bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Impulse einer präventiven Arbeitsgestaltung zur Digitalisierung der öffentlichen Verwaltung
Authors: Braun Martin
Published: October 2020

Um die Ansprüche von Politik und Bürgerschaft bestmöglich zu erfüllen, vollzieht die öffentliche Verwaltung einen anhaltenden Modernisierungsprozess. Die Steuerungsinstrumente des „Neuen Managements“ sollen beitragen, menschliche Kreativitäts- und Produktivitätspotenziale zu aktivieren, um Verwaltungsleistungen kundenorientierter, qualitätsvoller und kosteneffizienter zu erbringen. Mittlerweile treiben die Funktionspotenziale des „E-Governments“ die Verwaltungsmodernisierung weiter voran. Eine rechtliche Grundlage bildet das Onlinezugangsgesetz. Es verpflichtet die Behörden, ihre Verwaltungsleistungen auch mittels digitaler Verwaltungsportale anzubieten. Im Zuge der digitalen Transformation werden in zunehmendem Maße bislang dem Menschen vorbehaltene wissens- und denkgestützte Aufgaben auf Informationsmaschinen übertragen. Um zu vermeiden, dass die Reaktion auf unbefriedigende Arbeitsbedingungen den Modernisierungsprozess in der öffentlichen Verwaltung lähmt, sind präventive Maßnahmen geboten. Diese erstrecken sich nicht nur auf den Einsatz von Arbeitsmitteln, sondern vor allem auf die Organisation der Arbeit sowie auf die Funktionsteilung von Mensch und Maschine. Der Beitrag stellt ausgewählte Handlungsfelder vor, die sich an einer „Kultur der Prävention“ orientieren. Er zeigt auf, dass die digitale Transformation eine Aufwertung derjenigen menschlichen Leistungsbeiträge erfordert, die Maschinen nicht zu erbringen vermögen. Hierzu gehört vor allem die Ausgleichsfähigkeit des gesunden Menschen zur Förderung der sozialen Kohärenz. Kohärenz stellt hier ein Ordnungsmuster für komplexe soziotechnische Arbeitssysteme dar, die sich den Regeln des rationalen Planungsparadigmas entziehen.
Ammoniacal Solvoleaching of Copper from High-Grade Chrysocolla
Authors: Gijsemans Lukas , Roosen Joris , Riaño Sofía , Jones Peter Tom , Binnemans Koen
Published: October 2020

The copper silicate ore chrysocolla forms a large potential copper resource, which has not yet been fully exploited, due to difficulties associated with its beneficiation by flotation and metallurgical processing. Direct acid leaching of chrysocolla causes silica gel formation. Therefore, in this work, the feasibility of solvometallurgical methods to leach copper from high-grade chrysocolla while avoiding issues with silica gel formation was assessed. Ammoniacal solvoleaching was performed with a solvent comprising the chelating extractant LIX 984 N or the acidic extractant Versatic acid 10 in an aliphatic diluent (ShellSol D70 or GTL Fluid G70), combined with a small volume of aqueous ammonia. In the three-phase system, aqueous ammonia dissolves copper from milled and sieved chrysocolla, while copper is simultaneously extracted to the organic phase, releasing ammonia that can be reused for further extraction. The best results were obtained with LIX 984 N as extractant: using a 50 vol% LIX 984 N solution, about 75% of copper could be extracted after 60 min of leaching at 25 °C. The stripping of copper from the pregnant leach solution was optimized. Quantitative stripping of copper was achieved with 1.89 M sulfuric acid and the final aqueous solution of copper sulfate had a concentration of 33 g L−1. Experiments in a leaching reactor (1 L) and small battery of mixer-settlers (3 stages, 35 and 143 mL effective volume in the mixer and the settler, respectively, per stage) were successfully conducted and allowed to recover copper with a purity of 99.9%. A conceptual flow sheet has been developed.

Graphical Abstract
Artificial intelligence for structural glass engineering applications — overview, case studies and future potentials
Authors: Kraus M. A. , Drass M.
Published: October 2020

’Big data’ and the use of ’Artificial Intelligence’ (AI) is currently advancing due to the increasing and even cheaper data collection and processing capabilities. Social and economical change is predicted by numerous company leaders, politicians and researchers. Machine and Deep Learning (ML/DL) are sub-types of AI, which are gaining high interest within the community of data scientists and engineers worldwide. Obviously, this global trend does not stop at structural glass engineering, so that, the first part of the present paper is concerned with introducing the basic theoretical frame of AI and its sub-classes of ML and DL while the specific needs and requirements for the application in a structural engineering context are highlighted. Then this paper explores potential applications of AI for different subjects within the design, verification and monitoring of façades and glass structures. Finally, the current status of research as well as successfully conducted industry projects by the authors are presented. The discussion of specific problems ranges from supervised ML in case of the material parameter identification of polymeric interlayers used in laminated glass or the prediction of cut-edge strength based on the process parameters of a glass cutting machine and prediction of fracture patterns of tempered glass to the application of computer vision DL methods to image classification of the Pummel test and the use of semantic segmentation for the detection of cracks at the cut edge of glass. In the summary and conclusion section, the main findings for the applicability and impact of AI for the presented structural glass research and industry problems are compiled. It can be seen that in many cases AI, data, software and computing resources are already available today to successfully implement AI projects in the glass industry, which is demonstrated by the many current examples mentioned. Future research directories however will need to concentrate on how to introduce further glass-specific theoretical and human expert knowledge in the AI training process on the one hand and on the other hand more pronunciation has to be laid on the thorough digitization of workflows associated with the structural glass problem at hand in order to foster the further use of AI within this domain in both research and industry.
Towards accurate models for predicting smartphone applications’ QoE with data from a living lab study
Authors: De Masi Alexandre , Wac Katarzyna
Published: October 2020

