bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Experimental and theoretical study of the characteristics of LSPR peaks for metal NPs produced by controlling Ar ambient gas pressure to enhance the efficiency of solar cells
Authors: Yiğit Gezgin Serap , Kepceoğlu Abdullah , Kiliç Hamdi Şükür
Published: September 2021

In this study, silver (Ag) nanoparticle thin films were deposited on microscope slide glass and Si wafer substrates using the pulsed-laser deposition (PLD) technique in Ar ambient gas pressures of 1 × 10−3 and 7.5 × 10−1 mbar. AFM analysis has shown that the number of Ag nanoparticles reaching the substrate decreased with increasing Ar gas pressure. As a result of Ar ambient gas being allowed into the vacuum chamber, it was observed that the size and height of Ag nanoparticles decreased and the interparticle distances decreased. According to the absorption spectra taken by a UV–vis spectrometer, the wavelength where the localised surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) peak appeared was shifted towards the longer wavelength region in the solar spectrum as Ar background gas pressure was decreased. This experiment shows that LSPR wavelength can be tuned by adjusting the size of metal nanoparticles, which can be controlled by changing Ar gas pressure. The obtained extinction cross section spectra for Ag nanoparticle thin film was theoretically analysed and determined by using the metal nanoparticle–boundary element method (MNPBEM) toolbox simulation program. In this study, experimental spectrum and simulation data for metal nanoparticles were acquired, compared, and determined to be in agreement.
On the calculation of covariant expressions for Dirac bilinears
Authors: Olpak M. A. , Özpineci A.
Published: September 2021

In this article, various approaches to calculate covariant expressions for the bilinears of Dirac spinors are presented. For this purpose, algebraic equations defining Dirac spinors are discussed. Following that, a covariant approach for spacetime parameterization is presented and the equations defining Dirac spinors are written fully in terms of Lorentz scalars. After presenting how the tensorial bilinears can be reduced to combinations of scalar bilinears with appropriate Lorentz structures, a covariant recipe for the calculation of scalar bilinears is provided.
Conceptual design report for the LUXE experiment
Authors: Abramowicz H. , Acosta U. , Altarelli M. , Aßmann R. , Bai Z. , Behnke T. , Benhammou Y. , Blackburn T. , Boogert S. , Borysov O. , Borysova M. , Brinkmann R. , Bruschi M. , Burkart F. , Büßer K. , Cavanagh N. , Davidi O. , Decking W. , Dosselli U. , Elkina N. , Fedotov A. , Firlej M. , Fiutowski T. , Fleck K. , Gostkin M. , Grojean C. , Hallford J. , Harsh H. , Hartin A. , Heinemann B. , Heinzl T. , Helary L. , Hoffmann M. , Huang S. , Huang X. , Idzik M. , Ilderton A. , Jacobs R. , Kämpfer B. , King B. , Lahno H. , Levanon A. , Levy A. , Levy I. , List J. , Lohmann W. , Ma T. , Macleod A. J. , Malka V. , Meloni F. , Mironov A. , Morandin M. , Moron J. , Negodin E. , Perez G. , Pomerantz I. , Pöschl R. , Prasad R. , Quéré F. , Ringwald A. , Rödel C. , Rykovanov S. , Salgado F. , Santra A. , Sarri G. , Sävert A. , Sbrizzi A. , Schmitt S. , Schramm U. , Schuwalow S. , Seipt D. , Shaimerdenova L. , Shchedrolosiev M. , Skakunov M. , Soreq Y. , Streeter M. , Swientek K. , Hod N. Tal , Tang S. , Teter T. , Thoden D. , Titov A. I. , Tolbanov O. , Torgrimsson G. , Tyazhev A. , Wing M. , Zanetti M. , Zarubin A. , Zeil K. , Zepf M. , Zhemchukov A.
Published: September 2021

This Conceptual Design Report describes LUXE (Laser Und XFEL Experiment), an experimental campaign that aims to combine the high-quality and high-energy electron beam of the European XFEL with a powerful laser to explore the uncharted terrain of quantum electrodynamics characterised by both high energy and high intensity. We will reach this hitherto inaccessible regime of quantum physics by analysing high-energy electron-photon and photon-photon interactions in the extreme environment provided by an intense laser focus. The physics background and its relevance are presented in the science case which in turn leads to, and justifies, the ensuing plan for all aspects of the experiment: Our choice of experimental parameters allows (i) field strengths to be probed where the coupling to charges becomes non-perturbative and (ii) a precision to be achieved that permits a detailed comparison of the measured data with calculations. In addition, the high photon flux predicted will enable a sensitive search for new physics beyond the Standard Model. The initial phase of the experiment will employ an existing 40 TW laser, whereas the second phase will utilise an upgraded laser power of 350 TW. All expectations regarding the performance of the experimental set-up as well as the expected physics results are based on detailed numerical simulations throughout.
Contextualized Knowledge-aware Attentive Neural Network: Enhancing Answer Selection with Knowledge
Authors: Deng Yang , Xie Yuexiang , Li Yaliang , Yang Min , Lam Wai , Shen Ying
Published: September 2021

