bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The RUNX2 Transcription Factor Negatively Regulates SIRT6 Expression to Alter Glucose Metabolism in Breast Cancer Cells
Authors: Choe Moran , Brusgard Jessica L. , Chumsri Saranya , Bhandary Lekhana , Zhao Xianfeng Frank , Lu Song , Goloubeva Olga G. , Polster Brian M. , Fiskum Gary M. , Girnun Geoffrey D. , Kim Myoung Sook , Passaniti Antonino
Published: March 2015

Activation of genes promoting aerobic glycolysis and suppression of mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation is one of the hallmarks of cancer. The RUNX2 transcription factor mediates breast cancer (BC) metastasis to bone and is regulated by glucose availability. But, the mechanisms by which it regulates glucose metabolism and promotes an oncogenic phenotype are not known. RUNX2 expression in luminal BC cells correlated with lower estrogen receptor‐α (ERα) levels, anchorage‐independent growth, expression of glycolytic genes, increased glucose uptake, and sensitivity to glucose starvation, but not to inhibitors of oxidative phosphorylation. Conversely, RUNX2 knockdown in triple‐negative BC cells inhibited mammosphere formation and glucose dependence. RUNX2 knockdown resulted in lower LDHA, HK2, and GLUT1 glycolytic gene expression, but upregulation of pyruvate dehydrogenase‐A1 (PDHA1) mRNA and enzymatic activity, which was consistent with lower glycolytic potential. The NAD‐dependent histone deacetylase, SIRT6, a known tumor suppressor, was a critical regulator of these RUNX2‐mediated metabolic changes. RUNX2 expression resulted in elevated pAkt, HK2, and PDHK1 glycolytic protein levels that were reduced by ectopic expression of SIRT6. RUNX2 also repressed mitochondrial oxygen consumption rates (OCR), a measure of oxidative phosphorylation (respiration). Overexpression of SIRT6 increased respiration in RUNX2‐positive cells, but knockdown of SIRT6 in cells expressing low RUNX2 decreased respiration. RUNX2 repressed SIRT6 expression at both the transcriptional and post‐translational levels and endogenous SIRT6 expression was lower in malignant BC tissues or cell lines that expressed high levels of RUNX2. These results support a hypothesis whereby RUNX2‐mediated repression of the SIRT6 tumor suppressor regulates metabolic pathways that promote BC progression. J. Cell. Biochem. 116: 2210–2226, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Delineation of homogeneous hydrometeorological regions using wavelet‐based global fuzzy cluster analysis
Authors: Bharath R. , Srinivas V. V.
Published: March 2015

Identification of homogeneous hydrometeorological regions (HMRs) is necessary for various applications. Such regions are delineated by various approaches considering rainfall and temperature as two key variables. In conventional approaches, formation of regions is based on principal components (PCs)/statistics/indices determined from time series of the key variables at monthly and seasonal scales. An issue with use of PCs for regionalization is that they have to be extracted from contemporaneous records of hydrometeorological variables. Therefore, delineated regions may not be effective when the available records are limited over contemporaneous time period. A drawback associated with the use of statistics/indices is that they do not provide effective representation of the key variables when the records exhibit non‐stationarity. Consequently, the resulting regions may not be effective for the desired purpose. To address these issues, a new approach is proposed in this article. The approach considers information extracted from wavelet transformations of the observed multivariate hydrometeorological time series as the basis for regionalization by global fuzzy c‐means clustering procedure. The approach can account for dynamic variability in the time series and its non‐stationarity (if any). Effectiveness of the proposed approach in forming HMRs is demonstrated by application to India, as there are no prior attempts to form such regions over the country. Drought severity‐area‐frequency (SAF) curves are constructed corresponding to each of the newly formed regions for the use in regional drought analysis, by considering standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) as the drought indicator.
The Human Embryoid Body Cystic Core Exhibits Architectural Complexity Revealed by use of High Throughput Polymer Microarrays
Authors: Tomov Martin L. , Olmsted Zachary T. , Paluh Janet L.
Published: March 2015

In pluripotent stem cell differentiation, embryoid bodies (EBs) provide a three‐dimensional [3D] multicellular precursor in lineage specification. The internal structure of EBs is not well characterized yet is predicted to be an important parameter to differentiation. Here, we use custom SU‐8 molds to generate transparent lithography‐templated arrays of polydimethylsiloxane (LTA‐PDMS) for high throughput analysis of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) EB formation and internal architecture. EBs formed in 200 and 500 μm diameter microarray wells by use of single cells, 2D clusters, or 3D early aggregates were compared. We observe that 200 μm EBs are monocystic versus 500 μm multicystic EBs that contain macro, meso and microsized cysts. In adherent differentiation of 500 μm EBs, the multicystic character impairs the 3D to 2D transition creating non‐uniform monolayers. Our findings reveal that EB core structure has a size‐dependent character that influences its architecture and cell population uniformity during early differentiation.
Visualized absorption of anti‐atherosclerotic dipeptide, Trp‐His, in Sprague–Dawley rats by LC‐MS and MALDI‐MS imaging analyses
Authors: Tanaka Mitsuru , Hong Seong‐Min , Akiyama Sayaka , Hu Qing‐Qiang , Matsui Toshiro
Published: March 2015

Scope

The basic dipeptide, Trp‐His, was found to show an in vivo anti‐atherosclerotic effect when orally administered to apo E‐deficient mice. In addition, this dipeptide causes vasorelaxation in contracted rat aorta via suppression of intracellular Ca2+ signaling cascades. In this study, we attempted to determine whether Trp‐His can be absorbed after single oral administration in Sprague–Dawley (SD) rats.

