bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Combined systemic immune-inflammatory index and prognostic nutritional index predict outcomes in advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients receiving platinum-doublet chemotherapy
Authors: Fan Ruiyun , Chen Ying , Xu Guopeng , Pan Wen , Lv Yantian , Zhang Zhongwei 
Published: April 2023

BackgroundSystemic immune-inflammatory index (SII) and prognostic nutritional index (PNI) could evaluate the therapeutic efficacy and prognosis in different tumors. However, no studies investigated the SII-PNI score to predict outcomes in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated with platinum-doublet chemotherapy. The aim of this study was to investigate the SII-PNI score in predicting outcomes in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated with platinum-doublet chemotherapy.Materials and methodsOur study retrospectively analyzed clinical data from 124 patients with advanced NSCLC receiving platinum-doublet chemotherapy. The SII and PNI were calculated based on peripheral blood cell counts and serum albumin, and the optimal cut-off values were determined using receiver operating characteristic (ROC). All patients were divided into three groups according to the SII-PNI score. The association between the SII-PNI score and the clinicopathological characteristics of the patients was examined. The Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression models were used to assess progression-free survival (PFS)and overall survival (OS).ResultsThere was no significant correlation between SII, PNI at baseline and chemotherapy response in patients with advanced NSCLC (p&gt;0.05). However, after receiving 4 cycles of platinum-doublet chemotherapy, the SII of the SD group (p=0.0369) and PD group (p=0.0286) was significantly higher than that of the PR group. At the same time, the PNI of the SD group (p=0.0112) and the PD group (p=0.0007) was significantly lower than that of the PR group. The PFS of patients with SII-PNI scores of 0, 1, and 2 were 12.0, 7.0, and 5.0 months, and the OS of patients with SII-PNI scores of 0, 1, and 2 were 34.0, 17.0, and 10.5 months, respectively. There was statistical significance among the three groups (all p &lt;0.001). Multivariate analyses showed that the chemotherapy response of progressive disease (PD) (HR, 3.508; 95% CI, 1.546-7.960; p=0.003) and SII-PNI score of 2 (HR, 4.732; 95% CI, 2.561-8.743; p &lt; 0.001) were independently associated with a shorter OS. The uses of targeted drugs (HR, 0.543; 95% CI, 0.329-0.898; p=0.017) and immune checkpoint inhibitors (HR, 0.218; 95% CI, 0.081-0.584; p=0.002) were protective factors for OS in patients with NSCLC.ConclusionCompared with baseline parameters, the correlation between SII, PNI after 4 cycles of chemotherapy and the chemotherapy effect was more significant. The SII-PNI score after 4 cycles of chemotherapy is an effective prognostic biomarker for advanced NSCLC patients treated with platinum-doublet chemotherapy. Patients with a higher SII-PNI score had a worse prognosis.
Addressing maternal medication use during breastfeeding using clinical resources and a novel physiologically based pharmacokinetic model-derived metric: A qualitative study
Authors: Yeung Cindy Hoi Ting , Houle Sherilyn K. D. , Anderson Philip O. , Best Brookie M. , Dubinsky Samuel , Edginton Andrea N. 
Published: April 2023