Answer selection, which is involved in many natural language processing applications, such as dialog systems and question answering (QA), is an important yet challenging task in practice, since conventional methods typically suffer from the issues of ignoring diverse real-world background knowledge. In this article, we extensively investigate approaches to enhancing the answer selection model with external knowledge from knowledge graph (KG). First, we present a context-knowledge interaction learning framework, Knowledge-aware Neural Network, which learns the QA sentence representations by considering a tight interaction with the external knowledge from KG and the textual information. Then, we develop two kinds of knowledge-aware attention mechanism to summarize both the context-based and knowledge-based interactions between questions and answers. To handle the diversity and complexity of KG information, we further propose a Contextualized Knowledge-aware Attentive Neural Network, which improves the knowledge representation learning with structure information via a customized Graph Convolutional Network and comprehensively learns context-based and knowledge-based sentence representation via the multi-view knowledge-aware attention mechanism. We evaluate our method on four widely used benchmark QA datasets, including WikiQA, TREC QA, InsuranceQA, and Yahoo QA. Results verify the benefits of incorporating external knowledge from KG and show the robust superiority and extensive applicability of our method.
Hierarchical Hyperedge Embedding-Based Representation Learning for Group Recommendation
Authors: Guo Lei , Yin Hongzhi , Chen Tong , Zhang Xiangliang , Zheng Kai
Published: September 2021

Group recommendation aims to recommend items to a group of users. In this work, we study group recommendation in a particular scenario, namely occasional group recommendation, where groups are formed ad hoc and users may just constitute a group for the first time—that is, the historical group-item interaction records are highly limited. Most state-of-the-art works have addressed the challenge by aggregating group members’ personal preferences to learn the group representation. However, the representation learning for a group is most complex beyond the aggregation or fusion of group member representation, as the personal preferences and group preferences may be in different spaces and even orthogonal. In addition, the learned user representation is not accurate due to the sparsity of users’ interaction data. Moreover, the group similarity in terms of common group members has been overlooked, which, however, has the great potential to improve the group representation learning. In this work, we focus on addressing the aforementioned challenges in the group representation learning task, and devise a hierarchical hyperedge embedding-based group recommender, namely HyperGroup. Specifically, we propose to leverage the user-user interactions to alleviate the sparsity issue of user-item interactions, and design a graph neural network-based representation learning network to enhance the learning of individuals’ preferences from their friends’ preferences, which provides a solid foundation for learning groups’ preferences. To exploit the group similarity (i.e., overlapping relationships among groups) to learn a more accurate group representation from highly limited group-item interactions, we connect all groups as a network of overlapping sets (a.k.a. hypergraph), and treat the task of group preference learning as embedding hyperedges (i.e., user sets/groups) in a hypergraph, where an inductive hyperedge embedding method is proposed. To further enhance the group-level preference modeling, we develop a joint training strategy to learn both user-item and group-item interactions in the same process. We conduct extensive experiments on two real-world datasets, and the experimental results demonstrate the superiority of our proposed HyperGroup in comparison to the state-of-the-art baselines.
Using Social Media to Analyze Public Concerns and Policy Responses to COVID-19 in Hong Kong
Authors: Liang Guanqing , Zhao Jingxin , Lau Helena Yan Ping , Leung Cane Wing-Ki
Published: September 2021

The outbreak of COVID-19 has caused huge economic and societal disruptions. To fight against the coronavirus, it is critical for policymakers to take swift and effective actions. In this article, we take Hong Kong as a case study, aiming to leverage social media data to support policymakers’ policy-making activities in different phases. First, in the agenda setting phase, we facilitate policymakers to identify key issues to be addressed during COVID-19. In particular, we design a novel epidemic awareness index to continuously monitor public discussion hotness of COVID-19 based on large-scale data collected from social media platforms. Then we identify the key issues by analyzing the posts and comments of the extensively discussed topics. Second, in the policy evaluation phase, we enable policymakers to conduct real-time evaluation of anti-epidemic policies. Specifically, we develop an accurate Cantonese sentiment classification model to measure the public satisfaction with anti-epidemic policies and propose a keyphrase extraction technique to further extract public opinions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work which conducts a large-scale social media analysis of COVID-19 in Hong Kong. The analytical results reveal some interesting findings: (1) there is a very low correlation between the number of confirmed cases and the public discussion hotness of COVID-19. The major public concern in the early stage is the shortage of anti-epidemic items. (2) The top-3 anti-epidemic measures with the greatest public satisfaction are daily press conference on COVID-19 updates, border closure, and social distancing rules.
Complete Abstractions for Checking Language Inclusion
Authors: Ganty Pierre , Ranzato Francesco , Valero Pedro
Published: September 2021

We study the language inclusion problem
L
1
⊆
L
2
, where
L
1
is regular or context-free. Our approach relies on abstract interpretation and checks whether an overapproximating abstraction of
L
1
, obtained by approximating the Kleene iterates of its least fixpoint characterization, is included in
L
2
. We show that a language inclusion problem is decidable whenever this overapproximating abstraction satisfies a completeness condition (i.e., its loss of precision causes no false alarm) and prevents infinite ascending chains (i.e., it guarantees termination of least fixpoint computations). This overapproximating abstraction of languages can be defined using quasiorder relations on words, where the abstraction gives the language of all the words “greater than or equal to” a given input word for that quasiorder. We put forward a range of such quasiorders that allow us to systematically design decision procedures for different language inclusion problems, such as regular languages into regular languages or into trace sets of one-counter nets, and context-free languages into regular languages. In the case of inclusion between regular languages, some of the induced inclusion checking procedures correspond to well-known state-of-the-art algorithms, like the so-called antichain algorithms. Finally, we provide an equivalent language inclusion checking algorithm based on a greatest fixpoint computation that relies on quotients of languages and, to the best of our knowledge, was not previously known.
Anytime Ranking on Document-Ordered Indexes
Authors: Mackenzie Joel , Petri Matthias , Moffat Alistair
Published: September 2021

