bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Epidemiological study of antifungal‐resistant dermatophytes isolated from Japanese patients
Authors: Hiruma Junichiro , Noguchi Hiromitsu , Shimizu Tatsuya , Hiruma Masataro , Harada Kazutoshi , Kano Rui 
Published: March 2023

AbstractAn epidemiological study of antifungal drug‐resistant dermatophytes was conducted as a follow‐up to our 2020 survey. Dermatophytes were isolated in 2022 from the same dermatology clinics as in the previous study. In total, 288 Trichophyton interdigitale and Trichophyton rubrum clinical isolates were obtained from 288 human cases of dermatophytosis in Tokyo, Saitama, Shizuoka, and Kumamoto, Japan. Four strains were found to be resistant to terbinafine (TRF) and susceptible to itraconazole (ITZ), luliconazole (LCZ), and ravuconazole (RVZ), and three other strains were found to be resistant to ITZ and susceptible to TRF, LCZ, and RVZ. We determined the sequences of the squalene epoxidase (SQLE)‐encoding gene in the three TRF‐resistant T. rubrum strains, and found that two strains harbored L393F missense mutations, and one strain harbored a F397L missense mutation. The results of the present study indicated that the prevalence of TRF‐resistant dermatophytes has not increased since 2020. However, TRF‐resistant T. interdigitale (L393F mutation) was isolated for the first time, indicating that attention should be paid to the presence of TRF‐resistant T. interdigitale in the future. We also examined for the first time the epidemiology of ITZ‐resistant T. rubrum in Japanese patients. Although the number of ITZ‐resistant strains was not large, the results confirmed that ITZ‐resistant T. rubrum strains do exist in Japanese patients.
Whole‐exome sequencing of secondary tumors arising from nevus sebaceous revealed additional genomic alterations besides RAS mutations
Authors: Kim Yoon‐Seob , Park Gyeong Sin , Chung Yeun‐Jun , Lee Ji Hyun 
Published: March 2023

AbstractNevus sebaceous (NS) is a congenital hamartoma associated with an increased risk of secondary neoplasms in approximately 10%–20% of patients. However, additional genomic alterations underlying tumorigenesis in NS lesions have not been clarified. We performed whole‐exome sequencing of archived tumor tissues (n = 8; six basal cell carcinomas and two trichoepitheliomas) and matched germline tissues (n = 7) with from seven patients with secondary tumors arising from NS. We also analyzed NS lesions without secondary tumors (n = 8). Somatic mutations and copy number alterations (CNAs) were analyzed. We identified a median of 129 somatic mutations (corresponding to 2.6/Mb in target regions, range 26–336) for eight tumors, while a median of 118 somatic mutations (2.3/Mb, range 1–196) for eight NS lesions. Known RAS hotspot mutations were found in seven of the eight tumors (six for HRAS p.G13R and one for HRAS p.Q61R) and in six of the eight NS lesions (four for HRAS p.G13R, one for KRAS p.G12C, and one KRAS p.G12D). Except RAS mutations, several putative driver mutations were detected in tumors: TP53 p.F134L/p.R213*, MYCN p.P59L, OR2Z1 p.P167S, PTPN14 p.Q768*, and SMO p.W535L. As for CNAs, two tumors harbored copy‐loss in regions encompassing PTCH1 gene. However, eight NS lesions did not harbor both putative driver mutations and CNAs. In conclusion, our study revealed that secondary tumors arising from NS harbor known RAS hotspot mutations and additional genomic alterations, including putative driver mutations and PTCH1 copy‐loss. These results could help to define the high‐risk group for tumor development in patients with NS and provide evidence for prophylactic resection.
Does infrastructural development foster export upgrading in Africa?
Authors: Kamguia Brice , Ndjakwa Manuella , Tadadjeu Sosson 
Published: March 2023

