bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Assessment of Model Confidence of a Laser Source Model in xRAGE Using Omega Direct-Drive Implosion Experiments
Authors: Wilson Brandon M. , Koskelo Aaron
Published: April 2019

Los Alamos National Laboratory is interested in developing high-energy-density physics validation capabilities for its multiphysics code xRAGE. xRAGE was recently updated with the laser package Mazinisin to improve predictability. We assess the current implementation and coupling of the laser package via validation of laser-driven, direct-drive spherical capsule experiments from the Omega laser facility. The ASME V&V 20-2009 standard is used to determine the model confidence of xRAGE, and considerations for high-energy-density physics are identified. With current modeling capabilities in xRAGE, the model confidence is overwhelmed by significant systematic errors from the experiment or model. Validation evidence suggests cross-beam energy transfer as a dominant source of the systematic error.
Assessment of the TRACE Code for the He-Cooled Systems Simulation Capability Against Some He-FUS3 Experimental Measurements
Authors: Mazzini Guido , Kynčl Miloš , Ruščák Marek , Hrehor Miroslav , Musa Alis , Dambrosio Antonio , Romanello Vincenzo
Published: April 2019

This paper focuses on the TRACE code assessment for helium-cooled systems thermal-hydraulic analysis. In the frame of the GoFastR (gas cooled fast reactor) European Collaborative Project, ENEA has offered some selected experimental data for the organization of a benchmark exercise aimed at the validation of the system and CFD codes for the gas reactor transient analyses. One of the Research Center Řež teams participated in it with a CFD code application. Now, the experimental data are used in order to assess the TRACE code for the ongoing high-temperature helium loop (HTHL-2) licensing process. The results of the TRACE calculations agreed very well with the experimental measurements (often within the experimental uncertainties) data provided by the He-FUS3 facility, indicating that the code, despite developed for water coolant applications, if an appropriately tuned input is adopted, it can also be suitable for reasonably accurate gas technology thermo-hydraulic simulations.
Estimation of Tritium and Dust Source Term in European DEMOnstration Fusion Reactor During Accident Scenarios
Authors: Mazzini Guido , Kaliatka Tadas , Porfiri Maria Teresa
Published: April 2019

The safety features of the future nuclear fusion reactors are one of the key issues for their attractiveness if compared with the fission plants. In fusion devices, accidents with high release of radioactive materials have low probabilities because the most part of abnormal transients lead to passive plasma shutdown. It does not mean that radiological source terms such tritium and activated dust are not generated and released, but their inventory does not increase during abnormal events. Therefore, the source term inventory has to be assessed during normal operation and traced when accidents occur. For this reason, a study for qualification and quantification of the tritium and dust source term (DTS) was established with the aim to understand their production, deposition, and penetration in the vacuum vessel (VV) and in the breeding blanket (BB). The main concern is source term release during the main accident scenarios to comply with a future licensing process. In case of abnormal event scenarios, the source term inventory involved in the release changes and requires a different confinement approach and mitigation. For the estimation of the source term in the DEMOnstration Fusion Power Station (DEMO), a methodology was developed. The methodology scales the tritium and DTS inside the VV from the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, the European Power Plant Conceptual Study, and reports the tritium generated inside the breeder blanket from data quantified in other studies for DEMO. In this article, the methodology was updated and tritium and DTS for DEMO 2016 design were estimated. Moreover, the tritium and dust release pathways were highlighted according to different accidental scenarios. These results were obtained for all blanket concepts, which are analyzing in the ongoing DEMO EUROFusion project. The values estimated in this article will be used in the safety analyses to evaluate releases or to quantify the operational limits starting from values postulated in International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor.
Energy- and Exergy-Based Analysis for Reducing Energy Demand in Heat Processes for Aluminum Casting
Authors: Neri Manuela , Lezzi Adriano M. , Beretta Gian P. , Pilotelli Mariagrazia
Published: April 2019

In this paper, energy- and exergy-based analysis is used to analyze a factory with high energy demand for the production of aluminum discs. The analysis is focused on heat processes that take place in a melting furnace, a casting machine, a heat treatment oven, and a drying oven. Energy and exergy efficiencies are computed to assess the room for the improvement of the energy efficiency processes. The analysis shows that a large amount of energy is lost due to heat losses to the environment, and solutions for reducing energy demand and emissions have been identified. Instead of changing the equipment of a factory, significant improvements and consequent reduction of fossil fuels consumption can be obtained by increasing the thermal insulation of some components and by means of waste heat recovery performed by heat exchangers, with a consequent energy demand reduction of 15%.
Prediction of Cyclic Variability and Knock-Limited Spark Advance in a Spark-Ignition Engine
Authors: Yue Zongyu , Edwards K. Dean , Sluders C. Scott , Som Sibendu
Published: April 2019

