bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Is the biotic potential, expressed as life-history features and nutritional indices, of generalized herbivore insects a function of host plants? — Spodoptera littoralis as a case study
Authors: El-Refaie Rasha M. , Shaurub El-Sayed H. , Abd-Allah Ghada E. , Ebeid Ahmed A. , Abouelnaga Zeinab S. 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
The present study aimed at evaluating the impacts of castor bean, tomato, potato, and cucumber leaves on the various components of biological fitness and food consumption and utilization of S. littoralis. The levels of nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous in the tested host plants were quantified. Feeding larvae on the tested host plants did not affect larval or pupal duration. Whereas, weight of full-grown larvae, adult emergence, and egg-hatch were significantly affected, with the highest and lowest values in case of feeding on castor bean and cucumber leaves, respectively. The highest and lowest number of eggs deposited per female were attained on castor bean and tomato leaves, respectively. Adult male and female longevity was the highest on potato and on castor bean leaves, respectively. Nutritional indices were dependent on the host plant, metamorphed instar, and age within instar, with the most profound change in case of 6th -instar larvae (last instar). Castor bean was the most nutritive host plant as it contained the highest levels of nitrogen and potassium. In contrast, tomato was the least nutritive one as it contained the lowest concentrations of nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. It appears that castor bean was the most suitable host plant, whereas tomato was the least suitable one. The findings obtained herein may help in understanding the biology of S. littoralis, leading to a better strategy to its control. Future studies should focus on testing a wider range of host plant species.
The establishment of a prognostic model based on bioinformatic analysis of DNA damage repair genes in lung adenocarcinoma
Authors: Yang Hongjuan , He Xinying , Shen Zhenyan , Sun Yuehong , Zhou Jianxi , Yin Xiaoming , Fan Kui , Liang Wei , Yang Weibo , Sun Yunchuan 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
Objective
To analyze the expression of DNA damage repair related genes form TCGA and GEO databases and establish a clinical prognosis prediction model in lung adenocarcinoma.
Methods
The RNA sequencing and clinical information data of lung adenocarcinoma were downloaded from the TCGA database, and differential analysis of DNA damage repair genes was performed between cancer and normal tissues. Cox proportional risk model and Lasso regression were used to construct the prediction model of DNA repair related genes, and the external model was verified by GSE30219. Metascape and GSEA were used to analyze the relevant mechanisms.
Results
Total of 74 DNA damage repair related genes were screened out from RNA sequencing data of 515 cases of lung adenocarcinoma and 59 cases of normal lung tissues. Based on Cox and Lasso regression analysis, a risk prediction model composing of PLK1, NEIL3 and EXO1 was constructed, and the risk scoring formula was riskscore = PLK1*0.011259 + NEIL3*0.022537 + EXO1*0.015379. In the TCGA dataset and external validation set of GSE30219, the overall survival of the high-risk group was significantly lower than that of the low-risk group (P < 0.01). The results of mechanism analysis showed that the poor prognosis of high risk group patients was related to mTOR, Myc, G2M and E2F pathways.
Conclusion
The risk model composed of PLK1, NEIL3 and EXO1 is established in this study, which can accurately predict the prognosis of patients with lung adenocarcinoma.
Outcome of Keratorefractive Surgery Among Myopes at Eye Foundation Hospital Group, Nigeria
Authors: Obiajulu Agu , Ashaye Abimbola 
Published: August 2023

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
To determine the outcome of keratorefractive surgical procedures among myopes at Eye Foundation Hospital Group, Nigeria.
MATERIALS & METHODS
The study was a non-randomized prospective study with secondary intervention, conducted among consecutive consenting new patients diagnosed with myopia between − 1.0D to -10D at Eye foundation hospital group. Interviewer administered semi-structured questionnaires, in-depth interviews and focused group discussions were used to collect information on socio-demographic characteristics and post operative feed backs. Participants who had the surgery were closely observed to determine the safety, efficacy, predictability, and stability of the procedure.
