bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Does Parental Separation Lower Genetic Influences on Children's School Performance?
Authors: Baier Tina , Van Winkle Zachary
Published: October 2020

Objective

A behavioral genetics approach is used to test whether parental separation lowers the importance of genes for children's school performance.

Background

The Scarr–Rowe hypothesis, which states that the relative importance of genes on cognitive ability is higher for advantaged compared to disadvantaged children, has been expanded to educational outcomes. However, advantage/disadvantage is predominantly conceptualized as parental socioeconomic status and neglects other important factors. This study expands upon the literature to include family structure as an indicator for advantage/disadvantage.

Method

Data from TwinLife, a new population‐register‐based sample of twins and their families in Germany, and ACE variance decomposition models are used to estimate the heritability of cognitive ability (NPairs = 896), school grades (NPairs = 740), and academic self‐concept (NPairs = 949) separately for single‐parent and two‐parent households.

Results

Findings show that the relative importance of genes on children's cognitive ability and academic self‐concept is lower for children in single‐parent households compared to two‐parent households (32–47% and 23–50%, respectively), but differences are negligible for math grades (41–43%). ACE models adjusted for mothers' education and household income retrieve substantively similar results.

Conclusion

The quality of the family environment that is important for the realization of children's genetic potential is not just shaped by socioeconomic status, but also family structure.
TaRPP13‐3, a CC‐NBS‐LRR‐like gene located on chr 7D, promotes disease resistance to wheat powdery mildew in Brock
Authors: Liu Xiaoying , Zhang Chaoqun , Zhang Lulu , Huang Jianguo , Dang Chen , Xie Chaojie , Wang Zhenying
Published: October 2020

Disease resistance (R) gene, RPP13, plays an important role in the resistance of plants to pathogen infections; its function in resistance of wheat to powdery mildew remains unknown. In this study, a RNA‐Seq technique was used to monitor expression of genes in susceptible wheat ‘Jing411’ and resistant near‐isogenic line ‘BJ‐1’ in response to powdery mildew infection. Overall, 413 differential expression genes were observed and identified as involved in disease resistance. RPP13 homologous gene on wheat chromosome 7D was preliminarily identified using the wheat 660K SNP chip. RPP13 was highly expressed in ‘BJ‐1’ and encodes 1,027 amino acids, including CC, NB and LRR domain, termed TaRPP13‐3. After inoculation with powdery mildew, expression of TaRPP13‐3 in resistant wheat changed with time, but average expression was higher when compared to susceptible variety, thus indicating that TaRPP13‐3 is involved in resistance to powdery mildew. Virus‐induced gene silencing (VIGS) was used to inhibit expression of TaRPP13‐3 in resistant parent ‘Brock’. Results indicated that silencing of TaRPP13‐3 led to decreased disease resistance in ‘Brock’. Overall results of this study indicate that TaRPP13‐3 gene is involved in the defence response of wheat to powdery mildew and plays a positive role in wheat powdery mildew interactions.
Characterization of shocked quartz grains from Chicxulub peak ring granites and shock pressure estimates
Authors: Feignon Jean‐Guillaume , FerriÈre Ludovic , Leroux Hugues , Koeberl Christian
Published: October 2020

Planar deformation features (PDFs) in quartz are a commonly used and well‐documented indicator of shock metamorphism in terrestrial rocks. The measurement of PDF orientations provides constraints on the shock pressure experienced by a rock sample. A total of 963 PDF sets were measured in 352 quartz grains in 11 granite samples from the basement of the Chicxulub impact structure’s peak ring (IODP‐ICDP Expedition 364 drill core), with the aim to quantify the shock pressure distribution and a possible decay of the recorded shock pressure with depth, in the attempt to better constrain shock wave propagation and attenuation within a peak ring. The investigated quartz grains are highly shocked (99.8% are shocked), with an average of 2.8 PDF sets per grain; this is significantly higher than in all previously investigated drill cores recovered from Chicxulub and also for most K‐Pg boundary samples (for which shocked quartz data are available). PDF orientations are roughly homogenous from a sample to another sample and mainly parallel to {103} and {104} orientations (these two orientations representing on average 68.6% of the total), then to {102} orientation, known to form at higher shock pressure. Our shock pressure estimates are within a narrow range, between ~16 and 18 GPa, with a slight shock attenuation with increasing depth in the drill core. The relatively high shock pressure estimates, coupled with the rare occurrence of basal PDFs, i.e., parallel to the (0001) orientation, suggest that the granite basement in the peak ring could be one of the sources of the shocked quartz grains found in the most distal K‐Pg boundary sites.
Gut microbiota degrades toxic isothiocyanates in a flea beetle pest
Authors: Shukla Shantanu P. , Beran Franziska
Published: October 2020

