bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Radiation damage and abnormal photoluminescence enhancement of multilayer MoS2 under neutron irradiation
Authors: Xiong Guodong , Zhu Huiping , Wang Lei , Fan Linsheng , Zheng Zhongshan , Li Bo , Zhao Fazhan , Han Zhengsheng
Published: October 2021

In this work, neutron irradiation effects on the optical property of multilayer MoS2 have been investigated in depth. Our results display that the intensity of the photoluminescence (PL) spectra of MoS2 flakes tends to slightly decrease after exposed to neutron irradiation with low fluence of 4.0 × 108 n/cm2. An unexpected improvement of PL intensity, however, is observed when the irradiation fluence accumulates to 3.2 × 109 n/cm2. Combined with the experimental results and first-principles calculations, neutron irradiation damage effects of multilayer MoS2 are analyzed deeply. Sulfur vacancy (V
S) is found to be responsible for the attenuation of the PL intensity as a major defect. In addition, our results reveal that the adsorbed hydroxyl groups (OH) and oxygen atoms (O) on the surface of MoS2 flakes not only promote the transition from trion excitons to neutral excitons, but also repair the V
S in MoS2, both of which contribute to the enhancement of luminescence properties. The detailed evolution process of irradiation-induced defects is discussed to reveal the microscopic mechanism of the significantly difference in luminescence intensity of MoS2 under different irradiation stages. This work has great significance for evaluating the neutron radiation hardness of multilayer MoS2, which is helpful to enrich the fundamental research on neutron irradiation effects.
Theoretical study of the influence of fluorination/chlorination on the electronic properties of donor:acceptor complexes
Authors: Wang Lilong , Wang Haiyan , Li Junhui , Zhang Haitao , Shen Pengchao , Wang Runzhe
Published: October 2021

In this study, the electronic properties of J50:N2200 (benzodithiophene-alt-benzotriazole: NDI-bithiophene) interface before and after fluorination/chlorination were investigated based on the first-principles density functional theory (DFT). The results reveal that the donor (D) and acceptor (A) molecules exhibit direct band gap whether to be fluorinated/chlorinated or not, and the six D:A pairs constructed all display indirect band gap. Next, for the fluorinated/chlorinated D molecule J50, the slope of total density of states (TDOS) curve edge at the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy level enlarges, indicating high electron locality; the fluorination/chlorination of the A molecule N2200 reduces the slope of the TDOS at the HOMO level, and the electron delocalization strengthens. Then, the difference ΔE1 of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) levels between D and A, the difference ΔE2 of HOMO levels between D and A, and the difference ΔE3 between the HOMO level of the D and the LUMO level of the A were calculated about the D:A complexes. The consequences present that by using fluorine/chlorine (F/Cl) substitution at J50, ΔE1 and ΔE2 both decrease, and ΔE3 increases; for N2200, both ΔE1 and ΔE2 increase, and ΔE3 decreases. Since the higher open circuit voltage (V
OC) is directly proportional to ΔE3, again ΔE1 and ΔE2 afford the driving force for charge transport, these expose that the fluorination/chlorination of J50 is beneficial to obtain the higher V
OC, meanwhile, the F/Cl replacement in N2200 facilitates the separation of excitons. In addition, by the Bader charge analysis, the F/Cl substitution at D in D:A blends will promote the intramolecular charge transfer and enhance the molecular polarity; moreover, the substitution at A will improve the intermolecular charge transfer and the dipole electric field may be enhanced. Finally, the details also depend on the type of element and the position of substitution.
Revelation of Mott insulating state in layered honeycomb lattice Li2RuO3
Authors: Bansal Sakshi , Ali Asif , Reddy B H , Singh Ravi Shankar
Published: October 2021

We investigate the role of electron correlation in the electronic structure of honeycomb lattice Li2RuO3 using photoemission spectroscopy and band structure calculations. Monoclinic Li2RuO3 having Ru network as honeycomb lattice undergoes magneto-structural transition at T
c ∼ 540 K from high temperature phase C2/m to low temperature dimerized phase P21/m. Room temperature valence band photoemission spectra reveal an insulating ground state with no intensity at Fermi level (E
F). Ru 4d band extracted from high and low photon energy valence band photoemission spectra reveal that the surface and bulk electronic structures are very similar in this system. Band structure calculations using generalized gradient approximation leads to metallic ground state while screened hybrid (YS-PBE0) functional reveals opening up of a gap in almost degenerate d

zx
/d

yz
orbitals, whereas d

xy
orbital is already gapped. Ru 3d core level spectra with prominent unscreened feature provides direct evidence of strong electron correlation among Ru 4d electrons which is also manifested by |E − E
F|2 dependence of spectral density of states in the vicinity of E
F in the high-resolution spectra, establishing Li2RuO3 as Mott insulator.
Experimental investigation of unsteady convective heat transfer under airflow velocity and temperature variations
Authors: Brack Stefan , Poser Rico , Wolfersdorf Jens von
Published: October 2021

An experimental approach to study unsteady local heat transfer characteristics due to airflow velocity and/or airflow temperature variations is presented. It uses controlled electrical heaters and rotating vanes to independently vary the flow and thermal boundary conditions. Time-resolved surface temperatures are measured using an in situ calibrated infrared thermography camera. Those surface temperatures are analyzed by modeling the transient conjugate heat transfer process in the wall to obtain locally resolved surface heat flux distributions. The applicability is illustrated for a flow and heat transfer behind a tetrahedral vortex generator on a flat plate.
Rail surface defect inspection via a self-reference template and similarity evaluation
Authors: Lang Ning , Wang Decheng , Cheng Peng , Liu Lingxiao
Published: October 2021

