bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The effect of pegbovigrastim administration on the nonspecific immunity of calves
Authors: Dudek Katarzyna , Szacawa Ewelina , Bednarek Dariusz
Published: December 2023

Background

Prevention of diseases in the early rearing of calves is important, particularly because disease occurrence most often requires antimicrobial administration but reduction of their use in animals is a priority. Pegbovigrastim is known for its use as an immunoregulator in cows and heifers, but the effect of its administration on calves has not been fully investigated.

Objectives

Investigate whether administration of pegbovigrastim effectively stimulates nonspecific immunity in healthy calves.

Animals

Eleven clinically healthy 5‐week‐old calves.

Methods

Prospective observational study. Calves were randomly allocated to an experimental or control groups to receive pegbovigrastim or the same volume of phosphate‐buffered saline twice over a 7‐day period. To evaluate nonspecific immunity, the numbers of total leukocytes and cells in the appropriate cell fractions were determined. Cytometric analyses were carried out to identify cells expressing CD11b and to evaluate the phagocytic and oxidative burst activities of granulocytes and monocytes. Myeloperoxidase (MPO) and selected cytokines were assayed using ELISA.

Results

Pegbovigrastim significantly increased the number of total leukocytes and of cells in all of the examined subsets (P < .05). The phagocytic activity of leukocytes expressed as mean fluorescence intensity was significantly potentiated after pegbovigrastim administration (P < .05). The cytokine response was modulated by pegbovigrastim administration toward anti‐inflammatory activity.

Conclusions and Clinical Importance

Pegbovigrastim effectively stimulated nonspecific immunity in clinically healthy calves, which in the long term could make the prevention of diseases during early rearing possible by strengthening the immune defense mechanisms of the host.
Potential effectiveness of integrating human milk banking and lactation support on neonatal outcomes at Pumwani Maternity Hospital, Kenya
Authors: Wilunda Calistus , Israel‐Ballard Kiersten , Wanjohi Milka , Lang'at Nelson , Mansen Kimberly , Waiyego Mary , Kibore Minnie , Kamande Eva , Zerfu Taddese , Kithua Angela , Muganda Rosemarie , Muiruri Juliana , Maina Beth , Njuguna Emily , Njeru Faith , Kiige Laura W. , Codjia Patrick , Samburu Betty , Mogusu Esther , Ngwiri Thomas , Mirie Waithera , Kimani‐Murage Elizabeth W.
Published: December 2023

We assessed the potential effectiveness of human milk banking and lactation support on provision of human milk to neonates admitted in the newborn unit (NBU) at Pumwani Maternity Hospital, Kenya. This pre–post intervention study collected data from mothers/caregivers and their vulnerable neonates or term babies who lacked sufficient mother's milk for several reasons admitted in the NBU. The intervention included establishing a human milk bank and strengthening lactation support. Preintervention data were collected between 5 October 2018 and 11 November 2018, whereas postintervention data were collected between 4 September 2019 and 6 October 2019. Propensity score‐matched analysis was performed to assess the effect of the intervention on exclusive use of human milk, use of human milk as the first feed, feeding intolerance and duration of NBU stay. The surveys included 123 and 116 newborns at preintervention and postintervention, respectively, with 160 newborns (80 in each group) being included in propensity score matched analysis. The proportion of neonates who exclusively used human milk during NBU stay increased from 41.3% preintervention to 63.8% postintervention (adjusted odds ratio [OR]: 2.68; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.31, 5.53) and those whose first feed was human milk increased from 55.0% preintervention to 83.3% postintervention (adjusted OR: 5.09; 95% CI: 2.18, 11.88). The mean duration of NBU stay was 27% (95% CI: 5.8%, 44.0%) lower in the postintervention group than in the preintervention group. The intervention did not affect feeding intolerance. Integrating human milk banking and lactation support may improve exclusive use of human milk among vulnerable neonates in a resource limited setting.
Epidemics and the healthcare professional's duty to care: Students' attitudes about work requirements before and during Covid‐19 (2017–2021)
Authors: Kaldjian Anna M. , Shinkunas Laura , Peter Tabitha K. , Kaldjian Lauris C.
Published: December 2023

Context

The Covid‐19 pandemic has added a new chapter to discussions about the professional duty to care. To understand how Covid‐19 may have changed medical students' ethical attitudes towards this duty, we analysed policies written before and during the pandemic by first‐year students completing a yearly educational exercise focused on work requirement expectations for healthcare professionals during a hypothetical epidemic.

Methods

Within a repeated cross‐sectional design, consensus coding was performed on policies written over 5 years (2017–2021) using a codebook based on eight questions from the educational exercise for summative content analysis. Frequencies provided summative results and comparisons across years used Fisher's exact test.

Results

We analysed 142 written policies from 2017 to 2021 representing 884 first‐year students working in small groups. Students' commitment to the duty to care remained stable during the Covid‐19 pandemic, but during the pandemic, students were more likely to support exceptions to the duty to care (e.g. for healthcare professionals with medical conditions or concern for household members' health) and more likely to expect institutions to provide safe working conditions. Ethical values supporting students' policies were largely consistent before and during the pandemic, the most common being beneficence, justice, duty to care, non‐maleficence and utility.

