bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Pathological application of carbocyanine dye-based multicolour imaging of vasculature and associated structures
Authors: Konno Alu , Matsumoto Naoya , Tomono Yasuko , Okazaki Shigetoshi
Published: July 2020

Simultaneous visualisation of vasculature and surrounding tissue structures is essential for a better understanding of vascular pathologies. In this work, we describe a histochemical strategy for three-dimensional, multicolour imaging of vasculature and associated structures, using a carbocyanine dye-based technique, vessel painting. We developed a series of applications to allow the combination of vessel painting with other histochemical methods, including immunostaining and tissue clearing for confocal and two-photon microscopies. We also introduced a two-photon microscopy setup that incorporates an aberration correction system to correct aberrations caused by the mismatch of refractive indices between samples and immersion mediums, for higher-quality images of intact tissue structures. Finally, we demonstrate the practical utility of our approach by visualising fine pathological alterations to the renal glomeruli of IgA nephropathy model mice in unprecedented detail. The technical advancements should enhance the versatility of vessel painting, offering rapid and cost-effective methods for vascular pathologies.
Penicillin-binding proteins regulate multiple steps in the polarized cell division process of Chlamydia
Authors: Cox John V. , Abdelrahman Yasser Mohamed , Ouellette Scot P.
Published: July 2020

Chlamydia trachomatis serovar L2 and Chlamydia muridarum, which do not express FtsZ, undergo polarized cell division. During division, peptidoglycan assembles at the pole of dividing Chlamydia trachomatis cells where daughter cell formation occurs, and peptidoglycan regulates at least two distinct steps in the polarized division of Chlamydia trachomatis and Chlamydia muridarum. Cells treated with inhibitors that prevent peptidoglycan synthesis or peptidoglycan crosslinking by penicillin-binding protein 2 (PBP2) are unable to initiate polarized division, while cells treated with inhibitors that prevent peptidoglycan crosslinking by penicillin-binding protein 3 (PBP3/FtsI) initiate polarized division, but the process arrests at an early stage of daughter cell growth. Consistent with their distinct roles in polarized division, peptidoglycan organization is different in cells treated with PBP2 and PBP3-specific inhibitors. Our analyses indicate that the sequential action of PBP2 and PBP3 drives changes in peptidoglycan organization that are essential for the polarized division of these obligate intracellular bacteria. Furthermore, the roles we have characterized for PBP2 and PBP3 in regulating specific steps in chlamydial cell division have not been described in other bacteria.
Low-cost calcium fluorometry for long-term nanoparticle studies in living cells
Authors: Beck Connor L. , Hickman Clark J. , Kunze Anja
Published: July 2020

Calcium fluorometry is critical to determine cell homeostasis or to reveal communication patterns in neuronal networks. Recently, characterizing calcium signalling in neurons related to interactions with nanomaterials has become of interest due to its therapeutic potential. However, imaging of neuronal cell activity under stable physiological conditions can be either very expensive or limited in its long-term capability. Here, we present a low-cost, portable imaging system for long-term, fast-scale calcium fluorometry in neurons. Using the imaging system, we revealed temperature-dependent changes in long-term calcium signalling in kidney cells and primary cortical neurons. Furthermore, we introduce fast-scale monitoring of synchronous calcium activity in neuronal cultures in response to nanomaterials. Through graph network analysis, we found that calcium dynamics in neurons are temperature-dependent when exposed to chitosan-coated nanoparticles. These results give new insights into nanomaterial-interaction in living cultures and tissues based on calcium fluorometry and graph network analysis.
Comparative transcriptome analysis of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum revealed its response mechanisms to the biological control agent, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens
Authors: Yang Xiaoxiang , Zhang Lei , Xiang Yunjia , Du Lei , Huang Xiaoqin , Liu Yong
Published: July 2020

Biological control mechanisms of plant diseases have been intensively studied. However, how plant pathogens respond to and resist or alleviate biocontrol agents remains largely unknown. In this study, a comparative transcriptome analysis was performed to elucidate how the pathogen of sclerotinia stem rot, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, responds and resists to the biocontrol agent, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens. Results revealed that a total of 2,373 genes were differentially expressed in S. sclerotiorum samples treated with B. amyloliquefaciens fermentation broth (TS) when compared to control samples (CS). Among these genes, 2,017 were upregulated and 356 were downregulated. Further analyses indicated that various genes related to fungal cell wall and cell membrane synthesis, antioxidants, and the autophagy pathway were significantly upregulated, including glucan synthesis, ergosterol biosynthesis pathway, fatty acid synthase, heme-binding peroxidase related to oxidative stress, glutathione S-transferase, ABC transporter, and autophagy-related genes. These results suggest that S. sclerotiorum recruits numerous genes to respond to or resist the biocontrol of B. amyloliquefaciens. Thus, this study serves as a valuable resource regarding the mechanisms of fungal pathogen resistance to biocontrol agents.
Chemical structure and genetic organization of the E. coli O6:K15 capsular polysaccharide
Authors: Azurmendi Hugo F. , Veeramachineni Vamsee , Freese Stephen , Lichaa Flora , Freedberg Darón I. , Vann Willie F.
Published: July 2020

