bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
From decidualization to pregnancy progression: An overview of immune and metabolic effects of VIP
Authors: Ramhorst Rosanna , Grasso Esteban , Vota Daiana , Gori Soledad , Hauk Vanesa , Paparini Daniel , Calo Guillermina , Pérez Leirós Claudia 
Published: July 2022

AbstractBackgroundA tight immune and metabolic regulation underlies the early maternal‐placental interaction to assist the energetic dynamic demands of the fetus throughout pregnancy. The vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) holds biochemical, metabolic and immune properties consistent with a regulatory role during pregnancy.AimHere we overview critical aspects of embryo implantation and placental development with special focus on the immune and metabolic effects of VIP expressed by decidual and trophoblast cells.ContentDuring decidualization, endometrial stromal cells undergo reticular stress and trigger unfolded protein response (UPR) that enable expansion of their endoplasmic reticulum and immunomodulatory factor synthesis. These processes appear differentially affected in recurrent abortion and in vitro fertilization failure suggesting their relevance in reproductive pathologies. Similarly, defective placentation associates with altered immune, vascular and trophoblast interaction resulting in complicated pregnancies that threaten maternal and neonatal health and underlie metabolic programming of adult life. We discuss the most recent research on decidual, trophoblast and immune cell interaction on the light of VIP regulation. Its role in decidualization and UPR associated with a sterile inflammatory response and angiogenesis is discussed. Evidence on VIP modulation of cytotrophoblast cell function, metabolism and immune profile is revised as well as the shaping of decidual leukocyte phenotype and function from decidualization to term.ImplicationsThe broad spectrum of effects of VIP from implantation to term in normal and pathological conditions summarized here might contribute to the identification of novel biomarkers for diagnosis and pharmacological targeting.
Solutions for Surrogacy Validation with Longitudinal Outcomes for a Gene Therapy
Authors: Roberts Emily K. , Elliott Michael R. , Taylor Jeremy M. G. 
Published: July 2022

Abstract
Valid surrogate endpoints S can be used as a substitute for a true outcome of interest T to measure treatment efficacy in a clinical trial. We propose a causal inference approach to validate a surrogate by incorporating longitudinal measurements of the true outcomes using a mixed modeling approach, and we define models and quantities for validation that may vary across the study period using principal surrogacy criteria. We consider a surrogate-dependent treatment efficacy curve that allows us to validate the surrogate at different time points. We extend these methods to accommodate a delayed-start treatment design where all patients eventually receive the treatment. Not all parameters are identified in the general setting. We apply a Bayesian approach for estimation and inference, utilizing more informative prior distributions for selected parameters. We consider the sensitivity of these prior assumptions as well as assumptions of independence among certain counterfactual quantities conditional on pretreatment covariates to improve identifiability. We examine the frequentist properties (bias of point and variance estimates, credible interval coverage) of a Bayesian imputation method. Our work is motivated by a clinical trial of a gene therapy where the functional outcomes are measured repeatedly throughout the trial.
Detecting and managing partial shorts in Cochlear implants: A validation of scalp surface potential testing
Authors: Eitutis Susan T. , Tam Yu Chuen , Roberts Iwan , Swords Chloe , Tysome James R. , Donnelly Neil P. , Axon Patrick R. , Bance Manohar L. 
Published: July 2022

