bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Host-directed therapy with 2-Deoxy-D-glucose inhibits human rhinoviruses, endemic coronaviruses, and SARS-CoV-2
Authors: Wali Laxmikant , Karbiener Michael , Chou Scharon , Kovtunyk Vitalii , Adonyi Adam , Gösler Irene , Contreras Ximena , Stoeva Delyana , Blaas Dieter , Stöckl Johannes , Kreil Thomas R. , Gualdoni Guido A. , Gorki Anna-Dorothea
Published: May 2022

Rhinoviruses (RVs) and coronaviruses (CoVs) upregulate host cell metabolic pathways such as glycolysis to meet their bioenergetic demands for rapid multiplication. Using the glycolysis inhibitor 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG), we assessed the dose-dependent inhibition of viral replication of minor- and major-receptor group RVs in epithelial cells. 2-DG disrupted RV infection cycle by inhibiting template negative-strand as well as genomic positive-strand RNA synthesis, resulting in less progeny virus and RV-mediated cell death. Assessment of 2-DG’s intracellular kinetics revealed that after a short-exposure to 2-DG, the active intermediate, 2-DG6P, is stored intracellularly for several hours. Finally, we confirmed the antiviral effect of 2-DG on pandemic SARS-CoV-2 and showed for the first time that 2-DG also reduces replication of endemic human coronaviruses (HCoVs). These results provide further evidence that 2-DG could be utilized as a broad-spectrum antiviral.

HIGHLIGHTS

2-DG inhibits replication of minor- and major-group rhinoviruses in epithelial cells including human nasal epithelial cell.

2-DG disrupts rhinovirus infection cycle and reduces rhinovirus-mediated cell death in vitro.

2-DG treatment attenuates viral load of endemic coronaviruses in vitro.
Meta-Analyzed Atopic Dermatitis Transcriptome (MAADT) is strongly correlated with disease activity, and consistent with therapeutic effects
Authors: Li Xingpeng , He Wen , Zhang Ying , Page Karen , Hyde Craig , Maciejewski Mateusz
Published: May 2022

Background

Atopic Dermatitis (AD) is a persistent inflammatory disease of the skin to which a few novel treatment options have recently become available. Multiple published datasets, from RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and microarray experiments performed on lesional (LS) and non-lesional (NL) skin biopsies collected from AD patients, provide a useful resource to better define an AD gene signature and evaluate therapeutic effects.

Methods

We evaluated 22 datasets using defined selection criteria and leave-one-out analysis and then carried out a meta-analysis (M-A) to combine 4 RNA-seq datasets and 5 microarray datasets to define a disease gene signature for AD skin tissue. We used this gene signature to evaluate its correlation to disease activity in published AD datasets, as well as the treatment effect of some of the existing and experimental therapies.

Results

We report the AD gene signatures developed separately from the RNA-seq or the microarray datasets, as well as a gene signature from datasets combined across these two technologies; all 3 gene signatures showed a strong correlation to the disease activity score (SCORAD) – microarray: Pearson’s ρ = 0.651, p-value < 0.01, RNA-seq: ρ = 0.640, p < 0.01, combined: ρ = 0.649, p < 0.01. The gene signature improvement (GSI) of two existing effective therapies, Dupilumab and Cyclosporine, as well as that of other experimental treatments, is consistent with their reported cohort level efficacy from the associated clinical trials.

Conclusions

The M-A derived AD gene signature provides an evolution of an important resource to correlate gene expression to disease activity and will be helpful for evaluating potential treatment effects for novel therapies.
PROTON MOTIVE FORCE INHIBITORS ARE DETRIMENTAL TO METHICILLIN-RESISTANTSTAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUSPERSISTER CELLS
Authors: Mohiuddin Sayed Golam , Ghosh Sreyashi , Kavousi Pouria , Orman Mehmet A.
Published: May 2022

Methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus(MRSA) strains are resistant to conventional antibiotics. These pathogens can form persister cells, which are transiently tolerant to bactericidal antibiotics, making them extremely dangerous. Previous studies have shown the effectiveness of proton motive force (PMF) inhibitors at killing bacterial cells; however, whether these agents can launch a new treatment strategy to eliminate persister cells mandates further investigation. Here, using known PMF inhibitors and two different MRSA isolates, we showed that antipersister potency of PMF inhibitors seemed to correlate with their ability to disrupt PMF and permeabilize cell membranes. By screening a small chemical library to verify this correlation, we identified a subset of chemicals (including nordihydroguaiaretic acid, gossypol, trifluoperazine, and amitriptyline) that strongly disrupted PMF in MRSA cells by dissipating either the transmembrane electric potential (ΔΨ) or the proton gradient (ΔpH). These drugs robustly permeabilized cell membranes and reduced persister levels below the limit of detection. Overall, our study further highlights the importance of cellular PMF as a target for designing new antipersister therapeutics.
Dendritic growth and synaptic organization from activity-independent cues and local activity-dependent plasticity
Authors: Kirchner Jan H. , Euler Lucas , Fritz Ingo , Castro André Ferreira , Gjorgjieva Julijana
Published: May 2022

