bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Insights into the cell fate decision-making processes from chromosome structural reorganizations
Authors: Chu Xiakun , Wang Jin
Published: December 2022

The cell fate decision-making process, which provides the capability of a cell transition to a new cell type, involves the reorganizations of 3D genome structures. Currently, the high temporal resolution picture of how the chromosome structural rearrangements occur and further influence the gene activities during the cell-state transition is still challenging to acquire. Here, we study the chromosome structural reorganizations during the cell-state transitions among the pluripotent embryonic stem cell, the terminally differentiated normal cell, and the cancer cell using a nonequilibrium landscape-switching model implemented in the molecular dynamics simulation. We quantify the chromosome (de)compaction pathways during the cell-state transitions and find that the two pathways having the same destinations can merge prior to reaching the final states. The chromosomes at the merging states have similar structural geometries but can differ in long-range compartment segregation and spatial distribution of the chromosomal loci and genes, leading to cell-type-specific transition mechanisms. We identify the irreversible pathways of chromosome structural rearrangements during the forward and reverse transitions connecting the same pair of cell states, underscoring the critical roles of nonequilibrium dynamics in the cell-state transitions. Our results contribute to the understanding of the cell fate decision-making processes from the chromosome structural perspective.
Investigation of size-dependent spontaneous and stimulated visible WGM emissions via both ultraviolet and visible excitations for sensing applications
Authors: Khanum Rizwana , Chien Ching-Hang , Chang Yia-Chung , Moirangthem Rakesh S.
Published: December 2022

In this work, we investigated both spontaneous and stimulated whispering gallery mode (WGM) emissions of 2 mol. % Li+-doped ZnO (Li-ZnO) microspheres with different sizes under 325 and 488 nm wavelength laser excitations, respectively. It was found that all the microspheres exhibit stimulated emissions under a visible laser excitation source of 488 nm wavelength after the threshold pumping power. Thereafter, we studied the dependence of threshold pumping power on the size of microresonators to achieve stimulated emissions by individual microspheres. Furthermore, two microspheres (MS2 and MS3) are excited via a 325 nm UV laser, and surprisingly, the WGM peaks of higher intensity are observed in the visible rather than in the UV spectral region. We expected that most of the emissions are achieved via defect states transitions instead of inter-band transitions in the microresonators. It was found that WGMs in each microsphere exhibit a linear spectral shift of 3–5 nm with increasing pumping power of 488 nm excitation laser source. We believe that these proposed microspheres can be utilized effectively as WGM-based visible lasers and sensors.
Numerical simulation of structure-borne noise in a T-shaped tee considering fluid–structure interaction
Authors: Lv Feiran , Wang Nini , He Suoying , Gao Ming
Published: December 2022

In order to research the structure-borne noise characteristics of a T-shaped tee considering fluid–structure interaction (FSI), large eddy simulation and the acoustic finite element method were used to simulate the flow field and structure-borne noise related to T-shaped tees under different inlet and outlet combinations. The results show that the frequency domain sound pressure level (SPL) distribution under various inlet flow velocities is stable, the structure-borne noise of the T-shaped tee is a high-frequency noise, and the SPL curves provide a peak distribution. Meanwhile, the distribution characteristics of the structure-borne noise in the frequency domain follow similar trends under different inlet flow velocities. Additionally, the structure-borne noise does not produce the mechanical resonance of the system. When the inlet velocity increases from 1 to 3 m/s, the total sound pressure level (TSPL) increases from 83.71 to 98.18 dB, a relative increase of 17.3%. In addition, the frequency domain distributions of the SPL under various inlet and outlet combinations are basically similar. The TSPL of four inlet and outlet combinations for the structure-borne noise are III, IV, II, and I in descending order. When the inlet flow velocity is 1, 2, and 3 m/s, in the case of combination I, the TSPL of the structure-borne noise decreases by 6.28, 5.59, and 6.39 dB, in contrast to the case of combination III, respectively. This study provides the guidance for the noise control and structural optimization design of a T-shaped tee considering the FSI.
Computational chromatography: A machine learning strategy for demixing individual chemical components in complex mixtures
Authors: Bajomo Mary M. , Ju Yilong , Zhou Jingyi , Elefterescu Simina , Farr Corbin , Zhao Yiping , Neumann Oara , Nordlander Peter , Patel Ankit , Halas Naomi J.
Published: December 2022

