bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Patient-reported outcomes with hypoglossal nerve stimulation for treatment of obstructive sleep apnea: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Braun Marcel , Stoerzel Manuel , Wollny Mathias , Schoebel Christoph , Ulrich Sommer J. , Heiser Clemens 
Published: June 2023

Abstract
Introduction
Hypoglossal nerve stimulation (HNS) has recently been introduced as an alternative treatment for patients with OSA. A large number of studies have demonstrated substantial changes in OSA with this therapy by reducing respiratory events and improving symptoms such as daytime sleepiness and quality of life. The objective of this review was to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate patient-reported outcomes and experience with HNS therapy.

Methods
A systematic literature search of MEDLINE, Cochrane, and Web of Science was performed to identify randomized controlled and observational studies reporting subjective outcomes with different HNS systems in patients with OSA. Abstracts of 406 articles were screened and a subset of 55 articles were reviewed for eligibility. Risk of bias was assessed using the ROBINS-I tool. Meta-analysis using RevMan was performed when > 2 studies were identified that reported data on a specific outcome.

Results
Thirty-four publications reporting data on 3785 patients with a mean follow-up of 11.8 ± 12.2 months were identified and included in the meta-analysis. The analysis revealed a pooled effect of 4.59 points improvement in daytime sleepiness as measured by the ESS questionnaire (Z = 42.82, p < .001), 2.84 points improvement in daytime functioning as measured by the FOSQ score (Z = 28.38, p < .001), and 1.77 points improvement in sleep quality as measured by the PSQI questionnaire (Z = 2.53, p = .010). Patient-reported experience was consistently positive and revealed additional relevant aspects from this perspective.

Conclusion
HNS therapy significantly improves quality of life in patients with OSA and reliably produces clinically meaningful effects on daytime sleepiness, daytime functioning, and sleep quality. Treatment regularly meets or exceeds the minimum clinically important differences defined for the respective instruments. Additional research is needed to further investigate effects on quality of life beyond improvements in daytime sleepiness and daytime functioning.
Patient reported experiences of Swedish patients being investigated for cancer during the Covid-19 pandemic
Authors: Tufvesson Stiller Helena , Schmitt-Egenolf Marcus , Fohlin Helena , Uppugunduri Srinivas 
Published: June 2023

AbstractBackgroundPatient reported experiences in individuals being investigated for cancer have been recorded in a nationwide survey in Sweden, providing an opportunity to assess the impact of the Covid-19-pandemic.Material and MethodsQuestionnaires from 45920 patients were analyzed to assess the experience of being investigated for cancer. Data from before the Covid-19-pandemic (2018–2019) was compared to data acquired during the pandemic (2020–2021), using chi-square and Wilcoxon rank sum tests. Both, patients who were cleared from suspicion of cancer and those who were diagnosed with cancer were included.ResultsFewer patients in total visited health services during the pandemic. However, patients that did seek help did so to a similar extent during as prior to the pandemic. Patient waiting time was perceived to be shorter during the pandemic and judged as neither too long nor too short by most patients. The emotional support to patients improved during the pandemic, whereas the support to next of kin declined. A majority of patients received the results from the investigation in a meeting with the physician. Although there was a preference for receiving results in a meeting with the physician, the pandemic has brought an increasing interest in receiving results by phone.ConclusionSwedish cancer healthcare has shown resilience during the Covid-19-pandemic, maintaining high patient satisfaction while working under conditions of extraordinary pressure. Patients became more open to alternatives to physical “in person” health care visits which could lead to more digital visits in the future. However, support to significant others demands special attention.
3D-printed electrochemical glucose device with integrated Fe(II)-MOF nanozyme
Authors: Koukouviti Eleni , Plessas Alexios K. , Pagkali Varvara , Economou Anastasios , Papaefstathiou Giannis S. , Kokkinos Christos 
Published: June 2023

