bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Using qualitative methods in pilot and feasibility trials to inform recruitment and retention processes in full-scale randomised trials: a qualitative evidence synthesis
Authors: Elfeky Adel , Treweek Shaun , Hannes Karin , Bruhn Hanne , Fraser Cynthia , Gillies Katie 
Published: April 2022

ObjectivesTo systematically review published pretrial qualitative research studies and explore how their findings were used to inform recruitment and retention processes in full-scale trials.DesignQualitative evidence synthesis using thematic analysis.Data sources and eligibility criteriaWe conducted a comprehensive search of databases; Dissertation Abstracts International, CINAHL, Embase, MEDLINE, Sociological Abstracts and PsycINFO. We included all reports of pretrial qualitative data on recruitment and retention in clinical trials up to March 2018.Data extraction and synthesisTwo authors independently extracted data using a predefined data extraction form that captured study aims, design, methodological approach and main findings, including barriers and facilitators to recruitment and or retention. The synthesis was undertaken using Thomas and Harden’s thematic synthesis method and reported following the Enhancing Transparency in Reporting the Synthesis of Qualitative Research guidelines. Confidence was assessed using Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation-Confidence in the Evidence from Reviews of Qualitative research approach.ResultsThirty-five papers (connected to 31 feasibility studies) from three different countries, published between 2010 and 2017 were included. All studies were embedded in pilot or feasibility studies to inform design aspects in preparation for a subsequent full-scale trial. Twelve themes were identified as recruitment barriers and three as recruitment facilitators. Two themes were identified as barriers for retention and none as retention facilitators. The findings from qualitative research in feasibility or pilot trials are often not explicitly linked to proposed changes to the recruitment and retention strategies to be used in the future or planned full-scale trial.ConclusionsMany trial teams do pretrial qualitative work with the aim of improving recruitment and retention in future full-scale trials. Just over half of all reports of such work do not clearly show how their findings will change the recruitment and retention strategy of the future trial. The scope of pretrial work needs to expand beyond looking for problems and also look for what might help and spend more time on retention.
Impacts of using different standard populations in calculating age-standardised death rates when age-speciﬁc death rates in the populations being compared do not have a consistent relationship: a cross-sectional population-based observational study on US state HIV death rates
Authors: Tai Shu-Yu , Liang Fu-Wen , Hng Yen-Yee , Lo Yi-Hsuan , Lu Tsung-Hsueh 
Published: April 2022

ObjectiveTo examine if the rankings of state HIV age-standardised death rates (SDRs) would be different if different standard populations (SPs) were used when age-speciﬁc death rates (ASDRs) in states being compared do not have a consistent relationship.DesignA cross-sectional population-based observational study.Setting36 states in the USA.ParticipantsResidents living in the 36 states.Main outcome measuresHIV SDR by state using two SPs, namely US2000 and US2020.ResultsUS HIV ASDR by state did not have consistent relationships. Of 36 states analysed, the HIV death rates of people aged 55–64 years were higher than people aged 45–54 years in 20 states; on the contrary, the HIV death rates of people aged 55–64 years were lower than people aged 45–54 years in 16 states. No change in ranking in 19 states and change in ranking in 17 states. Of the 17 states whose rankings changed, the rankings of 9 states calculated using US2000 were higher (lower SDR) than those calculated using US2020; in 8 states, the rankings were lower (higher SDR). The states with the greatest changes in rankings between US2000 and US2020 were Kentucky (12th and 9th, respectively) and Massachusetts (8th and 11th, respectively).ConclusionsCalculating SDR using elder SP (US2020) would disproportionately increase the SDR in states with peak HIV death rate in older adults than those used younger SP (US2000).
Emergency department antimicrobial use in a low-resource setting: results from a retrospective observational study at a referral hospital in Liberia
Authors: Yi Sojung , Ramachandran Anu , Epps Lane , Mayah Alex , Burkholder Taylor W , Jaung Michael Senyu , Haider Ahson , Whesseh Paul , Shakpeh John , Enriquez Kayla , Bills Corey 
Published: April 2022