Engine knock remains one of the major barriers to further improve the thermal efficiency of spark-ignition (SI) engines. SI engine is usually operated at knock-limited spark advance (KLSA) to achieve possibly maximum efficiency with given engine hardware and fuel properties. Co-optimization of fuels and engines is promising to improve engine efficiency, and predictive computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models can be used to facilitate this process. However, cyclic variability of SI engine demands that multicycle results are required to capture the extreme conditions. In addition, Mach Courant–Friedrichs–Lewy (CFL) number of 1 is desired to accurately predict the knock intensity (KI), resulting in unaffordable computational cost. In this study, a new approach to numerically predict KLSA using large Mach CFL of 50 with ten consecutive cycle simulation is proposed. This approach is validated against the experimental data for a boosted SI engine at multiple loads and spark timings with good agreements in terms of cylinder pressure, combustion phasing, and cyclic variation. Engine knock is predicted with early spark timing, indicated by significant pressure oscillation and end-gas heat release. Maximum amplitude of pressure oscillation analysis is performed to quantify the KI, and the slope change point in KI extrema is used to indicate the KLSA accurately. Using a smaller Mach CFL number of 5 also results in the same conclusions, thus demonstrating that this approach is insensitive to the Mach CFL number. The use of large Mach CFL number allows us to achieve fast turn-around time for multicycle engine CFD simulations.
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Soot Emissions in Oxygenated Ethylene Diffusion Flames at Elevated Pressures
Authors: Kalvakala Krishna C. , Aggarwal Suresh K.
Published: April 2019

We report herein a computational study to characterize the effect of oxygenation on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and soot emissions in ethylene diffusion flames at pressures 1–8 atm. Laminar oxygenated flames are established in a counterflow configuration by using N2 diluted fuel stream along with O2-enriched oxidizer stream such that the stoichiometric mixture fraction (ζst) is varied, but the adiabatic flame temperature is not materially changed. Simulations are performed using a validated fuel chemistry model and a detailed soot model. The primary objective is to enhance the fundamental understanding of PAHs and soot formation in oxygenated flames at elevated pressures. At a given pressure, as the level of oxygenation (ζst) is increased, we observe a significant reduction in PAHs (benzene and pyrene) and consequently in soot formation. On the other hand, at a fixed ζst, as pressure is increased, it leads to increased PAHs formation and thus higher soot emission. Both soot number density and soot volume fraction increase with pressure. The reaction path analysis indicates that at higher pressures, the C2/C4 path becomes more significant for benzene formation compared to the propargyl recombination path. Results further indicate that the effectiveness of oxygenation in reducing the formation of pyrene and soot becomes less pronounced at higher pressures. In contrast, the effect of pressure on pyrene and soot formation becomes more pronounced at higher oxygenation levels. The behavior can be explained by examining the flame structure and hydrodynamics effects at different pressure and oxygenation levels.
Stochastic Elastic Property Evaluation With Stochastic Homogenization Analysis of a Resin Structure Made Using the Fused Deposition Modeling Method
Authors: Sakata Sei-ichiro , Yamauchi Yuki
Published: April 2019

This paper describes the stochastic elastic property evaluation of a resin structure, which is made using the fused deposition modeling (FDM) method, through experimental and numerical tests. The FDM method is an additive manufacturing method, and it enables the fabrication of complex shaped structures at a low cost. However, a resin structure that is made using the FDM method has a complex microstructure, and a multiscale problem must be considered for the evaluation of its mechanical properties. In addition, if the microstructure is not well controlled compared to the structure obtained using a conventional processing technique, a multiscale stochastic problem should be also considered. In this paper, first, the randomness in a resin specimen manufactured using the FDM method is experimentally investigated, and the necessity of considering the microscopic randomness for the mechanical property evaluation of the resin structure is discussed. Next, appropriate numerical modeling for evaluating the probabilistic property of an apparent elastic property of the specimen (as a mechanical property of the resin structure made using the FDM method) is discussed, along with a comparison between the experimental results and the numerical results obtained using the Monte Carlo simulation with several analysis models. Based on the results, the effectiveness of the evaluation using a detailed hierarchical modeling is discussed. In addition, the perturbation-based hierarchical stochastic homogenization analysis is performed, and the applicability of the method is discussed based on the numerical results.
Identifying global centers of unsustainable commercial harvesting of species
Authors: Di Minin Enrico , Brooks Thomas M. , Toivonen Tuuli , Butchart Stuart H. M. , Heikinheimo Vuokko , Watson James E. M. , Burgess Neil D. , Challender Daniel W. S. , Goettsch Bárbara , Jenkins Richard , Moilanen Atte
Published: April 2019

High-risk areas contain 82% of all species and >80% of the ranges of Critically Endangered species threatened by overexploitation.
Helicobacter pylori
–induced matrix metallopeptidase-10 promotes gastric bacterial colonization and gastritis
Authors: Lv Yi-pin , Cheng Ping , Zhang Jin-yu , Mao Fang-yuan , Teng Yong-sheng , Liu Yu-gang , Kong Hui , Wu Xiao-long , Hao Chuan-jie , Han Bin , Ma Qiang , Yang Shi-ming , Chen Weisan , Peng Liu-sheng , Wang Ting-ting , Zou Quan-ming , Zhuang Yuan
Published: April 2019