Progressively, smartphones have become the pocket Swiss army knife for everyone. They support their users needs to accomplish tasks in numerous contexts. However, the applications executing those tasks are regularly not performing as they should, and the user-perceived experience is altered. In this paper, we present our approach to model and predict the Quality of Experience (QoE) of mobile applications used over WiFi or cellular network. We aimed to create predictive QoE models and to derive recommendations for mobile application developers to create QoE aware applications. Previous works on smartphone applications’ QoE prediction only focus on qualitative or quantitative data. We collected both qualitative and quantitative data “in the wild“ through our living lab. We ran a 4-week-long study with 38 Android phone users. We focused on frequently used and highly interactive applications. The participants rated their mobile applications’ expectation and QoE and in various contexts resulting in a total of 6086 ratings. Simultaneously, our smartphone logger (mQoL-Log) collected background information such as network information, user physical activity, battery statistics, and more. We apply various data aggregation approaches and features selection processes to train multiple predictive QoE models. We obtain better model performances using ratings acquired within 14.85 minutes after the application usage. Additionally, we boost our models’ performance with the users expectation as a new feature. We create an on-device prediction model with on-smartphone only features. We compare its performance metrics against the previous model. The on-device model performs below the full features models. Surprisingly, among the following top three features: the intended task to accomplish with the app, application’s name (e.g., WhatsApp, Spotify), and network Quality of Service (QoS), the user physical activity is the most important feature (e.g., if walking). Finally, we share our recommendations with the application developers, and we discuss the implications of QoE and expectations in mobile application design.
Agile Sub-Ice Geological (ASIG) Drill development and Pirrit Hills field project
Authors: Kuhl Tanner , Gibson Chris , Johnson Jay , Boeckmann Grant , Moravec Elliot , Slawny Kristina
Published: October 2020

A new drilling system was developed by the US Ice Drilling Program (IDP) to rapidly drill through overlying ice to collect subglacial rock cores. The Agile Sub-Ice Geological (ASIG) Drill system is capable of drilling up to 700 m of ice in a continuous manner. Intermittent ice core samples can be taken as needed. Ten-plus meters of subglacial bedrock and unconsolidated, frozen sediment cores can be drilled with wireline core retrieval. The functionality of the drill system was demonstrated in 2016–17 at the Pirrit Hills, Antarctica where 8 m of high-quality, continuous granite core was retrieved beneath 150 m of ice. The particulars of the drill system development, features and performance are discussed.
The ring, the gown, and the apple: the role of magical objects in the Byzantine vernacular romance Kallimachos and Chrysorroi
Authors: Fonseca Rui Carlos
Published: October 2020

Magical objects play an important role in the fourteenth-century Byzantine vernacular romance Kallimachos and Chrysorroi, not due to their supernatural powers, but rather in order to make the chivalric status of the romance hero stand out, inasmuch as he does not resort to any of them to achieve his goals.
Large deviations and central limit theorems for sequential and random systems of intermittent maps
Authors: NICOL MATTHEW , PEREIRA FELIPE PEREZ , TÖRÖK ANDREW
Published: October 2020

We obtain large and moderate deviation estimates for both sequential and random compositions of intermittent maps. We also address the question of whether or not centering is necessary for the quenched central limit theorems obtained by Nicol, Török and Vaienti [Central limit theorems for sequential and random intermittent dynamical systems.Ergod. Th. & Dynam. Sys.38(3) (2018), 1127–1153] for random dynamical systems comprising intermittent maps. Using recent work of Abdelkader and Aimino [On the quenched central limit theorem for random dynamical systems.J. Phys.A49(24) (2016), 244002] and Hella and Stenlund [Quenched normal approximation for random sequences of transformations.J. Stat. Phys.178(1) (2020), 1–37] we extend the results of Nicol, Török and Vaienti on quenched central limit theorems for centered observables over random compositions of intermittent maps: first by enlarging the parameter range over which the quenched central limit theorem holds; and second by showing that the variance in the quenched central limit theorem is almost surely constant (and the same as the variance of the annealed central limit theorem) and that centering is needed to obtain this quenched central limit theorem.
Prolonged incubation of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in a patient on rituximab therapy
Authors: Koff Alan G. , Laurent-Rolle Maudry , Hsu Jack Chun-Chieh , Malinis Maricar
Published: October 2020

