bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Strategic retreat for resilient and equitable climate adaptation: the roles for conservation organizations
Authors: Kodis Mali‘o , Bortman Marci , Newkirk Sarah
Published: May 2021

As climate change accelerates the frequency and intensity of natural disasters, damage to public and private property is also increasing, putting exorbitant strain on governments and communities. Societies across the world are working to adapt to climate change, but climate adaptation is currently inadequate to meet the needs of the people left increasingly vulnerable and the places that risk being irreversibly changed or destroyed. One tactic of climate adaptation is strategic retreat, sometimes referred to as managed retreat. Strategic retreat is the process by which the government or another entity purchases (buys out) developed properties that are at risk of destruction or have been destroyed by natural disasters. The structure is most often demolished, and the land is placed under a permanent easement to prevent future development. What happens next is dependent on the entities involved in the buyouts, and can range from derelict, vacant lots to full restoration of ecosystems and their abilities to mitigate flood damage. Sometimes recreational amenities, such as trails or park infrastructure, are prioritized and funded as well. Conservation organizations can leverage their expertise in conservation planning, land acquisition and restoration, policy advocacy, and partnership development to improve the implementation of strategic retreat so that nature and people can thrive in the long term. In this policy paper, we review ways that conservation organizations have and can continue to engage in buyout processes to ensure positive outcomes for communities and nature. Conservation organizations must also evolve their approaches to climate adaptation to integrate equity and redress historical injustices in land use, and contribute towards improving strategic retreat for a more just and resilient future across disaster-prone communities. This work focuses on the context of disasters and climate adaptation in the USA, though many of the principles presented are applicable around the world.
What Makes Homeowners Consider Protective Actions to Reduce Disaster Risk? An Application of the Precaution Adoption Process Model and Life Course Theory
Authors: Stock Alexia , Davidson Rachel A. , Trainor Joseph E. , Slotter Rachel , Nozick Linda K. , Kruse Jamie B.
Published: May 2021

We hypothesize that for disaster risk mitigation, many households, despite being aware of their risk and possible mitigation actions, never seriously consider doing anything about them. In mitigation-focused decisions, since there is no equivalent to warning messages, the decision process is likely to evolve over an extended time. We explore what activates hurricane mitigation protective action decisions through three research questions: (1) to what extent are homeowners unengaged in protective action decision making? (2) What homeowner characteristics are associated with lack of engagement? And (3) to what extent do different life events trigger engagement in the decision-making process? We use the Precaution Adoption Process Model to conceptualize engagement as distinct from decision making; the broader protective action decision-making literature to explore drivers of engagement; and Life Course Theory to examine potential transitions from unengaged to engaged. We use survey data of homeowners in North Carolina to examine these questions empirically. Findings suggest that one-third of respondents had never engaged in protective action decisions, that life experiences differ in their occurrence frequency and effect on households’ mitigation decisions, and that some events, such as renovating, reroofing, or purchasing a home may offer critical moments that could be leveraged to encourage greater engagement in mitigation decision making.
Impact of driving forces on molten pool in gas metal arc welding
Authors: Cho Won-Ik , Na Suck-Joo
Published: May 2021

A numerical scrutiny was performed to analyze the effect of driving forces on molten pool in gas metal arc welding. In addition to the basic governing equations required for a general heat and mass transfer analysis by computational fluid dynamics, a volume-of-fluid equation for free surface tracking and additional conservation equations for calculating the distribution of alloy elements were used. Driving forces—buoyancy, drag force, arc pressure, electromagnetic force, Marangoni pressure, and droplet impingement—and the arc heat source were mathematically modeled and applied to the simulation. In order to examine the effect of driving forces, a two-dimensional axisymmetric simulation was performed, and the effect of each driving force was analyzed using the velocity components. In the radial velocity component, the effect of droplet impingement and the Marangoni force was large, and in the vertical velocity component, the droplet impingement effect was dominant. A three-dimensional simulation was also performed considering all the driving forces together, and the result was verified by comparison with experimental results. Relatively high alloying element contents were found at the bottom of the fusion zone, which was due to the droplet impingement generating a high vertical velocity.
Jüngste Arbeiten zum Begriff der Dankbarkeit in Philosophie und Psychologie
Authors: Gulliford Liz , Morgan Blaire , Kristjánsson Kristján
Published: May 2021

Der Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über die philosophische und psychologische Literatur zum Begriff der Dankbarkeit bis ins Jahr 2013. Geprüft werden die in beiden Wissenschaften veröffentlichten Arbeiten vor allem hinsichtlich ihrer begrifflichen Grundlagen und der ethischen Bewertung von Dankbarkeit, etwa als Pflicht, Tugend oder Supererogation. Die Analyse zeigt, dass jeweils mit einer Reihe untereinander unvereinbarer Begriffsverständnisse gearbeitet wird, sodass die Debatte von einem komplexen Netzwerk sich überschneidender und überkreuzender Begriffe geprägt ist. Der Beitrag endet mit Vorschlägen für die weitere Forschung. Psychologen wird empfohlen, ihre Konzeptionen von Dankbarkeit präziser zu fassen und zu begründen sowie Bottom-up-Studien zum alltagspraktischen Begriff der Dankbarkeit durchzuführen. Philosophen sollten dagegen der in den Sozialwissenschaften durchgeführten Bottom-up-Arbeit mehr Beachtung schenken.
A meso-level empirical validation approach for agent-based computational economic models drawing on micro-data: a use case with a mobility mode-choice model
Authors: Bektas Alperen , Piana Valentino , Schumann René
Published: May 2021

