bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Performance in Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS): Does it Reflect Global Rating Scales in Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills (OSATS) in Porcine Laparoscopic Surgery?
Authors: Tiong Ho Yee , So Wei Zheng , Teoh Jeremy Yuen-Chun , Isotani Shuji , Zhu Gang , Ong Teng Aik , Chan Eddie Shu-Yin , Chu Peggy Sau-Kwan , Kijvikai Kittinut , Liu Ming , Lojanapiwat Bannakji , Wong Michael , Ng Anthony Chi-Fai 
Published: April 2022

ABSTRACTBackgroundTo correlate the utility of Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS) manual skills program with the Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills (OSATS) global rating scale in evaluating operative performance.Materials and MethodsThe Asian Urological Surgery Training and Educational Group (AUSTEG) Laparoscopic Upper Tract Surgery Course (LUTSC) implemented and validated the FLS program for its usage in laparoscopic surgical training. Delegates’ basic laparoscopic skills were assessed using three different training models (Peg Transfer, Precision Cutting and Intra-corporeal Suturing). They also performed live porcine laparoscopic surgery at the same workshop. Live surgery skills were assessed by blinded faculty using the OSATS rating scale.ResultsFrom 2016 to 2019, a total of 81 certified urologists participated in the course, with a median of 5 years’ experience post residency. Although differences in task timings did not reach statistical significance, those with more surgical experience were visibly faster at completing the peg transfer and intra-corporeal suturing FLS tasks. However, they took longer to complete the precision cutting task than participants with less experience. Overall OSATS scores correlated weakly with all three FLS tasks (Peg Transfer Time: R = -0.331, R2 = 0.110; Precision Cutting Time: R = - 0.240, R2 = 0.058; Suturing with Intra-corporeal Knot Time: R = -0.451, R2 = 0.203).ConclusionFLS task parameters did not correlate strongly with OSATS globing rating scale performance. Although the FLS task models demonstrated strong validity, it is important to assimilate the inconsistencies when benchmarking technical proficiency against real-life operative competence, as evaluated by FLS and OSATS respectively.
A mixed cross-sectional and case-control study approach to investigate the risk-factors of Noma/Cancrum oris in Ethiopia
Authors: Gebretsadik Heron Gezahegn , de Kiev Laurent Cleenewerck 
Published: April 2022

AbstractIntroductionNoma is a polymicrobial gangrenous facial disease affecting people living in the most impoverished areas of low- and middle-income countries. If left untreated, the disease is fatal or else severely disfigure people with the condition. The compromised immune system, poor oral hygiene, measle infection, diarrheal disease, inaccessibility to health education and proper medical care, and lack of a balanced diet and good sanitary facilities are found to be some of the predisposing factors for the development and progression of the disease. Furthermore, debilitating diseases like malaria and measles were considered as significant precursors to Noma.Materials and MethodA mix of cross-sectional and case-control study approaches was conducted to assess the risk factors of Noma in Ethiopia. The raw data of the cases were obtained from Yekatik 12 Hospital, Facing Africa, and the Harar project Ethiopia. Three controls were selected per single case. The Odd ratio (ORs) and Chi-square test were calculated to rule out the statistical significance of the association observed between the factors and the disease.ResultsA total of 64 cases were selected for the case-control study. Considering the 1:3 case to control ratio, 192 matching controls were identified. Malaria, helminths, measle, diarrheal diseases, and living with domestic animals were found to be risk factors for Noma with a respective p-value < 0.01. Contrarily, the analysis has identified vaccination (p < 0.01) as a protective factor.DiscussionNoma/face of poverty is mostly preventable by providing proper nutrition, sanitary and water facilities, awareness about the disease, oral health education, and vaccinations. Poverty-related diseases such as malaria, helminths infection, measle, diarrheal diseases, and unfavorable living conditions were identified to be the risk factor for Noma. As such the disease is truly preventable. Prevention of the disease can be achieved through promoting overall awareness of the disease, poverty reduction, improved nutrition, and promotion of exclusive breastfeeding in the first 3-6 months of life. Furthermore, optimum prenatal care, timely immunizations against common childhood diseases, initiating vaccination, and improving the social living conditions are the other preventive mechanisms. Moreover, long-lasting economic development should be considered to effectively and sustainably prevent the disease.
Trait anxiety is associated with hidden state inference during aversive reversal learning
Authors: Zika Ondrej , Wiech Katja , Reinecke Andrea , Browning Michael , Schuck Nicolas W. 
Published: April 2022