Although railway transportation has rapidly evolved in recent times, the existing manual maintenance of rail infrastructure presents several challenges, such as labor intensity and tediousness. Computer vision, as one of the automatic inspection methods, shows promising prospects for railway detection tasks. In this study, we proposed a novel rail surface defect detection method based on a self-reference template and similarity evaluation. Firstly, a self-reference template was generated by extracting the domain information together with the longitudinal direction of the rail image. We further defined an image structural similarity index, and subsequently compared all the transversal rows with the background template. A coarse-to-fine segmentation method was further proposed to locate the defect. In the first step of the segmentation procedure, rows with large differences were selected using the Otsu algorithm adaptively. The exact position of the defect was then determined by utilizing both gradient magnitude and grayscale information. Our method was evaluated on a public rail surface defects dataset, which included two types of data. The experiment results showed that our method detected type-I and type-II defects with 89.04% and 89.61% recall, and 98.46% and 97.87% precision, respectively. This shows that our method achieved higher accuracy than the established detection algorithms.
High antioxidant activity of gadolinium–yttrium orthovanadate nanoparticles in cell-free and biological milieu
Authors: Maksimchuk P O , Hubenko K O , Seminko V V , Karbivskii V L , Tkachenko A S , Onishchenko A I , Prokopyuk V Yu , Yefimova S L
Published: October 2021

Oxidative stress caused by an overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is the key factor in developing a variety of pathological conditions. Recently various nanomaterials have attracted growing interest as nanoantioxidants with ROS-regulating ability. Here, for the first time, we report on high antioxidant behavior (enzyme-like activity) of GdYVO4:Eu3+ nanoparticles (GdYVO NPs) revealed by spectroscopic methods both in cell-free and biological milieu using various ROS sensors. It was revealed that GdYVO NPs (d = 2 nm) effectively scavenge hydroxyl radicals

·
O
H

,

superoxide anions

O

2

·
−

,

hydrogen peroxide

H

2

O

2

,

peroxyl radicals

R
O

O

·

,

and remarkably reduce the lipopolysaccharide-induced ROS generation in rat leukocytes. The antioxidant activity of GdYVO NPs is ascribed to high amount of V4+ and V3+ ions in the structure of the NPs and the reversible switching

V

3
+

↔

V

4
+

and

V

4
+

↔

V

5
+

vanadium oxidation states.
A backprojection kernel (KRNL3D) for very-wide-aperture 3D tomography applied to PET with Multigrid for precise use of time-of-flight data
Authors: Miller Keith
Published: October 2021

In ‘KRNL3D’ we derive a kernel function K(y
1, y
2, φ) whose backprojections from all directions (θ, φ) in the spherical band

∣
φ
∣
<

φ

¯

max

on the celestial sphere, when integrated with respect to solid angle, yield ρ, the 3D Gaussian point response function (PRF) of radius 1. This K, when convolved against line integral data from an unknown density function f, yields an integral formula for the ‘mollification’ ff = ρ ∗ f, which is a slightly blurred version of f, and which stabilizes the mild ill-posedness. Applied to positron emission tomography that backprojection reconstruction occurs stochastically and one emission event at a time, after needed data corrections. We describe Octave (≈Matlab) codes to tabulate K and to test its use with a large aperture

φ

¯

max

=
π

/

3

or π/6. ‘KRNL3D-
TOF’ truncates backprojection to a cylindrical patch about the TOF approximate location of each event. These ‘backplacements’ decrease the computational cost and limit noise and streaking in one region from contaminating the reconstruction in more distant regions. They also retain the ability to count emission events in an isolated blob despite very low event counts, a valuable feature for dynamic studies of metabolic processes. ‘Multigrid’ allows further reduction in the radius and lengths of the cylinders, thereby enabling even more precise use of the TOF information. This precision should be especially important as researchers decrease the TOF uncertainty in newer generation scanners. Finally, we discuss ‘further work’ that needs to be done. Our codes are being made freely available at https://github.com/keithmillerberkeley/PET-codes.
Interaction of helium plasma jet with tilted targets: consequences of target permittivity, conductivity and incidence angle
Authors: Babaeva Natalia Yu , Naidis George V , Tereshonok Dmitry V , Zhang Cheng , Huang Bangdou , Shao Tao
Published: October 2021

