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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints202105.0322.v1

Replication-Dependent Biogenesis of Turnip Crinkle Virus Long Noncoding RNAs

Shaoyan Zhang, Rong Sun, Limin Zheng, Feng Qu

Subject: Biology And Life Sciences, Anatomy And Physiology Keywords: Virus; plant virus; long noncoding RNA; replication; positive sense RNA virus

Online: 14 May 2021 (11:01:56 CEST)

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Working Paper ARTICLE

On a New Class of Stancu-Kantorovich-Type Operators

Bianca Ioana Vasian, Ștefan Lucian Garoiu, Cristina Maria Păcurar

Subject: Computer Science And Mathematics, Algebra And Number Theory Keywords: Stancu operators; Kantorovich operators; Stancu-Kantorovich operators; King-type operators; approximation by positive linear operators

Online: 10 May 2021 (13:48:54 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints202105.0172.v1

Enhancing the Positive Impact Rating: A New Business School Rating in Support of a Sustainable Future

Kathleen Rodenburg, Taimoor Rizwan, Ruifeng Liu, Julia Christensen Christensen Hughes

Subject: Business, Economics And Management, Business And Management Keywords: Positive Impact Rating (PIR); Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); Rankings; Ratings, Biases

Online: 10 May 2021 (11:05:08 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints202104.0784.v1

Artificial Compassion—From An AI Scholar

Cindy Mason

Subject: Social Sciences, Anthropology Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Robots, Compassion, Human Sciences, Positive Plasticity

Online: 30 April 2021 (10:36:45 CEST)

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Preprint REVIEW | doi:10.20944/preprints202104.0481.v1

Minimizing Errors in RT-PCR Detection and Quantification of SARS-CoV-2 RNA for Wastewater Surveillance

Warish Ahmed, Stuart Simpson, Paul Bertsch, Kyle Bibby, Aaron Bivins, Linda Blackall, Silvia Bofill-Mas, Albert Bosch, Joao Brandao, Phil Choi, Mark Ciesielski, Erica Donner, Nishita D'Souza, Andreas Farnleitner, Daniel Gerrity, Raul Gonzalez, John Griffith, Pradip Gyawali, Charles Haas, Kerry Hamilton, Chanditha Hapuarachchi, Valerie Harwood, Rehnuma Haque, Greg Jackson, Stuart Khan, Wesaal Khan, Masaaki Kitajima, Asja Korajkic, Giuseppina La Rosa, Blythe Layton, Erin Lipp, Sandra McLellan, Brian McMinn, Gertjan Medema, Suzanne Metcalfe, Wim Meijer, Jochen Mueller, Heather Murphy, Colleen Naughton, Rachel Noble, Sudhi Payyappat, Susan Petterson, Tarja Pitkanen, Veronica Rajal, Brandon Reyneke, Fernando Roman, Joan Rose, Marta Rusinol, Michael Sadowsky, Laura Sala-Comorera, Yin Xiang Setoh, Samendra Sherchan, Kwanrawee Sirikanchana, Wendy Smith, Joshua Steele, Rosalie Sabburg, Erin Symonds, Phong Thai, Kevin Thomas, Josh Tynan, Simon Toze, Janelle Thompson, Andy Whiteley, Judith Wong, Daisuke Sano, Stefan Wuertz, Irene Xagoraraki, Qian Zhang, Amity Zimmer-Faust, Orin Shanks

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Waste Management And Disposal Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; Wastewater; Surveillance; False-positive; False-negative; RT-PCR

Online: 19 April 2021 (13:08:13 CEST)

