bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Factors for incidence risk and prognosis of synchronous brain metastases in pulmonary large cell carcinoma patients: a population-based study
Authors: Zheng Xuan , Mu Shuai , Wang Lijie , Tao Haitao , Huang Di , Huang Ziwei , Li Xiaoyan , Cui Pengfei , Li Tao , Liu Qingyan , Hu Yi 
Published: September 2022

Abstract
Background: Patients with pulmonary large cell carcinoma (LCC) have a high incidence of synchronous brain metastases (SBM) and a poor prognosis. Our study was to evaluate the predictive and prognostic value of the clinical characteristics of pulmonary LCC patients with SBM at initial diagnosis by utilizing the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database.
Methods: LCC patients, diagnosed from 2010 to 2019, were identified from the latest SEER database which was released in April 2022. Logistic regression and Cox regression were used to identify the predictive and prognostic factors for LCC patients with SBM. Propensity score matching (PSM) and Kaplan-Meier analyses were applied to assess different therapy modalities.
Results: A total of 1,375 LCC patients were enrolled in this study and 216 (15.7%) of them had SBM at the initial diagnosis. The median overall survival(OS) of LCC patients with SBM was 4 months. Multivariate Cox regression identified age 60–79 (OR: 0.57; 95% CI:0.41–0.78; p <0.001), age ≥80 (OR: 0.23; 95% CI: 0.12–0.45; p <0.001) and bone metastases (OR: 1.75; 95% CI: 1.22–2.51; p <0.001) as significant independent predictors for developing SBM. Multivariable Cox regression revealed that age 60-79, T stage, bone metastases and chemotherapy were independent prognostic factor for OS. The surgery combined with chemotherapy and radiotherapy group, in which all patients were N0 stage and had no other site-specific metastases, exhibited the best median OS of 15 months.
Conclusions: LCC patients with age <60 or bone metastases were more likely to have SBM at initial diagnosis. Age, T stage, bone metastases and chemotherapy were independent prognostic factors for OS of LCC patients with SBM. Highly selected patients could achieve the best survival benefit from surgery combined with chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Names That Cell: Nomenclature of Cell-Cultivated Meat &amp; Seafood Products
Authors: Malerich Marlana , Bryant Christopher 
Published: September 2022

Abstract
Cell-cultivated meat and seafood is getting closer to a reality for consumers in the US and around the world. However, regulators are still largely lagging behind on regulating production and labelling of these products. In a large experimental study using a representative US sample (N=2,653), we tested 9 different names for 3 different types of meat and seafood products in terms of their clarity, consumer appeal, and communication of safety and allergenicity. We found that terms proposed by the conventional meat and seafood industry including ‘artificial’ and ‘lab-grown’ tended to score low in terms of consumer appeal, purchase intent, and perceived safety, while ‘artificial’ also had the lowest score on clarity and communicating allergenicity. On the other hand, terms proposed by the cell-cultivated industry including ‘Novari’ scored high in terms of appeal and purchase intent, but scored low in terms of clarity. The terms ‘cell-cultured’ and ‘cell-cultivated’ were the best all round labels in terms of clarity, appeal, and communicating safety and allergenicity – in particular, the addition of the prefix ‘cell-’ increased understanding compared to ‘cultured’ or ‘cultivated’ labels. The most-understood label was a short control phrase (‘grown from [animal] cells, not farmed [or fished]’), suggesting that additional wording on packaging could aid consumer understanding in this early stage. A high proportion of consumers were uncertain about the allergen status of cell-cultivated products under all names, suggesting that cell-cultivated products should be labelled as the type of meat they are, and carry applicable allergen information.
IFN-γ mediated-cellular immunity is essential to the vaccine-induced protection against SARS-CoV-2
Authors: Wang Xiao-lei , Yuen Terrence Tsz-Tai , Dou Ying , Hu Jingchu , Li Renhao , Zeng Zheng , Lin Xuansheng , Gong Hua-Rui , Yoon Chaemin , Shuai Huiping , Ho Deborah Tip-Yin , Hung Ivan Fan Ngai , Zhang Bao-Zhong , Chu Hin , Huang Jiandong 
Published: September 2022

