bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Impact of a disability-targeted livelihoods programme in Bangladesh: study protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial of STAR+
Authors: Banks Lena Morgon , Das Narayan , Davey Calum , Adiba Afsana , Ali M. Mahzuz , Shakespeare Tom , Fleming Coral , Kuper Hannah 
Published: December 2022

Abstract
Introduction
There is little evidence on the impact of livelihood interventions amongst people with disabilities. Effective programmes are critical for reducing the heightened risk of poverty and unemployment facing persons with disabilities. STAR+ is a skills development and job placement programme targeted to out-of-school youth with disabilities (ages 14–35) living in poverty. It is a disability-targeted adaptation to an existing, effective intervention (STAR), which has been designed to address barriers to decent work for people with disabilities. This protocol describes the design of a cluster randomised controlled trial of STAR+ in 39 of the 64 districts of Bangladesh.

Methods
BRAC has identified 1500 youth with disabilities eligible for STAR+ across its 91 branch offices (typically a geographical areas covering about 8 km radius from local BRAC office) catchment areas (clusters). BRAC has limited funding to deliver STAR+ and so 45 of the 91 branches have been randomly allocated to implement STAR+ (intervention arm). The remaining 46 branches will not deliver STAR+ at this time (control arm). Participants in the control-arm will receive usual care, meaning they are free to enrol in any other livelihood programmes run by BRAC or other organisations including standard STAR (being run in 15 control branches). The cRCT will assess the impact of STAR+ after 12 months on employment status and earnings (primary outcomes), as well as poverty, participation and quality of life (secondary outcomes). Analysis will be through intention-to-treat, with a random mixed effect at cluster level to account for the clustered design. Complementary qualitative research with participants will be conducted to triangulate findings of the cRCT, and a process evaluation will assess implementation fidelity, mechanisms of impact and the role of contextual factors in shaping variations in outcomes.

Discussion
This trial will provide evidence on the impact of a large-scale, disability-targeted intervention. Knowledge on the effectiveness of programmes is critical for informing policy and programming to address poverty and marginalisation amongst this group. Currently, there is little robust data on the effectiveness of livelihood programmes amongst people with disabilities, and so this trial will fill an important evidence gap.

Trial registration
This study has been registered with the Registry for International Development Impact Evaluations, (RIDIE Study ID: 6238114b481ad) on February 25, 2022, and the ISRCTN Registry (ID: ISRCTN15742977).
Tailoring the expression of Xyr1 leads to efficient production of lignocellulolytic enzymes in Trichoderma reesei for improved saccharification of corncob residues
Authors: Shen Linjing , Yan Aiqin , Wang Yifan , Wang Yubo , Liu Hong , Zhong Yaohua 
Published: December 2022

Abstract
Background
The filamentous fungus Trichoderma reesei is extensively used for the industrial-scale cellulase production. It has been well known that the transcription factor Xyr1 plays an important role in the regulatory network controlling cellulase gene expression. However, the role of Xyr1 in the regulation of cellulase expression has not been comprehensively elucidated, which hinders further improvement of lignocellulolytic enzyme production.

Results
Here, the expression dosage of xyr1 was tailored in T. reesei by differentially overexpressing the xyr1 gene under the control of three strong promoters (Pegl2, Pcbh1, and Pcdna1), and the transcript abundance of xyr1 was elevated 5.8-, 12.6-, and 47.2-fold, respectively. We found expression of cellulase genes was significantly increased in the Pegl2-driven xyr1 overexpression strain QE2X, whereas relatively low in the Pcbh1- and Pcdna1-driven overexpression strains. We also found that the Pegl2-driven overexpression of xyr1 caused a more significant opening of chromatin in the core promoter region of the prominent cellulase genes. Furthermore, the cellulase activity showed a 3.2-fold increase in the strain QE2X, while insignificant improvement in the Pcbh1- and Pcdna1-driven strains. Finally, the saccharification efficiency toward acid-pretreated corncob residues containing high-content lignin by the crude enzyme from QE2X was increased by 57.2% compared to that from the parental strain. Moreover, LC–MS/MS and RT-qPCR analysis revealed that expression of accessory proteins (Cip1, Cip2, Swo1, and LPMOs) was greatly improved in QE2X, which partly explained the promoting effect of the Pegl2-driven overexpression on enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulose biomass.