Microbial symbionts of herbivorous insects have been suggested to aid in the detoxification of plant defense compounds; however, quantitative studies on microbial contribution to plant toxin degradation remain scarce. Here, we demonstrate microbiome‐mediated degradation of plant‐derived toxic isothiocyanates in the cabbage stem flea beetle Psylliodes chrysocephala, a major pest of oilseed rape. Suppression of microbiota in antibiotic‐fed beetles resulted in up to 11.3‐fold higher levels of unmetabolized isothiocyanates compared to control beetles but did not affect other known detoxification pathways in P. chrysocephala. We characterized the microbiome of laboratory‐reared and field‐collected insects using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and isolated bacteria belonging to the three core genera Pantoea, Acinetobacter and Pseudomonas. Only Pantoea isolates rapidly degraded isothiocyanates in vitro, and restored isothiocyanate degradation in vivo when reintroduced in antibiotic‐fed beetles. Pantoea was consistently present across beetle life stages and in field and lab populations. In addition, Pantoea was detected in undamaged tissues of the host plant Brassica rapa, indicating that P. chrysocephala could possibly acquire an isothiocyanate detoxifying bacterium through their diet. Our results demonstrate that both insect endogenous mechanisms and the microbiota can contribute to the detoxification of plant defense compounds and together they can better account for the fate of ingested plant metabolites.
Hybrid Warfare, International Negotiation, and an Experiment in “Remote Convening”
Authors: Honeyman Chris , Chrustie Calvin , Schneider Andrea Kupfer , Fraser Véronique , Jordaan Barney
Published: October 2020

The authors are leading a multinational effort to understand the effects of “hybrid” warfare on international commercial negotiation. The start‐up process is itself essentially a negotiation, among about forty individual practitioners and scholars with very diverse backgrounds, over whether and how they will work together. In a pandemic, a key risk is that the necessary cooperation and trust will be harder to build, particularly among professionals who are dealing with security‐sensitive issues and who have never met each other. This article discusses the current necessity of replacing the in‐person model for eliciting such cooperation which the authors had developed previously for large collaborative projects, and describes a “remote convening” replacement process.
Geographical isolation, habitat shifts and hybridisation in the diversification of the Macaronesian endemic genus Argyranthemum (Asteraceae)
Authors: White Oliver W. , Reyes‐Betancort J. Alfredo , Chapman Mark A. , Carine Mark A.
Published: October 2020

Inferring the processes responsible for the rich endemic diversity of oceanic island floras is important for our understanding of plant evolution and setting practical conservation priorities. This requires an accurate knowledge of phylogenetic relationships, which have often been difficult to resolve due to a lack of genetic variation.

We employed genotyping‐by‐sequencing (GBS) to investigate how geographical isolation, habitat shifts, and hybridisation have contributed to the evolution of diversity observed in Argyranthemum Webb (Asteraceae), the largest genus of flowering plants endemic to the Macaronesian archipelagos.

Species relationships were resolved, and biogeographical stochastic mapping identified intra‐island speciation as the most frequent biogeographic process underlying diversification, contrary to the prevailing view in Argyranthemum and the Canary Islands. D‐statistics revealed significant evidence of hybridisation between lineages co‐occurring on the same island, however there was little support for the hypothesis that hybridisation may be responsible for the occurrence of nonmonophyletic multi‐island endemic (MIE) species.

Geographic isolation, habitat shifts and hybridisation have all contributed to the diversification of Argyranthemum, with intra‐island speciation found to be more frequent than previously thought. Morphological convergence is also proposed to explain the occurrence of nonmonophyletic MIE species. This study reveals greater complexity in the evolutionary processes generating Macaronesian endemic diversity.
Connecting vacuolar and plasma membrane transport networks
Authors: Cubero‐Font Paloma , De Angeli Alexis
Published: October 2020

The coordinated control of ion transport across the two major membranes of differentiated plant cells, the plasma and the vacuolar membranes, is fundamental in cell physiology. The stomata responses to the fluctuating environmental conditions are an illustrative example. Indeed, they rely on the coordination of ion fluxes between the different cell compartments. The cytosolic environment, which is an interface between intracellular compartments, and the activity of the ion transporters localised in the different membranes influence one each other. Here we analyse the molecular mechanisms connecting and modulating the transport processes at both the plasma and the vacuolar membranes of guard cells.
Evaluating Disaster Operations Management: An Outcome‐Process Integrated Approach
Authors: Paciarotti Claudia , Valiakhmetova Inna
Published: October 2020

Humanitarian operations play a crucial role in alleviating human and social losses caused by natural disasters. The best way to know responders’ preparedness and ability to conduct efficient and effective humanitarian operations is to perform an evaluation. When evaluating humanitarian operations, the focus is mainly on their outcomes while the option of concentrating on the process is only mentioned, without examining in‐depth the subject nor providing specific tools for its analysis. This study tries to fill this gap by proposing and testing an outcome/process integrated approach for the evaluation of disaster operations management. The output analysis and the process analysis of disaster operations management are performed jointly by means of a questionnaire and a modeling tool, respectively. The integrated framework proposed has been applied to the emergency response of a small non‐profit organization to a flood. It has been shown that the two methods applied separately could give a distorted or partial picture of the operations under study, while the integrated framework proposed has proved to be effective, since it has brought to a deeper understanding of the processes. The approach can be used by practitioners to evaluate disaster operations management, and accurately and efficiently identify the key elements, strengths, and main weaknesses of relief operations.
Impacts of Patient Characteristics and Care Fragmentation on the Value of HIEs
Authors: Atasoy Hilal , Demirezen Emre M. , Chen Pei‐Yu
Published: October 2020

