Deep learning based decision tree ensembles for incomplete medical datasets

BACKGROUND

In practice, the collected datasets for data analysis are usually incomplete as some data contain missing attribute values. Many related works focus on constructing specific models to produce estimations to replace the missing values, to make the original incomplete datasets become complete. Another type of solution is to directly handle the incomplete datasets without missing value imputation, with decision trees being the major technique for this purpose.

OBJECTIVE

To introduce a novel approach, namely Deep Learning-based Decision Tree Ensembles (DLDTE), which borrows the bounding box and sliding window strategies used in deep learning techniques to divide an incomplete dataset into a number of subsets and learning from each subset by a decision tree, resulting in decision tree ensembles.

METHOD

Two medical domain problem datasets contain several hundred feature dimensions with the missing rates of 10% to 50% are used for performance comparison.

RESULTS

The proposed DLDTE provides the highest rate of classification accuracy when compared with the baseline decision tree method, as well as two missing value imputation methods (mean and k-nearest neighbor), and the case deletion method.

CONCLUSION

The results demonstrate the effectiveness of DLDTE for handling incomplete medical datasets with different missing rates.

Combining data discretization and missing value imputation for incomplete medical datasets

Data discretization aims to transform a set of continuous features into discrete features, thus simplifying the representation of information and making it easier to understand, use, and explain. In practice, users can take advantage of the discretization process to improve knowledge discovery and data analysis on medical domain problem datasets containing continuous features. However, certain feature values were frequently missing. Many data-mining algorithms cannot handle incomplete datasets. In this study, we considered the use of both discretization and missing-value imputation to process incomplete medical datasets, examining how the order of discretization and missing-value imputation combined influenced performance. The experimental results were obtained using seven different medical domain problem datasets: two discretizers, including the minimum description length principle (MDLP) and ChiMerge; three imputation methods, including the mean/mode, classification and regression tree (CART), and k-nearest neighbor (KNN) methods; and two classifiers, including support vector machines (SVM) and the C4.5 decision tree. The results show that a better performance can be obtained by first performing discretization followed by imputation, rather than vice versa. Furthermore, the highest classification accuracy rate was achieved by combining ChiMerge and KNN with SVM.

[Impact of asthma action plan-based remote joint management model on asthma control in children]

Objective: To compare the effects of the China Children's Asthma Action Plan (CCAAP)-based remote joint management model with traditional management model on the control of childhood asthma. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted to analyze the general data and asthma control assessment data of 219 children with asthma who attended the respiratory department of Guangzhou Women's and Children's Medical Center from April 2021 to October 2021 and were followed up for 1 year or more. According to the follow-up management model, the CCAAP-based remote joint management model was used in the observation group and the traditional management model was used in the control group, and the propensity score matching method was applied to match the data of children in the two management models for comparison. Paired-samples t-test, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, McNemar χ2-test or χ2-test or nonparametric tests were used to compare the general data and asthma control assessment data between the two matched groups of children. Results: Among 219 children with asthma, 145 were male and 74 were female, aged at consultation (7.2±2.4) years. There were 147 cases in the observation group and 72 cases in the control group, and 27 cases in each of the observation and control groups were successfully matched. The number of asthma exacerbation aura, acute exacerbations, and emergency room visits or hospitalizations for asthma exacerbations were lower in the observation group than in the control group after pairing (1 (0, 2) vs. 3 (1, 5) times, 0 (0,0) vs. 0 (0, 1) times, 0 (0,0) vs. 1 (0, 1) times, Z=-3.42, -2.58, -3.17, all P<0.05). The use of peak flowmeters was higher in children aged 5 years and older in the observation group than in the control group after pairing (100% (22/22) vs. 13% (3/23), χ2=54.00,P<0.001). The ratio of actual to predicted 1st second expiratory volume of force after follow-up in the observation group after pairing was higher than that before follow-up in the observation group and after follow-up in the control group ((95±11)% vs. (85±10)%, (95±11)% vs. (88±11)%, t=-3.40, 2.25, all P<0.05). The rate of complete asthma control after follow-up was higher in both the observation and control groups after pairing than before follow-up for 12 months in both groups (93% (25/27) vs. 41% (11/27), 52% (14/27) vs. 41% (11/27), H=56.19, 45.37, both P<0.001), and the rate of complete control of asthma in children in the observation group was higher than that in the control group at 3 and 12 months of follow-up management (56% (15/27) vs. 25% (5/20), 93% (25/27) vs. 52% (14/27), χ2=47.00, 54.00, both P<0.001). The number of offline follow-up visits, inhaled hormone medication adherence scores, and caregiver's asthma perception questionnaire scores were higher in the observation group than in the control group after pairing (6 (4, 8) vs. 4 (2,5), (4.8±0.3) vs. (4.0±0.6) score, (19.3±2.6) vs. (15.2±2.7) score, Z=6.58, t=6.57, 5.61, all P<0.05), and the children in the observation group had lower school absences, caregiver absences, asthma attack visit costs, and caregiver PTSD scores than the control group (0 (0,0) vs.3 (0, 15) d, 0 (0,0) vs. 3 (0, 10) d, 1 100 (0, 3 700) vs. 5 000 (1 000, 10 000) yuan, 1.3 (1.1, 1.9) vs. 2.0 (1.2, 2.7) score, Z=-2.89, -2.30, 2.74, 2.73, all P<0.05). Conclusion: The CCAAP-based joint management model of asthma control is superior to the traditional management model in the following aspects: it can effectively improve asthma control, self-monitoring, and lung function in children; it can improve treatment adherence and caregivers' asthma awareness; and it can reduce the duration of absenteeism from school, the cost of asthma exacerbation visits, and caregiver's negative psychology.

Explainable deep neural network for echocardiography view classification

Funding Acknowledgements

Type of funding sources: Public grant(s) – National budget only. Main funding source(s): Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan

Background

Deep neural network may assist echocardiography interpretation in several tasks; however, the lack of expandability hindered its broader application since physicians couldn’t realize the rationale of interpretation clearly and comfortably.

