bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Clinical characteristics and pachychoroid incidence in Japanese patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration
Authors: Matsumoto Hidetaka , Hoshino Junki , Mukai Ryo , Nakamura Kosuke , Kishi Shoji , Akiyama Hideo 
Published: March 2022

AbstractThe phenotypes of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) are recognized as differing between Caucasian and Asian patients. Pachychoroid is thought to be more prevalent in Asians than in Caucasians, and may be involved in the development of nAMD in Asian patients. Therefore, we investigated the clinical characteristics and pachychoroid incidence in Japanese patients with nAMD. We retrospectively analyzed 385 eyes of 370 consecutive Japanese patients with treatment naïve nAMD. According to the nAMD nomenclature, type 1 macular neovascularization (MNV) was observed in 132 eyes (34.3%), polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) in 137 (35.6%), mixed type 1 and type 2 MNV in 32 (8.3%), type 2 MNV in 43 (11.2%), and type 3 MNV in 41 (10.6%). Pachychoroid was seen in 58.3% of type 1 MNV, 75.2% of PCV, 34.4% of mixed type 1 and type 2 MNV, 14.0% of type 2 MNV, and 0% of type 3 MNV. Compared to nAMD patients without pachychoroid (188 eyes), those who had nAMD with pachychoroid (197 eyes) were significantly younger, had a higher proportion of males, greater central choroidal thickness, and a higher frequency of macular vortex vein anastomoses (all P < 0.001). Furthermore, drusen subtypes differed significantly between the two groups (P < 0.001). These results suggest that most Japanese nAMD patients might have type 1 MNV or PCV. Moreover, in approximately half of patients, nAMD might be associated with pachychoroid, and choroidal congestion may be involved in the development of MNV in these cases.
Patterning of graphene using wet etching with hypochlorite and UV light
Authors: Zhang Minfang , Yang Mei , Okigawa Yuki , Yamada Takatoshi , Nakajima Hideaki , Iizumi Yoko , Okazaki Toshiya 
Published: March 2022

AbstractGraphene patterning via etching is important for enhancing or controling the properties of devices and supporting their applications in micro- and nano-electronic fields. Herein, we present a simple, low-cost, and scalable wet etching method for graphene patterning. The technique uses hypochlorite solution combined with ultraviolet light irradiation to rapidly remove unwanted graphene areas from the substrate. Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and optical microscopy results showed that well-patterned graphene with micrometer scale regions was successfully prepared. Furthermore, graphene field effect transistor arrays were fabricated, and the obtained devices exhibited good current–voltage characteristics, with maximum mobility of ~ 1600 cm2/Vs, confirming the feasibility of the developed technique.
Unusually large exciton binding energy in multilayered 2H-MoTe2
Authors: Jung Eilho , Park Jin Cheol , Seo Yu-Seong , Kim Ji-Hee , Hwang Jungseek , Lee Young Hee 
Published: March 2022

AbstractAlthough large exciton binding energies of typically 0.6–1.0 eV are observed for monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) owing to strong Coulomb interaction, multilayered TMDs yield relatively low exciton binding energies owing to increased dielectric screening. Recently, the ideal carrier-multiplication threshold energy of twice the bandgap has been realized in multilayered semiconducting 2H-MoTe2 with a conversion efficiency of 99%, which suggests strong Coulomb interaction. However, the origin of strong Coulomb interaction in multilayered 2H-MoTe2, including the exciton binding energy, has not been elucidated to date. In this study, unusually large exciton binding energy is observed through optical spectroscopy conducted on CVD-grown 2H-MoTe2. To extract exciton binding energy, the optical conductivity is fitted using the Lorentz model to describe the exciton peaks and the Tauc–Lorentz model to describe the indirect and direct bandgaps. The exciton binding energy of 4 nm thick multilayered 2H-MoTe2 is approximately 300 meV, which is unusually large by one order of magnitude when compared with other multilayered TMD semiconductors such as 2H-MoS2 or 2H-MoSe2. This finding is interpreted in terms of small exciton radius based on the 2D Rydberg model. The exciton radius of multilayered 2H-MoTe2 resembles that of monolayer 2H-MoTe2, whereas those of multilayered 2H-MoS2 and 2H-MoSe2 are large when compared with monolayer 2H-MoS2 and 2H-MoSe2. From the large exciton binding energy in multilayered 2H-MoTe2, it is expected to realize the future applications such as room-temperature and high-temperature polariton lasing.
Colonic diverticulitis location is a risk factor for recurrence: a multicenter, retrospective cohort study in Asian patients
Authors: Sung Chih-Wei , Liu Kao-Lang , Wang Hsiu-Po , Chen I.-Chung , Huang Edward Pei-Chuan , Lien Wan-Ching , Huang Chien-Hua 
Published: March 2022

