bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Electrical, Microstructural and Physical Characteristics of Talc-based Cordierite Ceramics
Authors: Yahya Ahmed , Soltan AbdelMonem , Mahani Ragab , El-Kaliouby Baher , Kenawy Sayed , Hamzawy Esmat M A
Published: November 2022

The aim of this work is to study the effect of various talc rocks for the preparation of talc-based cordierite ceramics. Raw talc and sintered cordierite-based ceramic samples (1000-1375ºC for 2 h) were characterized using XRD, XRF, TGA-DTG, laser PSDs, Archimedes method, SEM-EDAX and dielectric relaxation spectrometer (DRS). Results show that impurity oxide contents, particle size and mineralogical changes of green batches influenced the microstructure densification and crystallization of orthorhombic and hexagonal cordierite. The complex electric modulus plot shows the existence of two relaxation processes associated with the capacitive contribution grain boundaries and grain at low and high frequencies, respectively. The dielectric loss reached much lower values (0.0004–0.0007) for the ceramics composed of higher cordierite phase composition (87.00 to 92.00wt.%) that sintered at 1350 and 1375ºC. Such ceramics could be promising in electronic applications like capacitors, microwave devices and wireless communication.
Behavioral economics: who are the investors with the most sustainable stock happiness, and why? Low aspiration, external control, and country domicile may save your lives—monetary wisdom
Authors: Tang Ningyu , Li Zhen , Chen Jingqiu , Tang Thomas Li-Ping
Published: November 2022

Slight absolute changes in the Shanghai Stock Exchange Index (SHSE) corresponded to the city’s immediate increases in coronary heart disease deaths and stroke deaths. Significant fluctuations in the Shenzhen Stock Exchange Index (SZSE) corresponded to the country’s minor, delayed death rates. Investors deal with money, greed, stock volatility, and risky decision-making. Happy people live longer and better. We ask the following question: Who are the investors with the highest and most sustainable stock happiness, and why? Monetary wisdom asserts: Investors apply their deep-rooted values (avaricious love-of-money aspiration and locus of control, Level 2) as a lens to frame critical concerns in the proximal-immediate (Shanghai Stock Exchange Index changes, Level 1) and the omnibus-distal contexts (domicile: city vs. country, Level 2) to maximize expected utility (portfolio changes, Level 1) and ultimate serenity (stock happiness, Level 1). We collected multilevel data—the longitudinal SHSE and 227 private investors’ daily stock happiness and portfolio changes for 36 consecutive trading days in four regions of China. Investors had an average liquid asset of $76,747.41 and $54,660.85 in stocks. This study is not a “one-shot” game with “nothing at stake.” We classified Shanghai and Beijing as the city and Shenzhen and Chongqing as the country. Our cross-level 3-D visualization reveals that regardless of SHSE volatility, investors with low aspiration, external control, and country domicile enjoy the highest and most sustainable stock happiness with minimum fluctuations. Independently, investors with low aspiration, external control, and country domicile tend to make fewer portfolio changes than their counterparts. Behaviorally, less is more, debunking the myth—risky decisions excite stock happiness. Our longitudinal study expands prospect theory, incorporates attitude toward money, and makes robust contributions to behavioral economics and business ethics. We help investors and ordinary citizens make happy, healthy, and wealthy decisions. Most importantly, the life you save may be your own.
Disaster Risk Governance as Assemblage: The Chilean Framework of the 1985 San Antonio Earthquake
Authors: González Daniela P.
Published: November 2022

The purpose of this article is to analyze disaster risk governance through assemblage theory, identifying how—during the altered political context of a military regime with a centralized disaster risk management as in the case of Chile in 1985—new actors emerge during the disaster response phase as a de/reterritorialization effect that is influenced by their agencies and relationships, disfiguring the edges of the assemblage. Based on this conceptualization, it is possible to investigate the interactions between the different actors, their power relations, and their reconfigurations in the governance exercise. For this purpose, we reviewed the response phase of the 1985 San Antonio earthquake that affected the central zone of Chile, where strategic functions, institutions, and forms of power are concentrated. To describe and visualize the actors during the response phase in the disaster risk governance framework, a map of actors was developed that identifies the existing relationships and their different weights. The central scale proved to be dominant and occupied a political space that was transfigured by its overrepresentation—enforced by allies such as the banking system and business associations—enhancing a neoliberal agenda. The leaps in scale from the central scale to the local scale cancel agency of the last, destabilizing its capacity to deal with the effects of the earthquake and isolating it from the decision-making processes. Consequently, delays in providing aid demonstrate that authoritarian governments do not provide better management in the disaster response phase.
DynK-hydra: improved dynamic architecture ensembling for efficient inference
Authors: Ileni Tudor Alexandru , Darabant Adrian Sergiu , Borza Diana Laura , Marinescu Alexandru Ion
Published: November 2022

