bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Origin and evolution of a gibberellin‐deactivating enzyme GAMT
Authors: Zhang Chi , Chaiprasongsuk Minta , Chanderbali Andre S. , Chen Xinlu , Fu Jianyu , Soltis Douglas E. , Chen Feng 
Published: December 2020

AbstractGibberellins (GAs) are a major class of plant hormones that regulates diverse developmental programs. Both acquiring abilities to synthesize GAs and evolving divergent GA receptors have been demonstrated to play critical roles in the evolution of land plants. In contrast, little is understood regarding the role of GA‐inactivating mechanisms in plant evolution. Here we report on the origin and evolution of GA methyltransferases (GAMTs), enzymes that deactivate GAs by converting bioactive GAs to inactive GA methylesters. Prior to this study, GAMT genes, which belong to the SABATH family, were known only from Arabidopsis. Through systematic searches for SABATH genes in the genomes of 260 sequenced land plants and phylogenetic analyses, we have identified a putative GAMT clade specific to seed plants. We have further demonstrated that both gymnosperm and angiosperm representatives of this clade encode active methyltransferases for GA methylation, indicating that they are functional orthologs of GAMT. In seven selected seed plants, GAMT genes were mainly expressed in flowers and/or seeds, indicating a conserved biological role in reproduction. GAMT genes are represented by a single copy in most species, if present, but multiple copies mainly produced by whole genome duplications have been retained in Brassicaceae. Surprisingly, more than 2/3 of the 248 flowering plants examined here lack GAMT genes, including all species of Poales (e.g., grasses), Fabales (legumes), and the large Superasterid clade of eudicots. With these observations, we discuss the significance of GAMT origination, functional conservation and diversification, and frequent loss during the evolution of flowering plants.
An accurate and computationally cheap microwave scattering method for ice aggregates: the Independent Monomer Approximation
Authors: McCusker Karina , Westbrook Chris D. , Tyynelä Jani 
Published: December 2020

AbstractThe Discrete Dipole Approximation (DDA) is widely used to simulate scattering of microwaves by snowflakes, by discretising the snowflake into small ‘dipoles’ which oscillate in response to (a) the incident wave, and (b) scattered waves from all the other dipoles in the particle. It is this coupling between all dipole pairs which makes solving the DDA system computationally expensive, and that cost grows nonlinearly as the number of crystals n within an aggregate is increased. Motivated by this, many studies have ignored the dipole coupling (the Rayleigh–Gans Approximation, RGA). However, use of RGA leads to systematic underestimation of both scattering and absorption, and an inability to predict polarimetric properties. To address this, we present a new approach (the Independent Monomer Approximation, IMA) which solves the DDA system for each crystal ‘monomer’ separately, then combines them to construct the full solution. By including intra‐monomer coupling, but neglecting inter‐monomer coupling, we save a factor of n in computation time over DDA. Benchmarking IMA against DDA solutions indicates that its accuracy is greatly superior to RGA, and provides ensemble scattering cross‐sections which closely agree with their more expensive DDA counterparts, particularly at size parameters smaller than ∼ 5 . Addition of rime to the aggregates does not significantly degrade the results, despite the increased density. The use of IMA for radar remote sensing is evaluated, and we show that multi‐wavelength and multi‐polarisation parameters are successfully captured to within a few tenths of a dB for aggregates probed with frequencies between 3 and 200 GHz, in contrast to RGA where errors of up to 2.5 dB are observed. Finally, we explore the realism of the IMA solutions in greater detail by analysing internal electric fields, and discuss some broader insights that IMA provides into the physical features of aggregates that are important for microwave scattering.
Forecasts of “normal”
Authors: Mason Simon J. , Ferro Christopher A. T. , Landman Willem A. 
Published: December 2020