ObjectiveData on antimicrobial use in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) remain limited. In Liberia, the absence of local data impedes surveillance and may lead to suboptimal treatment, injudicious use and resistance against antimicrobials. This study aims to examine antimicrobial prescribing patterns for patients in the emergency department (ED) of a large Liberian public hospital. Secondarily, this prescribing was compared with WHO prescribing indicators.DesignRetrospective observational study.SettingAn adult ED of a large public hospital in Monrovia, Liberia.ParticipantsA total of 1082 adult patients (>18 years of age) were recorded in the ED, from 1 January to 30 June 2019.Main outcome measuresNumber, type and name of antimicrobials ordered per patient were presented as number and percentages, with comparison to known WHO prescribing indicators. Pearson χ2 tests were used to assess patient variables and trends in medication use.ResultsOf the total patients, 44.0% (n=476) were female and the mean age was 40.2 years (SD=17.4). An average of 2.78 (SD=2.02) medicines were prescribed per patient encounter. At least one antimicrobial was ordered for 64.5% encounters (n=713) and two or more antimicrobials for 35.7% (n=386). All antimicrobial orders in our sample used the generic name. Ceftriaxone, metronidazole and ampicillin were the most common and accounted for 61.2% (n=743) of antimicrobial prescriptions. The majority (99.9%, n=1211) of antimicrobials prescribed were from the WHO Essential Drugs List.ConclusionThis study is one of the first on ED-specific antimicrobial use in LMICs. We revealed a high rate of antimicrobial prescription, regardless of patient demographic or diagnosis. While empiric antimicrobial use is justified in certain acute clinical scenarios, the high rate from this setting warrants further investigation. The results of this study underscore the importance of ED surveillance to develop targeted antimicrobial stewardship interventions and improve patient care.
A pilot multicentre cluster randomised trial to compare the effect of trauma life support training programmes on patient and provider outcomes
Authors: Gerdin Wärnberg Martin , Berg Johanna , Bhandarkar Prashant , Chatterjee Anirban , Chatterjee Shamita , Chintamani Chintamani , Felländer-Tsai Li , Gadgil Anita , Ghag Geeta , Hasselberg Marie , Juillard Catherine , Khajanchi Monty , Kizhakke Veetil Deepa , Kumar Vineet , Kundu Debabrata , Mishra Anurag , Patil Priti , Roy Nobhojit , Roy Amit , David Siddarth , Singh Rajdeep , Solomon Harris , Soni Kapil Dev , Strömmer Lovisa , Tandon Megha 
Published: April 2022

IntroductionTrauma accounts for nearly 10% of the global burden of disease. Several trauma life support programmes aim to improve trauma outcomes. There is no evidence from controlled trials to show the effect of these programmes on patient outcomes. We describe the protocol of a pilot study that aims to assess the feasibility of conducting a cluster randomised controlled trial comparing advanced trauma life support (ATLS) and primary trauma care (PTC) with standard care.Methods and analysisWe will pilot a pragmatic three-armed parallel, cluster randomised controlled trial in India, where neither of these programmes are routinely taught. We will recruit tertiary hospitals and include trauma patients and residents managing these patients. Two hospitals will be randomised to ATLS, two to PTC and two to standard care. The primary outcome will be all-cause mortality at 30 days from the time of arrival to the emergency department. Our secondary outcomes will include patient, provider and process measures. All outcomes except time-to-event outcomes will be measured both as final values as well as change from baseline. We will compare outcomes in three combinations of trial arms: ATLS versus PTC, ATLS versus standard care and PTC versus standard care using absolute and relative differences along with associated CIs. We will conduct subgroup analyses across the clinical subgroups men, women, blunt multisystem trauma, penetrating trauma, shock, severe traumatic brain injury and elderly. In parallel to the pilot study, we will conduct community consultations to inform the planning of the full-scale trial.Ethics and disseminationWe will apply for ethics approvals to the local institutional review board in each hospital. The protocol will be published to Clinical Trials Registry—India and ClinicalTrials.gov. The results will be published and the anonymised data and code for analysis will be released publicly.
Dynamics of the “Cognitive” Brain Wave P3b at Rest for Alzheimer Dementia Prediction in Mild Cognitive Impairment
Authors: Porcaro Camillo , Vecchio Fabrizio , Miraglia Francesca , Zito Giancarlo , Rossini Paolo Maria 
Published: April 2022

