bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Chlorogenic acid improves diabetic retinopathy by alleviating blood‐retinal‐barrier dysfunction via inducing Nrf2 activation
Authors: Ouyang Hao , Du Ao , Zhou Lingyu , Zhang Tianyu , Lu Bin , Wang Zhengtao , Ji Lili 
Published: February 2022

AbstractAs one of the major diabetic microvascular complications, diabetic retinopathy (DR) is mainly initiated by the blood‐retinal barrier (BRB) dysfunction. Chlorogenic acid (CGA) is a natural polyphenolic compound in Lonicerae Japonicae Flos, which traditionally has the beneficial function for eyes and is commonly included in many anti‐diabetic formulas. In this study, the potential protective mechanism of CGA against DR was investigated. Streptozotocin (STZ) was used to induce diabetes in mice. CGA attenuated BRB dysfunction and reversed endothelial‐mesenchymal transition (EndoMT) and epithelial‐mesenchymal transition (EMT) in retinas in vivo. CGA inhibited microglia activation and reduced tumor necrosis factor (TNF)α release both in vivo and in vitro. CGA promoted nuclear factor erythroid 2‐related factor 2 (Nrf2) activation and prevented EndoMT/EMT in TNFα‐treated human retinal endothelial cells (HRECs) or retinal pigment epithelial APRE19 cells. CGA alleviated endothelial/epithelial barrier oxidative injury in HRECs or APRE19 cells stimulated with TNFα, but this effect was disappeared in cells co‐incubated with Nrf2 inhibitor. Additionally, the CGA‐supplied alleviation on BRB damage and EndoMT/EMT was markedly weakened in retinas from STZ‐treated Nrf2 knock‐out mice. All results suggest that CGA improves DR through attenuating BRB injury by reducing microglia‐initiated inflammation and preventing TNFα‐induced EndoMT/EMT and oxidative injury via inducing Nrf2 activation.
Discrete‐time extended state observer‐based model‐free adaptive sliding mode control with prescribed performance
Authors: Huang Xiuwei , Dong Zhiyan , Zhang Feng , Zhang Lihua 
Published: February 2022

AbstractTo tackle the trajectory tracking problem and achieve high control accuracy in many actual nonlinear systems with unknown disturbance, a novel discrete‐time extended state observer‐ (DESO) based model‐free adaptive sliding mode control strategy with prescribed tracking performance is studied, which only relies on the input/output data of the system rather than explicit model information. Firstly, a compact‐form dynamic linearization method is used to reconstruct the discrete‐time nonlinear process, where the time‐varying parameter linearly connected with the control input is obtained by an adaptive method and the unknown nonlinear term is estimated by a DESO. Then, by considering the prescribed performance and using an unconstrained vector transformed from the constrained tracking error, one model‐free sliding mode controller is designed. In addition, a rigorous stability analysis is presented to show the boundedness of the sliding mode function and the prescribed transient‐state and steady‐state performance of the output tracking error. Finally, the simulations with comparing results verify the effectiveness and superiority of the developed control scheme.
Observer‐based event‐triggered secure synchronization control for multi‐agent systems under false data injection attacks
Authors: Zhang Shuo‐Qiu , Che Wei‐Wei , Deng Chao 
Published: February 2022

AbstractIn this article, the observer‐based event‐triggered robust secure synchronization control problem is studied for multi‐agent systems (MASs) under a directed graph and false data injection (FDI) attacks. During the information transmission, both control signals and measurement signals may be changed by false data, and the Bernoulli processes are used to describe FDI attacks that occur randomly on the sensor‐to‐controller and the controller‐to‐actuator transmission channels. A new event‐triggered mechanism with the state estimation threshold is introduced to reduce the waste of network resources. Based on which, a resilient observer‐based control scheme is proposed to solve the secure mean‐square bounded synchronization problem of MASs caused by FDI attacks. The controller gain and observer gain are designed by utilizing the linear matrix inequality technique. Furthermore, the Zeno behavior is effectively eliminated and proved by using a contradiction method. Finally, a simulation result is presented to illustrate the effectiveness and applicability of the theoretical results by comparisons.
All‐in‐One Theranostic Platform Based on Hollow Microcapsules for Intragastric‐Targeting Antiulcer Drug Delivery, CT Imaging, and Synergistically Healing Gastric Ulcer
Authors: Wang Qi , Xu Yu , Xue Rui , Fan Jingmin , Yu Hang , Guan Jiawei , Wang Hongzheng , Li Min , Yu Wei , Xie Zhiyong , Qi Rong , Jia Xin , Han Bo 
Published: February 2022

