bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Molecular layer disinhibition unlocks climbing-fiber-instructed motor learning in the cerebellum
Authors: Zhang Ke , Yang Zhen , Gaffield Michael A. , Gross Garrett G. , Arnold Don B. , Christie Jason M.
Published: August 2023

Climbing fibers supervise cerebellar learning by providing signals to Purkinje cells (PCs) that instruct adaptive changes to mistakenly performed movements. Yet, climbing fibers are regularly active, even during well performed movements, suggesting that a mechanism dynamically regulates the ability of climbing fibers to induce corrective plasticity in response to motor errors. We found that molecular layer interneurons (MLIs), whose inhibition of PCs powerfully opposes climbing-fiber-mediated excitation, serve this function. Optogenetically suppressing the activity of floccular MLIs in mice during the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) induces a learned increase in gain despite the absence of performance errors. Suppressing MLIs when the VOR is mistakenly underperformed reveled that their inhibitory output is necessary to orchestrate gain-increase learning by conditionally permitting climbing fibers to instruct plasticity induction during ipsiversive head turns. Ablation of an MLI circuit for PC disinhibition prevents gain-increase learning during VOR performance errors which was rescued by re-imposing PC disinhibition through MLI activity suppression. Our findings point to a decisive role for MLIs in gating climbing-fiber-mediated learning through their context-dependent inhibition of PCs.
Ablation of carotid body activity reverses diabesity by improving white and brown adipose tissue sympathetic innervation and metabolism
Authors: Melo Bernardete F. , Sacramento Joana F. , Lavergne Julien , Martins Fátima O. , Rosendo-Silva Daniela , Panzolini Clara , Melo Gonçalo M. , Prego Cláudia S. , Falvey Aidan , Olea Elena , Matafome Paulo , Rocher Asuncion , Prieto-Lloret Jesus , Correia Miguel C. , Blancou Phillipe , Conde Silvia V.
Published: August 2023

Finding novel pathological mechanisms that lead to innovative strategies to treat obesity and its associated illness are critically needed. The carotid bodies (CB) are metabolic sensors whose dysfunction contributes to insulin resistance and glucose intolerance development. Herein, we find that the ablation of CB activity, through resection of carotid sinus nerve (CSN) promotes weight loss and restores metabolic function in high fat (HF) rodents, by increasing WAT basal metabolism and by restoring WAT and BAT sympathetic activation. Moreover, we found that CSN resection rescues adipose tissue sympathetic/catecholamine resistance present in obesity states. Additionally, we found that the CB signals integrated in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus are decreased in obesity states and that CSN denervation in HF animals restore neuronal activity in this region. By inducing energy expenditure via the increase in WAT and BAT metabolism, CB modulation might be used as a therapeutic target for obesity and dysmetabolism.

Highlights

Ablation of carotid body (CB) activity promotes weight loss

Carotid body modulates white and brown adipose tissue metabolism

Ablation of CB activity rescues adipose tissue sympathetic resistance in obesity

Carotid sinus nerve resection restored the altered neuronal activity induced by obesity in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus
SwrA extends DegU over an UP element to activate flagellar gene expression inBacillus subtilis
Authors: Mishra Ayushi , Hughes Anna C. , Amon Jeremy D. , Rudner David Z. , Wang Xindan , Kearns Daniel B.
Published: August 2023

SwrA activates flagellar gene expression inBacillus subtilisto increase the frequency of motile cells in liquid and elevate flagellar density to enable swarming over solid surfaces. Here we use ChIP-seq to show that SwrA interacts with many sites on the chromosome in a manner that depends on the response regulator DegU. We identify a DegU-specific inverted repeat DNA sequence and show that SwrA synergizes with phosphorylation to increase DegU DNA binding affinity. We further show that SwrA increases the size of the DegU footprint expanding the region bound by DegU towards the promoter. The location of the DegU inverted repeat was critical and moving the binding site closer to the promoter impaired transcription more that could be explained by deactivation. We conclude that SwrA/DegU forms a heteromeric complex that enables both remote binding and interaction between the activator and RNA polymerase in the context of an interceding UP element. We speculate that multimeric activators that resolve cis-element spatial conflicts are common in bacteria and likely act on flagellar biosynthesis loci and other long operons of other multi-subunit complexes.

IMPORTANCE

In Bacteria, the sigma subunit of RNA polymerase recognizes specific DNA sequences called promoters that determine where gene transcription begins. Some promoters also have sequences immediately upstream called an UP element that is bound by the alpha subunit of RNA polymerase and is often necessary for transcription. Finally, promoters may be activated by transcription factors that bind DNA specific sequences and help recruit RNA polymerase to weak promoter elements. Here we show that the promoter for the 32 gene long flagellar operon inBacillus subtilisrequires an UP element and is activated by a heteromeric transcription factor of DegU and SwrA. Our evidence suggests that SwrA oligomerizes DegU over the DNA to allow RNA polymerase to interact with DegU and the UP element simultaneously. Heteromeric activator complexes are known but poorly-understood in bacteria and we speculate they may be needed to resolve spatial conflicts in the DNA sequence.
Disruption of Fuz in mouse embryos generates hypoplastic hindbrain development and reduced cranial nerve ganglia
Authors: Caiaffa Carlo Donato , Ambekar Yogeshwari S. , Singh Manmohan , Lin Ying Linda , Wlodarczyk Bogdan , Aglyamov Salavat R. , Scarcelli Giuliano , Larin Kirill V. , Finnell Richard
Published: August 2023