Inverted indexes continue to be a mainstay of text search engines, allowing efficient querying of large document collections. While there are a number of possible organizations, document-ordered indexes are the most common, since they are amenable to various query types, support index updates, and allow for efficient dynamic pruning operations. One disadvantage with document-ordered indexes is that high-scoring documents can be distributed across the document identifier space, meaning that index traversal algorithms that terminate early might put search effectiveness at risk. The alternative is impact-ordered indexes, which primarily support top-

disjunctions but also allow for
anytime
query processing, where the search can be terminated at any time, with search quality improving as processing latency increases. Anytime query processing can be used to effectively reduce high-percentile tail latency that is essential for operational scenarios in which a service level agreement (SLA) imposes response time requirements. In this work, we show how document-ordered indexes can be organized such that they can be queried in an anytime fashion, enabling strict latency control with effective early termination. Our experiments show that processing document-ordered topical segments selected by a simple score estimator outperforms existing anytime algorithms, and allows query runtimes to be accurately limited to comply with SLA requirements.
Topic Difficulty: Collection and Query Formulation Effects
Authors: Culpepper J. Shane , Faggioli Guglielmo , Ferro Nicola , Kurland Oren
Published: September 2021

Several recent studies have explored the interaction effects between topics, systems, corpora, and components when measuring retrieval effectiveness. However, all of these previous studies assume that a topic or information need is represented by a single query. In reality, users routinely reformulate queries to satisfy an information need. In recent years, there has been renewed interest in the notion of “query variations” which are essentially multiple user formulations for an information need. Like many retrieval models, some queries are highly effective while others are not. This is often an artifact of the collection being searched which might be more or less sensitive to word choice. Users rarely have perfect knowledge about the underlying collection, and so finding queries that work is often a trial-and-error process. In this work, we explore the fundamental problem of system interaction effects between collections, ranking models, and queries. To answer this important question, we formalize the analysis using ANalysis Of VAriance (ANOVA) models to measure multiple components effects across collections and topics by nesting multiple query variations within each topic. Our findings show that query formulations have a comparable effect size of the topic factor itself, which is known to be the factor with the greatest effect size in prior ANOVA studies. Both topic and formulation have a substantially larger effect size than any other factor, including the ranking algorithms and, surprisingly, even query expansion. This finding reinforces the importance of further research in understanding the role of query rewriting in IR related tasks.
Red blood cell ATP release correlates with red blood cell hemolysis
Authors: Ferguson Brian S. , Neidert Leslie E. , Rogatzki Matthew J. , Lohse Keith R. , Gladden L. Bruce , Kluess Heidi A.
Published: September 2021

The precise matching of blood flow to skeletal muscle during exercise remains an important area of investigation. Release of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) from red blood cells (RBCs) is postulated as a mediator of peripheral vascular tone in response to shear stress, hypoxia, and mechanical deformation. We tested the following hypotheses: 1) RBCs of different densities contain different quantities of ATP; 2) hypoxia is a stimulus for ATP release from RBCs; and 3) hypoxic ATP release from RBCs is related to RBC lysis. Human blood was drawn from male and female volunteers ( n = 11); the RBCs were isolated and washed. A Percoll gradient was used to separate RBCs based on cellular density. Density groups were then resuspended to 4% hematocrit and exposed to normoxia or hypoxia in a tonometer. Equilibrated samples were drawn and centrifuged; paired analyses of ATP (luminescence via a luciferase-catalyzed reaction) and hemolysis (Harboe spectrophotometric absorbance assay) were measured in the supernatant. ATP release was not different among low-density cells versus middle-density versus high-density cells. Similarly, hemoglobin (Hb) release was not different among the red blood cell subsets. No difference was found for either ATP release or Hb release following matched exposure to normoxic or hypoxic gas. The concentrations of ATP and Hb for all subsets combined were linearly correlated ( r = 0.59, P ≤ 0.001). With simultaneous probing for Hb and ATP in the supernatant of each sample, we conclude that ATP release from RBCs can be explained by hemolysis and that hypoxia per se does not stimulate either ATP release or Hb release from RBCs.
The potent and selective RIPK2 inhibitor BI 706039 improves intestinal inflammation in the TRUC mouse model of inflammatory bowel disease
Authors: Ermann Joerg , Matmusaev Mederbek , Haley Emma K. , Braun Clemens , Jost Felix , Mayer-Wrangowski Svenja , Hsiao Peng , Ting Naitee , Li Li , Terenzio Donna , Chime Jane , Lukas Susan , Patnaude Lori , Panzenbeck Mark , Csordas David , Zheng Jie , Mierz Diane , Simpson Tom , King F. James , Klimowicz Alex P. , Mbow M. Lamine , Fine Jay S. , Miller Craig A. , Fogal Steve E. , Byrne Fergus R.
Published: September 2021

The RIPK2 kinase at the apex of microbiome immunosensing is an attractive target for pharmacological intervention. A low oral dose of a RIPK2 inhibitor leads to significantly improved intestinal inflammation in the murine TRUC model of colitis. A selective and potent inhibitor of the RIPK2 kinase may represent a new class of therapeutics that target microbiome-driven signaling for the treatment of IBD.
Sensory neuron inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptors contribute to chronic mechanoreflex sensitization in rats with simulated peripheral artery disease
Authors: Rollins Korynne S. , Butenas Alec L. E. , Williams Auni C. , Copp Steven W.
Published: September 2021

