bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Micronutrients deficiencies and its correlation with the soil-transmitted helminthic infections among children and non-pregnant women in Nepal: findings from Nepal national micronutrient status survey
Authors: Mehata Suresh , Parajuli Kedar Raj , Rayamajhee Binod , Yadav Uday Narayan , Mehta Ranju Kumari , Singh Dipendra Raman 
Published: December 2022

AbstractDespite having a high risk of soil-transmitted helminths (STHs) infection, no national level study has been conducted to assess incidence and correlates of STHs in Nepal. Thus, we hypothesized that micronutrients and social status are linked with incidence of STHs infection among 6–59 months children and 15–49 years non-pregnant women in Nepal and Kato-Katz technique was adopted to measure the type and intensity of STHs infections using fresh stool specimens and venous blood was used to examine micronutrients biomarkers. Anthropometric measurements such as height and weight, sociodemographic and health status were determined using structured questionnaire. Logistic regression was used to assess unadjusted and adjusted odds ratio (AOR) and the 95% CIs of ORs. The bivariate association of STHs was assessed with the covariates variables. Overall, 12% children and 19% non-pregnant women had STHs infection; A. lumbricoides was the predominant helminth in both study participants. In multivariate model; age, ethnicity, anaemia and zinc deficiency were associated with STHs infections in children. Similarly, higher odds of STHs occurrence was observed among non-pregnant women with vitamin A deficiency. Findings from this study suggest that high-risk population, with a focus on those of lower socioeconomic status should be on priority of deworming program, nutrition intervention, and mass administration of preventive chemotherapy and sanitation champions supplement to reduce the STHs infections in Nepal.
Dietary supplement mislabelling: case study on selected slimming products by developing a green isocratic HPLC method for their quality control
Authors: El Azab Noha F. , Abdelaal Sarah H. , Hassan Said A. , El-Kosasy Amira M. 
Published: December 2022

AbstractNowadays, a huge population consumes Dietary supplements for losing weight. Products are often claimed as botanical blends, yet they aren't necessarily safe. Misleading labels are also very common. Thus, validated analytical methods for a wide range of slimming compounds are highly needed. Herein, we present a simple HPLC/PDA method for the quantitation of seven popular slimming ingredients. Studied compounds were Caffeine, Raspberry Ketone, trans-Resveratrol, p-Synephrine, p-Octopamine, p-Hordenine and 2-phenethylamine. After optimization, separation was carried out on a C18 column and mobile phase was a mixture of Acetonitrile:Water containing 0.1% phosphoric acid (50:50, %v/v). The last compound was eluted at 9.76 min. Separation was efficient showing baseline- separated symmetric peaks, without using any gradient programs, organic mobile phase modifiers or modified stationary phases. Method validation was done following ICH guidelines. Calibration curves were linear over wide concentration ranges and calculated LOD values were in the range 0.02–0.09 µg/mL. Method greenness was assessed using Analytical Eco-scale, GAPI and AGREE metric tools. Further, four random sample products purchased from online supplement stores were assayed. Results proved some mislabeling actions. To support our findings, standard addition was carried out and average % recoveries were 96.67 – 101.44% with standard deviation ≤ 2.83 between measurements.
Impact of volume status on sarcopenia in non-dialysis chronic kidney disease patients
Authors: Kang Seok Hui , Kim Jun Chul , Cha Ran-hui , Han Miyeun , An Won Suk , Kim Su Hyun , Do Jun Young 
Published: December 2022