The formation of the brain and spinal cord is initiated in the earliest stages of mammalian pregnancy in a highly organized process known as neurulation. Convergent and extension movements transforms a flat sheet of ectodermal cells into a narrow and elongated line of neuroepithelia, while a major source of Sonic Hedgehog signaling from the notochord induces the overlying neuroepithelial cells to form two apposed neural folds. Afterward, neural tube closure occurs by synchronized coordination of the surface ectoderm and adjacent neuroepithelial walls at specific axial regions known as neuropores. Environmental or genetic interferences can impair neurulation resulting in neural tube defects. TheFuzgene encodes a subunit of the CPLANE complex, which is a macromolecular planar polarity effector required for ciliogenesis. Ablation ofFuzin mouse embryos results in exencephaly and spina bifida, including dysmorphic craniofacial structures due to defective cilia formation and impaired Sonic Hedgehog signaling. In this work, we demonstrate that knockingFuzout during embryonic mouse development results in a hypoplastic hindbrain phenotype, displaying abnormal rhombomeres with reduced length and width. This phenotype is associated with persistent loss of ventral neuroepithelial stiffness, in a notochord adjacent area at the level of the rhombomere 5, preceding the development of exencephaly inFuzablated mutants. The formation of cranial and paravertebral ganglia is also impaired in these embryos, indicating thatFuzhas a critical function sustaining normal neural tube development and neuronal differentiation.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT

Neural tube defects (NTDs) are a common cause of disability in children, representing the second most common congenital structural malformation in humans following only congenital cardiovascular malformations. NTDs affect approximately 1 to 2 pregnancies per 1000 births every year worldwide, when the mechanical forces folding the neural plate fails to close at specific neuropores located anteriorly (cranial) or posteriorly (caudal) along the neural tube, in a process known as neurulation, which happens throughout the third and fourth weeks of human pregnancy.
Functional potential and evolutionary response to long-term heat selection of bacterial associates of coral photosymbionts
Authors: Maire Justin , Philip Gayle K. , Livingston Jadzia , Judd Louise M. , Blackall Linda L. , van Oppen Madeleine J. H.
Published: August 2023

Corals rely on a wide range of microorganisms for their functioning, including intracellular dinoflagellates (Symbiodiniaceae) and bacteria. Marine heatwaves trigger the loss of Symbiodiniaceae from coral tissues - coral bleaching - often leading to death. While coral-bacteria interactions are widely studied, Symbiodiniaceae-bacteria interactions have remained largely uninvestigated. Here, we provide a genomic analysis of 49 bacteria, spanning 16 genera, that closely associate with six cultured Symbiodiniaceae species. We analyzed bacterial functional potential by focusing on potentially beneficial functions for the Symbiodiniaceae host, including B vitamin synthesis and antioxidant abilities, which may be crucial for Symbiodiniaceae heat tolerance and in turn coral resistance to thermal bleaching. These analyses suggest a wide potential for B vitamin synthesis and the scavenging of reactive oxygen species (through the production of carotenoids or antioxidant enzymes), and possibly the transfer of organic carbon to host cells. Single nucleotide polymorphism analysis between bacteria isolated from wild-type and heat-evolved Symbiodiniaceae cultures revealed that exposure to long-term elevated temperature has resulted in mutations in genes known to be involved in host-symbiont interactions, such as secretion systems. Climate change may therefore modify how Symbiodiniaceae and bacteria interact. This study provides an overview of the possible roles of Symbiodiniaceae-associated bacteria in Symbiodiniaceae functioning and heat tolerance, reinforcing the need for further studies of such interactions to fully understand coral biology and climate resilience.

Importance

Symbiotic microorganisms are crucial for the survival of corals and their resistance to coral bleaching in the face of climate change. However, the impact of microbe-microbe interactions on coral functioning is mostly unknown, but could be essential factors for coral adaption to future climates. Here, we investigated interactions between cultured dinoflagellates of the Symbiodiniaceae family, essential photosymbionts of corals, and associated bacteria. By assessing the genomic potential of 49 bacteria, we found that they are likely beneficial for Symbiodiniaceae, through the production of B vitamins and antioxidants. Additionally, bacterial genes involved in host-symbiont interactions, such as secretion systems, accumulated mutations following long-term exposure to heat, suggesting symbiotic interactions may change under climate change. This highlights the importance of microbe-microbe interactions in coral functioning.
Nonlinear Approximation for Mixed Convection Flow From a Vertical Plate With Exponentially Decaying Internal Heat Generation and Nonlinear Thermal Radiation
Authors: Jha Basant K. , Samaila Gabriel
Published: August 2023