Matrix metallopeptidase-10 fosters
Helicobacter pylori
gastric bacterial colonization and
Helicobacter pylori
–induced gastritis.
Cognitive chimera states in human brain networks
Authors: Bansal Kanika , Garcia Javier O. , Tompson Steven H. , Verstynen Timothy , Vettel Jean M. , Muldoon Sarah F.
Published: April 2019

Researchers describe human brain organization using a framework that measures patterns of synchrony across cognitive systems.
Evaluating the impacts of protected areas on human well-being across the developing world
Authors: Naidoo R. , Gerkey D. , Hole D. , Pfaff A. , Ellis A. M. , Golden C. D. , Herrera D. , Johnson K. , Mulligan M. , Ricketts T. H. , Fisher B.
Published: April 2019

Protected areas positively affect several aspects of human well-being across the developing world.
Near-infrared upconversion–activated CRISPR-Cas9 system: A remote-controlled gene editing platform
Authors: Pan Yongchun , Yang Jingjing , Luan Xiaowei , Liu Xinli , Li Xueqing , Yang Jian , Huang Ting , Sun Lu , Wang Yuzhen , Lin Youhui , Song Yujun
Published: April 2019

Remote-controlled manipulation of gene editing was achieved in vivo.
Near-Complete Genome Sequences of Vesicular Stomatitis Virus Indiana Laboratory Strains HR and T1026R1 and Plaque Isolates 22-20 and 22-25
Authors: Russell Thomas M. , Santo Evan E. , Golebiewski Lisa , Haseley Nathan S. , Ferran Maureen C.
Published: April 2019

We report four near-complete genome sequences of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) Indiana obtained with Sanger and Illumina next-generation sequencing, namely, laboratory strains HR (heat resistant) and T1026R1 and isolates 22-20 and 22-25. Previously, only the M gene of these viruses had been sequenced, and these sequences were not deposited in GenBank.
In Silico
Identification of Three Types of Integrative and Conjugative Elements in Elizabethkingia anophelis Strains Isolated from around the World
Authors: Xu Jiannong , Pei Dong , Nicholson Ainsley , Lan Yuhao , Xia Qing
Published: April 2019

Elizabethkingia anophelis
is an opportunistic human pathogen, and the genetic diversity between strains from around the world becomes apparent as more genomes are sequenced. Genome comparison identified three types of putative ICEs in 31 of 36 strains. The diversity of ICEs suggests that they had different origins. One of the ICEs was discovered previously from a large
E. anophelis
outbreak in Wisconsin in the United States; this ICE has integrated into the
mutY
gene of the outbreak strain, creating a mutator phenotype. Similar to ICEs found in many bacterial species, ICEs in
E. anophelis
carry various cargo genes that enable recipients to resist antibiotics and adapt to various ecological niches. The adaptive immune CRISPR-Cas system is present in nine of 36 strains. An ICE-derived spacer was found in the CRISPR locus in a strain that has no ICE, suggesting a past encounter and effective defense against ICE.
Can a nurse-led community-based model of hypertension care improve hypertension control in Ghana? Results from the ComHIP cohort study
Authors: Adler Alma J , Laar Amos , Prieto-Merino David , Der Reina M M , Mangortey Debbie , Dirks Rebecca , Lamptey Peter , Perel Pablo
Published: April 2019

Objectives

To evaluate the effectiveness of the Community-based Hypertension Improvement Project (ComHIP) in increasing hypertension control.

Setting

Lower Manya Krobo, Eastern Region, Ghana.

Participants

All adult hypertensive community members, except pregnant women, were eligible for inclusion in the study. We enrolled 1339 participants, 69% of whom were female. A total of 552 had a 6-month visit, and 338 had a 12-month visit.

Interventions

We report on a package of interventions where community-based cardiovascular disease (CVD) nurses were trained by FHI 360. CVD nurses confirmed diagnoses of known hypertensives and newly screened individuals. Participants were treated according to the clinical guidelines established through the project’s Technical Steering Committee. Patients received three types of reminder and adherence messages. We used CommCare, a cloud-based system, as a case management and referral tool.

Primary outcome

Hypertension control defined as blood pressure (BP) under 140/90 mm Hg. Secondary outcomes: changes in BP and knowledge of risk factors for hypertension.

Results

After 1 year of intervention, 72% (95% CI: 67% to 77%) of participants had their hypertension under control. Systolic BP was reduced by 12.2 mm Hg (95% CI: 14.4 to 10.1) and diastolic BP by 7.5 mm Hg (95% CI: 9.9 to 6.1). Due to low retention, we were unable to look at knowledge of risk factors. Factors associated with remaining in the programme for 12 months included education, older age, hypertension under control at enrolment and enrolment date. The majority of patients who remained in the programme were on treatment, with two-thirds taking at least two medications.