We investigate the impact of health information exchange (HIE) use at the visit level on patient outcomes, such as future visit behavior and the number of procedures performed on the patient, and how the effects differ across patient and visit characteristics, for example, whether a patient has chronic conditions and whether a visit involves a hospital switch. Timely sharing of patient information is expected to decrease the fragmentation of care and improve decision‐making, diagnoses, and care plans, yet previous studies that examine the benefits of HIE use do not focus on these issues and are not unanimous in their findings in general about the benefits of HIEs. Further, prior studies generally focus on average effects with binary HIE measures, either using HIE adoption at the hospital level or whether HIE is accessed at the visit level. We argue that the benefits of HIE stem from the information contained within and are not equal across cases. We utilize a rich dataset of medical records from an HIE provider in New York. Our results show that the depth of information available for the patient in HIE use decreases the overall number of future visits, specifically, HIE use effectively reduces visits that are not preventative in nature while increases adherence to preventative care visits, aiding in the shift from treatment‐based care to preventative‐based care, that public health organizations have urged for. Further, HIE use lowers the number of procedures done at the focal visit. We have several other findings that have important implications for policymakers, healthcare providers, and patients.
Strategic Overbidding in Dynamic Auctions: Structural Estimation of Value of Synergy
Authors: Gupta Sudip
Published: October 2020

In this study, we formulate and estimate a dynamic procurement auction game where bidder asymmetry due to synergy is endogenous. The seller sells multiple goods via a sequence of first‐price auctions. While bidders are ex‐ante symmetric, the first‐period winner has a valuation advantage as a result of such synergy in the second‐period bidding game and becomes a strong bidder. This endogenous synergy creation leads to overbidding in the first‐period auction relative to a static bidding game. We characterize the equilibrium in terms of the observed bid distribution and suggest a two‐step estimation procedure. We apply our method to data on OCS oil‐tract auctions. We find that the federal government recovers 52% of the “strong” buyers’ willingness to pay in the second period. Bidders perceive the value of synergy to be about 5% of their first period’s informational rent. Counterfactual experiments show that government revenue could have increased by about 27% under alternative selling mechanisms.
Improving drought tolerance in rice: Ensuring food security through multi‐dimensional approaches
Authors: Khan M. Iqbal R. , Palakolanu Sudhakar R. , Chopra Priyanka , Rajurkar Ashish B. , Gupta Ravi , Iqbal Noushina , Maheshwari Chirag
Published: October 2020

Drought has been highly prevalent around the world especially in Sub‐Saharan Africa and South‐East Asian countries. Consistent climatic instabilities and unpredictable rainfall patterns are further worsening the situation. Rice is a C3 staple cereal and an important food crop for the majority of the world's population and drought stress is one of the major growth retarding threats for rice that slashes down grain quality and yield. Drought deteriorates rice productivity and induces various acclimation responses that aids in stress mitigation. However, the complexity of traits associated with drought tolerance has made the understanding of drought stress‐induced responses in rice a challenging process. An integrative understanding based on physiological adaptations, omics, transgenic and molecular breeding approaches successively backed up to developing drought stress‐tolerant rice. The review represents a step forward to develop drought‐resilient rice plants by exploiting the knowledge that collaborates with omics‐based developments with integrative efforts to ensure the compilation of all the possible strategies undertaken to develop drought stress‐tolerant rice.
Doubly periodic lozenge tilings of a hexagon and matrix valued orthogonal polynomials
Authors: Charlier Christophe
Published: October 2020

We analyze a random lozenge tiling model of a large regular hexagon, whose underlying weight structure is periodic of period 2 in both the horizontal and vertical directions. This is a determinantal point process whose correlation kernel is expressed in terms of non‐Hermitian matrix valued orthogonal polynomials (OPs). This model belongs to a class of models for which the existing techniques for studying asymptotics cannot be applied. The novel part of our method consists of establishing a connection between matrix valued and scalar valued OPs. This allows to simplify the double contour formula for the kernel obtained by Duits and Kuijlaars by reducing the size of a Riemann–Hilbert problem. The proof relies on the fact that the matrix valued weight possesses eigenvalues that live on an underlying Riemann surface of genus 0. We consider this connection of independent interest; it is natural to expect that similar ideas can be used for other matrix valued OPs, as long as the corresponding Riemann surface is of genus 0. The rest of the method consists of two parts, and mainly follows the lines of a previous work of Charlier, Duits, Kuijlaars and Lenells. First, we perform a Deift–Zhou steepest descent analysis to obtain asymptotics for the scalar valued OPs. The main difficulty is the study of an equilibrium problem in the complex plane. Second, the asymptotics for the OPs are substituted in the double contour integral and the latter is analyzed using the saddle point method. Our main results are the limiting densities of the lozenges in the disordered flower‐shaped region. However, we stress that the method allows in principle to rigorously compute other meaningful probabilistic quantities in the model.
Pre‐clerkship physical examination assessment rubric
Authors: Feldman Max , Valeriano‐Marcet Joanne , Slone Frederick , Jacovino Crystal , Aslam Sadaf , Khalil Farina , Kumar Ambuj
Published: October 2020

Introduction

The physical examination is a core competency in the training of pre‐clerkship medical students. It is important to certify proficiency in the physical examination before students start their clinical rotations. Many institutions use home grown assessment tools for this purpose; however, there currently are no validated rubrics designed to assess the performance a head to toe physical examination by a pre‐clerkship medical student. The goal of this study is to assess the reliability (inter‐rater and intra‐rater) of our institutionally developed rubric.

