 0.007, and -0.03, P = 0.012 for conspicuity and segmentation quality, respectively.

Conclusion
Bolus-tracked biphasic contrast-enhanced CT protocols improve both conspicuity and semi-automatic segmentation quality of microwave liver ablation zones, particularly if imaged soon after ablation.

Evidence-Based Medicine
Level 2b; exploratory prospective cohort study.

Graphical Abstract
Melanoma detection, treatment, survival, and mortality through year 2 of the pandemic
Authors: Kim Uriel , Hoehn Richard S , Koroukian Siran M , Rose Johnie , Bordeaux Jeremy S , Carroll Bryan T 
Published: January 2025

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic affected the timely diagnosis and treatment of many cancers, including melanoma, the fifth most common cancer in the U.S. This study aimed to quantify the disruption and recovery of melanoma detection, treatment, survival, and mortality during the pandemic by analyzing data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program from 2000 to 2021. Our epidemiological analysis found that melanoma incidence initially dropped by 14.8% (95% CI: − 17.2 to − 12.4) in 2020 compared to pre-pandemic projections. Although incidence rates substantially recovered by 2021, an estimated 10,274 patients (95% CI: − 12,824 to − 7,724) remained undiagnosed due to pandemic-related disruptions. Time-to-treatment and 1-year survival were mostly consistent with pre-pandemic trends, while melanoma-specific mortality modestly declined by 4.5% (95% CI: − 14.6 to 5.6) in 2021, though this was statistically non-significant. These findings suggest that healthcare systems adapted to the challenges posed by the pandemic, maintaining essential cancer services. However, the significant drop in melanoma diagnoses likely contributed to the observed reduction in mortality. Thus, re-establishing care for patients missed during the pandemic will be crucial to preventing a future increase in advanced-stage melanoma and related deaths.
Mapping simulated visual field defects with movie-viewing pupil perimetry
Authors: Cai Yuqing , Strauch Christoph , Van der Stigchel Stefan , Brink Antonia F. Ten , Cornelissen Frans W. , Naber Marnix 
Published: January 2025

Abstract
Purpose
Assessing the quality of the visual field is important for the diagnosis of ophthalmic and neurological diseases and, consequently, for rehabilitation. Visual field defects (VFDs) are typically assessed using standard automated perimetry (SAP). However, SAP requires participants to understand instructions, maintain fixation and sustained attention, and provide overt responses. These aspects make SAP less suitable for very young or cognitively impaired populations. Here we investigate the feasibility of a new and less demanding form of perimetry. This method assesses visual sensitivity based on pupil responses while performing the perhaps simplest task imaginable: watching movies.

Method
We analyzed an existing dataset, with healthy participants (n = 70) freely watching movies with or without gaze-contingent simulated VFDs, either hemianopia (left- or right-sided) or glaucoma (large nasal arc, small nasal arc, and tunnel vision). Meanwhile, their gaze and pupil size were recorded. Using a recently published toolbox (Open-DPSM), we modeled the relative contribution of visual events to the pupil responses to indicate relative visual sensitivity across the visual field and to dissociate between conditions with and without simulated VFDs.

Result
Conditions with and without simulated VFDs could be dissociated, with an AUC ranging from 0.85 to 0.97, depending on the specific simulated VFD condition. In addition, the dissociation was better when including more movies in the modeling but the model with as few movies as 10 movies was sufficient for a good classification (AUC ranging from 0.84 to 0.96).

Conclusion
Movie-viewing pupil perimetry is promising in providing complementary information for the diagnosis of VFDs, especially for those who are unable to perform conventional perimetry.
Long-term kidney outcomes in survivors of Wilms tumor: a single-center retrospective cohort study
Authors: Reinert Shannon , Benoit Stefanie W. , Nagarajan Rajaram 
Published: January 2025

Abstract
Background
Several studies have investigated long-term kidney outcomes in survivors of Wilms tumor (WT). However, many have small sample sizes, and there is a wide variation in reported outcomes. The aim of this study is to investigate the long-term kidney outcomes in survivors of WT (S-WT), including those patients considered to be at high risk for poor kidney outcomes, and using updated estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) equations.

Methods
This was a retrospective chart review of 64 patients treated for WT at a single pediatric center. Patients were off treatment for 5 years or more at the time of analysis and were evaluated for decreased kidney function, hypertension, proteinuria, and compensatory hypertrophy of the contralateral kidney.