Conclusions

Patients retained in ComHIP had increased BP control. However, high loss to follow-up limits potential public health impact of these types of programmes. To minimise the impact of externalities, programmes should include standard procedures and backup systems to maximise the possibility that patients stay in the programme.
Assessment of Crohn’s disease-associated small bowel strictures and fibrosis on cross-sectional imaging: a systematic review
Authors: Bettenworth Dominik , Bokemeyer Arne , Baker Mark , Mao Ren , Parker Claire E , Nguyen Tran , Ma Christopher , Panés Julián , Rimola Jordi , Fletcher Joel G , Jairath Vipul , Feagan Brian G , Rieder Florian
Published: April 2019

Patients with Crohn’s disease commonly develop ileal and less commonly colonic strictures, containing various degrees of inflammation and fibrosis. While predominantly inflammatory strictures may benefit from a medical anti-inflammatory treatment, predominantly fibrotic strictures currently require endoscopic balloon dilation or surgery. Therefore, differentiation of the main components of a stricturing lesion is key for defining the therapeutic management. The role of endoscopy to diagnose the nature of strictures is limited by the superficial inspection of the intestinal mucosa, the lack of depth of mucosal biopsies and by the risk of sampling error due to a heterogeneous distribution of inflammation and fibrosis within a stricturing lesion. These limitations may be in part overcome by cross-sectional imaging techniques such as ultrasound, CT and MRI, allowing for a full thickness evaluation of the bowel wall and associated abnormalities. This systematic literature review provides a comprehensive summary of currently used radiologic definitions of strictures. It discusses, by assessing only manuscripts with histopathology as a gold standard, the accuracy for diagnosis of the respective modalities as well as their capability to characterise strictures in terms of inflammation and fibrosis. Definitions for strictures on cross-sectional imaging are heterogeneous; however, accuracy for stricture diagnosis is very high. Although conventional cross-sectional imaging techniques have been reported to distinguish inflammation from fibrosis and grade their severity, they are not sufficiently accurate for use in routine clinical practice. Finally, we present recent consensus recommendations and highlight experimental techniques that may overcome the limitations of current technologies.
AAST Critical Care Committee clinical consensus: ECMO, nutritionExtracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO)Nutrition
Authors: Zonies David , Codner Panna , Park Pauline , Martin Niels D , Lissauer Matthew , Evans Susan , Cocanour Christine , Brasel Karen
Published: April 2019

The American Association for the Surgery of Trauma Critical Care Committee has developed clinical consensus guides to help with practical answers based on the best evidence available. These are focused in areas in which the levels of evidence may not be that strong and are based on a combination of expert consensus and research. Overall, quality of the research is mixed, with many studies suffering from small numbers and issues with bias. The first two of these focus on the use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in trauma patients and nutrition for the critically ill surgical/trauma patient.
Phonon properties of delafossite multiferroic compound CuFeO2. Comparison with CuCrO2
Authors: Apostolov A. T. , Apostolova I. N. , Wesselinowa J. M.
Published: April 2019

The temperature, magnetic field and ion doping dependence of the phonon properties of CuFeO2 are studied on the basis of a microscopic model and using Green’s function technique. The phonon energy decreases with increasing temperature, whereas the phonon damping increases. There is a kink at the phase transition temperature [Formula: see text] which shows the influence of the magnetic field on the phonon properties. The kinks vanish by applying an external magnetic field. By doping of ions with different radius compared to the Fe ion, the phonon energy in CuFeO2 can increase (Ga) or decrease (Sc) with increasing dopant concentration, whereas the damping is always enhanced. The results are compared with those of CuCrO2. Some discrepancies in the literature are discussed. The observed results are in qualitative agreement with the experimental data.
Synthesis and Properties of RGO–Fe3O4 Hybrid Nanomaterial and Its Polymer Composite
Authors: Kukhta A. , Jalagonia N. , Kuchukhidze T. , Archuadze T. , Sanaia E. , Bokuchava G. , Mikelashvili V.
Published: April 2019

Simple, reliable and scalable tool for the decoration of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) by iron oxide nanoparticles and the creation of polymer–RGO–Fe3O4 thin films are proposed. The composite is magnetically sensitive. Structural and microscopic studies and resistance measurements were performed. It has been found that these composites possess the hole-type conductivity.
Tracking Events in Twitter by Combining an LDA-Based Approach and a Density–Contour Clustering Approach
Authors: Zhang Yongli , Eick Christoph F.
Published: April 2019

Nowadays, Twitter has become one of the fastest-growing microblogging services; consequently, analyzing this rich and continuously user-generated content can reveal unprecedentedly valuable knowledge. In this paper, we propose a novel two-stage system to detect and track events from tweets by integrating a Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA)-based approach and an efficient density–contour-based spatio-temporal clustering approach. In the proposed system, we first divide the geotagged tweet stream into temporal time windows; next, events are identified as topics in tweets using an LDA-based topic discovery step; then, each tweet is assigned an event label; next, a density–contour-based spatio-temporal clustering approach is employed to identify spatio-temporal event clusters. In our approach, topic continuity is established by calculating KL-divergences between topics and spatio-temporal continuity is established by a family of newly formulated spatial cluster distance functions. Moreover, the proposed density–contour clustering approach considers two types of densities: “absolute” density and “relative” density to identify event clusters where either there is a high density of event tweets or there is a high percentage of event tweets. We evaluate our approach using real-world data collected from Twitter, and the experimental results show that the proposed system can not only detect and track events effectively but also discover interesting patterns from geotagged tweets.
Summarization of Multiple News Videos Considering the Consistency of Audio-Visual Contents
Authors: Zhang Ye , Tanishige Ryunosuke , Ide Ichiro , Doman Keisuke , Kawanishi Yasutomo , Deguchi Daisuke , Murase Hiroshi
Published: April 2019