In this paper, we discuss the results from the two-dimensional computational investigation of the effect of a helium plasma jet interaction with dielectric plates at a floating potential positioned at different angles (α = 0°, 10°, 30°, 45°, 60°, and 90°) relative to the vertical axis. We show that greater surfaces can be treated when the plasma jet is applied non-perpendicularly to the plate. The case of α = 45° is discussed in detail. Here, the dielectric properties (conductivity σ and relative dielectric permittivity ε/ε
0) of the plate were varied. By introducing notations D (deviation of the ionization wave from the tube axis) and S (plasma treated area) we showed how these values are related to the dielectric properties of the plate. We demonstrated that D and S weakly depend on the conductivity σ when it is below the level of (3–5) × 10−4 Ω−1 cm−1. In this case, the deviation D and S are mostly determined by the relative dielectric permittivity ε/ε
0 of the plate. By lowering the dielectric permittivity (at a constant σ) we increase the treatment area S. For conductivities of 10−3 Ω−1 cm−1 or greater, D and S do not depend on the permittivity of the plate. In this case the treatment properties are totally determined by σ. The indicated value of conductivity is close to the conductivity of tap or sea water. It is also close to the conductivity of the inner parts of cells, for example, the cytoplasm of human skin cells. The results will be of interest for researchers working in the area of plasma medicine.
Laser modification of structure and optical properties of N-doped graphene oxide
Authors: Seliverstova Evgeniya , Ibrayev Niyazbek , Menshova Evgeniya , Alikhaidarova Elmira
Published: October 2021

The effect of laser ablation of N-doped graphene oxide (NGO) sheets on its optical properties has been studied. It was shown that the average lateral size of NGO sheets was decreased from 644.4 ± 143.8 to 114.4 ± 59.8 nm after 60 min of ablation. The data of FTIR spectroscopy have shown that after ablation the intensity of the vibrations bands of N-containing groups increases. The optical density of NGO dispersions and the intensity of their emission are depended on the ablation time. The highest fluorescence intensity was recorded upon excitation at a wavelength of 350 nm. For all NGO samples after laser irradiation a noticeable increase in the fluorescence intensity was registered. The enhancement factor was equal to ∼11.0 and 8.5 times for 30 and 60 min, respectively. The lifetime of NGO fluorescence after ablation was increased from 1.73 ns to 3.63 ns. After ablation, the samples under study exhibit long-term luminescence with a maximum at about 450 nm. The data obtained open up possibilities to control the optical properties of N-doped graphene oxide and nanodots based on it.
Microstructure and tribological behaviors of diffusion bonded powder sintered Cu–Sn based alloys
Authors: Li Zhenyu , Zhao Gengrui , Wang Honggang , Gao Gui , Chen Shengsheng , Yang Dongya , Fan Yue , Zhang Guowei , Xu Hong
Published: October 2021

Owing to good self-lubricating performance, tin bronze is widely used in industrial fields. As tin bronze parts manufactured by powder metallurgy, their tribological performances are influenced by raw powder. In this work, four types of self-lubricating copper alloy composites (CuSn10 (D), CuSn10, CuSn10Pb10 (D) and CuSn10Pb10) were prepared by sintering completely alloyed powder and diffusion alloyed copper tin powder. The morphology, element distribution and microstructure of raw powder and their sintered Cu alloy composites were observed. The tribological properties of Cu alloys were investigated by block-ring friction test under different working conditions and their worn surface and wear debris were analyzed. The results show that the diffusion alloyed powder has an irregular dendritic morphology and its sintered Cu alloy is more likely to produce twin structure which enhances the hardness and the bearing capacity of the material. Compared with completely alloyed powder sintered CuSn10 sample, the wear rate of CuSn10 (D) sintered from diffusion alloyed powder was reduced by 83.96%, 74.39%, and 67.63% under three typical working conditions. Under dry friction conditions, the wear rate of CuSn10 (D) is reduced by 63.64% than CuSn10, and CuSn10Pb10 (D) is 25% lower than CuSn10Pb10. The investigation on the wear tracks and wear debris of Cu alloy composites showed that the diffusion alloyed powder sintered samples are inclined to form a more consecutive and integral third-body layer on wear tracks and which contributes to the better wear resistance.
Numerical studies of the influence of seeding locations on D-SOL plasmas in EAST
Authors: WANG Min , XIAO Qingmei , WANG Xiaogang , LIU Daoyuan
Published: October 2021

Impurity seeding has been found effective for divertor detachment operations and the seeding location plays a key role in this process. In this work, we use the fluid code SOLPS-ITER to study the influence of seeding locations on divertor and scrape-off layer (D-SOL) plasmas in Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) with neon seeding. Simulation results indicate that the neon is a highly effective impurity in mitigating the heat flux and electron temperature peaks on the target of the divertor and achieving the partial detachment on both inner and outer targets. Further, by comparing results of the seeding at the private-flux region (PFR) plate (called ‘TP’ location) and the outer target (called ‘XP’ location), we find that the impurity density and power radiation for TP case are higher in core and upstream regions and lower in the divertor region than that for seeding at the XP, and the difference becomes more and more obvious as the seeding rate increases. It clearly demonstrates that the seeding at the XP location is more appropriate than at the TP location, especially in high seeding rate conditions.
A computational methodology to diagnose sequence-variant dynamic perturbations by comparing atomic protein structures
Authors: Pacini Lorenza , Lesieur Claire
Published: October 2021

Motivation

The objective is to diagnose dynamics perturbations caused by amino-acid mutations as prerequisite to assess protein functional health or drug failure, simply using network models of protein X-ray structures.

Results

We find that the differences in the allocation of the atomic interactions of each amino acid to 1D, 2D, 3D, 4D structural levels between variants structurally robust, recover experimental dynamic perturbations. The allocation measure validated on two B-pentamers variants of AB5 toxins having 17 mutations, also distinguishes dynamic perturbations of pathogenic and non-pathogenic Transthyretin single-mutants. Finally, the main proteases of the coronaviruses SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 exhibit changes in the allocation measure, raising the possibility of drug failure despite the main proteases structural similarity.

