bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Lupeol and pristimerin do not inhibit activation of the human sperm CatSper Ca(2+)-channel
Authors: Rehfeld Anders , Marcus Pedersen Christian
Published: February 2022

Opposing findings have been published on the regulation of the sperm-specific Ca2+ channel CatSper (cation channel of sperm) in human sperm cells by the plant triterpenoids lupeol and pristimerin. While the original study on this topic found these triterpenoids to act as potent inhibitors of human CatSper, subsequent studies have failed to replicate such an inhibitory effect. It has been suggested that these issues could in part be due to purity issues and/or batch variation between the plant-derived extracts of lupeol and pristimerin obtained for the studies. The aim of this study was to elucidate this controversy by investigating the batches of lupeol and pristimerin used in our previous study with state-of-the-art 1H-, 13C- and 2D-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods to reveal potential purity and/or batch variation issues. When comparing the NMR-spectra obtained from 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR with previously published NMR-spectra for lupeol and pristimerin, we could confirm that both the lupeol and pristimerin batch were ≥95 % pure. These results confirm the validity of the findings in our previous study for lupeol and pristimerin, showing that lupeol and pristimerin do not inhibit activation of CatSper in human sperm. In conclusion, using 1H-, 13C- and 2D-NMR methods, we confirm that the lupeol and pristimerin batches used in our previous study were ≥95 % pure and thereby fail to identify any purity issues and/or batch variation that could explain the observed inability of lupeol and pristimerin to inhibit activation of CatSper in human sperm.
Healing through faith: meeting a chaplain coupled with biblical readings could produce lymphocyte changes that correlate with brain activity (HEALING study)
Authors: Béres András , Emri Miklós , Aranyi Csaba , Fajtai Dániel , Nagy Ferenc , Szabó Péter , Bödecs Pál , Hörcsik Edit , Perpékné Papp Éva , Tomanek Ferenc , Kuti Márta , Petőfalviné Ágnes , Kisdeákné Hajnalka , Bíró Gergely , Kovács Dániel , Bakos Bettina , Vinczen Eszter , Gál Eszter , Sillinger Renáta , Szalai Zoltán , Szilágyi Antal , Kiss-Merki Marianna , Nagyéri György , Fodor Judit , Németh Tamás , Papp Erzsébet , Repa Imre
Published: February 2022

Introduction: Faith and systems of beliefs are known to impact not only the emotional, but also the immunological state of believers in ways that we are just starting to understand. Moreover, clinical implications of previous studies are limited. 

The aim of the “HEALING” (Hospital-based Ecumenical and Linguistic Immuno-NeuroloGic) Study was to examine immunological and neurological changes in hospitalized patients after meeting a chaplain coupled with biblical readings.

Methods: Hospitalized patients were pre-screened to find those who were the most in need of an intervention. A passage from the Bible was read to them during a meeting with the chaplain at the bedside (n= 20) or in the chapel (n= 18). No meeting occurred in the randomized control group (n=19). Blood samples were taken 30 minutes prior, and 60 minutes after the meeting to measure white blood cells (WBC), interferon gamma (IFN-γ), immunoglobulin M (IgM), IgA, IgG, and complement 3 (C3). A subgroup of the visited patients was subjected to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), where they were played an audiotape of readings of the same passage from the Bible (n=21).

Results: Lymphocyte counts increased more often after the more successful visits, but the immunological changes were not significant. Conversely, a significant (pfwe=0.003) correlation was revealed between changes in lymphocytes and activation of the angular gyrus (left BA39) during fMRI, a brain area involved in word recognition.

Conclusions: Although limited by the sample size and cohort study design, the findings suggest the depth of psycho-immunological changes could depend on the degree to which the chaplains’ main message is understood.
Can enhancement and suppression concurrently guide attention? An assessment at the individual level
Authors: Kawashima Tomoya , Amano Kaoru
Published: February 2022

Background: Although people can pay attention to targets while ignoring distractors, previous research suggests that target enhancement and distractor suppression work separately and independently. Here, we sought to replicate previous findings and re-establish their independence. Methods: We employed an internet-based psychological experiment. We presented participants with a visual search task in which they searched for a specified shape with or without a singleton. We replicated the singleton-presence benefit in search performance, but this effect was limited to cases where the target color was fixed across all trials. In a randomly intermixed probe task (30% of all trials), the participants searched for a letter among colored probes; we used this task to assess how far attention was separately allocated toward the target or distractor dimensions. Results: We found a negative correlation between target enhancement and distractor suppression, indicating that the participants who paid closer attention to target features ignored distractor features less effectively and vice versa. Averaged data showed no benefit from target color or cost from distractor color, possibly because of the substantial differences in strategy across participants. Conclusions: These results suggest that target enhancement and distractor suppression guide attention in mutually dependent ways and that the relative contribution of these components depends on the participants’ search strategy.
Interdicting Low-Diameter Cohesive Subgroups in Large-Scale Social Networks
Authors: Daemi Niloufar , Borrero Juan S. , Balasundaram Balabhaskar
Published: February 2022