IntroductionBreastfeeding has major benefits to the maternal-infant dyad and yet healthcare providers have expressed uncertainty about advocating breastfeeding when mothers are taking medications. The tendency for some providers to be more cautious in their advising approach is likely a consequence of limited, unfamiliar, and unreliable existing information on medication use during lactation. A novel risk metric termed the Upper Area Under the Curve Ratio (UAR) was developed to overcome existing resource shortcomings. However, the perception and use of the UAR in practice by providers is not known. The aim of this study was to understand existing resource use and potential UAR use in practice, their advantages and disadvantages, and areas of improvement for the UAR.MethodsHealthcare providers mainly practicing in California with experience advising on medication use during lactation were recruited. One-on-one semi-structured interviews that included questions on current practices when advising medication use during breastfeeding, and approaches to a given a scenario with and without information about the UAR were conducted. The Framework Method was applied for data analysis to construct themes and codes.ResultsTwenty-eight providers representing multiple professions and disciplines were interviewed. Six main themes emerged: (1) Current Practice Approaches, (2) Advantages of Existing Resources, (3) Disadvantages of Existing Resources, (4) Advantages of the UAR, (5) Disadvantages of the UAR, and (6) Strategies to Improve the UAR. Overall, 108 codes were identified that illustrated theme topics ranging from a general lack of metric use to the realities of advising. A workflow describing current practice approaches connected all other themes. Almost all disadvantages of existing resources could be overcome by advantages of other resources and the UAR. Several improvements to the UAR were identified to address its shortcomings.ConclusionThrough interviews with providers who use resources to advise on medication use during breastfeeding, an improved understanding of current practice approaches and accessed resources was ascertained. Ultimately, it was found that the UAR would confer multiple benefits over existing resources, and improvements of the UAR were identified. Future work should focus on implementing the suggested recommendations to ensure optimal uptake of the UAR to improve advising practices.
Development of a nomogram model to predict malignant vasovagal syncope in Chinese children
Authors: Sun Rui , Kang Yingying , Zhang Mingming , Wang Hongmao , Shi Lin , Li Xiaohui 
Published: April 2023

ObjectiveVasovagal syncope (VVS) is the commonest form of syncope, and malignant VVS draws substantial attention due to its life-threatening cardiac asystolic risk. This study aimed to explore the predictive role of a wide panel of clinical indicators for malignant VVS in children, and further to develop a nomogram model.MethodsThis is a retrospective case-control study. VVS is diagnosed based on head-up tilt test (HUTT). STATA software (version 14.0) was used for statistical analysis, and effect sizes are expressed as odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI).ResultsTotal 370 children with VVS were analyzed, and of them 16 children had malignant VVS. Sixteen malignant VVS and 64 non-malignant VVS were matched on age and sex by a 1:4 propensity scores matching method. Mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) and standard deviation of average RR intervals milliseconds (SDANN) were significantly and independently associated with malignant VVS after adjusting for confounders, with OR reaching 1.437 (95% CI: 1.044 to 1.979; P = 0.026) and 1.035 (95% CI: 1.003 to 1.068; P = 0.029), respectively. Calibration and discrimination analyses revealed that the addition of MCH and SDANN can enhance model performance. Then, a nomogram to predict malignant VVS was developed using general characteristics and two above significant factors, and higher values in medical history, number of syncope, MCH and SDANN were associated with a greater risk of malignant VVS.ConclusionMCH and SDANN were two promising factors for the development of malignant VVS, and modeling of significant factors in a nomogram can provide strong reference to aid clinical decision-making.
Geniposide plus chlorogenic acid reverses non-alcoholic steatohepatitis via regulation of gut microbiota and bile acid signaling in a mouse model in vivo
Authors: Li Hongshan , Xi Yingfei , Xin Xin , Feng Qin , Hu Yiyang 
Published: April 2023

Background: Geniposide and chlorogenic acid are the major active ingredients in Yinchenhao Decoction and are widely used as herbal medicines in Asia. This study further assessed their effects on improvement of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) in a mouse model and explored the underlying molecular events in vivo.Methods: Male C57BL/6 and farnesoid X receptor knockout (FXR−/−) mice were used to establish the NASH model and were treated with or without geniposide, chlorogenic acid, obeticholic acid (OCA), and antibiotics for assessment of the serum and tissue levels of various biochemical parameters, bile acid, DNA sequencing of bacterial 16S amplicon, protein expression, and histology.Results: The data showed that the combination of geniposide and chlorogenic acid (GC) reduced the levels of blood and liver lipids, serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and the liver tissue index in NASH mice. In addition, GC treatment improved the intestinal microbial disorders in the NASH mice as well as the intestinal and serum bile acid metabolism. At the gene level, GC induced FXR signaling, i.e., increased the expression of FXR, small heterodimer partner (SHP), and bile salt export pump (BSEP) in liver tissues and fibroblast growth factor 15 (FGF15) expression in the ileal tissues of NASH mice. However, antibiotics (ampicillin, neomycin, vancomycin, and tinidazole) in drinking water (ADW) reversed the effect of GC on NASH and altered the gut microbiota in NASH mice in vivo. Furthermore, GC treatment failed to improve NASH in the FXR−/− mouse NASH model in vivo, indicating that the effectiveness of GC treatment might be through FXR signaling activation.Conclusion: GC was able to alleviate NASH by improving the gut microbiome and activating FXR signaling; its effect was better than each individual agent alone.
Integrative bioinformatics approaches to establish potential prognostic immune-related genes signature and drugs in the non-small cell lung cancer microenvironment
Authors: Zhou Jiao , Shi Shan , Qiu Yeqing , Jin Zhongwen , Yu Wenyan , Xie Rongzhi , Zhang Hongyu 
Published: April 2023