The mechanoreflex is exaggerated in patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD) and in a rat model of simulated PAD in which a femoral artery is chronically (∼72 h) ligated. We found recently that, in rats with a ligated femoral artery, blockade of thromboxane A2 (TxA2) receptors on the sensory endings of thin fiber muscle afferents reduced the pressor response to 1 Hz repetitive/dynamic hindlimb skeletal muscle stretch (a model of mechanoreflex activation isolated from contraction-induced metabolite production). Conversely, we found no effect of TxA2 receptor blockade in rats with freely perfused femoral arteries. Here, we extended the isolated mechanoreflex findings in “ligated” rats to experiments evoking dynamic hindlimb skeletal muscle contractions. We also investigated the role played by inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3) receptors, receptors associated with intracellular signaling linked to TxA2 receptors, in the exaggerated response to dynamic mechanoreflex and exercise pressor reflex activation in ligated rats. Injection of the TxA2 receptor antagonist daltroban into the arterial supply of the hindlimb reduced the pressor response to 1 Hz dynamic contraction in ligated but not “freely perfused” rats. Moreover, injection of the IP3 receptor antagonist xestospongin C into the arterial supply of the hindlimb reduced the pressor response to 1 Hz dynamic stretch and contraction in ligated but not freely perfused rats. These findings demonstrate that, in rats with a ligated femoral artery, sensory neuron TxA2 receptor and IP3 receptor-mediated signaling contributes to a chronic sensitization of the mechanically activated channels associated with the mechanoreflex and the exercise pressor reflex.
Adrenergically induced translocation of red blood cell β-adrenergic sodium-proton exchangers has ecological relevance for hypoxic and hypercapnic white seabass
Authors: Harter Till S. , Clifford Alexander M. , Tresguerres Martin
Published: September 2021

White seabass ( Atractoscion nobilis) increasingly experience periods of low oxygen (O2; hypoxia) and high carbon dioxide (CO2, hypercapnia) due to climate change and eutrophication of the coastal waters of California. Hemoglobin (Hb) is the principal O2 carrier in the blood and in many teleost fishes Hb-O2 binding is compromised at low pH; however, the red blood cells (RBC) of some species regulate intracellular pH with adrenergically stimulated sodium-proton-exchangers (β-NHEs). We hypothesized that RBC β-NHEs in white seabass are an important mechanism that can protect the blood O2-carrying capacity during hypoxia and hypercapnia. We determined the O2-binding characteristics of white seabass blood, the cellular and subcellular response of RBCs to adrenergic stimulation, and quantified the protective effect of β-NHE activity on Hb-O2 saturation. White seabass had typical teleost Hb characteristics, with a moderate O2 affinity (Po2 at half-saturation; P50 2.9 kPa) that was highly pH-sensitive (Bohr coefficient −0.92; Root effect 52%). Novel findings from super-resolution microscopy revealed β-NHE protein in vesicle-like structures and its translocation into the membrane after adrenergic stimulation. Microscopy data were corroborated by molecular and phylogenetic results and a functional characterization of β-NHE activity. The activation of RBC β-NHEs increased Hb-O2 saturation by ∼8% in normoxic hypercapnia and by up to ∼20% in hypoxic normocapnia. Our results provide novel insight into the cellular mechanism of adrenergic RBC stimulation within an ecologically relevant context. β-NHE activity in white seabass has great potential to protect arterial O2 transport during hypoxia and hypercapnia but is less effective during combinations of these stressors.
Effects of prenatal ethanol exposure on choline-induced long-term depression in the hippocampus
Authors: Grafe Erin L. , Fontaine Christine J. , Thomas Jennifer D. , Christie Brian R.
Published: September 2021

Choline supplementation is a nutraceutical therapy with significant potential for a variety of developmental disorders; however, the mechanisms involved in its therapeutic effects remain poorly understood. Our research shows that choline directly impacts synaptic communication in the brain, inducing a long-term depression of synaptic efficacy in brain slices. The depression is equivalent in male and female animals, involves M1 receptors in control animals, but uniquely involves NMDA receptors in a model of FASD.
Scalp-HFO indexes are biomarkers for the lateralization and localization of the epileptogenic zone in preoperative assessment
Authors: Yang Yujiao , Wang Wei , Wang Jing , Wang Mengyang , Li Xiaonan , Yan Zhaofen , Deng Qinqin , Feng Xing , Luan Guoming , Yang Xiaofeng , Li Tianfu
Published: September 2021

We proposed the scalp-high-frequency oscillation (HFO) index (HI) as a quantitative assessment method for scalp HFOs to locate the epileptogenic zone (EZ). Our results showed that the HI in regions of interest (ROIs) was significantly higher than in contra-ROIs. Sensitivity and specificity of HI based on ripple rates (n-HI) for EZ localization were 90% and 79.58%, respectively. If the n-HI of the brain region was >1.35, it was more likely to be an epileptogenic region. Clinical application of HIs as an indicator may facilitate localization of the EZ.
Ampakine pretreatment enables a single hypoxic episode to produce phrenic motor facilitation with no added benefit of additional episodes
Authors: Thakre Prajwal P. , Sunshine Michael D. , Fuller David D.
Published: September 2021

