bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Assessing the Accuracy of Biogenic Content Estimation from Visible Derivative Spectroscopy of Sedimentary Cores from the Western Pacific
Authors: Pan Hui-Juan , Ortiz Joseph D. 
Published: August 2022

Abstract
The biogenic contents of marine sediments, such as carbonate (CaCO3) and organic carbon (TOC), provide important information about past climatic and environmental changes. For sediment cores, such as those found in the marginal seas of the western Pacific, intensive laboratory study takes considerable time and effort. The previous drilling and coring programs have developed nondestructive methods, which require less time and labor, such as those that utilize visible reflectance derivative spectra measured from the surface of sediment samples to estimate downcore biogenic content. Nevertheless, these methods have been shown to be useful only for on-site estimation of downcore samples and are not considered entirely feasible for testing samples collected from regional or larger spatial scales. The present study presents a novel protocol of spectral decomposition utilizing varimax-rotated principal component analysis (VPCA) for estimating biogenic contents of sediment samples at the basin scale. Using two sediment cores from the South China Sea (SCS) separated by 200 kilometers, we evaluated a new protocol by measuring the visible reflectance spectrum and the biogenic content. Based on six VPCA components of first derivative reflectance spectrum measurements and laboratory analyzed biogenic contents of core MD972148, a set of empirical equations for estimating CaCO3, TOC, and opal contents have been established. The equations were tested using data from core MD012396, and the new regression equations provided accurate estimations. Our study demonstrated that our new methods could achieve better estimates due to the improvement of the regression model with a reduced number of independent variables. Further, this study circumvents the limitation of applying empirical equations to sediment cores outside of the calibration range. Our present findings state that with more comprehensive and systematic reflectance spectral data, the new protocol can be used to estimate biogenic content with more regional or spatial precision in future research.
First report on the acute toxicity of Chloroxylenol to the Whirligig beetle, Orectogyrus alluaudi (Coleoptera: Gyrinidae)
Authors: Amusan Babatunde O. , Koleosho Ayorinde Fola , Richard Godswill E. 
Published: August 2022

Abstract
Environmental contamination by xenobiotics is a worldwide phenomenon being mainly caused by human activities and urbanization. The release of harmful substances leaves short and long term effects in the environment. This study assessed the acute toxicological effects of different concentrations of chloroxylenol (PCMX), an active ingredient in most liquid cleaning products, on the whirligig beetle Orectogyrus alluaudi Regimbart, 1889. This was done with the aim of determining the potential lethal effects of the chemical on this aquatic organism. The beetle’s behaviour and swimming pattern were both altered by PCMX before mortality occurred. The 24-h, 48-h, 72-h, and 96-h calculated LC50 values were 21.587, 16.744, 11.638 and 7.819 mg/L, respectively. The mortality of the test organisms increased with increased concentration and extended exposure duration. Thus giving an indication that the toxicity of PCMX to the beetles was time and concentration-dependent. The altered behaviour and swimming pattern in the beetles could be ascribed to physiological responses and disturbances in their nervous coordination due to exposure to PCMX.
Impact of delay due to the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic on elective surgical patients in a tertiary care center: An observational study.
Authors: Abhinaya Reddy , R Vishnu Prasad N 
Published: August 2022