News videos are valuable multimedia information on real-world events. However, due to the incremental nature of the contents, a sequence of news videos on a related news topic could be redundant and lengthy. Thus, a number of methods have been proposed for their summarization. However, there is a problem that most of these methods do not consider the consistency between the auditory and visual contents. This becomes a problem in the case of news videos, since both contents do not always come from the same source. Considering this, in this paper, we propose a method for summarizing a sequence of news videos considering the consistency of auditory and visual contents. The proposed method first selects key-sentences from the auditory contents (Closed Caption) of each news story in the sequence, and next selects a shot in the news story whose “Visual Concepts” detected from the visual contents are the most consistent with the selected key-sentence. In the end, the audio segment corresponding to each key-sentence is synthesized with the selected shot, and then these clips are concatenated into a summarized video. Results from subjective experiments on summarized videos on several news topics show the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Improved electrochemical behavior of metal oxides-based nanocomposites for supercapacitor
Authors: Anandhi P. , Senthil Kumar V. Jawahar , Harikrishnan S.
Published: April 2019

This paper investigates the synthesis and enhanced electrochemical behaviors of ZnO and NiO/ZnO nanocomposites for electrode material of supercapacitors. ZnO and NiO/ZnO nanocomposites were produced via sol–gel technique. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) were used to determine the size and structure of as-synthesized nanomaterials, respectively. The capacitive behavior and charge–discharge characteristics of the electrode using ZnO and NiO/ZnO nanocomposites (as active material) were individually probed with the help of cyclic voltammetry (CV) and galvanostatic charge-discharge tests, respectively. The specific capacitance of nanocomposites-based electrode calculated from galvanostatic charge-discharge tests was 469[Formula: see text]F [Formula: see text] at the scan rate of 1[Formula: see text]mA [Formula: see text] in 1M Na2SO4 electrolyte. The power density and energy density at the current density of 1[Formula: see text]mA [Formula: see text] were determined as 1458.33[Formula: see text]W [Formula: see text] and 91.14[Formula: see text]Wh[Formula: see text][Formula: see text], respectively. Hence, NiO/ZnO nanocomposites could be reckoned to be a promising electrode material for supercapacitor while comparing to ZnO-based electrode material.
In-Vitro Study of Cancer Cell Binding and Photothermal Inhibition Efficiency by Gold Nanoparticles-Capped Iron Oxide Nanospheres
Authors: Yang Zi , Yang Haocheng , Shi Donglu , Wang Yilong
Published: April 2019

Different from the traditional cancer cell targeting through protein biomarkers, strong negative surface charges of cancer cells over normal cells derived from the dramatic excretion of lactate acid by cancer cells due to their glycolysis have been testified as an effective cancer cell binding strategy. In our previous work, polyethylenimine (PEI)-functionalized iron oxide nanoparticles (NPs) with strong positive surface charge and good photothermal property have been applied to kill cancer cells in vitro. Considering the obvious cytotoxicity of the first generation of positively charged nanotherapeutics, second generation of magnetic nanotherapeutics with tunable surface charges was designed and prepared by shield of positively charged surface areas by negatively charged gold nanoparticles (AU NPs). In addition to reducing the cytotoxicity of original NPs, the photothermal property of magnetic NP core was simultaneously enhanced. Herein, the correlation of the capping degree of the positive surface charge by AU NPs and the photothermal inhibition of cancer cells was investigated.
Peptidyl arginine deiminase-4 exacerbates ischemic AKI by finding NEMO
Authors: Rabadi May M. , Han Sang Jun , Kim Mihwa , D’Agati Vivette , Lee H. Thomas
Published: April 2019

