bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Self-Protection against the Sphingolipid Biosynthesis Inhibitor Fumonisin B
1
Is Conferred by a
FUM
Cluster-Encoded Ceramide Synthase
Authors: Janevska Slavica , Ferling Iuliia , Jojić Katarina , Rautschek Julia , Hoefgen Sandra , Proctor Robert H. , Hillmann Falk , Valiante Vito
Published: June 2020

The biosynthesis of fungal natural products is highly regulated not only in terms of transcription and translation but also regarding the cellular localization of the biosynthetic pathway. In all eukaryotes, the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is involved in the production of organelles, which are subject to cellular traffic or secretion. Here, we show that in
Fusarium verticillioides
, early steps in fumonisin production take place in the ER, together with ceramide biosynthesis, which is targeted by the mycotoxin. A first level of self-protection is given by the presence of a
FUM
cluster-encoded ceramide synthase, Fum18, hitherto uncharacterized. In addition, the final fumonisin biosynthetic step occurs in the cytosol and is thereby spatially separate from the fungal ceramide synthases. We suggest that these strategies help the fungus to avoid self-poisoning during mycotoxin production.
Comparative Genomics Identified a Genetic Locus in Plant-Associated
Pseudomonas
spp. That Is Necessary for Induced Systemic Susceptibility
Authors: Beskrovnaya Polina , Melnyk Ryan A. , Liu Zhexian , Liu Yang , Higgins Melanie A. , Song Yi , Ryan Katherine S. , Haney Cara H.
Published: June 2020

Microbiome-associated bacteria can have diverse effects on health of their hosts, yet the genetic and molecular bases of these effects have largely remained elusive. This work demonstrates that a novel bacterial locus can modulate systemic plant immunity. Additionally, this work demonstrates that growth-promoting strains may have unanticipated consequences for plant immunity, and this is critical to consider when the plant microbiome is being engineered for agronomic improvement.
Previremic Identification of Ebola or Marburg Virus Infection Using Integrated Host-Transcriptome and Viral Genome Detection
Authors: Speranza Emily , Caballero Ignacio , Honko Anna N. , Johnson Joshua C. , Bohannon J. Kyle , Evans DeWald Lisa , Gerhardt Dawn M. , Sword Jennifer , Hensley Lisa E. , Bennett Richard S. , Connor John H.
Published: June 2020

Current molecular tests that identify infection with high-consequence viruses such as Ebola virus and Marburg virus are based on the detection of virus material in the blood. These viruses do not undergo significant early replication in the blood and, instead, replicate in organs such as the liver and spleen. Thus, virus begins to accumulate in the blood only after significant replication has already occurred in those organs, making viremia an indicator of infection only after initial stages have become established. Here, we show that a multianalyte assay can correctly identify the infectious agent in nonhuman primates (NHPs) prior to viremia through tracking host infection response transcripts. This illustrates that a single-tube, sample-to-answer format assay could be used to advance the time at which the type of infection can be determined and thereby improve outcomes.
Initial Mapping of the New York City Wastewater Virome
Authors: Gulino K. , Rahman J. , Badri M. , Morton J. , Bonneau R. , Ghedin E.
Published: June 2020

Wastewater is a rich source of microbial life and contains bacteria, viruses, and other microbes found in human waste as well as environmental runoff sources. As part of an effort to characterize the New York City wastewater metagenome, we profiled the viral community of sewage samples across all five boroughs of NYC and found that local sampling sites have unique sets of viruses. We focused on bacteriophages, or viruses of bacteria, to understand how they may influence the microbial ecology of this system. We identified several new clusters of phages and successfully associated them with bacterial hosts, providing insight into virus-host interactions in urban wastewater. This study provides a first look into the viral communities present across the wastewater system in NYC and points to their functional importance in this environment.
Myasthenia gravis and concurrent myositis following PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor for non-small cell lung cancer
Authors: Phua Chun Seng , Murad Ari , Fraser Clare , Bray Victoria , Cappelen-Smith Cecilia
Published: June 2020

Background

There are increasing reports of myasthenia gravis (MG) following oncological treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs).

Methods and results

A 66-year-old man with stage 3A lung adenocarcinoma was treated with second weekly infusions of durvalumab, a programmed cell death ligand-1 inhibitor, at a dose of 10 mg/kg. After the fourth infusion, he developed diplopia, dyspnoea and constitutional symptoms including headache, weakness and anorexia. 1 month later, he developed dysphagia and dysphonia. Examination showed proximal limb weakness with fatigability. An ice pack test was positive. Blood tests revealed a raised creatine kinase and positive PM-Scl75 antibody. Antititin antibody was strongly positive in the serum and cerebrospinal fluid. Antibodies for acetylcholinesterase receptor and antimuscle-specific kinase were negative. Electromyography showed myopathic changes. The patient was treated with steroids, pyridostigmine, mycophenolate mofetil and intravenous immunoglobulin. Eight weeks after treatment initiation ptosis, eye movements and limb strength were markedly improved and repeat creatine kinase was normal.