AbstractObjectiveTo investigate the value of scalp surface potentials to identify and manage partial short circuits to ground in cochlear implant electrodes.DesignA retrospective review of patients with suspected partial short circuits.Main outcome measureElectrical output of individual electrodes was measured using scalp surface potentials for patients reporting a change in hearing function. Electrical output was compared to functional performance and impedance measurements to determine if devices with suspected partial short circuits were experiencing a decrease in performance as a result of reduced electrical output. Electrical output was checked in an artificial cochlea for two implants following explant surgery to confirm scalp surface potential results.ResultsAll patients with suspected partial short circuits (n = 49) had reduced electrical output, a drop in impedances to approximately ½ of previously stable measurements or to below 2 kΩ, an atypical electrical field measurement (EFI) and a decline in hearing function. Only devices with an atypical EFI showed reduced electrical output. Results of scalp based surface potentials could be replicated in an artificial cochlea following explantation of the device. All explant reports received to date (n = 42) have confirmed partial short circuits, with an additional four devices failing integrity tests.ConclusionSurface potential measurements can detect partial shorts and had 100% correlation with atypical EFI measurements, which are characteristic of a partial short to ground in this device. Surface potentials can help determine the degree to which the electrode array is affected, particularly when behavioural testing is limited or not possible.
Linking evolutionary dynamics to species extinction for flowering plants in global biodiversity hotspots
Authors: Fu Quansheng , Huang Xianhan , Li Lijuan , Jin Yi , Qian Hong , Kuai Xinyuan , Ye Yaojun , Wang Hengchang , Deng Tao , Sun Hang 
Published: July 2022

AbstractAimBiodiversity hotspots are regions with the highest species richness, and the most threatened species. Previous studies have shown that the extinction risk may be more related to evolutionary history than to species' traits. However, there is a knowledge gap on the relationship between evolutionary history and species extinction risk in biodiversity hotspots. Here, we link evolutionary history to species extinction risk for flowering plants (angiosperms) in global biodiversity hotspots.LocationGlobal biodiversity hotspots.MethodsWe calculated historical evolutionary measures (family species richness, family age, family diversification rate and the ratio of crown age to stem age) of angiosperms from 36 global biodiversity hotspots, which were grouped into 27 regions. Bayesian binomial‐logit univariate and multivariable regression models in conjunction with phylogenetic control and null models were used to identify the evolutionary history predictors of extinction risk for the 27 regions as a whole and for each of the regions.ResultsFamily species richness, family age and family diversification rate are all good indicators for predicting extinction risk. Specifically, when all the 27 regions were considered as a whole, families with higher species richness, older age and/or faster diversification rates have a higher risk of species extinction. However, high extinction risk in some regions, especially in temperate regions, tends to occur in families with low species richness and low diversification rates.Main conclusionsGeographic origin and evolutionary history of species should be jointly taken into account in conservation planning. In general, protection priority should be given to families with high species richness, ancient origins and fast diversification rate because these families seem to be prone to higher extinction risk. Additionally, different strategies should be applied to protect biodiversity in temperate versus tropical regions given that factors affecting extinction risk are different between these regions.
Niemann–Pick type C disease as proof‐of‐concept for intelligent biomarker panel selection in neurometabolic disorders
Authors: Papandreou Apostolos , Doykov Ivan , Spiewak Justyna , Komarov Nikita , Habermann Stephanie , Kurian Manju A. , Mills Philippa B. , Mills Kevin , Gissen Paul , Heywood Wendy E. ,   Clinical cohort recruitment and characterization group
Published: July 2022

AbstractAimUsing Niemann–Pick type C disease (NPC) as a paradigm, we aimed to improve biomarker discovery in patients with neurometabolic disorders.MethodUsing a multiplexed liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry dried bloodspot assay, we developed a selective intelligent biomarker panel to monitor known biomarkers N‐palmitoyl‐O‐phosphocholineserine and 3β,5α,6β‐trihydroxy‐cholanoyl‐glycine as well as compounds predicted to be affected in NPC pathology. We applied this panel to a clinically relevant paediatric patient cohort (n = 75; 35 males, 40 females; mean age 7 years 6 months, range 4 days–19 years 8 months) presenting with neurodevelopmental and/or neurodegenerative pathology, similar to that observed in NPC.ResultsThe panel had a far superior performance compared with individual biomarkers. Namely, NPC‐related established biomarkers used individually had 91% to 97% specificity but the combined panel had 100% specificity. Moreover, multivariate analysis revealed long‐chain isoforms of glucosylceramide were elevated and very specific for patients with NPC.InterpretationDespite advancements in next‐generation sequencing and precision medicine, neurological non‐enzymatic disorders remain difficult to diagnose and lack robust biomarkers or routine functional testing for genetic variants of unknown significance. Biomarker panels may have better diagnostic accuracy than individual biomarkers in neurometabolic disorders, hence they can facilitate more prompt disease identification and implementation of emerging targeted, disease‐specific therapies.What this paper adds

