bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Neural and computational mechanisms of momentary fatigue and persistence in effort-based choice
Authors: Müller Tanja , Klein-Flügge Miriam C. , Manohar Sanjay G. , Husain Masud , Apps Matthew A. J.
Published: July 2021

From a gym workout, to deciding whether to persevere at work, many activities require us to persist in deciding that rewards are ‘worth the effort’ even as we become fatigued. However, studies examining effort-based decisions typically assume that the willingness to work is static. Here, we use computational modelling on two effort-based tasks, one behavioural and one during fMRI. We show that two hidden states of fatigue fluctuate on a moment-to-moment basis on different timescales but both reduce the willingness to exert effort for reward. The value of one state increases after effort but is ‘recoverable’ by rests, whereas a second ‘unrecoverable’ state gradually increases with work. The BOLD response in separate medial and lateral frontal sub-regions covaried with these states when making effort-based decisions, while a distinct fronto-striatal system integrated fatigue with value. These results provide a computational framework for understanding the brain mechanisms of persistence and momentary fatigue.
Study on environmental behaviour of fluopyram in different banana planting soil
Authors: Zhou Jia , Liang Shuilian , Cui Yuanyuan , Rong Yu , Song Jia , Lv Daizhu
Published: July 2021

Fluopyram is commonly used to control banana leaf spot, anthracnose, and scab in tropical agricultural areas. To explore its behaviour in tropical agricultural environments, dissipation, adsorption, and leaching behaviours of fluopyram in three typical banana planting soils were studied. Also, its dissipation and migration capabilities in different regions and different soil types were evaluated. The results showed that the dissipation of fluopyram was in accordance with the first-order kinetic equation in the three banana soils, but the degradation rates were quite different. The degradation half-lives in the Hainan latosol, Yunnan sandy soil, and Fujian Plain alluvial soil were 46.21 days, 36.48 days and 57.76 days, respectively. Fluopyram also exhibited high adsorption and low leachability in the three soils. The Fujian Plain alluvial soil had the highest adsorption capacity for fluopyram, while fluopyram had the low leachability in the Yunnan sandy soil.
Elevated levels of Merkel cell polyoma virus in the anophthalmic conjunctiva
Authors: Siegal Nora , Gutowski Michal , Akileswaran Lakshmi , Beauchamp Norman J. , Ding Lien-Chieh , Chambers Christopher B. , Van Gelder Russell N.
Published: July 2021

The human ocular surface hosts a paucibacterial resident microbiome and virome. The factors contributing to homeostasis of this mucosal community are presently unknown. To determine the impact of ocular enucleation and prosthesis placement on the ocular surface microbiome, we sampled conjunctival swabs from 20 anophthalmic and 20 fellow-eye intact conjunctiva. DNA was extracted and subjected to quantitative 16S rDNA PCR, biome representational karyotyping (BRiSK), and quantitative PCR (qPCR) confirmation of specific organisms. 16S ribosomal qPCR revealed equivalent bacterial loads between conditions. Biome representational in silico karyotyping (BRiSK) demonstrated comparable bacterial fauna between anophthalmic and intact conjunctiva. Both torque teno virus and Merkel cell polyoma virus (MCPyV) were detected frequently in healthy and anophthalmic conjunctiva. By qPCR, MCPyV was detected in 19/20 anophthalmic samples compared with 5/20 fellow eyes. MCPyV copy number averaged 891 copies/ng in anophthalmic conjunctiva compared with 193 copies/ng in fellow eyes (p < 0.001). These results suggest that enucleation and prosthesis placement affect the ocular surface flora, particularly for the resident virome. As MCPyV has been shown to be the etiologic cause of Merkel cell carcinoma, understanding the mechanisms by which the ocular surface regulates this virus may have clinical importance.
Combining a convolutional neural network with autoencoders to predict the survival chance of COVID-19 patients
Authors: Khozeimeh Fahime , Sharifrazi Danial , Izadi Navid Hoseini , Joloudari Javad Hassannataj , Shoeibi Afshin , Alizadehsani Roohallah , Gorriz Juan M. , Hussain Sadiq , Sani Zahra Alizadeh , Moosaei Hossein , Khosravi Abbas , Nahavandi Saeid , Islam Sheikh Mohammed Shariful
Published: July 2021

COVID-19 has caused many deaths worldwide. The automation of the diagnosis of this virus is highly desired. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have shown outstanding classification performance on image datasets. To date, it appears that COVID computer-aided diagnosis systems based on CNNs and clinical information have not yet been analysed or explored. We propose a novel method, named the CNN-AE, to predict the survival chance of COVID-19 patients using a CNN trained with clinical information. Notably, the required resources to prepare CT images are expensive and limited compared to those required to collect clinical data, such as blood pressure, liver disease, etc. We evaluated our method using a publicly available clinical dataset that we collected. The dataset properties were carefully analysed to extract important features and compute the correlations of features. A data augmentation procedure based on autoencoders (AEs) was proposed to balance the dataset. The experimental results revealed that the average accuracy of the CNN-AE (96.05%) was higher than that of the CNN (92.49%). To demonstrate the generality of our augmentation method, we trained some existing mortality risk prediction methods on our dataset (with and without data augmentation) and compared their performances. We also evaluated our method using another dataset for further generality verification. To show that clinical data can be used for COVID-19 survival chance prediction, the CNN-AE was compared with multiple pre-trained deep models that were tuned based on CT images.
Association between comorbid asthma and prognosis of critically ill patients with severe sepsis: a cohort study
Authors: Huang Jinju , Zhang Jurong , Wang Faxia , Liang Jiezhu , Chen Qinchang , Lin Zhuandi
Published: July 2021