AbstractEvidence regarding the recurrence of diverticulitis is limited in Asian patients. This study aims to investigate recurrence rates and identify predictive factors for the recurrence of diverticulitis following successful nonoperative treatment in Asian patients. A multicenter, retrospective cohort study was conducted between 2012 and 2018. Adult patients with computed tomography (CT)-proven colonic diverticulitis were included. The primary outcome was the recurrence of diverticulitis, which was defined as another episode of occurrence of the infection after index hospital stay. Cumulative recurrence rates were calculated using the Kaplan–Meier method. Cox regression models were employed to identify parameters that significantly and independently predicted recurrence. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. A total of 929 patients were included. Diverticulitis in the cecum/ascending occurred in 675 (72.6%) patients. The average follow-up period was 651 days. Recurrence was observed in 115 (12.4%) patients and most significantly observed in patients with sigmoid diverticulitis (HR, 2.24; 95% CIs 1.59–3.97), followed by those with descending colon diverticulitis (HR, 1.92; 95% CIs 1.17–3.25). Although most of the Asian patients had right-sided colonic diverticulitis, those with sigmoid diverticulitis had the highest risk of recurrence.
Experimental evidence for the impact of soil viruses on carbon cycling during surface plant litter decomposition
Authors: Albright Michaeline B N , Gallegos-Graves La Verne , Feeser Kelli L , Montoya Kyana , Emerson Joanne B , Shakya Migun , Dunbar John 
Published: March 2022

Abstract
To date, the potential impact of viral communities on biogeochemical cycles in soil has largely been inferred from correlational evidence, such as virus-driven changes in microbial abundances, viral auxiliary metabolic genes, and links with soil physiochemical properties. To more directly test the impact of soil viruses on carbon cycling during plant litter decomposition, we added concentrated viral community suspensions to complex litter decomposer communities in 40-day microcosm experiments. Microbial communities from two New Mexico alpine soils, Pajarito (PJ) and Santa Fe (SF), were inoculated onto grass litter on sand, and three treatments were applied in triplicate to each set of microcosms: addition of buffer (no added virus), live virus (+virus), or killed-virus (+killed-virus) fractions extracted from the same soil. Significant differences in respiration were observed between the +virus and +killed-virus treatments in the PJ, but not the SF microcosms. Bacterial and fungal community composition differed significantly by treatment in both PJ and SF microcosms. Combining data across both soils, viral addition altered links between bacterial and fungal diversity, dissolved organic carbon and total nitrogen. Overall, we demonstrate that increasing viral pressure in complex microbial communities can impact terrestrial biogeochemical cycling but is context-dependent.
Research on reversible image steganography of encrypted image based on image interpolation and difference histogram shift
Authors: Ye Hanmin , Su Keqin , Cheng Xiaohui , Huang Shiming 
Published: March 2022

AbstractIn view of the mutual restriction between the image encryption and information hiding process in the ciphertext domain reversible algorithm, the existing ciphertext domain image reversible image steganography algorithm can hardly take into account the performance of security and hiding capacity. This paper proposes a reversible image steganography algorithm for encrypted images based on a new interpolation image and difference histogram shift. The pixel position of the carrier image is changed through the double scrambling operation of random image block recombination and Arnold transform. The chaotic sequence generated by logistic mapping is used as the diffusion sequence of the encryption algorithm, and DNA encoding and calculation are performed respectively to obtain the final encrypted image. According to the newly proposed interpolation algorithm, the encrypted image is enlarged, determine the pixel value of the target interpolated image according to the pixel value of the encrypted image, calculate the difference between the three adjacent pixel values of the target interpolated image, and use the difference histogram translation algorithm to convert the secret Information is embedded in an interpolated image, and only one bit of the pixel value can be modified in a single embedding process, and the embedding method is simple and effective. Experimental results show that under the premise of ensuring information security and image quality, the embedding capacity has also been greatly improved, reaching 1,572,864 bits. When the embedding rate is 0.67 bpp, the PSNR can also reach 58 dB and the image quality is maintained better.
A COVID‐19 CXR image recognition method based on MSA‐DDCovidNet
Authors: Wang Wei , Huang Wendi , Wang Xin , Zhang Peng , Zhang Nian 
Published: March 2022