Dendritic branching and synaptic organization shape single-neuron and network computations. How they emerge simultaneously during brain development as neurons become integrated into functional networks is still not mechanistically understood. Here, we propose a mechanistic model in which dendrite growth and the organization of synapses arise from the interaction of activity-independent cues from potential synaptic partners and local activity-dependent synaptic plasticity. Consistent with experiments, three phases of dendritic growth – overshoot, pruning, and stabilization – emerge naturally in the model. The model generates stellate-like dendritic morphologies that capture several morphological features of biological neurons under normal and perturbed learning rules, reflecting biological variability. Model-generated dendrites have approximately optimal wiring length consistent with experimental measurements. In addition to establishing dendritic morphologies, activity-dependent plasticity rules organize synapses into spatial clusters according to the correlated activity they experience. We demonstrate that a trade-off between activity-dependent and -independent factors influences dendritic growth and synaptic location throughout development, suggesting that early developmental variability can affect mature morphology and synaptic function. Therefore, a single mechanistic model can capture dendritic growth and account for the synaptic organization of correlated inputs during development. Our work suggests concrete mechanistic components underlying the emergence of dendritic morphologies and synaptic formation and removal in function and dysfunction, and provides experimentally testable predictions for the role of individual components.
Targeted long-read sequencing facilitates phased diploid assembly and genotyping of the human T cell receptor alpha, delta and beta loci
Authors: Rodriguez Oscar L. , Silver Catherine A. , Shields Kaitlyn , Smith Melissa L. , Watson Corey T.
Published: May 2022

T cell receptors (TCRs) recognize peptide fragments presented by the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) and are critical to T cell mediated immunity. Early studies demonstrated an enrichment of polymorphisms within TCR-encoding (TR) gene loci. However, more recent data indicate that variation in these loci are underexplored, limiting understanding of the impact of TR polymorphism on TCR function in disease, even though: (i) TCR repertoire signatures are heritable and (ii) associate with disease phenotypes. TR variant discovery and curation has been difficult using standard high-throughput methods. To address this, we expanded our published targeted long-read sequencing approach to generate highly accurate haplotype resolved assemblies of the human TR beta (TRB) and alpha/delta (TRA/D) loci, facilitating the detection and genotyping of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), insertion-deletions (indels), structural variants (SVs) and TR genes. We validate our approach using two mother-father-child trios and 5 unrelated donors representing multiple populations. Comparisons of long-read derived variants to short-read datasets revealed improved genotyping accuracy, and TR gene annotation led to the discovery of 79 previously undocumented V, D, and J alleles. This demonstrates the utility of this framework to resolve the TR loci, and ultimately our understanding of TCR function in disease.
User-friendly electron microscopy protocols for the visualization of biological macromolecular complexes in three dimensions: Visualization of planta clathrin-coated vesicles at ultrastructural resolution
Authors: Johnson Alexander , Kaufmann Walter A , Sommer Christoph , Costanzo Tommaso , Dahhan Dana A , Bednarek Sebastian Y , Friml Jiří
Published: May 2022

Biological systems are the sum of their dynamic 3-dimensional (3D) parts. Therefore, it is critical to study biological structures in 3D and at high resolutions to gain insights into their physiological functions. Electron microscopy of metal replicas of unroofed cells and isolated organelles has been a key technique to visualize intracellular structures at nanometer resolution. However, many of these protocols require specialized equipment and personnel to complete them. Here we present novel accessible protocols to analyze biological structures in unroofed cells and biochemically isolated organelles in 3D and at nanometer resolutions, focusing on Arabidopsis clathrin-coated vesicles (CCVs) - an essential trafficking organelle lacking detailed structural characterization due to their low preservation in classical electron microscopy techniques. First, we establish a protocol to visualize CCVs in unroofed cells using scanning-transmission electron microscopy (STEM) tomography, providing sufficient resolution to define the clathrin coat arrangements. Critically, the samples are prepared directly on electron microscopy grids, removing the requirement to use extremely corrosive acids, thereby enabling the use of this protocol in any electron microscopy lab. Secondly, we demonstrate this standardized sample preparation allows the direct comparison of isolated CCV samples with those visualized in cells. Finally, to facilitate the high-throughput and robust screening of metal replicated samples, we provide a deep learning analysis workflow to screen the ‘pseudo 3D’ morphology of CCVs imaged with 2D modalities. Overall, we present accessible ways to examine the 3D structure of biological samples and provide novel insights into the structure of plant CCVs.
PKC-alpha promotes phosphorylation of KRAS suppressing its oncogenic properties
Authors: Joglekar Tejashree , Ku Albert , Schollaert Ethan , Gong Yinan , Stewart-Ornstein Jacob , Urisman Anatoly , Wang Man-Tzu
Published: May 2022

