bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Elsewhere or Blanked? Ongoing mental states are regulated by pupil-linked arousal and attentional style in healthy ageing
Authors: Koroma Matthieu , Robert de Beauchamp Aurèle , Mortaheb Sepehr , Boulakis Paradeisios Alexandros , Bastin Christine , Demertzi Athena
Published: July 2022

Spontaneous thinking significantly relies on attention and arousal. As these cognitive faculties change with age, we aimed at providing a comprehensive account to ongoing mental states in seniors, testing how these are influenced by attentional control and arousal. Using experience sampling at rest, 20 senior (65-75yrs) and 20 young participants (20-30yrs) were prompted to report mind-wandering (MW), sensory-related thoughts (S), and the newly introduced state of mind blanking (MB). Attentional control was assessed with the Attentional Style Questionnaire, and arousal with continuous monitoring of pupil diameter. Both age groups showed equally high occurrences of MW compared to MB or S. For young responders, we replicated that MW was more prevalent in easily-distracted participants and that it associated with higher arousal. In seniors, though, MB was more prevalent in easily-distracted participants, and it was associated with higher arousal, reversing the pattern found in young adults and focused seniors. Overall, our results show that attentional control and arousal jointly regulate ongoing mental states in an age-dependent manner and uncover the presence a specific profile of ongoing mental state regulation in healthy aging, being a potentially critical marker of age-associated diseases.
Multiplexing working memory and time: encoding retrospective and prospective information in neural trajectories
Authors: Zhou Shanglin , Seay Michael , Taxidis Jiannis , Golshani Peyman , Buonomano Dean V.
Published: July 2022

Working memory (WM) and timing are generally considered distinct cognitive functions, but similar neural signatures have been implicated in both. To explore the hypothesis that WM and timing may rely on shared neural mechanisms, we used psychophysical tasks that contained either task-irrelevant timing or WM components. In both cases the task-irrelevant component influenced performance. RNN simulations revealed that cue-specific neural sequences, which multiplexed WM and time, emerged as the dominant regime that captured the behavioral findings. Over the course of training RNN dynamics transitioned from low-dimensional ramps to high-dimensional neural sequences, and depending on task requirements, steady-state or ramping activity was also observed. Analysis of RNN structure revealed that neural sequences relied primarily on inhibitory connections, and could survive the deletion of all excitatory-to- excitatory connections. Our results suggest that in some instances WM is encoded in time-varying neural activity because of the importance of predicting when WM will be used.
Evaluating the Reliability of AlphaFold 2 for Unknown Complex Structures with Deep Learning
Authors: Xiong Hao , Han Long , Wang Yue , Chai Pengxin
Published: July 2022

Recently released AlphaFold 2 shows a high accuracy when predicting most of the well- structured single protein chains, and subsequent works have also shown that providing pseudo-multimer inputs to the single-chain AlphaFold 2 can predict complex interactions among which the accuracy of predicted complexes can be easily determined by ground truth structures. However, for unknown complex structures without homologs, how to evaluate the reliability of the predicted structures remains a major challenge. Here, we have developed AlphaFold-Eva, a deep learning-based method that learns geometry information from complex structures to evaluate AlphaFold 2. Using different types of sub-complexes of the central apparatus and recently released PDB data, we demonstrate that the reliability of unknown complex structures predicted by AlphaFold 2 is significantly affected by surface ratio, contact surface and dimension ratio. Our findings suggest that the reliability of predicted structures can be directly learned from the intrinsic structural information itself. Therefore, AlphaFold-Eva provides a promising solution to quantitatively validate the predicted structures of unknown complexes, even without a reference.
The cut site specificity of the influenza A virus endoribonuclease PA-X allows it to discriminate between host and viral mRNAs
Authors: Gaucherand Lea , Iyer Amrita , Gilabert Isabel , Rycroft Chris H. , Gaglia Marta M.
Published: July 2022

Widespread shutoff of host gene expression through RNA degradation is an advantageous way for many viruses to block antiviral responses. However, viruses still need to maintain expression of their own genes and host genes necessary for replication. The influenza A virus host shutoff endoribonuclease PA-X solves this problem by sparing viral mRNAs and some host RNAs. To understand how PA-X distinguishes between RNAs, we characterized PA-X cut sites transcriptome-wide. This analysis shows that PA-Xs from multiple influenza strains cleave RNAs at GCUG tetramers in hairpin loops. Importantly, GCUG tetramers are enriched in the human but not the influenza transcriptome. Moreover, optimal PA-X cut sites inserted in the influenza A virus genome are quickly selected against during viral replication. This finding suggests that PA-X evolved these cleavage characteristics to target host but not viral mRNAs, in a manner reminiscent of cellular self vs. non-self discrimination.
DLL3 REGULATES NOTCH SIGNALING IN SCLC
Authors: Kim Jun W. , Ko Julie H. , Sage Julien
Published: July 2022