AbstractUpdating beliefs in changing environments can be driven by gradually adapting expectations or by relying on inferred hidden states (i.e., contexts), and changes therein. Previous work suggests that increased reliance on context could underly fear relapse phenomena that hinder clinical treatment of anxiety disorders. We test whether trait anxiety variations in a healthy population influence how much individuals rely on hidden-state inference. In a Pavlovian learning task, participants observed cues that predicted an upcoming electrical shock with repeatedly changing probability, and were asked to provide expectancy ratings on every trial. We show that trait anxiety is associated with steeper expectation switches after contingency reversals and reduced oddball learning. Furthermore, trait anxiety is related to better fit of a state inference compared to a gradual learning model when contingency changes are large. Our findings support previous work suggesting hidden-state inference as a mechanism behind anxiety-related to fear relapse phenomena.
Functional coupling of the mesencephalic locomotor region and V2a reticulospinal neurons driving forward locomotion
Authors: Carbo-Tano Martin , Lapoix Mathilde , Jia Xinyu , Auclair François , Dubuc Réjean , Wyart Claire 
Published: April 2022

AbstractLocomotion in vertebrates relies on high brain centers converging onto the mesencephalic locomotor region (MLR). How the MLR recruits brainstem reticulospinal neurons (RSNs) to initiate locomotion is incompletely understood due to the challenge of recording these cells in vivo. To tackle this question, we leveraged the transparency and genetic accessibility of larval zebrafish. In this model organism, we uncovered the locus of the MLR as a small region dorsal to the locus coeruleus containing glutamatergic and cholinergic neurons. MLR stimulations reliably elicited forward bouts of controlled duration and speed. We find that the MLR elicits forward locomotion by recruiting V2a RSNs in the pontine and retropontine regions, and gradually in the medulla. Remarkably, recruited V2a RSNs in the medulla act as maintain cells encoding speed of forward locomotion. Altogether, our study reveals that the MLR recruits genetically-identified reticulospinal neurons in the medulla to control the kinematics of exploration.
Bmal1-knockout mice exhibit reduced cocaine-seeking behaviour and cognitive impairments
Authors: Castro-Zavala Adriana , Alegre-Zurano Laia , Cantacorps Lídia , Gallego-Landin Ines , Welz Patrick-S. , Benitah Salvador A. , Valverde Olga 
Published: April 2022

ABSTRACTBrain and Muscle Arnt-like Protein 1 (BMAL1) is an essential component of the molecular clock underlying circadian rhythmicity. Recently, its function has also been associated with alterations in mood, and reward processing. We investigated the behavioural and neurobiological impact ofBmal1gene deletion in mice, as well as how these alterations affect rewarding effects of cocaine. Additionally, key clock genes and components of the dopamine system were assessed in several brain areas. Our results evidence behavioural alterations inBmal1-KOmice including changes in locomotor activity with impaired habituation to environments as well as short term memory and social recognition impairments. In addition,Bmal1-KOmice experienced reduced cocaine-induced sensitization and rewarding effects of cocaine as well as reduced cocaine-seeking behaviour. Furthermore,Bmal1deletion influenced the expression of other clock-related genes in the mPFC and striatum as well as alterations in the expression of dopaminergic elements. Overall, the present article offers a novel and extensive characterization ofBmal1-KOanimals. We suggest that reduced cocaine’s rewarding effects in these mutant mice might be related toBmal1role as an expression regulator of MAO and TH, two essential enzymes involved in dopamine metabolism.
An open-source, ready-to-use and validated ripple detector plugin for the Open Ephys GUI
Authors: de Sousa Bruno Monteiro , de Oliveira Eliezyer Fermino , da Silva Beraldo Ikaro Jesus , Polanczyk Rafaela Schuttenberg , Leite João Pereira , Aguiar Cleiton Lopes 
Published: April 2022

