bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Challenges in the management of metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumor in a patient with neurofibromatosis type 1: a case report
Authors: Bharath B. G. , Rastogi Sameer , Ahmed Shamim , Barwad Adarsh 
Published: May 2022

Abstract
Background
Neurofibromatosis type 1 is an inherited cancer predisposition syndrome that is caused by a mutation in the NF1 gene that encodes neurofibromin. Patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 have a higher risk of gastrointestinal stromal tumor. This study reports the case of a patient with gastrointestinal stromal tumor who was later diagnosed to have neurofibromatosis type 1 and, unlike usual features, had some uncommon features such as occurrence at an early age and unusual site of origin.

Case
We report the case of a 29-year-old Indian female diagnosed to have gastrointestinal stromal tumor originating from the greater curvature of the stomach. Gastrointestinal stromal tumor was wild type, negative for c-kit and platelet-derived growth factor receptor, and had an aggressive clinical course not responding to oral tyrosine kinase inhibitors. On later evaluation, we found that the patient had germline mutation in NF1. This case has some unusual features compared with gastrointestinal stromal tumor cases reported in neurofibromatosis type 1. Firstly, the age of onset for gastrointestinal stromal tumor in neurofibromatosis type 1 is earlier in our case compared with previous cases reported in literature. Secondly, the site of occurrence is in the stomach, without involving other parts of the intestine. Gastrointestinal stromal tumor in neurofibromatosis type 1 is usually multifocal, and small intestine is the common site of occurrence. When occurring in the stomach, it is usually associated with other lesions in the small intestine. Lastly, the clinical course is aggressive compared with previous case reports and series.

Conclusion
Our patient had germline NF1 mutation and cutaneous stigmata of neurofibromatosis. Our patient had unicentric gastrointestinal stromal tumor occurring at younger age and involving greater curvature of the stomach, with spindle cell type histology and high-risk features. If gastrointestinal stromal tumor occurs at young age, we should look into neurocutaneous markers.
Fabrication of SA/Gel/C scaffold with 3D bioprinting to generate micro-nano porosity structure for skin wound healing: a detailed animal in vivo study
Authors: Niu Changmei , Wang Liyang , Ji Dongdong , Ren Mingjun , Ke Dongxu , Fu Qiang , Zhang Kaile , Yang Xi 
Published: May 2022

AbstractBioprinting has exhibited remarkable promises for the fabrication of functional skin substitutes. However, there are some significant challenges for the treatment of full-thickness skin defects in clinical practice. It is necessary to determine bioinks with suitable mechanical properties and desirable biocompatibilities. Additionally, the key for printing skin is to design the skin structure optimally, enabling the function of the skin. In this study, the full-thickness skin scaffolds were prepared with a gradient pore structure constructing the dense layer, epidermis, and dermis by different ratios of bioinks. We hypothesized that the dense layer protects the wound surface and maintains a moist environment on the wound surface. By developing a suitable hydrogel bioink formulation (sodium alginate/gelatin/collagen), to simulate the physiological structure of the skin via 3D printing, the proportion of hydrogels was optimized corresponding to each layer. These results reveal that the scaffold has interconnected macroscopic channels, and sodium alginate/gelatin/collagen scaffolds accelerated wound healing, reduced skin wound contraction, and re-epithelialization in vivo. It is expected to provide a rapid and economical production method of skin scaffolds for future clinical applications.
Fixed point theorems for generalized $(\alpha ,\psi )$-contraction mappings in rectangular quasi b-metric spaces
Authors: Abagaro Bontu Nasir , Tola Kidane Koyas , Mamud Mustefa Abduletif 
Published: May 2022

AbstractIn this paper, we introduce the class of rectangular quasi b-metric spaces as a generalization of rectangular metric spaces, rectangular quasi-metric spaces, rectangular b-metric spaces, define generalized$(\alpha ,\psi ) $(α,ψ)-contraction mappings and study fixed point results for the maps introduced in the setting of rectangular quasi b-metric spaces. Our results extend and generalize related fixed point results in the literature, in particular, the works of Karapinar and Lakzian (J. Funct. Spaces 2014:914398, 2014), Alharbi et al. (J. Math. Anal. 9(3):47–60, 2018), and Khuangsatung et al. (Thai J. Math. 2020:89–101, 2020) from rectangular quasi metric space and rectangularb-metric space to rectangular quasib-metric spaces. We also provide examples in support of our main findings. Furthermore, we applied one of our results to determine the existence of a solution to an integral equation.
Does linking women farmers to markets improve food security? Evidence from rural Bangladesh
Authors: Lee Han Bum , McNamara Paul E. , Bhattacharyya Kamal 
Published: May 2022

Abstract
Background
This study examined the effect of linking small-scale women farmers to markets, referred to as community marketing, and homestead food production extension services in two districts of rural Bangladesh.