This study considered dynamic features of mixed convection flow over a vertical plate influenced by nonlinear thermal radiation and exponentially decaying internal heat generation. The importance of the nonlinear density variation with temperature (NDT) and convective heating is also analyzed. The governing equations are transformed into ordinary differential equations using the similarity variables and solved in MAPLE 2022 by a Runge–Kutta Ferhlberg fourth-fifth order scheme. The results obtained show that, with an increase in the convection process, the internal heat generation convects more fluid away and consequently reduced the rate of heat flowing back into the plate. For a weak internal heat generation λx=0.5, the plate temperature is less than one (1) and the heat is observed to flow from the plate into the fluid on the surface of the right plate. Furthermore, for weak convection and nonlinear thermal radiation effects, the rate at which the heat flows into the plate increases with the convective heat transfer parameter increase. However, for a strong nonlinear thermal radiation effect, the rate at which the heat flows out of the plate increases. The flow feature is not only governed by the rate of internal heat generation but the generation as well reverses the heat flow from the plate since the temperature of the near the plate surface T is much higher than the environmental temperature Tf.
Effects of Variable Pressure Outlets for Array Jet Impingement Cooling With a Bidirectional Exit Air Scheme
Authors: Bonds Michael , Subbarama Iyer Ganesh , Ekkad Srinath V.
Published: August 2023

Array jet impingement in conjunction with other cooling methods such as effusion cooling is used in gas turbine combustion zones to provide optimized cooling in the form of double wall cooling around a combustion chamber. Utilizing a transient liquid crystal (TLC) technique an experimental investigation into the effects of pressure gradients and single versus multiple exits for array jet impingement crossflow is evaluated in the form of a detailed heat transfer analysis. In this study, four pressure gradients to bias mass flow ratios as (1:1), (2:1), (3:1), and (1:0), two jet array configurations either inline or staggered with jet to jet spacings (x/D = y/D) of 1.4, 1.9, and 2.2, three jet to target distances (z/D) ranging from 2 to 4, and three Reynolds number from 5000 to 15,000 are considered. In total, a test matrix of 72 different performance conditions was evaluated. Results are presented as local and area averaged Nusselt number plots along with local heat transfer coefficient contours. Overall, Nusselt number decreases with increased (z/D) and increased pressure gradient bias toward a single exit from (1:1) to (1:0). There is also slightly better performance from inline jet array configurations compared to staggered configurations.
Depletion Calculations for an Integral Small Molten Salt Reactor With Serpent
Authors: Wang Xiaolin , Nguyen T. Sinh , Wojtaszek Daniel
Published: August 2023

The molten salt reactor (MSR) concept is among the Generation IV designs considered feasible for providing clean, safe, sustainable, and economical energy supplies to the world's population. The depletion of fuel for a small modular fluoride molten salt reactor (sm-FMSR) with a closed fuel cycle based on the integral molten salt reactor concept has been investigated using Serpent. The Monte Carlo transport code Serpent has burnup capability and flow features that can be used to model fuel circulation and online fuel addition in an MSR. Three fueling schemes to control Serpent depletion cycles have been simulated and compared: step fueling (SF), continuous fueling with all fission products (FPs) accumulating in the reactor system (CFA), and continuous fueling with insoluble FPs separated from fuel (CFS). CFA and CFS require fewer depletion cycles that are longer in duration than the cycles required by SF, in order to maintain the effective multiplication factor (keff) within a working range over the seven years of the reactor fuel cycle. sm-FMSRs with SF and with CFA require similar quantities of “top-up” fuel, consume similar fuel (fissile) amounts, and result in similar fuel isotopic concentrations if keff is kept within a similar range. However, with separation of insoluble FPs from the circulating fuel, CFS gains a large reactivity worth due to the removal of FP poisons. This allows for reduction of fuel enrichment in both initial and total top-up fuel and leads to savings of a considerable fissile quantity in fueling MSR and in spent fuel. The Serpent depletion calculations require manual arithmetic calculations for adjustment of the Serpent built-in settings before the start of every calculation cycle for all three fueling schemes. Implementation of additional Serpent flow features in changing material volumes and flow constants would facilitate the simulation of the fuel depletion process and allow for more realistic simulations of fuel circulation.
Novel Payloads to Mitigate Maladaptive Inward Arterial Remodeling in Drug-Coated Balloon Therapy
Authors: Shazly Tarek , Uline Mark , Webb Clinton , Pederson Breanna , Eberth John F. , Kolachalama Vijaya B.
Published: August 2023