Introduction: Research has revealed that the tumor microenvironment (TME) is associated with the progression of malignancy. The combination of meaningful prognostic biomarkers related to the TME is expected to be a reliable direction for improving the diagnosis and treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).Method and Result: Therefore, to better understand the connection between the TME and survival outcomes of NSCLC, we used the “DESeq2” R package to mine the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of two groups of NSCLC samples according to the optimal cutoff value of the immune score through the ESTIMATE algorithm. A total of 978 up-DEGs and 828 down-DEGs were eventually identified. A fifteen-gene prognostic signature was established via LASSO and Cox regression analysis and further divided the patients into two risk sets. The survival outcome of high-risk patients was significantly worse than that of low-risk patients in both the TCGA and two external validation sets (p-value &lt; 0.05). The gene signature showed high predictive accuracy in TCGA (1-year area under the time-dependent ROC curve (AUC) = 0.722, 2-year AUC = 0.708, 3-year AUC = 0.686). The nomogram comprised of the risk score and related clinicopathological information was constructed, and calibration plots and ROC curves were applied, KEGG and GSEA analyses showed that the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) pathway, E2F target pathway and immune-associated pathway were mainly involved in the high-risk group. Further somatic mutation and immune analyses were conducted to compare the differences between the two groups. Drug sensitivity provides a potential treatment basis for clinical treatment. Finally, EREG and ADH1C were selected as the key prognostic genes of the two overlapping results from PPI and multiple Cox analyses. They were verified by comparing the mRNA expression in cell lines and protein expression in the HPA database, and clinical validation further confirmed the effectiveness of key genes.Conclusion: In conclusion, we obtained an immune-related fifteen-gene prognostic signature and potential mechanism and sensitive drugs underling the prognosis model, which may provide accurate prognosis prediction and available strategies for NSCLC.
Enhanced external counterpulsation modulates the heartbeat evoked potential
Authors: Liu Hongyun , Liang Hui , Yu Xiaohua , Wang Guojing , Han Yi , Yan Muyang , Li Shijun , Wang Weidong 
Published: April 2023

Introduction: Accumulating evidence suggests that enhanced external counterpulsation (EECP) influences cardiac functions, hemodynamic characteristics and cerebral blood flow. However, little is known about whether or how the EECP affects the brain-heart coupling to produce these physiological and functional changes. We aimed to determine if the brain-heart coupling is altered during or after EECP intervention by assessing the heartbeat evoked potential (HEP) in healthy adults.Methods: Based on a random sham-controlled design, simultaneous electroencephalography and electrocardiography signals as well as blood pressure and flow status data were recorded before, during and after two consecutive 30-min EECP in 40 healthy adults (female/male: 17/23; age: 23.1 ± 2.3 years). HEP amplitude, frequency domain heart rate variability, electroencephalographic power and hemodynamic measurements of 21 subjects (female/male: 10/11; age: 22.7 ± 2.1 years) receiving active EECP were calculated and compared with those of 19 sham control subjects (female/male: 7/12; age: 23.6 ± 2.5 years).Results: EECP intervention caused immediate obvious fluctuations of HEP from 100 to 400 ms after T-peak and increased HEP amplitudes in the (155–169) ms, (354–389) ms and (367–387) ms time windows after T-peak in the region of the frontal pole lobe. The modifications in HEP amplitude were not associated with changes in the analyzed significant physiological measurements and hemodynamic variables.Discussion: Our study provides evidence that the HEP is modulated by immediate EECP stimuli. We speculate that the increased HEP induced by EECP may be a marker of enhanced brain-heart coupling. HEP may serve as a candidate biomarker for the effects and responsiveness to EECP.
Characteristics of historical precipitation for winter wheat cropping in the semi-arid and semi-humid area
Authors: Fang Dan , Huang Jingyao , Sun Weiwei , Ullah Najeeb , Jin Suwen , Song Youhong 
Published: April 2023

Winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is one of major crops in the area along Huai river, China where it is a semi-arid and semi-humid region with sufficient precipitation for an entire season, but with uneven distribution within various growth stages. The instability of precipitation is an important factor in limiting wheat production potential under climate change. Therefore, it is essential to characterise the precipitation associated with different crop developmental stages. Based on climate data from 1999 to 2020 in six representative meteorological stations, we characterised the historical precipitation relating to seven key growth stages in winter wheat. There is no clear trend of interannual variation of precipitation for wheat season, with an average of precipitation of 414.4 ± 121.2 mm. In terms of the distribution of precipitation grade within a season, light rain was dominant. Continuous rain occurred frequently during the pre-winter seedling and overwintering stages. The critical period of water demand, such as jointing and booting, has less precipitation. The fluctuation range of precipitation in sowing, heading-filling and maturation stages is large, which means that there is flood and drought at times. In conclusion, these findings provide a foundation for instructing winter wheat cropping in confronting with waterlogging and drought risk due to uneven precipitation in ‘Yanhuai’ region, China.
Crop pest image classification based on improved densely connected convolutional network
Authors: Peng Hongxing , Xu Huiming , Gao Zongmei , Zhou Zhiyan , Tian Xingguo , Deng Qianting , He Huijun , Xian Chunlong 
Published: April 2023

IntroductionCrop pests have a great impact on the quality and yield of crops. The use of deep learning for the identification of crop pests is important for crop precise management.MethodsTo address the lack of data set and poor classification accuracy in current pest research, a large-scale pest data set named HQIP102 is built and the pest identification model named MADN is proposed. There are some problems with the IP102 large crop pest dataset, such as some pest categories are wrong and pest subjects are missing from the images. In this study, the IP102 data set was carefully filtered to obtain the HQIP102 data set, which contains 47,393 images of 102 pest classes on eight crops. The MADN model improves the representation capability of DenseNet in three aspects. Firstly, the Selective Kernel unit is introduced into the DenseNet model, which can adaptively adjust the size of the receptive field according to the input and capture target objects of different sizes more effectively. Secondly, in order to make the features obey a stable distribution, the Representative Batch Normalization module is used in the DenseNet model. In addition, adaptive selection of whether to activate neurons can improve the performance of the network, for which the ACON activation function is used in the DenseNet model. Finally, the MADN model is constituted by ensemble learning.ResultsExperimental results show that MADN achieved an accuracy and F1Score of 75.28% and 65.46% on the HQIP102 data set, an improvement of 5.17 percentage points and 5.20 percentage points compared to the pre-improvement DenseNet-121. Compared with ResNet-101, the accuracy and F1Score of MADN model improved by 10.48 percentage points and 10.56 percentage points, while the parameters size decreased by 35.37%. Deploying models to cloud servers with mobile application provides help in securing crop yield and quality.
The effects of anxiety on practice behaviors and performance quality in expert pianists
Authors: Passarotto Edoardo , Worschech Florian , Altenmüller Eckart 
Published: April 2023