Pretreatment with ampakine CX717 created conditions that enabled an acute bout of moderate hypoxia to evoke phrenic motor facilitation, but this response was not observed when ampakine pretreatment was followed by intermittent hypoxia. Thus, in anesthetized and spinal intact rats, the combination of ampakine and one bout of hypoxia appears ideal for triggering respiratory neuroplasticity.
Implications of the NADase CD38 in COVID pathophysiology
Authors: Zeidler Julianna D. , Kashyap Sonu , Hogan Kelly A. , Chini Eduardo Nunes
Published: September 2021

During the COVID-19 pandemic, efforts have been made worldwide to develop effective therapies to address the devastating immune-mediated effects of SARS-CoV-2. With the exception of monoclonal antibody-mediated therapeutics and preventive approaches such as mass immunization, most experimental or repurposed drugs have failed in large randomized clinical trials ( https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/therapeutics-and-covid-19-living-guideline ). The worldwide spread of SARS-CoV-2 virus revealed specific susceptibilities to the virus among the elderly and individuals with age-related syndromes. These populations were more likely to experience a hyperimmune response characterized by a treatment-resistant acute lung pathology accompanied by multiple organ failure. These observations underscore the interplay between the virus, the biology of aging, and outcomes observed in the most severe cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The ectoenzyme CD38 has been implicated in the process of “inflammaging” in aged tissues. In a current publication, Horenstein et al. present evidence to support the hypothesis that CD38 plays a central role in altered immunometabolism resulting from COVID-19 infection. The authors discuss a critical but underappreciated trifecta of CD38-mediated NAD+ metabolism, aging, and COVID-19 immune response and speculate that the CD38/NAD+ axis is a promising therapeutic target for this disease.
Nonlinear Dynamics of Cross‐Flow Tubes Subjected to Initial Axial Load and Distributed Impacting Constraints
Authors: Liu Mengdi , Wang Yikun , Qin Tao , Zhao Jing , Du Yujin
Published: September 2021

The dynamics of cross‐flow tubes were studied in consideration of initial axial load and distributed impacting constraints, modeled as cubic and trilinear spring constraints. The tubes were modeled as Euler–Bernoulli beams and supported at both ends, including the simply supported tube and clamped‐clamped tube. The analytical model involves a time‐delayed displacement term induced by the cross flow based on the quasi‐steady theory. For simplicity, a single flexible supported beam in a rigid square array of cylinders was studied by using the damping‐controlled mechanism. The mean extension of the tube was considered, and thus, it added another nonlinear term in the equation of motion. Results show that the tube loses stability by buckling and fluttering at various initial pressure loads and cross‐flow velocities. An increase was observed for critical velocities and initial pressure loads. Chaotic oscillations were observed for the trilinear spring model. The distribution of the impacting forces was also calculated. Some of the fresh results obtained in the impact system are expected to be helpful in understanding and controlling the dynamic responses of fluid‐conveying pipes.
The Genetic Research in Alzheimer Disease (GERALD) Initiative Finds rs9320913 as a Neural eQTL of lincRNA AL589740.1
Authors: Lopez-Gutierrez Lidia , García-Alberca José María , Mendoza Silvia , Gris Esther , De la Guía María Paz , Marin-Carmona José Manuel , Alarcón-Martín Emilio , Lobato Almudena , Cruz-Gamero Jose Manuel , Cura Laura , Ocejo Olga , Torrecilla Javier , Nieto María Dolores , Urbano Concepción , Pareja Nuria , Luque Macarena , García-Peralta María , Carrillejo Rosario , Royo José Luis
Published: September 2021

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia worldwide, and longitudinal studies are crucial to find the factors affecting disease development. Here, we describe a novel initiative from southern Spain designed to contribute in the identification of the genetic component of the cognitive decline of Alzheimer’s disease patients. The germline variant rs9320913 is a C>A substitution mapping within a gene desert. Although it has been previously associated to a higher educational achievement and increased fluid intelligence, its role on Alzheimer’s disease risk and progression remains elusive. A total of 407 subjects were included in the study, comprising 153 Alzheimer disease patients and 254 healthy controls. We have explored the rs9320913 contribution to both Alzheimer disease risk and progression according to the Mini-Mental State Exams. We found that rs9320913 maps within a central nervous system lincRNA AL589740.1. eQTL results show that rs9320913 correlated with the brain-frontal cortex (

beta
=
−
0.15

,

p

value = 0.057) and brain-spinal cord (beta of -0.23,

p

value = 0.037). We did not find rs9320913 to be associated to AD risk, although AA patients seemed to exhibit a less pronounced Mini-Mental State Exam score decline.
Experimental Measurements on the Thermal Conductivity of Glycerol-Based Nanofluids with Different Thermal Contrasts
Authors: Lotfi Mohamed , Heyd Rodolphe , Bakak Abderrahim , Hadaoui Abdellah , Koumina Abdelaziz
Published: September 2021

We report, in this work, our study of the thermal conductivity of high-viscosity nanofluids based on glycerol. Three nanofluids have been prepared with different thermal contrasts, by suspending graphene flakes, copper oxides, or silica nanoparticles in pure glycerol. The nanofluids were thermally characterized at room temperature with the 3ω technique, with low amplitudes of the temperature oscillations. A significant enhancement of the thermal conductivity is found in both the glycerol/copper oxide and the glycerol/graphene flake nanofluids. Our results question the role played by the Brownian motion in the microscopic mechanisms of the thermal conductivity of high-viscosity glycerol-based nanofluids. A similar behavior of the thermal conductivity as a function of the nanoparticle volume fraction was found for all three glycerol-based nanofluids presently investigated. These results could be explained on the basis of fractal aggregation in the nanofluids.
Path Encoding Pulse Compression for Obtaining Novel HPM with Ultrahigh Repetition Frequency
Authors: Fang Jinyong , Wu Jiangniu , Huang Huijun , Zhang Haoliang , Sun Jing , Wang Jianjun , Li Li
Published: September 2021