Drug-coated balloon therapy is a minimally invasive endovascular approach to treat obstructive arterial disease, with increasing utilization in the peripheral circulation due to improved outcomes as compared to alternative interventional modalities. Broader clinical use of drug-coated balloons is limited by an incomplete understanding of device- and patient-specific determinants of treatment efficacy, including late outcomes that are mediated by postinterventional maladaptive inward arterial remodeling. To address this knowledge gap, we propose a predictive mathematical model of pressure-mediated femoral artery remodeling following drug-coated balloon deployment, with account of drug-based modulation of resident vascular cell phenotype and common patient comorbidities, namely, hypertension and endothelial cell dysfunction. Our results elucidate how postinterventional arterial remodeling outcomes are altered by the delivery of a traditional anti-proliferative drug, as well as by codelivery with an anti-contractile drug. Our findings suggest that codelivery of anti-proliferative and anti-contractile drugs could improve patient outcomes following drug-coated balloon therapy, motivating further consideration of novel payloads in next-generation devices.
Exploring the Oxy-Fuel Combustion in Spark-Ignition Engines for Future Clean Powerplants
Authors: Serrano José Ramón , Díaz Jaime Martín , Gomez-Soriano Josep , Raggi Rodrigo
Published: August 2023

In the context of the CO2 challenge, oxy-fuel combustion in internal combustion engines (OFC-ICE) arises as a promising technology for carbon capture and almost zero-NOx solutions. Although the literature shows some experimental and theoretical works on OFC-ICE, there is a lack of systematic studies dealing with dilution strategies or where nonsynthetic exhaust gases recirculated (EGR) is used. Using a combination of zero-dimensional (0D)-one dimensional (1D) and computational fluid dynamics modeling and experimental measurements, dilution with oxygen (λ>1) and real EGR in a single-cylinder spark-ignition OFC-ICE is here assessed, considering thermo-mechanical limitations and knocking. Results show that an EGR strategy is more appropriate than O2 dilution. A slightly poor mixture near stoichiometric conditions, with EGR rates around 70%, reduces NOx more than 99%, and CO and unburned hydrocarbons up to 90% with respect to the conventional internal combustion engines. It is concluded that OFC-ICE has a lower knocking propensity, thus allowing to increase the compression ratio to partially compensate for the expected efficiency diminution to about 4% points.
Enhancing sensitivity to leptonic CP violation using complementarity among DUNE, T2HK, and T2HKK
Authors: Agarwalla Sanjib Kumar , Das Sudipta , Giarnetti Alessio , Meloni Davide , Singh Masoom
Published: August 2023

After the landmark discovery of non-zero$$\theta _{13}$$θ13by the modern reactor experiments, unprecedented precision on neutrino mass-mixing parameters has been achieved over the past decade. This has set the stage for the discovery of leptonic CP violation (LCPV) at high confidence level in the next-generation long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments. In this work, we explore in detail the possible complementarity among the on-axis DUNE and off-axis T2HK experiments to enhance the sensitivity to LCPV suppressing the$$\theta _{23}-\delta _{\textrm{CP}}$$θ23-δCPdegeneracy. We find that none of these experiments individually can achieve the milestone of 3$$\sigma $$σLCPV for at least 75% choices of$$\delta _{\textrm{CP}}$$δCPin its entire range of$$[-180^{\circ }, 180^{\circ }]$$[-180∘,180∘], with their nominal exposures and systematic uncertainties. However, their combination can attain the same for all values of$$\theta _{23}$$θ23with only half of their nominal exposures. We observe that the proposed T2HKK setup in combination with DUNE can further increase the CP coverage to more than 80% with only half of their nominal exposures. We study in detail how the coverage in$$\delta _{\textrm{CP}}$$δCPfor$$\ge $$≥3$$\sigma $$σLCPV depends on the choice of$$\theta _{23}$$θ23, exposure, optimal runtime in neutrino and antineutrino modes, and systematic uncertainties in these experiments in isolation and combination. We find that with an improved systematic uncertainty of 2.7% in appearance mode, the standalone T2HK setup can provide a CP coverage of around 75% for all values of$$\theta _{23}$$θ23. We also discuss the pivotal role of intrinsic, extrinsic, and total CP asymmetries in the appearance channel and extrinsic CP asymmetries in the disappearance channel while analyzing our results.
DomainNet: Homograph Detection and Understanding in Data Lake Disambiguation
Authors: Leventidis Aristotelis , Di Rocco Laura , Gatterbauer Wolfgang , Miller Renée J. , Riedewald Mirek
Published: August 2023

Modern data lakes are heterogeneous in the vocabulary that is used to describe data. We study a problem of disambiguation in data lakes:
How can we determine if a data value occurring more than once in the lake has different meanings and is therefore a homograph?
While word and entity disambiguation have been well studied in computational linguistics, data management, and data science, we show that data lakes provide a new opportunity for disambiguation of data values, because tables implicitly define a massive network of interconnected values. We introduce
DomainNet
, which efficiently represents this network, and investigate to what extent it can be used to disambiguate values without requiring any supervision.

