bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Neuroprotective compounds from marine invertebrates
Authors: Rivai Bachtiar , Umar Abd. Kakhar 
Published: July 2023

Abstract
Background
Neuroinflammation is a key pathological feature of a wide variety of neurological disorders, including Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, and Huntington’s disease. While current treatments for these disorders are primarily symptomatic, there is a growing interest in developing new therapeutics that target the underlying neuroinflammatory processes.

Main body
Marine invertebrates, such as coral, sea urchins, starfish, sponges, and sea cucumbers, have been found to contain a wide variety of biologically active compounds that have demonstrated potential therapeutic properties. These compounds are known to target various key proteins and pathways in neuroinflammation, including 6-hydroxydopamine (OHDH), caspase-3 and caspase-9, p-Akt, p-ERK, p-P38, acetylcholinesterase (AChE), amyloid-β (Aβ), HSF-1, α-synuclein, cellular prion protein, advanced glycation end products (AGEs), paraquat (PQ), and mitochondria DJ-1.

Short conclusion
This review focuses on the current state of research on the neuroprotective effects of compounds found in marine invertebrates and the potential therapeutic implications of these findings for treating neuroinflammatory disorders. We also discussed the challenges and limitations of using marine-based compounds as therapeutics, such as sourcing and sustainability concerns, and the need for more preclinical and clinical studies to establish their efficacy and safety.

Graphical abstract
Natural Language Processing to Automatically Extract the Presence and Severity of Esophagitis in Notes of Patients Undergoing Radiotherapy
Authors: Chen Shan , Guevara Marco , Ramirez Nicolas , Murray Arpi , Warner Jeremy L. , Aerts Hugo J. W. L. , Miller Timothy A. , Savova Guergana K. , Mak Raymond H. , Bitterman Danielle S. 
Published: July 2023

PURPOSE Radiotherapy (RT) toxicities can impair survival and quality of life, yet remain understudied. Real-world evidence holds potential to improve our understanding of toxicities, but toxicity information is often only in clinical notes. We developed natural language processing (NLP) models to identify the presence and severity of esophagitis from notes of patients treated with thoracic RT. METHODS Our corpus consisted of a gold-labeled data set of 1,524 clinical notes from 124 patients with lung cancer treated with RT, manually annotated for Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) v5.0 esophagitis grade, and a silver-labeled data set of 2,420 notes from 1,832 patients from whom toxicity grades had been collected as structured data during clinical care. We fine-tuned statistical and pretrained Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers–based models for three esophagitis classification tasks: task 1, no esophagitis versus grade 1-3; task 2, grade ≤1 versus >1; and task 3, no esophagitis versus grade 1 versus grade 2-3. Transferability was tested on 345 notes from patients with esophageal cancer undergoing RT. RESULTS Fine-tuning of PubMedBERT yielded the best performance. The best macro-F1 was 0.92, 0.82, and 0.74 for tasks 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Selecting the most informative note sections during fine-tuning improved macro-F1 by ≥2% for all tasks. Silver-labeled data improved the macro-F1 by ≥3% across all tasks. For the esophageal cancer notes, the best macro-F1 was 0.73, 0.74, and 0.65 for tasks 1, 2, and 3, respectively, without additional fine-tuning. CONCLUSION To our knowledge, this is the first effort to automatically extract esophagitis toxicity severity according to CTCAE guidelines from clinical notes. This provides proof of concept for NLP-based automated detailed toxicity monitoring in expanded domains.
A WNT4- and DKK3-driven canonical to noncanonical Wnt signaling switch controls multiciliogenesis
Authors: Cooney Riley A. , Saal Maxwell L. , Geraci Kara P. , Maynard Caitlin , Cleaver Ondine , Hoang Oanh N. , Moore Todd T. , Hwang Rosa F. , Axelrod Jeffrey D. , Vladar Eszter K. 
Published: July 2023