Peptidyl arginine deiminase-4 (PAD4) catalyzes the conversion of peptidylarginine residues to peptidylcitrulline. We have previously shown that kidney ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury increases renal proximal tubular PAD4 expression and activity. Furthermore, kidney PAD4 plays a critical role in ischemic acute kidney injury (AKI) by promoting renal tubular inflammation, neutrophil infiltration, and NF-κB activation. However, the mechanisms of PAD4-mediated renal tubular inflammation and NF-κB activation after I/R remain unclear. Here, we show that recombinant PAD4 preferentially citrullinates recombinant IKKγ [also called NF-κB essential modulator (NEMO)] over recombinant IKKα or IKKβ. Consistent with this finding, PAD4 citrullinated renal proximal tubular cell IKKγ and promoted NF-κB activation via IκBα phosphorylation in vitro. NEMO inhibition with a selective NEMO-binding peptide attenuated PAD4-mediated proinflammatory cytokine mRNA induction in HK-2 cells. Moreover, NEMO inhibition did not affect proximal tubular cell survival, proliferation, or apoptosis, unlike global NF-κB inhibition. In vivo, NEMO-binding peptide treatment protected against ischemic AKI. Finally, NEMO-binding peptide attenuated recombinant PAD4-mediated exacerbation of ischemic AKI, renal tubular inflammation, and apoptosis. Taken together, our results show that PAD4 exacerbates ischemic AKI and inflammation by promoting renal tubular NF-κB activity and inflammation via NEMO citrullination. Targeting NEMO activation may serve as a potential therapy for this devastating clinical problem.
No effects of cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation on force field and visuomotor reach adaptation in young and healthy subjects
Authors: Mamlins A. , Hulst T. , Donchin O. , Timmann D. , Claassen J.
Published: April 2019

Previous studies have shown that cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) leads to faster adaptation of arm reaching movements to visuomotor rotation and force field perturbations in healthy subjects. The first aim of the present study was to confirm a stimulation-dependent effect on motor adaptation. Second, we investigated whether tDCS effects differ depending on onset, that is, before or at the beginning of the adaptation phase. A total of 120 healthy and right-handed subjects (60 women, mean age 23.2 ± SD 2.7 yr, range 18–31 yr) were tested. Subjects moved a cursor with a manipulandum to one of eight targets presented on a vertically orientated screen. Three baseline blocks were followed by one adaptation block and three washout blocks. Sixty subjects did a force field adaptation task (FF), and 60 subjects did a visuomotor adaptation task (VM). Equal numbers of subjects received anodal, cathodal, or sham cerebellar tDCS beginning either in the third baseline block or at the start of the adaptation block. In FF and VM, tDCS and the onset of tDCS did not show a significant effect on motor adaptation (all P values >0.05). We were unable to support previous findings of modulatory cerebellar tDCS effects in reaching adaptation tasks in healthy subjects. Prior to possible application in patients with cerebellar disease, future experiments are needed to determine which tDCS and task parameters lead to robust tDCS effects.

NEW & NOTEWORTHY Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a promising tool to improve motor learning. We investigated whether cerebellar tDCS improves motor learning in force field and visuomotor tasks in healthy subjects and what influence the onset of stimulation has. We did not find stimulation effects of tDCS or an effect of onset of stimulation. A reevaluation of cerebellar tDCS in healthy subjects and at the end of the clinical potential in cerebellar patients is demanded.
Adaptation to Coriolis force perturbations of postural sway requires an asymmetric two-leg model
Authors: Bakshi Avijit , DiZio Paul , Lackner James R.
Published: April 2019

In the companion paper (Bakshi A, DiZio P, Lackner JR. J Neurophysiol. In press, 2019), we reported how voluntary forward-backward sway in a rotating room generated medial-lateral Coriolis forces that initially deviated intended body sway paths. Pure fore-aft sway was gradually restored over per-rotation trials, and a negative aftereffect occurred during postrotation sway. Force plate recordings showed that subjects learned to compensate for the Coriolis forces by executing a bimodal torque, the distribution of which was asymmetric across the two legs and of opposite sign for forward vs. backward sway. To explain these results, we have developed an asymmetric, nonparallel-leg, inverted pendulum model to characterize upright balance control in two dimensions. Fore-aft and medial-lateral sway amplitudes can be biomechanically coupled or independent. Biomechanical coupling occurs when Coriolis forces orthogonal to the direction of movement perturb sway about the ankles. The model includes a mechanism for alternating engagement/disengagement of each leg and for asymmetric drive to the ankles to achieve adaptation to Coriolis force-induced two-dimensional sway. The model predicts the adaptive control underlying the adaptation of voluntary postural sway to Coriolis forces. A stability analysis of the model generates parameter values that match those measured experimentally, and the parameterized model simulations reproduce the experimentally observed sway trajectories.

NEW & NOTEWORTHY This paper presents a novel nonparallel leg model of postural control that correctly predicts the perturbations of voluntary sway that occur in a rotating environment and the adaptive changes that occur to restore faithful movement trajectories. This engaged leg model (ELM) predicts the asymmetries in force distribution and their patterns between the two legs to restore accurate movement trajectories. ELM has clinical relevance for pathologies that generate postural asymmetries and for altered gravitoinertial force conditions.
Generalization via superposition: combined effects of mixed reference frame representations for explicit and implicit learning in a visuomotor adaptation task
Authors: Poh Eugene , Taylor Jordan A.
Published: April 2019