AbstractThere were few data regarding the association of volume status with sarcopenia using muscle mass, strength, and physical performance in non-dialysis chronic kidney disease (ND-CKD) patients. We aimed to evaluate the association between volume status and sarcopenia in ND-CKD patients. Our retrospective study analyzed data from a previous study which included ND-CKD patients who had stable renal function. Our study used its baseline data alone. The edema index and muscle mass were measured using a multi-frequency bioimpedance analysis machine. The edema index was calculated using extracellular water/total body water ratio. The skeletal muscle index (SMI, kg/m2) was calculated using appendicular muscle mass per height squared. Handgrip strength (HGS, kg) was measured during the standing position in all patients. Dynamic gait speed (GS, m/s) was evaluated using 6-m walking speed. Patients with both low muscle mass (SMI < 7.0 kg/m2 for men and < 5.7 kg/m2 for women using bioimpedance analysis) and low HGS (< 28 kg for men and < 18 kg for women) or low GS (< 1.0 m/s) were classified as having sarcopenia. The patients (n = 147) were divided into tertiles based on the edema index level. The mean edema index in the low, middle, and high tertiles was 0.377 ± 0.006, 0.390 ± 0.003, and 0.402 ± 0.006, respectively. The edema index was significantly correlated with SMI, HGS, and GS (r = − 0.343 for SMI, − 0.492 for HGS, and − 0.331 for GS; P < 0.001 for three indicators). The SMI, HGS, and GS values were 8.1 ± 1.0 kg/m2, 33.0 ± 9.4 kg, and 1.2 ± 0.2 m/s in the low tertile,7.8 ± 1.2 kg/m2, 30.0 ± 7.5 kg, and 1.0 ± 0.3 m/s in the middle tertile, and 7.2 ± 1.4 kg/m2, 23.7 ± 7.4 kg, and 1.0 ± 0.3 m/s in the high tertile, respectively. Univariate analyses revealed that SMI was lower in patients in the high tertile than in those in the low tertile. HGS was lowest in high tertile, and GS was greatest in the low tertile. The high tertile for predicting sarcopenia had an odds ratio of 6.03 (95% CI, 1.78–20.37; P = 0.004) compared to low or middle tertiles. The results of multivariate analyses were similar to those of the univariate analyses. The subgroup analyses showed that statistical significance was greater in < 65 years and men than ≥ 65 years and women. The present study showed that the edema index is inversely associated with sarcopenia, muscle mass index, strength, and physical performance in ND-CKD patients. However, considering the limitations of our study such as its small sample size, this association was not strong. Further studies that include volume-independent measurements, data on physical activity and diet, and a larger number of patients are warranted to overcome these limitations.
Responses to salinity in the littoral earthworm genus Pontodrilus
Authors: Seesamut Teerapong , Ng Beewah , Sutcharit Chirasak , Chanabun Ratmanee , Panha Somsak 
Published: December 2022

AbstractThe cosmopolitan littoral earthworm Pontodrilus litoralis is distributed in tropical and sub-tropical coastal habitats, whereas P. longissimus is reported only in the Thai-Malay coastal line. In the present study, we examined the difference in salinity effect on the survival rate, wet weight (hereafter weight) change, behaviour, and osmolality of these two Pontodrilus species. A 28 d exposure to varying salinity concentration (0–50 ppt) revealed that P. litoralis is able to survive over a wide salinity range than P. longissimus, with the latter species exhibiting a low survival rate over the same salinity range. During short-term exposure (0–96 h) to a salinity of less than 30 ppt, P. litoralis exhibited weight gain and this was significant in the first 12 h of exposure. However, P. longissimus gained weight when exposed to salinity at under 10 ppt in the first 72 h of exposure. The two species of Pontodrilus behaved differently when exposed to different salinities. The coelomic fluid osmolarity of Pontodrilus was related to the exposure medium and was mostly maintained as hyperosmotic to the external medium over the range of salinities tested. This study shows how two different species of the littoral earthworm genus Pontodrilus respond to a change in salinity, which may explain their dispersal pattern and shape their distribution pattern throughout Southeast Asia.
High density deposits of binary colloids
Authors: Kim Hyoeun , Gonçalves Marta , Kang Sung Hoon , Weon Byung Mook 
Published: December 2022

