bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Flushing of stagnant premise water systems after the COVID-19 shutdown can reduce infection risk by Legionella and Mycobacterium spp
Authors: Hozalski Raymond M. , LaPara Timothy M. , Zhao Xiaotian , Kim Taegyu , Waak Michael B. , Burch Tucker , McCarty Michael 
Published: September 2020

AbstractThe unprecedented widespread closing of buildings due to the COVID-19 pandemic has allowed water to stagnate in premise plumbing systems, creating conditions that may facilitate the growth of opportunistic pathogens. In this study, we flushed and collected samples from showers in buildings that had been unoccupied for approximately two months and quantified Legionella pneumophila using a commercial cultivation-based assay. In addition, all bacteria, Legionella spp., L. pneumophila, L. pneumophila serogroup 1, non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), and Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) were analyzed using quantitative PCR (qPCR). Despite low or negligible total chlorine in the stagnant pre-flush water samples, L. pneumophila were not detected by either method; Legionella spp., NTM, and MAC, however, were widespread. Using quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA), estimated risks of clinical illness from exposure to legionella and MAC via showering were generally low, but the risk of subclinical infection via Legionella spp. could exceed a 10-7 daily risk threshold if just a small fraction (≥0.1 %) of those legionellae detected by qPCR are highly infectious. Flushing cold and hot water lines rapidly restored a total chlorine (as chloramine) residual and decreased all bacterial gene targets to building inlet water levels within 30 min. Following flushing, the chlorine residual rapidly dissipated and bacterial gene targets rebounded, approaching pre-flush concentrations after 6 to 7 days of stagnation. These results suggest that stagnant water in premise plumbing may contain elevated levels of opportunistic pathogens; flushing, however, can rapidly improve water quality and reduce the health risk but the improvement will be short-lived if building disuse persists.
SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater settled solids is associated with COVID-19 cases in a large urban sewershed
Authors: Graham Katherine E. , Loeb Stephanie K. , Wolfe Marlene K. , Catoe David , Sinnott-Armstrong Nasa , Kim Sooyeol , Yamahara Kevan M. , Sassoubre Lauren M. , Mendoza Lorelay M. , Roldan-Hernandez Laura , Li Linlin , Wigginton Krista R. , Boehm Alexandria B. 
Published: September 2020

AbstractWastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) may be useful for informing public health response to viral diseases like COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2. We quantified SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater influent and primary settled solids in two wastewater treatment plants to inform the pre-analytical and analytical approaches, and to assess whether influent or solids harbored more viral targets. The primary settled solids samples resulted in higher SARS-CoV-2 detection frequencies than the corresponding influent samples. Likewise, SARS-CoV-2 RNA was more readily detected in solids using one-step digital droplet (dd)RT-PCR than with two-step RT-QPCR and two-step ddRT-PCR, likely owing to reduced inhibition with the one-step ddRT-PCR assay. We subsequently analyzed a longitudinal time series of 89 settled solids samples from a single plant for SARS-CoV-2 RNA as well as coronavirus recovery (bovine coronavirus) and fecal strength (pepper mild mottle virus, PMMoV) controls. SARS-CoV-2 RNA targets N1 and N2 concentrations correlate positively and significantly with COVID-19 clinical confirmed case counts in the sewershed. Together, the results demonstrate that measuring SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations in settled solids may be a more sensitive approach than measuring SARs-CoV-2 in influent.Abstract Figure
Analysis of actin and focal adhesion organisation in U2OS cells on polymer nanostructures
Authors: Vinje Jakob , Guadagno Noemi Antonella , Progida Cinzia , Sikorski Pawel 
Published: September 2020