AbstractA growing body of literature highlights the importance of export sophistication for economic development. Given the newness of the literature on export sophistication, its determinants are under‐exploited. As a pioneer study, this paper attempts to fill this gap in the literature by examining the effect of infrastructure development on export sophistication. Based on a panel of 45 African countries over the period 2003–2016, the results of the different estimations show that infrastructure, including transport, electricity, ICT and access to water and sanitation, improves export sophistication in Africa. Our results also show that the effect of infrastructure varies at different intervals of the export sophistication distribution. Therefore, improved infrastructure would allow African countries to not only improve their export structure but also achieve sustainable and durable growth.
Large‐Scale metabolomics: Predicting biological age using 10,133 routine untargeted LC–MS measurements
Authors: Lassen Johan K. , Wang Tingting , Nielsen Kirstine L. , Hasselstrøm Jørgen B. , Johannsen Mogens , Villesen Palle 
Published: March 2023

AbstractUntargeted metabolomics is the study of all detectable small molecules, and in geroscience, metabolomics has shown great potential to describe the biological age—a complex trait impacted by many factors. Unfortunately, the sample sizes are often insufficient to achieve sufficient power and minimize potential biases caused by, for example, demographic factors. In this study, we present the analysis of biological age in ~10,000 toxicologic routine blood measurements. The untargeted screening samples obtained from ultra‐high pressure liquid chromatography‐quadruple time of flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC‐ QTOF) cover + 300 batches and + 30 months, lack pooled quality controls, lack controlled sample collection, and has previously only been used in small‐scale studies. To overcome experimental effects, we developed and tested a custom neural network model and compared it with existing prediction methods. Overall, the neural network was able to predict the chronological age with an rmse of 5.88 years (r2 = 0.63) improving upon the 6.15 years achieved by existing normalization methods. We used the feature importance algorithm, Shapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP), to identify compounds related to the biological age. Most importantly, the model returned known aging markers such as kynurenine, indole‐3‐aldehyde, and acylcarnitines along with a potential novel aging marker, cyclo (leu‐pro). Our results validate the association of tryptophan and acylcarnitine metabolism to aging in a highly uncontrolled large‐s cale sample. Also, we have shown that by using robust computational methods it is possible to deploy large LC‐MS datasets for metabolomics studies to reduce the risk of bias and empower aging studies.
Wood trait trade‐offs in desert plants: A triangular model to understand intra‐ and interspecific variations along an aridity gradient
Authors: Melián Edgardo , Gatica Gabriel , Pucheta Eduardo 
Published: March 2023

AbstractThe hydraulic architecture of woody plants may show intra‐ and interspecific variations along aridity gradients as a result of wood trait trade‐offs, which depend on species‐specific abilities to withstand or evade drought. Plant hydraulic architecture can be defined as the set of different cell types involved in water transport through the soil–plant‐atmosphere continuum. At the present time, there are two models designed to understand trade‐offs among xylem wood functional traits, developed by Baas and Pratt, respectively. The first model presents a triangular trade‐off space where three main plant xylem functions are linked to each other to provide resistance to embolism in evolutionary time. The second model depicts xylem cell types associated with their main functions, namely vessel‐transport, parenchyma‐storage and fibre‐support. We propose here a new model considering the same relative xylem cell trait abundance for three desert species with different drought tolerance strategies along an aridity gradient of more than 300 mm. Hence, our model may account for both intra‐ and interspecific variations in wood traits for species from different localities along an aridity gradient. The tree Neltuma flexuosa showed little intraspecific variation in the medium drought resistance portion of the trade‐off space, suggesting this species is independent from rainfall. Larrea divaricata showed a similar low intraspecific variation, but the spatial location in the trade‐off space suggests it has a high tolerance to drought. The third species, Bulnesia retama, showed a higher intraspecific variation within the trade‐off space, changing its hydraulic architecture in more fibre area with increasing aridity. Our model seems to be a generalized tool to assess both intra‐ and interspecific variations in trade‐offs for hydraulic architecture among woody plants as a response to drought.
Trait profiles in difficult‐to‐treat asthma: Clinical impact and response to systematic assessment
Authors: Lin Tiffany , Pham Jonathan , Denton Eve , Lee Joy , Hore‐Lacy Fiona , Sverrild Asger , Stojanovic Stephanie , Tay Tunn Ren , Murthee Kavitha Garuna , Radhakrishna Naghmeh , Dols Monique , Bondarenko Janet , Mahoney Janine , O'Hehir Robyn E. , Dabscheck Eli , Hew Mark 
Published: March 2023