Oncogenic KRAS-driven cancers have long been considered as “undruggable” due to limited therapeutic options. While the recent success of KRAS-G12C inhibitors argues against the “undruggability” of KRAS, this treatment only benefits a small proportion of patients with KRAS mutant cancers, leaving an urgent need for modalities to target other KRAS mutants. KRAS-calmodulin (CaM) signaling axis reportedly regulates the oncogenic properties of KRAS through its C-terminal hypervariable region. Phosphorylation of KRAS by activated protein kinase C (PKC) uncouples KRAS-CaM, resulting in growth inhibition effective against the entire spectrum of KRAS hotspot mutations. However, broadly activating PKC could mediate tumor promoting signaling nodes and cause systemic toxicity, undermining its applicability as an anti-KRAS therapy. Here, we found that prostratin induces KRAS phosphorylation, resulting in an elevated level of active CaM in the cytosol of KRAS mutant cells, and consequentially suppresses their malignancies. A whole-genome wide CRISPR/Cas9 knockout screening, further confirmed by biochemical analysis, revealed that prostratin acts through activating PKCα. Functional studies confirmed PKCα as the sole kinase to phosphorylate KRAS and, therefore, a KRAS suppressor. Activation of PKCα induces senescence in KRAS mutant tumor cells through PTPN14, accompanied by a secretory phenotype contributing to the growth inhibition, and parallelly mediates a nuclear translocation of a CaM-dependent transcription activator, CAMTA-1, which can be a biomarker to indicate the activity of PKCα-KRAS-CaM axis. Our findings reveal a previously understudied regulation of KRAS-CaM axis by PKCα, which can be an actionable target for developing anti-KRAS therapeutics.

One Sentence Summary

This study deciphers a PKCα-led tumor suppressive effect specific to the “undruggable” KRAS-mutant tumor cells through the phosphorylation of KRAS and a consequently altered KRAS-CaM signaling axis.
Small Molecule Activators of B56-PP2A Restore 4E-BP Expression and Function to Suppress Cap-dependent Translation in Cancer Cells
Authors: Lum Michelle A. , Jonas-Breckenridge Kayla A. , Black Adrian R. , Woods Nicholas T. , O’Connor Caitlin , Avelar Rita A. , DiFeo Analisa , Narla Goutham , Black Jennifer D.
Published: May 2022

Dysregulation of cap-dependent translation is a hallmark of cancer, with key roles in supporting the transformed phenotype. The eIF4E binding proteins (4E-BP1, 2, 3) are major negative regulators of cap-dependent translation that are inactivated in tumors through inhibitory phosphorylation by oncogenic kinases (e.g., mTOR) or by downregulation. Previous studies from our group and others have linked tumor suppressive PP2A family serine/threonine phosphatases to activation of 4E-BP1. Here, we leveraged novel small molecule activators of PP2A (SMAPs) (e.g., DT-061, DT-1154) that are being developed as antitumor agents to (a) explore the role of a subset of B56-PP2As in regulation of 4E-BP activity, and (b) to evaluate the potential of B56-PP2A reactivation for restoring translation control in tumor cells. We show that SMAPs promote PP2A-dependent hypophosphorylation of 4E-BP1/4EBP2 in the presence of active upstream inhibitory kinases (mTOR, ERK, AKT), supporting a role for B56-PP2As as 4E-BP phosphatases. Unexpectedly, DT-061 also led to robust PP2A-dependent upregulation of 4E-BP1, but not 4E-BP2 or 4E-BP3. Cap-binding assays and eIF4E immunoprecipitation showed that SMAP/B56-PP2A blocks the formation of the eIF4F translation initiation complex. Bicistronic reporter assays that directly measure cap-dependent translation activity confirmed the translational consequences of these effects. siRNA knockdown pointed to B56α-PP2A as a mediator of SMAP effects on 4E-BPs, although B56β- and/or B56ε-PP2A may also play a role. 4E-BP1 upregulation involved ATF4-dependent transcription of the 4E-BP1 gene (EIF4EBP1) and the effect was partially dependent on TFE3/TFEB transcription factors. Thus, B56-PP2A orchestrates a translation repressive program involving transcriptional induction and hypophosphorylation of 4E-BP1, highlighting the potential of PP2A-based therapeutic strategies for restoration of translation control in cancer cells.
Optimization and inference of bin widths for histogramming inelastic neutron scattering spectra
Authors: Tatsumi Kazuyoshi , Inamura Yasuhiro , Kofu Maiko , Kiyanagi Ryoji , Shimazaki Hideaki
Published: May 2022

A data-driven bin-width optimization for the histograms of measured data sets based on inhomogeneous Poisson processes was developed in a neurophysiology study [Shimazaki & Shinomoto (2007). Neural Comput.
19, 1503–1527], and a subsequent study [Muto, Sakamoto, Matsuura, Arima & Okada (2019). J. Phys. Soc. Jpn, 88, 044002] proposed its application to inelastic neutron scattering (INS) data. In the present study, the results of the method on experimental INS time-of-flight data collected under different measurement conditions from a copper single crystal are validated. The extrapolation of the statistics on a given data set to other data sets with different total counts precisely infers the optimal bin widths on the latter. The histograms with the optimized bin widths statistically verify two fine-spectral-feature examples in the energy and momentum transfer cross sections: (i) the existence of phonon band gaps; and (ii) the number of plural phonon branches located close to each other. This indicates that the applied method helps in the efficient and rigorous observation of spectral structures important in physics and materials science like novel forms of magnetic excitation and phonon states correlated to thermal conductivities.
Quantitative analysis of dislocations in 4H-SiC wafers using synchrotron X-ray topography with ultra-high angular resolution
Authors: Peng Hongyu , Chen Zeyu , Liu Yafei , Raghothamachar Balaji , Huang Xianrong , Assoufid Lahsen , Dudley Michael
Published: May 2022