Tumor heterogeneity plays a critical role in tumor development and response to treatment. In small-cell lung cancer (SCLC), intratumoral heterogeneity is driven in part by the Notch signaling pathway, which reprograms neuroendocrine cancer cells to a less/non-neuroendocrine state. Here we investigated the atypical Notch ligand DLL3 as a biomarker of the neuroendocrine state and a regulator of cell-cell interactions in SCLC. We first built a mathematical model to predict the impact of DLL3 expression on SCLC cell populations. We next tested this model using a single-chain variable fragment (scFv) to track DLL3 expression in vivo and a new mouse model of SCLC with inducible expression of DLL3 in SCLC tumors. We found that high levels of DLL3 promote the expansion of a SCLC cell population with lower expression levels of both neuroendocrine and non-neuroendocrine markers. This work may influence how DLL3-targeting therapies are used in SCLC patients.
Mapping fetal myeloid differentiation in airway samples from premature neonates with single-cell profiling
Authors: Welfley Holly , Kylat Ranjit , Zaghloul Nahla , Halonen Marilyn , Martinez Fernando D. , Ahmed Mohamed , Cusanovich Darren A.
Published: July 2022

Single-cell genomic technologies hold great potential to advance our understanding of development and disease. A major limitation lies in isolating intact cells from primary tissues for profiling. Sampling methods compatible with current clinical interventions could enable longitudinal studies, the enrollment of large cohorts, and even the development of novel diagnostics. To explore single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) profiling of the cell types present at birth in the airway lumen of extremely premature (<28 weeks gestation) neonates, we isolated cells from endotracheal aspirates collected from intubated neonates within the first hour after birth. We generated data on 10 subjects, providing a rich view of airway luminal biology at a critical developmental period. Our results show that cells present in the airways of premature neonates primarily represent a continuum of myeloid differentiation, including fetal monocytes (25% of all cells), intermediate myeloid populations (48% of cells), and macrophages (2.6% of cells). To our knowledge, this is the first single-cell transcriptomic characterization of human monocytes in the neonatal airway isolated within an hour of birth. Applying trajectory analysis to the premature neonate myeloid populations, we identified two trajectories consistent with the developmental stages of interstitial and alveolar macrophages, as well as a third trajectory presenting a potential alternative pathway bridging these terminal macrophage states. While the three trajectories share many dynamic genes (5,451), they also have distinct transcriptional changes (259 alveolar-specific genes, 666 interstitial-specific genes, and 285 bridging-specific genes). Overall, our results define high quality single-cell data from cells isolated within the so-called “golden hour of birth” in extremely premature neonate airways representing complex lung biology and can be utilized in studies of human development and disease.
SIR telomere silencing depends on nuclear envelope lipids and modulates sensitivity to a lysolipid drug
Authors: Sosa Ponce Maria Laura , Remedios Mayrene Horta , Moradi-Fard Sarah , Cobb Jennifer A , Zaremberg Vanina
Published: July 2022

The nuclear envelope (NE) is important in maintaining genome organization. The role of lipids in the communication between the NE and telomere silencing was investigated, including how changes in lipid composition impact gene expression and overall nuclear architecture. For this purpose, yeast cells were treated with the non-metabolizable lysophosphatidylcholine analog edelfosine, known to accumulate at the perinuclear endoplasmic reticulum. Edelfosine treatment induced NE deformation and disrupted telomere clustering but not anchoring. In addition, the association of Sir4 at telomeres measured by ChIP decreased. RNA-seq analysis showed altered expression of Sir-dependent genes located at sub-telomeric (0-10 kb) regions, which was consistent with Sir4 dispersion. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that two lipid metabolic circuits were activated in response to edelfosine, one mediated by the membrane sensing transcription factors, Spt23/Mga2, and the other by a transcriptional repressor, Opi1. Activation of these combined transcriptional programs resulted in higher levels of unsaturated fatty acids and the formation of nuclear lipid droplets. Interestingly, cells lacking Sir proteins displayed resistance to unsaturated fatty acids and edelfosine, and this phenotype was connected to Rap1.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

The nuclear envelope (NE) is important for nuclear organization. This study shows that changes in NE lipid composition from lysolipid treatment decreases Sir4 association with telomeres, their clustering at NE, and triggers lipid-specific transcriptional circuits regulated by membrane-sensing factors.
scFates: a scalable python package for advanced pseudotime and bifurcation analysis from single cell data
Authors: Faure Louis , Soldatov Ruslan , Kharchenko Peter V. , Adameyko Igor
Published: July 2022

scFates provides an extensive toolset for analysis of dynamic trajectories comprising tree learning, feature association testing, branch differential expression and with a focus on cell biasing and fate splits at the level of bifurcations. It is meant to be fully integrated into scanpy ecosystem for seamless analysis of trajectories from single cell data of various modalities (e.g. RNA, ATAC).

