bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Early Postoperative Volume Overload is a Predictor of 1-Year Post-Transplant Mortality in Pediatric Heart Transplant Recipients
Authors: Lim Michelle J. , Sim Myung-Shin , Pan Sylvia , Alejos Juan , Federman Myke 
Published: March 2023

AbstractFluid restriction and diuretic management are mainstays in the postoperative management of cardiac patients, at risk of volume overload and its deleterious effects on primary cardiac function and multi-organ systems. The importance of fluid homeostasis is further emphasized among orthotopic heart transplant recipients (OHT). We sought to investigate the relationship between postoperative volume overload, mortality, and allograft dysfunction among pediatric OHT recipients within 1-year of transplantation. This is a retrospective cohort study from a single pediatric OHT center. Children under 21 years undergoing cardiac transplantation between 2010 and 2018 were included. Cumulative fluid overload (cFO) was assessed as percent fluid accumulation adjusted for preoperative body weight. Greater than 10% cFO defined those with postoperative cFO and a comparison of postoperative cFO vs. no postoperative cFO (< 5%) is reported. 102 pediatric OHT recipients were included. Early cFO at 72 h post-OHT occurred in 14% and overall cFO at 1-week post-OHT occurred in 23% of patients. Risk factors for cFO included younger age, lower weight, and postoperative ECMO. Early cFO was associated with postoperative mortality at 1-year, OR 8.6 (95% CI 1.4, 51.6), p = 0.04, independent of age and weight. There was no significant relationship between cFO and allograft dysfunction, measured by rates of clinical rejection and cardiopulmonary filling pressures within 1-year of transplant. Early postoperative volume overload is prevalent and associated with increased risk of death at 1-year among pediatric OHT recipients. It may be an important postoperative marker of transplant survival, and this relationship warrants further clinical investigation.
The Emergency Surgery Frailty Index (EmSFI) in Elderly Patients with Acute Appendicitis: An External Validation of Prognostic Score
Authors: Fusario Daniele , Neri Alessandro , Carbone Ludovico , Resca Luca , Marano Luigi , Gassi Giulia , Calomino Natale , Verre Luigi , Roviello Franco , Marrelli Daniele 
Published: March 2023

AbstractBackgroundIdentification of reliable risk‐stratification tools is critical for surgical decision making, particularly in frail and elderly. The aim of the study is to validate the Emergency Surgery Frailty Index (EmSFI), in over 65 years old patients operated on for acute appendicitis.MethodsAn observational study was conducted enrolling elderly patients with diagnosis of acute appendicitis who underwent emergency appendicectomy or right colectomy, between 2016 and 2021. All patients were treated according to the last SIFIPAC/WSES/SICG/SIMEU guidelines.ResultsOverall, 61 patients were analyzed. Complication rate was higher for patients in the second EmSFI risk Class. Moreover, ROC analyses identified 3 as the best cutoff value in predicting risk of adverse postoperative events. Complication rate was higher in oldest elderly patients—over 80 years—(42.9 vs 22.5%; p 0.05) and was mainly related to medical complications (42.9 vs 12.5%, p 0.007). However, intestinal obstruction, peri‐appendicular abscess on preoperative CT, peritonitis and a longer duration of surgery are related with increased risk of complications in the group of patients under 80 years.ConclusionThe EmSFI score results a valid prognostic marker for frailty status, and it may support the surgeon in emergency setting for acute appendicitis. Patients aged 80 years or older have a higher risk of complications, independent from those factors which relate to increased morbidity in younger elderly patients. Age alone is not a reliable indicator of the real surgical risk, but it must encourage the adoption of multidisciplinary collaborative models of care for this group of patients.
Modelling of viscoelastic materials using non-ordinary state-based peridynamics
Authors: Galadima Yakubu Kasimu , Oterkus Selda , Oterkus Erkan , Amin Islam , El-Aassar Abdel-Hameed , Shawky Hosam 
Published: March 2023