Conclusions
Our results underpin that the precise tailoring expression of xyr1 is essential for highly efficient cellulase synthesis, which provide new insights into the role of Xyr1 in regulating cellulase expression in T. reesei. Moreover, these results also provides a prospective strategy for strain improvement to enhance the lignocellulolytic enzyme production for use in biorefinery applications.
Genetic variants of the GLP-1R gene affect the susceptibility and glucose metabolism of gestational diabetes mellitus: a two-center nested case‒control study
Authors: Luo Ping , Fan Ying , Xiong Yusha , Feng Hua , Yang Zhiping , Zhang Chunlin , Mei Bing 
Published: December 2022

Abstract
Background
Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is the most common complication during pregnancy, occurring under the combined action of environmental and genetic factors. Genetic variants of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) have been reported to affect insulin secretion and susceptibility to type 2 diabetes. This study aimed to explore the role of GLP-1R polymorphisms in GDM and glucose metabolism.

Methods
A two-center nested case‒control study was designed, including 200 pregnant women with GDM and 200 pregnant women without GDM genotyped for five tag SNPs of GLP-1R using Sanger sequencing. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the relationship between GLP-1R polymorphisms and GDM risk. Glucose and insulin concentrations were measured based upon the 75 g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). Beta cell function of different genotypes was estimated with the 60 min insulinogenic index (IGI60) and OGTT-derived disposition index (DI).

Results
Mutant genotype AG + GG of tag SNP rs6458093 nominally increased GDM risk (p = 0.049), especially among subjects younger than 35 years (p = 0.024) and with BMI no less than 24 (p = 0.041), after adjusting for confounders. Meanwhile, compared with subjects with wild genotype AA, subjects with genotype AG + GG of rs6458093 also showed nominally significantly lower IGI60 (p = 0.032) and DI (p = 0.029), as well as significantly higher 75 g OGTT-based 1 h glucose load plasma glucose levels (p = 0.045). Moreover, the mutant heterozygous genotype GA of tag SNP rs3765467 nominally decreased GDM risk among subjects older than 35 years (p = 0.037) but showed no association with insulin secretion and glucose homeostasis.

Conclusions
Tag SNP rs6458093 of GLP-1R was nominally associated with increased GDM risk and affected beta cell function and postprandial glucose metabolism, while tag SNP rs3765467 of GLP-1R was nominally associated with decreased GDM risk, providing evidence for molecular markers and etiological study of GDM.
Non-insulin-based insulin resistance indexes in predicting severity for coronary artery disease
Authors: Zhang Yu , Wang Ruiling , Fu Xuelian , Song Haiyan 
Published: December 2022

AbstractBackgroundTriglyceride and glucose (TyG) index, triglyceride glucose-body mass (TyG-BMI) index, triglyceride to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (TG/HDL-C) ratio, and metabolic score for insulin resistance (METS-IR) are considered simple and reliable indicators of insulin resistance (IR). Although they have been associated with coronary artery disease (CAD), evidence supporting this is limited. Here, this is the first study to demonstrate the relationship between TyG-BMI index and CAD severity. The performance of the four non-insulin-based IR indexes in predicting CAD severity was explored.MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed 485 CAD patients between August 2020 and August 2021 in China, who were assigned into single- and multi-vessel CAD groups according to the coronary angiography (CAG) results. All patients were stratified into groups based on the tertiles of the TyG index, TyG-BMI index, TG/HDL-C ratio, and METS-IR.ResultsPatients in the multi-vessel CAD group had significantly higher TyG index, TyG-BMI index, TG/HDL-C ratio and METS-IR than those in the single-vessel CAD group. After adjusting for confounding factors, these four indicators were significantly associated with the risk of multi-vessel CAD. Notably, the highest tertile of TyG index, TyG-BMI index, TG/HDL-C ratio and METS-IR were significantly associated with the risk of multi-vessel CAD compared to participants in the lowest tertile. We also constructed receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, to assess CAD severity. The area under the curve (AUC) of the ROC plots was 0.673 (95% CI 0.620–0.726;P < 0.001) for TyG index, while those for the TyG-BMI index, TG/HDL-C ratio, and METS-IR were 0.704 (95% CI 0.652–0.755;P < 0.001), 0.652 (95% CI 0.597–0.708;P < 0.001), and 0.726 (95% CI 0.677–0.775;P < 0.001), respectively.ConclusionsTyG-BMI index is not only significantly associated with CAD severity, but is also an independent risk factor for multi-vessel CAD. The TyG index, TyG-BMI index, TG/HDL-C ratio, and METS-IR could be valuable predictors of CAD severity. Among the four non-insulin-based IR indexes, METS-IR had the highest predictive value, followed by TyG-BMI index.
Clinically relevant benzoxaboroles inhibit mRNA processing in Trypanosoma brucei
Authors: Waithaka Albina , Clayton Christine 
Published: December 2022

