bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Non-dimensional groups for electrospray modes of highly conductive and viscous nanoparticle suspensions
Authors: Castillo-Orozco Eduardo , Kar Aravinda , Kumar Ranganathan
Published: March 2020

Multiple modes of atomization in electrosprays are affected by viscosity, surface tension and electrical conductivity of the semiconductor nanosuspensions. While the effect of gravity is dominant in the dripping mode, the electric field degenerates the electrospray mechanism into a microdripping mode that can potentially allow the deposition of semiconductor nanodots on a substrate. Drop size and frequency of droplet formation are obtained as functions of non-dimensional parameters, which agree well with experimental data. The analysis shows that it is possible to produce the desired size and frequency of ejection of monodisperse droplets by manipulating the electrode voltage for any nanosuspension.
Neutrophil Volume, conductivity and scatter (VCS) as a screening tool in neonatal sepsis
Authors: Nesargi Prerana , Niranjan H. S. , Bandiya Prathik , Benakappa Naveen
Published: March 2020

The initial evaluation of a suspected sepsis in a neonate is always challenging. There are many methods to screen a neonate with suspected sepsis. One of newer method is to assess the changes in neutrophil volume conductivity and scatter. The objective of this study was to establish changes in Neutrophil volume conductivity scatter (VCS) in neonatal sepsis and to determine appropriate cut off levels using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Neonates with suspected sepsis were evaluated with blood counts, culture and neutrophil VCS parameters. Based on these parameters neonates were classified into sepsis group (Blood culture positive), Probable sepsis group (clinical course consistent with sepsis and positive sepsis screen and negative blood culture), No sepsis group (Clinical course not suggestive of sepsis with negative sepsis screen and blood culture). A total of 304 neonates were included in the study of which 144 were in sepsis group and 160 in no sepsis group respectively. Among the neutrophil VCS parameters there was significant difference between the groups with respect to mean neutrophil volume (MNV) and volume distribution width (VDW) (180 vs 163 vs 150) (p < 0.01). MNV and VDW had good sensitivity (95%, 82%) and specificity (86%, 74%) for diagnosis of sepsis. In conclusion, Neutrophil VCS parameters, especially MNV, can be incorporated with other sepsis screen parameters in diagnosis of neonatal sepsis.
Pan-cancer diagnostic consensus through searching archival histopathology images using artificial intelligence
Authors: Kalra Shivam , Tizhoosh H. R. , Shah Sultaan , Choi Charles , Damaskinos Savvas , Safarpoor Amir , Shafiei Sobhan , Babaie Morteza , Diamandis Phedias , Campbell Clinton J. V. , Pantanowitz Liron
Published: March 2020

The emergence of digital pathology has opened new horizons for histopathology. Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms are able to operate on digitized slides to assist pathologists with different tasks. Whereas AI-involving classification and segmentation methods have obvious benefits for image analysis, image search represents a fundamental shift in computational pathology. Matching the pathology of new patients with already diagnosed and curated cases offers pathologists a new approach to improve diagnostic accuracy through visual inspection of similar cases and computational majority vote for consensus building. In this study, we report the results from searching the largest public repository (The Cancer Genome Atlas, TCGA) of whole-slide images from almost 11,000 patients. We successfully indexed and searched almost 30,000 high-resolution digitized slides constituting 16 terabytes of data comprised of 20 million 1000 × 1000 pixels image patches. The TCGA image database covers 25 anatomic sites and contains 32 cancer subtypes. High-performance storage and GPU power were employed for experimentation. The results were assessed with conservative “majority voting” to build consensus for subtype diagnosis through vertical search and demonstrated high accuracy values for both frozen section slides (e.g., bladder urothelial carcinoma 93%, kidney renal clear cell carcinoma 97%, and ovarian serous cystadenocarcinoma 99%) and permanent histopathology slides (e.g., prostate adenocarcinoma 98%, skin cutaneous melanoma 99%, and thymoma 100%). The key finding of this validation study was that computational consensus appears to be possible for rendering diagnoses if a sufficiently large number of searchable cases are available for each cancer subtype.
Spatial and temporal tracking of cardiac exosomes in mouse using a nano-luciferase-CD63 fusion protein
Authors: Luo Weijia , Dai Yuan , Chen Zhishi , Yue Xiaojing , Andrade-Powell Kelsey C. , Chang Jiang
Published: March 2020

Exosomes are secreted extracellular vesicles with lipid bilayer membranes. They are emerging as a new category of messengers that facilitate cross-talk between cells, tissues, and organs. Thus, a critical demand arises for the development of a sensitive and non-invasive tracking system for endogenous exosomes. We have generated a genetic mouse model that meets this goal. The Nano-luciferase (NanoLuc) reporter was fused with the exosome surface marker CD63 for exosome labeling. The cardiomyocyte-specific αMHC promoter followed by the loxP-STOP-loxP cassette was engineered for temporal and spatial labeling of exosomes originated from cardiomyocytes. The transgenic mouse was bred with a tamoxifen-inducible Cre mouse (Rosa26Cre-ERT2) to achieve inducible expression of CD63NanoLuc reporter. The specific labeling and tissue distribution of endogenous exosomes released from cardiomyocytes were demonstrated by luciferase assay and non-invasive bioluminescent live imaging. This endogenous exosome tracking mouse provides a useful tool for a range of research applications.
An integrative analysis of 5HTT-mediated mechanism of hyperactivity to non-threatening voices
Authors: Chen Chenyi , Martínez Róger M. , Liao Tsai-Tsen , Chen Chin-Yau , Yang Chih-Yung , Cheng Yawei
Published: March 2020