Methods and results

Trp‐His and His‐Trp (10 or 50 mg/kg) was orally administered to 8‐week‐old male SD rats. Both peptides in plasma were assayed by LC‐MS/MS in combination with 2,4,6‐trinitrobenzene sulfonate derivatization technique. In vitro transport experiments using Caco‐2 cell monolayers were performed to evaluate the apparent permeability (Papp). A phytic acid‐aided MALDI‐MS imaging (MSI) was conducted to visualize the distribution of dipeptides in the rat intestinal membrane. Trp‐His was absorbed intact into SD rat blood, showing a maximal level at 1 h after administration at 10 mg/kg dose (Cmax, 28.7 ± 8.9 pmol/mL‐plasma; area under the curve, 71.3 ± 18.7 pmol·h/mL‐plasma). In contrast, His‐Trp was surprisingly not detected, although the Papp was compatible to that of Trp‐His. MSI analysis provided crucial evidence that Trp‐His was visualized in the overall intestinal membrane. The Trp‐His peptide was not visualized in the presence of Gly‐Sar, which is a model peptide that is transported via the intestinal proton‐coupled peptide transporter 1 (PepT1) transporter. The His‐Trp molecular ion was not observed at the intestinal membrane. The MSI analysis illustrated that there is no absorption of His‐Trp due to its unexpected hydrolysis by brush border proteases.

Conclusion

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating that the vasoactive Trp‐His is preferably transported across the rat intestinal membrane by PepT1 and is absorbed intact into the circulation. However, no absorption of His‐Trp, a reverse sequence of absorbable Trp‐His, is observed owing to hydrolysis by intestinal proteases. This suggests that the bioavailability of peptides may be determined in part by their protease resistance in the intestinal membrane.
30‐GHz CMOS voltage‐controlled oscillator using drain‐gate coupled transformer to minimize the influence of parasitic components
Authors: Lee Milim , Cho Sungwoong , Park Changkun
Published: March 2015

In this study, we propose a magnetically coupled drain‐gate technique for mm‐wave CMOS voltage‐controlled oscillator (VCO) applications. To implement the proposed technique, we use a transmission line transformer. Using the proposed technique, it was possible to easily isolate the gate bias of the transistor from the drain bias of the transistor. The gate bias can then be independent of the DC bias of the drain. Accordingly, the frequency can be tuned using the gate bias, whereas the typical VCO obtains the tuning range of the operating frequency using an additional varactor. Consequently, the number of required devices for the proposed VCO decreases and, hence, the chip size is reduced compared to that of the typical VCO. To verify the feasibility of the proposed structure, we designed the VCO using 110 nm RFCMOS technology. From the measured results, we successfully obtained the required tuning range and reduced chip size of the proposed VCO. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 57:1025–1027, 2015
Microwave photonic filter with a tunable nonperiodic multiple passband frequency response
Authors: Chan Erwin H. W.
Published: March 2015

A microwave photonic filter that can realize a multiple nonperiodic passband frequency response is presented. It is based on stimulated Brillouin scattering in an optical fiber. The novelty of the filter is that, it has multiple passbands, which can be widely and independently tuned. The filter also has a very wide bandwidth, only limited by the system component bandwidths, as the frequency response is not periodic. Experimental results are presented demonstrating a bandpass filter with two or three widely tunable passbands. Investigations on the effects of adding or removing one passband and tuning one passband frequency to the other passbands are also presented. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 57:1089–1092, 2015
Novel tunable branch‐line coupler for WLAN applications
Authors: Salehi Mohamad Reza , Noori Leila , Abiri Ebrahim
Published: March 2015

In this article, a tunable branch‐line coupler with a novel structure is designed to operate at 5.7GHz. A design method is based on miniaturization method with adjusting the resonance frequency. The proposed coupler without taped line feed structures operated at 5.62 GHz, and it has a size of 55.8 mm2 while its performance is reasonable. To improve the performance, the taped line feed structures are added. The wideband response exhibits that the proposed coupler acts properly with the spurious harmonics up to 11.4 GHz. In addition, at 5.7 GHz, the good insertion loss (2.3 dB) and coupling factor (2.6 dB) are obtained. The proposed coupler is simulated, fabricated, and measured. The results show that there is a good agreement between the simulation and measurement results. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 57:1081–1084, 2015
Broadband circularly polarized moon‐shaped monopole antenna
Authors: Hu Benyang , Nasimuddin  , Shen Zhongxiang
Published: March 2015

A moon‐shaped printed monopole antenna with modified ground plane is proposed for broadband circularly polarized (CP) radiation. Proposed monopole antenna consists of a moon‐shaped radiator with a microstrip feed line. The moon‐shaped radiator and its ground‐plane shaped are optimized for broadband CP radiation. Impedance matching is improved using the quarter‐wave transformer along with microstrip line. The measured results of the prototype antenna on FR4 substrate are 1.67 GHz (2.08−3.75 GHz) for 2.5‐VSWR bandwidth, 1.48 GHz (2.28–3.76 GHz) for 3‐dB axial ratio (AR) bandwidth, and gain around 1.6 dBic across the 3‐dB AR bandwidth. Overall antenna volume is 0.466λ0 × 0.70λ0 × 0.008λ0 at 3.0 GHz. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 57:1135–1139, 2015
General expression for tunable matching network efficiency in the case of complex impedances
Authors: Freitas Vitor , Arnould Jean‐Daniel , Ferrari Philippe
Published: March 2015