Conclusions

Our results suggest that students' support for the duty to care remained strong during the Covid‐19 pandemic. We also found that students supported exceptions to this duty to reflect the needs of healthcare professionals and their families and that they expected institutions to provide safe working conditions. These findings can help inform ethics education and future pandemic preparedness.
Holistic understanding of ventilation rate in occupational health risk control
Authors: Chen Kang
Published: December 2023

Throughout the history of occupational health risk control, ventilation has been implemented widely as a tried‐and‐true method to reduce exposure intensity to airborne contaminants. Proper determination of the ventilation rate merits careful consideration when addressing concerns directed toward occupational health and indoor air quality in commercial buildings, albeit this does not translate well among the current engineering and scientific community. This article aims to facilitate a better understanding and proper determination of ventilation rates as a countermeasure for occupational health risk control. To that end, guidance is provided to select the appropriate ventilation rate for nonpandemic versus pandemic scenarios in terms of pertinent regulatory/professional codes and mathematical modeling tools. Limitations and assumptions of the models are summarized to facilitate proper application. Furthermore, the emerging DNA‐based aerosol tracing technology, which helps to verify ventilation efficacy, is discussed.
Association between physical activity and self‐regulation in early childhood: A systematic review
Authors: D'Cruz Abhigale F. L. , D'Souza Ninoshka J. , Downing Katherine L. , Smith Cynthia , Sciberras Emma , Hesketh Kylie D.
Published: December 2023

Physical activity and self‐regulation are important predictors of pediatric overweight and obesity. Young children (0–5 years) with lower physical activity levels and poorer self‐regulation skills are at greater risk for overweight. Despite growing evidence that the two constructs are interrelated, their association remains unclear in young children. This review systematically summarized associations between physical activity and self‐regulation in early childhood and explored the directionality of associations. Searches were run in six electronic databases. Forty‐seven papers met inclusion criteria. Only three studies investigated all three domains of self‐regulation (behavioral, cognitive, and emotional). Overall, findings were inconclusive; studies reported weak to moderate positive associations (n = 17), inverse associations (n = 5), mixed associations (n = 15), null association (n = 2), and negative (n = 1) between physical activity and self‐regulation. Compared with the emotional and cognitive domains, physical activity was most consistently positively associated with behavioral self‐regulation. Only one study assessed bidirectional associations, reporting a positive association. The three studies that included global self‐regulation showed contradicting findings. There is some evidence that physical activity dose and sex potentially confound these associations; however, further research is needed given the paucity of studies. This review highlights the need for more in‐depth investigation of the complex association between physical activity and global self‐regulation.
Characterization of colorectal cancer by hierarchical clustering analyses of five immune cell markers
Authors: Ito Sunao , Koshino Akira , Komura Masayuki , Kato Shunsuke , Otani Takahiro , Wang Chengbo , Ueki Akane , Takahashi Hiroki , Ebi Masahide , Ogasawara Naotaka , Tsuzuki Toyonori , Kasai Kenji , Kasugai Kunio , Takiguchi Shuji , Takahashi Satoru , Inaguma Shingo
Published: December 2023

The present study analyzed the expression of five independent immunohistochemical markers, CD4, CD8, CD66b, CD68, and CD163, on immune cells within the colorectal cancer (CRC) tumor microenvironment (TME). Using hierarchical clustering, patients were successfully classified according to significant associations with clinicopathological features and/or survival. Patients with mismatch repair‐proficient (pMMR) CRC were categorized into four groups with survival differences (p = 0.0084): CD4Low, CD4High, MΦHigh, and CD8Low. MΦHigh tumors showed significantly higher expression of CD47 (p < 0.0001), a phagocytosis checkpoint molecule. These tumors contained significantly greater numbers of PD‐1+ (p < 0.0001), TIM‐3+ (p < 0.0001), and SIRPA+ (p < 0.0001) immune cells. Notably, 10% of the patients with pMMR CRC expressed PD‐L1 (CD274) on tumor cells with significantly worse survival (p = 0.00064). The Cox proportional hazards model identified MΦ High (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.02, 95%, p = 0.032), CD8Low (HR = 2.45, p = 0.011), and tumor PD‐L1 expression (HR = 2.74, p = 0.0061) as potential risk factors. PD‐L1–PD‐1 and/or CD47–SIRPA axes targeting immune checkpoint therapies might be considered for patients with pMMR CRC according to their tumor cells and tumor immune microenvironment characteristics.
The divergence theorem and nonlocal counterparts
Authors: Hepp Solveig , Kassmann Moritz
Published: December 2023

We present a new proof of the classical divergence theorem in bounded domains. Our proof is based on a nonlocal analog of the divergence theorem and a rescaling argument. Main ingredients in the proof are nonlocal versions of the divergence and the normal derivative. We employ these to provide definitions of well‐known nonlocal concepts such as the fractional perimeter.
Selected Aspects of Performance of Organic Rankine Cycles Incorporated Into Bioenergy With Carbon Capture and Storage Using Gasification of Sewage Sludge
Authors: Stasiak Kamil , Ziółkowski Paweł , Mikielewicz Dariusz
Published: December 2023