ABSTRACT
Multiciliated cells contain hundreds of cilia whose directional movement powers the mucociliary clearance of the airways, a vital host defense mechanism. Multiciliated cell specification requires canonical Wnt signaling, which then must be turned off. Next, ciliogenesis and polarized ciliary orientation are regulated by noncanonical Wnt/planar cell polarity (Wnt/PCP) signaling. The mechanistic relationship between the Wnt pathways is unknown. We show that DKK3, a secreted canonical Wnt regulator and WNT4, a noncanonical Wnt ligand act together to facilitate a canonical to noncanonical Wnt signaling switch during multiciliated cell formation. In primary human airway epithelial cells, DKK3 and WNT4 CRISPR knockout blocks, whereas ectopic expression promotes, multiciliated cell formation by inhibiting canonical Wnt signaling. Wnt4 and Dkk3 single-knockout mice also display defective ciliated cells. DKK3 and WNT4 are co-secreted from basal stem cells and act directly on multiciliated cells via KREMEN1 and FZD6, respectively. We provide a novel mechanism that links specification to cilium biogenesis and polarization for proper multiciliated cell formation.
Glass and Liquid Chemistry of Coordination Polymers and MOFs
Authors: Horike Satoshi 
Published: July 2023

Abstract
The chemistry of coordination polymers and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) has progressed largely with the development of crystallography. The study of “disordered systems” such as the liquid and glassy states of coordination polymers and MOFs has been developed in recent years, and various methods have been recognised to produce glasses from crystals. The structures of the glass and liquid phases are studied using synchrotron radiation X-rays and spectroscopy. Many of them have the coordination bond-based network structure found in the crystal structures. This suggests that the structural design principles of coordination chemistry can be applied to glasses and liquids of coordination polymers and MOFs. The inherent properties of the disordered system, such as wide compositions and high internal degrees of freedom, high material formability and softness, contribute to the coupled physicochemical properties.
Russian-Venezuelan relations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The perspective of Russia's superpower interests
Authors: Miarka Agnieszka , Łapaj-Kucharska Justyna 
Published: July 2023

Background: The fight against the COVID-19 pandemic has been instrumentalised on several occasions by powers that have seen a new sphere for realising their interests. One such power is the Russian Federation. The article aims to explain the importance of close relations with Venezuela for Russia's strategic objectives in expanding its political power in the Latin American region in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic. To achieve the research objective, the authors focused on answering the following research questions: How has the political crisis in Venezuela affected the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic? Why and how does Russia consistently support the regime of Nicolás Maduro in times of a pandemic crisis? The article's research hypothesis is that Russia used the new conditions of superpower policy, the COVID-19 pandemic, to strengthen its influence on Venezuela's domestic politics to secure the realisation of its superpower interests. Methods: The authors used content analysis of media broadcasts, statements by politicians, and literature on the subject (in English, Russian and Spanish). In addition, the re-analysis of quantitative data made it possible, for example, to characterise the economic level of the relations. The main part of the research was completed in November 2021. The article uses methods characteristic of international relations research, including the method of decision analysis. Results: The results of the research confirm that Moscow’s activity in Latin America should be interpreted as one of the manifestations of the reactivity of Russian geostrategy, i.e. a response to U.S. actions in the post-Soviet area. Conclusions: In this context, Caracas has a special position in Russia’s policy as a key regional partner in energy cooperation and a market for the sale of military technologies. The research was conducted on 13 March 2020 and ended before 24 February 2022.
Joint polarization detection and degradation mechanisms for underwater image enhancement
Authors: Cai Cheng , Qiang Fu , Fu-Cheng Bao , Xian-Song Gu , You-Fei Hao , Yong Zhu , Jing-Hao Zhang , Yi Liu , Yang Tai , Long-Xiao Wang 
Published: July 2023

Light absorption and scattering exist in the underwater environment,
which can lead to blurring, reduced brightness, and color distortion
in underwater images. Polarized images have the advantages of
eliminating underwater scattering interference, enhancing contrast,
and detecting material information of the object in underwater
detection. In this paper, from the perspective of polarization
imaging, different concentrations (0.15 g/ml, 0.30 g/ml,
and 0.50 g/ml), different wave bands (red, green, and blue),
different materials (copper, wood, high-density PVC, aluminum, cloth,
foam, cloth sheet, low-density PVC, rubber, and porcelain tile), and
different depths (10 cm, 20 cm, 30 cm, and
40 cm) are set up in a chamber for the experimental
environment. By combining the degradation mechanism of underwater
images and the analysis of polarization detection results, it is
proved that the degree of polarization images have greater advantages
than degree of linear polarization images, degree of circular
polarization images, S1, S2, and S3 images, and visible images
underwater. Finally, a fusion algorithm of underwater visible images
and polarization images based on compressed sensing is proposed to
enhance underwater degraded images. To improve the quality of fused
images, we introduce orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) in the
high-frequency part to improve image sparsity and consistency
detection in the low-frequency part to improve the image mutation
phenomenon. The fusion results show that the peak SNR values of the
fusion result maps using OMP in this paper are improved by 32.19% and
22.14% on average over those using backpropagation and subspace
pursuit methods. With different materials and concentrations, the
underwater image enhancement algorithm proposed in this paper improves
information entropy, average gradient, and standard deviation by
7.76%, 18.12%, and 40.8%, respectively, on average over previous
algorithms. The image NIQE value shows that the image quality obtained
by this paper’s algorithm is improved by about 69.26% over the
original S0 image.
Combined finite-element and scalar diffraction simulation of light scattering on zone edges of diffractive intraocular lenses
Authors: Nemes-Czopf Anna , Erdei Gábor 
Published: July 2023