AbstractThis paper proposes a framework for implementing viscoelastic constitutive model from the classical continuum mechanics (CCM) theory within non-ordinary state-based peridynamics (NOSBPD). The motivation stems from the inadequacy of CCM to model very complex material behaviours such as initiation and propagation of cracks and nonlocal behaviour due to size effects. The proposed formulation leverages on the constitutive correspondence between NOSBPD and CCM to incorporate a CCM viscoelastic constitutive model based on hereditary integral into NOSBPD. The combination of hereditary constitutive model and NOSBPD effectively makes this formulation a nonlocal time–space viscoelastic framework where temporal nonlocality is incorporated by a hereditary viscoelastic model which stipulates that the behaviour of a material at any point in time depends on both the present action and the complete history of previous actions on the material, and spatial nonlocality on the other hand is incorporated via the nonlocal mechanism provided by the NOSBPD. For model validation, three benchmark problems were solved using the proposed framework. Results obtained were compared to results from analytical solution and solutions from referenced literature. In addition, parametric study was conducted to determine the influence of nonlocality on numerical prediction. Conclusions drawn from the validation studies presented are that the proposed framework is able to predict viscoelastic responses that agree well with local macro models as well as nonlocal micromodels/nanomodels as reported in the literature.
Short-term outcomes of thoracoscopic versus open lobectomy for congenital lung malformations
Authors: Raymond Steven L. , Sacks Marla A. , Hashmi Asra , Robertson Jason O. , Moores Donald , Tagge Edward P. , Radulescu Andrei , Islam Saleem , Khan Faraz A. 
Published: March 2023

AbstractPurposeThoracoscopic and open approaches for the management of congenital lung malformations (CLM) has been debated. The aim of this study is to compare 30-day outcomes for non-emergent lobectomies in children.MethodsThe National Surgical Quality Improvement Program-Pediatric database was queried for patients undergoing CLM resection from 2013 to 2020. Outcomes were compared by operative technique in an intention-to-treat model and then propensity matched.Results2157 patients met inclusion criteria and underwent non-emergent pulmonary lobectomy for CLM. The intended operative approach was thoracoscopic in 57.7% of patients. Patients in the open group compared to the thoracoscopic were more likely to be born premature, have chronic lung disease, require preoperative oxygen support, and be ventilator dependent. After propensity matching, there was no statistically significant difference in 30-day mortality, unplanned readmission, and other complications between the thoracoscopic and open groups. Thoracoscopic approach was associated with a shorter length of stay. The proportion of cases approached via thoracoscopy increased over time from 48.8% in 2013 to 69.9% in 2020.ConclusionsThis large multicenter retrospective matched analysis demonstrates thoracoscopic lobectomy in children has similar favorable 30-day outcomes and shorter length of stay for the non-emergent management of CLM, compared to open thoracotomy.Level of evidenceLevel III.
Praktikable Sjögren-Diagnostik bei interstitieller Lungenerkrankung – ein Diskussionsbeitrag
Authors: Aringer Martin , Koschel Dirk , Dörner Thomas , Sewerin Philipp , Prasse Antje , Witte Torsten 
Published: March 2023

ZusammenfassungDas Sjögren-Syndrom (SjS) stellt eine mögliche autoimmune Ursache einer interstitiellen Lungenerkrankung dar. Die Abklärung in Richtung SjS ist aber im Vergleich zu anderen systemischen Autoimmunerkrankungen bisher kaum standardisiert. Die subjektive Sicca-Symptomatik, die Anti-SS-A/Ro-Antikörper und selbst die ANA-Diagnostik als Suchtest haben alle relevante Einschränkungen in ihrer Sensitivität und/oder Spezifität. Vor diesem Hintergrund haben wir in einer interdisziplinären Diskussion einen Konsens für die SjS-Abklärung entwickelt, den wir hier für die breitere Diskussion vorstellen. Neben ANA sollten sowohl Anti-SS-A/Ro-Antikörper als auch Antikörper gegen α‑Fodrin bestimmt werden. Wichtig ist die Objektivierung der Trockenheit mittels Schirmer- und Saxon-Test und bei fehlenden typischen Autoantikörpern die Speicheldrüsenbiopsie.
Combinatorial Properties and Recognition of Unit Square Visibility Graphs
Authors: Casel Katrin , Fernau Henning , Grigoriev Alexander , Schmid Markus L. , Whitesides Sue 
Published: March 2023