Utilization of an Si(331) beam conditioner together with an Si(111) double-crystal monochromator (DCM) enables the angular resolution of synchrotron X-ray topography to be increased by an order of magnitude compared with grazing-incidence topography or back-reflection topography conducted with the DCM alone. This improved technique with extremely small beam divergence is referred to as synchrotron X-ray plane-wave topography (SXPWT). This study demonstrates that the rocking curve width of 4H-SiC 0008 in PWT is only 2.5′′ and thus the lattice distortion at the scale of 1′′ will significantly affect the diffracted intensity. This work reports the ultra-high angular resolution in SXPWT which enables detailed probing of the lattice distortion outside the dislocation core in 4H-SiC, where the sign of the Burgers vector can be readily determined through comparison with ray-tracing simulations.
Design and implementation of a single-phase buck-type inverter via an efficient hybrid control technique
Authors: Yalcin Faruk , Arifoglu Ugur , Yazici Irfan
Published: May 2022

Purpose

This paper aims to present the design and implementation of a new general-purpose single-phase buck-type inverter.

Design/methodology/approach

The operation of the proposed inverter is based on the general-purpose buck converter. The proposed buck-type inverter topology is designed with reduced numbers of passive and active elements to minimize design cost and complexity. Also, an efficient hybrid control technique based on the proportional‐integral‐derivative (PID) supported by open-loop control signal is offered for the control of the proposed inverter. The proposed hybrid control method improves the performance of the PID controller during the change of inverter operation parameters. A close to single-phase sine wave output voltage with low total harmonic distortion (THD) can be produced by the proposed inverter in a wide range of voltage and frequency lower than the inverter input voltage value.

Findings

Simulation and experimental test studies are applied to the proposed inverter. The experimental laboratory setup is built for 0–50 Hz, 0–100 Vp, 0.5 kW. Both the simulation and the experimental test results show that the single-phase inverter can produce close to sine wave output voltage with THD level under 5% in a wide range of frequency for various operating conditions and for different loads.

Originality/value

In this paper, a new topology and a new hybrid control technique that are patented by the corresponding author are implemented for a single-phase buck-type inverter through a scientific project. The operating results of the study reveal the efficient operating capability with a simple topology structure.
Investigating the association between universities' corporate governance structure and the knowledge transfer performance outcomes
Authors: Veltri Stefania , Puntillo Pina , Pierri Francesca
Published: May 2022

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to provide evidence of the relationship between the governance structure of universities and the universities' knowledge transfer (KT) performance outcomes measured in terms of university spin-off firms university spin-offs (USOs).

Design/methodology/approach

The universities' board of directors has been analyzed under three profiles: the incidence of internal directors belonging to the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) faculties, the incidence of women directors and the incidence of external directors.

Findings

The findings provide evidence of a significant and positive association, for southern Italian state universities, of the presence of university STEM directors and the establishment of university spin-offs (USOs).

Originality/value

The article is original as, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no study, except for the paper by Meoliet al.(2019), examined the governance of universities in relation to the establishment of academic spin-offs.
BioPrivacy: a behavioral biometrics continuous authentication system based on keystroke dynamics and touch gestures
Authors: Stylios Ioannis , Skalkos Andreas , Kokolakis Spyros , Karyda Maria
Published: May 2022

Purpose

This research aims to build a system that will continuously. This paper is an extended version of SECPRE 2021 paper and presents a research on the development and validation of a behavioral biometrics continuous authentication (BBCA) system that is based on users keystroke dynamics and touch gestures on mobile devices. This paper aims to build a system that will continuously authenticate the user of a smartphone.

Design/methodology/approach

Session authentication schemes establish the identity of the user only at the beginning of the session, so they are vulnerable to attacks that tamper with communications after the establishment of the authenticated session. Moreover, smartphones themselves are used as authentication means, especially in two-factor authentication schemes, which are often required by several services. Whether the smartphone is in the hands of the legitimate user constitutes a great concern and correspondingly whether the legitimate user is the one who uses the services. In response to these concerns, BBCA technologies have been proposed on a large corpus of literature. This paper presents a research on the development and validation of a BBCA system (named BioPrivacy), which is based on the user’s keystroke dynamics and touch gestures, using a multi-layer perceptron (MLP). Also, this paper introduces a new BB collection tool and proposes a methodology for the selection of an appropriate set of BB.

Findings

The system achieved the best results for keystroke dynamics which are 97.18% accuracy, 0.02% equal error rate, 97.2% true acceptance rate and 0.02% false acceptance rate.

Originality/value

This paper develops a new BB collection tool, named BioPrivacy, by which behavioral data of users on mobile devices can be collected. This paper proposes a methodology for the selection of an appropriate set of BB. This paper presents the development of a BBCA system based on MLP.
Investigating the determinants of medical crowdfunding performance: a signaling theory perspective
Authors: Chen Yuangao , Zhou Shasha , Jin Wangyan , Chen Shenqing
Published: May 2022

Purpose

This study examines the determinants of medical crowdfunding performance. Drawing on signaling theory, the authors investigate how funding-related signals (funding goal and duration), story-related signals (text length, text sentiment, and use of first-person pronouns), and donor-related signals (donor identity disclosure) affect medical crowdfunding performance.

