bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Vaping preferences of individuals who vaporise dry herb cannabis, cannabis liquids and cannabis concentrates
Authors: Morgan Jody , Gschwend Grace , Houston Matilda , Jones Alison , Kelso Celine 
Published: April 2022

AbstractIn 2019 an estimated 200 million people aged 15-64 used cannabis, making cannabis the most prevalent illicit substance worldwide. The last decade has seen a significant expansion in the cannabis vaporiser market, introducing cannabis vaporisation as a common administration method alongside smoking and ingestion. Despite reports of increased prevalence of cannabis vaporisation there has been little research into the use of these devices. To remedy the current dearth of data in this area this study utilised an anonymous online survey of individuals who self-reported past cannabis vaporisation. The respondents (N=557) were predominantly young (<35 years) and male. Most (91.4%) stated they had ever vaped dry herb cannabis, 59.1% reported vaporisation of cannabis oil or liquids, and 34.0% reported vaporisation of cannabis concentrates. This study identifies the types of vaporisation devices (including brands and models) employed by cannabis vapers, as well as the vaporisation temperatures and puff durations commonly used for dry herb, cannabis liquids and cannabis concentrates. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time the usual operating temperatures of these vaporisation devices and user specific consumption patterns such as puff duration have been reported for cannabis vaping. This information will allow for more realistic experimental conditions in research settings.
Effects of the introduction of interprofessional conferences on the intensive care unit: Comparison of the length of stay in the intensive care unit before and after the introduction of interprofessional conferences
Authors: Watanabe Daichi , Uranaka Keiichi , Asazawa Kyouko , Akimoto Takako , Ohnuma Hironori 
Published: April 2022

AbstractRecently, interprofessional team medicine has been practiced to achieve medical safety and improve patient outcomes. This study evaluated the effects of interprofessional conferences on intensive care units (ICUs) by comparing outcomes before and after their introduction. This study was conducted at a single center and included 1,765 patients who were admitted to the ICU between April 2017 and March 2019. There were 898 patients in the group before the introduction of conferences (before group) and 867 patients in the group after the introduction of conferences (after group). The interprofessional conferences involved physicians, nurses, physical therapists, nutritionists, and pharmacists. Data were extracted from the medical records. The primary outcome measure was the ICU length of stay (LOS). The secondary outcome measures were hospital LOS and rehabilitation and nutrition started within 48 hours of ICU admission. These outcomes were compared before and after the introduction of interprofessional conferences. The adjusted variables were gender, age, body mass index, ICU readmission, outcome, Barthel index at admission, and disease (classified by the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th edition). The ICU LOS (regression coefficient: -0.08; 95% confidence interval [CI]: -0.13 to -0.04) and hospital LOS (regression coefficient: -2.96; 95% CI: -5.20 to -0.72) were significantly shorter in after group than in the before group. Moreover, the proportion of patients who commenced nutrition (odds ratio [OR]: 1.45; 95% CI: 1.14 to 1.84) and rehabilitation (OR: 0.77; 95% CI: 0.51 to 1.17) within 48 hours of ICU admission was significantly higher in the after group than in the before group. Interprofessional conferences effectively reduced the ICU LOS and hospital LOS and improved the likelihood of commencing nutrition and rehabilitation within 48 hours of ICU admission.
Critical Arterial Stenosis Revisited
Authors: Archie Joseph P 
Published: April 2022

