bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Forest Effects on the Isotopic Composition of Rainfall in the Northwestern Amazon Basin
Authors: Ampuero A. , Stríkis N. M. , Apaéstegui J. , Vuille M. , Novello V. F. , Espinoza J. C. , Cruz F. W. , Vonhof H. , Mayta V. C. , Martins V. T. S. , Cordeiro R. C. , Azevedo V. , Sifeddine A. 
Published: January 2020

AbstractIn the Amazon basin, intense precipitation recycling across the forest significantly modifies the isotopic composition of rainfall (δ18O, δD). In the tropical hydrologic cycle, such an effect can be identified through deuterium excess (dxs), yet it remains unclear what environmental factors control dxs, increasing the uncertainty of dxs‐based paleoclimate reconstructions. Here we present a 4‐year record of the isotopic composition of rainfall, monitored in the northwestern Amazon basin. We analyze the isotopic variations as a function of the air mass history, based on atmospheric back trajectory analyses, satellite observations of precipitation upstream, leaf area index, and simulated moisture recycling along the transport pathway. We show that the precipitation recycling in the forest exerts a significant control on the isotopic composition of precipitation in the northwestern Amazon basin, especially on dxs during the dry season (r = 0.71). Applying these observations to existing speleothem and pollen paleorecords, we conclude that winter precipitation increased after the mid‐Holocene, as the expansion of the forest allowed for more moisture recycling. Therefore, forest effects should be considered when interpreting paleorecords of past precipitation changes.
Recursive Bayesian Estimation of Conceptual Rainfall‐Runoff Model Errors in Real‐Time Prediction of Streamflow
Authors: Tajiki M. , Schoups G. , Hendricks Franssen H. J. , Najafinejad A. , Bahremand A. 
Published: January 2020

AbstractConceptual rainfall‐runoff models account for the spatial dynamics of hydrological processes in a basin using simple spatially lumped storage‐flow relations. Such rough approximations introduce model errors that are often difficult to characterize. Here, we develop and apply a methodology that recursively estimates and accounts for model errors in real‐time streamflow prediction settings by adding time‐dependent random noise to the internal states (storages) of the hydrological model. Magnitude of the added noise depends on a precision (inverse variance) parameter that is estimated from rainfall‐runoff data. A recursive Bayesian technique is used for estimation: posteriors of hydrological parameters and states are updated through time with an ensemble Kalman filter, whereas the posterior of the precision parameter is updated recursively using a novel gamma density approximation technique. Applying this algorithm to different model error scenarios allows identification of the main source of model errors. The methodology is applied to short‐term streamflow prediction with the Hymod rainfall‐runoff model in a semi‐cold, semi‐humid basin in Iran. Results show that (i) streamflow prediction in this snow‐dominated basin is more affected by model errors in the slow flow than the quick flow component of the model, (ii) accounting for model errors in the slow flow component improves both low and high flow predictions, and (iii) predictive performance further improves by accounting for Hymod parameter uncertainty in addition to model errors. Overall, accounting for model errors increased Nash‐Sutcliffe efficiency (by 1–5%), reduced mean absolute error (by 2–43%), and improved probabilistic predictive performance (by 50–80%).
Many Commonly Used Rainfall‐Runoff Models Lack Long, Slow Dynamics: Implications for Runoff Projections
Authors: Fowler Keirnan , Knoben Wouter , Peel Murray , Peterson Tim , Ryu Dongryeol , Saft Margarita , Seo Ki‐Weon , Western Andrew 
Published: January 2020