Conclusion

Clinicians using ICIs should have a high index of suspicion for ICI-induced MG and concurrent myositis as disease can be severe and is associated with high mortality rates.
Parkinsonism in the psychiatric setting: an update on clinical differentiation and management
Authors: Powell Alice , Gallur Lara , Koopowitz Leslie , Hayes Michael William
Published: June 2020

Parkinsonism is seen frequently in patients with psychiatric conditions. Drug-induced parkinsonism (DIP) is the second most common cause of parkinsonism in the general population after Parkinson’s disease (PD) but a range of rarer aetiologies, some of them reversible, should also be considered in patients of all ages. DIP is more common in older patients, as are neurodegenerative diseases that may produce parkinsonism and it is relatively more likely that drug exposure could be unmasking an underlying process in this population. There is an extensive literature on differentiating DIP from PD but clinical features can be indistinguishable and many proposed investigations are not readily available. Aside from cessation of the responsible medication, there is no clear consensus on treatment strategies or duration of treatment. Practically, a delicate balance must be achieved between ameliorating parkinsonism and avoiding recurrent psychosis. Long-term prognosis in the setting of DIP remains unclear. We review the features that may differentiate DIP from other causes of parkinsonism in patients with psychiatric illness, provide an update on relevant investigations and discuss management strategies. The use of atypical antipsychotics for a broad range of indications highlights the ongoing relevance of DIP.
Chronic pain care: time for excellence
Authors: Heath Laura , Philip Andrew
Published: June 2020

The current health system aims to cope with the epidemic of chronic pain. The narrative urgently needs to be reset to one that strives for excellence. This reflection illustrates what excellence may look like and also highlights where system biases are preventing positive change from occurring.
Outcomes of pregnancy and associated factors in sub-Saharan African women with systemic lupus erythematosus: a scoping review
Authors: Essouma Mickael , Nkeck Jan René , Motolouze Kodoume , Bigna Jean Joel , Tchaptchet Paul , Nkoro Grâce Anita , Ralandison Stéphane , Hachulla Eric
Published: June 2020

Objective

To scope and summarise available literature on the outcomes of pregnancy and associated factors in sub-Saharan African women with SLE.

Methods

Electronic databases and reference lists of retrieved articles were searched to identify relevant studies published from 1 January 2000 to 28 October 2019. Data were combined through narrative synthesis.

Results

We included four studies retrospectively reporting a total of 137 pregnancies in 102 women over a 26-year period. Mean age at conception ranged from 27.2 to 39.9 years. Kidney damage, the predominant organ manifestation before conception, was reported in 43 (42.2%) patients. Ninety-seven (70.8%) pregnancies resulted in 98 live births. SLE flares occurred in 44 (32.2%) pregnancies, mainly skin (20.4%) and renal (18.2%) flares. Major adverse pregnancy outcomes (APOs) were preterm birth 38.8%, low birth weight 29.8%, pregnancy loss 29.2% and pre-eclampsia 24.8%. The main factors associated with APOs were nephritis and SLE flares.

Conclusion

Over two-thirds of pregnancies resulted in live birth in this cohort of sub-Saharan African women with SLE. The main APOs and associated factors described in other parts of the world are also seen in this region, but with high rates of APOs. A large prospective multinational study is warranted for more compelling evidence.
Trace determination of gadolinium by conductivity-based approach
Authors: Ananthanarayanan R. , Sivaramakrishna M. , Panigrahi B.S.
Published: June 2020

A conductivity-based technique is developed for the determination of Gd3+in the heavy water moderators of pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWRs). The method involves monitoring extremely small shifts in conductivity, in the order of few nS/cm, due to the continuous addition of a suitable complexing agent to Gd3+in aqueous medium. The resulting plot gives two distinct regions with vastly differing slopes. Two multidentate ligands, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and diethylenetriaminepentaaceticacid (DTPA), as complexing agents are compared. A high performing conductivity detector based on a new class of sensors called pulsating sensors that works entirely in the digital domain is deployed to monitor the conductivity shifts. Titration plots are studied in both H2O and D2O, and the observed difference between the plots in the two matrices is discussed in detail. Boron did not interfere in the analysis. The method was validated using the UV–vis spectrophotometric technique. The method is sensitive and rapid, as each analysis takes 3 min. The limit of detection in H2O and D2O are 1.27×10−7mol/L and 5.1×10−7mol/L, respectively. The precision in analysis lies between 1.9% and 5.3%. This method has important application in the nuclear industry for the routine analysis of gadolinium.
Synthesis of new chromogenic sensors containing thiourea and selective detection for F–, H2PO4–, and Ac– anions
Authors: Cao Cheng , You Xingmei , Feng Lei , Luo Guanghong , Yue Guoren , Ji Xiangdong
Published: June 2020