Method
We particularly focused on identifying the relationship between treatment and food security, monthly expenditure patterns, and food production and marketing by adopting a doubly robust method that mediated bias from project site selection and potential misspecification of the postulated outcome or treatment model.

Results
The main results showed that establishing community marketing sites along with extension services provided women farmers a secured marketing outlet for food production, plausibly associated with a decreased likelihood of a reduction in monthly expenditures on healthcare (12.7 percentage points), child education (19.4 percentage points), and transportation (51.5 percentage points) during the lean season. However, if farmers did not spend extra income generated from marketing on food purchases, it would be difficult to anticipate an improvement in food security.

Conclusion
Community marketing was devised to link women smallholders to the markets without conflicting with social and cultural norms for which women were responsive, and our research findings supported the claim that they benefited from community marketing participation. Therefore, government, NGO, or other extension providers looking for a culturally appropriate approach to address women farmers’ limited mobility may consider using or modifying community marketing.
Non-destructive, spectrophotometric analysis of the thickness of the cell-multilayered periosteal sheet
Authors: Aizawa Hachidai , Uematsu Takashi , Sato Atsushi , Masuki Hideo , Kawabata Hideo , Tsujino Tetsuhiro , Isobe Kazushige , Kitamura Yutaka , Nagata Masaki , Nakata Koh , Kawase Tomoyuki 
Published: May 2022

Abstract
Background
Autologous tissue-engineered periosteal sheets, which have been clinically applied for periodontal regeneration, sinus lift, and alveolar ridge augmentation, are enriched with osteoblast precursor cells and the abundant deposition of collagen type I in the extracellular spaces. Their quality is inspected prior to clinical use; however, most criteria cannot be evaluated without sacrificing samples. To reduce such losses, we developed a non-destructive optical method that can quantitatively evaluate the thickness of the periosteal sheet.

Methods
Dispersed periosteal cells were inoculated into small pieces of collagen sponge (Terudermis®) and plated into 60-mm dishes for further explant culture using a conventional medium and a stem-cell culture medium. The thickness of periosteal sheets was evaluated using inverted microscopic, histological, labeling (CellVue®)-based imaging and spectrophotometric (Spectro-1®) methods.

Results
The three-dimensional growth of periosteal sheets did not necessarily correlate with two-dimensional growth. The periosteal sheet prepared with the stem-cell medium formed cell multilayers, a phenomenon that could be observed qualitatively by inverted microscopy. The spectrophotometric analysis enabled the quantitative evaluation of the thickness of the cell multilayer without sacrificing the samples processed for scheduled cell therapy.

Conclusions
The growth of periosteal sheets is influenced by several major factors, including the basic quality of the individual original periosteal tissue segments, the technical expertise of doctors and operators involved in tissue harvesting and processing, and culture conditions. This newly developed spectrophotometric analysis can quantify the thickness of cell-multilayered periosteal sheets for quality assurance in a non-destructive manner, thereby contributing to better bone augmentation prior to implant therapy.
Infectious diseases and predominant travel-related syndromes among long-term expatriates living in low-and middle- income countries: a scoping review
Authors: Kitro Amornphat , Ngamprasertchai Thundon , Srithanaviboonchai Kriengkrai 
Published: May 2022

Abstract
Introduction
Expatriates working in low-and middle-income countries have unique health problems. Migration leads not only to an increase in individual health risk but also a risk of global impact, such as pandemics. Expatriates with no prior experience living in tropical settings have expressed greatest concern about infectious diseases and appropriate peri-travel consultation is essential to expatriates. The objective of this review is to describe infections and travel-related syndromes among expatriates living in low-and middle-income countries.

Methods
MEDLINE database since the year 2000 was searched for relevant literature. Search terms were “long-term travel”, “expatriate”, and “health problems”. The additional references were obtained from hand-searching of selected articles.

Results
Up to 80% of expatriates suffered from gastrointestinal problems followed by dermatologic problems (up to 40%), and febrile systemic infection/vector-borne/parasitic infection (up to 34%) Expatriates living in Southeast Asia were at risk of vector-borne diseases including dengue and non-Plasmodium falciparum (pf) malaria while expatriates living in South Asia had a high prevalence of acute and chronic diarrhea. Staying long-term in Africa was related to an elevated risk for pf malaria and gastrointestinal infection. In Latin America, dermatologic problems were commonly reported illnesses among expatriates.