The complex nature of agent-based modeling may reveal more descriptive accuracy than analytical tractability. That leads to an additional layer of methodological issues regarding empirical validation, which is an ongoing challenge. This paper offers a replicable method to empirically validate agent-based models, a specific indicator of “goodness-of-validation” and its statistical distribution, leading to a statistical test in some way comparable to the p value. The method involves an unsupervised machine learning algorithm hinging on cluster analysis. It clusters the ex-post behavior of real and artificial individuals to create meso-level behavioral patterns. By comparing the balanced composition of real and artificial agents among clusters, it produces a validation score in [0, 1] which can be judged thanks to its statistical distribution. In synthesis, it is argued that an agent-based model can be initialized at the micro-level, calibrated at the macro-level, and validated at the meso-level with the same data set. As a case study, we build and use a mobility mode-choice model by configuring an agent-based simulation platform called BedDeM. We cluster the choice behavior of real and artificial individuals with the same ex-ante given characteristics. We analyze these clusters’ similarity to understand whether the model-generated data contain observationally equivalent behavioral patterns as the real data. The model is validated with a specific score of 0.27, which is better than about 95% of all possible scores that the indicator can produce. By drawing lessons from this example, we provide advice for researchers to validate their models if they have access to micro-data.
Exact reconstruction of sparse non-harmonic signals from their Fourier coefficients
Authors: Petz Markus , Plonka Gerlind , Derevianko Nadiia
Published: May 2021

In this paper, we derive a new reconstruction method for real non-harmonic Fourier sums, i.e., real signals which can be represented as sparse exponential sums of the form$$f(t) = \sum _{j=1}^{K} \gamma _{j} \, \cos (2\pi a_{j} t + b_{j})$$f(t)=∑j=1Kγjcos(2πajt+bj), where the frequency parameters$$a_{j} \in {\mathbb {R}}$$aj∈R(or$$a_{j} \in {\mathrm i} {\mathbb {R}}$$aj∈iR) are pairwise different. Our method is based on the recently proposed numerically stable iterative rational approximation algorithm in Nakatsukasa et al. (SIAM J Sci Comput 40(3):A1494–A1522, 2018). For signal reconstruction we use a set of classical Fourier coefficients offwith regard to a fixed interval (0, P) with$$P>0$$P>0. Even though all terms offmay be non-P-periodic, our reconstruction method requires at most$$2K+2$$2K+2Fourier coefficients$$c_{n}(f)$$cn(f)to recover all parameters off. We show that in the case of exact data, the proposed iterative algorithm terminates after at most$$K+1$$K+1steps. The algorithm can also detect the numberKof terms off, ifKis a priori unknown and$$L \ge 2K+2$$L≥2K+2Fourier coefficients are available. Therefore our method provides a new alternative to the known numerical approaches for the recovery of exponential sums that are based on Prony’s method.
Design space optimisation of an unmanned aerial vehicle submerged inlet through the formulation of a data-fusion-based hybrid model
Authors: Akram F. , Khan H. A. , Shams T. A. , Mavris D.
Published: May 2021

The research focuses on the design space optimisation of National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) submerged inlets through the formulation of a hybrid data fusion methodology. Submerged inlets have drawn considerable attention owing to their potential for good on-design performance, for example during cruise flight conditions. However, complexities due to the geometrical topology and interactions among various design variables remain a challenge. This research enhances the current design knowledge of submerged inlets through the utilisation of data mining and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methodologies, focusing on design space optimisation. A two-pronged approach is employed where the first step encompasses a low-fidelity model through data mining and surrogate modelling to predict and optimise the design parameters, while the second step uses the Design of Experiments (DOE) approach based on the CFD results for the candidate design geometry to construct a surrogate model with high fidelity for design refinement. The feasibility of the proposed methodology is demonstrated for the optimisation of the total pressure recovery of a NACA submerged inlet for the subsonic flight regime. The proposed methodology is found to provide good agreement between the surrogate and CFD-based model and reduce the optimisation processing time by half in comparison with conventional (global-based) CFD optimisation approaches.
Luminescence dating of Youfangbei early late Pleistocene site, Nihewan Basin, North China
Authors: Lu Ying , Sun Xuefeng , Zhao Hailong , Tan Peiyang
Published: May 2021