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) holds exceptional promise as a streamlined chemical detection strategy for biological and environmental contaminants compared with current laboratory methods. Priority pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), detectable in water and soil worldwide and known to induce multiple adverse health effects upon human exposure, are typically found in multicomponent mixtures. By combining the molecular fingerprinting capabilities of SERS with the signal separation and detection capabilities of machine learning (ML), we examine whether individual PAHs can be identified through an analysis of the SERS spectra of multicomponent PAH mixtures. We have developed an unsupervised ML method we call Characteristic Peak Extraction, a dimensionality reduction algorithm that extracts characteristic SERS peaks based on counts of detected peaks of the mixture. By analyzing the SERS spectra of two-component and four-component PAH mixtures where the concentration ratios of the various components vary, this algorithm is able to extract the spectra of each unknown component in the mixture of unknowns, which is then subsequently identified against a SERS spectral library of PAHs. Combining the molecular fingerprinting capabilities of SERS with the signal separation and detection capabilities of ML, this effort is a step toward the computational demixing of unknown chemical components occurring in complex multicomponent mixtures.
Multi-color live-cell STED nanoscopy of mitochondria with a gentle inner membrane stain
Authors: Liu Tianyan , Stephan Till , Chen Peng , Keller-Findeisen Jan , Chen Jingting , Riedel Dietmar , Yang Zhongtian , Jakobs Stefan , Chen Zhixing
Published: December 2022

Capturing mitochondria’s intricate and dynamic structure poses a daunting challenge for optical nanoscopy. Different labeling strategies have been demonstrated for live-cell stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy of mitochondria, but orthogonal strategies are yet to be established, and image acquisition has suffered either from photodamage to the organelles or from rapid photobleaching. Therefore, live-cell nanoscopy of mitochondria has been largely restricted to two-dimensional (2D) single-color recordings of cancer cells. Here, by conjugation of cyclooctatetraene (COT) to a benzo-fused cyanine dye, we report a mitochondrial inner membrane (IM) fluorescent marker, PK Mito Orange (PKMO), featuring efficient STED at 775 nm, strong photostability, and markedly reduced phototoxicity. PKMO enables super-resolution (SR) recordings of IM dynamics for extended periods in immortalized mammalian cell lines, primary cells, and organoids. Photostability and reduced phototoxicity of PKMO open the door to live-cell three-dimensional (3D) STED nanoscopy of mitochondria for 3D analysis of the convoluted IM. PKMO is optically orthogonal with green and far-red markers, allowing multiplexed recordings of mitochondria using commercial STED microscopes. Using multi-color STED microscopy, we demonstrate that imaging with PKMO can capture interactions of mitochondria with different cellular components such as the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) or the cytoskeleton, Bcl-2-associated X protein (BAX)-induced apoptotic process, or crista phenotypes in genetically modified cells, all at sub-100 nm resolution. Thereby, this work offers a versatile tool for studying mitochondrial IM architecture and dynamics in a multiplexed manner.
Recent developments in parasitic plant biology
Authors: Stanga John P.
Published: December 2022

Parasitic plants are taxonomically diverse, globally distributed, and capable of parasitizing a wide array of host plants, often with preferences for specific hosts. Some parasitic plants are damaging pests of numerous crops; their effects can be especially detrimental in low-input agriculture. Effective breeding and management strategies rely on comprehensive information about the life history, evolution, genetics, biochemistry, physiology, communication, and ecology of parasitic plants and their hosts. High-throughput sequencing approaches are used to advance research in genome evolution, to identify genetic loci for breeding, to characterize microbial communities associated with parasitic plants, and to discover molecular mechanisms of parasitism and host responses. Molecular and biochemical investigations are elucidating the mechanisms by which parasitic seeds germinate in response to host phytohormones in the rhizosphere. Structural information guides synthesis- and screening-based methods to identify chemicals that could be used to promote or inhibit parasitic seed germination. Microbial communities in the rhizosphere influence parasitic plants and hosts as a system; fungal and bacterial species themselves, and products derived from them, have the potential for agronomic application. Proteins and nucleic acids exchanged through the haustorium reveal the complex interplay between parasitic plant pathogenesis and host defense responses. This review focuses on the latest developments published within the last two years.
Visitor Information Centres and Millennial Travellers: Remaining Relevant in a Digital Era
Authors: Chui Caleb , Walters Gabby
Published: December 2022

Visitor usage of visitor information centres (VICs) has significantly declined within the past decade due to the increasing use and popularity of online information sources. The immediacy and accessibility of online information has resulted in tourists relying primarily on this source of information both prior to and during the travel experience. This is an issue due to the many benefits that VICs provide to business suppliers, local communities and tourists.

Information

© The Authors 2022
Chemical vapour deposited graphene-mediated enhanced SERS performance in silver nanostructures
Authors: Nalini Savitha , Thomas Subin , Anju K. S. , Jayaraj M. K. , Rajeev Kumar K.
Published: December 2022

This work demonstrates how chemical vapour deposited monolayer graphene enhances the SERS activity in a conventional plasmonic substrate. The single-layer graphene is evidenced by various spectroscopic analyses. A thin coating of silver on graphene/SiO2/Si substrate serves as the graphene-mediated SERS (GSERS) platform, which offers a detection limit (LOD) of 10−14 M and an enhancement factor of 9.48 × 108 for the R6G molecule. The performance of the GSERS substrate is superior to that of the substrate without graphene, which has a LOD of 10−10 M only. The detection of low concentrations of Sudan-I is also demonstrated with the GSERS substrate. A highly sensitive simple two-stage SERS substrate made of high-quality graphene film is the crowning achievement of this study.
Correlation Renormalized and Induced Spin-Orbit Coupling
Authors: Jiang Kun
Published: December 2022

Interplay of spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and electron correlation generates a bunch of emergent quantum phases and transitions, especially topological insulators and topological transitions. We find that electron correlation will induce extra large SOC in multi-orbital systems under atomic SOC and change ground state topological properties. Using the Hartree–Fock mean field theory, phase diagrams of px
/py
orbital ionic Hubbard model on honeycomb lattice are well studied. In general, correction of strength of SOC δ λ ∝ (Uʹ–J). Due to breaking down of rotation symmetry, form of SOC on multi-orbital materials is also changed under correlation. If a non-interacting system is close to fermionic instability, spontaneous generalized SOC can also be found. Using renormalization group, SOC is leading instability close to quadratic band-crossing point. Mean fields at quadratic band-crossing point are also studied.
A superconfiguration calculation of opacity with consistent bound and continuum electron treatments using green’s functions
Authors: Gill N M , Fontes C J , Starrett C E
Published: December 2022

One of the challenges in calculating the opacity of dense plasmas is the difficulty in consistently modeling electrons bound to nuclei and those that exist within the continuum of free states in electronic structure models. We address this issue by adapting the green’s function approach, originally developed for use in average atom calculations, to the determination of superconfiguration (SC) electronic structure. The spectra created using these SCs indicate that a consistent treatment of continuum electronic structure is important for phenomena involving electrons near ionization thresholds, such as the pressure ionization of bound states and the opacity due to transitions near bound-free edges. Though important for dense plasmas, the detailed incorporation of continuum electrons into structure calculations does not have significant impact on the recent discrepancies between the predicted and measured opacity of hot, dense iron (Bailey et al 2015 Nature
517 56). We find that the inclusion of plasma effects through an ion-sphere model along with our treatment of continuum electronic states gives a description of pressure ionization in hot, dense aluminum that is in better agreement with experiment than methods that rely on perturbative descriptions of the plasma environment (Hoarty et al 2013 Phys. Rev. Lett.
110 265003).
Research on vector characteristics and applications of electromagnetic radiation induced by rock failure
Authors: Zhao Yingjie , He Xueqiu , Liu Yang , Song Dazhao , Qiu Liming , Wei Menghan , Yin Shan , Guo Lei
Published: December 2022

Coal and rock electromagnetic radiation (EMR) measurement plays an essential role in the monitoring and early warning of underground engineering dynamic hazards as a real-time, dynamic, non-contact geophysical monitoring method of coal and rock fissure. The electromagnetic field has obvious directionality; however, the EMR measurement instruments used in underground engineering are scalar rather than vector instruments. Therefore, this paper uses a self-developed three-axis antenna to measure the vector EMR for rock Brazil splitting failure. Study the influence of crack size (D), the distance of measuring point (r) and crack azimuth angles (θ
0) on the vector characteristics of EMR induced by rock splitting failure. Analyze the vector response mechanism of EMR induced by rock splitting failure, and conduct on-site vector EMR measurements in the Lilou Coal Mine. The study achievements are concluded as follows: the amplitude of vector EMR (
A

s) increases linearly with the increase of crack size (D), decreases with the distance square (r
2) from the measurement point to the crack increases, and increases and then decrease with the increase of angles (θ
0) between the sample direction and the initial fixed position, showing arching changes; The direction of vector EMR (
A

s) is mainly affected by θ
0 impact. The results of experiments are consistent with that of theoretical analysis. The field measurement results show that the stress concentration area and its orientation of the roadway could be measured using the three-axis vector EMR instrument we researched and developed.
Machine Learning-based Prediction of Sunspots using Fourier Transform Analysis of the Time Series
Authors: Rodríguez José-Víctor , Rodríguez-Rodríguez Ignacio , Lok Woo Wai
Published: December 2022

The study of solar activity holds special importance since the changes in our star’s behavior affect both the Earth’s atmosphere and the conditions of the interplanetary environment. They can interfere with air navigation, space flight, satellites, radar, high-frequency communications, and overhead power lines, and can even negatively influence human health. We present here a machine learning-based prediction of the evolution of the current sunspot cycle (solar cycle 25). First, we analyze the Fourier Transform of the total time series (from 1749 to 2022) to find periodicities with which to lag this series and then add attributes (predictors) to the forecasting models to obtain the most accurate result possible. Consequently, we build a trained model of the series considering different starting points (from 1749 to 1940, with 1 yr steps), applying Random Forests, Support Vector Machines, Gaussian Processes, and Linear Regression. We find that the model with the lowest error in the test phase (cycle 24) arises with Random Forest and with 1915 as the start year of the time series (yielding a Root Mean Squared Error of 9.59 sunspots). Finally, for cycle 25 this model predicts that the maximum number of sunspots (90) will occur in 2025 March.
Role of magnetohydrodynamic activity in sawtooth induced heat pulse propagation in ADITYA tokamak
Authors: Patel S. , Ghosh J. , Chowdhuri M. B. , Mayya K. B. K. , Manchanda R. , Pandya H. K. B. , Tanna R. L. , Kumar V. , Joisa S. , Purohit S. , Raju D. , Jha S. , Atrey P. K. , Rao C. V. S. , Vasu P. , Chenna Reddy D. , Bhatt S. B. , Saxena Y. C.
Published: December 2022

Fast propagation of sawtooth induced heat pulse is observed in the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) active plasmas of ADITYA tokamak. The sawtooth crash deposits heat beyond the inversion radius, which gets transported to the edge region of the plasma, and is reflected as inverted sawtooth modulation in the edge channels of electron cyclotron emission (ECE) and

H
α

spectral line emission. The time-lag analysis on ECE signal reveals the propagation time from plasma core to edge of ∼150 µs. From this analysis, the estimated transient electron heat diffusivity

χ

e

hp

is found to be ∼50–60 m2 s−1, which is ten times higher than that of power balance heat diffusivity

χ

e

pb

, in the MHD active discharges of ADITYA. It has been observed that the presence of MHD (m/n = 2/1, 3/1) activity in the intermediate region between the q = 1 and the edge radii, significantly influences the heat transport from the plasma core to the edge region. Stochastic magnetic field region formation with overlapping m/n = 2/1 and 3/1 MHD islands facilitates the fast heat-pulse propagation during a sawtooth crash in ADITYA tokamak. The disparity between the measured and the power-balance estimated diffusivity is significantly reduced by considering the electron heat diffusivity due to stochastization of magnetic field in the intermediate region.
Local Community Policy and The Value of Local Wisdom of The Kemang Plant
Authors: Solihin S , Fitriyah A , Muliyah Evi
Published: December 2022

Kemang plant is a plant that has the value of local wisdom in certain areas, especially in Bogor and Sukabumi. This study aims to determine the values of environmental policy and the value of local wisdom which is the basis for mysticism in specific communities toward the Kemang plant. The method used is qualitative with a descriptive analysis research design. The research sample consisted of 46 people who were taken by random sampling technique. The variables studied are indicators of plant availability, utilization of plants, aspects of local knowledge, local social processes, and circulating local wisdom values. The local community uses the plant as food and board, based on field results that the Kemang plant is experiencing extinction. 95% of the community believes that Buyut nonactive disease if passes the Kemang plant, its Buyut is nonactive will experience active disease. 89% of people with Buyut disease have the condition.
Extraction of rice bran oil using microwave-assisted extraction and green solvents
Authors: Gotama B , Rahman A K , Ahmad A , Hariyadi A
Published: December 2022

Rice bran oil (RBO) is a healthy vegetable oil made from rice bran. A microwave- assisted extraction method (MAE) was developed in this work to produce RBO with greater productivity than the conventional method, i.e., solvent extraction (SXE). Furthermore, green solvents such as ethanol and d-limonene were compared as an alternative to the less environmentally friendly n-hexane. An evaluation of energy consumption and raw material costs was conducted using the MAE method. The 30 mesh bran was stabilized in the oven for 30 min at 100°C followed by MAE extraction, which was performed by mixing 50 g of bran and 300 ml of solvents in a microwave oven set to 450 watts and 60°C for 60 min. Filter paper was used to separate the extract from the bran, and the oil was recovered by solvent evaporation. Finally, the oil was weighed and the fatty acid composition was determined by GC-MS. The results showed that the yield of RBO using d-limonene and MAE was the largest (24.64%) as well as consuming less energy (95Wh/gr oil). Linoleic acid was only found in the extraction with d-limonene and EtOH was successful in obtaining longer-chain saturated fatty acids.
Micro-scale deterministic asperity contact FEM simulation
Authors: Kolli Vasu , Winkler Andreas , Wartzack Sandro , Marian Max
Published: December 2022

There are numerous stochastic approaches to indirectly couple solid asperity contact with the fluid hydrodynamics in the region of boundary or mixed lubrication. In contrast, deterministic approaches for calculating solid contact pressure curves offer advantages in terms of flexibility and accuracy. This contribution aims at providing a publicly available, automated method to derive solid asperity contact pressure curves for given surfaces, implemented in commercial software based upon Finite Element Method (FEM). Solid asperity pressure curves were calculated and compared to various established stochastic models for artificially generated surfaces and surfaces measured via laser scanning microscopy. Thereby, it was shown that the usage of artificially generated surfaces based on stochastic parameters only allowed an approximate representation of real measured surfaces as well as to lower calculated pressures, so that 3D measurement data is preferred to calculate the contact pressure. Moreover, the values of the FEM model were in a similar region but slightly below the stochastic models over a wide range of gap distances and the asperity pressure graphs were more curved/convex. At very small gap height values, the pressure in the FEM model reached values similar to the stochastic models. This was attributed to the fact that real surface topographies were considered, also allowing for peak-to-valley pairings instead of merely asperity-to-asperity contacts, as well as to the fact that the roughness and mean planes were re-calculated in each simulation step, while most stochastic approaches neglect the elastic deformation of asperities when determining the distances between the rough surfaces.
Influence of Na2WO4 additive in electrolyte on properties of plasma electrolytic oxidation coatings on H62 brass
Authors: Guan Qingyi , Meng Jianbing , Wang Shuaike , Dong Xiaojuan , Zhou Haian , Yu Haoyang , Li Hongmei
Published: December 2022

In order to improve the corrosion resistance of brass treated by plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO), Na2WO4 additive was introduced into a mixed electrolyte of sodium silicate and sodium hydroxide, and a composite oxide coating was formed on the surface of H62 brass. The effect of Na2WO4 concentration from 0 to 3 g L−1 in silicate-based electrolyte on the properties of PEO coatings was investigated by SEM, EDS, XRD and electrochemical workstation. The results show that the element of W in the form of metal oxides can be successfully incorporated into PEO coatings. The addition of Na2WO4 can significantly improve the corrosion resistance of PEO coatings, and the best corrosion resistance is obtained when the addition amount is 1.0 g L−1.
Atomistic study on the nano-scratch mechanism of CoCrFeMnNi high-entropy alloy at different morphology densities
Authors: Wang Bing , Luo Rong , Wang Qian , Liu Haidong
Published: December 2022

The physical nature of the scratch behavior of CoCrFeMnNi HEA and its deformation mechanism at different morphology densities are investigated by molecular dynamics simulations. The results show that the groove morphology contributes to the reduction of surface plastic deformation and exhibits a friction-reducing effect. As the morphology density decreases, the surface deformation and atom pile-up decrease, and the plastic deformation in the scratch region decreases, resulting in a further enhancement of the friction reduction effect. The increase of scratch depth intensifies the plastic deformation of the specimens, and the average scratch coefficient of friction increases with the increase in scratch depth. The dominant plastic deformation mechanism in the scratch deformation of CoCrFeMnNi HEA with different morphology densities is the slip deformation of Shockley partial dislocations. The MD simulations are verified further by qualitatively comparing them with corresponding experimental observations of CoCrFeMnNi HEA.
Determination of the dielectric constant of non-planar nanostructures and single nanoparticles by electrostatic force microscopy
Authors: Fuhrmann Marc , Musyanovych Anna , Thoelen Ronald , Moebius Hildegard
Published: December 2022

Electrostatic Force Microscopy has been proven to be a precise and versatile tool to perform quantitative measurements of the dielectric constant of thin film domains in the nanometer range. However, it is difficult to measure non-planar nanostructures because topographic crosstalk significantly contributes to the measured signal. This topographic crosstalk due to distance changes between tip and substrate measuring non-planar surface structures is still an ongoing issue in literature and falsifies measurements of the dielectric constant of nanostructures and nanoparticles. Tip and substrate form a capacitor based on the contact potential difference between the tip and substrate material. An increase of the distance between tip and substrate causes a repulsive force while a decrease causes an attractive force. Thus, measuring in the so-called lift mode scanning the surface in a second scan following the topography determined by a first scan leads to a mirroring of the non-planar surface structure in the electrostatic signal superimposing the signal from dielectric contrast. In this work we demonstrate that the topographic crosstalk can be avoided by using the linear mode instead of the lift mode. The use of the linear mode now allows the determination of the dielectric constant of single nanoparticles.
Hydrogen storage in liquid hydrogen carriers: recent activities and new trends
Authors: Ulucan Tolga Han , Akhade Sneha A , Ambalakatte Ajith , Autrey Tom , Cairns Alasdair , Chen Ping , Cho Young Whan , Gallucci Fausto , Gao Wenbo , Grinderslev Jakob B , Grubel Katarzyna , Jensen Torben R , de Jongh Petra E , Kothandaraman Jotheeswari , Lamb Krystina E , Lee Young-Su , Makhloufi Camel , Ngene Peter , Olivier Pierre , Webb Colin J , Wegman Berenger , Wood Brandon C , Weidenthaler Claudia
Published: December 2022

Efficient storage of hydrogen is one of the biggest challenges towards a potential hydrogen economy. Hydrogen storage in liquid carriers is an attractive alternative to compression or liquefaction at low temperatures. Liquid carriers can be stored cost-effectively and transportation and distribution can be integrated into existing infrastructures. The development of efficient liquid carriers is part of the work of the International Energy Agency Task 40: Hydrogen-Based Energy Storage. Here, we report the state-of-the-art for ammonia and closed CO2-cycle methanol-based storage options as well for liquid organic hydrogen carriers.
Active upper limb prostheses: a review on current state and upcoming breakthroughs
Authors: Marinelli Andrea , Boccardo Nicolò , Tessari Federico , Di Domenico Dario , Caserta Giulia , Canepa Michele , Gini Giuseppina , Barresi Giacinto , Laffranchi Matteo , De Michieli Lorenzo , Semprini Marianna
Published: December 2022

The journey of a prosthetic user is characterized by the opportunities and the limitations of a device that should enable activities of daily living (ADL). In particular, experiencing a bionic hand as a functional (and, advantageously, embodied) limb constitutes the premise for promoting the practice in using the device, mitigating the risk of its abandonment. In order to achieve such a result, different aspects need to be considered for making the artificial limb an effective solution to accomplish ADL. According to such a perspective, this review aims at presenting the current issues and at envisioning the upcoming breakthroughs in upper limb prosthetic devices. We first define the sources of input and feedback involved in the system control (at user-level and device-level), alongside the related algorithms used in signal analysis. Moreover, the paper focuses on the user-centered design challenges and strategies that guide the implementation of novel solutions in this area in terms of technology acceptance, embodiment, and, in general, human-machine integration based on co-adaptive processes. We here provide the readers (belonging to the target communities of researchers, designers, developers, clinicians, industrial stakeholders, and end-users) with an overview of the state-of-the-art and the potential innovations in bionic hands features, hopefully promoting interdisciplinary efforts for solving current issues of upper limb prostheses. The integration of different perspectives should be the premise to a transdisciplinary intertwining leading to a truly holistic comprehension and improvement of the bionic hands design. Overall, this paper aims to move the boundaries in prosthetic innovation beyond the development of a tool and toward the engineering of human-centered artificial limbs.
Optimizing simple calreticulin upregulation strategies in Caenorhabditis elegans
Authors: Guijarro-Hernández Ana , Hurtado Cristina , Vizmanos José Luis
Published: December 2022

Calreticulin (CALR) is a multifunctional calcium-binding protein whose expression levels have been correlated with detection, clinical phase of disease, metastasis, and survival of various types of cancer. Therefore, the study of the regulation of the cellular levels of CALR may be important to understand the neoplastic process. Caenorhabditis elegans, which has a CALR ortholog (CRT-1), has been used as a model organism for the characterization of CALR, and several conditions promoting the upregulation of crt-1 have been studied and established to understand the molecular control of crt-1 transcription and assess the function of the protein. Here, we propose several modifications of previously published crt-1 upregulation strategies that improve the reproducibility of the assay and allow to achieve higher levels of overexpression. First, the manipulation of synchronized populations of worms instead of mixed-stage animals and the use of solid culture medium in all experimental conditions are proposed. Likewise, we evaluate four new experimental approaches that attempt to promote a higher crt-1 upregulation [short-term exposure to 30 µg/ml tunicamycin at 25°C, short-term exposure to 7% ethanol (EtOH) at 25°C, short-term exposure to 30°C of worms grown at 25°C, and a long-term exposure to 7% EtOH]. Our results not only validate previously published methods, but also point to a new experimental approach that increases previously achieved levels of crt-1 upregulation. More specifically, a 6-h exposure of synchronized worms grown at 25°C to 7% EtOH on solid medium promotes almost a 7-fold upregulation of crt-1.
Impact of baseline blood pressure on adverse outcomes in Japanese patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation: the J-RISK AF
Authors: Kodani Eitaro , Tomita Hirofumi , Nakai Michikazu , Akao Masaharu , Suzuki Shinya , Hayashi Kenshi , Sawano Mitsuaki , Goya Masahiko , Yamashita Takeshi , Fukuda Keiichi , Ogawa Hisashi , Tsuda Toyonobu , Isobe Mitsuaki , Toyoda Kazunori , Miyamoto Yoshihiro , Miyata Hiroaki , Okamura Tomonori , Sasahara Yusuke , Okumura Ken ,   for the J-RISK AF Research Group
Published: December 2022

Aims

This study aimed to investigate the impact of baseline blood pressure (BP) on adverse outcomes in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), using a pooled analysis performed on data from J-RISK AF, a large-scale cohort of Japanese patients with AF.

Methods and results

Of the 16 918 patients from five major AF registries including the J-RHYTHM Registry, Fushimi AF Registry, Shinken Database, Keio interhospital Cardiovascular Studies, and Hokuriku-Plus AF Registry, 15 019 non-valvular AF (NVAF) patients with baseline BP values (age, 70.0 ± 11.0 years; men, 69.1%) were analysed. Incidence rates of adverse events were evaluated between patients divided into baseline systolic BP quartiles or at 150 mmHg. During the follow-up period of 730 days, ischaemic stroke, major bleeding, all-cause death, and cardiovascular death occurred in 277, 319, 718, and 275 patients, respectively. Hazard ratios (HRs) for ischaemic stroke and major bleeding were comparable among the quartiles, whereas HRs for all-cause and cardiovascular deaths in the lowest quartile with systolic BP <114 mmHg were significantly higher [HR 1.43, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.13–1.81; and HR 1.47, 95% CI 1.01–2.12, respectively] than in the third quartile, even after adjusting for known confounding factors. In patients with a systolic BP of ≥150 mmHg, adjusted HR for major bleeding was significantly higher than that of <150 mmHg (HR 1.64, 95% CI 1.12–2.40).

Conclusion

In Japanese patients with NVAF, a baseline systolic BP <114 mmHg was significantly associated with higher all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. In contrast, a systolic BP ≥150 mmHg was an independent risk factor for major bleeding.
A rationale for dedicated trials of combination therapy in heart failure
Authors: Blumer Vanessa , Vaduganathan Muthiah
Published: December 2022

As heart failure (HF) enters a new era with high level of evidence supporting the use of individual drug therapies, we put forth a rationale for the need for dedicated investigation of the safety, tolerability, and practicalities associated with combination medical therapy. Being able to tailor therapies via combination approaches might offer a way to maximize benefits of available therapies and also facilitate compliance. The evidentiary bar to support multi-drug regimens should be raised in HF for a variety of reasons: (1) Pivotal HF randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to date have not traditionally tested and proven safety and efficacy of drug combinations, (2) HF patients have variable disease trajectories, (3) There is hesitancy by clinicians and patients to using multiple drugs and such trials may build confidence in their use, and (4) HF therapies have overlapping side effects. Similar to combination therapies being developed and tested in adjacent fields of medicine, HF care too would greatly benefit from dedicated investigations of combination treatment approaches. Personalizing precision medicine with combination therapies has the potential to further improve outcomes and facilitate optimal implementation of disease-modifying therapies in HF.
Population genomics and subgenome evolution of the allotetraploid frog Xenopus laevis in southern Africa
Authors: Premachandra Tharindu , Cauret Caroline M S , Conradie Werner , Measey John , Evans Ben J
Published: December 2022

Allotetraploid genomes have two distinct genomic components called subgenomes that are derived from separate diploid ancestral species. Many genomic characteristics such as gene function, expression, recombination, and transposable element mobility may differ significantly between subgenomes. To explore the possibility that subgenome population structure and gene flow may differ as well, we examined genetic variation in an allotetraploid frog—the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis)—over the dynamic and varied habitat of its native range in southern Africa. Using reduced representation genome sequences from 91 samples from 12 localities, we found no strong evidence that population structure and gene flow differed substantially by subgenome. We then compared patterns of population structure in the nuclear genome to the mitochondrial genome using Sanger sequences from 455 samples from 183 localities. Our results provide further resolution to the geographic distribution of mitochondrial and nuclear diversity in this species and illustrate that population structure in both genomes corresponds roughly with variation in seasonal rainfall and with the topography of southern Africa.
Two-locus identity coefficients in pedigrees
Authors: Vigeland Magnus Dehli
Published: December 2022

This paper proposes a solution to a long-standing problem concerning the joint distribution of allelic identity by descent between two individuals at two linked loci. Such distributions have important applications across various fields of genetics, and detailed formulas for selected relationships appear scattered throughout the literature. However, these results were obtained essentially by brute force, with no efficient method available for general pedigrees. The recursive algorithm described in this paper, and its implementation in R, allow efficient calculation of two-locus identity coefficients in any pedigree. As a result, many existing procedures and techniques may, for the first time, be applied to complex and inbred relationships. Two such applications are discussed, concerning the expected likelihood ratio in forensic kinship testing, and variances in realized relatedness.
Dynamic simulations of coseismic slickenlines on non-planar and rough faults
Authors: Aoki T , Kaneko Y , Kearse J
Published: December 2022

Knowing the directions of rupture propagation of palaeo-earthquakes is a challenging, yet important task for our understanding of earthquake physics and seismic hazard, as the rupture direction significantly influences the distribution of strong ground motion. Recent studies proposed a relationship between the direction of rupture propagation and curvature of slickenlines formed during seismic slip. The relationship was established using a global catalogue of historic surface-rupturing earthquakes and dynamic models of idealized, planar faults. At the same time, some slickenlines previously documented on geometrically complex fault segments show their convexity opposite from the simple model prediction, which we refer to as ‘abnormal convexity’. To explain such observations, we perform simulations of spontaneous earthquake ruptures on non-planar and rough faults. We find that in the case of strike-slip faults, a non-planar fault model can lead to abnormal convexity of slickenlines in places where the fault dip angle changes abruptly from the average dip of the fault. Abnormal convexity of slickenlines is produced when the initial along-dip stresses are larger than, and are opposite in direction to, the dynamic stresses imparted by the mixed-mode rupture. Such results are also confirmed in our rupture simulations with a rough fault. Our results also show that the parameter space for which abnormal convexity of slickenlines occurs near Earth’s surface is narrow, especially when the fault strength and initial shear stresses increase with depth. Nevertheless, slickenlines on geometrically complex faults need to be carefully interpreted and investigation of rupture direction using curved slickenlines should focus on structurally simple parts of faults.
Field Overlaps, Normativity, and the Contestation of Practices in China's Belt and Road Initiative
Authors: Lesch Max , Loh Dylan M H
Published: December 2022

China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a cornerstone of Xi Jinping's foreign policy. Chinese ministries, companies, and universities set up diplomatic networks, build roads and harbors, and facilitate scientific projects and educational programs to implement the BRI. Whereas some see the BRI as an integration project, others contend that it challenges the existing international order. We introduce the concept of field overlaps to study the normativity of international practices and argue that state and non-state actors contest international practices by drawing on competing normative inventories anchored in overlapping fields. We illustrate this argument by zooming in on China's infrastructural and educational practices. Their normativity comes to the fore in their ongoing contestation as they travel diplomatic, economic, security, and educational fields. Focusing on field overlaps provides a promising avenue for studying how actors stabilize, modify, or disrupt the normativity of international practices.
Culturally Competent Care in the Breast Imaging Clinic: Hispanic/Latino Patients
Authors: Feliciano-Rivera Yara Z , Net Jose , Sanchez Priscila , Wahab Rifat A , Mehta Tejas , Yepes Monica M
Published: December 2022

Hispanic/Latino people represent 19% of the U.S. population, and this proportion is expected to increase to 26% by 2050. Hispanic/Latino people comprise a diverse ethnic group that includes individuals from all races, religions, languages, cultural identities, and nationalities. Barriers to health care that have created significant disparities in this community include language, low socioeconomic status, and inability to afford health insurance. Health coverage for Hispanic/Latino people has been a longstanding problem in the U.S., stopping many of these patients from seeking preventive care such as screening mammography. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among Hispanic/Latino women in the U.S. and the leading cause of cancer death in this group. Five-year breast cancer survival in Hispanic/Latino women is slightly lower than that in non-Hispanic White women. Some of the factors that account for the ethnic disparities in breast cancer include lower levels of adherence to screening mammography of Hispanic/Latino women as a consequence of inadequate insurance coverage, language barriers, lack of transportation, being unable to leave work, and lack of childcare. By promoting a culturally sensitive clinical environment, breast radiologists can increase patient engagement, utilization of preventive services, treatment adherence rates, and overall health status.
Forensic-based investigation-optimized extreme gradient boosting system for predicting compressive strength of ready-mixed concrete
Authors: Chou Jui-Sheng , Chen Li-Ying , Liu Chi-Yun
Published: December 2022

Regulations mandate testing concrete’s compressive strength after the concrete has cured for 28 days. In the ideal situation, cured strength equals the target strength. Advanced estimation of concrete’s compressive strength can facilitate quality management, improve safety, and present economic advantages in sustainable use. Basic statistical methods cannot effectively predict concrete’s strength or its non-linear relationships with the proportions of its constituent materials. In this study, a baseline model for predicting concrete’s compressive strength was constructed using a state-of-the-art machine-learning method. Most related studies have used sets of concrete mix design results concerning concrete specimens for laboratory-produced concrete specimens as training sets and have obtained simple models through regression; however, these models have been unsuitable for onsite prediction of the compressive strength of concrete with the various mix designs. Control over mix proportions is high in laboratories, resulting in low variation; onsite manual operation and environmental factors cause significant variations in assessment data. In this study, machine-learning techniques and a newly developed metaheuristic optimization algorithm were applied to big long-term data from 75 concrete plants to construct the optimal machine-learning model. Our self-developed forensic-based investigation algorithm was employed to fine-tune the hyperparameters of the extreme gradient boosting model and to improve the model’s generalizability. The lowest mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) obtained using this model was 9.29%, which was smaller than the lowest MAPE achieved using the conventional simple regression with the water-to-binder (W/B) ratio (12.73%). The traditional method tends to overestimate the actual compressive strength. Finally, a convenient expert system was developed that facilitates the use of the proposed model by onsite engineers for quality management. This system expedites the judgment of whether a mixed design is reasonable, reducing production costs while maintaining the safety of concrete structures. It can be widely applied in practice and function as an effective decision-making tool.
Computer-aided diagnosis system based on multi-scale feature fusion for screening large-scale gastrointestinal diseases
Authors: Pang Xuejiao , Zhao Zijian , Wu Yanbing , Chen Yong , Liu Jin
Published: December 2022

For endoscopists, large-scale screening of gastrointestinal (GI) diseases is arduous and time-consuming. While their workload and human factor-induced errors can be reduced by computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) systems, the existing ones mainly focus on a limited number of lesions or specific organs, making them unsuitable for diagnosing various GI diseases in large-scale disease screening. This paper proposes a transformer and convolutional neural network-based CAD system (called TransMSF) to assist endoscopists in diagnosing multiple GI diseases. This system constructs two feature extraction paths with different coding methods to obtain the lesions’ global and local information. In addition, downsampling is implemented in transformer to get global information of different scales, further enriching the feature representation and reducing the amount of computation and memory occupation. Moreover, a channel and spatial attention module with fewer parameters was successfully designed to pay more attention to the target and reduce the loss of important information during spatial dimension transformation. Finally, the extracted feature information is fused through the feature fusion module and then input into the linear classifier for disease diagnosis. The proposed system outperformed that of other state-of-the-art models on two datasets, reaching a 98.41% precision, a 98.15% recall, a 98.13% accuracy, and a 98.28% F1 score on the in-house GI dataset versus a 95.88% precision, a 95.88% recall, a 98.97% accuracy, and a 95.88% F1 score on the public Kvasir dataset. Moreover, TransMSF’s performance was superior to that of seasoned endoscopists. The above results prove that the proposed system is instrumental in diagnosing GI diseases in large-scale disease screening. It can also be used as a training tool for junior endoscopists to improve their professional skills by rendering helpful suggestions.