Availability and implementation

scFates is released as open-source software under the BSD 3-Clause “New” License and is available from the Python Package Index at https://pypi.org/project/scFates/. The source code is available on Github at https://github.com/LouisFaure/scFates/

Supplementary information

A supplementary document is provided with a complete explanation of the underlying statistics, and two figures showing examples of analysis.
A Draft Human Pangenome Reference
Authors: Liao Wen-Wei , Asri Mobin , Ebler Jana , Doerr Daniel , Haukness Marina , Hickey Glenn , Lu Shuangjia , Lucas Julian K. , Monlong Jean , Abel Haley J. , Buonaiuto Silvia , Chang Xian H. , Cheng Haoyu , Chu Justin , Colonna Vincenza , Eizenga Jordan M. , Feng Xiaowen , Fischer Christian , Fulton Robert S. , Garg Shilpa , Groza Cristian , Guarracino Andrea , Harvey William T , Heumos Simon , Howe Kerstin , Jain Miten , Lu Tsung-Yu , Markello Charles , Martin Fergal J. , Mitchell Matthew W. , Munson Katherine M. , Mwaniki Moses Njagi , Novak Adam M. , Olsen Hugh E. , Pesout Trevor , Porubsky David , Prins Pjotr , Sibbesen Jonas A. , Tomlinson Chad , Villani Flavia , Vollger Mitchell R. ,   Human Pangenome Reference Consortium, Bourque Guillaume , Chaisson Mark JP , Flicek Paul , Phillippy Adam M. , Zook Justin M. , Eichler Evan E. , Haussler David , Jarvis Erich D. , Miga Karen H. , Wang Ting , Garrison Erik , Marschall Tobias , Hall Ira , Li Heng , Paten Benedict
Published: July 2022

The Human Pangenome Reference Consortium (HPRC) presents a first draft human pangenome reference. The pangenome contains 47 phased, diploid assemblies from a cohort of genetically diverse individuals. These assemblies cover more than 99% of the expected sequence and are more than 99% accurate at the structural and base-pair levels. Based on alignments of the assemblies, we generated a draft pangenome that captures known variants and haplotypes, reveals novel alleles at structurally complex loci, and adds 119 million base pairs of euchromatic polymorphic sequence and 1,529 gene duplications relative to the existing reference, GRCh38. Roughly 90 million of the additional base pairs derive from structural variation. Using our draft pangenome to analyze short-read data reduces errors when discovering small variants by 34% and boosts the detected structural variants per haplotype by 104% compared to GRCh38-based workflows, and by 34% compared to using previous diversity sets of genome assemblies.
CRISPRi-mediated down-regulation of the cinnamate-4-hydroxylase (C4H) gene enhances the flavonoid biosynthesis in Nicotiana tabacum
Authors: Karlson Chou Khai Soong , Mohd Noor Siti Nurfadhlina , Khalid Norzulaani , Tan Boon Chin
Published: July 2022

Flavonoids are an important class of natural compounds present in plants. However, despite various known biological activities and therapeutic potential, the low abundance of flavonoids in nature limits their development for industrial applications. In this study, we aimed to enhance flavonoid production by silencing cinnamate-4-hydroxylase (C4H), an enzyme involved in the branch point of the flavonoid biosynthetic pathway, using the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats interference (CRISPRi) approach. We designed three sgRNAs targeting the promoter region of NtC4H and cloned them into a CRISPRi construct. After introducing into Nicotiana tabacum cell suspension culture, the transformed cells were sampled for qPCR and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analyses. Sixteen of 21 cell lines showed PCR-positive, confirming the presence of CRISPRi transgene. The NtC4H transcript in the transgenic cells was 0.44-fold lower than in the wild-type. In contrast, the flavonoid-related genes at the other branching pathway, such as Nt4CL and NtCHS, in the C4H-silenced cells showed a higher expression than wild-type. The upregulation of these genes increased their respective products, including pinostrobin, naringenin, and chlorogenic acid. This study provides valuable insight into the future development of CRISPRi-based metabolic engineering to suppress target genes in plants.
Biochemical characterization of a Mycobacterium tuberculosis prolyl dipeptidyl peptidase that displays a remarkable thermostability
Authors: Lioe Trillion Surya , Xie Ziwen , Wu Jianfang , Li Wenlong , Sun Li , Feng Qiaoli , Sekar Raju , Tefsen Boris , Ruiz-Carrillo David
Published: July 2022

Dipeptidyl peptidases constitute a class of non-classical serine proteases that regulate an array of biological functions, making them pharmacologically attractive enzymes. With this work, we identified and characterized a dipeptidyl peptidase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MtDPP) displaying a strong preference for proline residues at the P1 substrate position and an unexpectedly high thermal stability. MtDPP was also characterized with alanine replacements of residues of its active site that yielded, for the most part, loss of catalysis. We show that MtDPP catalytic activity is inhibited by well-known human DPP4 inhibitors. Using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry we also describe that in vitro, MtDPP mediates the truncation of the C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 10, indicating a plausible role in immune modulation for this mycobacterial enzyme.
Plasmid Permissiveness of Wastewater Microbiomes can be Predicted from 16S rDNA sequences by Machine Learning
Authors: Moradigaravand Danesh , Li Liguan , Dechesne Arnaud , Nesme Joseph , Ahmad Huda , Banzhaf Manuel , Sørensen Søren J , Smets Barth F , Kreft Jan-Ulrich
Published: July 2022

Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs) contain a diverse microbial community with high cell density. They constantly receive antimicrobial residues and resistant strains and, therefore, may offer conditions for the Horizontal Gene Transfer (HGT) of antimicrobial resistance determinants, transmitting clinically important genes between, e.g., enteric and environmental bacteria and vice versa. Despite the clinical importance, tools for predicting HGT are still under-developed. In this study, we examined to which extent microbial community composition, as inferred by partial 16S rRNA gene sequences, can predict plasmid permissiveness, i.e., the ability of cells to receive a plasmid through conjugation, for microbial communities in the water cycle, using data from standardized filter mating assays using fluorescent bio-reporter plasmids. We leveraged a range of machine learning models for predicting the permissiveness for each taxon in the community, translating to the range of hosts a plasmid is able to transfer to, for three broad host-range resistance plasmids (pKJK5, pB10, and RP4). Our results indicate that the predicted permissiveness from the best performing model (random forest) showed a moderate-to-strong average correlation of 0.45 for pB10 (95% CI: 0.42-0.52), 0.42 for pKJK5 (0.95% CI: 0.38-0.45) and 0.52 for RP4 (0.95% CI:0.45-0.55) with the experimental permissiveness in the unseen test dataset. Predictive phylogenetic signals occurred despite these being broad host-range plasmids. Our results provide a framework that contributes to assessing the risk of AMR pollution in wastewater systems. The predictive tool is available as a an application under https://github.com/DaneshMoradigaravand/PlasmidPerm.
Parallel planning through an optimal neural subspace in motor cortex
Authors: Meirhaeghe Nicolas , Riehle Alexa , Brochier Thomas
Published: July 2022

How do patterns of neural activity in motor cortex contribute to the planning of a movement? A recent theory developed for single movements proposes that motor cortex acts as a dynamical system whose initial state is optimized during the preparatory phase of the movement. This theory makes important yet untested predictions about preparatory dynamics in more complex behavioral settings. Here, we analyzed preparatory activity in non-human primates planning not one, but two movements simultaneously. As predicted by the theory, we found that parallel planning was achieved by adjusting preparatory activity within an optimal subspace to an intermediate state reflecting a tradeoff between the two movements. The theory quantitatively accounted for the relationship between this intermediate state and fluctuations in the animals’ behavior down at the trial level. These results uncover a simple mechanism for planning multiple movements in parallel, and further point to motor planning as a controlled dynamical process.
Does vendor breeding colony influence sign- and goal-tracking in Pavlovian conditioned approach? A preregistered empirical replication
Authors: Khoo Shaun Yon-Seng , Uhrig Alexandra , Samaha Anne-Noël , Chaudhri Nadia
Published: July 2022

Vendor differences are thought to affect Pavlovian conditioning in rats. After observing possible differences in sign-tracking and goal-tracking behaviour with rats from different breeding colonies, we performed an empirical replication of the effect. 40 male Long-Evans rats from Charles River colonies ‘K72’ and ‘R06’ received 11 Pavlovian conditioned approach training sessions (or “autoshaping”), with a lever as the conditioned stimulus (CS) and 10% sucrose as the unconditioned stimulus (US). Each 58-min session consisted of 12 CS-US trials. Paired rats (n = 15/colony) received the US following lever retraction. Unpaired control rats (n = 5/colony) received sucrose during the inter-trial interval. Next, we evaluated the conditioned reinforcing properties of the CS, by determining whether rats would learn to nose-poke into a new, active (vs. inactive) port to receive CS presentations alone (no sucrose). Preregistered confirmatory analyses showed that during autoshaping sessions, Paired rats made significantly more CS-triggered entries into the sucrose port (i.e., goal-tracking) and lever activations (sign-tracking) than Unpaired rats did, demonstrating acquisition of the CS-US association. Confirmatory analyses showed no effects of breeding colony on autoshaping. During conditioned reinforcement testing, analysis of data from Paired rats alone showed significantly more active vs. inactive nosepokes, suggesting that in these rats, the lever CS acquired incentive motivational properties. Analysing Paired rats alone also showed that K72 rats had higher Pavlovian Conditioned Approach scores than R06 rats did. Thus, breeding colony can affect outcome in Pavlovian conditioned approach studies, and animal breeding source should be considered as a covariate in such work.
Calcium Imaging of Neural Activity in Fly Photoreceptors
Authors: Chen Pei-Ju , Li Yan , Lee Chi-Hon
Published: July 2022

Functional imaging methodologies allow researchers to simultaneously monitor the neural activities of all single neurons in a population, and this ability has led to great advances in neuroscience research. Taking advantage of a genetically tractable model organism, functional imaging in Drosophila provides opportunities to probe scientific questions that were previously unanswerable by electrophysiological recordings. Here, we introduce comprehensive protocols for two-photon calcium imaging in fly visual neurons. We also discuss some challenges in applying optical imaging techniques to study visual systems and consider the best practices for making comparisons between different neuron groups.
Establishing a lesson study collaboration matrix
Authors: Mynott John Paul , O'Reilly Stephanie Elizabeth Margaret
Published: July 2022

Purpose

Lesson study (LS) is a collaborative form of action research. Collaboration is central to LS methodology, therefore exploring and expanding the understanding of the collaborative features that occur in LS is a priority. This paper explores the features of collaboration in existing publications on LS to consider if, as Quaresma (2020) notes, collaboration is simplistically referred to within LS research.

Design/methodology/approach

Utilising a qualitative review of LS literature to explore LS collaboration through Mynott's (2019) outcome model and Huxham and Vangen's (2005) theory of collaborative advantage and inertia. 396 publications using “lesson study” and “collaboration” as key words were considered and reviewed, with 26 articles further analysed and coded, generating a collaborative feature matrix.