AbstractUnit square visibility graphs (USV) are described by axis-parallel visibility between unit squares placed in the plane. If the squares are required to be placed on integer grid coordinates, then USV become unit square grid visibility graphs (USGV), an alternative characterisation of the well-known rectilinear graphs. We extend known combinatorial results for USGV and we show that, in the weak case (i.e., visibilities do not necessarily translate into edges of the represented combinatorial graph), the area minimisation variant of their recognition problem is$${{\,\mathrm{{\textsf{N}}{\textsf{P}}}\,}}$$NP-hard. We also provide combinatorial insights with respect to USV, and as our main result, we prove their recognition problem to be$${{\,\mathrm{{\textsf{N}}{\textsf{P}}}\,}}$$NP-hard, which settles an open question.
Boosting capuchin search with stochastic learning strategy for feature selection
Authors: Abd Elaziz Mohamed , Ouadfel Salima , Ibrahim Rehab Ali 
Published: March 2023

AbstractThe technological revolution has made available a large amount of data with many irrelevant and noisy features that alter the analysis process and increase time processing. Therefore, feature selection (FS) approaches are used to select the smallest subset of relevant features. Feature selection is viewed as an optimization process for which meta-heuristics have been successfully applied. Thus, in this paper, a new feature selection approach is proposed based on an enhanced version of the Capuchin search algorithm (CapSA). In the developed FS approach, named ECapSA, three modifications have been introduced to avoid a lack of diversity, and premature convergence of the basic CapSA: (1) The inertia weight is adjusted using the logistic map, (2) sine cosine acceleration coefficients are added to improve convergence, and (3) a stochastic learning strategy is used to add more diversity to the movement of Capuchin and a levy random walk. To demonstrate the performance of ECapSA, different datasets are used, and it is compared with other well-known FS methods. The results provide evidence of the superiority of ECapSA among the tested datasets and competitive methods in terms of performance metrics.
Automatic stress detection in car drivers based on non-invasive physiological signals using machine learning techniques
Authors: Siam Ali I. , Gamel Samah A. , Talaat Fatma M. 
Published: March 2023

AbstractStress is now thought to be a major cause to a wide range of human health issues. However, many people may ignore their stress feelings and disregard to take action before serious physiological and mental disorders take place. The heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP) are the most physiological markers used in various studies to detect mental stress for a human, and because they are captured non-invasively using wearable sensors, these markers are recommended to provide information on a person’s mental state. Most stress assessment studies have been undertaken in a laboratory-based controlled environment. This paper proposes an approach to identify the mental stress of automotive drivers based on selected biosignals, namely, ECG, EMG, GSR, and respiration rate. In this study, six different machine learning models (KNN, SVM, DT, LR, RF, and MLP) have been used to classify between the stressed and relaxation states. Such system can be integrated with a Driver Assistance System (DAS). The proposed stress detection technique (SDT) consists of three main phases: (1) Biosignal Pre-processing, in which the signal is segmented and filtered. (2) Feature Extraction, in which some discriminate features are extracted from each biosignal to describe the mental state of the driver. (3) Classification. The results show that the RF classifier outperforms other techniques with a classification accuracy of 98.2%, sensitivity 97%, and specificity 100% using the drivedb dataset.
Near-term climate change impacts on food crops productivity in East Africa
Authors: Choi Yeon-Woo , Eltahir Elfatih A. B. 
Published: March 2023