Two new chromogenic sensors 1-(2-hydroxyphenyl)-3-(4-nitrophenyl)thiourea 1 and 1-(3-hydroxypyridin-2-yl)-3-(4-nitrophenyl)thiourea 2 bearing nitrophenyl and thiourea groups were designed and synthesized by one-step procedure and characterized through 1H NMR, 13C NMR, FTIR, and MS. The anion recognition property of the receptors was studied via naked-eye detection, UV–vis, and 1H NMR. Based on the existence of amino gen and hydroxyl moieties in receptors, receptors 1 and 2 exhibit obvious selectivity by the redshift of UV–vis signals, colour changes through naked-eye detection, and binding effects for F–, H2PO4–, and Ac–. Surprisingly, the detection limits of receptor 1 for F– and Ac– were calculated to be 5.45 × 10−7 and 2.11 × 10−7 (mol/L)−1, respectively, which indicated that F– and Ac– can be identified with high sensitivity by receptor 1. Besides, simple “test strips” were developed and were used as sensors for recognition of F–, H2PO4–, or Ac– in DMSO solution. Lastly, the mechanisms of the recognition process were studied through DFT calculation and 1H NMR titration.
Short-term effects of tillage of long-term no-till on nitrous oxide emissions from two contrasting Canadian prairie soils
Authors: Shahidi B.M.R. , Dyck M. , Malhi S.S. , Puurveen D.
Published: June 2020

The reduction in net CO2 emissions from increased carbon sequestration in soil and slower decomposition of soil organic matter under most long-term no-till (NT) situations can potentially be offset by a concomitant increase in nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions after tillage reversal on long-term NT soils. The objective of this work was to quantify N2O emissions after tillage reversal on two contrasting western Canadian Prairie soils managed under long-term (∼30 yr) NT. We measured one growing season (2010) of soil N2O emissions on a Black Chernozem and Gray Luvisol at Ellerslie and Breton, AB, respectively, following 30 yr of NT and N fertilizer application at two rates (0 and 100 kg N ha−1) subjected to tillage reversal and no disturbance (i.e., continuing NT). Tillage reversal after long-term NT was associated with higher N2O emissions in both soils but was significant only in the Gray Luvisol with 0 kg N ha−1. Long-term N fertilizer applications of 100 kg N ha−1 were associated with higher growing season soil N2O emissions and higher levels of soil N (i.e., a positive, long-term soil N balance) at both sites. Regardless of tillage, the difference in growing season nitrous oxide emissions from the 0 and 100 kg N ha−1 plots on the Gray Luvisol were much greater than the Black Chernozem. A modest increase in N2O emissions upon tillage reversal on a long-term NT soils could translate to a significant increase to agricultural greenhouse gas inventories in the event of large-scale tillage reversal on agricultural land in western Canada.
First-order corrected thermodynamic potentials characterizing BTZ black hole in massive gravity
Authors: Nadeem-ul-islam  , Ganai Prince A.
Published: June 2020

In this paper, we explore the effect of quantum fluctuations on the thermodynamic potentials, characterizing the (2[Formula: see text]+[Formula: see text]1)-dimensional AdS black hole with the negative cosmological constant in massive gravity. The (2[Formula: see text]+[Formula: see text]1)-dimensional black hole solution was discovered by three pioneer scientists, Banados, Teitelboim, and Zanelli in 1992 and hence is named as BTZ black hole.[Formula: see text] First, we present the brief idea of the BTZ black hole solution in massive gravity and then estimate the leading order corrections to thermodynamic potentials characterizing BTZ black hole in massive gravity. The qualitative analysis is done by plotting the corrected thermodynamic potentials against the event horizon radius for distinct values of the correction parameter. The correction parameter [Formula: see text] measures the strength of quantum fluctuations.
A Hybrid Concession Mechanism for Negotiating Software Agents in Competitive Environments
Authors: Mansour Khalid
Published: June 2020

This paper presents a new hybrid concession mechanism for negotiating agents. It considers both the current concession behavior of the proposing agent and the concession offered by its opponent in the last counteroffer to create a new offer. The proposed mechanism is a kind of imitating offer generation tactic. The difference is that it uses the first order difference between the two last counteroffers received from the opponent as its current reservation value which is one of the important inputs in generating a new offer. In this paper, a bilateral negotiation over a single issue is considered where agents have adverse interests over the issue such as price. Four negotiation environmental settings are used to test the proposed offer generating mechanism. The experimental results show that the proposed hybrid concession mechanism outperforms the time-dependent concession tactic in terms of utility rate while performing lower in one negotiation environment and similarly in most of negotiation environments.
Analytical investigation of wave absorption by a rotating black hole analogue
Authors: Oliveira Leandro A. , Benone Carolina L. , Almeida Amanda L. , Crispino Luís C. B.
Published: June 2020

Perturbations in a draining vortex can be described analytically in terms of confluent Heun functions. In the context of analogue models of gravity in ideal fluids, we investigate analytically the absorption length of waves in a draining bathtub, a rotating black hole analogue, using confluent Heun functions. We compare our analytical results with the corresponding numerical ones, obtaining excellent agreement.
Combinatorics and structure of Hecke–Kiselman algebras
Authors: Okniński Jan , Wiertel Magdalena
Published: June 2020

Hecke–Kiselman monoids [Formula: see text] and their algebras [Formula: see text], over a field [Formula: see text], associated to finite oriented graphs [Formula: see text] are studied. In the case [Formula: see text] is a cycle of length [Formula: see text], a hierarchy of certain unexpected structures of matrix type is discovered within the monoid [Formula: see text] and this hierarchy is used to describe the structure and the properties of the algebra [Formula: see text]. In particular, it is shown that [Formula: see text] is a right and left Noetherian algebra, while it has been known that it is a PI-algebra of Gelfand–Kirillov dimension one. This is used to characterize all Noetherian algebras [Formula: see text] in terms of the graphs [Formula: see text]. The strategy of our approach is based on the crucial role played by submonoids of the form [Formula: see text] in combinatorics and structure of arbitrary Hecke–Kiselman monoids [Formula: see text].
On the iterated Hamiltonian Floer homology
Authors: Çineli Erman , Ginzburg Viktor L.
Published: June 2020