IntroductionDuring their career, musicians need to undergo intense periods of training to master musical instruments and become accomplished artists. Dysfunctional practice behaviors and anxiety are often mentioned among the possible risk factors for playing-related injuries in musicians. However, the mechanism through which these might lead to the onset of these injuries is still unclear. The present study aims at overcoming this limitation by investigating the relationship between quantitative measurements of anxiety, practice behaviors and music performance quality.MethodsThe experiment consisted in monitoring practice behaviors in 30 pianists practicing a short musical task.ResultsMost self-report anxiety measurements were positively correlated with practice time, especially those collected right before the practice sessions. Similar correlations were identified between anxiety and the number of repetitions of the musical task. Physiological markers of anxiety were only weakly related to practice behaviors. Subsequent analyses showed that high levels of anxiety were associated with poor quality of music performances at baseline. Nevertheless, the interaction between participants’ learning rate and anxiety measures showed no association with performance quality scores. Moreover, anxiety and performance quality co-developed during practice sessions, showing that pianists who improved their playing were also less anxious in the latter part of the experiment.DiscussionThese findings suggest that anxious musicians are likely at higher risk of developing playing-related injuries related to overuse and repetitive strains. Future directions and clinical implications are discussed.
Time trends and heterogeneity in the disease burden of visual impairment due to cataract, 1990–2019: A global analysis
Authors: Han Xiaotong , Zou Minjie , Liu Zhenzhen , Sun Yi , Young Charlotte Aimee , Zheng Danying , Jin Guangming 
Published: April 2023

ObjectivesThis study aimed to estimate the disease burden of cataract and evaluate the contributions of risk factors to cataract-associated disability-adjusted life years (DALYs).Materials and methodsPrevalence and DALYs of visual impairment due to cataract were extracted from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study 2019 to explore time trends and annual changes. Regional and country-level socioeconomic indexes were obtained from open databases. The time trend of prevalence and DALYs was demonstrated. Stepwise multiple linear regression was used to evaluate associations between the age-standardized rate of DALYs of cataract and potential predictors.ResultsGlobal Prevalence rate of visual impairment due to cataract rose by 58.45% to 1,253.9 per 100,000 population (95% CI: 1,103.3 to 1,417.7 per 100,000 population) in 2019 and the DALYs rate rose by 32.18% from 65.3 per 100,000 population (95% CI: 46.4 to 88.2 per 100,000 population) in 1990 to 86.3 per 100,000 population (95% CI: 61.5 to 116.4 per 100,000 population) in 2019. Stepwise multiple linear regression model showed that higher refractive error prevalence (β = 0.036, 95% CI: 0.022, 0.050, P &lt; 0.001), lower number of physicians per 10,000 population (β = −0.959, 95% CI: −1.685, −0.233, P = 0.010), and lower level of HDI (β = −134.93, 95% CI: −209.84, −60.02, P = 0.001) were associated with a higher disease burden of cataract.ConclusionSubstantial increases in the prevalence of visual impairment and DALYs of cataract were observed from 1990 to 2019. Successful global initiatives targeting improving cataract surgical rate and quality, especially in regions with lower socioeconomic status, is a prerequisite to combating this growing burden of cataract in the aging society.
A coupled and coordinated analysis in livelihoods of poverty alleviation migrants from a just transition perspective
Authors: Tao Siji , Shi Guoqing 
Published: April 2023

IntroductionFrom 2016 to 2020, China resettled 9.6 million poor people for the purpose of poverty alleviation. While this policy achieved the goal of eliminating absolute poverty, it also caused massive displacement and problems related to achieving a “just transition”. This study considers the “coupled coordination model” of resettlement, and examines livelihood capital and livelihood stability, from the perspective of “just transition”.MethodsThis study is based on survey data gathered in Lanping County, Yunnan Province from 235 resettled people that belong to “ethnic minority groups directly-entering-socialism”, making use of the livelihood capital assessment index system of farm households which is based on China's poverty alleviation resettlement policy and background-established a “coupled coordination degree model” which coordinates and combines livelihood capital and livelihood stability analyzes how accumulation of livelihood capital affects livelihood stability.ResultsResults indicate that (1) resettlement and supportive measures increased the coupling and coordination of migrants' household livelihood capital and livelihood stability.; (2) This type of coupled coordination led to a change from “dysfunctional decline type” to a “transitional development type”, thus reflecting “just transition”; (3) Although livelihood capital had an important positive impact on the coupling and coordination of migrants livelihood coupling and coordination, different livelihood strategies influenced livelihood coupling and coordination in different ways.DiscussionThis requires that government decision makers focus on facilitating a “just transition” as migrants become urbanized citizens. Disposing of natural resources such as farmland for migrants, promoting the implementation of land circulation policies, considering the contribution of different types of livelihood capital to different families, improving the precision of employment training, and promoting sustainable livelihood development.