Basic research suggests some contributing mechanisms underlying asthma might at the same time benefit patients with asthma against sepsis, while the potential protective effect of comorbid asthma on prognosis of sepsis has not been well studied in clinical research. The study aimed to assess the association between comorbid asthma and prognosis in a cohort of patients admitted to intensive care unit (ICU) with severe sepsis. Patients with severe sepsis admitted to ICUs were included from the MIMIC-III Critical Care Database, and categorized as patients without asthma, patients with stable asthma, and patients with acute exacerbation asthma. The primary study outcome was 28-day mortality since ICU admission. Difference in survival distributions among groups were evaluated by Kaplan–Meier estimator. Multivariable Cox regression was employed to examine the association between comorbid asthma and prognosis. A total of 2469 patients with severe sepsis were included, of which 2327 (94.25%) were without asthma, 125 (5.06%) with stable asthma, and 17 (0.69%) with acute exacerbation asthma. Compared with patients without asthma, patients with asthma (either stable or not) had a slightly younger age (66.73 ± 16.32 versus 64.77 ± 14.81 years), a lower proportion of male sex (56.81% versus 40.14%), and a lower median SAPS II score (46 versus 43). Patients with acute exacerbation asthma saw the highest 28-day mortality rate (35.29%), but patients with stable asthma had the lowest 28-day mortality rate (21.60%) when compared to that (34.42%) in patients without asthma. Consistent results were observed in Kaplan–Meier curves with a p-value for log-rank test of 0.016. After adjusting for potential confounding, compared to being without asthma, being with stable asthma was associated with a reduced risk of 28-day mortality (hazard ratio (HR) 0.65, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.44–0.97, p = 0.0335), but being with acute exacerbation asthma was toward an increased risk of 28-day mortality (HR 1.82, 95% 0.80–4.10, p = 0.1513). E-value analysis suggested robustness to unmeasured confounding. These findings suggest comorbid stable asthma is associated with a better prognosis in critically ill patients with severe sepsis, while acute exacerbation asthma is associated with worse prognosis.
A dielectric free near field phase transforming structure for wideband gain enhancement of antennas
Authors: Ahmed Foez , Afzal Muhammad U. , Hayat Touseef , Esselle Karu P. , Thalakotuna Dushmantha N.
Published: July 2021

The gain of some aperture antennas can be significantly increased by making the antenna near-field phase distribution more uniform, using a phase-transformation structure. A novel dielectric-free phase transforming structure (DF-PTS) is presented in this paper for this purpose, and its ability to correct the aperture phase distribution of a resonant cavity antenna (RCA) over a much wider bandwidth is demonstrated. As opposed to printed multilayered metasurfaces, all the cells in crucial locations of the DF-PTS have a phase response that tracks the phase error of the RCA over a large bandwidth, and in addition have wideband transmission characteristics, resulting in a wideband antenna system. The new DF-PTS, made of three thin metal sheets each containing modified-eight-arm-asterisk-shaped slots, is significantly stronger than the previous DF-PTS, which requires thin and long metal interconnects between metal patches. The third advantage of the new DF-PTS is, all phase transformation cells in it are highly transparent, each with a transmission magnitude greater than − 1 dB at the design frequency, ensuring excellent phase correction with minimal effect on aperture amplitude distribution. With the DF-PTS, RCA gain increases to 20.1 dBi, which is significantly greater than its 10.7 dBi gain without the DF-PTS. The measured 10-dB return loss bandwidth and the 3-dB gain bandwidth of the RCA with DF-PTS are 46% and 12%, respectively.
The first draft genome of feather grasses using SMRT sequencing and its implications in molecular studies of Stipa
Authors: Baiakhmetov Evgenii , Guyomar Cervin , Shelest Ekaterina , Nobis Marcin , Gudkova Polina D.
Published: July 2021

The Eurasian plant Stipa capillata is the most widespread species within feather grasses. Many taxa of the genus are dominants in steppe plant communities and can be used for their classification and in studies related to climate change. Moreover, some species are of economic importance mainly as fodder plants and can be used for soil remediation processes. Although large-scale molecular data has begun to appear, there is still no complete or draft genome for any Stipa species. Thus, here we present a single-molecule long-read sequencing dataset generated using the Pacific Biosciences Sequel System. A draft genome of about 1004 Mb was obtained with a contig N50 length of 351 kb. Importantly, here we report 81,224 annotated protein-coding genes, present 77,614 perfect and 58 unique imperfect SSRs, reveal the putative allopolyploid nature of S. capillata, investigate the evolutionary history of the genus, demonstrate structural heteroplasmy of the chloroplast genome and announce for the first time the mitochondrial genome in Stipa. The assembled nuclear, mitochondrial and chloroplast genomes provide a significant source of genetic data for further works on phylogeny, hybridisation and population studies within Stipa and the grass family Poaceae.
Implementation of whole genome sequencing for tuberculosis diagnostics in a low-middle income, high MDR-TB burden country
Authors: Vogel Monica , Utpatel Christian , Corbett Caroline , Kohl Thomas A. , Iskakova Altyn , Ahmedov Sevim , Antonenka Uladzimir , Dreyer Viola , Ibrahimova Ainura , Kamarli Chynara , Kosimova Dilorom , Mohr Vanessa , Sahalchyk Evgeni , Sydykova Meerim , Umetalieva Nagira , Kadyrov Abdylat , Kalmambetova Gulmira , Niemann Stefan , Hoffmann Harald
Published: July 2021