Cells in their natural environment are embedded in a complex surrounding consisting of biochemical and biomechanical cues directing cell properties and cell behaviour. Nonetheless,in vitrocell studies are typically performed on flat surfaces, with clear differences from the more complex situation cells experiencein vivo. To increase the physiological relevance of these studies, a number of advanced cellular substrates forin vitrostudies have been applied. One of these approaches include flat surfaces decorated with vertically aligned nanostructures.In this work, we explore how U2OS cells are affected by arrays of polymer nanopillars fabricated on flat glass surfaces. We focus on describing changes to the organisation of the actin cytoskeleton and in the location, number and shape of focal adhesions. From our findings we identify that the cells can be categorised into different regimes based on their spreading and adhesion behaviour on nanopillars. A quantitative analysis suggests that cells seeded on dense nanopillar arrays are suspended on top of the pillars with focal adhesions forming closer to the cell periphery compared to flat surfaces or sparse pillar arrays. This change is analogous to similar responses for cells seeded on soft substrates.Overall, we show that the combination of high throughput nanofabrication, advanced optical microscopy, molecular biology tools to visualise cellular processes and data analysis can be used to investigate how cells interact with nanostructured surfaces and will in the future help to create culture substrates that induce particular cell function.
Rapid evolution of mammalian HERC6 and independent duplication of a chimeric HERC5/6 gene in rodents and bats suggest an overlooked role of HERCs in antiviral innate immunity
Authors: Jacquet Stéphanie , Pontier Dominique , Etienne Lucie 
Published: September 2020

AbstractThe antiviral innate immunity in mammals has evolved very rapidly in response to pathogen selective pressure. Studying the evolutionary diversification of mammalian antiviral defenses is of main importance to better understand our innate immune repertoire. The small HERC proteins are part of a multigene family including interferon-inducible antiviral effectors. Notably, HERC5 inhibits divergent viruses through the conjugation of ISG15 to diverse proteins-termed as ISGylation. Though HERC6 is the most closely-related protein of HERC5, it lacks the ISGylation function in humans. Interestingly, HERC6 is the main E3-ligase of ISG15 in mice, suggesting adaptive changes in HERC6 with implications in the innate immunity. Therefore, HERC5 and HERC6 have probably diversified through complex evolutionary history in mammals, and such characterization would require an extensive survey of mammalian evolution. Here, we performed mammalian-wide and lineage-specific phylogenetic and genomic analyses of HERC5 and HERC6. We used 83 orthologous sequences from bats, rodents, primates, artiodactyls and carnivores – the top five representative groups of mammalian evolution and the main hosts of viral diversity. We found that mammalian HERC5 has been under weak and differential positive selection in mammals, with only primate HERC5 showing evidences of pathogen-driven selection. In contrast, HERC6 has been under strong and recurrent adaptive evolution in mammals, suggesting past genetic arms-races with viral pathogens. Importantly, we found accelerated evolution in the HERC6 spacer domain, suggesting that it might be a pathogen-mammal interface, targeting a viral protein and/or being the target of virus antagonists. Finally, we identified a HERC5/6 chimeric gene that arose from independent duplication in rodent and bat lineages and encodes for a conserved HERC5 N-terminal domain and divergent HERC6 spacer and HECT domains. This duplicated chimeric gene highlights adaptations that potentially contribute to rodent and bat antiviral innate immunity. Altogether, we found major genetic innovations in mammalian HERC5 and HERC6. Our findings open new research avenues on the functions of HERC6 and HERC5/6 in mammals, and on their implication in antiviral innate immunity.
A Hierarchical 3D-motion Learning Framework for Animal Spontaneous Behavior Mapping
Authors: Huang Kang , Han Yaning , Chen Ke , Pan Hongli , Zhao Gaoyang , Yi Wenling , Li Xiaoxi , Liu Siyuan , Wang Liping , Wei Pengfei 
Published: September 2020