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Wastewater surveillance for pathogens using the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is an effective, resource-efficient tool for gathering additional community-level public health information, including the incidence and/or prevalence and trends of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater may provide an early-warning signal of COVID-19 infections in a community. The capacity of the world’s environmental microbiology and virology laboratories for SARS-CoV-2 RNA characterization in wastewater is rapidly increasing. However, there are no standardized protocols nor harmonized quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) procedures for SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance. This paper is a technical review of factors that can lead to false-positive and -negative errors in the surveillance of SARS-CoV-2, culminating in recommendations and strategies that can be implemented to identify and mitigate these errors. Recommendations include, stringent QA/QC measures, representative sampling approaches, effective virus concentration and efficient RNA extraction, amplification inhibition assessment, inclusion of sample processing controls, and considerations for RT-PCR assay selection and data interpretation. Clear data interpretation guidelines (e.g., determination of positive and negative samples) are critical, particularly during a low incidence of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater. Corrective and confirmatory actions must be in place for inconclusive and/or potentially significant results (e.g., initial onset or reemergence of COVID-19 in a community). It will also be prudent to perform inter-laboratory comparisons to ensure results are reliable and interpretable for ongoing and retrospective analyses. The strategies that are recommended in this review aim to improve SARS-CoV-2 characterization for wastewater surveillance applications. A silver lining of the COVID-19 pandemic is that the efficacy of wastewater surveillance was demonstrated during this global crisis. In the future, wastewater will play an important role in the surveillance of a range of other communicable diseases.

Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints202104.0439.v1

One Possible Reinfection with SARS-CoV-2 Validated by 205-days Interval of Re-detection in Sapporo City, Japan

Toshiaki Asakura, Akiko Tamakoshi

Subject: Medicine And Pharmacology, Immunology And Allergy Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; reinfection; re-detected positive; Japan

Online: 16 April 2021 (11:09:45 CEST)

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Preprint REVIEW | doi:10.20944/preprints202004.0201.v2

Detecting the Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Pravin Pokhrel, Changpeng Hu, Hanbin Mao

Subject: Biology And Life Sciences, Biochemistry And Molecular Biology Keywords: SARS-CoV-2 Detection, SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Test, SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Test, False Negative, False Positive, Sensitivity, Specificity, Point-of-care testing (POCT), SARS-CoV-2 Mutants

Online: 25 March 2021 (15:33:14 CET)

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The COVID-19 pandemic has created huge damage to society and brought panics around the world. Such panics can be ascribed to the seemingly deceptive features of the COVID-19: compared to other deadly viral outspreads, it has medium transmission and mortality rates. As a result, the severity of the causative coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, was deeply underestimated by the society at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak. Based on this, in this review, we define the viruses with features similar to those of SARS-CoV-2 as the Panic Zone viruses. To contain those viruses, accurate and fast diagnosis followed by effective isolation and treatment of patients are pivotal at the early stage of virus breakouts. This is especially true when there is no cure or vaccine available for a transmissible disease, which is the case for current COVID-19 pandemic. As of January 2021, more than two hundred kits for the COVID-19 diagnosis on the market are surveyed in this review, while emerging sensing techniques for SARS-CoV-2 are also discussed. It is of critical importance to rationally use these kits for the efficient management and control of the Panic Zone viruses. Therefore, we discuss guidelines to select diagnostic kits at different outbreak stages of the Panic Zone viruses, SARS-CoV-2 in particular. While it is of utmost importance to use nucleic acid-based detection kits with low false negativity (high sensitivity) at the early stage of an outbreak, the low false positivity (high specificity) gains its importance at later stages of the outbreak. When a society is set to reopen from the lock-down stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, it becomes critical to have antibody based immunoassay kits with high specificity to identify people who can safely return to the society after their recovery of SARS-CoV-2 infections. Given that the emergence of mutant viruses at the beginning of 2021 has complicated current battle against the COVID-19, we also discussed approaches and guidelines to detect viral mutants in the middle of the second wave of the pandemic that started at the end of 2020. Finally, since a massive attack from a viral pandemic requires a massive defense from the whole society, we urge both government and private sectors to research and develop more affordable and reliable point-of-care testing (POCT) kits, which can be used massively by the general public (and therefore called as massive POCT) to contain Panic Zone viruses in future.

Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints202012.0094.v3

“Clinician’s Probability Calculator” to Convert Pre-Test to Post-Test Probability of COVID-19, Based on Method Validation from Each Laboratory

Zoe Brooks, Saswati Das, Tom Pliura

Subject: Medicine And Pharmacology, Pathology And Pathobiology Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-COV-2; False-Positive; False-Negative; Likelihood Ratio; Probability; Calculator; Interpretation

Online: 3 March 2021 (10:08:27 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints202103.0055.v1

Semi-Covariance Coefficient Analysis of Spike Proteins from SARS-CoV-2 and other Coronaviruses for Viral Evolution and Characteristics Associated with Fatality

Jun Huang, Rebecca Spencer, Wangdong Zhang

Subject: Biology And Life Sciences, Biochemistry And Molecular Biology Keywords: Fractional complex moment; SARS-CoV-2; coronaviruses; spike protein sequence; Pearson correlation coefficient; semi-covariance coefficient; positive-correlative and negative-correlative domains

Online: 2 March 2021 (09:30:12 CET)

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Complex modeling has received significant attention in recent years and is increasingly used to explain the statistical phenomenon with increasing and decreasing fluctuations such as the similarity or difference of spike protein charge patterns of coronaviruses. Different from the existing covariance or correlation coefficient methods in traditional integer dimension construction, this study proposes a simplified novel fractional dimension derivation with the exact Excel tool algorithm. It involves the fractional center moment extension to covariance, which ends up a complex covariance coefficient that is better than the Pearson correlation coefficient, in the sense that the nonlinearity relationship can be further depicted. The spike protein sequences of coronaviruses were obtained from the GenBank and GISAID database, including the coronaviruses from pangolin, bat, canine, swine (three variants), feline, tiger, SARS-CoV-1, MERS, and SARS-CoV-2 (including the strains of Wuhan, Beijing, New York, German, and UK variant B.1.1.7) were used as the representative examples in this study. By examining the values above and below the average/mean based on the positive and negative charge patterns of the amino acid residues of the spike proteins from coronaviruses, the proposed algorithm provides deep insights into the nonlinear evolving trends of spike proteins for understanding the viral evolution and identifying the protein characteristics associated with viral fatality. The calculation results demonstrate that the complex covariance coefficient analyzed by this algorithm is capable of distinguishing the subtle nonlinear differences in the spike protein charge patterns with reference to Wuhan strain SARS-CoV-2 for which the Pearson correlation coefficient may overlook. Our analysis reveals the unique convergent (positive correlative) to divergent (negative correlative) domain center positions of each virus. The convergent or conserved region may be critical to the viral stability or viability; while the divergent region is highly variable between coronaviruses suggesting high frequency of mutations in this region. The analyses show that the conserved center region of SARS-CoV-1 spike protein is located at amino acid residues 900, but shifted to the amino acid residues 700 in MERS spike protein, and then to amino acid residues 600 in SARS-COV-2 spike protein, indicating the evolvement of the coronaviruses. Interestingly, the conserved center region of the spike protein in SARS-COV-2 variant B.1.1.7 shifted back to amino acid residues 700, suggesting this variant is more virulent than the original SARS-COV-2 strain. Another important characteristic our study reveals is that the distance between the divergent mean and the maximal divergent point in each of the viruses (MERS>SARS-CoV-1>SARS-CoV-2) is proportional to viral fatality rate. This algorithm may help to understand and analyze the evolving trends and critical characteristics of SARS-COV-2 variants, other coronaviral proteins and viruses.

Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints202102.0197.v1

Stability and Stabilization of Ecosystem for Epidemic Virus Transmission Under Neumann Boundary Value Via Impulse Control

Ruofeng Rao

Subject: Computer Science And Mathematics, Algebra And Number Theory Keywords: Neumann boundary value; positive equilibrium point; Poincare inequality lemma; impulse control

Online: 8 February 2021 (12:05:46 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints202101.0147.v1

A Proposed Model of Dehumanisation and Its Relevance to Dehumanisation in Dementia Care

Hana Speering, Lara Speering

Subject: Social Sciences, Psychology Keywords: Dehumanisation; dementia care; healthcare education; residential aged care facilities; positive dehumanisation; negative dehumanisation

Online: 8 January 2021 (11:23:42 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints202011.0626.v1

Isolation and Identification of Gram Positive and Negative Bacteria from Dairy Department Waste Lines at Baraton University