Design/methodology/approach

This study analyzed the data of 754 medical crowdfunding projects collected from the Qingsongchou platform in China to test the proposed model.

Findings

The empirical findings reveal that both funding goal and funding duration exhibit a U-shaped relationship with crowdfunding performance. Additionally, the authors find evidence that story text length and donor identity disclosure are positively related to crowdfunding performance, whereas the use of first-person pronouns is negatively related to crowdfunding performance.

Originality/value

This study extends the understanding of the determinants of medical crowdfunding performance through the signaling theory. Specifically, this study provides new insights into the roles of funding goal and funding duration in predicting medical crowdfunding performance and identifies several new predictors of crowdfunding performance, including the use of first-person pronouns in project story text and donor identity disclosure.
Transformational leadership practices of nurse managers: the effects on the organizational commitment and job satisfaction of staff nurses
Authors: Uslu Sahan Fatma , Terzioglu Fusun
Published: May 2022

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the perception of nurse managers and staff nurses regarding the transformational leadership (TL) style of nurse managers and determine the effects of the TL practices on organizational commitment and job satisfaction of staff nurses.

Design/methodology/approach

This cross-sectional and descriptive study was conducted with 153 nurses (17 nurse managers and 136 staff nurses) working in a university hospital. Data were collected from participants through a demographic questionnaire, leadership practices inventory (self/observer), organizational commitment scale and job satisfaction scale.

Findings

The self-assessment of the TL practices of the nurse managers were more favourable than the assessment of the leadership practices made by staff nurses. The TL practices of the nurse managers accounted for 9% of the total organizational commitment and 24% of the total job satisfaction of the staff nurses.

Originality/value

The results indicated that leadership practices by nurse managers need to show greater awareness of the effects of these leadership practices on the organizational commitment and job satisfaction of their staff nurses. Hospitals need to consider how they develop, support and encourage because of the positive impact TL has on health priorities and retention of staff.
Responsible managing as educational practice
Authors: Bispo Marcelo de Souza
Published: May 2022

Purpose

This study aims to theoretically introduce the notion of responsible managing as educational practice (RMEP).

Design/methodology/approach

The study is an essay. Traditionally assumed as individual-driven, rational, neutral and unproblematic, the author alternatively considers management not as managerialism but as a social practice that needs to be responsible.

Findings

The author posits that responsible management involves educational experiences enacted through practical wisdom. In this context, education herein is understood not as a scholastic practice taught in business schools or offered within professional training, but that may occur in informal contexts such as managing.

Originality/value

RMEP may contribute to a better comprehension of responsible management in practice. The author draws on the epistemology of practices and the notion of phronesis to support his thesis – that managing can be responsible when assumed as an educative practice performed through practical wisdom and people’s mutual education.
Assessing the correlates of CALEA accreditation: a state-of-the-art review
Authors: Abner Gordon , Rush Sarah
Published: May 2022

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to synthesize empirical research on the correlates of Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) accreditation.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors performed keyword searches across 132 criminal justice, policing, and public administration journals to identify peer-reviewed articles that examine the relationship between CALEA accreditation and any output or outcome. Two keyword searches were utilized “commission on accreditation for law enforcement agencies” and “commission on accreditation of law enforcement agencies” in the event that authors misnamed the accrediting body. Only quantitative articles that utilized inferential statistics were included in the sample given that the authors aimed to assess the relationship between CALEA law enforcement accreditation and outputs and outcomes.

Findings

Overall, there is a paucity of research on the relationship between CALEA accreditation and outputs and outcomes. Only nineteen, peer-reviewed, studies that utilize inferential statistics have been published on the topic as of the end of 2021. The largest number of studies explore the relationship between CALEA accreditation and community-oriented policing and gender representation. Given the dearth of quantitative studies on CALEA accreditation, and the lack of studies using experimental or quasi-experimental designs, current findings on the topic should not be viewed as proof of cause and effect relationships but as correlations.

Originality/value

This article represents the first systematic review of the correlates of CALEA accreditation.
Ramadan effect in the cryptocurrency markets
Authors: Lopez-Martin Carmen
Published: May 2022

Purpose

This paper examines the effect of the holy month of Ramadan on the returns and conditional volatility of cryptocurrency markets.

Design/methodology/approach

The closing prices of six cryptocurrencies have been considered. The study employs different classical tests for checking if the efficiency behaviour is similar during Ramadan celebration days and non-Ramadan days. Besides, dummy variable regression technique for assessing this anomaly on returns and volatilities has been applied.

Findings

Although no significant effect on returns and volatility for Litecoin has been found, the results provide evidence about the existence of the Ramadan effects in cryptocurrency markets. The results of the mean equations show the existence of Ramadan effect for Ethereum, Ripple, Stellar and BinanceCoin for all considered models. Significant effect on Bitcoin returns is found with an autoregressive model of order 1. The results of conditional volatility show Ramadan effect on volatility is not detected.