The design of matching networks is generally based on lossless devices, hence rendering difficult to anticipate their performance when both impedances are complex. To be more predictive in terms of insertion loss and matching impedance coverage, a rigorous method is proposed for the first time to calculate the efficiency of a tunable matching network based on the quality factor of its components, with source and load complex impedances. The method allows optimizing the topology of the matching network, depending on the location of the source and loading impedances in the Smith chart. It is the first time to our knowledge that a complete analytical formulas is given to predict the matching network's efficiency in function of available components quality factors in the case of source and load complex impedance. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 57:1160–1166, 2014
Design trade‐off for a compact 5.8 GHz DSRC transponder front‐end
Authors: Cidronali Alessandro , Maddio Stefano , Collodi Giovanni , Manes Gianfranco
Published: March 2015

This letter introduces a method for the optimum design of a compact transponder front‐end for dedicated short range communication (DSRC) operating at 5.8 GHz band and suitable for electronic toll collection (ETC) vehicular applications. The DSRC transponder front‐end is based on a circularly polarized antenna and a RF diode, which provides both the functionalities of envelope detector and back‐scatterer. The design method is based on the characterization and optimization of the frequency conversion mechanism occurring in the front‐end during up and downlink while the best trade‐off between design parameters are identified on the base of sensitivity and back‐scatterer gain. These parameters optimize the DSRC transponder front‐end in the two links and thus leads to the maximum operative range. The methods are validated through the design of three prototypes responding to different design constraints and tested in the context of a realistic scenario of DSRC for ETC according to the ETSI EN300674 communication layers. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 57:1187–1191, 2015
Self‐assembled silicon‐based clusters to design efficient, fast, and controllable Fano switches
Authors: Ahmadivand Arash , Golmohammadi Saeed , Karabiyik Mustafa , Pala Nezih
Published: March 2015

In this study, we use a nanoparticle cluster composed of silicon nanodisks in both symmetric and antisymmetric regimes to design an artificial efficient nanoswitch. Using appeared Fano dip for the antisymmetric nanocluster in the visible spectrum, we controlled the quality of Fano resonance (FR) by changing the polarization direction of the incident light source. In this method, we showed that appearing and disappearing of FR for different polarizations can be used to design an ON/OFF switch based on the behavior of Fano dip in a silicon‐based cluster. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 57:1242–1246, 2015
New Chemistries and Technologies Derived from a Common Reaction of α‐Methylstyrene at 61 °C
Authors: Ma Yuhong , Jiang Shan , Liang Shujun , Yang Wantai
Published: March 2015

In textbooks, there is a dynamic equilibrium between the monomer α‐methylstyrene (AMS) and its polymer (PAMS) when the temperature is greater than 61 °C. When giving these phenomena deliberate thought we come to the basic conclusion that there probably exists a dynamic equilibrium between fragmentation and coupling of polymeric chains by a radical mechanism when heated. Thus, a systematic exploration of the synthesis of AMS copolymers as potential sources of chain radicals has been carried out in our laboratory. This paper reviews the results we have achieved in the past decade: (1) The preparation of various AMS copolymers including (meth) acrylate, acrylic acid, styrene, and maleic anhydride. (2) The application of copolymers containing AMS structural units as very efficient free radical initiators. (3) The preparation of various functional copolymers including block copolymers and core‐shell polymer particles with AMS copolymers as macroinitiators. (4) The steady increase of the molecular weight of the copolymer with the monomer conversion for some systems, which is characteristic of living polymerization. (5) The finding that AMS copolymers with functional groups can act as in situ compatibilizers through the formation of graft polymers, and that AMS copolymers can be used to modify MWCNTs by a free radical grafting‐onto mechanism.
Multiresponse Optimisation Applied to the Development of a TLC Autography for the Detection of Tyrosinase Inhibitors
Authors: García Paula , Furlan Ricardo L. E.
Published: March 2015

Introduction

Autographic methods are useful tools to detect bioactive compounds in complex matrixes. Experimental design and optimisation techniques were implemented for the development of an autographic assay suitable for the detection of tyrosinase inhibitors.

Objectives

To develop an autographic assay to detect tyrosinase inhibitors using gel entrapped enzyme, experimental design and response surface methodology (RSM) to optimise conditions with a minimum number of experiments.

Methods

Gel entrapment was used for the assay and the effects of four factors on the sensitivity and the detection limit for known inhibitors of the enzyme were evaluated. The factors were: tyrosinase amount (TA), L‐tyrosine amount (LTA), incubation time and incubation temperature.

Results

The assay allowed the detection of kojic acid in an extract of Calamagrostis viridiflavescens (Poir.) Steud spiked with 0.1% w/w.