AbstractCurrently, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) has not been contained. It is a safe and effective way to detect infected persons in chest X‐ray (CXR) images based on deep learning methods. To solve the above problem, the dual‐path multi‐scale fusion (DMFF) module and dense dilated depth‐wise separable (D3S) module are used to extract shallow and deep features, respectively. Based on these two modules and multi‐scale spatial attention (MSA) mechanism, a lightweight convolutional neural network model, MSA‐DDCovidNet, is designed. Experimental results show that the accuracy of the MSA‐DDCovidNet model on COVID‐19 CXR images is as high as 97.962%, In addition, the proposed MSA‐DDCovidNet has less computation complexity and fewer parameter numbers. Compared with other methods, MSA‐DDCovidNet can help diagnose COVID‐19 more quickly and accurately.
Blind denoising using dense hybrid convolutional network
Authors: Liu Jing , Liu Runchuan , Zhao Shanshan 
Published: March 2022

AbstractThe performance of existing deep convolutional networks is limited when encountering images with different noise levels. In this study, a denoising method with state‐of‐the‐art performance that combines a deep convolutional network with the traditional nonlocal mean denoising method is proposed. The noisy image is first denoised using the nonlocal mean method. Then, the denoised image is input into the proposed dense hybrid convolutional network to be trained, producing a clean image with clear details. The dense hybrid convolutional network comprises three parts: a feature‐extracting noise‐suppressing module that extracts abstract features from denoised images and suppresses the residual noise by interval convolution; a feature‐learning module used for training blurred edges and textures; and a magnifying module that uses deconvolution to restore the feature maps to the original size and reduce the noise again. In contrast to existing denoising algorithms, the method has two desirable properties: 1) it can restore edges and textures clearly while removing the noise; 2) it effectively deals with noise of unknown levels (i.e. blind denoising) with a single network model. The conducted experiments show that the proposed method achieves superior performance compared to those of state‐of‐the‐art denoising methods.
Prurigo pigmentosa
Authors: Scheiba Nina , Hartschuh Wolfgang 
Published: March 2022

ZusammenfassungDie Prurigo pigmentosa ist eine schubweise an Brust, Rücken oder Nacken auftretende Dermatose mit juckenden, erythematösen, meist retikulär angeordneten Papeln unklarer Ätiologie. Frauen sind häufiger betroffen als Männer. Topische Therapien sind meist wenig zielführend. Orale Systemtherapien sowie im Einzelfall auch diätische Maßnahmen können eine anhaltende Besserung bringen. Wir beschreiben hier den Fall einer 25-jährigen europäischen Patientin, welche erfolgreich mit Minocyclin per os behandelt wurde.
Identifizierung von Qualitätsproblemen durch
Qualitätsindikatoren der externen Qualitätssicherung –
Mixed-Methods-Analyse zum Stellungnahmeverfahren des Strukturierten
Dialogs
Authors: Schulz Sören , de Cruppé Werner , Macher-Heidrich Susanne , Geraedts Max 
Published: March 2022

Zusammenfassung
Zielsetzung Die externe stationäre Qualitätssicherung
(eQS) stuft im Prüfverfahren des Strukturierten Dialogs (SD) nur etwa
14% der rechnerisch auffälligen Qualitätsindikator
(QI)-Ergebnisse als Qualitätsdefizit ein. Dies stellt die
Validität der verwendeten QI in Frage. Die Studie untersucht daher die
Gründe für rechnerisch auffällige QI-Ergebnisse.
Methodik Kombination von quantitativen eQS Daten mit den Ergebnissen einer
inhaltsanalytischen Auswertung von Krankenhausstellungnahmen des SD aus
Nordrhein.
Ergebnisse Die Inhaltsanalyse ergab 79 Kategorien mit 7
Hauptgründen für auffällige QI (Patientenfaktoren,
Datengrundlage, verfehlte Maßnahmen/Ergebnisse,
Struktur/Organisationsprobleme, Messprobleme, Indikationsstellung,
Sonstige).
Die Hälfte aller qualitativen Auffälligkeiten war bundesweit 2012
durch 15 der 218 QI bedingt.
Schlussfolgerung Die meisten eQS-QI erkennen nur sehr wenige oder keine
Qualitätsprobleme. Die eQS sollte auf solche QI fokussieren, die
tatsächlich Qualitätsprobleme detektieren.
Maternal Blood Angiogenic Factors and the Prediction of Critical Adverse Perinatal Outcomes Among Small-for-Gestational-Age Pregnancies
Authors: Swissa Shani S. , Walfisch Asnat , Yaniv-Salem Shimrit , Pariente Gali , Hershkovitz Reli , Szaingurten-Solodkin Irit , Shashar Sagi , Beharier Ofer 
Published: March 2022