Stella Wanyama

Subject: Biology And Life Sciences, Immunology And Microbiology Keywords: Isolation; Identification; gram positive; gram negative; tests staining; microbio metabolic activities

Online: 25 November 2020 (08:36:32 CET)

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Preprint HYPOTHESIS | doi:10.20944/preprints202003.0021.v2

Bottleneck, Isolate, Amplify, Select (BIAS) as a Mechanistic Framework for Intracellular Population Dynamics of Positive Sense RNA Viruses

Feng Qu, Limin Zheng, Shaoyan Zhang, Rong Sun, Jason Slot, Miyashita Shuhei

Subject: Biology And Life Sciences, Anatomy And Physiology Keywords: virus; population bottleneck; positive sense RNA virus; evolution

Online: 1 October 2020 (08:28:45 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints202007.0491.v1

Cross-Sectional Study on Relationships Among FoMO, Social Influence, Positive Outcome Expectancy, Refusal Self-Efficacy and SNS Usage

KUNHUA LEE, Chia-Yu Lin, Jing Tsao, Lien Fang Hsieh

Subject: Social Sciences, Psychology Keywords: FoMO; Social Cognitive Theory; Social Influence; Self-efficacy; Positive Outcome Expectancy

Online: 21 July 2020 (12:57:49 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints202006.0279.v2

COVID-19 Testing – Impact of Prevalence, Sensitivity, and Specificity on Patient Risk and Cost

Zoe C. Brooks, Saswati Das

Subject: Medicine And Pharmacology, Pathology And Pathobiology Keywords: COVID19; risk; clinical; metrics; cost; false-positive; false-negative; prevalence; sensitivity; specificity

Online: 9 July 2020 (15:57:30 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints202007.0050.v1

Positive Deviance for Dual-Method Promotion among Women in Uganda: A Qualitative Study

Hodaka Kosugi, Akira Shibanuma, Junko Kiriya, Ken Ing Cherng Ong, Stephen Mucunguzi, Conrad Muzoora, Masamine Jimba

Subject: Medicine And Pharmacology, Obstetrics And Gynaecology Keywords: positive deviance; dual-method use; contraception; unintended pregnancy; sexually transmitted infection; HIV/AIDS

Online: 5 July 2020 (07:04:27 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints202005.0332.v2

Witnessing Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 through Comparative Phylogenomics: The Proximate Origin is Guangdong, not Wuhan

Özgül Doğan, Ertan Mahir Korkmaz, Mahir Budak, Battal Çıplak, Hasan Hüseyin Başıbüyük

Subject: Biology And Life Sciences, Biochemistry And Molecular Biology Keywords: coronavirus; substitution rate; positive selection; demographic dynamics

Online: 21 June 2020 (16:10:26 CEST)

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A new form of coronavirus called severe acute respiratory disease coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is currently causing a pandemic. A six-month evolutionary history of SARS-CoV-2 is witnessed by characterising the total genome of 821 samples using comparative phylogenomic approaches. Our analyses produced striking inclusive results that may guide scientists/professionals for the past/future of pandemic. Phylogenetic and time estimation analyses suggest the proximate origin of pandemic strain as Guangdong and the origin time as first half of September 2019, not Wuhan and December 2019, respectively. The viral genome experienced a substitution rate similar to other RNA viruses, but it is particularly high in some of the peptides encoding sequences such as leader protein, E gene, orf8, orf10, nsp10, N gene, S gene and M gene and nsp4, while low in nsp11, orf7a, 3C-like proteinase, nsp9, nsp8 and endoRNase. Most strikingly, the divergence rate of amino acid sequences is high proportional to nucleotide divergence. Additionally, specific non-synonymous mutations in nsp3 and nsp6 evolved under positive selection. The exponential growth rate (r), doubling time (Td) and R₀ were estimated to be 47.43 per year, 5.39 days and 2.72, respectively. Comparison of synapomorphies distinguishing the SARS-CoV-2 and the candidate ancestor bat coronavirus indicates that mutation pattern in nsp3 and S gene enabled the new strain to invade human and become a pandemic strain. We arrive at the following main conclusions: (i) six months evolution of viral genome is nearly neutral, (ii) origin of pandemic is not Wuhan and predates formal reports, (iii) although viral population is ongoing an exponential growth, the doubling time is evolving towards shortening, and (iv) divergence rate of total genome is similar to other RNA viruses, but it is prominently high in some genes while low in some others and evolution in these genes should be closely monitored as their protein products intervening to pathogenicity, virulence and immune response.