The incubation period of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is rarely >14 days. We report a patient with hypogammaglobulinemia who developed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) with a confirmed incubation period of at least 21 days. These findings raise concern for a prolonged presymptomatic transmission phase, necessitating a longer quarantine duration in this patient population.
Comparing psychotic experiences in low-and-middle-income-countries and high-income-countries with a focus on measurement invariance
Authors: Jaya Edo S. , Wüsten Caroline , Alizadeh Behrooz Z. , van Amelsvoort Therese , Bartels-Velthuis Agna A. , van Beveren Nico J. , Bruggeman Richard , Cahn Wiepke , de Haan Lieuwe , Delespaul Philippe , Luykx Jurjen J. , Myin-Germeys Inez , Kahn Rene S. , Schirmbeck Frederike , Simons Claudia J. P. , van Haren Neeltje E. , van Os Jim , van Winkel Ruud , Fonseca-Pedrero Eduardo , Peters Emmanuelle , Verdoux Hélène , Woodward Todd S. , Ziermans Tim B. , Lincoln Tania M.
Published: October 2020

Background

The prevalence of psychotic experiences (PEs) is higher in low-and-middle-income-countries (LAMIC) than in high-income countries (HIC). Here, we examine whether this effect is explicable by measurement bias.

Methods

A community sample from 13 countries (N = 7141) was used to examine the measurement invariance (MI) of a frequently used self-report measure of PEs, the Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences (CAPE), in LAMIC (n = 2472) and HIC (n = 4669). The CAPE measures positive (e.g. hallucinations), negative (e.g. avolition) and depressive symptoms. MI analyses were conducted with multiple-group confirmatory factor analyses.

Results

MI analyses showed similarities in the structure and understanding of the CAPE factors between LAMIC and HIC. Partial scalar invariance was found, allowing for latent score comparisons. Residual invariance was not found, indicating that sum score comparisons are biased. A comparison of latent scores before and after MI adjustment showed both overestimation (e.g. avolition, d = 0.03 into d = −0.42) and underestimation (e.g. magical thinking, d = −0.03 into d = 0.33) of PE in LAMIC relative to HIC. After adjusting the CAPE for MI, participants from LAMIC reported significantly higher levels on most CAPE factors but a significantly lower level of avolition.

Conclusion

Previous studies using sum scores to compare differences across countries are likely to be biased. The direction of the bias involves both over- and underestimation of PEs in LAMIC compared to HIC. Nevertheless, the study confirms the basic finding that PEs are more frequent in LAMIC than in HIC.
Fear, anger, and desire: Affect and the interactional intricacies of rape humor on a live podcast
Authors: Franzén Anna G. , Jonsson Rickard , Sjöblom Björn
Published: October 2020

Aggressive, sexist humor is often understood as expressions of inner, misogynist attitudes. This article, however, investigates rape humor as a collective and interactive phenomenon. Drawing on an infamous Swedish podcast episode, we illuminate rape humor in terms of affect, desire, and repression (Butler 1987; Billig 1999), and as such, how taboo-breaking arouses both pleasure and fear among the participants. The analyses detail affective practices that both promote and discipline affects. The men in the group interpellate one of the participants as a clown, someone whose taboo-breaking they interactionally support and simultaneously distance themselves from. The article concludes that affects, like subject positions, are interpellated in interaction. Building on Wetherell's (2013) understanding of affect as both discursive and embodied, we suggest a reintroduction of repression/desire into a discursively oriented framework. (Affective practices, rape humor, desire, repression, taboo, misogynist masculinity, podcast)*
Calibrate to innovate: Community age vectors and the real time incrementation of language change
Authors: Holmes-Elliott Sophie
Published: October 2020

This study investigates children's real time incrementation of language change as it is impacted by community-wide patterns of linguistic variability. The investigation combines apparent time analyses across an age-stratified sample of adult speakers, with real time analyses across a panel of speakers spanning childhood to adolescence. Three variables are analysed: GOOSE-fronting, a socially unmarked change; TH-fronting, a socially stigmatised, rapidly expanding change; and T-glottaling, a socially stigmatised, steadily shifting change. Variables are selected based on their social and generational profiles which present learners with more or less challenging community patterns to extract. Real time analyses confirm that community variance impacts on speakers’ ability to increment change in real time. Findings provide support for themomentum-basedmodel of language change and builds on Labov's (2012:267) theory of the ‘outward orientation’ of children, which views learners as capable of extracting age vectors from generational differences. (Language change, incrementation, real time, GOOSE-fronting, TH-fronting, T-glottaling)*
The Alzheimer case: perceptions, knowledge and the acquisition of information about Alzheimer's disease by middle-aged and older adults in Flanders
Authors: Huisman Martijn , Joye Stijn , Biltereyst Daniël
Published: October 2020