The focus of the paper is the behavior under iterations of the filtered and local Floer homology of a Hamiltonian on a symplectically aspherical manifold. The Floer homology of an iterated Hamiltonian comes with a natural cyclic group action. In the filtered case, we show that the supertrace of a generator of this action is equal to the Euler characteristic of the homology of the un-iterated Hamiltonian. For the local homology the supertrace is the Lefschetz index of the fixed point. We also prove an analog of the classical Smith inequality for the iterated local homology and the equivariant versions of these results.
Large-scale correction and thermal properties of holographic dual background of an adaptive graphene model
Authors: Zali Z. , Sadeghi J.
Published: June 2020

In this paper, we consider the particle on curved graphene space-time. In that case, we calculate the geometric form of potential which is known as Gaussian function. Here, we introduce the metric background which completely corresponds to curved graphene space-times. This metric leads us to obtain the geometry potential and we make the Laplace Beltrami equation in the mentioned metric background. We also rearrange such relation in terms of the second-order equation. By using the known polynomial, we solve the particle equation of motion in graphene background. In that case, we arrive the energy spectrum which has three terms. We take advantage from energy spectrum and investigate the thermal properties of system. The additional terms give us an opportunity to obtain the corrected entropy and free energy. So, we show that the additional term comes from geometry potential. This correction is important for the large scale. Hence, we show that correction term is logarithmic as well as small scale corrections.
Some properties of p-valent analytic functions defined by Dziok–Srivastava operator
Authors: Ali E. E. , Aouf M. K. , El-Ashwah R. M.
Published: June 2020

Using the Dziok–Srivastava operator, we describe the class of p-valent analytical functions [Formula: see text] and we obtain certain interesting properties of this class.
Advanced Diagnosis and Therapy for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension
Authors: Qi Jing , Xing Yan , Zhao Xiaoting , Zhu Daling , Zheng Xiaodong
Published: June 2020

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a pathophysiological disorder that may involve multiple clinical conditions and progressive disease, which often leads to premature death. Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH, group 1 PH) comprises of diverse diseases that result in similar pathological changes, including the medium-sized pulmonary arteries and pulmonary arterioles characterized by vascular obliteration. The evaluation and diagnosis of PH and PAH were re-defined based on proceedings of the 6th World Symposia on Pulmonary Hypertension (WSPH). Accurate early diagnosis and subsequent therapy of PAH are necessary, as management of this disease is still challenging, and life expectancy is remaining suboptimal. This review task force reflects the multidisciplinary nature of PAH, including the definition, epidemiology, genetics, especially the advanced diagnosis and the therapy development in recent years.
Numerical optimization of the piezoelectric generators
Authors: Chebanenko V. A. , Zhilyaev I. V. , Soloviev A. N. , Cherpakov A. V. , Parinov I. A.
Published: June 2020

This paper presents the application of the Pareto-based multicriteria optimization technique to problems of increasing the efficiency of piezoelectric generators (PEGs). The optimization problem was solved for two types of generators: cantilever and stack. For the cantilever generator, the task was to optimize the design in such a way as to obtain the maximum output power for a given mechanical excitation. The optimization process was divided into several stages, which significantly reduced the amount of calculations. The task of optimizing the stack type for a given form of mechanical loading consisted in finding the geometric parameters of the generator at which the output voltage and power would be maximum. In the result of solving both problems, sets of geometric design parameters of PEGs were obtained, on the basis of which efficient transducers can be developed for specific operating conditions. It turned out that this technique is more suitable for optimizing the design of cantilever generators than for stack ones in given constraints. The solution of both problems was realized using the finite element method.
Kinetic Shape Reconstruction
Authors: Bauchet Jean-Philippe , Lafarge Florent
Published: June 2020

Converting point clouds into concise polygonal meshes in an automated manner is an enduring problem in computer graphics. Prior works, which typically operate by assembling planar shapes detected from input points, largely overlooked the scalability issue of processing a large number of shapes. As a result, they tend to produce overly simplified meshes with assembling approaches that can hardly digest more than 100 shapes in practice. We propose a shape assembling mechanism that is at least one order of magnitude more efficient, both in time and in number of processed shapes. Our key idea relies upon the design of a kinetic data structure for partitioning the space into convex polyhedra. Instead of slicing all the planar shapes exhaustively as prior methods, we create a partition where shapes grow at constant speed until colliding and forming polyhedra. This simple idea produces a lighter yet meaningful partition with a lower algorithmic complexity than an exhaustive partition. A watertight polygonal mesh is then extracted from the partition with a min-cut formulation. We demonstrate the robustness and efficacy of our algorithm on a variety of objects and scenes in terms of complexity, size, and acquisition characteristics. In particular, we show the method can both faithfully represent piecewise planar structures and approximate freeform objects while offering high resilience to occlusions and missing data.
OptiStructures
Authors: Swaminathan Saiganesh , Fagert Jonathon , Rivera Michael , Cao Andrew , Laput Gierad , Noh Hae Young , Hudson Scott E.
Published: June 2020

A recent topic of considerable interest in the "smart building" community involves building interactive devices using sensors, and rapidly creating these objects using new fabrication methods. However, much of this work has been done at what might be called hand scale, with less attention paid to larger objects and structures (at furniture or room scales) despite the fact that we are very often literally surrounded by such objects. In this work, we present a new set of techniques for creating interactive objects at these scales. We demonstrate fabrication of both input sensors and displays directly into cast materials -those formed from a liquid or paste which solidifies in a mold; including, for example: concrete, plaster, polymer resins, and composites.