AbstractEstimation of glucose (GLU) levels in the human organism is very important in the diagnosis and monitoring of diabetes. Scientific advances in nanomaterials have led to the construction of new generations of enzymatic-free GLU sensors. In this work, an innovative 3D-printed device modified with a water-stable and non-toxic metal–organic framework of iron (Fe(II)-MOF), which serves as a nanozyme, has been developed for the voltammetric determination of GLU in artificial sweat. In contrast to existing MOF-based GLU sensors which exhibit electrocatalytic activity for the oxidation of GLU in alkaline media, the nanozyme Fe(II)-MOF/3D-printed device can operate in the acidic epidermal sweat environment. The enzymatic-free GLU sensor is composed of a 3-electrode 3D-printed device with the MOF nanozyme immobilized on the surface of the working electrode. GLU sensing is conducted by differential pulse voltammetry without interference from other co-existing metabolites in artificial sweat. The response is based on the oxidation of glucose to gluconolactone, induced by the redox activity of the Fe-centers of the MOF. GLU gives rise to an easily detectable and well-defined voltammetric peak at about − 1.2 V and the limit of detection is 17.6 μmol L-1. The synergy of a nanozyme with 3D printing technology results in an advanced, sensitive, and low-cost sensor, paving the way for on-skin applications.
Graphical abstract
Feasibility of multimodal intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring for extramedullary spinal cord tumor surgery in elderly patients
Authors: Siller Sebastian , Sixta Akela , Tonn Joerg-Christian , Szelenyi Andrea 
Published: June 2023

Abstract
Background/purpose
Extramedullary spinal cord tumors (EMSCTs) are mostly benign tumors which are increasingly diagnosed and operatively treated in the elderly. While there are hints that multimodal intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring (IONM) could be influenced by age and age-related comorbidities, no study has ever systematically evaluated its feasibility and value for EMSCT surgery in elderly patients.

Methods
We retrospectively evaluated all patients with microsurgical EMSCT resection under continuous multimodal IONM with SSEPs, MEPs and electromyography between 2016 and 2020. Epidemiological, clinical, imaging and operative/IONM records as well as detailed individual outcomes were analyzed and compared for the cohort < / ≥ 65 years.

Results
Mean age was 45 years in cohort < 65 years (n = 109) and 76 years in cohort ≥ 65 years (n = 64), while baseline/operative characteristics did not significantly differ. Mean baseline SSEPs’ latencies (left–right average) were significantly higher in the cohort ≥ 65 years for both median (20.9 ms vs. 22.1 ms; p < 0.01) and tibial nerve (42.9 ms vs. 46.1 ms; p < 0.01) without significant differences for SSEPs’ amplitudes. Stimulation intensity to elicit intraoperative MEPs was significantly higher in the cohort ≥ 65 years (surrogate-marker: left–right-averaged quotient ID1-muscle/abductor-hallucis-muscle; 1.6 vs. 2.1; p < 0.001). Intraoperatively, SSEP and MEP monitoring were feasible in 99%/100% and 99%/98% for the cohort < / ≥ 65 years without significant differences in rates for significant IONM changes during surgery or postoperatively new sensorimotor deficits. Sensitivity of IONM was 29%/43%, specificity 99%/98%, positive and negative predictive values 67%/75% and 95%/93% for the cohort < / ≥ 65 years. Overall, age was no risk factor for IONM feasibility or rate of significant IONM changes.

Discussion
Multimodal IONM is feasible/reliable for EMSCT surgery in elderly patients. An age-related prolongation of SSEPs’ latencies and demand for higher stimulation intensities for MEPs’ elicitation has to be considered.
What is the economically and socially optimised child support?
Authors: Varga Erzsébet Teréz 
Published: June 2023