Capsular polysaccharides are important virulence factors in pathogenic bacteria. Characterizing the structural components and biosynthetic pathways for these polysaccharides is key to our ability to design vaccines and other preventative therapies that target encapsulated pathogens. Many gram-negative pathogens such as Neisseria meningitidis and Escherichia coli express acidic capsules. The E. coli K15 serotype has been identified as both an enterotoxigenic and uropathogenic pathogen. Despite its relevance as a disease-causing serotype, the associated capsular polysaccharide remains poorly characterized. We describe in this report the chemical structure of the K15 polysaccharide, based on chemical analysis and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) data. The repeating structure of the K15 polysaccharide consists of 4)-α-GlcpNAc-(1 → 5)-α-KDOp-(2 → partially O-acetylated at 3-hydroxyl of GlcNAc. We also report, the organization of the gene cluster responsible for capsule biosynthesis. We identify genes in this cluster that potentially encode an O-acetyltransferase, an N-acetylglucosamine transferase, and a KDO transferase consistent with the structure we report.
Evaluation and modeling of direct membrane-feeding assay with Plasmodium vivax to support development of transmission blocking vaccines
Authors: Miura Kazutoyo , Swihart Bruce J. , Fay Michael P. , Kumpitak Chalermpon , Kiattibutr Kirakorn , Sattabongkot Jetsumon , Long Carole A.
Published: July 2020

Standard and direct membrane-feeding assays (SMFA and DMFA) are fundamental assays to evaluate efficacy of transmission-blocking intervention (TBI) candidates against Plasmodium falciparum and vivax. To compare different candidates precisely, it is crucial to understand the error range of measured activity, usually expressed as percent inhibition in either oocyst intensity (% transmission reducing activity, %TRA), or in prevalence of infected mosquitoes (% transmission blocking activity, %TBA). To this end, mathematical models have been proposed for P. falciparum SMFA (PfSMFA), but such study for DMFA is limited. In this study, we analyzed P. vivax DMFA (PvDMFA) data from 22,236 mosquitoes tested from 96 independent assays. While the two assays are quite different, a zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) model could reasonably explain the PvDMFA results, as it has for PfSMFA. Our simulation studies based on the ZINB model revealed it is better to report %TRA values with a proper error range, rather than observed %TBA both in SMFA and DMFA. Furthermore, the simulations help in designing a better assay and aid in estimating an error range of a %TRA value when the uncertainty is not reported. This study strongly supports future TBI development by providing a rational method to compare different candidates.
Oral interactions between a green tea flavanol extract and red wine anthocyanin extract using a new cell-based model: insights on the effect of different oral epithelia
Authors: Soares Susana , Soares Sónia , Brandão Elsa , Guerreiro Carlos , Mateus Nuno , de Freitas Victor
Published: July 2020

Phenolic compounds (PC) are linked to astringency sensation. Astringency studies typically use simple models, with pure PC and/or proteins, far from what is likely to occur in the oral cavity. Different oral models have been developed here, comprising different oral epithelia (buccal mucosa (TR146) and tongue (HSC-3)) and other main oral constituents (human saliva and mucosal pellicle). These models, were used to study the interaction with two PC extracts, one rich in flavanols (a green tea extract) and one rich in anthocyanins (a red wine extract). It was observed that within a family of PC, the PC seem to have a similar binding to both TR146 and HSC-3 cell lines. When the oral constituents occur altogether, flavanols showed a higher interaction, driven by the salivary proteins. Conversely, anthocyanins showed a lower interaction when the oral constituents occur altogether, having a higher interaction only with oral cells. Epigallocatechin gallate, epicatechin gallate, epigallocatechin-3-O(3-O-methyl) gallate were the flavanols with the highest interaction. For the studied anthocyanins (delphinidin-3-glucoside, peonidin-3-glucoside, petunidin-3-glucoside and malvidin-3-glucoside), there was not a marked difference on their interaction ability. Overall, the results support that the different oral constituents can have a different function at different phases of food (PC) intake. These differences can be related to the perception of different astringency sub-qualities.
Apoptotic exosome-like vesicles regulate endothelial gene expression, inflammatory signaling, and function through the NF-κB signaling pathway
Authors: Migneault Francis , Dieudé Mélanie , Turgeon Julie , Beillevaire Déborah , Hardy Marie-Pierre , Brodeur Alexandre , Thibodeau Nicolas , Perreault Claude , Hébert Marie-Josée
Published: July 2020

Persistent endothelial injury promotes maladaptive responses by favoring the release of factors leading to perturbation in vascular homeostasis and tissue architecture. Caspase-3 dependent death of microvascular endothelial cells leads to the release of unique apoptotic exosome-like vesicles (ApoExo). Here, we evaluate the impact of ApoExo on endothelial gene expression and function in the context of a pro-apoptotic stimulus. Endothelial cells exposed to ApoExo differentially express genes involved in cell death, inflammation, differentiation, and cell movement. Endothelial cells exposed to ApoExo showed inhibition of apoptosis, improved wound closure along with reduced angiogenic activity and reduced expression of endothelial markers consistent with the first phase of endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (endoMT). ApoExo interaction with endothelial cells also led to NF-κB activation. NF-κB is known to participate in endothelial dysfunction in numerous diseases. Silencing NF-κB reversed the anti-apoptotic effect and the pro-migratory state and prevented angiostatic properties and CD31 downregulation in endothelial cells exposed to ApoExo. This study identifies vascular injury-derived extracellular vesicles (ApoExo) as novel drivers of NF-κB activation in endothelial cells and demonstrates the pivotal role of this signaling pathway in coordinating ApoExo-induced functional changes in endothelial cells. Hence, targeting ApoExo-mediated NF-κB activation in endothelial cells opens new avenues to prevent endothelial dysfunction.
Serum interleukin 17A and interleukin 17F in children with inflammatory bowel disease
Authors: Krawiec Paulina , Pac-Kożuchowska Elżbieta
Published: July 2020