Availability and implementation

The Python code used for the production of the results is available at github.com/lorpac/protein_partitioning_atomic_contacts. The authors will run the analysis on any PDB structures of protein variants upon request.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Regression-based causal inference with factorial experiments: estimands, model specifications and design-based properties
Authors: Zhao Anqi , Ding Peng
Published: October 2021

Factorial designs are widely used because of their ability to accommodate multiple factors simultaneously. Factor-based regression with main effects and some interactions is the dominant strategy for downstream analysis, delivering point estimators and standard errors simultaneously via one least-squares fit. Justification of these convenient estimators from the design-based perspective requires quantifying their sampling properties under the assignment mechanism while conditioning on the potential outcomes. To this end, we derive the sampling properties of the regression estimators under a wide range of specifications, and establish the appropriateness of the corresponding robust standard errors for Wald-type inference. The results help to clarify the causal interpretation of the coefficients in these factor-based regressions, and motivate the definition of general factorial effects to unify the definitions of factorial effects in various fields. We also quantify the bias-variance trade-off between the saturated and unsaturated regressions from the design-based perspective.
Distributional data analysis via quantile functions and its application to modeling digital biomarkers of gait in Alzheimer’s Disease
Authors: Ghosal Rahul , Varma Vijay R , Volfson Dmitri , Hillel Inbar , Urbanek Jacek , Hausdorff Jeffrey M , Watts Amber , Zipunnikov Vadim
Published: October 2021

With the advent of continuous health monitoring with wearable devices, users now generate their unique streams of continuous data such as minute-level step counts or heartbeats. Summarizing these streams via scalar summaries often ignores the distributional nature of wearable data and almost unavoidably leads to the loss of critical information. We propose to capture the distributional nature of wearable data via user-specific quantile functions (QF) and use these QFs as predictors in scalar-on-quantile-function-regression (SOQFR). As an alternative approach, we also propose to represent QFs via user-specific L-moments, robust rank-based analogs of traditional moments, and use L-moments as predictors in SOQFR (SOQFR-L). These two approaches provide two mutually consistent interpretations: in terms of quantile levels by SOQFR and in terms of L-moments by SOQFR-L. We also demonstrate how to deal with multi-modal distributional data via Joint and Individual Variation Explained using L-moments. The proposed methods are illustrated in a study of association of digital gait biomarkers with cognitive function in Alzheimers disease. Our analysis shows that the proposed methods demonstrate higher predictive performance and attain much stronger associations with clinical cognitive scales compared to simple distributional summaries.
Biallelic FRA10AC1 variants cause a neurodevelopmental disorder with growth retardation
Authors: von Elsner Leonie , Chai Guoliang , Schneeberger Pauline E , Harms Frederike L , Casar Christian , Qi Minyue , Alawi Malik , Abdel-Salam Ghada M H , Zaki Maha S , Arndt Florian , Yang Xiaoxu , Stanley Valentina , Hempel Maja , Gleeson Joseph G , Kutsche Kerstin
Published: October 2021

The major spliceosome mediates pre-mRNA splicing by recognizing the highly conserved sequences at the 5′ and 3′ splice sites and the branch point. More than 150 proteins participate in the splicing process and are organized in the spliceosomal A, B, and C complexes. FRA10AC1 is a peripheral protein of the spliceosomal C complex and its ortholog in the green alga facilitates recognition or interaction with splice sites. We identified biallelic pathogenic variants in FRA10AC1 in five individuals from three consanguineous families. The two unrelated Patients 1 and 2 with loss-of-function variants showed developmental delay, intellectual disability, and no speech, while three siblings with the c.494_496delAAG (p.Glu165del) variant had borderline to mild intellectual disability. All patients had microcephaly, hypoplasia or agenesis of the corpus callosum, growth retardation, and craniofacial dysmorphism. FRA10AC1 transcripts and proteins were drastically reduced or absent in fibroblasts of Patients 1 and 2. In a heterologous expression system, the p.Glu165del variant impacts intrinsic stability of FRA10AC1 but does not affect its nuclear localization. By co-immunoprecipitation, we found ectopically expressed HA-FRA10AC1 in complex with endogenous DGCR14, another component of the spliceosomal C complex, while the splice factors CHERP, NKAP, RED, and SF3B2 could not be co-immunoprecipitated. Using an in vitro splicing reporter assay, we did not obtain evidence for FRA10AC1 deficiency to suppress missplicing events caused by mutations in the highly conserved dinucleotides of 5′ and 3′ splice sites in an in vitro splicing assay in patient-derived fibroblasts. Our data highlight the importance of specific peripheral spliceosomal C complex proteins for neurodevelopment. It remains possible that FRA10AC1 may have other and/or additional cellular functions, such as coupling of transcription and splicing reactions.
DNMT3A epigenetically regulates key microRNAs involved in epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in prostate cancer
Authors: Mancini Monica , Grasso Margherita , Muccillo Livio , Babbio Federica , Precazzini Francesca , Castiglioni Ilaria , Zanetti Valentina , Rizzo Francesca , Pistore Christian , De Marino Maria Giovanna , Zocchi Michele , Del Vescovo Valerio , Licursi Valerio , Giurato Giorgio , Weisz Alessandro , Chiarugi Paola , Sabatino Lina , Denti Michela Alessandra , Bonapace Ian Marc
Published: October 2021

Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is involved in prostate cancer (PCa) metastatic progression, and its plasticity suggests epigenetic implications. Deregulation of DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) and several microRNAs (miRNAs) plays a relevant role in EMT, but their interplay has not been clarified yet. In this study, we provide evidence that DNMT3A interaction with several miRNAs has a central role in an ex vivo EMT PCa model obtained via exposure of PC3 cells to conditioned media from cancer-associated fibroblasts. The analysis of the alterations of the miRNA profile shows that miR-200 family (miR-200a/200b/429, miR-200c/141), miR-205 and miR-203, known to modulate key EMT factors, are down-regulated and hyper-methylated at their promoters. DNMT3A (mainly isoform a) is recruited onto these miRNA promoters, coupled with the increase of H3K27me3/H3K9me3 and/or the decrease of H3K4me3/H3K36me3. Most interestingly, our results reveal the differential expression of two DNMT3A isoforms (a and b) during ex vivo EMT and a regulatory feedback loop between miR-429 and DNMT3A that can promote and sustain the transition towards a more mesenchymal phenotype. We demonstrate the ability of miR-429 to target DNMT3A 3′UTR and modulate the expression of EMT factors, in particular ZEB1. Survey of the PRAD-TCGA dataset shows that patients expressing an EMT-like signature are indeed characterized by down-regulation of the same miRNAs with a diffused hyper-methylation at miR-200c/141 and miR-200a/200b/429 promoters. Finally, we show that miR-1260a also targets DNMT3A, although it does not seem to be involved in EMT in PCa.
Recent progress in Cr-based catalysts for oxidative dehydrogenation of light alkanes by employing CO2 as a soft oxidant
Authors: Liu Pengyu , Zhang Lina , Li Minkang , Sun Nannan , Wei Wei
Published: October 2021

CO2 can be used as a soft oxidant for oxidative dehydrogenation of light alkanes (CO2-ODH), which is beneficial to realize the reuse of CO2 and meet the demand for olefins. The core of this reaction is the catalyst. Cr-based catalysts have attracted much attention for their excellent catalytic performance in CO2-ODH reactions due to their various oxidation states and local electronic structures. In this paper, the synthesis and modification methods of Cr-based catalysts for CO2-ODH are reviewed. The structure–activity relationship and reaction mechanism are also summarized. Moreover, the reasons for the deactivation of Cr-based catalysts are analysed and the main challenges faced by Cr-based catalysts in the CO2-ODH process, as well as the future development trend and prospect, are discussed.
Interpersonal conflict increases interpersonal neural synchronization in romantic couples
Authors: Long Yuhang , Chen Chuansheng , Wu Karen , Zhou Siyuan , Zhou Faxin , Zheng Lifen , Zhao Hui , Zhai Yu , Lu Chunming
Published: October 2021

Previous studies on dual-brain social interaction have shown different patterns of interpersonal neural synchronization (INS) between conflictual and supportive interactions, but the role of emotion in the dual-brain mechanisms of such interactions is not well understood. Furthermore, little is known about how the dual-brain mechanisms are affected by relationship type (e.g., romantic relationship vs. friendship) and interaction mode (e.g., verbal vs. nonverbal). To elaborate on these issues, this study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy to collect hemodynamic signals from romantic couples and cross-sex friends while they were discussing conflictual, neutral, or supportive topics. For the couples but not the friends, INS between the sensorimotor cortex of both participants was greater when discussing the conflictual topic than when discussing the supportive topic. INS was positively correlated with the arousal level but not the valence level of communication contents. INS was also positively correlated with interpersonal physiological synchronization based on galvanic skin response, a physiological measure of arousal. Furthermore, the differences in INS between the conflictual and supportive topics were closely associated with verbal rather than nonverbal behaviors. Together, these findings suggest that it is the arousal level induced by verbal interactions during interpersonal conflicts that increases romantic couples’ INS.
Orienting to different dimensions of word meaning alters the representation of word meaning in early processing regions
Authors: Meersmans Karen , Storms Gerrit , De Deyne Simon , Bruffaerts Rose , Dupont Patrick , Vandenberghe Rik
Published: October 2021

Conscious processing of word meaning can be guided by attention. In this event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging study in 22 healthy young volunteers, we examined in which regions orienting attention to two fundamental and generic dimensions of word meaning, concreteness versus valence, alters the semantic representations coded in activity patterns. The stimuli consisted of 120 nouns in written or spoken modality which varied factorially along the concreteness and valence axis. Participants performed a forced-choice judgement of either concreteness or valence. Rostral and subgenual anterior cingulate were strongly activated during valence judgement, and precuneus and the dorsal attention network during concreteness judgement. Task and stimulus type interacted in right posterior fusiform gyrus, left lingual gyrus, precuneus, and insula. In the right posterior fusiform gyrus and the left lingual gyrus, the correlation between the pairwise similarity in activity patterns evoked by words and the pairwise distance in valence and concreteness was modulated by the direction of attention, word valence or concreteness. The data indicate that orienting attention to basic dimensions of word meaning exerts effects on the representation of word meaning in more peripheral nodes, such as the ventral occipital cortex, rather than the core perisylvian language regions.
Myocarditis following COVID-19 vaccination: magnetic resonance imaging study
Authors: Shiyovich Arthur , Witberg Guy , Aviv Yaron , Eisen Alon , Orvin Katia , Wiessman Maya , Grinberg Tzlil , Porter Avital , Kornowski Ran , Hamdan Ashraf
Published: October 2021

Aims

To describe the cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging findings of patients who developed myocarditis following messenger RNA (mRNA) coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination.