AbstractThe difficulty of forecasting “normal” climate conditions is demonstrated in the context of bivariate normally distributed forecasts and observations. Deterministic and probabilistic skill scores for the normal category are less than for the outer category for all‐but‐perfect models. There are two important mathematical properties of the normal category in a three‐category climatologically equiprobable forecast system that affect the scores for this category. First, the normal category can achieve the highest probability less frequently than the outer categories, and far less frequently in contexts of weak to moderate skill. Second, there are upper limits to the probability the normal category can reach. These mathematical constraints suggest that summary measures of skill may underestimate the predictability and forecast‐skill of extreme events, and that subjective inputs to probabilistic forecasts may need to take greater account of limitations to the predictability of normal conditions.
Self‐information‐based weighted CUSUM charts for monitoring Poisson count data with varying sample sizes
Authors: Zhang Yang , Shang Yanfen , Li An‐Da 
Published: December 2020

AbstractIn many applications, the Poisson count data with varying sample sizes are monitored using statistical process control charts. Among these applications, the weighted CUSUM charts are developed to deal with the effect of the varying sample sizes. However, some of them use limited information of the sample size or the count data while assigning the weights. To gain more information of the process, the self‐information weight functions are developed based on both the sample size and the observed count data. Then, the weighted CUSUM charts are proposed with the self‐information‐based weight. Simulation studies show the self‐information‐based weighted CUSUM charts perform better than the benchmark methods in detecting small shifts. Moreover, the performance of proposed method with estimated parameters is investigated via simulation. Finally, an example is given to illustrate the application of the proposed weighted CUSUM charts.
Differentiation of alkyl radicals: A route through chemical graph theory
Authors: Chatterjee Subhojyoti , Liu Fengyi , Wang Feng 
Published: December 2020

AbstractAlkyl radicals play important roles such as intermediary metabolism, cell damage/injury and death leading to potential mutations. The present investigation using chemical graph theory studied two sets of carboxyl radicals, that is, deprotonated (DPro, radical) and protonated (Pro, radical anion) forms of 5‐ethyl heptanoic acid and 5‐ethenyl hept‐6‐enoic acid (Set I) radicals and 6‐ethyl octanoic acid and 6‐ethenyl oct‐7‐enoic acid (Set II) radicals. The study reveals that the largest eigenvalue (LEV) spectra of the adjacency matrix have a unique value, where the spectra increase from DPro to Pro and from single to double bonded alkyl radical structures, thus forming a scoring function for molecular topological indices. This topological index is presented as a measure for molecular connectivity/branching, where the index is used to predict the refractivity of a series of carboxyl radicals. The statistical correlation coefficient obtained for quantitative structure–property relationship between chemical structure (alkyl radical) and its physical property (refractivity) through heat maps are excellent and ranges within 0.97–0.99. It is further discovered that the vector component of the LEV gives an insight to its structural details, where it captures the node with the highest degree along with the important weighted node, that holds the complete structure (i.e., the radical site), in case of the Pro radical structures. Node centrality, which captures the structural makeup, divides DPro radical T‐shaped structures into two subunits for the signal transduction of important biological process like oral toxicity. Size of the largest clusters is also studied, illustrating the parameter to be less sensitive for differentiating the CC double bonds in the Pro radicals. To our knowledge, this is the first study where pattern recognition has been exemplified through the lower‐diagonal‐upper decomposition matrix of the chemical graph that forms a fingerprint signature to differentiate the alkyl radicals. The present study innovatively digitalizes the chemical structures of alkyl radicals that enables the discovery of structure–property relationship reflected by their molecular branching through machine learning.
Salen type additives as corrosion mitigator for Ni–W alloys: Detailed electronic/atomic‐scale computational illustration
Authors: Uppalapati Pramod Kumar , Berisha Avni , Velmurugan Krishnasamy , Nandhakumar Raju , Khosla Ajit , Liang Tongxiang 
Published: December 2020