Methods

Clinical faculty with various levels of teaching experience watched videos of students doing a head to toe physical examination and scored the students using our assessment rubric. These scores were evaluated for intra‐rater and inter‐rater reliability.

Results

A total of 15 student videos were reviewed by five faculty members with varying levels of teaching experience. The degree of inter‐rater agreement (between raters) for single and average measure was excellent and the degree of intra‐rater agreement (same rater twice) for single and average measure was excellent.

Discussion

We conclude that our institutionally developed physical examination assessment rubric is a reliable means to certify proficiency in the physical examination before students start their clinical clerkships.
High-throughput small molecule screening reveals Nrf2-dependent and -independent pathways of cellular stress resistance
Authors: Lombard David B. , Kohler William J. , Guo Angela H. , Gendron Christi , Han Melissa , Ding Weiqiao , Lyu Yang , Ching Tsui-Ting , Wang Feng-Yung , Chakraborty Tuhin S. , Nikolovska-Coleska Zaneta , Duan Yuzhu , Girke Thomas , Hsu Ao-Lin , Pletcher Scott D. , Miller Richard A.
Published: October 2020

High-throughput screening identifies small molecules that promote cellular stress resistance.
Resonant nanodiffraction x-ray imaging reveals role of magnetic domains in complex oxide spin caloritronics
Authors: Evans Paul G. , Marks Samuel D. , Geprägs Stephan , Dietlein Maxim , Joly Yves , Dai Minyi , Hu Jiamian , Bouchenoire Laurence , Thompson Paul B. J. , Schülli Tobias U. , Richard Marie-Ingrid , Gross Rudolf , Carbone Dina , Mannix Danny
Published: October 2020

X-ray nanodiffraction reveals the magnetism of spincaloritronic oxides and how it can be controlled using lattice distortion.
Coral reef diversity losses in China’s Greater Bay Area were driven by regional stressors
Authors: Cybulski Jonathan D. , Husa Stefan M. , Duprey Nicolas N. , Mamo Briony L. , Tsang Toby P. N. , Yasuhara Moriaki , Xie James Y. , Qiu Jian-Wen , Yokoyama Yusuke , Baker David M.
Published: October 2020

Poor water quality driven by increased nutrients is the main cause of coral diversity loss in southern China’s Greater Bay Area.
The Huntingtin-interacting protein SETD2/HYPB is an actin lysine methyltransferase
Authors: Seervai Riyad N. H. , Jangid Rahul K. , Karki Menuka , Tripathi Durga Nand , Jung Sung Yun , Kearns Sarah E. , Verhey Kristen J. , Cianfrocco Michael A. , Millis Bryan A. , Tyska Matthew J. , Mason Frank M. , Rathmell W. Kimryn , Park In Young , Dere Ruhee , Walker Cheryl Lyn
Published: October 2020

SETD2 regulates actin dynamics and cell migration via methylation of actin at Lys
68
in a cellular complex containing Huntingtin.
Supergravitational turbulent thermal convection
Authors: Jiang Hechuan , Zhu Xiaojue , Wang Dongpu , Huisman Sander G. , Sun Chao
Published: October 2020

A novel system using supergravity opens a new avenue on the exploration of high–Rayleigh number thermal turbulence.
The Gut Microbiota-Produced Indole-3-Propionic Acid Confers the Antihyperlipidemic Effect of Mulberry-Derived 1-Deoxynojirimycin
Authors: Li Yougui , Xu Wenyi , Zhang Fang , Zhong Shi , Sun Yuqing , Huo Jinxi , Zhu Jianxun , Wu Chongming
Published: October 2020

Hyperlipidemia has been intensively focused on by researchers around the world owing to its major contribution to cardiovascular diseases. Various evidence reveals that women are more susceptible than male counterparts to dyslipidemia, making sex-dependent therapeutic strategies and drugs urgently needed. In the present work, we demonstrate that DNJ, the main active component of mulberry leaves, exerts an obvious female-preferential antihyperlipidemic effect through specifically enriching
Akkermansia
and
Clostridium
XIVa and elevating an active microbial metabolite, indole-3-propionic acid (IPA), in female mice. Moreover, we have corroborated the potent lipid-lowering efficacy of IPA both
in vitro
and
in vivo
. These findings not only indicate a potential mechanism by which gut microbes and their metabolites confer the beneficial role of DNJ in ameliorating hyperlipidemia but also provide an in-depth theoretical basis for therapeutic exploitation of DNJ as a female-specific intervention against hyperlipidemia.
Supplemental Material: Regional-scale abrupt Mid-Holocene ice sheet thinning in the western Ross Sea, Antarctica
Authors: Jones Richard S. , al. et
Published: October 2020

Supplemental table of sample information and detailed description of methods.
Greybody factor and quasinormal modes of Regular Black Holes
Authors: Rincón Ángel , Santos Victor
Published: October 2020