AbstractAnimal behavior usually has a hierarchical structure and dynamics. Therefore, to understand how the neural system coordinates with behaviors, neuroscientists need a quantitative description of the hierarchical dynamics of different behaviors. However, the recent end-to-end machine-learning-based methods for behavior analysis mostly focus on recognizing behavioral identities on a static timescale or based on limited observations. These approaches usually lose rich dynamic information on cross-scale behaviors. Inspired by the natural structure of animal behaviors, we addressed this challenge by proposing a novel parallel and multi-layered framework to learn the hierarchical dynamics and generate an objective metric to map the behavior into the feature space. In addition, we characterized the animal 3D kinematics with our low-cost and efficient multi-view 3D animal motion-capture system. Finally, we demonstrated that this framework could monitor spontaneous behavior and automatically identify the behavioral phenotypes of the transgenic animal disease model. The extensive experiment results suggest that our framework has a wide range of applications, including animal disease model phenotyping and the relationships modeling between the neural circuits and behavior.
Transcriptional Control Of Calmodulin By CAMTA Regulates Neural Excitability
Authors: Vuong-Brender Thanh T. K. , Flynn Sean M. , de Bono Mario 
Published: September 2020

AbstractCalmodulin (CaM) is the major calcium ion (Ca2+) sensor in many biological processes, regulating for example the CaM kinases, calcineurin, and many ion channels. CaM levels are limiting in cells compared to its myriad targets, but how CaM levels are controlled is poorly understood. We find that CaM abundance in theC. elegansandDrosophilanervous systems is controlled by the CaM-binding transcription activator, CAMTA.C. elegansCAMTA (CAMT-1), like its fly and mammalian orthologues, is expressed widely in the nervous system.camt-1mutants display pleiotropic behavioural defects and altered Ca2+signaling in neurons. Using FACS-RNA Seq we profile multiple neural types incamt-1mutants and find all exhibit reduced CaM mRNA compared to controls. Supplementing CaM levels using a transgene rescuescamt-1mutant phenotypes. Chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-Seq) data show that CAMT-1 binds several sites in the calmodulin promoter. CRISPR-mediated deletion of these sites shows they redundantly regulate calmodulin expression. We also find that CaM can feed back to inhibit its own expression by a mechanism that depends on CaM binding sites on CAMT-1. This work uncovers a mechanism that can both activate and inhibit CaM expression in the nervous system, and controls Ca2+homeostasis, neuronal excitability and behavior.
Interacting effects of frontal lobe neuroanatomy and working memory capacity to older listeners’ speech recognition in noise
Authors: Giroud Nathalie , Keller Matthias , Meyer Martin 
Published: September 2020

AbstractMany older adults are struggling with understanding spoken language, particularly when background noise interferes with comprehension. In the present study, we investigated a potential interaction between two well-known factors associated with greater speech-in-noise (SiN) reception thresholds in older adults, namely a) lower working memory capacity and b) age-related structural decline of frontal lobe regions.In a sample of older adults (N=25) and younger controls (N=13) with normal pure-tone thresholds, SiN reception thresholds and working memory capacity were assessed. Furthermore, T1-weighted structural MR-images were recorded to analyze neuroanatomical traits (i.e., cortical thickness (CT) and cortical surface area (CSA)) of the cortex.As expected, the older group showed greater SiN reception thresholds compared to the younger group. We also found consistent age-related atrophy (i.e., lower CT) in brain regions associated with SiN recognition namely the superior temporal lobe bilaterally, the right inferior frontal and precentral gyrus, as well as the left superior frontal gyrus. Those older participants with greater atrophy in these brain regions also showed greater SiN reception thresholds. Interestingly, the association between CT in the left superior frontal gyrus and SiN reception thresholds was moderated by individual working memory capacity. Older adults with greater working memory capacity benefitted more strongly from thicker frontal lobe regions when it comes to improve SiN recognition.Overall, our results fit well into the literature showing that age-related structural decline in auditory- and cognition-related brain areas is associated with greater SiN reception thresholds in older adults. However, we highlight that this association changes as a function of individual working memory capacity. We therefore believe that future interventions to improve SiN recognition in older adults should take into account the role of the frontal lobe as well as individual working memory capacity.HighlightsSpeech-in-noise (SiN) reception thresholds are significantly increased with higher age, independently of pure-tone hearing lossGreater SiN reception thresholds are associated with cortical thinning in several auditory-, linguistic-, and cognitive-related brain areas, irrespective of pure-tone hearing lossGreater cortical thinning in the left superior frontal lobe is detrimental for SiN recognition in older, but not younger adultsOlder adults with greater working memory capacity benefit more strongly from structural integrity of left superior frontal lobe for SiN recognition
Methylotrophy, alkane-degradation, and pigment production as defining features of the globally distributed yet-uncultured phylum Binatota
Authors: Murphy Chelsea L. , Dunfield Peter F. , Sheremet Andriy , Spear John R. , Stepanauskas Ramunas , Woyke Tanja , Elshahed Mostafa S. , Youssef Noha H. 
Published: September 2020