AbstractThe study is based on the principle that children with divorced parents should have the same standard of living as their parents, both parents. Access to education, nourishment and extracurricular activities should be supported at the same level after divorce as before to ensure undisrupted development of the children. This study approaches the sensitive topic of child support payment objectively, adopting well-known techniques from operations research, with the goal to provide a guide to determine “optimised child support payment”. The proposed guide for decision makers aims to mitigate the probability of rising inequality in the separated family and through it in the society as well as reducing the risk of single-parent units slipping into poverty. Using simulations based on German child support data, a dynamic, globally applicable child support payment model is proposed. The objective function is to minimize the differences in the equivalised income of the separated family units, thereby, reducing risk of poverty and the financial stress for the custodial partner. The proposed child support payment scheme is well-defined and child focused and it potentially could address a serious real-world problem, the increasing risk of poverty after divorce for the child and the custodial parent.
Symbolic knowledge injection meets intelligent agents: QoS metrics and experiments
Authors: Agiollo Andrea , Rafanelli Andrea , Magnini Matteo , Ciatto Giovanni , Omicini Andrea 
Published: June 2023

AbstractBridging intelligent symbolic agents and sub-symbolic predictors is a long-standing research goal in AI. Among the recent integration efforts, symbolic knowledge injection (SKI) proposes algorithms aimed at steering sub-symbolic predictors’ learning towards compliance w.r.t. pre-existing symbolic knowledge bases. However, state-of-the-art contributions about SKI mostly tackle injection from a foundational perspective, often focussing solely on improving the predictive performance of the sub-symbolic predictors undergoing injection. Technical contributions, in turn, are tailored on individual methods/experiments and therefore poorly interoperable with agent technologies as well as among each others. Intelligent agents may exploit SKI to serve many purposes other than predictive performance alone—provided that, of course, adequate technological support exists: for instance, SKI may allow agents to tune computational, energetic, or data requirements of sub-symbolic predictors. Given that different algorithms may exist to serve all those many purposes, some criteria for algorithm selection as well as a suitable technology should be available to let agents dynamically select and exploit the most suitable algorithm for the problem at hand. Along this line, in this work we design a set of quality-of-service (QoS) metrics for SKI, and a general-purpose software API to enable their application to various SKI algorithms—namely, platform for symbolic knowledge injection (PSyKI). We provide an abstract formulation of four QoS metrics for SKI, and describe the design of PSyKI according to a software engineering perspective. Then we discuss how our QoS metrics are supported by PSyKI. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of both our QoS metrics and PSyKI via a number of experiments, where SKI is both applied and assessed via our proposed API. Our empirical analysis demonstrates both the soundness of our proposed metrics and the versatility of PSyKI as the first software tool supporting the application, interchange, and numerical assessment of SKI techniques. To the best of our knowledge, our proposals represent the first attempt to introduce QoS metrics for SKI, and the software tools enabling their practical exploitation for both human and computational agents. In particular, our contributions could be exploited to automate and/or compare the manifold SKI algorithms from the state of the art. Hence moving a concrete step forward the engineering of efficient, robust, and trustworthy software applications that integrate symbolic agents and sub-symbolic predictors.
Using the Infant Sibling-Design to Explore Associations Between Autism and ADHD Traits in Probands and Temperament in the Younger Siblings
Authors: Andersson Konke Linn , Falck-Ytter Terje , Jones Emily J. H. , Goodwin Amy , Brocki Karin 
Published: June 2023

AbstractThe purpose of the current study was to use the infant sibling design to explore whether proband traits of autism and ADHD could provide information about their infant sibling’s temperament. This could help us to gain information about the extent to which infant temperament traits are differentially associated with autism and ADHD traits. We used parent-ratings of autistic traits and ADHD traits (CRS-3) in older siblings diagnosed with autism (age range 4 to 19 years), and their infant siblings’ temperament traits (IBQ) at 9 months of age in 216 sibling pairs from two sites (BASIS, UK, and EASE, Sweden) to examine associations across siblings. We found specific, but modest, associations across siblings after controlling for sex, age, developmental level and site. Proband autistic traits were specifically related to low levels of approach in the infant siblings, with infant developmental level explaining part of the variance in infant approach. Proband ADHD traits were specifically related to high levels of infant activity even after controlling for covariates. Our findings suggest that proband traits of autism and ADHD carry information for infant sibling’s temperament, indicating that inherited liability may influence early emerging behaviours in infant siblings. The impact of sex, age, developmental level and site are discussed.
Temperature Range of Heating Rate Dependent Reactions Leading to Spinel Formation on a Ni-Based Superalloy
Authors: Taylor M. P. , Calderwood D. , Reynolds T. D. , Warnken N. , Mignanelli P. M. , Hardy M. C. , Collins D. M. 
Published: June 2023

