bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Behavioral assays reveal mechanisms of supercolony formation in odorous house ants
Authors: Buczkowski Grzegorz , Wang Sihui , Craig Bruce A. 
Published: June 2023

AbstractThe formation of expansive multi-nest and multi-queen supercolonies is perhaps the most important factor responsible for the ecological success of invasive ants. The odorous house ant,Tapinoma sessile, is a widespread ant native to North America.T. sessileis a challenging urban pest, but also serves as an interesting system to study ant social organization and invasion biology. This is due to its remarkable dichotomy in colony social and spatial structure between natural and urban environments. Natural colonies typically consist of a small number of workers, inhabit a single nest, and are monogyne whereas urban colonies show extreme polygyny and polydomy and form large supercolonies. The current study examined the extent to whichT. sessilecolonies from different habitats (natural vs. urban) and social structures (monogynous vs. polygynous) exhibit aggression toward alien conspecifics. Additionally, interactions between mutually aggressive colonies were examined in colony fusion experiments to assess the potential role of colony fusion as a mechanism leading to supercolony formation. Aggression assays demonstrated high levels of aggression in pairings involving workers from different urban colonies and workers from different natural colonies, but low aggression in pairings involving queens from different urban colonies. Colony merging tests demonstrated that urbanT. sessilecolonies are highly aggressive to each other, but capable of fusing under laboratory conditions when competing for limited nesting and food resources. Despite highly aggressive interactions and relatively high worker and queen mortality, all colony pairs merged in 3–5 days. Fusion occurred after most workers died and the survivors merged. This result suggests that the success ofT. sessilein urban areas may be driven, at least in part, by successful colony mergers of unrelated colonies which may be determined by ecological constraints such as seasonal shortages in nest and/or food availability. In summary, two independent factors including the growth of a single colony and/or the merger of multiple colonies may be responsible for the evolution of supercolonies in invasive ants. Both processes may be happening simultaneously and may act synergistically to produce supercolonies.
Machine learning explainability in nasopharyngeal cancer survival using LIME and SHAP
Authors: Alabi Rasheed Omobolaji , Elmusrati Mohammed , Leivo Ilmo , Almangush Alhadi , Mäkitie Antti A. 
Published: June 2023

AbstractNasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) has a unique histopathology compared with other head and neck cancers. Individual NPC patients may attain different outcomes. This study aims to build a prognostic system by combining a highly accurate machine learning model (ML) model with explainable artificial intelligence to stratify NPC patients into low and high chance of survival groups. Explainability is provided using Local Interpretable Model Agnostic Explanations (LIME) and SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) techniques. A total of 1094 NPC patients were retrieved from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database for model training and internal validation. We combined five different ML algorithms to form a uniquely stacked algorithm. The predictive performance of the stacked algorithm was compared with a state-of-the-art algorithm—extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) to stratify the NPC patients into chance of survival groups. We validated our model with temporal validation (n = 547) and geographic external validation (Helsinki University Hospital NPC cohort, n = 60). The developed stacked predictive ML model showed an accuracy of 85.9% while the XGBoost had 84.5% after the training and testing phases. This demonstrated that both XGBoost and the stacked model showed comparable performance. External geographic validation of XGBoost model showed a c-index of 0.74, accuracy of 76.7%, and area under curve of 0.76. The SHAP technique revealed that age of the patient at diagnosis, T-stage, ethnicity, M-stage, marital status, and grade were among the prominent input variables in decreasing order of significance for the overall survival of NPC patients. LIME showed the degree of reliability of the prediction made by the model. In addition, both techniques showed how each feature contributed to the prediction made by the model. LIME and SHAP techniques provided personalized protective and risk factors for each NPC patient and unraveled some novel non-linear relationships between input features and survival chance. The examined ML approach showed the ability to predict the chance of overall survival of NPC patients. This is important for effective treatment planning care and informed clinical decisions. To enhance outcome results, including survival in NPC, ML may aid in planning individualized therapy for this patient population.
A method for parallel microscale protein labeling and precise control over the average degree of labeling (aDoL)
Authors: Ruan Qiaoqiao , Zhao Cheng 
Published: June 2023

