bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Associations between prenatal malaria exposure, maternal antibodies at birth, and malaria susceptibility during the first year of life in Burkina Faso
Authors: Natama Hamtandi Magloire , Moncunill Gemma , Vidal Marta , Rouamba Toussaint , Aguilar Ruth , Santano Rebeca , Rovira-Vallbona Eduard , Jiménez Alfons , Somé M. Athanase , Sorgho Hermann , Valéa Innocent , Coulibaly-Traoré Maminata , Coppel Ross L. , Cavanagh David , Chitnis Chetan E. , Beeson James G. , Angov Evelina , Dutta Sheetij , Gamain Benoit , Izquierdo Luis , Mens Petra F. , Schallig Henk D. F. H. , Tinto Halidou , Rosanas-Urgell Anna , Dobaño Carlota
Published: September 2023

In this study, we investigated how different categories of prenatal malaria exposure (PME) influence levels of maternal antibodies in cord blood samples and the subsequent risk of malaria in early childhood in a birth cohort study (
N
= 661) nested within the COSMIC clinical trial (NCT01941264) in Burkina Faso.
Plasmodium falciparum
infections during pregnancy and infants’ clinical malaria episodes detected during the first year of life were recorded. The levels of maternal IgG and IgG
1-4
to 15
P
.
falciparum
antigens were measured in cord blood by quantitative suspension array technology. Results showed a significant variation in the magnitude of maternal antibody levels in cord blood, depending on the PME category, with past placental malaria (PM) more frequently associated with significant increases of IgG and/or subclass levels across three groups of antigens defined as pre-erythrocytic, erythrocytic, and markers of PM, as compared to those from the cord of non-exposed control infants. High levels of antibodies to certain erythrocytic antigens (i.e., IgG to EBA140 and EBA175, IgG1 to EBA175 and MSP1
42
, and IgG3 to EBA140 and MSP5) were independent predictors of protection from clinical malaria during the first year of life. By contrast, high levels of IgG, IgG1, and IgG2 to the VAR2CSA DBL1-2 and IgG4 to DBL3-4 were significantly associated with an increased risk of clinical malaria. These findings indicate that PME categories have different effects on the levels of maternal-derived antibodies to malaria antigens in children at birth, and this might drive heterogeneity to clinical malaria susceptibility in early childhood.
PP2C phosphatases Ptc1 and Ptc2 dephosphorylate PGK1 to regulate autophagy and aflatoxin synthesis in the pathogenic fungus
Aspergillus flavus
Authors: Zhu Zhuo , Yang Mingkun , Yang Guang , Zhang Bei , Cao Xiaohong , Yuan Jun , Ge Feng , Wang Shihua
Published: September 2023

Reversible phosphorylation by protein kinases and phosphatases plays a central role in regulating cellular processes. However, knowledge of the functions of protein phosphatase 2C (PP2C) S/T phosphatases in
Aspergillus flavus
has been unreported until now. Here, we have identified seven members of the PP2C family of protein phosphatases in
A. flavus
. Evolutionary and functional analyses indicated that two redundant PP2C phosphatases, Ptc1 and Ptc2, are highly conserved and regulate conidia development, aflatoxin synthesis, seed infection, and autophagic vesicle formation. The cytoplasmic proteins Ptc1 and Ptc2 exhibit nuclear infiltration after DNA damage-induced autophagy. Their degradation is closely linked to autophagy induction. The Asp residue coordinated with Mg
2+
is critical for phosphatase Ptc1 and Ptc2 activity, thermal stability, and biofunction in
A. flavus
. An immunoprecipitation-mass spectrometry proteomic investigation indicated that 133 proteins co-interact with Ptc1 and Ptc2. Among these proteins, phosphoglycerate kinase 1 (PGK1) interacts with Ptc1 and Ptc2 and shows high levels of phosphorylation in Δ
ptc1
, Δ
ptc2
, and Δ
ptc1
/
ptc2
mutants. Furthermore, PGK1 S203 phosphorylation levels are associated with aflatoxin synthesis and autophagic vesicle formation. Overall, these findings contribute to our understanding of the roles and mechanisms of PP2C family phosphatases in
A. flavus
and highlight their importance in various cellular processes. Furthermore, it reveals a new regulation model in
A. flavus
, where Ptc1 and Ptc2 activate autophagy and aflatoxin synthesis by regulating PGK1.

IMPORTANCE

Aspergillus flavus
is a model filamentous fungus that can produce aflatoxins when it infects agricultural crops. This study evaluated the protein phosphatase 2C (PP2C) family as a potential drug target with important physiological functions and pathological significance in
A. flavus
. We found that two redundant PP2C phosphatases, Ptc1 and Ptc2, regulate conidia development, aflatoxin synthesis, autophagic vesicle formation, and seed infection. The target protein phosphoglycerate kinase 1 (PGK1) that interacts with Ptc1 and Ptc2 is essential to regulate metabolism and the autophagy process. Furthermore, Ptc1 and Ptc2 regulate the phosphorylation level of PGK1 S203, which is important for influencing aflatoxin synthesis. Our results provide a potential target for interdicting the toxicity of
A. flavus
.
Molecular commensalism—how to investigate underappreciated health-associated polymicrobial communities
Authors: Labossiere Alex , Ramsey Matthew , Merritt Justin , Kreth Jens
Published: September 2023