Objective Our objective was to determine whether maternal blood angiogenic factors in suspected-small-for-gestational-age (sSGA) fetuses can predict critical adverse perinatal outcomes (CAPO) and improve risk assessment.
Methods Women with singleton pregnancies diagnosed with sSGA, between 24 and 356/7 weeks' gestation, were included. Clinical and sonographic comprehensive evaluations were performed at enrolment. Plasma angiogenic factors, soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 (sFlt-1) and placental growth factor (PlGF), were obtained at diagnosis. In parallel, three attending maternal-fetal-medicine specialists predicted the risk (1–5 scale) of these pregnancies to develop CAPO, based on the clinical presentation. CAPOs were defined as prolonged neonatal intensive care unit hospitalization, fetal or neonatal death, and major neonatal morbidity. Statistical analysis included sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses.
Results Of the 79 cases included, 32 were complicated by CAPO (40.5%). In SGA fetuses with CAPO, the sFlt-1/PlGF ratio was higher (p < 0.001) and PlGF was lower (p < 0.001) as compared with uncomplicated pregnancies. The areas under the ROC curves for specialists were 0.913, 0.824, and 0.811 and for PlGF and sFlt-1/PlGF ratio 0.926 and 0.900, respectively. CAPO was more common in pregnancies with absent end-diastolic flow or reversed end-diastolic flow (AEDF or REDF) in the umbilical artery upon enrolment (91.6%). Yet, 65.6% of cases involving CAPO occurred in patients without AEDF or REDF, and 66.6% of these cases were not identified by one or more of the experts. The sFlt-1/PlGF ratio identified 92.9% of the experts' errors in this group and 100% of the errors in cases with AEDF or REDF.
Conclusion Among sSGA pregnancies prior to 36 weeks' gestation, angiogenic factors testing can identify most cases later complicated with CAPO. Our data demonstrate for the first time that these markers can reduce clinician judgment errors. Incorporation of these measures into decision-making algorithms could potentially improve management, outcomes, and even health care costs.
Key Points
Acetalization of Enol Ethers with Alcohols under Visible Light Irradiation Using BINOLs as Photoacid Catalysts
Authors: Zhang Xun , Liao Saihu , Liu Haonan , Chen Yueyong , An Deng 
Published: March 2022

AbstractAppropriately substituted 1,1′-bi-2-naphthols (BINOLs) are demonstrated as effective photoacid catalysts for promoting the acetalization of enol ethers with alcohols under irradiation with visible light. The reactions proceed efficiently with a wide range of substrates under mild, near neutral conditions.
Resorbable Nerve Wraps: Can They Be Overtightened?
Authors: Nicolas Celine F. , Corvi John J. , Zheng YuanDian , Park Katherine H. , Akelina Yelena , Engemann Anne , Strauch Robert J. 
Published: March 2022

Abstract
Background Nerve wrapping has been advocated to minimize scarring and adhesion following neurorrhaphy or neurolysis. A wrap should provide an enclosure that is snug enough to protect and support the affected nerve without strangulating the nerve. The degree to which resorbable wraps should be “tightened” around the nerve is largely subjective with scant literature on the subject. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of tightly fitting resorbable nerve wraps around intact rat sciatic nerves.
Methods Twenty-four Sprague-Dawley rats underwent exposure and circumferential measurement of the right sciatic nerve. Porcine-derived extracellular matrix (ECM) wraps were trimmed and sutured to enclose the nerve with a tight (same as that of the nerve, n = 8) or loose (2.5x that of the nerve, n = 8) circumference. Sham-surgery control animals (n = 8) had no wrap treatment. Functional outcome was recorded biweekly by sciatic functional index (SFI) with walking track analysis and electrical stimulation. Animals were sacrificed at 12 weeks for histologic analyses.
Results No withdrawal response could be evoked in the tight-wrap group until week 9, while significant improvement in SFI first occurred between weeks 5 and 7. By week 12, the tight-wrap group required 60% more current compared with baseline stimulation to produce a withdrawal response. They recovered 81% of SFI baseline values but also demonstrated significantly greater intraneural collagen content (p < 0.001) and lower axon density (p < 0.05) than in the loose-wrap and sham groups. The loose-wrap group had comparable functional and histologic outcomes to the sham control group.
Conclusion Resorbable ECM nerve wraps applied tightly around intact rat sciatic nerves caused significant functional impairment and histological changes characteristic of acute nerve compression. Significant but incomplete functional recovery was achieved by the tight-wrap group after 12 weeks, but such recovery may not apply in humans.
Optimal shielding structure design for a typical 14 MeV neutron source
Authors: Xu Hu , Sun Weiqiang , Yan Yihong , Hu Guang , Hu Huasi 
Published: March 2022