Methods and results

The present study retrospectively evaluated patients with clinically adjudicated myocarditis within 42 days of the first Pfizer-BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccination, between 20 December 2020 and 24 May 2021 who underwent CMR. A total of 15 out 54 patients (28%) with myocarditis underwent a CMR and were included, 100% males, median age of 32 years (interquartile range = 22.5–40). Most patients presented with chest pain (87%) and had an abnormal electrocardiogram (79%). The severity of the disease was mild in 67% and intermediate in 33%. All patients survived and one patient was readmitted during the study period. CMR was performed at a median of 65 days (range 3–130 days) following diagnosis. Median ejection fraction was 58% (range 51–74%) global- and regional wall motion abnormalities were present in one and three patients, respectively. Native T1 was available in 13/15 patients (2/3 in 3 T and 11/12 in the 1.5 T), with increased values among 6/13. Late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) was found among 13/15 patients with a median of 2% (range 0–15%) with inferolateral wall being the most common location (8/13). The patterns of the LGE were: mid-wall in six patients; epicardial in five patients; and mid-wall and epicardial in two patients.

Conclusions

Among patients who were diagnosed with post-vaccination clinical myocarditis, CMR imaging findings are mild and consistent with ‘classical myocarditis’. The short-term clinical course and outcomes were favourable.
Integrating evolutionary aspects into dual-use discussion: the cases of influenza virus and enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli
Authors: Gati Noble Selasi , Altinok Ozan Altan , Kumar Sriram , Ferrando Verónica A , Kurtz Joachim , Quante Michael , Ludwig Stephan , Mellmann Alexander
Published: October 2021

Research in infection biology aims to understand the complex nature of host–pathogen interactions. While this knowledge facilitates strategies for preventing and treating diseases, it can also be intentionally misused to cause harm. Such dual-use risk is potentially high for highly pathogenic microbes such as Risk Group-3 (RG3) bacteria and RG4 viruses, which could be used in bioterrorism attacks. However, other pathogens such as influenza virus (IV) and enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC), usually classified as RG2 pathogens, also demonstrate high dual-use risk. As the currently approved therapeutics against these pathogens are not satisfactorily effective, previous outbreaks of these pathogens caused enormous public fear, media attention and economic burden. In this interdisciplinary review, we summarize the current perspectives of dual-use research on IV and EHEC, and further highlight the dual-use risk associated with evolutionary experiments with these infectious pathogens. We support the need to carry out experiments pertaining to pathogen evolution, including to gain predictive insights on their evolutionary trajectories, which cannot be otherwise achieved with stand-alone theoretical models and epidemiological data. However, we also advocate for increased awareness and assessment strategies to better quantify the risks-versus-benefits associated with such evolutionary experiments. In addition to building public trust in dual-use research, we propose that these approaches can be extended to other pathogens currently classified as low risk, but bearing high dual-use potential, given the particular pressing nature of their rapid evolutionary potential.
Serum anion gap predicts in-hospital and 1-year mortality in cardiac care unit patients
Authors: Nilmoje M R
Published: October 2021

Background

Anion gap (AG) has been used as a prognostic indicator in critical care setting as well ascardiovascular fields such as coronary artery and aortic disease. However, there were few studies about the association of AG in cardiac care unit (CCU) for in-hospital mortality and none of them for the 1-year mortality.

Objective

To assess a predictive ability of AG for in-hospital and 1-year mortality in CCU patients in a tertiary hospital in Thailand.

Methods

This is a retrospective cohort study in the single tertiary care hospital in the Southern Thailand. The data were extracted from the Hospital information System (HIS) database of the hospital. Patients admitted from emergency department (ED) to CCU from July 2015 to December 2019 were included. Anion gap was calculated from serum electrolytes obtained at emergency room or within 1 hour of CCU admission by using the follow formula: [(Na (mmol/L)) − (Cl (mmol/L) + HCO3 (mmol/L))]. The associations between anion gap and in-hospital and 1-year mortality were analyzed in the logistic and Cox regression model respectively.

Results

A total of 1271 patients were included in this study. There were higher prevalence of diabetesmellitus and chronic kidney disease (CKD) in patients with wide AG than in normal AG. Hemoglobin level,blood urea nitrogen and serum creatinine were higher whereas mean Braden score was lower in the wide AG group than normal AG group.

The 1-year survival rate of patients with AG ≥14 was significantly lower than patients with AG <14 (Figure 1). The survival rate of patients with AG ≤12 was not significantly different from that between 12 and 14, since survival curves of the two groups were overlapping. Figure 2 illustrated strong linear relationships between baseline AG and in-hospital (A) and 1-yr mortality risk (B). The c-statistics of AG for in-hospital (A) and 1-yr mortality (B) were 0.822 (95% CI 0.763–0.878) and 0.787 (95% CI 0.75–0.824) respectively.