Intelligent biomarker panel design can help expedite diagnosis in neurometabolic disorders.
In Niemann–Pick type C disease, such a panel performed better than individual biomarkers.
Biomarker panels are easy to implement and widely applicable to neurometabolic conditions.
Accelerometer‐measured physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep in children with cerebral palsy and their adherence to the 24‐hour activity guidelines
Authors: Hulst Raquel Y. , Gorter Jan Willem , Obeid Joyce , Voorman Jeanine M. , van Rijssen Ilse M. , Gerritsen Anke , Visser‐Meily Johanna M. A. , Pillen Sigrid , Verschuren Olaf 
Published: July 2022

AbstractAimTo measure and describe the 24‐hour activities (i.e. physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep) and to examine adherence to the 24‐hour activity guidelines among children with cerebral palsy (CP) using actigraphy.MethodChildren's 24‐hour activities were recorded over 7 days using hip‐ and wrist‐worn ActiGraph wGT3X‐BT accelerometers.ResultsIn total, 362 days and 340 nights from 54 children with CP (Gross Motor Function Classification System [GMFCS] levels I–III; 44% females; median age [range] 6 years 6 months [3–12 years]) were included. Mean (SD) daily wear time was 746.2 (48.9) minutes, of which children spent on average 33.8% in light physical activity (251.6 [58.7] minutes per day), 5.2% in moderate‐to‐vigorous physical activity (38.5 [20.1] minutes per day), and the remaining 61.1% being sedentary (456.1 [80.4] minutes per day). Physical activity decreased while sedentary behavior increased with increasing GMFCS level. In total, 13% of all children met the physical activity recommendations, and 35% met the age‐appropriate sleep duration recommendation. The proportion of children meeting the combined 24‐hour guidelines for physical activity and sleep was low (5.9%), especially in those classified in GMFCS level III (0%).InterpretationThe observed low 24‐hour guideline adherence rates emphasize the importance of considering the entire continuum of movement behaviors in the care of children with CP, in efforts to promote healthy lifestyle behaviors and prevent negative health outcomes.
Factors controlling the effects of mutualistic bacteria on plants associated with fungi
Authors: Bastías Daniel A. , Applegate Emma R. , Johnson Linda J. , Card Stuart D. 
Published: July 2022

AbstractPlants interacting with mutualistic fungi (MF) or antagonistic fungi (AF) can form associations with bacteria. We assessed whether the performance gain conferred by mutualistic bacteria to fungal‐associated plants is affected by the interaction between symbiont traits, type of bacterial‐protective traits against AF and abiotic/biotic stresses. Results showed that (A) performance gain conferred by bacteria to MF‐associated plants was greater when symbionts promoted distinct rather than similar plant functions, (B) bacterial‐based alleviation of the AF's negative effect on plants was independent of the type of protective trait, (C) bacteria promoted a greater performance of symbiotic plants in presence of biotic, but not abiotic, stress compared to stress‐free situations. The plant performance gain was not affected by any fungal‐bacterial trait combination but optimised when bacteria conferred resistance traits in biotic stress situations. The effects of bacteria on fungal‐associated plants were controlled by the interaction between the symbionts' functional traits and the relationship between bacterial traits and abiotic/biotic stresses.
S‐shaped and V‐shaped binary African vulture optimization algorithm for feature selection
Authors: Balakrishnan Kulandaivel , Dhanalakshmi Ramasamy , Seetharaman Gopalakrishnan 
Published: July 2022