Conclusion

The developed assay is able to detect tyrosinase inhibitors present in complex matrixes in a reproducible way. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Synthesis and characterization of polyaniline nanoparticles in phosphonic acid amphiphile aqueous micellar solutions for waterborne corrosion protection coatings
Authors: Perrin F. X. , Phan T. A. , Nguyen D. L.
Published: March 2015

Polyaniline (PANI) dispersions consisting of 270 to 380 nm sized particles were prepared by oxidation with ammonium peroxydisulfate (APS) in n‐decylphosphonic acid (DPA) micellar solutions. The green dispersions do not undergo macroscopic precipitation for more than a year. The synthesized DPA doped PANI exhibited enhanced electrical conductivity (3.6 S cm−1) compared with DPA‐PANI (2.3 x 10−4 S cm−1) prepared by postsynthesis treatment of the PANI‐base with DPA. It was shown that through protonation with decylphosphonic acid, polyaniline showed a significantly enhanced solubility in common organic solvents like chloroform, xylene, etc. The synthesized PANI was characterized by intrinsic viscosity, solubility, FT‐IR, conductivity, SEM, and TGA measurements. The wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction study revealed the appearance of a peak located at low angles (d = 29.4–35.3 Å) suggesting the formation of layered structure of PANI backbone separated by long alkyl side chains of DPA. The anticorrosive performance of the bilayer coatings composed of a bottom layer of DPA doped polyaniline covered with a polyvinyl butyral topcoat, have been demonstrated for steel exposed to neutral saline solutions. It was found that the inhibitive properties of DPA dopant provides further protection to the base metal through smart release when damage is produced on the surface of the coating. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2015, 53, 1606–1616
Facile synthesis of polyester dendrimer via combining thio‐bromo “Click” chemistry and ATNRC
Authors: Fan Xiaoshan , Hu Zhiguo , Wang Guowei
Published: March 2015

This article reports on developing an efficient synthesis approach to aliphatic polyester dendrimer, poly(thioglycerol‐2‐propionate) (PTP), by combination of thio‐bromo “Click” chemistry with atom transfer nitroxide radical coupling (ATNRC). Through the one‐pot two‐step method, linear polystyrene with hydroxyl end groups (l‐PS‐2OH) was obtained by first atom transfer radical polymerization of styrene and following termination using 4‐(2,3‐dihydroxypropoxy)‐TEMPO (DHP‐TEMPO) to capture the PS macroradicals via ATNRC method. Using l‐PS‐2OH as support, the dendritic repeating units divergently were grown from the hydroxyl end groups via esterification and thio‐bromo “Click” reaction two‐step process. In every generation, the resulting intermediates l‐PS‐d‐PTP (G1‐G4) can be easily isolated from the excessive unreacted monomers by simple precipitation in ethanol without help of time, labor and solvent consuming column chromatographic purification. At last, cleavage of the alkoxyamine group between the PS support and dendrimer at elevated temperature (125 °C) provided the targeted polyester dendrimer PTP up to the fourth generation. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2015, 53, 1762–1768
Mechanism of Catalytic Effects on AMMO/HMX Composite Propellants Combustion Rates
Authors: Oyumi Yoshio , Mitarai Yoshiaki , Anan Toshiyuki
Published: March 2015

Mechanismus der katalytischen Wirkung auf die Abbrandgeschwindigkeit von AMMO/HMX‐Komposittreibstoffen

Die thermische Zersetzung und die Abbrandeigenschaften von AMMO/HMX‐Treibstoffen wurden untersucht. Die bei der AMMO‐Zersetzung freiwerdende Wärme initiierte und beschleunigte die thermische Zersetzung von HMX, die Reaktion zwischen den Zersetzungsprodukten von AMMO und HMX war abhängig von der Aufheizgeschwindigkeit. Der geschwindigkeitsbestimmende Schritt für den Reaktionsverlauf war verschieden je nach höherer oder niedriger Aufheizgeschwindigkeit. Zusatz von 2,2‐Bis(ethylferrocenyl)propan (CFe) und Kupferchromit (CuC) veränderte den Mechanismus der thermischen Zersetzung und die Abbrandeigenschaften sichtbar. CFe zeigte eine Zunahme der Abbrandgeschwindigkeit mit leichtem Anstieg des Druckexponenten, dagegen lieferte CuC höhere Werte für den Druckexponenten. Die Kombination beider Zusätze erbrachte die höchste Abbrandgeschwindigkeit mit dem niedrigsten Druckexponenten. Der Einfluß des CuC auf den Druckexponenten verschwand bei Kombination mit CFe. Obwohl CFe und der kombinierte Zusatz die Zündfähigkeit der Treibstoffe verbesserte, war es schwierig, den Treibstoff bei Zusatz von CuC zu zünden aufgrund des geringen Wärmerückflusses und/oder der geringen freiwerdenden Wärme bei der Zersetzung.
Calculation of Reduced Second Virial Coefficient Parameters for Angle Independent Intermolecular Potential Energy Functions
Authors: Jones David E.G. , Phelps Brian F.
Published: March 2015

Berechnung des reduzierten zweiten Virialkoeffizienten für winkelunabhängige intermolekulare Potentialenergiefunktionen

Es wird eine Rechenverfahren beschrieben, mit dem der zweite Virialkoeffizient und seine Ableitungen in Bezug auf die reduzierte Temperatur für alle winkelunabhängigen intermolekularen Potentialenergiefunktionen bestimmt werden können. Dieses Verfahren ist allgemeiner und liefert genauere Ergebnisse als alle anderen gegenwärtig gebräuchlichen Methoden. Ergebnisse für reduzierte zweite Virialkoeffizienten für die exp n‐6 Potentialenergiefunktion bezogen auf den Bereich 0,4 bis 400 der reduzierten Temperatur und für n = 12 bis 15 werden in Tabellenform angegeben.
MRI guided focused ultrasound robotic system for the treatment of gynaecological tumors
Authors: Epaminonda Eva , Drakos Theoharis , Kalogirou Christina , Theodoulou Margarita , Yiallouras Christos , Damianou Christakis
Published: March 2015

Background

A novel MRI‐conditional robot that navigates focused ultrasound (FUS) for the treatment of gynaecological tumors endovaginally was developed.