Abstract
Mass vaccination schemes have been launched for COVID-19 worldwide. However, recent studies have revealed that SARS-CoV-2 Omicron and its sub-lineages efficiently evade humoral immunity from vaccination or previous infection. Therefore, it is of great importance to investigate the contribution of cellular immunity against infection of emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2 in the context of vaccine-induced immunity. By using C57BL/6J and K18-hACE2 mouse models, we demonstrated that BNT162b2 induces robust protective immunity in B-cell deficient (μMT) mice. We further demonstrated that this protection is attributed to the cellular immunity mediated by robust IFN-γ production. In addition, we revealed that SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1 could also induce strong cellular responses in vaccinated μMT mice upon viral challenge, which highlights the significance of cellular immunity against the ever-emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants that evade antibody-mediated immunity. Overall, our study provides evidence that BNT162b2 can induce significant protective immunity in mice that are unable to produce antibodies.
Lightweight convolutional neural network models for semantic segmentation of in-field cotton bolls
Authors: Singh Naseeb , Tewari V. K. , Biswas P. K. , Dhruw L. K. 
Published: September 2022

Abstract
Introduction

Robotic harvesting of cotton bolls will incorporate the benefits of manual picking as well as mechanical harvesting. For robotic harvesting, in-field cotton segmentation with minimal errors is desirable which is a challenging task. In the present study, three lightweight fully convolutional neural network models were developed for the semantic segmentation of in-field cotton bolls.

Materials and Methods

Model 1 does not include any residual or skip connections, while model 2 consists of residual connections to tackle the vanishing gradient problem and skip connections for feature concatenation. Model 3 along with residual and skip connections, consists of filters of multiple sizes. Effects of filter size and the dropout rate were studied.

Results

All proposed models segment the cotton bolls successfully with the cotton IoU (intersection-over-union) value of above 88%. The highest cotton IoU of 91.03% was achieved by model 2. The proposed models achieved F1-score and pixel accuracy values greater than 95% and 98%, respectively. The developed models were compared with existing state-of-the-art networks namely VGG19, ResNet18, and InceptionV3. Despite having a limited number of trainable parameters, the proposed models achieved mIoU (mean intersection-over-union) of 93.84%, 94.15%, and 94.65% against the mIoU values of 95.39%, 96.54%, and 96.37% obtained using state-of-the-art networks. The segmentation time for the developed models was reduced up to 52% compared to state-of-the-art networks.

Conclusion

The developed lightweight models segmented the in-field cotton bolls comparatively faster and with greater accuracy. Hence, developed models can be deployed to cotton harvesting robots for real-time recognition of in-field cotton bolls for harvesting.
Early neurodevelopmental outcomes in children with asymptomatic congenital CMV infection.
Authors: Novelli Maria , Natale Fabio , Norcia Anna Di , Boiani Arianna , Temofonte Sara , Calandriello Francesca , Zitarelli Cristina , Caravale Barbara 
Published: September 2022

Abstract
Background
Approximately 85–90% of congenital cytomegalovirus infections are asymptomatic. Few studies have investigated early and long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes in children with asymptomatic cCMV, and the data is contradictory. We did investigate the effect of cCMV asymptomatic infection on neurological outcomes and in the cognitive, language and motor development of children at 6 months of age.
Methods
Fifty-six children with cCMV asymptomatic infection were followed for 6 months, surveying their neurological and developmental outcomes. Neurological examination and Bayley-III Scales were performed.
Results
Clinical evaluation revealed that neurological outcomes at 6 months were essentially normal, with minor neurological deficits (i.e., tone abnormalities) in a subgroup of patients. Bayley-III scores were substantially in the normal range, with some 14% showing a score less than 85 (−1SD) in the motor scale. Children's neurological and neurodevelopmental outcomes do not differ according to the trimester of infection.
Conclusions
Infants with cCMV asymptomatic infection may present minor neurological abnormalities in early stages of life. It seems necessary to survey and monitor early and late neurodevelopmental outcomes in the first years of life.
Effects of Covid-19 Vaccines on the Menstrual Cycle: A Cross-Sectional Study.
Authors: Gopaul Chavin , Bassaw Bharat , Ventour Dale , Thomas Davlin 
Published: September 2022