The tonic model delineating the serotonin transporter polymorphism’s (5-HTTLPR) modulatory effect on anxiety points towards a universal underlying mechanism involving a hyper-or-elevated baseline level of arousal even to non-threatening stimuli. However, to our knowledge, this mechanism has never been observed in non-clinical cohorts exhibiting high anxiety. Moreover, empirical support regarding said association is mixed, potentially because of publication bias with a relatively small sample size. Hence, how the 5-HTTLPR modulates neural correlates remains controversial. Here we show that 5-HTTLPR short-allele carriers had significantly increased baseline ERPs and reduced fearful MMN, phenomena which can nevertheless be reversed by acute anxiolytic treatment. This provides evidence that the 5-HTT affects the automatic processing of threatening and non-threatening voices, impacts broadly on social cognition, and conclusively asserts the heightened baseline arousal level as the universal underlying neural mechanism for anxiety-related susceptibilities, functioning as a spectrum-like distribution from high trait anxiety non-patients to anxiety patients.
Surface composition and ordering of binary nanoparticle mixtures in spherical confinement
Authors: Gartner Thomas E. , Heil Christian M. , Jayaraman Arthi
Published: March 2020

We perform coarse-grained Langevin dynamics simulations in shrinking spherical confinement to unravel the design parameters controlling the surface composition and near-surface structure during the emulsion assembly of binary nanoparticle mixtures.
Specific expression and alternative splicing of mouse genes during spermatogenesis
Authors: Li Qun , Li Tongtong , Xiao Xia , Ahmad Dawood Warraich , Zhang Ning , Li Hao , Chen Ziyu , Hou Junyao , Liao Mingzhi
Published: March 2020

Considering the high abundance of spliced RNAs in testis compared to other tissues, it is needed to construct the landscape of alternative splicing during spermatogenesis.
Commensurate states and pattern switching via liquid crystal skyrmions trapped in a square lattice
Authors: Duzgun A. , Nisoli C. , Reichhardt C. J. O. , Reichhardt C.
Published: March 2020

Using continuum based simulations we show that a rich variety of skyrmion liquid crystal states can be realized in the presence of a periodic obstacle array.
Effect of positional isomers on the photochromic behaviors of bipyridyltriazolium chloroantimonate hybrids
Authors: Shen Jun-Ju , Kang Xiao-Li , Ren Qiao-Zhen , Li Guo-Ping , Gao Ya-Na , Hao Peng-Fei , Fu Yun-Long
Published: March 2020

Two chloroantimonates with isomeric bipyridyltriazoliums exhibit distinct photochromic behaviors, of which 1 is the first reported photochromic chloroantimonate hybrid.
A life in crystallography
Authors: Colón Jorge L. , Martí Angel , Sun Luyi
Published: March 2020

This themed issue honors Professor Abraham Clearfield FRSC who has been a luminary for more than 60 years in the fields of crystallography, inorganic solid-state chemistry and materials science, and has touched the lives of many colleagues and friends during this time.
Novel mineralized electrospun chitosan/PVA/TiO2 nanofibrous composites for potential biomedical applications: computational and experimental insights
Authors: Abbas Walaa A. , Sharafeldin Icell M. , Omar Mostafa M. , Allam Nageh K.
Published: March 2020

Electrospun nanofibrous materials serve as potential solutions for several biomedical applications as they possess the ability of mimicking the extracellular matrix (ECM) of tissues.
Photosensitised biphotonic chemistry of pyrimidine derivatives
Authors: Alzueta Ofelia R. , Cadet Jean , Cuquerella M. Consuelo , Miranda Miguel A.
Published: March 2020

Biphotonic chemistry of pyrimidines is produced using a 355 nm laser and 2-methoxyacetophenone as photosensitiser.
Anisotropic proton conduction realized by a layered vanadium selenite single crystal
Authors: Sun Hai-Yan , Sun Shi-Hao , Hu Bing , Gong Liao-Kuo , Zou Yan-Min , Li Ji-Long , Feng Mei-Ling , Huang Xiao-Ying
Published: March 2020

A new layered vanadium selenite single crystal exhibits anisotropic proton conductivities along the [100] and [001] directions with the Grotthuss and Vehicle mechanisms, respectively.
Co-fermentation of a sugar mixture for microbial lipid production in a two-stage fermentation mode under non-sterile conditions
Authors: Liu Wujun , Mao Weifeng , Zhang Cuili , Lu Xi , Xiao Xujie , Zhao Zinan , Lin Jintao
Published: March 2020

The economical production of biodiesel from lignocellulose requires an effective co-fermentation of lignocellulose-derived sugars, such as glucose and xylose.
Self-supporting N-rich Cu2Se/C nanowires for highly reversible, long-life potassium-ion storage
Authors: Zhu Xingqun , Gao Jingyu , Li Jing , Hu Guojing , Li Jie , Zhang Genqiang , Xiang Bin
Published: March 2020