Abstract
Objective
The cleavage and polyadenylation endonuclease CPSF73 is thought to be the target of the anti-trypanosomal benzoxaboroles AN7973, acoziborole and AN11736. We previously showed that AN7973 inhibits mRNA processing. We here investigated whether the drug candidates acoziborole (for human sleeping sickness) and AN11736 (for nagana in cattle) have the same effect. We also affinity purified tagged CPSF73 from parasites without, or after, AN7973 treatment, and analysed differentially co-purified proteins by mass spectrometry.

Results
AN11736 and acoziborole both inhibited mRNA processing, as demonstrated by decreased levels of spliced mRNAs and accumulation of di- and tri-cistronic mRNAs from the alpha-beta tubulin locus. Treating the cells with AN7973 for 30 min. did not significantly affect the proteins that copurified with CPSF73.
Added value of histogram analysis of ADC in predicting radiation-induced temporal lobe injury of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma treated by intensity-modulated radiotherapy
Authors: Bao Dan , Zhao Yanfeng , Wu Wenli , Zhong Hongxia , Yuan Meng , Li Lin , Lin Meng , Zhao Xinming , Luo Dehong 
Published: December 2022

Abstract
Background
This study evaluated the predictive potential of histogram analysis derived from apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps in radiation-induced temporal lobe injury (RTLI) of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) after intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT).

Results
Pretreatment diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) of the temporal lobes of 214 patients with NPC was retrospectively analyzed to obtain ADC histogram parameters. Of the 18 histogram parameters derived from ADC maps, 7 statistically significant variables in the univariate analysis were included in the multivariate logistic regression analysis. The final best prediction model selected by backward stepwise elimination with Akaike information criteria as the stopping rule included kurtosis, maximum energy, range, and total energy. A Rad-score was established by combining the four variables, and it provided areas under the curve (AUCs) of 0.95 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.91–0.98) and 0.89 (95% CI 0.81–0.97) in the training and validation cohorts, respectively. The combined model, integrating the Rad-score with the T stage (p = 0.02), showed a favorable prediction performance in the training and validation cohorts (AUC = 0.96 and 0.87, respectively). The calibration curves showed a good agreement between the predicted and actual RTLI occurrences.

Conclusions
Pretreatment histogram analysis of ADC maps and their combination with the T stage showed a satisfactory ability to predict RTLI in NPC after IMRT.
Leukemic retinopathy presenting as concurrent bilateral subhyaloid hemorrhage and subarachnoid hemorrhage in a patient with acute monocytic leukemia: a case report
Authors: Ghanbarnia MohammadJavad , Sedaghat Sadegh , Rasoulinejad Seyed Ahmad 
Published: December 2022

Abstract
Background
Ophthalmic manifestations are common in patients with leukemia, developing in nearly 50% of cases. Intracranial hemorrhage is another potentially fatal complication of leukemia. In this case report, we aim to present a challenging case that involves both ophthalmic and intracranial manifestations in an individual with acute monocytic leukemia.