Accessibility on edge devices and the trade-off between latency and accuracy is an area of interest in deploying deep learning models. This paper explores a Mixture of Experts system, namely, DynK-Hydra, which allows training of an ensemble formed of multiple similar branches on data sets with a high number of classes, but uses, during the inference, only a subset of necessary branches. We achieve this by training a cohort of specialized branches (deep network of reduced size) and a gater/supervisor, that decides dynamically what branch to use for any specific input. An original contribution is that the number of chosen models is dynamically set, based on how confident the gater is (similar works use a static parameter for this). Another contribution is the way we ensure the branches’ specialization. We divide the data set classes into multiple clusters, and we assign a cluster to each branch while enforcing its specialization on this cluster by a separate loss function. We evaluate DynK-Hydra on CIFAR-100, Food-101, CUB-200, and ImageNet32 data sets and we obtain improvements of up to 4.3% accuracy compared with state-of-the-art ResNet. All this while reducing the number of inference flops by a factor of 2–5.5 times. Compared to a similar work (HydraRes), we obtain marginal accuracy improvements of up to 1.2% on the pairwise inference time architectures. However, we improve the inference times by up to 2.8 times compared to HydraRes.
A swarm-optimizer-assisted simulation and prediction model for emerging infectious diseases based on SEIR
Authors: Shi Xuan-Li , Wei Feng-Feng , Chen Wei-Neng
Published: November 2022

Mechanism-driven models based on transmission dynamics and statistic models driven by public health data are two main methods for simulating and predicting emerging infectious diseases. In this paper, we intend to combine these two methods to develop a more comprehensive model for the simulation and prediction of emerging infectious diseases. First, we combine a standard epidemic dynamic, the susceptible–exposed–infected–recovered (SEIR) model with population migration. This model can provide a biological spread process for emerging infectious diseases. Second, to determine suitable parameters for the model, we propose a data-driven approach, in which the public health data and population migration data are assembled. Moreover, an objective function is defined to minimize the error based on these data. Third, based on the proposed model, we further develop a swarm-optimizer-assisted simulation and prediction method, which contains two modules. In the first module, we use a level-based learning swarm optimizer to optimize the parameters required in the epidemic mechanism. In the second module, the optimized parameters are used to predicate the spread of emerging infectious diseases. Finally, various experiments are conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed model and method.
A Scoping Review of the Effect of Classroom Acoustic Conditions on Primary School Children’s Numeracy Performance and Listening Comprehension
Authors: Mealings Kiri
Published: November 2022

Obtaining adequate numeracy skills and listening comprehension skills at primary school are vital for children’s future success. However, classrooms are often noisy and reverberant which may interfere with learning these skills. Two scoping reviews were conducted to synthesise research assessing the effect of different classroom acoustic conditions on (1) children’s numeracy performance and (2) children’s listening comprehension and to identify areas for future research. The PRISMA-ScR protocol was used for these scoping reviews. A comprehensive search of four online databases was conducted in September 2021 using the search term classroom AND (noise OR reverberation OR acoustics) AND (numeracy OR math* OR arithmetic) for the first scoping review, and in May 2022 using the search term classroom AND (acoustic* OR noise OR reverb*) AND ("listening comprehension" OR "auditory comprehension" OR "spoken language comprehension" OR "speech comprehension”) for the second scoping review. The effect of the acoustic conditions on children’s numeracy was varied with most studies showing a negative or no effect of noise, but two showed a positive effect. Therefore, future research is needed to better understand the effect of different classroom acoustic conditions on children’s numeracy performance. For listening comprehension overall, signal-to-noise ratios below + 10 dB mostly had a negative effect on children’s listening comprehension compared to quiet conditions; however, variables such as the noise type, signal-to-noise ratio tested, the listening comprehension domain examined, the population studied, and the voice used for the stimuli affected this. Future research avenues to better understand these effects are proposed.
Generalized class polynomials
Authors: Houben Marc , Streng Marco
Published: November 2022

The Hilbert class polynomial has as roots the j-invariants of elliptic curves whose endomorphism ring is a given imaginary quadratic order. It can be used to compute elliptic curves over finite fields with a prescribed number of points. Since its coefficients are typically rather large, there has been continued interest in finding alternative modular functions whose corresponding class polynomials are smaller. Best known are Weber’s functions, which reduce the size by a factor of 72 for a positive density subset of imaginary quadratic discriminants. On the other hand, Bröker and Stevenhagen showed that no modular function will ever do better than a factor of 100.83. We introduce a generalization of class polynomials, with reduction factors that are not limited by the Bröker–Stevenhagen bound. We provide examples matching Weber’s reduction factor. For an infinite family of discriminants, their reduction factors surpass those of all previously known modular functions by a factor at least 2.
Regional industrial growth and biopharma patent networks: empirical insights from the UK
Authors: Gao Yuan , Zhu Zhen
Published: November 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic has once again brought the significance of biopharmaceutical and medical technology sectors to the spotlight. Seeing that some of the most critical medical breakthroughs such as the speedy mRNA vaccine development were results of cross-border patenting collaboration, we have proposed in a previous work a new method to identify the cross-border collaborative regional centres in the patent networks, using a clustering comparison approach based on adjusted mutual information (AMI). In this paper, we focus on the UK industrial landscape. We use the UK bioscience and health technology sector statistics from 2015 to 2020 and look into the regional growth of each postcode area. We compare the top growth regions with the cross-border collaborative centres identified using AMI comparison at the postcode area level, and find that both long-term and short-term AMI gains show an increase in the correlation with regional annual growth rates of firm numbers in the studied sectors from 2016 to 2020, and the increase is more consistent with the short-term AMI gain. We also found that areas more central in the long-term cross-regional R&D collaboration demonstrate a stronger association with more developed industrial settings indicated by more firms and, potentially more employment and turnover in the field. However, AMI gains are found to have negative correlations with the industrial growths as a sign of possible trade-offs of being central.
Combining sentiment analysis classifiers to explore multilingual news articles covering London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics
Authors: Mello Caio , Cheema Gullal S. , Thakkar Gaurish
Published: November 2022