Method

Retrospectively, we manually annotated 26,465 transthoracic echocardiography images into 29 classes for model development in 4:1 ratio as training and validation datasets. We added an autoencoder component into our model, adapted from capsule net, for view-classifying to deconvolute the feature maps of last layer as decoder for human interpretation. The performance of view classification was measured in accuracy and confusion matrix, and the interpretability of model were assessed by cardiologist.

Result

After appropriate model training, the accuracy of our model achieved averaged 98.2% for echocardiography view classification, ranged from lowest 80.0% in suprasternal view to 100% of several more common view in validation dataset. The successful deconvolution of feature map to reconstruct images showed essential independent components of echocardiography view and could be interpretated by cardiologist and clinical physicians.

Conclusion

With the use of autoencoder in model for echocardiography view classification showed maintainable good performance in accuracy and facilitated clinical interpretation to enhance its reliability. Abstract Figure. Model architecture and performance  Abstract Figure. Example of explaniable deconvolution

Effects of Carissa carandas Linn. Fruit, Pulp, Leaf, and Seed on Oxidation, Inflammation, Tyrosinase, Matrix Metalloproteinase, Elastase, and Hyaluronidase Inhibition

In this study, the potential of Carissa carandas Linn. as a natural anti-aging, antioxidant, and skin whitening agent was studied. Various parts of C. carandas, including fruit, leaf, seed, and pulp were sequentially extracted by maceration using n-hexane, ethyl acetate, and ethanol, respectively. High-performance liquid chromatography, Folin–Ciocalteu, and Dowd method were used to investigate their chemical compositions. The inhibitory activities of oxidation process, matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), elastase, hyaluronidase, and tyrosinase were analyzed. Cytotoxicity was determined by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5 diphenyl tetrazolium bromide assay in a human epidermal keratinocyte line (HaCaT). The results exhibited that ethyl acetate could extract the most ursolic acid from C. carandas, while ethanol could extract the most phenolics and flavonoids. The leaf extract had the highest content of ursolic acid, phenolics, and flavonoids. The leaf extracted with ethyl acetate (AL) had the highest ursolic acid content (411.8 mg/g extract) and inhibited MMP-1, NF-kappa B, and tyrosinase activity the most. Ursolic acid has been proposed as a key component in these biological activities. Although several C. carandas extracts are beneficial to human skin, AL has been proposed for use in cosmetics and cosmeceuticals due to its superior anti-wrinkle, anti-inflammation, and whitening properties.

Data cleaning issues in class imbalanced datasets: instance selection and missing values imputation for one-class classifiers

Purpose

Class imbalance learning, which exists in many domain problem datasets, is an important research topic in data mining and machine learning. One-class classification techniques, which aim to identify anomalies as the minority class from the normal data as the majority class, are one representative solution for class imbalanced datasets. Since one-class classifiers are trained using only normal data to create a decision boundary for later anomaly detection, the quality of the training set, i.e. the majority class, is one key factor that affects the performance of one-class classifiers.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, we focus on two data cleaning or preprocessing methods to address class imbalanced datasets. The first method examines whether performing instance selection to remove some noisy data from the majority class can improve the performance of one-class classifiers. The second method combines instance selection and missing value imputation, where the latter is used to handle incomplete datasets that contain missing values.

Findings

The experimental results are based on 44 class imbalanced datasets; three instance selection algorithms, including IB3, DROP3 and the GA, the CART decision tree for missing value imputation, and three one-class classifiers, which include OCSVM, IFOREST and LOF, show that if the instance selection algorithm is carefully chosen, performing this step could improve the quality of the training data, which makes one-class classifiers outperform the baselines without instance selection. Moreover, when class imbalanced datasets contain some missing values, combining missing value imputation and instance selection, regardless of which step is first performed, can maintain similar data quality as datasets without missing values.

Originality/value

The novelty of this paper is to investigate the effect of performing instance selection on the performance of one-class classifiers, which has never been done before. Moreover, this study is the first attempt to consider the scenario of missing values that exist in the training set for training one-class classifiers. In this case, performing missing value imputation and instance selection with different orders are compared.

Effects of dietary supplementation with Taiwanese tea byproducts and probiotics on growth performance, lipid metabolism, and the immune response in red feather native chickens

Objective

This study compared the catechin composition of different tea byproducts and investigated the effects of dietary supplementation with green tea byproducts on the accumulation of abdominal fat, the modulation of lipid metabolism, and the inflammatory response in red feather native chickens.

Methods

Bioactive compounds were detected, and in vitro anti-obesity capacity analyzed via 3T3-L1 preadipocytes. In animal experiments, 320 one-day-old red feather native chickens were divided into 4 treatment groups: control, basal diet supplemented with 0.5% Jinxuan byproduct (JBP), basal diet supplemented with 1% JBP, or basal diet supplemented with 5×10⁶ colony-forming unit (CFU)/kg Bacillus amyloliquefaciens+5×10⁶ CFU/kg Saccharomyces cerevisiae (BA+SC). Growth performance, serum characteristics, carcass characteristics, and the mRNA expression of selected genes were measured.

Results

This study compared several cultivars of tea, but Jinxuan showed the highest levels of the anti-obesity compound epigallocatechin gallate. 3T3-L1 preadipocytes treated with Jinxuan extract significantly reduced lipid accumulation. There were no significant differences in growth performance, serum characteristics, or carcass characteristics among the groups. However, in the 0.5% JBP group, mRNA expression of fatty acid synthase (FAS) and acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) were significantly decreased. In the 1% JBP group, FAS, ACC and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ levels were significantly decreased. Moreover, inflammation-related mRNA expression levels were decreased by the addition of JBP.