The study of human commensal bacteria began with the first observation of prokaryotes >340 years ago. Since then, the study of human-associated microbes has been justifiably biased toward the study of infectious pathogens. However, the role of commensal microbes has in recent years begun to be understood with some appreciation of them as potential protectors of host health rather than bystanders. As our understanding of these valuable microbes grows, it highlights how much more remains to be learned about them and their roles in maintaining health. We note here that a thorough framework for the study of commensals, both
in vivo
and
in vitro
is overall lacking compared to well-developed methodologies for pathogens. The modification and application of methods for the study of pathogens can work well for the study of commensals but is not alone sufficient to properly characterize their relationships. This is because commensals live in homeostasis with the host and within complex communities. One difficulty is determining which commensals have a quantifiable impact on community structure and stability as well as host health, vs benign microbes that may indeed serve only as bystanders. Human microbiomes are composed of bacteria, archaea, fungi, and viruses. This review focuses particularly on oral bacteria, yet many of the principles of commensal impacts on host health observed in the mouth can translate well to other host sites. Here, we discuss the value of commensals, the shortcomings involved in model systems for their study, and some of the more notable impacts they have upon not only each other but host health.
The mechanism for polar localization of the type IVa pilus machine in
Myxococcus xanthus
Authors: Herfurth Marco , Pérez-Burgos María , Søgaard-Andersen Lotte
Published: September 2023

Type IVa pili (T4aP) are important for bacterial motility, adhesion, biofilm formation, and virulence. This versatility is based on their cycles of extension, adhesion, and retraction. The conserved T4aP machine (T4aPM) drives these cycles; however, the piliation pattern varies between species. To understand how these patterns are established, we focused on the T4aPM in
Myxococcus xanthus
that assembles following an outside-in pathway, starting with the polar incorporation of the PilQ secretin forming a multimeric T4aP conduit in the outer membrane. We demonstrate that PilQ recruitment to the nascent poles initiates during cytokinesis, but most are recruited to the new poles in the daughters after the completion of cytokinesis. This recruitment depends on the peptidoglycan-binding AMIN domains in PilQ. Moreover, the pilotin Tgl stimulates PilQ multimerization in the outer membrane, is transiently recruited to the nascent and new poles in a PilQ-dependent manner, and dissociates after the completion of secretin assembly. Altogether, our data support a model whereby PilQ polar recruitment and multimerization occur in two steps: the PilQ AMIN domains bind septal and polar peptidoglycan, thereby enabling polar Tgl localization, which then stimulates secretin multimerization in the outer membrane. Using computational analyses, we provide evidence for a conserved mechanism of T4aPM pilotins whereby the pilotin transiently interacts with the unfolded β-lip of the secretin monomer, i.e., the region that eventually inserts into the outer membrane. Finally, we suggest that the presence/absence of AMIN domain(s) in T4aPM secretins contributes to the different T4aPM localization patterns across bacteria.

IMPORTANCE

Type IVa pili (T4aP) are widespread bacterial cell surface structures with important functions in motility, surface adhesion, biofilm formation, and virulence. Different bacteria have adapted different piliation patterns. To address how these patterns are established, we focused on the bipolar localization of the T4aP machine in the model organism
Myxococcus xanthus
by studying the localization of the PilQ secretin, the first component of this machine that assembles at the poles. Based on experiments using a combination of fluorescence microscopy, biochemistry, and computational structural analysis, we propose that PilQ, and specifically its AMIN domains, binds septal and polar peptidoglycan, thereby enabling polar Tgl localization, which then stimulates PilQ multimerization in the outer membrane. We also propose that the presence and absence of AMIN domains in T4aP secretins contribute to the different piliation patterns across bacteria.
Polyphosphate uses mTOR, pyrophosphate, and Rho GTPase components to potentiate bacterial survival in
Dictyostelium
Authors: Rahman Ryan J. , Rijal Ramesh , Jing Shiyu , Chen Te-An , Ismail Issam , Gomer Richard H.
Published: September 2023

Human macrophages and the eukaryotic microbe
Dictyostelium discoideum
ingest bacteria by phagocytosis, and then kill the ingested bacteria. Some pathogenic bacteria secrete linear chains of phosphate residues (polyphosphate; polyP), and the polyP prevents some of the phagocytes from killing the ingested bacteria. In
D. discoideum,
the effect of polyP requires the G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) GrlD, suggesting that polyP uses a signal transduction pathway to inhibit killing of ingested bacteria. Here we show that in addition to GrlD, the
D. discoideum
polyP signaling pathway requires the GPCR interacting arrestin-like protein AdcB, inositol hexakisphosphate kinase A (I6kA), the Rho GTPase RacE, and the target of rapamycin (TOR) component Lst8.
D. discoideum
also secretes polyP, and at high concentrations polyP inhibits
D. discoideum
cytokinesis. The polyP inhibition of bacterial killing pathway has some components that overlap and some components that are distinct from the polyP inhibition of cytokinesis pathway. These data suggest the intriguing possibility that if there is a similar polyP inhibition of bacterial killing pathway in macrophages, pharmacologically blocking this pathway could potentiate macrophage killing of pathogenic bacteria.