This study aims to present an approach for the challenges of working with Sentiment Analysis (SA) applied to news articles in a multilingual corpus. It looks at the use and combination of multiple algorithms to explore news articles published in English and Portuguese. It presents a methodology that starts by evaluating and combining four SA algorithms (SenticNet, SentiStrength, Vader and BERT, being BERT trained in two datasets) to improve the quality of outputs. A thorough review of the algorithms’ limitations is conducted using SHAP, an explainable AI tool, resulting in a list of issues that researchers must consider before using SA to interpret texts. We propose a combination of the three best classifiers (Vader, Amazon BERT and Sent140 BERT) to identify contradictory results, improving the quality of the positive, neutral and negative labels assigned to the texts. Challenges with translation are addressed, indicating possible solutions for non-English corpora. As a case study, the method is applied to the study of the media coverage of London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic legacies. The combination of different classifiers has proved to be efficient, revealing the unbalance between the media coverage of London 2012, much more positive, and Rio 2016, more negative.
Transforming Waste to Wealth, Achieving Circular Economy
Authors: Kalkanis Konstantinos , Alexakis Dimitrios E. , Kyriakis Efstathios , Kiskira Kyriaki , Lorenzo-Llanes Junior , Themelis Nickolas J. , Psomopoulos Constantinos S.
Published: November 2022

Wastes are usually thought of as unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance which is discarded after primary use, or considered worthless, defective, and of no use. The term is often subjective, as not every application has identical raw material requirements and sometimes even objectively inaccurate. A starting point towards managing waste is the division in basic categories, ranging from municipal and agricultural waste to radioactive and explosive waste. Through proper collection of municipal solid waste, very important metals and other valuable sources can be recovered and used in new products, thus achieving significantly lower production cost and environmental impact. Success stories in waste management are reported in countries around the world. These typically showcase optimal waste transformation to wealth. Furthermore, applied waste management methods are specified. These actions should be adapted by every organization handling waste. At a managerial level, these must be considered as potential resources, commodities with significant economic, environmental and sociological added value. This paper attempts to identify and present the valuable resources and products that exist in waste streams, focusing mainly on their monetary value, based on data recovered from literature and raw materials stock markets. Municipal solid waste and non-hazardous commercial and industrial wastes are considered in this context. The methodology followed was based on identification and analysis of cities-communities and countries that have successfully adopted waste management policies towards circular economy and waste to wealth transformation.
Effects of Erythrocytapheresis Procedures on Delayed Bone Marrow Conversion in Sickle Cell Disease
Authors: Popham Emily , Moeller Karen , Raj Ashok
Published: November 2022

The imaging appearances of the skeletal system have been well documented in sickle cell disease (SCD) but there is limited information about the impact of SCD treatments on skeletal abnormalities. We present two patients with SCD maintained on long-term erythrocytapheresis and the changes to their skeletal abnormalities on neuroimaging with this treatment. We observed a reversal of the bone marrow conversion process and the skull appearance was age appropriate without any radiographic findings of iron overload in the patients.
The Painted Triptychs of Fifteenth-Century Germany
Authors: Jacobs Lynn F.
Published: November 2022

This book presents four case studies that interrogate how German fifteenth-century painted triptychs engage with, and ultimately blur various boundaries. Some of the boundaries are internal to the triptych format, for example, transgressed frames between narratives scenes on triptychs' interiors, or interconnections between imagery on triptychs' interiors and exteriors. Other blurred boundaries are regional ones between the Netherlands and Cologne; metaphysical ones between heaven and earth; and artistic distinctions between the media of painting and sculpture. The book's case studies, which shed new light on Conrad von Soest, Stefan Lochner, and the Master of the St Bartholomew Altarpiece, illuminate the importance of German fifteenth-century painting, while providing a fresh assessment of relations between German triptychs and their more famous Netherlandish counterparts' and demonstrating the value of probing Medialität, the implications of format and medium for generating meaning. The book's coda assesses the triptych in the age of Dürer.
Non-abelian Mellin transformations and applications
Authors: Liu Yongqiang , Maxim Laurenţiu , Wang Botong
Published: November 2022

We study non-abelian versions of the Mellin transformations, originally introduced by Gabber-Loeser on complex affine tori. Our main result is a generalisation to the non-abelian context and with arbitrary coefficients of the t-exactness of Gabber-Loeser’s Mellin transformation. As an intermediate step, we obtain vanishing results for the Sabbah specialisation functors. Our main application is to construct new examples of duality spaces in the sense of Bieri-Eckmann, generalising results of Denham-Suciu.
Implementation of a 24-hour infection diagnosis protocol in the pediatric cardiac intensive care unit (CICU)
Authors: Chitalia Reema A. , Benscoter Alexis L. , Chlebowski Meghan M. , Hart Kelsey J , Iliopoulos Ilias , Misfeldt Andrew M. , Sawyer Jaclyn E. , Alten Jeffrey A.
Published: November 2022

Objectives:

To reduce unnecessary antibiotic exposure in a pediatric cardiac intensive care unit (CICU).