Conclusion

JBP contained abundant catechins and related bioactive compounds, which reduced lipid accumulation in 3T3-L1 preadipocytes, however there was no significant reduction in abdominal fat. This may be due to a lack of active anti-obesity compounds or because the major changes in fat metabolism were not in the abdomen. Nonetheless, lipogenesis-related and inflammation-related mRNA expression were reduced in the 1% JBP group. In addition, dietary supplementation with tea byproducts could reduce the massive amount of byproducts created during tea production and modulate lipid metabolism and the inflammatory response in chickens.

Laetiporus sulphureus-fermented wheat bran enhanced the broiler growth performance by improving the intestinal microflora and inflammation status

This study investigates the effects of Laetiporus sulphureus–fermented wheat bran (LS) as a feed supplementation on the immunomodulative properties in broiler chickens. Crude phenolic compounds, crude polysaccharides, crude triterpenoids, and ergosterol were determined in LS water extracts. In animal experiments, 400 male broilers (Ross 308) were randomly assigned into 5 groups fed with a corn–soybean–based diet (control) and a control diet replaced with 5% wheat bran (WB), 10% WB, 5% LS, and 10% LS, respectively. Each group had 4 replicates and 20 birds per pen (total of 80 birds/treatment). The results showed that the 5% LS–supplemented group had significantly higher BW in the finisher phase (22–35 D). Better feed conversion ratio (P < 0.05) of LS-supplemented groups was observed in both the finisher phase and the overall experimental period. The LS-supplemented groups had significantly lower coliform counts in the ileum than the other treatment and control groups (P < 0.05). The results of serum immunoglobulin showed that LS supplementation significantly increased serum IgA concentration compared with the control and WB-supplemented groups (P < 0.05). Simultaneously, ileal IgA contents of the LS groups were significantly higher than in the WB and control groups (P < 0.05). Regarding proinflammatory cytokines, serum tumor necrosis factor alpha and IL-6 in the LS-supplemented groups were significantly lower than those in the 10% WB group (P < 0.05), whereas serum tumor necrosis factor alpha and IL-1β in the 5% LS group were significantly lower than in both the control and WB-supplemented groups (P < 0.05). An investigation on the effects of LS on immune-related genes in broiler showed that chickens supplemented with 5% LS had lower levels of liver and jejunum IL-1β and NF-κB mRNA compared with the control group and WB groups (P < 0.05). In conclusion, LS supplementation can potentially enhance growth performance of broilers by improving intestinal microflora and inflammation status.

Chemical Constituents, Antioxidant, Anti-MMPs, and Anti-Hyaluronidase Activities of Thunbergia laurifolia Lindl. Leaf Extracts for Skin Aging and Skin Damage Prevention

This study aimed to investigate the potential usage of Thunbergia laurifolia Lindl. leaf extracts in the cosmetic industry. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and hyaluronidase inhibition of T. laurifolia leaf extracts, prepared using reflux extraction with deionized water (RE) and 80% v/v ethanol using Soxhlet's apparatus (SE), were determined. Rosmarinic acid, phenolics, and flavonoids contents were determined using high-performance liquid chromatography, Folin-Ciocalteu, and aluminum chloride colorimetric assays, respectively. Antioxidant activities were determined by 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and linoleic acid-thiocyanate assays. MMP-1 inhibition was investigated using enzymatic and fluorescent reactions, whereas MMP-2, MMP-9, and hyaluronidase inhibition were investigated using gel electrophoresis. Cytotoxicity on human fibroblast cell line was also investigated. The results demonstrated that SE contained significantly higher content of rosmarinic acid (5.62% ± 0.01%) and flavonoids (417 ± 25 mg of quercetin/g of extract) but RE contained a significantly higher phenolics content (181 ± 1 mg of gallic acid/g of extract; p < 0.001). SE possessed higher lipid peroxidation inhibition but less DPPH• scavenging activity than RE. Both extracts possessed comparable hyaluronidase inhibition. SE was as potent an MMP-1 inhibitor as gallic acid (half maximal inhibitory concentration values were 12.0 ± 0.3 and 8.9 ± 0.4 mg/cm3, respectively). SE showed significantly higher MMP-2 and MMP-9 inhibition than RE (p < 0.05). Therefore, SE is a promising natural anti-ageing ingredient rich in rosmarinic acid and flavonoids with antioxidant, anti-hyaluronidase, and potent MMPs inhibitory effects that could be applied in the cosmetic industry.

Dermal Delivery Enhancement of Natural Anti-Ageing Compounds from Ocimum sanctum Linn. Extract by Nanostructured Lipid Carriers

This study aimed to develop nanodelivery systems for enhancing the Ocimum sanctum Linn. extract delivery into the skin. Rosmarinic acid (RA) was used as a marker for the quantitative determination of the extract by high-performance liquid chromatography. Nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC), nanoemulsion, liposome, and niosome, were developed and characterized for internal droplet size, polydispersity index (PDI), and zeta potential using photon correlation spectroscopy. Irritation properties of each formulations were investigated by hen's egg test on the chorioallantoic membrane. In vitro release, skin permeation, and skin retention are determined. NLC was suggested as the most suitable system since it enhances the dermal delivery of RA with the significant skin retention amount of 27.1 ± 1.8% (p < 0.05). Its internal droplet size, PDI, and zeta potential were 261.0 ± 5.3 nm, 0.216 ± 0.042, and -45.4 ± 2.4 mV, respectively. RA released from NLC with a sustained release pattern with the release amount of 1.29 ± 0.15% after 24 h. NLC induced no irritation and did not permeate through the skin. Therefore, NLC containing O. sanctum extract was an attractive dermal delivery system that was safe and enhanced dermal delivery of RA. It was suggested for further used as topical anti-ageing products.

Effects of mushroom waster medium and stalk residues on the growth performance and oxidative status in broilers

OBJECTIVE

The study developed mushroom stalk residues as feed additives in the broiler diet for improving the growth performance and immunity of broilers as well as to increase the value of mushroom stalk residues.