AbstractImproved oxidation kinetics for a polycrystalline Ni-based superalloy used in turbine disc applications has been shown to be possible by controlling the heating rate of the first thermal exposure to 5 °C min−1. The beneficial effect arises from the formation of a protective layer of NiCr2O4, instead of the more usually formed doped Cr2O3. This study shows that it was possible to form the NiCr2O4 at temperatures up to 725 °C, within the operational conditions for this alloy, and that at higher temperatures Cr2O3 formed. The improvements in alloy performance extended to the internal oxidation processes where reduced depths of degradation were observed. It is demonstrated here that Al2O3 formation is less thermodynamically stable when the highly protective NiCr2O4 oxide is present at the alloy surface compared to the doped Cr2O3. Synchrotron XRD was performed on samples removed during the heating stage and provided evidence of the oxidation sequence occurring, enabling refinement in the thermodynamic calculations and suggesting an additional route to the formation of the NiCr2O4.
Cosmopsychism and the Problem of Evil
Authors: Cawdron Harvey 
Published: June 2023

AbstractCosmopsychism, the idea that the universe is conscious, is experiencing something of a revival as an explanation of consciousness in philosophy of mind and is also making inroads into philosophy of religion. In the latter field, it has been used to formulate models of certain forms of theism, such as pantheism and panentheism, and has also been proposed as a rival to the classical theism of the Abrahamic faiths. It has been claimed by Philip Goff that a certain form of cosmopsychism, namely agentive cosmopsychism, poses a threat to classical theism because it can explain features of the universe like fine-tuning without having to deal with the problem of evil. This is because, unlike the classical theist, the cosmopsychist can deny at least one of the divine attributes motivating the problem of evil, namely omniscience, omnipotence, and omnibenevolence. In this paper, I shall consider which of the divine attributes the cosmopsychist should focus on when responding to the problem of evil and shall conclude that the rejection of omnibenevolence is the most satisfactory option.
Analyses of Sequence Features and Expression Patterns of DOF Transcription Factor Genes in Pearl Millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.)
Authors: Qu Yingwei , Gupta Shashi Kumar , Dudhate Ambika , Shinde Harshraj Subhash , Liu Shenkui , Takano Tetsuo , Tsugama Daisuke 
Published: June 2023

AbstractPearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.) is a cereal crop that is tolerant to drought, high-temperature and poor-nutrient stresses throughout its life cycle. The DOF (DNA binding with One Finger) family genes encode plant-specific zinc finger transcription factors. These transcription factors have a variety of functions and can be involved in regulating the stress tolerance of pearl millet. In this study, we identified 12 DOF family genes (PgDOFs) in pearl millet. Ten of them were distributed on four chromosomes and the other two were on scaffolds (i.e., non-chromosomal sequences). Protein sequence analysis showed that PgDOFs have the DOF domain in their N-terminal regions and that other conserved motifs are also present in them. PgDOFs and DOF proteins from five other plant species were divided into seven groups, and the 12 PgDOFs could be classified into six of those seven groups. In gene expression analysis, most PgDOFs were upregulated by cold, heat, dehydration and salinity stress. These data can be useful for further characterization of the PgDOFs.
Using flexible energy system interactions amongst industry, district heating, and the power sector to increase renewable energy penetration
Authors: Cruz Igor , Ilić Danica Djurić , Johansson Maria T. 
Published: June 2023