Design:

Single-center, quality improvement initiative. Monthly antibiotic utilization rates were compared between 12-month baseline and 18-month intervention periods.

Setting:

A 25-bed pediatric CICU.

Patients:

Clinically stable patients undergoing infection diagnosis were included. Patients with immunodeficiency, mechanical circulatory support, open sternum, and recent culture-positive infection were excluded.

Interventions:

The key drivers for improvement were standardizing the infection diagnosis process, order-set creation, limitation of initial antibiotic prescription to 24 hours, discouraging indiscriminate vancomycin use, and improving bedside communication and situational awareness regarding the infection diagnosis protocol.

Results:

In total, 109 patients received the protocol; antibiotics were discontinued in 24 hours in 72 cases (66%). The most common reasons for continuing antibiotics beyond 24 hours were positive culture (n = 13) and provider preference (n = 13). A statistical process control analysis showed only a trend in monthly mean antibiotic utilization rate in the intervention period compared to the baseline period: 32.6% (SD, 6.1%) antibiotic utilization rate during the intervention period versus 36.6% (SD, 5.4%) during the baseline period (mean difference, 4%; 95% CI, −0.5% to −8.5%; P = .07). However, a special-cause variation represented a 26% reduction in mean monthly vancomycin use during the intervention period. In the patients who had antibiotics discontinued at 24 hours, delayed culture positivity was rare.

Conclusions:

Implementation of a protocol limiting empiric antibiotic courses to 24 hours in clinically stable, standard-risk, pediatric CICU patients with negative cultures is feasible. This practice appears safe and may reduce harm by decreasing unnecessary antibiotic exposure.
On moments of downward passage times for spectrally negative Lévy processes
Authors: Behme Anita , Strietzel Philipp Lukas
Published: November 2022

The existence of moments of first downward passage times of a spectrally negative Lévy process is governed by the general dynamics of the Lévy process, i.e. whether it is drifting to
$+\infty$
,
$-\infty$
, or oscillating. Whenever the Lévy process drifts to
$+\infty$
, we prove that the
$\kappa$
th moment of the first passage time (conditioned to be finite) exists if and only if the
$(\kappa+1)$
th moment of the Lévy jump measure exists. This generalizes a result shown earlier by Delbaen for Cramér–Lundberg risk processes. Whenever the Lévy process drifts to
$-\infty$
, we prove that all moments of the first passage time exist, while for an oscillating Lévy process we derive conditions for non-existence of the moments, and in particular we show that no integer moments exist.
Should mild obstructive sleep apnoea be treated? A systematic review from the standpoint of disease progression
Authors: Fong P Y , Tay Z Y , Soh R Y , Fook S M C , Li H H , Phua C Q
Published: November 2022

Objective

This study was a systematic review to investigate the progression of untreated obstructive sleep apnoea in order to evaluate whether mild obstructive sleep apnoea should be treated from the standpoint of disease progression.

Method

The database search study outcomes that were collected included Apnea Hypopnea Index and Respiratory Disturbance Index. A meta-analysis of obstructive sleep apnoea severity over time intervals was performed.

Results

A total of 17 longitudinal studies and 1 randomised, controlled trial were included for review. For patients with mild obstructive sleep apnoea, mean pre-study and post-study Apnea Hypopnea Index was 5.21 and 8.03, respectively, over a median interval of 53.1 months. In patients with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnoea, mean pre-study and post-study Apnea Hypopnea Index was 28.9 and 30.3, respectively, over a median interval of 57.8 months. Predictors for disease progression in mild obstructive sleep apnoea are patients aged less than 60 years and those with a baseline body mass index less than 25.

Conclusion

Mild obstructive sleep apnoea progression is observed, but it does not appear to reach any clinically significant progression to moderate or severe obstructive sleep apnoea.
Invasive species policy in Brazil: a review and critical analysis
Authors: Faria Larissa , Carvalho Barbara Maichak de , Carneiro Laís , Miiller Natali Oliva Roman , Pedroso Clemerson Richard , Occhi Thiago Vinícius Trento , Tonella Lívia Helena , Vitule Jean Ricardo Simões
Published: November 2022