Studies on generalization of learned visuomotor perturbations have generally focused on whether learning is coded in extrinsic or intrinsic reference frames. This dichotomy, however, is challenged by recent findings showing that learning is represented in a mixed reference frame. Overlooked in this framework is how learning appears to consist of multiple processes, such as explicit reaiming and implicit motor adaptation. Therefore, the proposed mixed representation may simply reflect the superposition of explicit and implicit generalization functions, each represented in different reference frames. Here we characterized the individual generalization functions of explicit and implicit learning in relative isolation to determine whether their combination could predict the overall generalization function when both processes are in operation. We modified the form of feedback in a visuomotor rotation task in an attempt to isolate explicit and implicit learning and tested generalization across new limb postures to dissociate the extrinsic/intrinsic representations. We found that the amplitude of explicit generalization was reduced with postural change and was only marginally shifted, resembling an extrinsic representation. In contrast, implicit generalization maintained its amplitude but was significantly shifted, resembling a mixed representation. A linear combination of individual explicit and implicit generalization functions accounted for nearly 85% of the variance associated with the generalization function in a typical visuomotor rotation task, where both processes are in operation. This suggests that each form of learning results from a mixed representation with distinct extrinsic and intrinsic contributions and the combination of these features shapes the generalization pattern observed at novel limb postures.

NEW & NOTEWORTHY Generalization following learning in visuomotor adaptation tasks can reflect how the brain represents what it learns. In this study, we isolated explicit and implicit forms of learning and showed that they are derived from a mixed reference frame representation with distinct extrinsic and intrinsic contributions. Furthermore, we showed that the overall generalization pattern at novel workspaces is due to the superposition of independent generalization effects developed by explicit and implicit learning processes.
Saccadic suppression measured by steady-state visual evoked potentials
Authors: Chen Jing , Valsecchi Matteo , Gegenfurtner Karl R.
Published: April 2019

Visual sensitivity is severely impaired during the execution of saccadic eye movements. This phenomenon has been extensively characterized in human psychophysics and nonhuman primate single-neuron studies, but a physiological characterization in humans is less established. Here, we used a method based on steady-state visually evoked potential (SSVEP), an oscillatory brain response to periodic visual stimulation, to examine how saccades affect visual sensitivity. Observers made horizontal saccades back and forth, while horizontal black-and-white gratings flickered at 5–30 Hz in the background. We analyzed EEG epochs with a length of 0.3 s either centered at saccade onset (saccade epochs) or centered at fixations half a second before the saccade (fixation epochs). Compared with fixation epochs, saccade epochs showed a broadband power increase, which most likely resulted from saccade-related EEG activity. The execution of saccades, however, led to an average reduction of 57% in the SSVEP amplitude at the stimulation frequency. This result provides additional evidence for an active saccadic suppression in the early visual cortex in humans. Compared with previous functional MRI and EEG studies, an advantage of this approach lies in its capability to trace the temporal dynamics of neural activity throughout the time course of a saccade. In contrast to previous electrophysiological studies in nonhuman primates, we did not find any evidence for postsaccadic enhancement, even though simulation results show that our method would have been able to detect it. We conclude that SSVEP is a useful technique to investigate the neural correlates of visual perception during saccadic eye movements in humans.

NEW & NOTEWORTHY We make fast ballistic saccadic eye movements a few times every second. At the time of saccades, visual sensitivity is severely impaired. The present study uses steady-state visually evoked potentials to reveal a neural correlate of the fine temporal dynamics of these modulations at the time of saccades in humans. We observed a strong reduction (57%) of visually driven neural activity associated with saccades but did not find any evidence for postsaccadic enhancement.
Eye movements do not play an important role in the adaptation of hand tracking to a visuomotor rotation
Authors: Gouirand Niels , Mathew James , Brenner Eli , Danion Frederic R.
Published: April 2019

Adapting hand movements to changes in our body or the environment is essential for skilled motor behavior. Although eye movements are known to assist hand movement control, how eye movements might contribute to the adaptation of hand movements remains largely unexplored. To determine to what extent eye movements contribute to visuomotor adaptation of hand tracking, participants were asked to track a visual target that followed an unpredictable trajectory with a cursor using a joystick. During blocks of trials, participants were either allowed to look wherever they liked or required to fixate a cross at the center of the screen. Eye movements were tracked to ensure gaze fixation as well as to examine free gaze behavior. The cursor initially responded normally to the joystick, but after several trials, the direction in which it responded was rotated by 90°. Although fixating the eyes had a detrimental influence on hand tracking performance, participants exhibited a rather similar time course of adaptation to rotated visual feedback in the gaze-fixed and gaze-free conditions. More importantly, there was extensive transfer of adaptation between the gaze-fixed and gaze-free conditions. We conclude that although eye movements are relevant for the online control of hand tracking, they do not play an important role in the visuomotor adaptation of such tracking. These results suggest that participants do not adapt by changing the mapping between eye and hand movements, but rather by changing the mapping between hand movements and the cursor’s motion independently of eye movements.