AbstractThe recent leveraging of genome-resolved metagenomics has opened a treasure trove of genomes from novel uncultured microbial lineages, yet left many clades undescribed. We here present a global analysis of genomes belonging to the Binatota (UBP10), a globally distributed, yet-uncharacterized bacterial phylum. All orders in the Binatota encoded the capacity for aerobic methylotrophy using methanol, methylamine, sulfomethanes, chloromethanes, and potentially methane as substrates. Methylotrophy in the Binatota was characterized by order-specific substrate degradation preferences, as well as extensive metabolic versatility, i.e. the utilization of diverse sets of genes, pathways and combinations to achieve a specific metabolic goal. The genomes also encoded an arsenal of alkane hydroxylases and monooxygenases, potentially enabling growth on a wide range of alkanes and fatty acids. Pigmentation is inferred from a complete pathway for carotenoids (lycopene, β and γ carotenes, xanthins, chlorobactenes, and spheroidenes) production. Further, the majority of genes involved in bacteriochlorophylla,c, anddbiosynthesis were identified; although absence of key genes and failure to identify a photosynthetic reaction center precludes proposing phototrophic capacities. Analysis of 16S rRNA databases showed Binatota’s preferences to terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems, hydrocarbon-rich habitats, and sponges supporting their suggested potential role in mitigating methanol and methane emissions, alkanes degradation, and nutritional symbiosis with sponges. Our results expand the lists of methylotrophic, aerobic alkane degrading, and pigment-producing lineages. We also highlight the consistent encountering of incomplete biosynthetic pathways and gene shrapnel in microbial genomes, a phenomenon necessitating careful assessment when assigning putative functions based on a set-threshold of pathway completion.
Investigating cortical buffering effects of acute moderate and light intensity exercise: a cTBS study targeting the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
Authors: Manocchio Felicia , Lowe Cassandra J. , Hall Peter A. 
Published: September 2020

AbstractBackgroundThe beneficial effects of both single-session bouts of aerobic exercise and therapeutic exercise interventions on the cortical regions associated with executive functions (i.e., prefrontal cortex (PFC)) have been well documented. However, it remains unclear whether aerobic exercise can be used to offset temporary fluctuations in cortical activity.ObjectiveThe current study sought to determine whether a single session of moderate intensity aerobic exercise can offset the attenuating effects of continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) targeting the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC).MethodsTwenty-two right-handed participants between 18-30 years completed a 20 minute session of light intensity (10% heart rate reserve (HRR)) and moderate intensity (50% HRR) exercise in a counterbalanced order. Following each exercise session, participants received active cTBS to the left dlPFC. Changes in executive functions were quantified using a flanker paradigm employed at baseline, post-exercise and post-cTBS time points. Additionally, EEG methodologies were used to measure changes in inhibitory control specific event-related potential components (i.e., P3 and N2) in response to the flanker task.ResultsBehavioural results from the flanker task revealed a significant improvement in task performance following an acute bout of moderate intensity exercise. Furthermore, the effect of cTBS in both light and moderate intensity conditions were non significant Similarly, EEG data from P3 and N2 ERP components revealed no changes to amplitude across time and condition. P3 latency data revealed a significant effect of time in the light intensity condition, such that latency was faster following cTBS. Similarly, latency data within the N2 ERP component revealed a significant effect of time on congruent trials in the light intensity condition; N2 latency was faster following cTBS.ConclusionThe current study revealed that light and moderate intensity exercise may provide a buffer to cTBS-induced attenuation of the dlPFC. This study provides empirical and theoretical implications on the potential for exercise to promote cognitive control.
Short-sale refinancing and earnings response coefficient: evidence from China
Authors: Liu Tingli , Jiang Ying , Hao Lizhong 
Published: September 2020