DomainNet
leverages network-centrality measures on a bipartite graph whose nodes represent data values and attributes to determine if a value is a homograph. A thorough experimental evaluation demonstrates that state-of-the-art techniques in domain discovery cannot be re-purposed to compete with our method. Specifically, using a domain discovery method to identify homographs achieves an F1-score of 0.38 versus 0.69 for
DomainNet
, which separates homographs well from data values that have a unique meaning. On a real data lake, our top-100 precision is 93%. Given a homograph, we also present a novel method for determining the number of meanings of the homograph and for assigning its data lake attributes to a meaning. We show the influence of homographs on two downstream tasks: entity-matching and domain discovery.
Calibrated Passability Perception in Virtual Reality Transfers to Augmented Reality
Authors: Gagnon Holly , Stefanucci Jeanine , Creem-Regehr Sarah , Bodenheimer Bobby
Published: August 2023

As applications for virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technology increase, it will be important to understand how users perceive their action capabilities in virtual environments. Feedback about actions may help to calibrate perception for action opportunities (affordances) so that action judgments in VR and AR mirror actors’ real abilities. Previous work indicates that walking through a virtual doorway while wielding an object can calibrate the perception of one’s passability through feedback from collisions. In the current study, we aimed to replicate this calibration through feedback using a different paradigm in VR while also testing whether this calibration transfers to AR. Participants held a pole at 45°and made passability judgments in AR (pretest phase). Then, they made passability judgments in VR and received feedback on those judgments by walking through a virtual doorway while holding the pole (calibration phase). Participants then returned to AR to make posttest passability judgments. Results indicate that feedback calibrated participants’ judgments in VR. Moreover, this calibration transferred to the AR environment. In other words, after experiencing feedback in VR, passability judgments in VR and in AR became closer to an actor’s actual ability, which could make training applications in these technologies more effective.
On Human-like Biases in Convolutional Neural Networks for the Perception of Slant from Texture
Authors: Wang Yuanhao , Zhang Qian , Aubuchon Celine , Kemp Jovan , Domini Fulvio , Tompkin James
Published: August 2023

Depth estimation is fundamental to 3D perception, and humans are known to have biased estimates of depth. This study investigates whether convolutional neural networks (CNNs) can be biased when predicting the sign of curvature and depth of surfaces of textured surfaces under different viewing conditions (field of view) and surface parameters (slant and texture irregularity). This hypothesis is drawn from the idea that texture gradients described by local neighborhoods—a cue identified in human vision literature—are also representable within convolutional neural networks. To this end, we trained both unsupervised and supervised CNN models on the renderings of slanted surfaces with random Polka dot patterns and analyzed their internal latent representations. The results show that the unsupervised models have similar prediction biases as humans across all experiments, while supervised CNN models do not exhibit similar biases. The latent spaces of the unsupervised models can be linearly separated into axes representing field of view and optical slant. For supervised models, this ability varies substantially with model architecture and the kind of supervision (continuous slant vs. sign of slant). Even though this study says nothing of any shared mechanism, these findings suggest that unsupervised CNN models can share similar predictions to the human visual system. Code: github.com/brownvc/Slant-CNN-Biases.
Distributionally-Informed Recommender System Evaluation
Authors: Ekstrand Michael D. , Carterette Ben , Diaz Fernando
Published: August 2023

Current practice for evaluating recommender systems typically focuses on point estimates of user-oriented effectiveness metrics or business metrics, sometimes combined with additional metrics for considerations such as diversity and novelty. In this article, we argue for the need for researchers and practitioners to attend more closely to various
distributions
that arise from a recommender system (or other information access system) and the sources of uncertainty that lead to these distributions. One immediate implication of our argument is that both researchers and practitioners must report and examine more thoroughly the distribution of utility between and within different stakeholder groups. However, distributions of various forms arise in many more aspects of the recommender systems experimental process, and distributional thinking has substantial ramifications for how we design, evaluate, and present recommender systems evaluation and research results. Leveraging and emphasizing distributions in the evaluation of recommender systems is a necessary step to ensure that the systems provide appropriate and equitably distributed benefit to the people they affect.
Data Management Systems for the Hierarchical Edge
Authors: Hossein Mortazavi Seyed , Salehe Mohammad , Gabel Moshe , de Lara Eyal
Published: August 2023

In recent years, there has been an exponential increase in the generation of data at the edge of the network. The International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates that the Global Datasphere, which was 33 zettabytes in 2018, will rise to 175 zettabytes by 2025, and there will be more than 150 billion connected devices worldwide [10]. The Internet of Things (IoT) segment is expected to experience the fastest growth, with data creation at the edge of the network projected to increase almost twice as fast as in the cloud. As a result, worldwide spending on edge computing is forecasted to reach 317 billion by 2026, as per IDC projections [1].
SYNCUP: Vision-Based Practice Support for Synchronized Dancing
Authors: Zhou Zhongyi , Xu Anran , Yatani Koji
Published: August 2023

The popularization of smart mobile devices has changed how people practice dancing: dancers typically use smartphones to take video records while practicing. However, to review their videos, they primarily use simple video player interfaces, which do not provide sufficient support for dancers. In this work, we present SyncUp, a system that provides multiple interactive visualizations to support the practice of synchronized dancing and liberate users from manual inspection of recorded practice videos. SyncUp helps dancers quickly identify poorly synchronized body parts and dance portions through our interactive visualization designs and dance performance quantification methods. Our extensive evaluation study shows that SyncUp predictions are highly correlated with human rating scores, and reveal practical benefits of SyncUp to dancers.
Effect of Rice Bran Protein Isolate (RBPI) Addition on the Sponge Cake Qualitative and Bioactive Properties
Authors: Zolqadri Roshanak , Zarringhalami Soheila , Haghnazari Simin
Published: August 2023