Abstract
Background: Prior clinical studies that sought to investigate the safety and efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines did not list menstrual cycle changes as a side-effect. However, following reported cases of menstrual cycle disturbances after vaccination, this study sought to examine the link between Covid-19 vaccination and post-vaccine menstrual cycle abnormalities in pre- and post-menopausal women.
Methods: A cross-sectional research design approach using online surveys was employed to investigate the link between vaccination and changes in menstrual cycle. The participants consisted of a cohort of 657 pre- and post-menopausal women with the majority drawn from the reproductive age group (25-44 years). The inclusion criteria was that participants must have received any type of Covid-19 vaccine, not be pregnant and those that did not have a negative diagnosis in any gynecologic condition. Of the eligible sample size, only 344 participants met the inclusion criteria. The sociodemographic and menstrual cycle data was collected from an online survey. Data was analyzed using descriptive, inferential chi-square tests, logistic regression, and correlation.
Results: The results partially confirmed the findings from prior studies that Covid-19 vaccination is associated with significant changes in the women’s menstrual cycle flow and menstrual period length even after controlling for age, Body Mass Index, and ethnicity. Other menstrual cycle disturbances such as missed periods, cycle regularity, and spotting/vaginal bleeding were noted to be less significant. However, the extent of menstrual cycle changes was less severe and decreased after the second dose vaccination. It was found that 11.1% and 37.5% of post-menopausal women reported menstrual symptoms after the first and the second dose cycle respectively.
Conclusion: The study concludes that although Covid-19 vaccines tend to adversely affect women’s menstrual cycle, these changes are short-lived. The findings have important implications in enhancing the success of Covid-19 vaccination programs by reducing cases of vaccine hesitancy among reproductive-age women.
What motivated men to start PrEP? A cross-section of men starting PrEP in Buffalo City Municipality, South Africa
Authors: Smith Philip John , Daniels Joseph , Bekker Linda-Gail , Medina-Marino Andrew 
Published: September 2022

Abstract
Background
Compared to women, South African men are less likely to know their HIV status (78% vs 89%), have suppressed viral loads (82% vs 90%), or access HIV prevention services. To achieve epidemic control where heterosexual sexual behavior drives transmission, interventions to improve the uptake of HIV testing services (HTS) and prevention services must also target cis-gendered, heterosexual men. There is limited understanding of these men’s needs and wants with regards to accessing pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).
Methods
Adult men (≥ 18 years) from a peri-urban community in Buffalo City Municipality were offered community-based HTS. Those who received a negative HIV test result were offered community-based, same-day oral PrEP initiation. Men initiating PrEP were invited to participate in a study exploring men’s HIV prevention needs and reasons for initiating PrEP. An in-depth interview guide, developed using the Network-Individual-Resources model (NIRM), explored men’s perceived HIV acquisition risk, prevention needs, and preferences for PrEP initiation. Interviews were conducted by a trained interviewer in isiXhosa or English, audio-recorded and transcribed. Thematic analysis was used, guided by the NIRM to generate findings.
Results
Twenty-two men (age range 18–57 years) initiated PrEP and consented to study participation. Men reported elevated HIV acquisition risk associated with alcohol use and condom-less sex with multiple partners as facilitators driving PrEP initiation. They anticipated social support from family members, their main sexual partner and close friends for their PrEP use, and discussed other men as important sources of support for PrEP initiation. Nearly all men expressed positive views of people using PrEP. Participants believed HIV testing would be a barrier for men interested in accessing PrEP. Men recommended that access to PrEP be convenient, rapid, and community-based (i.e., not clinic-based).
Discussion
Self-perceived risk for HIV acquisition was a major facilitator for men’s PrEP initiation. Although men expressed positive perceptions of PrEP users, they noted that HIV testing may be a barrier to PrEP initiation. Finally, men recommended convenient access points to facilitate PrEP initiation and sustained use. Gender-responsive interventions tailored to men’s needs, wants, and voices will facilitate their uptake of HIV prevention services, and help to end the HIV epidemic.
Effect of mobile phone-based health insurance contribution payment system on retention of coverage in the National Health Insurance Scheme in Ghana: an evaluation study
Authors: Nsiah-Boateng Eric , Musah Mariam , Akuamoah Collins Danso , Asenso-Boadi Francis , Andoh-Adjei Francis-Xavier , Boye Bernard Okoe 
Published: September 2022