METHODS

In total, 300 ROSS 308 broilers were randomly allocated into fifteen pens with five dietary treatments: i) control, basal diet; ii) CMWM, supplemented with 1% Cordyceps militaris waster medium (CM); iii) CMPE, supplemented with 0.5% CM+0.5% Pleurotus eryngii stalk residue (PE); iv) CMPS, supplemented with 0.5% CM+0.5% Pleurotus sajorcaju stalk residue (PS); v) CMFV, supplemented with 0.5% CM+0.5% Fammulina velutipes stalk residue (FV).

RESULTS

The chemical analysis results showed that CM extracts, PE extracts, PS extracts, and FV extracts contain functional components such as polysaccharides and phenols and have both 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl-hydrate scavenging and Ferrous scavenging capacities. The group CMWM saw increased body weight gain and feed conversion rate and the promotion of jejunum villus growth, but there is no significant difference in the intestinal bacteria phase. Antioxidant genes in the nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf2)- antioxidant responsive element pathway among the groups are significantly higher than that of the control group, especially in group CMWM.

CONCLUSION

The mushroom stalk residues have antioxidant functional components, can improve the intestinal health and body weight gain of chickens, and can activate the antioxidant pathway of Nrf2 to increase the heme oxygenase-1 expression. The treatment with 1% CM was the most promising as a feed additive.

Effect of Cobalt Precursors on Cobalt-Hydroxyapatite Used in Bone Regeneration and MRI

In clinical dentistry practice, supplemental bone surgery or jawbone defect after tooth extraction must be assisted by a bone-filling material. Cobalt-substituted hydroxyapatite (COHA) effectively promotes bone cell growth, reduces the inflammatory response, and is an antibacterial agent. COHA can therefore be used as an alveolar bone-filling material or guided bone regeneration membrane. Meanwhile, COHA can be used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with negative contrast agents and targeting materials without causing metal interference with the image. Hence, COHA has received increasing amounts of attention in recent years. However, the influence of different cobalt precursors on the synthesized COHA is still unknown. Therefore, COHA synthesized from 3 cobalt precursors (cobalt chloride, cobalt nitrate, and cobalt sulfate) was compared in this study. The results show that COHA synthesized by the precursor with the smallest anion radius, cobalt chloride, has a larger particle size (239 nm) and a higher cobalt ion substitution rate (15.6%). When the cobalt ion substitution rate increases, the MRI has a stronger contrast. Bioactivity data indicate that COHAC is more susceptible to degradation and therefore releases more cobalt ions to contribute to the differentiation of bone cells. Based on these studies, COHAC prepared with the cobalt chloride precursor has a higher cobalt ion substitution rate, faster degradation rate, better image contrast, and better bioactivity. It is therefore the preferred choice of bone-filling material for alveolar bone regeneration.

Autonomic dysfunction as an independent risk factor for uncontrolled inflammation in chronic rhinosinusitis following functional endoscopic sinus surgery

BACKGROUND

Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is a multi-factorial disorder that causes systemic symptoms beyond rhinologic symptoms alone. A possible association between autonomic nervous system (ANS) dysfunction and CRS has been identified; however, few studies have confirmed this observation. In this study, we prospectively measured changes in ANS dysfunction symptoms following functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS) and explored the impact of ANS dysfunction on surgical outcomes of CRS.

METHODOLOGY

Patients diagnosed with CRS who consented to surgical intervention were included prospectively. All patients completed the Sino-nasal Outcome Test-22 (SNOT-22) and the 31-item Composite Autonomic Symptom Score (COMPASS 31) questionnaires before the operation and during the follow-up period. Clinical demographic data, Lund-Mackay, and modified Lund-Kennedy scores were recorded and measured.

RESULTS

A total of 102 patients were enrolled. The median SNOT-22 and COMPASS 31 scores significantly improved following FESS from 43.0 to 14.0 and 21.0 to 11.2 (all P less than 0.001), respectively. FESS led to a significant reduction in the prevalence of various ANS dysfunction symptoms. In multivariate analyses, revision surgeries (odds ratio [OR] 5.012, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.52416.489; P=0.008), CRS with nasal polyps (OR 4.071, 95% CI 1.454-11.40; P=0.008), and higher Pre-FESS COMPASS 31 scores (OR 1.043, 95% CI 1.003-1.084; P=0.036) were independent risk factors for uncontrolled inflammation following FESS.

CONCLUSIONS

ANS dysfunction symptoms are prevalent in CRS and higher preoperative COMPASS 31 scores correspond with poor surgical outcomes. Following FESS, the majority of ANS dysfunction symptoms can be alleviated. Further investigations are required to explore the possible mechanism of how ANS is involved in the pathogenesis of CRS.

Effects of dietary Antrodia cinnamomea fermented product supplementation on antioxidation, anti-inflammation, and lipid metabolism in broiler chickens

Objective

This study was investigated the effects of dietary supplementation of Antrodia cinnamomea fermented product on modulation of antioxidation, anti-inflammation, and lipid metabolism in broilers.

Methods

Functional compounds and in vitro antioxidant capacity were detected in wheat bran (WB) solid-state fermented by Antrodia cinnamomea for 16 days (FAC). In animal experiment, 400 d-old broiler chickens were allotted into 5 groups fed control diet, and control diet replaced with 5% WB, 10% WB, 5% FAC, and 10% FAC respectively. Growth performance, intestinal microflora, serum antioxidant enzymes and fatty acid profiles in pectoral superficial muscle were measured.

Results

Pretreatment with hot water extracted fermented product significantly reduced chicken peripheral blood mononuclear cells death induced by lipopolysaccharide and 2,2′-Azobis(2-amidinopropane) dihydrochloride. Birds received 5% and 10% FAC had higher weight gain than WB groups. Cecal coliform and lactic acid bacteria were diminished and increased respectively while diet replaced with FAC. For FAC supplemented groups, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity increased at 35 days only, with catalase elevated at 21 and 35 day. Regarding serum lipid parameters, 10% FAC replacement significantly reduced triglyceride and low-density lipoprotein level in chickens. For fatty acid composition in pectoral superficial muscle of 35-d-old chickens, 5% and 10% FAC inclusion had birds with significantly lower saturated fatty acids as compared with 10% WB group. Birds on the 5% FAC diet had a higher degree of unsaturation, followed by 10% FAC, control, 5% WB, and 10% WB.