Methods

The robotic system has two PC‐controlled axes (linear and angular). The robotic system was manufactured using a digital manufacturing 3D printer using acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plastic. Evaluation of the device was performed in a 1.5T MRI using excised porcine tissue.

Results

The robotic system was successfully tested for MRI safety and compatibility. The robotic system has been tested for its functionality for creating multiple (overlapping) lesions in an in vitro model.

Conclusions

An MRI‐conditional FUS robotic system was developed that has the potential to create thermal lesions with the intention of treating gynaecological tumors. In the future a third axis will be needed that lifts the robot up or down in order to access vaginas which are at a variable height from the MRI table. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Achieve greater career success with strategic planning
Authors: Santovec Mary Lou
Published: March 2015

Although success does sometimes happen purely by accident, there are ways to intentionally design it.
Widespread ingestion of lead pellets by wild chukars in Northwestern Utah
Authors: Bingham Richard J. , Larsen Randy T. , Bissonette John A. , Hall Jeffery O.
Published: March 2015

The use of lead ammunition has generated much debate because lead is toxic and elevated lead exposure is documented in >130 wildlife species. We expanded on prior reports of ingested lead in chukars (Alectoris chukar) to assess lead exposure at greater spatial and temporal extents. Our specific objectives concerning lead exposure in chukars from northwestern Utah, USA (approx. 49,000 km2) were to: 1) approximate a threshold for background versus elevated lead exposure; 2) investigate spatial and temporal variation of lead exposure; and 3) assess the utility of combining frequencies of ingested gizzard lead and elevated liver lead to estimate lead ingestion rates. We obtained hunter and volunteer‐harvested chukars collected during July–January, 2003–2011. Using liver lead residues from wild chukars, we estimated a threshold of 1 μg/g wet weight to separate background versus elevated lead exposure for our data set. For wild chukars, we documented elevated lead exposure (ingested gizzard lead or elevated liver lead) in 5 counties and 8 mountain ranges in years 2003–2007. We estimated lead ingestion rates of 9.3% (43 of 461) using ingested gizzard lead and 8.3% (10 of 121) employing elevated liver lead (≥1 μg/g wet weight), respectively. These frequencies were respectively 1.5% and 2.5% less than the combined frequency of ingested gizzard lead and elevated liver lead (10.8%; 52 of 481). Our observed rates of elevated lead exposure were among the highest in the literature for upland birds, suggesting that chukars in northwestern Utah risk lead poisoning. These results corroborate previous findings identifying elevated lead exposure as an issue affecting non waterfowl avian species. © 2015 The Wildlife Society.
Canadian Perspectives on the Clinical Actionability of Neuroimaging in Disorders of Consciousness
Authors: Lee Grace , Byram Adrian C. , Owen Adrian M. , Ribary Urs , Stoessl A. Jon , Townson Andrea , Stables Christine , Illes Judy
Published: March 2015

Background:Acquired brain injury is a critical public health and socioeconomic problem in Canada, leaving many patients in vegetative, minimally conscious, or locked-in states, unresponsive and unable to communicate. Recent advances in neuroimaging research have demonstrated residual consciousness in a few exemplary patients with acquired brain injury, suggesting potential misdiagnosis and changes in prognosis. Such progress, in parallel with research using multimodal brain imaging technologies in recent years, has promising implications for clinical translation, notwithstanding the many challenges that impact health care and policy development. This study explored the perspectives of Canadian professionals with expertise either in neuroimaging research, disorders of consciousness, or both, on the potential clinical applications and implications of imaging technology.Methods:Twenty-two professionals from designated communities of neuroimaging researchers, ethicists, lawyers, and practitioners participated in semistructured interviews. Data were analyzed for emergent themes.Results:The five most dominant themes were: (1) validation and calibration of the methods; (2) informed consent; (3) burdens on the health care system; (4) implications for the Canadian health care system; and (5) possibilities for improved prognosis.Conclusions:Movement of neuroimaging from research into clinical care for acquired brain injury will require careful consideration of legal and ethical issues alongside research reliability, responsible distribution of health care resources, and the interaction of technological capabilities with patient outcome.
Mortality estimates from ovarian age distributions of the tsetse flyGlossina pallidipesAusten sampled in Zimbabwe suggest the need for new analytical approaches
Authors: Hargrove J.W. , Ackley S.F.
Published: March 2015

Mortality estimates are central to understanding tsetse fly population dynamics, but are difficult to acquire from wild populations. They can be obtained from age distribution data but, with limited data, it is unclear whether the assumptions required to make the estimates are satisfied and, if not, how violations affect the estimates. We evaluate the assumptions required for existing mortality estimation techniques using long-term longitudinal ovarian dissection data from 144,106 female tsetse,Glossina pallidipesAusten, captured in Zimbabwe between 1988 and 1999. At the end of the hot-dry season each year, mean ovarian ages peaked, and maximum-likelihood mortality estimates declined to low levels, contrary to mark-recapture estimates, suggesting violations of the assumptions underlying the estimation technique. We demonstrate that age distributions are seldom stable forG. pallidipesat our study site, and hypothesize that this is a consequence of a disproportionate increase in the mortality of pupae and young adults at the hottest times of the year. Assumptions of age-independent mortality and capture probability are also violated, the latter bias varying with capture method and with pregnancy and nutritional status. As a consequence, mortality estimates obtained from ovarian dissection data are unreliable. To overcome these problems we suggest simulating female tsetse populations, using dynamical modelling techniques that make no assumptions about the stability of the age distribution.
Compressive and rarefactive dust ion-acoustic solitary waves with degenerate electron–positron–ion plasma
Authors: Mukta K. N. , Zobaer M. S. , Roy N. , Mamun A. A.
Published: March 2015