Sites dated to the early late Pleistocene are still limited in North China, which has hindered the detailed analysis of the development of Paleolithic industries in the late Pleistocene in this area. The Youfangbei (YFB) site is a newly excavated small-flake-tool Paleolithic site near the Youfang (YF) microblade site in the Nihewan Basin, North China. Because the small-flake-tool industry still existed in the late part of the late Pleistocene and might be related to the emergence of microlithic industries, the relationship between the two sites needs to be determined through a chronological study. Two profiles were excavated, and most of the artifact assemblages were unearthed in the lower profile (T1) from a depth of 0.9 m from the bottom. In this study, the feldspar post-infrared infrared stimulated luminescence method was applied to determine the age of the YFB site. Results showed that the upper profile was deposited from 86–0.5 ka, and the cultural layer in T1 yielded age of 124–82 ka, corresponding to Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5, with an irregular but generally mild climate. The age of the YFB site is too old to be directly related to that of the YF site, but it partly bridges a chronological gap of human occupation in the Nihewan Basin.
Association of smoking and cardiovascular disease with disease progression in COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Kang Shiwei , Gong Xiaowei , Yuan Yadong
Published: May 2021

The aim of this study was to systematically assess the association between smoking and cardiovascular disease (CVD) and disease progression among novel coronavirus pneumonia (coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)) cases. PubMed database and Cochrane Library database were searched by computer to seek the epidemiological data of COVID-19 cases and literatures regarding CVDs from 1 Jan to 6 October 2020. Two researchers independently conducted literature screening, data collection and the assessment of the risk of bias of the studies included. RevMan 5.2 software was employed for meta-analysis. Funnel plot was adopted to assess the publication bias. On the whole, 21 studies comprising 7041 COVID-19 cases were included. As revealed from the meta-analysis, 14.0% (984/7027) of cases had a history of smoking, and 9.7% (675/6931) were subject to underlying CVDs. Cases with a history of smoking achieved a higher rate of COVID-19 disease progression as opposed to those having not smoked (OR 1.53, 95% CI 1.29–1.81, P < 0.00001), while no significant association could be found between smoking status and COVID-19 disease progression (OR 1.23, 95% CI 0.93–1.63, P = 0.15). Besides, smoking history elevated the mortality rate by 1.91-fold (OR 1.91, 95% CI 1.35–2.69, P = 0.0002). Moreover, underlying CVD elevated the incidence of severe disease by 2.87-fold (OR 2.87, 95% CI 2.29–3.61, P < 0.00001) and mortality by 3.05-fold (OR 3.05, 95% CI 1.82–5.11, P < 0.0001) in COVID-19 cases. As demonstrated from the current evidence, smoking displays a strong association with COVID-19 disease progression and mortality, and intensive tobacco control is imperative. Moreover, cases with CVD show a significantly elevated risk of disease progression and death when subject to COVID-19. However, the association between COVID-19 and CVD, and the potential effect exerted by smoking in the development of the two still require further verifications by larger and higher quality studies.
DENSE STABLE RANK AND RUNGE-TYPE APPROXIMATION THEOREMS FOR MAPS
Authors: BRUDNYI ALEXANDER
Published: May 2021

Let$H^\infty ({\mathbb {D}}\times {\mathbb {N}})$be the Banach algebra of bounded holomorphic functions defined on the disjoint union of countably many copies of the open unit disk${\mathbb {D}}\subset {{\mathbb C}}$. We show that the dense stable rank of$H^\infty ({\mathbb {D}}\times {\mathbb {N}})$is$1$and, using this fact, prove some nonlinear Runge-type approximation theorems for$H^\infty ({\mathbb {D}}\times {\mathbb {N}})$maps. Then we apply these results to obtain a priori uniform estimates of norms of approximating maps in similar approximation problems for the algebra$H^\infty ({\mathbb {D}})$.
Croll, feedback mechanisms, climate change and the future
Authors: THOMPSON Roy
Published: May 2021

Our climate future depends on the delicate, fine balance of earth processes first elaborated on by James Croll, born 200 years ago in 1821. A childhood victim of the Scottish clearances, Croll, after following various indifferent occupations, managed to remove to the then rapidly industrialising city of Glasgow and eventually to Scotland's capital, Edinburgh. He blossomed as a most original, outside-the-box, thinker of great intellectual strength and modesty. He carried out scores of studies across a broad range of research topics, many related to the physical causes of climate change. He is well known for his astronomical theory of the ice ages, but should be much better regarded for his incisive physical insights into the central importance of feedbacks in the Earth system. Although humble, Croll was an ardent controversialist who strongly, perhaps over-strongly, always defended his corner. As well as his many accomplishments as a man of science, Croll was committed to exploring philosophical questions of theism and determinism, topics which occupied his earliest and last publications. A ‘top ten’ selection out of the varied subject areas that Croll tackled are explored herein, along with a brisk survey of their legacy to contemporary modelling studies and to Earth's climate future: (1) causes of climate change (1864); (2) ice-cap melt and sea-level rise (1865); (3) predicting future climates using eccentricity (1866); (4) combining orbital precession, eccentricity and obliquity (1867); (5) geological time and the date of the glacial epochs (1868); (6) geological time and denudation rates (1868); (7) ocean currents and the hemispherical temperature difference (1869); (8) feedbacks – a remarkable circumstance which led to changes of climate (1875); (9) temperature of space and its bearing on terrestrial physics (1880); (10) the causes of mild polar climates (1884).
The Impact of the Amazon on the Biological Pump and the Air‐Sea CO2 Balance of the Western Tropical Atlantic
Authors: Louchard Domitille , Gruber Nicolas , Münnich Matthias
Published: May 2021