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia that involves a progressive and irrevocable decline in cognitive abilities and social behavior, thus annihilating the patient’s autonomy. The theoretical assumption that disease-modifying drugs are most effective in the early stages hopefully in the prodromal stage called mild cognitive impairment (MCI) urgently pushes toward the identification of robust and individualized markers of cognitive decline to establish an early pharmacological intervention. This requires the combination of well-established neural mechanisms and the development of increasingly sensitive methodologies. Among the neurophysiological markers of attention and cognition, one of the sub-components of the ‘cognitive brain wave’ P300 recordable in an odd-ball paradigm -namely the P3b- is extensively regarded as a sensitive indicator of cognitive performance. Several studies have reliably shown that changes in the amplitude and latency of the P3b are strongly related to cognitive decline and aging both healthy and pathological. Here, we used a P3b spatial filter to enhance the electroencephalographic (EEG) characteristics underlying 175 subjects divided into 135 MCI subjects, 20 elderly controls (EC), and 20 young volunteers (Y). The Y group served to extract the P3b spatial filter from EEG data, which was later applied to the other groups during resting conditions with eyes open and without being asked to perform any task. The group of 135 MCI subjects could be divided into two subgroups at the end of a month follow-up: 75 with stable MCI (MCI-S, not converted to AD), 60 converted to AD (MCI-C). The P3b spatial filter was built by means of a signal processing method called Functional Source Separation (FSS), which increases signal-to-noise ratio by using a weighted sum of all EEG recording channels rather than relying on a single, or a small sub-set, of channels. A clear difference was observed for the P3b dynamics at rest between groups. Moreover, a machine learning approach showed that P3b at rest could correctly distinguish MCI from EC (80.6% accuracy) and MCI-S from MCI-C (74.1% accuracy), with an accuracy as high as 93.8% in discriminating between MCI-C and EC. Finally, a comparison of the Bayes factor revealed that the group differences among MCI-S and MCI-C were 138 times more likely to be detected using the P3b dynamics compared with the best performing single electrode (Pz) approach. In conclusion, we propose that P3b as measured through spatial filters can be safely regarded as a simple and sensitive marker to predict the conversion from an MCI to AD status eventually combined with other non-neurophysiological biomarkers for a more precise definition of dementia having neuropathological Alzheimer characteristics.
Multi-band simultaneous fits of transport data on p-type ScNiSb with including impurity conduction
Authors: Kajikawa Yasutomo 
Published: April 2022

The experimental data of the electrical conductivity [Formula: see text] and the Seebeck coefficient [Formula: see text] in the temperature range from 2 K to 950 K, together with those of the Hall coefficient [Formula: see text] in the temperature range from 2 K to 300 K, on the polycrystalline sample of [Formula: see text]-type ScNiSb reported by Ciesielski et al. [Phys. Rev. Appl. 14, 054046 (2020)] have been critically analyzed with including both nearest-neighbor and Mott variable-range hopping (VRH) conduction. Through the simultaneous fits to the experimental data of [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], various transport parameters such as the bandgap energy, the effective masses of holes and electrons, and the electron-to-hole mobility ratio, are deduced together with the ionization energy and the concentration of the acceptor level. It is shown that nearest-neighbor hopping (NNH) conduction exhibits a significant effect on the Seebeck coefficient at low temperatures while VRH conduction has an only small effect on it. Contrary to the speculation by Ciesielski et al., the electron mobility is proved to be lower than the hole mobility.
On the chromatic number of (P5,dart)-free graphs
Authors: Xu Weilun , Zhang Xia 
Published: April 2022