In multivariable analysis, AG gap was an independent predictor for both in-hospital (odd ratio 1.13, 95% CI 1.07–1.19, p<0.ehab724.15231) and 1-year mortality (HR 1.09, 95% CI 1.07–1.12, p<0.0001) after adjusted for age, sex, diabetes, CKD, chronic lung disease, history of cancer, prior stroke, Braden score and cardiogenic shock.

Conclusions

Anion gap, costless fifth electrolyte - calculated from 3 out of 4 routine basic electrolytes (Na KCl HCO3), was a strong independent predictor of in-hospital and 1-year mortality in CCU patients. Moreover, in the future, it may lead to web-based risk calculator development for CCU patients.

Funding Acknowledgement

Type of funding sources: Public hospital(s). Main funding source(s): Prince of Songkla University Hospital KM curve of all cause mortalityLinear and ROC curve
Infective endocarditis after transcatheter aortic valve implantation
Authors: Arellano Serrano C , Oteo Dominguez J F , Garcia Touchard A , Fernandez Diaz J A , Del Trigo Espinosa M , Calderon Parra J , Ramos Martinez A , Cobo Marcos M , Dominguez Rodriguez F , Monivas Palomero V , Mingo Santos S , Goicolea Ruigomez J , Segovia Cubero J
Published: October 2021

Introduction

Infective endocarditis (IE) is a potentially serious complication in patients with prosthetic heart valves. The objective of this study is to analyze and describe the incidence, baseline characteristics, risks factors and in-hospital evolution in IE after Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (IE-TAVI).

Methods

All the TAVI implanted in our center since the beginning of the program have been included consecutively. Patients with a confirmed diagnosis of IE according to the “ESC Guidelines for the management of infective endocarditis” are identified and analyzed.

Results

331 TAVI have been implanted in our center from June 2009 to February 2021. IE-TAVI incidence in our series is 2.7% (n=9 cases). In baseline analysis, we observed that insulin dependent diabetes mellitus, Barthel Score and Pulmonary systolic pressure >50mmHg are significantly associated with the appearance of IE-TAVI (TABLE 1).

The most frequently microorganism is Enterococcus faecalis (44.4%; n=4) followed by Staphylococcus aureus (22.2%; n=2), Coagulase-negative staphylococci (22.2%; n=2) and Streptococcus viridans (11.1%; n=1).

77.8% of IE-TAVI (n=7) are Nosocomial IE or non-nosocomial healthcare-associated IE. 2 of them have been related to implantation (1 Enterococcus faecalis and 1 Coagulase-negative staphylococci) and 5 have been related to other interventions (2 after gastroscopy, 1 after percutaneous vascular intervention, 1 hemodialysis catheter infection and 2 unknown focus).

44.4% of IE-TAVI (n=4) were confirmed after performing Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan. 3 cases (33.3%) were diagnosed with the initial Transthoracic Echocardiogram (TTE) and 2 cases (22.2%) were diagnosed after performing a Transesophageal Echocardiogram (TEE) (TABLE 2)

4 patients had an indication for surgery according to the ESC Guidelines (3 for persistent bacteremia and 1 for severe aortic regurgitation), but all were ruled out due to high surgical risk. Hospital mortality was 44.4% (n=4). The main predictor of hospital mortality was having an indication for surgery (p=0.028), which was present in 3 of the 4 deaths. The other death was due to digestive bleeding during hospitalization.

Conclusions

IE-TAVI is a serious disease with high in-hospital mortality. Insulin dependent diabetes mellitus, Barthel Score and Pulmonary systolic pressure >50mmHg are risk factors for IE-TAVI. PET-scan is the imaging test of choice when there were no echocardiographic findings. The main predictor of mortality is having an indication for surgery according to the ESC Guidelines.

Funding Acknowledgement

Type of funding sources: None.
Patterns of cardiac involvement in patients with long COVID syndrome using cardiovascular magnetic resonance
Authors: Puntmann V , Martin S , Vanchin B , Holm N , Giokoglu E , Hoffmann J , Karyou A , Arendt C , Khodamoradi Y , Vehreschild M , Braner A , Rohde G , Zeiher A , Vogl T , Nagel E
Published: October 2021

Background

Long COVID (LC) is an increasingly recognized late complication of COVID-19 infection. Cardiovascular involvement has also been implicated, however, the type and extent of the underlying cardiovascular injury remains unknown.

Purpose

To evaluate the association between ongoing symptoms and findings with cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) in consecutive patients recently recovered from COVID-19 illness.

Methods

Prospective observational cohort study of patients recently recovered from COVID-19 illness and no previously known cardiovascular disease were included between April 2020 and April 2021. Demographic characteristics, cardiac blood markers, and CMR imaging a minimum of 4 weeks from the diagnosis were obtained.

Results

Of the 389 included patients, 192 (49%) were male, the mean (±standard deviation) age was 44 (±13) years and 61 (16%) required hospitalization during the acute illness. The median (IQR) time interval between COVID-19 diagnosis and CMR was 94 (71–165) days. 298 (77%) of patients continued to experience ongoing cardiovascular symptoms (long COVID, LC), including dyspnea, palpitations, atypical chest pain and fatigue at the time of CMR at least 4 weeks after the infection. In most patients, the symptoms were only effort related 137 (46%), whereas in 98 (33%) the symptoms affected the activities of daily life; 10 (3%) had severe and debilitating symptoms at rest. Compared to those with no LC (NLC, n=91), LC patients were more commonly hospitalized, had significantly higher native T1, native T2, and showed pericardial enhancement and effusion (Figure 1). There were no differences in cardiac biomarkers, left ventricular (LV) and right ventricular ejection fraction and mass. Proportionally, men and women were similarly affected (n=144 (73%) vs. n=157 (80%), p=0.18). Previous hospitalization was associated with hypertension and ongoing detectable troponin. LC status was associated with previous hospitalization and CMR findings of raised native T1 and native T2, and in females also pericardial enhancement. Severity of symptoms were associated with increased native T1 and T2 and decreased end-diastolic volume, whereas cardiac function showed no significant difference.

Conclusions

In this cohort of patients recently recovered from COVID-19 infection, ongoing cardiovascular symptoms were common. The LC status was related to previous hospitalization and CMR imaging findings of myopericardial inflammation. The extent and type of cardiovascular findings was associated with the severity of symptoms. These findings indicate the need for ongoing investigation of the long-term cardiovascular consequences of COVID-19.

Funding Acknowledgement

Type of funding sources: Foundation. Main funding source(s): The German Heart Foundation (Deutsche Herzstiftung) and Bayer AG, Leverkusen, Germany Figure 1
Predictive scoring method for declining left ventricular ejection fraction in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
Authors: Ishihara K , Kubota Y , Matsuda J , Imori Y , Tokita Y , Takano H , Shimizu W
Published: October 2021

Background

The transition to the dilated phase, as well as sudden cardiac death, is one of the most undesirable scenarios for patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). Although the dilated phase of HCM (DHCM) is defined as left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) <50%, the significance of mildly reduced LVEF is also in the spotlight because this status is considered as a transitional phase of DHCM. Establishing predictive scoring method for declining LVEF is expected.

Methods

Of the 319 HCM patients enrolled in the J-HCM registry from our hospital, we analyzed 168 patients (101 male and 57 female, 63.4±14.8 years), after excluding those who underwent PTSMA, who received pacemaker implantation, and who died or dropped out within 2 years. The patients were divided into two groups according to the change of LVEF from the baseline. During the follow-up period (62.0±109.9 months), LVEF decreased by ≥10% in 37 patients (Group D) whereas it did not in 131 patients (Group C). We compared clinical parameters between the two groups to identify the factors affecting the declining LVEF by ≥10% and examined whether the scoring method using those parameters can predict it.

Results

At the baseline, the percentage of male and diabetic patients was greater in group D than group C (76% vs. 55%, P=0.023 and 38% vs. 12%, P<0.001, respectively). The patients with complete right bundle branch block, wide QRS complex (>100msec), and atrial fibrillation tended to be more in group D than group C (all P<0.1). When the scoring method with those 5 parameters was tested by giving 1 point each, the risk of the declining LVEF was tended to be higher in the patients with 2 or 3 point and significantly higher in those with 4 point compared with that in those with point 0 (OR 2.042, 95% CI 0.983–4.243, P=0.056 and OR 12.000, 95% CI 2.313–62.267, P=0.003, respectively).

Conclusions

This scoring method appeared to be useful to stratify the risk of the decrease in LVEF in patients with HCM. The validation study is warranted in a larger population.

Funding Acknowledgement

Type of funding sources: None.
Paediatric/young versus adult patients with congenital long QT syndrome or catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia
Authors: Lee S , Zhou J , Jeevaratnam K , Wong W T , Wong I C K , Mak C , Mok N S , Liu T , Zhang Q , Tse G
Published: October 2021

Introduction

Congenital long QT syndrome (LQTS) and catecholaminergic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT) are less prevalent cardiac ion channelopathies than Brugada syndrome in Asia. The present study compared paediatric/young and adult patients with these conditions.

Method

This was a territory-wide retrospective cohort study of consecutive patients diagnosed with congenital LQTS and CPVT attending public hospitals in Hong Kong. The primary outcome was spontaneous ventricular tachycardia/ventricular fibrillation (VT/VF).

Results

A total of 142 congenital LQTS (mean onset age= 27±23 years old) and 16 CPVT (mean presentation age=11±4 years old) patients were included. For congenital LQTS, arrhythmias other than VT/VF (HR=4.67, 95% confidence interval = [1.53–14.3], p=0.007), initial VT/VF (HR=3.25 [1.29–8.16], p=0.012) and Schwartz score (HR=1.90 [1.11–3.26], p=0.020) were predictive of the primary outcome for the overall cohort, whilst arrhythmias other than VT/VF (HR=5.41 [1.36–21.4], p=0.016) and Schwartz score (HR=4.67 [1.48–14.7], p=0.009) were predictive for the adult subgroup (>25 years old; n=58). All CPVT patients presented before the age of 25 but no significant predictors of VT/VF were identified. A random survival forest model identified initial VT/VF, Schwartz score, initial QTc interval, family history of LQTS, initially asymptomatic, and arrhythmias other than VT/VF as the most important variables for risk prediction in LQTS, and initial VT/VF/sudden cardiac death, palpitations, QTc, initially symptomatic and heart rate in CPVT.

Conclusion

Clinical and ECG presentation vary between the pediatric/young and adult congenital LQTS population. All CPVT patients presented before the age of 25. Machine learning models achieved more accurate VT/VF prediction.

Funding Acknowledgement

Type of funding sources: None. Kaplan-Meier survival curve for LQTSKaplan-Meier survival curve for CPVT