Whole genome sequencing (WGS) is revolutionary for diagnostics of TB and its mutations associated with drug-resistances, but its uptake in low- and middle-income countries is hindered by concerns of implementation feasibility. Here, we provide a proof of concept for its successful implementation in such a setting. WGS was implemented in the Kyrgyz Republic. We estimated needs of up to 55 TB-WGS per week and chose the MiSeq platform (Illumina, USA) because of its capacity of up to 60 TB-WGS per week. The project’s timeline was completed in 93-weeks. Costs of large equipment and accompanying costs were 222,065 USD and 8462 USD, respectively. The first 174 WGS costed 277 USD per sequence, but this was skewed by training inefficiencies. Based on real prices and presuming optimal utilization of WGS capacities, WGS costs could drop to 167 and 141 USD per WGS using MiSeq Reagent Kits v2 (500-cycles) and v3 (600-cycles), respectively. Five trainings were required to prepare the staff for autonomous WGS which cost 48,250 USD. External assessment confirmed excellent performance of WGS by the Kyrgyz laboratory in an interlaboratory comparison of 30 M. tuberculosis genomes showing complete agreeance of results.
Semantic segmentation of PolSAR image data using advanced deep learning model
Authors: Garg Rajat , Kumar Anil , Bansal Nikunj , Prateek Manish , Kumar Shashi
Published: July 2021

Urban area mapping is an important application of remote sensing which aims at both estimation and change in land cover under the urban area. A major challenge being faced while analyzing Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) based remote sensing data is that there is a lot of similarity between highly vegetated urban areas and oriented urban targets with that of actual vegetation. This similarity between some urban areas and vegetation leads to misclassification of the urban area into forest cover. The present work is a precursor study for the dual-frequency L and S-band NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission and aims at minimizing the misclassification of such highly vegetated and oriented urban targets into vegetation class with the help of deep learning. In this study, three machine learning algorithms Random Forest (RF), K-Nearest Neighbour (KNN), and Support Vector Machine (SVM) have been implemented along with a deep learning model DeepLabv3+ for semantic segmentation of Polarimetric SAR (PolSAR) data. It is a general perception that a large dataset is required for the successful implementation of any deep learning model but in the field of SAR based remote sensing, a major issue is the unavailability of a large benchmark labeled dataset for the implementation of deep learning algorithms from scratch. In current work, it has been shown that a pre-trained deep learning model DeepLabv3+ outperforms the machine learning algorithms for land use and land cover (LULC) classification task even with a small dataset using transfer learning. The highest pixel accuracy of 87.78% and overall pixel accuracy of 85.65% have been achieved with DeepLabv3+ and Random Forest performs best among the machine learning algorithms with overall pixel accuracy of 77.91% while SVM and KNN trail with an overall accuracy of 77.01% and 76.47% respectively. The highest precision of 0.9228 is recorded for the urban class for semantic segmentation task with DeepLabv3+ while machine learning algorithms SVM and RF gave comparable results with a precision of 0.8977 and 0.8958 respectively.
Gene expression profile of the murine ischemic retina and its response to Aflibercept (VEGF-Trap)
Authors: Rojo Arias Jesús Eduardo , Jászai József
Published: July 2021

Ischemic retinal dystrophies are leading causes of acquired vision loss. Although the dysregulated expression of the hypoxia-responsive VEGF-A is a major driver of ischemic retinopathies, implication of additional VEGF-family members in their pathogenesis has led to the development of multivalent anti-angiogenic tools. Designed as a decoy receptor for all ligands of VEGFR1 and VEGFR2, Aflibercept is a potent anti-angiogenic agent. Notwithstanding, the molecular mechanisms mediating Aflibercept’s efficacy remain only partially understood. Here, we used the oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR) mouse as a model system of pathological retinal vascularization to investigate the transcriptional response of the murine retina to hypoxia and of the OIR retina to Aflibercept. While OIR severely impaired transcriptional changes normally ensuing during retinal development, analysis of gene expression patterns hinted at alterations in leukocyte recruitment during the recovery phase of the OIR protocol. Moreover, the levels of Angiopoietin-2, a major player in the progression of diabetic retinopathy, were elevated in OIR tissues and consistently downregulated by Aflibercept. Notably, GO term, KEGG pathway enrichment, and expression dynamics analyses revealed that, beyond regulating angiogenic processes, Aflibercept also modulated inflammation and supported synaptic transmission. Altogether, our findings delineate novel mechanisms potentially underlying Aflibercept’s efficacy against ischemic retinopathies.
Spectroscopic studies on photodegradation of atorvastatin calcium
Authors: Oprica Madalina , Iota Miruna , Daescu Monica , Fejer Szilard N. , Negrila Catalin , Baibarac Mihaela
Published: July 2021