Results
At a median follow-up time of 11.3 years off treatment (range 5–22.6) and average age of 16.7 years (range 6.5–30), 35 patients had a decreased eGFR (< 90 mL/min/1.73 m2), and 2 patients had progressed to chronic kidney disease stage 5. Compensatory hypertrophy was observed in 67% of cases. 41% of patients had elevated clinic blood pressures, with 2 patients on an anti-hypertensive medication. Three of 9 patients had evidence of hypertension on ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. Eight of 37 patients (22%) had proteinuria.

Conclusions
Kidney dysfunction is common in S-WT at a young age. This population should be carefully monitored for the development of decreased eGFR, hypertension, and proteinuria as part of their routine survivorship care. This is particularly true for modifiable risk factors of chronic kidney disease progression, such as hypertension and proteinuria.

Graphical Abstract
FLAME: fire detection in videos combining a deep neural network with a model-based motion analysis
Authors: Gragnaniello Diego , Greco Antonio , Sansone Carlo , Vento Bruno 
Published: January 2025

AbstractAmong the catastrophic natural events posing hazards to human lives and infrastructures, fire is the phenomenon causing more frequent damages. Thanks to the spread of smart cameras, video fire detection is gaining more attention as a solution to monitor wide outdoor areas where no specific sensors for smoke detection are available. However, state-of-the-art fire detectors assure a satisfactory Recall but exhibit a high false-positive rate that renders the application practically unusable. In this paper, we propose FLAME, an efficient and adaptive classification framework to address fire detection from videos. The framework integrates a state-of-the-art deep neural network for frame-wise object detection, in an automatic video analysis tool. The advantages of our approach are twofold. On the one side, we exploit advances in image detector technology to ensure a high Recall. On the other side, we design a model-based motion analysis that improves the system’s Precision by filtering out fire candidates occurring in the scene’s background or whose movements differ from those of the fire. The proposed technique, able to be executed in real-time on embedded systems, has proven to surpass the methods considered for comparison on a recent literature dataset representing several scenarios. The code and the dataset used for designing the system have been made publicly available by the authors at (https://mivia.unisa.it/large-fire-dataset-with-negative-samples-lfdn/).
Capillary assembly of anisotropic nanoparticles at cylindrical fluid interfaces in the immersion regime
Authors: Eatson Jack L. , Stephenson Benjamin T. , Gordon Jacob R. , Horozov Tommy S. , Buzza D. Martin A. 
Published: January 2025

AbstractThe unique behaviour of colloids at liquid interfaces provides exciting opportunities for engineering the assembly of colloidal particles into functional materials. In particular, the deformable nature of liquid interfaces means that we can use interfacial curvature, in addition to particle properties, to direct self-assembly. In this paper, we use a finite element method to study the self-assembly of rod-shaped particles adsorbed at a curved interface formed by a sessile drop with cylindrical geometry, where the lateral width of the cylindrical drop is much greater than the length of the rods, and the height of the drop is comparable to or smaller than the radius of the rods, i.e. the system is in the so-called immersion regime. Specifically, we study the configuration of single and multiple rods as a function of drop height, particle shape (ellipsoid, cylinder, spherocylinder) and contact angle. We find that for low enough drop heights, regardless of the shape or contact angle of the particles, all rods orientate themselves parallel to the long axis of the cylindrical interface and are strongly confined laterally to be at the centreline of the cylindrical drop. The rods also experience long-range immersion capillary forces which assemble the rods tip-to-tip at larger drop heights and, in the case of ellipsoids and spherocylinders, side-to-side at smaller drop heights. We note that the capillary forces that drive particle ordering are very strong in the immersion regime, even for rods on the nanoscale, allowing us to control the configuration of nanorods using near micron-scale droplets. Our capillary assembly method therefore provides a facile method for creating functional nanoclusters. Our study also provides insights into how the structure of such clusters evolves during the drying of the droplet.
Deep Learning Models for Automatic Classification of Anatomic Location in Abdominopelvic Digital Subtraction Angiography
Authors: Taghavi Reza Moein , Shah Amol , Filkov Vladimir , Goldman Roger Eric 
Published: January 2025

Abstract
Purpose
To explore the information in routine digital subtraction angiography (DSA) and evaluate deep learning algorithms for automated identification of anatomic location in DSA sequences.