AbstractEvidence suggests that catchment state variables such as groundwater can exhibit multiyear trends. This means that their state may reflect not only recent climatic conditions but also climatic conditions in past years or even decades. Here we demonstrate that five commonly used conceptual “bucket” rainfall‐runoff models are unable to replicate multiyear trends exhibited by natural systems during the “Millennium Drought” in south‐east Australia. This causes an inability to extrapolate to different climatic conditions, leading to poor performance in split sample tests. Simulations are examined from five models applied in 38 catchments, then compared with groundwater data from 19 bores and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment data for two geographic regions. Whereas the groundwater and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment data decrease from high to low values gradually over the duration of the 13‐year drought, the model storages go from high to low values in a typical seasonal cycle. This is particularly the case in the drier, flatter catchments. Once the drought begins, there is little room for decline in the simulated storage, because the model “buckets” are already “emptying” on a seasonal basis. Since the effects of sustained dry conditions cannot accumulate within these models, we argue that they should not be used for runoff projections in a drying climate. Further research is required to (a) improve conceptual rainfall‐runoff models, (b) better understand circumstances in which multiyear trends in state variables occur, and (c) investigate links between these multiyear trends and changes in rainfall‐runoff relationships in the context of a changing climate.
The Subterranean Estuary: Technical Term, Simple Analogy, or Source of Confusion?
Authors: Duque Carlos , Michael Holly A. , Wilson Alicia M. 
Published: January 2020

AbstractTwenty years ago, the term subterranean estuary was proposed by Moore (1999, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-4203(99)00014-6) as a call of attention to the ocean sciences community about the importance of coastal groundwater systems, which can compete in relevance and impact to oceans with fresh runoff coming from the continent. Coastal aquifers were presented as an analogy to surface estuaries in that water of different density comes together and establishes a saline wedge underlying fresher water. In the past two decades, the use of this term has expanded. Initially limited to studies with an oceanographic viewpoint considering the impact of groundwater on the ocean, it is now common in the literature, competing with classical hydrogeological terminology such as coastal aquifer or seawater intrusion and reaching publications with a traditional hydrogeological focus. The popularity of this terminology suggests that it fills a need not met by existing coastal hydrogeological terms, although these classical terms have their roots in a long history of study of coastal groundwater. This term may serve to enhance communications between the traditionally disparate communities of hydrogeology and ocean sciences—imbricating saltwater intrusion studies with marine sciences and bringing an opportunity to enhance interactions. But does the term also carry an element of confusion? This essay is intended to open a discussion within the coastal research community about the use and meaning of terminology in future studies of coastal and offshore groundwater systems.
VDR activation attenuate cisplatin induced AKI by inhibiting ferroptosis
Authors: Hu Zhaoxin , Zhang Hao , Yi Bin , Yang Shikun , Liu Jun , Hu Jing , Wang Jianwen , Cao Ke , Zhang Wei 
Published: January 2020

AbstractOur preliminary work has revealed that vitamin D receptor (VDR) activation is protective against cisplatin induced acute kidney injury (AKI). Ferroptosis was recently reported to be involved in AKI. Here in this study, we investigated the internal relation between ferroptosis and the protective effect of VDR in cisplatin induced AKI. By using ferroptosis inhibitor ferrostatin-1 and measurement of ferroptotic cell death phenotype in both in vivo and in vitro cisplatin induced AKI model, we observed the decreased blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, and tissue injury by ferrostatin-1, hence validated the essential involvement of ferroptosis in cisplatin induced AKI. VDR agonist paricalcitol could both functionally and histologically attenuate cisplatin induced AKI by decreasing lipid peroxidation (featured phenotype of ferroptosis), biomarker 4-hydroxynonenal (4HNE), and malondialdehyde (MDA), while reversing glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4, key regulator of ferroptosis) downregulation. VDR knockout mouse exhibited much more ferroptotic cell death and worsen kidney injury than wild type mice. And VDR deficiency remarkably decreased the expression of GPX4 under cisplatin stress in both in vivo and in vitro, further luciferase reporter gene assay showed that GPX4 were target gene of transcription factor VDR. In addition, in vitro study showed that GPX4 inhibition by siRNA largely abolished the protective effect of paricalcitol against cisplatin induced tubular cell injury. Besides, pretreatment of paricalcitol could also alleviated Erastin (an inducer of ferroptosis) induced cell death in HK-2 cell. These data suggested that ferroptosis plays an important role in cisplatin induced AKI. VDR activation can protect against cisplatin induced renal injury by inhibiting ferroptosis partly via trans-regulation of GPX4.
RETRACTED ARTICLE: Schnurri-3 regulates BMP9-induced osteogenic differentiation and angiogenesis of human amniotic mesenchymal stem cells through Runx2 and VEGF
Authors: Li Yuwan , Liu Ziming , Tang Yaping , Feng Wei , Zhao Chen , Liao Junyi , Zhang Chengmin , Chen Hong , Ren Youliang , Dong Shiwu , Liu Yi , Hu Ning , Huang Wei 
Published: January 2020