Originality/value

First, a new contribution in the incipient study of cryptocurrency analysis. Second, a comprehensive review of recently published empirical articles about Ramadan effect on traditional assets has been carried out. Third, unlike most of the papers focussed on the study of Bitcoin, this study has been extended to six cryptocurrencies. Ramadan effect have not been analysed in cryptomarkets yet. This study come to fill this gap and analyses Ramadan effect, previously documented for traditional assets, in particular, stock index from Muslim countries, but not yet analysed in the cryptocurrency markets.
In Conversation with a Digital Optimist
Authors: Tarran Brian
Published: May 2022

Author Sam Gilbert argues for the benefits of data openness and data-driven advertising
War of the Wordlers
Authors: Kwasny Mary J.
Published: May 2022

Wordle, a word puzzle game, is a viral phenomenon. But who plays it better: humans or machines? Mary J. Kwasny investigates
lncR26319/miR‐2834/EndophilinA axis regulates oogenesis of the silkworm, Bombyx mori
Authors: Wang Yi , Fu Yu , Cheng Hao , Zhao Chenyue , Huang Qunxia , Chang Meiling , Qiu Wujie , Shen Yawen , Li Dandan
Published: May 2022

Oocyte maturation is critical for insect reproduction. Vitellogenesis, the timely production and uptake of vitellogenin (Vg), is crucial for female fecundity. Vg is synthesized in fat body and absorbed by the oocytes through endocytosis during insect oogenesis. In the silkworm, Bombyx mori, we discovered that a nucleus‐enriched long‐noncoding RNA (lncRNA) lncR26319 regulates Endophilin A (EndoA) – a member of the endophilin family of endocytic proteins – through competitive binding to miR‐2834. The lncR26319‐miR‐2834‐EndoA axis was required for Vg endocytosis in the silkworm; loss of EndoA or overexpression of miR‐2834 significantly reduced egg numbers in virgin moths. In addition, accumulation of miR‐2834 resulted in pupal and adult deformation and reduced fecundity in females. The expression of Vg, 30‐kDa (30K) protein, and egg‐specific protein (Esp) decreased after knockdown of EndoA or overexpression of miR‐2834, while knockdown of miR‐2834 had an opposite effect on the expression of Vg, 30K protein gene, and Esp. These results suggest that the lncR26319‐miR‐2834‐EndoA axis contributes to the endocytic activity in the Vg uptake and leads to the normal progression of oogenesis in the silkworm. Thus, miR‐2834 and EndoA are crucial for female reproduction and could be potential targets for new pest management strategies in lepidopterans.
Building Type, Housing Density, and Water Use: Denver Water Data and Agent‐Based Simulations
Authors: Sampson David A. , Quay Ray , Horrie Mitch
Published: May 2022

This study examined simulated changes in total (and outdoor) water demand with increased dwelling units per unit area (DUUA) for seven building types (BTs) in the Denver Water service area. We utilized the Denver Water Demand Model — a spreadsheet tool that uses inputs such as BT, population, household size, number of units, etc. — to develop an “agent‐based” simulator to permit scenario analyses of future water use for different mixes of BTs. We examined household “movement” for new residents from lower density to higher density classifications. Increased residential density can be achieved through multiple pathways. For instance, a family could move from a large single‐family (LSF) unit to a single‐family home with a smaller lot footprint (SSF). Or, a family could move into a multi‐family housing development from a SSF. Our results suggest uneven, nonlinear efficiency gains in water use with increased density, depending on the specific BT movements. Simulation outputs indicate that the greatest gains in water savings per unit change in DUUA can be achieved with short movements over the lowest density classes (e.g., LSF to a SSF). In addition, results suggest that increasing irrigation efficiency (less water applied per unit area irrigated) may decrease total residential water demand by 5% to 25% over baseline; efficiency of irrigation may prove to be as effective, if not more, at reducing residential water demand as increasing housing density.
A continuous‐score occupancy model that incorporates uncertain machine learning output from autonomous biodiversity surveys
Authors: Rhinehart Tessa A. , Turek Daniel , Kitzes Justin
Published: May 2022

Ecologists often study biodiversity by evaluating species occupancy and the relationship between occupancy and other covariates. Occupancy models are now widely used to account for false absences in field surveys and to reduce bias in estimates of covariate relationships. Existing occupancy models take as inputs binary detection/non‐detection observations of species at each visit to each site. However, autonomous sensing devices and machine learning models are increasingly used to survey biodiversity, generating a new type of observation record (i.e. continuous‐score data) that reflects the model's confidence a species is present in each autonomously sensed file, instead of binary detection/non‐detection data. These data are not directly compatible with traditional binary occupancy modelling methods.

Here, we develop a new occupancy model that models continuous scores on a visit level as a Gaussian mixture, combining a distribution of scores for files that do contain the species of interest and a distribution of scores for files that do not. The model takes as input continuous scores for each autonomously sensed and classified file, along with an optional small number of binary, manually verified detection and non‐detection annotations.

We present a simulation study that shows that over a range of empirically realistic parameters, our model outperforms traditional occupancy models that are based on binary annotation alone. We also apply this new model to an empirical case study using data generated from five machine learning classifiers applied to autonomous acoustic recordings gathered in the eastern United States.

