bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Malaria attributable fractions with changing transmission intensity: Bayesian latent class vs logistic models
Authors: Mwai Kennedy , Nkumama Irene , Thairu Amos , Mburu James , Odera Dennis , Kimathi Rinter , Nyamako Lydia , Tuju James , Kinyanjui Samson , Musenge Eustasius , Osier Faith 
Published: November 2022

Abstract
Background
Asymptomatic carriage of malaria parasites is common in high transmission intensity areas and confounds clinical case definitions for research studies. This is important for investigations that aim to identify immune correlates of protection from clinical malaria. The proportion of fevers attributable to malaria parasites is widely used to define different thresholds of parasite density associated with febrile episodes. The varying intensity of malaria transmission was investigated to check whether it had a significant impact on the parasite density thresholds. The same dataset was used to explore an alternative statistical approach, using the probability of developing fevers as a choice over threshold cut-offs. The former has been reported to increase predictive power.

Methods
Data from children monitored longitudinally between 2005 and 2017 from Junju and Chonyi in Kilifi, Kenya were used. Performance comparison of Bayesian-latent class and logistic power models in estimating malaria attributable fractions and probabilities of having fever given a parasite density with changing malaria transmission intensity was done using Junju cohort. Zero-inflated beta regressions were used to assess the impact of using probabilities to evaluate anti-merozoite antibodies as correlates of protection, compared with multilevel binary regression using data from Chonyi and Junju.

Results
Malaria transmission intensity declined from over 49% to 5% between 2006 and 2017, respectively. During this period, malaria attributable fraction varied between 27–59% using logistic regression compared to 10–36% with the Bayesian latent class approach. Both models estimated similar patterns of fevers attributable to malaria with changing transmission intensities. The Bayesian latent class model performed well in estimating the probabilities of having fever, while the latter was efficient in determining the parasite density threshold. However, compared to the logistic power model, the Bayesian algorithm yielded lower estimates for both attributable fractions and probabilities of fever. In modelling the association of merozoite antibodies and clinical malaria, both approaches resulted in comparable estimates, but the utilization of probabilities had a better statistical fit.

Conclusions
Malaria attributable fractions, varied with an overall decline in the malaria transmission intensity in this setting but did not significantly impact the outcomes of analyses aimed at identifying immune correlates of protection. These data confirm the statistical advantage of using probabilities over binary data.
Aging, inflammaging and immunosenescence as risk factors of severe COVID-19
Authors: Tizazu Anteneh Mehari , Mengist Hylemariam Mihiretie , Demeke Gebreselassie 
Published: November 2022

AbstractCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory infectious disease caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). COVID-19 is characterized by having a heterogeneous disease course, ranging from asymptomatic and mild symptoms to more severe and critical cases. In most cases the severity of COVID-19 is related to host factors, especially deregulation of the immune response in patients. Even if COVID-19 indiscriminately affects individuals of different age group, ethnicity and economic status; most severe cases and disproportional mortality occur in elderly individuals. This point out that aging is one risk factor for unfavourable clinical outcomes among COVID-19 patients. The biology of aging is a complex process; Aging can alter the structure and function of cells, tissues, and organs resulting in impaired response to stress. Alongside with other systems, the immune system is also affected with the aging process. Immunosenescence is an age associated change in the immune system that affects the overall response to immunological challenges in the elderly. Similarly, apart from the normal inflammatory process, aging is associated with a low grade, sterile, chronic inflammation which is termed as inflammaging. We hypothesized that inflammaging and immunosenescence could play an important role in SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis and poor recovery from COVID-19 in elderly individuals. This review summarizes the changes in the immune system with age and how these changes play part in the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 and clinical outcome of COVID-19 which could add to the understanding of age associated targeted immunotherapy in the elderly.
Birthweight, childhood body size, and timing of puberty and risks of breast cancer by menopausal status and tumor receptor subtypes
Authors: Pedersen Dorthe C. , Jensen Britt W. , Tjønneland Anne , Andersen Zorana J. , Mellemkjaer Lene , Bjerregaard Lise G. , Aarestrup Julie , Baker Jennifer L. 
Published: November 2022

Abstract
Background
Associations of birthweight, childhood body size and pubertal timing with breast cancer risks by menopausal status and tumor receptor subtypes are inconclusive. Thus, we investigated these associations in a population-based cohort of Danish women.