Findings

While collaboration in LS is referred to generically in the articles analysed, the authors found examples where collaboration is considered at a meta, meso and micro level (Lemon and Salmons, 2021), and a balance between collaborative advantage and inertia. However, only a small proportion of LS publications discuss collaboration in depth and, while the matrix will support future research, more focus needs to be given to how collaboration functions within LS.

Originality/value

Through answering Robutti et al.'s (2016) question about what can be learnt from the existing LS research studies on collaboration, this paper builds on Mynott's (2019) outcome model by providing a detailed matrix of collaborative features that can be found in LS work. This matrix has applications beyond the paper for use by facilitators, leaders of LS, and researchers to explore their LS collaborations through improved understanding of collaboration.
Neomercantilist War: the US military and Middle East oil (1980–2003)
Authors: Mahdi Ahmed Samir
Published: July 2022

Purpose

This paper aims to argue that the Global Political Economy (GPE) theory of neomercantilism provides a sound explanation to the American military involvement in the Persian Gulf. Accordingly, this paper also proposes the concept of “Neomercantilist War” which analyses the use of military force to protect a strategically vital economic resource (such as Gulf oil). Neomercantilist War is a point of similarity between the GPE school of neomercantilism and the International Relations (IR) school of realism.

Design/methodology/approach

The 1991 Gulf War and the American invasion of Iraq in 2003 are two major events of American military involvement to protect and/or seize Gulf oil. These two events will be tested for neomercantilism, in addition to the concept of “Neomercantilist War” as presented in the paper. The first feature, or definitional component, of neomercantilism is the major role of the state, the second is the preponderance of security/geopolitical goals over economic goals and the third is the zero-sum, relative gains mentality to dealing between states IR.

Findings

The GPE school of neomercantilism and the concept of Neomercantilist War do offer a sound explanation of American military involvement in the Gulf.

Originality/value

The American military involvement in the Gulf region has been analysed using the IR schools of realism and liberalism, but never using GPE theory. Even though GPE is mostly concerned with economic activity, the scope of GPE should be expanded to include military policies if they affect economic resources and activity.
Flavor of tea (Camellia sinensis): A review on odorants and analytical techniques
Authors: Zhai Xiaoting , Zhang Liang , Granvogl Michael , Ho Chi‐Tang , Wan Xiaochun
Published: July 2022

Tea is among the most consumed nonalcoholic beverages worldwide. Understanding tea flavor, in terms of both sensory aspects and chemical properties, is essential for manufacturers and consumers to maintain high quality of tea products and to correctly distinguish acceptable or unacceptable products. This article gives a comprehensive review on the aroma and off‐flavor characteristics associated with 184 odorants. Although many efforts have been made toward the characterization of flavor compounds in different types of tea, modern flavor analytical techniques that affect the results of flavor analysis have not been compared and summarized systematically up to now. Thus, the overview mainly provides the instrumental flavor analytical techniques for both aroma and taste of tea (i.e., extraction and enrichment, qualitative, quantitative, and chemometric approaches) as well as descriptive sensory analytical methodologies for tea, which is helpful for tea flavor researchers. Flavor developments of tea evolved toward time‐saving, portability, real‐time monitoring, and visualization are also prospected to get a deeper insight into the influences of different processing techniques on the formation and changes of flavor compounds, especially desired flavor compounds and off‐flavor substances present at (ultra)trace amounts in tea and tea products.
Effect and mechanism of glycerol monostearate dimer (GMS‐D) and baking‐treatment on the structure, in vitro digestion of gelatinized potato starch‐GMS‐D
Authors: Lu Yuanchao , Li Jialing , Ji Jian , Nie Xiaohua , Yu Ningxiang , Meng Xianghe
Published: July 2022

With the increasing progress of society and in‐depth scientific research, dietary regulations, especially sustained glucose releases, are regarded as an effective and significant way to lighten or even cut the emergence of diabetes. In this research, the starch–lipid complex gelatinized potato starch‐glycerol monostearate dimer (GPS‐GMS‐D) was developed to provide a low‐glycemic index functional food component for type 2 diabetes. Briefly, the higher complexation index (CI, 71.02%), lower rapidly digestible starch (RDS, 35.57%), and lower estimated glycemic index (eGI, 52.34%) were referred to as GPS‐GMS‐D. It was assumed that the solid V‐type crystal structure, induced with the helix between GMS‐D and GPS due to high amylose, high saturation, and low steric hindrance, contributed to the lower digestibility. In addition, baking treatment for 5 min was systematically exerted to improve the flavor of GPS‐GMS‐D with a relatively high CI (59.98%) and low eGI (54.15%). It was believed that rapid dehydration and close interaction during baking treatment could slow down the decomposition of GPS‐GMS‐D and conversions of starch fractions. Therefore, these results suggested that the as‐developed GPS‐GMS‐D was a promising low GI functional dietary food component for diabetes mellitus, and a suitable baking post‐thermal treatment was successfully proposed to enhance the flavor of GPS‐GMS‐D.