RESULTS
Three hundred and two participants were enrolled into the study with mean age of 30.48 ± 8.44 years and an age range of 18 years to 57 years.Ten eyes of six participants underwent keratorefractive surgery constituting an uptake of 2.0%. The mean age of the participants who underwent keratorefractive surgeries was 28 ± 10.9 years and the range was 18 to 44 years. The mean spherical equivalent for those that had surgery were − 4.3 ± 2.7 D. Eighty percent and 100% of eyes were within ± 0.5 and 1.0 D of the intended correction, respectively and regarding efficacy at 3 months post-operation, the proportion of participants with post-operative uncorrected distance visual acuity of ≥ 6/9 and ≥ 6/6 were 100% and 70% respectively. Regarding safety at 3 months post-operation, 3 eyes (30%) showed no change in corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA), 6 eyes (60%) gained 1 line and 1 eye (10%) lost 1 line. No vision threatening complications were observed in any of the cases.
CONCLUSION
Good surgical outcome was observed amongst those that were treated and future studies on keratorefractive surgery with larger sample sizes to determine the long-term effects among Nigerians are advocated.
ADMM-TGV image restoration for scientific applications with unbiased parameter choice
Authors: Zietlow Christian , Lindner Jörg K. N. 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
Image restoration via Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) has gained large interest within the last decade. Solving standard problems of Gaussian and Poisson noise, the set of ‘Total Variation’ (TV) based regularizers proved to be efficient and versatile. In the last few years the ‘Total Generalized Variation’ (TGV) approach combined TV regularizers of different orders adaptively to better suit local regions in the image. This improved the technique significantly. The approach solved the staircase problem inherent of the first order TV while keeping the beneficial edge preservation. The iterative minimization for the augmented Lagrangian of TGV problems requires four important parameters, two penalty parameters ρ and η and two regularization parameters λ0 and λ1. The choice of penalty parameters decides on the convergence speed, the regularization parameters decide on the impact of the respective regularizer and are determined by the noise level in the image. For scientific applications of such algorithms, an automated and thus objective method to determine these parameters is essential to receive unbiased results independent of the user. Obviously, both sets of parameters are to be well-chosen to achieve optimal results, too. In this paper a method is proposed to adaptively chose optimal ρ and η values for the iteration to converge faster, based on the primal and dual residuals arising from the opti-mality conditions of the augmented Lagrangian. Further, we show how to choose λ0 and λ1 based on the inherent noise in the image.
The effect of stand homogeneity on basal area growth for unthinned and thinned Pinus taeda L. stands in southern Brazil
Authors: de Oliveira Ximena Mendes , McTague John Paul , Junior Mário Dobner , Scolforo José Roberto Soares , Scolforo Henrique Ferraço 
Published: August 2023

Abstract

Studies show that heterogeneity among plants interferes with stand productivity, however, this information has not been incorporated in models to assist forest managers. This paper presents a new format for growth modeling, that includes the effect of heterogeneity on final stand productivity and was developed for unthinned and thinned Pinus taeda stands. The data used came from a 3 x 3 factorial experiment with the factors initial density (2500, 1250, and 625 trees.ha− 1) and thinning (without thinning, moderate thinning, and heavy thinning). The diameter distribution represented by the percentile method were used to represent stand homogeneity. The diameters (located in the 10th and 63rd percentiles) were inserted into the basal area growth model, reducing the mean absolute error (MAE) and the square root of the mean error (RMSE) on average from 4.8433 m².ha− 1 to 2.7702 m².ha− 1 relative to the predicted estimates, and from 4.3139 m².ha− 1 to 2.6984 m².ha− 1 for the projected estimates. The validation of the equation with the homogeneity proxy variable was performed by the Bootstrap method. A simultaneous equation, compatible in prediction and projection, with the inclusion of homogeneity, is recommended for estimating the growth in the basal area of Pinus taeda stands in southern Brazil.