AbstractIntroductionStenosis of an organ/tissue primary artery can produce ischemia or only reduce blood flow reserve. Despite incomplete hemodynamic understanding of critical arterial stenosis, degree of diameter stenosis continues to be an index for patient management. This study aims to use the law of conservation of energy to quantitate the arterial pressure gradient produced by stenosis, determine organ/tissue perfusion pressure, blood flow and reserve as a function of degree of diameter stenosis and determine ischemic critical diameter stenosis.MethodsThe three-component model is parallel stenotic artery and collateral arteries supplying an organ/tissue. The three hemodynamic variables are blood pressure, blood flow and frictional percent diameter stenosis. Two new non-dimensional variables, K and C, are introduced to simplify understanding. K is the magnitude of arterial diameter stenosis produced energy dissipation. C is the magnitude of potential collateral blood flow. Conservation of energy analysis of arterial stenosis gives the pressure gradient produced and stenosis vascular resistance. Organs/tissues intrinsically autoregulate blood flow when perfusion pressure is greater than threshold value. Model energy analysis defines collateral vascular resistance and gives perfusion pressure, blood flow and reserve as a function of diameter stenosis. Results are illustrated in both pressure-stenosis domain and blood flow-stenosis domain. Renal and internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis numerical results are in cm/gram/sec (CGS) units.ResultsThe magnitude of arterial stenosis energy dissipation is proportional to K, a fourth power function of stenosis diameter with a steep slope between 65% and 80%, (K = 67 to 625). Organs/tissues without collaterals, C = 0, have specific critical arterial stenosis values within this range. For a renal artery with average diameter and blood flow critical stenosis is 74% (K = 233). Organ tissues with collateral blood flow potential equal to their normal resting blood flow have C = 1.0. Those with poor collaterals, C < 1, have critical stenosis from 65% to 99% depending on collateral magnitude, 0 < C < 1. In this group critical ischemic ICA stenosis begins at 70% and up to 99%, (K = 132 to ∞). Organ/tissues with good collateral circulation, C > 1, do not have ischemic critical stenosis, including the ICA. However, in these patients stenosis progression reduces blood flow reserve.ConclusionArterial stenosis may or may not produce an ischemic critical value for specific organ/tissue supplied depending on the magnitude of collateral circulation.
Spatially regulated designs of incidence surveys can match the precision of classical survey designs whilst requiring smaller sample sizes: the case of snakebite in Sri Lanka
Authors: Ediriweera Dileepa Senajith , de Silva Tiloka , Kasturiratne Anuradhani , de Silva Hithanadura Janaka , Diggle Peter John 
Published: April 2022

AbstractBackgroundSnakebite envenoming is a neglected tropical disease. Data from the worst affected countries are limited because conducting epidemiological surveys is challenging. We assessed the utility of inhibitory geostatistical design with close pairs (ICP) to estimate snakebite incidence.MethodsThe National Snakebite Survey (NSS) in Sri Lanka adopted a multistage cluster sampling design, based on population distribution, targeting 1% of the country’s population. Using a simulation-based study, we assessed predictive efficiency of ICP against a classical survey design at different fractions of the original sample size of the NSS. We also assessed travel distance, time taken to complete the survey, and sensitivity and specificity for detecting high-risk areas for snake envenoming, when using these methods.ResultsA classical survey design with 33% of the original NSS sample size was able to yield a similar predictive efficiency. ICP yielded the same at 25% of the NSS sample size, a 25% reduction in sample size compared to a classical survey design. ICP showed >80% sensitivity and specificity for detecting high-risk areas of envenoming when the sampling fraction was >20%. When ICP was adopted with 25% of the original NSS sample size, travel distance was reduced by >40% and time to conduct the survey was reduced by >75%.ConclusionsThis study showed that snakebite envenoming incidence can be estimated by adopting an ICP design with similar precision at a lower sample size than a classical design. This would substantially save resources and time taken to conduct epidemiological surveys and may be suited for low resource settings.Key messagesInhibitory geostatistical design with close pairs (ICP) for incidence surveys can match the precision of classical survey designs at lower sample sizes.The ICP design showed a lower predictive variance than classical design, indicating ICP designs were able to produce more reliable predictions.The ICP design showed a lower time to complete the survey than the classical sampling method.Although primary sampling units in the ICP design maintain a minimum distance between two units, ICP did not increase travel distance compared to the classical survey design.Resource requirements and time to complete surveys can be reduced without increasing the distance to travel by adopting ICP design for epidemiological surveys.
Estimates of Cross-Border Menthol Cigarette Sales Following the Comprehensive Tobacco Flavor Ban in Massachusetts
Authors: Rich Jacob James 
Published: April 2022