The study aims to investigate the application of the organic Rankine cycle (ORC) in the bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) using gasification of sewage sludge. The tool used in the investigation is the aspen plus software with refprop property methods for calculating fluid properties. The reason for this study is that a detailed analysis of the proposed BECCS process flow diagram indicates that a certain amount of waste heat is available in the exhaust gas from the high-to-intermediate pressure gas turbine. Some of this energy can be used by applying expansion in a low-pressure turbine, optionally by applying regenerative water heating, which is then redirected to the combustion chamber, or finally by incorporating the ORC into the main cycle. For the ORC cycle, different configurations are studied, with regeneration and using different working fluids. For the highest efficiency of the cycle, the regenerative heating of high-pressure water is applied and a suitable ORC working fluid with optimal saturation parameters and mass flow is selected. Such modified proposed BECCS power plant hybrid systems with ORC are compared to the reference case with lower pressure expansion. A study of the heat duty and temperature distribution in heat exchangers is carried out. Five ORC fluids were investigated, namely ethanol, refrigerants R236ea, R245fa, R1233zd(E), and water, which gave a net efficiency of the whole power plant of 39.71%, 40.02%, 40.26%, 40.34%, and 39.35% respectively, while the proposed BECCS reference case gave 38.89%.
Calibrated in-vacuum quantum efficiency system for metallic and III-V thin-film photocathodes
Authors: Rasheed Atif , Benjamin Christopher , Elhoussieny Ibrahim , Ramachers Yorck A. , Bell Gavin R.
Published: December 2023

The construction and calibration of a high vacuum system for thin film growth and in situ quantum efficiency (QE) measurement are described. Surface cleaning by in situ argon ion sputtering and annealing is supported. The QE measurement is based on an external 265 nm LED and in situ positively biased collector grid. The system is applied to two metallic and two semiconducting photocathodes: polycrystalline silver and copper, and single crystal InP and InSb. Surface cleaning protocols are shown to have a dramatic effect on the QE for all of these materials. The maximum QE values achieved for clean InSb and InP are around 8 × 10−5, for Cu 9 × 10−5 and for Ag 2 × 10−4.
Molecular physiological characterization of the dynamics of persister formation in
Staphylococcus aureus
Authors: Liu Shiqi , Huang Yixuan , Jensen Sean , Laman Paul , Kramer Gertjan , Zaat Sebastian A. J. , Brul Stanley
Published: December 2023

Bacteria possess the ability to enter a growth-arrested state known as persistence in order to survive antibiotic exposure. Clinically, persisters are regarded as the main causative agents for chronic and recurrent infectious diseases. To combat this antibiotic-tolerant population, a better understanding of the molecular physiology of persisters is required. In this study, we collected samples at different stages of the biphasic kill curve to reveal the dynamics of the cellular molecular changes that occur in the process of persister formation. After exposure to antibiotics with different modes of action, namely, vancomycin and enrofloxacin, similar persister levels were obtained. Both shared and distinct stress responses were enriched for the respective persister populations. However, the dynamics of the presence of proteins linked to the persister phenotype throughout the biphasic kill curve and the molecular profiles in a stable persistent population did show large differences, depending on the antibiotic used. This suggests that persisters at the molecular level are highly stress specific, emphasizing the importance of characterizing persisters generated under different stress conditions. Additionally, although generated persisters exhibited cross-tolerance toward tested antibiotics, combined therapies were demonstrated to be a promising approach to reduce persister levels. In conclusion, this investigation sheds light on the stress-specific nature of persisters, highlighting the necessity of tailored treatment approaches and the potential of combined therapy.
Types A and F
Clostridium perfringens
in healthcare wastewater from Ghana
Authors: Kawamura Taira , Prah Isaac , Mahazu Samiratu , Ablordey Anthony , Saito Ryoichi
Published: December 2023

Clostridium perfringens
can cause a plethora of diseases in humans and animals, making it a growing public health concern. Insight into
C. perfringens
genomic studies has enhanced our understanding of the diversity and evolution of this bacterium. However, most of these studies were centered on clinical strains from human and animal hosts, with limited data from environmental sources and developing countries. Here, we present genomic and phenotypic insights into
C. perfringens
strains from hospital wastewater samples from Ghana. Antibiotic susceptibility testing, toxinotyping, and whole-genome sequencing were performed on the seven
C. perfringens
isolates. The strains were susceptible to all antibiotics screened except for three strains that were resistant to clindamycin. The majority of these strains were type F strains, characterized by a chromosomally encoded
cpe
gene, whereas the remaining strains were classified as type A. The
cpe
gene is flanked upstream by IS
1469
and downstream by IS
1470
. The genotype for the type F strains was ST721, whereas the type A strains were assigned to ST722, ST143, and ST211. Our type F strains clustered with other strains all within phylogroup I, which are mostly associated with foodborne illnesses, whereas the type A strains were grouped within phylogroup III. This study provides the first genomic characterization of
C. perfringens
from West Africa and contributes to further understanding of genomic diversity in
C. perfringens
. Moreover, the possible disseminated situation of
C. perfringens
in the environment highlights the need to monitor this bacterium in clinical specimens in Ghana.