The Amazon River strongly modifies the biogeochemistry of the Western Tropical Atlantic (WTA). To disentangle the different mechanisms driving these modifications, we conduct a series of modeling experiments with a high‐resolution regional ocean model (ROMS) coupled to a biogeochemical/ecological model (BEC) that we augmented to include Diatom‐Diazotroph‐Assemblages (DDAs). In our model, the Amazon River increases net primary production (NPP) in the WTA by almost 10%, exceeding the stimulation expected from the supplied inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus by a factor of two. This amplification is fueled by new nitrogen stemming from DDA‐driven N2 fixation in the plume region, supported, in part, by the consumption of riverine dissolved organic phosphorus. The vertical export of organic carbon is enhanced by a shift of the phytoplankton community toward diatoms induced by the large amount of Si(OH)4 delivered by the Amazon. These changes in NPP and export production induce a strong uptake of atmospheric CO2. In contrast, the remineralization of the river‐delivered terrestrial organic matter leads to a release of CO2 over the WTA, which is partially offset by a net uptake induced by the riverine dissolved inorganic carbon and alkalinity. Overall, the Amazon reduces the strong outgassing of the WTA in our simulations by more than 50%. Our study demonstrates how rivers modify the marine biological pump and the air‐sea CO2 fluxes in the downstream ocean through a myriad of cascading effects, highlighting the need to fully consider the land‐ocean aquatic continuum in the modeling of the Earth System.
Ketamine disrupts naturalistic coding of working memory in primate lateral prefrontal cortex networks
Authors: Roussy Megan , Luna Rogelio , Duong Lyndon , Corrigan Benjamin , Gulli Roberto A. , Nogueira Ramon , Moreno-Bote Rubén , Sachs Adam J. , Palaniyappan Lena , Martinez-Trujillo Julio C.
Published: May 2021

Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic drug, which has more recently emerged as a rapid-acting antidepressant. When acutely administered at subanesthetic doses, ketamine causes cognitive deficits like those observed in patients with schizophrenia, including impaired working memory. Although these effects have been linked to ketamine’s action as an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist, it is unclear how synaptic alterations translate into changes in brain microcircuit function that ultimately influence cognition. Here, we administered ketamine to rhesus monkeys during a spatial working memory task set in a naturalistic virtual environment. Ketamine induced transient working memory deficits while sparing perceptual and motor skills. Working memory deficits were accompanied by decreased responses of fast spiking inhibitory interneurons and increased responses of broad spiking excitatory neurons in the lateral prefrontal cortex. This translated into a decrease in neuronal tuning and information encoded by neuronal populations about remembered locations. Our results demonstrate that ketamine differentially affects neuronal types in the neocortex; thus, it perturbs the excitation inhibition balance within prefrontal microcircuits and ultimately leads to selective working memory deficits.
Evaluation of the association of heterozygous germline variants in NTHL1 with breast cancer predisposition: an international multi-center study of 47,180 subjects
Authors: Li Na , Zethoven Magnus , McInerny Simone , Devereux Lisa , Huang Yu-Kuan , Thio Niko , Cheasley Dane , Gutiérrez-Enríquez Sara , Moles-Fernández Alejandro , Diez Orland , Nguyen-Dumont Tu , Southey Melissa C. , Hopper John L. , Simard Jacques , Dumont Martine , Soucy Penny , Meindl Alfons , Schmutzler Rita , Schmidt Marjanka K. , Adank Muriel A. , Andrulis Irene L. , Hahnen Eric , Engel Christoph , Lesueur Fabienne , Girard Elodie , Neuhausen Susan L. , Ziv Elad , Allen Jamie , Easton Douglas F. , Scott Rodney J. , Gorringe Kylie L. , James Paul A. , Campbell Ian G.
Published: May 2021

Bi-allelic loss-of-function (LoF) variants in the base excision repair (BER) gene NTHL1 cause a high-risk hereditary multi-tumor syndrome that includes breast cancer, but the contribution of heterozygous variants to hereditary breast cancer is unknown. An analysis of 4985 women with breast cancer, enriched for familial features, and 4786 cancer-free women revealed significant enrichment for NTHL1 LoF variants. Immunohistochemistry confirmed reduced NTHL1 expression in tumors from heterozygous carriers but the NTHL1 bi-allelic loss characteristic mutational signature (SBS 30) was not present. The analysis was extended to 27,421 breast cancer cases and 19,759 controls from 10 international studies revealing 138 cases and 93 controls with a heterozygous LoF variant (OR 1.06, 95% CI: 0.82–1.39) and 316 cases and 179 controls with a missense variant (OR 1.31, 95% CI: 1.09–1.57). Missense variants selected for deleterious features by a number of in silico bioinformatic prediction tools or located within the endonuclease III functional domain showed a stronger association with breast cancer. Somatic sequencing of breast cancers from carriers indicated that the risk associated with NTHL1 appears to operate through haploinsufficiency, consistent with other described low-penetrance breast cancer genes. Data from this very large international multicenter study suggests that heterozygous pathogenic germline coding variants in NTHL1 may be associated with low- to moderate- increased risk of breast cancer.
Planetary extravehicular activity (EVA) risk mitigation strategies for long-duration space missions
Authors: Belobrajdic Blaze , Melone Kate , Diaz-Artiles Ana
Published: May 2021