The nonlinear propagation of dust ion-acoustic (DIA) waves in a unmagnetized collisionless degenerate dense plasma (containing degenerate electron and positron, and classical ion fluids) has been theoretically investigated. The K-dV equation has been derived by employing the reductive perturbation method and by taking into account the effect of different plasma parameters in plasma fluid. The stationary solitary wave solution of K-dV equation is obtained, and numerically analyzed to identify the basic properties of DIA solitary structures. It has been shown that depending on plasma parametric values, the degenerate plasma under consideration supports compressive or rarefactive solitary structures. It has been also found that the effect of pressures on electrons, ions, and positrons significantly modify the basic features of solitary waves that are found to exist in such a plasma system. The relevance of our results in astrophysical objects such as white dwarfs and neutron stars, which are of scientific interest, is discussed briefly.
Personalization and rule strategies in data-intensive intelligent context-aware systems
Authors: Moore Philip T. , Pham Hai V.
Published: March 2015

The concept of personalization in its many forms has gained traction driven by the demands of computer-mediated interactions generally implemented in large-scale distributed systems and ad hoc wireless networks. Personalization requires the identification and selection of entities based on a defined profile (a context); an entity has been defined as a person, place, or physical or computational object. Context employs contextual information that combines to describe an entities current state. Historically, the range of contextual information utilized (in context-aware systems) has been limited to identity, location, and proximate data; there has, however, been advances in the range of data and information addressed. As such, context can be highly dynamic with inherent complexity. In addition, context-aware systems must accommodate constraint satisfaction and preference compliance.

This article addresses personalization and context with consideration of the domains and systems to which context has been applied and the nature of the contextual data. The developments in computing and service provision are addressed with consideration of the relationship between the evolving computing landscape and context. There is a discussion around rule strategies and conditional relationships in decision support. Logic systems are addressed with an overview of the open world assumption versus the closed world assumption and the relationship with the Semantic Web. The event-driven rule-based approach, which forms the basis upon which intelligent context processing can be realized, is presented with an evaluation and proof-of-concept. The issues and challenges identified in the research are considered with potential solutions and research directions; alternative approaches to context processing are discussed. The article closes with conclusions and open research questions.
A survey on text mining in social networks
Authors: Irfan Rizwana , King Christine K. , Grages Daniel , Ewen Sam , Khan Samee U. , Madani Sajjad A. , Kolodziej Joanna , Wang Lizhe , Chen Dan , Rayes Ammar , Tziritas Nikolaos , Xu Cheng-Zhong , Zomaya Albert Y. , Alzahrani Ahmed Saeed , Li Hongxiang
Published: March 2015

In this survey, we review different text mining techniques to discover various textual patterns from the social networking sites. Social network applications create opportunities to establish interaction among people leading to mutual learning and sharing of valuable knowledge, such as chat, comments, and discussion boards. Data in social networking websites is inherently unstructured and fuzzy in nature. In everyday life conversations, people do not care about the spellings and accurate grammatical construction of a sentence that may lead to different types of ambiguities, such as lexical, syntactic, and semantic. Therefore, analyzing and extracting information patterns from such data sets are more complex. Several surveys have been conducted to analyze different methods for the information extraction. Most of the surveys emphasized on the application of different text mining techniques for unstructured data sets reside in the form of text documents, but do not specifically target the data sets in social networking website. This survey attempts to provide a thorough understanding of different text mining techniques as well as the application of these techniques in the social networking websites. This survey investigates the recent advancement in the field of text analysis and covers two basic approaches of text mining, such as classification and clustering that are widely used for the exploration of the unstructured text available on the Web.
Evolutionary multi-agent systems
Authors: Byrski Aleksander , Dreżewski Rafał , Siwik Leszek , Kisiel-Dorohinicki Marek
Published: March 2015

The aim of this paper is to give a survey on the development and applications of evolutionary multi-agent systems (EMAS). The paper starts with a general introduction describing the background, structure and behaviour of EMAS. EMAS application to solving global optimisation problems is presented in the next section along with its modification targeted at lowering the computation costs by early removing certain agents based on immunological inspirations. Subsequent sections deal with the elitist variant of EMAS aimed at solving multi-criteria optimisation problems, and the co-evolutionary one aimed at solving multi-modal optimisation problems. Each variation of EMAS is illustrated with selected experimental results.
Prevalence and risk factors forLeptospiraexposure in New Zealand veterinarians
Authors: SANHUEZA J. M. , HEUER C. , WILSON P. R. , BENSCHOP J. , COLLINS-EMERSON J. M.
Published: March 2015

