bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Ruminant-dense environments increase risk of reported Shiga toxin-producing
Escherichia coli
infections independently of ruminant contact
Authors: Ward Caitlin , Finical William , Smith Kirk , Rounds Joshua M. , Klumb Carrie A. , Tarr Gillian A. M. 
Published: January 2025

ABSTRACT

Cattle and other domestic ruminants are the primary reservoirs of O157 and non-O157 Shiga toxin-producing
Escherichia coli
(STEC). Living in areas with high ruminant density has been associated with excess risk of infection, which could be due to both direct ruminant contact and residual environmental risk, but the role of each is unclear. We investigated whether there is any meaningful risk to individuals living in ruminant-dense areas if they do not have direct contact with ruminants. Using a Bayesian spatial framework, we investigated the association between the density of ruminants on feedlots and STEC incidence in Minnesota from 2010 to 2019, stratified by serogroup and season, and adjusting for direct ruminant contact. For every additional head of cattle or sheep per 10 acres, the incidence of O157 STEC infection increased by 30% (incidence rate ratio [IRR] 1.30; 95% credible interval [CrI] 1.18, 1.42) or 135% (IRR 2.35; 95% CrI 1.14, 4.20), respectively, during the summer months. Sheep density was also associated with O157 STEC risk during winter (IRR 4.28; 95% CrI 1.40, 8.92). The risk of non-O157 STEC infection was only elevated in areas with goat operations during summer (IRR 19.6; 95% CrI 1.69, 78.8). STEC risk associated with ruminant density was independent of direct ruminant contact across serogroups and seasons. Our findings demonstrate that living in a ruminant-dense area increases an individual’s risk of O157 and non-O157 STEC infection even without direct ruminant contact, indicating that prevention efforts need to extend to community strategies for averting indirect transmission from local ruminant populations.

I
MPORTANCE

Shiga toxin-producing
Escherichia coli
(STEC) are zoonotic enteric bacteria responsible for 2.5 million illnesses each year. Infections in young children can be especially devastating, causing hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a debilitating and sometimes fatal form of acute kidney injury. STEC’s primary reservoirs are cattle and other domestic ruminants, and transmission can occur through food, water, animal contact, and person-to-person. Living near ruminants poses a significant risk of STEC infection; however, the proportion of that risk due to direct ruminant contact or other routes of transmission is unknown. Our research demonstrates that direct ruminant contact is a substantial risk irrespective of location, and that individuals living in ruminant-rich regions are at high risk of STEC infection regardless of whether they come into contact with ruminants. These findings indicate a need for multi-pronged prevention efforts that emphasize control of contamination in the environments surrounding ruminant populations, in addition to biosafety precautions when contacting ruminants directly.
Troponins and Skeletal Muscle Pathologies
Authors: Bogomolova Agnessa P. , Katrukha Ivan A. 
Published: January 2025

Abstract
Skeletal muscles account for ~30-40% of the total weight of human body and are responsible for its most important functions, including movement, respiration, thermogenesis, and glucose and protein metabolism. Skeletal muscle damage negatively impacts the whole-body functioning, leading to deterioration of the quality of life and, in severe cases, death. Therefore, timely diagnosis and therapy for skeletal muscle dysfunction are important goals of modern medicine. In this review, we focused on the skeletal troponins that are proteins in the thin filaments of muscle fibers. Skeletal troponins play a key role in regulation of muscle contraction. Biochemical properties of these proteins and their use as biomarkers of skeletal muscle damage are described in this review. One of the most convenient and sensitive methods of protein biomarker measurement in biological liquids is immunochemical analysis; hence, we examined the factors that influence immunochemical detection of skeletal troponins and should be taken into account when developing diagnostic test systems. Also, we reviewed the available data on the skeletal troponin mutations that are considered to be associated with pathologies leading to the development of diseases and discussed utilization of troponins as drug targets for treatment of the skeletal muscle disorders.
UK Defence Rehabilitation consensus agreement for the conservative management of Achilles and patellar tendinopathy: a modified Delphi approach
Authors: Judd Alice , Wild K , Puxley L , Barker-Davies R 
Published: January 2025