Case presentation
A 36-year-old Persian male presented to the emergency room with complaints of fever, headache, and bilateral blurred vision. The patient had been diagnosed with acute monocytic leukemia 3 months prior and had undergone four sessions of induction chemotherapy, the last of which was 10 days prior to admission. The patient was admitted to the internal medicine service, and initial lab studies confirmed pancytopenia, including severe neutropenia, anemia, and thrombocytopenia. Subarachnoid hemorrhage in the left frontal lobe was detected through spiral brain computed tomography scan. Ophthalmic examination revealed visual acuity of light perception in the right eye and 3-m finger count in the left eye. Fundus examination revealed bilateral peripapillary subhyaloid and intraretinal hemorrhages, confirming leukemic retinopathy. The patient showed significant improvement in visual acuity and hemorrhage resolution through conservative treatment and regular follow-ups after 3 months.

Conclusion
Simultaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage and bilateral subhyaloid hemorrhages seemed to have occurred as a result of pancytopenia. Management approach of ophthalmic manifestations of leukemia involves interdisciplinary cooperation and should be individualized on the basis of the patients’ underlying medical condition.
A multicentric prospective observational study of diagnosis and prognosis features in ICU mesenteric ischemia: the DIAGOMI study
Authors: Bourcier Simon , Ulmann Guillaume , Jamme Matthieu , Savary Guillaume , Paul Marine , Benghanem Sarah , Lavillegrand Jean-Rémi , Schmidt Matthieu , Luyt Charles-Edouard , Maury Eric , Combes Alain , Pène Frédéric , Neveux Nathalie , Cariou Alain 
Published: December 2022

Abstract
Background
Non-occlusive mesenteric ischemia (NOMI) is a challenging diagnosis and is associated with extremely high mortality in critically ill patients, particularly due to delayed diagnosis and when complicated by intestinal necrosis. Plasma citrulline and intestinal-fatty acid binding protein (I-FABP) have been proposed as potential biomarkers, but have never been studied prospectively in this setting. We aimed to investigate diagnostic features, the accuracy of plasma citrulline and I-FABP to diagnose NOMI and intestinal necrosis as well as prognosis.

Methods
We conducted a prospective observational study in 3 tertiary ICU centers in consecutive patients with NOMI suspicion defined by at least two inclusion criteria among: new-onset or worsening circulatory failure, gastrointestinal dysfunction, biological signs and CT-scan signs of mesenteric ischemia. Diagnosis features and outcomes were compared according to NOMI, intestinal necrosis or ruled out diagnosis using stringent classification criteria.

Results
Diagnosis of NOMI was suspected in 61 patients and confirmed for 33 patients, with intestinal necrosis occurring in 27 patients. Clinical digestive signs, routine laboratory results and CT signs of mesenteric ischemia did not discriminate intestinal necrosis from ischemia without necrosis. Plasma I-FABP was significantly increased in presence of intestinal necrosis (AUC 0.83 [0.70–0.96]). A threshold of 3114 pg/mL showed a sensitivity of 70% [50–86], specificity of 85% [55–98], a negative predictive value of 58% [36–93] and a positive predictive value 90% [67–96] for intestinal necrosis diagnosis. When intestinal necrosis was present, surgical resection was significantly associated with ICU survival (38.5%), whereas no patient survived without necrosis resection (HR = 0.31 [0.12–0.75], p = 0.01).

Conclusion
In critically ill patients with NOMI, intestinal necrosis was associated with extremely high mortality, and increased survival when necrosis resection was performed. Elevated plasma I-FABP was associated with the diagnosis of intestinal necrosis. Further studies are needed to investigate plasma I-FABP and citrulline performance in less severe forms of NOMI.
Improved scheme and evaluation method for progressive visual cryptography
Authors: Le Thanh Thai Binh , Tanaka Hidema , Watanabe Kohtaro 
Published: December 2022

AbstractVisual cryptography (VC) is a powerful technique with high security and requires no PC or device to reconstruct the secret information. Progressive visual cryptography (PVC) is a variation of the VC scheme in which the quality of the reconstructed image is improved by increasing the number of shared images. The previous study focused directly on maximizing the value of the quality in the completely reconstructed image; thus, there is a difference in the quality of the shared images. In this paper, we focus on the aforementioned issue and propose a new approach based on inductive reasoning. Our basic idea is to maximize the quality of the reconstructed images each time the number of shared images increases. We call this method the bottom-up approach. Moreover, hitherto, PVC has been evaluated based on the value of relative difference or by sight. Such evaluation methods are only subjective or difficult to execute without the knowledge of basis matrices. In addition, PVC users cannot easily confirm the effectiveness of their shared images. In this paper, we propose a new information-theoretic evaluation method for PVC, which only uses shared images, to solve the aforementioned problems. Our proposed method can objectively and quantitatively evaluate PVC based on the numerical value, and PVC users can easily confirm the effectiveness of their shared images.
PMHE: a wearable medical sensor assisted framework for health care based on blockchain and privacy computing
Authors: Zhao Jindong , Wang Wenshuo , Wang Dan , Wang Xuan , Mu Chunxiao 
Published: December 2022