Currently, the search for excellent anode materials for potassium-ion storage is an important research direction.
Renal-clearable zwitterionic conjugated hollow ultrasmall Fe3O4 nanoparticles for T1-weighted MR imaging in vivo
Authors: Liu Wei , Deng Guang , Wang Danli , Chen Ming , Zhou Zhiguo , Yang Hong , Yang Shiping
Published: March 2020

Monodispersed hollow Fe3O4 nanoparticles with the diameters of 7 and 10 nm were prepared via a high-temperature pyrolysis method and the Kirkendall effect by regulating the ratio of oleylamine to oleic acid.
Manipulation of the Rashba effect in layered tellurides MTe (M = Ge, Sn, Pb)
Authors: Liu Chang , Gao Heng , Li Yongchang , Wang Kangying , Burton Lee A. , Ren Wei
Published: March 2020

Designing an electric-field controlled Rashba spin FET on two-dimensional GeTe.
A primer of host-plant specialization in bees
Authors: Rasmussen Claus , Engel Michael S. , Vereecken Nicolas J.
Published: March 2020

The bee-flower biological association is one of the most famous examples of insect-plant interactions, and it is axiomatic that these are of critical importance for sustaining thriving terrestrial ecosystems. Yet, the most familiar associations are often artificially managed agricultural ecosystems, reflecting an exceptionally narrow range of bee species (often only one) and a concomitantly restricted range of associated behaviors, morphologies, and mechanisms tied to pollination. Here we provide a brief account of the range of bee-floral associations encompassing floral specialization in terms of diet, behavior, and morphology. These natural associations not only promote healthy ecosystems, but also can be integrated in sustainable ways for more efficient pollination of crops by targeting bee species whose diets, behaviors, and pollen-gathering structures evolved precisely to visit such floral species rather than less efficient, and often non-native, generalists that are otherwise exploited for such purposes.
Block cosparsity overcomplete learning transform image segmentation algorithm based on burr model
Authors: Han Lili , Li Shujuan , Ren Pengxin , Xue Dingdan
Published: March 2020

To improve the performance of the high‐voltage copper contact burr image segmentation, a block cosparsity overcomplete learning transform image segmentation algorithm based on burr model is proposed in this study. In this study, k‐means clustering method is used to initialise the clustering results; the authors found the algorithm is very effective for burr image processing in production process and the sparse overcomplete transform matrix is initialised by discrete cosine transform. The algorithm is expressed by a set of transforms. When the set of transforms is fixed, the penalty is corresponding to the condition number. A new burr model is proposed in this study. The parameters of the burr are the factors on infection of the sparse‐level constant and the regularisation coefficient of the block cosparsity overcomplete learning transform algorithm. The algorithm divides all pixels into several groups. To evaluate the performance of the model, a large number of experiments have been carried out, and three image segmentation evaluation criterions have been used to evaluate the effectiveness of the algorithm. Experimental results show that this method is excellent in retaining weak edge information and avoiding the influence of three‐dimensional structure compared with other algorithms.
Missing water in Class I protostellar disks
Authors: Harsono D. , Persson M. V. , Ramos A. , Murillo N. M. , Maud L. T. , Hogerheijde M. R. , Bosman A. D. , Kristensen L. E. , Jørgensen J. K. , Bergin E. A. , Visser R. , Mottram J. C. , van Dishoeck E. F.
Published: March 2020

Context. Water is a key volatile that provides insight into the initial stages of planet formation. The low water abundances inferred from water observations toward low-mass protostellar objects may point to a rapid locking of water as ice by large dust grains during star and planet formation. However, little is known about the water vapor abundance in newly formed planet-forming disks.

Aims. We aim to determine the water abundance in embedded Keplerian disks through spatially-resolved observations of H218O lines to understand the evolution of water during star and planet formation.

Methods. We present H218O line observations with ALMA and NOEMA millimeter interferometers toward five young stellar objects. NOEMA observed the 31,3–22,0 line (Eup∕kB = 203.7 K) while ALMA targeted the 41,4–32,1 line (Eup∕kB = 322.0 K). Water column densities were derived considering optically thin and thermalized emission. Our observations were sensitive to the emission from the known Keplerian disks around three out of the five Class I objects in the sample.

Results. No H218O emission is detected toward any of our five Class I disks. We report upper limits to the integrated line intensities. The inferred water column densities in Class I disks are NH218O < 1015 cm−2 on 100 au scales, which include both the disk and envelope. The upper limits imply a disk-averaged water abundance of ≲10−6 with respect to H2 for Class I objects. After taking the physical structure of the disk into account, the upper limit to the water abundance averaged over the inner warm disk with T > 100 K is between ~10−7 and 10−5.