The s-clubs model cohesive social subgroups as vertex subsets that induce subgraphs of diameter at most s. In defender-attacker settings, for low values of s, they can represent tightly knit communities, whose operation is undesirable for the defender. For instance, in online social networks, large communities of malicious accounts can effectively propagate undesirable rumors. In this article, we consider a defender that can disrupt vertices of the adversarial network to minimize its threat, which leads us to consider a maximum s-club interdiction problem, where interdiction is penalized in the objective function. Using a new notion of H-heredity in s-clubs, we provide a mixed-integer linear programming formulation for this problem that uses far fewer constraints than the formulation based on standard techniques. We show that the linear programming relaxation of this formulation has no redundant constraints and identify facets of the convex hull of integral feasible solutions under special conditions. We further relate H-heredity to latency-s-connected dominating sets and design a decomposition branch-and-cut algorithm for the problem. Our implementation solves benchmark instances with more than 10,000 vertices in a matter of minutes and is orders of magnitude faster than algorithms based on the standard formulation.
The effect of olive cream on pain and healing of caesarean section wounds: a randomised controlled clinical trial
Authors: Taheri Mahdiyeh , Amiri-Farahani Leila , Haghani Shima , Shokrpour Maryam , Shojaii Asie
Published: February 2022

Objective:

This study was performed to determine the effect of olive cream on the severity of pain and healing of caesarean section wounds.

Method:

This study is a parallel randomised clinical trial that was conducted on women who had caesarean sections at Ayatollah Taleghani Hospital in Arak, Iran. Women were assigned to intervention, placebo and control groups by a block randomisation method. Women in the intervention and placebo groups were asked to use olive cream and placebo cream, respectively, twice a day from the second day after surgery to the tenth day. The wound healing score and pain intensity score were assessed using the REEDA and VAS scales, respectively, before and at the end of the intervention.

Results:

The intervention group consisted of 34 women, the placebo group of 34 women and the control group of 35 women. We found a statistically significant difference between the intervention and placebo groups, intervention and control groups, and placebo and control groups in terms of the pain intensity (p<0.05 in all three cases). Also, we found a statistically significant difference between the intervention and placebo groups, and intervention and control groups in terms of the scores of wound healing on the tenth day after surgery (p<0.05 in both cases).

Conclusion:

Olive cream can be effective in relieving pain and enhancing caesarean section wound healing, and since no specific side effects were reported, the use of olive cream is recommended.
Sub-epidermal moisture versus traditional and visual skin assessments to assess pressure ulcer risk in surgery patients
Authors: Martins de Oliveira Ana Lúcia , O'Connor Tom , Patton Declan , Strapp Helen , Moore Zena
Published: February 2022

Objective:

To compare the predictive ability of subepidermal moisture (SEM) measurement versus traditional risk assessment and visual skin assessment (VSA) as means of detecting early pressure ulcer (PU) damage development among adults undergoing surgery.

Method:

A non-experimental, comparative, descriptive cohort study design was used. Following ethical approval, participants who had given their informed written consent had their skin assessed over the areas that were weight-bearing during surgery, using VSA and the SEM measurement. Visual PUs were graded according to the European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel and National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel ulcer grading system. Assessments took place preoperatively, then daily on the ward, beginning on day one postoperatively and continuing for three days or until discharge.

Results:

Of the 231 participants, who had a mean age of 57.50 years, 55.8% (n=129) were male. The most common comorbidity was cardiology/vascular (n=42; 18.2%). Just over half (52.4%; n=121) underwent orthopaedic surgery and 47.6% (n=110) underwent non-orthopaedic surgery; 70% (n=163) received a general anaesthetic and 43% (n=100) were in the supine decubitus position during surgery. PU incidence was 51% (n=116), according to SEM measurement, and 3% (n=7) according to VSA. Among the seven participants who developed a visual PU, 10 PUs at stage 1 developed (31%); some patients developed more than one PU. Of the participants who had assessments for three days postoperatively, 94% (n=61) had a persistently high SEM delta on day three. The variables that emerged as statistically significantly related to abnormal SEM measurement deltas among these participants were: surgery duration (p=0.038); having orthopaedic surgery (p=0.020); supine surgical position (p=0.003); spinal anaesthetic type (p=0.0001); and Waterlow and Braden mobility subscale day one postoperatively (p=0.0001). None of the variables had a statistically significant influence on abnormal VSA.