IMPORTANCE

Clostridium perfringens
causes gas gangrene and food poisoning in humans, and monitoring this bacterium is important for public health. Although whole-genome sequencing is useful to comprehensively understand the virulence, resistome, and global genetic relatedness of bacteria, limited genomic data from environmental sources and developing countries hamper our understanding of the richness of the intrinsic genomic diversity of this pathogen. Here, we successfully accumulated the genetic data on
C. perfringens
strains isolated from hospital effluent and provided the first evidence that predicted pathogenic
C. perfringens
may be disseminated in the clinical environment in Ghana. Our findings suggest the importance of risk assessment in the environment as well as the clinical setting to mitigate the potential outbreak of
C. perfringens
food poisoning in Ghana.
Dehydration stress and Mayaro virus vector competence in
Aedes aegypti
Authors: Manzano-Alvarez Jaime , Terradas Gerard , Holmes Christopher J. , Benoit Joshua B. , Rasgon Jason L.
Published: December 2023

The mosquito
Aedes aegypti
is a competent vector of multiple pathogens, including dengue, Zika, yellow fever, chikungunya, and Mayaro viruses.
Ae. aegypti
is highly invasive and is currently present in the Americas, Oceania, Asia, and Europe, but its distribution and the pathogens it transmits are expected to change due to climate change. Relative humidity (RH) is an environmental variable that affects mosquito biology and distribution and can differ between location, habitat, and season, with mosquitoes facing significant variation in RH during their lifespan. Low relative humidity can induce dehydration in mosquitoes, leading to alterations in physiological and behavioral responses relevant to pathogen transmission, such as blood-feeding and host-seeking behavior. In this study, we evaluated the short- and long-term effects of low RH shock on mortality and Mayaro virus infection and vector competence in
Ae. aegypti
. Our results show that exposure to dehydration does not impact viral titers, nor infection, dissemination, and transmission rates in mosquitoes infected with Mayaro virus. However, we detected a significant effect of humidity shock on mosquito mortality and blood-feeding frequency, regardless of infection status. The previously observed effects of higher feeding during dehydration and the current observation of altered survival, along with no impact on vector competence, suggest that the impact of dehydration on viral transmission in mosquitoes will likely be complex.

IMPORTANCE

Relative humidity (RH) is an environmental variable that affects mosquito physiology and can impact pathogen transmission. Low RH can induce dehydration in mosquitoes, leading to alterations in physiological and behavioral responses such as blood-feeding and host‐seeking behavior. We evaluated the effects of a temporal drop in RH (RH shock) on mortality and Mayaro virus vector competence in
Ae. aegypti
. While dehydration induced by humidity shock did not impact virus infection, we detected a significant effect of dehydration on mosquito mortality and blood-feeding frequency, which could significantly impact transmission dynamics.
SARS-CoV-2 exploits cellular RAD51 to promote viral propagation: implication of RAD51 inhibitor as a potential drug candidate against COVID-19
Authors: Pham Thuy X. , Huynh Trang T. X. , Choi Jiwon , Lee Jae-Bong , Park Seok-Chan , Kim Bumseok , Lim Yun-Sook , Hwang Soon B.
Published: December 2023

RAD51 is an important factor involved in the homologous recombination and repair of DNA breaks, which has also been implicated in various virus replication processes. We have previously reported that hepatitis C virus (HCV) exploits cellular RAD51 to promote viral propagation. Since severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is also an RNA virus, we interrogated whether SARS-CoV-2 could coopt RAD51 for its propagation. Here, we showed that silencing of RAD51 impaired SARS-CoV-2 propagation. We further demonstrated that RAD51 colocalized with SARS-CoV-2 RNA in Vero E6 cells. Interestingly, RAD51 interacted with SARS-CoV-2 3CL protease. This suggests that RAD51 inhibitors may block SARS-CoV-2 propagation. Hence, we evaluated multiple RAD51 inhibitors as potential drug candidates for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Among these, B02, 4
'
-diisothiocyanostilbene-2,2
'
-disulfonic acid (DIDS), IBR2, and RI(dl)-2 significantly decreased RNA, protein, and infectious virion levels of Wuhan and variants of SARS-CoV-2. Antiviral activity of DIDS was further confirmed in the Syrian hamster model. Molecular docking model showed that these chemicals interfered with RAD51 through dimerization interface. These data suggest that SARS-CoV-2 exploits host RAD51 to facilitate viral propagation, and hence, RAD51 inhibitor may serve as a putative novel therapeutic agent for the treatment of COVID-19.

IMPORTANCE

Viruses are constantly evolving to promote propagation in the host. Here, we show that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) utilizes host RAD51 for replication. Silencing of RAD51 impaired SARS-CoV-2 propagation. Viral RNA colocalized with RAD51 in the cytoplasm of SARS-CoV-2-infected cells, suggesting that both viral RNA and RAD51 may form a replication complex. We, therefore, evaluated RAD51 inhibitors as possible therapeutic agents against SARS-CoV-2. Indeed, RAD51 inhibitors exerted antiviral activities against not only Wuhan but also variants of SARS-CoV-2. Molecular docking model shows that RAD51 inhibitors impede SARS-CoV-2 propagation by interfering with dimerization of RAD51. These data suggest that RAD51 may represent a novel host-based drug target for coronavirus disease 2019 treatment.
The mating pilus of
E. coli
pED208 acts as a conduit for ssDNA during horizontal gene transfer
Authors: Beltrán Leticia , Torsilieri Holly , Patkowski Jonasz B. , Yang Jie E. , Casanova James , Costa Tiago R. D. , Wright Elizabeth R. , Egelman Edward H.
Published: December 2023