AbstractIt is imperative to study the long‐term corrosion problems of nickel alloys in acidic medium due to breakdown of their passive oxide film. Focus of this work is to enhance the knowledge of adsorption of organic additives ‐1‐((E)‐(2‐((E)‐(2‐hydroxynaphthalen‐1‐yl)methyleneamino)phenylimino)methyl)naphthalen‐2‐ol (OPD) and 1‐((E)‐(2‐((E)‐(2‐hydroxynaphthalen‐1‐yl)methyleneamino)phenylimino)methyl)naphthalen‐2‐ol (PPD) onto the surface of Ni–W alloy. Deducing the scenario of competitive adsorption of salen‐type symmetrical Schiff bases (OPD and PPD) as additive molecules on Ni–W alloy surface at molecular level was studied by density functional theory (DFT), Monte Carlo simulation (MC), molecular dynamics simulation (MD) and radial distribution function (RDF) analysis. Obtained intrinsic molecular parameters from DFT shows a strong conformity to the corrosion efficiencies of experimental results. From the simulation results, PPD showed the higher polarization (650.707 a.u.), higher binding energy (Ebinding = 1132.241 kJ/mol), larger negative interaction energy (Einteraction = −1132.241 kcal/mol), and negative value of adsorption energy (Eadsorption = −195.55 kcal/mol) and flat‐lying spatial orientation than that of OPD. These results suggested that the role of spacers play a vital role in the adsorption process, that is, larger spacer containing PPD has strong binding interaction and high surface area coverage with Ni–W alloy surface than shorter spacer OPD. Significant findings from DFT global descriptors, MC, MD and RDF analysis ratifies the corrosion efficiencies (PPD > OPD) of experimental outcomes, which correlates positively with the larger isomeric spacer. Overall, the present study, reports offers the corrosion resistance impact of OPD and PPD additives, revealing the fact of PPD as effective one and OPD as moderate ones for Ni–W alloys, thus validating the experimental results.
Background to new treatments for COVID‐19, including its chronicity, through altering elements of the cytokine storm
Authors: Clark Ian A. 
Published: December 2020

SummaryAnti‐tumour necrosis factor (TNF) biologicals, Dexamethasone and rIL‐7 are of considerable interest in treating COVID‐19 patients who are in danger of, or have become, seriously ill. Yet reducing sepsis mortality by lowering circulating levels of TNF lost favour when positive endpoints in earlier simplistic models could not be reproduced in well‐conducted human trials. Newer information with anti‐TNF biologicals has encouraged reintroducing this concept for treating COVID‐19. Viral models have had encouraging outcomes, as have the effects of anti‐TNF biologicals on community‐acquired COVID‐19 during their long‐term use to treat chronic inflammatory states. The positive outcome of a large scale trial of dexamethasone, and its higher potency late in the disease, harmonises well with its capacity to enhance levels of IL‐7Rα, the receptor for IL‐7, a cytokine that enhances lymphocyte development and is increased during the cytokine storm. Lymphoid germinal centres required for antibody‐based immunity can be harmed by TNF, and restored by reducing TNF. Thus the IL‐7‐ enhancing activity of dexamethasone may explain its higher potency when lymphocytes are depleted later in the infection, while employing anti‐TNF, for several reasons, is much more logical earlier in the infection. This implies dexamethasone could prove to be synergistic with rIL‐7, currently being trialed as a COVID‐19 therapeutic. The principles behind these COVID‐19 therapies are consistent with the observed chronic hypoxia through reduced mitochondrial function, and also the increased severity of this disease in ApoE4‐positive individuals. Many of the debilitating persistent aspects of this disease are predictably susceptible to treatment with perispinal etanercept, since they have cerebral origins.
Singapore’s first large-scale dual-mode desalination plant is now on stream
Authors: Atkinson Simon 
Published: December 2020

Keppel Marina East Desalination Plant – Singapore’s fourth desalination plant and the island city-state’s first large-scale, dual-mode desalination facility – is now up and running. Over three years ago Keppel Infrastructure Holdings Pte Ltd and national water agency PUB unveiled the innovative design for the facility at a ground-breaking ceremony conducted at the Marina Barrage (Membrane Technology, July 2017, pages 1 & 16). This article provides an update to previous coverage of this major project.
Does Retrogression Always Account for the Large Volume of Submarine Megaslides? Evidence to the Contrary From the Tampen Slide, Offshore Norway
Authors: Barrett R. S. , Bellwald B. , Talling P. J. , Micallef A. , Gross F. , Berndt C. , Planke S. , Myklebust R. , Krastel S. 
Published: December 2020