In this work, we investigate the quasinormal frequencies of a class of regular black hole solutions which generalize Bardeen and Hayward spacetimes. In particular, we analyze scalar, vector and gravitational perturbations of the black hole with the semianalytic WKB method. We analyze in detail the behaviour of the spectrum depending on the parameter p/q of the black hole, the quantum number of angular momentum and the s number. In addition, we compare our results with the classical solution valid for $$p = q = 1$$

p
=
q
=
1

.
The all-loop perturbative derivation of the NSVZ $$\beta $$-function and the NSVZ scheme in the non-Abelian case by summing singular contributions
Authors: Stepanyantz K. V.
Published: October 2020

The perturbative all-loop derivation of the NSVZ $$\beta $$
β
-function for $${{\mathcal {N}}}=1$$

N
=
1

supersymmetric gauge theories regularized by higher covariant derivatives is finalized by calculating the sum of singularities produced by quantum superfields. These singularities originate from integrals of double total derivatives and determine all contributions to the $$\beta $$
β
-function starting from the two-loop approximation. Their sum is expressed in terms of the anomalous dimensions of the quantum gauge superfield, of the Faddeev–Popov ghosts, and of the matter superfields. This allows obtaining the NSVZ equation in the form of a relation between the $$\beta $$
β
-function and these anomalous dimensions for the renormalization group functions defined in terms of the bare couplings. It holds for an arbitrary renormalization prescription supplementing the higher covariant derivative regularization. For the renormalization group functions defined in terms of the renormalized couplings we prove that in all loops one of the NSVZ schemes is given by the HD + MSL prescription.
Time to Forgive and Learn: A Better Future for South Korea and Japan
Authors: YANG Chun Hee , PARK Hahnkyu
Published: October 2020

The recent conflict between South Korea and Japan has been one of the worst since 1965. Although most experts believe that the downward spiral in bilateral relations is impossible to reverse, this paper explores the possibility of South Korea forgiving Japan and of Japan following in the footsteps of Germany. A key roadblock lies in the lack of a deep understanding of the past. The politicians, media and scholars could do much to enhance that understanding.
Strange Bedfellows: Beijing and Taipei’s South China Sea Policies
Authors: COPPER John F
Published: October 2020

Few observers notice that Beijing and Taipei espouse virtually identical policies vis-à-vis the South China Sea. When they do they see it as ironic, the two being mutually hostile. There are good reasons for this: Taipei’s claims bolster Beijing’s. They arguably support one-China. Taiwan’s military leaders see their position alone as unenforceable. Taiwan’s government and residents resent the UN’s demeaning attitude and exclusion of Taiwan from involvement.
AyaTEC
Authors: Malhas Rana , Elsayed Tamer
Published: October 2020

The absence of publicly available reusable test collections for Arabic question answering on the Holy Qur’an has impeded the possibility of fairly comparing the performance of systems in that domain. In this article, we introduce
AyaTEC
, a reusable test collection for verse-based question answering on the Holy Qur’an, which serves as a common experimental testbed for this task.
AyaTEC
includes 207 questions (with their corresponding 1,762 answers) covering 11 topic categories of the Holy Qur’an that target the information needs of both curious and skeptical users. To the best of our effort, the answers to the questions (each represented as a sequence of verses) in
AyaTEC
were exhaustive—that is, all qur’anic verses that directly answered the questions were exhaustively extracted and annotated. To facilitate the use of
AyaTEC
in evaluating the systems designed for that task, we propose several evaluation measures to support the different types of questions and the nature of verse-based answers while integrating the concept of partial matching of answers in the evaluation.
TH-DPMS
Authors: Shu Jiwu , Chen Youmin , Wang Qing , Zhu Bohong , Li Junru , Lu Youyou
Published: October 2020

The rapidly increasing data in recent years requires the datacenter infrastructure to store and process data with extremely high throughput and low latency. Fortunately, persistent memory (PM) and RDMA technologies bring new opportunities towards this goal. Both of them are capable of delivering more than 10 GB/s of bandwidth and sub-microsecond latency. However, our past experiences and recent studies show that it is non-trivial to build an efficient and distributed storage system with such new hardware. In this article, we design and implement TH-DPMS (TsingHua Distributed Persistent Memory System) based on persistent memory and RDMA, which unifies the memory, file system, and key-value interface in a single system. TH-DPMS is designed based on a unified distributed persistent memory abstract, pDSM. pDSM acts as a generic layer to connect the PMs of different storage nodes via high-speed RDMA network and organizes them into a global shared address space. It provides the fundamental functionalities, including global address management, space management, fault tolerance, and crash consistency guarantees. Applications are enabled to access pDSM with a group of flexible and easy-to-use APIs by using either raw read/write interfaces or the transactional ones with ACID guarantees. Based on pDSM, we implement a distributed file system and a key-value store named pDFS and pDKVS, respectively. Together, they uphold TH-DPMS with high-performance, low-latency, and fault-tolerant data storage. We evaluate TH-DPMS with both micro-benchmarks and real-world memory-intensive workloads. Experimental results show that TH-DPMS is capable of delivering an aggregated bandwidth of 120 GB/s with 6 nodes. When processing memory-intensive workloads such as YCSB and Graph500, TH-DPMS improves the performance by one order of magnitude compared to existing systems and keeps consistent high efficiency when the workload size grows to multiple terabytes.
Real Time Analysis of Biphasic Temperature Pattern of BBT Using NiMn2O4 Nanocomposite Thermistor
Authors: Kumar S. K. Naveen , A. Akshaya Kumar , Fernandez Renny Edwin , Khosla Ajit
Published: October 2020