AbstractHuman amniotic mesenchymal stem cells (hAMSCs) are multiple potent progenitor cells (MPCs) that can differentiate into different lineages (osteogenic, chondrogenic, and adipogenic cells) and have a favorable capacity for angiogenesis. Schnurri-3 (Shn3) is a large zinc finger protein related to Drosophila Shn, which is a critical mediator of postnatal bone formation. Bone morphogenetic protein 9 (BMP9), one of the most potent osteogenic BMPs, can strongly upregulate various osteogenesis- and angiogenesis-related factors in MSCs. It remains unclear how Shn3 is involved in BMP9-induced osteogenic differentiation coupled with angiogenesis in hAMSCs. In this investigation, we conducted a comprehensive study to identify the effect of Shn3 on BMP9-induced osteogenic differentiation and angiogenesis in hAMSCs and analyze the responsible signaling pathway. The results from in vitro and in vivo experimentation show that Shn3 notably inhibits BMP9-induced early and late osteogenic differentiation of hAMSCs, expression of osteogenesis-related factors, and subcutaneous ectopic bone formation from hAMSCs in nude mice. Shn3 also inhibited BMP9-induced angiogenic differentiation, expression of angiogenesis-related factors, and subcutaneous vascular invasion in mice. Mechanistically, we found that Shn3 prominently inhibited the expression of BMP9 and activation of the BMP/Smad and BMP/MAPK signaling pathways. In addition, we further found activity on runt-related transcription factor 2 (Runx2), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and the target genes shared by BMP and Shn3 signaling pathways. Silencing Shn3 could dramatically enhance the expression of Runx2, which directly regulates the downstream target VEGF to couple osteogenic differentiation with angiogenesis. To summarize, our findings suggested that Shn3 significantly inhibited the BMP9-induced osteogenic differentiation and angiogenesis in hAMSCs. The effect of Shn3 was primarily seen through inhibition of the BMP/Smad signaling pathway and depressed expression of Runx2, which directly regulates VEGF, which couples BMP9-induced osteogenic differentiation with angiogenesis.
Selection of diverse strains to assess broad coverage of the bivalent FHbp meningococcal B vaccine
Authors: Harris Shannon L. , Tan Cuiwen , Perez John , Radley David , Jansen Kathrin U. , Anderson Annaliesa S. , Jones Thomas R. 
Published: January 2020

AbstractMenB-FHbp is a recombinant meningococcal serogroup B (MenB) vaccine composed of 2 factor H binding proteins (FHbps). Meningococcal vaccines targeting polysaccharide serogroup A, C, Y, and W capsules were licensed upon confirmation of bactericidal antibody induction after initial efficacy studies with serogroup A and C vaccines. Unlike meningococcal polysaccharide vaccines, wherein single strains demonstrated bactericidal antibodies per serogroup for each vaccine, MenB-FHbp required a more robust approach to demonstrate that bactericidal antibody induction could kill strains with diverse FHbp sequences. Serum bactericidal assays using human complement were developed for 14 MenB strains, representing breadth of meningococcal FHbp diversity of ~80% of circulating MenB strains. This work represents an innovative approach to license a non-toxin protein vaccine with 2 antigens representing a single virulence factor by an immune correlate, and uniquely demonstrates that such a vaccine provides coverage across bacterial strains by inducing broadly protective antibodies.
Scale and translation-invariance for novel objects in human vision
Authors: Han Yena , Roig Gemma , Geiger Gad , Poggio Tomaso 
Published: January 2020