Purpose
Although short selling has been legalized in China for nearly 10 years, due to the existence of short-sale constraints, its impact on corporate governance of listed companies remains unclear. This paper aims to examine the impact of short-sale refinancing on earnings quality after the short-selling constraints have been released. The authors further explore whether this impact is subject to the nature of property rights and shareholding structures.

Design/methodology/approach
This study is based on a sample of A-share firms in China for the period 2014–2016. The authors use earnings response coefficients (ERC) as a proxy for earnings quality. To empirically examine this issue, a matching sample is generated by using propensity score matching method (PSM) to reduce sample selection bias.

Findings
This study provides evidence that deregulation of short selling has positive external effect on corporate governance. The results indicate that the potential short-selling opportunities can effectively suppress earnings manipulation and improve earnings quality. However, the impact of short selling on earnings quality varies for companies with different nature of property rights and shareholding structure.

Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the relationship between short selling and earnings quality in the unique setting of short-sale refinancing. This study provides new evidence on the impact of short selling at the micro level and calls for further deregulation of short selling. In addition, this study contributes to existing studies on short-sale refinancing by examining an emerging market.
From driver assistance to fully-autonomous: examining consumer acceptance of autonomous vehicle technologies
Authors: Erskine Michael A. , Brooks Stoney , Greer Timothy H. , Apigian Charles 
Published: September 2020

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to inform researchers who are examining the adoption of autonomous vehicle technology and to provide marketing insights for developers and manufacturers of such vehicles and their ancillary technologies.Design/methodology/approachThis study assesses consumer attitudes and behavioral intentions regarding autonomous vehicles (AV) by applying the consumer version of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2). We validate the model through a behavioral research study (n= 1,154).FindingsThe findings suggest that attitude toward AV is primarily formed through performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and hedonic motivation. Furthermore, the level of autonomy has limited effects on attitude.Originality/valueThis is the first study to examine attitudes toward AV through the theoretical lens of UTAUT2. Additionally, this study provides insights into consumer perceptions and the corresponding effects on attitude by moderating the level of autonomy.
Journal of entrepreneurship in emerging economies (JEEE): reflecting on the past five years while thinking about the future
Authors: Chan Wen Li , Mustafa Michael James 
Published: September 2020

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of studies published in theJournal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies(JEEE) between 2014 and 2019. The review also provides suggestions for future research in JEEE.Design/methodology/approachIntegrative literature of 90 empirical and conceptual articles published in JEEE between 2014 and 2019. The selected articles were analyzed using content analysis.FindingsAnalysis of the 90 published articles shows that JEEE has covered a number of relevant topics related to entrepreneurship and innovation in emerging economies. In particular, scholars have adopted a variety of methods to describe such activities in emerging economies. The review also highlights the lack of comparative studies in JEEE and studies, which significantly take into account or focus on the emerging economy context.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that future scholars wishing to submit to JEEE should consider taking a more detailed account of the emerging context.Originality/valueSince its first publication in 2014, this study represents the first review of articles found in JEEE. Specifically, the study provides a platform for future scholars wishing to submit to JEEE to take stock of the studies in the journal, thus giving them a better understanding of the field. The study also provides directions regarding areas of possible future research, which might be of interest to scholars wishing to submit to JEEE.