Methods
We studied 162,419 women born between 1930 and 1996 from the Copenhagen School Health Records Register. The register includes information on birthweight, measured childhood weights and heights at the age of 7–13 years, and computed ages at the onset of the growth spurt (OGS) and at peak height velocity (PHV). The Danish Breast Cancer Cooperative Group database provided information on breast cancer (n = 7510), including estrogen receptor (ER), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) and menopausal status. Hormone replacement therapy use came from the Danish National Prescription Registry. Hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated by Cox regression.

Results
We found that birthweight was not associated with any breast cancer subtypes. While childhood BMI was not statistically significantly associated with ER+ tumors nor consistently with ER− tumors among pre-menopausal women, consistent inverse associations were found among postmenopausal women. At the age of 7 years, the HRs for postmenopausal ER+ and ER− tumors were 0.90 (95% CI 0.87–0.93) and 0.84 (95% CI 0.79–0.91) per BMI z-score, respectively. Similarly, childhood BMI was inversely associated with pre- and postmenopausal HER2− tumors, but not with HER2+ tumors. Childhood height was positively associated with both pre- and postmenopausal ER+ tumors, but not with ER− tumors. At the age of 7 years, the HRs for postmenopausal ER+ and ER− tumors were 1.09 (95% CI 1.06–1.12) and 1.02 (95% CI 0.96–1.09) per height z-score, respectively. In general, childhood height was positively associated with HER2+ and HER2− tumors among pre- and postmenopausal women. Ages at OGS and PHV were not associated with any breast cancer subtypes.

Conclusions
We showed that a high BMI and short stature in childhood are associated with reduced risks of certain breast cancer subtypes. Thus, childhood body composition may play a role in the development of breast cancer.
Further study on domains and quasihyperbolic distances
Authors: Ding Shusen , Helliwell Dylan , Pandya Gavin , Yae Arya 
Published: November 2022

AbstractWe establish constructive geometric tools for determining when a domain is $L^{s}$

L
s

-averaging and obtain upper and lower bounds for the $L^{s}$

L
s

-integrals of the quasihyperbolic distance. We also construct examples that are helpful to understand our geometric tools and the relationship between p-Poincaré domains and $L^{s}$

L
s

-averaging domains. Finally, finite unions of $L^{s}(\mu )$

L
s

(
μ
)
-averaging domains are explored.
Effect of povidone-iodine and propanol-based mecetronium ethyl sulphate on antimicrobial resistance and virulence in Staphylococcus aureus
Authors: Barakat Nada A. , Rasmy Salwa A. , Hosny Alaa El-Dien M. S. , Kashef Mona T. 
Published: November 2022

Abstract
Background
Reports are available on cross-resistance between antibiotics and biocides. We evaluated the effect of povidone-iodine (PVP-I) and propanol-based mecetronium ethyl sulphate (PBM) on resistance development, antibiotics cross-resistance, and virulence in Staphylococcus aureus.

Methods
The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of PVP-I and PBM were determined against S. aureus ATCC 25923 using the agar-dilution method. Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923 was subjected to subinhibitory concentrations of the tested biocides in ten consecutive passages followed by five passages in a biocide-free medium; MIC was determined after each passage and after the fifth passage in the biocide-free medium. The developed resistant mutant was tested for cross-resistance to different antibiotics using Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method. Antibiotic susceptibility profiles as well as biocides’ MIC were determined for 97 clinical S. aureus isolates. Isolates were categorized into susceptible and resistant to the tested biocides based on MIC distribution pattern. The virulence of the biocide-resistant mutant and the effect of subinhibitory concentrations of biocides on virulence (biofilm formation, hemolysin activity, and expression of virulence-related genes) were tested.