Through our novel set of sensing and fabrication techniques, we enable human activity recognition at room scale and across a variety of materials. Our techniques create objects that appear the same as typical passive objects, but contain internal fiber optics for both input sensing and simple displays. We use a new fabrication device to inject optical fibers into CNC milled molds. Fiber Bragg Grating optical sensors configured as very sensitive vibration sensors are embedded in these objects. These require no internal power, can be placed at multiple locations along a single fiber, and can be interrogated from the end of the fiber. We evaluate the performance of our system by creating two full-scale application prototypes: an interactive wall, and an interactive table. With these prototypes, we demonstrate the ability of our system to sense a variety of human activities across eight different users. Our tests show that with suitable materials these sensors can detect and classify both direct interactions (such as tapping) and more subtle vibrations caused by activities such as walking across the floor nearby.
BodyCompass
Authors: Yue Shichao , Yang Yuzhe , Wang Hao , Rahul Hariharan , Katabi Dina
Published: June 2020

Monitoring sleep posture is important for avoiding bedsores after surgery, reducing apnea events, tracking the progression of Parkinson's disease, and even alerting epilepsy patients to potentially fatal sleep postures. Today, there is no easy way to track sleep postures. Past work has proposed installing cameras in the bedroom, mounting accelerometers on the subject's chest, or embedding pressure sensors in their bedsheets. Unfortunately, such solutions jeopardize either the privacy of the user or their sleep comfort.

In this paper, we introduce BodyCompass, the first RF-based system that provides accurate sleep posture monitoring overnight in the user's own home. BodyCompass works by studying the RF reflections in the environment. It disentangles RF signals that bounced off the subject's body from other multipath signals. It then analyzes those signals via a custom machine learning algorithm to infer the subject's sleep posture. BodyCompass is easily transferable and can apply to new homes and users with minimal effort. We empirically evaluate BodyCompass using over 200 nights of sleep data from 26 subjects in their own homes. Our results show that, given one week, one night, or 16 minutes of labeled data from the subject, BodyCompass's corresponding accuracy is 94%, 87%, and 84%, respectively.
SenCAPTCHA
Authors: Feng Yunhe , Cao Qing , Qi Hairong , Ruoti Scott
Published: June 2020

CAPTCHAs are used to distinguish between human- and computer-generated (i.e., bot) online traffic. As there is an ever-increasing amount of online traffic from mobile devices, it is necessary to design CAPTCHAs that work well on mobile devices. In this paper, we present SenCAPTCHA, a mobile-first CAPTCHA that leverages the device's orientation sensors. SenCAPTCHA works by showing users an image of an animal and asking them to tilt their device to guide a red ball into the center of that animal's eye. SenCAPTCHA is especially useful for devices with small screen sizes (e.g., smartphones, smartwatches). In this paper, we describe the design of SenCAPTCHA and demonstrate that it is resilient to various machine learning based attacks. We also report on two usability studies of SenCAPTCHA involving a total of 472 participants; our results show that SenCAPTCHA is viewed as an "enjoyable" CAPTCHA and that it is preferred by over half of the participants to other existing CAPTCHA systems.
Relacks
Authors: Katanbaf Mohamad , Jain Vivek , Smith Joshua R.
Published: June 2020

The increasing number of embedded, plugged-in radios around homes and offices in everyday objects such as appliances, TVs, and smart speakers provides an excellent opportunity to bring ultra-low-power backscatter connectivity to billions of devices. However, backscatter links suffer from high loss due to two consecutive propagations and have to operate on narrow link-budget margins, which makes them more susceptible to multipath losses in indoor environments. To address this, we propose a closed-loop backscatter system that exploits diversity sources such as communication frequency and transceivers antennas based on the channel metrics to deliver reliable coverage over an entire area. We prototype a backscatter system with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) transceivers and BLE compatible tags and deploy it in several multipath rich indoor environments. Our evaluations show that we can successfully communicate with a backscatter tag in a 50m2 indoor area. The proposed algorithm for selecting communication parameters achieves an average 2.7 x success rate compared to the random selection while satisfying FCC output power requirements for frequency hopping transceivers.
Leveraging Polarization of WiFi Signals to Simultaneously Track Multiple People
Authors: Venkatnarayan Raghav H. , Shahzad Muhammad , Yun Sangki , Vlachou Christina , Kim Kyu-Han
Published: June 2020