Extravehicular activity (EVA) is one of the most dangerous activities of human space exploration. To ensure astronaut safety and mission success, it is imperative to identify and mitigate the inherent risks and challenges associated with EVAs. As we continue to explore beyond low earth orbit and embark on missions back to the Moon and onward to Mars, it becomes critical to reassess EVA risks in the context of a planetary surface, rather than in microgravity. This review addresses the primary risks associated with EVAs and identifies strategies that could be implemented to mitigate those risks during planetary surface exploration. Recent findings within the context of spacesuit design, Concept of Operations (CONOPS), and lessons learned from analog research sites are summarized, and how their application could pave the way for future long-duration space missions is discussed. In this context, we divided EVA risk mitigation strategies into two main categories: (1) spacesuit design and (2) CONOPS. Spacesuit design considerations include hypercapnia prevention, thermal regulation and humidity control, nutrition, hydration, waste management, health and fitness, decompression sickness, radiation shielding, and dust mitigation. Operational strategies discussed include astronaut fatigue and psychological stressors, communication delays, and the use of augmented reality/virtual reality technologies. Although there have been significant advances in EVA performance, further research and development are still warranted to enable safer and more efficient surface exploration activities in the upcoming future.
Emergent long-range magnetic order in ultrathin (111)-oriented LaNiO3 films
Authors: Kane Margaret M. , Vailionis Arturas , Riddiford Lauren J. , Mehta Apurva , N’Diaye Alpha T. , Klewe Christoph , Shafer Padraic , Arenholz Elke , Suzuki Yuri
Published: May 2021

The emergence of ferromagnetism in materials where the bulk phase does not show any magnetic order demonstrates that atomically precise films can stabilize distinct ground states and expands the phase space for the discovery of materials. Here, the emergence of long-range magnetic order is reported in ultrathin (111) LaNiO3 (LNO) films, where bulk LNO is paramagnetic, and the origins of this phase are explained. Transport and structural studies of LNO(111) films indicate that NiO6 octahedral distortions stabilize a magnetic insulating phase at the film/substrate interface and result in a thickness-dependent metal–insulator transition at t = 8 unit cells. Away from this interface, distortions relax and bulk-like conduction is regained. Synchrotron x-ray diffraction and dynamical x-ray diffraction simulations confirm a corresponding out-of-plane unit-cell expansion at the interface of all films. X-ray absorption spectroscopy reveals that distortion stabilizes an increased concentration of Ni2+ ions. Evidence of long-range magnetic order is found in anomalous Hall effect and magnetoresistance measurements, likely due to ferromagnetic superexchange interactions among Ni2+–Ni3+ ions. Together, these results indicate that long-range magnetic ordering and metallicity in LNO(111) films emerges from a balance among the spin, charge, lattice, and orbital degrees of freedom.
GWAS analysis reveals distinct pathogenicity profiles of Australian Parastagonospora nodorum isolates and identification of marker-trait-associations to septoria nodorum blotch
Authors: Phan Huyen T. T. , Furuki Eiko , Hunziker Lukas , Rybak Kasia , Tan Kar-Chun
Published: May 2021

The fungus Parastagonospora nodorum is the causal agent of septoria nodorum leaf blotch (SNB) and glume blotch which are common in many wheat growing regions in the world. The disease is complex and could be explained by multiple interactions between necrotrophic effectors secreted by the pathogen and matching susceptibility genes in wheat. An Australian P. nodorum population was clustered into five groups with contrasting properties. This study was set to identify their pathogenicity profiles using a diverse wheat panel of 134 accessions which are insensitive to SnToxA and SnTox1 in both in vitro and in vivo conditions. SNB seedling resistance/susceptibility to five representative isolates from the five clusters, responses to crude culture-filtrates (CFs) of three isolates and sensitivity to SnTox3 semi-purified effector together with 11,455 SNP markers have been used for linkage disequilibrium (LD) and association analyses. While quantitative trait loci (QTL) on 1D, 2A, 2B, 4B, 5B, 6A, 6B, 7A, 7D chromosomes were consistently detected across isolates and conditions, distinct patterns and isolate specific QTL were also observed among these isolates. In this study, SnTox3–Snn3-B1 interaction for the first time in Australia and SnTox3–Snn3-D1 interaction for the first time in bread wheat were found active using wild-type isolates. These findings could be due to new SnTox3 haplotype/isoform and exotic CIMMYT/ICARDA and Vavilov germplasm used, respectively. This study could provide useful information for dissecting novel and different SNB disease components, helping to prioritise research targets and contributing valuable information on genetic loci/markers for marker-assisted selection in SNB resistance wheat breeding programme.
Monotonous driving induces shifts in spatial attention as a function of handedness
Authors: Chandrakumar D. , Coussens S. , Keage H. A. D. , Banks S. , Dorrian J. , Loetscher T.
Published: May 2021