ABSTRACTSharp wave-ripples (SWRs, 100-250 Hz) are oscillatory events extracellularly recorded in the CA1 subfield of the hippocampus during sleep and quiet wakefulness. SWRs are thought to be involved in the dialogue between the hippocampus and cortical regions to promote memory consolidation during sleep and memory-guided decision making. Many studies employed closed-loop strategies to either detect and abolish SWRs within the hippocampus or manipulate other relevant areas upon ripple detection. However, the code and schematics necessary to replicate the detection system are not always available, which hinders the reproducibility of experiments among different research groups. Furthermore, information about performance is not usually reported. Here, we present the development and validation of an open-source, real-time ripple detection plugin integrated into the Open Ephys GUI. It contains a built-in movement detector based on accelerometer or electromyogram data that prevents false ripple events (due to chewing, grooming, or moving, for instance) from triggering the stimulation/manipulation device. To determine the accuracy of the detection algorithm, we first carried out simulations in Matlab with synthetic and real ripple recordings. Using a specific combination of detection parameters (amplitude threshold of 5 standard deviations above the mean, time threshold of 10 ms, and RMS block size of 7 samples), we obtained a 97% true positive rate and 2.48 false positives per minute on the real data. Next, an Open Ephys plugin based on the same detection algorithm was developed, and a closed-loop system was set up to evaluate the round trip (ripple onset-to-stimulation) latency over synthetic data. The lowest latency obtained was 34.5 ± 0.5 ms. Besides contributing to increased reproducibility, we anticipate that the developed ripple detector plugin will be helpful for many closed-loop applications in the field of systems neuroscience.
Communication-Efficient Cluster Scalable Genomics Data Processing Using Apache Arrow Flight
Authors: Ahmad Tanveer , Ma Chengxin , Al-Ars Zaid , Hofstee H. Peter 
Published: April 2022

Current cluster scaled genomics data processing solutions rely on big data frameworks like Apache Spark, Hadoop and HDFS for data scheduling, processing and storage. These frameworks come with additional computation and memory overheads by default. It has been observed that scaling genomics dataset processing beyond 32 nodes is not efficient on such frameworks.To overcome the inefficiencies of big data frameworks for processing genomics data on clusters, we introduce a low-overhead and highly scalable solution on a SLURM based HPC batch system. This solution uses Apache Arrow as in-memory columnar data format to store genomics data efficiently and Arrow Flight as a network protocol to move and schedule this data across the HPC nodes with low communication overhead.As a use case, we use NGS short reads DNA sequencing data for pre-processing and variant calling applications. This solution outperforms existing Apache Spark based big data solutions in term of both computation time (2x) and lower communication overhead (more than 20-60% depending on cluster size). Our solution has similar performance to MPI-based HPC solutions, with the added advantage of easy programmability and transparent big data scalability. The whole solution is Python and shell script based, which makes it flexible to update and integrate alternative variant callers. Our solution is publicly available on GitHub at https://github.com/abs-tudelft/time-to-fly-high/genomics.
Brain-heart interactions are optimized across the respiratory cycle via interoceptive attention
Authors: Zaccaro Andrea , Perrucci Mauro Gianni , Parrotta Eleonora , Costantini Marcello , Ferri Francesca 
Published: April 2022