Conclusion
Certain health risks for expatriates who are going to depart to specific regions should be the focus of pre-travel consultation. Specific health preparations may reduce the risk of disease throughout their time abroad. Disease and symptom awareness is essential for screening, early diagnosis, and better health outcomes for ill-expatriates.
A literature review and integrated framework for the determinants of crowdfunding success
Authors: Deng Lingfei , Ye Qiang , Xu DaPeng , Sun Wenjun , Jiang Guangxin 
Published: May 2022

AbstractCrowdfunding is an innovative strategy for financing a new business venture from the general public instead of seeking funds in traditional ways, such as issuing bonds or bank lending. This study aims to identify the determinants affecting the success of a crowdfunding campaign and how different measurements for crowdfunding success, different crowdfunding models, and the selection of subdivided determinants influence the determinants’ impacts on crowdfunding success. We set the disciplines in the search strategy to select studies related to crowdfunding success. Ultimately, 94 empirical papers are selected to reveal the different findings for the determinants of crowdfunding success; based on this information, we construct an integrated framework for future research. There has been much research on project- and creator-related factors; however, many of these factors have inconsistent relationships with crowdfunding success due to varying measurements of success. In particular, different measurements used within the same study for determinants or crowdfunding success may also produce inconsistent results. In addition, different crowdfunding models of a project have been found to induce additional findings. Our review of the determinants of crowdfunding success and the definitions of the determinants, as well as the proposed integrated framework, can help focus future work on relatively new or unique determinants rarely addressed in the existing literature. This work provides practical implications for both theory and practice, and directions for future research.
Modelling the dynamics of stock market in the gulf cooperation council countries: evidence on persistence to shocks
Authors: Boubaker Heni , Saidane Bassem , Ben Saad Zorgati Mouna 
Published: May 2022

AbstractThis study examines the statistical properties required to model the dynamics of both the returns and volatility series of the daily stock market returns in six Gulf Cooperation Council countries, namely Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, under different financial and economic circumstances. The empirical investigation is conducted using daily data from June 1, 2005 to July 1, 2019. The analysis is conducted using a set of double long-memory specifications with some significant features such as long-range dependencies, asymmetries in conditional variances, non-linearity, and multiple seasonality or time-varying correlations. Our study indicates that the joint dual long-memory process can adequately estimate long-memory dynamics in returns and volatility. The in-sample diagnostic tests as well as out-of-sample forecasting results demonstrate the prevalence of the Autoregressive Fractionally Integrated Moving Average and Hyperbolic Asymmetric Power Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity modeling process over other competing models in fitting the first and the second conditional moments of the market returns. Moreover, the empirical results show that the proposed model offers an interesting framework to describe the long-range dependence in returns and seasonal persistence to shocks in conditional volatility and strongly support the estimation of dynamic returns that allow for time-varying correlations. A noteworthy finding is that the long-memory dependencies in the conditional variance processes of stock market returns appear important, asymmetric, and differ in their volatility responses to unexpected shocks. Our evidence suggests that these markets are not completely efficient in processing regional news, thus providing a sound alternative for regional portfolio diversification.
Interventions in hypertension: systematic review and meta-analysis of natural and quasi-experiments
Authors: Xia Tong , Zhao Fan , Nianogo Roch A. 
Published: May 2022

AbstractBackgroundHypertension is an urgent public health problem. Consistent summary from natural and quasi-experiments employed to evaluate interventions that aim at preventing or controlling hypertension is lacking in the current literature. This study aims to summarize the evidence from natural and quasi-experiments that evaluated interventions used to prevent or control hypertension.MethodsWe searched PubMed, Embase and Web of Science for natural and quasi-experiments evaluating interventions used to prevent hypertension, improve blood pressure control or reduce blood pressure levels from January 2008 to November 2018. Descriptions of studies and interventions were systematically summarized, and a meta-analysis was conducted.ResultsThirty studies were identified, and all used quasi-experimental designs including a difference-in-difference, a pre-post with a control group or a propensity score matching design. Education and counseling on lifestyle modifications such as promoting physical activity (PA), promoting a healthy diet and smoking cessation consultations could help prevent hypertension in healthy people. The use of computerized clinical practice guidelines by general practitioners, education and management of hypertension, the screening for cardiovascular disease (CVD) goals and referral could help improve hypertension control in patients with hypertension. The educating and counseling on PA and diet, the monitoring of patients’ metabolic factors and chronic diseases, the combination of education on lifestyles with management of hypertension, the screening for economic risk factors, medical needs, and CVD risk factors and referral all could help reduce blood pressure. In the meta-analysis, the largest reduction in blood pressure was seen for interventions which combined education, counseling and management strategies: weighted mean difference in systolic blood pressure was − 5.34 mmHg (95% confidence interval [CI], − 7.35 to − 3.33) and in diastolic blood pressure was − 3.23 mmHg (95% CI, − 5.51 to − 0.96).ConclusionsInterventions that used education and counseling strategies; those that used management strategies; those that used combined education, counseling and management strategies and those that used screening and referral strategies were beneficial in preventing, controlling hypertension and reducing blood pressure levels. The combination of education, counseling and management strategies appeared to be the most beneficial intervention to reduce blood pressure levels.
Molecular mechanism of crosstalk between immune and metabolic systems in metabolic syndrome
Authors: Hachiya Rumi , Tanaka Miyako , Itoh Michiko , Suganami Takayoshi 
Published: May 2022