Current evidence suggests that the ability to detect and react to information under lowered alertness conditions might be more impaired on the left than the right side of space. This evidence derives mainly from right-handers being assessed in computer and paper-and-pencil spatial attention tasks. However, there are suggestions that left-handers might show impairments on the opposite (right) side compared to right-handers with lowered alertness, and it is unclear whether the impairments observed in the computer tasks have any real-world implications for activities such as driving. The current study investigated the alertness and spatial attention relationship under simulated monotonous driving in left- and right-handers. Twenty left-handed and 22 right-handed participants (15 males, mean age = 23.6 years, SD = 5.0 years) were assessed on a simulated driving task (lasting approximately 60 min) to induce a time-on-task effect. The driving task involved responding to stimuli appearing at six different horizontal locations on the screen, whilst driving in a 50 km/h zone. Decreases in alertness and driving performance were evident with time-on-task in both handedness groups. We found handedness impacts reacting to lateral stimuli differently with time-on-task: right-handers reacted slower to the leftmost stimuli, while left-handers showed the opposite pattern (although not statistically significant) in the second compared to first half of the drive. Our findings support suggestions that handedness modulates the spatial attention and alertness interactions. The interactions were observed in a simulated driving task which calls for further research to understand the safety implications of these interactions for activities such as driving.
Ancient genomes provide insights into family structure and the heredity of social status in the early Bronze Age of southeastern Europe
Authors: Žegarac A. , Winkelbach L. , Blöcher J. , Diekmann Y. , Krečković Gavrilović M. , Porčić M. , Stojković B. , Milašinović L. , Schreiber M. , Wegmann D. , Veeramah K. R. , Stefanović S. , Burger J.
Published: May 2021

Twenty-four palaeogenomes from Mokrin, a major Early Bronze Age necropolis in southeastern Europe, were sequenced to analyse kinship between individuals and to better understand prehistoric social organization. 15 investigated individuals were involved in genetic relationships of varying degrees. The Mokrin sample resembles a genetically unstructured population, suggesting that the community’s social hierarchies were not accompanied by strict marriage barriers. We find evidence for female exogamy but no indications for strict patrilocality. Individual status differences at Mokrin, as indicated by grave goods, support the inference that females could inherit status, but could not transmit status to all their sons. We further show that sons had the possibility to acquire status during their lifetimes, but not necessarily to inherit it. Taken together, these findings suggest that Southeastern Europe in the Early Bronze Age had a significantly different family and social structure than Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age societies of Central Europe.
Application of multiple omics and network projection analyses to drug repositioning for pathogenic mosquito-borne viruses
Authors: Amemiya Takayuki , Horimoto Katsuhisa , Fukui Kazuhiko
Published: May 2021

Pathogenic mosquito-borne viruses are a serious public health issue in tropical and subtropical regions and are increasingly becoming a problem in other climate zones. Drug repositioning is a rapid, pharmaco-economic approach that can be used to identify compounds that target these neglected tropical diseases. We have applied a computational drug repositioning method to five mosquito-borne viral infections: dengue virus (DENV), zika virus (ZIKV), West Nile virus (WNV), Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) and Chikungunya virus (CHIV). We identified signature molecules and pathways for each virus infection based on omics analyses, and determined 77 drug candidates and 146 proteins for those diseases by using a filtering method. Based on the omics analyses, we analyzed the relationship among drugs, target proteins and the five viruses by projecting the signature molecules onto a human protein–protein interaction network. We have classified the drug candidates according to the degree of target proteins in the protein–protein interaction network for the five infectious diseases.
Segmenting surface boundaries using luminance cues
Authors: DiMattina Christopher , Baker Curtis L.
Published: May 2021

Segmenting scenes into distinct surfaces is a basic visual perception task, and luminance differences between adjacent surfaces often provide an important segmentation cue. However, mean luminance differences between two surfaces may exist without any sharp change in albedo at their boundary, but rather from differences in the proportion of small light and dark areas within each surface, e.g. texture elements, which we refer to as a luminance texture boundary. Here we investigate the performance of human observers segmenting luminance texture boundaries. We demonstrate that a simple model involving a single stage of filtering cannot explain observer performance, unless it incorporates contrast normalization. Performing additional experiments in which observers segment luminance texture boundaries while ignoring super-imposed luminance step boundaries, we demonstrate that the one-stage model, even with contrast normalization, cannot explain performance. We then present a Filter–Rectify–Filter model positing two cascaded stages of filtering, which fits our data well, and explains observers' ability to segment luminance texture boundary stimuli in the presence of interfering luminance step boundaries. We propose that such computations may be useful for boundary segmentation in natural scenes, where shadows often give rise to luminance step edges which do not correspond to surface boundaries.
Effect of various weight loss interventions on serum NT-proBNP concentration in severe obese subjects without clinical manifest heart failure
Authors: Hollstein Tim , Schlicht Kristina , Krause Laura , Hagen Stefanie , Rohmann Nathalie , Schulte Dominik M. , Türk Kathrin , Beckmann Alexia , Ahrens Markus , Franke Andre , Schreiber Stefan , Becker Thomas , Beckmann Jan , Laudes Matthias
Published: May 2021

Obesity is associated with a “natriuretic handicap” indicated by reduced N-terminal fragment of proBNP (NT-proBNP) concentration. While gastric bypass surgery improves the natriuretic handicap, it is presently unclear if sleeve gastrectomy exhibits similar effects. We examined NT-proBNP serum concentration in n = 72 obese participants without heart failure before and 6 months after sleeve gastrectomy (n = 28), gastric bypass surgery (n = 19), and 3-month 800 kcal/day very-low calorie diet (n = 25). A significant weight loss was observed in all intervention groups. Within 6 months, NT-proBNP concentration tended to increase by a median of 44.3 pg/mL in the sleeve gastrectomy group (p = 0.07), while it remained unchanged in the other groups (all p ≥ 0.50). To gain insights into potential effectors, we additionally analyzed NT-proBNP serum concentration in n = 387 individuals with different metabolic phenotypes. Here, higher NT-proBNP levels were associated with lower nutritional fat and protein but not with carbohydrate intake. Of interest, NT-proBNP serum concentrations were inversely correlated with fasting glucose concentration in euglycemic individuals but not in individuals with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes. In conclusion, sleeve gastrectomy tended to increase NT-proBNP levels in obese individuals and might improve the obesity-associated “natriuretic handicap”. Thereby, nutritional fat and protein intake and the individual glucose homeostasis might be metabolic determinants of NT-proBNP serum concentration.
A human infertility-associated KASH5 variant promotes mitochondrial localization
Authors: Bentebbal Sana A. , Meqbel Bakhita R. , Salter Anna , Allan Victoria , Burke Brian , Horn Henning F.
Published: May 2021

KASH5 is the most recently identified member of the KASH domain family of tail anchored, outer nuclear membrane (ONM) and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) proteins. During meiosis prophase I, KASH5 and SUN1 form a complex that spans the nuclear envelope and which links the telomeres of meiotic chromosomes to cytoplasmic dynein. This connection is essential for homologous chromosome dynamics and pairing. A recent study identified a variant in human KASH5 (L535Q) that correlated with male infertility associated with azoospermia. However, no molecular mechanism was described. Here, we report that this amino acid substitution, within the KASH5 transmembrane domain (TMD) has no predicted effects on secondary structure. However, the overall hydrophobicity of the L535Q TMD, is calculated to be lower than thewild-typeKASH5, based on the GES (Goldman–Engelman–Steitz) amino acid hydrophobicity scale. This change in hydrophobicity profoundly affects the subcellular localization of KASH5. Through a series of amino acid substitution studies, we show that the L535Q substitution perturbs KASH5 localization to the ER and ONM and instead results in mistargeting to the mitochondria membrane. We suggest that this mislocalization accounts for the infertility and azoospermia phenotype in patients.
Typhoon storm surge in the southeast Chinese mainland modulated by ENSO
Authors: Feng Xingru , Li Mingjie , Li Yuanlong , Yu Fujiang , Yang Dezhou , Gao Guandong , Xu Lingjing , Yin Baoshu
Published: May 2021

In the past decade (2010–2019), the annual maximum typhoon storm surge (AMTSS) accounted for 46.6% of the total direct economic loss caused by marine disasters in Chinese mainland, but its prediction in advance is challenging. By analyzing records of 23 tide-gauge stations, we found that the AMTSSs in Shanghai, Zhejiang and Fujian show significant positive correlations with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). For the 1987–2016 period, the maximum correlation is achieved at Pingtan station, where correlation coefficient between the AMTSS and Niño-3.4 is 0.55. The AMTSS occurring in El Niño years are stronger than those in non-El Niño years by 9–35 cm in these areas. Further analysis suggests that a developing El Niño can greatly modulate the behaviors of Northwest Pacific typhoons. Strong typhoons tend to make landfall in southeast China with stronger intensities and northward shifted landfall positions. This study indicates that the modulation effect by ENSO may provide potential predictability for the AMTSS, which is useful for the early alert and reduction of storm surge damages.
Distribution of adenylyl cyclase/cAMP phosphodiesterase gene, CAPE, in streptophytes reproducing via motile sperm
Authors: Yamamoto Chiaki , Takahashi Fumio , Ooe Yosuke , Shirahata Haruto , Shibata Aika , Kasahara Masahiro
Published: May 2021

We recently isolated a novel adenylyl cyclase/cAMP phosphodiesterase gene from the liverwort, Marchantia polymorpha. The protein encoded by this gene has a class III adenylyl cyclase (AC) in the C-terminal domain and class I phosphodiesterase (PDE) in the N-terminal domain; therefore, we named it CAPE (COMBINED AC with PDE). CAPE protein is likely involved in spermatogenesis and sperm motility due to its tissue-specific expression pattern in M. polymorpha and the distribution of CAPE genes in streptophytes. However, little is known about the distribution of CAPE in gymnosperms that use motile sperm for fertilization, such as cycads and ginkgo. The present study aimed to isolate CAPE genes from the cycad, Cycas revoluta, the ginkgo, Ginkgo biloba, and the hornwort, Anthoceros agerestis. Sequences with high homology to CAPE were obtained from these species. Our analyses revealed that all plant taxonomic groups reproducing via motile sperm possessed CAPE, whereas those that do not produce motile sperm did not possess CAPE, with one exception in gymnosperm Cupressales. The phylogenic distribution of CAPE almost corresponds to the evolutionary history of motile sperm production and further suggests that CAPE may be involved in sexual reproduction process using motile sperm in streptophytes.
Body temperature and esthesia in individuals with stroke
Authors: da Silva Dias Caren , Alfieri Fábio Marcon , dos Santos Artur Cesar Aquino , Battistella Linamara Rizzo
Published: May 2021

Patients with sequelae of stroke commonly report somatosensory losses. It is believed that body temperature may be associated with tactile sensibility and sensorimotor recovery of these patients. Demonstrate the associations among tactile sensibility, cutaneous temperature, subjective temperature perception, and sensorimotor recovery of patients with stroke sequelae. 86 patients with stroke sequelae were included. Patients had standardized regions of interest (ROIs) assessed with infrared thermography (FLIR T650SC) and monofilaments esthesiometry, and global motor recovery was evaluated with Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA). The presence of self-reported perception of temperature difference was used to divide the participants into two groups of 43 patients, and correlation tests were applied to establish correlations among variables. There is no clinically relevant association between tactile sensibility and cutaneous temperature of the foot, regardless of the subjective sensation of temperature changes. Sensorimotor recovery evaluated by FMA is associated with the difference of sensibility between both sides of the body (p < 0.001), as well as with the difference of tactile sensibility (p < 0.001). A clinically significant association between the difference of cutaneous temperature and tactile sensibility was not found, regardless of the presence or absence of subjective perception of such temperature difference. However, sensorimotor recovery is correlated with cutaneous temperature differences and tactile sensibility.
Characterizing the interactions between classical and community-aware centrality measures in complex networks
Authors: Rajeh Stephany , Savonnet Marinette , Leclercq Eric , Cherifi Hocine
Published: May 2021

Identifying vital nodes in networks exhibiting a community structure is a fundamental issue. Indeed, community structure is one of the main properties of real-world networks. Recent works have shown that community-aware centrality measures compare favorably with classical measures agnostic about this ubiquitous property. Nonetheless, there is no clear consensus about how they relate and in which situation it is better to use a classical or a community-aware centrality measure. To this end, in this paper, we perform an extensive investigation to get a better understanding of the relationship between classical and community-aware centrality measures reported in the literature. Experiments use artificial networks with controlled community structure properties and a large sample of real-world networks originating from various domains. Results indicate that the stronger the community structure, the more appropriate the community-aware centrality measures. Furthermore, variations of the degree and community size distribution parameters do not affect the results. Finally, network transitivity and community structure strength are the most significant drivers controlling the interactions between classical and community-aware centrality measures.
Supplementation of Lactobacillus early in life alters attention bias to threat in piglets
Authors: Verbeek Else , Dicksved Johan , Keeling Linda
Published: May 2021

Gut microbes play an important role in regulating brain processes and influence behaviour, cognition and emotional states in humans and rodents. Nevertheless, it is not known how ingestion of beneficial microbes modulates emotional states in piglets and whether it can improve welfare. Here we use an attention bias task to assess the effects of Lactobacillus reuteri ATCC-PTA-6475 and Lactobacillus plantarum L1-6 supplementation early in life on emotional states in 33 piglets compared to 31 placebo supplemented piglets. We hypothesized that Lactobacillus supplementation would reduce vigilance behaviour (head at shoulder height or higher) and attention (head oriented towards the threat) in response to an auditory threat. The results showed that the control group increased vigilance behaviour in response to the threat, but there was no increase in the probiotics group. Despite the increased vigilance, the control group paid less attention to the threat. One explanation may be that control piglets avoided looking in the direction of the threat just because they perceived it as more threatening, but further research is necessary to confirm this. In conclusion, Lactobacillus supplementation may be a suitable tool to reduce anxiety, promote a more appropriate response to a challenge and so improve welfare.
Metabolomics improves the histopathological diagnosis of asphyxial deaths: an animal proof-of-concept model
Authors: Locci Emanuela , Chighine Alberto , Noto Antonio , Ferino Giulio , Baldi Alfonso , Varvarousis Dimitrios , Xanthos Theodoros , De-Giorgio Fabio , Stocchero Matteo , d’Aloja Ernesto
Published: May 2021

The diagnosis of mechanical asphyxia remains one of the most difficult issues in forensic pathology. Asphyxia ultimately results in cardiac arrest (CA) and, as there are no specific markers, the differential diagnosis of primitive CA and CA secondary to asphyxiation relies on circumstantial details and on the pathologist experience, lacking objective evidence. Histological examination is currently considered the gold standard for CA post-mortem diagnosis. Here we present the comparative results of histopathology versus those previously obtained by 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) metabolomics in a swine model, originally designed for clinical purposes, exposed to two different CA causes, namely ventricular fibrillation and asphyxia. While heart and brain microscopical analysis could identify the damage induced by CA without providing any additional information on the CA cause, metabolomics allowed the identification of clearly different profiles between the two groups and showed major differences between asphyxiated animals with good and poor outcomes. Minute-by-minute plasma sampling allowed to associate these modifications to the pre-arrest asphyxial phase showing a clear correlation to the cellular effect of mechanical asphyxia reproduced in the experiment. The results suggest that metabolomics provides additional evidence beyond that obtained by histology and immunohistochemistry in the differential diagnosis of CA.