Bacterial conjugation, a process of horizontal gene transfer, plays a key role in promoting the spread of antimicrobial resistance among human pathogens. The mechanism of conjugation involves the development of a conjugative pilus that forms a physical bridge between two bacterial cells and the subsequent unidirectional transfer of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) complexed with a protein from the donor to the recipient cell. Atomic structures exist for many of the components of the type IV secretion system (T4SS), responsible for the nucleoprotein secretion, but little is known about the events preceding gene transfer, specifically what is the extent of the participation of the conjugative pilus in ssDNA transfer? There has been a longstanding debate about whether its main role is to bring a donor and a recipient cell into physical juxtaposition and form a mating junction that allows for ssDNA transfer via the T4SS machinery complex or whether ssDNA is actually transferred through the lumen of the pilus. Here, through a combination of maleimide labeling of the conjugative pilus and SeqA-YFP labeling of the transferred ssDNA, we visualize the process of bacterial conjugation in real time. We discover that the conjugative pilus is capable of transferring the ssDNA at a distance, between physically separated cells, and thus conclude that a physical mating junction is not essential for conjugative gene transfer.

IMPORTANCE

Bacteria are constantly exchanging DNA, which constitutes horizontal gene transfer. While some of these occurs by a non-specific process called natural transformation, some occurs by a specific mating between a donor and a recipient cell. In specific conjugation, the mating pilus is extended from the donor cell to make contact with the recipient cell, but whether DNA is actually transferred through this pilus or by another mechanism involving the type IV secretion system complex without the pilus has been an open question. Using
Escherichia coli
, we show that DNA can be transferred through this pilus between a donor and a recipient cell that has not established a tight mating junction, providing a new picture for the role of this pilus.
Draft genome sequence of endophytic fungus
Talaromyces purpureogenus
strain YAFEF302, isolated from
Juglans sigillata
Authors: Wang Yi , Yang Yuexian , Yuan Xiaolong , Ma Shanjun , Wang Dong , Qiao Lu
Published: December 2023

Here, we report a draft genome sequence of endophytic fungus
Talaromyces purpureogenus
strain YAFEF302, isolated from
Juglans sigillata
. The genome resource will support future research into potential secondary metabolite diversity of this fungus.
Evidence of the simultaneous replications of active viruses in specimens positive for multiple respiratory viruses
Authors: Kawase Miyuki , Suwa Reiko , Sugimoto Satoko , Kakizaki Masatoshi , Kume Yohei , Chishiki Mina , Ono Takashi , Okabe Hisao , Norito Sakurako , Ujike Makoto , Hosoya Mitsuaki , Hashimoto Koichi , Shirato Kazuya
Published: December 2023

Genetic diagnostic assays for the detection of respiratory viruses sometimes show simultaneous multiple infections with low copy numbers. In such cases, the disease is considered caused by a single etiologic agent and others are nonspecific reactions and/or contaminations. Interferon-dependent interference is seen in dual infections of influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, which are the main causes of respiratory infections. Virus isolation is one of the answers in detecting other active viruses present in specimens, and the air–liquid interface culture of human bronchial/tracheal epithelial cells (HBTEC-ALI) is optimal for the isolation of respiratory viruses owing to its wide range of susceptibility. In this study, we successfully confirmed the replications of various viruses from specimens with low copy numbers and simultaneous passage of two to three viruses using HBTEC-ALI cultures, mainly including human bocavirus 1 and/or human rhinovirus.

IMPORTANCE

Since the pandemic of coronavirus diseases 2019, the use of real-time PCR assay has become widespread among people who were not familiar with it in virus detection. As a result, whether a high real-time PCR value in one time test indicates virus transmissibly became a complicated social problem, regardless of the difference in assays and/or amplification conditions, the time and number of diagnostic test during the time course of infection. In addition, the multiple positives in the test of respiratory viruses further add to the confusion in the interpretation of the infection. To address this issue, we performed virus isolation using pediatric SARI (severe acute respiratory infections) specimens on air–liquid interface culture of human bronchial/tracheal epithelial cell culture. The result of this study can be a strong evidence that the specimens showing positivity for multiple agents in real-time PCR tests possibly contain infectious viruses.
Alternative meat in the diets of young children
Authors: Cerami Carla
Published: December 2023

Alternative meat is designed to address concerns about the impact of traditional meat on the environment, animal welfare, foodborne illnesses and human health. The availability, market share and variety of substitute meat products have exploded in recent years. This review will discuss the different types of alternative meat available, the benefits and challenges associated with their production as well as the regulatory and consumer acceptance issues that must be addressed to ensure their success. Cultivated or lab-grown meat is discussed as a separate category from all plant-based meat products because its nutritional composition is much closer to traditional meat. There is limited information about specific alternative meat products in the diets of children under five and the possible role meat substitutes can play in vegetarian and omnivorous diets. When planning a diet for a young child, parents and nutritionists will need to consider the consumption of each alternative meat product in the context of the child’s age, nutritional requirements, health status and the composition of their overall diet.
Over-winter body mass and conceptions of white-tailed deer in central Texas
Authors: Weckerly F.W. , Reitz R. , Pfeffer D.
Published: December 2023