There is a significant interest in the analysis of biphasic temperature pattern for natural family planning (NFP). In this paper, we report an IoT enabled Basal Body Temperature (BBT) monitoring system—designed and developed using a NiMn2O4 nanocomposite powder based thermistor. BBT is the lowest body temperature attained at rest and normally ranges from 308.70 to 310.65 K. The pelletized active material NiMn2O4 was placed in a thermally conductive Teflon tube with Aluminum (Al) metal contacts on either side as electrical contacts to the active material. Resistance of the Al/NiMn2O4/Al composite structure is inversely proportional to temperature changes. A resistance change of 953000 ± 500 to 591000 ± 450 Ω was observed for a change of basal body temperature from 304.65 to 313.15 K with a correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.9628. Real time monitoring of BBT was facilitated by Node MCU and ThingSpeak IoT platform for predicting the ovulation pattern in women.
A New Algorithm to Solve the Generalized Nash Equilibrium Problem
Authors: Liu Luping , Jia Wensheng , Gálvez Akemi
Published: October 2020

We try a new algorithm to solve the generalized Nash equilibrium problem (GNEP) in the paper. First, the GNEP is turned into the nonlinear complementarity problem by using the Karush–Kuhn–Tucker (KKT) condition. Then, the nonlinear complementarity problem is converted into the nonlinear equation problem by using the complementarity function method. For the nonlinear equation equilibrium problem, we design a coevolutionary immune quantum particle swarm optimization algorithm (CIQPSO) by involving the immune memory function and the antibody density inhibition mechanism into the quantum particle swarm optimization algorithm. Therefore, this algorithm has not only the properties of the immune particle swarm optimization algorithm, but also improves the abilities of iterative optimization and convergence speed. With the probability density selection and quantum uncertainty principle, the convergence of the CIQPSO algorithm is analyzed. Finally, some numerical experiment results indicate that the CIQPSO algorithm is superior to the immune particle swarm algorithm, the Newton method for normalized equilibrium, or the quasivariational inequalities penalty method. Furthermore, this algorithm also has faster convergence and better off-line performance.
Delayed Healing of Tooth Extraction Sockets with Ramucirumab Use
Authors: Iijima Yosuke , Yamada Miki , Hino Shunsuke , Sano Motohiko , Kaneko Takahiro , Horie Norio
Published: October 2020

Objective. An angiogenesis inhibitor can cause medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (MRONJ). To our knowledge, there has been no report that an angiogenesis inhibitor causes delayed healing of tooth extraction socket. Here, we describe a case of delayed healing of tooth extraction sockets associated with an angiogenesis inhibitor, ramucirumab, which showed characteristics similar to MRONJ. Materials and Methods. A 76-year-old male patient, who was diagnosed with gastric cancer with liver metastasis, received tooth extraction twice during continuous chemotherapy comprising paclitaxel and ramucirumab. Results. The first extraction was performed 30 days after ramucirumab discontinuation without complication. The second extraction was conducted without ramucirumab discontinuation. Although tooth socket healing was finally achieved, it took about 150 days. Discussion. This case was considered to be delayed healing of dry sockets rather than MRONJ due to ramucirumab. Dentists and oral surgeons need to be aware that angiogenesis inhibitors can cause not only MRONJ but also dry sockets after tooth extraction.
Diagnostic Clue in a Neonate with Amniotic Band Sequence
Authors: Falsaperla Raffaele , Arrabito Marta , Pavone Piero , Giacchi Valentina , Timpanaro Tiziana , Adamoli Paolo
Published: October 2020

Amniotic band syndrome (ABS) is a set of congenital malformations that mainly affect the limbs and more rarely the skull, face, chest, and abdomen. Two main hypotheses have been proposed to explain the nature of the disorder: an intrinsic and extrinsic factor. We report a newborn with ABS presenting with several malformations involving both hands and foot. In this case, the malformative event localized at the hands and right foot without involvement of any other internal organs and is asymmetric which leads us to suppose the extrinsic factor as cause of the ABS.
Deciphering the Complexity of MEK Mutations in the Clinic
Authors: Whitehead Christopher E. , Sebolt-Leopold Judith S.
Published: October 2020

Significant advances in tumor sequencing have led to an explosion in our knowledge of the genetic complexity of cancer. For many cancers, the selection of a targetable alteration is not readily apparent, especially when confronted with mutational variants of unknown significance. The complex clinical landscape of MEK mutations illustrates the need for improved methods to identify those patients, independent of tumor histology, who would benefit from treatment with a MAP kinase pathway inhibitor. In this issue of Cancer Research, Hanrahan and colleagues adopt an in silico platform to attempt to distinguish benign MEK mutations from those that are functional and, therefore, most likely to be therapeutically actionable.

See related article by Hanrahan et al., p. 4233
BRCA1 and PALB2 in a Messy Breakup
Authors: Her Joonyoung , Bunting Samuel F.
Published: October 2020

Mutations in the BRCA1 gene cause an extremely high lifetime risk of breast and ovarian cancer, but the exact mechanism by which the BRCA1 protein acts to prevent cancer onset remains unclear. In this edition of Cancer Research, Park and colleagues describe a new mouse model featuring a single amino acid substitution in the coiled-coil motif of BRCA1. This change prevents BRCA1 from interacting with PALB2 (partner and localizer of BRCA2), causing rapid cancer onset and a loss of blood cells similar to Fanconi anemia.

