bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Promises under Pressure: Statements of Reassurance in US Alliances
Authors: Blankenship Brian 
Published: September 2020

AbstractThe United States frequently reassures allies of its protection by stationing troops abroad, visiting allied countries, and making public statements. Yet the causes of reassurance in asymmetric alliances—those between a great power patron and its weaker allies—are understudied in the academic literature. Indeed, many scholars argue that reassurance can be counterproductive as it invites allies to free ride or provoke their adversaries, knowing that they have their patron's support. Despite the drawbacks, I argue that the United States use reassurance to discourage their allies from seeking outside options and reducing their dependence on the alliance. Patrons such as the United States thus face a dilemma wherein they trade-off between withholding reassurance for short-term leverage and using reassurance to preserve their long-term influence. I test the theory using a new cross-national dataset of US. statements of reassurance from 1950 to 2010, and the results provide stronger support for my hypotheses than for the competing explanations of deterrence, strength from desperation, and shared preferences. The findings have implications for understanding how great powers manage their alliances, and suggest a pathway through which weaker states can shape great powers’ foreign commitments.
Assessment of commercial companion animal kefir products for label accuracy of microbial composition and quantity
Authors: Metras Breanna N , Holle Maxwell J , Parker Valerie J , Miller Michael J , Swanson Kelly S 
Published: September 2020

Abstract
Kefir is a fermented beverage containing yeast and bacteria produced by the fermentation of water or milk with kefir grains. Lack of regulation for probiotic-containing fermented food sold for companion dogs and cats creates the potential for misreporting on viable microbial counts, taxonomy, and label claims. In this study, the microbiota of six companion animal kefir products were measured quantitatively using standard plating techniques. Microbial composition of these products was also characterized by using high-resolution, long-read amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. Five products (83%) listed specific microorganisms, and four products (66%) guaranteed colony forming units (CFU)/g on their label. To enumerate viable lactic acid bacteria (LAB), two lots of each homogenized product were plated upon opening and following 14 d on deMan Rogosa and Sharpe (MRS) agar and incubated under anaerobic and aerobic conditions. Results from point of opening revealed that all commercial kefir products with a guaranteed CFU/g overstated the number of microorganisms present by at least 1 log, with only one product exceeding 1 × 109 CFU/g. Sequencing results demonstrated that none of the labels claiming specific bacterial genera and species on their labels were correct, and all products contained at least three additional bacterial species above the minimum detectable threshold (0.001% relative abundance) that were not disclosed by the manufacturer. In addition to the incorrect viable CFU and bacterial taxonomies, several of the product labels and websites contained a wide range of health claims, none of which are supported by the companion animal literature. Our results demonstrate a low level of accuracy in the labeling of commercial kefir products intended for use in dogs and cats. Regulatory agencies, veterinarians, pet food professionals, and pet owners must scrutinize these products and demand a higher level of accuracy and quality in the future.
Feasibility and reliability of a German guideline for farm’s self-monitoring in sows and piglets
Authors: Friedrich Lena , Krieter Joachim , Kemper Nicole , Czycholl Irena 
Published: September 2020