AbstractSweden’s goal of 100% renewable electricity generation by 2040 requires investments in intermittent electricity production (e.g. wind power). However, increasing the share of intermittent electricity production presents challenges, including reduced flexibility of electricity production. A strategy for overcoming this issue is developing flexibility in electricity consumption. This study analyses the potential for using flexible industrial processes, heat pumps (HP), and combined heat and power (CHP) plants in Swedish district heating systems to increase the share of wind power capacity without compromising grid stability. The simulation tool EnergyPLAN was used to assess the potential contribution of these strategies. The analysis includes a range of annual wind power production between 45 and 60 TWh. The required electricity imports and critical excess electricity (that can neither be used nor exported due to transmission line limitations) were used to evaluate the system’s stability. Managing the operation of CHP plants, HPs, and industrial processes in a flexible way is challenging, but these strategies may still play a decisive role in increasing the share of renewable electricity production and reducing demand peaks in cities. Whilst HP regulation is better at reducing excess electricity production at lower wind power capacities (from 32 to 15% for the analysed interval of wind power production), CHP regulation becomes more relevant when wind power capacity increases (from 14 to 39%). Like HP regulation, flexibility in electricity demand in industrial processes had a greater percentage contribution at lower wind power capacities. Combining HP, CHP regulation, and flexible electricity demands in industry can reduce excess electricity production by 68–80% and electricity imports by 14–26%. Wind power contributing to grid stabilisation reduces excess electricity production but does not reduce electricity imports.
Epidemiology and Prognostic Factors of Malignant Melanoma Among 200 Asian Patients from a Single Medical Center
Authors: Park Sang Min , Jeong Ho Yoon , Kim Hoon-Soo , Kwak Min-Jin , Yi Changryul Claud , Bae Yong Chan 
Published: June 2023

Abstract
With the prevalence of malignant melanoma increasing gradually and the progressive westernization of the Asian lifestyle, it is important to analyze and follow up on the characteristics of malignant melanoma at regular intervals. We identified the characteristics of malignant melanoma by analyzing consecutive patients from a single medical center. We also examined the trend of malignant melanoma and prognostic factors in Asian patients. We investigated 200 consecutive patients with malignant melanoma in a single medical center between 2000 and 2022. Each patient’s sex and age, tumor stage, site of the primary lesion, histological subtype, Breslow thickness, Clark level, and period of survival were collected from the historical medical records of the patients and analyzed. Survival analyses were performed using the Kaplan–Meier method to investigate the prognostic factors. The ratio of man-to-woman was 1:1.53; the most common site of the primary tumor was the lower extremity (60%), and acral lentiginous melanoma was the most common histological subtype (61%). Malignant melanoma commonly occurs in the lower extremities, primarily in the form of the lentiginous subtype. In situ melanomas are most prevalent regarding Breslow thickness, while Clark Level 4 is the most common type of malignant melanoma. Sex and Breslow thickness were significantly associated with the survival rate. However, others were not significant prognostic indicators for survival in this cohort. This study confirmed that the epidemiology of malignant melanoma in Asian patients was maintained without significant change. We also confirmed several significant prognostic indicators for survival.
Beyond DNA sensing: expanding the role of cGAS/STING in immunity and diseases
Authors: Seok Jin Kyung , Kim Minhyuk , Kang Han Chang , Cho Yong-Yeon , Lee Hye Suk , Lee Joo Young 
Published: June 2023

AbstractCyclic guanosine monophosphate-adenosine monophosphate (cGAMP) synthase (cGAS) is a DNA sensor that elicits a robust type I interferon response by recognizing ubiquitous danger-associated molecules. The cGAS/stimulator of interferon genes (cGAS/STING) is activated by endogenous DNA, including DNA released from mitochondria and extranuclear chromatin, as well as exogenous DNA derived from pathogenic microorganisms. cGAS/STING is positioned as a key axis of autoimmunity, the inflammatory response, and cancer progression, suggesting that the cGAS/STING signaling pathway represents an efficient therapeutic target. Based on the accumulated evidence, we present insights into the prevention and treatment of cGAS/STING-related chronic immune and inflammatory diseases. This review presents the current state of clinical and nonclinical development of modulators targeting cGAS/STING, providing useful information on the design of therapeutic strategies.