Interleukin 17A (IL-17A) and interleukin 17F (IL-17F) appear to play important role in pathogenesis of some autoimmune diseases. However, their role in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has not been yet fully elucidated. We aimed to determine serum IL-17A and IL-17F in children with IBD and to assess their association with IBD activity. Recruited children underwent blood tests including complete blood count, C-reactive protein, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, IL-17A and IL-17F and stool sampling for calprotectin. The study group comprised 68 children with IBD, including 43 with ulcerative colitis and 25 with Crohn’s disease. Control group included 20 healthy children. IL-17A was significantly increased in children with IBD (median: 10.95 pg/ml; range: 0.65–200.54 pg/ml) compared to controls (median: 4.09 pg/ml; range: 0.67–26.20 pg/ml) (p = 0.002). IL-17A was significantly increased in patients with active phase of ulcerative colitis (median: 14.58 pg/ml; range: 0.65–200.54 pg/ml) compared to those in ulcerative colitis remission (median: 8.13 pg/ml; range: 1.61–58.56 pg/ml) (p = 0.04). There were no significant differences in IL-17A among patients with active and inactive Crohn’s disease (p = 0.18). IL-17F did not differ significantly between children with IBD (median: 15.11 pg/ml; range: 0.09–189.84 pg/ml) and controls (median: 11.56 pg/ml; range: 0.19–32.49 pg/ml) (p = 0.33). Our study suggests that interleukin 17A may diverse active phase from remission only in ulcerative colitis but not in Crohn’s disease.
Multi-group analysis using generalized additive kernel canonical correlation analysis
Authors: Bae Eunseong , Hur Ji-Won , Kim Jinyoung , Kwon Jun Soo , Lee Jongho , Lee Sang-Hun , Lim Chae Young
Published: July 2020

Multivariate analysis has been widely used and one of the popular multivariate analysis methods is canonical correlation analysis (CCA). CCA finds the linear combination in each group that maximizes the Pearson correlation. CCA has been extended to a kernel CCA for nonlinear relationships and generalized CCA that can consider more than two groups. We propose an extension of CCA that allows multi-group and nonlinear relationships in an additive fashion for a better interpretation, which we termed as Generalized Additive Kernel Canonical Correlation Analysis (GAKCCA). In addition to exploring multi-group relationship with nonlinear extension, GAKCCA can reveal contribution of variables in each group; which enables in-depth structural analysis. A simulation study shows that GAKCCA can distinguish a relationship between groups and whether they are correlated or not. We applied GAKCCA to real data on neurodevelopmental status, psychosocial factors, clinical problems as well as neurophysiological measures of individuals. As a result, it is shown that the neurophysiological domain has a statistically significant relationship with the neurodevelopmental domain and clinical domain, respectively, which was not revealed in the ordinary CCA.
Respiratory microbiota of humpback whales may be reduced in diversity and richness the longer they fast
Authors: Vendl Catharina , Slavich Eve , Wemheuer Bernd , Nelson Tiffanie , Ferrari Belinda , Thomas Torsten , Rogers Tracey
Published: July 2020

Humpback whales endure several months of fasting while undertaking one of the longest annual migrations of any mammal, which depletes the whales’ energy stores and likely compromises their physiological state. Airway microbiota are linked to respiratory health in mammals. To illuminate the dynamics of airway microbiota in a physiologically challenged mammal, we investigated the bacterial communities in the blow of East Australian humpback whales at two stages of their migration: at the beginning (n = 20) and several months into their migration (n = 20), using barcoded tag sequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene. We show that early in the fasting the whale blow samples had a higher diversity and richness combined with a larger number of core taxa and a different bacterial composition than later in the fasting. This study provides some evidence that the rich blow microbiota at the beginning of their fasting might reflect the whales’ uncompromised physiology and that changes in the microbiota occur during the whales’ migration.
Author Correction: Interleukin-6/STAT3 signalling regulates adipocyte induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition in breast cancer cells
Authors: Gyamfi Jones , Lee Yun-Hee , Eom Minseob , Choi Junjeong
Published: July 2020

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.
Wearable radio-frequency sensing of respiratory rate, respiratory volume, and heart rate
Authors: Sharma Pragya , Hui Xiaonan , Zhou Jianlin , Conroy Thomas B. , Kan Edwin C.
Published: July 2020