AbstractBackgroundMultidisciplinary systematic assessment improves outcomes in difficult‐to‐treat asthma, but without clear response predictors. Using a treatable‐traits framework, we stratified patients by trait profile, examining clinical impact and treatment responsiveness to systematic assessment.MethodsWe performed latent class analysis using 12 traits on difficult‐to‐treat asthma patients undergoing systematic assessment at our institution. We examined Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ‐6) and Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ) scores, FEV1, exacerbation frequency, and maintenance oral corticosteroid (mOCS) dose, at baseline and following systematic assessment.ResultsAmong 241 patients, two airway‐centric profiles were characterized by early‐onset with allergic rhinitis (n = 46) and adult onset with eosinophilia/chronic rhinosinusitis (n = 60), respectively, with minimal comorbid or psychosocial traits; three non‐airway‐centric profiles exhibited either comorbid (obesity, vocal cord dysfunction, dysfunctional breathing) dominance (n = 51), psychosocial (anxiety, depression, smoking, unemployment) dominance (n = 72), or multi‐domain impairment (n = 12). Compared to airway‐centric profiles, non‐airway‐centric profiles had worse baseline ACQ‐6 (2.7 vs. 2.2, p < .001) and AQLQ (3.8 vs. 4.5, p < .001) scores. Following systematic assessment, the cohort showed overall improvements across all outcomes. However, airway‐centric profiles had more FEV1 improvement (5.6% vs. 2.2% predicted, p < .05) while non‐airway‐centric profiles trended to greater exacerbation reduction (1.7 vs. 1.0, p = .07); mOCS dose reduction was similar (3.1 mg vs. 3.5 mg, p = .782).ConclusionDistinct trait profiles in difficult‐to‐treat asthma are associated with different clinical outcomes and treatment responsiveness to systematic assessment. These findings yield clinical and mechanistic insights into difficult‐to‐treat asthma, offer a conceptual framework to address disease heterogeneity, and highlight areas responsive to targeted intervention.
Deep ethnography
Authors: Roekel Eva van 
Published: March 2023

AbstractStudying atrocities poses many challenges for ethnographers, not least of which is how to represent violent experiences, which often exceed articulation. The atrocities perpetrated during the military dictatorship in Argentina are no exception. Yet, during my fieldwork in Buenos Aires, I found that the violence forcefully surfaced in many ethnographic encounters, as a result of my having accidentally absorbed my interlocutors’ psychoanalytic reasoning into my ethnographic praxis. Everyday psychoanalytic practices used among survivors and the relatives of the disappeared, such as catharsis and working through guilt, filtered through ongoing self‐reflections and served a crucial role in my emerging understanding of an Argentine “ethics of feelings.” I couple this shared psychoanalytic praxis with creative prose as one integral way of practicing an ethnography of violence. Communicating through words that instill rather than explain the vexed feelings engages readers with the indeterminateness of violence and psychic “depths” in Argentina. This way of doing anthropology is what I call deep ethnography—an emergent form of sensing, talking, thinking, and writing about feelings.
Dual processing approach to sedentary behavior and physical activity in the workplace
Authors: Jenkins Kailas , Phipps Daniel J. , Rhodes Ryan E. , Buchan Jena , Hamilton Kyra 
Published: March 2023