AbstractRespiration and heartbeat continuously interact within the living organism at many different levels, representing two of the main oscillatory rhythms of the body and providing major sources of interoceptive information to the brain. Despite the modulatory effect of respiration on exteroception and cognition has been recently established in humans, its role in shaping interoceptive perception has been scarcely investigated so far.In two independent studies, we investigated the effect of spontaneous breathing on cardiac interoception by assessing the Heartbeat Evoked Potential (HEP) in healthy humans. In Study 1, we compared HEP activity for heartbeats occurred during inhalation and exhalation in 40 volunteers at rest. We found higher HEP amplitude during exhalation, compared to inhalation, over fronto-centro-parietal areas. This suggests increased brain-heart interactions and improved cortical processing of the heartbeats during exhalation. In Study 2, we tested the respiratory phase-dependent modulation of HEP activity in 20 volunteers during Exteroceptive and Interoceptive conditions of the Heartbeat Detection (HBD) task. In these conditions, participants were requested to tap at each heartbeat, either listened to or felt, respectively. Results showed higher HEP activity and higher detection accuracy at exhalation than inhalation in the Interoceptive condition only. These effects were positively correlated, suggesting a link between optimization of both cortical processing of cardiac signals and perception of heartbeats across the respiratory cycle. Direct comparisons of Interoceptive and Exteroceptive conditions confirmed stronger respiratory phase-dependent modulation of HEP and accuracy when attention was directed towards the interoceptive stimuli.Overall, we provide data showing that respiration shapes cardiac interoception at the neurophysiological and behavioural levels. Specifically, exhalation may allow attentional shift towards the internal bodily states.
Cue-driven motor planning facilitates express visuomotor responses in human arm muscles
Authors: Contemori Samuele , Loeb Gerald E. , Corneil Brian D. , Wallis Guy , Carroll Timothy J. 
Published: April 2022

ABSTRACTHumans can produce “express” (∼100ms) arm muscle responses that are inflexibly locked in time and space to the presentation of a visual target, consistent with subcortical visuomotor transformations via the tecto-reticulo-spinal pathway. These express visuomotor responses are sensitive to explicit cue-driven expectations, but it is unclear at what stage of sensory-to-motor transformation such modulation occurs. Here, we recorded electromyographic activity from shoulder muscles as participants reached toward one of four virtual targets whose physical location was partially predictable from a symbolic cue. In an experiment in which targets could be veridically reached, express responses were inclusive of the biomechanical requirements for reaching the cued locations and not systematically modulated by cue validity. In a second experiment, movements were restricted to the horizontal plane so that the participants could perform only rightward or leftward reaches, irrespective of target position on the vertical axis. Express muscle responses were almost identical for targets that were validly cued in the horizontal direction, regardless of cue validity in the vertical dimension. Together, these findings suggest that the cue-induced enhancements of express responses are dominated by effects at the level of motor plans and not solely via facilitation of early visuospatial target processing. Notably, direct cortico-tectal and cortico-reticular projections exist that are well-placed to modulate pre-stimulus motor preparation state in subcortical circuits. Our results appear to reflect a neural mechanism by which contextually relevant motor plans can be stored within subcortical visuomotor nodes and rapidly released in response to compatible visual inputs.NEW & NOTEWORTHYExpress arm muscle responses to suddenly appearing visual targets for reaching rapid have been attributed to the tecto-reticulo-spinal pathway in humans. We demonstrate that symbolic cues before target presentation can modulate such express arm muscle responses compatibly with the biomechanics of the cued reaching direction and the cue validity. This implies cortically mediated modulation of one or more sensorimotor transformation nodes of the subcortical express pathway.
Machine Learning Classification Reveals Robust Morphometric Biomarker of Glial and Neuronal Arbors
Authors: Akram Masood A. , Wei Qi , Ascoli Giorgio A. 
Published: April 2022