Abstract
The present study’s aim was to test a German guideline for farm’s self-monitoring in sows and piglets for its feasibility as well as its interobserver and test–retest reliability. The study was performed between September 2016 and April 2018 on 13 farrowing farms in Northern Germany. Contrary to the guideline, the testing was not carried out by the farmers themselves but by 2 observers with experience in pigs representing common farmers. For the interobserver reliability study, the observers performed 20 joint farm visits independently assessing the same animals. For the test–retest reliability study, each farm was visited 5 times by 1 observer (day 0, day 3, week 7, month 5, month 10). Farm visit 1 (day 0) was used as reference and compared with the remaining farm visits. The reliability was evaluated using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient (RS), intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), and limits of agreement (LoA). As results, the guideline’s feasibility was limited. The indicators’ reliability also presented divergent results: All indicators in piglets revealed acceptable to good interobserver reliability (RS 0.64 to 0.77 ICC 0.33 to 0.48 LoA between the intervals −0.02 to 0.13 and −0.02 to 0.00). Contrarily, interobserver reliability was low for indicators in sows (e.g., claw alterations: RS −0.41 ICC 0.00 LoA −0.97 to 0.68). Overall acceptable test–retest reliability could be assigned to all indicators although no exact agreement existed but only the pursuit of trends is indicated. On the basis of the present results, the guideline in its present form cannot be recommended for farms’ self-monitoring. Given the restricted applicability, it should be reconsidered whether it might not be more appropriate to use scientifically tested and generally accepted animal welfare assessment systems such as the Welfare Quality animal welfare assessment protocols, although their application is also time-consuming.
Implant placement in the removable mandibular advancement device for completely edentulous patients: a finite element study
Authors: Park Jieun , Ahn Su-Jin , Lee Hyeonjong , Noh Gunwoo 
Published: September 2020

Abstract
Few studies have examined the biomechanical effects of dental implant placement in the implant-supported mandibular advancement device (MAD) for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea in completely edentulous patients. This biomechanical study aimed to evaluate the stability of the implant-supported MAD for different numbers and positions of dental implants. A 3D edentulous maxillofacial model with the one-piece MAD was considered for various numbers and positions of implants. On each mandible and maxilla, one, two, four, or six implants were placed symmetrically in various positions. Total 42 implant placements were considered. A static finite element analysis was performed under the mandibular posterior restorative force for 40% protrusion. The maximum and minimum principal stresses on the cortical and cancellous bones and the von Mises stresses on the implant were measured. When four implants were placed on each maxilla and mandible, the maximum average stress on the cancellous bone was reduced by up to approximately three times compared with the cases of placing two implants on each maxilla and mandible. The placement of at least four implants on each maxilla and mandible improved MAD stability. It is noteworthy that the mandibular implants should be arranged adjacently to avoid stress concentration in the second molar.
A Prognostic Predictive System Based on Deep Learning for Locoregionally Advanced Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma
Authors: Qiang Mengyun , Li Chaofeng , Sun Yuyao , Sun Ying , Ke Liangru , Xie Chuanmiao , Zhang Tao , Zou Yujian , Qiu Wenze , Gao Mingyong , Li Yingxue , Li Xiang , Zhan Zejiang , Liu Kuiyuan , Chen Xi , Liang Chixiong , Chen Qiuyan , Mai Haiqiang , Xie Guotong , Guo Xiang , Lv Xing 
Published: September 2020

Abstract

Background
Images from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are crucial unstructured data for prognostic evaluation in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). We developed and validated a prognostic system based on the MRI features and clinical data of locoregionally advanced NPC (LA-NPC) patients to distinguish low-risk patients with LA-NPC for whom concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) is sufficient.

Methods
This multicenter, retrospective study included 3444 patients with LA-NPC from January 1, 2010, to January 31, 2017. A 3-dimensional convolutional neural network was used to learn the image features from pretreatment MRI images. An eXtreme Gradient Boosting model was trained with the MRI features and clinical data to assign an overall score to each patient. Comprehensive evaluations were implemented to assess the performance of the predictive system. We applied the overall score to distinguish high-risk patients from low-risk patients. The clinical benefit of induction chemotherapy (IC) was analyzed in each risk group by survival curves.

Results
We constructed a prognostic system displaying a concordance index of 0.776 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.746 to 0.806) for the internal validation cohort and 0.757 (95% CI = 0.695 to 0.819), 0.719 (95% CI = 0.650 to 0.789), and 0.746 (95% CI = 0.699 to 0.793) for the 3 external validation cohorts, which presented a statistically significant improvement compared with the conventional TNM staging system. In the high-risk group, patients who received induction chemotherapy plus CCRT had better outcomes than patients who received CCRT alone, whereas there was no statistically significant difference in the low-risk group.