Biological invasions represent one of the main threats to biodiversity and a recognized economic burden worldwide; the issue has been included in the conservation agenda such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Brazil is a signatory country of the CBD; however, the number of alien species records in its territory is continuously rising. To evaluate the invasive alien species (IAS) policy in Brazil, we reviewed the legislation delineating historical trends to identify potential gaps and avenues for improvement. We consulted several websites using keywords related to invasions in order to track legal instruments such as laws, decrees and regulations. We classified the documents regarding their main aims with regard to IAS, taxon and environment of interest. We found 85 legal instruments in force related to IAS published in the federal sphere up to October 2021, with decrees being the most common type. Most documents were classified as ‘control’ and ‘prevention’ and were related to all taxa and environments. Two species (wild boar Sus scrofa and golden mussel Limnoperna fortunei) have more specific legislation, probably due to their conspicuous economic impacts. We discuss policy gaps and their implications for the efficient management and prevention of new IAS introductions to the country.
Bi-national outbreak of Salmonella Newport infections linked to onions: the United States experience
Authors: McCormic Z. D. , Patel K. , Higa J. , Bancroft J. , Donovan D. , Edwards L. , Cheng J. , Adcock B. , Bond C. , Pereira E. , Doyle M. , Wise M. E. , Gieraltowski L. ,   the Salmonella Newport Investigation Team
Published: November 2022

From 2016–2019, dry bulb onions were the suspected cause of three multistate outbreaks in the United States. We investigated a large multistate outbreak of Salmonella Newport infections that caused illnesses in both the United States and Canada in 2020. Epidemiologic, laboratory and traceback investigations were conducted to determine the source of the infections, and data were shared among U.S. and Canadian public health officials. We identified 1127 U.S. illnesses from 48 states with illness onset dates ranging from 19 June to 11 September 2020. Sixty-six per cent of ill people reported consuming red onions in the week before illness onset. Thirty-five illness sub-clusters were identified during the investigation and seventy-four per cent of sub-clusters served red onions to customers during the exposure period. Traceback for the source of onions in illness sub-clusters identified a common onion grower in Bakersfield, CA as the source of red onions, and onions were recalled at this time. Although other strains of Salmonella Newport were identified in environmental samples collected at the Bakersfield, CA grower, extensive environmental and product testing did not yield the outbreak strain. This was the third largest U.S. foodborne Salmonella outbreak in the last 30 years. It is the first U.S. multistate outbreak with a confirmed link to dry bulb onions, and it was nearly 10-fold larger than prior outbreaks with a suspected link to onions. This outbreak is notable for its size and scope, as well as the international data sharing that led to implication of red onions as the primary cause of the outbreak. Although an environmental assessment at the grower identified several factors that likely contributed to the outbreak, no main reason was identified. The expedient identification of the outbreak vehicle and response of multiple public health agencies allowed for recall and removal of product from the marketplace, and rapid messaging to both the public and industry on actions to protect consumers; these features contributed to a decrease in cases and expeditious conclusion of the outbreak.
Troubled Hedonism and Social Justice: Mill and the Epicureans on the Ataraxic Life
Authors: Barker Chris
Published: November 2022

J. S. Mill is typically thought of as a liberal utilitarian disciple of Jeremy Bentham, and in other readings as a modern Socratic or even a modern Epicurean. Mill and the Epicureans are alike in several respects: they theorize personal freedom and active character versus determinism and passivity, they oppose excessive love and praise friendship, and they are critical of traditional religiosity. In spite of these similarities, Mill and the Epicureans have a different conception of active character and citizenship, stemming from a difference in first principles. Mill's philosopher does not share the Epicurean aim of untroubledness (ataraxia), and Mill accepts the demanding task of educating and regenerating a mass democratic society. Below, I assess Mill's troubled hedonism, that is, his acceptance of often intense and long-term mental perturbations, justified by a decidedly non-Epicurean social reform project.
Carotenoid metabolites, their tissue and blood concentrations in humans and further bioactivity via retinoid receptor-mediated signalling
Authors: Bohn Torsten , de Lera Angel R. , Landrier Jean-Francois , Rühl Ralph
Published: November 2022

Many epidemiological studies have emphasised the relation between carotenoid dietary intake and their circulating concentrations and beneficial health effects, such as lower risk of cardiometabolic diseases and cancer. However, there is dispute as to whether the attributed health benefits are due to native carotenoids or whether they are instead induced by their metabolites. Several categories of metabolites have been reported, most notably involving (a) modifications at the cyclohexenyl ring or the polyene chain, such as epoxides and geometric isomers, (b) excentric cleavage metabolites with alcohol-, aldehyde- or carboxylic acid-functional groups or (c) centric cleaved metabolites with additional hydroxyl, aldehyde or carboxyl functionalities, not counting their potential phase-II glucuronidated / sulphated derivatives. Of special interest are the apo-carotenoids, which originate in the intestine and other tissues from carotenoid cleavage by β-carotene oxygenases 1/2 in a symmetrical / non-symmetrical fashion. These are more water soluble and more electrophilic and, therefore, putative candidates for interactions with transcription factors such as NF-kB and Nrf2, as well as ligands for RAR–RXR nuclear receptor interactions. In this review, we discussin vivodetected apo-carotenoids, their reported tissue concentrations, and potential associated health effects, focusing exclusively on the human situation and based on quantified / semi-quantified carotenoid metabolites proven to be present in humans.
Strain Partitioning and Localization Due To Detachment Heterogeneities in Fold‐and‐Thrust Belts of Progressive Arcs: Results From Analog Modeling
Authors: Jiménez‐Bonilla Alejandro , Ramos Inmaculada Expósito , Díaz‐Azpíroz Manuel , Balanyá Juan Carlos , Crespo‐Blanc Ana
Published: November 2022