Results
PVP-I and PBM MIC were 5000 μg/mL and 664 μg/mL. No resistance developed to PVP-I but a 128-fold increase in PBM MIC was recorded, by repeated exposure. The developed PBM-resistant mutant acquired resistance to penicillin, cefoxitin, and ciprofloxacin. No clinical isolates were PVP-I-resistant while 48.5% were PBM-resistant. PBM-resistant isolates were more significantly detected among multidrug-resistant isolates. PVP-I subinhibitory concentrations (¼ and ½ of MIC) completely inhibited biofilm formation and significantly reduced hemolysin activity (7% and 0.28%, respectively). However, subinhibitory concentrations of PBM caused moderate reduction in biofilm activity and non-significant reduction in hemolysin activity. The ½ MIC of PVP-I significantly reduced the expression of hla, ebps, eno, fib, icaA, and icaD genes. The virulence of the biocide-resistant mutant was similar to that of parent strain.

Conclusion
PVP-I is a highly recommended antiseptic for use in healthcare settings to control the evolution of high-risk clones. Exposure to PVP-I causes no resistance-development risk in S. aureus, with virulence inhibition by subinhibitory concentrations. Also, special protocols need to be followed during PBM use in hospitals to avoid the selection of resistant strains.
Heat shock protein-70 is elevated in childhood primary immune thrombocytopenia
Authors: Ge Jiao , Liu Yan 
Published: November 2022

Abstract
Background
Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is an acquired autoimmune disorder characterized by the destruction of the platelets resulting from autoimmune recognition and subsequent attack. Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are directly associated with progression and pathogenesis in some specific autoimmune diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the serum expression of HSP-70 in ITP children and healthy controls.

Materials and methods
A total of 86 children aged 1–6 years were enrolled in the study. The participants were divided into 20 newly diagnosed ITP (ndITP), 34 chronic ITP (cITP) patients and 32 healthy children. The white blood cells and platelet counts were determined and compared between the groups. HSP-70 serum levels were analyzed by sandwich ELISA. Data analysis was done using SPSS and the data variables assessment was done through histogram, probability plots and Shapiro–Wilk tests to determine normal distribution.

Results
The white blood cell counts were 8.9 (4.2–10.4) for new diagnosis ITP, 7.1(3.9–11.9) for the chronic ITP group and 7.0 (4.3–9.5) for the healthy controls. The platelet counts were significantly increased in the chronic ITP group, 83.5(31.7–297) compared to the ndITP group 27.4 (3.7–63.7), but significantly lower compared to the healthy controls 271(172–462) (P = 0.0009). There were significantly increased HSP-70 serum levels in cITP patients compared to the ndITP and the healthy group. In addition, there was a positive correlation between the serum HSP-70 level and the thrombocyte counts among the ITP children.

Conclusions
HSP-70 has a role in the progression of childhood ITP. Increased HSP-70 level is associated with the severity of childhood primary ITP.
Potential Mediators of Oxaliplatin-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy From Adjuvant Therapy in Stage III Colon Cancer: Findings From CALGB (Alliance)/SWOG 80702
Authors: Lee Seohyuk , Ma Chao , Shi Qian , Kumar Pankaj , Couture Felix , Kuebler Philip , Krishnamurthi Smitha , Lewis DeQuincy , Tan Benjamin , Goldberg Richard M. , Venook Alan , Blanke Charles , O'Reilly Eileen M. , Shields Anthony F. , Meyerhardt Jeffrey A. 
Published: November 2022