IMPORTANCE

Although most bacteria are quickly killed after phagocytosis by a eukaryotic cell, some pathogenic bacteria escape death after phagocytosis. Pathogenic
Mycobacterium
species secrete polyP, and the polyP is necessary for the bacteria to prevent their killing after phagocytosis. Conversely, exogenous polyP prevents the killing of ingested bacteria that are normally killed after phagocytosis by human macrophages and the eukaryotic microbe
Dictyostelium discoideum
. This suggests the possibility that in these cells, a signal transduction pathway is used to sense polyP and prevent killing of ingested bacteria. In this report, we identify key components of the polyP signal transduction pathway in
D. discoideum
. In cells lacking these components, polyP is unable to inhibit killing of ingested bacteria. The pathway components have orthologs in human cells, and an exciting possibility is that pharmacologically blocking this pathway in human macrophages would cause them to kill ingested pathogens such as
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
.
Butyrate protects against MRSA pneumonia via regulating gut-lung microbiota and alveolar macrophage M2 polarization
Authors: Zhao Yan , Sun Haoming , Chen Yiwei , Niu Qiang , Dong Yiting , Li Mei , Yuan Ye , Yang Xiaojun , Sun Qingzhu
Published: September 2023

Methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus
(MRSA) is a well-recognized cause of bacterial pneumonia in general. The gut microbiota and their metabolic byproducts act as important modulators of the gut-lung axis. Our investigation indicates a significant reduction in the abundance of butyrate producer unclassified_f__
Lachnospiraceae
within the lung and gut microbiota of MRSA-infected mice, as well as a significant decrease in the levels of butyrate in gut and serum. Additionally, supplementary sodium butyrate (NaB) significantly reduces bacteria colonization in the lung, suppresses pro-inflammatory cytokines expression, and enhances lung tissue morphology in MRSA-treated mice. The results of high-throughput 16S rDNA sequencing demonstrate that NaB reshapes the gut and lung microbiota by drastically reducing the abundance of potential pathogenic bacteria in the gut and cell motility-related bacteria in the lung, which are induced by MRSA. Moreover, NaB treatment augments the gut and circulating butyrate levels. Mechanistically, NaB promotes signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1) acetylation and inhibits dimer STAT1 phosphorylation by reducing the binding of histone deacetylase 3 to STAT1, thereby altering alveolar macrophage polarization toward the M2 phenotype. Collectively, our findings suggest that NaB exerts a preventative effect against MRSA-induced pneumonia by enhancing the gut-lung microbiota and promoting macrophage polarization toward an anti-inflammatory M2 phenotype. The prophylactic administration of NaB emerges as a promising strategy for combating MRSA pneumonia.

IMPORTANCE

Pneumonia caused by methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus
(MRSA) continues to carry a high burden in terms of mortality. With the roles of gut microbiota in mediating lung diseases being gradually uncovered, the details of the molecular mechanism of the “gut-lung axis” mediated by beneficial microorganisms and small-molecule metabolites have gradually attracted the attention of researchers. However, further studies are still necessary to determine the efficacy of microbial-based interventions. Our findings indicate that sodium butyrate (NaB) alleviates MRSA-induced pulmonary inflammation by improving gut-lung microbiota and promoting M2 polarization of alveolar macrophages. Therefore, the preventive administration of NaB might be explored as an effective strategy to control MRSA pneumonia.
Drought-resistant trait of different crop genotypes determines assembly patterns of soil and phyllosphere microbial communities
Authors: Guo Baobei , Zhang Hong , Liu Yong , Chen Jianwen , Li Junjian
Published: September 2023

Crop microbiomes are widely recognized to play a role in crop stress resistance, but the ecological processes that shape crop microbiomes under water stress are unclear. Therefore, we investigated the bacterial communities of two oat (
Avena sativa
) and two wheat (
Triticum aestivum
) genotypes under different water stress conditions. Our results show that the microbial assemblage was determined by the crop compartment niche. Host selection pressure on the bacterial community increased progressively from soil to epiphyte to endophyte pathways, leading to a decrease in bacterial community diversity and network complexity. Source tracing shows that soil is the primary source of crop microbial communities and that bulk soil is the main potential source of crop microbiota. It filters gradually through the different compartment niches of the crop. We found that the phyla Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Gemmatimonadota, and Myxococcota were significantly enriched in bacterial communities associated with crop-resistance enzyme activity. Crop genotype influenced the composition of the rhizosphere soil microbial community, and the composition of the phylloplane microbial community was affected by water stress.

IMPORTANCE

In this paper, we investigated the assembly of the plant microbiome in response to water stress. We found that the determinant of microbiome assembly under water stress was the host type and that microbial communities were progressively filtered and enriched as they moved from soil to epiphyte to endophyte communities, with the main potential source being bulk soil. We also screened for bacterial communities that were significantly associated with crop enzyme activity. Our research provides insights into the manipulation of microbes in response to crop resistance to water stress.
Dissociative seizures in the emergency room: room for improvement
Authors: Cengiz Ozan , Jungilligens Johannes , Michaelis Rosa , Wellmer Jörg , Popkirov Stoyan
Published: September 2023

Background

Dissociative seizures, also known as functional or psychogenic non-epileptic seizures, account for 11%–27% of all emergency seizure presentations. Misdiagnosis as epileptic seizures is common and leads to ineffective and potentially harmful treatment escalations. We assess the potential for diagnostic improvement at different stages of emergency workup and estimate the utility of benzodiazepines.