A method has been developed to simulate the effects of scattered light on the image quality of optical systems. The coherent model is based on geometrical optics to take account of wavefront aberrations caused by lenses, applies finite-element calculation to solve Maxwell’s equations around small scattering structures such as edges of diffractive surface zones, and uses scalar diffraction for free-space light propagation. The implementation is discussed in detail, and the operation is demonstrated on diffractive intraocular lenses. Point spread and modulation transfer functions are evaluated for an axial object point, taking account of scattered light as a function of slant angle and round radius of diffractive zone edges. Results show that, at a distance of ±200 Airy radius (i.e., ±2.1∘) from the axis, scattered irradiance is about 5 times more than without considering edge effects. Optimum round radius was found to be 7% of the step height, which agrees with simple geometrical optical estimations.
Modeling a UVC irradiation standalone system for inactivating Mycobacterium tuberculosis from indoor spaces
Authors: Kumar Vikas , Bisht Devendra Singh , Garg Harry 
Published: July 2023

After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, a rise in demand has occurred for
efficient designs of disinfection systems that utilize ultraviolet-C
(UVC) radiation to inactivate airborne microorganisms effectively.
This paper proposes what we believe to be a novel standalone system
for inactivating Mycobacterium tuberculosis (which requires a higher
dosage value than SARS-CoV-2) from a medium size room of 12.5ft×12.5ft×9ft. The structure consists of a UVC
source at the center and a spiral pathway guiding the air around the
UVC source, thus increasing the residence time of the aerosol
particle. The top and bottom louvre and a hollow cylindrical cover
(comprising four external cover segments) enclose the UVC source and
prevent the danger of direct exposure to indoor occupants. The whole
system is modeled in SolidWorks, and flux leakage was examined using
the RayViz tool in SolidWorks. Optical/radiometric analysis in ray
tracing software TracePro provided the UVC flux value at different
locations of the standalone system. Flow simulation carried out in
SolidWorks helped calculate aerosol particles’ residence time at
different airflow trajectories. The designed standalone system
demonstrated the capability of delivering 1.87 times more dosage than
is required to inactivate Mycobacterium tuberculosis from the ambient
air. The standalone system achieves a ventilation rate,
i.e., air changes per hour value of 10, according to guidelines
from the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, India.
Compendium of medically important snakes, venom activity and clinical presentations in Ghana
Authors: Deikumah Justus Precious , Biney Robert Peter , Awoonor-Williams John Koku , Gyakobo Mawuli Kotope 
Published: July 2023