Abstract
Background: To cope with the stress on the health care system caused by Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), elective services were withheld in most parts of the world for a variable duration. However, delaying elective services for more than a particular duration adversely affects outcomes of the underly disease. This study was conducted to assess the outcome on elective surgical patients due to delay due to withholding elective surgical services caused by the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic at our institute. Methodology: This prospective observational study included all the patients planned and waiting for elective surgery till the day elective services were withheld at our institution (24th March 2020) due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All benign and malignant patients were followed until the patients were operated on or three months until elective operative services were resumed at our institution to determine the proportion of patients with worsening symptoms, stage progression, and needing emergency procedures or palliative surgery.Results: Breast cancer was the most common cancer among malignancy patients awaiting surgery. Compared to breast cancer, gastrointestinal cancers had a significantly higher proportion of patients with stage progression (61.3% vs 90%, p = 0.016) and mortality (6.5% vs 53.3%, p < 0.001). In benign patients, symptom progression was seen in 45.9% and emergency surgery/procedure was needed in 5.4 % of patients.Conclusion: Even though the so-called elective surgery, postponing these surgeries, particularly cancer surgeries, can compromise the outcomes of the patients if delayed for more than a certain point. Hence the decision to postpone an elective surgery should be cautioned, even during pandemics.
New calculation of calorie content and determining nutritional level from day-to-day intake of food using Image Processing
Authors: J Roopa Jayasingh. , B Nagajayanthi , Neebha Mary , Sagayam Martin , Elngar Ahmed A. 
Published: August 2022

Abstract
One of the most urgent necessities of all individuals is food. Nowadays people mainly focus on diet because of diabetes, and obesity problems. When we have a healthy diet, it leads to a healthy life span. So, this paper gives a solution for this type of common problem. In this paper, we calculate nutritionally and calorie content utilizing image processing, display in the food segmentation and classification process, etc. This is very useful for dieticians despite the reality Ordinary people can benefit from this as well by manipulating their routine food patterns.
Removal of Methylene Blue Dye by Metal Free Adsorption and Photodegradation Method Using Different Reduction Grades of Graphene Oxide
Authors: Mahich Sanju , Saini Yogesh Kumar , Aggarwal Kanika , Kumar Anuj , Kumar Dinesh , Singh Amanpal 
Published: August 2022

Abstract

Organic pollutant and dyes released into the environment by industries have been highly harmful and toxic for humans as well as for the environment. Graphene oxide (GO) and its reduction form, one of the allotropes of carbon family, were investigated for the removal of pollutant dyes. GO nano-powder was synthesized using an improved version of Hummer’s method and further thermally reduced at different temperatures 125, 150, 175, and 200 °C in the vacuum ambient. An intense (002) diffraction peak was observed at 2θ=9.136° for the pristine GO in the X-ray diffraction spectra which is gradually shifted towards the higher angles with the reduction, and it disappeared if the GO sample reduced at 200°C. I D /I G ratio for GO nano-powder in the Raman spectra decreased from 0.94 to 0.76 due to reduction. GO shows a characteristic absorption band at 3395 cm -1 in Fourier transform infra-red spectra corresponding to stretching of hydroxyl (–OH) group, this peak is flattened with the thermal reduction but not eliminated completely. The band gap of pristine GO significantly reduced from 2.31 to 0.73 eV with the reduction as measured by UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectrophotometer. Dye adsorption and photocatalytic degradation behaviour of the pristine GO and reduced graphene oxides (rGOs) was examined towards methylene blue dye for 10 mg of GO/rGOs powder in 50 ml of 50 ppm solution by UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy. Pristine GO showed potential adsorption capacity and dye was degraded up to 85.78% within 15 minutes and around 97% after 4 hrs. Meanwhile, highest 47.58% photocatalytic degradation of Methylene blue was achieved for the rGO sample reduced at 150°C in the presence of visible light of 100 watt.
Retinal pigment epithelium exhibits cell size, gene expression, and phagocytic activity alterations when exposed to retinoblastoma chemotherapeutics
Authors: Cerna-Chavez Rodrigo , Rozanska Agata , Poretti Giulia , Benvenisty Nissim , Parulekar Manoj , Lako Majlinda 
Published: August 2022