AbstractColloids are essential materials for modern inkjet printing and coating technology. For printing and coating, it is desirable to have a high density of colloids with uniformity. Binary colloids, which consist of different size colloidal particles, have the potential to achieve high coating density and uniformity from size effects. We report a strategy to attain high-density deposits of binary colloids with uniform, crack-free, and symmetric deposits through droplet evaporation on micropillar arrays. We modify surfaces of micropillar arrays with plasma treatment to control their surface energy and investigate how binary colloidal fluids turn into well-controlled deposits during evaporation with X-ray microscopic and tomographic characterizations. We attribute temporary surface energy modification of micropillar arrays to the well-controlled high-density final deposits. This simple, low-cost, and scalable strategy would provide a viable way to get high-quality, high-density deposits of colloids for various applications.
On force generation in electro-fluidic linear actuators with ferrofluid
Authors: Cole Matthew O. T. , Moran James 
Published: December 2022

AbstractIn ferrofluid actuation systems, forces are generated by actively controlling pressure and flow within the fluid using an applied magnetic field. There are multiple contributing factors in force generation involving complex non-linear couplings between electromagnetic and fluid pressure fields. This brings significant challenges in theory-based design and optimization. In this paper, a theoretical model of pressure transmission between a ferrofluid and solid is derived starting from Maxwell’s stress tensor and accounting for magnetic saturation within the fluid. This model shows that linear actuator designs based on orthogonal mode operation, where the field direction through the fluid is perpendicular to the motion direction, can provide the highest force capacity for a given field strength from the actuator coil. This is verified by theoretical analysis of some basic linear actuator topologies. The results are applied in the design and analysis of a novel piston-type linear actuator with sealed chamber and two internal electrical coils for bidirectional operation. Experimental measurements of both static and dynamic behaviour are shown to validate the described principles. The actuator produces smooth and precise flow-regulated motion, has zero intrinsic stiffness, and exhibits very low friction due to the suspension effect from ferrofluid layers within the actuator.
Applying fuzzy qualitative comparative analysis to identify typical symptoms of COVID-19 infection in a primary care unit, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Authors: Rodrigues Nádia Cristina Pinheiro , de Noronha Andrade Mônica Kramer , Netto Joaquim Teixeira , Monteiro Denise Leite Maia , Lino Valéria Teresa Saraiva , Almeida Eric Gustavo Ramos 
Published: December 2022

AbstractThis study aims to identify a set of symptoms that could be predictive of SARS-CoV-2 cases in the triage of Primary Care services with the contribution of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) using Fuzzy Sets (fsQCA). A cross-sectional study was carried out in a Primary Health Care Unit/FIOCRUZ from 09/17/2020 to 05/05/2021. The study population was suspect cases that performed diagnostic tests for COVID-19. We collected information about the symptoms to identify which configurations are associated with positive and negative cases. For analysis, we used fsQCA to explain the outcomes “being a positive case” and “not being a positive case”. The solution term “loss of taste or smell and no headache” showed the highest degree of association with the positive result (consistency = 0.81). The solution term “absence of loss of taste or smell combined with the absence of fever” showed the highest degree of association (consistency = 0,79) and is the one that proportionally best explains the negative result. Our results may be useful to the presumptive clinical diagnosis of COVID-19 in scenarios where access to diagnostic tests is not available. We used an innovative method used in complex problems in Public Health, the fsQCA.
The feasibility of a Bayesian network model to assess the probability of simultaneous symptoms in patients with advanced cancer
Authors: van der Stap Lotte , van Haaften Myrthe F. , van Marrewijk Esther F. , de Heij Albert H. , Jansen Paula L. , Burgers Janine M. N. , Sieswerda Melle S. , Los Renske K. , Reyners Anna K. L. , van der Linden Yvette M. 
Published: December 2022