AbstractThough the range of invariance in recognition of novel objects is a basic aspect of human vision, its characterization has remained surprisingly elusive. Here we report tolerance to scale and position changes in one-shot learning by measuring recognition accuracy of Korean letters presented in a flash to non-Korean subjects who had no previous experience with Korean letters. We found that humans have significant scale-invariance after only a single exposure to a novel object. The range of translation-invariance is limited, depending on the size and position of presented objects. To understand the underlying brain computation associated with the invariance properties, we compared experimental data with computational modeling results. Our results suggest that to explain invariant recognition of objects by humans, neural network models should explicitly incorporate built-in scale-invariance, by encoding different scale channels as well as eccentricity-dependent representations captured by neurons’ receptive field sizes and sampling density that change with eccentricity. Our psychophysical experiments and related simulations strongly suggest that the human visual system uses a computational strategy that differs in some key aspects from current deep learning architectures, being more data efficient and relying more critically on eye-movements.
Facile One Pot Greener Synthesis of Sophorolipid Capped Gold Nanoparticles and its Antimicrobial Activity having Special Efficacy Against Gram Negative Vibrio cholerae
Authors: Shikha Sristy , Chaudhuri Saumya Ray , Bhattacharyya Mani Shankar 
Published: January 2020

AbstractMicrobes develop several strategies to survive in the adverse condition such as biofilm formation, attaining non-dividing state, altering drug target or drug, thereby increases the burden of drug dosage. To combat these issues, nanoparticles have shown an alternative approach for new treatment strategy but synthesis via chemical synthetic route limits their application in biomedical field. Here, green method for the synthesis of gold nanoparticles using sophorolipid (SL) is discussed that is characterized by various techniques. Initially, the antimicrobial activity was checked against metabolically active state of microbes; Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus and Gram-negative Vibrio cholerae using XTT assay and growth kinetics assay. Results suggested higher efficacy of nanoparticles for Gram-negative, therefore further analyzed against Escherichia coli that confirmed its potency for the same. AuNPs-SL also signifies its efficiency at least metabolically active state; non dividing cells and biofilm of these microbes. Induced morphological changes were studied by SEM that revealed AuNPs-SL led to disruption of cell membrane and leakage of intracellular fluid to the surroundings. Inhibition of respiratory enzymes activity also plays a crucial role in bactericidal action as indicated by LDH assay. Synergy of AuNPs-SL with different antibiotics was also analyzed using checkerboard assay. These results suggested the possible use of AuNPs-SL as an antimicrobial therapy in the field of nanomedicine.
Local habitat conditions shaping the assemblages of vespid wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) in a post-agricultural landscape of the Kampinos National Park in Poland
Authors: Szczepko Katarzyna , Kruk Andrzej , Wiśniowski Bogdan 
Published: January 2020

AbstractThe landscape of the Kampinos National Park (KPN), a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in Poland, is a mosaic of habitats created by natural processes and human activities. However, ongoing abandonment of traditional management has led to the development of forest communities in formerly open areas. The aim of the study was to identify the local habitat conditions promoting the abundance and diversity of wasp species (Vespidae) in the post-agricultural landscape of KPN. A total of 52 samples of Vespidae caught per unit effort (CPUE) were collected across various habitats with different levels of soil humidity, bare ground and mosaicity. The highest numbers and greatest species richness of vespids were recorded in open habitats on semihydrogenic and dry soil, which provided nesting sites for hypergeic (nesting above the ground) and endogeic (ground nesting) wasps. Many solitary species that are hypergeic were significantly associated with old, abandoned wooden buildings. As vespids need resources to build and provision the nest, their communities were shaped not only by the nature of the habitat sampled but also by the mosaicity of the surrounding area. The highest abundance and species richness were recorded in samples from a heterogenous landscape, which provided a wider range of available resources in the vicinity of the nest. Our findings have significant implications for the management of park landscapes: afforestation of open habitats, both human-induced and resulting from natural succession, and the removal of old abandoned wooden buildings may limit landscape mosaicity and thus decrease hymenopteran diversity.
Dynamic Stiffness Analysis and Measurement of Radial Active Magnetic Bearing in Magnetically Suspended Molecular Pump
Authors: Sun Jinji , Zhou Han , Ju Ziyan 
Published: January 2020