This paper presents WiPolar, an approach that simultaneously tracks multiple people using commodity WiFi devices. While two recent papers have also demonstrated multi-person tracking using commodity devices, they either require the people to continuously keep moving without stopping, and/or require the number of people to be input manually, and/or keep the WiFi devices from performing their primary function of data communication. Motivated by the increasing availability of polarized antennas on modern WiFi devices, WiPolar leverages signal polarization to perform accurate multi-person tracking using commodity devices while addressing the three limitations of prior work mentioned above. The key insight that WiPolar is based on is that different people expose different instantaneous horizontal and vertical radar cross-sections to WiFi transmitters due to differences in their physiques and orientations with respect to the transmitter. This enables WiPolar to accurately separate the multipaths reflected from different people, which, in turn, allows it to track them simultaneously. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that leverages polarization of WiFi signals to localize and track people. We implement WiPolar using commodity WiFi devices and extensively evaluate it for tracking up to five people in three different environments. Our results show that WiPolar achieved a median tracking error of just 56cm across all experiments. It also accurately tracks people even when they were not moving. WiPolar achieved a median tracking error of 74cm for people that were either stationary or just taking a small pause.
Making Sense of Sleep
Authors: Zhai Bing , Perez-Pozuelo Ignacio , Clifton Emma A. D. , Palotti Joao , Guan Yu
Published: June 2020

Traditionally, sleep monitoring has been performed in hospital or clinic environments, requiring complex and expensive equipment set-up and expert scoring. Wearable devices increasingly provide a viable alternative for sleep monitoring and are able to collect movement and heart rate (HR) data. In this work, we present a set of algorithms for sleep-wake and sleep-stage classification based upon actigraphy and cardiac sensing amongst 1,743 participants. We devise movement and cardiac features that could be extracted from research-grade wearable sensors and derive models and evaluate their performance in the largest open-access dataset for human sleep science. Our results demonstrated that neural network models outperform traditional machine learning methods and heuristic models for both sleep-wake and sleep-stage classification. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and long-short term memory (LSTM) networks were the best performers for sleep-wake and sleep-stage classification, respectively. Using SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanation) with Random Forest we identified that frequency features from cardiac sensors are critical to sleep-stage classification. Finally, we introduced an ensemble-based approach to sleep-stage classification, which outperformed all other baselines, achieving an accuracy of 78.2% and F1 score of 69.8% on the classification task for three sleep stages. Together, this work represents the first systematic multimodal evaluation of sleep-wake and sleep-stage classification in a large, diverse population. Alongside the presentation of an accurate sleep-stage classification approach, the results highlight multimodal wearable sensing approaches as scalable methods for accurate sleep-classification, providing guidance on optimal algorithm deployment for automated sleep assessment. The code used in this study can be found online at: https://github.com/bzhai/multimodal_sleep_stage_benchmark.git
Foundations for Systematic Evaluation and Benchmarking of a Mobile Food Logger in a Large-scale Nutrition Study
Authors: Jung Jisu , Wellard-Cole Lyndal , Cai Colin , Koprinska Irena , Yacef Kalina , Allman-Farinelli Margaret , Kay Judy
Published: June 2020

Mobile food logging is important but people find it tedious and difficult to do. Our work tackles the challenging aspect of searching a large food database on a small mobile screen. We describe the design of the EaT (Eat and Track) app with its Search-Accelerator to support searches on >6,000 foods. We designed a study to harness data from a large nutrition study to provide insights about the use and user experience of EaT. We report the results of our evaluation: a 12-participant lab study and a public health research field study where 1,027-participants entered their nutrition intake for 3 days, logging 30,715 food items. We also analysed 1,163 user-created food entries from 670 participants to gain insights about the causes of failures in the food search. Our core contributions are: 1) the design and evaluation of EaT's support for accurate and detailed food logging; 2) our study design that harnesses a nutrition research study to provide insights about timeliness of logging and the strengths and weaknesses of the search; 3) new performance benchmarks for mobile food logging.
RISC
Authors: Xie Xiaoyang , Fang Zhihan , Wang Yang , Zhang Fan , Zhang Desheng
Published: June 2020

With the trend of vehicles becoming increasingly connected and potentially autonomous, vehicles are being equipped with rich sensing and communication devices. Various vehicular services based on shared real-time sensor data of vehicles from a fleet have been proposed to improve the urban efficiency, e.g., HD-live map, and traffic accident recovery. However, due to the high cost of data uploading (e.g., monthly fees for a cellular network), it would be impractical to make all well-equipped vehicles to upload real-time sensor data constantly. To better utilize these limited uploading resources and achieve an optimal road segment sensing coverage, we present a real-time sensing task scheduling framework, i.e., RISC, for Resource-Constraint modeling for urban sensing by scheduling sensing tasks of commercial vehicles with sensors based on the predictability of vehicles' mobility patterns. In particular, we utilize the commercial vehicles, including taxicabs, buses, and logistics trucks as mobile sensors to sense urban phenomena, e.g., traffic, by using the equipped vehicular sensors, e.g., dash-cam, lidar, automotive radar, etc. We implement RISC on a Chinese city Shenzhen with one-month real-world data from (i) a taxi fleet with 14 thousand vehicles; (ii) a bus fleet with 13 thousand vehicles; (iii) a truck fleet with 4 thousand vehicles. Further, we design an application, i.e., track suspect vehicles (e.g., hit-and-run vehicles), to evaluate the performance of RISC on the urban sensing aspect based on the data from a regular vehicle (i.e., personal car) fleet with 11 thousand vehicles. The evaluation results show that compared to the state-of-the-art solutions, we improved sensing coverage (i.e., the number of road segments covered by sensing vehicles) by 10% on average.
Coordinate expression loss of GKN1 and GKN2 in gastric cancer via impairment of a glucocorticoid-responsive enhancer
Authors: Chung Nien Chin Sharleen , O’Connor Louise , Scurr Michelle , Busada Jonathan T. , Graham Alison N. , Alipour Talesh Ghazal , Tran Chau P. , Sarkar Sohinee , Minamoto Toshinari , Giraud Andrew S. , Cidlowski John A. , Sutton Philip , Menheniott Trevelyan R.
Published: June 2020