At lower latitudes ungulate reproduction is often seasonal, but the duration of mating and parturition seasons can be long. To further understand the adaptive significance of synchrony in reproductive events, we examined two hypotheses to link over-winter body mass with lower synchrony of conceptions in a wild population of white-tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus (Zimmermann, 1780)) in central Texas. If females maintain over-winter body mass, then the window of time that conception occurs should be relaxed and longer relative to females where over-winter body mass declines. Across 9 years, we measured body mass in 1.5-year-old and older females in November ( n = 170) and in March (118). In March, we also measured forehead–rump lengths in offspring of gravid females and calculated conception dates. Over-winter body mass did not decline but was maintained, on average, across the years of study. Conception dates ranged over 50 days and 52% of conceptions occurred in a 2-week period centered on the median conception date. Relative to northern populations of deer, there was lower synchrony in conception dates. White-tailed deer across the geographic range appear to be flexible in over-winter body mass dynamics that affects duration of reproductive events such as conception.
Effective interactions and phase behavior of protein solutions in the presence of hexamine cobalt(III) chloride
Authors: Senft Maximilian D. , Maier Ralph , Hiremath Anusha , Zhang Fajun , Schreiber Frank
Published: December 2023

It is well established that deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA) exhibit a reentrant condensation (RC) phase behavior in the presence of the trivalent hexamine cobalt(III) cations (Hac) which can be important for their packing and folding. A similar behavior can be observed for negatively charged globular proteins in the presence of trivalent metal cations, such as Y3+ or La3+. This phase behavior is mainly driven by charge inversion upon an increasing salt concentration for a fixed protein concentration (cp). However, as Hac exhibits structural differences compared to other multivalent metal cations, with six ammonia ligands (NH3) covalently bonded to the central cobalt atom, it is not clear that Hac can induce a similar phase behavior for proteins. In this work, we systematically investigate whether negatively charged globular proteins β-lactoglobulin (BLG), bovine serum albumin (BSA), human serum albumin (HSA) and ovalbumin (OVA) feature Hac-induced RC. Effective protein–protein interactions were investigated by small-angle X-ray scattering. The reduced second virial coefficient (B2/B2HS) was obtained as a function of salt concentration. The virial coefficient analysis performed confirms the reentrant interaction (RI) behavior for BLG without actually inducing RC, given the insufficient strengths of the interactions for the latter to occur. In contrast, the strength of attraction for BSA, HSA and OVA are too weak to show RC. Model free analysis of the inverse intensity $$1/I\left( {q \to 0} \right)$$

1
/
I

q
→
0

also supports this finding. Looking at different q-range by employing static (SLS) and dynamic light scattering experiments, the presence of RI behavior can be confirmed. The results are further discussed in view of metal cation binding sites in nucleic acids (DNA and RNA), where Hac induced RC phase behavior.

Graphical abstract
Toward an environmental friendly operation of the CBM-TOF system
Authors: Deppner Ingo , Bogdan Claudia , Brad Sebastian , Brill Cătălin , Dorobanţu Daniel , Grafov Aleksandr , Han Dong , Herrmann Norbert , Hu Dongdong , Lazar Alin , Li Wen , Petriş Mariana , Petrovici Mihai , Rozhenstev Andrii , Sirosh Oleksandr , Söhngen Yannick , Sun Kai , Sun Yongjie , Vijulie Mihai , Wang Botan , Wang Kaiyang , Wang Xinjian , Wang Yi , Yao Ming , Zhou Jian , Zhou Yingjie
Published: December 2023

The future fixed target high-rate compressed baryonic matter (CBM) experiment is one of the experimental pillars of the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) located in Darmstadt/Germany. In order to provide an excellent particle identification (PID) of charged hadrons, the CBM-time-of-flight (TOF) group has developed a concept of a 120 m$$^2$$

2

large TOF wall with a system time resolution below 80 ps based on multi-gap resistive plate chambers (MRPC). Currently, timing MRPC systems are operated with a gas mixture based on tetrafluoroethane (R134a, C$$_2$$

2

H$$_2$$

2

F$$_4$$

4

) with additions of few vol% quencher gases, e.g., sulfur hexafluoride (SF$$_6$$

6

) or/and isobutane (i-C$$_4$$

4

H$$_10$$

1

0

). Unfortunately, these gas mixtures have a high global warming potential (GWP) in the order of 1500, and therefore, strategies to reduce the environmental impact have to be developed. The various possibilities, including studies on eco-friendly gases, and the considered strategy by the CBM-TOF group will be elaborated in this article.
ART-Owen Scrambling
Authors: Ahmed Abdalla G. M. , Pharr Matt , Wonka Peter
Published: December 2023

We present a novel algorithm for implementing Owen-scrambling, combining the generation and distribution of the scrambling bits in a single self-contained compact process. We employ a context-free grammar to build a binary tree of symbols, and equip each symbol with a scrambling code that affects all descendant nodes. We nominate the grammar of adaptive regular tiles (ART) derived from the repetition-avoiding Thue-Morse word, and we discuss its potential advantages and shortcomings. Our algorithm has many advantages, including random access to samples, fixed time complexity, GPU friendliness, and scalability to any memory budget. Further, it provides two unique features over known methods: it admits optimization, and it is in-vertible, enabling screen-space scrambling of the high-dimensional Sobol sampler.
A Parametric Kinetic Solver for Simulating Boundary-Dominated Turbulent Flow Phenomena
Authors: Liu Mengyun , Liu Xiaopei
Published: December 2023