AbstractRegular physical activity is an important health promoting behavior. Yet, many adults live sedentary lifestyles, especially during their workday. The current study applies an extended theory of planned behavior model, incorporating affective attitudes and instrumental attitudes, along with habit, to predict limiting sedentary behavior and physical activity within an office environment. Theory of planned behavior constructs and habit were assessed with an online survey on a sample of 180 full‐time office workers, with self‐reported behavior assessed 1 week later (Mage = 25.97, SDage = 10.24; 44 males, 134 females, and 2 nonbinary). Model fit was indicated by BRMSEA (M = 0.057, SD = 0.023), B γ^ (M = 0.984, SD = 0.010) and BCFI (M = 0.959, SD = 0.026), accounting for 46.1% of variance in intention, 21.6% of variance in sedentary behavior, and 17.4% of variance in physical activity behavior. A Bayesian structural equation model revealed direct effects of instrumental attitudes and perceived behavioral control on intention to limit sedentary behavior, direct effects of intention and perceived behavioral control on limiting sedentary behavior, and direct effects of perceived behavioral control and habit on engaging in physical activity. The current study indicates intentions to be active in the office are primarily driven by beliefs about the benefits of activity and individuals' perceived level of control, rather than normative or affective beliefs. As behavior was predicted by both intention and habit, findings also indicate office‐based activity is likely not always a consciously driven decision. These findings may have implications for improving activity levels in this highly sedentary population.
Perinatal psychiatric practitioner consultation program delivers rapid response to OB/GYN practitioners
Authors: Doering Jennifer J. , Wichman Christina L. , Laszewski Audrey , Kuehn Shelby , Ke Weiming 
Published: March 2023

AbstractIntroductionScreening and treatment initiation for perinatal psychiatric conditions is a recommended competency in OB/GYN practitioners, yet perinatal psychiatry is rapidly evolving. Practitioner‐to‐psychiatrist consultation programs have the potential to improve the management of psychiatric conditions in perinatal women. This study describes utilization of a statewide perinatal psychiatric consultation service by OB/GYN practitioners through examination of the volume, responsivity, content and outcomes of clinical inquiries, and satisfaction.MethodsThis quality improvement study describes the 460 telephone or e‐mail consultations requested by OB/GYN practitioners over 2 years and housed within a REDCap database. Data include the characteristics of consult users, month‐over‐month and total utilization, the patient's perinatal status, the reason for contact, current symptoms and medications, and the consulting psychiatrist recommendations. Practitioner satisfaction with consultation is also described.ResultsAfter completion of triage, the psychiatrist returned the practitioner's call ≤5 min in 59% of consultations. The most common inquiries were for pregnant (64%) women for depressive (51%) or anxiety (46%) symptoms with 47% of inquiries reporting the patient was currently taking a psychiatric medication. Had consultation not been available, referral to mental health (41%) or starting a medication (15%) were most often reported.ConclusionsThis perinatal psychiatric consultation service rapidly and effectively met the needs of practitioners practicing in OB/GYN settings across a state having a critical psychiatry shortage and varying urban and rural geography. Future recommendations include the assessment of direct patient outcomes, practitioner skill attainment, and long‐term cost savings of this perinatal psychiatric consultation model.
Combined oral contraceptive pill compared with no medical treatment in the management of polycystic ovary syndrome: A systematic review
Authors: Forslund Maria , Melin Johanna , Alesi Simon , Piltonen Terhi , Romualdi Daniela , Tay Chau Thien , Witchel Selma , Pena Alexia , Mousa Aya , Teede Helena 
Published: March 2023

AbstractObjectiveAs part of the update of the International Evidence‐Based Guidelines for the Assessment and Management of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a systematic review was performed to inform evidence‐based recommendations.DesignSystematic review. Only randomised controlled trial were included.PatientsWomen with PCOS; the use of combined oral contraceptive pills (COCP) was compared with no medical treatment.MeasurementsOutcomes were designed in collaboration with clinical experts, researchers, and consumers. Critical outcomes included hirsutism, irregular cycles, quality of life, body mass index (BMI), and weight.Results1660 publications were identified, but only four studies were included. No studies could be combined for meta‐analysis. COCP treatment improved cycle regularity compared with no medical treatment (100% vs. 0%, with low certainty of evidence). COCP showed no difference in improvement of hirsutism or BMI compared with placebo or lifestyle; a lower weight after COCP compared with no treatment (mean difference [MD] −8.0 (95% confidence interval, CI −11.67); −4.33 kg); and improvement in quality of life (MD 1.2 [95% CI 0.96]; 1.44), but these results were all very low certainty of evidence.ConclusionResults show that COCP benefit cycle regulation, but other benefits or potential adverse effects were only identified with very low certainty of evidence. The COCP is frontline medical treatment in PCOS, but this is still based on established efficacy in the broader general population. Our results show that research in PCOS is seriously lacking and should be prioritised to capture core reproductive, metabolic and psychological outcomes important in PCOS.
Combining Motion Matching and Orientation Prediction to Animate Avatars for Consumer‐Grade VR Devices
Authors: Ponton J. L. , Yun H. , Andujar C. , Pelechano N. 
Published: March 2023