Abstract
Background
Ghana introduced a mobile phone-based contribution payment system in its national health insurance scheme (NHIS) in December 2018 to improve the process of enrolment. We evaluated the effect of this digital health intervention on retention of coverage in the Scheme, one year after its implementation.
Methods
We used NHIS enrolment data for the period, 19 December 2018–31 December 2019. Descriptive statistics and propensity-score matching method were performed to examine a sample of 57,993 members’ data.
Results
Proportion of members who renewed their membership in the NHIS via the mobile phone-based contribution payment system increased from 0.4–8.5% whilst those who did so through the office-based system grew from 4.7–6.4% over the study period. The chance of renewing membership was higher by 17.4 percentage points for users of the mobile phone-based contribution payment system, compared to those of the office-based contribution payment system. The effect was greater for the informal sector workers, males and the unmarried.
Conclusions
The mobile phone-based health insurance renewal system is improving coverage in the NHIS particularly for members who hitherto were less likely to renew their membership. Policy makers need to devise an innovative way for new members to enrol via this payment system to accelerate progress towards attainment of universal health coverage. Further study needs to be conducted using mixed-method design with inclusion of more variables.
Impact of Silencing eEF2K Expression on the Malignant Properties of Chordoma
Authors: Aydemir Esra , Tüysüz Emre Can , Bayrak Ömer Faruk , Tecimel Didem , Hızlı-Deniz Ayşen Aslı , Şahin Fikrettin 
Published: September 2022

Abstract
Background Eukaryotic elongation factor 2 kinase (eukaryotic elongation factor 2 kinase, eEF2K) is a calcium calmodulin dependent protein kinase that keeps the highest energy consuming cellular process of protein synthesis under check through negative regulation. EEF2K pauses global protein synthesis rates at the translational elongation step by phosphorylating its only kown substrate elongation factor 2 (eEF2), a unique translocase activity in ekaryotic cells enabling the polypeptide chain elongation. Therefore, eEF2K is thought to preserve cellular energy pools particularly upon acute development of cellular stress conditions such as nutrient deprivation, hypoxia, or infections. Recently, high expression of this enzyme has been associated with poor prognosis in an array of solid tumor types. Therefore, in a growing number of studies tremendous effort is being directed to the development of treatment methods aiming to suppress eEF2K as a novel therapeutic approach in the fight against cancer.
Methods In our study, we aimed to investigate the changes in the tumorigenicity of chordoma cells in presence of gene silencing for eEF2K. Taking a transient gene silencing approach using siRNA particles, eEF2K gene expression was suppressed in chordoma cells.
ResultsSilencing eEF2K expression was associated with a slight increase in cellular proliferation and a decrease in death rates. Furthermore, no alteration in the sensitivity of chordoma cells to chemotherapy was detected in response to the decrease in eEF2K expression which intriguingly promoted suppression of cell migratory and invasion related properties.
Conclusion
Our findings indicate that the loss of eEF2K expression in chordoma cell lines results in the reduction of metastatic capacity.
CT texture analysis in predicting treatment response and survival in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma treated with transarterial chemoembolization
Authors: An He , Bhatia Inderjeet , Xie Chuanmiao 
Published: September 2022