Preprint REVIEW | doi:10.20944/preprints202004.0226.v2

The Non-Tragedy of the Non-Linear Commons

Marco Archetti, István Scheuring, Douglas Yu

Subject: Biology And Life Sciences, Other Keywords: positive assortment; public goods; collective action; common-pool resources; cooperation; game theory; group selection; kin selection; social dilemma

Online: 16 June 2020 (12:35:40 CEST)

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Working Paper BRIEF REPORT

Positive Rate Is Useful to Evaluate the Sufficiency of RT-PCR Test Availability for COVID-19

Sadao Suzuki

Subject: Medicine And Pharmacology, Epidemiology And Infectious Diseases Keywords: COVID-19; RT-PCR test; pre-test probability; positive rate

Online: 5 May 2020 (06:04:41 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints202005.0014.v1

Participating in HIV Prevention Clinical Trial: Reasons and Experiences among Female Participants in Antibody Mediated Prevention Study at UNC Project, Lilongwe, Malawi

Ruth Holla, Adamson Muula

Subject: Medicine And Pharmacology, Epidemiology And Infectious Diseases Keywords: HIV/AIDS; community health worker; clinical trial; informed consent; HIV positive; STI

Online: 2 May 2020 (13:45:36 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201911.0368.v1

The Role of Perceived Social Support in the Psychological Well-Being of Young Offenders: from Pretrial Detention to Correctional Camps

Fedor Ushkov, Roman Shilko, Ludmila Shaigerova, Alexandra Dolgikh, Olga Almazova, Olga Vakhantseva, Yuri Zinchenko

Subject: Social Sciences, Psychology Keywords: psychological well-being; young offenders; social support; pretrial detention; correctional camps; positive and negative feelings; positive and negative affects

Online: 29 November 2019 (04:16:05 CET)

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Preprint BRIEF REPORT | doi:10.20944/preprints201911.0214.v1

Unbiasing in the Genome Analysis of Iconic Shark Species

Kazuaki Yamaguchi, Shigehiro Kuraku

Subject: Biology And Life Sciences, Animal Science, Veterinary Science And Zoology Keywords: shark; genome; longevity; gigantism; positive selection

Online: 18 November 2019 (07:46:50 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201910.0213.v1

Quasi Cubic Trigonometric Curve and Surface

Guicang Zhang, Kai Wang

Subject: Computer Science And Mathematics, Computational Mathematics Keywords: Quasi Extended Chebyshev space; optimal normalized totally positive basis; high-order continuity; shape preserving; shape features

Online: 18 October 2019 (11:33:13 CEST)

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Preprint REVIEW | doi:10.20944/preprints201909.0212.v1

Viral Innate Immune Evasion and the Pathogenesis of Emerging RNA Virus Infections

Tessa Nelemans, Marjolein Kikkert

Subject: Biology And Life Sciences, Virology Keywords: positive-sense single-stranded rna viruses; innate immune evasion; type 1 interferon; viral pathogenesis; type 3 interferon

Online: 18 September 2019 (17:12:01 CEST)

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Working Paper ARTICLE

Turkish Adaptation of the Positive-Negative Relationship Quality (PN-RQ) Scale: A Reliability and Validity Study

Arzu Araz, Duygu Güngör, Eda Aşçı

Subject: Social Sciences, Psychology Keywords: positive-negative relationship quality; reliability; validity; confirmatory factor analysis (CFA); bifactor

Online: 16 September 2019 (16:33:17 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201909.0027.v1

Comparison of Smallest Eigenvalues for Nabla Fractional Boundary Value Problems

Jagan Mohan Jonnalagadda

Subject: Computer Science And Mathematics, Analysis Keywords: nabla fractional difference; boundary value problem; cone; u0- positive operator; eigenvalue