Boundary layer flow plays a very important role in shaping the entire flow feature near and behind obstacles inside fluids. Thus, boundary treatment methods are crucial for a physically consistent fluid simulation, especially when turbulence occurs at a high Reynolds number, in which accurately handling thin boundary layer becomes quite challenging. Traditional Navier-Stokes solvers usually construct multi-resolution body-fitted meshes to achieve high accuracy, often together with near-wall and sub-grid turbulence modeling. However, this could be time-consuming and computationally intensive even with GPU accelerations. An alternative and much faster approach is to switch to a kinetic solver, such as the lattice Boltzmann model, but boundary treatment has to be done in a cut-cell manner, sacrificing accuracy unless grid resolution is much increased. In this paper, we focus on simulating the boundary-dominated turbulent flow phenomena with an efficient kinetic solver. In order to significantly improve the cut-cell-based boundary treatment for higher accuracy without excessively increasing the simulation resolution, we propose a novel parametric boundary treatment model, including a semi-Lagrangian scheme at the wall for non-equilibrium distribution functions, together with a purely link-based near-wall analytical mesoscopic model by analogy with the macroscopic wall modeling approach, which is yet simple to compute. Such a new method is further extended to handle moving boundaries, showing increased accuracy. Comprehensive analyses are conducted, with a variety of simulation results that are both qualitatively and quantitatively validated with experiments and real life scenarios, and compared to existing methods, to indicate superiority of our method. We highlight that our method not only provides a more accurate way for boundary treatment, but also a valuable tool to control boundary layer behaviors. This has not been achieved and demonstrated before in computer graphics, which we believe will be very useful in practical engineering.
Robust Zero Level-Set Extraction from Unsigned Distance Fields Based on Double Covering
Authors: Hou Fei , Chen Xuhui , Wang Wencheng , Qin Hong , He Ying
Published: December 2023

In this paper, we propose a new method, called DoubleCoverUDF, for extracting the zero level-set from unsigned distance fields (UDFs). DoubleCoverUDF takes a learned UDF and a user-specified parameter
r
(a small positive real number) as input and extracts an iso-surface with an iso-value
r
using the conventional marching cubes algorithm. We show that the computed iso-surface is the boundary of the
r
-offset volume of the target zero level-set
S
, which is an orientable manifold, regardless of the topology of
S.
Next, the algorithm computes a covering map to project the boundary mesh onto
S
, preserving the mesh's topology and avoiding folding. If
S
is an orientable manifold surface, our algorithm separates the double-layered mesh into a single layer using a robust minimum-cut post-processing step. Otherwise, it keeps the double-layered mesh as the output. We validate our algorithm by reconstructing 3D surfaces of open models and demonstrate its efficacy and effectiveness on synthetic models and benchmark datasets. Our experimental results confirm that our method is robust and produces meshes with better quality in terms of both visual evaluation and quantitative measures than existing UDF-based methods. The source code is available at https://github.com/jjjkkyz/DCUDF.
Editing Motion Graphics Video via Motion Vectorization and Transformation
Authors: Zhang Sharon , Ma Jiaju , Wu Jiajun , Ritchie Daniel , Agrawala Maneesh
Published: December 2023

Motion graphics videos are widely used in Web design, digital advertising, animated logos and film title sequences, to capture a viewer's attention. But editing such video is challenging because the video provides a low-level sequence of pixels and frames rather than higher-level structure such as the objects in the video with their corresponding motions and occlusions. We present a
motion vectorization
pipeline for converting motion graphics video into an SVG motion program that provides such structure. The resulting SVG program can be rendered using any SVG renderer (e.g. most Web browsers) and edited using any SVG editor. We also introduce a
program transformation
API that facilitates editing of a SVG motion program to create variations that adjust the timing, motions and/or appearances of objects. We show how the API can be used to create a variety of effects including retiming object motion to match a music beat, adding motion textures to objects, and collision preserving appearance changes.
DiffFR: Differentiable SPH-Based Fluid-Rigid Coupling for Rigid Body Control
Authors: Li Zhehao , Xu Qingyu , Ye Xiaohan , Ren Bo , Liu Ligang
Published: December 2023