AbstractA widely used approach for protein conjugation is through the lysine residues reacting with NHS- or other active esters. However, it is a challenge to precisely control the degree of labeling (DoL) due to the instability of active ester and variability of reaction efficiencies. Here, we provide a protocol for better control of aDoL using existing Copper-free Click Chemistry reagents. It is a two-step reaction with one purification in between. Briefly, proteins of interest were first activated with azide-NHS. After removing unreacted azide-NHS, the protein-N3 is then reacted with a limited amount of complementary click tag. Our studies have shown the click tag will fully react with the protein-N3 after 24 h’ incubation, and therefore does not require additional purification steps. As such, the aDoL is equal to the input molar ratio of the click tag and the protein. Furthermore, this approach offers a much simpler and more economical way to perform parallel microscale labeling. Once a protein is pre-activated with N3-NHS, any fluorophore or molecule with the complementary click tag can be attached to the protein by mixing the two ingredients. Quantities of the protein used in the click reaction can be at any desired amount. In one example, we labeled an antibody in parallel with 9 different fluorophores using a total of 0.5 mg of antibody. In another example, we labeled Ab with targeted aDoL value from 2 to 8. In a stability comparison study, we have found the conjugated fluorophore using the suggested click protocol stayed attached to the protein longer than with standard NHS-fluorophore labeling.
Predicting the presence of tinnitus using ecological momentary assessments
Authors: Breitmayer Marius , Stach Michael , Kraft Robin , Allgaier Johannes , Reichert Manfred , Schlee Winfried , Probst Thomas , Langguth Berthold , Pryss Rüdiger 
Published: June 2023

AbstractMobile applications have gained popularity in healthcare in recent years. These applications are an increasingly important pillar of public health care, as they open up new possibilities for data collection and can lead to new insights into various diseases and disorders thanks to modern data analysis approaches. In this context, Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) is a commonly used research method that aims to assess phenomena with a focus on ecological validity and to help both the user and the researcher observe these phenomena over time. One phenomenon that benefits from this capability is the chronic condition tinnitus. TrackYourTinnitus (TYT) is an EMA-based mobile crowdsensing platform designed to provide more insight into tinnitus by repeatedly assessing various dimensions of tinnitus, including perception (i.e., perceived presence). Because the presence of tinnitus is the dimension that is of great importance to chronic tinnitus patients and changes over time in many tinnitus patients, we seek to predict the presence of tinnitus based on the not directly related dimensions of mood, stress level, arousal, and concentration level that are captured in TYT. In this work, we analyzed a dataset of 45,935 responses to a harmonized EMA questionnaire using different machine learning techniques. In addition, we considered five different subgroups after consultation with clinicians to further validate our results. Finally, we were able to predict the presence of tinnitus with an accuracy of up to 78% and an AUC of up to 85.7%.
DeepBreath—automated detection of respiratory pathology from lung auscultation in 572 pediatric outpatients across 5 countries
Authors: Heitmann Julien , Glangetas Alban , Doenz Jonathan , Dervaux Juliane , Shama Deeksha M. , Garcia Daniel Hinjos , Benissa Mohamed Rida , Cantais Aymeric , Perez Alexandre , Müller Daniel , Chavdarova Tatjana , Ruchonnet-Metrailler Isabelle , Siebert Johan N. , Lacroix Laurence , Jaggi Martin , Gervaix Alain , Hartley Mary-Anne ,   with the Pneumoscope Study Group, Hugon Florence , Fassbind Derrick , Barro Makura , Bediang Georges , Hafidi N. E. L. , Bouskraoui M. , Ba Idrissa 
Published: June 2023

AbstractThe interpretation of lung auscultation is highly subjective and relies on non-specific nomenclature. Computer-aided analysis has the potential to better standardize and automate evaluation. We used 35.9 hours of auscultation audio from 572 pediatric outpatients to developDeepBreath: a deep learning model identifying the audible signatures of acute respiratory illness in children. It comprises a convolutional neural network followed by a logistic regression classifier, aggregating estimates on recordings from eight thoracic sites into a single prediction at the patient-level. Patients were either healthy controls (29%) or had one of three acute respiratory illnesses (71%) including pneumonia, wheezing disorders (bronchitis/asthma), and bronchiolitis). To ensure objective estimates on model generalisability,DeepBreathis trained on patients from two countries (Switzerland, Brazil), and results are reported on an internal 5-fold cross-validation as well as externally validated (extval) on three other countries (Senegal, Cameroon, Morocco).DeepBreathdifferentiated healthy and pathological breathing with an Area Under the Receiver-Operator Characteristic (AUROC) of 0.93 (standard deviation [SD] ± 0.01 on internal validation). Similarly promising results were obtained for pneumonia (AUROC 0.75 ± 0.10), wheezing disorders (AUROC 0.91 ± 0.03), and bronchiolitis (AUROC 0.94 ± 0.02). Extval AUROCs were 0.89, 0.74, 0.74 and 0.87 respectively. All either matched or were significant improvements on a clinical baseline model using age and respiratory rate. Temporal attention showed clear alignment between model prediction and independently annotated respiratory cycles, providing evidence thatDeepBreathextracts physiologically meaningful representations.DeepBreathprovides a framework for interpretable deep learning to identify the objective audio signatures of respiratory pathology.
Deletion of the autism-related gene Chd8 alters activity-dependent transcriptional responses in mouse postmitotic neurons
Authors: Kawamura Atsuki , Nishiyama Masaaki 
Published: June 2023