Many health diagnostic systems demand noninvasive sensing of respiratory rate, respiratory volume, and heart rate with high user comfort. Previous methods often require multiple sensors, including skin-touch electrodes, tension belts, or nearby off-the-body readers, and hence are uncomfortable or inconvenient. This paper presents an over-clothing wearable radio-frequency sensor study, conducted on 20 healthy participants (14 females) performing voluntary breathing exercises in various postures. Two prototype sensors were placed on the participants, one close to the heart and the other below the xiphoid process to couple to the motion from heart, lungs and diaphragm, by the near-field coherent sensing principle. We can achieve a satisfactory correlation of our sensor with the reference devices for the three vital signs: heart rate (r = 0.95), respiratory rate (r = 0.93) and respiratory volume (r = 0.84). We also detected voluntary breath-hold periods with an accuracy of 96%. Further, the participants performed a breathing exercise by contracting abdomen inwards while holding breath, leading to paradoxical outward thorax motion under the isovolumetric condition, which was detected with an accuracy of 83%.
Author Correction: Small bandgap in atomically precise 17-atom-wide armchair-edged graphene nanoribbons
Authors: Yamaguchi Junichi , Hayashi Hironobu , Jippo Hideyuki , Shiotari Akitoshi , Ohtomo Manabu , Sakakura Mitsuhiro , Hieda Nao , Aratani Naoki , Ohfuchi Mari , Sugimoto Yoshiaki , Yamada Hiroko , Sato Shintaro
Published: July 2020

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.
A poly(N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate-co-ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) monolith for direct solid-phase extraction of benzodiazepines from undiluted human urine
Authors: Zhao Tengwen , Du Li , Zhang Ziyang , Li Na , Wang Manman , Ren Qi
Published: July 2020

A poly(N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate-co-ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) monolith was successfully synthesized and applied for direct solid-phase extraction of benzodiazepines from undiluted urine samples.
A systematic approach of method development for analysis of multiple classes of emerging contaminants in wastewater: a case study of a biological nutrient removal based plant
Authors: Dubey Monika , Vellanki Bhanu Prakash , Kazmi Absar Ahmad
Published: July 2020

A generalized analytical method was developed for 14 emerging contaminants and applied to check the treatment efficiency in a biological nutrient removal based treatment plant.
Design of nanoengineered antibacterial polymers for biomedical applications
Authors: Borjihan Qinggele , Dong Alideertu
Published: July 2020

This review thus provides a feasible guide to developing nanoengineered antibacterial polymers by presenting both broad and in-depth bench research, and it offers suggestions for their potential in biomedical applications.
Improved catalytic effect and metal nanoparticle stability using graphene oxide surface coating and reduced graphene oxide for hydrogen generation from ammonia–borane dehydrogenation
Authors: Prabu Samikannu , Chiang Kung-Yuh
Published: July 2020

GO and rGO supported metal NPs exhibited excellent catalytic performance for AB hydrolysis. It also provided a high turnover frequency (TOF) at 25 °C.
Tunable hydantoin and base binary organocatalysts in ring-opening polymerizations
Authors: Zhang Lei , Zhou Fangyuan , Li Zhenjiang , Liu Bo , Yan Rui , Li Jie , Hu Yongzhu , Zhang Chan , Luo Zikun , Guo Kai
Published: July 2020

A (thio)hydantoin (HHyd) was deprotonated by a Brønsted base (B) to afford iminolate Hyd1 or Hyd3 that activated polymer chain-end (P), the conjugate acid (B–H+) activated monomer (M).
Bis(N-acylated imidazolin-2-imine) nickel catalyzed norbornene copolymerization with methyl acrylate
Authors: Li Yanqing , Zhang Hu , Xiao Ru , Cai Zhengguo
Published: July 2020

We herein report the synthesis of novel bis(N-acylated imidazolin-2-imine) nickel complexes for norbornene polymerization and copolymerization with polar monomers.
Shortwave-infrared (SWIR) fluorescence molecular imaging using indocyanine green–antibody conjugates for the optical diagnostics of cancerous tumours
Authors: Tsuboi Setsuko , Jin Takashi
Published: July 2020

We present indocyanine green (ICG)-based shortwave-infrared (SWIR) fluorescence molecular imaging for the highly-sensitive optical detection of breast and skin tumours in mice.
Rapid and facile method to prepare oxide precursor solution by using sonochemistry technology for WZTO thin film transistors
Authors: Yuan Yanyu , Peng Cong , Yang Shibo , Xu Meng , Feng Jiayu , Li Xifeng , Zhang Jianhua
Published: July 2020

In this paper, a rapid and facile method of preparing metal-oxide semiconductor precursor solution using sonochemistry technology is proposed.
Thermo-responsive wettability via surface roughness change on polymer-coated titanate nanorod brushes toward fast and multi-directional droplet transport
Authors: Okada Kenji , Miura Yoko , Chiya Tomoya , Tokudome Yasuaki , Takahashi Masahide
Published: July 2020

Smart surface with thermo-responsive and reversible wettability is demonstrated by surface roughness change induced by thermal expansion of paraffin on titanate nanorods; it shows superhydrophobicity below 50 °C and less hydrophobicity above 50 °C.
Water-assisted synthesis of mesoporous calcium carbonate with a controlled specific surface area and its potential to ferulic acid release
Authors: Kadota Kazunori , Ibe Toi , Sugawara Yuto , Takano Hitomi , Yusof Yus Aniza , Uchiyama Hiromasa , Tozuka Yuichi , Yamanaka Shinya
Published: July 2020