Online: 3 September 2019 (00:38:36 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201908.0225.v1

Analysis of Water Bodies under Partial Cloud Conditions Using Satellite Images

Rahul Neware, Mansi Thakare

Subject: Environmental And Earth Sciences, Remote Sensing Keywords: water bodies; satellite images; vector data; SVM; positive and negative buffering; polygons

Online: 21 August 2019 (10:30:16 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201908.0059.v1

The Effect of Recreation in a Snow-Covered Forest Environment on the Psychological Relaxation of Young Females

Ernest Bielinis, Adrian Łukowski, Aneta Omelan, Sergii Boiko, Norimasa Takayama

Subject: Biology And Life Sciences, Forestry Keywords: deciduous forest; female; forest bathing; forest therapy; Positive and Negative Affect Schedule; Profile of Mood States; Restorative Outcome Scale; restoration; Shinrin-Yoku; snow covered forest; Subjective Vitality Scale; winter

Online: 5 August 2019 (08:56:32 CEST)

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Forest recreation can be successfully conducted for the purpose of psychological relaxation, as has been proven in previous scientific studies. During the winter in many countries, when snow cover occurs frequently, forest recreation (walking, relaxation, photography, etc.) is common. Nevertheless, whether forest therapy conducted in a forest environment with a snow cover will also have a positive effect on psychological indicators remains unknown. Furthermore, male subjects frequently participate in forest therapy experiments, whereas females are rarely involved. Thus, in this study, the effectuality of forest recreation during winter and with snow cover was tested on 32 young females. For these reasons, the experiment involved 15-minute periods of relaxation in a forest environment or in an urban environment, in addition to a pre-test under indoor conditions. Four psychological questionnaires (POMS, PANAS, ROS, SVS) were administered to participants before and after interventions. Results showed that participants’ levels of negative mood, as measured by different aspects of the POMS questionnaire (tension-anxiety, anger-hostility, depression-dejection, confusion, fatigue), decreased after exposure to the forest environment. In contrast, both tension-anxiety and anger-hostility increased in the urban environment. The indicator of negative affect from the PANAS questionnaire also increased after exposure to the urban environment, whereas the indicator of positive affect based on PANAS was higher in the forest environment than in the urban environment. Restorativeness and subjective vitality exhibited higher values after exposure to the forest environment in comparison to those from the control and pre-test. The changes in these indicators demonstrates that forest recreation in the snow during winter can significantly increase psychological relaxation in young females, as well as showing that recreation can be successfully conducted under these winter conditions.

Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201907.0147.v1

Schizophrenia Phenomenology Revisited: Positive and Negative Symptoms are Strongly Related Reflective Manifestations of an Underlying Single Trait Indicating Overall Severity of Schizophrenia

Abbas Almulla, Hussein Al-Hakeim, Michael Maes

Subject: Medicine And Pharmacology, Psychiatry And Mental Health Keywords: deficit schizophrenia, positive symptoms, negative symptoms, inflammation, neuro-immune

Online: 10 July 2019 (11:02:41 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201905.0126.v1

Viral strategies of manipulating autophagy to benefit infection

Ho Him Wong, Sumana Sanyal

Subject: Biology And Life Sciences, Virology Keywords: Autophagy; positive stranded RNA virus; proviral autophagy; viral subversion strategies

Online: 10 May 2019 (14:00:27 CEST)

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Working Paper ARTICLE

Interrogating Hope Theory

Jacob Shivley

Subject: Medicine And Pharmacology, Psychiatry And Mental Health Keywords: interrogating hope theory, hope theory, hope, the hope scale, positive psychology

Online: 25 March 2019 (09:53:58 CET)

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Preprint REVIEW | doi:10.20944/preprints201901.0039.v1

Prevention of Hearing Loss by Alteration of the Systemic Immune System

Hiroshi Iwai, Muneo Inaba

Subject: Medicine And Pharmacology, Pathology And Pathobiology Keywords: autoimmune sensorineural hearing loss; age-related sensorineural hearing loss; inflammation, immune senescence; interleukin 1 receptor type II -positive T cells; naturally occurring regulatory T cells; immune rejuvenation; thymus