AbstractCHD8 encodes chromodomain helicase DNA-binding protein 8 and its mutation is a highly penetrant risk factor for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). CHD8 serves as a key transcriptional regulator on the basis of its chromatin-remodeling activity and thereby controls the proliferation and differentiation of neural progenitor cells. However, the function of CHD8 in postmitotic neurons and the adult brain has remained unclear. Here we show that Chd8 homozygous deletion in mouse postmitotic neurons results in downregulation of the expression of neuronal genes as well as alters the expression of activity-dependent genes induced by KCl-mediated neuronal depolarization. Furthermore, homozygous ablation of CHD8 in adult mice was associated with attenuation of activity-dependent transcriptional responses in the hippocampus to kainic acid–induced seizures. Our findings implicate CHD8 in transcriptional regulation in postmitotic neurons and the adult brain, and they suggest that disruption of this function might contribute to ASD pathogenesis associated with CHD8 haploinsufficiency.
Lociq provides a loci-seeking approach for enhanced plasmid subtyping and structural characterization
Authors: Harrison Lucas , Zhao Shaohua , Li Cong , McDermott Patrick F. , Tyson Gregory H. , Strain Errol 
Published: June 2023

AbstractAntimicrobial resistance (AMR) monitoring for public health is relying more on whole genome sequencing to characterize and compare resistant strains. This requires new approaches to describe and track AMR that take full advantage of the detailed data provided by genomic technologies. The plasmid-mediated transfer of AMR genes is a primary concern for AMR monitoring because plasmid rearrangement events can integrate new AMR genes into the plasmid backbone or promote hybridization of multiple plasmids. To better monitor plasmid evolution and dissemination, we developed the Lociq subtyping method to classify plasmids by variations in the sequence and arrangement of core plasmid genetic elements. Subtyping with Lociq provides an alpha-numeric nomenclature that can be used to denominate plasmid population diversity and characterize the relevant features of individual plasmids. Here we demonstrate how Lociq generates typing schema to track and characterize the origin, evolution and epidemiology of multidrug resistant plasmids.
What are the lessons from COVID-19 for creating healthy, sustainable, resilient future cities?
Authors: Giles-Corti Billie , Foster Sarah , Lynch Bella , Lowe Melanie 
Published: June 2023

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted lives and the economy, reminding the global community of the devastating health and economic impacts of uncontrolled infectious disease. It has affected how and where people live, work, shop, and play, and exposed our cities’ vulnerabilities, leading to calls for a health lens to be applied in designing, approving, and evaluating city plans. Socioeconomic, spatial and health inequities have been amplified, particularly for those living in inadequate or poorly designed housing, neighbourhoods, and cities. Hence, city mayors have committed to ‘build back better’ with all daily living amenities within a 15-min walking or cycling trip. Designed well, these cities have the potential to be healthier, more sustainable, equitable, and resilient. Yet their delivery requires a rethink of city planning. Drawing on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, we argue that to reduce the risk of future pandemics, we must mitigate climate change, limit urban expansion, and use nature-based solutions to protect natural habitats and biodiversity. We then explore how healthy, sustainable, and resilient 15-minute cities could be planned to reduce emissions and ensure our cities are more resilient in the event of future crises. Given that higher density housing underpins the success of 15-minute cities, we also examine how to create more resilient housing stock, through well-implemented health-supportive apartment design standards. Finally, we argue that to achieve all this, cross-sector leadership and investment will be vital.
Harmonic stability analysis of single‐phase converters in electric multiple units based on an impedance model with harmonic linearization
Authors: Li Ting , Liu Jiawei , Chen Xunjun , Gou Jing , Zhou Heng , Wu Siqi , Liu Zhigang 
Published: June 2023

AbstractLow‐frequency oscillation, harmonic oscillation and harmonic instability issues in railway vehicle‐grid systems pose challenges to the system stability and safe operation. Previous studies constructed the linear time‐invariant impedance model of vehicle‐grid system, which ignored the internal frequency coupling and loss of model accuracy. To fill this gap, the impedance modelling method based on the harmonic linearisation method of the vehicle‐grid system is proposed. The derived model provides a clear physical insight into the harmonic coupling relations between ac and dc variables and improves the model accuracy. Then, a systematic analysis of harmonic stability in the railway vehicle‐grid system is analysed based on the proposed model. The electrical and control parameters on system stability at the frequencies above and below the fundamental frequency are summarised. The mechanisms of these oscillation issues in railway vehicle‐grid systems are then discussed. Finally, the model accuracy and stability analysis results are verified by the frequency scan method and hardware‐in‐the‐loop results.
Performance analysis of pixelated antennas employing shifted cross‐shaped elements
Authors: Mair Dominik , Renzler Michael , Unterladstaetter Markus , Ussmueller Thomas 
Published: June 2023