Practical Application

The higher amylose and solid V‐type crystal structure in gelatinized potato starch‐glycerol monostearate dimer (GPS‐GMS‐D) would induce the formation of slowly digestive starch (SDS) and resistant starch (RS) to suppress enzymatic hydrolysis. Moreover, the flavor of GPS‐GMS‐D was enhanced with appropriate and moderate thermal processing (baking), which was likely to improve the quality of life of a person with diabetes. Thus, we believe that GPS‐GMS‐D is a promising functional food component for diabetes mellitus.
Does common auditor have an impact on corporate tax avoidance? An investigation from the supply chain perspective
Authors: Hu Zhiying , Yang Haiyan , Zhang Yuyu , Wang Jenny Jing
Published: July 2022

We find that, at both the audit firm and partner level, having a common auditor in the supply chain has a significant positive association with the supplier company's degree of tax avoidance. Companies report a higher level of tax avoidance when they are audited by an industry‐expert or a tax expert common auditor, when the common audit partner is economically dependent on the supplier company, when the audit client is in a highly competitive industry, and when the company is subject to a high level of information asymmetry. Moreover, we find potential audit quality issues embedded in common audits in the supply chain.
Does debt pressure lead to unethical behaviour intention? Evidence on aggregate and individual levels
Authors: Xin Ziqiang , Yang Zhixu , Li Zhe , Chen Hongfei
Published: July 2022

Studies have shown that debt pressure impairs people's subjective well‐being and social functioning, but few studies have examined its moral consequences. To explore the relationship between debt pressure and unethical behaviour intention, we conducted three studies and obtained aggregate‐level (Study 1) and individual‐level evidence (Studies 2 and 3). Study 1 analysed data on quarterly search volumes related to unethical behaviour intention on Baidu and quarterly measures of debt pressure in China, demonstrating that increased debt pressure predicted subsequent greater levels of unethical behaviour intention. Study 2 found that, compared with the control condition, individuals in the debt pressure condition exhibited greater unethical behaviour intention. Study 3 further tested the mediating role of self‐control and showed that individuals under high debt pressure evinced diminished self‐control and, in turn, displayed more unethical behaviour intention.
Clinical application of keystone design perforator Island flap (KDPIF) in trunk defects: a retrospective study
Authors: Yushan Maimaiaili , Hamiti Yimurang , Yalikun Ainizier , Lu Cheng , Yusufu Aihemaitijiang
Published: July 2022

Background

The aim of this study was to evaluate the treatment outcomes of patients with trunk defects reconstructed by Keystone Design Perforator Island Flap (KDPIF).

Method

A total of 37 eligible cases with trunk defects were reconstructed by KDPIF from January 2017 to June 2020. Data were collected from electronic medical records, including aetiology, defect size and location, and type of KDPIF applied. Postoperative complications were recorded, and patient satisfaction was evaluated at the last clinical visit.

Result

There were 23 males and 14 females, and the average defect was 8.16 × 4.94 cm. Etiologies included decubitus ulcer (n = 12), oncologic resection (n = 11), infection (n = 9) and others (n = 5). Type III was applied in 19 cases, Type IIa in 13 cases, type IV in two cases and modified KDPIF in three cases. There were no major complications except delayed healing or wound dehiscence in three cases, which were managed by regular dressing or secondary surgical intervention. The average postoperative satisfaction score was 8.68 ± 1.13 points and all patients were satisfied with their cosmetic appearance and function at the last follow‐up.

Conclusion

Trunk defects can be successfully reconstructed by KDPIF, which results in satisfactory cosmetic and functional outcomes without major complications.
A novel framework to unearth corporate hypocrisy: Connotation, formation mechanism, manifestation, and contagion effect
Authors: Lu Jintao , Wang Chunyan , Jamali Dima , Gao Yangyang , Zhang Chong , Liang Mengshang
Published: July 2022

Corporate hypocrisy refers to the phenomenon of inconsistency between words and deeds of a firm in the process of fulfilling its social responsibility. Despite the fact that the literature related to corporate hypocrisy has made some progress, there have been very few attempts to scrutinize the topic systematically. In the light of egoistic and altruistic motivations, and capitalizing on social network theory, this study classifies corporate hypocrisy into three types: direct corporate hypocrisy, indirect corporate hypocrisy, and interactive corporate hypocrisy. Considering the differences in the identification of pro‐social motivation attributes between companies and the public in releasing/analyzing hypocritical information, a 2 (companies vs. the public) × 2 (egoism vs. altruism) framework of the formation mechanism of corporate hypocrisy was constructed. Nine differentiated manifestations were defined from the perspective of preevent, during the event, and postevent time dimensions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) behaviors and the type of corporate hypocritical behavior. Based on stakeholder theory, the contagion effect of corporate hypocrisy was also analyzed from the perspective of primary and secondary stakeholders, the “immunity‐infection” dual‐pathway analysis model of the contagion effect of corporate hypocrisy was constructed, and the intervention measures were proposed. A novel framework to understand corporate hypocrisy in the mode of “sending–receiving” was proposed, which can enrich and deepen our understanding of corporate hypocrisy and possible causes and mitigation measures. Conclusions obtained through our study can help the public, governments, and firms to better understand, track, and oversee the phenomenon of corporate hypocrisy and evolve proper guidelines to minimize hypocritical behavior.
The information won't just sink in: Helping teachers provide technology‐assisted data literacy instruction in social studies
Authors: Shreiner Tamara L. , Guzdial Mark
Published: July 2022

In this study, support for teaching data literacy in social studies is provided through the design of a pedagogical support system informed by participatory design sessions with both pre‐service and in‐service social studies teachers. It provides instruction on teaching and learning data literacy in social studies, examples of standards‐based lesson plans, made‐to‐purpose data visualization tools and minimal manuals that put existing online tools in a social studies context. Based on case studies of eleven practicing teachers, this study provides insight into features of technology resources that social studies teachers find usable and useful for using data visualizations as part of standards‐ and inquiry‐based social studies instruction, teaching critical analysis of data visualizations and helping students create data visualizations with online computing tools. The final result, though, is that few of our participating teachers have yet adopted the provided resources into their own classrooms, which highlights weaknesses of the technology acceptance model for describing teacher adoption.