Conclusions. Water vapor is not abundant in warm protostellar envelopes around Class I protostars. Upper limits to the water vapor column densities in Class I disks are at least two orders of magnitude lower than values found in Class 0 disk-like structures.
Sonderheft Methodische Aspekte der Sekundärdatenanalyse
Authors: Swart Enno , Gothe Holger , Hoffmann Falk , Ihle Peter , Schubert Ingrid , Stallmann Christoph , March Stefanie
Published: March 2020

Die wissenschaftliche Nutzung von Sekundärdaten, nicht allein von solchen der gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung (GKV), hat sich in den vergangenen Jahren fest in der Versorgungsforschung etabliert. Das zeigen das Memorandum Methoden der Versorgungsforschung 1 und Grundlagenwerke der Sekundärdatenanalyse 2. Gleichwohl entwickelt sich eine hohe Dynamik in diesem Forschungszweig, einerseits durch die zahlreichen durch den Innovationsfonds des Gemeinsamen Bundesausschusses (G-BA) geförderten Projekte mit Nutzung von Sekundärdaten, andererseits durch die rasant zunehmenden wissenschaftlichen Studien mit einem individuellen Datenlinkage von Primär- und Sekundärdaten oder Sekundärdaten unterschiedlicher Dateneigner.
Supporting Students with TBI: A Clinically Focused Tutorial for Speech-Language Pathologists
Authors: Coreno Alyssa , Ciccia Angela H.
Published: March 2020

Attention to pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) has grown in recent years, likely due to the increased awareness of mild TBI (mTBI) in contact sports. With this increased attention, along with an increased diagnosis of injury, more students with TBI need services, especially as they return to the classroom environment and progress through school. Support of students with TBI of all severities requires an interdisciplinary team with the school-based speech-language pathologist playing a critical role. The purpose of this tutorial is to provide a clinically focused summary of the complexities that exist for students with TBI of all severities and practical steps that can be implemented in clinical practice to enhance service provision for students with TBI.
Criteria for assessing grant applications: a systematic review
Authors: Hug Sven E. , Aeschbach Mirjam
Published: March 2020

Criteria are an essential component of any procedure for assessing merit. Yet, little is known about the criteria peers use to assess grant applications. In this systematic review we therefore identify and synthesize studies that examine grant peer review criteria in an empirical and inductive manner. To facilitate the synthesis, we introduce a framework that classifies what is generally referred to as ‘criterion’ into an evaluated entity (i.e., the object of evaluation) and an evaluation criterion (i.e., the dimension along which an entity is evaluated). In total, the synthesis includes 12 studies on grant peer review criteria. Two-thirds of these studies examine criteria in the medical and health sciences, while studies in other fields are scarce. Few studies compare criteria across different fields, and none focus on criteria for interdisciplinary research. We conducted a qualitative content analysis of the 12 studies and thereby identified 15 evaluation criteria and 30 evaluated entities, as well as the relations between them. Based on a network analysis, we determined the following main relations between the identified evaluation criteria and evaluated entities. The aims and outcomes of a proposed project are assessed in terms of the evaluation criteria originality, academic relevance, and extra-academic relevance. The proposed research process is evaluated both on the content level (quality, appropriateness, rigor, coherence/justification), as well as on the level of description (clarity, completeness). The resources needed to implement the research process are evaluated in terms of the evaluation criterion feasibility. Lastly, the person and personality of the applicant are assessed from a ‘psychological’ (motivation, traits) and a ‘sociological’ (diversity) perspective. Furthermore, we find that some of the criteria peers use to evaluate grant applications do not conform to the fairness doctrine and the ideal of impartiality. Grant peer review could therefore be considered unfair and biased. Our findings suggest that future studies on criteria in grant peer review should focus on the applicant, include data from non-Western countries, and examine fields other than the medical and health sciences.
Nanophotonic inverse design with SPINS: Software architecture and practical considerations
Authors: Su Logan , Vercruysse Dries , Skarda Jinhie , Sapra Neil V. , Petykiewicz Jan A. , Vučković Jelena
Published: March 2020

This paper presents a computational nanophotonic design library for gradient-based optimization called the Stanford Photonic INverse design Software (SPINS). Borrowing the concept of computational graphs, SPINS is a design framework that emphasizes flexibility and reproducible results. By factoring the inverse design process into components that can be swapped out for one another, SPINS enables inverse design practitioners to easily explore different design methodologies. Here, we present the mathematical and architectural details on how to achieve these goals, using the inverse design of a wavelength demultiplexer as a primary example. Using inverse design effectively requires understanding the “control knobs” available to the designer, and, to that end, we also discuss practical considerations and heuristics for effective use of inverse design. In particular, by running inverse design on hundreds of designs of 3D wavelength demultiplexers, this paper explores the landscape of local minima, which leads to insights on the choice of initial conditions.
Visible-light photocatalysts: Prospects and challenges
Authors: Djurišić Aleksandra B. , He Yanling , Ng Alan M. C.
Published: March 2020

In this research update, we discuss the visible-light photocatalysis. Due to the potential of utilizing freely available solar energy for environmental remediation and fuel generation, this topic has been of increasing interest. Huge amount of work has been done in developing a large variety of photocatalyst materials, and advances have been made in understanding the process. Nevertheless, substantial challenges remain. Some of those challenges could possibly be solved by developing better materials, but in many cases, the biggest problem is whether photocatalysis could be scaled up to an industrial process that would be cost-competitive to existing technologies. Here, we discuss different types of visible-light photocatalysts and their applications and outline various challenges that need to be addressed in the development of practically relevant materials and systems.
Brain activity forecasts video engagement in an internet attention market
Authors: Tong Lester C. , Acikalin M. Yavuz , Genevsky Alexander , Shiv Baba , Knutson Brian
Published: March 2020