Optimal shielding structure design plays a guiding role in the implementation of radiation protection engineering. The achievement of the optimal arrangement and thickness ratio for the layers of materials is the key to attaining a light-weight and small-volume shield but with the best shielding effect. In this research, the optimization design method is established by the genetic algorithm combined with the Monte Carlo N-particle code, and a four-layer neutron shield composed of iron (Fe), boron carbon (B4C), lead (Pb), and polyethylene (PE) is designed. When setting the total thickness of the shield to 20 cm, different arrangements and thickness combinations of these four layers are calculated. It is shown that the arrangement Fe-PE–B4C–Pb is the most radiological optimizing arrangement, and the optimal thickness combination is also obtained. Besides, it seems that the thicker the shield, the higher the requirement for the thickness ratio of Fe and Pb. In order to prove this, an optimal 80 cm thick shield is then designed, and the optimal thickness ratio is also obtained. It is found that the thickness ratio of Fe and Pb should also be increased in order to achieve the best shielding effect.
Specific locations and amounts of denatured collagen and collagen-specific chaperone HSP47 in the oviducts and uteri of old cows as compared with those of heifers
Authors: Ferdousy Raihana Nasrin , Kadokawa Hiroya 
Published: March 2022

Collagen, the most abundant extra-cellular matrix in oviducts and uteri, performs critical roles in pregnancies. We hypothesised that the locations and amounts of both denatured collagen and the collagen-specific molecular chaperone 47-kDa heat shock protein (HSP47) in the oviducts and uteri of old cows are different compared with those of young heifers because of repeated pregnancies. Since detecting damaged collagen in tissues is challenging, we developed a new method that uses a denatured collagen detection reagent. Then, we compared damaged collagen in the oviducts and uteri between post-pubertal growing nulliparous heifers (22.1 ± 1.0 months old) and old multiparous cows (143.1 ± 15.6 months old). Further, we evaluated the relationship between denatured collagen and HSP47 by combining this method with fluorescence immunohistochemistry. Picro-sirius red staining showed collagen in almost all parts of the oviducts and uteri. Expectedly, damaged collagen was increased in the oviducts and uteri of old cows. However, damaged collagen and HSP47 were not located in the same area in old cows. The number of fibroblasts increased, suggesting the presence of fibrosis in the oviducts and uteri of old cows. These organs of old cows showed higher HSP47 protein amounts than those of heifers. However, the uteri, but not oviducts, of old cows had lower HSP47 mRNA amounts than those of heifers. These findings revealed the specific location and amounts of denatured collagen and HSP47 in the oviducts and uteri of old cows compared with those of heifers.
The difficulty of computing stable and accurate neural networks: On the barriers of deep learning and Smale’s 18th problem
Authors: Colbrook Matthew J. , Antun Vegard , Hansen Anders C. 
Published: March 2022

SignificanceInstability is the Achilles’ heel of modern artificial intelligence (AI) and a paradox, with training algorithms finding unstable neural networks (NNs) despite the existence of stable ones. This foundational issue relates to Smale’s 18th mathematical problem for the 21st century on the limits of AI. By expanding methodologies initiated by Gödel and Turing, we demonstrate limitations on the existence of (even randomized) algorithms for computing NNs. Despite numerous existence results of NNs with great approximation properties, only in specific cases do there also exist algorithms that can compute them. We initiate a classification theory on which NNs can be trained and introduce NNs that—under suitable conditions—are robust to perturbations and exponentially accurate in the number of hidden layers.