AbstractThe African vulture optimization algorithm (AVOA) is a recently developed metaheuristic algorithm that imitates the eating and movement patterns of authentic African vultures. AVOA is developed to address the continuous optimization problem. However, AVOA is unable to solve the discrete search space, this inspires us to develop the binary AVOA for feature selection problems in classification tasks. The suggested BAVOA incorporates an eight‐transfer function (S‐shaped and V‐shaped) for transforming a continuous variable to a binary one. Using 14 benchmark data sets, the proposed technique is compared against 15 conventional binary metaheuristics algorithms in terms of classification accuracy, fitness function, number of selected features and converging ability. Furthermore, the results are statistically analysed using Wilcoxon test. The comparative findings of S‐Shaped and V‐shaped transfer functions indicate the superior performance of BAVOA methods, particularly S2‐BAVOA, in contrast to other transfer function. Based on results, it turns out that the suggested technique converges to the global minimum in several iterations based on the selection of optimal characteristics, fitness values and higher classification accuracy as compared to the classical binary metaheuristic algorithms.
Multi‐objective memetic approach for the optimal web services composition
Authors: Azouz Yacine , Boughaci Dalila 
Published: July 2022

AbstractService composition is the process of combining a set of elementary or atomic services. The aim is to produce a new composite service to satisfy the user's request that cannot be satisfied by the atomic services. Combining multiple services is a complex problem that has been the subject of several research studies. The meta‐heuristic approaches are good techniques that have been used to solve several complex problems in various domains. These techniques are able to discover promising search regions and locate good quality solutions in reasonable time without exploring the whole solution space. In this paper, we deal with the problem of optimal web service composition by using meta‐heuristic approaches. Given a set of services and a set of tasks to be completed, the problem is to find the best set of services composition to complete all tasks where each service must be assigned to a given task. This problem can be modelled as a combinatorial optimization problem with a set of objective functions that need to be optimized. We search for a composite service that allows us to execute the considered tasks and offers the best quality of services (QoS). More precisely, we search for an execution plan that indicates for each task the assigned service. First, we propose a multi‐objective local search based meta‐heuristic (MO‐LS) and a multi‐objective genetic algorithm (MO‐GA) to handle our problem. Then we propose a multi‐objective memetic algorithm (MO‐MA) that combines the two methods LS and GA. The role of GA is to detect promising regions to be explored. The role of LS is to exploit efficiently the potential regions created by GA. Four objective functions are used to compute the Pareto optimal set of solutions. The main objective is to minimize cost and time and to maximize availability and reputation and produce a good composite service. The three proposed approaches namely MO‐LS, MO‐GA, and MO‐MA are evaluated on some datasets generated randomly and on the well‐known QWS dataset to select the best fit services in terms of maximum or minimum aggregated end‐to‐end QoS parameters. The numerical results are encouraging and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed MO‐MA for the web service composition.
A case study: A technological insight on teaching translation
Authors: Pardo‐Ballester Cristina 
Published: July 2022

AbstractThis case study examines an online introductory Spanish‐English translation course focused on learning Spanish through machine translation. Fifty‐three Spanish learners were guided by their teacher to rethink, reflect, and interpret what Google Translate offered. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of learners' reports and teacher feedback revealed that the evaluative task design led to (a) high percentages of learners' interlinguistic and intercultural awareness and (b) translation methods awareness for more than half of the learners. Participants' responses to a literary translation assignment were explored through teacher scaffolding for learners to understand how to differentiate lexical to phrasal levels in a text, with the aim to translate also the style of the source text for the American audience. Pedagogical implications will be shared on how a teacher‐learner approach on translation tasks prepared students for the language awareness learning process.
Gender‐just language teaching and linguistic competence development
Authors: Knisely Kris Aric 
Published: July 2022