AbstractThe animation of user avatars plays a crucial role in conveying their pose, gestures, and relative distances to virtual objects or other users. Self‐avatar animation in immersive VR helps improve the user experience and provides a Sense of Embodiment. However, consumer‐grade VR devices typically include at most three trackers, one at the Head Mounted Display (HMD), and two at the handheld VR controllers. Since the problem of reconstructing the user pose from such sparse data is ill‐defined, especially for the lower body, the approach adopted by most VR games consists of assuming the body orientation matches that of the HMD, and applying animation blending and time‐warping from a reduced set of animations. Unfortunately, this approach produces noticeable mismatches between user and avatar movements. In this work we present a new approach to animate user avatars that is suitable for current mainstream VR devices. First, we use a neural network to estimate the user's body orientation based on the tracking information from the HMD and the hand controllers. Then we use this orientation together with the velocity and rotation of the HMD to build a feature vector that feeds a Motion Matching algorithm. We built a MoCap database with animations of VR users wearing a HMD and used it to test our approach on both self‐avatars and other users' avatars. Our results show that our system can provide a large variety of lower body animations while correctly matching the user orientation, which in turn allows us to represent not only forward movements but also stepping in any direction.
UnderPressure: Deep Learning for Foot Contact Detection, Ground Reaction Force Estimation and Footskate Cleanup
Authors: Mourot Lucas , Hoyet Ludovic , Clerc François Le , Hellier Pierre 
Published: March 2023

AbstractHuman motion synthesis and editing are essential to many applications like video games, virtual reality, and film post‐production. However, they often introduce artefacts in motion capture data, which can be detrimental to the perceived realism. In particular, footskating is a frequent and disturbing artefact, which requires knowledge of foot contacts to be cleaned up. Current approaches to obtain foot contact labels rely either on unreliable threshold‐based heuristics or on tedious manual annotation. In this article, we address automatic foot contact label detection from motion capture data with a deep learning based method. To this end, we first publicly release Under Pressure, a novel motion capture database labelled with pressure insoles data serving as reliable knowledge of foot contact with the ground. Then, we design and train a deep neural network to estimate ground reaction forces exerted on the feet from motion data and then derive accurate foot contact labels. The evaluation of our model shows that we significantly outperform heuristic approaches based on height and velocity thresholds and that our approach is much more robust when applied on motion sequences suffering from perturbations like noise or footskate. We further propose a fully automatic workflow for footskate cleanup: foot contact labels are first derived from estimated ground reaction forces. Then, footskate is removed by solving foot constraints through an optimisation‐based inverse kinematics (IK) approach that ensures consistency with the estimated ground reaction forces. Beyond footskate cleanup, both the database and the method we propose could help to improve many approaches based on foot contact labels or ground reaction forces, including inverse dynamics problems like motion reconstruction and learning of deep motion models in motion synthesis or character animation. Our implementation, pre‐trained model as well as links to database can be found at github.com/InterDigitalInc/UnderPressure.
MP‐NeRF: Neural Radiance Fields for Dynamic Multi‐person synthesis from Sparse Views
Authors: Chao X. J. , Leung H. 
Published: March 2023

AbstractMulti‐person novel view synthesis aims to generate free‐viewpoint videos for dynamic scenes of multiple persons. However, current methods require numerous views to reconstruct a dynamic person and only achieve good performance when only a single person is present in the video. This paper aims to reconstruct a multi‐person scene with fewer views, especially addressing the occlusion and interaction problems that appear in the multi‐person scene. We propose MP‐NeRF, a practical method for multi‐person novel view synthesis from sparse cameras without the pre‐scanned template human models. We apply a multi‐person SMPL template as the identity and human motion prior. Then we build a global latent code to integrate the relative observations among multiple people, so we could represent multiple dynamic people into multiple neural radiance representations from sparse views. Experiments on multi‐person dataset MVMP show that our method is superior to other state‐of‐the‐art methods.