BackgroundSnake bite envenoming (SBE) is one neglected tropical disease that has not received the needed attention. The sequelae of burdensome disability and mortality impact the socioeconomic life of communities adversely with little documentation of SBE in health facility records in Ghana. This study details SBE and snake distribution, habits/habitats, type of venom expressed and clinical manifestations.MethodologyWe conducted a structured thematic desk review of peer reviewed papers, books and reports from repositories including PubMed, World Health Organization (WHO) and Women’s & Children’s Hospital (WCH) Clinical Toxinology Resources using bibliographic software EndNote and search engine Google Scholar with the following key words; snakes, medical importance, snake bites, venom and venom type, envenomation, symptoms and signs, vaccines, venom expenditure, strike behaviour and venom-metering + Ghana, West Africa, Africa, World. We also reviewed data from the District Health Information Management System (DHIMS) of the Ghana Health Service (GHS). Outcome variables were organized as follows: common name (s), species, habitat/habit, species-specific toxin, clinical manifestation, antivenom availability, WHO category.FindingsSnake bites and SBE were grouped by the activity of the expressed venom into neurotoxic, cardiotoxic, haemorrhagic, cytotoxic, myotoxic, nephrotoxic and procoagulants. Neurotoxic snake bites were largely due to elapids. Expressed venoms with cardiotoxic, haemorrhagic, nephrotoxic and procoagulant activities principally belonged to the family Viperidae. Snakes with venoms showing myotoxic activity were largely alien to Ghana and the West African sub-region. Venoms showing cytotoxic activity are expressed by a wide range of snakes though more prevalent among the Viperidae family. Snakes with neurotoxic and haemorrhagic venom activities are prevalent across all the agro-ecological zones in Ghana.Conclusion/SignificanceUnderstanding the characteristics of snakes and their venoms is useful in the management of SBE. The distribution of snakes by their expressed venoms across the agro-ecological zones is also instructive to species identification and diagnosis of SBE.
Effectiveness of a preoperative orlistat-based weight management plan and its impact on the results of one-anastomosis gastric bypass: A retrospective study
Authors: Lo Hung-Chieh , Hsu Shih-Chang 
Published: July 2023

Introduction
The aim was to first investigate the efficacy of a preoperative weight management program centered on orlistat, which is mechanistically similar to gastrointestinal bypass procedures in that it restricts dietary fat absorption, and then assess its impact on the results of one-anastomosis gastric bypass (OAGB).

Materials and methods
We retrospectively reviewed the clinical data of consecutive patients aged 20–65 years with a body mass index (BMI) ≥ 42.5 kg/m2 who underwent primary OAGB from 2014 to 2020. Eligible patients who adhered to a 10–14 day orlistat regimen as part of a 4–6-week diet/lifestyle modification plan preceding surgery were stratified into weight reduction (Group 1) and weight gain (Group 2) groups post treatment. The correlation between pre- and postoperative weight loss and perioperative outcomes was assessed.

Results
Of 62 eligible patients, 55 met the inclusion criteria and complied with treatment; 35 (64%) patients in Group 1 lost a median of 2.0 kg, and Group 2 had a median weight gain of 2.9 kg. Group 1 had a significantly higher initial BMI (48.9 kg/m2 vs. 44.6 kg/m2; p = 0.003), more females (54% vs. 25%) and a shorter operation time than Group 2 (107 min vs. 140 min; p = 0.109). There was no difference in the incidence of 30-day complications. Weight loss did not differ between the groups at 24 months.

Conclusion
Effective weight control through an orlistat-containing regimen benefitted two-thirds of patients who underwent OAGB; however, further weight loss was not observed at 2 years post-surgery.
COVID-19 self-testing using antigen rapid diagnostic tests: Feasibility evaluation among health-care workers and general population in Malawi
Authors: Mukoka Madalo , Sibanda Euphemia , Watadzaushe Constancia , Kumwenda Moses , Abok Florence , Corbett Elizabeth L. , Ivanova Elena , Choko Augustine Talumba 
Published: July 2023

Background
COVID-19 testing is critical for identifying cases to prevent transmission. COVID-19 self-testing has the potential to increase diagnostic testing capacity and to expand access to hard-to-reach areas in low-and-middle-income countries. We investigated the feasibility and acceptability of COVID-19 self-sampling and self-testing using SARS-CoV-2 Antigen-Rapid Diagnostic Tests (Ag-RDTs).

Methods
From July 2021 to February 2022, we conducted a mixed-methods cross-sectional study examining self-sampling and self-testing using Standard Q and Panbio COVID-19 Ag Rapid Test Device in Urban and rural Blantyre, Malawi. Health care workers and adults (18y+) in the general population were non-randomly sampled.

Results
Overall, 1,330 participants were enrolled of whom 674 (56.0%) were female and 656 (54.0%) were male with 664 for self-sampling and 666 for self-testing. Mean age was 30.7y (standard deviation [SD] 9.6). Self-sampling usability threshold for Standard Q was 273/333 (82.0%: 95% CI 77.4% to 86.0%) and 261/331 (78.8%: 95% CI 74.1% to 83.1%) for Panbio. Self-testing threshold was 276/335 (82.4%: 95% CI 77.9% to 86.3%) and 300/332 (90.4%: 95% CI 86.7% to 93.3%) for Standard Q and Panbio, respectively. Agreement between self-sample results and professional test results was 325/325 (100%) and 322/322 (100%) for Standard Q and Panbio, respectively. For self-testing, agreement was 332/333 (99.7%: 95% CI 98.3 to 100%) for Standard Q and 330/330 (100%: 95% CI 99.8 to 100%) for Panbio. Odds of achieving self-sampling threshold increased if the participant was recruited from an urban site (odds ratio [OR] 2.15 95% CI 1.44 to 3.23, P < .01. Compared to participants with primary school education those with secondary and tertiary achieved higher self-testing threshold OR 1.88 (95% CI 1.17 to 3.01), P = .01 and 4.05 (95% CI 1.20 to13.63), P = .02, respectively.