Based on the path encoding pulse compression teleology, a novel method for obtaining high-power microwave (HPM) pulse with ultrahigh repetition frequency is proposed in this paper. The mechanism of the path encoding pulse compression teleology is first introduced. And then, the obtained HPM pulse is analyzed. Theoretical analysis shows that the peak power of MW level and the repetition frequency of MHz level for the generated HPM pulse can be easily reached. To demonstrate the effectiveness of this method for obtaining HPM pulse with ultrahigh repetition frequency characteristic, a HPM-obtaining experiment was carried out based on an S-band microwave source. The HPM pulses with the width of 1 ns, 2 ns, and 3 ns are studied, respectively. The measured results show that the HPM pulse with the power higher than 100 kW and the repetition frequency of 250 kHz at the frequency of 2.856 GHz is easily obtained. The repetition frequency of the generated HPM pulse can be easily changed. Because the pulse with the power higher than 100 kW and the repetition frequency of several hundreds of kHz is obtained for the first time, this type of pulse will have a broad prospect of application in the communication, radar, and electronic countermeasure fields. In addition, the effect experiment of interfering communication and control links was carried out by utilizing the ultrahigh repetition frequency characteristic of the generated HPM pulse. Also, the experiment results show the feasibility of this pulse for interfering the communication and control links.
Novel Degree-Based Topological Descriptors of Carbon Nanotubes
Authors: Shanmukha M. C. , Usha A. , Siddiqui M. K. , Shilpa K. C. , Asare-Tuah A.
Published: September 2021

The most significant tool of mathematical chemistry is the numerical descriptor called topological index. Topological indices are extensively used in modelling of chemical compounds to analyse the studies on quantitative structure activity/property/toxicity relationships and combinatorial library virtual screening. In this work, an attempt is made in defining three novel descriptors, namely, neighborhood geometric-harmonic, harmonic-geometric, and neighborhood harmonic-geometric indices. Also, the aforementioned three indices along with the geometric-harmonic index are tested for physicochemical properties of octane isomers using linear regression models and computed for some carbon nanotubes.
Synthesis of Biomaterial-Based Hydrogels Reinforced with Cellulose Nanocrystals for Biomedical Applications
Authors: Dara Pavan Kumar , Raghavankutty Mahadevan , Deekonda Karthik , Vemu Anil Kumar , Sivam Visnuvinayagam , Mathew Suseela , Rangasamy Anandan , Chandragiri Nagarajarao Ravishankar , Subramanian Senthilkumar
Published: September 2021

Cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) were prepared by formic acid hydrolysis and TEMPO- (2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-piperidine-1-oxyl-) mediated oxidation. The prepared CNCs were reinforced into biopolymers chitosan (CHI), alginate (ALG), and gelatin (GEL) to obtain “CNC-ALG-GEL” and “CNC-CHI-GEL” hydrogels. The synthesized hydrogels were characterized for physicochemical, thermal, and structural characterization using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermal gravity analysis (TGA), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses. Notably, the reinforcement of CNC has not altered the molecular structure of a biopolymer as revealed by FT-IR analysis. The hydrogels reinforced with CNC have shown better thermal stability and miscibility as revealed by thermal gravity analysis. The physicochemical, thermal, and structural characterization revealed the chemical interaction and electrostatic attraction between the CNC and biopolymers. The biocompatibility was investigated by evaluating the viability of the L929 fibroblast cell, which represents good biocompatibility and nontoxic nature. These hydrogels could be implemented in therapeutic biomedical research and regenerative medicinal applications.
Sinapic Acid Alleviated Inflammation-Induced Intestinal Epithelial Barrier Dysfunction in Lipopolysaccharide- (LPS-) Treated Caco-2 Cells
Authors: Lan Huan , Zhang Lu-Ying , He Wen , Li Wan-Ying , Zeng Zhen , Qian Bo , Wang Chengqiang , Song Jia-Le
Published: September 2021

The integrity and permeability of the intestinal epithelial barrier are important indicators of intestinal health. Impaired intestinal epithelial barrier function and increased intestinal permeability are closely linked to the onset and progression of various intestinal diseases. Sinapic acid (SA) is a phenolic acid that has anti-inflammatory, antihyperglycemic, and antioxidant activities; meanwhile, it is also effective in the protection of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but the specific mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we evaluated the anti-inflammatory of SA and investigated its potential therapeutic activity in LPS-induced intestinal epithelial barrier and tight junction (TJ) protein dysfunction. SA improved cell viability; attenuated epithelial permeability; restored the protein and mRNA expression of claudin-1, ZO-1, and occludin; and reversed the redistribution of the ZO-1 and claudin-1 proteins in LPS-treated Caco-2 cells. Moreover, SA reduced the inflammatory response by downregulating the activation of the TLR4/NF-κB pathway and attenuated LPS-induced intestinal barrier dysfunction by decreasing the activation of the MLCK/MLC pathway. This study demonstrated that SA has strong anti-inflammatory activity and can alleviate the occurrence of high intercellular permeability in Caco-2 cells exposed to LPS.
Traditional Chinese Medicine Aconiti Radix Cocta Improves Rheumatoid Arthritis via Suppressing COX-1 and COX-2
Authors: Li Shuang , Li Rui , Xu Ya-Xin , Baak Jan P. A. , Gao Ji-Hai , Shu Jian-Qin , Jing Li-Jia , Meng Xian-Li , Wen Chuan-Biao , Gan Yan-Xiong , Zheng Shi-Chao , Zeng Yong
Published: September 2021