Methods

A retrospective study of all emergency presentations with a discharge diagnosis of acute dissociative seizures seen at a university hospital 2010–2022 was performed to assess clinical characteristics and emergency decision-making.

Results

Among 156 patients (73% female, median 29 years), 15% presented more than once for a total of 203 presentations. Half of seizures were ongoing at first medical contact; prolonged seizures and clusters were common (23% and 24%). Diagnostic accuracy differed between on-site emergency physicians and emergency department neurologists (12% vs 52%). Typical features such as eye closure, discontinuous course and asynchronous movements were common. Benzodiazepines were given in two-thirds of ongoing seizures, often in high doses and preferentially for major hyperkinetic semiology. Clinical response to benzodiazepines was mixed, with a minority of patients remaining either unaffected (16%) or becoming critically sedated (13%). A quarter of patients given benzodiazepines by emergency medical services were admitted to a monitoring unit, 9% were intubated.

Conclusions

Improved semiological assessment could reduce early misdiagnosis of dissociative seizures. Although some seizures seem to respond to benzodiazepines, critical sedation is common, and further studies are needed to assess the therapeutic ratio.
Phenotypic plasticity in reproductive and somatic efforts of female Columbian ground squirrels
Authors: Dobson F. Stephen , Saraux Claire , Viblanc Vincent A.
Published: September 2023

Phenotypic plasticity of life-history traits is well known among vertebrate species. We estimated reproductive and somatic efforts of female Columbian ground squirrels ( Urocitellus columbianus (Ord, 1815)) to test for plasticity of these important resource allocations. We examined a 27-year dataset of life-history traits on these long-living (8–10 years), hibernating, montane-living mammals. Environmental variation was estimated from two important traits of mothers, their relative timing of breeding and spring maternal body mass (initial “capital” for use in subsequent reproduction). Results from 183 known-aged mothers and 508 litters revealed considerable variation in the relative timing of breeding, initial maternal mass, and reproductive and somatic efforts, as well as significant variation among ages and years. Results from 125 mothers that reproduced more than once (and 450 litters) revealed significant plasticity of reproductive and somatic efforts with respect to relative timing of breeding and spring maternal mass. A within-subject centering statistical approach showed that phenotypically plastic reproductive and somatic efforts were due to variation within individuals, but were not always reflected by the pattern of responses among individuals in the population. The plastic responses of different mothers appeared to be similar in strength.
Leveraging on-shell interference to search for FCNCs of the top quark and the Z boson
Authors: Cremer Lucas , Erdmann Johannes , Harnik Roni , Späh Jan Lukas , Stamou Emmanuel
Published: September 2023

Flavour-changing-neutral currents (FCNCs) involving the top quark are highly suppressed within the Standard Model (SM). Hence, any signal in current or planned future collider experiments would constitute a clear manifestation of physics beyond the SM. We propose a novel, interference-based strategy to search for top-quark FCNCs involving the Z boson that has the potential to complement traditional search strategies due to a more favourable luminosity scaling. The strategy leverages on-shell interference between the FCNC and SM decay of the top quark into hadronic final states. We estimate the feasibility of the most promising case of anomalous tZc couplings using Monte Carlo simulations and a simplified detector simulation. We consider the main background processes and discriminate the signal from the background with a deep neural network that is parametrised in the value of the anomalous tZc coupling. We present sensitivity projections for the HL-LHC and the FCC-hh. We find an expected 95% CL upper limit of $${\mathcal {B}}_{\textrm{excl}}(t\rightarrow Zc) = 6.4 \times 10^{-5}$$

B
excl

(
t
→
Z
c
)

=
6.4
×

10

-
5

for the HL-LHC. In general, we conclude that the interference-based approach has the potential to provide both competitive and complementary constraints to traditional multi-lepton searches and other strategies that have been proposed to search for tZc FCNCs.
Impact of vorticity and viscosity on the hydrodynamic evolution of hot QCD medium
Authors: Sahoo Bhagyarathi , Singh Captain R. , Sahu Dushmanta , Sahoo Raghunath , Alam Jan-e
Published: September 2023

The strongly interacting transient state of quark-gluon plasma (QGP) medium created in ultra-relativistic collisions survives for a duration of a few fm/c. The spacetime evolution of QGP crucially depends on the equation of state (EoS), vorticity, viscosity, and external magnetic field. In the present study, we obtain the lifetime of a vortical QGP fluid within the ambit of relativistic second-order viscous hydrodynamics. We observe that the coupling of vorticity and viscosity significantly increases the lifetime of vortical QGP. The inclusion of a static magnetic field, vorticity, and viscosity makes the evolution slower. However, the static magnetic field slightly decreases the QGP lifetime by accelerating the evolution process for a non-rotating medium. We also report the rate of change of vorticity in the QGP, which will be helpful in studying the behavior of the medium in detail.
Applicability and limitations of cluster perturbation theory for Hubbard models
Authors: Enenkel Nicklas , Garst Markus , Schmitteckert Peter
Published: September 2023