AbstractBismuth‐containing therapies are suggested as first‐line and rescue alternatives for gastric ulcer (GU) treatment and Helicobacter pylori eradication. The current treatment strategy is called quadruple therapy and includes proton pump inhibitors, bismuth, and two broad‐band antibiotics. This fact may affect medication compliance, leading to a resistance rate of more than 25% to clarithromycin or metronidazole. To counter this, from the perspective of natural products, an intragastric‐targeting all‐in‐one theranostic platform is established: a drug carrier microcapsule composed of multiple synergistic antiulcer drugs, including bismuth, gallotannin, and antibiotics is obtained (BiG@MCs), and the therapeutic effects of BiG@MCs in rodent models are further evaluated. The results show that the BiG@MCs are spherical with homogeneous particle size (3 ± 0.5 µm) and can be response‐released to the acidic environment of the stomach (pH 2.0–3.0), preventing the premature release of the BiG@MCs in physiological conditions. It is worth noting that the bismuth component can be easily identified by computed tomography and other detection instruments, which provide the possibility for drug tracing. In summary, these results indicate that BiG@MCs provide a versatile intragastric‐targeting drug delivery platform for GU therapeutics.
Diagnosis and treatment of congenital hydrocephalus in a red fox (Vulpes vulpes) with seizures
Authors: Raposo Marcos , Añor Sònia , Verdés Judit , Soler Vicente , Martorell Jaume 
Published: February 2022

AbstractA 2‐year‐old male red fox (Vulpes vulpes) was presented for generalised tonic‐clonic seizures, blindness, compulsive circling and behavioural changes that occurred since the animal was 2 months old. Neurological examination indicated a diffuse forebrain lesion. On magnetic resonance imaging of the brain, a severe dilation of both lateral ventricles was identified. Congenital hydrocephalus was suspected and the fox was treated with methylprednisolone, omeprazole and phenobarbital. Sixteen months later, the neurological signs had improved: the frequency of seizures had decreased to one seizure every 3 months and compulsive circling was less pronounced.
Observer-Based Robustness Improvement for FCS-MPCC Used in IMs
Authors: Han Yaofei , Gong Chao , Gao Jinqiu 
Published: February 2022

AbstractThis Chapter proposes a sliding mode (SM) disturbance observer based finite control set model predictive current control (FCS-MPCC) strategy to improve the control performance of induction motors. FCS-MPCC method is achieved based on the machine model, leading to the fact that the parameters have great impacts on the control performance, especially the steady-state characteristics.
Design of cellular materials for multiscale topology optimization: application to patient-specific orthopedic devices
Authors: Ferro Nicola , Perotto Simona , Bianchi Daniele , Ferrante Raffaele , Mannisi Marco 
Published: February 2022

AbstractA flexible problem-specific multiscale topology optimization is introduced to associate different areas of the design domain with diverse microstructures extracted from a dictionary of optimized unit cells. The generation of the dictionary is carried out by exploiting micro-SIMP with AnisoTropic mesh adaptivitY (microSIMPATY) algorithm, which promotes the design of free-form layouts. The proposed methodology is particularized in a proof-of-concept setting for the design of orthotic devices for the treatment of foot diseases. Different patient-specific settings drive the prototyping of customized insoles, which are numerically verified and successively validated in terms of mechanical performances and manufacturability.
Varicocele, wat moet je ermee? Een overzicht van evidence based informatie en controverse als basis voor een goed gesprek
Authors: Dinkelman-Smit Marij 
Published: February 2022