The current study investigated the effect of rice bran protein isolate (RBPI), in the amounts of 0, 1, 2, and 3% of wheat flour, which are mentioned in abbreviate as C, RBPI1, RBPI2, and RBPI3, respectively, on qualitative and bioactive properties of sponge cake. The results indicated that RBPI contains 57.58% protein with high pepsin digestibility (87.95%). RBPI addition increased the consistency (Bostwick number) and specific gravity (SG) of the prepared batter samples from 7.62 cm and 1.08 for the control to 6.50 cm and 1.14 for RBPI3, respectively. The protein content of sponge cake increased significantly from 6.31% (C) to 6.95% (RBPI3), but the cake volume and baking loss decreased significantly (

p
<
0.05

) with increasing the amount of RBPI. The crust color of the cake samples was changed (

L

∗

and

b

∗

were decreased, and

a

∗

was increased) by RBPI addition. The texture profile analysis (TPA) and sensory evaluation demonstrated that up to 2% of wheat flour can be replaced by RBPI without negatively affecting the characteristics of these. Total phenol content (TPC) and DPPH scavenging activity of RBPI2 were also improved. According to the results obtained from all the evaluations, the addition of RBPI to up to 2% of wheat flour is recommended to improve the qualitative and bioactive properties of the prepared functional sponge cake.
Structural Vibration Data Anomaly Detection Based on Multiple Feature Information Using CNN-LSTM Model
Authors: Zhang Xiulin , Zhou Wensong
Published: August 2023

Structural health monitoring (SHM) system has been operating for a long time in a harsh environment, resulting in various abnormalities in the collected structural vibration monitoring data. Detecting these abnormal data not only requires user interaction but also is quite time-consuming. Inspired by the manual recognition process, a vibration data anomaly detection method based on the combined model of convolutional neural network (CNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM) network is proposed in this paper. This method simulates intelligent human decision making in two steps. First, the original data are reconstructed by two feature sequences with higher universality and smaller size. In the time domain, the residual signal is extracted from the upper and lower peak envelopes of the original data to characterize the symmetry of the data. In the frequency domain, the power spectral density sequence of the original data is extracted to characterize the interpretability of the data. Second, a CNN-LSTM model is constructed and trained which utilizes CNN to extract local high-level features of input sequence and inputs new continuous high-level feature representations into LSTM to learn global long-term dependencies of abnormal data features. For verification, the method was applied to the automatic classification of continuous monitoring data for 42 days of long-span bridge, and the average accuracy of the classification results exceeded 94% and the detection time was 78 minutes. Compared with existing methods, this method can detect abnormal data more accurately and efficiently and has a stronger generalization ability.
Oxidative Coupling Assay for Mesalazine Determination in Pharmaceuticals and Spiked Human Plasma Utilizing Syringic Acid
Authors: Taha Suzan S. , Ali Diyar S.
Published: August 2023

This study reports on developing a simple, cost-effective, highly sensitive spectrophotometric method for measuring mesalazine (MSZ). The method utilizes the oxidative coupling of MSZ with syringic acid (4-hydroxy 3,5-dimethoxybenzoic acid) in the presence of dissolved oxygen under alkaline conditions to form a stable indophenol dye with a characteristic blue color, which can be measured at 615 nm. Beer’s law was found to be obeyed over the range of 1.25–50 µg·mL−1, with a molar absorptivity of 0.53 × 104 mol−1·L−1·cm−1. Moreover, the method exhibited excellent sensitivity, with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.093 µg·mL−1 and a limit of quantitation (LOQ) of 0.282 µg·mL−1. The proposed method was found to be selective, as it could effectively detect MSZ in the presence of certain interfering species. The proposed method was validated according to current ICH guidelines and demonstrated good accuracy, with recoveries ranging between 98 and 100% and a relative standard deviation of less than 0.6%. Overall, this method provides a promising tool for the sensitive and accurate determination of MSZ in its pure form, pharmaceutical formulations, and biological samples.
Field Evaluation of a Safe, Easy, and Low-Cost Protocol for Shipment of Samples from Suspected Cases of Foot-and-Mouth Disease to Diagnostic Laboratories
Authors: Romey Aurore , Ularamu Hussaini G. , Bulut Abdulnaci , Jamal Syed M. , Khan Salman , Ishaq Muhammad , Eschbaumer Michael , Belsham Graham J. , Bernelin-Cottet Cindy , Relmy Anthony , Gondard Mathilde , Benfrid Souheyla , Wungak Yiltawe S. , Hamers Claude , Hudelet Pascal , Zientara Stéphan , Bakkali Kassimi Labib , Blaise-Boisseau Sandra
Published: August 2023