Practitioner notes

What is already known about this topic

Data literacy is an important part of social studies education in the United States.

Most teachers do not teach data literacy as a part of social studies.

Teachers may adopt technology to help them teach data literacy if they think it is useful and usable.

What this paper adds

Educational technology can help teachers learn about data literacy in social studies.

Social studies teachers want simple tools that fit with their existing curricula, give them new project ideas and help students learn difficult concepts.

Making tools useful and usable does not predict adoption; context plays a large role in a social studies teachers' adoption.

Implications for practice and/or policy

Designing purpose‐built tools for social studies teachers will encourage them to teach data literacy in their classes.

Professional learning opportunities for teachers around data literacy should include opportunities for experimentation with tools.

Teachers are not likely to use tools if they are not accompanied by lesson and project ideas.
Modelling multiple problem‐solving strategies and strategy shift in cognitive diagnosis for growth
Authors: Liao Manqian , Jiao Hong
Published: July 2022

Problem‐solving strategies, defined as actions people select intentionally to achieve desired objectives, are distinguished from skills that are implemented unintentionally. In education, strategy‐oriented instructions that guide students to form problem‐solving strategies are found to be more effective for low‐achieving students than the skill‐oriented instructions designed for enhancing their skill implementation ability. Although the existing longitudinal cognitive diagnosis models (CDMs) can model the change in students' dynamic skill mastery status over time, they are not designed to model the shift in students' problem‐solving strategies. This study proposes a longitudinal CDM that considers both between‐person multiple strategies and within‐person strategy shift. The model, separating the strategy choice process from the skill implementation process, is intended to provide diagnostic information on strategy choice as well as skill mastery status. A simulation study is conducted to evaluate the parameter recovery of the proposed model and investigate the consequences of ignoring the presence of multiple strategies or strategy shift. Further, an empirical data analysis is conducted to illustrate the use of the proposed model to measure strategy shift, growth in skill implementation ability and skill mastery status.
Therapeutic potential of recombinant human basic fibroblast growth factor on postoperative patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps
Authors: Wu Jian , Lai Yinyan , Wang Kanghua , Lai Ming , Jiang Lijie , Xu Zhaofeng , Shi Jianbo , Gao Wenxiang
Published: July 2022

Objectives

To explore the effect of intranasal administration of recombinant human basic fibroblast growth factor (rh‐bFGF) on postoperative chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) patients.

Design

A prospective, randomised, controlled, single‐blinded trial.

Setting and Participants

Seventy‐five hospitalised patients who met the criteria of primary bilateral CRSwNP were enrolled from March 2020 to January 2021.

Main outcome measures

Visual analogue scale, 22‐item Sino‐Nasal Outcome Test, Lund–Kennedy (L‐K) system and scanning electron microscopy and quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction.

Results

Seventy‐five patients with CRSwNP were randomly assigned to three groups, and 72 patients completed the 1‐month medication regimen and 1‐year follow‐up. Rh‐bFGF nasal‐spray and drop application reduced general nasal VAS scores within 2 weeks after endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) compared to the control group. In contrast, only rh‐bFGF nasal‐drops reduced SNOT‐22 scores at 2 weeks and 1 year compared with the control group. A significant reduction in the endoscopic L‐K score was observed in the rh‐bFGF nasal‐spray and drop group compared with the control group. This is primarily because rh‐bFGF promotes cilia growth in the nasal mucosal epithelium after the operation, as illustrated by scanning electron microscopy and expression of CP110, Tap73 and Foxj1 mRNA. For eosinophilic CRSwNP, the general VAS score of rh‐bFGF nasal‐drops was more obviously reduced compared to the control group after ESS. A similar trend was observed for L‐K score.

Conclusions

Rh‐bFGF nasal‐drops and sprays can quickly and effectively relieve postoperative symptoms and improve long‐term prognosis of patients with CRSwNP. Moreover, rh‐bFGF nasal‐drops is also an effective method for postoperative patients with eosinophilic CRSwNP.
Tetrahedral framework nucleic acids‐based delivery promotes intracellular transfer of healing peptides and accelerates diabetic would healing
Authors: Lin Shiyu , Zhang Qi , Li Songhang , Qin Xin , Cai Xiaoxiao , Wang Huiming
Published: July 2022

Objectives

Peptide‐based therapeutics are natural candidates to desirable wound healing. However, enzymatic surroundings largely limit its stability and bioavailability. Here, we developed a tetrahedral framework nucleic acids(tFNA)‐based peptide delivery system, that is, p@tFNAs, to address deficiencies of healing peptide stability and intracellular delivery in diabetic wound healing.