Achilles and patellar tendinopathy are common in military personnel due to the repetitive high loads and challenging extrinsic risk factors associated with the demands of their role. Sports medicine is rapidly evolving. Up-to-date evidence-based research is essential, alongside clinical reasoning, to deliver best-practice treatment to service personnel, underpinned by the duty of care to their long-term career.The aim of this research was to develop recommendations on conservative management of Achilles and patellar tendinopathy in relation to the military population. A systematic review was conducted by a multidisciplinary clinical panel from across Defence Rehabilitation. The panel was split into four subgroups (diagnosis and outcome measures, medical, exercise and adjuncts). Each subgroup proposed recommendations for voting across the wider authorship in a modified Delphi process. 28 recommendations achieved substantial agreement following a chaired meeting attended by all authors. A summary infographic was produced to highlight themes relevant to the military patient population.Diagnosis of Achilles and patellar tendinopathy remains clinical. The consensus panel strongly advocates exercise rehabilitation as the primary management of Achilles and patellar tendinopathy. Medical interventions should respect the long-term occupational needs of the military population. Education is advised, but further adjunctive interventions should only be considered on a case-by-case basis. This consensus agreement provides a framework for the development of local guidelines for the management of Achilles and patellar tendinopathy in the UK military population.
Effects of Red Osier dogwood (Cornus sericea) inclusion with grass hay on in vitro dry matter disappearance, gas production, and fermentation characteristics
Authors: Tamayao P.J. , Mengistu G.F. , Yang W.Z. , Gomaa W.M.S. , Ominski K.H. , Crow G. , Chen L. , McGeough E.J. 
Published: January 2025

This study evaluated the effects of Red Osier dogwood (ROD; raw or extract) at four inclusion rates (0%, 1%, 3%, and 5% diet dry matter (DM)) on DM disappearance (DMD), gas production (GP) and methane (CH4) production, ammonia–nitrogen (NH3–N), and rumen fermentation in timothy grass hay diet in vitro. Supplementation of ROD (irrespective of form) did not affect DMD, GP, or CH4 production ( P ≥ 0.31) or fermentation parameters ( P ≥ 0.41). No significant form effects or rate responses were observed on the measured gas and fermentation parameters. In conclusion, ROD evaluated in this study did not exhibit potential to mitigate CH4 emissions in a grass hay diet.
40Ar/39Ar and Rb–Sr dating of gold-bearing quartz–breccia mineralization and deformation within the Gordon Lake Region, Northwest Territories, Canada: a tribute to Dr. Nick Culshaw and 30 years on
Authors: Stokes Tim , Larson Kyle 
Published: January 2025

Regional and detailed mapping at Gordon Lake has closely outlined the structural timing of a km-scale refold and linked this event to the formation gold-bearing quartz–breccia zones. Early (F1) isoclinal folds, that were refolded (F2) during a secondary (D2) deformation event coeval with peak regional metamorphism, lead to the development of a pervasive (S2) regional cleavage and sub-vertical (L2) stretching lineation. Tightening and increased strain within the east limb of the Gordon Lake refold structure occurred during D3 along with the development of a localized (S3) crenulation cleavage and an episode of quartz–breccia mineralization. The nearby Spud Lake pluton intruded the region post-peak metamorphism. New in situ Rb–Sr geochronology on white mica from the pluton defined an overdispersed regression date of 2573 ± 17 Ma, which overlaps an existing 40Ar/39Ar date of 2592 ± 14 Ma and other U–Pb zircon ages for nearby granitic plutons of the Prosperous Suite. Rb–Sr geochronology of biotite from a sample of quartz–breccia mineralization yielded a single population regression at 2480 ± 53 Ma. This date is significantly younger than a previous 40Ar/39Ar date of 2564 + 14 Ma, perhaps indicating the incorporation of excess 40Ar available during the mineralization event. The Rb–Sr date from the quartz–breccia is consistent with field relationships that indicate the mineralization post-dates peak metamorphism.
ArisNet: Autoencoder of Reconstruction-Inferred Surface Denoising Network
Authors: Hou Yichen , Chen Tian , Liu Jun 
Published: January 2025