A carbonation process to control the specific surface area of mesoporous calcium carbonate and the dissolution profile of ferulic acid on mesoporous carbonate particles are presented.
Visible light-induced photocatalytic C–H ethoxycarbonylmethylation of imidazoheterocycles with ethyl diazoacetate
Authors: Bhattacharjee Suvam , Laru Sudip , Samanta Sadhanendu , Singsardar Mukta , Hajra Alakananda
Published: July 2020

A visible-light-promoted regioselective ethoxycarbonylmethylation of imidazoheterocycles has been developed using an α-diazoester via a radical pathway.
A lead-free Cs2PdBr6 perovskite-based humidity sensor for artificial fruit waxing detection
Authors: Ye Wen , Cao Qiang , Cheng Xue-Feng , Yu Chuang , He Jing-Hui , Lu Jian-Mei
Published: July 2020

Detecting the tiny changes in the humidity of a fruit surface can determine whether a fruit is waxed.
pH-triggered solubility and cytotoxicity changes of malachite green derivatives incorporated in liposomes for killing cancer cells
Authors: Uda Ryoko M. , Yoshida Nao , Iwasaki Tomoyuki , Hayashi Keita
Published: July 2020

Liposomes containing neutral malachite green derivatives are internalized by cancer cells and release cytotoxic malachite green cations in acidic compartments.
Unknown defect detection for printed circuit board based on multi‐scale deep similarity measure method
Authors: Ding Runwei , Zhang Can , Zhu Qisheng , Liu Hong
Published: July 2020

Defect detection with high precision is of great significance for printed circuit board (PCB) fabrication. Due to the lack of priori knowledge of categories and shape features, detection of unknown defects faces greater challenges than that of common defects. Inspired by similarity measurement, this study proposes a multi‐layer deep feature fusion method to calculate the similarity between template and defective circuit board. Compared with conventional methods which divide the whole detection into two independent parts of hand‐designed features and similarity measurement, the authors end‐to‐end model is designed to combine these two parts for joint optimisation. First, the Siamese network is utilised as their backbone architecture for feature extraction of pairwise images. And then the spatial pyramid pooling network is incorporated into the feature maps of each convolutional module to fuse the multi‐scale feature vectors. Finally, the discriminative feature embedding and similarity metric are obtained by using the contrastive loss during the training process. Experimental results show that the proposed model has better performance in detecting and locating unknown defects in bare PCB images than traditional similarity measurement methods. Moreover, our method is promising for further improvement of defect detection with less training image pairs and more accurate detection results.
Visual information classification technique of Chinese tourism government portals
Authors: Ma Zhaofeng , Lv Zhiying , Huang Ping , Wen Zhili , Zhan Fei , Ying Zizhong , Han Nan
Published: July 2020

The development of new visualisation technology application tools and platforms is driven by the growth of visualisation technology application requirements and the continuous expansion of the Internet users. Based on the conception and development of the concept of data visualisation, the authors classify and compare the technical tools applied in several kinds of data visualisation technologies and distinguish the visual expressions into traditional visual expressions and new visual representations. Then, they perform the statistical analysis of the information types of the tourism government portals of Guangdong Province, Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang Province, Shandong Province, and Sichuan Province, which ranks on the top five of total tourism revenue in 2017. Furthermore, they analyse people's preferences for information types and provide suggestions based on people's preferences for information types and the types of information derived from travel administration websites.
Scene recognition under special traffic conditions based on deep multi‐task learning
Authors: Hu Xiaochang , Xu Xin , Xiao Yongqian , Chen Hongjun , Zhang Hongjia
Published: July 2020

Traffic scene recognition under special conditions is one of the most promising yet challenging tasks for autonomous driving systems. This study presents a deep multi‐task classification framework for scene recognition involving special traffic conditions. The framework incorporates four learning tasks where the recognition of special traffic scenes is the chief task and the time of occurrence (daytime or night‐time), the weather type and the road attribute are the three auxiliary tasks for improving the recognition performance. The four tasks share the feature map generated by a convolutional neural network followed by task‐specific sub‐networks which are merged in the end via a joint loss function. Moreover, a small dataset of typical special traffic conditions was built for training and testing the recognition model. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed framework significantly improves the accuracy of scene recognition under special traffic conditions.
Feature selection in deterministic policy gradient
Authors: Li Luntong , Li Dazi , Song Tianheng
Published: July 2020

The authors consider the task of learning control problem in reinforcement learning (RL) with continuous action space. Policy gradient, and in particular the determinist policy gradient (DPG) algorithm, provides a method for solving learning control problem with continuous action space. However, when the RL task is complex enough so that tuning of the function approximation is necessary, hand‐tuning for the features is infeasible. In order to solve this problem, the authors extend DPG algorithm by adding an approximate‐linear‐dependency‐based sparsification procedure, which makes DPG algorithm to automatically select the useful and sparse features. As far as the authors know, this is the first time to consider the feature selection problem in DPG. Simulation results illustrate that (i) the proposed algorithm can find the optimal solution of the continuous version of mountain car problem; (ii) the proposed algorithm achieves good performance over a large range of the approximate linear dependency threshold parameter settings.
On the orbital evolution of binaries with circumbinary discs
Authors: Heath R. M. , Nixon C. J.
Published: July 2020

