bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Microscopical Study of Pancreatic Tissue of Babirusa (Babyrousa babyrussa) Using Conventional and Immunohistochemical Methods
Authors: Adnyane Ketut Mudite , Macdonald Alastair A , Agungpriyono Srihadi 
Published: June 2020

This study utilized conventional and immunohistochemical methods, to describe the morphology and distribution of glucagon and insulin cells in the pancreas of adult male babirusa (Babyrousa babyrussa). The results of research showed that the endocrine portion (Langerhans islet) spread evenly on the acinar portion of pancreas. Observation using immunohistochemical method showed that glucagon cells were distributed on the perifer, whereas insulin cells in the center of the Langerhans islet of pancreas. In general, the number of insulin cells was higher than glucagon cells. It is interesting to note, in the pancreas babirusa also found that neonatal elements similar to the Langerhans islet, but have larger sizes (ranging between 200 -700 mm). The picture is similar to the large Langerhans islet was reported in ruminant. These cells give a negative reaction to insulin and glucagon antisera.
Polyoxyethylene Quaternary Ammonium Gemini Surfactants as a Completion Fluid Additive to Mitigate Formation Damage
Authors: Tariq Zeeshan , Kamal Muhammad Shahzad , Mahmoud Mohamed , Hussain Syed Muhammad , Abdulraheem Abdulazeez , Zhou Xianmin 
Published: June 2020

Summary
During well completion operations, the wells are killed with specific fluids to control the well. These fluids can invade and damage the formation because of fluid/rock interactions. Fluids such as fresh water, brines, and weighted fluids (e.g., barite weighted, calcite weighted, and bentonite weighted) are used to control the formations during completion operations. These fluids can invade and interact with clays and damage the formation. In addition, these fluids may alter the near-wellbore wettability and make them more oil-wet, thereby affecting the production from these formations. In this work, polyoxyethylene quaternary ammonium gemini surfactants with different types of spacers are proposed as clay swelling additives in completion fluids to mitigate the formation damage in unconventional reservoirs. Adding the new surfactants will maintain the in-situ permeability and avoid the formation damage. The novel gemini surfactants are tested on unconventional tight sandstone formation enriched with high clay content to mitigate the formation damage during well completion. The process involved a complete stabilization of clays using gemini surfactants added in deionized water (DW). Coreflooding experiments were carried out on Scioto sandstone rock samples with an average porosity of 15.6% and average absolute permeability of 0.25 md. Several coreflooding experiments were carried out with different fluids, such as potassium chloride (KCl), sodium chloride (NaCl), and different classes of gemini surfactants. Coreflooding experiments were designed in a way that the cores were preflushed with the subjected fluid and then post-flooded with DW. Results showed that the cores saturated with KCl and NaCl solutions lost permeability significantly when flooded with water while gemini surfactant solutions maintained the same permeability even after being treated with DW. Conditioning with the KCl solution resulted in a 38% reduction of permeability and that with NaCl solution resulted in an 80% reduction of permeability when treated with DW. No significant change of permeability was found for the case of gemini surfactants. This indicates that the synthesized surfactants can be used for well completion operation without any side effects.
The Development of a Low-Shear Valve Suitable for Polymer Flooding
Authors: Husveg Trygve , Stokka Mari , Husveg Rune , Jouenne Stephane 
Published: June 2020