In this work, the photodegradation process of atorvastatin calcium (ATC) is reported as depending on: (1) the presence and the absence of excipients in the solid state; (2) the chemical interaction of ATC with phosphate buffer (PB) having pH equal to 7 and 8; and (3) hydrolysis reaction of ATC in the presence of aqueous solution of NaOH. The novelty of this work consists in the monitoring of the ATC photodegradation by photoluminescence (PL). The exposure of ATC in solid state to UV light induces the photo-oxygenation reactions in the presence of water vapors and oxygen from air. According to the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic studies, we demonstrate that the photo-oxygenation reaction leads to photodegradation compounds having a high share of C=O bonds compared to ATC before exposure to UV light. Both in the presence of PB and NaOH, the photodegradation process of ATC is highlighted by a significant decrease in the intensity of the PL and photoluminescence excitation (PLE) spectra. According to PLE spectra, the exposure of ATC in the presence of NaOH to UV light leads to the appearance of a new band in the spectral range 340–370 nm, this belonging to the photodegradation products. Arguments concerning the chemical compounds, that resulted in this last case, are shown by Raman scattering and FTIR spectroscopy.
Human chromosome 3p21.3 carries TERT transcriptional regulators in pancreatic cancer
Authors: Yagyu Takuki , Ohira Takahito , Shimizu Ryutaro , Morimoto Masaki , Murakami Yuki , Hanaki Takehiko , Kihara Kyoichi , Matsunaga Tomoyuki , Yamamoto Manabu , Tokuyasu Naruo , Sakamoto Teruhisa , Fujiwara Yoshiyuki , Kugoh Hiroyuki
Published: July 2021

Frequent loss of heterozygosity (LOH) on the short arm of human chromosome 3 (3p) region has been found in pancreatic cancer (PC), which suggests the likely presence of tumor suppressor genes in this region. However, the functional significance of LOH in this region in the development of PC has not been clearly defined. The human telomerase reverse transcriptase gene (hTERT) contributes to unlimited proliferative and tumorigenicity of malignant tumors. We previously demonstrated that hTERT expression was suppressed by the introduction of human chromosome 3 in several cancer cell lines. To examine the functional role of putative TERT suppressor genes on chromosome 3 in PC, we introduced an intact human chromosome 3 into the human PK9 and murine LTPA PC cell lines using microcell-mediated chromosome transfer. PK9 microcell hybrids with an introduced human chromosome 3 showed significant morphological changes and rapid growth arrest. Intriguingly, microcell hybrid clones of LTPA cells with an introduced human chromosome 3 (LTPA#3) showed suppression of mTert transcription, cell proliferation, and invasion compared with LTPA#4 cells containing human chromosome 4 and parental LTPA cells. Additionally, the promoter activity of mTert was downregulated in LTPA#3. Furthermore, we confirmed that TERT regulatory gene(s) are present in the 3p21.3 region by transfer of truncated chromosomes at arbitrary regions. These results provide important information on the functional significance of the LOH at 3p for development and progression of PC.
Anatomical characterization and technological properties of Pterogyne nitens wood, a very interesting species of the Brazilian Caatinga biome
Authors: Pereira Allana Katiussya Silva , Longue Júnior Dalton , Carvalho Ana Márcia Macedo Ladeira , Mafra Neto Caio da Silva
Published: July 2021

Pterogyne nitens is commonly known in northeastern Brazil as a lesser-known fast-growing species in the Caatinga biome, which is a difficult place for tree development due to the low natural fertility soils and low availability of water. Due to the importance of expanding information about the anatomical wood properties of Caatinga native species, the aim of this work was to characterize the anatomical elements, to macroscopically describe the wood and make inferences about its possible end-uses. Maceration was performed which enabled measuring fiber dimensions, pore frequency and the following technological indexes: cell wall fraction, slenderness ratio, Runkel index and flexibility coefficient. Histological sections enabled describing the arrangements of the cellular elements in different observation sections and to determine the pore diameter. P. nitens wood has anatomical arrangements characterized by confluent axial parenchyma, being diffuse-porous with the presence of tylosis and heterogeneous/stratified rays (biseriate). The fibers were classified as very short (length 0.81 mm), not flexible and Runkel index 0.82. The pores were few in number with a frequency of 32.9 pores/mm2, distributed in a diffuse format and many were obstructed by tylosis. Based on the anatomical results and considering other technological studies, P. nitens wood is most suitable for charcoal production.
A novel anatomic titanium mesh cage for reducing the subsidence rate after anterior cervical corpectomy: a finite element study
Authors: Wang Yuhang , Zhan Yi , Yang Huiming , Guo Hua , Zhang Haiping , Zhao Qinpeng , Hao Dingjun , Wang Biao
Published: July 2021

Fusion with a titanium mesh cage (TMC) has become popular as a conventional method after cervical anterior corpectomy, but postoperative TMC subsidence has often been reported in the literature. We designed a novel anatomic cervical TMC to reduce the postoperative subsidence rate. According to the test process specified in the American Society of Testing Materials (ASTM) F2267 standard, three-dimensional finite element analysis was used to compare the anti-subsidence characteristics of a traditional TMC (TTMC) and novel TMC (NTMC). Through analysis, the relative propensity values of a device to subside (Kp) of the TTMC and NTMC were 665.5 N/mm and 1007.2 N/mm, respectively. A higher Kp measurement is generally expected to indicate that the device is more resistant to subsidence into a vertebral body. The results showed that the novel anatomic titanium mesh cage (NTMC) significantly improved the anti-subsidence performance after anterior cervical corpectomy and fusion (ACCF), which was approximately 51.3% higher than that of the traditional titanium mesh cage.
Influence of coal gangue mulching with various thicknesses and particle sizes on soil water characteristics
Authors: Han Xiu-Na , Dong Ying , Geng Yu-qing , Li Na , Zhang Chao-Ying
Published: July 2021