AbstractOn June 1, 2020, Massachusetts became the first state in the US to ban all flavored tobacco product sales, including menthol cigarettes. Recent research has estimated the reduction in cigarette sales in Massachusetts following the comprehensive tobacco flavor ban, but noted that missing data on border states was a major limitation of the findings. This letter replicates the procedures of Asare et al. with 1540 state-months and then adds Asare et al.’s missing states with 2420 total observations for the period January 2017 to July 2021. The replication confirms Asare et al.’s adjusted estimate for the reduction in menthol cigarettes, which falls within their 95% confidence interval. However, assigning Massachusetts and its bordering states as a single treatment group leads to an increase of 191.95 (95% CI, 96.82 to 287.09) total cigarette packs sold per 1000 people in the six-state region. In the 12-month period following the comprehensive flavor ban in Massachusetts, the state sold 29.96 million fewer cigarette packs compared to the prior period. However, a total of 33.36 million additional cigarette packs were sold during the same post-ban period in the counties that bordered Massachusetts. Given decreasing rates of smoking in all five bordering states between 2019 and 2020, the increase in border-state cigarette sales following the comprehensive flavor ban should be interpreted as a lower-bound estimate for cigarettes that were ultimately consumed in Massachusetts.
Clinical characteristics and outcome of immunocompromised patients with COVID-19 caused by the Omicron variant: a prospective observational study
Authors: Malahe S. Reshwan K. , Hoek Rogier A.S. , Dalm Virgil A.S.H. , Broers Annoek E.C. , den Hoed Caroline M. , Manintveld Olivier C. , Baan Carla C. , van Deuzen Charlotte M. , Papageorgiou Grigorios , Bax Hannelore I. , Van Kampen Jeroen J. , Hellemons Merel E. , Kho Marcia M.L. , de Vries Rory D. , Molenkamp Richard , Reinders Marlies E.J. , Rijnders Bart J.A. 
Published: April 2022

AbstractBackgroundIn the general population, illness after infection with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant is less severe compared with previous variants. Data on the disease burden of Omicron in immunocompromised patients are lacking. We investigated the clinical characteristics and outcome of a cohort of immunocompromised patients with COVID-19 caused by Omicron.MethodsSolid organ transplant recipients, patients on anti-CD20 therapy, and allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation recipients on immunosuppressive therapy infected with the Omicron variant, were included. Patients were contacted regularly until symptom resolution. Clinical characteristics of consenting patients were collected through their electronic patient files. To identify possible risk factors for hospitalization, a univariate logistic analysis was performed.ResultsA total of 114 consecutive immunocompromised patients were enrolled. Eighty-nine percent had previously received three mRNA vaccinations. While only one patient died, 23 (20%) required hospital admission for a median of 11 days. A low SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody response (<300 BAU/mL) at diagnosis, higher age, being a lung transplant recipient, more comorbidities and a higher frailty were associated with hospital admission (all p<0.01). At the end of follow-up, 25% had still not fully recovered. Of the 23 hospitalized patients, 70% had a negative and 92% a low IgG (<300 BAU/mL) antibody response at admission. Sotrovimab was administered to 17 of them, of which one died.ConclusionsWhile the mortality in immunocompromised patients infected with Omicron was low, hospital admission was frequent and the duration of symptoms often prolonged. Besides vaccination, other interventions are needed to limit the morbidity from COVID-19 in immunocompromised patients.SummaryCOVID-19-associated morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised patients is unknown for the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant. This prospective registry, demonstrated low COVID-19-associated mortality in these vulnerable patients. However, morbidity remained substantial. Other interventions to abate COVID-19 severity are needed.
The prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies within the community of a private tertiary university in the Philippines: a serial cross sectional study
Authors: Sumpaico-Tanchanco Lourdes Bernadette , Sy Jenica , Dy Angel Belle C. , Levantino Myla , Amit Arianna Maever L , Wong John , Angeles Kirsten , Vergara John Paul 
Published: April 2022