Gastrokine 2 (GKN2) is an anti-inflammatory protein produced by the gastric epithelium. GKN2 expression is progressively lost during gastric cancer (GC), which is believed to play a casual role in GC development. Here, we use bacterial artificial chromosome transgenic studies to identify a glucocorticoid-responsive enhancer element that likely governs expression of GKN1/GKN2, which, via parallel expression loss of the anti-inflammatory glucocorticoid receptor, reveals a novel mechanism to explain the loss of GKN2 during GC pathogenesis.
Switching of cargo sorting from the constitutive to regulated secretory pathway by the addition of cystatin D sequence in salivary acinar cells
Authors: Fujita-Yoshigaki Junko , Yokoyama Megumi , Katsumata-Kato Osamu
Published: June 2020

The mechanism underlying the segregation of cargo proteins to the regulated and constitutive secretory pathways in exocrine cells remains to be solved. We analyzed unstimulated secretion in salivary acinar cells by performing double-labeling experiments using HaloTag technology and computer simulation. It revealed that the majority of HaloTag with only signal peptide sequence was secreted through the constitutive pathway and that the addition of a full-length cystatin D sequence changed its sorting to the regulated pathway.
Hyaluronic acid promotes Lgr5+ stem cell proliferation and crypt fission through TLR4 and PGE2 transactivation of EGFR
Authors: Riehl Terrence E. , Alvarado David , Ee Xueping , Ciorba Matthew A. , Stenson William F.
Published: June 2020

This study, in newborn mice, describes a novel molecular pathway regulating Lgr5+ epithelial stem cell proliferation and normal intestinal elongation, as assessed by crypt fission. In this pathway, endogenous extracellular hyaluronic acid binds to Toll-like receptor 4 on pericryptal macrophages releasing PGE2 which binds to epidermal growth factor receptor on Lgr5+ stem cells resulting in proliferation. Lgr5+ stem cell proliferation leads to crypt fission and intestinal elongation. The demonstration that normal growth requires microbial-independent Toll-like receptor activation is novel.
Proteome and Transcriptome Analysis of the Antioxidant Mechanism in Chicken Regulated by Eucalyptus Leaf Polyphenols Extract
Authors: Li Wei , He Ze-qi , Zhang Xiao-Ying , Chen Yun-Jiao , Zuo Jian-Jun , Cao Yong
Published: June 2020

Eucalyptus leaf polyphenols extract (EPE) has been proved to have various bioactivities, but few reports focus on its antioxidant mechanism in vivo. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the effect and mechanism of EPE dietary supplements on antioxidant capacity in chicken. A total of 216 chickens were randomly selected for a 40-day experiment. Four treatment groups received diets including the control diet only, the control diet + low EPE (0.6 g/kg), the control diet + moderate EPE (0.9 g/kg), and the control diet + high EPE (1.2 g/kg). Compared with control group, the glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity and glutathione (GSH) content in the breast muscle of the moderate EPE treatment group was significantly higher (p<0.05), while the malonaldehyde (MDA) content in the moderate EPE group was reduced (p<0.05). Moreover, proteomic and transcriptomic analyses of the breast muscle revealed that glutathione metabolism and the peroxisome were the two crucial metabolic pathways responsible for increased antioxidant capacity of the muscle. Accordingly, nine candidate genes and two candidate proteins were identified related to improved antioxidant status induced by EPE supplements. This research provides new insights into the molecular mechanism of antioxidant capacity in chickens treated with EPE dietary supplements.
Reversal of β-Amyloid-Induced Microglial Toxicity In Vitro by Activation of Fpr2/3
Authors: Wickstead Edward S. , Karim Husnain A. , Manuel Roberta E. , Biggs Christopher S. , Getting Stephen J. , McArthur Simon
Published: June 2020