Water availability seriously affects vegetation restoration in arid mining areas, and mulching is an effective way to improve soil water conditions. Coal gangue occupies large swathes of land resources, resulting in ecological fragility and various environmental problems. Despite coal gangue having mineral elements similar to those in soil, its potential function as a mulch for soil water conservation has been unclear. Herein, mulching on the surfaces of soil columns with 30 cm height and 15 cm inner diameter was conducted using coal gangue with four particle size ranges (0–0.5, 0.5–1, 1–2, and 2–4 cm) and four thicknesses (4, 8, 12, and 16 cm) under laboratory conditions to investigate water infiltration and evaporation under different conditions. The cumulative infiltration of the treatments with mulching thicknesses of 4 cm (T1), 8 cm (T2), 12 cm (T3), and 16 cm (T4) was 16.1%, 22.9%, 28.6%, and 41.6% greater than that of the control, respectively. The cumulative evaporation of the treatments with particle size ranges of 0–0.5 cm (P1), 0.5–1 cm (P2), 1–2 cm (P3), and 2–4 cm (P4) was 6.5%, 28.6%, 22.9%, and 18.6% lower than the control, respectively. Overall, to enhance the soil water storage capacity in mining areas, the results suggest that coal gangue mulching with a thickness of 8–16 cm and particle size range of 0.5–2 cm is suitable.
Specificity of UV-C LED disinfection efficacy for three N95 respirators
Authors: Ontiveros C. Carolina , Shoults David C. , MacIsaac Sean , Rauch Kyle D. , Sweeney Crystal L. , Stoddart Amina K. , Gagnon Graham A.
Published: July 2021

The recent surge in the use of UV technology for personal protective equipment (PPE) has created a unique learning opportunity for the UV industry to deepen surface disinfection knowledge, especially on surfaces with complex geometries, such as the N95 filter facepiece respirators (FFR). The work outlined in this study addresses the interconnectedness of independent variables (e.g., UV Fluence, respirator material) that require consideration when assessing UV light efficacy for disinfecting respirators. Through electron microscopy and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, we characterized respirator filter layers and revealed that polymer type affects disinfection efficacy. Specifically, FFR layers made from polypropylene (PP) (hydrophobic in nature) resulted in higher disinfection efficiency than layers composed of polyethylene terephthalate (PET-P) (hygroscopic in nature). An analysis of elastic band materials on the respirators indicated that silicone rubber-based bands achieved higher disinfection efficiency than PET-P bands and have a woven, fabric-like texture. While there is a strong desire to repurpose respirators, through this work we demonstrated that the design of an appropriate UV system is essential and that only respirators meeting specific design criteria may be reasonable for repurposing via UV disinfection.
New insights on the Ife-Ilesha schist belt using integrated satellite, aeromagnetic and radiometric data
Authors: Salawu Naheem Banji , Fatoba Julius Ogunmola , Adebiyi Leke Sunday , Orosun Muyiwa Michael , Dada Silas Sunday
Published: July 2021

The present study combined analysis of satellite, aeromagnetic and radiometric data for evaluation of structural features within the Ife-Ilesha schist belt. Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission digital elevation data have been enhanced using hill-shading technique for the delineation of morphological features. The superposition of total gradient amplitude lineaments on the 3-D Euler deconvolution map revealed the trends and depth of structural features within the study region. The major trends are NE–SW, NNE–SSW, E–W and minor trends in the N–S direction, including the Ifewara shear zone that trends in the NNE–SSW. The estimated depths to the top of the sources within the shear zone varies from 90 to 200 m. Complementary analysis of the airborne radiometric data revealed that the Ifewara shear zone and adjacent regions are characterized by radiometric anomalies, indicating regional mineralization alteration zone. Generally, there is a good correlation between the satellite, radiometric, aeromagnetic maps which provides new insights and re-evaluation of structural features.
A theoretical approach for estimating the effect of water-jet quenching on low-carbon steel beams
Authors: Koo Bon Seung
Published: July 2021

Quenching is an efficient manufacturing technique to improve the strength of steel after hot rolling. The benefit of this application is to enhance the mechanical properties of steel products while reducing strengthening alloying elements, e.g., C, Mn, V, Nb, and N. Quenching and self-tempering (QST) especially for H-beams is a unique material strengthening process that adopts intensive surface cooling and self-tempering. A methodological difficulty in estimating the quenching effect has been a long-standing concern in the QST application. The purpose of this study was therefore to specify quenching parameters, quantify quenching, analyze the effect, and verify the credibility of the results. Transient quenching was simulated in ANSYS to analyze heat transfer and phase transformations due to quenching. An individual concept, e.g., heat exchange, cumulative quenching infiltration, or recalescence phenomena, was merged and interpreted newly for the quenching simulation. Computational results based on theoretical approaches were well consistent with empirical studies.
A TLR4 agonist improves immune checkpoint blockade treatment by increasing the ratio of effector to regulatory cells within the tumor microenvironment
Authors: Farias A. , Soto A. , Puttur F. , Goldin C. J. , Sosa S. , Gil C. , Goldbaum F. A. , Berguer P. M.
Published: July 2021

Brucella lumazine synthase (BLS) is a homodecameric protein that activates dendritic cells via toll like receptor 4, inducing the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. We have previously shown that BLS has a therapeutic effect in B16 melanoma-bearing mice only when administered at early stages of tumor growth. In this work, we study the mechanisms underlying the therapeutic effect of BLS, by analyzing the tumor microenvironment. Administration of BLS at early stages of tumor growth induces high levels of serum IFN-γ, as well as an increment of hematopoietic immune cells within the tumor. Moreover, BLS-treatment increases the ratio of effector to regulatory cells. However, all treated mice eventually succumb to the tumors. Therefore, we combined BLS administration with anti-PD-1 treatment. Combined treatment increases the outcome of both monotherapies. In conclusion, we show that the absence of the therapeutic effect at late stages of tumor growth correlates with low levels of serum IFN-γ and lower infiltration of immune cells in the tumor, both of which are essential to delay tumor growth. Furthermore, the combined treatment of BLS and PD-1 blockade shows that BLS could be exploited as an essential immunomodulator in combination therapy with an immune checkpoint blockade to treat skin cancer.
Vacancy tuned thermoelectric properties and high spin filtering performance in graphene/silicene heterostructures
Authors: Gholami Zainab , Khoeini Farhad
Published: July 2021