AbstractThe antibody testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was used to detect the presence of antibodies in a private university setting. This serial cross-sectional study determined the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies using qualitative and quantitative tests. Between June 2021 to December 2021, samples from 1,318 participants were tested, showing 47.80% of the study population yielding IgG antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 virus. A general increase in seroprevalence was observed from June to December 2021. However, a decreasing trend in IgG reactivity was found in vaccinated individuals over time. IgG antibody formation was observed across all brands of vaccines.
Early dosage compensation of zygotically-expressed genes in Drosophila melanogaster is mediated through a post-transcriptional regulatory mechanism
Authors: Blake Victoria M. , Eisen Michael B. 
Published: April 2022

AbstractMany key regulators of early embryogenesis in Drosophila melanogaster are X-linked. However, the canonical, MSL-mediated dosage compensation, which involves hyper-transcription of the genes on the single X chromosome in males, is not active until the post-syncytial stage of development. A separate MSL-independent dosage compensation system active earlier in development has been described, though the mechanism through which the process functions remain unclear. In this study, we quantified transcription in living embryos at single-locus resolution to determine if early dosage compensation of the X-linked genes buttonhead and giant is sensitive to X chromosome dose. We found no evidence for a transcriptionally regulated mechanism of early dosage compensation, suggesting that the previously observed compensation of mRNA levels for these genes is achieved via a post-transcriptional regulatory mechanism.
Faster SARS-CoV-2 sequence validation and annotation for GenBank using VADR
Authors: Nawrocki Eric P 
Published: April 2022

AbstractBackgroundIn 2020 and 2021, more than 1.5 million SARS-CoV-2 sequences were submitted to GenBank. The initial version (v1.0) of the VADR (Viral Annotation DefineR) software package that GenBank uses to automatically validate and annotate incoming viral sequences is too slow and memory intensive to process many thousands of SARS-CoV-2 sequences in a reasonable amount of time. Additionally, long stretches of ambiguous N nucleotides, which are common in many SARS-CoV-2 sequences, prevent VADR from accurate validation and annotation.ResultsVADR has been updated to more accurately and rapidly annotate SARS-CoV-2 sequences. Stretches of consecutive Ns are now identified and temporarily replaced with expected nucleotides to facilitate processing, and the slowest steps have been overhauled using blastn and glsearch, increasing speed, reducing the memory requirement from 64Gb to 2Gb per thread, and allowing simple, coarse-grained parallelization on multiple processors per host.ConclusionVADR is now nearly 1000 times faster than it was in early 2020 for processing SARS-CoV-2 sequences submitted to GenBank. It has been used to screen and annotate more than 1.5 million SARS-CoV-2 sequences since June 2020, and it is now efficient enough to cope with the current rate of hundreds of thousands of submitted sequences per month. Version 1.4.1 is freely available (https://github.com/ncbi/vadr) for local installation and use.
Detecting epistatic interactions in genomic data using Random Forests
Authors: Al-Mamun Hawlader A. , Dunne Rob , Tellam Ross L. , Verbyla Klara 
Published: April 2022

AbstractEpistatic interactions can play an important role in the genetic mechanisms that control phenotypic variation. However, identifying these interactions in high dimensional genomic data can be very challenging due to the large computational burden induced by the high volume of combinatorial tests that have to be performed to explore the entire search space. Random Forests Decision Trees are widely used in a variety of disciplines and are often said to detect interactions. However, Random Forests models do not explicitly detect variable interactions. Most Random Forests based methods that claim to detect interactions rely on different forms of variable importance measures that suffer when the interacting variables have very small or no marginal effects. The proposed Random Forests based method detects interactions using a two-stage approach and is computationally efficient. The approach is demonstrated and validated through its application on several simulated datasets representing different data structures with respect to genomic data and trait heritabilities. The method is also applied to two high dimensional genomics data sets to validate the approach. In both cases, the method results were used to identify several genes closely positioned to the interacting markers that showed strong biological potential for contributing to the genetic control for the respective traits tested.Contacthawlader.almamun@csiro.au
Discovery of new senolytics using machine learning
Authors: Smer-Barreto Vanessa , Quintanilla Andrea , Elliot Richard J. R. , Dawson John C. , Sun Jiugeng , Carragher Neil O. , Acosta Juan Carlos , Oyarzún Diego A. 
Published: April 2022