This study assessed seroprevalence and risk factors forLeptospira(serovars Hardjo, Pomona, Ballum, Copenhageni, Tarassovi) exposure in New Zealand veterinarians. Veterinarians (n = 277) at one of two conferences were voluntarily enrolled and blood samples taken. Microscopic agglutination test (MAT) titres ⩾48 were considered seropositive. Fourteen veterinarians (5·1%, 95% confidence interval 2·8−8·3) were seropositive toLeptospira. Home slaughter of cattle or pigs were significant risk factors forLeptospiraexposure. There were no clear relationships between the animal species handled at work and serostatus. However, veterinarians spending a ‘mid to high’ proportion of their time (>50% to ⩽75%) with pets had higher odds of being seropositive than those not working with pets. A borderline positive association (P = 0·09) was observed between seropositivity and clinical influenza-like illness (⩾3 days off work) in the 18 months before the study. Assuming causality, this suggests that 8·3% of these cases may be attributed toLeptospiraexposure.
Do Better Committee Assignments Meaningfully Benefit Legislators? Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in the Arkansas State Legislature
Authors: Broockman David E. , Butler Daniel M.
Published: March 2015

A large literature argues that the committee assignment process plays an important role in shaping legislative politics because some committees provide legislators with substantial benefits. However, evaluating the degree to which legislators benefit from winning their preferred assignments has been challenging with existing data. This paper sheds light on the benefits legislators accrue from winning their preferred committee assignments by exploiting rules in Arkansas’ state legislature, where legislators select their own committee assignments in a randomized order. The natural experiment indicates that legislators reap at most limited rewards from winning their preferred assignments. These results potentially raise questions about the robustness of widely held assumptions in literatures on party discipline and legislative organization.
Individual versus Group Play in the Repeated Coordinated Resistance Game
Authors: Cason Timothy N. , Mui Vai-Lam
Published: March 2015

This paper reports an experiment to evaluate the effectiveness of repeated interactions in deterring leaders from using divide-and-conquer strategies to extract surplus from their subordinates, when every decision-maker involved is a group instead of an individual. We find that both the resistance rate by subordinates and the divide-and-conquer transgression rate by leaders are the same in the group and individual repeated coordinated resistance games. Similar to the individual game, adding communication to the group game can help deter opportunistic behavior by the leaders even in the presence of repetition.
Urindiagnostik im 21. Jahrhundert: alles andere als obsolet!
Authors: Sidler Daniel , Huynh-Do Uyen
Published: March 2015

Die Urinuntersuchung mittels Streifentest und Mikroskopie stellt eine nicht-invasive, technisch einfach durchführbare und kostengünstige Screening-Untersuchung dar. Insbesondere die repetitive Analyse bezüglich Erythrozyturie und Proteinurie weist eine hohe Sensitivität auf und ermöglicht die Früherfassung von nephrologischen und systemischen Leiden. Aufgrund der semiquantitativen Natur der Untersuchung sind die Resultate aber nur unter Kenntnis der diagnostischen und technischen Limiten zu interpretieren, auf welche in diesem Übersichtsartikel näher eingegangen wird.
Yes I Can!
Authors: Vervecken Dries , Hannover Bettina
Published: March 2015

Many countries face the problem of skill shortage in traditionally male occupations. Individuals’ development of vocational interests and employment goals starts as early as in middle childhood and is strongly influenced by perceptions of job accessibility (status and difficulty) and self-efficacy beliefs. In this study, we tested a linguistic intervention to strengthen children’s self-efficacy toward stereotypically male occupations. Two classroom experiments with 591 primary school students from two different linguistic backgrounds (Dutch or German) showed that the presentation of occupational titles in pair forms (e.g., Ingenieurinnen und Ingenieure, female and male engineers), rather than in generic masculine forms (Ingenieure, plural for engineers), boosted children’s self-efficacy with regard to traditionally male occupations, with the effect fully being mediated by perceptions that the jobs are not as difficult as gender stereotypes suggest. The discussion focuses on linguistic interventions as a means to increase children’s self-efficacy toward traditionally male occupations.
The Role of Deliberative Versus Implemental Mindsets in Time Prediction and Task Accomplishment
Authors: Brandstätter Veronika , Giesinger Lukas , Job Veronika , Frank Elisabeth
Published: March 2015

The Model of Action Phases ( Gollwitzer, 1990 , 2012 ) distinguishes an implemental mindset evoked by planning goal-directed actions, from a deliberative mindset evoked by pondering pros/cons of adopting a particular goal. The present research demonstrates that mindsets affect time predictions. In Study 1 (N = 151), participants in an implemental mindset made shorter time predictions with respect to completing personal goals than participants in a deliberative mindset. In Study 2 (N = 78), we tested a mediating mechanism for the mindset effect by varying the motivation to return a report. The mindset effect was replicated in the low- but not in the high-motivation condition with participants in an implemental mindset returning the report earlier, and being as accurate in their predictions as participants in a deliberative mindset. Results indicate that an implemental (vs. deliberative) mindset increases motivation and therefore leads to shorter, but equally biased time predictions.
Paired TCRαβ analysis of virus‐specific CD8+ T cells exposes diversity in a previously defined ‘narrow’ repertoire
Authors: Cukalac Tania , Kan Wan‐Ting , Dash Pradyot , Guan Jing , Quinn Kylie M , Gras Stephanie , Thomas Paul G , La Gruta Nicole L
Published: March 2015