Microglial inflammatory activity is thought to be a major contributor to the pathology of neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and strategies to restrain their behaviour are under active investigation. Classically, anti-inflammatory approaches are aimed at suppressing proinflammatory mediator production, but exploitation of inflammatory resolution, the endogenous process whereby an inflammatory reaction is terminated, has not been fully investigated as a therapeutic approach in AD. In this study, we sought to provide proof-of-principle that the major proresolving actor, formyl peptide receptor 2, Fpr2, could be targeted to reverse microglial activation induced by the AD-associated proinflammatory stimulus, oligomeric β-amyloid (oAβ). The immortalised murine microglial cell line BV2 was employed as a model system to investigate the proresolving effects of the Fpr2 ligand QC1 upon oAβ-induced inflammatory, oxidative, and metabolic behaviour. Cytotoxic behaviour of BV2 cells was assessed through the use of cocultures with retinoic acid-differentiated human SH-SY5Y cells. Stimulation of BV2 cells with oAβ at 100 nM did not induce classical inflammatory marker production but did stimulate production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), an effect that could be reversed by subsequent treatment with the Fpr2 ligand QC1. Further investigation revealed that oAβ-induced ROS production was associated with NADPH oxidase activation and a shift in BV2 cell metabolic phenotype, activating the pentose phosphate pathway and NADPH production, changes that were again reversed by QC1 treatment. Microglial oAβ-stimulated ROS production was sufficient to induce apoptosis of bystander SH-SY5Y cells, an effect that could be prevented by QC1 treatment. In this study, we provide proof-of-concept data that indicate exploitation of the proresolving receptor Fpr2 can reverse damaging oAβ-induced microglial activation. Future strategies that are aimed at restraining neuroinflammation in conditions such as AD should examine proresolving actors as a mechanism to harness the brain’s endogenous healing pathways and limit neuroinflammatory damage.
Escherichia coli as a Tool for Disease Risk Assessment of Drinking Water Sources
Authors: Odonkor Stephen T. , Mahami Tahiru
Published: June 2020

Many diseases have been associated with poor drinking water quality including diseases caused by diarrheagenic pathogens, especially in developing countries where access to a consistent water supply is a problem. The objective of the study was to evaluate the health risks associated with the sources of drinking water in the Dangme West District of Ghana using E. coli as a measurement tool, aiming at ascertaining the paths leading to contamination of the water sources. A total of 464 water samples were obtained for analysis. Sampling covered a year across the dry and wet seasons in Ghana. Water samples were obtained from groundwater and surface water sources. E. coli counts were determined using the most probable number method (MPN). Disease risk assessment was carried out using the WHO drinking water risk assessment guidelines. Generally, the study revealed significantly higher E. coli counts in the wet season than in the dry season. Among the water samples analyzed, surface water, especially from the dams, was found to pose the highest disease risk as compared to the other water sources. Samples from groundwater sources, especially boreholes, posed the lowest disease risk. In conclusion, observations from the study implied that most water sources in the study district are highly polluted with bacteria pathogens beyond recommended safety guidelines. The main causes of faecal contamination in these water sources were purported to be anthropogenic. Therefore, there is a need to formulate a policy aimed at managing and improving rural water sources.
The Applications and Complexity Analysis Based on Network Embedding Behaviors under Evolutionary Game Framework
Authors: Su Xin , Zhang Hui , Guo Shubing
Published: June 2020

In this paper, we use the dynamic mechanism of biological evolution to simulate the enterprises’ bounded rational game. We construct game models of network embedding behaviors of horizontal and vertical enterprises in supply chain, explain the repeated games of random pairs of enterprises by replication dynamic differential equations, study the characteristics and evolution trend of this flow, conduct simulation experiments, clarify the evolution direction and law of network embedding strategy selection of supply chain enterprises, and discuss the stable state of evolutionary game and its dynamic convergence process. The results show that the probability of supply chain enterprises choosing a network embedding strategy is related to the enterprises’ special assets investment cost, cooperation cost, network income, and cooperation benefits. Supply chain enterprises should reduce the special assets investment cost and cooperation cost, maximize network income and cooperation income, narrow the gap between the extra-cooperation profit and the current cooperation profit, and restrain them from violating cooperation contracts or taking opportunistic actions.
Residual Right Coronary Artery Stenosis after Left Main Coronary Artery Intervention Increased the 30-Day Cardiovascular Death and 3-Year Right Coronary Artery Revascularization Rate
Authors: Lee Chien-Ho , Chong Shaur-Zheng , Hsueh Shu-Kai , Chung Wen-Jung , Cheng Cheng-I
Published: June 2020

Background. The outcomes of patients with concomitant left main coronary artery (LMCA) and right coronary artery (RCA) diseases are reportedly worse than those with only LMCA disease. To date, only few studies have investigated the clinical impact of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) on RCA stenosis during the same hospitalization, in which LMCA disease was treated. This study was aimed at comparing the outcomes between patients with and without right coronary artery intervention during the same hospital course for LMCA intervention. Methods and Results. From a total of 776 patients who were undergoing PCI to treat LMCA disease, 235 patients with concomitant RCA significant stenosis (more than 70% stenosis) were enrolled. The patients were divided into two groups: 174 patients received concomitant PCI for RCA stenosis during the same hospitalization, in which LMCA disease was treated, and 61 patients did not receive PCI for RCA stenosis. Patients without intervention to the right coronary artery had higher 30-day cardiovascular mortality rates and 3-year RCA revascularization rates compared to those with right coronary artery intervention. Patients without RCA intervention at the same hospitalization did not increase the 30-day total death, 3-year myocardial infarction rate, 3-year cardiovascular death, and 3-year total death. Conclusions. In patients with LM disease and concomitant above or equal to 70% RCA stenosis, PCI for RCA lesion during the same hospitalization is recommended to reduce the 30-day cardiovascular death and 3-year RCA revascularization rate.