Online: 4 January 2019 (11:37:31 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201812.0314.v1

From Individual Resource to Social Capital: The Mechanism of How Political Skill Affect Job Satisfaction and Turnover Intention

Yi Li, Mengqiu Ma

Subject: Business, Economics And Management, Human Resources And Organizations Keywords: political skill; job satisfaction; turnover intention; popularity; positive affect; negative affect

Online: 26 December 2018 (12:16:31 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201810.0152.v1

Can The Advantages Of Video Assisted Thoracoscopic Lobectomy Be Reproduced In A Low Volume Center?

Shagufta Shaheen, Salman Otoukesh, Brice Jabo, Manmeet Kaur, Nicole Wheeler, Said Mirshahidi, Salman Zaheer, Hamid R. Mirshahidi

Subject: Medicine And Pharmacology, Surgery Keywords: video assisted thoracic surgery, open thoracotomy, recurrence-free survival, overall survival, positive margins, postoperative length of stay.

Online: 8 October 2018 (15:23:21 CEST)

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Background: Video assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) has become the recommended approach for treatment of resectable lung cancer. However, no large randomized clinical trial has been conducted formally comparing surgical resections completed by VATS to those done by open thoracotomy (OT) in low volume centers. The current study sought to assess differences in recurrence-free survival (RFS), overall survival (OS), positive margins and postoperative length of stay (LOS) between VATS and OT lobectomies in our center. Method: A single institution retrospective chart review from May 2005 through May 2015 was conducted. All patients diagnosed with stage I through III lung cancer who underwent surgical resection were selected. Patient and tumor characteristics recorded included age at diagnosis, sex, tobacco use, tumor location (side and lobe), stage, size and receipt of chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Chis-square and Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney tests were used to compare demographics, tumor characteristics and LOS. Multiple logistic and Cox regression analyses were used to compute relative risk (RR) for positive margins and mortality hazard ratios along with 95 percent confidence intervals (95%CI), respectively. Results: Of the 235 patients, 101 subjects had VATS while OT was performed in 134 patients. Age at diagnosis, sex, tobacco use, tumor location, and size were comparable for VATS and OT. No significant difference was observed in the relative risk of positive margins for VATS versus OT, RR = 0.56 (95%CI = 0.26, 1.05). However, VATS had shorter median LOS compared to OT (4 vs. 6 days, respectively), p = 0.002. A comparison of VATS versus OT showed no significant difference in the risk of recurrence, HR = 1.21 (95%CI = 0.74, 2.00), or death, HR = 1.34 (95%CI = 0.88, 2.06), in the intent-to-treat population. Similarly, no significant differences in recurrence or mortality risk were observed between VATS versus OT for analyses conducted separately for each cancer stage group or those limited to patients with negative margins. Conclusion: Our study indicates that compared to OT, VATS leads to shorter LOS while achieving comparable margins status, recurrence-free and overall survival regardless of tumor stage at diagnosis.

Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201809.0245.v1

On the Effect of Filling Rate on Positive Macrosegregation Patterns in Large Size Cast Steel Ingots

Chunping Zhang, Abdelhalim Loucif, Mohammad Jahazi, Rami Tremblay, Louis-Philippe Lapierre Boire

Subject: Engineering, Mechanical Engineering Keywords: medium-carbon low-alloy steel; large size ingot; hot-top; filling rate; positive macrosegregation

Online: 13 September 2018 (15:19:42 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201807.0482.v1

Quantum Correlations and Permutation Symmetries

Mrittunjoy Guha Majumdar

Subject: Physical Sciences, Quantum Science And Technology Keywords: Quantum Entanglement, Separability, Positive Partial Transpose Criterion, Permutation, Quantum Information, Quantum Computing, Quantum Communication, Quantum Non-locality, Quantum Correlations, SWAP Operator

Online: 25 July 2018 (12:20:21 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201807.0305.v1

Influence of Congruency between Ideal Self and Brand Image on Sustainable Happiness

Jeongsoo Han, Mina Jun, Miyea Kim, Sookyoung Key

Subject: Business, Economics And Management, Marketing Keywords: sustainable happiness; ideal self; ideal social self; brand identification; positive