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a major health concern as the world population ages. Yet, few studies have examined what the public over the age of 50 knows about AD. This qualitative study, based on 40 in-depth interviews, examines the knowledge of AD by Flemish people between 50 and 80 years old and their cross-source engagement with information sources. Building on AD media representations and theories on media complementarity and health information behaviour, we find that respondents mostly encounter AD information non-purposively via traditional mass media and interpersonal communication, while the internet is occasionally used to purposefully seek information. Novels, personal experiences/social proximity, public figures and particularly film stand out as channels and sources of AD information, suggesting that fictional narratives, personal experiences and being able to identify with others leave lasting impressions and help to communicate and disperse AD information. However, common misconceptions and gaps in knowledge persist, including AD being considered part of the normal ageing process and old age as well as confusing AD with Parkinson's disease. The biomedical perspective and the tragedy discourse prevail among the majority of respondents, who describe AD in terms of decline, loss and death and as ‘the beginning of the end’. Only a few, typically female respondents, appear aware of the role of individual health behaviour and lifestyle choices to prevent dementia or delay its onset. The misconceptions of AD and gaps in knowledge, as well as the fact that a third of all cases of dementia might be delayed or prevented by managing lifestyle and other risk factors, stress the importance of public educational programmes and the need to emphasise and raise awareness of preventative behaviour. Overall, the findings from this study can be of help to public health communicators and dementia-awareness campaigns, as well as AD training programmes for health-care professionals and family care-givers.
Trochaic bias overrides stress typicality in English lexical development
Authors: HOFMANN Klaus , BAUMANN Andreas
Published: October 2020

This paper investigates whether typical stress patterns in English nouns and verbs are available as a prosodic cue for categorisation and accelerated word learning during first language acquisition. The stress typicality hypothesis states that left-stressed nouns and right-stressed verbs should be acquired earlier than the reverse configurations if stress effectively signals lexical class membership. In this view, class-typical stress patterns are expected to facilitate learning of novel items. A series of generalized additive models (GAMs) based on a comprehensive set of lexical data (CELEX) as well as a large set of age-of-acquisition (AoA) and concreteness ratings reveals that stress typicality plays a minor role in early acquisition, as it is generally superseded by a preference for left-hand (or ‘trochaic’) patterns in both nouns and verbs. This may be explained by general cognitive constraints (perceptual salience and recency) or exposure to the dominant pattern in the ambient language.
Popular differences for corners in Abelian groups
Authors: BERGER AARON
Published: October 2020

For a compact abelian group G, a corner in G × G is a triple of points (x, y), (x, y+d), (x+d, y). The classical corners theorem of Ajtai and Szemerédi implies that for every α > 0, there is some δ > 0 such that every subset A ⊂ G × G of density α contains a δ fraction of all corners in G × G, as x, y, d range over G.

Recently, Mandache proved a “popular differences” version of this result in the finite field case $G = {\mathbb{F}}_p^n$, showing that for any subset A ⊂ G × G of density α, one can fix d ≠ 0 such that A contains a large fraction, now known to be approximately α4, of all corners with difference d, as x, y vary over G. We generalise Mandache’s result to all compact abelian groups G, as well as the case of corners in $\mathbb{Z}^2$.
Autonomous resource allocation of smart workshop for cloud machining orders
Authors: Hui Jizhuang , Lei Jingyuan , Ding Kai , Zhang Fuqiang , Lv Jingxiang
Published: October 2020

In order to realize the online allocation of collaborative processing resource of smart workshop in the context of cloud manufacturing, a multi-objective optimization model of workshop collaborative resources (MOM-WCR) was proposed. Considering the optimization objectives of processing time, processing cost, product qualification rate, and resource utilization, MOM-WCR was constructed. Based on the time sequence of workshop processing tasks, the workshop collaborative manufacturing resource was integrated in MOM-WCR. Fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) was adopted to simplified the multi-objective problem into the single-objective problem. Then, the improved firefly algorithm which integrated the particle swarm algorithm (IFA-PSA) was used to solve MOM-WCR. Finally, a group of connecting rod processing experiments were used to verify the model proposed in this paper. The results show that the model is feasible in the application of workshop-level resource allocation in the context of cloud manufacturing, and the improved firefly algorithm shows good performance in solving the multi-objective resource allocation problem.
Is This Pa Chay Vue? A Study in Three Frames
Authors: MICHAUD JEAN
Published: October 2020

Three archival photographs recently made public by the French National Library depict men associated with an event taking place in colonial Laos around 1920. However, upon examination of the pictures and textual sources, combined with contemporaneous documents, it turns out that the pictures are actually from Tonkin (colonial northern Vietnam) and may depict Batchai (Pa Chay Vue) a celebrated Hmong messiah in 1918 when he met with colonial authorities in an ultimate negotiation attempt before launching a four-year rebellion. Batchai famously led a violent revolt against Tai and French power in Tonkin and Laos between 1918 and 1921, which has been documented in French military reports. No photograph has ever been found of the rebel leader and his supporters and this find in itself would be of significance, especially for the Hmong diaspora in the West for whom Pa Chay Vue has achieved near-mythical status as a major folk hero. This article examines whether or not this is him; but beyond the simple task of identification, it proposes interpretations for the events that suggest a more complex affair than French military archives have ever been willing to tell, including the hypothesis of an administrative cover up.
The missing focus on women’s health in the First 1,000 days approach to nutrition
Authors: Kinshella Mai-Lei Woo , Moore Sophie E , Elango Rajavel
Published: October 2020

The First 1,000 Days approach highlights the time between conception and a child’s second birthday as a critical period where adequate nutrition is essential for adequate development and growth throughout the child’s life and potentially onto their own offspring. Based on a review of relevant literature, this commentary explores the First 1,000 Days approach with a maternal lens. While the primary objective of the First 1,000 Days approach to nutrition is to reduce child malnutrition rates, particularly chronic undernutrition in the form of stunting, interventions are facilitated through mothers in terms of promoting healthy behaviours such as exclusive breast-feeding and attention to her nutritional status during pregnancy and lactation. Though these interventions were facilitated through women, women’s health indicators are rarely tracked and measured, which we argue represents a missed opportunity to strengthen the evidence base for associations between maternal nutrition and women’s health outcomes. Limited evidence on the effects of dietary interventions with pregnant and lactating mothers on women’s health outcomes hinders advocacy efforts, which then contributes to lower prioritisation and less research.
Dietary health perceptions and sources of nutritional knowledge in an urban food environment: a qualitative study from Indonesia
Authors: Colozza David
Published: October 2020

Objective:

To investigate dietary health understandings, healthy foods access perceptions and the main sources of nutritional knowledge of residents in three urban communities of varying socio-economic make-up.