AbstractChronic inflammation is currently considered as a molecular basis of metabolic syndrome. Particularly, obesity-induced inflammation in adipose tissue is the origin of chronic inflammation of metabolic syndrome. Adipose tissue contains not only mature adipocytes with large lipid droplets, but also a variety of stromal cells including adipocyte precursors, vascular component cells, immune cells, and fibroblasts. However, crosstalk between those various cell types in adipose tissue in obesity still remains to be fully understood. We focus on two innate immune receptors, Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and macrophage-inducible C-type lectin (Mincle). We provided evidence that adipocyte-derived saturated fatty acids (SFAs) activate macrophage TLR4 signaling pathway, thereby forming a vicious cycle of inflammatory responses during the development of obesity. Intriguingly, the TLR4 signaling pathway is modulated metabolically and epigenetically: SFAs augment TLR4 signaling through the integrated stress response and chromatin remodeling, such as histone methylation, regulates dynamic transcription patterns downstream of TLR4 signaling. Another innate immune receptor Mincle senses cell death, which is a trigger of chronic inflammatory diseases including obesity. Macrophages form a histological structure termed “crown-like structure (CLS)”, in which macrophages surround dead adipocytes to engulf cell debris and residual lipids. Mincle is exclusively expressed in macrophages forming the CLS in obese adipose tissue and regulates adipocyte death-triggered adipose tissue fibrosis. In addition to adipose tissue, we found a structure similar to CLS in the liver of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and the kidney after acute kidney injury. This review article highlights the recent progress of the crosstalk between immune and metabolic systems in metabolic syndrome, with a focus on innate immune receptors.
Novel chaos game optimization tuned-fractional-order PID fractional-order PI controller for load–frequency control of interconnected power systems
Authors: Barakat Mohamed 
Published: May 2022

AbstractIn this work, chaos game optimization (CGO), a robust optimization approach, is employed for efficient design of a novel cascade controller for four test systems with interconnected power systems (IPSs) to tackle load–frequency control (LFC) difficulties. The CGO method is based on chaos theory principles, in which the structure of fractals is seen via the chaotic game principle and the fractals’ self-similarity characteristics are considered. CGO is applied in LFC studies as a novel application, which reveals further research gaps to be filled. For practical implementation, it is also highly desirable to keep the controller structure simple. Accordingly, in this paper, a CGO-based controller of fractional-order (FO) proportional–integral–derivative–FO proportional–integral (FOPID–FOPI) controller is proposed, and the integral time multiplied absolute error performance function is used. Initially, the proposed CGO-based FOPID–FOPI controller is tested with and without the nonlinearity of the governor dead band for a two-area two-source model of a non-reheat unit. This is a common test system in the literature. A two-area multi-unit system with reheater–hydro–gas in both areas is implemented. To further generalize the advantages of the proposed scheme, a model of a three-area hydrothermal IPS including generation rate constraint nonlinearity is employed. For each test system, comparisons with relevant existing studies are performed. These demonstrate the superiority of the proposed scheme in reducing settling time, and frequency and tie-line power deviations.
Do investments in human and physical capital respond differently to financing constraints?
Authors: Brunello Giorgio , Gereben Áron , Rückert Désirée , Weiss Christoph , Wruuck Patricia 
Published: May 2022

AbstractUsing a representative sample of European firms, we study whether financing constraints affect employers’ investments in employee training and physical capital differently. We measure financing constraints with an index that combines survey and balance sheet data. We instrument this index with the non-performing loans ratio of the bank that provided the last loan to the firms or with the average ratio of banks in the local area. We find that financing constraints have no effect on investment in training, but substantially reduce investment in physical capital.