Conclusion

In conclusion, desirable intestinal microflora in chickens obtaining FAC may be attributed to the functional metabolites detected in final fermented product. Moreover, antioxidant effects observed in FAC were plausibly exerted in terms of improved antioxidant enzymes activities, increased unsaturated degree of fatty acids in chicken muscle and better weight gain in FAC inclusion groups, indicating that FAC possesses promising favorable mechanisms worthy to be developed.

Effects of dietary Antrodia cinnamomea fermented product supplementation on metabolism pathways of antioxidant, inflammatory, and lipid metabolism pathways-a potential crosstalk

Objective

This study was conducted to fathom the underlying mechanisms of nutrition intervention and redox sensitive transcription factors regulated by Antrodia cinnamomea fermented product (FAC) dietary supplementation in broiler chickens.

Methods

Four hundreds d-old broilers (41±0.5 g/bird) assigned to 5 groups were examined after consuming control diet, or control diet replaced with 5% wheat bran (WB), 10% WB, 5% FAC, and 10% FAC. Liver mRNA expression of antioxidant, inflammatory and lipid metabolism pathways were analyzed. Prostaglandin E2 (PGE₂) concentration in each group were tested in the chicken peripheral blood mononuclear cells (cPBMCs) of 35-d old broilers to represent the stress level of the chickens. Furthermore, these cells were stimulated with 2,2′-Azobis(2-amidinopropane) dihydrochloride (AAPH) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to evaluate the cell stress tolerance by measuring cell viability and oxidative species.

Results

Heme oxygenase-1, glutathione S-transferase, glutamate-cysteine ligase, catalytic subunit, and superoxide dismutase, and nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf2) that regulates the above antioxidant genes were all up-regulated significantly in FAC groups. Reactive oxygen species modulator protein 1 and NADPH oxygenase 1 were both rather down-regulated in 10% FAC group as comparison with two WB groups. Despite expressing higher level than control group, birds receiving diet containing FAC had significantly lower expression level in nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) and other genes (inducible nitric oxide synthase, tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-1β, nucleotide-binding domain, leucine-rich-containing family, pyrin domain-containing-3, and cyclooxygenase 2) involving in inflammatory pathways. Additionally, except for 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl-coenzyme A reductase that showed relatively higher in both groups, the WB, lipoprotein lipase, Acetyl-CoA carboxylase, fatty acid synthase, fatty acid binding protein, fatty acid desaturase 2 and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha genes were expressed at higher levels in 10% FAC group. In support of above results, promoted Nrf2 and inhibited NF-κB nuclear translocation in chicken liver were found in FAC containing groups. H₂O₂ and NO levels induced by LPS and AAPH in cPBMCs were compromised in FAC containing diet. In 35-d-old birds, PGE₂ production in cPBMCs was also suppressed by the FAC diet.

Conclusion

FAC may promote Nrf2 antioxidant pathway and positively regulate lipid metabolism, both are potential inhibitor of NF-κB inflammatory pathway.

Risk factors outperform intracranial large artery stenosis predicting unfavorable outcomes in patients with stroke

Background

This study examined how intracranial large artery stenosis (ILAS), symptomatic and asymptomatic ILAS, and risk factors affect unfavorable outcome events after medical treatment in routine clinical practice.

Methods

This was a 24-month prospective observational study of consecutively recruited stroke patients. All participants underwent magnetic resonance angiography, and their clinical characteristics were assessed. Outcome events were vascular outcome, recurrent stroke, and death. Cox regression analyses were performed to identify potential factors associated with an unfavorable outcome, which included demographic and clinical characteristics, the risk factors, and stenosis status.

Results

The analysis included 686 patients; among them, 371 were assessed as ILAS negative, 231 as symptomatic ILAS, and 84 as asymptomatic ILAS. Body mass index (p < .05), hypertension (p = .01), and old infarction (p = .047) were factors relating to vascular outcomes. Hypertension was the only factor for recurrent stroke (p = .035). Poor glomerular filtration rate (< 30 mL/min/1.73 m²) (p = .011) and baseline National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale scores (p < .001) were significant predictors of death.

Conclusions

This study extended previous results from clinical trials to a community-based cohort study by concurrently looking at the presence/absence of stenosis and a symptomatic/asymptomatic stenotic artery. Substantiated risk factors rather than the stenosis status were predominant determinants of adverse outcome. Although the degree of stenosis is often an indicator for treatment, we suggest risk factors, such as hypertension and renal dysfunction, should be monitored and intensively treated.

Molecular characteristic and pathogenicity analysis of a virulent recombinant avain infectious bronchitis virus isolated in China

A virulent infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), designated as CK/CH/GD/QY16 (referred as QY16), was isolated from a diseased chicken farm in Guangdong province, China, in 2016. The complete genome of the strain was sequenced and analyzed. The results show that the genome of QY16 consists of 27,670 nucleotides, excluding poly (A) tail, and that its genome organization is 5’ UTR-1a-1b-S-3a-3b-E-M-4b-4c-5a-5b-N-6b-3’ UTR-poly (A) tail. Sequence comparison among QY16 and other IBV strains was conducted and its results demonstrate that the S1 gene of QY16 has the highest nucleotide sequence identity with that of 4/91, and the other part of its genome is highly similar to that of YX10. The results of the phylogenic analysis show that the entire genome of QY16 and most of the QY16 genes are located in the same cluster as those of YX10, except for the S1 gene which is located in the same cluster with that of 4/91. It has been further confirmed by the RDP and SimPlot analysis that QY16 is a recombinant strain deriving from YX10 (as the major parental sequence) and 4/91 (as the minor parental sequence), and that the recombination occurs in a region which includes the 3’-terminal 1b sequence (85 nt) and the 5’-terminal S1 protein gene sequence (1,466 nt). The results of the vaccination-challenge test suggest that QY16 is a nephropathogenic strain of IBV and that the vaccine strains–H120 and 4/91—cannot provide effective protection against it. These results indicate that the continuing evolution of IBV strains by genetic drift and genetic recombination may lead to IBV outbreaks even among the vaccinated chickens in China.