Design:

An ethnographic approach to primary qualitative data collection, involving frequent visits to study areas over 4 months and in-depth interviews. Interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed through an iterative approach.

Setting:

Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Participants:

A purposive sample of 45 participants divided equally among the 3 communities. Participants were mostly female (93 %), aged between 27 and 75 years (mean 47·7) and largely identified as the person responsible for household food-related decisions (93 %).

Results:

Three overarching themes emerged: (i) dietary health understandings; (ii) healthy foods access perceptions and (iii) sources of nutritional knowledge. Participants employed multifaceted conceptualisation of dietary health. Most identified healthy foods with traditional plant-based foods, inexpensive and locally available from multiple sources. Thus, all participants perceived healthy foods as highly available in the local environment and most (80 %) as affordable. Reported affordability issues referred to specific foods (particularly animal source products) and were independent of income levels. Participants acquired nutritional knowledge from multiple sources, including many community-based initiatives. These were overall perceived as useful, but also as presenting some limitations.

Conclusions:

The variety in dietary health understandings reported by study participants, and their high perceptions of healthy foods availability in the local environment reinforce the idea that individual- and food environment-level determinants of nutritional behaviours are highly contextual.
Impacts of Oceanic Mixed Layer on Hurricanes: A Simulation Experiment With Hurricane Sandy
Authors: Li Siqi , Chen Changsheng , Wu Zhongxiang , Beardsley Robert C. , Li Ming
Published: October 2020

Influences of the ocean mixed layer (OML) dynamics on intensity, pathway, and landfall of October 2012 Hurricane Sandy were examined through an experiment using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. The WRF model was run for two cases with or without coupling to the OML. The OML in the WRF was calculated by an oceanic mixed layer submodel. The initial conditions of the depth and mean water temperature of the OML were specified using Global‐FVCOM and Global‐HYCOM fields. The comparison results between these two cases clearly show that including the OML dynamics enhanced the contribution of vertical mixing to the air‐sea heat flux. When the hurricane moved toward the coast, the local OML rapidly deepened with an increase of storm wind. Intense vertical mixing brought cold water in the deep ocean toward the surface to produce a cold wake underneath the storm, with the lowest sea temperature at the maximum wind zone. This process led to a significant latent heat loss from the ocean within the storm and hence rapid drops of the air temperature and vapor mixing ratio above the sea surface. As a result, the storm was intensified as the central sea level pressure dropped. Improving air pressure simulation with OML tended to reduce the storm size and strengthened the storm intensity and hence provided a better simulation of hurricane pathway and landfall.
3D-Printed electrochemical sensor-integrated transwell systems
Authors: Ramiah Rajasekaran Pradeep , Chapin Ashley Augustiny , Quan David N. , Herberholz Jens , Bentley William E. , Ghodssi Reza
Published: October 2020

This work presents a 3D-printed, modular, electrochemical sensor-integrated transwell system for monitoring cellular and molecular events in situ without sample extraction or microfluidics-assisted downstream omics. Simple additive manufacturing techniques such as 3D printing, shadow masking, and molding are used to fabricate this modular system, which is autoclavable, biocompatible, and designed to operate following standard operating protocols (SOPs) of cellular biology. Integral to the platform is a flexible porous membrane, which is used as a cell culture substrate similarly to a commercial transwell insert. Multimodal electrochemical sensors fabricated on the membrane allow direct access to cells and their products. A pair of gold electrodes on the top side of the membrane measures impedance over the course of cell attachment and growth, characterized by an exponential decrease (~160% at 10 Hz) due to an increase in the double layer capacitance from secreted extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) sensor electrodes, fabricated on the bottom side of the membrane, enable sensing of molecular release at the site of cell culture without the need for downstream fluidics. Real-time detection of ferrocene dimethanol injection across the membrane showed a three order-of-magnitude higher signal at the membrane than in the bulk media after reaching equilibrium. This modular sensor-integrated transwell system allows unprecedented direct, real-time, and noninvasive access to physical and biochemical information, which cannot be obtained in a conventional transwell system.
Transcriptional regulators and alterations that drive melanoma initiation and progression
Authors: Gupta Romi , Janostiak Radoslav , Wajapeyee Narendra
Published: October 2020