Abstract
Retinoblastoma (Rb) is a rare malignant disorder affecting the developing retina of children under the age of five. Chemotherapeutic agents used for treating Rb have been associated with defects of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), such as hyperplasia, gliosis, mottling, and visual acuity. Herein, we have developed two pluripotent stem cell (PSC)-RPE models to assess the cytotoxicity of known Rb chemotherapeutics such as Melphalan, Topotecan, and TW-37. Our findings demonstrate that these drugs alter the RPE cell size, decrease the monolayer barrier's trans-epithelial resistance and affect the cells' phagocytic activity. Our transcriptional analyses demonstrate an altered expression of genes involved in melanin and retinol processing, tight junction and apical-basal polarity pathways in both models. None of the drug treatments applied within the clinical range caused significant cytotoxic effects, changes to the apical-basal polarity, tight junction network or cell cycle. Together, our results demonstrate that although the most commonly used Rb chemotherapeutic drugs do not cause cytotoxicity in RPE, their application in vitro leads to compromised phagocytosis and strength of the barrier function, in addition to changes in gene expression that could alter the visual cycle.
A New Performance Metric Algorithm in Image Filtering
Authors: R Remya , Nirmala M. 
Published: August 2022

Abstract
Denoising play a vital role in image quality analysis and it is regarded as a challenging task. The quality of the image is analysed based on various performance metrics. This paper focuses on the quality metric for image filtered output and the testing is made on various general and medical images. Denoising is performed by various image filtering approaches and the outcome is good for other stages of image processing such as segmentation and image classification. An enhanced Discrete Wavelet Transform (Enhanced DWT) and a novel performance metrics based on logarithmic estimation are proposed for image denoising and analysing the quality of image. Along with the proposed similarity metrics other metrics like PSNR, NAE, and SSIM are consider for the work. The performance analysis is tested on different images like biomedical images, Barbara, cameraman, vegetables, and remote sensing images as well as a natural image. The experimental result shows that the proposed enhanced DWT yields a better result for all the similarity metrics.
Influence of Hydrogeochemical Factors on the Natural Water Systems of Uburu-Okposi area, Lower Benue Trough, Southeastern Nigeria, using Geochemical and Multivariate Statistical Methods
Authors: Tijani Moshood , Owolabi Tunbosun , Obini Nnamdi 
Published: August 2022

Abstract

The influence of hydrogeological processes on water systems of the Uburu-Okposi area, Lower Benue Trough was investigated to understand the interplay between aquifer materials and the water system resulting in its chemical composition modification. Forty (40) water samples (ground and surface sources) were randomly collected and analyzed for their physicochemical properties. Results from in-situ measured physicochemical parameters are pH: 5.29–8.98, EC: 206–6970 us/cm, and TDS: 112–4690 mg/l. Laboratory results shows Na+ as the dominant cation (4.4–4900 mg/l) with Cl− as the dominant anion (14.4–6300 mg/l). The values were indicative of salinization. Factors influencing water chemistry were determined using Saturation Index (SI), Ionic Ratio, and Bivariate plots. 65% of samples had positive Chloro Alkali Index (CAI) ratio suggesting direct base-exchange reaction as a dominant factor governing water chemistry. CAI 1 & 2 large absolute values show cation exchange as a principal influence on groundwater chemistry. Estimated SI showed Dolomite, Calcite, Aragonite, and Magnesite were supersaturated therefore, they influenced water chemistry. Bivariate plots identified Ion Exchange (carbonate and silicate weathering) as another principal influence on water chemistry. Gibbs plot showed 92.5% samples plotted in the rock–water interaction field with 7.5% plotting within the evaporation-precipitation field. Principal Component Analyses (PCA) extracted six components factors, the first three factors accounted for above 50% of the total variation collectively responsible for the hydrochemical processes in the area via water-rock interactions, carbonate dissolution, and ion exchanges. Conclusively, geogenic factors are the major influence on water chemistry in the study area.
Nonzero-sum Stochastic Differential Gamefor Discrete-Time Markovian jump Linearsystem with incomplete transition rates
Authors: Xu Meng , Zhang ChengKe , Li FangChao , Yang Lu 
Published: August 2022