AbstractSubmarine landslides can be several orders of magnitude larger than their terrestrial counterparts and can pose significant hazards across entire ocean basins. The landslide failure mechanism strongly controls the associated tsunami hazard. The Tampen Slide offshore Norway is one of the largest landslides on Earth but remains poorly understood due to its subsequent burial beneath up to 450 m of sediments. Here, we use laterally extensive (16,000 km2), high‐resolution processed 3‐D seismic reflection data to characterize the upper Tampen Slide. We identify longitudinal (downslope, movement‐parallel) chutes and ridges that are up to 40 m high, as well as extensional and compressional (cross‐slope) ridges. This is the first time that longitudinal ridges of such size have been imaged in a deep marine setting. The first phase of the Tampen Slide involved the simultaneous translation of over 720 km3 of sediments along a single failure plane. This was followed by spreading along the head‐ and sidewall, and the formation of a retrogressive debris flow and slump, the volumes of which are insignificant compared to the first failure. The process responsible for movement of such a large sediment volume along a single glide plane differs significantly from that of other passive margin megaslides, which typically comprise numerous smaller landslides that fail retrogressively along multiple glide planes. The trigger mechanism (e.g., an earthquake), the presence of mechanically strong obstructions (e.g., volcanic structural high), and the number and location of weak layers may be key factors that determine whether megaslides develop along a single plane or retrogressively.
Regional Moment Tensor Inversion Using Rotational Observations
Authors: Ichinose Gene A. , Ford Sean R. , Mellors Robert J. 
Published: December 2020

AbstractAbstractThere are benefits from the addition of rotational motions to translational displacements for moment tensor (MT) inversions. The rotational radiation pattern is orthogonal to the shear radiation pattern, thus incorporating rotations is equivalent to gaining another observation point on the focal sphere. We demonstrated this by simulating curl and displacement wavefields for a regional distance station. Thus, one 6‐C station (3‐Component translational + 3‐Component rotational) gathers the same information on radiation pattern as two 3‐C stations at 90° azimuth from one another along the focal plane axis, which is sometimes difficult to obtain when restricted to surface sensors. We added rotational Green's functions to a regional MT inversion scheme (long‐period, time‐domain, and linear inversion) by computing spatial gradients from f‐κ reflectivity synthetics. For rotational data, we used Array Derived Rotations (ADR) from Piñon Flats Observatory Array and Golay array deployed during IRIS Community Wavefield Demonstration Experiment. The hope is to ultimately use compact and field deployable broadband rotational seismometers instead of ADRs. Rotational motions were predicted from well‐constrained deviatoric MT solutions of nine earthquakes recorded by the arrays and other seismic networks. We formed three station sparse datasets with (3‐C and 6‐C) and without rotational ground motions (3‐C only) for eight earthquakes testing the benefits of including rotational waveforms in MT inversions when they are equally weighted with translational waveforms. Adding rotational motions improved the double‐couple components and reduced compensated‐linear‐vector‐dipole and isotropic components in full‐MT solutions using sparse datasets with poor coverage.
Buoyancy and Structure of Volatile‐Rich Silicate Melts
Authors: Solomatova Natalia V. , Caracas Razvan 
Published: December 2020

AbstractThe early Earth was marked by at least one global magma ocean. Melt buoyancy played a major role for its evolution. Here we model the composition of the magma ocean using a six‐component pyrolite melt, to which we add volatiles in the form of carbon as molecular CO or CO2 and hydrogen as molecular H2O or through substitution for magnesium. We compute the density relations from first‐principles molecular dynamics simulations. We find that the addition of volatiles renders all the melts more buoyant compared to the reference volatile‐free pyrolite. The effect is pressure dependent, largest at the surface, decreasing to about 20 GPa, and remaining roughly constant to 135 GPa. The increased buoyancy would have enhanced convection and turbulence, and thus promoted the chemical exchanges of the magma ocean with the early atmosphere. We determine the partial molar volume of both H2O and CO2 throughout the magma ocean conditions. We find a pronounced dependence with temperature at low pressures, whereas at megabar pressures the partial molar volumes are independent of temperature. At all pressures, the polymerization of the silicate melt is strongly affected by the amount of oxygen added to the system while being only weakly affected by the specific type of volatile added.
The Influence of Climate on the Dynamics of Mountain Building Within the Northern Patagonian Andes
Authors: García Morabito Ezequiel , Beltrán‐Triviño Alejandro , Terrizzano Carla M. , Bechis Florencia , Likerman Jeremías , Von Quadt Albrecht , Ramos Víctor A. 
Published: December 2020