Underwater Image Quality Assessment method basedon Color Space Multi-feature Fusion
Authors: Chen Tianhai , Yang Xichen , Li Nengxin , Wang Tianshu , Ji Genlin 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
The complexity and challenging underwater environment leading to degradation in underwater image. Measuring the qualityof underwater image is a significant step for the subsequent image processing step. Existing Image Quality Assessment(IQA) methods do not fully consider the characteristics of degradation in underwater images, which limits their performance inunderwater image assessment. To address this problem, an Underwater IQA (UIQA) method based on color space multi-featurefusion is proposed to focus on underwater image. The proposed method converts underwater images from RGB color space toCIELab color space, which has a higher correlation to human subjective perception of underwater visual quality. The proposedmethod extract histogram features, morphological features, and moment statistics from luminance and color components anduse multi-feature fusion to better quantify the degradation in underwater image quality. After features extraction, support vectorregression(SVR) is employed to learn the relationship between fusion features and image quality scores, and gain the qualityprediction model. Experimental results on the SAUD dataset and UIED dataset show that our proposed method can performwell in underwater image quality assessment. The performance comparisons on LIVE dataset, TID2013 dataset and SIQADdataset demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method.
Promoting psychological well-being in preschoolers through mindfulness-based socioemotional learning: A randomized-controlled trial
Authors: Courbet Ophélie , Daviot Quent , Kalamarides Victoire , Habib Marianne , Thomas Villemonteix 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
Mental health issues in children and young people are frequent and can have enduring negative consequences. Preventive early interventions delivered at school may foster psychological well-being, and preliminary evidence suggests that mindfulness-based social and emotional study was to evaluate a mindfulness-based SEL curriculum including a French adaptation of the Kindness Curriculum (KC), delivered by pre-kindergarten teachers, in a cluster randomized control trial. Sixty-four classes (761 children, aged 38-58 months) from a socio-economically disadvantaged area in France were randomly assigned to either intervention or waiting-list control conditions. Indicator -management, positive relationships with teachers and peers, emotional processing and executive functioning were collected through teacher-rated questionnaires, standardized observations, and behavioral tasks. Results in mental health, including a reduction in emotional, conduct and peer relationship problems, and a reduction in teacher-child conflicts. No significant effects were found on the other indicators. Heterogeneity analyses revealed stronger effects of the intervention on mental health and positive effects on self-management, relationships with teachers and relationships with peers in several subgroups. This program appears as a promising early intervention promoting mental health and positive relationships, especially for at-risk subgroups of preschool-aged children.
Development and validation of nomograms to predict prognosis of Burkitt's lymphoma: a SEER-based study
Authors: He Yang , Weijie Ma , Yang Bingbing , Da Dezhuan , Dang Chunyan , Li Hongling 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
Background: The purpose of this study was to establish two practical and valid nomograms to predict overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) in patients with Burkitt's lymphoma.
Methods: A total of 3972 patients with Burkitt's lymphoma diagnosed in 2000-2015 were screened from the SEER database and randomized into training cohorts (N=2780) and validation cohorts (N=1192). Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed to select independent risk factors affecting prognosis, followed by the construction of nomograms for OS and CSS. The reliability of the nomogram was validated with C-index and calibration curve. DCA plots were used to compare the clinical value of the nomogram with Ann Arbor Stage staging. In addition, patients were divided into high-risk and low-risk groups according to the mean of their scores as a cut-off, and survival was compared using the Kaplan-Meier method.
Results: According to the results of multivariate Cox regression analysis, the common independent prognostic factors affecting OS and CSS were age, race, marital status, year of diagnosis, primary site, stage, and chemotherapy. Based on these variables, two prediction models were constructed. In the training cohort, the C-index of the nomogram for OS was 0.741. DCA plots indicated that our nomogram had more clinical net benefits than the Ann Arbor staging system.
Conclusion: A comprehensive assessment of the incidence and survival prognosis of Burkitt's lymphoma was conducted using a large database, and two nomograms were created to predict patient risk and prognostic factors, thereby guiding clinicians in individualized clinical practice.