PURPOSE We sought to evaluate the independent and interactive associations of planned treatment duration, celecoxib use, physical activity, body mass index (BMI), diabetes mellitus, and vitamin B6 with oxaliplatin-induced peripheral neuropathy (OIPN) among patients with stage III colon cancer enrolled in a clinical trial. METHODS We conducted a prospective, observational study of 2,450 patients with stage III colon cancer enrolled in the CALGB/SWOG 80702 trial, randomly assigned to 6 versus 12 cycles of adjuvant fluorouracil, leucovorin, and oxaliplatin chemotherapy with or without 3 years of celecoxib. OIPN was reported using the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) during and following completion of chemotherapy and the FACT/GOG-NTX-13 15-17 months after random assignment. Multivariate analyses were adjusted for baseline sociodemographic and clinical factors. RESULTS Patients assigned to 12 treatment cycles, relative to 6, were significantly more likely to experience higher-grade CTCAE- and FACT/GOG-NTX-13-reported neuropathy and longer times to resolution, while neither celecoxib nor vitamin B6 intake attenuated OIPN. Exercising ≥ 9 MET-hours per week after treatment relative to < 9 was associated with improvements in FACT/GOG-NTX-13-reported OIPN (adjusted difference in means, 1.47; 95% CI, 0.49 to 2.45; P = .003). Compared with patients with baseline BMIs < 25, those with BMIs ≥ 25 were at significantly greater risk of developing higher-grade CTCAE-reported OIPN during (adjusted odds ratio, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.00 to 1.40; P = .05) and following completion (adjusted odds ratio, 1.23; 95% CI, 1.01 to 1.50; P = .04) of oxaliplatin treatment. Patients with diabetes were significantly more likely to experience worse FACT/GOG-NTX-13-reported neuropathy relative to those without (adjusted difference in means, –2.0; 95% CI, –3.3 to –0.73; P = .002). There were no significant interactions between oxaliplatin treatment duration and any of these potentially modifiable exposures. CONCLUSION Lower physical activity, higher BMI, diabetes, and longer planned treatment duration, but not celecoxib use or vitamin B6 intake, may be associated with significantly increased OIPN severity.
Increased Circulating Cortisol After Vaginal Birth Is Associated With Increased FGF19 Secretion in Neonatal Pigs
Authors: Vonderohe Caitlin , Guthrie Gregory , Stoll Barbara , Hebib Valeria Melendez , Dawson Harry , Burrin Douglas 
Published: November 2022

Abstract
The influence of birth modality (scheduled cesarean or spontaneous vaginal) on the development of the newborn has been a source of controversy in neonatology. The impact of cesarean vs vaginal birth on the development of bile acid and fibroblast growth factor 19 (FGF19) signaling is unknown. Our aim was to determine the effect of birth modality and gestational age (preterm vs term) on plasma hormone levels, bile acid pool distribution, expression of genes in the bile acid-FXR-FGF19 pathway, and plasma levels of FGF19 at birth and on day 3 of life in neonatal pigs. Four sows underwent cesarean delivery on gestation day 105 (n = 2) and 114 (n = 2; term = 115 days), and 2 additional sows were allowed to farrow at term (gestation days 112 and 118). Piglets were euthanized at birth (Term-Vaginal n = 6; Term-Cesarean n = 8; Preterm n = 10) for tissue and blood collection, and the remaining pigs received total parenteral nutrition then were fed enterally on day 3 (Term-Vaginal n = 8; Term-Cesarean n = 10; Preterm n = 8), before blood and tissue were collected. Piglets born vaginally had a markedly (30-fold) higher plasma FGF19 at birth than term pigs born via cesarean delivery, and 70-fold higher than preterm pigs (P &lt; 0.001). However, distal ileum FGF19 gene expression was similar in all groups (P &gt; 0.05). Plasma FGF19 positively correlated with plasma cortisol (r = 0.58; P &lt; 0.05) and dexamethasone treatment increased ileal FGF19 expression in cultured pig tissue explants and human enteroids. Our findings suggest that exposure to maternal or endogenous glucocorticoids in the perinatal period may upregulate the development of the bile acid–FGF19 pathway.
Paper Bomb Warfare: Propaganda Leaflets about Consumerism in South Korea during the Park Chung Hee Period (1961–1979)
Authors: Lee Anna Jungeun 
Published: November 2022