For a graph G, [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] represent the clique number and the chromatic number of G, respectively. A hereditary family [Formula: see text] of graphs is called [Formula: see text]-bounded with [Formula: see text]-binding function [Formula: see text] if [Formula: see text] for all [Formula: see text]. A result of Schiermeyer shows that the class of [Formula: see text]-free graphs has a [Formula: see text]-binding function [Formula: see text] [L. Esperet, L. Lemoine, F. Maffray and G. Morel, The chromatic number of [Formula: see text]-free graphs, Discrete Math. 313 (2013) 743–754]. In this paper, we prove that the class of [Formula: see text]-free graphs has a [Formula: see text]-binding function [Formula: see text]. For the class of [Formula: see text]-free graphs, we give a [Formula: see text]-binding function [Formula: see text].
Simulation of hydrogen diffusion in pipeline steel under pre-cracks and sour environment
Authors: Asadipoor M. , Asadipour M. , Kadkhodapour J. , Anaraki A. Pourkamali 
Published: April 2022

Purpose: In this work, the influences of different field operating parameters (pH and partial pressure of H2S) and crack types (isolated and cluster cracks) are investigated on the distribution of hydrogen concentration in pipeline steel. Design/methodology/approach: A numerical simulation based on the finite element method was performed using the COMSOL Multiphysics software to achieve the objectives. Findings: Hydrogen concentration and total hydrogen flux are increased when pH decreases and [Formula: see text] increases. Besides, the crack flanks are the most appropriate areas for hydrogen diffusion. Accordingly, the areas including step-wise cracking absorb more atomic hydrogen, and the space between the upper surface of the crack and the outer wall is no longer protected. Furthermore, the computational results reveal how a blister on the top of a cluster crack can be crucial by providing enough area for hydrogen to diffuse, and the area between the crack top surface and the outer wall could no longer be protected from hydrogen flux. Originality: Evaluation of hydrogen concentration in different areas of isolated and cluster cracks under different field operating conditions (pH and [Formula: see text] is not yet understood, which is discussed in this study.
V-Gas: Generating High Gas Consumption Inputs to Avoid Out-of-Gas Vulnerability
Authors: Ma Fuchen , Ren Meng , Ying Fu , Sun Wanting , Song Houbing , Shi Heyuan , Jiang Yu , Li Huizhong 
Published: April 2022

Out-of-gas errors occur when smart contract programs are provided with inputs that cause excessive gas consumption and which will be easily exploited to perform Denial-of-Service attacks. Various approaches have been proposed to estimate the gas limit of a function in smart contracts to avoid such error. However, underestimation often occurs when the contract is complex In this work, we propose V-Gas, which automatically generates inputs that maximize the gas cost and reduce underestimation. V-Gas is designed based on static analysis and feedback-directed mutational fuzz testing. First, V-Gas builds the gas weighted control flow graph of functions in smart contracts. Then, V-Gas develops gas consumption guided selection and mutation strategies to generate the input that maximize the gas consumption.
For evaluation, we implement V-Gas based on js-evm, a widely used Ethereum virtual machine written in Javascript, and conduct experiments on 736 real-world transactions recorded on Ethereum. A total of 44.02% of the transactions would have out-of-gas errors based on the estimation results given by solc, meaning that the recorded real gas consumption for those transactions is larger than the gas limit estimated by solc. In comparison, V-Gas could reduce the underestimation ratio to 13.86%. To evaluate the performance of feedback-directed engine in V-Gas, we implemented other directed fuzzing engines and compared their performance with that of V-Gas. The results showed that V-Gas generates the same or higher gas estimation value on 97.8% of the transactions with less time, usually within 5 minutes. Furthermore, V-Gas has exposed 25 previously unknown out-of-gas vulnerabilities in widely used smart contracts, 6 of which have been assigned unique CVE identifiers in the U.S. National Vulnerability Database.
Comparison of Male and Female Sexual Dysfunction between Hemodialysis and Peritoneal Dialysis in Patients with End-Stage Renal Disease: An Analytical Cross-Sectional Study
Authors: Zeighami Shahryar , Dehghankhalili Saeid , Heiran Khadije , Azarchehry Seyede Pegah , Heiran Alireza , Sayadi Mehrab , Azadian Fatemeh 
Published: April 2022