AbstractAlthough patients with advanced cancer often experience multiple symptoms simultaneously, clinicians usually focus on symptoms that are volunteered by patients during regular history-taking. We aimed to evaluate the feasibility of a Bayesian network (BN) model to predict the presence of simultaneous symptoms, based on the presence of other symptoms. Our goal is to help clinicians prioritize which symptoms to assess. Patient-reported severity of 11 symptoms (scale 0–10) was measured using an adapted Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS) in a national cross-sectional survey among advanced cancer patients. Scores were dichotomized (< 4 and ≥ 4). Using fourfold cross validation, the prediction error of 9 BN algorithms was estimated (Akaike information criterion (AIC). The model with the highest AIC was evaluated. Model predictive performance was assessed per symptom; an area under curve (AUC) of ≥ 0.65 was considered satisfactory. Model calibration compared predicted and observed probabilities; > 10% difference was considered inaccurate. Symptom scores of 532 patients were collected. A symptom score ≥ 4 was most prevalent for fatigue (64.7%). AUCs varied between 0.60 and 0.78, with satisfactory AUCs for 8/11 symptoms. Calibration was accurate for 101/110 predicted conditional probabilities. Whether a patient experienced fatigue was directly associated with experiencing 7 other symptoms. For example, in the absence or presence of fatigue, the model predicted a 8.6% and 33.1% probability of experiencing anxiety, respectively. It is feasible to use BN development for prioritizing symptom assessment. Fatigue seems most eligble to serve as a starting symptom for predicting the probability of experiencing simultaneous symptoms.
Leveraging image complexity in macro-level neural network design for medical image segmentation
Authors: Khan Tariq M. , Naqvi Syed S. , Meijering Erik 
Published: December 2022

AbstractRecent progress in encoder–decoder neural network architecture design has led to significant performance improvements in a wide range of medical image segmentation tasks. However, state-of-the-art networks for a given task may be too computationally demanding to run on affordable hardware, and thus users often resort to practical workarounds by modifying various macro-level design aspects. Two common examples are downsampling of the input images and reducing the network depth or size to meet computer memory constraints. In this paper, we investigate the effects of these changes on segmentation performance and show that image complexity can be used as a guideline in choosing what is best for a given dataset. We consider four statistical measures to quantify image complexity and evaluate their suitability on ten different public datasets. For the purpose of our illustrative experiments, we use DeepLabV3+ (deep large-size), M2U-Net (deep lightweight), U-Net (shallow large-size), and U-Net Lite (shallow lightweight). Our results suggest that median frequency is the best complexity measure when deciding on an acceptable input downsampling factor and using a deep versus shallow, large-size versus lightweight network. For high-complexity datasets, a lightweight network running on the original images may yield better segmentation results than a large-size network running on downsampled images, whereas the opposite may be the case for low-complexity images.
Disconnectomics to unravel the network underlying deficits of spatial exploration and attention
Authors: Wiesen Daniel , Bonilha Leonardo , Rorden Christopher , Karnath Hans-Otto 
Published: December 2022

AbstractSpatial attention and exploration are related to a predominantly right hemispheric network structure. However, the areas of the brain involved and their exact role is still debated. Spatial neglect following right hemispheric stroke lesions has been frequently viewed as a model to study these processes in humans. Previous investigations on the anatomical basis on spatial neglect predominantly focused on focal brain damage and lesion-behaviour mapping analyses. This approach might not be suited to detect remote areas structurally spared but which might contribute to the behavioural deficit. In the present study of a sample of 203 right hemispheric stroke patients, we combined connectome lesion-symptom mapping with multivariate support vector regression to unravel the complex and disconnected network structure in spatial neglect. We delineated three central nodes that were extensively disconnected from other intrahemispheric areas, namely the right superior parietal lobule, the insula, and the temporal pole. Additionally, the analysis allocated central roles within this network to the inferior frontal gyrus (pars triangularis and opercularis), right middle temporal gyrus, right temporal pole and left and right orbitofrontal cortices, including interhemispheric disconnection. Our results suggest that these structures—although not necessarily directly damaged—might play a role within the network underlying spatial neglect in humans.
Multiscale simulation and experimental measurements of the elastic response for constructional steel
Authors: Ye Yi-Cong , Zhao Feng-Yuan , Huang Cai-Min , Bai Shu-Xin , Chen Qiang 
Published: December 2022