We present important use cases and limitations when considering results obtained from cluster perturbation theory (CPT). CPT combines the solutions of small individual clusters of an infinite lattice system with the Bloch theory of conventional band theory to provide an approximation for the Green’s function in the thermodynamic limit. To this end, we are investigating single-band and multi-band Hubbard models in 1D and 2D systems. A special interest is taken in the supposed pseudogap regime of the 2D square lattice at half-filling and intermediate interaction strength ($$U \le 3t$$

U
≤
3
t

) as well as the metal–insulator transition. We point out that the finite-size level spacing of the cluster limits the resolution of spectral features within CPT. This restricts the investigation of asymptotic properties of the metal–insulator transition, as it would require much larger cluster sizes that are beyond computational capabilities.
Two New Classes of (Almost) Perfect c-Nonlinear Permutations
Authors: Xu Zhenghua , Zheng Lijing , Huang Chonghui
Published: September 2023

In this short note, we present two classes of (almost) perfect [Formula: see text]-nonlinear permutations over finite fields of even characteristic.
The Emerging Stock Markets and Their Asymmetric Response to Infectious Disease Equity Market Volatility (ID-EMV) Index
Authors: Salman Asma , Chang Bisharat Hussain , Abdul Razzaq Muthanna G. , Wong Wing-Keung , Ahmar Uddin Mohammed
Published: September 2023

The infectious disease equity market volatility (ID-EMV) index, projected by Baker et al. (Baker, SR, N Bloom, SJ Davis, KJ Kost, MC Sammon and T Viratyosin (2020). The unprecedented stock market impact of COVID-19. Review of Asset Pricing Studies, 10(4), 742–758), relates infectious disease to equity market variability during the COVID-19 disease. The ID-EVM index examines the asymmetric influence on the stock market returns of seven developing countries: Mexico, Turkey, Brazil, China, Mexico, India and Indonesia. The investigation applies various statistical estimations, for instance, unit root, quantile cointegration and quantile-on-quantile regression (QQR) approaches. The relation between the stock returns of seven emerging economies and infectious disease EMV index is revealed by the quantile cointegration approach. Additionally, the QQR procedure shows that amid bullish market situation, stock returns are positively influenced by the infectious disease index. While, amid the bearish market situations, stock returns are negatively influenced by infectious disease index, the findings of this research have important policy implications. A piece of valuable information on the nexus between the variability in the equity market and the infectious disease index is provided by this investigation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Policymakers and investors can benefit from this newly introduced ID-EMV index to understand the influence on emerging market countries of this infectious disease.
Cambrian ages for metavolcanic rocks in the Lower Köli Nappes, Swedish Caledonides: implications for the status of the Virisen arc terrane
Authors: Carter Isabel S. M. , Cuthbert Simon J. , Walczak Katarzyna , Ziemniak Grzegorz , Kooijman Ellen , Majka Jarosław
Published: September 2023

The Köli Nappe Complex (KNC) of the Scandinavian Caledonide orogen originated as oceanic terranes within the Iapetus Ocean. These terranes have characteristics of magmatic arcs and associated forearc or back-arc basins and underwent several periods of rifting and magmatism prior to their accretion to the Baltican margin. We present new U–Pb zircon ages from the Lower Köli Ankarede Volcanite Formation in Västerbotten, Sweden. U–Pb ages of magmatic zircon grains from metamorphosed dacitic to andesitic rocks show ages of 512 ± 3.5, 497 ± 2, 491 ± 1 and 488 ± 4 Ma. The three younger ages fit with previous ages for Lower Köli volcanic rocks, but the 512 Ma age is older than any previous age for this unit. These dates constrain the age of magmatism in an ensimatic arc system within Iapetus. We compare this evolution with published information from the other Köli nappes. Magmatic ages within the KNC overlap with ages for an early episode of ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) metamorphism within the underlying Seve Nappe Complex (SNC), supporting the hypothesis that attributes UHP metamorphism within the SNC to subduction beneath the island arc now preserved within the Lower Köli Nappes.

Supplementary material:
Photographs of sampled exposures (S1), BSE images of selected zircons (S2), charts of zircon trace elements (S3) and analyses of zircon (S4, S5) are available at
https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.6843787

Thematic collection:
This article is part of the Caledonian Wilson cycle collection available at:
https://www.lyellcollection.org/topic/collections/the-caledonian-wilson-cycle
The journey of the Band-e-Zeyarat ophiolite (Makran Accretionary Wedge, SE Iran) from the mid-ocean ridge to the accretionary complex: new insights from its sedimentary cover and associated basaltic dykes and sills
Authors: Barbero Edoardo , Pandolfi Luca , Delavari Morteza , Dolati Asghar , Saccani Emilio , Catanzariti Rita , Marroni Michele
Published: September 2023