AbstractTheoretical studies support the idea that the internal dynamics of actively deforming mountain ranges are influenced by spatial and temporal variations in climate. The identification of plausible correlations between orogen behavior and external climatic processes requires, among other factors, that the initiation and duration of any deformation event be precisely constrained. Here, we add new detrital zircon U‐Pb ages and 10Be surface exposure dating to the already extensive data set for the low‐temperature cooling history, to analyze the spatial patterns of deformation, and their temporal variations across the foreland of North Patagonia, with the aim of evaluating potential feedbacks between climate and deformation. Stratal relationships, together with geomorphic evidences of deformation document the precise timing of individual structures within the fold‐thrust belt and the broken foreland. Our data record a progressive decrease of upper‐plate shortening rates and subsidence after a first period of widespread deformation and uplift (ca. 13–7 Ma). This “transitional” foreland phase coeval to the onset of glacial conditions at 7.4–5 Ma is followed by a structural reorganization after ca. 3 Ma, marked by the abandonment of the foreland and enhanced slip on interior faults, with the intensification of glacial erosion at this time. We propose that acceleration in erosion rates during the past 7 Ma may have influenced the regional geometry and kinematic history of the orogenic belt. Our empirical results match theoretical predictions and provide compelling evidence at the scale of individual thrust faults for the significant impact of climate change on orogenic behavior.
Transcriptomic and genetic approaches reveal an essential role of the NAC transcription factor SlNAP1 in the growth and defense response of tomato
Authors: Wang Jiao , Zheng Chenfei , Shao Xiangqi , Hu Zhangjian , Li Jianxin , Wang Ping , Wang Anran , Yu Jingquan , Shi Kai 
Published: December 2020

AbstractWith global climate change, plants are frequently being exposed to various stresses, such as pathogen attack, drought, and extreme temperatures. Transcription factors (TFs) play crucial roles in numerous plant biological processes; however, the functions of many tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) TFs that regulate plant responses to multiple stresses are largely unknown. Here, using an RNA-seq approach, we identified SlNAP1, a NAC TF-encoding gene, which was strongly induced by various stresses. By generating SlNAP1 transgenic lines and evaluating their responses to biotic and abiotic stresses in tomato, we found that SlNAP1-overexpressing plants showed significantly enhanced defense against two widespread bacterial diseases, leaf speck disease, caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pst) DC3000, and root-borne bacterial wilt disease, caused by Ralstonia solanacearum. In addition, SlNAP1 overexpression dramatically improved drought tolerance in tomato. Although the SlNAP1-overexpressing plants were shorter than the wild-type plants during the early vegetative stage, eventually, their fruit yield increased by 10.7%. Analysis of different hormone contents revealed a reduced level of physiologically active gibberellins (GAs) and an increased level of salicylic acid (SA) and abscisic acid (ABA) in the SlNAP1-overexpressing plants. Moreover, EMSAs and ChIP-qPCR assays showed that SlNAP1 directly activated the transcription of multiple genes involved in GA deactivation and both SA and ABA biosynthesis. Our findings reveal that SlNAP1 is a positive regulator of the tomato defense response against multiple stresses and thus may be a potential breeding target for improving crop yield and stress resistance.
Interfacial and emulsion-stabilizing properties of zein nanoparticles: differences among zein fractions (α-, β-, and γ-zein)
Authors: Gao Zhiming , Chen Gaiting , Lu Wei , Wu Yuehan , Hu Bing , Xu Longquan , Fang Yapeng , Nishinari Katsuyoshi , Phillips Glyn O. 
Published: December 2020

Zein can be classified into α-, β-, γ-, and δ-zein, and the difference in amino acid compositions of these fractions could affect their physicochemical properties and functionalities.