bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Social network analysis and consensus reaching process-driven group decision making method with distributed linguistic information
Authors: Jin Feifei , Yang Yu , Liu Jinpei , Zhu Jiaming
Published: August 2022

In group decision making with social network analysis (SNA), determining the weights of experts and constructing the consensus-reaching process (CRP) are hot topics. With respect to the generation of weights of experts, this paper firstly develops a distributed linguistic trust propagation operator and a path order weighted averaging (POWA) operator to explore the trust propagation and aggregation between indirectly connected experts, and the weights of experts can be derived by using relative node in-degree centrality in a complete distributed linguistic trust relationship matrix. Then, three levels of consensus are proposed, in which the most inconsistent evaluation information in distributed linguistic trust decision-making matrices can be pinpointed. Subsequently, the distance between experts’ evaluation information and collective evaluation information is designed to be applied as the adjustment cost in CRP. Finally, a novel feedback mechanism supported by the minimum adjustment cost is activated until the group consensus degree reaches the predefined threshold. The novelties of this paper are as follows: (1) the proposed POWA considers the trust value as well as the propagation efficiency of trust path when aggregating the trust relationship in SNA; (2) the consensus reaching mechanism can gradually improve the value of group consensus degree by continuously adjusting the most inconsistent evaluation information.
Teaching Gender and Sexual Diversity in Aotearoa New Zealand: How Hierarchies and Surveillance Shape What is Possible
Authors: Graham Katie , Nairn Karen , Treharne Gareth J.
Published: August 2022

The ways that gender and sexuality are included within secondary school teaching has implications for students’ understandings and ongoing wellbeing. In this research we interviewed nine educators who work in secondary schools in Te Wai Pounamu (the South Island of Aotearoa/New Zealand) about how they approach gender and sexuality within their teaching and what informs these approaches. Foucauldian discourse analysis was used to analyse the interview data. Educators’ approaches to gender and sexuality were shaped by the subject(s) they teach, educational context, and subjectivity in relation to their own gender and sexuality. Educators were conscious of the systems of hierarchy and surveillance within education settings, which often limited their willingness to include content that explored gender and sexual diversity. These findings help inform efforts to create more inclusive school environments and suggest that educators need to feel safe including diverse discourses of gender and sexuality within their teaching.
Novel DEMON Spectra Analysis Techniques and Empirical Knowledge Based Reference Criterion for Acoustic Signal Classification
Authors: Hashmi Muhammad Abdur Rehman , Raza Rana Hammad
Published: August 2022

This paper presents some novel methods to estimate a vessel’s number of shafts, course, speed and classify it using the underwater acoustic noise it generates. A classification framework as well as a set of reference parameters for comparison are put forth. Identifying marine traffic in surroundings is an important task for vessels in an open sea. Vessels in vicinity can be identified using their signatures. One of the typical signatures emitted by a vessel is its acoustic measurements. The raw sonar data consisting of the acoustic signatures is generally observed manually by sonar operators for suggesting class of query vessel. The valuable information that can be extracted from the recorded acoustic signature includes shaft revolutions per minute (SRPM), number of blades (NOB), number of shafts, course and speed etc. Expert sonar operators use their empirical knowledge to estimate a vessel’s SRPM and NOB. Based on this information vessel classification is performed. Empirical knowledge comes with experience, and the manual process is prone to human error. To make the process systematic, calculation of the parameters of the received acoustic samples can be visually analyzed using Detection of Envelope Modulation on Noise (DEMON) spectra. Reported research mostly focuses on SRPM and NOB. Parameters such as number of shafts and vessel course and speed can effectively aid the vessel classification process. This paper makes three novel contributions in this area. Firstly, some novel DEMON spectra analysis techniques are proposed to estimate a water vessel’s number of shafts, speed, and relative course. Secondly, this paper presents a classification framework that uses the features extracted from DEMON spectra and compares them with a reference set. Thirdly, a novel set of reference parameters are provided that aid classification into categories of large merchant ship type 1, large merchant ship type 2, large merchant ship type 3, medium merchant ship, oiler, car carrier, cruise ship, fishing boat and fishing trawler. The proposed analysis and classification techniques were assessed through trials with 877 real acoustic signatures recorded under varying conditions of ship’s speed and sea state. The classification trials revealed a high accuracy of 94.7%.
A Nine-Level Switched-Capacitor Step-Up Inverter with Low Voltage Stress
Authors: Wang Yaoqiang , Ye Juncheng , Wang Kaige , Nie Fuquan , Li Gen , Liang Jun
Published: August 2022

This paper proposes a nine-level switched-capacitor step-up inverter (9LSUI) which can achieve a quadruple voltage gain with single dc source. Differing from other switched-capacitor inverters, the voltage stress of switches is effectively reduced due to the elimination of H-bridge, and the peak inverse voltage of all switches is kept within 2Vdc. In addition, the proposed inverter is able to integrate inductive load, and the capacitor voltage self-balancing can be achieved without any auxiliary circuits. Moreover, the topology structure can be flexibly extended to raise the output levels, and the peak inverse voltage of switches can remain constant with the increase of sub-modules in the extended structure. Comprehensive comparisons are performed to verify the outstanding advantages of the proposed inverter. Finally, the steady-state and dynamic performance of the proposed inverter is validated through an experimental prototype, and the experimental results are provided to prove the theoretical analysis.
Species richness, relative abundance and occupancy of ground-dwelling mammals denote the ineffectiveness of chimpanzee as flagship species
Authors: Sun Ping , Umuntunundi Prosper , Wronski Torsten
Published: August 2022

In conservation biology, flagship species are defined as species that can raise support for biodiversity conservation in a given place or social context. In the newly established Gishwati–Mukura National Park in Rwanda, the Eastern chimpanzee was considered such an ambassador. To test whether the flagship species concept was effective in the park, we studied species richness, relative abundance, and species distribution (occupancy) of medium- to large-sized, ground-dwelling mammals using camera trapping technology. The impact of three environmental and three anthropogenic variables on species distribution was investigated and the ecological diversity of the fauna in the national park assessed. Over a period of 9 months, two 4 × 4 camera trapping grids were deployed in Gishwati and Mukura Forest. Sampling effort in each forest equated to 32 and 29 camera trapping locations, yielding 258 and 242 independent photographic events of eight and six species, respectively. In both forests, the Emin's giant poached rat was the most frequently encountered species, while all other species showed high relative abundance only in Gishwati Forest. The relative abundance of the endangered Eastern chimpanzee in Gishwati Forest was 0.54, the estimated occupancy was 0.31. Single-species, single-season occupancy models revealed that forest cover, altitude and distance to forest edge influenced the detectability of L'Hoest's monkey and squirrel species, while no effect was found on their occupancy. Notably, no larger herbivore or carnivore species were observed in the park, while the flagship species, i.e., the Eastern chimpanzee, was relatively abundant. Moreover, in both forests, all detected carnivores were small- to medium-sized, suggesting a meso-predator release phenomenon, i.e., populations of medium-sized predators increased after the removal of larger, top carnivores, due to relaxed competition. It appears that the prioritization of the flagship species resulted in the neglect of other mammalian species, leading eventually into the demise of entire functional guilds. Based on these results, the Gishwati–Mukura NP was categorized as a ‘depleted forest’. We, therefore, strongly object chimpanzees as a suitable flagship species—at least in the Gishwati–Mukura NP—and recommend collating more knowledge on the release of meso-predators and the loss of forest ungulates to improve their future conservation in Afro-montane forest habitats.
An energy-aware application module for the fog-based internet of military things
Authors: Bichi Bashir Yusuf , Islam Saif ul , Kademi Anas Maazu , Ahmad Ishfaq
Published: August 2022

Smart devices in various application areas are becoming increasingly prevalent for efficient handling of multiple critical activities. One such area of interest is high-security militarized environments. Due to military zones’ harsh and unpredictable nature, monitoring devices deployed in such environments must operate without power interruption for extended time periods. Therefore, it is essential to choose an appropriate application design for operating these “things” in the internet of things (IoT) environment such that energy can be conserved throughout the operating span of an application. This paper presents two application modules and analyzes their performance in terms of energy conservation considering a military-based IoT-Fog architecture. The two modules are: A sequential application module, and a master-worker application module. Experimental results show that the master-worker module incurs lower energy consumption and communication overhead than the sequential application module. Significantly, the master-worker module exhibits a lower delay in tuple execution by almost four milliseconds while also accounting for lower simulation time and higher network utilization. The module achieves significant savings in energy consumption, making it more effective in handling smart devices.
A note on means-end reasoning: knowledge, reasons and fate
Authors: Garrett Brian
Published: August 2022

In this note, I argue that knowledge of an action’s effect undermines an agent’s reason to act. This undermining occurs in some cases of bringing about the past, but also in some cases of forwards causation. I consider the suggestion that it is not knowledge but truth that undermines reasons to act, giving rise to the spectre of fatalism. Thankfully, this spectre can be banished.
Interacting nonlinear reinforced stochastic processes: Synchronization or non-synchronization
Authors: Crimaldi Irene , Louis Pierre-Yves , Minelli Ida G.
Published: August 2022

The rich-get-richer rule reinforces actions that have been frequently chosen in the past. What happens to the evolution of individuals’ inclinations to choose an action when agents interact? Interaction tends to homogenize, while each individual dynamics tends to reinforce its own position. Interacting stochastic systems of reinforced processes have recently been considered in many papers, in which the asymptotic behavior is proven to exhibit almost sure synchronization. In this paper we consider models where, even if interaction among agents is present, absence of synchronization may happen because of the choice of an individual nonlinear reinforcement. We show how these systems can naturally be considered as models for coordination games or technological or opinion dynamics.
On images of subshifts under embeddings of symbolic varieties
Authors: PHUNG XUAN KIEN
Published: August 2022

We show that the image of a subshift X under various injective morphisms of symbolic algebraic varieties over monoid universes with algebraic variety alphabets is a subshift of finite type, respectively a sofic subshift, if and only if so is X. Similarly, let G be a countable monoid and let A, B be Artinian modules over a ring. We prove that for every closed subshift submodule
$\Sigma \subset A^G$
and every injective G-equivariant uniformly continuous module homomorphism
$\tau \colon \! \Sigma \to B^G$
, a subshift
$\Delta \subset \Sigma $
is of finite type, respectively sofic, if and only if so is the image
$\tau (\Delta )$
. Generalizations for admissible group cellular automata over admissible Artinian group structure alphabets are also obtained.
Challenges to the Europeanisation of work-care policies in the Western Balkans
Authors: Dobrotić Ivana
Published: August 2022

This article explores work-care policy development in Western Balkans, focusing on a critical assessment of the potential of the European Union’s policy framework to (re)shape the policies adopted in Western Balkans and boost gender equality in employment and care. Two policy measures at the centre of the European agenda are in focus: parenting leaves and early childhood education and care. The EU’s employment-oriented policy framework has met underdeveloped childcare services network and mother-centred and stratifying leave policies in Western Balkans, providing ample space for improvements regarding gender imbalance in care and employment. While the EU policy framework may provide an important push factor towards introducing gender-equalising policies in Western Balkans, it can also bring minimum adjustments. The EU’s ambiguous work-care policy framework, weak legitimacy of gender equality agenda and weak fiscal capacities in Western Balkans, and uncertainties about EU membership prospects may hamper progress towards more inclusive and gender-equal work-care policies.
The impact of increasing the availability of lower energy foods for home delivery and socio-economic position: a randomised control trial examining effects on meal energy intake and later energy intake
Authors: Langfield Tess , Jones Andrew , Robinson Eric
Published: August 2022

Increasing the availability of lower energy food options is a promising public health approach. However, it is unclear the extent to which availability interventions may result in consumers later ‘compensating’ for reductions in energy intake caused by selecting lower energy food options and to what extent these effects may differ based on socio-economic position (SEP). Our objective was to examine the impact of increasing availability of lower energy meal options on immediate meal energy intake and subsequent energy intake in participants of higher v. lower SEP. In a within-subjects design, seventy-seven UK adults ordered meals from a supermarket ready meal menu with standard (30 %) and increased (70 %) availability of lower energy options. The meals were delivered to be consumed at home, with meal intake measured using the Digital Photography of Foods Method. Post-meal compensation was measured using food diaries to determine self-reported energy intake after the meal and the next day. Participants consumed significantly less energy (196 kcal (820 kJ), 95 % CI 138, 252) from the menu with increased availability of lower energy options v. the standard availability menu (P < 0·001). There was no statistically significant evidence that this reduction in energy intake was substantially compensated for (33 % compensated, P = 0·57). The effects of increasing availability of lower energy food items were similar in participants from lower and higher SEP. Increasing the availability of lower energy food options is likely to be an effective and equitable approach to reducing energy intake which may contribute to improving diet and population health.
Effect of combining organic manure and inorganic fertilisers on maize–bush bean intercropping
Authors: Ndengu Gift , Mponela Powell , Chataika Barthlomew , Desta Lulseged Tamene , Chirwa Rowland , Sileshi Gudeta G.
Published: August 2022

In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), farmers intercrop common beans with maize but apply inorganic or organic fertilisers targeting only maize. Effects of this practice on bush bean yield have not been fully evaluated with respect to input use and compatibility when intercropped with maize. An on-farm trial managed by smallholder community members was conducted to assess the influence of various soil fertility management options and cropping systems on the yield of two bush bean genotypes (SER45 and SER83) in two agro-ecological zones of Malawi. The farmer-managed trials were laid out in split-plot design, with the bean genotypes as main plots and a combination of the soil fertility management options (i.e., no input, manure, fertiliser and fertiliser + manure) and cropping systems (i.e., sole crop and intercrop) as subplots. The trials were affected by terminal drought and dry spells, but results show that manure and fertiliser application enhanced the resilience of the drought-tolerant bean genotypes. The genotype SER45 was responsive to manure application in the sole crop, giving a 44.4% yield increase over no-manure application. In sole cropping with fertiliser plus manure, bean yields improved by 40.1% for SER45 and 78.3% for SER83 relative to the no-input control. Although sole cropping had higher bean yields, the treatment with manure and fertiliser had a higher land equivalence ratio for intercrop of 1.54 for SER45 and 1.32 for SER83 over sole cropping. These results show that, under smallholder farmer management, the climate adaptability of bush bean genotypes could be enhanced by the combined application of organic and inorganic fertilisers in maize–bean intercrop. The combined application also enhances whole-farm productivity of the common maize–bean intercrop practice than monocrop, hence is of benefit to most low-input smallholder farmers of SSA.
Geochronology and oxygen fugacity of the pelitic granulite from the Diwani hills, NE Gujarat (NW India)
Authors: Kumar Manish , Prakash D. , Singh C. K. , Yadav M. K. , Tewari S. , Singh Pradip K. , Mahanta B.
Published: August 2022

The Diwani hills are located SE of Balaram–Abu Road in the Banaskantha district of north Gujarat. The crystalline rocks of the Diwani hill area are a diverse assemblage of Precambrian metamorphic and igneous rocks. These rocks are petrologically more complex and date back to the Aravallis or earlier. The mineralogical assemblages such as grt–sp–opx–qz of these rocks indicate their origin in anhydrous or dry conditions, implying metamorphism under pyroxene granulite facies. These granulitic rocks were subjected to Delhi orogenic deformation and were later intruded by the Erinpura granite. Textural and microstructural relationships, mineral chemistry, P–T–X pseudosection modelling and the oxidation state of pelitic granulites from the Diwani hill area of north Gujarat are all part of the current approach. The winTWQ program and pseudosection modelling in the NCKFMASHTO model system utilizing Perple_X software were used to restrict the P–T evolution of these pelitic granulites. The unification of these estimates shows that the pelitic granulites reached their pressure and temperature maxima at 8.6 kbar and 770 °C, respectively. The oxygen fugacity (log fO2) versus temperature computations at 6.2 kbar revealed log fO2–T values of −13.0 and 765 °C, respectively. The electron microprobe dating of monazite grains separated from the granulites of the Diwani hills yields ages ranging from 769 Ma to 855 Ma. The electron microprobe dating presented here from the Diwani hills provides evidence for a Neoproterozoic (Tonian) metamorphic event in the Aravalli–Delhi Mobile Belt.
The Politics of the Social Biographical Approach to Working-Class Leaders
Authors: Nolan Melanie
Published: August 2022

In this paper, I consider John French's biography,Lula and His Politics of Cunning: From Metalworker to President of Brazil(2020). French discusses his methodology, which he characterizes as “a social biographical approach”. I argue that this methodology is already in historians’ toolkit. Historians writing biography seem to start with first premises rather than building on what went before. I thus contextualize the methodology, situating French's biography of Lula within more general shifts in approaches to biography.
Civilian moral injury: associations with trauma type and high-frequency heart rate variability in two trauma-exposed community-based samples
Authors: Lathan Emma C. , Powers Abigail , Kottakis Anna , Guelfo Alfonsina , Siegle Greg J. , Turner Jessica A. , Turner Matthew D. , Yakkanti Vijwala , Jain Jahnvi , Mekawi Yara , Teer Andrew P. , Currier Joseph M. , Fani Negar
Published: August 2022

Background

Moral injury exposure (MIE) and distress (MID) may indirectly affect the relationship between trauma exposure and alterations in autonomic regulation [assessed via high-frequency heart rate variability (hfHRV)] in civilians, but this has not been tested in prior research. We conducted two exploratory studies to examine trauma types' associations with MIE and MID among civilian medical patients (Study 1) and explore how these facets may indirectly affect the relationship between trauma type and hfHRV among civilians seeking mental health services (Study 2).

Methods

Participants recruited from a public hospital and/or community advertisements (Study 1, n = 72, 87.5% Black, 83.3% women; Study 2, n = 46, 71.7% Black, 97.8% women) completed measures assessing trauma type, MIE, and MID. In Study 1, trauma types that emerged as significant correlates of MIE and MID were entered into separate linear regression analyses. Trauma types identified were included as predictors in indirect effects models with MIE or MID as the mediator and resting hfHRV (assayed via electrocardiography) as the outcome.

Results

Childhood sexual abuse emerged as the only significant predictor of MIE, b = 0.38, p < 0.001; childhood sexual abuse, b = 0.26, p < 0.05, and adulthood sexual assault, b = 0.23, p < 0.05 were significant predictors of MID. Participants with greater MIE and MID demonstrated lower hfHRV. Adulthood sexual assault showed an indirect effect on hfHRV through MID, B = −0.10, s.e. = 0.06, 95%CI (−0.232 to −0.005).

Conclusions

Moral injury was uniquely associated with sexual violence and lower hfHRV in civilians. Data highlight moral injury as a pathway through which autonomic dysregulation may emerge and its salience for trauma treatment selection.
A multi-criteria decision analysis on the value of nintedanib for interstitial lung diseases
Authors: Zozaya Néboa , Arrizubieta Basterrechea Maria Iciar , Bollo Elena , Castellví Iván , Espín Jaime , Ortego Norberto , Poveda-Andrés José Luis , Rodríguez Portal José Antonio , Rivero Agustín , Marcos-Rodríguez José Antonio , Verde Luis
Published: August 2022

Objectives

Our aim was to assess the value of nintedanib for non-idiopathic progressive fibrosing interstitial lung disease (non-IPF PF-ILD) and systemic sclerosis-associated ILD (SSc-ILD) in the Spanish context, using a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA).

Methods

Following an adaptation of the Evidence and Value: Impact on DEcision Making (EVIDEM) MCDA methodology, the estimated value of nintedanib was obtained by means of an additive linear model that combined individual weights (100-points distribution) of criteria with the individual scoring of nintedanib in each criterion for every indication, assigned by a multidisciplinary committee of twelve clinicians, patients, pharmacists, and decision-makers. To assess the reproducibility, an alternative weighting method was applied, as well as a re-test of weights and scores at a different moment of time.

Results

The experts committee recognized nintedanib as an intervention with a positive value contribution in comparison to placebo for the treatment of non-IPF PF-ILD (0.50 ± 0.16, on a scale from −1 to 1) and SSc-ILD (0.40 ± 0.12), diseases which were considered as very severe and with high unmet needs. The drug was perceived as a treatment that provides an added therapeutic benefit for patients (0.06–0.07), given its proven clinical efficacy (0.05–0.06), slight improvements in patient-reported outcomes (0.01–0.02), and similar safety profile than placebo (−0.04–0.00), which will likely be positioned as a recommended therapy in the next clinical practice guidelines updates.

Conclusions

Under this increasingly used methodology, nintedanib has shown to provide a positive value estimate for non-IPF PF-ILD and SSc-ILD when compared to placebo in Spain.
International order and racial capitalism: The standardization of ‘free labour’ exploitation in international law
Authors: Hammoudi Ali
Published: August 2022

The ‘question of labour’ and its exploitation in the Third World has not been given ample consideration by contemporary international legal scholars in their historical examinations of the making of the international order. This article revisits the history of the interwar institutions of the League of Nations, particularly the International Labour Organization (ILO), to argue that international law reformulated imperialism through its re-articulation of labour relations, beginning with its quest to suppress slavery and ultimately regulate forced labour in Africa. International institutions contributed to the valorization of ‘free wage labour’ in Africa and the Third World through its international ‘native labour’ policies, the development of international labour standards, and especially the passing of the 1930 Forced Labour Convention. The article argues that international institutions safeguarded the processes of capitalist racial/colonial accumulation and labour exploitation by ideologically dis-embedding the violence of slavery and forced labour from ‘free wage labour’, veiling the structural unity and totality of the international legal order with racial capitalism. Drawing on the ‘Black radical/internationalist tradition’, I propose an expansive critique of the international order as a form of ‘enslavement’ to the structures of capitalism, so as to adequately expose international law’s structural embeddedness with labour exploitation, white supremacy, and racial capitalism.
Tricuspid valve repair with papillary muscle approximation for congenital tricuspid valve regurgitation due to tricuspid valve dysplasia
Authors: Maeda Toshi , Ikeda Tadashi , Yoshizawa Kosuke
Published: August 2022

We experienced a case of a 1-year-old female with congenital tricuspid valve regurgitation caused by tricuspid valve dysplasia. The anterior and septal leaflets were particularly dysplastic, and leaflet tethering was observed. The anterior papillary muscle was approximated to the interventricular septum, and a commissural edge-to-edge suture was inserted on the anteroseptal commissure. Tricuspid valve regurgitation improved to be trivial after surgery and has not worsened 1 year later. Papillary muscle approximation could be one of the feasible reparative techniques for congenital tricuspid valve regurgitation.
From unified phrase representation to bilingual phrase alignment in an unsupervised manner
Authors: Liu Jingshu , Morin Emmanuel , Peña Saldarriaga Sebastian , Lark Joseph
Published: August 2022

Significant advances have been achieved in bilingual word-level alignment, yet the challenge remains for phrase-level alignment. Moreover, the need for parallel data is a critical drawback for the alignment task. This work proposes a system that alleviates these two problems: a unified phrase representation model using cross-lingual word embeddings as input and an unsupervised training algorithm inspired by recent works on neural machine translation. The system consists of a sequence-to-sequence architecture where a short sequence encoder constructs cross-lingual representations of phrases of any length, then an LSTM network decodes them w.r.t their contexts. After training with comparable corpora and existing key phrase extraction, our encoder provides cross-lingual phrase representations that can be compared without further transformation. Experiments on five data sets show that our method obtains state-of-the-art results on the bilingual phrase alignment task and improves the results of different length phrase alignment by a mean of 8.8 points in MAP.
Financial shocks and the relative dynamics of tangible and intangible investment: Evidence from the euro area
Authors: Gareis Johannes , Mayer Eric
Published: August 2022

We develop an extended real business cycle model with financially constrained firms and non-pledgeable intangible capital. Based on a model-consistent series for firms’ borrowing conditions, we find, within a structural vector autoregression framework, that, in response to an adverse financial shock, tangible investment falls more than intangible investment. This positive co-movement between tangible and intangible investment as well as the relative resilience of intangible investment pose a challenge for the theoretical model. We show that investment-specific adjustment costs help in reconciling the model with the observed empirical evidence. The estimation of the theoretical model using a Bayesian limited information approach yields support for the presence of much larger adjustment costs for intangible investment than for tangible investment.
Inhibition of the m6A reader IGF2BP2 as a strategy against T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia
Authors: Feng Panpan , Chen Dawei , Wang Xia , Li Yanxia , Li Zhenyu , Li Boya , Zhang Yupeng , Li Wei , Zhang Jingru , Ye Jingjing , Zhao Baobing , Li Jingxin , Ji Chunyan
Published: August 2022

T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is an aggressive malignant leukemia with extremely limited treatment for relapsed patients. N6‐methyladenosine (m6A) reader insulin-like growth factor 2 mRNA-binding protein 2 (IGF2BP2) participates in the initiation and growth of cancers by communicating with various targets. Here, we found IGF2BP2 was highly expressed in T-ALL. Gain and loss of IGF2BP2 demonstrated IGF2BP2 was essential for T-ALL cell proliferation in vitro and loss of IGF2BP2 prolonged animal survival in a human T-ALL xenograft model. Mechanistically, IGF2BP2 directly bound to T-ALL oncogene NOTCH1 via an m6A dependent manner. Furthermore, we identified a small-molecule IGF2BP2 inhibitor JX5 and treatment of T-ALL with JX5 showed similar functions as knockdown of IGF2BP2. These findings not only shed light on the role of IGF2BP2 in T-ALL, but also provide an alternative γ‑Secretase inhibitors (GSI) therapy to treat T-ALL.
High-resolution structural variant profiling of myelodysplastic syndromes by optical genome mapping uncovers cryptic aberrations of prognostic and therapeutic significance
Authors: Yang Hui , Garcia-Manero Guillermo , Sasaki Koji , Montalban-Bravo Guillermo , Tang Zhenya , Wei Yue , Kadia Tapan , Chien Kelly , Rush Diana , Nguyen Ha , Kalia Awdesh , Nimmakayalu Manjunath , Bueso-Ramos Carlos , Kantarjian Hagop , Medeiros L. Jeffrey , Luthra Rajyalakshmi , Kanagal-Shamanna Rashmi
Published: August 2022

Chromosome banding analysis (CBA) remains the standard-of-care for structural variant (SV) assessment in MDS. Optical genome mapping (OGM) is a novel, non-sequencing-based technique for high-resolution genome-wide SV profiling (SVP). We explored the clinical value of SVP by OGM in 101 consecutive, newly diagnosed MDS patients from a single-center, who underwent standard-of-care cytogenetic and targeted NGS studies. OGM detected 383 clinically significant, recurrent and novel SVs. Of these, 224 (51%) SVs, seen across 34% of patients, were cryptic by CBA (included rearrangements involving MECOM, NUP98::PRRX2, KMT2A partial tandem duplications among others). SVP decreased the proportion of normal karyotype by 16%, identified complex genomes (17%), chromothripsis (6%) and generated informative results in both patients with insufficient metaphases. Precise gene/exon-level mapping allowed assessment of clinically relevant biomarkers (TP53 allele status, KMT2A-PTD) without additional testing. SV data was complementary to NGS. When applied in retrospect, OGM results changed the comprehensive cytogenetic scoring system (CCSS) and R-IPSS risk-groups in 21% and 17% patients respectively with an improved prediction of prognosis. By multivariate analysis, CCSS by OGM only (not CBA), TP53 mutation and BM blasts independently predicted survival. This is the first and largest study reporting the value of combined SVP and NGS for MDS prognostication.
Bound vortex light in an emulated topological defect in photonic lattices
Authors: Sheng Chong , Wang Yao , Chang Yijun , Wang Huiming , Lu Yongheng , Yang Yingyue , Zhu Shining , Jin Xianmin , Liu Hui
Published: August 2022

Topology have prevailed in a variety of branches of physics. And topological defects in cosmology are speculated akin to dislocation or disclination in solids or liquid crystals. With the development of classical and quantum simulation, such speculative topological defects are well-emulated in a variety of condensed matter systems. Especially, the underlying theoretical foundations can be extensively applied to realize novel optical applications. Here, with the aid of transformation optics, we experimentally demonstrated bound vortex light on optical chips by simulating gauge fields of topological linear defects in cosmology through position-dependent coupling coefficients in a deformed photonic graphene. Furthermore, these types of photonic lattices inspired by topological linear defects can simultaneously generate and transport optical vortices, and even can control the orbital angular momentum of photons on integrated optical chips.
Astrocyte-derived hepcidin controls iron traffic at the blood-brain-barrier via regulating ferroportin 1 of microvascular endothelial cells
Authors: You Linhao , Yu Pan-Pan , Dong Tianyu , Guo Wenhuan , Chang Shiyang , Zheng Bingjie , Ci Yunzhe , Wang Fudi , Yu Peng , Gao Guofen , Chang Yan-Zhong
Published: August 2022

Brain iron dysregulation associated with aging is closely related to motor and cognitive impairments in neurodegenerative diseases. The regulation of iron traffic at the blood-brain barrier (BBB) is crucial to maintain brain iron homeostasis. However, the specific mechanism has not been clarified in detail. Using various conditional gene knockout and overexpression mice, as well as cell co-culture of astrocyte and bEND.3 in the transwell, we found that astrocyte hepcidin knockdown increased the expression of ferroportin 1 (FPN1) of brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMVECs), and that it also induced brain iron overload and cognitive decline in mice. Moreover, BMVECs FPN1 knockout decreased iron contents in the cortex and hippocampus. Furthermore, hepcidin regulates the level of FPN1 of BMVECs with conditional gene overexpression in vivo and in vitro. Our results revealed that astrocytes responded to the intracellular high iron level and increased the secretion of hepcidin, which in turn diminished iron uptake at BBB from circulation through directly regulating FPN1 of BMVECs. Our results demonstrate that FPN1 of BMVECs is a gateway for iron transport into the brain from circulation, and the controller of this gateway is hepcidin secreted by astrocyte at its endfeet through physical contact with BMVECs. This regulation is indeed the major checkpoint for iron transport from the blood circulation to the brain. This study delineates the pathway and regulation of iron entry into the brain, providing potential therapeutic targets for iron dysregulation-related neurological diseases.
Developmental modeling of hepatogenesis using obese iPSCs-hepatocyte differentiation uncovers pathological features
Authors: Varghese Divya Saro , Alawathugoda Thilina T. , Sheikh Muhammad Abid , Challagandla Anil Kumar , Emerald Bright Starling , Ansari Suraiya A.
Published: August 2022

Obesity is a multigene disorder. However, in addition to genetic factors, environmental determinants also participate in developing obesity and related pathologies. Thus, obesity could be best described as a combination of genetic and environmental perturbations often having its origin during the early developmental period. Environmental factors such as energy-dense food and sedentary lifestyle are known to be associated with obesogenicity. However, the combinatorial effects of gene-environment interactions are not well understood. Understanding the role of multiple genetic variations leading to subtle gene expression changes is not practically possible in monogenic or high-fat-fed animal models of obesity. In contrast, human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) from individuals with familial obesity or an obesogenic genotype could serve as a good model system. Herein, we have used hiPSCs generated from normal and genetically obese subjects and differentiated them into hepatocytes in cell culture. We show that hepatocytes from obese iPSCs store more lipids and show increased cell death than normal iPSCs. Whole transcriptome analyses in both normal and obese iPSCs treated with palmitate compared to control revealed LXR-RXR and hepatic fibrosis pathways were enriched among other pathways in obese iPSCs compared to normal iPSCs. Among other genes, increased CD36 and CAV1 expression and decreased expression of CES1 in obese iPSCs could have been responsible for excess lipid accumulation, resulting in differential expression of genes associated with hepatic fibrosis, a key feature of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Our results demonstrate that iPSCs derived from genetically obese subjects could serve as an excellent model to understand the effects of this multigene disorder on organ development and may uncover pathologies of NAFLD, which is highly associated with obesity.
Breast cancer cell-derived extracellular vesicles promote CD8+ T cell exhaustion via TGF-β type II receptor signaling
Authors: Xie Feng , Zhou Xiaoxue , Su Peng , Li Heyu , Tu Yifei , Du Jinjin , Pan Chen , Wei Xiang , Zheng Min , Jin Ke , Miao Liyan , Wang Chao , Meng Xuli , van Dam Hans , ten Dijke Peter , Zhang Long , Zhou Fangfang
Published: August 2022

Cancer immunotherapies have shown clinical success in various types of tumors but the patient response rate is low, particularly in breast cancer. Here we report that malignant breast cancer cells can transfer active TGF-β type II receptor (TβRII) via tumor-derived extracellular vesicles (TEV) and thereby stimulate TGF-β signaling in recipient cells. Up-take of extracellular vesicle-TβRII (EV-TβRII) in low-grade tumor cells initiates epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), thus reinforcing cancer stemness and increasing metastasis in intracardial xenograft and orthotopic transplantation models. EV-TβRII delivered as cargo to CD8+ T cells induces the activation of SMAD3 which we demonstrated to associate and cooperate with TCF1 transcription factor to impose CD8+ T cell exhaustion, resulting in failure of immunotherapy. The levels of TβRII+ circulating extracellular vesicles (crEV) appears to correlate with tumor burden, metastasis and patient survival, thereby serve as a non-invasive screening tool to detect malignant breast tumor stages. Thus, our findings not only identify a possible mechanism by which breast cancer cells can promote T cell exhaustion and dampen host anti-tumor immunity, but may also identify a target for immune therapy against the most devastating breast tumors.
Germanium silicon oxide achieves multi-coloured ultra-long phosphorescence and delayed fluorescence at high temperature
Authors: Chen Huai , Wei Mingyang , He Yantao , Abed Jehad , Teale Sam , Sargent Edward H. , Yang Zhenyu
Published: August 2022

Colour-tuned phosphors are promising for advanced security applications such as multi-modal anti-counterfeiting and data encryption. The practical adoption of colour-tuned phosphors requires these materials to be responsive to multiple stimuli (e.g., excitation wavelength, excitation waveform, and temperature) and exhibit excellent materials stability simultaneously. Here we report germanium silicon oxide (GSO) – a heavy-metal-free inorganic phosphor – that exhibits colour-tuned ultra-long phosphorescence and delayed fluorescence across a broad temperature range (300 – 500 K) in air. We developed a sol-gel processing strategy to prepare amorphous oxides containing homogeneously dispersed Si and Ge atoms. The co-existence of Ge and Si luminescent centres (LC) leads to an excitation-dependent luminescence change across the UV-to-visible region. GSO exhibits Si LC-related ultra-long phosphorescence at room-temperature and thermally activated delayed fluorescence at temperatures as high as 573 K. This long-lived PL is sensitized via the energy transfer from Ge defects to Si LCs, which provides PL lifetime tunability for GSO phosphors. The oxide scaffold of GSO offers 500-day materials stability in air; and 1-week stability in strong acidic and basic solutions. Using GSO/polymer hybrids, we demonstrated colour-tuned security tags whose emission wavelength and lifetime can be controlled via the excitation wavelength, and temperature, indicating promise in security applications.
A conflict between spatial selection and evidence accumulation in area LIP
Authors: Seideman Joshua A. , Stanford Terrence R. , Salinas Emilio
Published: August 2022

The lateral intraparietal area (LIP) contains spatially selective neurons that help guide eye movements and, according to numerous studies, do so by accumulating sensory evidence in favor of one choice (e.g., look left) or another (look right). To examine this functional link, we trained two monkeys on an urgent motion discrimination task, a task with which the evolution of both the recorded neuronal activity and the subject’s choice can be tracked millisecond by millisecond. We found that while choice accuracy increased steeply with increasing sensory evidence, at the same time, the LIP selection signal became progressively weaker, as if it hindered performance. This effect was consistent with the transient deployment of spatial attention to disparate locations away from the relevant sensory cue. The results demonstrate that spatial selection in LIP is dissociable from, and may even conflict with, evidence accumulation during informed saccadic choices.
Grafted hPSC-derived GABA-ergic interneurons regulate seizures and specific cognitive function in temporal lobe epilepsy
Authors: Upadhya Dinesh , Attaluri Sahithi , Liu Yan , Hattiangady Bharathi , Castro Olagide W. , Shuai Bing , Dong Yi , Zhang Su-Chun , Shetty Ashok K.
Published: August 2022

Interneuron loss/dysfunction contributes to spontaneous recurrent seizures (SRS) in chronic temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), and interneuron grafting into the epileptic hippocampus reduces SRS and improves cognitive function. This study investigated whether graft-derived gamma-aminobutyric acid positive (GABA-ergic) interneurons directly regulate SRS and cognitive function in a rat model of chronic TLE. Human pluripotent stem cell-derived medial ganglionic eminence-like GABA-ergic progenitors, engineered to express hM4D(Gi), a designer receptor exclusively activated by designer drugs (DREADDs) through CRISPR/Cas9 technology, were grafted into hippocampi of chronically epileptic rats to facilitate the subsequent silencing of graft-derived interneurons. Such grafting substantially reduced SRS and improved hippocampus-dependent cognitive function. Remarkably, silencing of graft-derived interneurons with a designer drug increased SRS and induced location memory impairment but did not affect pattern separation function. Deactivation of DREADDs restored both SRS control and object location memory function. Thus, transplanted GABA-ergic interneurons could directly regulate SRS and specific cognitive functions in TLE.
DNA barcode reference library for the West Sahara-Sahel reptiles
Authors: Velo-Antón Guillermo , Henrique Margarida , Liz André Vicente , Martínez-Freiría Fernando , Pleguezuelos Juan Manuel , Geniez Philippe , Crochet Pierre-André , Brito José Carlos
Published: August 2022

DNA barcode reference libraries are now continuously produced for the tree of life, which are essential pillars for the study of biological diversity. Yet, our knowledge about global diversity is largely limited in undersampled regions such as the largest warm desert, the Sahara-Sahel. This dataset provides a DNA barcode reference library for the reptiles of the Western Sahara-Sahel (WSS) and neighbouring countries across this region. It includes 760 barcodes from 133 reptile taxa, distributed in 23 families, and covering the intraspecific diversity of some species. A total of 84 species were collected in the WSS (83% of the total reptile species richness) over 18 overland field expeditions conducted since 2003. DNA barcodes resulted in a high success rate (95%) of species identification and barcoding gap analysis highlighted the effectiveness of the COI fragment as a barcode marker for the WSS reptiles. This dataset represents a comprehensive and reliable DNA reference library for the WSS, filling an important biodiversity gap across a remote and hard-to-sample region.
Development of microsatellites markers for the deep coral Madracis myriaster (Pocilloporidae: Anthozoa)
Authors: Ballesteros-Contreras Diana C. , Barrios Lina M. , Preziosi Richard
Published: August 2022

In 2013 Colombia made an important step towards the construction and management of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) by establishing the first Deep Corals National Park (PNNCP). Inside this MPA, the coral Madracis myriaster (Cnidaria: Pocilloporidae) was found as the main reef builder, offering habitat for many species of fish and invertebrates. In order to improve the study of deep-sea coral habitats, their connectivity and prospective management, nine new genetic markers (microsatellites) were developed for M. myriaster and tested in samples from PNNCP. We present the assessment of these markers, with a specificity for the deep coral, and its prospective use in future analysis for the PNNCP and other areas in the Caribbean and the Atlantic, where M. myriaster is reported. We also include an additional taxonomic analysis performed on samples of M. myriaster using scanning electron microscopy.
COVID-19 forecasts via stock market indicators
Authors: Liang Yi , Unwin James
Published: August 2022

We propose that technical analysis tools developed to give buy/sell signals in asset trading can be applied to analyze time series datasets in the natural sciences, and we show this explicitly for a study of WHO COVID-19 data. Notably, reliable short term forecasting can provide potentially lifesaving insights into logistical planning, and in particular, into the optimal allocation of resources such as hospital staff and equipment. By reinterpreting COVID-19 daily cases in terms of candlesticks, we are able to apply some of the most popular stock market technical indicators to obtain predictive power over the course of the pandemics. By providing a quantitative assessment of MACD, RSI, and candlestick analyses, we show their statistical significance in making predictions for both stock market data and WHO COVID-19 data. In particular, we show the utility of this novel approach by considering the identification of the beginnings of subsequent waves of the pandemic. Finally, our new methods are used to assess whether current health policies are impacting the growth in new COVID-19 cases.