The Band-e-Zeyarat ophiolite (BEZO) sedimentary cover in the Makran Accretionary Prism (SE Iran) records a complex tectono-sedimentary evolution, extending from its formation at a mid-ocean ridge (MOR) setting to deformation in an accretionary prism. Stratigraphic and biostratigraphic data indicate the occurrence of a Valanginian transition zone sequence separating the volcanic sequence and pelagic sedimentary cover. The latter consists of lower Hauterivian cherty limestone passing upwards to upper Hauterivian–Barremian marl and limestone. The pelagic sedimentary cover continues with post-Barremian–Cenomanian (?) marls. Arenites are interlayered in the sedimentary cover; they are composed of rock fragments derived from volcanic-arc and continental margin settings. The BEZO sedimentary cover is intruded by dykes and sills showing enriched MOR basalt chemical affinity. Structural analysis indicates a polyphase deformation history that involved faulting and folding. Our multidisciplinary results indicate that the BEZO formed in a MOR setting and that it was subsequently overprinted by off-axis and within-plate magmatism as it spread away from this MOR. The Band-e-Zeyarat oceanic crust was incorporated into the Makran prism in the latest Late Cretaceous–Paleocene and was further deformed via strike-slip faulting along the dextral Minab-Sabzevaran fault during the Miocene–Pliocene.

Supplementary material:
A geological sketch map of the Band-e-Zeyarat ophiolite, photomicrographs of arenites, microphotographs of selected calcareous nannofossil taxa, a geochemical discrimination diagram, a table with semiquantitative estimation of calcareous nannofossil abundance, and a text with detailed descriptions of analytical methods, accurancy, and detection limits for whole-rock geochemical analysis are available at
https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.6843835

Thematic collection:
This article is part of the Ophiolites, melanges and blueschists collection available at:
https://www.lyellcollection.org/topic/collections/ophiolites-melanges-and-blueschists
Superimposed Variscan and Alpine deformation in the basement rocks of southern Andorra, central Pyrenees
Authors: Margalef Porcar Aina , Granado Pablo , Casas Josep Maria
Published: September 2023

Detailed mapping, structural analysis and cross-section constructions yield new data on the geometry and chronology of Variscan and Alpine deformations in the central Pyrenees of southern Andorra. The study area is characterized by polyphase deformation and strain partitioning owing to the presence of an efficient décollement level within Silurian black shales. Variscan macrostructures gave rise to a minimum shortening of
c.
22% for Cambrian–Ordovician and Upper Ordovician units below the décollement level and of
c.
35% for Silurian and Devonian units above it. Variscan structures are cut by out-of-sequence thrusts, presumably developed after late Variscan igneous intrusions, and extensional faulting. These thrusts cut previous Variscan D
2
(main-phase) folds and originate additive and subtractive contacts. We propose an Alpine age for most of these thrusts, which, together with the Variscan structures, are affected by subsequent Alpine deformation, which causes changes in their orientation around the intrusions, and a progressive steepening of the cleavage from south to north. We discuss the usefulness and limitations of balanced cross-sections in polydeformed areas and propose that the technique is valid to construct regional sections and to obtain geologically reasonable pre-deformational configurations.
Knowing Your Heart Condition Anytime
Authors: Wang Lei , Wang Xingwei , Zhang Dalin , Ma Xiaolei , Zhang Yong , Dai Haipeng , Xu Chenren , Li Zhijun , Gu Tao
Published: September 2023

Electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring has been widely explored in detecting and diagnosing cardiovascular diseases due to its accuracy, simplicity, and sensitivity. However, medical- or commercial-grade ECG monitoring devices can be costly for people who want to monitor their ECG on a daily basis. These devices typically require several electrodes to be attached to the human body which is inconvenient for continuous monitoring. To enable low-cost measurement of ECG signals with off-the-shelf devices on a daily basis, in this paper, we propose a novel ECG sensing system that uses acceleration data collected from a smartphone. Our system offers several advantages over previous systems, including low cost, ease of use, location and user independence, and high accuracy. We design a two-tiered denoising process, comprising SWT and Soft-Thresholding, to effectively eliminate interference caused by respiration, body, and hand movements. Finally, we develop a multi-level deep learning recovery model to achieve efficient, real-time and user-independent ECG measurement on commercial mobile phones. We conduct extensive experiments with 30 participants (with nearly 36,000 heartbeat samples) under a user-independent scenario. The average errors of the PR interval, QRS interval, QT interval, and RR interval are 12.02 ms, 16.9 ms, 16.64 ms, and 1.84 ms, respectively. As a case study, we also demonstrate the strong capability of our system in signal recovery for patients with common heart diseases, including tachycardia, bradycardia, arrhythmia, unstable angina, and myocardial infarction.
sUrban
Authors: Wang Qianru , Guo Bin , Cheng Lu , Yu Zhiwen
Published: September 2023