The main contribution of this paper is to study the spin caloritronic effects in defected graphene/silicene nanoribbon (GSNR) junctions. Each step-like GSNR is subjected to the ferromagnetic exchange and local external electric fields, and their responses are determined using the nonequilibrium Green’s function (NEGF) approach. To further study the thermoelectric (TE) properties of the GSNRs, three defect arrangements of divacancies (DVs) are also considered for a larger system, and their responses are re-evaluated. The results demonstrate that the defected GSNRs with the DVs can provide an almost perfect thermal spin filtering effect (SFE), and spin switching. A negative differential thermoelectric resistance (NDTR) effect and high spin polarization efficiency (SPE) larger than 99.99% are obtained. The system with the DV defects can show a large spin-dependent Seebeck coefficient, equal to Ss ⁓ 1.2 mV/K, which is relatively large and acceptable. Appropriate thermal and electronic properties of the GSNRs can also be obtained by tuning up the DV orientation in the device region. Accordingly, the step-like GSNRs can be employed to produce high efficiency spin caloritronic devices with various features in practical applications.
The effect of long-term poor sleep quality on risk of back-related disability and the modifying role of physical activity
Authors: Skarpsno Eivind Schjelderup , Nilsen Tom Ivar Lund , Mork Paul Jarle
Published: July 2021

Sleep problems and regular leisure time physical activity (LTPA) are interrelated and have contrasting effects on risk of back pain. However, no studies have investigated the influence of long-term poor sleep quality on risk of back-related disability, or if LTPA modifies this association. The study comprised data on 8601 people who participated in three consecutive surveys over ~ 22 years, and who reported no chronic back pain at the two first surveys. Adjusted risk ratios (RRs) for back-related disability were calculated at the last survey, associated with the joint effect of changes in sleep quality between the two first surveys and meeting physical activity guidelines at the second survey. Compared to people with long-term good sleep, people with long-term poor sleep had nearly twice the risk of back-related disability (RR 1.92, 95% CI 1.48–2.49). There was no statistical interaction between sleep and LTPA but people who reported long-term poor sleep and meeting the physical activity guidelines had 35% lower risk of back-related disability compared to people with same level of sleep problems, but who not met the guidelines. These findings suggest that long-term poor sleep quality contributes to a substantially increased risk of chronic and disabling back pain irrespective of LTPA.
IL-8 correlates with reduced baseline femoral neck bone mineral density in adults with cystic fibrosis: a single center retrospective study
Authors: Lam Grace Y. , Desai Sameer , Fu Joey , Hu Xun Yang , Jang Jiah , Goshtasebi Azita , Kalyan Shirin , Quon Bradley S.
Published: July 2021

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a multi-system disease that is characterized by lung disease due to recurrent airway infection and inflammation. Endocrine complications, such as CF bone disease (CFBD), are increasingly identified as patients are living longer. The cause of CFBD is multifactorial with chronic systemic inflammation theorized to be a contributing factor. Thus, we attempted to identify inflammatory biomarkers that are associated with CFBD. We conducted a retrospective observational study of 56 adult patients with CF with an average percentage predictive forced expiratory volume in one second (ppFEV1) of 73.7% (standard deviation: 30.0) who underwent baseline serum analysis for osteoprotegerin (OPG) and pro-inflammatory biomarkers (IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-α), and had repeated dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scans separated by at least 2 years to examine correlations between serum biomarkers and bone mineral density (BMD) measurements. Univariate linear regression model analysis demonstrated that serum IL-1β and IL-8, but not other pro-inflammatory markers, were negatively correlated with baseline BMD results. However, after accounting for confounding variables, only the relationship between IL-8 and left femoral neck BMD remained statistically significant. Additionally, IL-8 level was associated with BMD decline over time. These results suggest that IL-8 might play a unique role in the pathophysiology of CFBD relative to other pro-inflammatory cytokines but further study is warranted before firm conclusions can be made.
Positron emission tomography imaging with 89Zr-labeled anti-CD8 cys-diabody reveals CD8+ cell infiltration during oncolytic virus therapy in a glioma murine model
Authors: Kasten Benjamin B. , Houson Hailey A. , Coleman Jennifer M. , Leavenworth Jianmei W. , Markert James M. , Wu Anna M. , Salazar Felix , Tavaré Richard , Massicano Adriana V. F. , Gillespie G. Yancey , Lapi Suzanne E. , Warram Jason M. , Sorace Anna G.
Published: July 2021