Because our occupancy model generalizes allowable input data beyond binary observations, it is particularly well‐suited to the increasing volume of machine learning classified data in ecology and conservation.
Navigated laser and aflibercept versus aflibercept monotherapy in treatment‐naïve branch retinal vein occlusion: A 12‐month randomized trial
Authors: Frederiksen Katrine Hartmund , Vestergaard Jesper Pindbo , Pedersen Frederik Nørregaard , Vergmann Anna Stage , Sørensen Torben Lykke , Laugesen Caroline Schmidt , Kawasaki Ryo , Peto Tunde , Grauslund Jakob
Published: May 2022

Purpose

Angiostatic agents have proven effective in the treatment of macular oedema in patients with branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO). However, treatment is inconvenient and expensive, and novel treatment regimens are warranted. We aimed to evaluate if combination treatment of navigated central retinal laser and aflibercept lowered the treatment burden in these patients.

Methods

Treatment‐naïve patients with BRVO and macular oedema were included at two centres and randomized 1:1 to three monthly injections of 2.0 mg aflibercept with (Group A) or without (Group B) navigated central laser, followed by aflibercept as needed from month 4 through 12. Re‐treatment need was evaluated, and secondary endpoints included functional and anatomical outcomes and safety evaluated by retinal microperimetry.

Results

We evaluated 41 eyes of 41 patients with a mean age of 69.6 years. Baseline median best‐corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was 70.0 letters, and median central retinal thickness (CRT) was 502 μm with no difference between Groups A (n = 21) and B (n = 20). Percentage of patients needing re‐treatment after month three was 71% and 80% (p = 0.72). At month 12, groups did not differ in number of injections after loading (1 versus 2, p = 0.43), change in BCVA (+12.8 versus +15.1 letters, p = 0.48), CRT (−195 versus −181 μm, p = 0.82), or retinal sensitivity (+3.3 versus +4.1 dB, p = 0.67).

Conclusion

In treatment‐naïve BRVO patients, addition of navigated central laser to aflibercept did not lower treatment burden or affect functional or anatomical outcomes. A low number of intravitreal injections were needed for successful outcome in both treatment arms.
Team personality composition and team innovation implementation: The mediating role of team climate for innovation
Authors: Chatzi Sofia , Nikolaou Ioannis , Anderson Neil
Published: May 2022

The purpose of this study is first to explore the direct effects of team personality on team innovation implementation using different operationalizations for team‐level conscientiousness and emotional stability. Second, although past research offers guidance for the role of team personality in shaping team climate, only a few empirical studies have demonstrated this link. Thus, we examine how the operationalizations of the two personality characteristics at team level predict team innovation implementation via team climate for innovation. We test our model using a sample of 192 employees nested within 49 teams from different medium to large Greek organizations. Our results indicate that no effects for team mean personality are observed, but a range of effects emerge for team personality diversity. More specifically, team emotional stability diversity has a significant negative relation to team innovation implementation, whereas team conscientiousness diversity has not a direct effect on the performance criterion. However, team conscientiousness diversity is significantly related to team innovation implementation via its negative effect on team climate for innovation. Theoretical and practical implications for building innovative teams are discussed, and suggestions for future research are provided.
Deficiency of Tet3 in nucleus accumbens enhances fear generalization and anxiety‐like behaviors in mice
Authors: Fan Bu‐Fang , Hao Bo , Dai Yun‐Da , Xue Li , Shi Yan‐Wei , Liu Lu , Xuan Shou‐Min , Yang Ning , Wang Xiao‐Guang , Zhao Hu
Published: May 2022

Stress‐induced neuroepigenetic programming gains growing more and more interest in the studies of the etiology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, seldom attention is focused on DNA demethylation in fear memory generalization, which is the core characteristic of PTSD. Here, we show that ten‐eleven translocation protein 3 (TET3), the most abundant DNA demethylation enzyme of the TET family in neurons, senses environmental stress and bridges neuroplasticity with behavioral adaptation during fear generalization. Foot shock strength dependently induces fear generalization and TET3 expression in nucleus accumbens (NAc) in mice. Inhibition of DNA demethylation by infusing demethyltransferase inhibitors or AAV‐Tet3‐shRNA virus in NAc enhances the fear generalization and anxiety‐like behavior. Furthermore, TET3 knockdown impairs the dendritic spine density, PSD length, and thickness of neurons, decreases DNA hydroxymethylation (5hmC), reduces the expression of synaptic plasticity‐related genes including Homer1, Cdkn1a, Cdh8, Vamp8, Reln, Bdnf, while surprisingly increases immune‐related genes Stat1, B2m, H2‐Q7, H2‐M2, C3, Cd68 shown by RNA‐seq. Notably, knockdown of TET3 in NAc activates microglia and CD39‐P2Y12R signaling pathway, and inhibition of CD39 reverses the effects of TET3 knockdown on the fear memory generalization and anxiety. Overexpression of TET3 by Crispr‐dSaCas9 virus delivery to activate endogenous Tet3 in NAc increases dendritic spine density of neurons in NAc and reverses fear memory generalization and anxiety‐like behavior in mice. These results suggest that TET3 modulates fear generalization and anxiety via regulating synaptic plasticity and CD39 signaling pathway.
Silicone sling frontalis suspension for congenital ptosis: Outcome of 174 consecutive cases
Authors: Landau Prat Daphna , Ramakrishnan Meera , Zhao Cindy , Revere Karen , Katowitz William R. , Katowitz James A.
Published: May 2022

Background

Frontalis suspension (FS) is the treatment of choice in congenital ptosis with poor levator function. We report the surgical outcome of FS using a double triangle configuration of silicone slings in children.