Recent machine learning research on smart cities has achieved great success in predicting future trends, under the key assumption that the test data follows the same distribution of the training data. The rapid urbanization, however, makes this assumption challenging to hold in practice. Because new data is emerging from new environments (e.g., an emerging city or region), which may follow different distributions from data in existing environments. Different from transfer-learning methods accessing target data during training, we often do not have any prior knowledge about the new environment. Therefore, it is critical to explore a predictive model that can be effectively adapted to unseen new environments. This work aims to address this Out-of-Distribution (OOD) challenge for sustainable cities. We propose to identify two kinds of features that are useful for OOD prediction in each environment: (1) the environment-invariant features to capture the shared commonalities for predictions across different environments; and (2) the environment-aware features to characterize the unique information of each environment. Take bike riding as an example. The bike demands of different cities often follow the same pattern that they significantly increase during the rush hour on workdays. Meanwhile, there are also some local patterns in each city because of different cultures and citizens' travel preferences. We introduce a principled framework -- sUrban -- that consists of an environment-invariant optimization module for learning invariant representation and an environment-aware optimization module for learning environment-aware representation. Evaluation on real-world datasets from various urban application domains corroborates the generalizability of sUrban. This work opens up new avenues to smart city development.
MI-Poser
Authors: Arakawa Riku , Zhou Bing , Krishnan Gurunandan , Goel Mayank , Nayar Shree K.
Published: September 2023

Inside-out tracking of human body poses using wearable sensors holds significant potential for AR/VR applications, such as remote communication through 3D avatars with expressive body language. Current inside-out systems often rely on vision-based methods utilizing handheld controllers or incorporating densely distributed body-worn IMU sensors. The former limits hands-free and occlusion-robust interactions, while the latter is plagued by inadequate accuracy and jittering. We introduce a novel body tracking system, MI-Poser, which employs AR glasses and two wrist-worn electromagnetic field (EMF) sensors to achieve high-fidelity upper-body pose estimation while mitigating metal interference. Our lightweight system demonstrates a minimal error (6.6 cm mean joint position error) with real-world data collected from 10 participants. It remains robust against various upper-body movements and operates efficiently at 60 Hz. Furthermore, by incorporating an IMU sensor co-located with the EMF sensor, MI-Poser presents solutions to counteract the effects of metal interference, which inherently disrupts the EMF signal during tracking. Our evaluation effectively showcases the successful detection and correction of interference using our EMF-IMU fusion approach across environments with diverse metal profiles. Ultimately, MI-Poser offers a practical pose tracking system, particularly suited for body-centric AR applications.
E3D
Authors: Arabi Abul Al , Wang Xue , Zhang Yang , Kim Jeeeun
Published: September 2023

The increase of distributed embedded systems has enabled pervasive sensing, actuation, and information displays across buildings and surrounding environments, yet also entreats huge cost expenditure for energy and human labor for maintenance. Our daily interactions, from opening a window to closing a drawer to twisting a doorknob, are great potential sources of energy but are often neglected. Existing commercial devices to harvest energy from these ambient sources are unaffordable, and DIY solutions are left with inaccessibility for non-experts preventing fully imbuing daily innovations in end-users. We present E3D, an end-to-end fabrication toolkit to customize self-powered smart devices at low cost. We contribute to a taxonomy of everyday kinetic activities that are potential sources of energy, a library of parametric mechanisms to harvest energy from manual operations of kinetic objects, and a holistic design system for end-user developers to capture design requirements by demonstrations then customize augmentation devices to harvest energy that meets unique lifestyle.
Combining Smart Speaker and Smart Meter to Infer Your Residential Power Usage by Self-supervised Cross-modal Learning
Authors: Zhu Guanzhou , Zhao Dong , Tian Kuo , Zhang Zhengyuan , Yuan Rui , Ma Huadong
Published: September 2023

Energy disaggregation is a key enabling technology for residential power usage monitoring, which benefits various applications such as carbon emission monitoring and human activity recognition. However, existing methods are difficult to balance the accuracy and usage burden (device costs, data labeling and prior knowledge). As the high penetration of smart speakers offers a low-cost way for sound-assisted residential power usage monitoring, this work aims to combine a smart speaker and a smart meter in a house to liberate the system from a high usage burden. However, it is still challenging to extract and leverage the consistent/complementary information (two types of relationships between acoustic and power features) from acoustic and power data without data labeling or prior knowledge. To this end, we design COMFORT, a cross-modality system for self-supervised power usage monitoring, including (i) a cross-modality learning component to automatically learn the consistent and complementary information, and (ii) a cross-modality inference component to utilize the consistent and complementary information. We implement and evaluate COMFORT with a self-collected dataset from six houses in 14 days, demonstrating that COMFORT finds the most appliances (98%), improves the appliance recognition performance in F-measure by at least 41.1%, and reduces the Mean Absolute Error (MAE) of energy disaggregation by at least 30.4% over other alternative solutions.
CASES
Authors: Qi Xiangyao , Lu Qi , Pan Wentao , Zhao Yingying , Zhu Rui , Dong Mingzhi , Chang Yuhu , Lv Qin , Dick Robert P. , Yang Fan , Lu Tun , Gu Ning , Shang Li
Published: September 2023