Determination of treatment response to immunotherapy in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a process which can take months. Detection of CD8+ T cell recruitment to the tumor with a noninvasive imaging modality such as positron emission tomography (PET) may allow for tumor characterization and early evaluation of therapeutic response to immunotherapy. In this study, we utilized 89Zr-labeled anti-CD8 cys-diabody-PET to provide proof-of-concept to detect CD8+ T cell immune response to oncolytic herpes simplex virus (oHSV) M002 immunotherapy in a syngeneic GBM model. Immunocompetent mice (n = 16) were implanted intracranially with GSC005 GBM tumors, and treated with intratumoral injection of oHSV M002 or saline control. An additional non-tumor bearing cohort (n = 4) receiving oHSV M002 treatment was also evaluated. Mice were injected with 89Zr-labeled anti-CD8 cys-diabody seven days post oHSV administration and imaged with a preclinical PET scanner. Standardized uptake value (SUV) was quantified. Ex vivo tissue analyses included autoradiography and immunohistochemistry. PET imaging showed significantly higher SUV in tumors which had been treated with M002 compared to those without M002 treatment (p = 0.0207) and the non-tumor bearing M002 treated group (p = 0.0021). Accumulation in target areas, especially the spleen, was significantly reduced by blocking with the non-labeled diabody (p < 0.001). Radioactive probe accumulation in brains was consistent with CD8+ cell trafficking patterns after oHSV treatment. This PET imaging strategy could aid in distinguishing responders from non-responders during immunotherapy of GBM.
Prediction of treatment outcome in burning mouth syndrome patients using machine learning based on clinical data
Authors: Kim Moon-Jong , Kim Pil-Jong , Kim Hong-Gee , Kho Hong-Seop
Published: July 2021

The purpose of this study is to apply a machine learning approach to predict whether patients with burning mouth syndrome (BMS) respond to the initial approach and clonazepam therapy based on clinical data. Among the patients with the primary type of BMS who visited the clinic from 2006 to 2015, those treated with the initial approach of detailed explanation regarding home care instruction and use of oral topical lubricants, or who were prescribed clonazepam for a minimum of 1 month were included in this study. The clinical data and treatment outcomes were collected from medical records. Extreme Gradient-Boosted Decision Trees was used for machine learning algorithms to construct prediction models. Accuracy of the prediction models was evaluated and feature importance calculated. The accuracy of the prediction models for the initial approach and clonazepam therapy was 67.6% and 67.4%, respectively. Aggravating factors and psychological distress were important features in the prediction model for the initial approach, and intensity of symptoms before administration was the important feature in the prediction model for clonazepam therapy. In conclusion, the analysis of treatment outcomes in patients with BMS using a machine learning approach showed meaningful results of clinical applicability.
Enhanced sunlight driven photocatalytic activity of In2S3 nanosheets functionalized MoS2 nanoflowers heterostructures
Authors: Singh Jaspal , Soni R. K.
Published: July 2021

Visible light-sensitive 2D-layered based photocatalytic systems have been proven one of the effective recent trends. We report the preparation of a 2D-layered based In2S3–MoS2 nanohybrid system through a facile hydrothermal method, capable of efficiently degrading of organic contaminants with remarkable efficiency. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) results inferred the attachment of 2D-layered In2S3 sheets with the MoS2 nanoflakes. Field emission SEM studies with chemical mapping confirm the uniform distribution of Mo, In, and S atoms in the heterostructure, affirming sample uniformity. X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy results confirm the appearance of 2H-MoS2 and β-In2S3 in the grown heterostructures. UV-DRS results reveal a significant improvement in the optical absorbance and significant bandgap narrowing (0.43 eV) in In2S3–MoS2 nanohybrid compared to pristine In2S3 nanosheets in the visible region. The effective bandgap narrowing facilitates the charge transfer between MoS2 and In2S3 and remarkably improves the synergistic effect. Effective bandgap engineering and improved optical absorption of In2S3–MoS2 nanohybrids are favorable for enhancing their charge separation and photocatalytic ability. The photocatalytic decomposition efficiency of the pristine In2S3 nanosheets and In2S3–MoS2 nanohybrids sample is determined by the decomposing of methylene blue and oxytetracycline molecules under natural sunlight. The optimized In2S3–MoS2 nanohybrids can decompose 97.67% of MB and 76.3% of OTC-HCl molecules solution in 8 min and 40 min of exposure of sunlight respectively. 2D-layered In2S3-MoS2 nanohybrids reveal the tremendous remediation performance towards chemical contaminations and pharmaceutical waste, which indicates their applicability in industrial and practical applications.
An ensemble learning approach to digital corona virus preliminary screening from cough sounds
Authors: Mohammed Emad A. , Keyhani Mohammad , Sanati-Nezhad Amir , Hejazi S. Hossein , Far Behrouz H.
Published: July 2021

This work develops a robust classifier for a COVID-19 pre-screening model from crowdsourced cough sound data. The crowdsourced cough recordings contain a variable number of coughs, with some input sound files more informative than the others. Accurate detection of COVID-19 from the sound datasets requires overcoming two main challenges (i) the variable number of coughs in each recording and (ii) the low number of COVID-positive cases compared to healthy coughs in the data. We use two open datasets of crowdsourced cough recordings and segment each cough recording into non-overlapping coughs. The segmentation enriches the original data without oversampling by splitting the original cough sound files into non-overlapping segments. Splitting the sound files enables us to increase the samples of the minority class (COVID-19) without changing the feature distribution of the COVID-19 samples resulted from applying oversampling techniques. Each cough sound segment is transformed into six image representations for further analyses. We conduct extensive experiments with shallow machine learning, Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), and pre-trained CNN models. The results of our models were compared to other recently published papers that apply machine learning to cough sound data for COVID-19 detection. Our method demonstrated a high performance using an ensemble model on the testing dataset with area under receiver operating characteristics curve = 0.77, precision = 0.80, recall = 0.71, F1 measure = 0.75, and Kappa = 0.53. The results show an improvement in the prediction accuracy of our COVID-19 pre-screening model compared to the other models.
Principles and applications of cyclodextrin liquid crystals
Authors: Votava Martin , Ravoo Bart Jan
Published: July 2021