Conclusion:

Surgical patients, because of immobility, are vulnerable to the action of compression and shear forces. These forces cause changes at a cellular level that trigger inflammation, which is a precursor to early tissue damage. SEM measurement can detect this tissue damage from the increase in the underlying tissue water content that results from inflammation. From the findings of this study, SEM measurement is very promising in the detection of early tissue damage in those at risk of PU development among the surgical population.
The Contribution of Professional Learning Community of Pedagogical Instructors, Training Teachers and Teaching Students within a Clinical Model for Teacher Education to Their Professional Development
Authors: Murad Tareq , Assadi Nabil , Zoabi Mahmoud , Hamza Seham , Ibdah Muhammad
Published: February 2022

The purpose of the present study is to examine the contribution of professional learning community of pedagogical instructors, training teachers, and teaching students in clinical model for teacher education to their professional development. The prior is carried out through examining a variety of categories: namely, collaborative learning, personal responsibility, collective responsibility, reflective pedagogical discourse and action research, knowledge development and learning processes. Thirty-three members of the learning community constituted the study community. The research tool is a multiple-choice questionnaire that was developed for the requirements of the research and personal feedback on open-ended questions. The quantitative data collected by the questionnaire indicated that the learning community of the clinical model for teacher education contributed greatly to the professional development of all participants regardless of field of knowledge, role in the training process, and the curricular activities offered by colleges and schools. The findings revealed a negative relationship between the field of teacher education among the participants on the one hand, and professional development on the other hand.
Betrayed by my body: survivor experiences of sexual arousal and psychological pleasure during sexual violence
Authors: Shin Hyun Ji , Salter Michael
Published: February 2022

It might be assumed that victim experiences of sexual violence are characterised by fear and pain, and while this is true for many, the phenomenology of sexual violence is more complex than this. Increasingly, sexuality research is recognising that people can desire and have a positive regard toward sexual encounters that they do not consent or agree to, however there is limited scholarship examining victim experiences of pleasure or arousal during sexual violence. This article presents a thematic analysis of 50 posts describing the experience of arousal and/or pleasure during sexual violence drawn from Reddit, the popular online discussion board. The findings highlight the importance of distinguishing between physiological arousal, psychological pleasure and consent, and the significant shame and self-blame of survivors who feel that an aroused or pleasurable response implicates them in their own assault. The article closes by reflecting on the importance of distinguishing between consent, arousal and pleasure in sexual violence policy and practice, and recognising that arousal and pleasure are features of non-consensual as well as consensual encounters.
‘We have tried to remain warm despite the rules.’ Domestic violence and COVID-19: implications for shelters’ policies and practices
Authors: Lapierre Simon , Vincent Alexandra , Brunet Mélanie , Frenette Michèle , Côté Isabelle
Published: February 2022

This article presents findings from a study that investigated the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on domestic violence shelters’ policies and practices. This study was conducted in partnership with feminist organisations in two regions in the Quebec, Canada. Qualitative data were collected from nine domestic violence shelters, using a web-based questionnaire. Thematic content analysis was conducted using NVivo. The research findings reveal that the COVID-19 pandemic has created significant challenges for shelters, as they have had to ensure women’s and children’s safety while preventing the spread of the virus. In this context, they have had to adapt their services and practices, and it has sometimes been difficult to maintain their feminist approach. Nonetheless, shelters have been creative and have developed multiple strategies to overcome these challenges and to ensure women’s and children’s access to services. The research findings contribute to our understanding of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and highlight the essential role that these organisations have played to ensure women’s and children’s safety at a time when they have been particularly vulnerable.
Description of a human being at the unstable time (on the synergy attempt to language)
Authors: Pushkareva Natalia
Published: February 2022

Time of historical changes in a country is being reflected in the language and provides great influence on the methods of world description. Loosing of traditional connections in the society is being continued in the growing instability and indefiniteness in the language. The expression of indefiniteness used to describe the picture of the world at the time of changes is analysed here. Ways applied to describe a person provide a bright example of mentioned language situation. The same methods appear at totally different fields of language activity such as literal language and spoken language of certain marginal social groups. Descriptions of human beings like objects and of objects like creatures in prose and criminal argot are studied like examples in this article. Destruction of descriptive tradition creates new ways to show impressions of unstable world and activates the potential of language units. Writers with great sense of language sometimes are able to foreseen the future tendencies appearing in such epoch of instability. Analysis of these cases from the synergy position helps to enlarge the knowledge of language process and to trace the link between linguistic and natural process.
Ukrainian Anthroponymy in the Sociopolitical Context of the Post-Totalitarian Period
Authors: Beley Oleh
Published: February 2022

The article is devoted to the distribution of anthroponyms in the Ukrainian language in the post-totalitarian period, which is divided in two subperiods: 1991-2013, 2013 till today (beginning of 2020). The second subperiod is conditioned by the following factors: sociopolitical events connected with the war in the Donbas, the process of Ukraine’s European integration, intensification of work migration, growth of consumerism and popularity of the Western standards of living. In the sphere of official anthroponyms, i. e. names and surnames, there are two parallel tendencies of transformation: patriotic domestication and exotic novelization. Whereas in the sphere of unofficial anthroponyms —nicknames— there is a clear reaction to the war in the Donbas.
Blockchain in the university: a digital technology to design, implement and manage global learning itineraries
Authors: Rivera-Vargas Pablo , Lindín Soriano Carles
Published: February 2022