The growth of the internet has spawned new “attention markets,” in which people devote increasing amounts of time to consuming online content, but the neurobehavioral mechanisms that drive engagement in these markets have yet to be elucidated. We used functional MRI (FMRI) to examine whether individuals’ neural responses to videos could predict their choices to start and stop watching videos as well as whether group brain activity could forecast aggregate video view frequency and duration out of sample on the internet (i.e., on
youtube.com
). Brain activity during video onset predicted individual choice in several regions (i.e., increased activity in the nucleus accumbens [NAcc] and medial prefrontal cortex [MPFC] as well as decreased activity in the anterior insula [AIns]). Group activity during video onset in only a subset of these regions, however, forecasted both aggregate view frequency and duration (i.e., increased NAcc and decreased AIns)—and did so above and beyond conventional measures. These findings extend neuroforecasting theory and tools by revealing that activity in brain regions implicated in anticipatory affect at the onset of video viewing (but not initial choice) can forecast time allocation out of sample in an internet attention market.
Two systems for thinking about others’ thoughts in the developing brain
Authors: Grosse Wiesmann Charlotte , Friederici Angela D. , Singer Tania , Steinbeis Nikolaus
Published: March 2020

Significance

The ability to reason about other people’s thoughts and beliefs characterizes the complex social interaction among humans. This ability, called Theory of Mind (ToM), has long been argued to develop around 4 y when children start explicitly reasoning about others' beliefs. However, when tested nonverbally, infants already show action expectations congruent with others’ beliefs before the age of 2 y. Do these behaviors reflect different systems for understanding others’ minds—an early and a later developing one—or when does ToM develop? We show that these abilities are supported by the maturation of independent brain networks, suggesting different systems for explicit verbal ToM and early nonverbal action expectations.
Reductions in daily continental-scale atmospheric circulation biases between generations of global climate models: CMIP5 to CMIP6
Authors: Cannon Alex J
Published: March 2020

This study evaluates and compares historical simulations of daily sea-level pressure circulation types over 6 continental-scale regions (North America, South America, Europe, Africa, East Asia, and Australasia) by 15 pairs of global climate models from modeling centers that contributed to both Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) and CMIP6. Atmospheric circulation classifications are constructed using two different methodologies applied to two reanalyses. Substantial improvements in performance, taking into account internal variability, are found between CMIP5 and CMIP6 for both frequency (24% reduction in global error) and persistence (12% reduction) of circulation types. Improvements between generations are robust to different methodological choices and reference datasets. A modest relationship between model resolution and skill is found. While there is large intra-ensemble spread in performance, the best performing models from CMIP6 exhibit levels of skill close to those from the reanalyses. In general, the latest generation of climate models should provide less biased simulations for use in regional dynamical and statistical downscaling efforts than previous generations.
Modification of Tert-butylhydroquinone with Palmitic Acid as a Soluble Antioxidant for Biodiesel Additive
Authors: Sutanto Hery , Pramastiani Amanda Jehan , Yusri Silvya , Darmawan Akhmad , Legowo Evita H. , Nasikin Mohammad
Published: March 2020

Biodiesel is a product resulted from the process of transesterification of vegetable oil or animal fat. Biodiesel is a renewable fuel and uses as alternative to fossil fuel diesel. However, one of the biodiesel drawbacks which is oxidation can affect the storage stability of the biodiesel. One way to solve this issue is by using antioxidant additives to improve the storage stability of biodiesel. Tert-Butylhydroquinone is a common synthetic phenolic antioxidant and has a proven superior antioxidant activity due to its polar characteristic. The difference in polarity between non-polar biodiesel and phenolic antioxidant makes their solubility becomes very low. In this study, modification of TBHQ with palmitic acid was done by using Friedel-Crafts acylation to increase its solubility in biodiesel. The resulting proposed product 1-(2-(tert-butyl)-3,6- dihydroxyphenyl)hexadecane-1-one, was confirmed using TLC, LC-MS/MS and 1H-NMR. The product showed solubility limit at concentration 2500 ppm and antioxidant activity with the IC50 value of 675.38 ppm, which both results are lower compared to TBHQ.
Investigation of Ferri-alginate (Fe-Alg) as Environmentally Friendly Catalyst on the Formation of Solketal from Glycerol and Acetone
Authors: Mahreni  , Azimatun Nur M.M.
Published: March 2020

Alginate is a naturally occurring anionic carbohydrate polymer which could be coupled with metallic cationic molecules to form heterogeneous catalyst. However, the potency of the heterogeneous catalyst on the production of solketal was not explored. This research was proposed to investigate the potency of Ferri-Alginate (Fe-Alg) as a cheap and environmentally friendly catalyst in the solketal reaction. Fe-Alg was synthesized by reacting FeCl3 to sodium alginate with different concentrations (0.1 -0.5 M). Fe-Alg catalyst was characterized both on the physical and chemical activity. By using BET analysis, it was indicated that the addition of FeCl3 concentration increased the surface area of the catalyst. By using TGA/DSC analysis, it was found that Fe-Alg catalyst was stable up to 153°C. From GC/MS analysis, it was found that solketal was formed after the reaction of glycerol and acetone by using Fe-Alg as the catalyst.
Aluminum-Alginate (Al-Alg) as Green Catalyst in Solketal Synthesis from Acetone and Glycerol
Authors: Mahreni
Published: March 2020