Identification and characterization of the foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) strains circulating in endemic countries and their dynamics are essential elements of the global FMD control strategy. Characterization of FMDV is usually performed in reference laboratories (RL). However, shipping of FMD samples to RL is a challenge due to the cost and biosafety requirements of transportation, resulting in a lack of knowledge about the strains circulating in some endemic areas. In order to simplify this step and to encourage sample submission to RL, we have previously developed a low-cost protocol for the shipment of FMD samples based on the use of lateral flow devices (LFDs) combined with a simple virus inactivation step using 0.2% citric acid. The present study aimed to evaluate this inactivation protocol in the field. For this purpose, 60 suspected FMD clinical samples were collected in Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkey, three countries where FMD is endemic. Sample treatment, testing on LFDs, and virus inactivation steps were performed in the field when possible. The effectiveness of the virus inactivation was confirmed at the RL. After RNA extraction from the 60 inactivated LFDs, all were confirmed as FMDV positive by real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The serotype was identified by conventional RT-PCR for 86% of the samples. The topotype and/or lineage was successfully determined for 60% of the samples by Sanger sequencing and sequence analyses. After chemical transfection of RNA extracted from inactivated LFDs, into permissive cells, infectious virus was rescued from 15% of the samples. Implementation of this user-friendly protocol can substantially reduce shipping costs, which should increase the submission of field samples and therefore improve knowledge of the circulating FMDV strains.
Time Series Forecasting for Regional Development Composite Index Using Real-Time Floating Population Data
Authors: Hong Jungyeol , Na Jieun , Kang Youjeong , Kim Dongho
Published: August 2023

Composite development indices show an exponential movement of major economic indicators to identify and predict the overall trend of the national economy. However, the existing method of writing composite development indices is based on simple statistical methods using macroscopic data. Therefore, it presents limitations when grasping regional economic trends late. It is because the time of announcement of composite development indices is concentrated at the end of each month, quarter, and year. This study used the floating population estimated from smartphone data that can be collected in real-time to analyze how floating population patterns affect regional economic situations to compensate for these limitations. The primary purpose was to present a prompt development prediction methodology that reflects this meaningful relationship. A correlation and cross-correlation analysis was performed to exhibit a clear relationship between composite development indices and floating population value. In addition, a time series model and a multiple regression model analyses were applied to predict regional development indices. The results obtained facilitated the prompt selection of regional composite indices after choosing a model that exhibits high prediction accuracy and efficiency of the application. The selected regional development composite indices are expected to be used as a faster and more reliable prediction criterion than the existing development composite indices used to predict a specific city’s economic situation.
Frequency Control of a Realistic Dish Stirling Solar Thermal System and Accurate HVDC Models Using a Cascaded FOPI-IDDN-Based Crow Search Algorithm
Authors: Babu Naladi Ram , Bhagat Sanjeev Kumar , Chiranjeevi Tirumalasetty , Pushkarna Mukesh , Saha Arindita , Kotb Hossam , AboRas Kareem M. , Alsaif Faisal , Alsulamy Sager , Ghadi Yazeed Yasin , Hermann Djeudjo Temene
Published: August 2023

Unbalancing the real power in power system leads to fluctuation in system frequency which can cause the several negative effects on the performance and reliability of the interconnected power system. Therefore, to deal with this, the load frequency control (LFC) of a three-area asymmetric thermal power system integrated with a solar thermal power plant (STPP), a realistic dish-stirling solar thermal system (DSTS), and an accurate high voltage direct current (HVDC) link are presented in this work. For the suggested system, a novel cascade controller called fractional-order proportional-integral and integral-double-derivative with filter (FOPI-IDDN) is designed. By minimising a newly proposed performance index called the HPA-ISE and adjusting the controller and other system model parameters using a metaheuristic method called the crow search algorithm (CS). When comparing the system dynamics, it was found that the suggested FOPI-IDDN controller outperformed the FOPI, PIDN, and FOPIDN controllers. The findings of this study show that HPA-ISE shows approximately 30% and 60% improvements in settling time (ST) and peak overshoots (POS) for frequency response, and 32% and 18% improvements for the tie power responses in terms of ST and POS over ISE criteria. Also, studies on different area capacity ratios have shown that a system connected to a greater capacity ratio operates better. The realistic DSTS system with fixed and recurring insolation in area 1 and area 2 outperforms the others, according to experiments using different DSTS insolation. Also, it is discovered that the parallel AC-AHVDC link study is superior to the AC and HVDC connection research. Moreover, it seems from the sensitivity study that the CS-optimized FOPI-IDDN controller improvements obtained under normal settings are consistent across a wide range of changes.
Hugo Grotius’s De iure belli ac pacis: A Report on the Worldwide Census of the 1650 Edition
Authors: Cleary Matthew , Corredera Edward Jones , Dufour Pablo Nicolas , Nathan Jonathan , Salerno Emanuele , Somos Mark
Published: August 2023