Making universal access to education compatible with different paths of learning is one of the great challenges of the last century. Technology has provided solutions to access information, for communication and collaborative work. Blockchain emerges as a technology that can be useful for the development of an evaluation model of individualized learning itineraries in mass university subjects. In this line, the Edublocs project has been designed and executed, an initiative where these itineraries have been designed, incorporating elements of peer learning, team-teaching, PLEs, microlearning, technology-enhanced assessment... The objective of the Edublocs project is to design and implement a system of recording the results of activities through Blockchain that allow the student to follow a personal itinerary, and the teacher-tutor of the subject to carry out a formative evaluation and an accrediting appraisal of their work. The project is well underway in the evaluation of the implementation process. The experience with some elements of the design and the experimental execution in a formal university context during the present academic course, has allowed us to obtain important indications on the viability and relevance of the use of Blockchain in education. These, together with the explanation and justification of explaining the context of its applicability, will be laid out in the broad development of the article.
Rubric-Based Formative Assessment in Process Eportfolio: Towards Self-Regulated Learning
Authors: Tur Gemma , Urbina Santos , Forteza María Dolores
Published: February 2022

This article explores the results of a rubric-based formative assessment of an eportfolio task as part of a pedagogical subject on a weekly basis during the first year in the Teacher Education programme of the University XXX. The study aims to explore the possibilities of the rubric usage for formative assessment as an answer to all student learning needs. The literature review briefly covers research on closely related concepts such as formative assessment and feedback along with process eportfolios for reflective tasks, which are all aimed at achieving higher-level cognitive skills and, eventually, self-regulated learning. Data, which is obtained from students’ performance, reveals evidence of the general improvement of results throughout the semester with the majority of students moving from lower to higher levels. Conclusions reflect on challenging implications for sustainable transferrable practices, self-regulated learning and formative assessment for all.
Perception of Technology as an Assessment Tool. A Comparative Analysis from the Learners Perspective
Authors: Sarceda-Gorgoso MCarmen , Caldeiro-Pedreira Mari-Carmen , Guevara-Betancourt Sandra
Published: February 2022

The current technological reality is unquestionably changing our lives and consequently, having some effects in the educational field; specifically on higher education. Therefore, the objective of this work is to know the perception of Ibero-American students from Higher Education regarding to technology as a tool to evaluate their learning. The sample group is made up by 122 people studying at the Education School in Técnica del Norte University (Ecuador) and at the Teacher Training School in the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain) who, throughout their educational trajectory, have been assessed at some point through technology. It is a quantitative study that applies the questionnaire as an instrument for data collection. The data analysis shows different perceptions, both in terms of contexts and experience itself, which allows us to identify those elements and factors that are influencing on the added value to technology as a resource for evaluation.
El Trabajo Social y su acción profesional
Authors: Castro Diez Judit
Published: February 2022

Fombuena, J. (2020). El Trabajo Social y su acción profesional. Nau Llibres.
La intervención de Trabajo Social durante la pandemia por COVID-19.
Authors: Ornelas Bernal Adriana
Published: February 2022

La pandemia por COVID-19 supuso, entre otras medidas, la necesidad de confinar a grandes sectores de la población provocando con ello cambios significativos en la forma de vida cotidiana conocida hasta entonces, al complejizar y agudizar la problemática social existente. En este contexto, las diferentes ciencias y disciplinas tuvieron que dar un giro en las formas de acercarse a la realidad, a fin de adaptarse a las nuevas circunstancias y estar en posibilidades de generar alternativas para su intervención. En este texto se pretende dar cuenta de algunas modificaciones que experimentó el Trabajo Social, tanto en su ejercicio profesional como en la formación académica de sus profesionales, a través de reflexionar en torno a diversas experiencias de investigación-intervención que se recuperaron con el propósito de socializarlas y de re-pensar qué de lo aprendido en este momento histórico convendría retomar, no sólo para el futuro inmediato, sino proyectando la posibilidad de que este tipo de escenarios se repitan y entonces, se cuente con una serie de herramientas para enfrentarlo con base en los conocimientos adquiridos. Con ese propósito, el texto comienza por identificar algunas características del contexto actual que influyeron en la forma de intervenir, destacando la necesidad de problematizar la realidad desde la mirada disciplinar específica para posteriormente dar cuenta de algunas modificaciones en la forma de investigar-intervenir en el Trabajo Social contemporáneo.
Envejecimiento poblacional y políticas de cuidado.
Authors: Leone Antonella Paula , Couselo Denise
Published: February 2022