AbstractCurrent stiffness and displacement stiffness are two important parameters of radial active magnetic bearing (RAMB) that are generally considered as constants in a control system. However, such presumption may lead to the probable degradation of the control performance of the RAMB system when the perspective that the current and displacement stiffness should be variable due to variations in the speed. On this regard, a structure analysis and stiffness measurement method based on non-variable stiffness would not be feasible for RAMB under high-speed conditions. This paper presented an analysis of the dynamic stiffness characteristics of RAMB by means of a dynamic equivalent magnetic circuit method and laid out a comparison between the results of the theoretical analysis and the simulation results of finite element method. In particular, a novel dynamic stiffness measurement method of RAMB under high-rotation frequency was introduced. Results of experiments on the dynamic stiffness of RAMB demonstrated an excellent agreement with the theoretical research and the finite element analysis results, thereby verifying the rationality of the discussed dynamic stiffness characteristics. Practically, the proposed measurement method of RAMB dynamic stiffness provides an accurate analysis for the dynamic stiffness and contributes inspiring research significance for the dynamic properties of RAMB.
Markerless Measurement and Evaluation of General Movements in Infants
Authors: Tsuji Toshio , Nakashima Shota , Hayashi Hideaki , Soh Zu , Furui Akira , Shibanoki Taro , Shima Keisuke , Shimatani Koji 
Published: January 2020

AbstractGeneral movements (GMs), a type of spontaneous movement, have been used for the early diagnosis of infant disorders. In clinical practice, GMs are visually assessed by qualified licensees; however, this presents a difficulty in terms of quantitative evaluation. Various measurement systems for the quantitative evaluation of GMs track target markers attached to infants; however, these markers may disturb infants’ spontaneous movements. This paper proposes a markerless movement measurement and evaluation system for GMs in infants. The proposed system calculates 25 indices related to GMs, including the magnitude and rhythm of movements, by video analysis, that is, by calculating background subtractions and frame differences. Movement classification is performed based on the clinical definition of GMs by using an artificial neural network with a stochastic structure. This supports the assessment of GMs and early diagnoses of disabilities in infants. In a series of experiments, the proposed system is applied to movement evaluation and classification in full-term infants and low-birth-weight infants. The experimental results confirm that the average agreement between four GMs classified by the proposed system and those identified by a licensee reaches up to 83.1 ± 1.84%. In addition, the classification accuracy of normal and abnormal movements reaches 90.2 ± 0.94%.
Field generated nematic microflows via backflow mechanism
Authors: Kos Žiga , Ravnik Miha 
Published: January 2020

AbstractGeneration of flow is an important aspect in microfluidic applications and generally relies on external pumps or embedded moving mechanical parts which pose distinct limitations and protocols on the use of microfluidic systems. A possible approach to avoid moving mechanical parts is to generate flow by changing some selected property or structure of the fluid. In fluids with internal orientational order such as nematic liquid crystals, this process of flow generation is known as the backflow effect. In this article, we demonstrate the contact-free generation of microfluidic material flows in nematic fluids -including directed contact-free pumping- by external electric and optical fields based on the dynamic backflow coupling between nematic order and material flow. Using numerical modelling, we design efficient shaping and driving of the backflow-generated material flow using spatial profiles and time modulations of electric fields with oscillating amplitude, rotating electric fields and optical fields. Particularly, we demonstrate how such periodic external fields generate efficient net average nematic flows through a microfluidic channel, that avoid usual invariance under time-reversal limitations. We show that a laser beam with rotating linear polarization can create a vortex-like flow structure and can act as a local flow pump without moving mechanical parts. The work could be used for advanced microfluidic applications, possibly by creating custom microfluidic pathways without predefined channels based on the adaptivity of an optical set-up, with a far reaching unconventional idea to realize channel-less microfluidics.