The surge in the utilization of point cloud data across diverse fields brings an imperative demand for advanced denoising techniques capable of handling substantial noise levels. In this paper, we present ArisNet, an adept autoencoder-based network specifically architected to excel where conventional methods falter — particularly in denoising point clouds corrupted by large noise scales. ArisNet distinguishes itself by maintaining high-performance denoising across minor and significant noise levels, a feat not commonly achieved by existing frameworks. Crucial to ArisNet’s innovation is integrating a sophisticated loss function that combines Euclidean and Mahalanobis distances for a nuanced point similarity assessment, complemented by including normal vectors and a tailored weighting scheme. Furthermore, we incorporate a repulsion loss inspired by the Hausdorff distance (HD) to optimize point distribution. A standout feature of ArisNet’s architecture is incorporating attention mechanisms through Squeeze-and-Excitation (SE) blocks within its ImprovedResidualBlocks. These SE blocks enable the network to adaptively recalibrate channel-wise feature responses, focusing on salient features for more effective denoising. The Encoder in ArisNet consists of these enhanced residual blocks, processing the input point cloud into a rich global feature. Subsequently, the Decoder, equipped with a four-layer MLP and GlobalFeatureExtractors based on PointNet++, refines these features. This architecture ensures meticulous capture of the point clouds’ intricate details through an offset vector. A pivotal enhancement in ArisNet’s methodology is the adept handling of outliers. We ingeniously meld the Isolation Forest algorithm into our denoising pipeline to address this. This model adeptly segregates outliers using isolation trees, exploiting the characteristic that outliers are easier to isolate due to their sparse nature, resulting in shorter paths within the trees. Our comprehensive evaluation demonstrates ArisNet’s superior denoising and outlier management capability, offering a robust solution that outperforms most of the existing point cloud denoising networks. This paper confirms the potential of ArisNet as a transformative approach for point cloud denoising, setting a new benchmark for noise resilience and outlier handling in the domain.
Mai: A Transformer Based Domain Specific Chatbot for Menstrual Health
Authors: Mughal Shafaq Fatima , Aamir Shayan , Samad Abdul , Zehra Umema , Syed Ayesha Asif 
Published: January 2025

Traditional health-seeking behaviors, particularly in menstrual health, are deeply rooted in local languages, sociocultural norms, and religious beliefs. These factors significantly influence women in South Asia and other developing regions, often proving detrimental to their physical and psychological health. Recognizing the multifaceted nature of these challenges, this article investigates the role of generative domain-specific chatbots as a supportive mechanism to enhance menstrual health-seeking behaviors among South-Asian women. Specifically, it aims to create and assess Mai, a conversational agent, which utilizes Roman-Urdu and English models to provide accurate information, thereby contributing to the broader effort of empowering women with knowledge and resources.
Due to a lack of conversational data in this domain, our research involves creating a dataset from existing English sources and translating it into Roman Urdu, presenting its own set of challenges. These datasets, specifically curated for this research, addressed a wide range of menstrual health topics. Despite being an English monolingual model, DialoGPT’s transformer architecture produced favorable results when fine-tuned on a Roman Urdu dataset. While the Roman Urdu version occasionally faced challenges with contextual understanding, both models achieved promising results. Automatic evaluation metrics indicated strong performance for Mai compared to baseline models. Likewise, user evaluations yielded average ratings of 4.2 and 4.3 (out of 5) for the Roman Urdu and English chatbots, respectively, and more than half of the medical professionals surveyed expressed willingness to recommend the dialogue system. Overall, our findings highlight the transformative potential of domain-specific dialogue systems in health education, with room for improvement in overcoming cultural and linguistic barriers to women’s health information access.
Diffuse Alveolar Hemorrhage Associated With Anti‐PL‐7 Antisynthetase Syndrome: A Case Report
Authors: Shiu Paul , Iriza Shannon , Templeton Steven 
Published: January 2025