El presente ensayo académico argumentativo busca poner en tensión la categoría de “vejez” tratando de rescatar su carácter singular, relacional, contextual y multidimensional. Tomaremos los aportes de Bourdieu para pensar a las “familias”, permitiendo analizar las mismas como principales engranajes en la economía del cuidado, en especial como cuidadoras de las personas mayores. Abordaremos el envejecimiento poblacional en relación a la variable de cuidados y su feminización. Estos análisis nos permitirán hacer foco en la escasez de políticas públicas que lo contemplen materializando la inevitabilidad de relegar al espacio privado dicha función. Estas categorías se pondrán en discusión desde una mirada feminista intentando complejizar procesos naturalizados en relación a la asistencia de personas mayores al interior de la familia concibiéndola desde una mirada crítica, haciendo foco en la economía del cuidado como concepto central para re-pensar estas dinámicas.
Light-adapted flicker optoretinograms captured with a spatio-temporal optical coherence-tomography (STOC-T) system
Authors: Tomczewski Sławomir , Węgrzyn Piotr , Borycki Dawid , Auksorius Egidijus , Wojtkowski Maciej , Curatolo Andrea
Published: February 2022

For many years electroretinography (ERG) has been used for obtaining information about the retinal physiological function. More recently, a new technique called optoretinography (ORG) has been developed. In one form of this technique, the physiological response of retinal photoreceptors to visible light, resulting in a nanometric photoreceptor optical path length change, is measured by phase-sensitive optical coherence tomography (OCT). To date, a limited number of studies with phase-based ORG measured the retinal response to a flickering light stimulation. In this work, we use a spatio-temporal optical coherence tomography (STOC-T) system to capture optoretinograms with a flickering stimulus over a 1.7 × 0.85 mm2 area of a light-adapted retina located between the fovea and the optic nerve. We show that we can detect statistically-significant differences in the photoreceptor optical path length (OPL) modulation amplitudes in response to different flicker frequencies and with better signal to noise ratios (SNRs) than for a dark-adapted eye. We also demonstrate the ability to spatially map such response to a patterned stimulus with light stripes flickering at different frequencies, highlighting the prospect of characterizing the spatially-resolved temporal-frequency response of the retina with ORG.
Extended scene deep learning wavefront sensing
Authors: de Bruijne Bas , Vdovin Gleb , Soloviev Oleg
Published: February 2022

We have applied a combination of blind deconvolution and deep learning to the processing of Shack–Hartmann images. By using the intensity information contained in spot positions, and the fine structure of the separate images created by the lenslets, we have increased the sensitivity and resolution of the sensor over the limit defined by standard processing of spot displacements only. We also have demonstrated the applicability of the method to wavefront sensing using extended objects as a reference.
Computational upper-limit of directional light emission in nano-LED via inverse design
Authors: Chung Haejun
Published: February 2022

We demonstrate directional light emission in nano-LEDs using inverse design. Standard light-extraction strategies in LEDs have been limited to surface roughening or suppressing guided modes via LED structure modifications, which are insufficient for simultaneously achieving high-light extraction efficiency and directional emission. In this work, we use inverse design to discover high-efficiency directional emitting nano-LEDs. We first investigate the computational upper bounds of directional emission using free-form grayscale material, where material permittivity indicates an intermediate state between air and SiO2. For a narrow emission angle (<±30°), the optimized grayscale design offers 4.99 times enhancement from the planar LED surface. Then, we apply fabrication constraints to our inverse design for discovering a single material (SiO2) based design. The optimized SiO2 surface design shows 4.71 times light extraction (<±30°) improvement compared with the planar configuration. This is a first theoretical demonstration of high light-extraction efficiency and directional emitting nano-LED designs.
Metamaterial microbolometers for multi-spectral infrared polarization imaging
Authors: Jiang Shun , Li Jinzhao , Li Junyu , Lai Jianjun , Yi Fei
Published: February 2022

Vanadium oxide (VOx) microbolometers enable the construction of high-performance yet low-cost and uncooled imaging detectors in the mid-infrared spectrum. Typical micro-bolometers are broadband sensors with no polarization selectivity. Thus, imaging detectors based on microbolometers have to use separate spectral and polarization filters to select the target spectral bands and polarization states, and the resulting systems are complicated and bulky. Here we demonstrate that by using metamaterial absorbers (MAs), which are arrays of optical resonators with sub-wavelength dimensions and spacing, we simultaneously tailor the VOx microbolometers’ spectral and polarization responses, the need for separate spectral filters and polarizers can be mitigated. The MAs selectively absorb the TM polarization component of the incident light in a spectral band with tunable central wavelength and bandwidth while rejecting the TE polarization component. Two MAs with average TM absorption of 0.8322 in the 5.150 µm – 6.422 µm band and 0.7720 in the 5.867 µm – 7.467 µm band are fabricated, and the polarization extinction ratio (PER) are 42.24 and 42.65, respectively. The MAs are applied to VOx micro-bolometers, and the measured detector responses agree well with the absorption spectra of the MAs. The achieved peak responsivities of two fabricated detectors are 1.0 V/W at 6.0 µm and 1.46 V/W at 6.8 µm, respectively. And the two detectors achieve a D* of 6.94×105 cm·Hz1/2W-1 at 11Hz and 9.95×105 cm·Hz1/2W-1 at 36Hz, respectively. Our work paved the way towards large format room temperature multi-spectral infrared polarization imaging detector.
Gas detection sensitivity of hybrid fs/ps and fs/ns CARS
Authors: Steinmetz S. A. , Kliewer C. J.
Published: February 2022

Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) is commonly used for thermometry and concentration measurement of major species. The quadratic scaling of CARS signal with number density has limited the use of CARS for detection of minor species, where more sensitive approaches may be more attractive. However, significant advancements in ultrafast CARS approaches have been made over the past two decades, including the development of hybrid CARS demonstrated to yield greatly increased excitation efficiencies. Yet, detailed detection limits of hybrid CARS have not been well established. In this Letter, detection limits for N2, H2, CO, and C2H4 by point-wise hybrid femtosecond (fs)/picosecond (ps) CARS are determined to be of the order of 1015 molecules/cm3. The possible benefit of fs/nanosecond (ns) hybrid CARS is also discussed.
Non-spectroscopic sensing enabled by an electro-optical reservoir computer
Authors: Anufriev Gleb , Furniss David , Farries Mark , Phang Sendy
Published: February 2022

A fully bio-inspired apparatus to perform non-spectroscopic sensing to discriminate and determine the constituent concentrations of a chemical mixture is proposed. Here, fully bio-inspired means that it is comprised of a biomimetic sensor and a neuromorphic signal processor. The sensor is similar to the human eye in terms of its trichromat architecture and overlapping spectral response. The information processor is a neuromorphic system based on an electro-optical implementation of a reservoir computer. A time-stepping signal algorithm based on the

Z

-bilinear transformation has been developed to realistically simulate the electro-optical reservoir computer; this demonstrates the discrimination and chemical concentration determination tasks. We believe such an apparatus offers potential benefits in areas in which chemical composition needs to be monitored in real time, for example in chemical processing, and food-beverage (fermentation/brewing) and environmental monitoring.
Evolutionary information helps understand distinctive features of the angiotensin II receptors AT1 and AT2 in amniota
Authors: Ben Boubaker Rym , Tiss Asma , Henrion Daniel , Guissouma Hajer , Chabbert Marie
Published: February 2022

In vertebrates, the octopeptide angiotensin II (AngII) is an important in vivo regulator of the cardiovascular system. It acts mainly through two G protein-coupled receptors, AT1 and AT2. To better understand distinctive features of these receptors, we carried out a phylogenetic analysis that revealed a mirror evolution of AT1 and AT2, each one split into two clades, separating fish from terrestrial receptors. It also revealed that hallmark mutations occurred at, or near, the sodium binding site in both AT1 and AT2. Electrostatics computations and molecular dynamics simulations support maintained sodium binding to human AT1 with slow ingress from the extracellular side and an electrostatic component of the binding free energy around -3kT, to be compared to around -2kT for human AT2 and the δ opioid receptor. Comparison of the sodium binding modes in wild type and mutated AT1 and AT2 from humans and eels indicates that the allosteric control by sodium in both AT1 and AT2 evolved during the transition from fish to amniota. The unusual S7.46N mutation in AT1 is mirrored by a L3.36M mutation in AT2. In the presence of sodium, the N7.46 pattern in amniota AT1 stabilizes the inward orientation of N3.35 in the apo receptor, which should contribute to efficient N3.35 driven biased signaling. The M3.36 pattern in amniota AT2 favours the outward orientation of N3.35 and the receptor promiscuity. Both mutations have physiological consequences for the regulation of the renin-angiotensin system.
Inferring RNA-binding protein target preferences using adversarial domain adaptation
Authors: Liu Ying , Li Ruihui , Luo Jiawei , Zhang Zhaolei
Published: February 2022

Precise identification of target sites of RNA-binding proteins (RBP) is important to understand their biochemical and cellular functions. A large amount of experimental data is generated by in vivo and in vitro approaches. The binding preferences determined from these platforms share similar patterns but there are discernable differences between these datasets. Computational methods trained on one dataset do not always work well on another dataset. To address this problem which resembles the classic “domain shift” in deep learning, we adopted the adversarial domain adaptation (ADDA) technique and developed a framework (RBP-ADDA) that can extract RBP binding preferences from an integration of in vivo and vitro datasets. Compared with conventional methods, ADDA has the advantage of working with two input datasets, as it trains the initial neural network for each dataset individually, projects the two datasets onto a feature space, and uses an adversarial framework to derive an optimal network that achieves an optimal discriminative predictive power. In the first step, for each RBP, we include only the in vitro data to pre-train a source network and a task predictor. Next, for the same RBP, we initiate the target network by using the source network and use adversarial domain adaptation to update the target network using both in vitro and in vivo data. These two steps help leverage the in vitro data to improve the prediction on in vivo data, which is typically challenging with a lower signal-to-noise ratio. Finally, to further take the advantage of the fused source and target data, we fine-tune the task predictor using both data. We showed that RBP-ADDA achieved better performance in modeling in vivo RBP binding data than other existing methods as judged by Pearson correlations. It also improved predictive performance on in vitro datasets. We further applied augmentation operations on RBPs with less in vivo data to expand the input data and showed that it can improve prediction performances. Lastly, we explored the predictive interpretability of RBP-ADDA, where we quantified the contribution of the input features by Integrated Gradients and identified nucleotide positions that are important for RBP recognition.
FXS causing missense mutations disrupt FMRP granule formation, dynamics, and function
Authors: Starke Emily L. , Zius Keelan , Barbee Scott A.
Published: February 2022

Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) is the most prevalent cause of inherited mental deficiency and is the most common monogenetic cause of autism spectral disorder (ASD). Here, we demonstrate that disease-causing missense mutations in the conserved K homology (KH) RNA binding domains (RBDs) of FMRP cause defects in its ability to form RNA transport granules in neurons. Using molecular, genetic, and imaging approaches in theDrosophilaFXS model system, we show that the KH1 and KH2 domains of FMRP regulate distinct aspects of neuronal FMRP granule formation, dynamics, and transport. Furthermore, mutations in the KH domains disrupt translational repression in cells and the localization of known FMRP target mRNAs in neurons. These results suggest that the KH domains play an essential role in neuronal FMRP granule formation and function which may be linked to the molecular pathogenesis of FXS.
The role of probiotics in children with autism spectrum disorders: A study protocol for a randomised controlled trial
Authors: Zhang Lingling , Xu Yiran , Li Hongwei , Li Bingbing , Duan Guiqin , Zhu Changlian
Published: February 2022

Background

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurological and developmental condition that begins in infancy or earlier and lasts through the individual’s lifetime. The aetiology and mechanisms of ASD are not yet fully understood, and current treatment comprises mainly education and rehabilitation, without significant improvement in the core symptoms. Recent studies suggest that microbiota change in children with ASD after the ingestion of probiotics may improve the balance of microbiota and thus ASD symptoms.

Objective

The objectives of this study are to evaluate the efficacy of probiotics on the symptoms of children with ASD and the possible mechanisms involved.

Methods

This is a prospective controlled trial. A total of 160 children with ASD will be stratified and allocated to placebo and probiotics groups randomised according to the severity of their ASD symptoms. The probiotics group will be given probiotics supplements orally twice a day for 3 months and the control group will be given a placebo at the same amount, in addition to the baseline therapy of education and rehabilitation. All the children will be evaluated systematically by using different scales, questionnaires before, during, and after 3 months’ treatment, as well as 3 months after discontinuation. The potential impact of probiotics on immunity and inflammation, metabolism, and metagenome will also be investigated.

Discussion

Our previous study showed that the abundance of intestinal flora was greatly different in children with ASD, and thatBifidobacteriumwas associated with the severity of ASD. In the present study, we will investigate the impact of probiotics supplementation on the symptoms of Children with ASD, with the purpose of evaluating the possible therapeutic effects of additives on ASD and of providing a reference for clinical treatment. The results will help to disclose as yet unknown relationship between probiotics and ASD.

Trial registration

This study has been registered with Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR-2000037941).
Assessment of intertidal seaweed biomass based on RGB imagery
Authors: Chen Jianqu , Li Xunmeng , Wang Kai , Zhang Shouyu , Li Jun , Sun Mingbo
Published: February 2022

The Above Ground Biomass (AGB) of seaweeds is the most fundamental ecological parameter as the material and energy basis of intertidal ecosystems. Therefore, there is a need to develop an efficient survey method that has less impact on the environment. With the advent of technology and the availability of popular filming devices such as smartphones and cameras, intertidal seaweed wet biomass can be surveyed by remote sensing using popular RGB imaging sensors. In this paper, 143 in situ sites of seaweed in the intertidal zone of GouQi Island, ShengSi County, Zhejiang Province, were sampled and biomass inversions were performed. The hyperspectral data of seaweed at different growth stages were analyzed, and it was found that the variation range was small (visible light range < 0.1). Through Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Most of the variance is explained in the first principal component, and the load allocated to the three kinds of seaweed is more than 90%. Through Pearson correlation analysis, 24 parameters of spectral features, 9 parameters of texture features (27 in total for the three RGB bands) and parameters of combined spectral and texture features of the images were selected for screening, and regression prediction was performed using two methods: Random Forest (RF), and Gradient Boosted Decision Tree (GBDT), combined with Pearson correlation coefficients. Compared with the other two models, GBDT has better fitting accuracy in the inversion of seaweed biomass, and the highest R2 was obtained when the top 17, 17 and 11 parameters with strong correlation were selected for the regression prediction by Pearson’s correlation coefficient for Ulva australis, Sargassum thunbergii, and Sargassum fusiforme, and the R2 for Ulva australis was 0.784, RMSE 156.129, MAE 50.691 and MAPE 28.201, the R2 for Sargassum thunbergii was 0.854, RMSE 790.487, MAE 327.108 and MAPE 19.039, and the R2 for Sargassum fusiforme was 0.808, RMSE 445.067 and MAPE 28.822. MAE was 180.172 and MAPE was 28.822. The study combines in situ survey with machine learning methods, which has the advantages of being popular, efficient and environmentally friendly, and can provide technical support for intertidal seaweed surveys.
Methodology to standardize heterogeneous statistical data presentations for combining time-to-event oncologic outcomes
Authors: Hebert April E. , Kreaden Usha S. , Yankovsky Ana , Guo Dongjing , Li Yang , Lee Shih-Hao , Liu Yuki , Soito Angela B. , Massachi Samira , Slee April E.
Published: February 2022