The process of reading has attracted decades of scientific research. Work in this field primarily focuses on using eye gaze patterns to reveal cognitive processes while reading. However, eye gaze patterns suffer from limited resolution, jitter noise, and cognitive biases, resulting in limited accuracy in tracking cognitive reading states. Moreover, using sequential eye gaze data alone neglects the linguistic structure of text, undermining attempts to provide semantic explanations for cognitive states during reading. Motivated by the impact of the semantic context of text on the human cognitive reading process, this work uses both the semantic context of text and visual attention during reading to more accurately predict the temporal sequence of cognitive states. To this end, we present a Cognition-Aware Smart Eyewear System (CASES), which fuses semantic context and visual attention patterns during reading. The two feature modalities are time-aligned and fed to a temporal convolutional network based multi-task classification deep model to automatically estimate and further semantically explain the reading state timeseries. CASES is implemented in eyewear and its use does not interrupt the reading process, thus reducing subjective bias. Furthermore, the real-time association between visual and semantic information enables the interactions between visual attention and semantic context to be better interpreted and explained. Ablation studies with 25 subjects demonstrate that CASES improves multi-label reading state estimation accuracy by 20.90% for sentence compared to eye tracking alone. Using CASES, we develop an interactive reading assistance system. Three and a half months of deployment with 13 in-field studies enables several observations relevant to the study of reading. In particular, observed how individual visual history interacts with the semantic context at different text granularities. Furthermore, CASES enables just-in-time intervention when readers encounter processing difficulties, thus promoting self-awareness of the cognitive process involved in reading and helping to develop more effective reading habits.
Iris
Authors: Hu Jiawei , Wang Yanxiang , Jia Hong , Hu Wen , Hassan Mahbub , Kusy Brano , Uddin Ashraf , Youssef Moustafa
Published: September 2023

We propose a novel Visible Light Positioning (VLP) method, called Iris, that leverages light spectral information (LSI) to localize individuals in a completely passive manner. This means that the user does not need to carry any device, and the existing lighting infrastructure remains unchanged. Our method uses a background subtraction approach to accurately detect changes in ambient LSI caused by human movement. Furthermore, we design a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) capable of learning and predicting user locations from the LSI change data.

To validate our approach, we implemented a prototype of Iris using a commercial-off-the-shelf light spectral sensor and conducted experiments in two typical real-world indoor environments: a 25 m2 one-bedroom apartment and a 13.3m × 8.4m office space. Our results demonstrate that Iris performs effectively in both artificial lighting at night and in highly dynamic natural lighting conditions during the day. Moreover, Iris outperforms the state-of-the-art passive VLP techniques significantly in terms of localization accuracy and the required density of light sensors.

To reduce the overhead associated with multi-channel spectral sensing, we develop and validate an algorithm that can minimize the required number of spectral channels for a given environment. Finally, we propose a conditional Generative Adversarial Network (cGAN) that can artificially generate LSI and reduce data collection effort by 50% without sacrificing localization accuracy.
ProxiFit
Authors: Kim Jiha , Nam Younho , Lee Jungeun , Suh Young-Joo , Hwang Inseok
Published: September 2023

Although many works bring exercise monitoring to smartphone and smartwatch, inertial sensors used in such systems require device to be in motion to detect exercises. We introduce ProxiFit, a highly practical on-device exercise monitoring system capable of classifying and counting exercises even if the device stays still. Utilizing novel proximity sensing of natural magnetism in exercise equipment, ProxiFit brings (1) a new category of exercise not involving device motion such as lower-body machine exercise, and (2) a new off-body exercise monitoring mode where a smartphone can be conveniently viewed in front of the user during workouts. ProxiFit addresses common issues of faint magnetic sensing by choosing appropriate preprocessing, negating adversarial motion artifacts, and designing a lightweight yet noise-tolerant classifier. Also, application-specific challenges such as a wide variety of equipment and the impracticality of obtaining large datasets are overcome by devising a unique yet challenging training policy. We evaluate ProxiFit on up to 10 weight machines (5 lower- and 5 upper-body) and 4 free-weight exercises, on both wearable and signage mode, with 19 users, at 3 gyms, over 14 months, and verify robustness against user and weather variations, spatial and rotational device location deviations, and neighboring machine interference.
Predicting Symptom Improvement During Depression Treatment Using Sleep Sensory Data
Authors: Shende Chinmaey , Sahoo Soumyashree , Sam Stephen , Patel Parit , Morillo Reynaldo , Wang Xinyu , Ware Shweta , Bi Jinbo , Kamath Jayesh , Russell Alexander , Song Dongjin , Wang Bing
Published: September 2023

Depression is a serious mental illness. The current best guideline in depression treatment is closely monitoring patients and adjusting treatment as needed. Close monitoring of patients through physician-administered follow-ups or self-administered questionnaires, however, is difficult in clinical settings due to high cost, lack of trained professionals, and burden to the patients. Sensory data collected from mobile devices has been shown to provide a promising direction for long-term monitoring of depression symptoms. Most existing studies in this direction, however, focus on depression detection; the few studies that are on predicting changes in depression are not in clinical settings. In this paper, we investigate using one type of sensory data, sleep data, collected from wearables to predict improvement of depression symptoms over time after a patient initiates a new pharmacological treatment. We apply sleep trend filtering to noisy sleep sensory data to extract high-level sleep characteristics and develop a family of machine learning models that use simple sleep features (mean and variation of sleep duration) to predict symptom improvement. Our results show that using such simple sleep features can already lead to validation F1 score up to 0.68, indicating that using sensory data for predicting depression improvement during treatment is a promising direction.