See related article by Park et al., p. 4172
Ion Channels and Their Role in the Pathophysiology of Gliomas
Authors: Takayasu Takeshi , Kurisu Kaoru , Esquenazi Yoshua , Ballester Leomar Y.
Published: October 2020

Malignant gliomas are the most common primary central nervous system tumors and their prognosis is very poor. In recent years, ion channels have been demonstrated to play important roles in tumor pathophysiology such as regulation of gene expression, cell migration, and cell proliferation. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge on the role of ion channels on the development and progression of gliomas. Cell volume changes through the regulation of ion flux, accompanied by water flux, are essential for migration and invasion. Signaling pathways affected by ion channel activity play roles in cell survival and cell proliferation. Moreover, ion channels are involved in glioma-related seizures, sensitivity to chemotherapy, and tumor metabolism. Ion channels are potential targets for the treatment of these lethal tumors. Despite our increased understanding of the contributions of ion channels to glioma biology, this field remains poorly studied. This review summarizes the current literature on this important topic.
A Pyramidal Cause of a Cerebellar Ataxia: HSP-7
Authors: Lagrand Tjerk Joppe , Hageman Gerard
Published: October 2020

A 43-year-old man presented with a slowly progressive fatigue and coordination problems, coupled with a radiological appearance of diffuse atrophy, especially in the cerebellar hemispheres. The diagnostic process was challenging because initially the additional investigations were focused on a cerebellar ataxia. In the following months, his ataxic gait developed in a more spastic pattern and whole exome sequencing revealed mutations in the SPG7 gene, confirming a diagnosis of hereditary spastic paraplegia. Therefore, the authors call for an extension of genetic panels in ataxia patients.
Nuclear Atypia Is a Necessary Factor for Diagnosis of Primary Ovarian Fibrosarcoma: A Case Report and Literature Review
Authors: Zhang Zhidong , Yao Ailin , Xin Qi , Shi Yi , Zhang Aihua
Published: October 2020

Introduction: Primary ovarian fibrosarcoma is a rare malignant tumor with few case reports. The current opinion in diagnosis preferring mitotic activity was questioned as there is a large amount of heterogeneity in prognosis between cases. We report a case of primary ovarian fibrosarcoma, and a literature review was performed according to the latest diagnostic trends. This is the first study to review the prognostic factors of primary ovarian fibrosarcoma according to the latest trend in diagnosis. Case Presentation: A 50-year-old woman with primary ovarian fibrosarcoma is reported. The patient was admitted to the hospital due to increasing abdominal girth. Physical examination and CT scan showed a giant mass from the suprapubic area to the xiphoid region which filled her entire abdominopelvic cavity. Frozen sections were performed during an operation to resect, and the pathology report indicated a high degree of malignancy. Because of the degree of malignancy, a bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy and omentectomy were performed. Histopathological examination and immunohistochemical staining confirmed the diagnosis of primary ovarian fibrosarcoma. During the operation, the tumor ruptured, which placed the patient in a FIGO stage IC1. After surgery, the patient received 6 courses of combination chemotherapy, consisting of etoposide, bleomycin, and cisplatin. The patient has been free from disease without evidence of recurrence at 5 months after the initial diagnosis. Conclusions: Herein we report a case of primary ovarian fibrosarcoma and reviewed all published cases in English. Following the latest trend of diagnosis, multiple prognostic factors were used to determine survival prognosis. These included nuclear atypia, FIGO stage, mitotic counts, treatment methods, and tumor size. Only nuclear atypia was found to be associated with patient prognosis (p < 0.05). FIGO stage (p = 0.383), mitotic count per 10 hpfs (p = 0.155), treatment methods (p = 0.185), and tumor size (p = 0.972) were not found to be associated with survival prognosis. Nuclear atypia was an important factor in prognosis of patients. Using surgery with adjuvant medical treatment was inconclusive regarding patient survival.
Safely Administering Potential QTc Prolonging Therapy Across a Large Health Care System in the COVID-19 Era
Authors: Saleh Moussa , Gabriels James , Chang David , Fishbein Joanna , Qiu Michael , Mountantonakis Stavros E. , Epstein Laurence M. ,   on behalf of the Northwell COVID-19 Research Consortium
Published: October 2020

Background:

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARs-CoV-2) has resulted in a global pandemic. Hydroxychloroquine±azithromycin have been widely used to treat coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) despite a paucity of evidence regarding efficacy. The incidence of torsade de pointes remains unknown. Widespread use of these medications forced overwhelmed health care systems to search for ways to effectively monitor these patients while simultaneously trying to minimize health care provider exposure and use of personal protective equipment.

Methods:

Patients with COVID-19 positive who received hydroxychloroquine±azithromycin across 13 hospitals between March 1 and April 15 were included in this study. A comprehensive search of the electronic medical records was performed using a proprietary python script to identify any mention of QT prolongation, ventricular tachy-arrhythmias and cardiac arrest.