Summary
Hydrolyzed polyacrylamides (HPAMs) are used as mobility-control agents to improve the macroscopic sweep efficiency of oil reservoirs. To maximize their viscosifying power, very-high-molecular-weight (MW) polymers are preferred, which in turn make them very sensitive to shear degradation. Shear degradation originates from chain stretching and breaking when the solution is subjected to a sudden acceleration.
Fundamental development work is presented, where polymer degradation is studied in flow through reducers and expanders of various geometrical shapes, as well as through straight pipes and pipe coils of various diameters and lengths. The work also demonstrates that the creation of pressure drop through viscous pipe friction is very ineffective with regular tubes, most likely because of the drag-reducing effect of polymer. In addition, the arrangement of very long, straight, or coiled pipes in parallel is impractical and bulky.
This paper further presents the development of a novel valve technology that solves these challenges. First, through the unique use of spiraling flow channels with optimally designed reducer and expansion zones, machined on the surface of disks, shear forces and thereby polymer degradation is controlled. Second, by arranging numerous such disks to form a disk stack, any target capacity can be met efficiently. Third, the disk-stack concept enables an easy and reliable plug-based solution for flow regulation and control. The performance of the new valve technology is demonstrated through small- and large-scale prototype tests. At very-shear-sensitive test conditions, it is demonstrated that polymer degradation of the new valve is less than 10% at 40- to 45-bar pressure drop, compared with 60 to 80% for a standard valve.
Liquid Nitrogen Fracturing in Boreholes under True Triaxial Stresses: Laboratory Investigation on Fractures Initiation and Morphology
Authors: Yang Ruiyue , Hong Chunyang , Huang Zhongwei , Wen Haitao , Li Xiaojiang , Huang Pengpeng , Liu Wei , Chen Jianxiang 
Published: June 2020

Summary
Multistage hydraulic fracturing is widely used in developing tight reservoirs. However, the economic and environmental burden of freshwater souring, transportation, treatment, and disposal in hydraulic fracturing operations has been a topic of great importance to the energy industry and public alike. Waterless fracturing is one possible method of solving these water-related issues. Liquid nitrogen (LN2) is considered a promising alternate fracturing fluid that can create fractures by coupled hydraulic/thermal loadings and, more importantly, pose no threats to the environment. However, there are few laboratory experiments that use LN2 directly as a fracturing fluid. In this work, we examine the performance of LN2 fracturing based on a newly developed cryogenic-fracturing system under true-triaxial loadings. The breakdown pressure and fracture morphologies are compared with water fracturing. Moreover, fracture-initiation behavior under cryogenic in-situ conditions revealed by cryo-scanning electron microscopy (cryo-SEM) is presented, and the role of thermal stress is quantified by a coupled thermoporoelastic-damage numerical simulation. Finally, the potential application considerations of LN2 fracturing in the field site are discussed. The results demonstrate that LN2 fracturing can lower fracture initiation and propagation pressure and generate higher conductive fractures with numerous thermally induced cracks in the vicinity of the wellbore. Thermal gradient could generate enormously high-tensile hoop stress and bring about extensive rock damage. Fracture-propagation direction is inclined to be influenced by the thermal stress. Furthermore, phase transition during the fracturing process and low fluid viscosity of LN2 can also facilitate the fracture propagation and network generation. The key findings obtained in this work are expected to provide a viable alternative for the sustainable development of tight-reservoir resources in an efficient and environmentally acceptable way.
Assessment of weight and height of patients with primary immunodeficiency disorders and group of children with recurrent respiratory tract infections.
Authors: Pieniawska-Śmiech Karolina , Bar Kamil , Babicki Mateusz , Śmiech Karol , Lewandowicz-Uszyńska Aleksandra 
Published: June 2020

Abstract
Background: Primary immunodeficiences (PIDs) are a group of chronic, serious disorders in which the immune response is insufficient. In consequence, it leads to an increased susceptibility to infections. Up to date, there are about 350 different disorders classified in that group. There are also patients suffering from recurrent respiratory tract infections (RRTI), however that group doesn't present any abnormalities in terms of conducted immunological tests. Many factors, including medical, can have an impact on physical development of a child. Data such as birth weight and length, also weight, height, BMI during admission to the hospital were collected from 195 patients' medical histories from their hospitalization at Clinical Immunology and Paediatrics Ward of J.Gromkowski Hospital in Wrocław. Investigated groups included patients with PIDs, RRTI and a control group of healthy children. Our purpose was to evaluate the physical growth of children with PID and children with RRTI by assessment of their height and weight. All of parameters were evaluated using centile charts, suitable best for the Polish population. Results: The lowest mean birth weight and height was found among the PIDs patients group. Children with PIDs during hospitalization had statistically relevant lower mean weight than the control group and almost 18% of them had their height situated below 3rd percentile. The statistically relevant differences have been found between them and RRTI group in terms of weight, height and nutritional status. The statistically significant difference was detected between the nutritional status of PID and control group. Conclusions: There is a higher percentage of PID patients with physical growth abnormalities in comparison to healthy children. Our findings indicate a need for further investigation of immune system irregularities and their influence on physical growth of children.
Transcriptome analysis of activated charcoal-induced growth promotion of wheat seedlings in tissue culture
Authors: Dong Fu-shaung , lv Meng-yu , Wang Jin-ping , Shi Xue-ping , Liang Xinxia , Liu Yong-wei , Yang Fan , zhao He , Chai Jian-Fang , Zhou Shou 
Published: June 2020