Abstract
Background
Using texture features derived from contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) combined with general imaging features as well as clinical information to predict treatment response and survival in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who received transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) treatment.
Methods
From January 2014 to June 2020, 301 patients with HCC who underwent TACE were retrospectively reviewed. Their treatment-naïve contrast-enhanced CTs were retrieved and reviewed by two independent radiologists. Four general imaging features were evaluated, including the largest lesion diameter, the number of lesions, the presence or absence of portal vein thrombus and the presence or absence of ascites. Texture features were extracted based on the regions of interest (ROIs) drawn on the slice with the largest axial diameter of all lesions using Pyradiomics. After excluding features with low reproducibility, the remaining features with high prognostic value were selected for further analyses. The data were randomly divided in a ratio of 8:2 for model training and testing. A random forest classifier was built to predict treatment response. Random survival forest and Cox proportional-hazards models were constructed to predict patients’ overall (OS) and progress-free survival (PFS).
Results
We retrospectively evaluated 301 patients (average 55.3 years old) with HCC treated with TACE. After feature reduction and selection, 22 features were included in model construction. The random forest classifier including texture features achieved an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.968 with an accuracy of 88.3% for predicting treatment response, significantly higher than the model without texture features. Along with important clinical and general image features, texture features are significantly correlated with overall and progress-free survival, especially for Gray-level size zone matrix (GLSZM) group (p < 0.05).
Conclusions
Random forest algorithm based on texture features combined with general imaging features, and clinical information is a robust method for predicting prognosis in patients with HCC treated with TACE, which may help avoid additional examinations and assist in treatment planning.
Association of circulating MtDNA with CVD in hemodialysis patients: involvement of MtDNA-induced cardiac microvascular inflammation
Authors: Fan Zhen , Feng Ya , Zang Li , Guo Yi , Zhong Xiao-yi 
Published: September 2022

Abstract
Background
Previous studies have shown a role of mitochondrial DNA (MtDNA) in innate immunity. However, the specific role of MtDNA in chronic kidney disease (CKD)-related cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains elusive. This study was designed to investigate the potential relationship between circulating MtDNA and CVD in maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients, and to examine the damaging effect of exogenous MtDNA on cardiac microvascular endothelial cells (CMECs) in the uremic milieu.
Methods
Forty-two MHD patients and 36 health controls were enrolled in this study. Plasma cell-free MtDNA was detected by TaqMan-based qPCR assay. The CVD risk markers including high-sensitive C-reactive protein (Hs-CRP), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), fibrinogen, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) were measured by using standard assays. The ten-year cardiovascular risk was assessed using the framingham risk score (FRS). Dialysis systems in MHD patients were used to evaluate the effect of different dialysis modes on the clearance of circulating MtDNA. In vitro study, human cardiac microvascular endothelial cells (HCMECs) were incubated with normal or uremic serum with or without exogenous MtDNA stimulation. Intracellular toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9), adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1), MCP-1 and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) mRNA levels and cytosolic MtDNA contents were detected by qPCR.
Results
Plasma MtDNA was significantly elevated in patients with MHD relative to healthy controls. The MHD patients were subsequently classified into two groups based on the median value of MtDNA. In stratified analyses, the levels of Hs-CRP and MCP-l, and FRS in the high plasma MtDNA group were higher than those in the low plasma MtDNA group. In vitro study, exogenous MtDNA aggravated uremic serum-induced upregulation of ICAM-1 and TNF-α in HCMECs. Also, the addition of MtDNA to the medium resulted in increased cytosolic MtDNA amounts and TLR9 mRNA levels in uremic serum-treated cells. Single routine hemodialysis and hemodiafiltration could partially reduce plasma MtDNA in MHD patients. These two methods seem similar in terms of MtDNA clearance.
Conclusions
We concluded that MtDNA released into the circulation under the uremic toxin environment may has a detrimental effect on cardiovascular system through aggravating microvascular inflammation, and that reducing circulating MtDNA might be a future therapeutic strategy for the prevention of MHD-related CVD.