Background: Diffuse alveolar hemorrhage (DAH) is a potentially life‐threatening condition which can present with hemoptysis, diffuse alveolar infiltrates, anemia, and hypoxic respiratory failure. Antisynthetase syndrome (AS) is a rare autoimmune disorder most often characterized by nonerosive arthritis, proximal muscle weakness with elevated muscle enzymes, Raynaud’s phenomenon, hyperkeratosis of the digits (mechanic’s hands), and interstitial lung disease. According to large population studies, AS has an annual incidence of 0.56 per 100,000 persons and prevalence of 9 per 100,000. The most common autoantibody is anti‐aminoacyl‐transfer RNA synthetase for histidine (anti‐Jo‐1) with a reported prevalence of 20%–30%, whereas anti‐Pl‐7 (for threonine) accounts for less than 5% of all autoimmune myositis. Specific myositis autoantibodies determine clinical phenotype. PL‐7 is characterized by interstitial lung disease, myositis, and arthritis. Autoimmune myositis, specifically AS, is a rare cause of DAH. Herein, we describe the first reported case of PL‐7‐associated AS with DAH.Case Presentation: A 41‐year‐old female presented with worsening shortness of breath and hemoptysis. Laboratory studies included a hemoglobin of 10.5 g/dL, mildly elevated liver enzymes, and a creatine phosphokinase (CPK) of nearly 4000 U/L. CT of the chest showed diffuse ground glass opacities bilaterally. Serial aliquots of the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid revealed progressively hemorrhagic return and histopathologic analysis consistent with DAH. Other concurrent causes of DAH were ruled out.Conclusion: Although rare, AS should be considered a cause of DAH, particularly in patients presenting with symptoms of muscle weakness and arthritis or with evidence of mechanic’s hands.
Diabetes Distress and Unmet Support Needs Hinder Optimal Care for Adolescents With Type 2 Diabetes: A Mixed Methods Study
Authors: Spajic Dana , Curran Jacqueline , Luu Yasmin , Shah Mark A. E. , Subramani Gitanjali , James Radhika , Oxlad Melissa , Speight Jane , Peña Alexia S. 
Published: January 2025

Objectives: Adolescents with type 2 diabetes (T2D) are more likely than those with type 1 diabetes (T1D) to develop complications soon after diagnosis. However, limited data exist about diabetes‐specific distress (DD) and how diabetes teams can better support adolescents with T2D. We aimed to assess DD and other aspects of emotional/mental health among adolescents with T2D and qualitatively explore their lived experience and support needs.Methods: This study used a cross‐sectional mixed methods survey of adolescents with T2D, recruited via two tertiary diabetes clinics. Study outcomes included the Diabetes Distress Scale (DDS), World Health Organization‐Five Well‐being Index (WHO‐5), Patient Health Questionnaire‐2 (PHQ‐2) and two free‐text questions concerning what they wished their health professionals understood about living with T2D and diabetes support. Descriptive statistics and inductive thematic analysis were applied.Results: Forty adolescents with T2D (22 females, predominantly from non‐Indigenous background) completed all questionnaires. Nineteen were taking metformin, 18 were taking metformin plus injectables, and 3 were on lifestyle management. They had mean ± standard deviation (SD) age of 15.7 ± 2.1 years, median (interquartile range [IQR]) diabetes duration of 1.8 (0.8–2.6) years and median (IQR) glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) of 6.9 (6.0–9.5)% (52 [42–80] mmol/mol). Twenty‐one (53%) adolescents had moderate‐to‐severe DD, 16 (40%) had suboptimal emotional well‐being, and 23 (58%) had depressive symptoms; 15 (38%) had both DD and depressive symptoms, while 11 (28%) had neither. Four themes described what adolescents wished their health professionals understood about living with diabetes: diabetes stigma, diabetes management burden, diabetes is challenging for young people and impact on mental health. Five themes described the support adolescents desired from their diabetes teams: show empathy and assist with motivation; mental health support; more frequent and convenient appointments; access to, and choice of, medications and management tools; and discussions about the future.Conclusions: Most adolescents with T2D experience significant DD, impaired general emotional well‐being and/or depressive symptoms. They also have considerable unmet support needs relevant to optimising their well‐being and diabetes self‐management.
Incidence, Prevalence, and Burden of Health Problems in Elite Female Ice Hockey Players—A One‐Season Prospective Study
Authors: Wörner Tobias , Eek Frida 
Published: January 2025