Although most arcuate orogens are deformed as progressive arcs—curvature is acquired during shortening‐, they have been scarcely simulated by analog modeling. To investigate factors that control the growth of progressive curves in fold‐and‐thrust belts, we developed seven analog models where the backstop shape changed over time, and distinctive geometric heterogeneities were set in the detachment layer. These heterogeneities, often described in natural cases, include diapirs, thickness lateral variations (including pinch‐outs) of the viscous detachment layer as well as frontal pinch‐outs. Our results show that strain was partitioned between shortening structures showing radial transport directions, and both normal and oblique strike‐slip faults that accommodated arc‐lengthening. The location of any heterogeneity conditioned the nucleation of structures and thus, the wedge evolution and its resulting geometry. The presence of both diapirs and frontal silicone pinch‐outs favored the stagnation of the deformation front, and the subsequent wedge thickening up to reach the supercritical angle. Both diapirs and thickness lateral variations of the viscous layer localized arc‐parallel stretching. In addition, their configuration determined the amount and distribution of salients and recesses along the arcuate belt, diapirs and more frictional detachments favoring thicker wedges and less frontal propagation. The differential displacement between salients and recesses was accommodated by strongly partitioned transfer zones, localized by the boundaries between distinctive detachment domains. These results may be useful to investigate geometric and kinematic changes along natural progressive arcs such as the Gibraltar, Sulaiman and Zagros cases.
Comparing Jupiter’s Equatorial X‐Ray Emissions With Solar X‐Ray Flux Over 19 Years of the Chandra Mission
Authors: McEntee S. C. , Jackman C. M. , Weigt D. M. , Dunn W. R. , Kashyap V. , Kraft R. , Louis C. K. , Branduardi‐Raymont G. , Gladstone G. R. , Gallagher P. T.
Published: November 2022

We present a statistical study of Jupiter’s disk X‐ray emissions using 19 years of Chandra X‐Ray Observatory (CXO) observations. Previous work has suggested that these emissions are consistent with solar X‐rays elastically scattered from Jupiter’s upper atmosphere. We showcase a new pulse invariant (PI) filtering method that minimizes instrumental effects which may produce unphysical trends in photon counts across the nearly two‐decade span of the observations. We compare the CXO results with solar X‐ray flux data from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites X‐ray Sensor for the wavelength band 1–8 Å (long channel), to quantify the correlation between solar activity and Jovian disk counts. We find a statistically significant Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient of 0.9, which confirms that emitted Jovian disk X‐rays are predominantly governed by solar activity. We also utilize the high spatial resolution of the High Resolution Camera Instrument on‐board the CXO to map the disk photons to their positions on Jupiter’s surface. Voronoi tessellation diagrams were constructed with the Juno Reference Model through Perijove 9 internal field model overlaid to identify any spatial preference of equatorial photons. After accounting for area and scattering across the curved surface of the planet, we find a preference of Jovian disk emission at 2–3.5 Gauss surface magnetic field strength. This suggests that a portion of the disk X‐rays may be linked to processes other than solar scattering: the spatial preference associated with magnetic field strength may imply increased precipitation from the radiation belts, as previously postulated.
A Framework to Simplify Astro‐Meteorological Water Level and Wind Inputs for Modeling Coastal Marsh Ecomorphodynamics
Authors: Mariotti Giulio , Zapp Samuel M.
Published: November 2022

Modeling long‐term marsh ecomorphodynamics often requires simplifying hydrodynamic inputs. This is usually achieved by selecting the mean or spring astronomic tidal range. Here, we suggest a new framework to simplify inputs for modeling marsh ecomorphodynamics. First, tidal characteristics that influence plant growth are separated from those responsible for hydrodynamics and sediment transport. The upper range for vegetation growth is set equal to the Median Monthly Maximum High Water plus a positive offset attributed to precipitation. Second, to characterize the hydrodynamics, the measured water levels are partitioned into two components: a high‐frequency signal (<72 hr), which affects both water depths and currents (transport tides), and a low‐frequency signal (>72 hr), which drives sea level anomalies. Transport tides are mainly due to diurnal and semidiurnal astronomic forcing; sea level anomalies are due to both meteorological tides and long‐period astronomic components (weekly to annual). A water level time series can thus be simplified into a time series of tidal cycles, each characterized by a range, period, and sea level anomaly. Given the need to simulate both water depths and currents, a single equivalent tide cannot be identified, that is, a temporal modulation of the tidal cycles (transport tide range and sea level anomaly) must be retained. To reduce input complexity while keeping the modulation, we propose to only simulate the mean, 10th percentile, and 90th percentile of both transport tide range and sea level anomaly. A constant “morphologically equivalent” wind speed reproduces marsh morphology and elevation similar to those obtained with the full wind modulation.
The equilibrium of tumor suppression: DUBs as active regulators of PTEN
Authors: Christine Audrey , Park Mi Kyung , Song Su Jung , Song Min Sup
Published: November 2022