Potential crosstalk of oxidative stress and immune response in poultry through phytochemicals - A review

Phytochemicals which exist in various plants and fungi are non-nutritive compounds that exert numerous beneficial bioactive actions for animals. In recent years following the restriction of antibiotics, phytochemicals have been regarded as a primal selection when dealing with the challenges during the producing process in the poultry industry. The selected fast-growing broiler breed was more fragile when confronting the stressors in their growing environments. The disruption of oxidative balance that impairs the production performance in birds may somehow be linked to the immune system since oxidative stress and inflammatory damage are multi-stage processes. This review firstly discusses the individual influence of oxidative stress and inflammation on the poultry industry. Next, studies related to the application of phytochemicals or botanical compounds with the significance of their antioxidant and immunomodulatory abilities are reviewed. Furthermore, we bring up nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf2) and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) for they are respectively the key transcription factors involved in oxidative stress and inflammation for elucidating the underlying signal transduction pathways. Finally, by the discussion about several reports using phytochemicals to regulate these transcription factors leading to the improvement of oxidative status, heme oxygenase-1 gene is found crucial for Nrf2-mediated NF-κB inhibition.

Effects of mulberry leaves on production performance and the potential modulation of antioxidative status in laying hens

This study evaluated the antioxidant ability of Taisung No. 3 mulberry leaf extract (MLE) as well as the potential of mulberry leaf (ML)-based dietary supplementation for modulating the antioxidative status of laying hens. The results showed that the MLE had a total phenolic compound content of 7.4 ± 0.15 mg of gallic acid equivalent/g dry weight (DW) and a total flavonoid content of 4.4 ± 0.19 mg of quercetin equivalent/g DW. The 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl free-radical-scavenging ability was 45.9% when 0.1 mg/mL MLE was added. The lipid oxidation inhibition ability was 43.9% when 50 mg/mL MLE was added. We subjected 96 laying hens (Hendrix Genetics) to 4 treatments, namely diets supplemented with dry ML at 0 (control), 0.5, 1, or 2% for 12 weeks. Each treatment involved 8 replicates with 3 hens each. The results indicated that the 0.5% ML-supplemented group exhibited significantly higher mRNA levels of antioxidant-regulated genes, such as Nrf2, HO-1, and GST, and significantly lower ROMO1 gene expression levels at wk 12. The serum malondialdehyde level was lower and the catalase activity and superoxide dismutase activity were higher in all the ML-supplemented groups than in the control group. The egg mass and feed conversion rate significantly improved in the ML-supplemented groups compared with the control group, and, overall, 1% ML supplementation had the most favorable effects at one to 12 weeks. The egg yolk weight, shell weight, shell strength, shell thickness, yolk color, and Haugh unit were increased among all ML-supplemented groups at one to 12 weeks. On the basis of these observations, we conclude that 0.5% ML can be used as a new feed additive to potentially modulate the antioxidative status of laying hens and improve their production performance and egg quality.

Aerobic Biodegradation of OCDD by P. Mendocina NSYSU: Effectiveness and Gene Inducement Studies

  The goals of this study were to assess the effectiveness of (1) enhancing octachlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin (OCDD) biodegradation under aerobic conditions by Pseudomonas mendocina NSYSU (P. Mendocina NSYSU) with the addition of lecithin, and (2) inducing OCDD ring-cleavage genes by pentachlorophenol (PCP) and OCDD addition. P. Mendocina NSYSU could biodegrade OCDD via aerobic cometabolism and lecithin was used as a primary substrate. Approximately 74 and 67% of OCDD biodegradation was observed after 60 days of incubation with lecithin and glucose supplement, respectively. Lecithin was also used as the solubilization additive resulting in OCDD solubilization and enhanced bioavailability of OCDD to P. Mendocina NSYSU. Two intradiol and extradiol ring-cleavage dioxygenase genes (Pmen_0474 and Pmen_2526) were identified from gene analyses. Gene concentration was significantly enhanced after the inducement by PCP and OCDD. Higher gene inducement efficiency was obtained using PCP as the inducer, and Pmen_2526 played a more important role in OCDD biodegradation.

Interpenetration of CH3NH3PbI3 and TiO2 improves perovskite solar cells while TiO2 expansion leads to degradation

Perovskite solar cells have drawn much attention and achieved efficiencies over 22%, but relatively little is known about the long-term stability under photovoltaic operation. So far, stability studies have reported about the importance of degradation of each layer, but little to no consideration has been given to the whole device architecture. We investigated the stability of perovskite solar cells in order to fundamentally understand the mechanism behind efficiency improvement/degradation during device operation. We found that during operation the interfaces of the perovskite and the electron-transport layer (ETL), meso-porous TiO₂, further intermix with each other, which leads to improved power conversion efficiency (PCE) during the initial operation of these solar cells. The operation-induced structural changes are examined directly by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) with in situ low-energy Ar⁺ sputtering and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) with C₆₀ sputtering. In addition, this study describes that the primary cause of irreversible degradation during operation is due to the expansion of TiO₂ and ion migration throughout the perovskite solar cell.