Methods

A retrospective cohort study of all paediatric patients with simple myogenic congenital ptosis repaired with FS over a 12‐year period (2009–2020). Each silicone sling was secured by simple knots. Pre‐ and post‐operative margin reflex distance (MRD1) measurements were determined from clinical photographs using ImageJ Software. Main outcome measures were improvement in eyelid height, eyelid asymmetry, reoperation rate and timing.

Results

One hundred and thirty nine patients (174 eyes) were included, with 35 (25%) having bilateral surgery. Mean (±SD) age was 1.4 ± 1.9 years. Mean follow up time was 32 ± 20.5 months. Sixteen patients (11%) had a history of previous ptosis repair surgery. Mean MRD1 improved by an average of 1.5 mm. The final MRD1 in the group of patients who did not have a second procedure was a mean of 2.1 mm. The MRD1 difference between both eyes in all unilateral cases improved from 2.5 mm preoperatively to 1.2 mm at final visit (p < 0.001). In the 123 cases without a history of previous ptosis surgery, repeat ptosis repair was performed in 37 (30%) patients, 34.9 ± 19.9 months after the initial procedure. Overall, repeat repair was performed in 47 patients (34%).

Conclusions

Double triangle silicone sling frontalis suspension has a favourable outcome in two‐thirds of paediatric patients with simple myogenic congenital ptosis. Failed cases can be addressed with a second repair, using either autogenous fascia lata or a second silicone sling.
Progressive Denoising of Monte Carlo Rendered Images
Authors: Firmino Arthur , Frisvad Jeppe Revall , Jensen Henrik Wann
Published: May 2022

Image denoising based on deep learning has become a powerful tool to accelerate Monte Carlo rendering. Deep learning techniques can produce smooth images using a low sample count. Unfortunately, existing deep learning methods are biased and do not converge to the correct solution as the number of samples increase. In this paper, we propose a progressive denoising technique that aims to use denoising only when it is beneficial and to reduce its impact at high sample counts. We use Stein's unbiased risk estimate (SURE) to estimate the error in the denoised image, and we combine this with a neural network to infer a per‐pixel mixing parameter. We further augment this network with confidence intervals based on classical statistics to ensure consistency and convergence of the final denoised image. Our results demonstrate that our method is consistent and that it improves existing denoising techniques. Furthermore, it can be used in combination with existing high quality denoisers to ensure consistency. In addition to being asymptotically unbiased, progressive denoising is particularly good at preserving fine details that would otherwise be lost with existing denoisers.
Deep Reconstruction of 3D Smoke Densities from Artist Sketches
Authors: Kim Byungsoo , Huang Xingchang , Wuelfroth Laura , Tang Jingwei , Cordonnier Guillaume , Gross Markus , Solenthaler Barbara
Published: May 2022

Creative processes of artists often start with hand‐drawn sketches illustrating an object. Pre‐visualizing these keyframes is especially challenging when applied to volumetric materials such as smoke. The authored 3D density volumes must capture realistic flow details and turbulent structures, which is highly non‐trivial and remains a manual and time‐consuming process. We therefore present a method to compute a 3D smoke density field directly from 2D artist sketches, bridging the gap between early‐stage prototyping of smoke keyframes and pre‐visualization. From the sketch inputs, we compute an initial volume estimate and optimize the density iteratively with an updater CNN. Our differentiable sketcher is embedded into the end‐to‐end training, which results in robust reconstructions. Our training data set and sketch augmentation strategy are designed such that it enables general applicability. We evaluate the method on synthetic inputs and sketches from artists depicting both realistic smoke volumes and highly non‐physical smoke shapes. The high computational performance and robustness of our method at test time allows interactive authoring sessions of volumetric density fields for rapid prototyping of ideas by novice users.
Interactive Editing of Discrete Chebyshev Nets
Authors: Li Rui‐Zeng , Guo Jia‐Peng , Wang Qi , Chai Shuangming , Liu Ligang , Fu Xiao‐Ming
Published: May 2022

We propose an interactive method to edit a discrete Chebyshev net, which is a quad mesh with edges of the same length. To ensure that the edited mesh is always a discrete Chebyshev net, the maximum difference of all edge lengths should be zero during the editing process. Hence, we formulate an objective function using ℓp‐norm (p > 2) to force the maximum length deviation to approach zero in practice. To optimize the nonlinear and non‐convex objective function interactively and efficiently, we develop a novel second‐order solver. The core of the solver is to construct a new convex majorizer for our objective function to achieve fast convergence. We present two acceleration strategies to further reduce the optimization time, including adaptive p change and adaptive variables reduction. A large number of experiments demonstrate the capability and feasibility of our method for interactively editing complex discrete Chebyshev nets.