T‐cell receptor (TCR) usage has an important role in determining the outcome of CD8+ cytotoxic T‐lymphocyte responses to viruses and other pathogens. However, the characterization of TCR usage from which such conclusions are drawn is based on exclusive analysis of either the TCRα chain or, more commonly, the TCRβ chain. Here, we have used a multiplexed reverse transcription‐PCR protocol to analyse the CDR3 regions of both TCRα and β chains from single naive or immune epitope‐specific cells to provide a comprehensive picture of epitope‐specific TCR usage and selection into the immune response. Analysis of TCR repertoires specific for three influenza‐derived epitopes (DbNP366, DbPA224 and DbPB1‐F262) showed preferential usage of particular TCRαβ proteins in the immune repertoire relative to the naive repertoire, in some cases, resulting in a complete shift in TRBV preference or CDR3 length, and restricted repertoire diversity. The NP366‐specific TCRαβ repertoire, previously defined as clonally restricted based on TCRβ analysis, was similarly diverse as the PA224‐ and PB1‐F262‐specific repertoires. Intriguingly, preferred TCR characteristics (variable gene usage, CDR3 length and junctional gene usage) appeared to be able to confer specificity either independently or in concert with one another, depending on the epitope specificity. These data have implications for established correlations between the nature of the TCR repertoire and response outcomes after infection, and suggest that analysis of a subset of cells or a single TCR chain does not accurately depict the nature of the antigen‐specific TCRαβ repertoire.
Subsistence strategies in traditional societies distinguish gut microbiomes
Authors: Obregon-Tito Alexandra J. , Tito Raul Y. , Metcalf Jessica , Sankaranarayanan Krithivasan , Clemente Jose C. , Ursell Luke K. , Zech Xu Zhenjiang , Van Treuren Will , Knight Rob , Gaffney Patrick M. , Spicer Paul , Lawson Paul , Marin-Reyes Luis , Trujillo-Villarroel Omar , Foster Morris , Guija-Poma Emilio , Troncoso-Corzo Luzmila , Warinner Christina , Ozga Andrew T. , Lewis Cecil M.
Published: March 2015

Recent studies suggest that gut microbiomes of urban-industrialized societies are different from those of traditional peoples. Here we examine the relationship between lifeways and gut microbiota through taxonomic and functional potential characterization of faecal samples from hunter-gatherer and traditional agriculturalist communities in Peru and an urban-industrialized community from the US. We find that in addition to taxonomic and metabolic differences between urban and traditional lifestyles, hunter-gatherers form a distinct sub-group among traditional peoples. As observed in previous studies, we find that Treponema are characteristic of traditional gut microbiomes. Moreover, through genome reconstruction (2.2–2.5 MB, coverage depth × 26–513) and functional potential characterization, we discover these Treponema are diverse, fall outside of pathogenic clades and are similar to Treponema succinifaciens, a known carbohydrate metabolizer in swine. Gut Treponema are found in non-human primates and all traditional peoples studied to date, suggesting they are symbionts lost in urban-industrialized societies.
A data-driven mathematical model of multi-drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii transmission in an intensive care unit
Authors: Wang Xia , Chen Yong , Zhao Wei , Wang Yan , Song Qing , Liu Hui , Zhao Jingya , Han Xuelin , Hu Xiaohua , Grundmann Hajo , Xiao Yanni , Han Li
Published: March 2015

Major challenges remain when attempting to quantify and evaluate the impacts of contaminated environments and heterogeneity in the cohorting of health care workers (HCWs) on hospital infections. Data on the detection rate of multidrug-resistantAcinetobacter baumannii(MRAB) in a Chinese intensive care unit (ICU) were obtained to accurately evaluate the level of environmental contamination and also to simplify existing models. Data-driven mathematical models, including mean-field and pair approximation models, were proposed to examine the comprehensive effect of integrated measures including cohorting, increasing nurse-patient ratios and improvement of environmental sanitation on MRAB infection. Our results indicate that for clean environments and with strict cohorting, increasing the nurse-patient ratio results in an initial increase and then a decline in MRAB colonization. In contrast, in contaminated environments, increasing the nurse-patient ratio may lead to either a consistent increase or an initial increase followed by a decline of MRAB colonization, depending on the level of environmental contamination and the cohorting rate. For developing more effective control strategies, the findings suggest that increasing the cohorting rate and nurse-patient ratio are effective interventions for relatively clean environments, while cleaning the environment more frequently and increasing hand washing rate are suitable measures in contaminated environments.
The ligand polyhedral model approach to the mechanism of complete carbonyl exchange in [Rh4(CO)12] and [Rh6(CO)16]
Authors: Johnson Brian F. G.
Published: March 2015

The Ligand Polyhedral Model (LPM) is applied to the carbonyl scrambling observed on the NMR timescale for the two cluster carbonyls [Rh4(CO)12] and [Rh6(CO)16].
Scalable fabrication of efficient organolead trihalide perovskite solar cells with doctor-bladed active layers
Authors: Deng Yehao , Peng Edwin , Shao Yuchuan , Xiao Zhengguo , Dong Qingfeng , Huang Jinsong
Published: March 2015

Scalable fabrication of perovskite solar cells by doctor-blading is demonstrated with a device efficiency of 15.1% under 1 sun light.
Metal selectivity by the virulence-associated yersiniabactin metallophore system
Authors: Koh Eun-Ik , Hung Chia S. , Parker Kaveri S. , Crowley Jan R. , Giblin Daryl E. , Henderson Jeffrey P.
Published: March 2015

Metal–yersiniabactin complexes are transported intact through the outer membrane receptor, FyuA, in a TonB-dependent manner in uropathogenicEscherichia coli.