[First aid system for trauma: development and status]

With the great progress of the economy, the level of industrialization has been increasing year by year, which leads to an increase in accidental trauma accidents. Chinese annual death of trauma is already more than 400 000, which makes trauma the fifth most common cause of death, following malignant tumor, heart, brain and respiratory diseases. Trauma is the leading cause of the death of young adults. At the same time, trauma has become a serious social problem in peace time. Trauma throws great treats on human health and life. As an important part in the medical and social security system, the emergency of trauma system occupies a very important position in the emergency medical service system. In European countries as well as the United States and also many other developed countries, trauma service system had a long history, and progressed to an advanced stage. However, Chinese trauma service system started late and is still developing. It has not turned into a complete and standardized system yet. This review summarizes the histories and current situations of the development of traumatic first aid system separately in European countries, the United States and our country. Special attentions are paid to the effects of the pre- and in-hospital emergency care. We also further try to explore the Chinese trauma emergency model that adapts to the situations of China and characteristics of different regions of China. Our review also introduces the trauma service system that suits the situations of China proposed by Professor Jiang Baoguo's team in details, taking Chinese conditions into account, they conducted a thematic study and made an expert consensus on pre-hospital emergency treatment of severe trauma, providing a basic routine and guidance of severe trauma treatment for those pre-hospital emergency physicians. They also advised to establish independent trauma disciplines and trauma specialist training systems, and to build the regional trauma care system as well as the standards for graded treatment, thus establishing a multiple disciplinary team (MDT) of severe trauma. In this way, we can reduce the mortality and disability risks of severe trauma, improve the quality of patients' life, and save more lives.

Antioxidant capacity of phytochemicals and their potential effects on oxidative status in animals - A review

Oxidative stress suppresses animal health, performance, and production, subsequently impacting economic feasibility; hence, maintaining and improving oxidative status especially through natural nutrition strategy are essential for normal physiological process in animals. Phytochemicals are naturally occurring antioxidants that could be considered as one of the most promising materials used in animal diets in various forms. In this review, their antioxidant effects on animals are discussed as reflected by improved apparent performance, productivity, and the internal physiological changes. Moreover, the antioxidant actions toward animals further describe a molecular basis to elucidate their underlying mechanisms targeting signal transduction pathways, especially through the antioxidant response element/nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 transcription system.

Research performance of AACSB accredited institutions in Taiwan: before versus after accreditation

Introduction

More and more universities are receiving accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), which is an international association for promoting quality teaching and learning at business schools. To be accredited, the schools are required to meet a number of standards ensuring that certain levels of teaching quality and students’ learning are met. However, there are a variety of points of view espoused in the literature regarding the relationship between research and teaching, some studies have demonstrated that research and teaching these are complementary elements of learning, but others disagree with these findings.

Case description

Unlike past such studies, we focus on analyzing the research performance of accredited schools during the period prior to and after receiving accreditation. The objective is to answer the question as to whether performance has been improved by comparing the same school’s performance before and after accreditation. In this study, four AACSB accredited universities in Taiwan are analyzed, including one teaching oriented and three research oriented universities. Research performance is evaluated by comparing seven citation statistics, the number of papers published, number of citations, average number of citations per paper, average citations per year, h-index (annual), h-index, and g-index.

Discussion and evaluation

The analysis results show that business schools demonstrated enhanced research performance after AACSB accreditation, but in most accredited schools the proportion of faculty members not actively doing research is larger than active ones.

Conclusion

This study shows that the AACSB accreditation has a positive impact on research performance. The findings can be used as a reference for current non-accredited schools whose research goals are to improve their research productivity and quality.

Research impact of general and funded papers

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to focus on examining the research impact of papers written with and without funding. Specifically, the citation analysis method is used to compare the general and funded papers published in two leading international conferences, which are ACM SIGIR and ACM SIGKDD.

Design/methodology/approach

– The authors investigate the number of general and funded papers to see whether the number of funded papers is larger than the number of general papers. In addition, the total citations and the number of highly cited papers with and without funding are also compared.

Findings

– The analysis results of ACM SIGIR papers show that in most cases the number of funded papers is larger than the number of general papers. Moreover, the total captions, the average number of citations per paper, and the number of highly cited papers all reveal the superiority of funded papers over general papers. However, the findings are somewhat different for the ACM SIGKDD papers. This may be because ACM SIGIR began much earlier than ACM SIGKDD, which relates to the maturity of the research problems addressed in these two conferences.

Originality/value

– The value of this paper is the first attempt at examining the research impact of general and funded research papers by the citation analysis method. The research impact of other research areas can be further investigated by other analysis methods.

On mining incomplete medical datasets: Ordering imputation and classification

BACKGROUND

To collect medical datasets, it is usually the case that a number of data samples contain some missing values. Performing the data mining task over the incomplete datasets is a difficult problem. In general, missing value imputation can be approached, which aims at providing estimations for missing values by reasoning from the observed data. Consequently, the effectiveness of missing value imputation is heavily dependent on the observed data (or complete data) in the incomplete datasets.

OBJECTIVE

In this paper, the research objective is to perform instance selection to filter out some noisy data (or outliers) from a given (complete) dataset to see its effect on the final imputation result. Specifically, four different processes of combining instance selection and missing value imputation are proposed and compared in terms of data classification.

METHODS

Experiments are conducted based on 11 medical related datasets containing categorical, numerical, and mixed attribute types of data. In addition, missing values for each dataset are introduced into all attributes (the missing data rates are 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50%). For instance selection and missing value imputation, the DROP3 and k-nearest neighbor imputation methods are employed. On the other hand, the support vector machine (SVM) classifier is used to assess the final classification accuracy of the four different processes.

RESULTS

The experimental results show that the second process by performing instance selection first and imputation second allows the SVM classifiers to outperform the other processes.

CONCLUSIONS

For incomplete medical datasets containing some missing values, it is necessary to perform missing value imputation. In this paper, we demonstrate that instance selection can be used to filter out some noisy data or outliers before the imputation process. In other words, the observed data for missing value imputation may contain some noisy information, which can degrade the quality of the imputation result as well as the classification performance.