Abstract
This paper investigates the guaranteed cost control problem and guaranteesthe cost Nash equilibrium for discrete-time Markovian jump Linearsystem (MJLS) with incomplete transition rates. By employing matrixinequalities and the free-connection weighting matrix approach, severalsufficient conditions are proposed to ensure the applicability of theguaranteed cost control strategy. Moreover, we provide sufficient conditionsto highlight further the correctness and lower conservativeness ofthe utilized theorems. Ensuring these conditions for the existence of aguaranteed cost Nash equilibrium affords to transform them into an optimizationproblem that simultaneously satisfies a set of BMI and matrixinequalities. Furthermore, to make the results more general, this paperdesigns guaranteed cost Nash equilibrium strategies for multiple players.Finally, two detailed numerical examples validate the paper’s theorems.
Cerebral blood flow alterations in migraine patients with and without aura: an arterial spin labeling study
Authors: Fu Tong , Liu Lindong , Huang Xiaobin , Zhang Di , Gao Yujia , Yin Xindao , Lin Hai , Dai Yongming , Wu Xinying 
Published: August 2022

Abstract
Background
Migraine aura is a transient, fully reversible visual, sensory, or other central nervous system symptom that classically precedes migraine headache. This study aimed to investigate cerebral blood flow (CBF) alterations of migraine with aura patients (MwA) and without aura patients (MwoA) during inter-ictal periods, using arterial spin labeling (ASL).
Methods
We evaluated 88 migraine patients (32 MwA) and 44 healthy control subjects (HC) who underwent a three-dimensional pseudo-continuous ASL MRI scanning. Voxel-based comparison of normalized CBF was conducted between MwA and MwoA. The relationship between CBF variation and clinical scale assessment was further analyzed. The mean CBF values in brain regions showed significant differences were calculated and considered as imaging features. Based on these features, support vector machine (SVM) models were established to differentiate MwA and MwoA under five-fold cross validation. The predictive ability of the SVM models was further tested in an independent sample of 30 migraine patients (10 MwA).
Results
In comparison to MwoA and HC, MwA exhibited higher CBF levels in the bilateral superior frontal gyrus, bilateral postcentral gyrus and cerebellum, and lower CBF levels in the bilateral middle frontal gyrus, thalamus and medioventral occipital cortex (all p values < 0.05). These variations were also significantly correlated with multiple clinical rating scales about headache severity, quality of life and emotion. On basis of these CBF features, the accuracies and areas under curve of the SVM models in the training and testing samples were 84.3% and 0.872, 83.3% and 0.860 in discriminating patients with and without aura, respectively.
Conclusions
In this study, CBF abnormalities of MwA were identified in multiple brain regions, which might help better understand migraine-stroke connection mechanisms and provide evidence for choosing optimal migraine-specific treatment to avoid aura-associated stroke.
Determining the Temporal Factors of Survival Associated with Brain and Nervous System Cancer Patients: A Hybrid Machine Learning Methodology
Authors: Nath Gopal , Coursey Austin , Ekong Joseph , Rastegari Elham , Sengupta Saptarshi , Dag Asli Z. , Delen Dursun , Delen Dursun 
Published: August 2022

Abstract

Purpose.
Although different cancer types have been investigated from the perspective of biomedical sciences, machine learning-based studies have been scant, particularly in addressing the temporal impact of brain and central nervous system (BCNS) cancer survival. The present study aims to fill this gap by proposing a machine learning methodology to investigate the temporal effects of the attributes and the levels at which they are associated with BCNS cancer survival.
Methods.
Following the best practices in health analytics, the proposed methodology utilizes a variety of feature selection, data balancing, and sensitivity analysis methods to optimize the knowledge discovery process and the resultant outcomes.
Results.
The findings can potentially assist medical professionals in identifying and targeting specific subsets of features and levels of attributes associated with sharply decreasing (or increasing) survival rates; thereby implementing better treatment options to improve the survival chances of BCNS cancer patients.
Conclusion.
Although the proposed hybrid methodology is validated on a large and feature-rich BCNS cancer data set, it can be utilized to study survival prognostics of other cancer or chronic disease types.
Metabolomic and lipidomic landscape of porcine kidney associated with kidney perfusion in heart beating donors and donors after cardiac death
Authors: Stryjak Iga , Warmuzińska Natalia , Łuczykowski Kamil , Urbanellis Peter , Selzner Markus , Bojko Barbara 
Published: August 2022