PTENis among the most commonly lost or mutated tumor suppressor genes in human cancer. PTEN, a bona fide lipid phosphatase that antagonizes the highly oncogenic PI3K-AKT-mTOR pathway, is considered a major dose-dependent tumor suppressor. Although PTEN function can be compromised by genetic mutations in inherited syndromes and cancers, posttranslational modifications of PTEN may also play key roles in the dynamic regulation of its function. Notably, deregulated ubiquitination and deubiquitination lead to detrimental impacts on PTEN levels and subcellular partitioning, promoting tumorigenesis. While PTEN can be targeted by HECT-type E3 ubiquitin ligases for nuclear import and proteasomal degradation, studies have shown that several deubiquitinating enzymes, including HAUSP/USP7, USP10, USP11, USP13, OTUD3 and Ataxin-3, can remove ubiquitin from ubiquitinated PTEN in cancer-specific contexts and thus reverse ubiquitination-mediated PTEN regulation. Researchers continue to reveal the precise molecular mechanisms by which cancer-specific deubiquitinases of PTEN regulate its roles in the pathobiology of cancer, and new methods of pharmacologically for modulating PTEN deubiquitinases are critical areas of investigation for cancer treatment and prevention. Here, we assess the mechanisms and functions of deubiquitination as a recently appreciated mode of PTEN regulation and review the link between deubiquitinases and PTEN reactivation and its implications for therapeutic strategies.
Identification of texture MRI brain abnormalities on first-episode psychosis and clinical high-risk subjects using explainable artificial intelligence
Authors: Korda Alexandra I. , Andreou Christina , Rogg Helena Victoria , Avram Mihai , Ruef Anne , Davatzikos Christos , Koutsouleris Nikolaos , Borgwardt Stefan
Published: November 2022

Structural MRI studies in first-episode psychosis and the clinical high-risk state have consistently shown volumetric abnormalities. Aim of the present study was to introduce radiomics texture features in identification of psychosis. Radiomics texture features describe the interrelationship between voxel intensities across multiple spatial scales capturing the hidden information of underlying disease dynamics in addition to volumetric changes. Structural MR images were acquired from 77 first-episode psychosis (FEP) patients, 58 clinical high-risk subjects with no later transition to psychosis (CHR_NT), 15 clinical high-risk subjects with later transition (CHR_T), and 44 healthy controls (HC). Radiomics texture features were extracted from non-segmented images, and two-classification schemas were performed for the identification of FEP vs. HC and FEP vs. CHR_NT. The group of CHR_T was used as external validation in both schemas. The classification of a subject’s clinical status was predicted by importing separately (a) the difference of entropy feature map and (b) the contrast feature map, resulting in classification balanced accuracy above 72% in both analyses. The proposed framework enhances the classification decision for FEP, CHR_NT, and HC subjects, verifies diagnosis-relevant features and may potentially contribute to identification of structural biomarkers for psychosis, beyond and above volumetric brain changes.
Observation of gapped Dirac cones in a two-dimensional Su-Schrieffer-Heeger lattice
Authors: Geng Daiyu , Zhou Hui , Yue Shaosheng , Sun Zhenyu , Cheng Peng , Chen Lan , Meng Sheng , Wu Kehui , Feng Baojie
Published: November 2022

The Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model in a two-dimensional rectangular lattice features gapless or gapped Dirac cones with topological edge states along specific peripheries. While such a simple model has been recently realized in photonic/acoustic lattices and electric circuits, its material realization in condensed matter systems is still lacking. Here, we study the atomic and electronic structure of a rectangular Si lattice on Ag(001) by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and theoretical calculations. We demonstrate that the Si lattice hosts gapped Dirac cones at the Brillouin zone corners. Our tight-binding analysis reveals that the Dirac bands can be described by a 2D SSH model with anisotropic polarizations. The gap of the Dirac cone is driven by alternative hopping amplitudes in one direction and staggered potential energies in the other one and hosts topological edge states. Our results establish an ideal platform to explore the rich physical properties of the 2D SSH model.
YAP promotes cell-autonomous immune responses to tackle intracellular Staphylococcus aureus in vitro
Authors: Caire Robin , Audoux Estelle , Thomas Mireille , Dalix Elisa , Peyron Aurélien , Rodriguez Killian , Pordone Nicola , Guillemot Johann , Dickerscheit Yann , Marotte Hubert , Vandenesch François , Laurent Frédéric , Josse Jérôme , Verhoeven Paul O.
Published: November 2022