Abstract
Background: Activated charcoal (AC) is highly adsorbent and is often used to promote seedling growth in plant tissue culture; however, the underlying molecular mechanism remains unclear. In this study, root and leaf tissues of 10-day-old seedlings grown via immature embryo culture in the presence or absence of AC in the culture medium were subjected to global transcriptome analysis by RNA sequencing to provide insights into the effects of AC on seedling growth. Results: In total, we identified 18,555 differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Of these, 11,182 were detected in the roots and 7,373 in the leaves. In seedlings grown in the presence of AC, 9,460 DEGs were upregulated and 7,483 DEGs were downregulated in the presence of AC as compared to the control. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis revealed 254 DEG-enriched pathways, 226 of which were common between roots and leaves. Further analysis of the major metabolic pathways revealed that AC stimulated the expression of nine genes in the phenylpropanoid biosynthesis pathway, including PLA, CYP73A, COMT, CYP84A, and 4CL , the protein products of which promote cell differentiation and seedling growth. Further, AC upregulated genes involved in plant hormone signaling related to stress resistance and disease resistance, including EIN3, BZR1, JAR1, JAZ , and PR1 , and downregulated genes related to plant growth inhibition, including BKI1, ARR-B , DELLA , and ABF . Conclusions: Growth medium containing AC promotes seedling growth by increasing the expression of certain genes in the phenylpropanoid biosynthesis pathway, which are related to cell differentiation and seedling growth, as well as genes involved in plant hormone signaling, which is related to resistance.
Cold priming uncouples light- and cold-regulation of gene expression in Arabidopsis thaliana
Authors: Bittner Andras , Buer Jörn van , Baier Margarete 
Published: June 2020

Abstract
Background: The majority of stress-sensitive genes responds to cold and high light in the same direction, if plants face the stresses for the first time. As shown recently for a small selection of genes of the core environmental stress response cluster, pre-treatment of Arabidopsis thaliana with a 24 h long 4 °C cold stimulus modifies cold regulation of gene expression for up to a week at 20 °C, although the primary cold effects are reverted within the first 24 h. Such memory-based regulation is called priming. Here, we analyse the effect of 24 h cold priming on cold regulation of gene expression on a transcriptome-wide scale and investigate if and how cold priming affects light regulation of gene expression.Results: Cold-priming affected cold and excess light regulation of a small subset of genes. In contrast to the strong gene co-regulation observed upon cold and light stress in not-primed plants, most priming-sensitive genes were regulated in a stressor-specific manner in cold-primed plant. Furthermore, almost as much genes were inversely regulated as co-regulated by a 24 h long 4 °C cold treatment and exposure to heat-filtered high light (800 µmol quanta m-2 s-1). Gene ontology enrichment analysis revealed that cold priming preferentially supports expression of genes involved in the defence against plant pathogens upon cold triggering. The regulation took place on the cost of the expression of genes involved in growth regulation and transport. On the contrary, cold priming resulted in stronger expression of genes regulating metabolism and development and weaker expression of defence genes in response to high light triggering. qPCR with independently cultivated and treated replicates confirmed the trends observed in the RNASeq guide experiment.Conclusion: A 24 h long priming cold stimulus activates a several days lasting stress memory that controls cold and light regulation of gene expression and adjusts growth and defence regulation in a stressor-specific manner.
How gender-specific are predictors of post-MI HRQoL? A longitudinal study
Authors: Wlodarczyk Dorota , Ziętalewicz Urszula 
Published: June 2020