Conclusions
The proposed framework can capture more complex and heterogeneous information to predict the prognosis of patients with LA-NPC and potentially contribute to clinical decision making.
Dissecting cholesterol and phytosterol biosynthesis via mutants and inhibitors
Authors: De Vriese Kjell , Pollier Jacob , Goossens Alain , Beeckman Tom , Vanneste Steffen 
Published: September 2020

AbstractPlants stand out among eukaryotes due to the large variety of sterols and sterol derivatives that they can produce. These metabolites not only serve as critical determinants of membrane structures, but also act as signaling molecules, as growth-regulating hormones, or as modulators of enzyme activities. Therefore, it is critical to understand the wiring of the biosynthetic pathways by which plants generate these distinct sterols, to allow their manipulation and to dissect their precise physiological roles. Here, we review the complexity and variation of the biosynthetic routes of the most abundant phytosterols and cholesterol in the green lineage and how different enzymes in these pathways are conserved and diverged from humans, yeast, and even bacteria. Many enzymatic steps show a deep evolutionary conservation, while others are executed by completely different enzymes. This has important implications for the use and specificity of available human and yeast sterol biosynthesis inhibitors in plants, and argues for the development of plant-tailored inhibitors of sterol biosynthesis.
Concentrations of dark haloes emerge from their merger histories
Authors: Wang Kuan , Mao Yao-Yuan , Zentner Andrew R , Lange Johannes U , van den Bosch Frank C , Wechsler Risa H 
Published: September 2020

ABSTRACT
The concentration parameter is a key characteristic of a dark matter halo that conveniently connects the halo’s present-day structure with its assembly history. Using ‘Dark Sky’, a suite of cosmological N-body simulations, we investigate how halo concentration evolves with time and emerges from the mass assembly history. We also explore the origin of the scatter in the relation between concentration and assembly history. We show that the evolution of halo concentration has two primary modes: (1) smooth increase due to pseudo-evolution; and (2) intense responses to physical merger events. Merger events induce lasting and substantial changes in halo structures, and we observe a universal response in the concentration parameter. We argue that merger events are a major contributor to the uncertainty in halo concentration at fixed halo mass and formation time. In fact, even haloes that are typically classified as having quiescent formation histories experience multiple minor mergers. These minor mergers drive small deviations from pseudo-evolution, which cause fluctuations in the concentration parameters and result in effectively irreducible scatter in the relation between concentration and assembly history. Hence, caution should be taken when using present-day halo concentration parameter as a proxy for the halo assembly history, especially if the recent merger history is unknown.
The post-common-envelope binary central star of the planetary nebula ETHOS 1
Authors: Munday James , Jones David , García-Rojas Jorge , Boffin Henri M J , Miszalski Brent , Corradi Romano L M , Rodríguez-Gil Pablo , Rubio-Díez María del Mar , Santander-García Miguel , Sowicka Paulina 
Published: September 2020

ABSTRACT
We present a detailed study of the binary central star of the planetary nebula ETHOS 1 (PN G068.1+11.0). Simultaneous modelling of light and radial velocity curves reveals the binary to comprise a hot and massive pre-white dwarf with an M-type main-sequence companion. A good fit to the observations was found with a companion that follows expected mass–temperature–radius relationships for low-mass stars, indicating that despite being highly irradiated, it is consistent with not being significantly hotter or larger than a typical star of the same mass. Previous modelling indicated that ETHOS 1 may comprise the first case where the orbital plane of the central binary does not lie perpendicular to the nebular symmetry axis, at odds with the expectation that the common envelope is ejected in the orbital plane. We find no evidence for such a discrepancy, deriving a binary inclination in agreement with that of the nebula as determined by spatio-kinematic modelling. This makes ETHOS 1 the ninth post-common-envelope planetary nebula in which the binary orbital and nebular symmetry axes have been shown to be aligned, with as yet no known counter-examples. The probability of finding such a correlation by chance is now less than 0.000 02 per cent.
Experimental energy levels of 12C14N through marvel analysis
Authors: Syme Anna-Maree , McKemmish Laura K 
Published: September 2020