Methods
DSA of the abdominal aorta, celiac, superior mesenteric, inferior mesenteric, and bilateral external iliac arteries was labeled with the anatomic location from retrospectively collected endovascular procedures performed between 2010 and 2020 at a tertiary care medical center. “Key” images within each sequence demonstrating the parent vessel and the first bifurcation were additionally labeled. Mode models aggregating single image predictions, trained with the full or “key” datasets, and a multiple instance learning (MIL) model were developed for location classification of the DSA sequences. Model performance was evaluated with a primary endpoint of multiclass classification accuracy and compared by McNemar’s test.

Results
A total of 819 unique angiographic sequences from 205 patients and 276 procedures were included in the training, validation, and testing data and split into partitions at the patient level to preclude data leakage. The data demonstrate substantial information sparsity as a minority of the images were designated as “key” with sufficient information for localization by a domain expert. A Mode model, trained and tested with “key” images, demonstrated an overall multiclass classification accuracy of 0.975 (95% CI 0.941–1). A MIL model, trained and tested with all data, demonstrated an overall multiclass classification accuracy of 0.966 (95% CI 0.932–0.992). Both the Mode model with “key” images (p < 0.001) and MIL model (p < 0.001) significantly outperformed a Mode model trained and tested with the full dataset. The MIL model additionally automatically identified a set of top-5 images with an average overlap of 92.5% to manually labelled “key” images.

Conclusion
Deep learning algorithms can identify anatomic locations in abdominopelvic DSA with high fidelity using manual or automatic methods to manage information sparsity.
Non-native vegetation encroachment drives trophic turnover in island nematodes
Authors: Sharp Adam , Correia Margarida , Gray Alan , Lawson Rebecca , Ledger Martha , Tawatao Noel , Prior Thomas 
Published: January 2025

AbstractNematodes are important components of terrestrial ecosystems. There is currently limited understanding of how soil nematode communities are altered by non-native vegetation encroachment. The spatial turnover of nematode communities was studied on Ascension Island in the South Atlantic: an isolated and degraded volcanic island of sparse native vegetation. Many non-native plants were introduced in the mid-1800’s, and non-native shrubs have more recently spread across the lowlands. Ascension’s elevation gradient represented a unique space-for-time proxy for non-native vegetation colonisation of a relatively barren landscape. Nematodes were collected at 0, 200, 400, 600 and 800 m elevations along three transects and their community composition linked to Landsat-derived vegetation cover and moisture over the 2000–2023 period. Although taxonomic turnover was elevation independent, both nematode abundance and richness increased with elevation. The moist and densely-vegetated mountain top was dominated by plant-root parasites, less dense mid-elevations by omnivores, dry and sparsely-vegetated lowlands by fungivores, and the moist littoral habitat by predators. Landsat analysis predicted that the relative abundance of root parasitic nematodes on Ascension increased by 23% with spreading non-native vegetation over 24 years. While taxonomic turnover in nematode composition may be resultant solely of historic species introductions, trophic turnover is spatially structured and likely follows non-native vegetation encroachment closely. Root parasitic nematodes may be spreading rapidly with non-native vegetation, especially on oceanic islands. The abundance of such nematodes in soil could become an unanticipated hinderance in the restoration of invaded habitat – potentially requiring management long after non-native vegetation is cleared.
Conservation aquaculture of wild-origin offspring preserves genetic diversity in an endangered population of white sturgeon
Authors: Johnson Peter , Crossman James , Miller Andy , Nichols Brent , McLellan Jason , Howell Matthew , Schreier Andrea 
Published: January 2025

AbstractConservation aquaculture programs that release fish to supplement wild populations can potentially capture greater genetic diversity by collecting offspring as embryos and larvae from wild spawning events than by producing them conventionally from broodstock. A conservation aquaculture program for the endangered white sturgeon population of the Upper Columbia River initially utilized wild broodstock for 14 years before fully transitioning to rearing wild-origin offspring in 2014. Here we evaluated the performance of this program in capturing the wild population’s genetic diversity since transitioning to wild-origin offspring. We analyzed genotypes of 325 tetrasomic single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers in more than 5,000 offspring reared from 2014 to 2020 and over 1,000 wild adults from the population. Genetic diversity statistics were highly similar between each offspring year class and the wild adult population. We inferred sibship structure to estimate the total number of spawners (Ns) and effective number of breeders (Nb) represented within each year class and found values as high as 932.5 (95% CI 876–989) and 146.3 (95% CI 144–149), respectively, far surpassing the numbers included as broodstock. We further estimated Ns and Nb for three year classes with their individuals that died in aquaculture and found that on average, the mortality rate of 33.2% decreased Ns by 21.5% and Nb by 7.9%. Finally, we analyzed relationship coefficients to identify full-sibships spanning collection sites and found them in one year class, comprising 0.27% of all full-sibling pairs that year, demonstrating that the separate sites display negligible redundancy with respect to sibling families collected. Our results illustrate a robust performance by this program in representing the wild population’s diversity compared to broodstock approaches and support the adoption of utilizing wild-origin offspring in other conservation aquaculture programs when feasible.
Indexing temporal relations for range-duration queries
Authors: Ceccarello Matteo , Dignös Anton , Gamper Johann , Khnaisser Christina 
Published: January 2025