Survival analysis following oncological treatments require specific analysis techniques to account for data considerations, such as failure to observe the time of event, patient withdrawal, loss to follow-up, and differential follow up. These techniques can include Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazard analyses. However, studies do not always report overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), or cancer recurrence using hazard ratios, making the synthesis of such oncologic outcomes difficult. We propose a hierarchical utilization of methods to extract or estimate the hazard ratio to standardize time-to-event outcomes so that study inclusion into meta-analyses can be maximized. We also provide proof-of concept results from a statistical analysis that compares OS, DFS, and cancer recurrence for robotic surgery to open and non-robotic minimally invasive surgery. In our example, use of the proposed methodology would allow for the increase in data inclusion from 108 hazard ratios reported to 240 hazard ratios reported or estimated, resulting in an increase of 122%. While there are publications summarizing the motivation for these analyses, and comprehensive papers describing strategies to obtain estimates from published time-dependent analyses, we are not aware of a manuscript that describes a prospective framework for an analysis of this scale focusing on the inclusion of a maximum number of publications reporting on long-term oncologic outcomes incorporating various presentations of statistical data.
The effects of mycobacterial RmlA perturbation on cellular dNTP pool, cell morphology, and replication stress in Mycobacterium smegmatis
Authors: Hirmondó Rita , Horváth Ármin , Molnár Dániel , Török György , Nguyen Liem , Tóth Judit
Published: February 2022

The concerted action of DNA replication and cell division has been extensively investigated in eukaryotes. Well demarcated checkpoints have been identified in the cell cycle, which provides the correct DNA stoichiometry and appropriate growth in the progeny. In bacteria, which grow faster and less concerted than eukaryotes, the linkages between cell elongation and DNA synthesis are unclear. dTTP, one of the canonical nucleotide-building blocks of DNA, is also used for cell wall biosynthesis in mycobacteria. We hypothesize that the interconnection between DNA and cell wall biosynthesis through dTTP may require synchronization of these processes by regulating dTTP availability. We investigated growth, morphology, cellular dNTP pool, and possible signs of stress in Mycobacterium smegmatis upon perturbation of rhamnose biosynthesis by the overexpression of RmlA. RmlA is a cell wall synthetic enzyme that uses dTTP as the precursor for cross-linking the peptidoglycan with the arabinogalactan layers by a phosphodiester bond in the mycobacterial cell wall. We found that RmlA overexpression results in changes in cell morphology, causing cell elongation and disruption of the cylindrical cell shape. We also found that the cellular dTTP pool is reduced by half in RmlA overexpressing cells and that this reduced dTTP availability does not restrict cell growth. We observed 2-6-fold increases in the gene expression of replication and cell wall biosynthesis stress factors upon RmlA overexpression. Using super-resolution microscopy, we found that RmlA, acting to crosslink the nascent layers of the cell wall, localizes throughout the whole cell length in a helical pattern in addition to the cellular pole.
Sexual violence among LGB+ South Asian Americans: Findings from a community survey
Authors: Ali Shahmir H. , Mohaimin Sadia , Dhar Ritu , Dhar Moitrayee , Rahman Farzana , Roychowdhury Liza , Islam Tanzeela , Lim Sahnah
Published: February 2022

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and other sexual minority (LGB+) South Asian Americans represent a disproportionately underserved and often invisible community in the United States. While issues of sexual violence have been documented in the South Asian American community, little is known on its impact among LGB+ individuals. This study explores the experience of sexual violence, related attitudes, and mental health outcomes among LGB+ South Asian Americans. A community-informed online survey of 18–34-year-old South Asian Americans living near the New York State region, recruited from online social media platforms, was conducted. Study design, implementation, and evaluation occurred in partnership with an advisory board of South Asian young adult representatives; data was analyzed both descriptively and through multivariable logistic regression models. Of the 385 participants who reported their sexuality, LGB+ participants comprised 24.1% (n = 93) of the sample. LGB+ participants were more likely to have experienced rape multiple times (17.2% vs. 9.6%) in bivariate analyses, and higher odds of depression (AOR:3.47, 95%CI:1.61–8.17) in adjusted analyses. Overall, LGB+ South Asian Americans displayed a disproportionate burden of sexual violence and depression. Findings identify policy and research pathways to address sexual violence among LGB+ South Asians.