Materials and Methods

AGEs (advanced glycation end products) were used to treat endothelial cell to simulate cell injury in diabetic microenvironment. The effects and related mechanisms of p@tFNAs on endothelial cell proliferation, migration, angiogenesis and ROS (reactive oxygen species) production have been comprehensively studied. The wound healing model in diabetic mice was photographically and histologically investigated in vivo.

Results

Efficient delivery of healing peptide by the framework(tFNA) was verified. p@tFNAs helped overcome the angiogenic obstacles induced by AGEs via ERK1/2 phosphorylation. In the meantime, p@tFNA exhibited its antioxidative property to achieve ROS balance. As a result, p@tFNA improved angiogenesis and diabetic wound healing in vitro and in vivo.

Conclusions

Our findings demonstrate that p@tFNA could be a novel therapeutic strategy for diabetic wound healing. Moreover, a new method for intracellular delivery of peptides was also constructed.
Neutralizing antibody responses against SARS‐CoV‐2 in patients with plasma cell disorders who are on active treatment after two doses of mRNA vaccination
Authors: Abdallah Al‐Ola , Mahmoudjafari Zahra , Atieh Tahani , Ahmed Nausheen , Cui Wei , Shune Leyla , Mohan Meera , McGuirk Joseph , Remker Cassie , Foss Margaret , Karloff Ellie , Fitch Heather , Atrash Shebli
Published: July 2022

Many patients with plasma cell disorder (PCD) on active treatment with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) require hospitalization, with an increased mortality rate over healthy adults. The FDA approved two mRNA vaccines against SARS‐CoV‐2: BNT162b2 and mRNA‐1273. To assess the efficacy of vaccination in patients with PCD, retrospectively, we identified all patients on active treatment. A total of 149 patients were included. Neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) levels against SARS‐CoV‐2 adequate, intermediate, and no response were observed in 42%, 32%, and 26%, respectively. Low NAbs were seen in patients on daratumumab combinations or anti‐BCMA therapy, low lymphocytes, and low IgG levels. Twenty‐three (15%) patients have SARS CoV‐2, while 8% required hospitalization, majority of these patients had intermediate or no response based on NAbs levels. Therefore, checking NAbs may be clinically helpful in identifying patients' responses. Further prospective studies should ascertain the value of a third vaccine dose in this population.
A retrospective study of treosulfan versus busulfan‐based conditioning in pediatric patients
Authors: Olivas‐Mazón Raquel , Bueno David , Sisinni Luisa , Mozo Yasmina , Casado‐Abad Gema , Martínez Antonio Pérez
Published: July 2022

Objectives

To compare the outcomes of treosulfan‐based vs busulfan‐based conditioning regimens in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) in pediatric patients.

Methods

Retrospective study of all consecutive patients (2012–2019) treated with allogenic HSCT and treosulfan‐ or busulfan‐based conditioning regimens at a single center.

Results

A total of 101 HSCT were included: 66 HSCT with busulfan and 35 with treosulfan. In malignant diseases (n = 62), busulfan‐based conditioning was more commonly employed than treosulfan: 82.3% vs 17.7%. However, the use of treosulfan for malignant diseases increased over time: 6.5% of HSCT in 2012–2015 vs 29% of HSCT in 2015–2019 (p = .02). The cohort of treosulfan had more children under 1‐year of age than the busulfan cohort (31 vs 13%; p = .033). The percentage of patients who received serotherapy was 73 and 89% in the nonmalignant and malignant groups, respectively. The engraftment, time to neutrophil, and platelet engraftment were not significantly different between the busulfan and the treosulfan cohorts. Rate of grade II‐IV acute GvHD was significantly higher in the busulfan cohort than the treosulfan cohort (39% vs 15%; p = .016). No differences were observed in endothelial damage complications, chronic GvHD, relapse, overall survival, and transplant‐related mortality.

Conclusions

Busulfan‐based conditioning regimens are used more frequently for children undergoing allogenic HSCT, but treosulfan‐based conditioning is gaining acceptance. Treosulfan‐based conditioning is associated with lower rates of acute GvHD, and no significant differences on overall survival were observed compared with busulfan.
Software business process adaptive approach supporting organization architecture evolution
Authors: Li Youhuizi , Yin Yuyu , Li Yu , Hu Haijie , Lu Linyang , Cao Jie
Published: July 2022

Software maintenance and evolution play an important role in the software engineering field, especially when current software becomes more and more complex and powerful. As an entity to implement business processes and gain revenue, valuable software is composed of business logic and corresponding organization role interaction interfaces. With the enterprise development, the organization architecture also evolves, like expanding, cross department cooperation, and so on. However, existing software process adaptive approaches mainly focus on handling the change of the business (program) logic instead of organization structure. Therefore, we propose an adaptive software business process approach that supports organization architecture evolution and automatically migrates the run‐time process instances to the latest version. First, a business process adaptation model is designed, which includes the organization layer, business process layer and event layer that connects the two. Based on the model, the organization changing impact and business process model modification are formalized. Besides, the business process adaptation approach is designed. According to the dependence between the organization architecture and the business process activities, the affected domain detection algorithms for three basic business process structures and the business process instance migration algorithm are developed. Finally, the feasibility and stability of the proposed system are comprehensively evaluated with the synthetic data sets.