AbstractCrop production in East Africa (i.e., Sudan and Ethiopia), where economy relies largely on rainfed agriculture, is facing significant challenges due to climate change, population growth, and the slow adoption rate of agricultural technology. However, a lack of consensus exists on how near-term climate change may affect food crop productivity in the region through changes in temperature and precipitation. Here, we empirically estimate optimal-growing temperature and precipitation for a select group of food crops using historical observations. We then project climate change impacts on crop yields based on a non-parametric empirical crop model using, as input, results from high-resolution (20 km) regional climate model driven by CMIP5/CMIP6 global climate models. Our projections consistently show increases in growing season temperature and precipitation during 2021–2050 under RCP8.5 and SSP5-8.5 scenarios, relative to 1976–2000. However, the projected climate change will exert dramatically different impacts on the agricultural sectors across the region. That is, the significant warming would likely cause overall negative impacts on agriculture in Sudan and mixed impacts on agriculture in Ethiopia. Meanwhile, the weak wetting trend may marginally affect crop growth in East Africa. The negative impacts of climate change can be mitigated at least partially by an accelerating rate of adoption of agricultural technology (use of fertilizers, better seeds, etc.) and probably by horizontal expansion of croplands where precipitation is projected to increase. Our results suggest that East Africa will need to take proactive adaptation measures to mitigate the projected food production challenges.
Pilot study of a comprehensive resource estimation method from environmental DNA using universal D-loop amplification primers
Authors: Yoshitake Kazutoshi , Yanagisawa Kyohei , Sugimoto Yuma , Nakamura Hiroshi , Mizusawa Nanami , Miya Masaki , Hamasaki Koji , Kobayashi Takanori , Watabe Shugo , Nishikiori Kazuomi , Asakawa Shuichi 
Published: March 2023

AbstractMany studies have investigated the ability of environmental DNA (eDNA) to identify the species. However, when individual species are to be identified, accurate estimation of their abundance using traditional eDNA analyses is still difficult. We previously developed a novel analytical method called HaCeD-Seq (haplotype count from eDNA by sequencing), which focuses on the mitochondrial D-loop sequence for eels and tuna. In this study, universal D-loop primers were designed to enable the comprehensive detection of multiple fish species by a single sequence. To sequence the full-length D-loop with high accuracy, we performed nanopore sequencing with unique molecular identifiers (UMI). In addition, to determine the D-loop reference sequence, whole genome sequencing was performed with thin coverage, and complete mitochondrial genomes were determined. We developed a UMI-based Nanopore D-loop sequencing analysis pipeline and released it as open-source software. We detected 5 out of 15 species (33%) and 10 haplotypes out of 35 individuals (29%) among the detected species. This study demonstrates the possibility of comprehensively obtaining information related to population size from eDNA. In the future, this method can be used to improve the accuracy of fish resource estimation, which is currently highly dependent on fishing catches.
Relations between students’ well-being and academic achievement: evidence from Swedish compulsory school
Authors: Klapp Thea , Klapp Alli , Gustafsson Jan-Eric 
Published: March 2023

AbstractThe study aimed to investigate students’ psychological, cognitive, and social well-being in 6th Grade and the relations to academic achievement in compulsory school, as measured by grades in 9th Grade. Due to reports from Swedish authorities and research, students’ self-reported well-being has decreased during the last decade. Data from the Swedish longitudinal project Evaluation Through Follow-up was analyzed with confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. By using data from two birth cohorts (1998: N = 7 684 and 2004: N = 9 437), differences in well-being across the two cohorts could be investigated. Cognitive ability, parental education, and gender were also accounted for. Statistically significant cohort and gender differences were found, where cohort 2004 was disadvantaged in all three well-being dimensions, and girls were disadvantaged in psychological and social well-being. Psychological well-being was negatively related to academic achievement, indicating that students who experienced more school-related stress performed higher than students who experienced less stress. Cognitive well-being was positively related to academic achievement. Possible causes of the decrease in well-being may be changes in the educational and assessment system, which meant that cohort 2004 went through compulsory school with a stronger focus on results and grades than earlier cohorts.
Lifestyle and work-related correlates of psychosocial health among Australian teachers: a cross-sectional study
Authors: Corbett Lucy , Bauman Adrian , Peralta Louisa R. , Okely Anthony D. , Phongsavan Philayrath 
Published: March 2023

Abstract
Aim
This study examined the psychosocial (psychological distress, job-specific wellbeing, burnout) health of a large sample of teachers in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, specifically the association between psychosocial health, work-related factors, and lifestyle behaviours.

Subject & methods
An online survey collected lifestyle behaviours, work-related factors, and socio-demographics from primary and secondary school teachers in NSW from February to October 2021. Associations between work-related factors, lifestyle behaviours, and psychosocial health were modelled using logistic regression in R and adjusted for gender, age, and geographic location.

Results
In our sample (n = 1136), 75% were women and 28% of the sample worked in rural or remote areas. Women reported higher levels of psychological distress (51%), compared with men (42%), and over 30% of teachers reported high levels of burnout. Teachers who engaged in three or more positive health-related behaviours had lower odds of psychological distress and burnout as well as higher odds of job-specific wellbeing. Multiple work-related factors such as hours worked, teaching load, teaching experience, teacher type, and teacher role were associated with one or more aspects of psychosocial health after adjusting for socio-demographic variables.

Conclusion
More is needed to support the psychosocial health of teachers in NSW. Future lifestyle programs for this population should include psychosocial outcomes to further explore the relationship between teachers’ health-related behaviour and their psychosocial health.
Development of a risk score to identify patients at high risk for a severe course of COVID-19
Authors: Jacob Josephine , Tesch Falko , Wende Danny , Batram Manuel , Loser Friedrich , Weidinger Oliver , Roessler Martin , Seifert Martin , Risch Lisa , Nagel Oliver , König Christina , Jucknewitz Roland , Treskova-Schwarzbach Marina , Hertle Dagmar , Scholz Stefan , Stern Stefan , Ballesteros Pedro , Baßler Stefan , Bertele Barbara , Repschläger Uwe , Richter Nico , Riederer Cordula , Sobik Franziska , Schramm Anja , Schulte Claudia , Walker Jochen , Schmitt Jochen 
Published: March 2023

Abstract
Aim
We aimed to develop a risk score to calculate a person’s individual risk for a severe COVID-19 course (POINTED score) to support prioritization of especially vulnerable patients for a (booster) vaccination.

Subject and methods
This cohort study was based on German claims data and included 623,363 individuals with a COVID-19 diagnosis in 2020. The outcome was COVID-19 related treatment in an intensive care unit, mechanical ventilation, or death after a COVID-19 infection. Data were split into a training and a test sample. Poisson regression models with robust standard errors including 35 predefined risk factors were calculated. Coefficients were rescaled with a min–max normalization to derive numeric score values between 0 and 20 for each risk factor. The scores’ discriminatory ability was evaluated by calculating the area under the curve (AUC).

Results
Besides age, down syndrome and hematologic cancer with therapy, immunosuppressive therapy, and other neurological conditions were the risk factors with the highest risk for a severe COVID-19 course. The AUC of the POINTED score was 0.889, indicating very good predictive validity.

Conclusion
The POINTED score is a valid tool to calculate a person’s risk for a severe COVID-19 course.
Evaluating the optimal timing and capacity of investments in flexible combined heat and power generation for energy-intensive industries
Authors: Zormpas Dimitrios , Oggioni Giorgia 
Published: March 2023

AbstractSubstantial R &D efforts are currently directed towards the development of combined heat and power (CHP) systems that automatically and seamlessly connect to the power grid. In this paper we develop a real options model to assess the impact that the operational flexibility characterizing such systems will have on the optimal timing and capacity associated with investments in CHP plants. We take the viewpoint of a manufacturer operating in an energy-intensive industry who contemplates investing in CHP. We discuss and compare investments in two types of CHP systems: a standard one that is operationally rigid and a technologically advanced one that is operationally flexible. The interaction between temporal and operational flexibility under uncertainty and irreversibility is central to our analysis. We show that operational flexibility guarantees earlier investment but has an ambiguous effect in terms of capacity. In particular, when operational flexibility is very valuable the potential investor is opting for investing in a plant with larger productive capacity. The potential investor chooses a smaller CHP unit if otherwise. A numerical exercise calibrated using data from the Italian pulp and paper and electricity industries complements our theoretical analysis.