Transcriptional cofactors YAP/TAZ have recently been found to support autophagy and inflammation, which are part of cell-autonomous immunity and are critical in antibacterial defense. Here, we studied the role of YAP againstStaphylococcus aureususing CRISPR/Cas9-mutated HEK293 cells and a primary cell-based organoid model. We found thatS. aureusinfection increases YAP transcriptional activity, which is required to reduce intracellularS. aureusreplication. A 770-gene targeted transcriptomic analysis revealed that YAP upregulates genes involved in autophagy/lysosome and inflammation pathways in both infected and uninfected conditions. The YAP-TEAD transcriptional activity promotes autophagic flux and lysosomal acidification, which are then important for defense against intracellularS. aureus. Furthermore, the staphylococcal toxin C3 exoenzyme EDIN-B was found effective in preventing YAP-mediated cell-autonomous immune response. This study provides key insights on the anti-S. aureusactivity of YAP, which could be conserved for defense against other intracellular bacteria.
Mechanochemical tuning of a kinesin motor essential for malaria parasite transmission
Authors: Liu Tianyang , Shilliday Fiona , Cook Alexander D. , Zeeshan Mohammad , Brady Declan , Tewari Rita , Sutherland Colin J. , Roberts Anthony J. , Moores Carolyn A.
Published: November 2022

Plasmodium species cause malaria and kill hundreds of thousands annually. The microtubule-based motor kinesin-8B is required for development of the flagellated Plasmodium male gamete, and its absence completely blocks parasite transmission. To understand the molecular basis of kinesin-8B’s essential role, we characterised the in vitro properties of kinesin-8B motor domains from P. berghei and P. falciparum. Both motors drive ATP-dependent microtubule gliding, but also catalyse ATP-dependent microtubule depolymerisation. We determined these motors’ microtubule-bound structures using cryo-electron microscopy, which showed very similar modes of microtubule interaction in which Plasmodium-distinct sequences at the microtubule-kinesin interface influence motor function. Intriguingly however, P. berghei kinesin-8B exhibits a non-canonical structural response to ATP analogue binding such that neck linker docking is not induced. Nevertheless, the neck linker region is required for motility and depolymerisation activities of these motors. These data suggest that the mechanochemistry of Plasmodium kinesin-8Bs is functionally tuned to support flagella formation.
Electrically responsive photonic crystals with bistable states for low-power electrophoretic color displays
Authors: Fu Qianqian , Yu Wenyuan , Bao Guangyang , Ge Jianping
Published: November 2022

Electrically responsive photonic crystals are promising materials for electrophoretic color displays with better brightness and color saturation. However, electric field must always be applied to maintain the specific colors, which brings concerns about the power consumption and signal stability and reversibility. Here, we show an electrically responsive photonic crystal with two stable states at 0 V, which are the colored state or the colorless state with ordered or disordered particle arrangement. The color state can be reversibly switched by applying a short-time electrical field, just like in the case of commercial electrophoretic ink. With optimized recipe and electric field, the photonic crystals encapsulated in the prototype display panel are proved to have potentials in high resolution, multi-color, and greyscale display, which lays down a firm basis for reflective displays with low power consumption and good visibility.
Microfluidic vortex focusing for high throughput synthesis of size-tunable liposomes
Authors: Han Jung Yeon , La Fiandra Joseph N. , DeVoe Don L.
Published: November 2022

Control over vesicle size during nanoscale liposome synthesis is critical for defining the pharmaceutical properties of liposomal nanomedicines. Microfluidic technologies capable of size-tunable liposome generation have been widely explored, but scaling these microfluidic platforms for high production throughput without sacrificing size control has proven challenging. Here we describe a microfluidic-enabled process in which highly vortical flow is established around an axisymmetric stream of solvated lipids, simultaneously focusing the lipids while inducing rapid convective and diffusive mixing through application of the vortical flow field. By adjusting the individual buffer and lipid flow rates within the system, the microfluidic vortex focusing technique is capable of generating liposomes with precisely controlled size and low size variance, and may be operated up to the laminar flow limit for high throughput vesicle production. The reliable formation of liposomes as small as 27 nm and mass production rates over 20 g/h is demonstrated, offering a path toward production-scale liposome synthesis using a single continuous-flow vortex focusing device.
Vortex dynamics in the two-dimensional BCS-BEC crossover
Authors: Heyl Max , Adachi Kyosuke , Itahashi Yuki M. , Nakagawa Yuji , Kasahara Yuichi , List-Kratochvil Emil J. W. , Kato Yusuke , Iwasa Yoshihiro
Published: November 2022

The Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer (BCS) condensation and Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) are the two limiting ground states of paired Fermion systems, and the crossover between these two limits has been a source of excitement for both fields of high temperature superconductivity and cold atom superfluidity. For superconductors, ultra-low doping systems like graphene and LixZrNCl successfully approached the crossover starting from the BCS-side. These superconductors offer new opportunities to clarify the nature of charged-particles transport towards the BEC regime. Here we report the study of vortex dynamics within the crossover using their Hall effect as a probe in LixZrNCl. We observed a systematic enhancement of the Hall angle towards the BCS-BEC crossover, which was qualitatively reproduced by the phenomenological time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau (TDGL) theory. LixZrNCl exhibits a band structure free from various electronic instabilities, allowing us to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the vortex Hall effect and thereby propose a global picture of vortex dynamics within the crossover. These results demonstrate that gate-controlled superconductors are ideal platforms towards investigations of unexplored properties in BEC superconductors.