AbstractNowadays, smart medical cloud platforms have become a new direction in the industry. However, because the medical system involves personal physiological data, user privacy in data transmission and processing is also easy to leak in the smart medical cloud platform. This paper proposed a medical data privacy preserving framework named PMHE based on blockchain and fully homomorphic encryption technology. The framework receives personal physiological data from wearable devices on the client side, and uses blockchain as data storage to ensure that the data cannot be tampered with or forged; Besides, it uses fully homomorphic encryption method to design disease prediction models implemented by smart contracts. In PMHE, data is encoded and encrypted on the client side, and encrypted data is uploaded to the cloud platform via the public Internet, preventing privacy leakage caused by channel eavesdropping; smart contracts run on the blockchain platform for disease prediction, and the operators participating in computing are encrypted user data too. So, privacy and security issues caused by platform data leakage are avoided. The client-to-cloud interaction protocol is also designed to overcome the defect that fully homomorphic encryption only supports addition and multiplication by submitting tuples on the client side, to ensure that the prediction model can perform complex computing. In addition, the design of the smart contract is introduced in detail, and the performance of the system is analyzed. Finally, experiments are conducted to verify the operating effect of the system, ensuring that user privacy is not leaked without affecting the accuracy of the model, and realizing a smart medical cloud platform in which data can be used but cannot be borrowed.
Inhibitory activities of vitamins K2 against clinical isolates of quinolone-resistant and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (QR-MRSA) with different multi-locus sequence types (MLST), SCCmec, and spa types
Authors: Pasandideh Naime Kashefi , Tahmasebi Hamed , Dehbashi Sanaz , zeyni Behrouz , Arabestani Mohammad Reza 
Published: December 2022

Abstract
Background
The inhibitory activities of vitamins K2 against clinical isolates of quinolone-resistant and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (QR-MRSA) are unclear. The main aim is to better understand of inhibitory activities of vitamins K2, multi-locus sequence typing (MLST), SCCmec, and spa typing in clinical isolates of QR-MRSA on those mutation and gene expressions.

Materials and methods
After collecting S. aureus clinical isolates and detecting QR-MRSA, the genes encoding norA, grlA, grlB, gyrA, and gyrB were sequenced. After treating isolates by vitamin K2, isolates were prepared to measure norA, grlA, grlB, gyrA, and gyrB gene expression. The quantitative-real-time PCR was used to measure the expression of efflux pump genes.

Results
QR-MRSA, MDR, and XDR strains were reported in 59.4%, 73.9%, and 37.6% of isolates, respectability. SCCmecIV (36.5%) and SCCmecV (26.8%) had the highest frequency. Thirty-nine spa types were identified, t021, t044, and t267 types most prevalent in QR-MRSA isolates. ST22 and ST30 dominated the invasive, drug-resistant isolates and QR-MRSA. In 24 h incubated isolates, the most noticeable change of gene expression with vitamin K2 was that the norA, gyrA, and grlB genes were highly repressed. However, the down-regulation of grlA at 24 h after being treated by vitamin K2 was more than another gene. Further, a significant decrease was observed in QR-MRSA-treated isolates compared to un-treated isolates. In other words, norA, grlA, grlB, gyrA, and gyrB genes were less suppressed by QR-MRSA (p ≤ 0.01, p ≤ 0.05).

Conclusion
Vitamin K2 has significant inhibitory effects on the genes responsible for resistance to fluoroquinolone antibiotics. However, a subminimum inhibitory concentration (sub-MIC) level of vitamin K2 was delayed but did not completely inhibit norA, grlA, grlB, gyrA, and gyrB genes in MRSA strains.