Biologically and Catalytically Active Cubic Silver Chloride- anchored Palladium/Gold Bimetallic Nanomaterials
Authors: Sarvalkar Prashant D. , Vadanagekar Apurva S. , Karvekar Omkar S. , Teli Shivanand B. , Kurhe Deepti N. , Nimbalkar Mansingraj S. , Prasad Neeraj R. , Sharma Kiran Kumar K. 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
In this study, we present the first biogenic production of cubic AgCl anchor (Pd and Au) bimetallic (AgCl@Pd/Au) nanoparticles (NPs) with metabolic waste from the Bos Taurus Indicus (BTI) species. The biological components in BTI urine are proposed to serve as reducing agents in the straightforward reduction synthesis of Pd and Au bimetallic NPs. AgCl@Pd/Au bimetallic alloy NPs are characterized as synthesized materials through XRD, FT-IR, SEM/FE-SEM, TEM, XPS, particle size with zeta potential, and other techniques. The XRD data was refined, revealing the synthesized substance to be composed of AgCl, Pd, and Au. AgCl@Pd/Au bimetallic alloy NPs have been studied for their catalytic activity against toxic dyes and nitroarenes in the presence of NaBH4. Newly synthesized AgCl@Pd/Au bimetallic alloy NPs are also studied for their antibacterial and antioxidant characteristics; results reveal strong antimicrobial and moderate antioxidant activity. This study presents a novel method for the large-scale synthesis of nanomaterials and nanocomposites with tailor-made morphologies and compositions: the use of BTI urine as a reducing agent.
VDTA Based Transadmittance Mode Instrumentation Amplifier with Experimental results
Authors: Raj Niranjan , Dutta Somenath , Ranjan Rajeev Kumar , Singh Dharmendra Kumar , Kuntman Hakan 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
A Voltage Differencing Transconductance Amplifier (VDTA) based trans-admittance mode (TAM) instrumentation amplifier (IA) has been proposed in this article. Proposed IA provides electronically tunable gain with biasing current along with high bandwidth (BW) and CMRR. In addition, the proposed IA does not need any resistor matching. An offset of the presented amplifier circuit can be suppressed using an integrator feedback stage. The functional verification is performed using 0.18 µm TSMC process parameter. Monte Carlo Sampling (MCS) is carried out, thus proving robustness of the circuit. As an application part, a noisy ECG signal is applied to get a clean amplified signal. A CMRR of 131dB-146.8 dB has been obtained depending on different values of the components, and biasing conditions. 30 MHz bandwidth is obtained for the proposed IA. The IA layout required 80 × 49 µm2 areas. The experimental verification has been done using commercially available ICs CA3080.
Comparison of the cytokines levels in aqueous humor in vitrectomized eyes versus non-vitrectomized eyes with diabetic macular edema
Authors: Wang Yiheng , Luan Jie 
Published: August 2023

Abstract

Background
To compare concentrations of VEGF family growth factors, inflammation-related factors, and adhesion molecules in the aqueous humor of eyes with diabetic macular edema (DME), with and without prior vitrectomy
Methods
A total of 31 eyes were included, 11 with DME that had undergone vitrectomy, 9 with DME but without vitrectomy, and 11 from age-related cataract patients as controls. The concentrations of cytokines including TNF-α, IL-6, IL-8, IP-10,MCP-1, IFN-γ, MIP-1 α, MIP-1 β, PECAM-1, MIF, VCAM-1, ICAM-1, PIGF were quantified using Luminex Human Discovery Assay. The relationship between cytokine levels and central macular thickness was evaluated using OCT.