SamenvattingIn dit overzichtsartikel wordt de relatie besproken tussen een varicocele, mannelijke subfertiliteit, kans op een kind met en zonder behandeling van de varicocele na natuurlijke conceptie of geassisteerde voortplanting. Er wordt kort ingegaan op de verschillende theorieën over de pathofysiologie van de varicocele. Daarnaast worden de klinische diagnose en de overwegingen besproken rond de selectie en indicatiestelling bij subfertiele mannen, kinderen en adolescenten met een varicocele, en bij mannen met klachten en hypogonadisme. Tot slot worden de verschillende behandeltypen, uitkomst, recidief en evaluatie van het effect van interventies doorgenomen.
Segment-Unit Reading Comprehension Training for Japanese Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Learning Disabilities
Authors: Omori Mikimasa , Yamamoto Junichi 
Published: February 2022

AbstractStudents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and learning disabilities (LDs) often experience reading difficulties. In particular, reading long passages can cause comprehension problems. We examined whether 8 Japanese students with ASD, 7 students with LDs, and 13 typically developing (TD) students improved their reading comprehension through two types of repeated reading training: whole-sentence-unit reading (WSUR) training and segment-unit reading (SUR) training. Participants undergoing WSUR training read whole sentences repeatedly. In SUR training, they repeatedly read a segment of a sentence in its correct spatial location. Results indicated that students with ASD and LDs showed greater improvement in reading comprehension after SUR training than after WSUR training, whereas both procedures were equally effective for TD students. Moreover, students with ASD showed only negligible reading comprehension improvements, whereas students with LDs showed intermediate improvements after WSUR training. These results suggest that sequentially presenting word segments can improve the reading comprehension of students with ASD and specific LDs.
Decision-making based on probabilistic linguistic term sets without loss of information
Authors: Yi Zhihong 
Published: February 2022

AbstractProbabilistic linguistic term set (PLTS) provides a much more effective model to compute with words and to express the uncertainty in the pervasive natural language by probability information. In this paper, to avoid loss of information, we redefine the classical probabilistic linguistic term sets (PLTSs) by multiple probability distributions from an ambiguity perspective and present some basic operations using Archimedean t-(co)norms. Different from the classical PLTSs, the reformulated PLTSs are not necessarily normalized beforehand for further investigations. Moreover, the multiple probability distributions based PLTSs facilitate the incorporation of the different attitudes of the DMs in their score values and the deviation, and thus the comparisons. Then the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method is extended to the reformulated PLTS frame by incorporating probability information. With these newly developed elements in the reformulated PLTSs, a DEMATEL based multiple attributes decision-making is proposed. The illustrative example and comparison analysis show that the method over the reformulated PLTSs is feasible and valid, and has the advantage in processing without any information loss (i.e., without normalization) and fully exploration of the DMs-preference and knowledge.
TAUNet: a triple-attention-based multi-modality MRI fusion U-Net for cardiac pathology segmentation
Authors: Li Dapeng , Peng Yanjun , Guo Yanfei , Sun Jindong 
Published: February 2022