A catalyst is a chemical that can accelerate a reaction. So far, the catalyst uses precious metals (Pt, Au, Ag) which are heavy and expensive metals. In this research, a biodegradable Aluminum-Alginate (Al-Alg) green catalyst was synthesized using the precipitation method at room temperature. Aluminum is derived from Al (NO3)3 solution, and the Alginate used is brown algae extract in the form of Sodium-Alginate (Na-Alg). Previous research has reported that Aluminum-Alginate (Al-Alg) has been shown to accelerate the esterification reaction. In this research, Al-Alg was tried as a catalyst in the reaction of Solketal formation from Acetone and Glycerol. The purpose of this research is to prove the Al-Alg catalyst that has been synthesized using the precipitation method which can be used as a catalyst in the reaction of Solketal formation from Acetone and Glycerol. The research was carried out in two stages, namely the extraction of Alginate from brown algae using 2% by weight natrium-alginate solvent, then the second stage was the deposition of Na-Alginate using Al (NO3)3 solution. The precipitation was carried out at room temperature. The precipitate was dried, then its physical characteristicwas tested using FTIR and TGA/DTA; the chemical characteristic of the catalyst was tested through catalyzed reaction. The FTIR test results showed that the alginate molecule had been bound to Al molecule which was marked by a peak at the wave number of 1383.4 cm−1 which indicated the carboxylic group of COOH owned by Alginate, namely the symmetric stretching vibration of the carboxylate group. In addition, the peak at the wave number of 827 cm−1 showed that the C1 – H deformation vibration of b- mannuronic acid residues from Alginate. The peak at the wave number of 550 cm−1 proved that Aluminum (Al) had been bound to Alginate, and forming Al-Alg. The catalyst activity test was carried out by applying the Al-Alg catalyst in the catalyzing reaction of the formation of Solketal from Acetone and Glycerol. The reaction results were analyzed using GC-MS and it showed that the solketal was formed, and the selectivity was quite high at 96 %, proving that Al-Alg had the potential as a catalyst in catalyzing reaction.
Alternative Method of Radiochemical Purity Testing for Technetium-99m Tetrofosmin
Authors: Widyastuti W. , Puji W. , Ariyanto A. , Lestari E. , Rosilawati N.E.
Published: March 2020

Tc-99m tetrofosmin is a radiopharmaceutical preparation used in nuclear medicine. Radiochemical purity as main parameter of quality should be more than 90%, and was determined using thin layer chromatography with ITLC-SG as stationary phase and mixture of acetone and dichloromethane as mobile phase. Since ITLC-SG is expensive and the solvent used is rather noxious, an alternative method is expected to replace it for routine QC use. Besides, the radiolabeling capability of Tc-99m in low radioactivity is expected to reduce the utilization of Tc-99m in QC of kits manufacturing. Experiment using SepPak C18 column and TLC system with TLC-SG and ITLC-SG were carried out, then the results were compared. Radiochemical purity measurement using TLC-SG and ITLC-SG showed 99.49 ± 0.78% and 96.17 ± 2.37% respectively with the peaks observed at Rf 0.0 and ∼ 0.5 respectively, whereas that using SepPak C-18 showed RCP of 98.51 ± 0.78%. Various radioactivity of Tc-99m from 2 to 100 mCi have been used to label tetrofosmin kits and the radiolabeling quality were almost the same. It can be concluded that SepPak C18 as well as TLC method using TLC-SG can be used as alternative methods for radiochemical purity measurement of Tc-99m tetrofosmin, and low radioactivity of Tc-99m is sufficient to label tetrofosmin with high radiochemical purity.
Quantitative Determination of Vanillin in Coated Paper Using Gas Chromatography
Authors: Kho Katherine , Aslanzadeh Solmaz
Published: March 2020

One of the strategies to improve the food shelf - life is to utilize functional packaging. The functional packaging could contain antimicrobial agents to inhibit pathogenic microorganisms or antioxidants to prevent oxidative degradation. Vanillin, known as one of the most common food flavoring ingredients, could serve as a potent antioxidant. This paper focuses on the development of a methodology to determine vanillin content in the coated paper using gas chromatography. The vanillin was extracted from vanillin-coated paper using water as the aqueous phase and dichloromethane (DCM) as the organic phase. The effect of filtration on vanillin extraction and water to DCM ratio used for extraction were investigated. It was concluded that the extraction without filtration with water to DCM ratio of 1:2 was the best setting for the vanillin extraction from vanillin- coated paper.
Biogas Utilization for supporting the Sustainability of Palm Oil Mill
Authors: Febijanto Irhan
Published: March 2020

Indonesia, as the largest palm oil production country, currently facing various criticisms from European countries related to environmental issues from Crude Palm Oil industries. One way to reduce the criticism impacts, is to obtain a certificate related to the sustainability of Crude Palm Oil industries, which issued by a national or even an international body. Based on the sustainability standards, POM (Palm Oil Mill) should prevent the gas emission/methane gas generated from Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) which emitted to the atmosphere. By captured methane gas and utilize as fuel for the boiler (biogas co-firing) or fuel for the gas engine for captive power, the emission gas amount emitted to the atmosphere can be reduced. All selected technologies in this study utilize biogas/methane gas. The economic analysis of each selected technology is assessed by using an economic parameter of IRR (Internal Rate of Return) and NPV (Net Present Value). It is proved that the biogas power plant integrated with the pellet factory shows the highest IRR, however, the biogas co-firing is the easiest technology among the selected technology and also the implementation is feasible for supporting the sustainability of POM though the IRR is the lowest one.
Fractionation of Turpentine
Authors: Ariono Danu , Aldiyana Gigih , Adrian Ramadika , Indarto Antonius
Published: March 2020