Online: 17 July 2018 (10:39:58 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201712.0003.v1

Ventilation Positive Pressure Intervention Effect on IAQ in a School Building with Moisture Problems

Camilla Vornanen-Winqvist, Kati Järvi, Sander Toomla, Kaiser Ahmed, Maria A. Andersson, Raimo Mikkola, Tamas Marik, Laszlo Kredics, Heidi Salonen, Jarek Kurnitski

Subject: Engineering, Civil Engineering Keywords: ventilation; positive pressure; indoor air quality; mycobiota; indoor air questionnaire; moisture damage

Online: 1 December 2017 (07:06:04 CET)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201709.0127.v2

A New Proof of Smoryński’s Theorem

Apoloniusz Tyszka

Subject: Computer Science And Mathematics, Logic Keywords: Davis-Putnan Robinson-Matiyasevich theorem; Diophantine equation which has at most finitely many solutions in non-negative integers; Diophantine equation which has at most finitely many solutions in positive integers; Diophantine equation which has at most finitely many integer solutions; Hilbert’s Tenth Problem; Matiyasevich’s theorem; recursively enumerable set; Smoryński’s theorem

Online: 27 September 2017 (04:05:45 CEST)

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Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201705.0206.v1

Genome Characterization of a Novel Binary Toxin-Positive Strain of Clostridium difficile and Comparison with the Epidemic 027 and 078 Strains

Zhong Peng, Sidi Liu, Xiujuan Meng, Wan Liang, Biao Tang, Yuanguo Wang, Juping Duan, Chenchao Fu, Bin Wu, Anhua Wu, Chunhui Li

Subject: Biology And Life Sciences, Immunology And Microbiology Keywords: Clostridium difficile; ST201; binary toxin-positive; whole genome sequencing; comparative genomic analysis

Online: 30 May 2017 (06:15:11 CEST)

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A novel binary toxin-positive non-027, non-078 Clostridium difficile strain designated LC693 whose sequence type was ST201 was isolated from the fecal sample of a patient with severe diarrhea in China. To understand the pathogenesis basis of C. difficile ST201, this recently recovered isolate LC693 was then chosen for whole genome sequencing. The project finally generated an estimated genome size of approximately 4.07 Mbp. The genome sequence was then analyzed together with the other two ST201 strains VL-0104 and VL-0391 and compared to the epidemic 027/ST1 and 078/ST11 strains. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that the ST201 strains belonged to clade 3. Genome size of the three ST201 strains ranged from 4.07 Mb~4.16 Mb, with an average GC content between 28.5%~28.9%. The ST201 genomes contained more than 40 antibiotic resistance genes and 15 of them were predicted to be associated with vancomycin-resistance, suggesting that they may have a strong antibiotic resistance. The ST201 strains contained a typical clade 3 specific PaLoc with a Tn6218 element inserted, and those genes harbored on their PaLoc that participated in the toxin expression and regulation were highly homologues to the epidemic 027 and 078 strains, with the exception of tcdC. A truncated TcdC was found in the ST201 strains, which is suggestive to have a contribution to the toxin production of the ST201 strains. In addition, the ST201 strains contained intact binary toxin coding and regulation genes, which is also proposed to contribute to the virulence. Genome comparison of the ST201 strains with the epidemic 027 and 078 strain identified 641 genes specific for the C. difficile ST201, and a number of them were predicted as fitness and virulence associated genes. The identification of those genes also contributes to the pathogenesis of the ST201 strain. To our knowledge, this is the first study that the genome sequence of C. difficile ST201 was discussed in detail, and the present study would have a contribution to understanding the pathogenesis basis of C. difficile ST201.

Preprint ARTICLE | doi:10.20944/preprints201704.0102.v1

Age-Related Diseases as Vicious Cycles

Aleksey V. Belikov

Subject: Medicine And Pharmacology, Pathology And Pathobiology Keywords: aging; age-related disease; mortality rate; positive feedback loop; vicious cycle

Online: 18 April 2017 (02:45:04 CEST)

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