Abstract
With the ever-increasing shortage of kidney donors, transplant centers are faced with the challenge of finding ways to maximize their use of all available organ resources and extend the donor pool, including the use of expanded criteria donors. To address the need for a new analytical solution for graft quality assessments, we present a novel biochemical analysis method based on solid-phase microextraction (SPME) – a chemical biopsy. In this study, renal autotransplantation was performed in porcine models to simulate two types of donor scenarios: heart beating donors (HBD) and donors after cardiac death (DCD). All renal grafts were perfused using continuous normothermic ex vivo kidney perfusion. The small diameter of SPME probes enables minimally invasive and repeated sampling of the same tissue, thus allowing changes occurring in the organ to be tracked throughout the entire transplantation procedure. Samples were subjected to metabolomic and lipidomic profiling using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with a mass spectrometer. As a result, we observed differences in the profiles of HBD and DCD kidneys. The most pronounced alterations were reflected in the levels of essential amino acids, purine nucleosides, lysophosphocholines, phosphoethanolamines, and triacylglycerols. Our findings demonstrate the potential of chemical biopsy in donor graft quality assessment and monitoring kidney function during perfusion.
p20BAP31 induces cell apoptosis via both ROS/JNK mitochondrial pathway and AIF caspase-independent pathway
Authors: Jiang Xiaohan , Li Guoxun , Zhu Benzhi , Zang Jingnan , Jiang Rui , Wang Bing 
Published: August 2022

Abstract
Background
B-cell receptor associated protein 31 (BAP31) is a polytopic integral endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane protein. During cell apoptosis, the c-terminal of BAP31 was cleaved by caspase-8, generates the residual 20kDa proteolytic fragment (p20BAP31), which not only induces cell apoptosis, but also initiates a paraptosis-like cell death pathway when expressed ectopically. This property of inducing cell apoptosis through multiple pathways makes p20BAP31 potentially valuable in the research of anti-tumor therapy. However, the underlying mechanisms of p20Bap31 on cell apoptosis remain to be elucidated in detail. Therefore, it is very important to evaluate the efficiency of p20BAP31-induced apoptosis in different types of cells, and to investigate the molecular mechanisms of p20BAP31 on cell apoptosis.
Methods
Cell viability and colony formation assays were performed to examine the antigrowth effects of p20Bap31 in HCT116 cells. Wound-healing assay was conducted to assess cell migration capacity. Cell cycle and apoptosis were investigated by flow cytometry and verified by immunoblotting. AIF translocate from the mitochondria to the nuclei was verified by immunoblotting and immunofluorescence assay.
Results
We found that overexpression of p20BAP31 can indeed induce apoptosis, and has a much greater sensitivity in human colorectal carcinoma cell line (HCT116). Furthermore, the overexpression of p20BAP31 could inhibit cell proliferation by causing S phase arrest, the migratory ability was also obviously inhibited. The further study revealed that p20BAP31 reduced mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) with a significant increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, accompanying with the activation of the MAPK signaling pathway. The mechanism investigation indicated that p20BAP31 could induce mitochondrial-dependent apoptosis by activating ROS/JNK signaling pathway. Importantly, we found that p20BAP31 may also induce caspase-independent apoptosis by promoting the nuclear translocation of apoptosis inducing factor (AIF).
Conclusions
p20BAP31 induced cell apoptosis via both ROS/JNK mitochondrial pathway and AIF caspase-independent pathway. These effects are especially pronounced in HCT116 cell line, implied that p20BAP31 may exert as a potent drug target for the prevention and treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC).