bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Birth of the blues: emotional sound processing in infants exposed to prenatal maternal depression
Authors: Craig Michael C. , Sethna Vaheshta , Gudbrandsen Maria , Pariante Carmine M. , Seneviratne Trudi , Stoencheva Vladimira , Sethi Arjun , Catani Marco , Brammer Mick , Murphy Declan G. M. , Daly Eileen
Published: July 2022

Background

Offspring exposed to prenatal maternal depression (PMD) are vulnerable to depression across their lifespan. The underlying cause(s) for this elevated intergenerational risk is most likely complex. However, depression is underpinned by a dysfunctional frontal-limbic network, associated with core information processing biases (e.g. attending more to sad stimuli). Aberrations in this network might mediate transmission of this vulnerability in infants exposed to PMD. In this study, we aimed to explore the association between foetal exposure to PMD and frontal-limbic network function in infancy, hypothesising that, in response to emotional sounds, infants exposed to PMD would exhibit atypical activity in these regions, relative to those not exposed to PMD.

Method

We employed a novel functional magnetic resonance imaging sequence to compare brain function, whilst listening to emotional sounds, in 78 full-term infants (3–6 months of age) born to mothers with and without a diagnosis of PMD.

Results

After exclusion of 19 datasets due to infants waking up, or moving excessively, we report between-group brain activity differences, between 29 infants exposed to PMD and 29 infants not exposed to PMD, occurring in temporal, striatal, amygdala/parahippocampal and frontal regions (p< 0.005). The offspring exposed to PMD exhibited a relative increase in activation to sad sounds and reduced (or unchanged) activation to happy sounds in frontal-limbic clusters.

Conclusions

Findings of a differential response to positive and negative valanced sounds by 3–6 months of age may have significant implications for our understanding of neural mechanisms that underpin the increased risk for later-life depression in this population.
The relationship of trauma-related guilt with PTSD symptoms in adult trauma survivors: a meta-analysis
Authors: Kip Ahlke , Diele Judith , Holling Heinz , Morina Nexhmedin
Published: July 2022

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a severe condition that is associated with trauma-related guilt. We aimed at providing a comprehensive quantitative systematic review on the relationship between trauma-related guilt and adult PTSD. Database searches in Medline, PsycINFO, PTSDpubs and Web of Knowledge resulted in the inclusion of 163 eligible studies with a total of 35 020 trauma survivors. The studies reported on 157 cross-sectional and 19 longitudinal data points. Overall, we included 135 studies not included in previous meta-analyses. Random-effect models yielded a moderate cross-sectional correlation (r = 0.38, 95% CI 0.35–0.42, p < 0.001, I2 = 90.3%) and a small to moderate predictive correlation (r = 0.21, 95% CI 0.13–0.29, p < 0.001, I2 = 66.7%). The association appeared to be stable over time and was robust to sensitivity analyses. All symptom clusters significantly correlated with guilt. No effects were found for military v. civilian populations or clinical v. non-clinical samples. Effects were smaller for high-quality studies and larger for instruments based on DSM-5. Further significant moderators were type of guilt measure and trauma type. The largest association was found among participants reporting war-related trauma (r = 0.44, 95% CI 0.36–0.51) and the smallest among survivors of motor-vehicle accidents (r = 0.18, 95% CI 0.02–0.33). The results underpin the role of trauma-related guilt in the onset and maintenance of PTSD symptoms, which have important clinical implications. Future studies should further explore the change interactions of guilt and PTSD symptoms.
LA BARBARA'S DOWNTOWN
Authors: Gendron Bernard
Published: July 2022

This article examines Joan La Barbara's role in New York's Downtown scene, where her career was nurtured. By ‘La Barbara's Downtown’ I mean her perspective on Downtown as reflected in where she performed, who she collaborated with and what she wrote. Beginning with her involvement in the Steve Reich and Philip Glass ensembles in the early 1970s, I follow her through explorations in improvisation with Frederick Rzewski, Garrett List and Charlie Morrow. At the centre is La Barbara's development as an experimentalist composer in various Downtown venues, reinforced by her important collaborations with Alvin Lucier and John Cage. She wrote about the Downtown scene in the SoHo Weekly News in the mid-1970s and after leaving New York continued to write about it in Musical America until the mid-1980s. In all these contexts, I explore the different elements of her experimentalism, which is the overriding thematic of her aesthetic.
JOAN LA BARBARA IN WEST BERLIN, 1979
Authors: Calico Joy H.
Published: July 2022

This article explores Joan La Barbara's music-making in West Berlin in 1979 during her year as a guest of the DAAD Berliner Künstlerprogramm (the Artists’ Programme of the German Academic Exchange Service). It maps significant locations and describes the creative work she did at each site, arguing for inclusion of her musicking in the sonic imaginary of Cold War Berlin. It also posits the role of the Künstlerprogramm as akin to that of a sound designer, locating, distributing and spatialising her voice in the soundscape of the city.
Pilgrimage, performance, and peripatetic kingship: Akbar's journeys to Ajmer and the formation of the Mughal Empire
Authors: Nath Pratyay
Published: July 2022

Between 1562 and 1579, the third Mughal emperor Akbar undertook 17 pilgrimages to the Sufi shrine of Muinuddin Chishti in Ajmer in western India. This article analyses them as a form of peripatetic kingship. It studies specific actions of the emperor in and around Ajmer to show how they articulated a specific understanding of monarchy, one that derived legitimacy from the spiritual authority of Sufi masters and sacred sites. It then shows how the strategic location of the town of Ajmer allowed the young emperor to use it as a base for military expansion and political consolidation in western and central India. It also discusses how the journeys allowed Akbar to carry out vital facets of imperial governance, like exploring the realms, forging alliances with local chieftains, and creating public infrastructure. They also served as a public site for the performance of kingship and sovereignty. The final portion of the article explains how a paradigmatic shift in the conceptualisation and performance of Mughal kingship—whereby the ideal of monarchy as a product of Sufi charisma and Islamic piety made way for more universalist and millenarian ideals—brought a sudden end to the pilgrimages after 1579.
Problem Decomposition and Multi-shot ASP Solving for Job-shop Scheduling
Authors: EL-KHOLANY MOHAMMED M. S. , GEBSER MARTIN , SCHEKOTIHIN KONSTANTIN
Published: July 2022

Scheduling methods are important for effective production and logistics management, where tasks need to be allocated and performed with limited resources. In particular, the Job-shop Scheduling Problem (JSP) is a well known and challenging combinatorial optimization problem in which tasks sharing a machine are to be arranged in a sequence such that encompassing jobs can be completed as early as possible. Given that already moderately sized JSP instances can be highly combinatorial, and neither optimal schedules nor the runtime to termination of complete optimization methods is known, efficient approaches to approximate good-quality schedules are of interest. In this paper, we propose problem decomposition into time windows whose operations can be successively scheduled and optimized by means of multi-shot Answer Set Programming (ASP) solving. From a computational perspective, decomposition aims to split highly complex scheduling tasks into better manageable subproblems with a balanced number of operations so that good-quality or even optimal partial solutions can be reliably found in a small fraction of runtime. Regarding the feasibility and quality of solutions, problem decomposition must respect the precedence of operations within their jobs and partial schedules optimized by time windows should yield better global solutions than obtainable in similar runtime on the entire instance. We devise and investigate a variety of decomposition strategies in terms of the number and size of time windows as well as heuristics for choosing their operations. Moreover, we incorporate time window overlapping and compression techniques into the iterative scheduling process to counteract window-wise optimization limitations restricted to partial schedules. Our experiments on JSP benchmark sets of several sizes show that successive optimization by multi-shot ASP solving leads to substantially better schedules within the runtime limit than global optimization on the full problem, where the gap increases with the number of operations to schedule. While the obtained solution quality still remains behind a state-of-the-art Constraint Programming system, our multi-shot solving approach comes closer the larger the instance size, demonstrating good scalability by problem decomposition.
The rise and development of the platform economy in South Korea
Authors: Kyung-Pil Kim
Published: July 2022

Noting the growing importance of online platforms, this paper discusses the rise and development of the platform economy in Korea, defining platforms as a business model and arguing that the platform economy requires financing, an environment for Internet use and users, services, and content. Many believe that the platform economy's development is a natural outcome of technical innovation. However, the platform economy was created by the interplay of government and corporate strategies under certain historical conditions. In Korea, the platform economy developed after the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Presenting the IT industry and venture businesses as a solution to the crisis, the government helped finance venture companies through intensive investment and enhanced the strategy of building information and communication infrastructure. Platform companies suffered from the lack of content and services to provide; however, they quickly built web portal platforms with Korean specificities by copying and benchmarking personal computer communication services.
Groundwater Rise and Associated Flooding in Coastal Settlements Due To Sea‐Level Rise: A Review of Processes and Methods
Authors: Bosserelle Amandine L. , Morgan Leanne K. , Hughes Matthew W.
Published: July 2022

Coastal settlements are experiencing the effects of climate change‐induced sea‐level rise, including a significant but often poorly‐characterized impact on groundwater. The shallow water tables present in the built coastal environment contribute to an increased risk from natural hazards such as groundwater flooding and saltwater intrusion. Historical urban development was accompanied by impacts on shallow groundwater, and in the future subsurface environments, including underground infrastructure, will face additional pressure. This article reviews processes of the coastal groundwater zone and simulation tools used to evaluate possible impacts of sea‐level rise. The benefits and limitations of the two main methods to assess coastal groundwater rise and contribution to flooding are discussed using studies and investigations up to 2021. The review addresses challenges associated with the simulation tools to evaluate changes in urban hydrogeology due to sea‐level rise. The models reviewed do not specifically estimate groundwater contribution to land‐surface flooding. We highlight a critical need for methodology comparisons between spatial interpolation and numerical tools that will guide future work. An adequate validation of assessment methods is required and will be supported by improved coastal groundwater monitoring networks focused on water quality, saltwater intrusion, and continuous groundwater levels records. From current monitoring practices, evidence for groundwater rise with rising sea level is not widely observed at present. New monitoring sites are recommended near the coastline and tidally influenced surface water bodies, to better evaluate the rise of the water table and impacts on infrastructure.
Regulation of Synoptic Circulation in Regional PM2.5 Transport for Heavy Air Pollution: Study of 5‐year Observation Over Central China
Authors: Hu Weiyang , Zhao Tianliang , Bai Yongqing , Kong Shaofei , Shen Lijuan , Xiong Jie , Zhou Yue , Gu Yao , Shi Junnan , Zheng Huang , Sun Xiaoyun , Meng Kai
Published: July 2022

Regional transport of air pollutants is modulated by large‐scale synoptic circulation, which has been poorly understood for heavy air pollution in the downstream receptor region. In the present study of 5‐year (2015–2019) observation, we targeted the Twain‐Hu Basin (THB), a region of heavy PM2.5 pollution over central China, to investigate the regulation of synoptic circulation governing regional PM2.5 transport for heavy air pollution. It was found that regional transport of PM2.5 predominated 65.2% of the heavy pollution events (HPEs) over the THB based on the statistics of observational environment and meteorology. By employing the FLEXPART‐WRF model, the regional transport of PM2.5 from upwind areas in central and eastern China (CEC) to receptor region in the THB was identified with three prominent pathways in the northerly, northeasterly, and easterly directions respectively. We then used T‐mode principal component analysis in conjunction with the K‐means cluster method to categorize synoptic circulations, and it was recognized that three regional PM2.5 transport pathways for the HPEs over central China were governed respectively by three patterns of synoptic circulation over CEC with (a) weak high air pressure to the north (13.3%), (b) strong high air pressure to the northeast (46.7%), and (c) weak high air pressure to the east (40.0%). This study reveals a significant modulation of large‐scale synoptic circulation for regional transport of air pollutants in environmental change.
Growth and Evolution of Secondary Volcanic Atmospheres: I. Identifying the Geological Character of Hot Rocky Planets
Authors: Liggins Philippa , Jordan Sean , Rimmer Paul B. , Shorttle Oliver
Published: July 2022

The geology of Earth and super‐Earth sized planets will, in many cases, only be observable via their atmospheres. Here, we investigate secondary volcanic atmospheres as a key base case of how atmospheres may reflect planetary geochemistry. We couple volcanic outgassing with atmospheric chemistry models to simulate the growth of C‐O‐H‐S‐N atmospheres in thermochemical equilibrium, focusing on what information about the planet's mantle fO2 and bulk silicate H/C ratio could be determined by atmospheric observation. 800 K volcanic atmospheres develop distinct compositional groups as the mantle fO2 is varied, which can be identified using sets of (often minor) indicator species: Class O, representing an oxidized mantle and containing SO2 and sulfur allotropes; Class I, formed by intermediate mantle fO2's and containing CO2, CH4, CO and COS; and Class R, produced by reduced mantles, containing H2, NH3 and CH4. These atmospheric classes are robust to a wide range of bulk silicate H/C ratios. However, the H/C ratio does affect the dominant atmospheric constituent, which can vary between H2, H2O and CO2 once the chemical composition has stabilized to a point where it no longer changes substantially with time. This final atmospheric state is dependent on the mantle fO2, the H/C ratio, and time since the onset of volcanism. The atmospheric classes we present are appropriate for the closed‐system growth of hot exoplanets, and may be used as a simple base for future research exploring the effects of other open‐system processes on secondary volcanic atmospheres.
MAGEMin, an Efficient Gibbs Energy Minimizer: Application to Igneous Systems
Authors: Riel N. , Kaus B. J. P. , Green E. C. R. , Berlie N.
Published: July 2022

Prediction of stable mineral equilibria in the Earth's lithosphere is critical to unravel the tectonomagmatic history of exposed geological sections. While the recent advances in geodynamic modeling allow us to explore the dynamics of magmatic transfer in solid mediums, there is to date no available thermodynamic package that can easily be linked and efficiently be accounted for the computation of phase equilibrium in magmatic systems. Moreover, none of the existing tools fully exploit single point calculation parallelization, which strongly hinders their applicability for direct geodynamic coupling or for thermodynamic database inversions. Here, we present a new Mineral Assemblage Gibbs Energy Minimizer (magemin). The package is written as a parallel C library, provides a direct Julia interface, and is callable from any petrological/geodynamic tool. For a given set of pressure, temperature, and bulk‐rock composition magemin uses a combination of linear programming, extended Partitioning Gibbs Energy and gradient‐based local minimization to compute the stable mineral assemblage. We apply our new minimization package to the igneous thermodynamic data set of Holland et al. (2018), https://doi.org/10.1093/petrology/egy048 and produce several phase diagrams at supra‐solidus conditions. The phase diagrams are then directly benchmarked against thermocalc and exhibit very good agreement. The high scalability of magemin on parallel computing facilities opens new horizons, for example, for modeling reactive magma flow, for thermodynamic data set inversion, and for petrological/geophysical applications.
Data‐Driven Discovery of Fokker‐Planck Equation for the Earth's Radiation Belts Electrons Using Physics‐Informed Neural Networks
Authors: Camporeale E. , Wilkie George J. , Drozdov Alexander Y. , Bortnik Jacob
Published: July 2022

We use the framework of Physics‐Informed Neural Network (PINN) to solve the inverse problem associated with the Fokker‐Planck equation for radiation belts' electron transport, using 4 years of Van Allen Probes data. Traditionally, reduced models have employed a diffusion equation based on the quasilinear approximation. We show that the dynamics of “killer electrons” is described more accurately by a drift‐diffusion equation, and that drift is as important as diffusion for nearly‐equatorially trapped ∼1 MeV electrons in the inner part of the belt. Moreover, we present a recipe for gleaning physical insight from solving the ill‐posed inverse problem of inferring model coefficients from data using PINNs. Furthermore, we derive a parameterization for the diffusion and drift coefficients as a function of L only, which is both simpler and more accurate than earlier models. Finally, we use the PINN technique to develop an automatic event identification method that allows identifying times at which the radial transport assumption is inadequate to describe all the physics of interest.
Determination of Parameters Characteristic of Dynamic Weakening Mechanisms During Seismic Faulting in Cohesive Rocks
Authors: Cornelio C. , Spagnuolo E. , Aretusini S. , Nielsen S. , Passelègue F. , Violay M. , Cocco M. , Di Toro G.
Published: July 2022

While sliding at seismic slip‐rates of ∼1 m/s, natural faults undergo an abrupt decrease of shear stress called dynamic weakening. Asperity‐scale (<<mm) processes related to flash heating and weakening and, meso‐scale (mm‐cm) processes involving shear across the bulk slip‐zone, related to frictional melting or viscous flow of minerals, have been invoked to explain pronounced velocity‐dependent weakening. Here we present a compilation of ∼100 experiments performed with two rotary shear apparatuses. Cohesive rock cylinders of basalt, gabbro, granitoid rocks and calcitic marble were sheared at various values of effective normal stress (σneff = 5–40 MPa), target slip‐rate (Vt = 0.1–6.5 m/s) and fluid pressure (Pf = 0–15 MPa). To account for the uncertainties of constitutive parameters, we introduce a norm‐based optimization procedure on a set of model parameters by comparing the shear stress evolution inferred from the proposed weakening models with the shear stress measured during the experiments. We analyze the fit to experimental data of each weakening model and we discuss a composite model in which two weakening mechanisms (namely flash heating and bulk melting, flash heating and dislocation/diffusion creep) are used to test the hypothesis that they match the shear stress evolution in different slip ranges. We found that for slip smaller than a slip‐switch distance δ0, the weakening is better described by mechanisms occurring at the asperity scale whereas for larger slip values the bulk model performs better. The inferred δ0 values decrease with normal stress suggesting that during earthquakes bulk mechanisms can govern shear stress evolution after a few centimeters of slip.
Quantifying the Effect of ICME Removal and Observation Age for in Situ Solar Wind Data Assimilation
Authors: Turner Harriet , Owens Mathew , Lang Matthew , Gonzi Siegfried , Riley Pete
Published: July 2022

Accurate space weather forecasting requires advanced knowledge of the solar wind conditions in near‐Earth space. Data assimilation (DA) combines model output and observations to find an optimum estimation of reality and has led to large advances in terrestrial weather forecasting. It is now being applied to space weather forecasting. Here, we use solar wind DA with in‐situ observations to reconstruct solar wind speed in the ecliptic plane between 30 solar radii and Earth's orbit. This is used to provide solar wind speed hindcasts. Here, we assimilate observations from the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory and the near‐Earth data set, OMNI. Analysis of two periods of time, one in solar minimum and one in solar maximum, reveals that assimilating observations from multiple spacecraft provides a more accurate forecast than using any one spacecraft individually. The age of the observations also has a significant impact on forecast error, whereby the mean absolute error (MAE) sharply increases by up to 23% when the forecast lead time first exceeds the corotation time associated with the longitudinal separation between the observing spacecraft and the forecast location. It was also found that removing coronal mass ejections from the DA input and verification time series reduces the forecast MAE by up to 10% as it removes false streams from the forecast time series. This work highlights the importance of an L5 space weather monitoring mission for near‐Earth solar wind forecasting and suggests that an additional mission to L4 would further improve future solar wind DA forecasting capabilities.
Hypoxia-hindered methylation of PTGIS in endometrial stromal cells accelerates endometriosis progression by inducing CD16− NK-cell differentiation
Authors: Peng Haiyan , Weng Lichun , Lei Shating , Hou Shuhui , Yang Shaoliang , Li Mingqing , Zhao Dong
Published: July 2022

Prostacyclin (PGI2) plays key roles in shaping the immune microenvironment and modulating vasodilation, whereas its contribution to endometriosis (EMs) remains largely unclear. Our study suggested that prostacyclin synthase (PTGIS)-dependent PGI2 signaling was significantly activated in EMs, which was involved in the hypoxic microenvironment of ectopic lesions and deficient methylation status of the PTGIS promoter. Notably, in vitro assays, hypoxia promoted PTGIS expression through DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1)-mediated DNA methylation deficiency in endometrial stromal cells (ESCs); PTGIS overexpression enhanced the adhesive ability of ESCs and led to elevated PGI2 production, and PGI2 triggered CD16− (encoded by FCGR3, Fc fragment of IgG receptor IIIa) natural killer (NK)-cell differentiation through PGI2 receptor (IP, PTGIR) in an ESC/NK-cell coculture system. Our rodent model experiment suggested that treatment with the PGI2 analog iloprost and adoptive transfer of fcgr3 knockout (fcgr3−/−) NK cells aggravated EMs progression and that genetic ablation of ptgis (ptgis−/−) in ectopic lesions and treatment with the PTGIR antagonist RO1138452 partially rescued this outcome. Thus, our findings identified the contribution of PGI2 to EMs progression via enhancement of the adhesive ability of ESCs and inhibition of the activity of NK cells. We hypothesized that PGI2 is a target for EMs intervention and provide a rationale for studying pharmacological PTGIR inhibition and PTGIS genetic depletion therapies as therapeutic strategies for EMs.
LncRNAs in breast cancer: a link to future approaches
Authors: Sideris Nikolaos , Dama Paola , Bayraktar Salih , Stiff Thomas , Castellano Leandro
Published: July 2022

Breast cancer affects millions of women each year. Despite recent advances in targeted treatments breast cancer remains a significant threat to women’s health. In recent years the development of high-throughput sequencing technologies has advanced the field of transcriptomics shedding light on the role of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), including long ncRNAs (lncRNAs), in human cellular function and disease. LncRNAs are classified as transcripts longer than 200nt with no coding potential. These transcripts constitute a diverse group of regulatory molecules essential to the modulation of crucial cellular processes, which dysregulation of leads to disease. LncRNAs exert their regulatory functions through their sequences and by forming complex secondary and tertiary structures that interact with other transcripts, chromatin and/or proteins. Numerous studies have provided evidence of the involvement of LncRNAs in tumor development and disease progression. They possess multiple characteristics that make them novel therapeutic and diagnostic targets. Indeed, the discovery of a novel mechanism by which lncRNAs associated with proteins can induce the formation of phase-separated droplets broadens our understanding of the spatiotemporal control of cellular processes and opens up developing a new treatment. Nevertheless, the role and the molecular mechanisms of many lncRNAs in the regulation of cellular processes and cancer still remain elusive. This is due to the absence of a thorough characterization of the regulatory role of their loci and the functional impact of their aberrations in cancer biology. Here, we present some of the latest advances concerning the role of LncRNAs in breast cancer.
Magnetic molecules as local sensors of topological hysteresis of superconductors
Authors: Serrano Giulia , Poggini Lorenzo , Cucinotta Giuseppe , Sorrentino Andrea Luigi , Giaconi Niccolò , Cortigiani Brunetto , Longo Danilo , Otero Edwige , Sainctavit Philippe , Caneschi Andrea , Mannini Matteo , Sessoli Roberta
Published: July 2022

Superconductors and magnetic materials, including molecules, are key ingredients for quantum computing and spintronics. However, only a little is known about how these materials interact in multilayer nanostructures like the hybrid architectures nowadays under development for such advanced applications. Here, we show that a single layer of magnetic molecules, Terbium(III) bis-phthalocyaninato (TbPc2) complexes, deposited under controlled UHV conditions on a superconducting Pb(111) surface is sensitive to the topology of the intermediate state of the superconductor, namely to the presence and evolution of superconducting and normal domains due to screening and penetration of an external magnetic field. The topological hysteresis of the superconducting substrate imprints a local evolution of the magnetisation of the TbPc2 molecules in the monolayer. Element and surface selective detection is achieved by recording the X-ray magnetic circular dichroism of the Tb atoms. This study reveals the impressive potential of magnetic molecules for sensing local magnetic field variations in molecular/superconductor hybrid devices, including spin resonators or spin injecting and spin filtering components for spintronics applications.
Design principles for water dissociation catalysts in high-performance bipolar membranes
Authors: Chen Lihaokun , Xu Qiucheng , Oener Sebastian Z. , Fabrizio Kevin , Boettcher Shannon W.
Published: July 2022

Water dissociation (WD, H2O → H+ + OH−) is the core process in bipolar membranes (BPMs) that limits energy efficiency. Both electric-field and catalytic effects have been invoked to describe WD, but the interplay of the two and the underlying design principles for WD catalysts remain unclear. Using precise layers of metal-oxide nanoparticles, membrane-electrolyzer platforms, materials characterization, and impedance analysis, we illustrate the role of electronic conductivity in modulating the performance of WD catalysts in the BPM junction through screening and focusing the interfacial electric field and thus electrochemical potential gradients. In contrast, the ionic conductivity of the same layer is not a significant factor in limiting performance. BPM water electrolyzers, optimized via these findings, use ~30-nm-diameter anatase TiO2 as an earth-abundant WD catalyst, and generate O2 and H2 at 500 mA cm−2 with a record-low total cell voltage below 2 V. These advanced BPMs might accelerate deployment of new electrodialysis, carbon-capture, and carbon-utilization technology.
Photovoltaphores: pharmacophore models for identifying metal-free dyes for dye-sensitized solar cells
Authors: Binyamin Hadar , Senderowitz Hanoch
Published: July 2022

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are cost-effective, sustainable, and versatile electricity producers, allowing them to be incorporated into a variety of devices. In this work, we explore the usage of pharmacophore modeling to identify metal-free dyes for DSSCs by means of virtual screening. Pharmacophore models were built based on experimentally tested sensitizers. Virtual screening was performed against a large dataset of commercially available compounds taken from the ZINC15 library and identified multiple virtual hits. A subset of these hits was subjected to DFT and time-dependent-DFT calculations leading to the identification of two compounds, TSC6 and ASC5, with appropriate molecular orbitals energies, favorable localization, and reasonable absorption UV–vis spectra. These results suggest that pharmacophore models, traditionally used in drug discovery and lead optimization, successfully predicted electronic properties, which are in agreement with the theoretical requirements for sensitizers. Such models may therefore find additional usages as modeling tools in materials sciences.
The use of viral vectors in vaccine development
Authors: Travieso Tatianna , Li Jenny , Mahesh Sneha , Mello Juliana Da Fonzeca Redenze E. , Blasi Maria
Published: July 2022

Vaccines represent the single most cost-efficient and equitable way to combat and eradicate infectious diseases. While traditional licensed vaccines consist of either inactivated/attenuated versions of the entire pathogen or subunits of it, most novel experimental vaccines against emerging infectious diseases employ nucleic acids to produce the antigen of interest directly in vivo. These include DNA plasmid vaccines, mRNA vaccines, and recombinant viral vectors. The advantages of using nucleic acid vaccines include their ability to induce durable immune responses, high vaccine stability, and ease of large-scale manufacturing. In this review, we present an overview of pre-clinical and clinical data on recombinant viral vector vaccines and discuss the advantages and limitations of the different viral vector platforms.
Human-centred mechanism design with Democratic AI
Authors: Koster Raphael , Balaguer Jan , Tacchetti Andrea , Weinstein Ari , Zhu Tina , Hauser Oliver , Williams Duncan , Campbell-Gillingham Lucy , Thacker Phoebe , Botvinick Matthew , Summerfield Christopher
Published: July 2022

Building artificial intelligence (AI) that aligns with human values is an unsolved problem. Here we developed a human-in-the-loop research pipeline called Democratic AI, in which reinforcement learning is used to design a social mechanism that humans prefer by majority. A large group of humans played an online investment game that involved deciding whether to keep a monetary endowment or to share it with others for collective benefit. Shared revenue was returned to players under two different redistribution mechanisms, one designed by the AI and the other by humans. The AI discovered a mechanism that redressed initial wealth imbalance, sanctioned free riders and successfully won the majority vote. By optimizing for human preferences, Democratic AI offers a proof of concept for value-aligned policy innovation.
Thermally induced magnetic order from glassiness in elemental neodymium
Authors: Verlhac Benjamin , Niggli Lorena , Bergman Anders , Kamber Umut , Bagrov Andrey , Iuşan Diana , Nordström Lars , Katsnelson Mikhail I. , Wegner Daniel , Eriksson Olle , Khajetoorians Alexander A.
Published: July 2022

At finite temperatures, fluctuations invariably introduce disorder and are responsible for ultimately destroying ordered phases. Here we present an unusual magnetic transition in elemental neodymium where, with increasing temperature, long-range multiply periodic ‘multi-Q’ magnetic order emerges from a self-induced spin glass. Using temperature-dependent spin-polarized scanning tunnelling microscopy, we characterize the local order of a previously reported spin glass phase, and quantify the emergence of long-range multi-Q order with increasing temperature. We develop two analysis tools that allow us to determine the glass transition temperature from measurements of the spatially dependent magnetization. We compare these observations with atomistic spin dynamics simulations, which reproduce the qualitative observation of a phase transition from a low-temperature spin glass phase to an intermediate ordered multi-Q phase. These simulations trace the origin of the unexpected high-temperature order in weakened frustration driven by temperature-dependent sublattice correlations. These findings constitute an example of order from disorder, and provide a platform to study the rich magnetization dynamics of a self-induced spin glass.
Self-regulation of phenotypic noise synchronizes emergent organization and active transport in confluent microbial environments
Authors: Dhar Jayabrata , Thai Anh L. P. , Ghoshal Arkajyoti , Giomi Luca , Sengupta Anupam
Published: July 2022

The variation associated with different observable characteristics—phenotypes—at the cellular scale underpins homeostasis and the fitness of living systems. However, if and how these noisy phenotypic traits shape properties at the population level remains poorly understood. Here we report that phenotypic noise self-regulates with growth and coordinates collective structural organization, the kinetics of topological defects and the emergence of active transport around confluent colonies. We do this by cataloguing key phenotypic traits in bacteria growing under diverse conditions. Our results reveal a statistically precise critical time for the transition from a monolayer biofilm to a multilayer biofilm, despite the strong noise in the cell geometry and the colony area at the onset of the transition. This reveals a mitigation mechanism between the noise in the cell geometry and the growth rate that dictates the narrow critical time window. By uncovering how rectification of phenotypic noise homogenizes correlated collective properties across colonies, our work points at an emergent strategy that confluent systems employ to tune active transport, buffering inherent heterogeneities associated with natural cellular environment settings.
An 8-year record of phytoplankton productivity and nutrient distributions from surface waters of Saanich Inlet
Authors: Kafrissen Sile M. , Giesbrecht Karina E. , McNabb Brandon J. , Long Jennifer E. , Martin Curtis , Wyatt Shea N. , Lagunas Marcos G. , Varela Diana E.
Published: July 2022

Phytoplankton are the base of nearly all marine food webs and mediate the interactions of biotic and abiotic components in marine systems. Understanding the spatial and temporal changes in phytoplankton growth requires comprehensive biological, physical, and chemical information. Long-term datasets are an invaluable tool to study these changes, but they are rare and often include only a small set of measurements. Here, we present biological, physical and chemical oceanographic data measured periodically between March 2010 and November 2017 from the euphotic zone of Saanich Inlet, a temperate fjord on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada. The dataset includes measurements of dissolved macronutrients, total and size-fractionated chlorophyll-a, particulate carbon, nitrogen and biogenic silica, and carbon and nitrate uptake rates. This collection describes phytoplankton dynamics and the distribution of biologically-available macronutrients over time in the upper water column of Saanich Inlet. We establish a baseline for future investigations in Saanich Inlet and provide a data collection protocol that can be applied to similar productive coastal regions.
Effects of aging on functional connectivity in a neurodegenerative risk cohort: resting state versus task measurement using near-infrared spectroscopy
Authors: Blum Leonore , Hofmann Anna , Rosenbaum David , Elshehabi Morad , Suenkel Ulrike , Fallgatter Andreas J. , Ehlis Ann-Christine , Metzger Florian G.
Published: July 2022

Changes in functional brain organization are considered to be particularly sensitive to age-related effects and may precede structural cognitive decline. Recent research focuses on aging processes determined by resting state (RS) functional connectivity (FC), but little is known about differences in FC during RS and cognitive task conditions in elderly participants. The purpose of this study is to compare FC within and between the cognitive control (CCN) and dorsal attention network (DAN) at RS and during a cognitive task using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). In a matched, neurodegenerative high-risk cohort comprising early (n = 98; 50–65 y) and late (n = 98; 65–85 y) elder subjects, FC was measured at RS and during performance of the Trail Making Test (TMT) via fNIRS. Both, under RS and task conditions our results revealed a main effect for age, characterized by reduced FC for late elder subjects within the left inferior frontal gyrus. During performance of the TMT, negative correlations of age and FC were confirmed in various regions of the CCN and DAN. For the whole sample, FC of within-region connections was elevated, while FC between regions was decreased at RS. The results confirm a reorganization of functional brain connectivity with increasing age and cognitive demands.
Sesamin protects against neurotoxicity via inhibition of microglial activation under high glucose circumstances through modulating p38 and JNK signaling pathways
Authors: Kongtawelert Prachya , Kaewmool Chayanut , Phitak Thanyaluck , Phimphilai Mattabhorn , Pothacharoen Peraphan , Shwe Thuzar Hla
Published: July 2022

Diabetes mellitus (DM), one of the principal causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide, is implicated in the progression of age-related neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs), in which microglial activation is a crucial mediator. Sesamin, a kind of phytochemical, shows inhibitory effects on microglial activation. The present study studied whether sesamin protects against neurotoxicity triggered by high glucose-induced microglial activation. We firstly demonstrated that high doses of glucose, which mimics hyperglycemia in DM, did induce the activation of murine BV2 microglial cells, increasing inflammatory responses such as the production of ROS or inflammatory mediators like IL-1β, TNF-⍺, and nitric oxide, through activation of p38 and JNK signaling pathways. Next, conditioned medium (CM) collected from high glucose-activated BV2 cell culture was used to show aggravated neurotoxicity in differentiated PC12 cells, indicating that high glucose-activated microglia could induce neurotoxicity. Interestingly, pretreatment of BV2 cells with sesamin diminished high glucose-induced microglia activation and inflammatory responses. Moreover, neurotoxicity in PC12 cells was found to be decreased in the group treated with CM from the sesamin-pretreated BV2 cell culture, suggesting sesamin inhibited microglial activation, thereby protecting neurons from activated microglia-mediated neurotoxicity. Thus, sesamin might be a potential compound to use in the prevention of diabetic-induced NDDs.
A systematic review and meta-analysis on the association between ambient air pollution and pulmonary tuberculosis
Authors: Dimala Christian Akem , Kadia Benjamin Momo
Published: July 2022

There is inconclusive evidence on the association between ambient air pollution and pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) incidence, tuberculosis-related hospital admission and mortality. This review aimed to assess the extent to which selected air pollutants are associated to PTB incidence, hospital admissions and mortality. This was a systematic review of studies published in English from January 1st, 1946, through May 31st, 2022, that quantitatively assessed the association between PM2.5, PM10, NO2, SO2, CO, O3 and the incidence of, hospital admission or death from PTB. Medline, Embase, Scopus and The Cochrane Library were searched. Extracted data from eligible studies were analysed using STATA software. Random-effect meta-analysis was used to derive pooled adjusted risk and odds ratios. A total of 24 studies (10 time-series, 5 ecologic, 5 cohort, 2 case–control, 1 case cross-over, 1 cross-sectional) mainly from Asian countries were eligible and involved a total of 437,255 tuberculosis cases. For every 10 μg/m3 increment in air pollutant concentration, there was a significant association between exposure to PM2.5 (pooled aRR = 1.12, 95% CI: 1.06–1.19, p < 0.001, N = 6); PM10 (pooled aRR = 1.06, 95% CI: 1.01–1.12, p = 0.022, N = 8); SO2 (pooled aRR = 1.08, 95% CI: 1.04–1.12, p < 0.001, N = 9); and the incidence of PTB. There was no association between exposure to CO (pooled aRR = 1.04, 95% CI: 0.98–1.11, p = 0.211, N = 4); NO2 (pooled aRR = 1.08, 95% CI: 0.99–1.17, p = 0.057, N = 7); O3 (pooled aRR = 1.00, 95% CI: 0.99–1.02, p = 0.910, N = 6) and the incidence of PTB. There was no association between the investigated air pollutants and mortality or hospital admissions due to PTB. Overall quality of evidence was graded as low (GRADE approach). Exposure to PM2.5, PM10 and SO2 air pollutants was found to be associated with an increased incidence of PTB, while exposure to CO, NO2 and O3 was not. There was no observed association between exposure to these air pollutants and hospital admission or mortality due to PTB. The quality of the evidence generated, however, remains low. Addressing the tuberculosis epidemic by 2030 as per the 4th Sustainable Development Goal may require a more rigorous exploration of this association.
Effect of linguistic framing and information provision on attitudes towards induced seismicity and seismicity regulation
Authors: Evensen Darrick , Varley Adam , Whitmarsh Lorraine , Devine-Wright Patrick , Dickie Jen , Bartie Phil , Napier Hazel , Mosca Ilaria , Foad Colin , Ryder Stacia
Published: July 2022

Shale gas is an expanding energy source worldwide, yet ‘fracking’ remains controversial. Amongst public concerns is induced seismicity (tremors). The UK had the most stringent induced seismicity regulations in the world, prior to instating a moratorium on shale gas development. The Government cited induced seismicity as the key rationale for its November 2019 English moratorium. Yet, little is known about how the public perceives induced seismicity, whether they support regulatory change, or how framing and information provision affect perceptions. Across three waves of a longitudinal experimental UK survey (N = 2777; 1858; 1439), we tested whether framing of induced seismicity influences support for changing regulations. The surveys compared (1) quantitative versus qualitative framings, (2) information provision about regulatory limits in other countries and (3) seismicity from other industries, and (4) framing a seismic event as an ‘earthquake’ or something else. We find low support for changing current policy, and that framing and information provision made little difference to this. The one strong influence on perceptions of seismic events came from the type of activity causing the event; shale gas extraction clearly led to the most negative reactions. We discuss implications for future UK policy on shale gas and geothermal energy in an evolving energy landscape.
Planar, wide-band omnidirectional retroreflector using metal-only transmitarray structure for TE and TM polarizations
Authors: Pesarakloo Ali , Khalaj-amirhosseini Mohammad
Published: July 2022

In this paper, a novel planar and wideband metal-only retroreflector is proposed that efficiently reflects the obliquely incident electromagnetic wave along its incident direction in omnidirectional angle range. The means of omnidirectional is the capability of retroreflectivity in all azimuth angles $$(\varphi_{i} )$$

(

φ
i

)

and in a wide elevation angle $$(\theta_{i} )$$

(

θ
i

)

range. The proposed structure consists of a symmetrical transmitarray structure with beam scanning capability in which a metal plate is placed instead of the feed. The transmitarray is designed by using the generalized multifocal approach in which the beam scanning capability is possible via feed displacement and the phase of the elements has azimuthal symmetry that causes omnidirectional property. Now by placing a metal plate at the location of feed displacement and provided that the focused waves are nearly perpendicular to the metal plate, the plane wave is reflected back along its incident direction i.e. the retroreflectivity property is obtained. The proposed retroreflector simulated by CST STUDIO software and fabricated with laser cut technology. The results of measurement show an omnidirectional retroreflectivity with half-power (3-dB RCS level) elevation field of view of 60° (− 30° to 30°) in the frequency range of 8.5–10 GHz (approximately 17%) for both TE and TM polarization.
A propensity score-adjusted analysis of efficacy of high-flow nasal oxygen during awake tracheal intubation
Authors: Kim Hye Jin , Kim Min-Soo , Kim So Yeon , Min In Kyung , Park Wyun Kon , Song Sei Han , Shin Dongkwan , Kim Hyun Joo
Published: July 2022

Oxygen supplementation is crucial for awake tracheal intubation (ATI) using a flexible bronchoscope in patients with an anticipated difficult airway. However, the modality of optimal oxygen delivery remains unclear. This retrospective study compared high-flow nasal oxygen (HFNO) and conventional low-flow oxygen supply during ATI. We applied inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) to account for biases due to clinical characteristic differences between the groups. The primary endpoint was the lowest oxygen saturation during ATI. The secondary endpoints were incidence of desaturation, multiple attempts, failure rate, and procedural duration. After IPTW adjustment, the lowest oxygen saturation in the HFNO group during ATI was significantly higher than that in the conventional oxygenation group (99.3 ± 0.2 vs. 97.5 ± 0.5, P < 0.001). Moreover, the HFNO group had fewer cases with multiple attempts than the conventional oxygenation group (3% vs. 16%, P = 0.007). There were no significant differences between the two groups in the incidence of desaturation, failure and procedural duration. Our findings suggest that HFNO was associated with improved lowest oxygen saturation and a lower rate of multiple attempts during ATI. Therefore, we recommend using HFNO for safer oxygen delivery and improved quality of procedure during ATI.