Results
(1) The concentrations of VEGF, PlGF, IP-10, MCP-1, MIP-1α, MIP-1β, MIF, IFN-γ, TNF-α, PECAM-1, ICAM-1, and VCAM-1 in the aqueous humor of diabetic macular edema (DME) patients with and without vitrectomy were similar. Vitrectomized DME eyes exhibited significantly higher levels of IL-6 and IL-8 compared to non-vitrectomized eyes (P < 0.05). (2) In vitrectomized group, after Benjamini-Hochberg correction, there was a significant positive correlation between the levels of VEGF and PlGF (rs = 0.855, P < 0.05), the levels of TNF-α and IFN-γ were also significantly positively correlated (rs = 0.858, P < 0.05). In non-vitrectomized group, significant positive correlations were found between VEGF and PlGF levels after correcting for multiple comparisons (rs = 0.9, P < 0.05). (3) In non-vitrectomized group, the concentrations of VEGF and PlGF in aqueous humor were significantly positively correlated with CMT (rs = 0.95, P < 0.05; rs = 0.9, P < 0.05, respectively).
Conclusions
The concentrations of IL-6 and IL-8 in the aqueous humor were significantly higher in DME patients who underwent vitrectomy compared to those without vitrectomy, while the levels of VEGF were similar between the two groups which indicating that inflammation after vitrectomy may be a key factor in the occurrence and development of DME.
What makes a bank a bank? Differences and commonalities in credit calculation, application, and risks in mitigation banks targeting freshwater systems
Authors: Theis Sebastian , Poesch Mark 
Published: August 2023

Abstract
Mitigation banking is part of the ever-expanding global environmental market framework that aims to balance negative approved anthropogenic impacts versus third-party provided ecosystem benefits, sold in the form of credits. Given the need to conserve freshwater biodiversity and habitat, banking has received great traction in freshwater systems. While extensive reviews and studies have been conducted on evaluating if equivalency between impacts and offset can be achieved, there is almost no research being done on the way credits are being generated. Synthesizing banking data through cluster analyses from 26 banks in the United States generating credits for freshwater species and systems, we show two dominant approaches: removing barriers and targeting whole communities. Both address crucial freshwater conservation needs but come with their risks and caveats. Using common characteristics and management practices within these two groups, we showcase and conclude that credit generation via barrier removal can be at risk of granting credit generation for too large of an area, leading to over-crediting. Banks targeting whole freshwater communities and accounting for landscape-level interactions and influences can potentially be detrimental for species on an individual level and large-scale credit availability as well as transfer can incentivize non-compliance with the mitigation hierarchy.
Nondestructive Assessment of Woody Breast Myopathy in Chicken Fillets Using Optical Coherence Tomography Imaging with Machine Learning
Authors: Ekramirad Nader , Yoon Seung-Chul , Bowker Brian C. , Zhuang Hong 
Published: August 2023

Abstract

Woody breast (WB) myopathy is a major muscle abnormality in chicken fillets, causing excessive hardness and chewiness. The WB condition can potentially cause big economical losses in the poultry industry by decreasing meat quality, increasing waste, degrading nutritional content, and reducing customer satisfaction. A histological technique using a light microscope has been the gold standard to characterize the sub-surface properties of the muscle with the WB condition, which is destructive, costly, time-consuming, and limited to analyzing only small sample areas. It is currently very challenging to assess the degree of WB myopathy objectively and rapidly in individual fillets. There is a need to develop an effective sensing technology for rapidly characterizing the WB condition by measuring the sub-surface cross-sections of the entire fillet at a high resolution. In this study, we utilized optical coherence tomography (OCT) to image the sub-surface microstructure of chicken muscle tissue along the entire fillet with a micrometer resolution. The OCT images provided valuable microstructural features, which were further analyzed using machine learning models to classify chicken fillets based on the WB severity. The results demonstrated a detection accuracy of up to 100% in detecting severe WB samples. The machine learning models achieved a classification accuracy of 93.3% in distinguishing normal from WB fillets. Overall, the successful application of large-scale OCT imaging demonstrated its effectiveness as a non-invasive method for evaluating WB in chicken meat. Furthermore, the study suggests that OCT imaging holds the potential for evaluating other agricultural and food products.