AbstractAutomated segmentation of cardiac pathology in MRI plays a significant role for diagnosis and treatment of some cardiac disease. In clinical practice, multi-modality MRI is widely used to improve the cardiac pathology segmentation, because it can provide multiple or complementary information. Recently, deep learning methods have presented implausible performance in multi-modality medical image segmentation. However, how to fuse the underlying multi-modality information effectively to segment the pathology with irregular shapes and small region at random locations, is still a challenge task. In this paper, a triple-attention-based multi-modality MRI fusion U-Net was proposed to learn complex relationship between different modalities and pay more attention on shape information, thus to achieve improved pathology segmentation. First, three independent encoders and one fusion encoder were applied to extract specific and multiple modality features. Secondly, we concatenate the modality feature maps and use the channel attention to fuse specific modal information at every stage of the three dedicate independent encoders, then the three single modality feature maps and channel attention feature maps are together concatenated to the decoder path. Spatial attention was adopted in decoder path to capture the correlation of various positions. Once more, we employ shape attention to focus shape-dependent information. Lastly, the training approach is made efficient by introducing deep supervision mechanism with object contextual representations block to ensure precisely boundary prediction. Our proposed network was evaluated on the public MICCAI 2020 Myocardial pathology segmentation dataset which involves patients suffering from myocardial infarction. Experiments on the dataset with three modalities demonstrate the effectiveness of fusion mode of our model, and attention mechanism can integrate various modality information well. We demonstrated that such a deep learning approach could better fuse complementary information to improve the segmentation performance of cardiac pathology.
Critical Correlation of Predictors for an Efficient Risk Prediction Framework of ICU Patient Using Correlation and Transformation of MIMIC-III Dataset
Authors: Khope Sarika R. , Elias Susan 
Published: February 2022

AbstractVarious predictive frameworks have evolved over the last decade to facilitate the efficient diagnosis of critical diseases in the healthcare sector. Some have been commercialized, while others are still in the research and development stage. An effective early predictive principle must provide more accurate outcomes in complex clinical data and various challenging environments. The open-source database system medical information mart for intensive care (MIMIC) simplifies all of the attributes required in predictive analysis in this regard. This database contains clinical and non-clinical information on a patient’s stay at a healthcare facility, gathered during their duration of stay. Regardless of the number of focused research attempts employing the MIMIC III database, a simplified and cost-effective computational technique for developing the early analysis of critical problems has not yet been found. As a result, the proposed study provides a novel and cost-effective machine learning framework that evolves into a novel feature engineering methodology using the MIMIC III dataset. The core idea is to forecast the risk associated with a patient’s clinical outcome. The proposed study focused on the diagnosis and clinical procedures and found distinct variants of independent predictors from the MIMIC III database and ICD-9 code. The proposed logic is scripted in Python, and the outcomes of three common machine learning schemes, namely Artificial Neural Networks, K-Nearest Neighbors, and Logistic Regression, have been evaluated. Artificial Neural Networks outperform alternative machine learning techniques when accuracy is taken into account as the primary performance parameter over the MIMIC III dataset.
Log-concavity and other concepts of bivariate increasing failure rate distributions
Authors: Gupta Ramesh C. , Kirmani S. N. U. A. 
Published: February 2022

AbstractLog-concavity of a joint survival function is proposed as a model for bivariate increasing failure rate (BIFR) distributions. Its connections with or distinctness from other notions of BIFR are discussed. A necessary and sufficient condition for a bivariate survival function to be log-concave (BIFR-LCC) is given that elucidates the impact of dependence between lifetimes on ageing. Illustrative examples are provided to explain BIFR-LCC for both positive and negative dependence.
Science interrupted
Authors: Parma Valentina , Arceneaux Kevin 
Published: February 2022

AbstractRecent research contends that the behavioral immune system, operating largely outside conscious awareness, motivates individuals to exhibit higher levels of prejudice toward unfamiliar out-groups. This research finds that individual variance in disgust sensitivity correlates with support for political policies that facilitate the avoidance of out-groups. We were interested in developing less intrusive indicators of disgust sensitivity via olfactory measures (i.e., ratings of disgusting odors) and behavioral measures (e.g., willingness to touch disgusting objects) and studying the association between measures of disgust sensitivity and in-group bias among children and adults. We submitted a registered report to conduct this research and received an in-principle acceptance. Unfortunately, unforeseen events impaired our data collection, leaving us with a limited sample (nchildren = 32, nadults = 29) and reducing our ability to draw reliable conclusions from our results. In this essay, we describe our motivation and plan of research, the events that made completing the research impossible, and our preliminary results. In doing so, we hope to offer support for studying the effects of the behavioral immune system, even in ways that we did not originally plan. We conclude with a reflection on the value of registered reports for advancing science.
“A kaleidoscope of relationships” — cervical cancer survivors’ perspectives on their intimate relationships: A qualitative study
Authors: Levkovich Inbar , Hamama-Raz Yaira , Shinan-Altman Shiri 
Published: February 2022