Correlation analysis for comparison of the citation impact of journals, magazines, and conferences in computer science

Purpose

– In many research areas, there are a variety of different types of academic publications, including journals, magazines and conferences, which provide outlets for researchers to present their findings. Generally speaking, although there are differences in the reviewing criteria and publication processes of different publication types, in the same research area, there is certainly overlap in terms of the problems addressed and the audience for different publication types. Therefore, the research impacts of different publication types in the same research area should be moderately or highly correlated. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

– To prove this hypothesis, the authors examine the correlation coefficient of citation impacts for different types of publications, in seven research areas of computer science, from 2000 to 2013. In particular, four related citation statistics are examined for each publication type, which are average citations per paper, average citations per year, average annual increase in individual h-index, and h-index.

Findings

– The analysis results show only a partial correlation in terms of several specific citation measures for different publication types in the same research area. Moreover, the level of correlation of the citation impact between different publication types is different, depending on the research area.

Originality/value

– The contribution of this paper is to investigate whether the research impact of different types of publications in the same area is correlated. The findings can help guide researchers and academics choose the most appropriate publication outlets.

Citation impact analysis of research papers that appear in oral and poster sessions

Purpose

– Conference publications are an important aspect of research activities. There are generally both oral presentations and poster sessions at large international conferences. One can hypothesise that, for the same conferences, the papers presented in oral sessions should have a higher research impact than the papers presented in poster sessions. However, there has been no related study examining the validity of this hypothesis. In other words, the difference of research impact between papers presented orally or during poster sessions has not been discussed in literature. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to conduct a citation analysis to compare the research impact of papers presented in oral and poster sessions.

Design/methodology/approach

– In this paper, data from three leading conferences in the field of computer vision are examined, namely CVPR (2011 and 2012), ICCV (2011) and ECCV (2012). Several types of citation-related statistics are collected, including the number of highly cited papers (i.e. high number of citations) presented in oral and poster sessions, the total citations of both types of papers, the average citations of oral and poster papers, and the average citations of each frequently cited paper of both types.

Findings

– There are three main findings. First, a larger proportion of highly cited papers are from oral sessions than poster sessions. Second, the average number of citations per paper is larger for those presented in oral sessions than poster sessions. Third, the average number of citations for highly cited papers presented in oral sessions is not necessarily greater than for the ones presented in poster sessions.

Originality/value

– The originality of this paper is that it is the first attempt to examine the differences of citation impacts of conference papers presented in oral and poster sessions. The findings of this study will allow future bibliometrics research to further explore this related issue for longer periods and different fields.

Enhanced anaerobic biodegradation of OCDD-contaminated soils by Pseudomonas mendocina NSYSU: microcosm, pilot-scale, and gene studies

In this study, microcosm and pilot-scale experiments were performed to investigate the capability and effectiveness of Pseudomonas mendocina NSYSU (P. mendocina NSYSU) on the bioremediation of octachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (OCDD)-contaminated soils. The objectives were to evaluate the (1) characteristics of P. mendocina NSYSU, (2) feasibility of enhancing OCDD biodegradation with the addition of P. mendocina NSYSU and lecithin, and (3) variation in microbial diversity and genes responsible for the dechlorination of OCDD. P. mendocina NSYSU was inhibited when salinity was higher than 7%, and it could biodegrade OCDD under reductive dechlorinating conditions. Lecithin could serve as the solubilization agent causing the enhanced solubilization and dechlorination of OCDD. Up to 71 and 62% of OCDD could be degraded after 65 days of incubation under anaerobic conditions with and without the addition of lecithin, respectively. Decreased OCDD concentrations caused significant increase in microbial diversity. Results from the pilot-scale study show that up to 75% of OCDD could be degraded after a 2.5-month operational period with lecithin addition. Results from the gene analyses show that two genes encoding the extradiol/intradiol ring-cleavage dioxygenase and five genes encoding the hydrolase in P. mendocina NSYSU were identified and played important roles in OCDD degradation.

Reentrant surface anisotropy in the antiferromagnetic/ferromagnetic bilayer Mn/Co/Cu(001)

We investigated the magnetic anisotropy energy of monatomic surface-step atoms in antiferromagnetic/ferromagnetic (AF/FM) epitaxial Mn/Co bilayers grown on vicinal Cu(001) surfaces. The step-induced anisotropy of the Co/Cu(001) films was quenched upon submonolayer Mn deposition, but a reentrant uniaxial surface anisotropy was observed for Mn thickness (tMn) between 1 and 2 monolayers, which disappears for Mn thickness above 2 monolayers. In the Mn/Co/Cu(001) system, Mn films undergo a tMn-dependent transition from FM to AF in the 1-2 Mn monolayer thickness range, which entails the coexistence of FM and AF Mn phases in the film. The observation of a sizeable uniaxial anisotropy exclusively in the Mn-thickness range of coexistence of the FM and AF phases points out the crucial role of the boundaries between FM and AF regions within the Mn film. A symmetry-breaking mechanism of a magnetic type, rather than a purely geometric one, is therefore proposed as the origin of the reentrant anisotropy.

Biodegradation of Polychlorinated Dibenzo--Dioxins by Strain NSYSU

The dioxin-degrading bacterium strain NSYSU (NSYSU strain) has been isolated from dioxin-contaminated soil by selective enrichment techniques. In the present study, the NSYSU strain was investigated for its capability to biodegrade polychlorinated dibenzo--dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. High-resolution gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and a chemically activated luciferase gene expression bioassay were performed to determine the presence of dioxin compounds. The results indicate that the NSYSU strain could degrade PCDDs and PCDFs under anaerobic conditions in liquid cultures. The main intermediates of the dechlorination process were identified. The results of the bioreactor test indicate that the NSYSU strain could also degrade PCDDs and PCDFs effectively in soil slurries under aerobic conditions. Results from the bioreactor experiment show that approximately 98 and 97% of octachlorodibenzofuran and OCDD were degraded, respectively. The dioxin concentrations in soil slurry decreased from 5823 to 1198 pg toxic equivalency g, resulting in total dioxin removal of 79%. These first findings suggest that the NSYSU strain has the potential to be an effective tool for the bioremediation of soils contaminated with highly recalcitrant organic compounds.