Circumbinary discs are generally thought to take up angular momentum and energy from the binary orbit over time through gravitational torques that are mediated by orbital resonances. This process leads to the shrinkage of the binary orbit over time, and it is important in a variety of astrophysical contexts including the orbital evolution of stellar binaries, the migration of planets in protoplanetary discs, and the evolution of black hole binaries (stellar and supermassive). The merger of compact object binaries provides a source of gravitational waves in the Universe. Recently, several groups have reported numerical simulations of circumbinary discs that yield the opposite result, finding that the binary expands with time. Here we argue that this result is primarily due to the choice of simulation parameters, made for numerical reasons, which differ from realistic disc parameters in many cases. We provide physical arguments, and then demonstrate with 3D hydrodynamical simulations, that thick (high pressure, high viscosity) discs drive sufficient accretion of high angular momentum material to force binary expansion, while in the more realistic case of thin (low pressure, low viscosity) discs there is less accretion and the binary shrinks. In the latter case, tides, which generally transfer angular momentum and energy from the more rapidly rotating object (the binary) to the less rapidly rotating object (the disc), are the dominant driver of disc-binary evolution. This causes the binary to shrink. We therefore conclude that for common circumbinary disc parameters, binaries with non-extreme mass ratios are expected to shrink over time. Expansion of the binary can occur if the disc viscosity is unusually high, which may occur in the very thick discs encountered in, for example, circumplanetary discs, super-Eddington AGN, or the outer regions of passive protostellar discs that are heated by the central protostar. We also provide discussion of the impact that some simplifications to the problem, that are prevalent in the literature and usually made for numerical convenience, have on the disc-binary evolution.
Manufacturer’s channel selection in a capital-constrained supply chain under bargaining game
Authors: Yan Qiang , Ye Fangyu
Published: July 2020

In the context of a capital-constrained supply chain, we examine how a direct channel added by a manufacturer influences the players’ optimal decisions and profits under bargaining game. The capital-constrained retailer adopts a type of hybrid financing scheme including bank credit and equity financing to alleviate its capital shortage. We characterize the equilibrium results under different sales channels, and examine the impacts of the bank loans ratio and bargaining power on the players’ optimal decisions. The conditions of the equilibrium channel choices are derived. We find that if the retailer’s bank loans ratio in the retail channel is beyond a certain threshold, a dual-channel structure can enhance the profits of the manufacturer and supply chain. The retailer, however, will benefit from the direct channel when its bank loans ratio in the retail channel is below a certain threshold. We further demonstrate that a dual-channel structure can reduce the degree of double marginalization of the overall supply chain. In addition, to solve the potential channel conflict, a bilateral payment mechanism is developed to achieve Pareto improvement for both players. Numerical examples are included to illustrate the major results of the paper.
A supervised method for scheduling multi-objective job shop systems in the presence of market uncertainties
Authors: Delgoshaei Aidin , Aram Aisa Khoshniat , Ehsani Saeed , Rezanoori Alireza , Hanjani Sepehr Esmaeili , Pakdel Golnaz Hooshmand , Shirmohamdi Fatemeh
Published: July 2020

In real industries, managers usually consider more than one objective in scheduling process. Minimizing completion time, operational costs and average of machine loads are amongst the main concerns of managers during production scheduling in practice. The purpose of this research is to develop a new scheduling method for job-shop systems in the presence of uncertain demands while optimizing completion time, operational costs and machine load average are taken into account simultaneously. In this research a new multi-objective nonlinear mixed integer programming method is developed for job-shop scheduling in the presence of product demand uncertainty. The objectives of the proposed method are minimizing cost, production time and average of machine loads index. To solve the model, a hybrid NSGA-II and Simulated Annealing algorithms is proposed where the core of the solving algorithm is set based on weighting method. In continue a Taguchi method is set for design of experiments and also estimate the best initial parameters for small, medium and large scale case studies. Then comprehensive computational experiments have been carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed solution approaches in terms of the quality of the solutions and the solving times. The outcomes are then compared with a classic Genetic Algorithm. The outcomes indicated that the proposed algorithm could successfully solve large-scale experiments less than 2 min (123 s) that is noticeable. While performance of the solving algorithm are taken into consideration, the proposed algorithm could improve the outcomes in a range between 9.07% and 64.96% depending on the input data. The results also showed that considering multi-objective simultaneously more reasonable results would be reached in practice. The results showed that the market demand uncertainty can significantly affect to the process of job shop scheduling and impose harms in manufacturing systems both in terms of completion time and machine load variation. Operational costs, however, did not reflect significantly to market demand changes. The algorithm is then applied for a manufacturing firm. The outcomes showed that the proposed algorithm is flexible enough to be used easily in real industries.
Social-Media-Marketing: Ohne geht es nicht!
Authors: Lehwald Andrea
Published: July 2020

Wer heutzutage der Öffentlichkeit sein Unternehmen präsentieren möchte oder auf der Suche nach neuen Mitarbeitern ist, der kommt um das Thema Social-Media nicht herum. Die verschiedenen Plattformen sind inzwischen fester Bestandteil der Unternehmenskommunikation.
Aktiv in der Verbandsarbeit
Authors: Lukuc Sarah
Published: July 2020

Da heißt es oft, junge Menschen engagieren sich zu wenig. In der Arbeitsgruppe Nachwuchs Pflegemanagement im Bundesverband Pflegemanagement sieht das anders aus. Lesen Sie mehr zu den motivierten Zielen der AG im Erfahrungsbericht von Vorstandsmitglied Sarah Lukuc.
The origins and evolutionary history of xerophytic vegetation in Australia
Authors: Byrne Margaret , Murphy Daniel J.
Published: July 2020