Conclusions
One of the first studies to demonstrate high feasibility and acceptability of self-testing using SARS-CoV-2 Ag-RDTs among general and health-care worker populations in low- and middle-income countries potentially supporting large scale-up. Further research is warranted to provide optimal delivery strategies of self-testing.
ЭФФЕКТИВНОСТЬ ЙОДНОЙ ПРОФИЛАКТИКИ В РЕСПУБЛИКЕ БЕЛАРУСЬ ПО РЕЗУЛЬТАТАМ
МОНИТОРИНГА ВРОЖДЕННОГО ГИПОТИРЕОЗА
Authors: Мохорт Т. В. , Коломиец Н. Д. , Мохорт Е. Г. , Федоренко Е. В. , Петренко С. В. 
Published: July 2023

В Республике Беларусь для ликвидации недостаточности йода в продуктах питания была использована
стратегия, внедренная в 2000г. и основанная на использовании йодированной соли не только в качестве
кухонной соли, но также её использовании в продуктах питания. Cогласно этим рекомендациям, йодированная соль остается основой программ йодной профилактики, но акцент делается на роли продуктов
питания, изготовленных с использованием йодированной соли.
Анализ данных медицинского мониторинга в Республике Беларусь свидетельствует об общей закономерности снижения заболеваемости йоддефицитной патологией щитовидной железы. Особую значимость
имеют показатели, оценка которых проводится по единой методологии. Из многообразия данных по оценке заболеваемости йоддефицитной патологией щитовидной железы только врожденный гипотиреоз
устанавливается на основании сплошного 2-этапного скрининга новорожденных в соответствии с консенсусными рекомендациями Европейского общества детских эндокринологов 2014 г. и использованием
единых критериев.
Динамика первичной заболеваемости врожденным гипотиреозом, основанная на подтверждении
диагноза на втором этапе скрининга, свидетельствует о достижении стабильного результата (в 2006 г.
первичная заболеваемость ПВГ составила 1,96 на 100 000, в 2016 г. — 1,27 на 100 000 населения, а в 2020 г. –
1.14 на 100 000 населения, в 2022г. - 0). Распространенность врожденного гипотиреоза (по данным неонатального скрининга с подтверждением на 2-м этапе 2020г.) составляет 1:4216, что соответствует данным,
полученным в европейских странах. При этом отмечаются различия в показателях в различных областях.
Так, например, при показателе в 2019 г. в Гомельской области 2.45 на 100 000 населения, в 2020 г. он составил 0,34 на 100 000 населения, а в 2022 -4,08 на 100 000 населения, что может свидетельствовать о спорадическом генезе врожденного гипотиреоза.
Сохранение в Республике Беларусь на протяжении многих лет наблюдения стабильно низкого уровня
заболеваемости врожденным гипотиреозом, характерным для популяций Европейского региона с адекватным потреблением йода с продуктами питания, косвенно свидетельствует о наличии адекватной йодной
обеспеченности.
Приведенные данные представляют интерес с позиций доказанного наличия недостижения медианы
(Ме) экскреции йода с мочой у беременных по данным исследования, проведенного в Беларуси в 2017 г.
и включавшего 700 беременных из различных областей. По результатам вышеуказанного исследования
в среднем по стране Ме йодурии составила 121,2 мкг/л, что ниже целевого показателя (150 мкг/л). Диапазoн
колебаний показателя составил от 104,5 мкг/л в Витебской области до 159,7 мкг/л в Брестской области.
Анализ использования добавок йодида калия беременными показал, что частота использования рекомендованных доз йодида калия (100-150 мкг в сутки) коррелировала с показателями экскреции йода
с мочой, но не отражалась на заболеваемости врожденным гипотиреозом.