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Aconiti Radix Cocta (AC) is clinically employed to expel wind, remove dampness, and relieve pain. We evaluated the antirheumatoid arthritis (RA) activities and underlying mechanisms of AC. The chemical constituents of AC were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using three reference compounds (benzoylaconitine, benzoylmesaconine, and benzoylhypacoitine). The anti-RA effects of AC were evaluated in adjuvant-induced arthritis (AIA) rats by hind paw volume and histopathological analysis. The effects of AC on inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β and IL-17A) were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The regulation of cyclooxygenases (COX-1 and/or COX-2) was determined by Western blot and real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analyses. AC significantly reduced paw swelling, attenuated the inflammation and bone destruction in joint tissues, and reduced IL-1β and IL-17A in the serum. Moreover, AC downregulated the expression of COX-1 and COX-2 in the synovial tissues. We also identified that AC possesses significant anti-RA activities on AIA, which may be ascribed to the regulation of inflammatory cytokines IL-1β and IL-17, as well as to the inhibition of arachidonic acid signaling pathways. Our findings provide theoretical support for AC as an effective nature-derived therapeutic agent for RA treatment.
A Simple Method to Differentiate between Free‐Carrier Recombination and Trapping Centers in the Bandgap of the p‐Type Semiconductor
Authors: Shura Megersa Wodajo
Published: September 2021

In this research, the ranges of the localized states in which the recombination and the trapping rates of free carriers dominate the entire transition rates of free carriers in the bandgap of the p‐type semiconductor are described. Applying the Shockley–Read–Hall model to a p‐type material under a low injection level, the expressions for the recombination rates, the trapping rates, and the excess carrier lifetimes (recombination and trapping) were described as functions of the localized state energies. Next, the very important quantities called the excess carriers’ trapping ratios were described as functions of the localized state energies. Variations of the magnitudes of the excess carriers’ trapping ratios with the localized state energies enable us to categorize the localized states in the bandgap as the recombination, the trapping, the acceptor, and the donor levels. Effects of the majority and the minority carriers’ trapping on the excess carrier lifetimes are also evaluated at different localized energy levels. The obtained results reveal that only excess minority trapping affects the excess carrier lifetimes, and excess majority carrier trapping has no effect.
Renal Tubular Acidosis in the Postpartum Period: A Case Report and Literature Review
Authors: Duran Carlos E. , Estacio Mayra , Lozano Fredy , Echeverri Esteban , Riascos Maria Juliana , Posada Juan Guillermo , Schweineberg Johanna
Published: September 2021

Case Presentation. Distal renal tubular acidosis (dRTA) is characterized by impaired hydrogen ion secretion in the distal nephron resulting either from decreased net activity of the proton pump or from increased luminal membrane hydrogen ion permeability. Typical complications of dRTA include severe hypokalemia, normal anion gap metabolic acidosis, nephrolithiasis, and nephrocalcinosis. The patient is a 25-year-old woman in immediate puerperium with hypokalemia leading to paralysis, and the laboratory findings in this patients were concerning for dRTA. It is rare to encounter this entity during pregnancy, and the impact of this pathology is unknown.
lncRNA-SNHG14 Plays a Role in Acute Lung Injury Induced by Lipopolysaccharide through Regulating Autophagy via miR-223-3p/Foxo3a
Authors: Hong Jun , Mo Shijing , Gong Fangxiao , Lin Zongbin , Cai Hanhui , Shao Ziqiang , Yang Xianghong , Sun Renhua , Zhang Qiangnu , Liu Jingquan
Published: September 2021

lncRNAs play important roles in lipopolysaccharide- (LPS-) induced acute lung injury. But the mechanism still needs further research. In the present study, we investigate the functional role of the lncRNA-SNHG14/miR-223-3p/Foxo3a pathway in LPS-induced ALI and tried to confirm its regulatory effect on autophagy. Transcriptomic profile changes were identified by RNA-seq in LPS-treated alveolar type II epithelial cells. The expression changes of lncRNA-SNHG14/miR-223-3p/Foxo3a were confirmed using qRT-PCR and west blot. The binding relationship of lncRNA-SNHG14/miR-223-3p/and miR-223-3p/Foxo3a was verified using dual-luciferase reporter, RNA immunoprecipitation, and RNA pull-down assays. Using gain-of-function or loss-of-function approaches, the effect of lncRNA-SNHG14/miR-223-3p/Foxo3a was investigated in LPS-induced acute lung injury mice model and in vitro. Increasing of lncRNA-SNHG14 and Foxo3a with reducing miR-223-3p was found in LPS-treated A549 cells and lung tissue collected from the LPS-induced ALI model. lncRNA-SNHG14 inhibited miR-223-3p but promoted Foxo3a expression as a ceRNA. Artificially changes of lncRNA-SNHG14/miR-223-3p/Foxo3a pathway promoted or protected cell injury from LPS in vivo and in vitro. Autophagy activity could be influenced by lncRNA-SNHG14/miR-223-3p/Foxo3a pathway in cells with or without LPS treatment. In conclusion, aberrant expression changes of lncRNA-SNHG14 participated alveolar type II epithelial cell injury and acute lung injury induced by LPS through regulating autophagy. One underlying mechanism is that lncRNA-SNHG14 regulated autophagy by controlling miR-223-3p/Foxo3a as a ceRNA. It suggested that lncRNA-SNHG14 may serve as a potential therapeutic target for patients with sepsis-induced ALI.
Coupling and Coordination Degree between Urbanization and Ecological Environment in Guizhou, China
Authors: Gong Zhengqi , Mao Rongjian , Jiang JingJun
Published: September 2021