NEW & NOTEWORTHY Eye movements assist hand movements in everyday activities, but their contribution to visuomotor adaptation remains largely unknown. We compared adaptation of hand tracking under free gaze and fixed gaze. Although our results confirm that following the target with the eyes increases the accuracy of hand movements, they unexpectedly demonstrate that gaze fixation does not hinder adaptation. These results suggest that eye movements have distinct contributions for online control and visuomotor adaptation of hand movements.
The State of Exosomes Research: A Global Visualized Analysis
Authors: Wang Bin , Xing Dan , Zhu Yuanyuan , Dong Shengjie , Zhao Bin
Published: April 2019

Objective. With the development of exosomes studies increased around the whole world. Our present study was aimed to investigate the global status and trends in exosomes field. Methods. Publications related to exosomes studies from 1994 to 2017 were retrieved from the Web of Science database. The data source was studied and indexed by using bibliometric methodology. For visualized study, VOS viewer software was used to conduct bibliographic coupling analysis, coauthorship analysis, cocitation analysis, and cooccurrence analysis and to analyze the publication trend in exosomes research. Results. A total of 4960 publications were included. The relative research interests and number of publications were increasing per year globally. The USA made the highest contributions to the global research with the most citations, the highest H-index, and the most total link strength, while Sweden had the highest average citation per item. The journal PLOS ONE had the highest publication number. The Natl Canc Ctr was the most contributive institutions. Studies could be divided into three clusters: mechanism study, in vivo study, and in vitro study. Conclusions. The efforts should be put into mechanism studies, predicted to be the next hot spots in exosomes studies.
Plexiform Schwannoma of the Penis: A Rare Subtype of Genital Schwannoma
Authors: Gkekas Chrysovalantis , Kalyvas Vasileios , Symeonidis Evangelos N. , Malioris Apostolos , Papathanasiou Michail , Kalinderis Nikolaos , Moisidis Kyriakos , Hatzimouratidis Konstantinos
Published: April 2019

Schwannomas are benign, encapsulated neurogenic tumors which present in diverse histological subtypes despite the limited variety of their cellular constituents. These include the cellular, ancient, cystic, epithelioid, melanotic, psammomatous, schwannoma with pseudoglandular elements, and plexiform varieties. The plexiform schwannoma (PS) represents 4.3% of all schwannomas. These lesions are commonly encountered in the head and neck region and are extremely rare in the penis. To the best of our knowledge only 34 cases of penile schwannomas have been reported and this is the 3rd case of plexiform penile schwannoma. A 39-year-old patient presented to our andrology outpatient clinic complaining for two painful penile nodules. The lesions were located on the dorsum of the penile shaft. His medical history was insignificant for penile trauma and sexual transmitted diseases. The masses measured 2x1 cm and 0.5x1 cm. After sonographic and magnetic resonance evaluation the patient was admitted to theatre and underwent topical resection of the lesions. Histopathology revealed plexiform schwannoma. Postoperatively, penile tenderness and hyperesthesia ensued which was managed with pregabalin administration and topical corticosteroids. Plexiform schwannomas are rare in the penile region. Surgical excision is inevitably the only way to diagnose and treat the lesions. They must be differentiated by a variety of malignant and benign clinical conditions. Topical excision suffices for oncological control and allows for acceptable functional outcomes.
Gastroenterology Meets Machine Learning: Status Quo and Quo Vadis
Authors: Adadi Amina , Adadi Safae , Berrada Mohammed
Published: April 2019

Machine learning has undergone a transition phase from being a pure statistical tool to being one of the main drivers of modern medicine. In gastroenterology, this technology is motivating a growing number of studies that rely on these innovative methods to deal with critical issues related to this practice. Hence, in the light of the burgeoning research on the use of machine learning in gastroenterology, a systematic review of the literature is timely. In this work, we present the results gleaned through a systematic review of prominent gastroenterology literature using machine learning techniques. Based on the analysis of 88 journal articles, we delimit the scope of application, we discuss current limitations including bias, lack of transparency, accountability, and data availability, and we put forward future avenues.
An Interference-Aware Rate and Channel Adaptation Scheme for Dense IEEE 802.11n Networks
Authors: Huang Tingpei , Li Shibao , Lu Xiaoxuan , Gao Shaoshu
Published: April 2019

Rate adaptation, which dynamically chooses transmission rate provided at the physical layer according to the current channel conditions, is a fundamental resource management issue in IEEE 802.11 networks with the goal of maximizing the network throughput. Traditional rate adaptation algorithms for IEEE 802.11n networks do not consider the interference problem, which becomes much more serious due to the rapid deployment of IEEE 802.11n devices and large number of mobile terminals. In this paper, an interference-aware rate and channel adaptation scheme RaCA for intensive IEEE 802.11n networks was proposed. Firstly, RaCA leverages RSSI and CSI information together to measure the current channel conditions at the receiver side. RSSI is a coarse-grained indicator and CSI is a fine-grained indicator. Secondly, a two-stage rate adaptation scheme TSRA was designed, which can quickly adapt to optimal bit rate based on RSSI and CSI information. Finally, a quorum-based channel adaptation algorithm QCA was proposed, which does not need control channel. If channel suffers severe interferences, RaCA calls QCA to choose another channel to work on. Simulation and testbed implementation results demonstrate that RaCA achieves significant throughput gain over SampleLite and Minstrel-HT.