Differentiable physics simulation has shown its efficacy in inverse design problems. Given the pervasiveness of the diverse interactions between fluids and solids in life, a differentiable simulator for the inverse design of the motion of rigid objects in two-way fluid-rigid coupling is also demanded. There are two main challenges to develop a differentiable two-way fluid-solid coupling simulator for rigid body control tasks: the ubiquitous, discontinuous contacts in fluid-solid interactions, and the high computational cost of gradient formulation due to the large number of degrees of freedom (DoF) of fluid dynamics. In this work, we propose a novel differentiable SPH-based two-way fluid-rigid coupling simulator to address these challenges. Our purpose is to provide a differentiable simulator for SPH which incorporates a unified representation for both fluids and solids using particles. However, naively differentiating the forward simulation of the particle system encounters gradient explosion issues. We investigate the instability in differentiating the SPH-based fluid-rigid coupling simulator and present a feasible gradient computation scheme to address its differentiability. In addition, we also propose an efficient method to compute the gradient of fluid-rigid coupling without incurring the high computational cost of differentiating the entire high-DoF fluid system. We show the efficacy, scalability, and extensibility of our method in various challenging rigid body control tasks with diverse fluid-rigid interactions and multi-rigid contacts, achieving up to an order of magnitude speedup in optimization compared to baseline methods in experiments.
3D Bézier Guarding: Boundary-Conforming Curved Tetrahedral Meshing
Authors: Khanteimouri Payam , Campen Marcel
Published: December 2023

We present a method for the generation of higher-order tetrahedral meshes. In contrast to previous methods, the curved tetrahedral elements are guaranteed to be free of degeneracies and inversions while conforming exactly to prescribed piecewise polynomial surfaces, such as domain boundaries or material interfaces. Arbitrary polynomial order is supported. Algorithmically, the polynomial input surfaces are first covered by a single layer of carefully constructed curved elements using a recursive refinement procedure that provably avoids degeneracies and inversions. These tetrahedral elements are designed such that the remaining space is bounded piecewise linearly. In this way, our method effectively reduces the curved meshing problem to the classical problem of linear mesh generation (for the remaining space).
Doppler Time-of-Flight Rendering
Authors: Kim Juhyeon , Jarosz Wojciech , Gkioulekas Ioannis , Pediredla Adithya
Published: December 2023

We introduce Doppler time-of-flight (D-ToF) rendering, an extension of ToF rendering for dynamic scenes, with applications in simulating D-ToF cameras. D-ToF cameras use high-frequency modulation of illumination and exposure, and measure the Doppler frequency shift to compute the radial velocity of dynamic objects. The time-varying scene geometry and high-frequency modulation functions used in such cameras make it challenging to accurately and efficiently simulate their measurements with existing ToF rendering algorithms. We overcome these challenges in a twofold manner: To achieve accuracy, we derive path integral expressions for D-ToF measurements under global illumination and form unbiased Monte Carlo estimates of these integrals. To achieve efficiency, we develop a tailored time-path sampling technique that combines antithetic time sampling with correlated path sampling. We show experimentally that our sampling technique achieves up to two orders of magnitude lower variance compared to naive time-path sampling. We provide an open-source simulator that serves as a digital twin for D-ToF imaging systems, allowing imaging researchers, for the first time, to investigate the impact of modulation functions, material properties, and global illumination on D-ToF imaging performance.
Reconstructing Close Human Interactions from Multiple Views
Authors: Shuai Qing , Yu Zhiyuan , Zhou Zhize , Fan Lixin , Yang Haijun , Yang Can , Zhou Xiaowei
Published: December 2023

This paper addresses the challenging task of reconstructing the poses of multiple individuals engaged in close interactions, captured by multiple calibrated cameras. The difficulty arises from the noisy or false 2D keypoint detections due to inter-person occlusion, the heavy ambiguity in associating keypoints to individuals due to the close interactions, and the scarcity of training data as collecting and annotating motion data in crowded scenes is resource-intensive. We introduce a novel system to address these challenges. Our system integrates a learning-based pose estimation component and its corresponding training and inference strategies. The pose estimation component takes multi-view 2D keypoint heatmaps as input and reconstructs the pose of each individual using a 3D conditional volumetric network. As the network doesn't need images as input, we can leverage known camera parameters from test scenes and a large quantity of existing motion capture data to synthesize massive training data that mimics the real data distribution in test scenes. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our approach significantly surpasses previous approaches in terms of pose accuracy and is generalizable across various camera setups and population sizes. The code is available on our project page: https://github.com/zju3dv/CloseMoCap.
Online Scene CAD Recomposition via Autonomous Scanning
Authors: Li Changhao , Guo Junfu , Hu Ruizhen , Liu Ligang
Published: December 2023

Autonomous surface reconstruction of 3D scenes has been intensely studied in recent years, however, it is still difficult to accurately reconstruct all the surface details of complex scenes with complicated object relations and severe occlusions, which makes the reconstruction results not suitable for direct use in applications such as gaming and virtual reality. Therefore, instead of reconstructing the detailed surfaces, we aim to recompose the scene with CAD models retrieved from a given dataset to faithfully reflect the object geometry and arrangement in the given scene. Moreover, unlike most of the previous works on scene CAD recomposition requiring an offline reconstructed scene or captured video as input, which leads to significant data redundancy, we propose a novel online scene CAD recomposition method with autonomous scanning, which efficiently recomposes the scene with the guidance of automatically optimized Next-Best-View (NBV) in a single online scanning pass. Based on the key observation that spatial relation in the scene can not only constrain the object pose and layout optimization but also guide the NBV generation, our system consists of two key modules: relation-guided CAD recomposition module that uses relation-constrained global optimization to get accurate object pose and layout estimation, and relation-aware NBV generation module that makes the exploration during the autonomous scanning tailored for our composition task. Extensive experiments have been conducted to show the superiority of our method over previous methods in scanning efficiency and retrieval accuracy as well as the importance of each key component of our method.