AbstractObjectiveCervical cancer is known to affect survivors’ intimate relationships, as well as their communication and coping. Yet little is known about the perspectives of these survivors on their intimate relationships in the context of their needs during and after medical treatment. Additionally, only a few studies have focused on survivors’ perceived needs or on existing psychosexual support. Understanding these perceptions can help provide a tailored response and improve dyadic interventions. The aim of this study was to examine cervical cancer survivors’ perspectives on their intimate relationships during and after their treatment.MethodThe present study adopted a qualitative-phenomenological approach. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 survivors of cervical cancer between the ages of 38 and 44 who were diagnosed at stages I–II and were treated with radiotherapy or chemo-radiotherapy and surgery. Data collection continued until saturation of concepts was reached. The results underwent thematic analysis.ResultsAnalysis of the findings revealed two key themes: (1) Together and apart in the shadow of cervical cancer. This theme focuses on the recovery period as a potential opportunity for changing and improving the couple relationship, such that men no longer withdraw but rather provide their partners with needed support and encouragement. (2) Changes in sexual life and couple intimacy. This theme focuses on changes in sexual relations, which have become a burden, painful, and something to avoid.Significance of resultsThe study provides a comprehensive picture of intimate relationships during and after cervical cancer treatment and highlights the women's needs and desires for support from their intimate partners. The discussion notes that oncology providers can better facilitate supportiveness on the part of cervical cancer partners by offering better couple-oriented education and interventions to promote couple communication.
An act of love
Authors: Gambril John Alan 
Published: February 2022

AbstractEnd-of-life conversations are a difficult part of medicine. The COVID-19 pandemic has made them simultaneously more necessary and more difficult. Encouraging patients to have these conversations with their own providers and loved ones can help ensure, when the unfortunate time comes, their end-of-life wishes are carried out. This honors the patient and limits burden on others. Here, I reflect on how my personal experience as both a grieving grandson and as a resident physician has emphasized the importance of end-of-life conversations.
Strong ULVZ and Slab Interaction at the Northeastern Edge of the Pacific LLSVP Favors Plume Generation
Authors: Lai Voon Hui , Helmberger Don V. , Dobrosavljevic Vasilije V. , Wu Wenbo , Sun Daoyuan , Jackson Jennifer M. , Gurnis Michael 
Published: February 2022

AbstractStrong waveform complexities, including multipathing of the S diffracted phase and rapid changes in differential ScS‐S times, are observed for multiple deep Fiji earthquakes recorded at the USArray. The complexities occur at the northeastern edge of the Pacific Large Low Shear Velocity Province (LLSVP), about 12 degrees southeast of present‐day Hawaiʻi. Waveform modeling of the multipathing provides good constraints on an ultra‐low velocity zone (ULVZ) with a width of 5 degree located near the inner edge of the LLSVP. Based on the mineralogical‐modeling of the ULVZ as a solid iron‐rich magnesiowüstite‐bearing assemblage with compatible morphology predicted from geodynamical simulations, a ULVZ model with a thickness of 30 km and a shear wave velocity reduction of 18% is preferred. The rapid change in differential ScS‐S travel time is best explained by having both the aforementioned ULVZ and an adjacent high velocity structure near the LLSVP. Furthermore, a low‐velocity plume‐like structure could potentially explain the observed S travel time delay independent of ScS. These seismic features are proposed to be a ULVZ driven toward the edge of the LLSVP while potentially pushed by a subducted slab. This configuration may trigger plume generation due to strong thermal instabilities and is in the same vicinity where mantle flow models place the present‐day Hawaiian plume source. Multiple ScS can potentially be used to verify vertical plume structure in tomographic models but the accuracy of upper mantle structure, which is a key reflection point, needs to be considered.