AbstractThis article presents a detailed analysis of pixelated antennas employing shifted cross‐shaped elements optimised by evolutionary algorithms. Although, the size and number of the involved pixels, as well as the overall antenna size strongly influence performance of such antennas, detailed investigations on the interplay of geometrical considerations and their influence on parameters such as gain are missing from literature. Thus, the influence of various geometrical parameters on the performance of pixelated antennas for the first time, resulting in valuable design considerations is presented in this study. A maximum cross size could be found, for which an optimisation is viable. Based on this, a dataset consisting of 400 pixelated antennas was created, for different pixel‐ and antenna sizes and investigated certain parameters such as bandwidth and antenna gain. Most notably, a directly proportional dependence from the pixel‐on the antenna size for the optimisation of electrically large antennas was found. For small antennas, this dependency begins to deviate, leading to the fact that smaller pixels are needed to successfully optimise an antenna. Furthermore, the authors find that multi‐objective optimisation is a necessity to optimise matched antennas with a defined bandwidth and gain. The antenna gain shows a dependency on the cross size for electrically small antennas. From these results, design considerations for pixelated antennas can be derived. In addition to the extensive simulations, the dataset was verified in laboratory measurements.
A techno‐economic model for enhancing PV hosting capacity through capabilities of smart inverters and soft open points
Authors: Golnazari Rezvaneh , Hasanzadeh Saeed , Heydarian‐Forushani Ehsan , Sezavar Hamid Reza , Fahimi Navid 
Published: June 2023

AbstractThe hosting capacity of solar photovoltaics (PVs) in the distribution network can be impacted by the violation of power flow constraints such as power loss, voltage, and line loadings. In this paper, a planning structure based on optimal PV placement and optimal operation of the smart inverters and soft open point (SOP) is proposed in order to investigate the loss of power, voltage profiles, line loadings and total operation cost of the distribution system. The stochastic nature of the daily load and PV generation is considered in power flow optimization by the proposed method. Respective objective functions are optimized using a genetic algorithm (GA) according to probabilistic power flow. While the desired objective function is optimized, the optimality of the PV locations and contribution of smart inverters and SOP is ensured through GA optimization. The proposed model is investigated through numerical analyses on IEEE 33‐bus and IEEE 69‐bus distribution systems considering different cases of reactive power supports. Developed GA is able to deal with challenges of convergence that are imposed by complex nonlinear formulations. Obtained results prove the superiority of the developed program for the investigation of the PV hosting capacity in both technical and cost aspects.
Angeborene Fehlbildungen der ableitenden Tränenwege
Authors: Heichel Jens , Heindl Ludwig M. , Struck Hans-Gert 
Published: June 2023

ZusammenfassungDie konnatale Tränenwegstenose ist der häufigste Grund einer ophthalmologischen Konsultation im Kindesalter. Sie ist mit Abstand am häufigsten bedingt durch eine persistierende Hasner-Membran. Aber es können selten auch angeborene Fehlbildungen der Tränenwege auftreten. Im Bereich der proximalen ableitenden Tränenwege kann es zur Anlage überzähliger Tränenpünktchen und Tränenröhrchen kommen, aber auch zu Divertikeln, Fisteln und Atresien. Die distalen ableitenden Tränenwege können von Fisteln, Amniotozelen und Zysten betroffen sein. Eine Assoziation von Tränenwegfehlbildungen mit angeborenen systemischen Erkrankungen wird in ca. 10% der Fälle beschrieben. In Abhängigkeit vom Schweregrad der Symptome kann eine chirurgische Sanierung erfolgen, wobei endoskopische Verfahren mit den Möglichkeiten der modernen Tränenwegschienungen wichtige Ergänzungen darstellen.
Tipps und Tricks beim erschwerten Stimmprothesenwechsel und ein neues retrogrades Wechselverfahren
Authors: Barth Christine Mi-He , Barth Charlotte Helene 
Published: June 2023

ZusammenfassungStimmprothesen bieten laryngektomierten Patienten die Möglichkeit, postoperativ schnell verbal zu kommunizieren, was soziale Interaktionen erleichtert, die Rehabilitation beschleunigt und die Lebensqualität enorm verbessert.Gründe, die einen Stimmprothesenwechsel mehrfach im Jahr erforderlich machen, sind zahlreich. Der Prothesenwechsel lässt sich hierbei meist problemlos ambulant bei leichter Oberflächenanästhesie der Trachea durchführen. In manchen Fällen gestaltet sich der Prothesenwechsel jedoch schwierig. Die Ursachen hierfür und mögliche Problemlösungen mit Schwerpunkt auf einem retrograden Wechselverfahren sollen hier dargestellt werden. Der Artikel soll insbesondere als Hilfestellung für Kollegen dienen, die ihre Behandlungsmöglichkeiten beim Stimmprothesenwechsel erweitern möchten.