Abstract
Purpose: Extant research shows that health-related quality of life (HRQoL) differs between female and male survivors of myocardial infarction (MI), but the reasons for this are not fully understood. We aimed to examine the predictors of HRQoL in female and male survivors during the first year after MI. Methods: At timepoints 1 and 2, the sample comprised 222 MI survivors (59 women and 163 men; mean age 53.84 years, range 24–65) referred for in-patient cardiac rehabilitation. This number dropped to 140 participants (42 women and 98 men) at the third timepoint, approximately one year after the MI. We examined the gender differences in various predictors of physical and mental HRQoL: demographic factors (e.g., age, education, marital status), disease-related factors (pre- and post-MI), personality and coping with stress. Results: Initially, both physical and mental HRQoL were lower in women than men, but the differences disappeared at timepoint 3. Stepwise regressions performed separately for men and women revealed that the factors shaping HRQoL were different in both genders; they also changed over time. Substantially fewer factors predicted physical HRQoL in women than in men. Trait anxiety seems to play a similarly negative role in both genders. Conclusions: The psychosocial resources that influence HRQoL were different for women and men. There were also differences concerning predictors of HRQoL dimensions. Further studies with a different or broader range of predictors are needed, especially among women.
A programmable CRISPR/Cas9-based phage defense system for Escherichia coli BL21(DE3)
Authors: Liu Li , Zhao Dongdong , Ye Lijun , Zhan Tao , Xiong Bin , Hu Muzi , Bi Changhao , Zhang Xueli 
Published: June 2020

Abstract
Escherichia coli BL21 is arguably the most popular host for industrial production of proteins, and industrial fermentations are often plagued by phage infections. The CRISPR/Cas system is guided by a gRNA to cleave a specific DNA cassette, which can be developed into a highly efficient programable phage defense system. In this work, we constructed a CRISPR/Cas system targeting multiple positions on the genome of T7 phage and found that the system increased the BL21’s defense ability against phage infection. Furthermore, the targeted loci on phage genome played a critical role. For better control of expression of CRISPR/Cas9, various modes were tested, and the OD of the optimized strain BL21(pT7cas9, pT7-3gRNA, prfp) after 4 hours of phage infection was significantly improved, reaching 2.0, which was similar to the control culture without phage infection. Although at later time points, the defensive ability of CRISPR/Cas9 systems were not as obvious as that at early time points. The viable cell count of the engineered strain in the presence of phage was only one order of magnitude lower than that of the strain with no infection, which further demonstrated the effectiveness of the CRISPR/Cas9 phage defense system. Finally, the engineered BL21 strain under phage attack expressed RFP protein at about 60% of the un-infected control, which was significantly higher than the parent BL21. In this work, we successfully constructed a programable CRISPR/Cas9 system to increase the ability of E. coli BL21’s to defend against phage infection, and created a resistant protein expression host. This work provides a simple and feasible strategy for protecting industrial E. coli strains against phage infection.
Comprehensive analysis of LDHAP5 pseudogene expression and potential pathogenesis in ovarian serous cystadenocarcinoma
Authors: Lin Shitong , Meng Yifan , Cao Canhui , Wu Ping , Gao Peipei , Zhi Wenhua , Peng Ting , Wu Peng 
Published: June 2020

Abstract
Background: We aimed to identify differentially expressed pseudogenes and explore their potential functions in four types of common gynecological malignancies (e.g., cervical squamous cell carcinoma, ovarian serous cystadenocarcinoma, uterine corpus endometrial carcinoma, and uterine carcinosarcoma) using bioinformatics technology. Materials & methods: We identified up-regulated and down-regulated pseudogenes and built a pseudogene-miRNA-mRNA regulatory network through public datasets to explore their potential functions in carcinogenesis and cancer prognosis. Results: Among the 63 up-regulated pseudogenes identified, LDHAP5 demonstrated the greatest potential as a candidate pseudogene due to its significant association with poor overall survival in ovarian serous cystadenocarcinoma. KEGG pathway analysis revealed that LDHAP5 showed significant enrichment in MicroRNAs in cancer, Pathway in cancer and PI3K-AKT signaling pathway. Further analysis revealed that EGFR was the potential target mRNA of LDHAP5, which may play an important role in ovarian serous cystadenocarcinoma. Conclusions: LDHAP5 was associated with the occurrence and prognosis of ovarian serous cystadenocarcinoma, and thus shows potential as a novel therapeutic target against such cancer.
Detecting fitness epistasis in recent admixed populations with genome-wide data
Authors: Ni Xumin , Zhou Mengshi , Wang Heming , He Karen , Broeckel Uli , Hanis Craig , Kardia Sharon , Redline Susan , Cooper Richard , Tang Hua , Zhu Xiaofeng 
Published: June 2020