Although melanoma is the least frequent type of skin cancer, it accounts for the majority of skin cancer-related deaths. Large-scale sequencing efforts have led to the classification of melanoma into four major subtypes (i.e., BRAF-mutant, NRAS-mutant, NF1-deficient, and triple wild-type). These sequencing studies have also revealed that melanoma genomes are some of the most mutated genomes of all cancers and therefore have a high neoantigen load. These findings have resulted in the development and clinical use of targeted therapies against the oncogenic BRAF→MEK→ERK pathway and immune checkpoint inhibitors for the treatment of metastatic melanoma. Although some patients with metastatic melanoma benefit immensely from these transformative therapies, others either become resistant or do not respond at all. These clinical challenges have intensified the search for new drug targets and drugs that can benefit patients who are either intrinsically resistant or have acquired resistance to targeted therapies and immunotherapies. Numerous signaling pathways and oncogenic drivers can cause changes in mRNA transcription that in turn drive melanoma initiation and progression. Transcriptional regulation of mRNA expression is necessary to maintain cell identity and cellular plasticity via the regulation of transcription factor expression and function, promoter/enhancer activities, chromatin regulators, and three-dimensional genome organization. Transcriptional deregulation can arise due to genetic and/or non-genetic alterations in the genome. Specifically, these deregulated transcriptional programs can become liabilities for melanoma cells due to their acquired dependencies on these programs for survival, which can be harnessed to develop new therapies for melanoma. In this article, we present an overview of the mechanisms that result in the transcriptional deregulation of mRNA expression in melanoma cells and assess how these changes facilitate melanoma initiation and progression. We also describe how these deregulated transcriptional pathways represent new opportunities for the development of unconventional and potentially impactful treatments for metastatic melanoma.
Association of post-diagnostic use of cholera vaccine with survival outcome in breast cancer patients
Authors: Zheng Guoqiao , Sundquist Jan , Sundquist Kristina , Ji Jianguang
Published: October 2020

Background

Expensive cancer treatment calls for alternative ways such as drug repurposing to develop effective drugs. The aim of this study was to analyse the effect of post-diagnostic use of cholera vaccine on survival outcome in breast cancer patients.

Methods

Cancer diagnosis and cholera vaccination were obtained by linkage of several Swedish national registries. One vaccinated patient was matched with maximum two unvaccinated individuals based on demographic, clinical and socioeconomic factors. We performed proportional Cox regression model to analyse the differences in overall and disease-specific survivals between the matched patients.

Results

In total, 617 patients received cholera vaccine after breast cancer diagnosis. The median (interquartile range) time from diagnosis to vaccination was 30 (15–51) months and from vaccination to the end of follow-up it was 62 (47–85) months. Among them, 603 patients were matched with 1194 unvaccinated patients. Vaccinated patients showed favourable overall survival (hazard ratio (HR): 0.54, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.37–0.79) and disease-specific survival (HR: 0.53, 95% CI: 0.33–0.84), compared to their unvaccinated counterpart. The results were still significant in multiple sensitivity analyses.

Conclusions

Post-diagnostic use of cholera vaccine is associated with a favourable survival rate in breast cancer patients; this provides evidence for repurposing it against breast cancer.
Small GTPase RAB6 deficiency promotes alveolar progenitor cell renewal and attenuates PM2.5-induced lung injury and fibrosis
Authors: Yang Lawei , Liu Gang , Li Xiaomin , Xia Zhengyuan , Wang Yahong , Lin Weihao , Zhang Wei , Zhang Wenjuan , Li Xuenong
Published: October 2020

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive interstitial lung disease characterized by chronic non-specific inflammation of the interstitial lung and extensive deposition of collagen fibers leading to destruction of lung function. Studies have demonstrated that exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) increases the risk of IPF. In order to recover from PM2.5-induced lung injury, alveolar epithelial cells need to be repaired and regenerated to maintain lung function. Type 2 alveolar epithelial cells (AEC2) are stem cells in the adult lung that contribute to the lung repair process through complex signaling. Our previous studies demonstrated that RAB6, a RAS family member lowly expressed in lung cancer, inhibited lung cancer stem cell self-renewal, but it is unclear whether or not and how RAB6 may regulate AEC2 cell proliferation and self-renewal in PM2.5-induced pulmonary fibrosis. Here, we demonstrated that knockout of RAB6 inhibited pulmonary fibrosis, oxidative stress, and AEC2 cell death in PM2.5-injured mice. In addition, knockout of RAB6 decreased Dickkopf 1(DKK1) autocrine and activated proliferation, self-renewal, and wnt/β-catenin signaling of PM2.5-injured AEC2 cells. RAB6 overexpression increased DKK1 autocrine and inhibited proliferation, self-renewal and wnt/β-catenin signaling in AEC2 cells in vitro. Furthermore, DKK1 inhibitors promoted proliferation, self-renewal and wnt/β-catenin signaling of RAB6 overexpressing AEC2 cells, and attenuated PM2.5-induced pulmonary fibrosis in mice. These data establish RAB6 as a regulator of DKK1 autocrine and wnt/β-catenin signal that serves to regulate AEC2 cell proliferation and self-renewal, and suggest a mechanism that RAB6 disruption may promote AEC2 cell proliferation and self-renewal to enhance lung repair following PM2.5 injury.
Autophagy facilitates adaptation of budding yeast to respiratory growth by recycling serine for one-carbon metabolism
Authors: May Alexander I. , Prescott Mark , Ohsumi Yoshinori
Published: October 2020