Turpentine (pine oil) is a liquid phase of the Pinus mercusii gum that consists of α-pinene, δ-pinene, δ-carene, limonene, and others. These components, if separated, have a higher added value compared to selling crude pine oil. Separation process by distillation is the common method to fractionate all of the components. However, distillation at atmospheric pressure has a potential to decompose some turpentine components. This study aims to obtain the optimum operating conditions that produce compounds of turpentine. The experimental method used consisted of three stages. The first stage is the analysis of components from the main raw material, turpentine. The second step is the turpentine fractionation with the process of party vacuum distillation. The third step is the analysis of the distillate results using Gas Chromatography with FID. The experiment was carried out by varying the operating pressure of the vacuum distillation process which is at 0.2 atm; 0.45 atm and 1 atm. The experimental results show that thermal degradation did not occur at pressures of 0.45 atm and 0.2 atm. The experimental results are in accordance with the simulation results with a column efficiency of 45%. Better results can be obtained by adding stages to 25 stages from 10 stages used and can achieve composition results up to analyst grade (> 99.9%). Distillation of 0.2 atm pressure is the best operating condition judging from the profit generated and its energy consumption.
Thermal Properties of Geopolymers with Silica Fume
Authors: Sampe Fanriyanto , Triwiyono Andreas , Ayu Agustini Ni Komang , Perdana Indra
Published: March 2020

Fly ash-based geopolymer is a renewable technology to minimize the use of cement in the construction field. The development was not only the use of fly ash but also the addition of other materials such as silica fume to geopolymer paste. Insulating materials is one of the examples of fly ash-based geopolymer applications. This paper examines the influence of varied activating solution of fly ash ratio and silica fume on the behavior of thermal properties of the geopolymer paste. The activating solution of fly ash ratio (A/F) was 40%, 45%, and 50%. Silica fume acts as a substitution of fly ash varied from 1%, 2%, and 4%. The activating solution was mixed with NaOH 10 M and Na2SiO3 with Na2SiO3/NaOH ratio constant at 2. Geopolymer paste was subjected to different tests such as thermal conductivity, bulk density, and compressive strength. The results showed that the geopolymer paste with substitution of silica fume had thermal conductivity, bulk density and compressive strength in the range of 0.051 to 0.932 W/m.C, 1752.457 to 1870.309 kg/m3 and 25.41 to 38.48 MPa respectively. The thermal conductivity values for all variations are below 1 W/m.C. Results from this work shows that the mixture suitable as a thermal insulation material.
Preparation of Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes Supported Zinc Oxide Catalyst for Transesterification of Kesambi (Schleichera oleosa) Oil
Authors: Asri N P , Yuniati Y , Hindarso H , Suprapto  , Yogaswara R R
Published: March 2020

In this work, multi-walled carbon nanotubes supported zinc oxide (ZnO/MWCNTs) as a heterogeneous catalyst for transesterification had been successfully prepared via the modified Stober-like synthesis method. The effect of calcination temperature during the catalyst preparation towards reaction was investigated. These catalyst was also characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, N2 adsorption-desorption analysis followed by Brunauer- Emmett-Teller (BET) calculation to determine the total surface area, and scanning electrone microscopy with energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX). Transesterification of kesambi (Schleichera oleosa) oil also had been done to test the activity of the prepared catalysts. However, the quantity of dispersed zinc oxide (ZnO) on multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) are quite small that is lower than 5 %wt. It produces low conversion of transesterification after 3 hours reaction that is under 15% of conversion.
Atomistic simulations of phonon behaviors in isotopically doped graphene with Sierpinski carpet fractal structure
Authors: Han Dan , Fan Hongzhao , Wang Xinyu , Cheng Lin
Published: March 2020

Two-dimensional (2D) graphene monolayer has been attached importance because of the fantastic physical properties. In this work, we conduct the atomistic simulations to evaluate the phonon behaviors in isotopically doped graphene with Sierpinski Carpet (SC) fractal structure. The thermal conductivities (k) with different fractal numbers are calculated by molecular dynamics simulation. The relationship between the k and the fractal number from 0 to 8 shows a first decreasing and then stable trend. The maximum reduction ratio of the k in SC fractal structures is 52.37%. Afterwards, we utilize the molecular dynamics simulation, phonon wave packet simulation and lattice dynamics simulation to investigate the phonon density of states (PDOS), energy transmission coefficient (ETC), phonon group velocity and participation ratio (PR) in SC fractal structures. In SC fractal structures, the PDOS increases in the low frequency region and the G-band will soften with the enhanced fractal number. We also observe that the isotopic doping atoms can lead to continuous reflected waves in SC fractal structure regions. Moreover, phonon modes in SC fractal structures possess the lower ETCs, phonon group velocities and PRs in comparison with the pristine graphene monolayer. Therefore, we attribute the lower k in SC fractal structures to the stronger phonon-impurity scattering and the increasing localized phonon modes.
The Moral Hierarchies of Age Standards: The UN Debates a Common Minimum Marriage Age, 1951–1962
Authors: Tambe Ashwini
Published: March 2020