Introduction: Epidemiological studies on elite female ice hockey players are lacking but needed to tailor preventive efforts in this growing group of athletes. Therefore, the aim of this study was to describe the incidence, prevalence, and burden of health problems in elite female ice hockey players.Methods: In this prospective cohort study, we asked all Swedish Women’s Hockey League (SWHL) players (N = 207) to report their health status on the OSTRC‐H2 weekly throughout the 2022/2023 season (28 weeks). Reported problems were categorized as injuries (acute or overuse) or illnesses and presented as incidence per player season and mean weekly prevalence.Results: A total of 129 players (62% of all SWHL players) provided 2286 health reports with a mean weekly response rate of 67%. Mean weekly prevalence of health problems was 21% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 19–23) (injuries: 15% [95% CI: 14–17] and illnesses: 6% [95% CI: 5–8]). Injury incidence was 2.1 (95% CI: 1.8–2.4) per player season (acute: 1.2 [95% CI: 1.0–1.5] and overuse: 0.8 [95% CI: 0.7–1.1]). Illness incidence was 1.3 per player season (95% CI: 1.1–1.6). Most reported health problems were acute injuries (59.4% of reported injuries). Most common among acute injuries where to the shoulder (15%), head (13%), and knee (11%). The hip/groin was the most reported (35%) and burdensome (49% of severity score) region among overuse injuries. Reported illnesses were mostly represented by respiratory infections (75%).Conclusions: In average, one in five elite ice hockey players reported a health problem at any given time during the season. Results of this study highlight the need to develop and test primary prevention strategies for shoulder, head, and knee injuries and secondary prevention strategies for hip and groin problems.
Change in Metabolic Markers and the Risk of Skin Cancer: Results from the Lifelines Cohort Study in the Netherlands
Authors: Michael Shimelash , Grigory Sidorenkov , Bert van der Vegt , Mathilde Jalving , Emöke Rácz , Geertruida H. de Bock 
Published: January 2025

Abstract

Background:
Skin cancers are the most common cancers in Caucasians, and their incidence is rising. Although metabolic and anthropometric markers play a role in cancer development, the relationship between metabolic and anthropometric changes in skin cancer remains unclear. This study aimed to examine possible associations between these changes and the risk of skin cancer.

Methods:
Participants without prior skin cancer history from the Northern Netherlands representative of the general population were included. Histopathology data were obtained from the Dutch Nationwide Pathology Database. Adjusted Cox regression analyzed associations between metabolic changes and time to pathology-confirmed skin cancer incidence over a 7-year follow-up, assessing overall skin cancer risk and subtypes, including melanoma and nonmelanoma skin cancer.

Results:
Out of 97,106 participants, 4,195 (4.3%) developed skin cancer. Decrease and increase in body mass index (BMI) were both associated with lower skin cancer risk: adjusted HRs (aHR) of 0.88 (0.80–0.98) and 0.78 (0.72–0.86), respectively. Triglyceride and waist-to-hip ratio decreases were also associated with lower risk: aHR: 0.89 (0.80–0.98) and 0.89 (0.83–0.98), respectively. Increase in Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) was associated with a higher risk in individuals below the age of 45 years at baseline: aHR: 1.21 (1.01–1.45). Subtype analysis showed an increase in BMI was associated with lower melanoma risk: aHR: 0.72 (0.58–0.91).

Conclusions:
Changes in BMI and decrease in triglycerides and waist-to-hip ratio are related to lower skin cancer risk, whereas an increase in HbA1c may elevate risk in individuals younger than 45 at baseline. These findings highlight the importance of non-sunlight-related risk factors for skin cancer prevention and the need for further research into underlying mechanisms.

Impact:
This study contributes to the broader understanding of how metabolic health impacts skin cancer development, offering potential avenues for targeted prevention strategies.