AbstractNeurons and glia are the two main cell classes in the nervous systems of most animals. Although functionally distinct, neurons and glia are both characterized by multiple branching arbors stemming from the cell bodies. Glial processes are generally known to form smaller trees than neuronal dendrites. However, the full extent of morphological differences between neurons and glia in multiple species and brain regions has not yet been characterized, nor is it known whether these cells can be reliably distinguished based on geometric features alone. Here, we show that multiple supervised learning algorithms (K-nearest neighbor, random forest, and support vector machine) deployed on a large database of morphological reconstructions can systematically classify neuronal and glial arbors with nearly perfect accuracy and precision. Moreover, we report multiple morphometric properties, both size-related and size-independent, that differ substantially between these cell types. In particular, we newly identify an individual morphometric measurement, Average Branch Euclidean Length (ABEL) that can robustly separate neurons from glia across multiple animal models, a broad diversity of experimental conditions, and anatomical areas, with the notable exception of the cerebellum. We discuss the practical utility and physiological interpretation of this discovery.
Nonlinear Parameter and State Estimation Approach in End-stage Kidney Disease Patients
Authors: Abohtyra Rammah M. , Vincent Tyrone L. 
Published: April 2022

AbstractBackgroundBlood and fluid volume management in End-stage Kidney Disease (ESKD) patients plays an essential role in dialysis therapy to replace kidney function. Reliable knowledge of blood and fluid volumes before and during dialysis could be used to improve treatment outcomes significantly.ObjectiveThis study aims to develop an estimation approach providing predictable information on blood and fluid volumes before and during a regular dialysis routine.MethodsA new approach is developed to estimate blood volume, fluid overload, and vascular refilling parameters from dialysis data. The method utilizes a nonlinear fluid volume model, an optimization technique, and the Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) incorporated with data. This method does not rely on restricted ultrafiltration (UF) and dilution protocols and uses the Fisher information matrix to quantify error estimation.ResultsAccurate estimations for blood volumes (5.9±0.07L and 4.8±0.03L) and interstitial fluid volumes (18.81±0.15L and 12.19±0.03) were calculated from dialysis data consisting of constant and stepwise UF profiles. We demonstrated that by implementing the estimated parameters into the model, a precise prediction of the measured hematocrit (HCT) can be achieved during the treatment.ConclusionWe showed that the result does not depend highly on initial conditions and can be accurately estimated from a short data segment. A new method, applicable to the current dialysis routine, is now available for ESKD patients to be implemented within the dialysis machines.
Delayed dynamics of migratory response to CTLA-4 blockade reveals a mechanistic view on potential T cells reinvigoration following immune checkpoint blockade
Authors: Safaeifard Fateme , Shariatpanahi Seyed Peyman , Golieai Bahram , Aref Amir R. , Foroughmand-Araabi Mohammad-Hadi , Goliaei Sama , Rüegg Curzio 
Published: April 2022

AbstractCytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4) and programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) receptors, two clinically relevant targets for immunotherapy of cancer, are negative regulators of in immune cell activation and migration. However, optimizing therapeutic outcomes still requires fundamental research to reach a comprehensive insight into the coherent function of immune regulators.Here, we investigated the statistical dynamics of T cells migration as a measure of the functional response to these pathways in an experimental setup of immune checkpoint blockade. For this purpose, we used a previously developed 3-dimensional organotypic culture of patient-derived tumor spheroids.Experiment-based dynamical modeling remarked distinct characteristics of the receptors regulation followed through with the modification of their proportions in the immune modulation. We demonstrated that time-delayed kinetics of PD-1 activation just overrides its relatively more efficient cell-level function which potentially makes an operative contribution to the functional dominance of CTLA-4 in the tumor microenvironment. Simulation results showed good agreement with data for tumor cells reduction and active immune cells count observed in each experiment.These analyses propose a new mechanistic view on relative immunogenicity of PD-1 and CTLA-4 inhibitors manifested in literature and point the possible inherent obstacles in checkpoint inhibition-based immunotherapy of cancer to address in the future.SignificanceEx vivo monitoring of temporal response to PD-1 and CTLA-4 in the closure of T cell movement dynamics and elucidating their feasible commitment to the kinetic constraints at cell-level resolution. Delayed dynamics of migratory response to CTLA-4 inhibition revealed a mechanistic view on potential T cell reinvigoration following immune checkpoint blockade.