AbstractThe multiscale elastic response to the macroscopic stress was simulated to reveal the multi-scale correlation of elastic properties of the medium carbon steel. Based on the multiscale correlation constitutive equations derived from this constitutive model, the effective elastic constants (EECs) of medium carbon steel are predicted. In addition, the diffraction elastic constants (DECs) of the constituents of the medium carbon steel are also evaluated. And then, the simple in-situ X-ray diffraction experiments were performed for the measurements of DECs and EECs of treated 35CrMo steel during the four-point bending. Compared with the experimental measurements and different existing models, the results demonstrated that the developed constitutive model was in good agreement with the measured values of the EECs and DECs, and that the feasibility and reliability of the constitutive model used to simulate multiscale elastic response could reveal the correlation between the material and its constitutes.
Development and validation of SSR markers related to flower color based on full-length transcriptome sequencing in Chrysanthemum
Authors: Shi Zhongya , Zhao Wenqian , Li Zhongai , Kang Dongru , Ai Penghui , Ding Hongxu , Wang Zicheng 
Published: December 2022

AbstractChrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum moriforlium Ramat.) is one of the most popular flowers worldwide, with very high ornamental and economic values. However, the limitations of available DNA molecular markers and the lack of full genomic sequences hinder the study of genetic diversity and the molecular breeding of chrysanthemum. Here, we developed simple sequence repeat (SSR) from the full-length transcriptome sequences of chrysanthemum cultivar ‘Hechengxinghuo’. A total of 11,699 SSRs with mono-, di-, tri-, tetra-, penta- and hexanucleotide repeats were identified, of which eight out of eighteen SSR loci identified based on sixteen transcripts participated in carotenoid metabolism or anthocyanin synthesis were validated as polymorphic SSR markers. These SSRs were used to classify 117 chrysanthemum accessions with different flower colors at the DNA and cDNA levels. The results showed that four SSR markers of carotenoid metabolic pathway divided 117 chrysanthemum accessions into five groups at cDNA level and all purple chrysanthemum accessions were in the group III. Furthermore, the SSR marker CHS-3, LCYE-1 and 3MaT may be related to green color and the PSY-1b marker may be related to yellow color. Overall, our work may be provide a novel method for mining SSR markers associated with specific traits.
Channel estimation for reconfigurable intelligent surface-assisted mmWave based on Re‘nyi entropy function
Authors: Albataineh Zaid , Hayajneh Khaled F. , Shakhatreh Hazim , Athamneh Raed Al , Anan Muhammad 
Published: December 2022

AbstractThis study focuses on channel estimation for reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted mmWave systems, in which the RIS is used to facilitate base-to-user data transfer. For beamforming to work with active and passive elements, a large-size cascade channel matrix should always be known. Low training costs are achieved by using the mmWave channels’ inherent sparsity. The research provides a unique compressive sensing-based channel estimation approach for reducing pilot overhead issues to a minimum. The proposed technique estimates channel data signals in a downlink for RIS-assisted mmWave systems. The mmWave systems often have a sparse distribution of signal sources due to the spatial correlations of the domains. This distribution pattern makes it possible to use compressive sensing methods to resolve the channel estimation issue. In order to decrease the pilot overhead, which is necessary to predict the channel, the proposed method extends the Re‘nyi entropy function as the sparsity-promoting regularizer. In contrast to conventional compressive sensing techniques, which necessitate an initial knowledge of the signal’s sparsity level, the presented method employs sparsity adaptive matching pursuit (SAMP) techniques to gradually determine the signal’s sparsity level. Furthermore, it introduces a threshold parameter based on the signal’s energy level to eliminate the sparsity level requirement. Extensive simulations show that the presented channel estimation approach surpasses the traditional OMP-based channel estimation methods in terms of normalized mean square error performance. In addition, the computational cost of channel estimation is lowered. Based on the simulations, our approach can estimate the channel well while reducing training overhead by a large amount.