AbstractTemporal information plays a crucial role in many database applications, however support for queries on such data is limited. We present an index structure, termed RD-index, to support range-duration queries over interval timestamped relations, which constrain both the range of the tuples’ positions on the timeline and their duration. RD-index is a grid structure in the two-dimensional space, representing the position on the timeline and the duration of timestamps, respectively. Instead of using a regular grid, we consider the data distribution for the construction of the grid in order to ensure that each grid cell contains approximately the same number of intervals. RD-index features provable bounds on the running time of all the operations, allows for a simple implementation, supports very predictable query performance, and can be constructed and queried in parallel using multithreading. We benchmark our solution on a variety of datasets and query workloads, investigating both the query rate and the behavior of the individual queries. The results show that RD-index performs better than the baselines on range-duration queries, for which it is explicitly designed. Furthermore, it outperforms state of the art indexes also on mixed workloads containing queries that constrain either only the duration or the range along with range-duration queries. Finally, the size of the RD-index is in all settings smaller than the competitors, its construction scales with the number of threads, and parallelization helps improving the runtime of expensive moderate and lowly selective queries.
The Cronbach’s Alpha of Domain-Specific Knowledge Tests Before and After Learning: A Meta-Analysis of Published Studies
Authors: Edelsbrunner Peter A. , Simonsmeier Bianca A. , Schneider Michael 
Published: January 2025

AbstractKnowledge is an important predictor and outcome of learning and development. Its measurement is challenged by the fact that knowledge can be integrated and homogeneous, or fragmented and heterogeneous, which can change through learning. These characteristics of knowledge are at odds with current standards for test development, demanding a high internal consistency (e.g., Cronbach's Alphas greater .70). To provide an initial empirical base for this debate, we conducted a meta-analysis of the Cronbach's Alphas of knowledge tests derived from an available data set. Based on 285 effect sizes from 55 samples, the estimated typical Alpha of domain-specific knowledge tests in publications was α = .85, CI90 [.82; .87]. Alpha was so high despite a low mean item intercorrelation of .22 because the tests were relatively long on average and bias in the test construction or publication process led to an underrepresentation of low Alphas. Alpha was higher in tests with more items, with open answers and in younger age, it increased after interventions and throughout development, and it was higher for knowledge in languages and mathematics than in science and social sciences/humanities. Generally, Alphas varied strongly between different knowledge tests and populations with different characteristics, reflected in a 90% prediction interval of [.35, .96]. We suggest this range as a guideline for the Alphas that researchers can expect for knowledge tests with 20 items, providing guidelines for shorter and longer tests. We discuss implications for our understanding of domain-specific knowledge and how fixed cut-off values for the internal consistency of knowledge tests bias research findings.
Improvements in beef cattle productivity can increase economy-wide activity and simultaneously reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Scotland
Authors: Allan Grant , Comerford David , Connolly Kevin , McGregor Peter G. 
Published: January 2025

AbstractCutting emissions from agriculture will be important in meeting emissions reduction targets. However, there are concerns that such outcomes might require reductions in the scale of agricultural activity, with negative impacts on agriculture reliant economies. A number of policies seek to improve the productivity of the agricultural sector, i.e. permitting increased output from a given set of inputs, but the impact of such policies on emissions or economic activity is unclear. The objective of this study is to demonstrate how a Computable General Equilibrium model can be used to undertake ex ante analysis of the potential economic and environmental impacts of full implementation of a policy targeted at raising productivity in Scotland’s beef farming sector. We find positive impacts on economic variables and reductions in emissions, largely generated through reductions in the size of the capital stock in the beef farming sector. Our results contribute to a growing and important literature exploring the future capability of the agricultural sector to provide livelihoods, while minimising its environmental impacts.