AbstractCellular senescence is a stress response characterised by a permanent cell cycle arrest and a proinflammatory secretome. In addition to its tumour suppressor role, senescence is involved in ageing and promotes many disease processes such as cancer, type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis, and SARS-CoV-2 infection. There is a growing interest in therapies based on targeted elimination of senescent cells, yet so far only a few such senolytics are known, partly due to the poor grasp of the molecular mechanisms that control the senescence survival programme. Here we report a highly effective machine learning pipeline for the discovery of senolytic compounds. Using solely published data, we trained machine learning algorithms to classify compounds according to their senolytic action. Models were trained on as few as 58 known senolytics against a background of FDA-approved compounds or in late-stage clinical development (2,523 in total). We computationally screened various chemical libraries and singled out top candidates for validation in human lung fibroblasts (IMR90) and lung adenocarcinoma (A549) cell lines. This led to the discovery of three novel senolytics: ginkgetin, oleandrin and periplocin, with potency comparable to current senolytics and a several hundred-fold reduction in experimental screening costs. Our work demonstrates that machine learning can take maximum advantage of existing drug screening data, paving the way for new open science approaches to drug discovery for senescence-associated diseases.
The double round-robin population unravels the genetic architecture of grain size in barley
Authors: Shrestha Asis , Cosenza Francesco , van Inghelandt Delphine , Wu Po-Ya , Li Jinquan , Casale Federico A. , Weisweiler Marius , Stich Benjamin 
Published: April 2022

AbstractGrain number, size and weight primarily determine the yield of barley. Although the genes regulating grain number are well studied in barley, the genetic loci and the causal gene for sink capacity are poorly understood. Therefore, the primary objective of our work was to dissect the genetic architecture of grain size and weight in barley. We used a multi-parent population developed from a genetic cross between 23 diverse barley inbreds in a double round-robin design. Seed size-related parameters such as grain length, grain width, grain area and thousand-grain weight were evaluated in the HvDRR population comprising 45 recombinant inbred line sub-populations. We found significant genotypic variation for all seed size characters and observed 84 % or higher heritability across four environments. The results of the quantitative trait locus (QTL) detection indicate that the genetic architecture of grain size is more complex than reported previously. In addition, both cultivars and landraces contributed positive alleles at grain size QTLs. Candidate genes identified using genome-wide variant calling data for all parental inbred lines indicated overlapping and potential novel regulators of grain size in cereals. Furthermore, our results indicated that sink capacity was the primary determinant of grain weight in barley.HighlightMulti parent population uncovered the natural allelic series across quantitative loci associated with grain size and weight that will contribute to identifying causal genes and yield improvement in barley.
Dynamic Features of Chromosomal Instability during Culture of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells
Authors: Dubose Casey O. , Daum John R. , Sansam Christopher L. , Gorbsky Gary J. 
Published: April 2022

AbstractInduced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) hold great potential for regenerative medicine. By reprogramming a patient”s own cells, immunological rejection can be avoided during transplantation. For expansion and gene editing, iPSCs are grown in artificial culture for extended times. Culture affords potential danger for accumulation of genetic aberrations. To study these, two iPS cell lines were cultured and periodically analyzed using advanced optical mapping to detect and classify chromosome numerical and segmental changes that included deletions, insertions, balanced translocations and inversions. In one of the lines, a population trisomic for chromosome 12 gained dominance over a small number of passages. This appearance and dominance of the culture by chromosome 12 trisomic cells was tracked through intermediate passages by analysis of chromosome spreads. Mathematical modeling suggested that the proliferation rates of diploid versus trisomic cells could not account for the rapid dominance of the trisomic population. In addition, optical mapping revealed hundreds of structural variations distinct from those generally found within the human population. Many of these structural variants were detected in samples taken early in the culturing process and were maintained in late passage samples, while others were acquired over the course of culturing.