ABSTRACT
The cyano radical (CN) is a key molecule across many different factions of astronomy and chemistry. Accurate, empirical rovibronic energy levels with uncertainties are determined for eight doublet states of CN using the marvel (Measured Active Rotational-Vibrational Energy Levels) algorithm. 40 333 transitions were validated from 22 different published sources to generate 8083 spin-rovibronic energy levels. The empirical energy levels obtained from the marvel analysis are compared to current energy levels from the mollist line list. The mollist transition frequencies are updated with marvel energy level data which brings the frequencies obtained through experimental data up to 77.3 per cent from the original 11.3 per cent, with 92.6 per cent of the transitions with intensities over 10−23 cm molecule−1 at 1000 K now known from experimental data. At 2000 K, 100.0 per cent of the partition function is recovered using only marvel energy levels, while 98.2 per cent is still recovered at 5000 K.
The completed SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: measurement of the BAO and growth rate of structure of the luminous red galaxy sample from the anisotropic correlation function between redshifts 0.6 and 1
Authors: Bautista Julian E , Paviot Romain , Vargas Magaña Mariana , de la Torre Sylvain , Fromenteau Sebastien , Gil-Marín Hector , Ross Ashley J , Burtin Etienne , Dawson Kyle S , Hou Jiamin , Kneib Jean-Paul , de Mattia Arnaud , Percival Will J , Rossi Graziano , Tojeiro Rita , Zhao Cheng , Zhao Gong-Bo , Alam Shadab , Brownstein Joel , Chapman Michael J , Choi Peter D , Chuang Chia-Hsun , Escoffier Stéphanie , de la Macorra Axel , du Mas des Bourboux Hélion , Mohammad Faizan G , Moon Jeongin , Müller Eva-Maria , Nadathur Seshadri , Newman Jeffrey A , Schneider Donald , Seo Hee-Jong , Wang Yuting 
Published: September 2020

ABSTRACT
We present the cosmological analysis of the configuration-space anisotropic clustering in the completed Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) Data Release 16 galaxy sample. This sample consists of luminous red galaxies (LRGs) spanning the redshift range 0.6 &lt; $z$ &lt; 1, at an effective redshift of $z$eff = 0.698. It combines 174 816 eBOSS and 202 642 BOSS LRGs. We extract and model the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) and redshift-space distortion (RSD) features from the galaxy two-point correlation function to infer geometrical and dynamical cosmological constraints. The adopted methodology is extensively tested on a set of realistic simulations. The correlations between the inferred parameters from the BAO and full-shape correlation function analyses are estimated. This allows us to derive joint constraints on the three cosmological parameter combinations: DM($z$)/rd, DH($z$)/rd, and fσ8($z$), where DM is the comoving angular diameter distance, DH is the Hubble distance, rd is the comoving BAO scale, f is the linear growth rate of structure, and σ8 is the amplitude of linear matter perturbations. After combining the results with those from the parallel power spectrum analysis of Gil-Marin et al., we obtain the constraints: DM/rd = 17.65 ± 0.30, DH/rd = 19.77 ± 0.47, and fσ8 = 0.473 ± 0.044. These measurements are consistent with a flat Lambda cold dark matter model with standard gravity.
Crystal structure of the Cenp-HIKHead-TW sub-module of the inner kinetochore CCAN complex
Authors: Zhang Ziguo , Bellini Dom , Barford David 
Published: September 2020