While the UN was still a fledgling organization in the early 1950s, it took on the question of what an appropriate minimum age for marriage should be across all its member countries. Two UN conventions—the 1956 Supplementary Convention on Slavery and the 1962 Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages—involved tense deliberations over a marriage age standard. Drawing on records of UN preparatory meetings, I show that delegates representing Britain and Portugal spearheaded an effort to frame early and forced marriage as forms of slavery, and thereby focused abolitionist attention on formerly colonized countries. The moral worth of newly independent countries came to be signaled by specifying a high chronological age for marriage rather than treating puberty as a threshold. Although there was no tidy polarization between colonizers and colonized in the deliberations, several delegates from former British colonies—especially Nigeria and India, large regional powers with aspirations to lead the budding Non-Aligned Movement—strenuously rejected the tutelary stance of the British delegates. These debates about a common marriage age reveal how, in this foundational moment of liberal internationalism, relationships of equivalence between countries were undercut by efforts to mark differences between imperial powers and newly independent countries.
NIHBA: a network interdiction approach for metabolic engineering design
Authors: Jiang Shouyong , Wang Yong , Kaiser Marcus , Krasnogor Natalio
Published: March 2020

Motivation

Flux balance analysis (FBA) based bilevel optimization has been a great success in redesigning metabolic networks for biochemical overproduction. To date, many computational approaches have been developed to solve the resulting bilevel optimization problems. However, most of them are of limited use due to biased optimality principle, poor scalability with the size of metabolic networks, potential numeric issues or low quantity of design solutions in a single run.

Results

Here, we have employed a network interdiction model free of growth optimality assumptions, a special case of bilevel optimization, for computational strain design and have developed a hybrid Benders algorithm (HBA) that deals with complicating binary variables in the model, thereby achieving high efficiency without numeric issues in search of best design strategies. More importantly, HBA can list solutions that meet users’ production requirements during the search, making it possible to obtain numerous design strategies at a small runtime overhead (typically ∼1 h, e.g. studied in this article).

Availability and implementation

Source code implemented in the MATALAB Cobratoolbox is freely available at https://github.com/chang88ye/NIHBA.

Contact

math4neu@gmail.com or natalio.krasnogor@ncl.ac.uk

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
COMER2: GPU-accelerated sensitive and specific homology searches
Authors: Margelevičius Mindaugas
Published: March 2020

Searching for homology in the vast amount of sequence data has a particular emphasis on its speed. We present a completely rewritten version of the sensitive homology search method COMER based on alignment of protein sequence profiles, which is capable of searching big databases even on a lightweight laptop. By harnessing the power of CUDA-enabled graphics processing units, it is up to 20 times faster than HHsearch, a state-of-the-art method using vectorized instructions on modern CPUs.

Availability and implementation

COMER2 is cross-platform open-source software available at https://sourceforge.net/projects/comer2 and https://github.com/minmarg/comer2. It can be easily installed from source code or using stand-alone installers.

Contact

mindaugas.margelevicius@bti.vu.lt

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
GABAA receptor β3 subunit mutation D120N causes Lennox–Gastaut syndrome in knock-in mice
Authors: Qu Shimian , Catron Mackenzie , Zhou Chengwen , Janve Vaishali , Shen Wangzhen , Howe Rachel K , Macdonald Robert L
Published: March 2020

The Lennox–Gastaut syndrome is a devastating early-onset epileptic encephalopathy, associated with severe behavioural abnormalities. Its pathophysiology, however, is largely unknown. A de novo mutation (c.G358A, p.D120N) in the human GABA type-A receptor β3 subunit gene (GABRB3) has been identified in a patient with Lennox–Gastaut syndrome. To determine whether the mutation causes Lennox–Gastaut syndrome in vivo in mice and to elucidate its mechanistic effects, we generated the heterozygous Gabrb3+/D120N knock-in mouse and found that it had frequent spontaneous atypical absence seizures, as well as less frequent tonic, myoclonic, atonic and generalized tonic–clonic seizures. Each of these seizure types had a unique and characteristic ictal EEG. In addition, knock-in mice displayed abnormal behaviours seen in patients with Lennox–Gastaut syndrome including impaired learning and memory, hyperactivity, impaired social interactions and increased anxiety. This Gabrb3 mutation did not alter GABA type-A receptor trafficking or expression in knock-in mice. However, cortical neurons in thalamocortical slices from knock-in mice had reduced miniature inhibitory post-synaptic current amplitude and prolonged spontaneous thalamocortical oscillations. Thus, the Gabrb3+/D120N knock-in mouse recapitulated human Lennox–Gastaut syndrome seizure types and behavioural abnormalities and was caused by impaired inhibitory GABAergic signalling in the thalamocortical loop. In addition, treatment with antiepileptic drugs and cannabinoids ameliorated atypical absence seizures in knock-in mice. This congenic knock-in mouse demonstrates that a single-point mutation in a single gene can cause development of multiple types of seizures and multiple behavioural abnormalities. The knock-in mouse will be useful for further investigation of the mechanisms of Lennox–Gastaut syndrome development and for the development of new antiepileptic drugs and treatments.