Abstract
Background: Fitness epistasis, the interaction effect of genes at different loci on fitness, has an important contribution for adaptive evolution. Although fitness interaction evidence has been observed in model organisms, it is less detectable and remains poorly understood in human populations owing to the limited statistical power and experimental constraints. Fitness epistasis is inferred from non-independence between unlinked loci. We previously observed ancestral block correlation between chromosomes 4 and 6 in African Americans. The same approach fails when examining ancestral blocks on the same chromosome due to strong confounding effect in a recently admixed population.Results: We developed a novel approach to eliminate the bias caused by admixture linkage disequilibrium when searching for fitness epistasis on the same chromosome. We applied this approach in 16,252 unrelated African Americans and identified significant ancestral correlations in two pairs of genomic regions (P-value<8.11×10-7) on chromosomes 1 and 10. The ancestral correlations were not explained by population admixture. Historical African-European crossover events are reduced between pair of epistatic regions. We observed multiple pairs of co-expressed genes between the two regions on each chromosome, including ADAR being co-expressed with IFI44 in almost all tissues and DARC being co-expressed with VCAM1, S1PR1 and ELTD1 in multiple tissues in The Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) data. Moreover, the co-expressed gene pairs are associated with the same diseases/traits in the GWAS Catalog, such as white blood cell count, blood pressure, lung function, inflammatory bowel disease and educational attainment.Conclusions: Our analyses revealed two instances of fitness epistasis on chromosomes 1 and 10, and the findings suggest a potential approach to better understand adaptive evolution.
Improving the production of AHL lactonase AiiO-AIO6 from Ochrobactrum sp. M231 in intracellular protease-deficient Bacillus subtilis
Authors: Xia Rui , Yang Yalin , Pan Xingliang , Gao Chenchen , Yao Yuanyuan , Liu Xuewei , Teame Tsegay , Zhang Fengli , Hu Juan , Ran Chao , Zhang Zhen , Liu-Clarke Jihong , Zhou Zhigang 
Published: June 2020

Abstract
Quorum quenching (QQ) blocks bacterial cell-to-cell communication (i.e., quorum sensing), and is a promising antipathogenic strategy to control bacterial infection via inhibition of virulence factor expression and biofilm formation. QQ enzyme AiiO-AIO6 from Ochrobactrum sp. M231 has several excellent properties and shows biotherapeutic potential against important bacterial pathogens of aquatic species. AiiO-AIO6 can be secretory expressed in Bacillus subtilis via a non-classical secretion pathway. To improve AiiO-AIO6 production, four intracellular protease-deletion mutants of B. subtilis 1A751 were constructed by individually knocking out the intracellular protease-encoding genes ( tepA, ymfH, yrrN and ywpE ). The AiiO-AIO6 expression plasmid pWB-AIO6BS was transformed into the B. subtilis 1A751 and its four intracellular protease-deletion derivatives. Results showed that all recombinant intracellular protease-deletion derivatives (BSΔ tepA , BSΔ ymfH , BSΔ yrrN and BSΔ ywpE ) had a positive impact on AiiO-AIO6 production. The highest amount of AiiO-AIO6 extracellular production of BSΔ ywpE in shake flask reached 3530 U/mL, which was about 62% higher than that of the wild-type strain. Furthermore, LC-MS/MS analysis of the degrading products of 3-oxo-C8-HSL by purification of AiiO-AIO6 indicated that AiiO-AIO6 was an AHL-lactonase which hydrolyzes the lactone ring of AHLs. Phylogenetic analysis showed that AiiO-AIO6 was classified as a member of the α/β hydrolase family with a conserved “nucleophile-acid-histidine” catalytic triad. In summary, this study showed that intracellular proteases were responsible for the reduced yields of heterologous proteins and provided an efficient strategy to enhance the extracellular production of AHL lactonase AiiO-AIO6.