Cyclodextrin-based liquid crystals combine the versatile properties of macrocyclic host molecules and liquid-crystalline mesophases.
Novel mechanisms of the conformational transformations of the biologically important G·C nucleobase pairs in Watson–Crick, Hoogsteen and wobble configurationsviathe mutual rotations of the bases around the intermolecular H-bonds: a QM/QTAIM study
Authors: Brovarets' Ol'ha O. , Muradova Alona , Hovorun Dmytro M.
Published: July 2021

It was established conformational transformations of the G·C nucleobase pairs, occurringviathe mutual rotation of the G and C bases around the intermolecular H-bonds.
Trace arsenic analysis in edible seaweeds by miniature in situ dielectric barrier discharge microplasma optical emission spectrometry based on gas phase enrichment
Authors: Zhang Yaru , Mao Xuefei , Tian Di , Liu Jixin , Li Chunsheng
Published: July 2021

In this work, a novel method using low-cost miniaturized hydride generation optical emission spectrometry equipment coupled with an in situ dielectric barrier discharge trap was established for the determination of As in edible seaweed samples.
Ru(ii)/BODIPY core co-encapsulated ratiometric nanotools for intracellular O2 sensing in live cancer cells
Authors: Gkika Karmel Sofia , Kargaard Anna , Burke Christopher S. , Dolan Ciaran , Heise Andreas , Keyes Tia E.
Published: July 2021

Uptake and quantitative ratiometric oxygen sensing response of core–shell nanoparticles containing ruthenium probe and BODIPY reference is demonstrated using a plate reader-based assay and by confocal xyλ scanning of live cancer cells under hypoxic conditions.
Tertiary cyclopropyl carbagermatranes: synthesis and cross-coupling
Authors: Yang Shuo , Jiang Wei-Tao , Xiao Bin
Published: July 2021

Tertiary cyclopropyl carbagermatranes acting as robust nucleophiles for the synthesis of cyclopropane with quaternary centers.
Bioinspired in situ repeatable self-recovery of superhydrophobicity by self-reconstructing the hierarchical surface structure
Authors: Habib Md Ahsan , Wu Shuwang , Fan Qingrui , Magu Thomas Odey , Yao Xi , Lv Jianyong , Wang Jianjun
Published: July 2021

A new strategy for fabricating a plant leaf cuticle-like material has been reported, which repeatedly secretes wax and assembles into crystal platelets upon physical damage, and brings superhydrophobicity back.
Systematic reductive oligomerization of isocyanides with a vanadium(ii) complex
Authors: Hasegawa Sui , Ishida Yutaka , Kawaguchi Hiroyuki
Published: July 2021

The vanadium(ii)  complex is shown to mediate reductive oligomerization of aryl isocaynides, leading to formation of a dimer, trimers, and tetramers. The analogous reaction with alkyl isocyanides results in C–NC bond cleavage.
Photo-enhanced electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction coupled semiconductor with plasma in neutral solution
Authors: Xu Congcong , Cao Pengfei , Wang Nan , Ma Houyi , Lin Meng
Published: July 2021

A photo-enhanced electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction was performed in neutral solution based on a noble metal-semiconductor nanostructure.
Refine the crystallinity of upconversion nanoparticles for NIR-enhanced photocatalysis
Authors: Jiang Jiamin , Ren Hehe , Huang Fuhua , Wang Li , Zhang Jinglai
Published: July 2021

A new photocatalyst was synthesized by a combination of the upconversion nanoparticle NaYF4:Yb, Tm, Gd (NYTG) and NH2-MIL-101(Cr) (NMC) to form NYTG/NMC.
Investigation of the crack extending downward along the seed of the β-Ga2O3 crystal grown by the EFG method
Authors: Li Pengkun , Bu Yuzhe , Chen Duanyang , Sai Qinglin , Qi Hongji
Published: July 2021

The formation mechanism of the crack and its effect on the crystal quality of β-Ga2O3 grown by the edge-defined film-fed growth method.
A pillar-layered binuclear 3D cobalt(ii) coordination polymer as an electrocatalyst for overall water splitting and as a chemosensor for Cr(vi) anion detection
Authors: Zhao Dongsheng , Song Junqi , Zhang Xiutang , Wang Feng , Li Bei , Yang Lulu , Deng Yuxin , Li Qingbo , Fan Liming
Published: July 2021

A 3D pillar-layered cobalt(ii) CP with a 3D (4,6)-connected {44·610·8}{44·62} fsc net was designed and it showed great potential as an electrocatalyst in the overall water splitting and as a chemosensor for Cr(vi) anion detection.
A tetraphenylethylene-based covalent organic framework for waste gas adsorption and highly selective detection of Fe3+
Authors: Cui Di , Ding Xuesong , Xie Wei , Xu Guangjuan , Su Zhongmin , Xu Yanhong , Xie Yuzhong
Published: July 2021

A tetraphenylethylene-based covalent organic framework shows an outstanding performance for waste gas adsorption and has good selectivity and detection effect for Fe3+.
Structural effects on the bromination rate and selectivity of alkylbenzenes and alkoxybenzenes in aqueous solution
Authors: Schammel Marella H. , Martin-Culet Kayla R. , Taggart Garrett A. , Sivey John D.
Published: July 2021

Steric and electronic effects of monosubstituted benzenes influence rates, regioselectivity, and chemoselectivity of electrophilic aromatic substitution involving aqueous brominating agents.