The xeromorphic vegetation is a significant component of the Australian flora and phylogenetic and phylogeographic analysis of xeromorphic plants provides a basis for understanding the origins and evolutionary history of the Australian vegetation. Here we expand on previous reviews of the origins and maintenance of the Australian flora with an emphasis on the xeromorphic component. Phylogenetic evidence supports fossil evidence for evolution of sclerophyll and xeromorphic vegetation from the Eocene with lineages becoming more common in the Oligocene and Miocene, a time of major change in climate and vegetation in Australia. Phylogenetic evidence supports the mesic biome as ancestral to the arid zone biome in Australia in phylogenies of key groups. The diversification and radiation of Australian species shows single origins of xeromorphic group mainly at deeper levels in phylogenies as well as multiple origins of arid occurring species at shallower levels. Divergence across the Nullarbor is also evident and speciation rates in south-western Australia were higher than in the south-east in several plant families. Estimates of timing of diversification generally show either constant rates of diversification or increased diversification from the mid to late Miocene. Phylogeographic studies consistently demonstrate high localised genetic diversity and geographic structure in xeromorphic species occupying both mesic and arid biomes.
Nudging the narrative: heading in the 'right direction'
Authors: Friedel Margaret , Brisbin John
Published: July 2020

Lack of engagement with rangelands by the general public, politicians and some practitioners has led to policy failure and unsustainable practice. We argue that thinking in terms of cultural reciprocity with land will lead to greater sustainability of rangeland uses. Many grass-roots initiatives are already showing the way by working at the boundary of science, society and decision makers, involving everyone with a stake in the outcome and developing genuine collaboration and acceptance of diverse value systems.
The rise and fall of viticulture in the Late Antique Negev Highlands reconstructed from archaeobotanical and ceramic data
Authors: Fuks Daniel , Bar-Oz Guy , Tepper Yotam , Erickson-Gini Tali , Langgut Dafna , Weissbrod Lior , Weiss Ehud
Published: July 2020

Significance

Commercial production of luxury “Gaza wine” was long assumed to be the economic basis of Late Antique settlement in the Negev Desert. We present empirical evidence for local viticulture of scale and its connection to Mediterranean trade. Offering unprecedented testimony to the globalization of an ancient production economy in a marginal environment, our archaeobotanical and ceramic dataset illuminates the rise and fall of local viticulture in the fourth to sixth centuries of the common era (CE). Decline likely resulted from market contraction triggered by plague and climate change rather than Islamic conquest, exposing systemic vulnerabilities of Negev agricultural commercialization. In millennial-scale Negev history, the Late Antique commercial florescence is anomalous, lasting about two centuries before reverting to smaller settlement and survival–subsistence strategies.
Covalent coupling of DNA bases with graphene nanoribbon electrodes: Negative differential resistance, rectifying, and thermoelectric performance*
Authors: Zhang Peng-Peng , Tan Shi-Hua , Peng Xiao-Fang , Long Meng-Qiu
Published: July 2020

By applying nonequilibrium Green’s functions in combination with the density-functional theory, we investigate the electronic, thermal, and thermoelectric properties of four kinds of bases in DNA perpendicularly coupling between two ZGNR electrodes. The results show that the electron transport is highly sensitive to different base-ZGNR coupling geometries, and the system can present large rectifying and negative differential resistance effects. Moreover, the fluctuations of electronic transmission and super-low thermal conductance result in significant enhancement of the thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT): the ZT will be over 1.4 at room temperature, and over 1.6 at 200 K. The results show that the base-ZGNR coupling devices can present large rectifying, negative differential resistance, and enhanced thermoelectric effects.
Fiber cladding SPR bending sensor characterized by two parameters*
Authors: Liu Chunlan , Hu Jiangxi , Wei Yong , Su Yudong , Wu Ping , Li Lingling , Zhao Xiaoling
Published: July 2020

A fiber cladding surface plasmon resonance (SPR) bending sensor is realized by the cladding of the fiber structure. By employing coating film, the sensing zone is protected and the toughness of the sensor increases. Three different sensing probes are tested, the experiment results indicate that the two parameters (wavelength sensitivity and light intensity sensitivity) sensing performances of the eccentric butt joint structures are superior to that of hetero-core structure, and the SPR bending sensor based on hetero-core structure is stable and uneasy to damage. By employing hetero-core fiber and silver film, a fiber cladding SPR bending sensor with better stabilization and sensing performance is realized. The proposed fabricating method of sensing probe with coating film provides a new approach for fiber SPR-distributed bending sensor.
Anti-oxidation characteristics of Cr-coating on surface of Ti-45Al-8.5Nb alloy by plasma surface metallurgy technique*
Authors: Zhou Bing , Wang Ya-Rong , Zheng Ke , Ma Yong , Wang Yong-Sheng , Yu Sheng-Wang , Wu Yu-Cheng
Published: July 2020