The mechanism and function of autophagy as a highly-conserved bulk degradation pathway are well studied, but the physiological role of autophagy remains poorly understood. We show that autophagy is involved in the adaptation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to respiratory growth through its recycling of serine. On respiratory media, growth onset, mitochondrial initiator tRNA modification and mitochondrial protein expression are delayed in autophagy defective cells, suggesting that mitochondrial one-carbon metabolism is perturbed in these cells. The supplementation of serine, which is a key one-carbon metabolite, is able to restore mitochondrial protein expression and alleviate delayed respiratory growth. These results indicate that autophagy-derived serine feeds into mitochondrial one-carbon metabolism, supporting the initiation of mitochondrial protein synthesis and allowing rapid adaptation to respiratory growth.
Putative biomarkers for early diagnosis and prognosis of congenital ocular toxoplasmosis
Authors: de Araújo Thádia Evelyn , dos Santos Luara Isabela , Gomes Angelica Oliveira , Carneiro Ana Carolina Aguiar Vasconcelos , Machado Anderson Silva , Coelho-dos-Reis Jordana Grazziela , Peruhype-Magalhães Vanessa , Béla Samantha Ribeiro , Andrade Gláucia Manzan Queiroz , Vasconcelos-Santos Daniel Vitor , Januário José Nélio , Teixeira-Carvalho Andréa , Vitor Ricardo Wagner Almeida , do Valle Antonelli Lis Ribeiro , Ferro Eloisa Amália Vieira , Martins-Filho Olindo Assis ,   the UFMG Congenital Toxoplasmosis Brazilian Group UFMG-CTBG, beside the authors, Azevedo Danuza O. Machado , Carellos Ericka V. Machado , Resende Luciana Macedo , Romanelli Roberta M. Castro
Published: October 2020

In the present study we have evaluated the performance of several immunological biomarkers for early diagnosis and prognosis of congenital toxoplasmosis. Our results showed that ex vivo serum levels of CXCL9, and the frequencies of circulating CD4+CD25+T-cells andT. gondii-specific IFN-γ+CD4+T-cells measured 30–45 days after birth presented high accuracy to distinguishT. gondii-infected infants from healthy age-matched controls (Global Accuracy/AUC = 0.9; 0.9 and 0.8, respectively). Of note was the enhanced performance (Accuracy = 96%) achieved by using a combined stepwise analysis of CD4+CD25+T-cells and CXCL9. In addition, high global accuracy (AUC = 0.9) with elevated sensitivity (Se = 98%) was also reached by using the total frequency of in vitro IFN-γ-producingT. gondii-specific T-cells (∑ IFN-γ+CD4+& CD8+) as a biomarker of congenital toxoplasmosis. Furthermore, the analysis of in vitroT. gondii-specific IL5+CD4+T-cells and IFN-γ+NK-cells displayed a high accuracy for early prognosis of ocular lesion in infant with congenital toxoplasmosis (Global Accuracy/AUC = 0.8 and 0.9, respectively). Together, these findings support the relevance of employing the elements of the cell-mediated immune response as biomarkers with potential to endorse early diagnosis and prognosis of congenital ocular toxoplasmosis to contribute for a precise clinical management and effective therapeutic intervention.
Acute cardiovascular health effects in a panel study of personal exposure to traffic-related air pollutants and noise in Toronto, Canada
Authors: Biel Rita , Danieli Coraline , Shekarrizfard Maryam , Minet Laura , Abrahamowicz Michal , Baumgartner Jill , Liu Rick , Hatzopoulou Marianne , Weichenthal Scott
Published: October 2020

Urban populations are often simultaneously exposed to air pollution and environmental noise, which are independently associated with cardiovascular disease. Few studies have examined acute physiologic responses to both air and noise pollution using personal exposure measures. We conducted a repeated measures panel study of air pollution and noise in 46 non-smoking adults in Toronto, Canada. Data were analyzed using linear mixed-effects models and weighted cumulative exposure modeling of recent exposure. We examined acute changes in cardiovascular health effects of personal (ultrafine particles, black carbon) and regional (PM2.5, NO2, O3, Ox) measurements of air pollution and the role of personal noise exposure as a confounder of these associations. We observed adverse changes in subclinical cardiovascular outcomes in response to both air pollution and noise, including changes in endothelial function and heart rate variability (HRV). Our findings show that personal noise exposures can confound associations for air pollutants, particularly with HRV, and that impacts of air pollution and noise on HRV occur soon after exposure. Thus, both noise and air pollution have a measurable impact on cardiovascular physiology. Noise should be considered alongside air pollution in future studies to elucidate the combined impacts of these exposures in urban environments.
Iodine staining as a useful probe for distinguishing insulin amyloid polymorphs
Authors: Hiramatsu Takato , Yamamoto Naoki , Ha Seongmin , Masuda Yuki , Yasuda Mitsuru , Ishigaki Mika , Yuzu Keisuke , Ozaki Yukihiro , Chatani Eri
Published: October 2020