AbstractWithin a broad turn toward identity‐focused pedagogies, educators are increasingly recognizing the critical impetus to engage with gender in expansive and inclusive ways. However, challenges persist. Often inadequate supports are exacerbated by a lack of empirical investigations into whether and how gender‐just language teaching may contribute to student learning. Thus, very little is known about how this ethical imperative interfaces with linguistic outcomes. To respond, this study analyzed linguistic accuracy and complexity in assignment data from 112 US undergraduate students enrolled in one of three iterations of an intermediate French course, which varied in whether and when gender‐just pedagogies were introduced. Results indicated that gender‐just language pedagogies contribute to significantly lower overall mean error rates but do not have a statistically significant relationship with mean length of utterance. Implications are discussed, including the clear benefit of an early‐and‐often approach to gender justice in the language classroom.
How do dentists perceive portable dentistry? A qualitative study conducted in Quebec
Authors: Fathi Homa , Rousseau Jacqueline , Bedos Christophe 
Published: July 2022

IntroductionPeople with impaired mobility face difficulty accessing dental care. One solution is portable dentistry, which includes delivering dental care in homes or residential institutions. Dentists, however, appear reluctant to offer such services. Our objective was to understand how dentists perceived portable dentistry and potential challenges to its implementation.MethodsWe conducted a qualitative descriptive study based on semi‐structured interviews with a sample of dentists in Quebec, Canada. We employed a combination of maximum variation and snowball sampling strategies to recruit 14 participants. The interviews were conducted and audio‐recorded through Zoom and lasted approximately 40 minutes. After transcribing them, we performed a thematic analysis with a combination of inductive and deductive coding.ResultsDespite perceiving portable dentistry as a valuable practice model, participants showed little interest in adopting this approach, arguing it was not every dentist's “job” to provide portable services. They believed portable dentistry must be financially burdensome and difficult to integrate into their daily work due to lack of time and portable equipment. Accordingly, participants considered it was the duty of governments, professional organisations overseeing dentistry education and practice, and dental schools to develop portable dentistry programs and hire dentists to deliver such services.ConclusionsTo promote portable dentistry, it may be necessary to improve the knowledge and competencies of dentists, but also to challenge their professional identity as well as the current model of dental clinics as the standard of care delivery. To achieve this, we need strong leadership from dental schools, professional organisations and government.
Screening for malnutrition with malnutrition inflammation score and geriatric nutritional risk index in hemodialysis patients
Authors: Deniz Güneş Burcu , Köksal Eda 
Published: July 2022

AbstractBackground and aimsScreening malnutrition, which is the most common complication in hemodialysis patients, is extremely important for these patients. Malnutrition inflammation score (MIS) and geriatric nutritional risk index (GNRI) are malnutrition screening tests used in hemodialysis patients in recent years. The purposes of this study are to evaluate the nutritional status of hemodialysis patients with different screening tests and to determine the cutoff values for this disease‐specific MIS and GNRI.MethodsThe study was conducted with 194 adult patients including 98 males and 96 females whose mean age was 53.1 ± 10.96. Subjective global assessment (SGA) and MIS tests were applied, and the GNRI value was calculated for screening malnutrition. MIS and GNRI cutoff values were obtained by adopting the SGA scores as a standard and drawing a receiver operating characteristic curve. The tatistical Package for the Social Sciences‐22.0 package program was used in the analysis.ResultsAccording to SGA, 70.7% of the patients were nourished, 21.1% were mildly‐moderately malnourished, and 8.2% were found to be severely malnourished. The optimal cutoff value predicted for malnutrition was 6.5 points (94.7% sensitivity and 98.5% specificity) for MIS and 86.0 points (64.9% sensitivity and 62.8% specificity) for GNRI. Based on these cutoff values, 28.9% of the patients were determined to be malnourished according to MIS and 45.4% according to GNRI.ConclusionIn conclusion, screening tests are very important in the early identification of malnutrition in hemodialysis patients. This study was conducted to evaluate the malnutrition of hemodialysis patients with different screening tests. At the end of the study, the availability of MIS was found to be high in detecting malnutrition in hemodialysis patients because of its high accuracy and sensitivity of MIS. The cutoff points we identified for both MIS and GNRI are thought to facilitate the determination of malnutrition.