TiAl-based alloys have received extensive attention recently due to their excellent properties. However, the weak oxidation resistance at temperatures higher than 800 °C can limit their further high-temperature structural applications. To improve the oxidation resistance of a high-Nb-content γ-TiAl alloy (Ti-45Al-8.5Nb, in units of at.%), a chromium (Cr) coating is prepared by using the plasma surface alloying technique, separately, at 800 °C and 1000 °C. The x-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns reveal that an oxide surface layer consisting of Cr2O3, Al2O3, and TiO2 is produced on the Cr-coated Nb containing γ-TiAl substrates during the initial oxidation. However, the Cr2O3 is dominated in the oxide surface layer after being isothermally oxidized for 300 h. The oxidation kinetic curves are composed of a parabolic law stage (≤ 90 h) and a biquadratic law stage (≥ 90 h), fit by weight–gain curves. Due to diffusion in the fabrication process and oxidation process, the Cr-coated specimens have an adhesion force after being isothermally oxidized, specifically 69 N for a specimen after oxidation for 300 h. These results demonstrate that the Cr coating enhances the oxidation resistance and adhesion of a Ti-45Al-8.5Nb alloy, which may provide a new feasible scheme for designing oxidation protection layers.
Enhanced circular dichroism of TDBC in a metallic hole array structure*
Authors: He Tiantian , Ye Qihui , Song Gang
Published: July 2020

We investigate the enhanced chirality of chiral molecular J-aggregates (TDBC) by the propagating surface plasmons (PSPs) in the metallic hole array structure filled with TDBC. The two ends of the hole in the metal film form a low quality factor Fabry–Perot (FP) cavity, and this cavity confines PSPs. The resonant wavelength of the metallic hole array is tuned by the lattice constant and the size of the hole. Both the resonant wavelength of Ag hole array and the volume ratio of TDBC in the hybridized structure influence on the enhancement of the circular dichroism (CD) spectrum. The curve of CD spectrum shows Fano-like line-shape, due to the interaction between the non-radiative field in the FP cavity and the radiative field in chiral TDBC. The maximum of the CD spectrum of the hybridized structure is 0.025 times as the one of the extinction spectrum in a certain structure, while the maximum of the CD spectrum of TDBC is 1/3000 times as the one of the extinction spectrum. The enhanced factor is about 75. The resonant wavelength of the metallic hole array can be tuned in a large wavelength regime, and the chirality of a series of molecular J-aggregates with different resonant wavelengths can be enhanced. Our structure provides a new method to amplify the chirality of molecular J-aggregates in experiments.
The Development of Interactive E-book of Teaching Indonesian for Speaker of Other Language (TISOL) Containing Local Wisdom with Scientific-Thematic Approach
Authors: Saddhono K , Ridwan M , Suherman A , Anwar K , Putri N Q H
Published: July 2020

TISOL learning definitely needs to notice planning, processes, evaluations, learning materials, media, and methods used. However, selecting the media and learning material should give foreign students the description about Indonesia condition so that can lead them to be more interested in learning Indonesian language. This study was a developmental research aiming to apply a model of the local wisdom-based interactive book for TISOL students in Indonesia. The research stages are applied 4 stages, namely (1) preliminary study or exploration, (2) prototype development, (3) prototype test, and (4) dissemination or product implementation. The location of this study was institutions which organizing TISOL in Indonesia. This study was planned to be conducted in 3 years to get data as a reference for the product development and implementation in term of the interactive e-book. Sources of data were (1) TISOL students, instructors, organizers and persons in charge; (2) TISOL teaching-learning activities in TISOL institution; (3) data which obtained through questionnaire containing questions to emphasize the result of the exploration, and (4) textbooks used by BIPA institutions and also learning curricula. After passing some assessment, such as expert assessment, small-scale and wide-scale tests, and experiment class test, interactive e-book for TISOL learning conducted in high level score. Therefore, it can be said that the use of TISOL interactive e-book on learning process as a variation in giving learning materials in TISOL. It can be also considered as an input for TISOL learning developers to give innovation on their products developed.
The effect of work environment and social security on employees’ productivity of production department in textile industry
Authors: Ratnasahara Elisabeth Damarsari , Suyono Joko , Sukaris
Published: July 2020

This research was carried out at a textile industry in Krian, Mojokerto and Nganjuk, East Java. Data is taken using questionnaires and interviews with production employees of the company. The number of samples used as respondents was 95 people from the total population of 1750 people. From the results of interviews and data collection via questionnaires and the results of data analysis, it shows that the working environment and social security variables have a significant effect on employees’ work productivity in textile industry.
The Cause And Effect Of Commercial Flight On-Time Performance (Case Study : Citilink)
Authors: Ratnasari Devi , Amanda Anggi Nurul , Darmawan Farhan , Warsito Tito , Amonalisa Siska
Published: July 2020

The needs of the air transportation is increasing day by day. In order to meet the demand, airline industries made full service, medium service and low cost carrier airline concepts. However, airline concepts might have some risk factors, notably the safety factor. Not only safety factor but The time factor is also a crucial factor in airline. Sometimes airline needs to do schedule changes due to some reasons. But, in fact the airline sometimes has to delay the schedule, and will affect the on-time performance (OTP). This research is aimed to find out the cause and effect of OTP in citilink airline used exploratory descriptive research with the cause and effect diagram method. The identify categories of causes used 5M, particularly regarding Manpower, Method, Mother Nature, Machine and Management. Researchers’ data collection methods are observation, interviews, and documentation, using three phases of data analysis, namely data collection, data classification, and drawing of conclusions.