Background. Maintenance dialysis is the most common treatment for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. One of the most ignored but important health issue among dialysis patients is sexual dysfunction, which interferes with quality of life (QoL). Studies showed that the side effects of the two conventional methods of dialysis (hemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD)) are different on a patient’s health. Therefore, we sought to compare the sexual dysfunction score, both male and female, between patients undergoing HD and PD. Methods. One hundred seventy adults (85 HD and 85 PD) subject with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) on dialysis for at least 2 months were included. For male subjects, the erectile function (EF) domain of the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) questionnaire was calculated. Moreover, the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) questionnaire was calculated for females. Data were analyzed via SPSS software. Two independent sample t-test with two-sided significance level of 5% was used for comparing the sexual dysfunction score between HD and PD patients. Results. Out of 170 patients with mean age of 49.34 ± 11.7 years, 52.9% were female. Better sexual function scores were obtained in the HD group’s females for desire, orgasm, and satisfaction domains, as well as the total score (

P

= 0.03, 0.016, 0.02, and 0.039, respectively). The erectile function was significantly better in the PD group’s males (

P

). Conclusion. We found better sexual life in the HD group’s females and PD group’s males. Considering dialysis as a life-long treatment of CKD patients, this part of a patient’s life must be taken seriously by the healthcare providers to choose the most suitable method for patients based on their personalized conditions.
An IL-2 Protein Therapeutic for Cancer that Gains Function on the Spot
Authors: Silva Daniel-Adriano 
Published: April 2022

Abstract
Recombinant human IL-2 (rhIL-2) is now rarely used to treat patients with cancer because it too often causes severe toxicities. In this issue, Nirschl and colleagues report the development and preclinical characterization of an engineered IL-2 prodrug called WTX-124 that activates in the tumor microenvironment and has minimal systemic toxicity. It will be intriguing to watch the translation of this approach to the clinic.
See related article by Nirschl et al., p. 581 (5).
Learning algorithm of artificial neural network factor forecasting power consumption of users
Authors: Shiralievich Tavarov Saijon , Ivanovic Sidorov Alexander , Mamanazarovna Shonazarova Shakhnoza , Olimovich Sultonov Olamafruz , Yunusov Parviz 
Published: April 2022

Seasonal fluctuations in electricity consumption, an uneven load of supply lines reduce not only the indicator of energy efficiency of networks but also contribute to a decrease in the service life of elements of power supply systems. Revealing the patterns of such fluctuations makes it possible to build models of power consumption, predict its dynamics, which in general will contribute to ensuring the energy efficiency of urban electrical networks and increasing the reliability of power supply systems. A computational, computer and neural network model is proposed that allows to increase the accuracy of the forecast of electricity consumption by household consumers. Based on the developed mathematical model, taking into account the obtained factor coefficients - ti, h, c, s, k for 2020 for 9 cities of the Republic of Tajikistan, monthly coefficients characterizing the terrain conditions (αi) were calculated. The results obtained using the proposed method was compared with the results of a computer and neural network model.
Corner detection in aerospace image by using an expandable mask
Authors: Hammed Alzaki Haider Makki , Hutaihit Maha Abbas , Shauchuk Оksana 
Published: April 2022

An algorithm for searching the breaks in contours based on an expandable mask in the image is proposed. The essence of the algorithm is to eliminate straight contour lines using a form factor. Sequential application of a pixel binary mask for each pixel of the contour, except the endpoints, and joining the unit elements to the mask (growing) in the vicinity of the pixel, for which it is impossible to determine whether the fracture using a mask pixel. The analysis of the proposed algorithm is compared with Harris method when changing registration conditions of images, specially, brightness, contrast, and rotation. Shown, that the proposed algorithm is more stable with increasing contrast and has a shorter running time compared with Harris method on account of loss the stability with decreasing contrast.