This note studies the 1650 edition of Hugo Grotius’s De iure belli ac pacis. Using online and card catalogues, we have located eighty-nine copies, thirty-seven of which we examined in person, with an additional six fully digitised copies online. We hope that this research note on the preliminary results will generate greater interest in this unduly neglected edition. The note shows how, despite the connection established in the history of seventeenth-century politics that emphasized the ties between Grotius and the Peace of Westphalia, the reception of Grotius’s 1650 edition bore no relation to the debates at Osnabrück and Münster. However, this is an influential edition, cherished by collectors and authors. According to our findings, it would be reproduced in a number of later reprints.
‘Holding Fast to the Heritage of Freedom’: the Grotian Moment(s) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Early United Nations (1941–1949)
Authors: Quiroga-Villamarín Daniel R.
Published: August 2023

As our contemporary international order seems to come apart at its seams in the trenches of Eastern Europe, many observers have sought solace in the promises made by the historical crucible in which this order was forged. It was, after all, in the aftermath of a previous global conflagration that a planetary constellation of statespeople attempted to create an architecture that would save ‘succeeding generations from the scourge of war’ under the aegis of the ‘United Nations Organization’ (uno). In hindsight, it is easy to look at the years that led to the creation of this international institution—and the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (udhr) of 1948, one of its central pillars—as a decisive ‘Grotian moment,’ insofar as it promised a new age for international ordering. And yet, the historical record shows that those contemporary to the making of the uno and the udhr were less certain about the ‘Grotianness’ of the moment they were living. In this sense, I argue that the plural legacies of the years 1941–1948 have been contested and disputed from the outset. In this contribution I think with, and perhaps against, the notion of ‘Grotian moments’ to interrogate how a narrative of the udhr as a watershed period for secularized individual rights came to eclipse another account of the udhr, which highlighted the centrality of collective welfare for the post-war settlement.
Sexual Orientation and the Criminalisation of Private Consensual Sexual Acts Between Adults of the Same Gender
Authors: Ssenyonjo Manisuli
Published: August 2023

As of September 2023, consensual same-sex sexual acts between adults (for both men and women) in private were criminalised in a total of 67 United Nations (UN) member States. Most of these States were in Africa, a continent of more than 1.4 billion people, where more than 30 out of Africa Union’s 55 States criminalised consensual same-sex sexual acts between adults in private. The justification advanced in favour of criminalisation is that non-heterosexual sexual acts do not conform to the moral, cultural or religious views of a section of society. In some States, consensual same-sex sexual acts between adults in private were punishable by a maximum penalty of death or long prison sentences. The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the Charter) and several protocols adopted under the Charter do not prohibit explicitly discrimination based on real or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity and sexual characteristics. Thus, sexual orientation has remained on the margins of the African regional human rights system and has also remained largely outside the consideration of the African Commission (and the African Court) on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the limited jurisprudence is mainly between negative and retrogressive. This article examines the criminalisation of private, consensual same-sex relations, sexual or affective, between adult persons of the same gender or sex in Africa with particular reference to Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 and its impact on human rights including respect for life, privacy, human dignity, integrity, liberty and security of the person, equality and non-discrimination, health, as well as freedom of association, expression and peaceful assembly.
The Chinese “Discovery” of the Americas, Zheng He’s Voyages to the Indian Ocean, and Early Globalization
Authors: Yan Wu , Chen Zhongping , Church Sally K.
Published: August 2023

This article undertakes a thorough investigation of the assertion in recent publications, both Chinese and foreign, that Zheng He’s fleet “discovered” the Americas, and traces it back to its origins. It comprehensively examines all the major arguments that have been made concerning the question of whether Chinese people sailed to the Americas before Cristopher Columbus, from the pre-Qin dynasty to the early Ming dynasty. It reveals both contributions and problems of previous studies of the subject, pointing out how the various theories on this topic and surrounding discussion have evolved, the reliability and dubiousness of the various points of view, and the academic significance of the debate. As the long-standing academic dispute over this question, it has helped collect relevant American archaeological, written, and oral sources as well as other such historical data, and has brought to light related Chinese documents as well as ancient Chinese and foreign maps and other materials. The academic significance of the relevant scholarship also lies in the comparative study of the civilizations of ancient China and the Americas on opposite sides of the Pacific Ocean. Through the identification and thorough study of Chinese and foreign materials, careful, serious, and responsible historians have not only refuted the exaggerated claims for Chinese “discovery” of the Americas, but have also tried to reject the Sinocentrism that arises from these distortions. The scholars in China have also discovered, within the study of Zheng He’s maritime expeditions, the true aspects of their history that Chinese people can feel proud of. This article sifts through both the arguments and counterarguments as well as their respective evidence, and it pursues further textual research on relevant documents and materials for the purpose of examining the possibility for Chinese visits to the Americas before Columbus. Seen from the point of view of globalization, even if Zheng He’s fleet or other Chinese people reached the Americas before Columbus, their journey (which awaits confirmation) could not have had as much influence on the links between the New and Old Worlds as did those of later explorers. In spite of this, the seven large-scale voyages of Zheng He’s fleet in the Indian Ocean promoted maritime links within the Old World before Columbus’s great voyages in the Atlantic, making contributions to the history of globalization that are as important as those made later by Columbus.