It is recently suggested that amyloid polymorphism, i.e., structural diversity of amyloid fibrils, has a deep relationship with pathology. However, its prompt recognition is almost halted due to insufficiency of analytical methods for detecting polymorphism of amyloid fibrils sensitively and quickly. Here, we propose that iodine staining, a historically known reaction that was firstly found by Virchow, can be used as a method for distinguishing amyloid polymorphs. When insulin fibrils were prepared and iodine-stained, they exhibited different colors depending on polymorphs. Each of the colors was inherited to daughter fibrils by seeding reactions. The colors were fundamentally represented as a sum of three absorption bands in visible region between 400 and 750 nm, and the bands showed different titration curves against iodine, suggesting that there are three specific iodine binding sites. The analysis of resonance Raman spectra and polarization microscope suggested that several polyiodide ions composed of I3− and/or I5− were formed on the grooves or the edges of β-sheets. It was concluded that the polyiodide species and conformations formed are sensitive to surface structure of amyloid fibrils, and the resultant differences in color will be useful for detecting polymorphism in a wide range of diagnostic samples.
Prediction of particles deposition in a dilute quasi-steady gravity current by Lagrangian markers: effect of shear-induced lift force
Authors: Koohandaz Ali , Khavasi Ehsan , Eyvazian Arameh , Yousefi Hamid
Published: October 2020

A gravity current in a channel at the presence of a triangular obstacle was investigated using LES simulation and the Eulerian approach. The Saffman–Mei equation was also applied to examine the effect of shear-induced lift force on particle deposition. To this end, particles were considered as Lagrangian markers and injected into gravity current. It is important to keep in mind that the interaction between the gravity current and particles was treated as a one-way coupling. The results show that shear-induced lift force prevents particles to deposit at the entrance of channel, where the velocity gradient is high. Furthermore, a reduction in the rate of sediment deposition can be seen again in the vicinity of obstacle due to high velocity gradient. The important result is that the shear-induced lift force has an important role in the cases with considerable velocity gradient in quasi-steady flows and this force can affect the pattern of sedimentation over time. Q criterion is utilized to depict the vortical structures of flow. Vortical structures with larger diameter, that indicate stronger vortexes, has been seen in various sections of channel, especially in the region near the obstacle due to the presence of obstacle.
Predictive value of suvmax changes between two sequential post-therapeutic FDG-pet in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas
Authors: Stadler Thomas M. , Hüllner Martin W. , Broglie Martina A. , Morand Grégoire B.
Published: October 2020

18-flurodesoxyglucose position emission tomography (FDG-PET) with computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a broadly accepted tool for pretherapeutic staging and post-therapeutic assessment of response. The prognostic value of sequential post-therapeutic FDG-PETs and the impact of change in metabolic activity has been scarcely reported so far. We hypothesized that an increase in metabolic activity (as measured by maximum standardized uptake value, SUVmax) would be predictive for recurrence. We retrospectively assessed all oral, oropharyngeal, laryngeal, and hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma patients treated at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, University Hospital Zurich between April 1st, 2010 and September 30th, 2018 (N = 337). After a negative post-treatment FDG-PET at 3 months, we measured the SUVmax of the local tumor area and the regional lymph nodes on follow-up FDG-PET at 9 months. We then correlated SUVmax difference between 9 and 3 months with tumor recurrence using Kaplan Meier analysis. During follow-up, 68 patients (20.2%) had local recurrence and 53 had regional recurrence (15.7%) at a median time of 9.0 (IQR 4.25–14) and 7.0 (IQR 5.25–23) months, respectively. An increase in local and/or regional SUVmax from the 3 months to the 9 months post-therapeutic FDG-PET resulted in a poorer recurrence-free survival (Log rank, P = 0.001, for both). An increase in local SUVmax between 3 and 9 months was associated with a hazard ratio of 4.17 for recurrence (95%CI 1.89–9.2, P = 0.0003). In conclusion, an increase in metabolic activity/SUVmax between two post-therapeutic FDG-PETs requires a histological examination as it is associated with tumor recurrence.
Author Correction: Neutron diffraction analysis of stress and strain partitioning in a two-phase microstructure with parallel-aligned phases
Authors: Huang Qiuliang , Shi Ran , Muránsky Ondrej , Beladi Hossein , Kabra Saurabh , Schimpf Christian , Volkova Olena , Biermann Horst , Mola Javad
Published: October 2020

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.
Author Correction: Deposits from evaporating emulsion drops
Authors: Bittermann M. R. , Deblais A. , Lépinay S. , Bonn D. , Shahidzadeh N.
Published: October 2020

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.
Atomic-scale Modelling of Redox-active Organic Molecules and Polymers for Energy Applications
Authors: Carvalho Rodrigo P. , Marchiori Cleber F. N. , Araujo C. Moyses , Brandell Daniel
Published: October 2020

The use of computational techniques in materials science is currently expanding rapidly due to the better capabilities of computer infrastructure and increasing user friendliness of relevant software. This growth is also experienced for redox-active organic matter aimed at utilization in energy storage and conversion devices. We here cover a range of material modelling technologies – focused on electronic structure calculations and force field methods – which have been applied for these organic materials, targeting a broad range of materials categories and possible applications. We also take a look at how novel computational tools are likely to make an even greater impact on the field in the near future, where they can be used as predictive tools for finding novel relevant molecular systems for electronic applications. It is argued that the versatility of organic materials, possessing relevant properties over very different length scales, make computational tools particularly useful for achieving better performance of their devices.