Abstract
This article examines South Korean propaganda leaflets as a border-crossing medium designed as “paper bombs,” or psychological weapons, of the continued Korean War during the Park Chung Hee period. Instead of focusing on the militaristic elements of the earlier leaflets, this article traces the propaganda leaflets’ evolving content about daily economic life and consumption. Historically embedded in the larger narratives of political, ideological, and institutional changes of society in postwar South Korea, the article captures both the materiality and transient nature of the leaflets themselves and the purpose they served as cultural advertisement tools signaling the shifting atmosphere of the Cold War context in Korea. In the leaflets, leisure, consumption, and the pleasures of shopping were exaggerated and magnified, intended to entice the North Korean population and invite them to a different way of life, the “everyday life of consumption” in material comfort and a lifestyle of well-being. Stimulating a way to rethink political penetration into private economic lives, the leaflets became printed windows through which to visualize the forbidden possibilities of capitalism and consumerist modernity, generating internal conflict and the desire to defect to South Korea.
Politics of Literary Materiality: Yun Ihyŏng and Postmillennial South Korean Literature
Authors: Chung Jae Won Edward 
Published: November 2022

Abstract
In the 1990s, South Korean literature underwent a crisis of relevance due to the changing materiality of cultural production as shaped by globalization, neoliberalism, and technological saturation. Nevertheless, the postmillennial decades have witnessed an efflorescence of new styles and voices in the literary field. Abroad, South Korean literature in translation has achieved unprecedented success in Anglophone publishing. At home, #MeToo has converged with structural critiques against the literary institution, animated by online social movements and new paradigms for understanding relationships between politics, affect, and everyday life. This article begins by exploring these phenomena through the framework of “literary materiality,” understood as a set of contradictions about tangible and intangible properties distributed across intransitivity of signs, book-as-thing, codes and networks, material conditions of writerly life, and entities that confer and mediate literary value. The article goes on to examine the case of Yun Ihyŏng, whose oeuvre and activism have mobilized against the culture of literary commodification operating immanently in and across these forms. This article argues that her attempt to claim moral autonomy from the South Korean literary system is a promising vector in the ongoing struggle to dis-alienate literary culture in the age of neoliberal globalization.
“Rubbed Inflections of Litany and Myth”
Authors: Kang Nancy 
Published: November 2022

Abstract
Ciguapas are mythical creatures, typically represented as naked, comely females with uniquely backward feet. Such anatomy renders their path virtually untraceable. Legends suggest they inhabit remote mountains and forests in the Dominican Republic, preying on men. This essay steps away from the predatory archetype, formulating a theory of women’s loss and mourning through the motif of “forward backwardness” epitomized by the ciguapa’s feet. Using selections from the work of Dominican American poet Rhina P. Espaillat (b. 1932), the author outlines the feminist paradigm of ciguapismo, a fundamentally paradoxical mode for understanding how women endure in times of personal grief, awareness of aging, and under the shadow of sexual violence. It is also a form of environmental reckoning centered on collective care. Whether set in the Caribbean or the U.S. Dominican diaspora, ciguapismo in Espaillat’s poetry offers a critical resource, an imaginative faculty, and a liminal ontology for mapping transformative feminist intimacies against a backdrop of ever-encroaching human and environmental losses.
Unweepable Wounds Unwept
Authors: Lott Patricia Ann 
Published: November 2022

Abstract
This essay analyzes Harriet E. Wilson’s Our Nig (1859) as a book of lamentations for its bereaved black subject’s mother loss, social death, and prematurely ended girlhood. More specifically, it examines a daughter’s devastation over her natal alienation, violent domination, and general degradation within a hurtful herstory in which white motherhood and white mistresshood are sisters in subjugation. The author literarily autopsies Nig’s raciogenesis as black, her sociopolitical genealogy as enslaved, and her etiology as melancholic. This essay conceptualizes the domestic maternal passage as her transfer from white mother to mistress, a passage that sets in motion her exile from home and entrance into the hell of slavery. This passage is procreative of her social death and an open wound in her memory of mother loss and her mother hunger. Moreover, she is plagued by racial melancholia insofar as she bewails being governed as black and covets whiteness. Nig tends to her inner wounds by mourning, but social death chokes off her measures to work through her losses. This affective asphyxiation illustrates that her psychic condition arises not from an inner inability to digest loss but from external impediments that forcibly prescribe her inconsolability. This plight delineates Nig as a figure of unweepable wounds unwept in a grievous herstory.