This paper intends to examine the coupling and coordination degree (CCD) between the urbanization and ecological environment in Guizhou, China. The entropy weight method and coupling effect model were used to calculate the CCD between the urbanization and ecological environment of Guizhou and each of its prefectures. The results show the following: (1) there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the urbanization and ecological environment deterioration in Guizhou, which can be described by the Kuznets curve; (2) both the urbanization and ecological environment improve with the increase in the CCD; (3) unlike the traditional urbanization path, the urbanization in Guizhou features the parallel progress of industrialization and ecological environment protection. These results prove another possibility of the Kuznets curve: the curve can reach the turning point without high urbanization. This new urbanization path of balance-upgrading provides an important reference for backward areas to realize low-carbon economy and sustainable development at the same time.
Automatic Semicircular Canal Segmentation of CT Volumes Using Improved 3D U‐Net with Attention Mechanism
Authors: Wu Hongcheng , Liu Juanxiu , Chen Gui , Liu Weixing , Hao Ruqian , Liu Lin , Ni Guangming , Liu Yong , Zhang Xiaowen , Zhang Jing
Published: September 2021

The vestibular system is the sensory apparatus that helps the body maintain its postural equilibrium, and semicircular canal is an important organ of the vestibular system. The semicircular canals are three membranous tubes, each forming approximately two‐thirds of a circle with a diameter of approximately 6.5 mm, and segmenting them accurately is of great benefit for auxiliary diagnosis, surgery, and treatment of vestibular disease. However, the semicircular canal has small volume, which accounts for less than 1% of the overall computed tomography image. Doctors have to annotate the image in a slice‐by‐slice manner, which is time‐consuming and labor‐intensive. To solve this problem, we propose a novel 3D convolutional neural network based on 3D U‐Net to automatically segment the semicircular canal. We added the spatial attention mechanism of 3D spatial squeeze and excitation modules, as well as channel attention mechanism of 3D global attention upsample modules to improve the network performance. Our network achieved an average dice coefficient of 92.5% on the test dataset, which shows competitive performance in semicircular canals segmentation task.
Path Recognition of the Regional Education Expansion Based on Improved Dragonfly Algorithm
Authors: Liu Fang
Published: September 2021

To solve the problems of low recognition rate, high misrecognition rate, and long recognition time, the path recognition method of the regional education scale expansion based on the improved dragonfly algorithm is proposed. Through a variety of different behaviors utilized in the optimization process, the dragonfly algorithm model has been constructed. The step size and the position vector are introduced to update the dragonfly’s location. The dragonfly’s foraging behaviors are accurately simulated. Afterward, the dragonfly algorithm is combined with the flower authorization algorithm. The conversion probability is added, and the dragonfly’s global development ability is adjusted in real-time. Then, the dragonfly algorithm is improved. The improved dragonfly algorithm is employed to extract the features of the expansion path of the regional education scale. The improved support vector machine is utilized as a classifier to realize the recognition of the regional education scale expansion path. The experimental results denote that the proposed method has a high recognition rate of the regional education scale expansion path and can effectively reduce the misrecognition rate and shorten the recognition time.
lncRNA BORG:TRIM28 Complexes Drive Metastatic Progression by Inducing α6 Integrin/CD49f Expression in Breast Cancer Stem Cells
Authors: Parker Kimberly A. , Gooding Alex J. , Valadkhan Saba , Schiemann William P.
Published: September 2021

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the most lethal subtype of breast cancer, with its aggressive phenotype being attributed to chemotherapy resistance, metastatic dissemination, and rapid disease recurrence. Breast cancer stem cells (BCSC) are significant contributors to tumor initiation, as well as to the acquisition of aggressive tumorigenic phenotypes, namely due to their ability to self-replicate and to produce heterogeneous differentiated tumor cells. To elucidate the underlying mechanisms that drive BCSC tumorigenicity in TNBC, we identified the long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) BMP/OP-Responsive Gene (BORG) as an enhancer of BCSC phenotypes. Indeed, we found BORG expression to: (i) correlate with stem cell markers Nanog, Aldh1a3, and Itga6 (α6 integrin/CD49f); (ii) enhance stem cell phenotypes in murine and human TNBC cells, and (iii) promote TNBC tumor initiation in mice. Mechanistically, BORG promoted BCSC phenotypes through its ability to interact physically with the E3 SUMO ligase TRIM28. Moreover, TRIM28 binding was observed in the promoter region of Itga6, whose genetic inactivation prevented BORG:TRIM28 complexes from: (i) inducing BCSC self-renewal and expansion in vitro, and (ii) eliciting BCSC metastatic outgrowth in the lungs of mice. Collectively, these findings implicate BORG:TRIM28 complexes as novel drivers of BCSC phenotypes in developing and progressing TNBCs.

Implications:

This work establishes the lncRNA BORG as a driver of BCSC phenotypes and the aggressive behaviors of TNBCs, events critically dependent upon the formation of BORG:TRIM28 complexes and expression of α6 integrin.