Results:

The primary outcome of torsade de pointes was observed in 1 (0.015%) out of 6476 hospitalized patients with COVID-19 receiving hydroxychloroquine±azithromycin. Sixty-seven (1.03%) had hydroxychloroquine±azithromycin held or discontinued due to an average QT prolongation of 60.5±40.5 ms from a baseline QTc of 473.7±35.9 ms to a peak QTc of 532.6±31.6 ms. Of these patients, hydroxychloroquine±azithromycin were discontinued in 58 patients (86.6%), while one or more doses of therapy were held in the remaining nine (13.4%). A simplified approach to monitoring for QT prolongation and arrythmia was implemented on April 5. There were no deaths related to the medications with the simplified monitoring approach and health care provider exposure was reduced.

Conclusions:

The risk of torsade de pointes is low in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 receiving hydroxychloroquine±azithromycin therapy.
Timing of the evening emergence of Hilgendorf’s tube-nosed bat (Murina hilgendorfi) in relation to roost type and season
Authors: Takada Hayato
Published: October 2020

Like for many species, the timing of evening emergence of bats is an important behavioral aspect that affects their fitness and has been studied in various bat species. However, little is known about emergence timing of solitary bats that frequently switch day roosts, because they are difficult to observe. In this study, I examined the emergence timing of Hilgendorf’s tube-nosed bats (Murina hilgendorfi), which are solitary and frequently switch roosts, in relation to roost type and season over six years in Hayakawa, central Japan. The results show that the bats emerged after dusk when the light was weak. Later emergence may be related to the habits of this species, such as their solitary lifestyle, slow flight speed, and gleaning foraging strategy, which may enhance predation risk. Individuals roosting in dead foliage and on the outer wall of a building situated in closed forests emerged significantly earlier than those roosting in an old mine and tunnel located in open environments, suggesting that vegetation cover and/or lower predictability of roost location provide security for bats. Bats emerged progressively earlier from late spring (preparturition) to early autumn (late lactation or post-lactation), suggesting that the reproductive status of females or the growth stage of pups may influence emergence timing. To my knowledge, this study provides the first record of the emergence timing of Hilgendorf’s tube-nosed bat, and suggests that predation risk may impact the bats’ emergence behavior.
Influence of River Discharge and Tides on the Summertime Discontinuity of Western Boundary Current in the Bay of Bengal
Authors: Das Bijan Kumar , Anandh T. S. , Kuttippurath J. , Chakraborty Arun
Published: October 2020

The East India Coastal Current (EICC), the western boundary current (WBC) in the Bay of Bengal (BOB), is continuous and well directed during pre- and postmonsoon season but is discontinuous during summer monsoon season (June–September). This study examines the individual and combined effects of river discharge and tidal forcing on the EICC discontinuity using high-resolution (1/12°) Regional Ocean Modeling System simulations. Four climatological experiments, a control simulation with normal boundary conditions and three other sensitivity simulations with the same boundary conditions but with river input, tidal forcing, and both together, are conducted. The analysis shows that, during summer monsoon, the southward reversal of EICC from head bay is enhanced with the river input while the tide forcing strengthens the northward EICC from north of Sri Lanka. High horizontal-salinity-gradient flow in the stratified upper ocean caused by the river discharge increases the surface currents. High vertical mixing in tide forcing suppresses the surface features. The strong horizontal diffusivity due to river discharge promotes the eddy genesis and propagation throughout the western BOB. Conversely, tidal oscillation contributes high turbulent buoyancy, which makes the upper ocean relatively unstable, and the discontinuity remains confined to the western boundary. The combined-forcing simulation indicates the dominance of river discharge in the upper layers with suppressed surface features due to tides, which intensify the discontinuity at subsurface. Therefore, the results of this numerical study suggest that the river input and tidal forcing both play important and complementary roles in maintaining the realistic summertime discontinuity in the BOB.
Subseasonal Statistical Forecasts of Eastern U.S. Hot Temperature Events
Authors: Vijverberg Sem , Schmeits Maurice , van der Wiel Karin , Coumou Dim
Published: October 2020

Extreme summer temperatures can cause severe societal impacts. Early warnings can aid societal preparedness, but reliable forecasts for extreme temperatures at subseasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) time scales are still missing. Earlier work showed that specific sea surface temperature (SST) patterns over the northern Pacific Ocean are precursors of high temperature events in the eastern United States, which might provide skillful forecasts at long leads (~50 days). However, the verification was based on a single skill metric, and a probabilistic forecast was missing. Here, we introduce a novel algorithm that objectively extracts robust precursors from SST linked to a binary target variable. When applied to reanalysis (ERA-5) and climate model data (EC-Earth), we identify robust precursors with the clearest links over the North Pacific. Different precursors are tested as input for a statistical model to forecast high temperature events. Using multiple skill metrics for verification, we show that daily high temperature events have no predictive skill at long leads. By systematically testing the influence of temporal and spatial aggregation, we find that noise in the target time series is an important bottleneck for predicting extreme events on S2S time scales. We show that skill can be increased by a combination of 1) aggregating spatially and/or temporally, 2) lowering the threshold of the target events to increase the base rate, or 3) adding additional variables containing predictive information (soil moisture). Exploiting these skill-enhancing factors, we obtain forecast skill for moderate heat waves (i.e., 2 or more hot days closely clustered together in time) with up to 50 days of lead time.