Abstract
Kinetochores are large multi-subunit complexes that attach centromeric chromatin to microtubules of the mitotic spindle, enabling sister chromatid segregation in mitosis. The inner kinetochore constitutive centromere associated network (CCAN) complex assembles onto the centromere-specific Cenp-A nucleosome (Cenp-ANuc), thereby coupling the centromere to the microtubule-binding outer kinetochore. CCAN is a conserved 14–16 subunit complex composed of discrete modules. Here, we determined the crystal structure of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Cenp-HIKHead-TW sub-module, revealing how Cenp-HIK and Cenp-TW interact at the conserved Cenp-HIKHead–Cenp-TW interface. A major interface is formed by the C-terminal anti-parallel α-helices of the histone fold extension (HFE) of the Cenp-T histone fold domain (HFD) combining with α-helix H3 of Cenp-K to create a compact three α-helical bundle. We fitted the Cenp-HIKHead-TW sub-module to the previously determined cryo-EM map of the S. cerevisiae CCAN–Cenp-ANuc complex. This showed that the HEAT repeat domain of Cenp-IHead and C-terminal HFD of Cenp-T of the Cenp-HIKHead-TW sub-module interact with the nucleosome DNA gyre at a site close to the Cenp-ANuc dyad axis. Our structure provides a framework for understanding how Cenp-T links centromeric Cenp-ANuc to the outer kinetochore through its HFD and N-terminal Ndc80-binding motif, respectively.
RMDisease: a database of genetic variants that affect RNA modifications, with implications for epitranscriptome pathogenesis
Authors: Chen Kunqi , Song Bowen , Tang Yujiao , Wei Zhen , Xu Qingru , Su Jionglong , de Magalhães João Pedro , Rigden Daniel J , Meng Jia 
Published: September 2020

AbstractDeciphering the biological impacts of millions of single nucleotide variants remains a major challenge. Recent studies suggest that RNA modifications play versatile roles in essential biological mechanisms, and are closely related to the progression of various diseases including multiple cancers. To comprehensively unveil the association between disease-associated variants and their epitranscriptome disturbance, we built RMDisease, a database of genetic variants that can affect RNA modifications. By integrating the prediction results of 18 different RNA modification prediction tools and also 303,426 experimentally-validated RNA modification sites, RMDisease identified a total of 202,307 human SNPs that may affect (add or remove) sites of eight types of RNA modifications (m6A, m5C, m1A, m5U, Ψ, m6Am, m7G and Nm). These include 4,289 disease-associated variants that may imply disease pathogenesis functioning at the epitranscriptome layer. These SNPs were further annotated with essential information such as post-transcriptional regulations (sites for miRNA binding, interaction with RNA-binding proteins and alternative splicing) revealing putative regulatory circuits. A convenient graphical user interface was constructed to support the query, exploration and download of the relevant information. RMDisease should make a useful resource for studying the epitranscriptome impact of genetic variants via multiple RNA modifications with emphasis on their potential disease relevance. RMDisease is freely accessible at: www.xjtlu.edu.cn/biologicalsciences/rmd.
cncRNAdb: a manually curated resource of experimentally supported RNAs with both protein-coding and noncoding function
Authors: Huang Yan , Wang Jing , Zhao Yue , Wang Huafeng , Liu Tianyuan , Li Yuhe , Cui Tianyu , Li Weiyi , Feng Yige , Luo Jiaxin , Gong Jiaqi , Ning Lin , Zhang Yong , Wang Dong , Zhang Yang 
Published: September 2020

AbstractRNA endowed with both protein-coding and noncoding functions is referred to as ‘dual-function RNA’, ‘binary functional RNA (bifunctional RNA)’ or ‘cncRNA (coding and noncoding RNA)’. Recently, an increasing number of cncRNAs have been identified, including both translated ncRNAs (ncRNAs with coding functions) and untranslated mRNAs (mRNAs with noncoding functions). However, an appropriate database for storing and organizing cncRNAs is still lacking. Here, we developed cncRNAdb, a manually curated database of experimentally supported cncRNAs, which aims to provide a resource for efficient manipulation, browsing and analysis of cncRNAs. The current version of cncRNAdb documents about 2600 manually curated entries of cncRNA functions with experimental evidence, involving more than 2,000 RNAs (including over 1300 translated ncRNAs and over 600 untranslated mRNAs) across over 20 species. In summary, we believe that cncRNAdb will help elucidate the functions and mechanisms of cncRNAs and develop new prediction methods. The database is available at http://www.rna-society.org/cncrnadb/.